Cloverleaf Episode 7: Reciprocation

Cloverleaf
/ˈklōvərˌlēf/


a junction of roads intersecting at different levels with connecting sections forming the pattern of a four-leaf clover.



Log: February 2314

A couple of weeks had passed; her precious Da Ge still laid unmoving.

The light searing through the window was still bright as it had been for the past couple of weeks. It did not rain but the breeze was still cold even though the season was coming to an end. Though almost to full recovery from his injuries, Aster couldn’t even feel the tips of his fingertips. The girl who had repeatedly told him that she would take care him always gave him some other medicine aside from the one he needed. She always gave it to him the way she does, through wringing his neck and passing the medicine to him through her mouth. The man knew that whatever it was she was feeding him was either killing him or disabling him. He knew he had to get out of there soon, before he completely becomes incapacitated.

Aside from her forceful way of giving him the medicine, she took care of him lovingly so and would always hold him gently, watch him all day and talk to him about mundane things. It seemed to her that this was completely normal and as though it was not a bad thing. Sometimes, she would lie down beside him, just looking and admiring every detail about him; most of all, the nice beat of his heart which she was captivated with.

Back in the Brigade, Mei, after a few weeks of being unable to walk, has been waiting for him. There was no sign of him coming back after one task in the city and the boy knew it was strange. There was neither messages nor calls. The DG-T, after they deemed its location unmoving has been found left on the ground in an alley where everyone had supposed was the last time Aster was seen. This fact alerted Mei to thinking that he might have once more been taken by Yggdrasil but worse—by his other half, the one who calls herself Xiao Mei. Barely recovered and even though offered help by another Trump, Sven, Mei still insisted on setting out to find his Da Ge even if he had to escape from the other.

He searched in places where they would meet, places where he would have been, high and low the city, even when his legs would start failing him, disabling him from going any further that day. It didn’t matter. Day after day, he’d set out and look for his Da Ge even if the people around him told him that he’d come back or that they’d help look for him so he can just stay home and recover. It was then that he came to where Aster was last seen. That was his only lead. Too many days have passed since he was last here and his scent had faded, faded so much that even Mei couldn’t pick it up. The boy sat down in defeat, lost in his thoughts as his frustrations got the better of him. Amidst his thoughts did he see faint marks of blood on the pavement. Where he was sitting was where Aster was, for a few minutes until he left… walked on his own? No… he was with someone. Following the trail of blood, it led the boy somewhere he wouldn’t expect—an apartment building.

The moment he stepped inside through a fire exit was when he had picked up the stronger scent of whom he was looking for. He is here. Through and through the scents mixing up, he knew that his Da Ge was there, amongst the bitter scent of medicine the he did not recognize. Arriving in front of the room where he just knew Aster was in, he did not think of the possibility of the girl being inside. That didn’t matter to him anymore with his blood rushing to his head in building up anger.



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At a rather dark alleyway not a few blocks away from that building, the boy stood by she who had crippled him not a few months ago.

She had attacked Mei from behind when she found him at her own home. Knowing that there he intended to take her Da Ge away, she took him once more and fled. With pent up anger, the boy completely forgot the pain that was in his still incompletely recovered legs. He chased them not too long as her comparably smaller body couldn’t take the weight of a grown man who couldn’t even walk for himself. Chance.
Now they had exchanged places; she was the helpless, pitiful one and he, the one standing and giving her a final word. This will be the last time they would see each other because they wouldn’t be so careless next time. He’d have continued what should have ended her life long ago but after all, they were still siblings even only by creation.

“Don’t ever think that you could replace me because you have become nothing but what you were designed to be: a puppet.”


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The series of events in these artworks is in no way related to the current events of BJBB as they have happened in the past.

I was reading on the previous Cloverleaf episodes and wow, she is a freaking yan //Wow Kan you only realize this now// It’s also been a good 7 months since the last Cloverleaf even though I have finished this piece around that time too. It’s been so long I paint noses a bit differently now—I didn’t even know how to lighting. It was because typing out takes long I almost forgot about it. There a few more coming up and I’m slowly getting back into beat.

Next Cloverleaf Episodes:


Previous Cloverleaf Episodes:

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Mature Content



C L O V E R L E A F (Complete List)

Episode 00: Beginning
Episode 01: Encounter
Episode 02: Inexistence
Episode 03: Irreplaceable
Episode 04: Precipice
Episode 05: Spellbound
Episode 06: Care for You
Episode 07: Reciprocation
Episode 08: Forlorn End
Episode 09: Impendence
Episode 10: The Other Side of the Wall
Episode 11: Out of the Populace
Episode 12: Confrontation
Episode 13: Still Goodbyes
Episode 14: A Place to Call Home

Faye © Kanlamari
Aster © hen-tie