cedar

PRE-PRISON ------------------------------------------------------------------

Heir to the throne of their city-state Alryne, Cedar had been put in the city’s program for knights in order to learn military strategy and gain the skills necessary for war. They excelled in this program, and was soon put in with a specialized group to learn the intricate details of espionage, learning how to get whatever they wanted no matter the cost. At age 16, they reached the point where their skills were put to a test: Cedar had been forced to show their loyalty to the city-state by killing a perpetrator of a crime. Unfortunately for them, their brash actions had recently pissed off a few nobility, and their meant-to-be-victim was someone they were close to. Someone they couldn’t kill.

So, with their would-be victim, they make a way to escape the city-state, and took advantage of their new freedom to travel as much as their heart desired, no matter the cost. They made do with catapulting from royalty to almost-poverty, even with the original culture shocks, and eventually settled down and built a cottage deep in a forest far, far away from all others. They set up a farm, made it self-sustaining, and eventually decided to start traveling to a place they had heard about only in horror stories at their city and in whispers of stories from the other travellers they’d met in passing: the Nether.

In the firey dimension, Cedar found that while the place was hellish and frankly terrible to live in, it had useful ingredients for potions and simple mechanisms to make daily life easier in the overworld. That, and the piglins that roamed the wastelands were usefull allies in getting things they normally wouldn’t be able to afford outside of the city. So, they traversed the wastelands constantly, carrying things on their person like golds and metals to trade with the piglins on their travels.

On one such trip, the ex-royal had been mugged by a young-looking ghastling named Cap, and had chased the ghast down until they were able to get their things back. Once done, Cedar had started home, figuring that was a one-off experience, and they would never meet the ghast again. Oh, how they were wrong. Their meetings, and subsequent robbings, with Cap happened often- often enough for the two to form a sort-of bond, and enough that, after time, the ghastling eventually joined Cedar in their cottage home after Cap had been saved from a group of hybrid hunters.

The two proceeded to become very close friends, Cedar teaching the ghast as much as they could about the Overworld, including getting the ghast to try various foods from the garden they had been cultivating. One such occurence (Cedar’s first attempt at growing strawberries) had been such a terrible attempt at growing fruit that the jam ended up sour, and Cap had gotten the jam everywhere in such disgust at the sour fruit. It became one of their favorite memories, Cap often reminding Cedar of their terrible gardening skills when it came to strawberries.

After years of living together, one day Cap had up and disappeared, leaving Cedar alone in their now too-big cottage. They had panicked, originally thinking of a kidnapping, before eventually getting word of a prison being built not far away from the isolated cottage. And so, the cottage was left, papers and compasses strewn over the dining table as if someone had been searching for a map in the mess.

PRISON ------------------------------------------------------------------

Cedar found Cap not only in the prison, but trapped in a cell by the warden. Unaware of whatever crime Cap had commited to get himself in there, they managed to get the ghast out of the prison, getting trapped themselves in the process. In this, they were immediately sent to a form of solitary confinement, and the warden took a special interest in them (and their friendship with Cap). During the time it took Cap to get back to Cedar and try to break them out, the warden had been solidly breaking down the ex-royal, making them believe that their best friend wouldn’t come back for them. Unfortunately, Cedar started to doubt themselves and Cap, despite loudly protesting against it if asked.

Cap had managed to get back into the prison, however, and had gotten captured in the process. The warden decided to use this against the two, and trapped them both together. The new goal for this was to break both Cedar and Cap down until they would no longer resist, as they were both the most resistant prisoners in the unethical prison. Soon, Cedar was forced to personally torture Cap, breaking not only the trust between the friends but also the ex-royal further. The guilt of hurting their friend - and repeatedly at that, no matter how unwillingly, ate at them until they broke, begging the warden to spare Cap in turn for full loyalty.

The warden saw their opportunity to fully break at least one of the duo, and took it. Cedar was whisked away into a secured “true” solitary confinement, and would be left alone for days in the almost pitch-black cell. They were only visited by the warden themself, and were being told how Cap had been let go and was never coming back, and that they had been fully abandoned by the person they held closest, even if all of it was a lie. Cap remained trapped, and remained under the warden’s watch, getting punished for acting out. Eventually, seeing that the punishments weren’t working on Cap, the warden decided that punishing Cedar in Cap’s stead was the true answer- and soon, Cedar was equipped with a shock collar and a straightjacket. Soon a full muzzle joined the mix, leaving Cedar unable to do much other than just take the punishment given to them and break further and further.

The only kindness they’d seen the entire time came from the warden, and, unfortunately, Cedar started caring for their captor, breaking fully and becoming not much more than a puppet for the warden to use. It was then that the warden decided that it was necessary to test their new “guard,” as they liked to call Cedar.

Cedar was forced to waterboard information out of Cap, and in the process, was given a blindness potion to give to the ghast to further the torture. Through unclear instructions, Cedar , gave themselves the blindness potion. Enraged, the warden made Cedar take Cap’s place in the torture, which got severe enough for a terrible, terrible fact to be revealed: Cedar was a shapeshifter. This angered the warden further, and Cedar got punished for not telling them what they didn’t even know themselves.

This did, however, set in motion a horrible plan of the warden’s: to turn Cedar and Cap into not only guards of the prison, but guard dogs. To dehumanize the two until they no longer truly believed they were people, to turn the pair of best friends into nothing more than puppets. This only worked on one of the two.

Cedar got sent to solitary again to further break the shifter, and Cap somehow managed to escape for a second time and hunt down one of the warden’s personal guards for revenge. However, this royally backfired, and Cedar themselves had been used as leverage against the raging ghast. This brought the ghast back into custody, and he was put in the ultimate solitary, Cedar being moved from that very cell into a specialized “doghouse” that kept the shifter there indefinitely. Eventually, Cap was moved into a secret, soundproof room in the doghouse, separated from Cedar by a one-way mirror. Cedar continued to recieve punishments in Cap’s stead, and Cap gained a front-row seat to the already broken Cedar breaking even further. All the while, Cedar was being told that Cap had left them behind long ago, and even hated their existence.

At the worst of it, Cap (who was now being referred to as Mutt by everyone, including Cedar) had made a deal with a minor god, and had sent Cedar a gift in a desperate attempt to let his friend know that he was okay. It was a small strawberry plant in a pot, with a note about their terrible gardening with jam. Keeping items was against the warden’s rules, but it became Cedar’s (now referred to as Dog by everyone but Cap) most prized possession, and they protected the plant with their life.

In a punishment, to avoid the plant from getting destroyed, Cedar even got “Dog” branded on their lower back.

In the meantime, the warden’s son had appeared, and taking in what his parent had been doing, had become disgusted. He started a rebellion against his parent, taking the warden’s attention away from Cap and Cedar. This allowed Cap to escape and join the rebellion against the warden.

The warden’s son ended up winning, much to Cedar’s distress (and Cap’s joy), which ended up in a shifting of management from the old warden to their son. This was great for Cap, who was now the second-in-command at the prison, and terrible to Cedar, who simply got tormented more by the new warden, who still thought that Cedar was less-than-human.

An explosion and much trauma (and many, many scars) later, the new warden had effectively blown himself (and the prison) up, setting everyone suffering in it’s shadow free. Excited to leave the prison, Cedar and Cap finally ventured out back to where their cottage had been, and found it completely destroyed by a fire caused by the explosion. Everything was gone.

POST-PRISON ------------------------------------------------------------------

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