#clem (oc)

[wwingedinsectt]

draw th guy wit the green question mark on a carousel for enrichmenttt :) no presur

@gello-strands The only joy he’s ever gonna get in life. I love your art btw!!!!

[twilight-calliope]

ooh how long have you had your favourite OC?

I have trouble deciding who my favorite OC is as it varies from moment to moment but fortunately the group that my favorites are from are all about two or three years old! They've changed a lot. At this point it feels less like me making up stuff about them and more watching them show traits that they always had. For example, Plus used to be agressive and crabby, Saph used to be a lot meaner, Clem used to be toxically cheerful, and Jade used to be more quiet

[twilight-calliope]

Saph found him hunched over the laptop, researching the new world the found themselves in. Something was off with Clem. Sure, it could be the creeping reality of the fact that everything they had ever known was long gone, but Saph knew for a fact that to Clem, the thrill of discovery was more powerful than any oppressive circumstance they found themselves in. She had experienced this far too many times while having to slow down for Clem to inspect every plant and pebble on the planet that they had been stranded on to die.

So it had to be something else. Saph was assured of this when she noticed Clem startle a bit when he noticed her. His face flashed with surprise, and strangely, guilt.

Clem immediately tried to recover the situation. "I've found some interesting stuff here, but I can't find everything I want online. Maybe when Jade and Plus get back we could go to a historical archive that's a few miles-"

"What's wrong?" Saph asked, leaning over him, arms crossed. Maybe too intimidating, Saph thought as Clem's eyes went wide. She uncrossed her arms and clasped them behind her back, not sure how to make the conversation feel less like an interrogation.

Clem snapped the computer shut and stood up, turning away from Saph and pacing across the dusty motel room. Saph sat down in the chair that Clem had vacated and tried to assume a casual posture.

"Why do want me to talk all of a sudden?" Clem asked with his usual cheer but with an undertone of desperation. "It used to be that you were always telling me to be quiet." His smile was stretched, his eyes darted from place to place.

"I don't know," Saph said, crossing her arms again. "You're just acting strangely, and since we're friends now I thought I'd be a supportive understanding fucking friend and ask."

Clem physically flinched at this, then closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Saph's mouth twisted. She decided to back off.

"Listen, you don't have to tell me. Just tell Plus or Jade or someone, alright? You can't keep living like thi-"

"My fault," Clem said.

"What?"

"All of this. It's my fault. I started it," Clem said is a hoarse voice.

Saph tilted her head. "You'll have to be a bit more specific than that."

Clem was silent for several seconds before he spoke again.

"When... when this all of this started," Clem said, then, taking in a sharp breath, changed his approach. "You know how we lost our memories? And I've been recovering them faster than the rest of you guys because my new name was so similar to my old one?"

"Yes," Saph said, because it was better than a thousand other comments that expressed exactly how aware of it she was. Exactly how aware she was that she used to have people she loved but were now gone, and she didn't even have memories to know them by. Of how aware she was that Clem could remember and she couldn't.

"Leading up to before we got sent there," Clem said, knowing that Saph would know exactly what he meant by there, "I found something I shouldn't have."

"Sent?" Saph said, then raised her hands in apology after Clem glared at her. "Sorry. Go on."

Clem shot Saph a look with so many emotions she couldn't even begin to parse it, then continued. "It was an old starship. I didn't know the significance of it at the time. I'm still not quite sure. I told other people. I should've kept it to myself.

"Apparently, the ship came from that planet a long time ago and for some reason it's meant to be a huge secret. Like we're not allowed to know we came from there. And I stumbled into it, and I told other people, and they figured out that I told... I told..."

"You told us, didn't you," Saph said. "You told us and they had to get rid of us." Her voice developed a hard edge. "They wiped our memories and sent us there to die."

Clem nodded like a criminal presented with irrefutable evidence of their crime, then looked up. His voice was thick with emotion. "I didn't tell all of you. Just you and Plus. I told Plus because got injured in an accident that-" Clem cast his eyes down- "probaby wasn't accident, and I told you-"

"Because you wanted a pilot to help you identify the ship," Saph said. "I think I remember."

Clem snapped his head towards Saph. "...How much?"

"Not much. I guessed that time. What's important it what happened right before we got on the ship there, though, and I don't remember any of that yet," Saph said, about to turn away before she saw the look of pain on Clem's face. "But I'm sure you do," she said softly.

Clem looked away from Saph as if unable to look at her, tears forming in his eyes.

"What happened, Clem?"

Clem stared at the wall of the room as if seeing events replayed in it. "They took us, willing or not. They got Plus to come quietly because they threatened his son. But you..."

"Stop," Saph said, standing up suddenly, but it was too late, and the rest of the memories filled themselves in on their own. Not full memories, but just impressions; rage, fear, fear, adrenaline. Pain in her knuckles from where she had cracked the visor on a guard's helmet with her fist, pain in her jaw where she had taken the butt of an electric rifle in return. Waiting in a cell.

The rage crashed forwards in time. They had not crash landed on that planet on accident. They were sent there. She had suspected as much ever since she had noticed her missing memories and the truth of the planet they found themselves on, but the realization still enraged her in a way that made her wonder how much rage she could hold. The sudden loss of engine power as soon as they got close enough to the planet to be dragged in by its gravity had been sabatoge. Hone had killed Iris, not out of blind delerium and insanity, but as a premeditated move commanded by a human power that wanted all of them dead.

Saph realized that she was still standing, fists clenched, faced flushed with anger. She noticed that Clem was standing rooted to the spot, eyes welling with tears, face wracked with fear and guilt.

"Like I said," Clem said in a barely audible whisper. "My fault. Everything that's happened to us. The reason why we almost died on that planet. The reason why we had to go forward in time. It's all because of what I did. It's my fault that you're here."

Saph deflated, her rage evaporating. "Clem-"

"You hate me," he said, eyes squeezed shut, tears finally falling. "You should hate me."

"Clem, I couldn't hate you if I tried."