A post-canon AU where N wakes to find himself back at Elliott Manor. He's trapped in a constant loop of the memory seen in Home, but he remembers everything that's happened since and is technically his current self, just trapped in his old Worker body.
In reality, V and Uzi are trying their best to get N out of the loop without being aware of what's happening - he's pretty much completely powered off, limp, his visor is blank and his extra eyes are off. The rest of his lights are dim, and Uzi can't connect to him the same way she did in Home. V isn't sure what's happening either. The first time N started overheating, they use Thad's oil, though after that they use Doll's corpse stash. Time moves a lot faster for N than it actually is for Uzi and V.
Characters look the same as in canon unless a ref says otherwise!
UZI DOORMAN
Uzi's worried, scared, and panicked. N won't wake up no matter what they do, V isn't sure what's happening, and even if they thought J would, they have no clue where she fell to. She's hiding N's current state from anyone not in their direct friend group, worried that Drones who don't approve of Disassemblers living in the base (like Khan or Nori) would take this as a easy kill opportunity. Sometimes her voice can get through to N, and he'll hear it in the distance within the loops. However, he doesn't really understand it's actually Uzi, and not just his mind playing tricks on him again.
SERIAL DESIGNATION N
Oh, poor, poor, N. Being trapped in such a awful memory, looping for who knows how long? All he wants to do is go back with V, Thad, and Uzi, but instead he's trapped with J, Cyn, and an about-to-die Tessa. He initally starts out nervous and panicky, especially where Cyn is concerned. Over and over, the loops take a severe hit to his mental state, and he modifies his body to look more like his current Disassembler self after realizing the modifications stay through loops, for whatever reason. Since he's the one adding these things, most of them dont quite function like they should - he can walk and use his hands pretty well (he sometimes stumbles or misses when he goes to grab things), but swapping to other weapons either jams up, doesn't work, or pulls out the wrong thing. He spends the loops in different ways, preventing Tessa from going to the Gala to talk with her, ranting to the out of commission V, maiming J or the older Elliotts... whatever he can do, he will. Starting to feel like a sandbox game to him. N's need for oil and violent tendencies are brought into the loops, though he can't feel when he overheats (though others can, as pointed out by Tessa the first time). While he has maimed and eaten plenty of random Workers (even eating J's leg in one loop), the only way to actually stop the cravings is for his real body to eat. This is achieved unknowingly to him (the craving just fades after some time and then appears later on repeat) through Uzi and V giving him either Thad's, Lizzy's, or Doll's (storage) of oil. It's awkward having to drip the oil into his pried open snout, even more so if they aren't using a amputated limb.
SERIAL DESIGNATION J
Worker Drone J thinks N is loosing it. She already had little patience for him in the real world, but as N becomes less and less coherent, J just doesn't want to deal with him nor learn why he's been acting like this.
SERIAL DESIGNATION V
In the real world, V is trying her best to help Uzi with N while knowing nothing about what's happening. Her methods are more forceful, shaking N around, poking him in the visor... but nothing's working, and it's painful. In the loops, V is stuck out of commission over in the library, never coming out of her ERRORing despite how often N will rant, cry, or hug her. Well, outside of her feral state, but that's not really V, now is it?
THAD
Thad's worried about N too, of course, but he's also trying to distract Uzi so she doesn't drive herself into the wall. He's willing to help out with anything V and Uzi ask of him, sometimes finding himself talking to the unresponsive N about sports or games he's gotten into lately. Then he just buries his face into N's chest for awhile.
DOLL
Doll's "ghost" manages to imprint itself back into her corpse, allowing her to somewhat possess it. However, due to it being possession and a broken corpse, she didn't really come back right - they just kind of slapped bandages over her wounds rather than properly fixing them, her clothes and hair are covered in oil (which her corpse otherwise lacks), and there's a gaping hole in her face and chest. She's wearing a different shirt since her Cheerleading Uniform got torn up, and her visor frequently glitches out, sometimes displaying random emotions or Russian words, or just remaining blank. Her mouth does not open when she talks a lot, either, and her voice is slightly echoey and disconnected. As she's dead, she doesn't need oil, and has decided to try (keyword, TRY) to get along with V and help N since she's a lot more defenseless without her Solver, not to mention that her body does not function correctly anymore. She still lives at her own apartment, as V lives over with Lizzy, and Doll isn't quite comfortable bunking with V yet.
LIZZY
Lizzy has grown to be concerned over N, initally spending time over at Uzi's since V was often there. She's also trying to get Doll back into socializing, with her totally not having a small breakdown when Doll showed up on Uzi's doorstep.
CYN
In the loops, Cyn acts the same - though sometimes she slips up due to N catching her off-guard when he implies things she hasn't actually put into motion yet (he later devolves to be way more blunt about this, not that anyone really believes him besides the un-admitting Cyn). She often attempts to study him without his knowledge, which is easy at some points due to him severly spacing out. N will always drag Tessa away from Cyn if they get too close from each other.
TESSA ELLIOTT
The memory of Tessa prior to her death. She's worried about N more and more each loop, and occasionally asks him stuff about the present despite knowing she's going to forget it. She told N that Uzi sounds like a great Drone, and while concerned about his current status as a genocidal cannibalistic murderer, she told him that she'd still love him (platonically!!!). Despite N knowing that nothing he does here will affect the present, he's still protective of her.
This AU is the only one who's original fic was kept up after the others were taken down and turned into scripts for comics. This is due to how different the fic is from the current state of the AU. Back To The Manor, fic version, can be found here.
COMIC: Back To The Manor
ASKBLOG: backtothemanor
ART / DOODLES: Here
SONGS: Echo - Crusher, Without You - Breaking Benjamin, Nightmare - Set It Off, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead - Set It Off, Eternal Dream - AJ DiSpirito (Kovach's Cover To Make It More Fitting)