Work Text:
The following account is a true story told by the people who still care about her.
Reading was an interesting person as many people described her as an eager, fuck the world kind of person. She was viewed as normal though, since she was from one of the most normal factions. With that faction being the arcanists.
As reading was growing up, she believed in the power of the fucking stupid spells and fairy tales, especially the ones that have a “happy ending”. She also believed in the power of friendship and unity, which was an awful idea as she realized much later in her life.
As she got older, she realized that if she wanted power in this world, she would have to take it by bloody force. So she used some of the spells that she learned as an arcanist to change people. The first one being that red-headed mercantile named Kismet and Reading took the one thing from her that all the demons are born with, her horns. Having developed this "hatred" for these demons, she wanted to “ get rid” of all these demons, so at her choosing ceremony she was forced to choose the faction that would allow her to do much more than that.
“Reading from the Arcanists has chosen the faction……… Artificers”
She remembers that back then, switching factions was a big thing that so many people, including her own family, did not approve of. That meant that Reading had to “take care” of her mother Edith, her father William, and her younger sister Madeline.
With “ heavy” remorse, Reading takes her sister's name to try and hide from the people who want her dead. Reading's birth name was now connected to so many people's deaths.
The name Reading isn't her actual birth name, that name is lost in history records. The name Reading was given to her by a “friend”. That friend's name is Niya (who now goes by Vii). She was from the nomad faction and Reading met Niya when Niya was eleven years old, That night Niya lost someone who was very close to her, with that person being her older brother Akuna.
As this was going on, other members of the Artificer faction thought of a better way to handle the demons. As they thought that the demons were getting out of hand. Their idea was through a series of what they called the "chronicles''. How this idea was pitched was:
" a series of shows and or episodes that will feature the 10 worst of the worst, Two from each of the five factions to compete against their will. Almost like that one show called Survivor" This idea was good but it came to be expanded upon, and it was expanded to a select group of people "humans, demons and the other imperfections of Ekta"
With this now a thing, reading didn't have to kill these people, she could just send them to the chronicles. It worked as intended, and 27 seasons later the newest batch of people arrived. This one is special because reading didn't do this alone. She had help from her insider. Now this insider was known as a girl named….. Vii.
Vii had helped enormously with the start of season 28. She had helped by getting the subjects on the plane and made sure that the pilot was dead. But as time went on Reading realized that she started to feel remorse for killing all of those people including Akuna.
When reading snapped, Reading had a major breakdown while talking to Kismet. She poured out everything to Kismet, including the fact that Reading is a failed human/demon hybrid experiment. Reading also revealed that she feels bad for the people that she had to kill, including Akuna. Through the tears and panic attacks that followed, Reading somehow gained Kismet's trust as she told Kismet the whole story of how Reading got into her position.
The story of reading is interesting because it is not really recorded in history. All that is known is at the time the Artificer and the Arcanist factions were “friends”. So the artificer faction took advantage of that and Reading, along with several other arcanist kids were starved, dehydrated, shocked, and given injections against their will. Among Reading’s test group, reading was the only one to survive but Reading wasn't normal anymore. She was the living failed demon - human experiment. If you ever meet her in person, you know that she keeps her arms, head, and feet covered to prevent anyone from knowing that she is a demon. This happened when reading was 6.
Till the age of 10, Reading didn't talk, as she thought that any thought that she would say out loud would get her killed. Another side effect is that Reading developed anorexia. Reading still deals with this problem to this day, but Reading forces herself to eat, as she still sees it as a sign of weakness to be weak.
By the age of 16, Reading was a broken, wounded, tired woman. She had tried to kill herself multiple times but by that age, Reading realized that she was different, that she couldn't die even if the world wanted her to, She couldn't because she had a power that no one else in this world had.
She had the power to bring people back from the dead. At the time it was called revival. Reading always wanted to protect people, more so than others but the more she tried, the more that she failed. But there's something that reading couldn't tell anyone.
Reading had a daughter. She had a daughter named Bellum, but history books and the current season know her as Belle.
Belle never really loved reading, as Belle learned from a young age of how much reading can be a fucking monster. As the family dynamic isn't very good, Reading tried to repair the family but it ended with Belle ripping the necklace that Reading and her had matching.
This is the best thing as the glade is finding out way too much and is going to tell the world that Reading is a psychotic bitch.
This story ends with a conversion between Belle, Vii, and Reading. As Belle and Vii explore their pasts, they realize that Reading isn't the bad guy that they thought she is, but rather the scared confused girl who is destined to be damned for all of eternity.
But what do they know? They are all stranded in their own minds.
(story written by reading4)