First post and it’s not even about my rarepair it’s instead about my crackship <3<3
Anyway lately I’ve been thinking about Levin/Jacob (Aaron’s son)
Obviously it’s in an au where Jacob lives instead of Aaron, and I find them just fascinating because of their similarities but there would also be stark differences. They’re narrative foils To Me
Two kids whose lives were ripped apart by the High Priest of O’Khasis, homes and families taken from them.
One tries to move forward and rebuild in honor of what he has lost. The other hunts for revenge.
One has a support system, a family. The other was left orphaned and alone, I like to think he was taken in by the thieves guild, becoming incredibly independent but with the skills to survive.
One gets closure and peace. The other never will, at least not how he wants it.
And of course, they meet. Phoenix Drop was the last place Zane ever was, of course Jacob keeps going back to that place, and of course he meets Levin. The shared experience, same grief different place, allows for a quick connection. An understanding. But Levin stays, and Jacob leaves. He will be back though, and they will talk again.
And again.
And again.
At some point Jacob stops coming in hopes of finding Zane or some clue, he comes because he knows Phoenix Drop is safe. A place he does not have to sleep with one eye open. Levin asks him to stay for good every time, but that seems to always be the same moment Jacob leaves.
It’s things like that which make Malachi not like Jacob all that much, he has personal experience in what anger and grief like that can do to someone. How it can consume someone and turn them into someone who hurts people, and he doesn’t want Levin to get caught up in that. Zoey on the other hand tries to encourage it. Thinks a friend like this could be good for Levin, someone outside of the village. Someone he doesn’t feel a duty to, someone he can be just a teenager with. It certainly helps she sees the lostness in Jacob, always trying to coax him to stay.
Although maybe he was close, close to staying for at least longer than usual now that rebuilding efforts have started in earnest now that Levin is of age. I like to think it’s a quiet moment between them, in a moment between Zoey going missing while she is in the Irene Dimension (wonky time differences and such, there must’ve been a period where she was missing) and her triumphantly returning. Levin is so scared because he must keep moving forward but he doesn’t know if he can do it without her, he doesn’t want to admit she may be gone too. This moment with Jacob laying in the grass is the most at peace he has felt in weeks, and in this moment maybe they are even something more. Levin had taken nearly all initiative of the personal connection between them because he is not scared of it like Jacob is. From calling him his friend first, to grabbing and holding onto Jacob’s hand while he spills his own heart out. But this time Jacob takes that leap. Says he can stay, he can help. That he wants to. He wants to be there for Levin.
And he means it. He does. He swears to Malachi and Dante and Donna and Logan and Alexis and everyone that he does.
But then a miracle happens. Not only does Zoey return, so does Aphmau. Most of everyone he had lost has miraculously returned! And Jacob just doesn’t take it well. In a singular moment, Levin went from one of the only people in the world who could understand him, to just another instance of the gods spitting in his face. Anger spills forth, and Levin is left with his entire world turned upside down, and a broken heart to boot.
