---

Joel is ultimately kindhearted, but they have a tendency to space out often. Maybe it's for this reason that they tend towards extreme passivity. Fortunately, there's rarely a shortage of strong-willed and high-energy Concerned Citizens about -- and even when there is, Joel always has N01 guiding him along.

There are some exceptions to Joel's general background nature. Most obvious of these is children, around whom Joel seems much warmer and more animated; a natural caretaker and big brother type. Less immediately evident, however, is N01. It is only human, after all, something Joel is pointedly aware of. Seeing N01 in danger is the quickest and easiest way to get Joel to pull their heart out: a sure sign of trouble for anyone in their way.

FULL MOON

Back before Llawes rose to ubiquity, when a star had yet to fall to soil and Unbleeders were an idea yet undreamed, Joel was a normal human boy. This normal human boy spent their youth at Gwion’s, an orphanage lovingly managed despite increasingly dire financial straits. Here, they spent their days laughing, reading, and helping to take care of the younger kids -- eventually joined by a particularly troublesome kid, who would later come to be known as N01.

---

WAXING CRESCENT

Joel came to Gwion’s at a young age, and as he grew it grew with him, a place deeply intertwined with himself and his life. While kids fretted over families and potential adoption, Joel surrendered those worries early on. Instead, he helped the others prepare for visits; was ready with a headpat and warm milk when they were angry or heartsick; and, when he was older, took on odd jobs to help the owners keep the Gwion kids housed and fed. The only one who shared this sense of belonging was N01, though it always much preferred the troublemaker role to that of the caretaker.

This life was one that filled Joel with contentment and a sense of purpose. Were it up to them, they would have remained this way forever. Unfortunately, the state of the city was becoming increasingly fraught; between rising tensions and rent hikes, the state of Gwion’s was becoming precarious indeed. And what better to tip the balance on such a place than a corporation?

---

FIRST QUARTER

To say that Joel did not want to leave Gwion’s for Llawes would be a monumental understatement. Llawes itself had quickly become a household name in the wake of the star’s fall, but their plan was far from risk-free. And besides, Joel was an orphan trying to make ends meet -- a corporation instantly had his distrust.

But the reward would be unbelievable. A guarantee, in writing, that Gwion’s would receive proper financial support, and that all the kids would be taken care of. As the world around them changed, melted away, reforged itself every day, security like that was truly priceless.

In the end, leaving the only home he’d ever known seemed to be the only way to properly save it. He signed.

---

WANING GIBBOUS

Leaving was hard. Becoming an Unbleeder was hard. (Seeing himself in the mirror was hard, too; this insert was supposed to be a halo? It looked more like a dinner plate.) But among the sea of changes Joel met in the coming years, Ari was a welcome one. Despite their determination to dislike every new thing they came across, Ari seemed equally determined to like every new thing he came across; the desire to live thrummed strongly in him, and it was at least a little infectious.

So they became close. It took time, but eventually Joel did begin to consider Ari part of his life -- someone to talk to, to laugh with, to make food for when he was unwell. And for some time, that was enough: Ari’s smile and the knowledge that Gwion’s was being taken care of. Those two things buffeted him through two years as Llawes’ second prototype.

Still, the feeling of emptiness pervaded. He needed reminding. Technically speaking, they weren’t supposed to just wander off, but a quick trip to the orphanage to remind himself why he was doing all this would help steel his heart. So to Gwion’s he went.

Or to where Gwion’s was. Where Gwion’s was supposed to be. Where instead now stood a sleek, minimalist building labeled CERIDWEN’S.

---

THIRD QUARTER

Meeting up with N01 -- now officially called as much; hadn’t it always been? -- after some years was not an easy task, but it was one Joel accomplished anyway. It had been painful to even think of N01 since he left; if he’d risked going to see it, he’d known he might’ve crumbled completely. But now the foundations were already shaky, and there was no one (ha) he trusted more.

And so in a dim, crowded little hole in the wall, Joel listened to N01 use its softest and sweetest voice to outline his worst fears: Llawes had indeed taken care of Gwion’s, namely by paying off all the owners’ debts and politely running them off. What stood in its place now, Llawes-owned (and named for the woman Ari had, in confidence, named as his sister), was another orphanage -- one N01 suspected was built with training future Unbleeders in mind.

---

SHATTERED

One of two threads keeping Joel at Llawes had abruptly snapped, but what of the other? Ari did not insomuch cut it himself as he did graciously untie it from Joel’s heart. Upon hearing Joel’s explanation, Ari had been sympathetic but not quite so moved as to understand Joel’s decision to leave. Certainly, he wasn’t going to help Joel go about it. How did they plan on getting out of their contract, anyway?

The answer to this was ultimately devised later, back in that same hole in the wall, by Joel and N01. Joel wasn’t free to void their contract, but Llawes was. If Joel broke, surely they would spare no expense diminishing his presence in the public consciousness as efficiently as possible. A broken prototype? A failure? Not Llawes.

And soon enough it was done. A staged skirmish involving Unbleeder #002 started by members of the Concerned Citizens coalition. N01’s hands on Joel’s insert, the metal parting for it as though at its command; moonlight and memory spilling all at once from Joel’s head.

---

NEW MOON

Breaking an insert will put an Unbleeder out of commission for at least a few days. It can also have untold effects on their memory. Joel learned both of these the hard way, having been dragged off somewhere safe by N01 after the incident.

What N01 relayed to Joel about his life occupied the sticky space between truth and lie, starting with many rose-tinted tales about their time together at Gwion’s and stopping just after Joel’s final day there. Regardless of its truths, Joel could remember none of it; regardless of its omissions or embellishments, Joel felt something warm and comforting in their chest, something that eased them through their newfound crises: the feeling of home.

So now they drift, tethered to N01, seeking a perpetrator and a purpose. To one day feel the same sense of fulfillment and contentedness they felt at Gwion’s is their greatest wish -- even if they don’t realize it.

• He can't remember any of his hobbies, so he's trying a little bit of everything. He knows a lot of things he can't do, now.
• They struggle with chronic fatigue and hypersomnia -- they actually always have, though the insert-breakage definitely exacerbated it.
• He's never seen the ocean. He really, really wants to.
• They love classic high fantasy stuff! They read fantasy books and mysteries to the kids at Gwion's and it's definitely stuck with them...
• ...but they have 0 taste. They think every book they've ever read is amazing.
• He doesn't know his birthday. A street psychic once guessed he was a Leo, but N01 laughed loudly beside him and said, "No way, he's a Virgo!" which Joel took as fact despite the fact that N01 also does not know Joel's birthday. (Joel is a Sagittarius.)