A beginning is a truly wonderful thing. A beginning can change a pre-existing set of circumstances or create entirely new ones. Beginnings, though they vary, always involve something important: a change. In stories, a beginning mostly occurs as two different types: a true beginning or in medias res. A true beginning is where the story starts off before or when the first changes occur to, around, or for the focal subject of the story, slowly building up to greater and greater pieces over the course of the narrative. These types of beginnings, planned or not, function as or contain expositions, in which the stage is set for the reader or listener to get an idea of where, when, and who the rest of the story will focus on In medias res, the story immediately jumps into the middle of some form of action, dragging out an important piece of information from some time later on in the plot line. Almost all stories that start with medias res tend to prefer starting in the middle of, start of, or end of a battle or great struggle. While this is not always the case, it creates a sudden, right-off-the-bat burst of action to intrigue the reader. These kinds of beginnings are extremely effective against the reader or listener who would otherwise be disenchanted by a lengthy introduction or description of place and time. For plays, beginnings most often start with either the same true beginning of a story, or in a hybrid of medias res and true beginning. These beginnings, first seen when the Greeks began mastering playwriting, start with the Chorus - a group of people outside of the play, but knowledgeable of the story - explaining past events that led up to the part where the actors start acting. In everyday, real-life experiences, beginnings keep the point of change. A person realises that something has changed about or for them, and they either act or do not act in accordance with the change or changes. While many would argue it, a beginning requires a subject to be aware of what is occurring, no matter how small. This is what makes a beginning, and beginnings never cease to appear; there is always a beginning being discovered somewhere.

An end is a truly wonderful thing. An end can tear apart the greatest of bonds or forge them even tighter. Endings come in an infinite array of options, with no two endings exactly the same. Sure, many endings have the same result, but no two endings were ever completely alike. All endings are the culmination of what happened before them, each one altered from their very beginning. As such, any deviation or change prior to that ending makes for a new, unique ending. These changes do not even have to occur directly in relation to that ending. There exists a theory in which even if the world were stuck in a perpetual loop, every ending would still be different; this can be true because if something were to change outside of the world, that ending would still be different. Of course, this makes endings impossible to completely control. While it may be argued otherwise, the counterargument is that the outcome is what can be manipulated. An ending can achieve a desired effect, but the ending itself wasn’t entirely controlled, just the parts that lead to a specific outcome. Because of what an ending is, everyone has an innate aversion to endings. For many, it means no more of something they were used to or wanted. The unmanageability of an ending earns it the derision of those who are used to controlling their lives or other situations. Though many can ‘appreciate’ an ending, there always exists a negative feeling towards it, no matter how little. There are always a few who appreciate endings, having realised that endings are inevitable and not to be feared, for indeed, once a beginning has come, an ending cannot be prevented. Endings, unlike beginnings, do not require the realisation of the situation to occur. Realisations during endings often signal another beginning, not the ending itself; this allows for the constant development of life and change in and of itself.

Beginnings lead to endings, and endings make more beginnings. What is most often glossed over is that an ending does not directly follow a beginning. There is, no matter the circumstance, something that happens in between a beginning and an ending. During this time, the events that take place are more crucial than the beginning or ending to any progression of story or change. It is by the middle content that it is judged, though the beginnings and endings are the most focused-on points.

The beginning, for three of Equestria’s princesses, started when the creature known as Josephi introduced himself. However, the maelstrom of change started long before, in a place far from Equestria, and it began with two brothers. As such, the two of them being in the same place again after not having seen each other for a long time would most likely escalate things just a bit. And it did.

Electra enjoyed sleep. Often, she would complain about not getting enough or simply wanting more, no matter the circumstance. After walking several miles overnight, traveling through a strange town, and then having a little outburst upon finding her destination, all while aggravated at a certain human, it was rather understandable that Electra passed out on the chair almost immediately after Josephi himself left to go sleep. Something still seemed off to her, though. Electra’s sleep wasn’t as calming as it usually was for her; she was clearly bothered by something. Josephi had just casually mentioned that his brother was in Equestria, and while Electra could understand the princesses not getting the full impact of that, she certainly did. There was no way that Josephi didn’t expect her to worry; he wasn’t that stupid. Electra took the time to start making plans while she slept. She was fairly certain that someone had tried to enter her dreams at some point - she had no clue who it could have possibly been - though they failed quite miserably.

It seemed rather obvious to Electra that the other princesses would stay in the small crystal castle for a while; one did not leave a being of suspect nature and power to remain unchecked. Celestia and Luna had decided to stay in one of the larger guest rooms for at least another day, until they could get some information secured and security assigned. Electra never did enjoy the concept of sleeping around royalty - too many possibilities to become collateral damage in an assassination attempt - she figured it was unavoidable, though, considering she was in a castle, after all. Because of this, Electra had decided to make it a light nap, and as luck would have it, that let her wake up as soon as she heard the knocking at the castle door. Groaning, she got out of the chair she had been sprawled on and made her way to the door, ready to rip into the person audacious enough to wake her up.

Twilight was already on her way to the door by the time that the knocking started. Considering she was no longer working, she reactivated the proximity wards that let her know somepony was coming to the door. Twilight considered it a good thing that she headed there immediately; she didn’t want a repeat of Josephi and Electra. Pleased with her actions, Twilight nodded to herself, sure that she could avoid any incidents now that she was answering the door.

“I’m telling you, sister. Nothing. Not a single one!”

“Luna, calm down. There’s no way that’s possible. Everypony has dreams, even if they don’t always remember them. I’m sure there’s more to it.”

Luna was not satisfied with the response. “Nay, sister, I would know. There isn’t a single indication of any dream from him! It’s as if he doesn’t exist in the dream realm.”

“What about Electra?” Celestia asked. “Do hers indicate anything?”

“It troubles me, sister. I can’t enter her dreams. They aren’t normal, either. There is no door, for her. The dream is there, but it is clouded in the foulest, darkest substance I’ve ever seen. I can see that she dreams, but any attempts to go in are met with failure. It almost acts quite like whatever is keeping me out is sentient itself. Never have I seen such a thing, and it frightens me.”

While the two sisters continued their argument about possibilities within the dream realm, a loud knocking interrupted them.

Sighing, Luna said, “Do we wish to allow dear Twilight to handle this one, or should we perhaps go to see who it is?”

Celestia pondered it for a moment. “Well, it is Twilight’s castle, and she’s no doubt already on it. Either way, it wouldn’t hurt to go see who feels like visiting this late in the evening.”

Deciding upon it jointly, the two Princesses headed toward the foyer where the visitor was to be admitted.

“It’s a godsdamn castle that doubles as a library; who the fuck knocks?” Josephi wondered aloud as he made his way back down the stairs from the guest room. “Not to mention it’s made of hollow crystal. This shit echoes waaaaaaay too much for its own good.”

Despite her best efforts, Twilight didn’t arrive at the door first. It was rather close, though; just as she entered the foyer, the purple alicorn could see Electra already a few hoofsteps from the door. Foreseeing the potential mess, Twilight immediately cried out, “Wait! Don’t-”

Whatever she’d been going to say was cut off as Electra threw open the double doors to the castle. “Whaddaya want?” She slurred drowsily. “‘m tryin’ ta sleep and-”

Just as Twilight had been cut off, so were the storm-grey pegasus’s words abruptly halted as soon as she took a look at who was outside the door.

“Why hello, my dear Electra. Quite the wonder seeing you here. Tell me, would Josephi happen to be here?” The voice that sounded out was crisp and refined, giving a permeable sense of sophistication and pleasantness to the sentence alone. As such, it rather confused Twilight as to why Electra was rooted in place, seeming to all the world as just a statue.

Once the doors were open far enough, the full figure of who was at the entrance became visible. Standing there was a very tall bipedal figure, taller than Josephi, even. His dapper appearance gave a sense of formal relaxation, and his posture belied a jaunty personality. To be completely honest with herself, Twilight found that the person at the door looked quite a lot like Josephi in terms of species.

Finishing her very brief observation, the purple alicorn looked up at the smiling figure still standing outside. “Can I help you, sir?” she asked, still unsure as to what else to say at the time.

“Aah, yes. My name is Mike, and I was looking for Josephi. I was told there was some authority here, so I wondered if you might know of his whereabouts.”

“Well, actually, I d-” Twilight’s speech was once again cut off, this time by the intrusion of a certain pair of princesses.

“Twilight?” Celestia asked. “Who is this?” She and her sister had just come down the stairs to be greeted by the sight of Twilight a few feet away from Mike with Electra still frozen in place off to the side.

“My, my! More of you! This place is a veritable wealth of authority. It seems my stroke of luck continues. My name, since you asked, is-”

“Mike.” The sentence was finished not by the man in question, but rather, by Josephi, who had just walked into the main foyer. The way that Josephi had said it was practically a growl, and the extreme scowl upon his visage made it obvious that he was not pleased with the fact.

“Aah! More of this luck!” Mike said almost giddily as he slightly bounced into a straighter position. “I didn’t even need to get the location from these lovely ladies in the end!” All the while Mike had been speaking, Josephi had been walking slowly closer and closer towards the taller man.

It was at that point that Electra seemingly snapped out of her daze. Against everything that the other ponies in the room would have expected, Electra’s first action was not to start speaking to Mike, or even moving towards him; instead, she was practically crouched down, ears splayed back, and slowly backing herself away from Mike, eyes like saucers. There was the mare who insulted and cursed at extremely-powerful alicorns and made death threats to those stronger than her, backing away from a single person like a filly in front of a manticore. At first, it wasn’t noticeable, but as Electra got closer to the others in the room furthest from Mike, her muttering became clearer.

“Not today. Not today. Not today. Not today. Please, gods above, not today. I don’t want to go like this. Not today . . . “

This only served to confuse the Princesses more. Here was a brand new visitor to the castle, and yet the other two guests immediately act as though the end times were upon them. They didn’t know exactly what was going to happen, but everyone in the room had the feeling it would be nothing good.

“Please, my dearest Electra,” Mike said, turning towards her, “There’s no need to worry; you are going to be perfectly fine.” He turned back to the still advancing Josephi. “You, however . . .”

None of the observers were sure when it happened. The action was over in the blink of an eye. Mike was no longer where he had been. Instead, he was directly in front of Josephi, and the sleek black cane he had been holding was completely gone, replaced by a violet, ethereal-looking estoc. Said estoc was currently protruding from the back of Josephi’s body, having been run completely through from the front.

“Shame on you, brother,” Mike started again, calmly continuing his speech as though he didn’t have a person impaled upon his weapon. “Letting down your guard like this. I’d expected better of you. Oh well, we’ve been through this song and dance before. Next time, I expect you to actually try to do something instead of just standing there.”

Josephi was standing stock still in front of Mike, mouth occasionally opening and closing as though to say words, though no sound came out but pained wheezes. He raised his head from looking at the sword currently skewering his body up to his brother. After a moment of working his jaw, he finally managed to get a word out.

“Ouch.”

“Now, now, Josephi,” Mike said, smiling evenly, “that’s not a very good choice of last words.” As he had finished saying it, Mike quickly withdrew the sword from Josephi, pulled back, and swung the estoc fully at his neck. The sword appeared to pass harmlessly through Josephi just before a white rift of intense light appeared behind him. “Ta ta, dearest brother. Tell Hades I said hello!” With that, he pushed Josephi backwards into the rift, his body toppling backwards, shortly followed by his head. “Oops. Don’t want to be too inconsiderate. Here: I’ll cover the ferry cost.” Reaching into his pocket, Mike pulled out a small silver coin and flipped it into the rift after Josephi. Once the coin was through, the rift closed, and the room was back to as it had been, minus one Josephi and plus one large pool of blood on the crystal floor.

That time, it was all of the other inhabitants of the room who stood in shock. Someone had just been murdered in the Castle of Friendship’s antechamber. To Celestia and Luna, it was the first murder on Equestrian soil in over two-thousand years. To Twilight, it was the first time she’d seen another creature die from anything other than old age. Electra was practically hyperventilating, eyes darting from one doorway to another, looking for the fastest possible way out.

“Well,” Mike began, pulling a small white cloth out of his pocket that he started using to wipe off his blade, “I must say that you’ve got your work cut out for you; crystal is a very easy surface to get blood off of.”

“What . . . wh- wh- what HAVE YOU DONE!?” Luna’s horrified shout echoed throughout the entire castle, snapping the other ponies out of their shock.

Mike’s disinterested glance in her direction spoke both volumes and nothing at all. “I stabbed my brother through the heart, then cut off his head before kicking him through a rift to the underworld. I thought that much was obvious.”

The sword, once clean, had disappeared and been replaced with a cane, though it seemed that this transition had happened between blinks. Seeing Celestia advancing slowly towards him with horn lit, Mike decided it was an appropriate time to actually do something.

“Now, now, Celestia, you clearly know what happened to the last person to try and walk at me all ‘menacingly-like’.” Celestia halted her stride, but not her hardened gaze. “Besides, I’m no threat to you; in fact, I won’t do a single thing to any of you. Oh, and that includes you, Electra.” Electra, still backing towards a doorway, froze yet again upon hearing her name. “I told you to calm down, and you haven’t even done that.” His voice took on a tone that was hard to identify. “Besides, if you don’t relax, how will you get to enjoy all the fun you’re going to have with your old friends when they stop by?” With the most recent words, Electra started trembling slightly, still not breaking the eye contact she had with Mike.

Mike, deciding he’d said enough, straightened up and came off of leaning on his cane. “It’s been an absolutely delightful evening, and I do so wish I could stay to chat a bit, but I’m afraid I have some prior arrangements that I must be off to. Celestia, Luna, be sure to send your parents my respects; the last time I saw them, I’d just given them their last anniversary present. Twilight, I’d advise using some bleach. To all, I bid thee antío.”

“No! Stay ri-” Luna’s second outburst was cut off as the air in front of Mike seemed to ripple and shimmer before he simply vanished from sight.

A deathly silence settled over the library, no pony moving at all. Whatever it was that those four had just witnessed, it would take some time to digest.

It had been several hours since Luna’s moon had replaced the sun in the sky, and the quaint town of Ponyville was extremely calm, as though it hadn’t just had the first murder on Equestrian soil in hundreds of years occur within their very town limits. Of course, no one excepting the alicorn princesses and one pegasus knew it had happened, so business continued as usual. Octavia had just finished getting settled in for the night, her house finally warming up after having been empty and unused for the past few days while she was in Canterlot. Following her quick construction of a fire in her fireplace, she headed over to her couch before pulling out the Daring Do book that she’d been in the middle of before she headed to Canterlot, tea in hoof. Not a few pages in, Octavia’s relaxing read was interrupted by the quick staccato of knocks on her cottage door. “Of course,” she thought to herself, “why should I expect relaxation after a busy week? I swear the universe is conspiring against me.” Reaching the door and opening it swiftly, Octavia found herself met with two pillars. Craning her neck upward, it was quite obvious that said pillars were, in fact, attached to someone.

“Mike?” Octavia inquired, “What are you doing here at this hour? I thought you had business to deal with regarding your brother?”

Bending down ever so slightly so as to better look the pony before him in the eye, Mike smiled softly before replying. “Hello, my dear Octavia. I know it is quite late, but I was wondering if you might be willing to entertain some conversation for a bit.”

The musician was rather surprised at the request, but couldn’t find it in her to turn down the request from the man who had been nothing but gentlemanly to her. “Of course, though I hope you don’t mind feeling a bit cramped. These houses weren’t really build with someone of your stature in mind. Please, come in.”

“I must say,” Mike chuckled lightly while dipping his upper body so as to fit in the doorway, “just a few glances and I can already tell that this is a rather homely abode you have here. I do so love antiques.”
“Really? I’ve found only a few others who truly enjoy them like I do, and none of them live in Ponyville, that’s for sure.” Octavia decided to simply move into small talk while grabbing the rest of the tea that she had brewed earlier.

“Alas, some of the most truly beautiful of crafts are often forgotten or ignored, are they not? Shame, really. Oh well, the most one can do is slowly change the minds of the general populace bit by bit, showing others the beautiful side of an art they’ve been ignoring,” Mike lamented, finding the couch to be more suitable for his size than the small chairs.

Having fully settled down after giving Mike a cup of tea, Octavia sat and looked over to tall creature who was so woefully large for the space he currently occupied. “So tell me, Mike, what is it that you wished to discuss?”

“You see,” Mike began, looking Octavia over before fully settling his gaze directly on her eyes, “I find you rather curious. Not only were you the first person to come talk to me in this quaint little town, you did so without trepidation. However, far more curious than that is what you first said to me.”

Octavia briefly racked her brain to remember how she’d originally started the interaction with Mike, though it had only been some hours ago. “Hmm. I believe I said ‘Who are you?’, correct?”

The pale human hummed in agreement around the teacup he currently had his lips pressed to. “Excellent tea, by the way. I must know what kind. Anyways, you are entirely correct. You asked me who I was.”

“And? I would hardly think that makes for a unique talk.”

“You see, Octavia, you asked me who I was, not what I was. Out of all of the places I’ve been to in my travels - towns, cities, countries, continents - you are the first to ask me that in a VERY long time. Far longer than I know you’re probably imagining right now. Of course, to many, this difference in wording may not seem much, but I can guarantee you that for me, it’s been an extremely delightful surprise, and I don’t come across those often.”

“You’re . . . welcome? I guess? I’m afraid I’m drawing a blank as to why this would possibly cause you to seek me out so close to midnight. Not to mention you’d said your business with your brother was rather pressing. Seems quite odd to me.” Octavia took a long sip of her tea, awaiting the response of her late-night guest.

Mike waved a hand dismissively, as though to brush the notion from the air before him. “First, just to avoid it getting in the way later, let’s just say that the matter of my brother has been resolved for the time being. Now, I don’t believe it will stay that way for too long, but it’s given me a bit of time to progress without his interference, though I’m afraid he’d already managed to get the locals involved anyways by the time I got there.”

Octavia absorbed what she’d just heard and nodded to Mike, signalling for him to continue.

“I would really like to make this very brief, but I’m afraid that I’ll need to be thorough in my explanation. First though, I would like to ask some questions, if that’s alright.” Mike looked to Octavia’s face yet again for confirmation before continuing when she nodded for the second time. “Tell me, miss Octavia, let’s say that you were to hear that something terrible happened to a large group of ponies, caused by the actions of another. Now say that you can only be told either who did it or what it was they did, which would you choose?”

Openly joining this game of moral hypotheticals, Octavia was quick to respond. “Why, I’d have to choose the ‘who’ option. However, this could still cause a great deal of confusion. Realistically, I’d want to know why that individual did what they did. What happened and who did it should come secondary to knowing the underlying reasons.”

The amazed, joyous laughter of Mike was an interesting contrast to the conversational atmosphere that the room had had since the beginning of the conversation between the two. Yet again, Octavia was a slight bit confused as to what exactly was going on. It took a short while for Mike to regain his composure before returning eye contact with the grey pony across from him.

“I can’t believe this! Finally! You, miss Octavia, are yet again the first to give me the correct answer in ages! You saw through the question and found the THIRD option. Now, let me say, I entirely agree with you. I find that actions are always justifiable, depending on the reasons for doing so. So many are willing to throw out looking at motivation if the person who did something is some socially pre-defined “good” or “evil”. A hero who kills ten people is almost guaranteed to be acquitted compared to a villain who kills ten people. Why is that? It is entirely because the “hero” is seen by the majority as just that, and likewise for the villain. The general consensus that I’ve found in my travels is that people look at the who first, the what second, and disregard the why. Do you still follow me?”

The cellist hadn’t really thought that far into such a line of philosophy, but Mike had made several points that she couldn’t rightly disagree with, nor did she find herself wanting to. Octavia looked down to her now-empty tea cup before setting it aside on the end table next to her chair. “I most certainly do still follow, though I have many questions as to this line of inquiry. The world we live in isn’t really that turbulent nor have we had issues that stand between right and wrong. I’m rather curious as to where you got these notions from.”

Yet again, Mike was laughing. Unlike previously, however, this laugh seemed a bit harsher, with an almost bitter edge to it. “My dear Octavia, I must ask, how big is the planet upon which we live?”

Octavia wanted to say she knew quite accurately, but the way Mike spoke made her reconsider. “Well, The planet is quite evenly split between land and sea, with the land being made up of one large mass - or continent, if you will - though there’s a bit of a strait separating Equestria proper from the badlands. The Griffon Kingdom is a decent sized area of land on the eastern side of the continent with the Crystal Empire up north. We assume that the dragons migrate to a small island out in the ocean before returning to Equestria following the migration. Other than that, there’s not much to explore but a large, empty ocean.”

Mike gently placed down his tea cup and stood from his spot on the couch before moving forward and crouching in front of his evening host. “What if I told you that everything you knew about the world was a lie, miss Octavia?”

The notion was one that she almost refused to entertain in her head, fearing the migraine it would bring. However, there was still easily a part of her that remained curious. “I’m not rightly sure how I’d feel, to be honest, though I get the sense that you’ll give me insight anyways.”

“Well, I can’t really say that everything you know is a lie - that would be the real lie - but a great deal is out there that you haven’t been told about, be it by your leaders or who it is that makes the maps. I have utmost confidence that you know a good deal of things when it comes to your homeland here, but I can similarly guarantee that you would be amazed of the world beyond those coasts.”

It was not long after Mike had said this that it became evident of a racket being made throughout the surrounding area of town. Shaking her head from its stupor, Octavia moved to the window and parted the curtain to see a large contingent of guards moving from door to door, knocking on the doors of ponies’ houses and questioning the occupants when they answered, many being visibly upset at having been roused so late at night. Letting the curtain fall back to its resting position, Octavia slowly turned around looked up to Mike, who was still crouching where he had been, though now he had his cane in hand an almost mystical, manic glint in his eye. “What . . . what exactly did you do, Mike? Do you have something to do with why I’m about to get a late-night visit from the royal guard?” The cellist sounded almost accusing, though not harshly.

“That I do, dear Octavia. Let’s just say that my manner of dealing with my brother wasn’t exactly to the liking of those princesses you mentioned, made much more troublesome by the fact that they were watching while it happened.”

“Did you hurt somepony? I thought your issue was with your brother!”

“Absolutely not! I harmed absolutely zero ponies in my debacle with my brother, though I wouldn’t call it too much of a debacle, really. Anyways, your princesses did not exactly take a liking to the results, nor execution, of my plan, so I believe they’re trying to find me. Shame, really. I must ask that you remember what you said earlier, miss Octavia. Right now, you alone know the why behind what I did, and I can easily promise that that was no lie. Believe me when I say that a lot of innocents would have died had I not done what I did earlier this evening.”

Octavia was no longer upset after remembering that exact bit of information, but she was still worried about the approaching column of guards. “Can’t you just go tell the princesses what you told me earlier? Save the trouble of such a big incident?”

Mike sighed. “Remember also what I said about people asking who, then what, and not why? Unfortunately, your rulers are much the same, and Josephi had plenty of time to inform them that I was “evil”, so they already believe they have the who, and they saw the what, so there is no need for them to listen to why.” Octavia’s brain was attempting to come to terms with all of the new information provided in the past evening of conversation, so Mike decided to press onwards. “Tell me, miss Octavia Philharmonica,” Mike moved to just inches from her face, “do you want to see the world that so few of your kind have seen before? Do you want to risk life and limb to pursue a one-in-a-lifetime chance? Do you want to stay here, living a life of monotonous repetition? Does the idea of BEING someone and DOING something to impact the world appeal to you more than your dreams of becoming famous for music? I had hoped to give you more ti-”

“Yes!” Octavia said hastily, cutting him off.

“Really?” Mike almost floundered for a bit, not used to being cut off like that. “You didn’t even let me finish. I had this entire dramatic bit about not coming back to give you another chance and everything.”

Octavia was still generally composed, but her eyes sparkled with an unseen intensity. “Mike, do you have any idea of how many times I’ve wished and hoped that there was something beyond the borders of Equestria? The nights I spent as a filly wishing that someday I’d find something other than the world we’re told exists? By the time I took up the cello professionally, I’d given up on that dream, though I can’t say I don’t greatly enjoy my music. I’d give anything to be able to fully live out that dream.”

“Really? Anything? Interesting. Yet again you amaze me, miss Octavia. I must say that it will be quite refreshing to have a new companion on board with the upcoming adventures.” Mike stood up. However, it wasn’t the crouched, bent stand he had done when entering the house. Instead, he stood to full height, though Octavia couldn’t see how. He was clearly too tall for the ceiling, but he didn’t hit his head, nor did he go through it. He was simply . . . there. “Anything you wish to bring, Octavia? I’d like to warn you that you’ll be gone for quite some time.”

At this point the guard contingent was just next door, though the sense of urgency already persisted without the guard factored in. Grabbing her cello and quickly scrawling a note for what few friends she had, Octavia trotted briskly over to Mike. Just as Octavia set down the cello and looked to Mike, there came a knock at the door. “Royal guard! Open up!”

Mike looked down to Octavia with a bright grin spreading across his features, multicoloured eyes shining in the dim light. “Tell me, Octavia, do you enjoy plays?”

Author's Notes:

Did a blog post on this earlier, but yes, I am back from my little (yeah not so little) hiatus. A year is waaaaaay too long to have let this sit and I think you guys can expect updates a little more frequently. Still working on getting that map done, but it should be pretty great once I've finished. If anyone has questions regarding the suddenness of Octavia's choice, I'll gladly answer them in the comments (there was a reason). Thanks for reading and as always: Onwards!