*Dances* give us a blurb on Red and Bolte and how their relationship formed throughout the story. What about Red's accident? also i don't know as much about Locke and Blue. Could you tell me more about them? <3
!!!! Yes to all of this!!!!
Time. Hope. Perseverance. Let’s start there. This is a story where war exists, and there is a Greater Scheme to try and stop. But this story isn’t about those things. This story is about two boys who refused to give up on each other, even when the rest of the world was damned and determined to break them apart.
Two boys who met in The Wastes as children, becoming friends against all odds, staying alive against all odds. A healer who’s path was cut short too soon and a hero who chose to change the story in the sake of the one he loved. This is their story far more than it’s a story about Queens and glitches. It’s a story of finding love in survival and burning the world that tried to take it.
Red and Bolte met as very young children in The Wastes. They had no one to rely on but each other. Red, slightly older than Bolte, with more magic at his disposal, took Bolte under his wing. They fought and killed and stole to keep each other alive in a world that desperately wanted weak and kind things to die.
As they got older, it became clear that they couldn’t stay in The Wastes forever. Red, a paladin, had little to offer. Their world doesn’t want healers. Bolte, however, was a knight. He joined the Royal Guards, using the money he earned to get them a house in Bastion.
The thing is, Fara Falls is a broken kingdom. A world bound to kill itself in the end. Bolte was sent to lead a batch of new recruits in quelling a Capitol War - something that was far beyond his Level. Red tagged along to make sure he could heal Bolte up afterwards. Only Bolte wasn’t quick enough. A hit took out his knee. Another went for the head - and Red, who at the time had full control of his ability to make black holes, blitzed in and took the hit instead.
It nearly killed Red. The injury ended up stripping him down to a permanent 5HP and stripped away his ability to do any sort of magic. Bolte begged Captain to help heal Red, indebting himself to her for life, and...even though Red woke back up, it changed things. Because it wasn’t both of them, out there in this awful world.
It was just Bolte, desperately trying to make himself mean enough and fierce enough that no one dared think they could use Red as Free EXP, trying to make himself important enough that he could keep them both alive. Bolte has bloodied his hands to keep Red alive, and Red’s found himself in a position where he’s had to watch it happen and couldn’t do anything to help.
The story, at heart, is largely about them finally finding a place to be safe, to heal, and to get help. For both of them.
(fun fact. as a reader, you don’t get to see bolte and red interact at all for the entire First Act - roughly 50k words - because they’re in different worlds)
Locke and Blue are amazing and I just,,,I love them. They’re foil worlds and foil characters; a knight-in-training and a full fledged paladin.
They’ve known each other since they were kids. They’ve always been best friends. Blue is a paladin by class but his job is at the Royal Labs, working as a scientist studying coding. He’s incredibly intelligent with a looney-tunes style of humor. He frequently gets caught up in his studies and will spend several days out at the labs with his lab partner, Motti. They’re best friends. He remembers the time loops and is trying to figure out how to stop them. This goes sideways when he swaps places with Red.
Locke is technically the main character? In a very loosely defined “main” role. He’s a knight-in-training and is being personally tutored by the general, Flame. He loves to cook, and dance badly, and make flower crowns. He wants a world where it’s peaceful, but he’s not naïve enough to think that means never taking up a blade. In fact, he wants to become a knight so his loved ones never have to do it for themselves! Locke remembers the resets too (though blue doesn’t know this) and is the one to uncover the Queen’s plot. He just wants Blue and Red and Bolte and all the others to be safe and happy. Locke will go through anything to make that happen.
Locke and Blue are happily dating! They live together in Barrier Town!
