Scheduling for technically day 2 because it's 2:30 AM as I write. sigh </3 The rest will be on time, I hope ^^;
First day of Brush Week 2025 complete!!! Going a little ambitious since my current hyperfixation OC is my legends Z-A trainer, Aneirin, and his Aegislash, Cipher, so they both get included LOL
Cipher will be getting a fusion for each new brush! Today he's part Cosmoem :D
Content warnings: talk of past sexual abuse, dissociation, panic attack. Recommended to read via the link above but its here too. Could be considered part of (and was inspired by) Pix's Sifstem but don't even worry about the colour implications
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You woke in a new place.
The bedsheets were the wrong texture, the air in your lungs tasted drier than you were used to, and something smelled of chili peppers. When you opened your eyes, it wasn't your small, dim room you were in. A rainbow greeted your eyes, made of trinkets and photos and feathers pinned in the same way entomologists ease pins through the exoskeletons and wings of bugs.
Somehow, however, that was not the most worrisome part of your situation. No amount of unfamiliar territory could hold a candle to the way your heart was overtaken by a wildfire of terror when you heard, felt, and saw that someone was laying in the bed next to you.
With an unnatural jerk, you half-climbed and half-fell out of the bed. Your scramble had certainly alerted the other person that you were awake, but that hardly mattered to you in the moment. Your legs were shaking. Your palms were sweating. Colours blurred.
I was taken advantage of again, wasn't I?
The stranger, despite blinking sleep out of their eyes- eyes as blue as a clear sky in the midday of summer, eyes you did not know the intentions behind- was quick to sit up, hold their palms up, and speak softly. You couldn't hear their words over the sound of your heartbeat and the sound of air moving through your body and a damned ringing that was washing all thoughts clean out of your brain. Was this odd person, hair bright like fire, were they trying to soothe you?
They move closer, and the world swims. Your lungs hurt, and your mouth is dry, and you feel odd in places you wish would stop existing altogether.
The stranger pulls away from you, swinging their legs to the other side of the bed and running out of the room. Why? Did they not want to hurt you?
You use your arm to help hold yourself up. You feel so weak and choked. Stars dot your vision, and everything goes black until you manage to catch your breath.
You hear a sound and look over to see the stranger knelt by you with a glass of water.
Emotions have made you greedy. Every last drop is like ambrosia, making you lower the glass to pant after no less than three fourths are down your throat.
"Are you okay, Muenos?"
The stranger is looking at you with such concern in their eyes that you can't manage to conceal your flinch.
This voice which you have not properly heard before sounds almost rusty. It's impossible to pin a gender on, and (now that you get a good look at them) judging by the amount of ear peircings they have, you'd be floored if they weren't queer and proud of it. You almost relax, until you realize they aren't wearing a shirt.
You want to die.
"How do you know my name?" you manage to squeeze out of your lungs. The words burn, but the stranger's frantic worry over them was drilling holes into your already-weak chest.
"Um, you- uh, you told me your name yesterday. Do you need more water? Maybe you should sit on my bed."
[ You are perched on the windowsill, gazing out into the night that belongs to you. The wind brings you the scent of worms and damp dirt, and feels alive.
All it takes is a little shift of your ankles to drop you to the ground below. ]
[ Your arm is looped around him as you giggle. His hair is only barely as red as his face, and your vision is narrowed by the wide smile you wear- ]
You shake those thoughts out of your head and gag. There's a halfhearted relief that only thing in your stomach is water- while your throat burns, nothing comes out.
The stranger looks like- he...? he, yes- like he might just pass away on the spot.
"I'll get you more water," he says, this time decisive, taking the glass and running off frantically. It's the perfect opportunity for you to pull yourself back onto the bed, though it takes the last ounce of energy you have.
When he comes back, he's got some fabric bundled in his hand as well. He hands you the glass with the least confident, most grimacing grin you've seen on anyone except Polaris.
You hold the glass in both hands and give a soft nod of acknowledgement.
"I'm Cipher. Since, you don't seem to remember, that is! I didn't mean to cause you any stress." You take another swig of the water, keeping your eyes on him as he chuckles nervously and rubs at the back of his neck. "You said you were Muenos and, uh... some other stuff? Were you drugged before-?"
WERE you? You couldn't remember. You had gotten exhausted around the middle of the day, and now you were in the house of some shirtless stranger.
[ Your fingers traced- ]
NO, no, that wasn't right. You wouldn't do that.
You squeeze your eyes shut and breathe shakily.
When you open your eyes again, he's putting on a shirt- thank the sun and the stars, you weren't sure how comfortable you'd be if you tried having a heart-to-heart with somebody whose guns were out like that.
Somehow, that thought entertained you enough to huff out a weak chuckle.
"I don't think I was drugged, no," you say softly. Your voice is stronger now, healed by the water and brief rest, but it still shakes anxiously. "I'm not... not sure what happened. I was at home, and now I'm not."
You think you see a brief flicker of realisation in his eyes, but you don't know him well enough to confidently determine if it's that or surprise.
"Okay. Um, how about this- I'll make us both breakfast, and we can talk about this over some food? I'll help you get home, if you need." Cipher shakes out the clothing he had been holding, revealing an apron with... trains on it?
Well... you were definitely calmer now, at least.
"Okay," you say, inhaling deeply. "That sounds..." Good was not the word you wanted. "It sounds fine." Yes, that'd do.
He nodded, tying up his apron and turning away only to hesitate and look back. "Any allergies? Intolerances? Uh... religious food... things?"
You pause, considering what that meant. Then, you shook your head. "Not that I, ah, know of," you mumble truthfully into the cup, then take a sip to avoid continuing the conversation. Through shifting glass, you see Cipher nod and slip away.
Finally, you can breathe easier again.
With food in your stomach, you find it much easier to be calm and grounded. Initially, the very thought of eating was accompanied by nausea, but it had been specifically made for you... the least you could do was try it. It turned out that, once the knot in your gut eased, you were quite hungry.
Cipher's house was very lived-in, unlike most places you had seen. The troupe you were used to would keep things organized to a fault, to a degree where you appeared to lag behind; here, the clutter added charm, assuring you that this place was loved. This place was a home. This place, someone lived in.
He chatters while you eat, and you regard him knowingly. He should get an autism diagnosis, you muse, and stifle a smile as he tells you all about some bird (using terms you are quite unfamiliar with). He sees your smile, beams, and his passion flares in such an endearing way, your muscles forget why they were so tensed.
When the once-stranger helps show you where his house is, and helps lead you back to yours, you can't help but feel a strange sense of warmness. You do not know this man, and he would gain nothing by helping you, and yet here he is, doing so anyway. Is it hope you feel? Or are you perhaps simply naïve for daring to trust someone?
He knocks on the door with a confidence you lack as you wring your hands, a sudden fear seeping into the recesses of your mind. Would those you love be... angry? Would they dislike what happened? Would they be in distress, thinking you did not love them, thinking that-
"MUENOS?!" The words were out of your lover's mouth sooner than you realized the door was open, and Polaris flung himself into your arms and clung to you as if you were the last raft in an open ocean. They didn't even acknowledge Cipher at first, too focused on you to upkeep appearances- and you realized with a start that your anxieties were unfounded. Only when you feel dampness in his hair did you realize you were crying.
You're... still not sure what happened.
Still, even when Cipher sits down to talk to your adoptive guardian, to Polaris (who stubbornly has decided that letting you go is unacceptable at this time), to the friends Polaris had brought along that you were not accustomed to quite yet, you realize... something. This little slip-up, it changes nothing. Bell watches you carefully, but respects your space and offers you food and drink at the soonest possible moment. Cipher makes a joke with Polaris'... you think she's his teacher, but you wouldn't dare ask- and Vixul, despite a little smile as she plays along, still gives you glances of concern and warmth. Wren, the one with striking purple eyes that read into souls like daggers, makes himself look busy with his reading, but you can tell he's not doing so based on just how rarely he turns a page. Polaris holds you so hard that you have to whisper for him to be gentler as his fingers dig into slowly-healing cuts you hadn't realized weren't quite gone yet. And you feel loved.
And you feel loved.
Somehow, you feel that this incident will not be the end- but somehow, it's the love they all are showing you that chokes you up. You're not sure why that is.
[ An incident like this is bound to happen to me again. Things like this never happen just once, do they? It's always something that repeats. ]
... But, perhaps you'll be able to learn to handle it. Perhaps you could learn peace, with time.
Hold on, before I post Athena’s and adult Kirby’s ref sheets, I need to throw my brand-new hot-off-the-presses fankid into the ring
This is Cipher! She’s the MetaMorpho EX kid. She’s a Celestial, specifically a Cygnus-Matter (which are based off black holes, I scoured the wiki on black holes for deadass like an hour to figure out what to name this goddamn variant), and was adopted by Opha and Ione after conveniently landing on Popstar.
Because Celestials have been literally extinct for thousands of years, Opha takes it upon herself to raise and protect Cipher as her own child, making sure she survives childhood. Celestials in general are quite powerful, and Cygnus-Matters can be especially dangerous to themselves as newborns because of their magic.
You know how black holes work, yeah? She’s kinda like that.
