rollo rambles. they're kinda all over the place but hopefully you get the gist of what i'm saying right?
rollo, upon first meeting him, seems rather cold and serious, perhaps even a little skeptical and wary of who he interacts with. he's respectful in the way he talks and quite professional, outside of the occasional annoyance he displays and does rather well at hiding.
he doesn't seem very open, regardless of how close to a person he is, he may not even have the intention of forming relationships that would lead to him opening up about himself.
when the nrc students met rollo, they commented about his lack of expression, how he wasn't smiling, assuming that he must be angry. he probably makes this impression a lot, seeing as he doesn't seem very expressive of himself.
i think rollo, while naturally indifferent and closed off, has also crafted his persona into what it is and into what he's shown others. he masks a lot of anger, although his lack of expression can cause people to think he's angry all the time, no one knows just how deep that anger runs. his indifference and respectful way of speaking is a part of that carefully crafted persona, he's probably used to people complimenting him, like the way trein praised him for his manners.
he occasionally (slips up and) expresses his disapproval about something or someone. he also seems to think a lot more people share his views, and when people don't, he gets upset. apart of that disapproval involves the disgust he showed towards the towns people using magic (although it was minor as he did well at hiding how truly annoyed, he was). but these were all comments made behind a hand and hardly able to be heard by everyone.
another thing about rollo, is he's also dedicated and hardworking. knowing and learning all he has to know about the nrc students, and remembering everything he read afterwards. and how he was meticulous in the way he planned the release of the crimson flowers. he must've been planning for years, by how it's presented in the game.
now on gt the psyche of rollo, it doesn't seem like rollo was ever allowed to grieve, or perhaps never received the proper grieving counsel he needed after not only losing but witnessing his brother die. when going into psychology of grief, one often needs support in their grief, to have someone help them along the process and help the grieving understand their grief is valid in whatever form it takes. however, it doesn't seem like rollo ever received that support. perhaps he felt as if he shouldn't be allowed to grieve, perhaps he was guilty or ashamed, and no one was there to help him navigate through the difficult emotion that may come with grief.
now i'm not saying that if he did receive proper counsel, his hatred for magic would've gone away. however, perhaps it wouldn't be so disastrous if he had people there to help him process his grief. it may have stopped him from making the decisions he did, to eradicate magic entirely.
rollo kept a journal where he not only spoke about his plans with the flowers, but also his brother, possibly the rest of his childhood as well. this makes me believe that rollo might've been a bit aware of himself during the process of planning. but then again this could've also been his way of grieving, as some people who grieve choose to keep a journal on the reason for the grief. and also his way of making him believe what he was doing was "right".
rollo really doesn't seem to see anything wrong with what he did. he really does believe he was the "hero" for trying to rid the world of magic, and that anyone who doesn't share his views, or uses magic, are villains. he doesn't seem to realize the hypocrisy of it all, as a magic user himself.
during the event, the gargoyle comments of rollo's diligence for both the bell of solace and the gargoyles, mentioning how rollo seemed to care a lot about the bell and the tower. the gargoyle even went on to say that he doesn't think rollo was faking it at all. the gargoyle was worried and also cared for rollo despite what rollo had done. because of this, i believe, while rollo may not be completely truthful in the character he has shown others, and is also greatly clouded by hatred and anger, he is capable of caring for others he just isn't close to anyone to show that. i think he really did care for the gargoyles and showed parts of himself to them he hadn't shown others.
rollo lost his brother young, he witnessed his brother lose to magic, he witnessed his brother die. witnessing death, especially death of a loved one, at such a young age, can largely affect a person, and shape them into a person that probably wouldn't exist had they not witnessed such a traumatic event. and it did largely affect rollo. while i don't know the exact age rollo was when his brother died, i do know that he was young.
rollo seemed to understand what was happening at the time and felt helpless. his brother was a prodigy, manifesting very strong magic at a young age, but the same couldn't, or wasn't, said about rollo. and then rollo had to witness as the mages around them did nothing to help. and so his grief built into hatred and anger aimed at magic and mages.
grief is a hard thing, especially for children in rollo's case. losing a sibling can be difficult for a child. children who lose a sibling often feel guilty, or that they failed. it's even harder when that child has to witness that death. that shows itself when rollo witnessed his brother go up in flames because of his magic, while yelling out for rollo, and was unable to do anything. a child grieving may have misplaced anger at the world or a specific group - as it was with rollo.
rollo was heavily affected mentally after his brother's death, and that only got worse when he didn't receive the proper grief counsel as he got older.
during the final battle during the event, he showed no signs of caring for the amount of magic he was releasing while fighting idia, malleus and azul. it's said with the flowers draining so much of his magic with the large spells he was releasing he must've been in a lot of pain yet showed no signs of stopping. malleus commented that he must have strong mental fortitude but i don't think that had anything to do with it, i think rollo simply did not care. he was in pain, a lot of it, but didn't care because he was so focused on reaching his goal.
rollo was a child when he lost his brother, and his parents did not seem at all active in his life.
he's hated for being based off frollo yet he and frollo don't have much in common.
rollo is an interesting character and his trauma runs deep.
anyways i'm done hope you guys enjoyed this and it wasn't too confusing <3
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Jen and Gabby (working title): chapter one.
Here’s the first chapter of my first gt story. Criticism is appreciated.
TW: A borrower stabs a human with a sewing needle near the end
heres part two:
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It was early in the morning, right before sunrise. The house was dark, all the humans living within were asleep, just hours away from waking. This was it, she thought. She looked at the floor of the living room through a tiny vent in the wall. She pushed the vent open, and stepped out, removing the mask over her mouth to prevent dust intake. She quickly moved across the living room, past her massive surroundings, and briefly hid under the couch, before dashing to the kitchen area. From a human perspective, she would appear as a speck moving across the surface. She ran fast, taking a lot of breath out of her, as she only had the assumption that no humans were awake to catch her, and not the comfort to slowly walk, leaving her open to be seen and killed. Upon making it to the kitchen and hiding inside a cabinet, she leaned against the wall and internally wondered why her species was designed this way. She had two legs that she could run with and two arms that she couldn’t. What cruel, idiotic god would design a four-inch-tall being with only two legs? Mice and rats have four legs, the front two can be used to grab stuff. Bugs have plenty of legs, why would tinies be stuck with two? It didn’t make sense given what she had to do regularly for survival.
After catching her breath, she decided to focus on the task at hand and begin climbing the inside of the cabinet. The cabinet was attached to a set of three draws, all on top of each other. She used some string attached to a fishing line to climb up the first draw, the second, and the third, which she got inside. She maneuvered her way past and through the objects in the drawer, and got to the edge. She used a sewing needle to pry the drawer open from the inside, before climbing out and onto the kitchen counter. She looked around, much higher than she was before. On top of the counter, there were various options of food around. She thought carefully about what to take. There were some fruits, bananas, and apples, but she couldn’t take those back to the hideout. They were too big, and they would leave peels and cores, attracting bugs, and mice, or being evidence to the humans. There was a loaf of bread contained in a plastic bag, but she didn’t feel like going through the struggle of opening it, as it would waste too much time, not to mention if she ripped a hole into the bag, the humans would notice, and either know of her presence or think it was mice or some bug, which would be bad either way. Obviously, she couldn’t take any actual food back with her. Luckily, she spotted a small, plastic bag with gummies in it. From what she knew, it was from the human children who lived in this house. They brought these packs of gummies to school to eat as snacks. It was small enough to be easily carried without weight being an issue. She grabbed the bag and put it in between her back and her bag, which was tied against her, and slung over her shoulder. She took out her fishing hook and hooked it to a cardboard box sitting on the counter. She pulled on the string, making sure it could hold her, and slowly climbed down the counter, hanging onto the rope and slowly making her way down. She hugged the rope carefully, trying not to slip, walking backward down the side of the counter. She reached the kitchen floor, finally letting go of the string, before pulling it with all her strength, causing the hook to fall. As she reached down to pick the hook up, she felt vibrations on the floor. Footsteps, she thought. One of the humans must be awake. She looked around for a hiding place, and went back inside one of the kitchen cabinets, leaving it open by a crack by sticking her sewing needle through the door. The vibrations got closer, as she saw a large shadow pass her. Barely poking her head out, she saw the ankle of one of the humans facing away from the cabinet and towards an open refrigerator. She recognized the pants of the human belonging to the mother. Holding her sewing needle, the tiny stayed in the cabinet, waiting for the human to go away. She closed the door and covered her mouth as the human closed the refrigerator door, walking towards the counter that the cabinet was under. The tiny person held her breath as she was inches away from the human's leg, only separated by the thin wood door of the cabinet. She heard the sound of liquid pouring into a cup. Then, she heard the woman walking back to the refrigerator and putting something away. The tiny peered out of the cabinet as she watched the woman walk out of the kitchen. After a moment, the tiny stepped out of the cabinet and looked in the direction the vibrations went. The woman was holding a cup of coffee and going upstairs. As the vibrations got quieter, the tiny ran back into the living room and ducked under the couch again. She pocketed a penny that was under the couch, before running back towards the vent and going inside. She put her mask over her mouth and nose as she made her way back home.
The tinies' hideout was inside one of the humans' unused dressers. It was the bottom dresser, the closet itself was just used for storage, so the humans never opened or checked inside of it. The entrance the tinies used was a hole carved into the back of the dresser facing the vent, with a curtain on the inside to keep the light from giving it away. The tiny person exited the vent, brushed the dust off herself, and stepped through the hole. The hideout had small lights that turned on when you pushed down on them, and pieces of pillow fluff and blankets to make beds, one of which another tiny was lying on.
“Jen!” she said, jumping up and hugging her sister. “Your back!”
“Hey Gabby,” she said, holding the bag of gummies. “I went to get food early since the humans aren’t leaving today.”
“Oh yeah, today is the first weekend day, right?” Gabby said. “I hate the weekend, we can never do anything,”
“I know, but at least we’ll have breakfast today,” Jen said, opening the bag and throwing Gabby a red fruit gummy.
“Hey, you said these aren’t healthy,” Gabby said, looking at the gummy. “Why don’t we have anything fresh?”
“Fresh stuff is harder to steal,” Jen said, biting into one of the gummies as if she were a human eating an apple. “I got inches away from the mom-human just trying to get this. She didn’t see me though.”
“Wow, that sounds exciting!” Gabby said, only having nibbled the gummy a bit. “When can I go borrowing with you?”
“Gabs, you know it's too dangerous. You're still too young, I can’t risk you getting caught." Jen said.
“Aw, come on. Mom and Dad took you borrowing when you were my age, didn’t they?”
Gabby asked.
“well ... yeah…” Jen said, looking down at the mention of their parents. “Well, I sucked when we did that, and I’m not as good a teacher as them, you won’t be as safe.”
“How am I ever gonna grow up, and be a borrower like you are if I never learn to steal from the humans?” Gabby said.
“Fine, I’ll take you borrowing when the humans are on vacation or something, and they won’t be here awhile,” Jen promised.
“Aww…..that’s so long from now! The last time they all left for days and days was months ago!” Gabby complained.
“I’m sure it won’t be that long a wait,” Jen said, optimistically. “Besides, patience is a big part of borrowing, you’ll have to learn it before you start.”
“Y’know it’s not fair that you get to go out and get materials and food from the humans all the time while I’m stuck here doing nothing.” Gabby pouted, ripping some gummy off with her mouth.
“Trust me, if life was fair, we would have to hide and steal in the first place,” Jen said.
During the weekends, the tinies couldn’t leave their hideout much since most of the humans were home. Usually, the children were at school, and the mother and father would be at work. The family didn’t own any pets, except a few fish the tinies enjoyed watching, so during the week, they would explore the house with less fear of being discovered. They looked through the children's books and played games in the children's rooms, carefully ate fresher food from the kitchen, making sure to clean up any evidence, and even on occasion, whenever the humans were gone for a long time, used the television or computer, though all they could do is push random buttons to see what they did. Today, during the weekend, since the humans were home, they couldn’t do anything other than stay in their hideout. They’ve made their hideout as comfortable as possible, but they had nothing to do with the hours they would have to spend in it. Gabby drew some pictures with a broken piece of mechanical pencil lead, Jen lay in her makeshift bed and occasionally practiced attacking with her sewing needle, away from Gabby of course. The two used the paper to play the human game where they put Xs and Os onto a three-by-three grid, which Jen won, Gabby not understanding the rules. Every time they heard or felt a human coming nearby, they turned off the lights and stayed as quiet as possible until they were sure the human was gone. After a couple of hours, they were sick of being there. Jen had an idea.
“Hey, you wanna go to the trading market?” Jen suggested to Gabby.
“Can we trade for strawberries?” Gabby asked.
“If someone has them, sure. I have some coins we can trade with.” Jen said, putting some pennies and dimes into her bag.
“Hey, are the brown coins more than the shiny ones or is it the other way around?” Gabby asked. It was a common debate among borrowers, some thought the penny should be worth more since it's bigger, and some thought the dime should be worth more since it was shinier. Jen answered the best she could.
“Depends on who we’re trading with,” Jen said, putting her needle through her belt, as she stepped out of the hideout. Gabby grabbed her stuff, turned off the light, and followed her into the house vents.
The vents were the main way that borrowers traveled through houses undetected. It was convenient, since every room in the house had to have ventilation, and the vents were made of metal, so they could be climbed with magnets if needed. The biggest downside to the vents was the dirt and cobwebs that were in them often. Borrowers needed to wear masks to prevent breathing the dust in. Soon, the two arrived at the outdoor vent, which had a small hole that flapped open. The two sisters exited the house and made their way around the outdoors. Gabby saw the outside as exciting, as she saw most things. Jen was cautious about it, not having as much experience surviving out here. She heard of outdoor borrowers who lived in gardens or parks instead of in the humans’ houses, but she never met one before or could imagine living like one. The two sisters were lucky not to encounter humans or animals on their journey to the trading market. It was in an abandoned, broken-down shed behind an empty human house. No humans ever went near the shed, so Tinies decided to make it a meeting place of sorts, where they traded whatever they found and met up. Jen and Gabby entered the backyard through a hole in the bottom of a fence and were let into the shed by another tiny. The bottom of the shed was hard dirt, with no grass growing there. Many other borrowers from the neighborhood were there, trading things they found or made or just conversing. Small flashlights were illuminating the shed from the Corners, and small benches and tables, some handmade with plastic bottle caps, cardboard, and whatever other materials they could find, others stolen from human toys. Jen waved at some other borrowers she knew.
“Hey Nora, hey Liam,” Jen said, bumping Nora's arm. Gabby waved.
“How's it been, Jen? it's been a while.” Nora said.
“We see each other once a week, it's always a while.” Jen nodded. “Gabby was bored with being in all day.”
“We’re looking to get strawberries!” Gabby exclaimed. Jen took some of the coins she brought out of her bag, and gave them to Gabby.
“I’m gonna talk with them for a minute, you go around and see if anyone here has strawberries they’re willing to trade, ok?” Jen said, crouching to Gabby's level.
“Ok, I’ll come to you when I find some!” Gabby said, running off and holding the stack of coins against her chest.
“Be safe!” Jen said as her sister ran to the stands of tinies trading their finds. Liam looked at her.
“You really need help with her, don’t you?” Liam said, Jen looked at him.
“What? No, I’m doing fine with Gabby.” Jen said. “She's good at listening, taking care of her is easy.”
“You’re overprotective,” Liam said. “Have you started teaching her how to borrow yet?”
“She's too young,” said Jen.
“Liams’ got a point, Jenny,” Nora said. “You have to give her some experience soon. Hey, why don’t you bring her on one of our group borrows?”
“Ok, I doubt either of you want my little sister in the way,” Jen said. Liam nodded. “Besides, those can be intense. I told her I’ll start teaching her when the humans in the house we live in go on vacation.”
“That can be a while,” Liam said. “Hey, maybe you could ask around to see if any other human houses are empty so you could teach her.”
“Hmm, I don’t know, traveling to a whole different house could be a hassle,” Jen thought out loud.
“I don’t see why you don’t just take the risk of taking her with you when you steal from the humans,” Nora stated, “that's how we were taught, if anything the risk helped us learn.”
“You don’t get it,” Jen sighed. “She’s all I really have left of our parents, all that's alive. I can’t lose her.”
“Jen,” Liam put his hand on Jen's shoulder, “I’m gonna be honest with you, one day, you’re gonna die, probably not from natural causes. No offense.”
“None taken, that's just natural for our species,” Jen said.
“When that happens, Gabby isn’t going to have anyone to protect her. No one except herself.” Liam continued.
“Look, I appreciate the concern, but Gabby is gonna be fine when I’m gone,” Jen said, crossing her arms. “I’m gonna teach her eventually, I'm just waiting for the right time. Besides, what do you two know about taking care of a kid?”
“I fed a human baby once,” Nora said, nonchalantly.
“Really?” Jen asked.
“It was crying, and I was right over it, about to be seen. So, I pushed its bottle into the crib, grabbed it, and stopped.” Nora said, shrugging.
“That's not really feeding, water isn’t food,” Liam said.
“It wasn’t water, it was milk,” Nora said. “Anyways, you coming to the group tonight, Jen?”
“Nah, I gotta get Gabby home,” Jen said, looking at Gabby from a distance.
“Looks like we’re only gonna have two this one,” Liam said, looking at an annoyed Nora. “Practically a date.”
“Shut up,” Nora said, rolling her eyes.
“Is Tim not coming with you?” Jen asked.
“Tim said he’s spending time with someone tonight,” Liam said.
“Who? I’ve never seen Tim with anyone around here.” Jen asked.
“No one knows. I think they don’t exist.” Nora said.
“I think they’re one of those outdoor borrowers,” Liam said.
“Tim's way too clean to be with someone who lives in a bush,” Jen said. “Come to think of it, he seems to never have any dirt on his clothes before we go borrowing.”
“Yeah, and he never seems skinny,” Liam said. “I always thought there was something about him.”
Then, Gabby came walking up to Jen, still holding all the coins, looking disappointed.
“No one had any strawberry,” Gabby said, looking down.
“That's a shame, is there anything else you want?” Jen asked.
“hmm…I dunno.” Gabby shrugged. “Strawberries are just my favorite,” Jen chuckled.
“Ok, let's look around for something else to eat, then we’ll head back, ok Gabs?” Jen said.
“Ok…” Gabby said, handing the coins to Jen and taking her hand, pulling her away.
“Uh, see you guys later, hopefully!” Jen said, waving at her friends as she was led away from her sister.
“See ya,” Nora said as Jen and Gabby walked away.
When Jen and Gabby arrived back at the house, the sun was setting behind the trees. The sisters entered the outdoor vent grill and traversed back to their hideout. As they walked through the dust, Gabby stopped and looked out one of the vent openings, staring into the light shining through the grill. They could both hear the sound of the humans talking, but they couldn’t tell what about, the noise being blocked by the walls. It sounded like the human children talking, though usually there were only two living in this house, it sounded like there were more than that. Jen noticed Gabby standing still, staring past the grill of the vent blankly.
“Gabby, come on,” Jen said through the mask covering her mouth. Gabby broke out of her trance.
“Oh, sorry,” Gabby said before catching up to Jen. They kept walking through the vents, ignoring the giggling and counting from outside the vents. Gabby squeezed Jen's hand. Finally, they made it back to their hideout in the dresser. Jen sighed in relief as she took her mask off.
“Finally, we’re back.” Jen said as she stepped on the push light, illuminating their home.
“Jen, are we doing anything tomorrow?” Gabby asked.
“Depends on if the humans…..” Jen stopped halfway into her sentence, and turned towards the wall, the one that the dresser opened from. She heard something outside. She wasn’t sure what it was.
“Jen? What's wrong?” Gabby asked. Jen shushed her quietly, and turned back towards the wall. The sound seemed closer now, it sounded like faint breathing, yet despite it being faint it was still loud enough to be heard from inside the dresser. Jen felt mild vibrations in the ground. Something was getting closer. Jen turned off the light as Gabby approached her.
“What's going on?” Gabby whispered. Suddenly, before Jen could respond, the floor quickly moved, along with the walls. Someone was pulling the dresser out. Jen and Gabby fell over, Jen fell forward, Gabby fell on her back. The sisters beds and table slide forward upon the dresser being pulled out. The room filled with light as the ceiling of the hideout was gone, and the two tinies were completely exposed. Jen looked up as her stomach sunk in on itself. It was a human child. Not one of the human children who lived in the house, both of those children had dark, brown hair. This one had blonde hair, and massive green eyes. It towered over the two tinies, gaping down at them. Gabby screamed. Jen quickly stood up and pulled out her sewing needle.
“Gabby, run!” Jen yelled. Gabby tried to get up, but the child's hand came down and covered her in seconds, pinning her to the ground. Its fingers wrapped around Gabbys miniscule body and lifted her up into the air as she kicked and screamed, panicking and crying.
“NO!” Jen screamed, as Gabby was taken from her. The child looked at Gabby as Jen was frozen in shock, not sure what to do. Then, the massive green eyes focused back on Jen. the human's other hand came down to take her. Jen's eyes filled with tears and horror as its shadow covered her, falling closer and closer, about to take her too, until…
“Ow!” the child screamed, pulling their hand away. Jen had stabbed them with her needle, which now had a thin layer of blood on it. The human got up off their knees and ran out of the room. Everything seemed still for a moment. Then, without question, Jen started running. She ran through the hole of their former hideout and through the vents without looking back. She kept running until she was outside again. It was dark, the only light coming from the street lights and the moon. It was cold, but Jen didn’t even shiver when the air hit her. Gabby is gone, she thought. Everything is gone. Tears swelled in her eyes, she started coughing and sneezing from forgetting to put on her mask when in the vents. She fell on her knees in the red brown dirt. What could she do? She stared at the ground for what felt like hours, though it was just a couple minutes, until she heard human footsteps on concrete coming from the front door. It was the child, and an adult, walking out the house towards a car parked in the street in front of it with some others. The child had their hand in their pocket, moving and readjusting it.
“....Gabby….” Jen said to herself. The humans entered the car, and it drove away, the engine roaring as it moved farther away in Jen’s sight. Jen gaped in the direction the metallic beast went in. Jen ran to the sidewalk and watched the car disappear around a corner. Jens eyes furrowed. She looked at the needle in her hand, she was still holding it. It was covered in dust that stuck to the blood that was on it. Jen took the cloth of her sleeve and wiped the needle off, before dusting the mess off of her arm. She put the needle back into her belt before closing her eyes and sighing.
“I’ll find you,” Jen said. “If they do anything to you…”
Jen sighed again, before walking down the sidewalk, a speck moving across the surface of the ground.
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