Time And Again
Benjamin the tragic hero
Spoilers for Time and Again! If y'all are interested in reading it I would hazard against reading this post as it spoils up to chapter 6 as well as other chapters where the scene ideas come from that i haven't totally planned yet
He was the firstborn, heir to the throne, so he was groomed to be a leader from the moment he could hold a real sword and could understand what was being said in meetings.
He was just a kid until he was probably 12 and then he was a prince first and foremost. His best friend was the son of one of the guard captains, they would often play together in the courtyard as kids while their fathers were in meetings together. They immediately bonded over sword fighting with sticks and collecting snails and other stuff young boys did.
He and Aspen became inseparable they were basically glued at the hip. That was until Benjamin's 12th birthday when the king thought him ready to start learning to be a prince. He didn't have time to hang out with Aspen as much anymore and the pair slowly drifted away from each other until Aspen became a guard when the pair were 18.
Over the next few years, Aspen shot up the ranks and became a guard captain when he was knighted after a battle that left his father slain. He was assigned to be one of Benjamin's head guards.
Benjamin never forgot his childhood friend but things were never quite the same. There was this stiffness, this professionalism between them now that Benjamin couldn't shake. His duties only doubled as he grew older, only seeing his guard during check-ins, on escort missions, and when he was stationed outside Benny's door at night.
When Benjamin was 18 he was told that he needed to find a princess to marry, something he didn't want at all. He was set up to meet with several princesses but they all rejected him. He went through 7 princesses, none of them wanted him.
He's now 25 and his dad says if he doesn't get Princess Melanie of the Eastern Plain's kingdom to marry him that he was going to be disowned and have the throne handed down to his younger brother Ezekiel who is about 9 years his junior (16) and almost old enough to seek out eligible princesses.
Benjamin didn't care for the throne but he hated seeing the malice and disappointment in his father's eyes every time he came back and say he was still single.
The story starts with Benjamin heading off with Aspen to see Melanie. They have become a little friendlier, able to exchange banter and joke with each other but Benjamin thinks secretly that Aspen is only doing this because he technically works for his father. Basically, a paid friendship which sucks.
They're both killed by a squad of lizardmen with black smoky eyes. The loops start At first Benjamin thinks it's a dream, then a weird coincidence, but when he is killed by a smoky-eyed bear instead of the lizardmen, he realizes it's a pattern and he's fucked.
He goes through loop after loop, slowly losing his mind until he wakes up not in his bed but in a black void where a cacophony of voices talk at him, white eyes in the void open up and look at him. The goddess finally selects a voice and tells him he's their champion to defeat the necromancer and stop the hatching before he's sent back into the loops.
He finally finds a way past the lizardmen and the bear and finds a town. He successfully sleeps the night safe and sound before they head back on the road and come across the first villain, the Necromancer.
This gaunt evil wizard will be the source of so much trauma coming up so buckle in kids.
Benjamin and Aspen are chased, Aspen takes a direct hit and is promptly resurrected and Benjamin is killed by his friend. When he wakes up next loop he is terrified by the Aspen that wakes him up every loop. He decides to face his father's wrath, kicks Aspen out, and goes back to bed where he's basically catatonic for 4 days.
He's alone on the first His mom comes in to soothe him on the second. His dad comes in to berate and disown him for being a coward the third. And Aspen comes in on the 4th to get on his case about being in bed and not taking care of himself. They fight. Aspen is hurt, Benjamin is hurt, but before he can apologize the world splits in 2 and he falls over the edge of the crack into magma.
He now has a hard 4-day limit to save the entire fucking world instead of just Aspen and him.
That's all I have planned so far but I have little scenes I have in my notes.
Benjamin realizing he's a burden and starts leaving Aspen at an inn where he knows its safe until a few loops later when it's made known that Aspen dies there too so now he has to live with that guilt on top of the guilt of bringing Aspen into so much danger and death loop after loop.
The pair taking a loop to dick around in a known safe zone. They watch the stars. Well, Aspen is watching the stars while Benjamin is watching Aspen, slowly coming to the realization that he's falling for him. The guilt consumes him.
Benjamin finally breaking and telling Aspen everything. The loops, the deaths, the necromancer, the goddess, that he loves him. Aspen obviously reciprocates, he's loved Benjamin since they were kids, and that's why he became a guard. So he could see him again.
This loop is a failure and Aspen goes back to blissful unawareness while Benjamin has to deal with the knowledge Aspen loves him but will never remember that Benjamin loves him unless he confesses again which he doesn't have the stomach for. Afraid of what confessing over and over and over will do to him in the long run.
There's an alternate ending where after EVERYTHING, every single loop, every single death, dealing with all of the trauma and guilt, they win but Benjamin still dies. Since his fight with the Goddess, he no longer can loop so he cant be reset. He doesn't even get to tell Aspen how he feels before he goes. He is probably one of the most fucked up characters I have ever made and I regret nothing
Time and again is the very definition of "Hurt/No comfort
