AN: Honestly like there's not many exact dates or timelines so it's very hard to like try piece together a past fic. So if there are any issues please let me know I'll try amend it.
Elias felt a discomfort as he slept. He simply couldn't pinpoint as to why he felt this discomfort. The pale flickering streetlights caressed the closed curtains only piercing through pitiful remnants.
He stared at the mirror nothing that his black hair was a complete mess and way too long. His pale yellow eyes seemed to find some point of irritation as he scratched his head in annoyance.
3am, the analog clock stilled as he grabbed a glass of water. He sighed as he opened his bedside light in order to watch some videos.
A simple recommendation caught his eye. "Wuthering Waves, Story so Far"
A gacha game he had intended to play eventually. But he never got to it due to assignments and work.
So he thought might as well let another see the game in my stead.
And so the video accompanied him till the end.
"Stay tuned, for more theories about our main character." The video finished with the usual subscribe and like.
Elias could only shake his head hearing the usual. But something unsettled him, something deeply unsettled him.
The lights outside the window were still flickering in a usual pattern. But even stranger, the time still read 3am.
The lamp on his bedside seemed almost like as if the horror flick had come to life and beside it was a simple tarot card, Tarot Card 0 (The Fool).
His sense of danger and foreboding only continued to grow. He had heard that one should never touch another's set of tarot cards. Yet when he moved the card had disappeared and appeared within his shirt pocket.
And with that, the tension of calm broke.
Elias immediately rushed towards the door as he pushed it open, he was not met with the street nor was he met with the world.
The view of his house faded into nothing but an illusion as he fell at high speeds towards a mass of sound waves and the emptiness in space.
The feeling was as if he was drowning in a sea. His hands and feet continued to kick and resist as he eventually broke the surface of the water.
In an instant he felt a sense of deja vu.
Wasn't this the start of the Wuthering Waves game?
He didn't get much time to figure out what was happening as the instant he moved, he fell.
Plummeted straight into the ground from high above.
In an instant his consciousness went blank with a sharp moment of pain.
He felt a pain. A pain not of the world.
A non physical pain.
A pain of the soul.
And he woke up on the ground with a few blood stains on the grass. Elias simply pondered with intense fervor.
He suspected that he had practically died or near died, but was saved via some hidden power.
He glanced at the tacet mark on his hand before thinking it was likely his resonance ability saving him. It was the most logical conclusion he could pull.
He was certainly very squishy, there were no people as far as he could see here, no sign of civilisation.
The resonance mark on his hand lit up as he observed it a bit before trying to put into words his ability. Resonance abilities could open new applications through training, but the core of the ability should be instinctive to the resonator.
He chuckled thinking it was ironic the word that came to mind, "Fooling".
And the tarot card in his hand, the number 0 symbolising new beginnings.
The Fool.
It seemed like a weak ability but Elias was convinced there was more to it, there are no weak resonance abilities, only weak resonators.
Elias sighed as he sat down on the blood stained grass thinking about his next move. It didn't take too long really. Just find a village or any sign of civilisation.
He tossed a single stick into the air letting luck decide his fate.
And so he started wandering in the direction the stick pointed towards with nothing but himself and a single tarot card, 0.
Thanks to "Fooling" it was possible to misdirect their attention to sneak past the tacet discords, but the fooling didn't last long since the misfortune had the last laugh.
He found a city, a futuristic city he had never seen before or he recognised in game. Yet he saw people running and screaming, the city burned with fire and smoke covered the city in a curtain of despair.
From what he remembered of the video, this must be the Lament. A natural disaster of sorts. Then if there are natural disasters, there must be emergence operators like the Black Shores. Of course he wasn't exactly sure what the Black Shores did other than monitor the Lament. \
But the video he watched told him enough that where the Lament was, the Black Shores would fight it.
And so his intuition told him that joining the Black Shores was a near sure way to survive.
He ran into the flaming city, his resonance mark pulsed as he repeatedly misdirected the attention of tacet discords to other areas for instants while he ran searching for that unique black flower.
All of a sudden that vague feeling occurred again. That same intuition that led him here in the first place.
He ran into the building only to see an injured Black Shore's member wearing a small hat.
"Hey! You alright?" He quickly rushed and kneeled before the woman. Her eyes widened "No get out of here, leave me. You can still run, I'm injured I'll hold you back." She pushed him away slightly.
Elias sighed "Look I can't do that, I've been searching for a Black Shore's member in order to join the Black Shores."
The woman stared at him "Here take my Blake Bloom and my terminal. I've already signaled a rescue. Just return it to them and let them know I didn't make it.
Elias sighed, such a kind woman. But what was this stupid video game logic? He hadn't even finished talking.
"Look, you won't need to Miss...?" He asked the woman as she replied with a groan "Agatha."
"Look I have a way to get us both out, so how about you introduce me personally before retiring to live the rest of your life peacefully or whatever it is you want to do?"
Agatha groaned as she sat up noticing the tacet mark. "A resonator? Alright it's worth a shot, but if it gets bad just leave me behind."
Elias nodded "Do you have any spare objects you don't need? Something small I can throw. Our success rate increases more."
She placed a hand into her pockets as she produced a few pieces of rubble that had found itself into her pockets.
"Is this sufficient?" She asked.
Elias smiled "More than sufficient."
This was a time to experiment the limits of Fooling.
He grabbed her jacket and turned it into a rope before strapping her to his back.
He imagined the sound of clattering pipes as the resonance mark on his neck sparked with a bit of light.
He threw a single stone as multiple clanging pipes were heard from that stone's location.
He grinned, as he thought to himself "Truly, this could be useful in more ways than one."
With that the duo moved through different large pieces of rubble as cover before throwing out more stones to divert and misdirect any tactet discord.
A groan of pain came from Agatha as the surrounding tacet discord turned towards them for an instant only to completely focus on a single piece of rock thrown opposite side.
Elias sighed a breath of relief "That was close." He whispered.
"Hey is the injury fatal?" He asked. Originally he had planned on attempting to fool her sense of pain but while that seemed like a good idea logically. It could also prove to be a fatal mistake as if anything worsened or her status became worse, they would have no way of knowing if she couldn't feel it.
She whispered "No it's not fatal, at most I'd just lose my lower limb mobility, but it's not life threatening."
Elias sighed "Good, it was those types of injuries. Huge pain, no imminent threat to life."
The tacet mark on his arm glowed as he swiped his hand across both of her legs. Before tapping it once or twice.
"No pain now right?" He asked, almost confident in his newfound applications of Fooling.
Agatha nodded "You would definitely make a good Bloom Bearer. Your resonance ability is very useful. We're almost there outside of the city. Also why does your tacet mark change it's location?"
He simply replied "I don't know."
The two continued their game of hide and seek until they finally arrived outside the city.
"Agatha! You're alright. We were worried when we didn't hear from you at all." Another Bloom Bearer rushed up to take her off his back.
Agatha nodded "Thanks to this young man. If it wasn't for him I'd likely be dead. Also he want's to join the Black Shores. I promised I'd recommend him."
"Well young man. Thank you for taking care of Agatha. We are indebted to you. Just tag along with us. We'll assess your qualifications later on." The captain said.
"I can vouch for his ability and his decision making. Otherwise none of us would make it out alive." Agatha spoke as she was wheeled away to the medical tent.
The captain sighed "Well I trust Agatha's judgement but applications still have to be filled in, procedures must be completed. Just follow us back to the Archipelago."