Work Text:
Brienne,
Oh how I’ve missed you these past few hundred loops. I write to you diligently as I always have, but I much prefer to leave these letters with you rather than releasing them to the wind.
You’re not here, you see. I continued my experimentation on the ‘Dirty Deeds’ timeline, and I’ve found that the presence of you and your companions becomes less and less likely the further I deviate. Other groups crop up in your stead, as if the different worlds shift focus to other stories than yours. It’s quite curious!
But the fascinations of experimentation aside, it pains me greatly to exist in a world without you. If I stay for too long, I feel adrift and tetherless no matter what pleasures the timeline offers; I simply want for you too much.
I have found some solace in these empty timelines, though. And in fact, that’s why I’m writing!
I simply must tell you about Alicia Crowley.
She reminds me oh so much of you, Brienne. You would love her, practically as family, I’m sure. I’ve only known her for a few loops, but I can already tell how closely she mirrors your temperament and work ethic, your cruel efficiency and sharp mind. Why, if it wasn’t for the night we just shared where she professed her undying love for me, I’d have thought she was a deviation of yours!
(We’ll get there someday, love, but I know you aren’t that easy.)
Regardless, I’ve gifted Alicia my time in your absence, and I must tell you that she is so brilliant. It’s never been quite so obvious how resistant you are to change, compared to how easily Alicia responds to me. And it’s the deliciously wicked suggestions she responds to the best. How to best explain… Well, I suppose I can give you some context.
Alicia Crowley works for the ‘Yellow Brick Road’ organization. Imagine the Speedwagon Foundation if the Nazis created it. They managed a clean break after the war, and over the last century, they’ve shifted their focus to finding and controlling supernatural hotspots. Alicia clawed her way up the ranks starting in the 2000s, and now she leads the Chilean branch.
It’s come with its own challenges: this world is barely holding up under the weight of global warming, geological disasters, the ebb and flow of the supernatural current. And Chile is the center of it all, leaving Alicia–among the other directors–overseeing the YBR’s attempt to save the world.
They aren’t afraid to take drastic action, and unlike you, Alicia has no qualms with using her subordinates as a means to an end. Can you believe that, without my intervention, she entered into a relationship with one of her employees—a member of some banal metal band—just to keep eyes on their operations? Why, it normally takes me hundreds of loops to convince you of something so intimately sinister.
It’s just so thrilling! I sense a kindred spirit in her, in a way. She’s been dissatisfied with her life as well—with how little she can control. With how she wishes to reach out and ‘grab the napkin’ (a cute little phrase I learned a while back), only to find that someone beat her to it.
How fortunate that we crossed paths! Now I can enjoy some time off from my true task and revel in the easy love that comes from our conquests.
She has returned—I’ll write again later.
— —
Why are your affections so hard to win, Brienne? Why can’t you wear them so plainly on your sleeve as Alicia can?
I hadn’t the time to explain before, but Alicia Crowley’s Stand is a marvel. I know there is no recipient to this letter, no document to fill, but I still keep this up for habit’s sake:
Name: Alicia Crowley
Stand: Blizzard of Ozz
Stand ability: This Stand manifests as a 1km diameter tornado centering around an object of the user’s love. The tornado carries love letters on the wind, and if anyone touches any of the letters, a gun unfolds from the page and shoots the target.
I want you to imagine for a moment how it feels to stand in the eye of her storm, surrounded by the immeasurable proof of her devotion. To be cocooned and protected by a love so fierce that it rejects everything else.
Yes, I think Alicia understands my love quite well.
Would you like to see some of the letters that her soul created for me? I’ve added a few of my favorites below.
— —
Dear Crystal,
I followed the instructions you left on my dressing room mirror. Joaquin Joestar appeared at the Malakian butcher shop precisely at 8:23AM on March 3rd, 2019 seeking information about his granddaughter’s disappearance. I sent the rest of the Moldy Crew to back him up, and Martin delivered the traitor’s head to my desk before 5 o’clock that very day! There was still the issue of the Josefina girl, but without any loose ends to tail, she had no way of finding us before we could commence the ritual. And after that, dealing with her was a simple task.
It’s been a month since you left. Things have stabilized as you said they would, and I have adjusted well to my new role as the YBR chief. I still see Martin from time to time, and now Titae in a similar capacity. You were right on that matter as well—he was always quite devoted to me.
But of course my heart yearns only for you, Crystal. ‘Distance makes the heart grow fonder’ has never felt more apt. I know I’ll never see you again, but I feel your presence from the crystal on my dresser all the time. Your soul is here with me, connecting me to you as you love these new versions of me.
So I offer you my soul in return. Do you think this letter will reach you, in your other worlds? Will it flutter on the winds of Blizzard of Ozz no matter when and where I wrote it?
I can’t think of anything more romantic.
Yours always,
Alicia Crowley
— —
— —
— —
Have no fear, Brienne, I will be back to one of your timelines soon. Just writing this letter has reopened the wound of having lost you. But I deserve a reprieve from all the heartbreak, don’t you think? If you can find other lovers from time to time, then I can too.
But for now, I’ll release this letter on the wind, and I will dream of Blizzard of Ozz carrying it to the real you back home.
With love,
Crystal ☆
