So, yes. I killed Rend. Some of you might think this is a cop-out, but honestly I see it as the natural and logical conclusion to his character arc. He was set up as a strong, successful, intimidating man, and it was always my intention to transform him into a weak old man who can't keep fighting any more. Here is my secret which I sent to beyond visions all that time ago -

Secret
Ailbeart's biggest secret, and only regret in life, is the installation and very existence of his cybernetic left eye - which he worriedly payed for on a whim when he was fifty-eight. At the very first sign of his formidable memory slipping, in a rare drunken state of panic, he had a robotics expert come in the night and prepare a cybernetic eye, in which Ailbeart recorded and stored visual aids of nearly all of his useful knowledge and life experiences. Although it prevented any loss of his memory and resulting capability, it was also the first time Ailbeart had significantly depended on the technology that everyone else in the world revolved their lives around. The eye was a crippling sign of his own mortality and closeness to death. Thus, he wore some form of eye-patch, ever opaque from that night onward, and in a flurry of unprecedented rage after the procedure was done, the robotics expert found a knife in his gut and worked no more.

Even from the first post, he was out of his depths. We only ever saw glimpses of the threatening figure Rend was first presented as, for he only really was that man on Earth, especially before his ocular implant. After Tahlia's actions, and his revival by aliens (which fell under most of his greatest fears and weaknesses, including death, reliance on technology and physical inability) I knew he would never reach his former self again, thus his nihilistic attitude that I have been exploring in the past few posts. In the situation established in the last post, he thought it would be the happiest he would ever be again - he's with Echo, who reminds him of his daughter, Victoria, and he's finally been reunited with his long lost love, alcohol. If any of you had any plans for the future with your character and Rend, I'm sorry, but it didn't feel right to progress with Rend, and I'm very happy with my final scene.

This is also my final post as Eru Iluvatar. I will be continuing on this forum, only under a different account and name. There are a few reasons for this which are largely irrelevant here, but if I ever end up in a roleplay with any of you guys again, I'll let you know it's me.

Thanks to all of you, it's been a lot of fun, and your characters and the way they have influenced mine have been great. And of course, an especially earnest thanks belongs to beyond visions for starting this whole thing. I'll still be reading up until the end.

Good luck, and goodbye.