The Tides of Memories and Julian/Altheia Arcana Timeline
(ToM being this monstrosity of a fan fiction, if you didn't know)
Since writing Julian and Altheia's past via flashbacks, and realising that it's probably not very clear, I figured I'd write it out for anyone interested, or least for my own benefit because I'm easily confused.
Disclaimer: some of this is taken from canon, some is inferred, and some is mine and holes can probably be picked in it. Just don't... don't look too closely, and then it works. Because I said so.
It's also kind of approximate. Worth noting that I age Julian at around 38-40 at the time of the Arcana's story (year 0 in the timeline) but that's a whole discussion in itself. Altheia is 35 (or 36 if you count the year she was dead)
I'll happily take questions :)
The tl;dr version!
-12 years: (Tides part 28, chapters 2-6) - I had so much fun writing that. Julian met Altheia at Port Tremaire while she was a privateer merchant with her own ship. He sailed with her to Vesuvia, and they had a fling along the way. Julian settled in Vesuvia while Altheia continued her voyage, though she promised to return the next year.
-11 years: Altheia did return to Vesuvia, spent one night with Julian. Promised to return the next year.
-10 years: Altheia's ship was attacked by a kraken, she tried to fight it but her ice magic rebounded on herself and she was severely injured. Her family sent her to Vesuvia where her aunt, knowledgeable in magical injuries, treated her.
-9 years: Nadia arrived in Vesuvia. Altheia met Asra and became his friend and mentor, offering him a place to stay at the shop whenever he needed it. Altheia chose not to return to Port Tremaire and inherited the shop when her aunt died. She avoided Julian, and he didn't know she was in Vesuvia.
-5 years: (Tides part 28, chapters 7-12) Red Plague era. Altheia became Julian's apprentice at his clinic, and they rekindled their relationship.
-4 years: Altheia died. Her last act was to cast a spell to make Julian forget her. He spent a year working at the palace with Asra.
-3 years: Asra's ritual resurrected Altheia, using energy from the Fool to create her body. They lived together at the shop for three years, while Julian went on the run.
Year 0: Julian's route. (I'm working on rewriting some of the smutty scenes in Between the Deep Blue Sea and the Devil)
+1 month: Tides of Memories thus far. Julian and Altheia find evidence of their past relationship and grow, both as individuals and as a couple, in their journey to search for a way to release Julian's memories from the spell that past-Altheia cast. And deal with Altheia's existential crisis along the way.
+?: (tbc) Upright and Reversed endings for Julian, Altheia and the Fool.
The full version!
-12 years:
(Tides part 28, chapters 2-6)
After his stint as a battlefield apprentice medic (approx 20 years ago), Julian spent a few years travelling, picking up medical knowledge, experiencing other cultures, and learning a few languages along the way. While at Port Tremaire, he encountered Altheia (lost a card game to her. They both cheated, but she cheated better). He'd overplayed his hand and didn't have anything to pay off his debt except a vielle which he didn't want to give up.
As it happened, Altheia was a privateer and merchant ship captain, about to set sail for Vesuvia, approx one day sailing away. She invited Julian aboard to pay off his debt by entertaining her on the trip. Immediate attraction, a pirate fight, chasing out some smugglers from a cove near Vesuvia, and a party on the beach ensued. Altheia encouraged Julian to pursue his goal of running his own clinic. She departed, leaving him on a promise that she would return in a year's time.
- 11 years:
Altheia returned to Vesuvia. Julian had settled there. They spent one night together aboard her ship. She promised to return again next year.
- 10 years:
Altheia's ship was attacked by a kraken. She tried to fight it off with her magic, but it repelled her ice spell with such force that she was nearly killed (and it turned the front of her hair white, like a scar). Her ship sank and she returned to Port Tremaire with the few survivors. She was so badly hurt by her own magic that no one knew how to heal her, so her family sent her to stay with her aunt in Vesuvia, who was more knowledgeable on magical injuries.
-9 years:
(as per Asra's route) Nadia arrived at Vesuvia. Altheia met Asra selling masquerade masks in the street behind the shop, and they became friends. He didn't stay in Vesuvia for long but every time he returned he stayed with Altheia at the shop. She mentored him, teaching him water magic. At some point, Altheia's aunt died and Theia inherited the shop. Still ashamed at what happened to her ship, and not wanting to face her family or return to Port Tremaire, she decided to stay in Vesuvia and run the shop.
Asra developed a crush on Altheia but it was never reciprocated. Still, she made sure he knew he always had a home with her, and they were very close.
Julian didn't know that Altheia was in Vesuvia. As the years went by he assumed she wouldn't come back. Worried that he would think badly of her, and believing it would be better if he forgot about her, Altheia avoided him - his clinic was in South End, so they were never likely to bump into each other anyway.
-5 years:
(Tides part 28, chapters 7-12)
Red Plague era. Asra left Vesuvia. Altheia found out that Julian was looking for apprentices, and decided to go and work for him. They rekindled their romance in that time and lived and worked together for a year.
-4 years:
Altheia's canonical death. Her last act before she died was to cast a spell that would make Julian completely forget her, like she never existed. Julian spent a year working with Asra at the palace, and all of that *gestures vaguely* happened.
-3 years:
Asra successfully disrupted Lucio's ritual and diverted the Fool's energy to create a body for Altheia, but without her memories. He helped her through her recovery and recuperation for three years, while Julian was on the run.
-Year 0: The beginning of Julian's route in The Arcana.
(I rewrote some of the smutty scenes in Between the Deep Blue Sea and the Devil)
Julian and Altheia have an immediate connection and feel a familiarity that's deeper than a physical attraction, but they don't remember each other. Eventually Julian gets his memories back from the Hanged Man, enough to know that Altheia was his apprentice, but it's vague, he doesn't have any specific memory of her. Those memories were sealed up by Altheia's spell, not the Hanged Man, so he couldn't give them back, because he didn't take them.
They defeat the Devil of course, and in the process of Julian's love confession in the Devil's realm, they make a vow to each other: "I'm yours, and you're mine,"; "You're mine, and I'm yours." Since Altheia is partially an Arcana, the Fool, this amounts to a deal between them (him for her, her for him) and creates a magical bond.
+1 month:
Over the course of Tides of Memories, they begin to unearth evidence of their past relationship, and discover that the only way Julian can get his memories back is if the magician who cast the spell - Altheia - undoes it. But, technically, that magician is dead, and Altheia doesn't have the same use of her magic as she once did. So the story centres around her and Julian's growth and development together and individually, dealing with all the aspects of their past, that which they remember and that which they don't, while they search for the ritual to break past-Altheia's spell and release Julian's memories. There's also Altheia's existential crisis to deal with.
+?:
(tbc) Altheia needs to find her Self, and the Fool needs to be returned to the arcana realms, one way or another. There will be Upright and Reversed endings for Julian, Altheia and the Fool. Eventually.
I... don't know if that actually made anything clearer. But there it is!
An actual finished chapter for WiP Wednesday? More likely than you'd think.
The Memories He Lost Chapter 7 - The Doctor's Apprentice part 1: Breathe With Me
My chapter titles are absolutely ridiculous at this point. Anyway...
Continuing on with the ritual bringing back Julian's memories of Altheia during the Red Plague, here he relives their first day working together as doctor and apprentice.
Part 28 of Tides of Memories, kind of an Altheia-specific but not word-for-word rewrite of "That's just how he is", part 1 of The Memories We Lost.
I'm losing my mind. Anyway, excerpt!
“Y-you’re…
“Altheia.” She cocked her head. “Don’t you remember me?”
“Of course!” He almost forgot to release her hand, until she gently pulled it back. “I could never…” He cleared his throat, trying to compose himself, but it was difficult when he didn’t know what the hell was going on. “I saw you at the centre city market once or twice. With that magician. He, ah… are you his…”
“I’m not Asra’s anything,” she replied coolly.
Julian almost sighed in relief. “But… you are…” Hesitantly, afraid of sounding stupid, he asked, “A magician?”
“I am.”
The response surprised and saddened him. He’d seen her use magic, in control of the sea and the wind, but it didn’t make sense that she’d leave that behind to read fortunes at a market. She wasn’t a magician.
He laughed a little, stalling as he tried to wrangle his thoughts around what was happening. Altheia, whether privateer or magician, couldn’t possibly want to be his apprentice.
“I’m sorry, I thought they said you were my new apprentice.”
“I am.”
“But.. you’re…”
“A magician.” She looked at him pointedly. “A good one, as it happens.”
Right. She obviously didn’t want to talk about her past. About their past. Julian nodded to himself, as he pushed all the things he wanted to say, and all the questions, firmly back down, and then scrabbled for something to say.
Coming up short, all he could blurt out was, “Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why come here? I can’t pay you much, you know.”
“My shop’s been doing well. I can afford to not be paid for a while.”
Her shop? Julian felt his jaw drop in shock, and promptly closed his mouth again. It was, he supposed as his mind whirled, a branch of trading, a step on from trading at sea. But he simply couldn’t imagine her behind a shop counter all day. What was it she’d said to him, years ago?
Thinking bout the girl today, and one of Julian's pet names for her being Morning Star, or Venera (venus). In a modern au she'd be very much into bluesy rock music, I can imagine her hanging out in the kind of pubs and bars where they have small bands playing, or laying out on a deck chair with Julian in the garden or beach on a summer's evening with a bluesy playlist (and a bottle or five). The deck chairs absolutely get broken.
If she plays an instrument, it's a bass guitar. She has the fingers for it 😏
Actually jk I have a question and please forgive me from stealing inspo straight from this stupid work thing from a bit ago…
Did Theia ever get in trouble as a kid? What kind of things would she get in trouble for?
She was extremely stubborn as a kid, and once she decided there was something she wanted to do, she couldn't be told no. She learnt a lot of lessons the hard way because she was certain she knew better than her parents; turned out she did not (for example when her father warned her not to hang off the rigging because the wind was picking up and if the ship pitched suddenly she might fall off into the sea, he was correct).
She got in trouble once for sneaking home a bucket of crabs she thought she could keep as pets. And then she and her brother both got in trouble for trying to make crabs fight and betting on which one would win.
Altheia couldn't pin down just one favourite thing about Julian, but if she had to pick, it would be how free and expressive he is, that he wears his heart on his sleeve and has few inhibitions (even though that isn't always a good thing). Also, how attentive he is to what other people need and want. Physically - his hands, how elegant and long they are. He's so expressive with his hands when he talks that she finds herself distracted looking at them and not paying attention to what he's saying.
Hobbies - beachcombing and adding to her collections of seashells, old coins, sea glass and pretty pebbles. She makes little animals out of tiny shells and beads.
Favourite food - scones with jam, and cream if she's feeling fancy.
Of the rest of the M6, she's closest to Asra. Nothing romantic ever happened between them, but she mentored him for a few years before the plague hit, and then of course they lived together after he resurrected her. Once the truth about everything came out, it took her a while to process everything and she, Asra and Julian took a bit of time to work through it all, but once at the other side of that, Asra will always be her closest friend.
Altheia’s first kiss was with an 18 year-old who mistook her for a fellow 18 year-old when she was 15. It wasn’t the first nor last time she had been mistaken to be older than she was because of her height, but it was one of the more innocent ones.
