Ace Galatine

## Ace Galatine

* Normal
* Possessed
* Casual
* Flameless

## Basic Information

### Afiliations

FLOW
OPIA

### Relations

Ruth Galatine (Sister)
Decca (Past Life)
Vaultwatcher (Vaultwatcher)
Unnamed Brother
Unnamed Father

## Attributes

### Blue

Broken Vessel Weighed Down by Sin

Ace Galatine is a player character in Reflection. He is played by Aloha. He is an action movie star famous for wielding his family's ancient martial arts style to do all of his own stunts. After the disappearance of his sister, he joined Wave Two of FLOW to hunt her down and retrieve her from the Coda.

## Appearance and Personality

### Appearance

Ace is an adult male with pale skin and purplish-red hair. In his job as a FLOW agent, he wears a collared dull blue and white coat emblazoned with triangle markings in various spots. He also wears a uniform shirt and pants with a similar color scheme. Various parts of his uniform have LED lights embedded in them that can change colors.

Following the removal of his Flame, Ace was given a new outfit by OPIA in order to keep Flame from his new supplements cycling longer. It is a full body white and blue suit beneath a large jacket similar in style to his previous jacket. Various OPIA logos are emblazoned on the suit, primarily on the shoulders and chest. Large transluscent tubes funnel Flame to various points on the body from a large tank strapped to the back of the suit. Ace's eyes also became blue.

### Personality

Due to the effects of the Formless Style on Ace's body and mind, Ace puts on a somewhat unfriendly persona to those around him, fearing that breaking his discipline through indulgence or heightened emotion will incur Demonic possession. Despite this, he is still very much willing to make his opinions known, and has very little tolerance for people or ideas that irritate him.

Ace highly values privacy and stability, preferring to focus on keeping the comfortable balance of the present intact rather than pushing to achieve a better, but dangerous future. He also respects displays of skill.

After the severing of his body and Flame removed the threat of possession, Ace's personality has loosened up somewhat. He is shown to have a propensity towards sarcastic insults, retributive violence, and occasional flirting.

## History

### Early Life

Ace was born in Gravnir. At a young age, his father took him and his siblings to live in Fuse City, where they lived in a dojo in the Undercity's Red Light District. Essentially from birth, Ace was raised to embody the Formless Style, and dedicated himself deeply to perfecting it. At some point, Ace moved out of his childhood home and became a movie star, quickly rising to prominence worldwide for his skills. Sometime in his early acting career, he chose the name "Ace" as his new name, as it was not actually his birth name.

### Pre-FLOW

Ace's popularity continued to rise as he starred in more and more movies. Meanwhile, his sister Ruth had joined Station One in the fight against the Coda. On one occasion, Ace was awkardly dragged along as Ruth took Ridill Arondite on an atrocious date to the strip club next to their dojo, which went horribly, leading to Ace having to take Ridill home by train by himself. While on the train, their car was attacked by a Demon, which Ace fought alone as Ridill protected the passengers. While fighting the Demon, Ace suffered a hallucination of Seagazer and suddenly became overwhelmed with a murderous power, annihilating the Demon with only a nearby metal handle. Still, possessed, he then turned toward Ridill and the other passengers, but managed to regain control of himself. Fearing his own fragile mental state, he jumped off the train and ran home. Following this meeting with Ridill, Ace began experiencing periodic dreams in which he was in a burning Ciallan village. He would then run through an aqueduct before being attacked by various people depending on the dream, and usually come across Ridill's corpse. During one of these dreams, he encountered Seagazer, who asked him to create a story that would entertain her.

Sometime soon after this event, Ruth came to Ace in a state of extreme emotional distress. She begged him to join Station One as a member of FLOW. He told her to "fuck off", telling her that he just wanted to keep his stable life as an actor. Not much time later, Ruth disappeared into the Coda without a trace. At the same time, partially due to the incident on the train, the newly risen Station One, now called OPIA, invited Ace to join its program as a member of it's Second Wave. Ace accepted, as he felt extreme guilt for helping to cause Ruth's disappearance and wanting to redeem himself by finding her in the Coda and bringing her home.

### Joining FLOW

Ace entered the training program for FLOW Wave Two, where he tested the highest out of any of the applicants. The night before his official induction into FLOW, Ace, alongside his fellow recruits Arg0s, Willow Wisp, Aura Pridwyn, and Ridill, transported the coffin containing Basilisk Id to Fuse City from the nearby desert. The day after, Ace was first in line of the procession of new FLOW recruits to the OPIA building. On his way to the Reflection hall, he warned his fellow agents against picking a high Feedback Reflection. Once in the Reflection hall, he struggled to choose a Reflection, going back and forth with Aura as they recommended ones to each other that neither of them were really interested in. Eventually, he chose Vaultwatcher out of convienence.

When the GEIST soldiers that transported Basil to OPIA began to melt, Ace quickly realized that this effect was emanating from her coffin. He told Willow to break it, which she did. As a result, he and Basil were suddenly transported deep beneath the Coda as motes of raw Flame, where they met a mysterious figure who quickly returned them to the world above before they burned away. Manifesting in a region of the Coda alongside Ridill, Arg0s, Willow, and Basil, Ace and the rest of the group made their way through a strange recreation of OPIA HQ, eventually coming into conflict with Uno, who attacked them before they could properly sever the lynchpin keeping them bound to the Coda. During the fight, Ace bound to Vaultwatcher, who granted him a mysterious rusted sword in exchange for a day of his life. Using the sword, Ace Reality Broke Ridill's ESP to sever the group from the Coda in a single blow. This teleported the group high above Fuse City, where they finished off Uno on a field of Ridill's ESP before falling to the ground, which Ace survived by convincing Vaultwatcher to grant him Obsidian Gold.

#### Reflection Heist

The day after, Ace partook in a simulated combat against a Demon when he suddenly underwent a hallucination, seeing visions of Ruth in his old dojo. After rejecting an offer from a Demon of Instrumentality and speaking to a projection of Ridill, Ace escaped from the hallucination. Once the simulation had ended, the agents of FLOW were pushed into an interview with Number Five, where Ace both perfectly deflected the GEIST CEO's attempts to make OPIA look bad and keep the side effects of intaking Ridill's ESP, which was very contradictory to his own worldview, at bay. He then went on a mission with his fellow Wave Two agents to hunt down the Reflections that went missing as a result of the coffin incident. The group arrived at a net cafe owned by Melli Luxity, looking to see if she was possessed. Before they could scan her, she pulled Ace aside and revealed that she had met with Ruth a few weeks before her disappearance, informing her that someone close to her had died, leaving her emotionally unstable, which Ace did not know about. She asked him if he wanted some of Ruth's belongings that she had left with her, but Ace denied, saying that Ruth would need them when she came back.

After Arg0s scanned Melli, revealing her to possess a stagerring Burn level of ninety-eight, Ace was pulled back into the Coda alongside Ridill and Arg0s. Navigating the otherworldly beach they found themselves in, the group reunited with Melli, Willow, and Basil. After Melli revealed the Reflections she had stolen while possessed and her intention to bind one, Ace warned her against choosing one with high Feedback. He then participated in the plan to fight the large Demon in the other version of the beach to escape the Coda. When it was revealed that that Demon was not, in fact, the lynchpin, Ridill sent Ace alongside Arg0s, Willow, and Basil to deal with the real culprit. During this fight, Vaultwatcher granted Ace the Immortal Blade. When Ace took a heavy wound from the Demon's gun, his wound immediately healed as a fragment of the Immortal Blade's will wedged itself into him, which disturbed Ace greatly. Once the Demon was wounded enough, Ace Reality Broke the other world, which turned out to not be the Coda, but rather Melli's own anima, killing the Demon and freeing everyone from the Coda.

#### Recuperation

Returning to Fuse City, Ace followed the group around the city before racing Arg0s back to OPIA. After a meeting with Dr. Verona about OPIA's next steps in the wake of the coffin incident and Ridill's firing, Ace got drinks at Darkside with the rest of the team, speaking with the members of FLOW Wave One about Ruth, but they didn't know very much about her, as they had all become active members right before or right after her disappearance.

The next day, Ace undergoes medical examination, where it is revealed that Ace possesses no trace of the Element of Dreams. This shocks Ridill, who asks how Ace is still alive. Ace explains that he doesn't sleep, and simply remains stable through pure discipline. Ridill then removes the Immortal Blade's influence and helps alleviate his mangled Flame as a result of the coffin incident. She then asks for an explanation as to the train incident two years ago, where Ace explains the situation and tells Ridill that he didn't talk to her for two years after because he felt guilty and afraid for nearly killing her while possessed. Ridill is understanding of this and forgives him. Ace spends some time in the OPIA saunas, where he runs into Satyr. The two have a conversation before engaging in a friendly duel. Ace then joins the rest of his coworkers in tracking down and stopping a person infected with Codan disease from crashing his car into a populated area.

### Codan Counterattack

Some time later, Ace is shown the Flame of Creation beneath OPIA by Ridill. Like the most of the Wave Two members in attendance, he wore a swimsuit to the sauna which sits above the Flame before Ridill arrived. Later that day, Ace goes to the OPIA VR wing to attempt to commune with Vaultwatcher. When he attempts to commune the ordinary way, he nearly opens his body up to possession, so Vaultwatcher instead simply narrates his experience meeting The Muse. Once the communion is complete, he heads back to the Undercity to find Circuit. After finding her, he speaks with her for a moment about her emotional distress, but is interrupted by an emergency announcement revealing a possessed Colt breaking into a GEIST warehouse.

Alongside Ridill, Arg0s, Willow, Basil, and Satyr, Ace fights his way through a series of barricades constructed by possessed GEIST simulacrums and sneaks into the warehouse on Willow's Beetle. After Willow and Basil attract the attention of Charybdis, Ace runs off with Basil to find Colt quickly and escape. Once Colt is found, Ace goes with Twice to hold off Charybdis and the GEIST AI. He attempts to use his own Flame as a weapon, but nearly kills himself, forcing Vaultwatcher to summon Obsidian Gold again to maintain his Flame. Ace and Twice return to the main group using Satyr's ESP, He helps them fight off the remaining GEIST simulacrum husks, as well as fighting Charybdis once again. After FLOW fights and frees Charybdis within his own anima, Obsidian Gold collapses, leaving Ace severely wounded.

The next day, Ace breaks out of his hospital room. He walks around Fuse City with Lyst Solais in an attempt to lower their Burn after incurring dangerous levels during the previous mission. However, Ace ends up seeing a vision of the Muse, which only serves to increase his Burn. The two end up in the Undercity, where they visit Ridill's apartment and discuss the nature of humanity given Ace's unique Elemental makeup. Ace decides he is human because people say he is. Ace and Lyst then end up at Ace's old dojo, where he and Lyst discuss their various supernatural maladies, Ace with Formless Style and Lyst with her ESP. Ace spends most of the next day distracting Number Five during yet another interview, once again deflecting his attempts to push a pro-GEIST media narrative with the help of Willow and then Basil. After the GEIST inspection disguised as an interview is completed, Ace helps Mic choose a new Reflection, and she ends up going with his suggestion - Hope's Cultivation Seed.

### The Court of Death

At the behest of GEIST, Ace undertakes a mission to plant probes around the first layer of the Coda. Before departing, he helps Arg0s to uncover the probes' hidden Element manipulation abilities. While in the Coda, Ace spends most of the time ensuring that the rest of the group remains dedicated to the mission and stays away from Demonic traps. After planting the penultimate probe, he is nearly forcibly compelled to walk into a Demon's maw, he manages to resist the compulsion through sheer force of will. After the appearance of the Hunter of Mortals, who hijacks the probes to channel The Muse's song, Ace takes a large amount of Burn and falls unconscious. While unconscious, he hallucinates a hall with three small hallways jutting out of it. An unknown voice tells him that, if Ace himself is not enough, he might be able to draw on other versions of him. The Muse then manifests within his hallucination, commenting on the frayed state of his Flame. Unwilling to choose a self to draw on, the Muse rolls a die for him, and Ace enters the furthest hall.

Suddenly, Ace is thrust into an ancient memory of a past life where he was a genius playwright and scientist. This past version of Ace watches various actors try and fail to audition for his magnum opus, a play where a single actor plays every single role. Besides him sits Dr. Sylph, who watches on in exasperation, chastising Ace for being so difficult. Ace tells Sylph that, if this is a play made for the end of the world, it needs to be more than just average. Ace's mindset becomes so entrenched within this memory that he nearly manifests a form of ESP, but Vaultwatcher manages to breach the hallucination and grant Ace Moonflare, which allows Ace to forcibly shatter the hallucination, returning him to consciousness. Still wielding Moonflare in the real world, Ace helps Willow to fight off the Hunter of Mortals and escape the Coda.

#### Calm Before The Storm

Some time after the successful, if strenuous, mission to the Coda, Dr. Verona gives Wave Two a day off to think about whether or not to remain in FLOW. Ace goes with Willow, Lyst, and Mic to deliver food to Ascalon and Twice, who are operating out of Station One in the meantime. Ace talks to Ascalon, who tells him that if he leaves FLOW, she'll drag him back. He then enters Station One itself, where he visits Ruth's bunk. Willow reveals to him and Twice that she used to be a member of Wave One. Ace agrees to keep his secret. Later in the day, Ace goes on a bike ride with Lyst, before they are called to handle a traffic jam caused by GEIST husks on a highway. Back at OPIA, Ace decides to stay.

Days later, Ridill takes Ace on a plane to the border between Goldenrod and Cialla. Upon entering Cialla, the pair are accompanied by a trio of non-Codan Demons named Red, Yellow, and Blue. The concept of non-Codan Demons interests Ace. After a brief stop at Ridill's old cabin to recieve a cast for Ace's arm, they visit the Lake of Oblivion. At Ridill's instruction, Ace dips his hand with the wounded Flame into the lake in an attempt to remove the part of Basil's flame inside of it that is causing permanent Burn. While within the lake, Ace returns to the memory of the brass castle beneath the Coda, where he sees the Queen of Flames in more definition. Ace decides to retain the entire memory, as his quest for Ruth isn't yet over. As such, his permanent Burn is lessened, but still present. Returning to Ridill's cabin, Ace and Ridill discuss their conflicting worldviews and long-term goals. At the end, Ridill informs Ace that Ruth has been located on the third floor of the Coda. Ace excuses himself, telling Ridill he needs to pick up something he left in the cabin's bedroom before they leave. He shuts the door behind him and begins to cry.

#### Catastrophe

Upon Ace and Ridill's return to OPIA, they are informed of Basil's disappearance into the Coda and the withdrawal of GEIST funding. Before he and the rest of FLOW deploys to retrieve her and Ruth in a last-ditch rescue mission, Ace speaks to Vaultwatcher in the garden, discussing how, once Ruth is found, he's still comitted to leaving OPIA. Vaultwatcher accepts this. He talks about he knew his world's Ace Galatine, who dug the massive holes that the final survivors of his world dwelled in. As such, he was interested to see what the Ace Galatine of this world is, and he is satisfied.

Ace, alongside the rest of FLOW, OPIA, and various allies, descend into the Coda after Basil. Ace comments on how everyone kissing their loved ones is holding up the mission. Several of his teammates hug him in return. Upon arriving at the entrance to the second layer, Ace sees the entrance is guarded by several powerful Demons. To circumvent this, Ace recommends baiting the powerful Junker Demon nearby to kill the Demons for them. By some miracle, this plan succeeds, and Ace remarks his admiration for the Junker's power. Now with full access to the second floor, Ace begins the arduous trek through the eldritch environment. At one point, he nearly gets hit by an entire truck hurtling through the debris that suffuses the layer. Finally, the frontline team manages to make it through the first of three sublayers of the second layer, stopping for a brief rest. Soon, Mic and the Rangers arrive, alongside Uno. Ace is initially suspicious of Uno's willingness to help, but eventually relents. He studies Uno and figures out how he emulates the Formless Style using his built-in Flame manipulation technology.

#### Retrieving Ruth

About a day later, Ace and the rest of the forward team arrive on the third layer of the Coda. He splits off with Ridill, Willow, Uno, and the Director to retrieve Ruth. The Director leads the group to a settlement in the Coda inhabited by constructs who collect spare Flame and store it within a system of machines for safekeeping. One of the constructs leads Ace's group to this makeshift "graveyard". They see a brief flash of Ruth's face within one of the television screens connected to the network before they are suddenly ambushed by Satyr and the Hunter of Mortals. Summoning Gnashing Maw, Ace enters a brutal combat with Satyr, willing to kill him to save his sister. Ace is heavily wounded by Satyr during the clash, but he manages to hold him off long enough for Ridill to secure Ruth's Flame. As the group makes their escape, Ace Reality Breaks Ridill's ESP with Gnashing Maw to send the Hunter of Mortals flying far away. Upon arriving at the base of Mic's World Tree, Ace is able to see a projection of Fio trailing behind Arg0s, but decides not to question it at the moment.

As the forward team scales the World Tree out of the Coda, Ace gets irritated at Arg0s for wanting to retrieve Fio's body before returning to OPIA HQ. After returning to Station One, Ace forms a group with Ridill, Willow, Basil, Twice, Uno, and Cam to liberate OPIA and create a new body for Ruth. Upon arriving at OPIA, Ace and his group are attacked by the Hunter of Mortals and Rio Fenrir, but Ace, Ridill, and Basil are able to slip by. The trio manages to reach the gardens, where they are confronted by Treble and Decca. Ace and Basil split off to fight Decca. Ace sacrifices one of his ribs to summon the Immortal Blade, which efficiently staves off his death, although Ace sinks dangerously close to being overcome by the Blade's will, hallucinating multiple visions of a mysterious man during the fight. Ace eventually deals a powerful enough blow against Decca to shatter his mask, but Decca quickly responds with a fatal blow of his own. Ace finds himself in a vision of a great brass wall, watching his Flame return to the Flame of Creation. He remarks that he is glad his death is beautiful, at the very least.

Ace's dying vision changes from the brass wall to an ancient church as Ridill attempts to stabilize him from afar with his ESP. He studies a nearby graveyard with confusion, before a van pulls up and three people step out. The people react in shock at Ace, who is engulfed in blue Flame. He attempts to speak to them, but as he does, the people begin to morph into shadowy beasts. Ace runs towards the church, ignoring Ridill's rainbow flame, and attempts to hide within it, but finds himself unable to enter. Defeated, Ace accepts his impending death, when Vaultwatcher reawakens and, after a brief conversation, goads Ace into summoning the single thing that he does, in fact, dream of - Seagazer.

Using Seagazer's power, Ace manages to pull himself back to the world of the living. Decca attempts to restart the fight, but is interrupted by Treble and Fio. His helmet completely breaks, revealing himself to be a version of Ace from a past life. He commends Ace for his fighting ability, but warns him that the next time they meet, he will kill him. He then disappears. At Fio's urging, Ace joins the rest of FLOW against the last stand of the Hunter of Mortals, wielding Seagazer to great effect by using its abilities to summon forth a sea of stars and create clones of himself.

### Departure

After the battle against the Court of Death is won with a decisive OPIA victory, Ace remains at the hospital for two months to heal from his many wounds. Once healed, he decides to leave OPIA now that his goal of saving Ruth has been achieved. During a final goodbye, Ridill and Mic attempt to convince him to stay, but he denies, returning to his life as a movie star as his comrades wave him goodbye.

### Act Two

Following his departure from OPIA, Ace quickly returned to his career as an actor. Some time in this interim period, he had a conversation with Mic, who had followed through with her promise to have dinner with him when he returned to the dojo. On the day of the induction of FLOW Wave Three, Ace revisited the dojo, where he fell asleep and experienced a distressing vision of a shadowed figure collecting burning bodies. After waking up, he left the dojo and went to go continue a movie shooting. Upon returning to the dojo, he is ambushed by the Golden Knight, who rips out his Flame. However, this unshackles the true consciousness behind Ace's Formless Style, which attacks the Golden Knight and scares him off. Left in a half-dead fugue state, this "Ace" begins to head up Fuse City towards a mysterious destination it feels it needs to head to. He makes his way to an alleyway where he is attacked by Demons of Death, which he easily kills. As he continues down the alley, he consumes Flame from nearby technology, which briefly restores his consciousness. He is eventually approached by Mic, who asks him if he needs help. Ace responds that he'll need it later, but not right now. He continues onwards, consuming a kerosene tank's Flame and causing an explosion before finally arriving at his goal. He encounters a massive armored figure guarding a strange machine and begins fighting it, fading in and out of consciousness before eventually ripping the Flame out of a nearby missile and destroying everything nearby. He awakens some hours later in a pile of garbage, where several FLOW agents including Mic arrive to help him. Ace begins hallucinating sparring with Mic in the dojo. He gains lucidity and heads out the front door, where a massive, disembodied eye begins speaking to him. On the third layer of the Coda, his Flame assumes the form of a lattice of eyes.

### Severance

With his Flame severed and his body animated by the Formless Style, Ace is functionally split into two beings. His body wakes up in an OPIA hospital bed. After a point, Solace enters the room and presses herself up against Ace's chest. After pushing her off, she inquires as to where his missing Reflection is. Ace initially believes she is referring to Vaultwatcher, but discovers she actually means Seagazer. He posits that it's probably with his Flame that was stolen. He is then greeted by Arg0s, Ridill, Willow, and Mic, who update him on his situation, including that they need to act fast as the longer his Flame and body remain separate the less compatible the two will become. He embraces his old teammates in a bittersweet reunion hug. Some time later, a variety of other people enter the room so that Ridill can explain the various methods Ace can use to cut down on Flame leakage. He agrees to acquire some Flame-trapping clothes produced by Treble, Ridill, and Arg0s. He then joins them to find a room for himself to live in in the new FLOW dorms. While in the dorms, he briefly speaks to Twice, and considers her a prime candidate. He also reencounters Vaultwatcher, now bound to Logan, and jokingly calls him a whore. Lyst briefly asks to be considered, but Ridill denies her.

Meanwhile, his Flame's consciousness awakens in a metallic suit. Upon being greeted by Nectar, he immediately tries to kill her, but finds his arms restrained. Nectar explains his situation to him - Compulsion couldn't meld him with a Reflection due to Seagazer's influence, so they've decided to keep him locked up in this body for a time. She then lets him out and informs him that if he tries anything drastic, Logic will trigger a bomb in the suit and kill him instantly, which only motivates Ace to kill Logic first. He is then taken by the Golden Knight to a large prison cell. Before being locked up, the Knight tries to convince Ace of his side, but he denies it. After briefly staring at some vending machines, Ace is visited by Fio and Stephano, who have prepared food, although Ace cannot eat it. After Fio insits on a tea party, Ace immediately suspects she has a secret message in the tea, which she does. He then talks to Stephano about what kind of Ace he is, informing him that he is not the nicest but not the worst either. Stephano then inquires about the Formless Style. After Ace explains that he can't really teach it, he suddenly suffers a headache as the full weight of being completely in violation of the style hits him.

The Ace on the surface awakes to once again find Lace in his room. She tells him that he'll be going on patrol after he gets his new outfit in order to "add enrichment to his enclosure", as written by Ridill. She also asks him if he can come see her later to discuss the nature of his bond with Seagazer. After that, Genesis Aeon arrived to inform Ace that Pureflame supplements were ready for him in the greenhouse. He also asked Ace if he was excited to be back at OPIA, as Basil had told him earlier that she was upset at how people seemed to care more about Ace than her. Ace responded that he doubted anyone really *wanted* to have to stop the apocalypse, and that it seems that fate just wanted an "encore" from him. He was then visited by Treble and Ridill, who gave him a new suit made of thread from Arg0s's Reflection "Fateweaver". He then went to the greenhouse to recieve his supplements. While there, he asked Lace to come with him on patrol, which she accepted. He then headed to his patrol destination with Lace, Gene, and Cam. Meanwhile, in the Derelict, Ace's Flame awaits Fio's arrival. However, he is instead greeted by Compulsion, who calls him "garbage that should stay in the garbage". Ace calls the entire Derelict garbage in response, which upsets Compulsion, who uses an unknown power to drop him into a trash compactor full of Flame-eating monsters. Ace summons an incarnation of Seagazer to fight the monsters, but he is still unable to escape. Fio eventually arrives to protect him, but mistargets an attack and sends both of them plummeting to the bottom of the Sea of Ash. While at the bottom, Fio takes the opportunity to mess with Logic's bomb. She asks Ace if he wants it removed, but they decide it would be smarter to keep it in and just disable it. They then discuss Fio's plan, which is to wait for the Golden Knight to kidnap more people and then make a break for the surface with all of them. Ace says that he'll follow her lead, as he doesn't really have his own plan, just a "hope". Fio asks what this hope is, and he says that he hopes to kill Logic. They eventually decide to return to the Derelict by way of Fio's ESP, which makes Ace light enough for her to carry.

### Stepping Forward

While patrolling the Abandoned District with Lace, Ace suddenly is overcome with violent urges as he sees a hallucination of his berserker state stand next to him. He jumps on a nearby roof and begins running away in an attempt to put distance between him and Lace so that he doesn't hurt her. While running, he suddenly finds himself in a vision of Ciallan village on fire, which he has seen several times in the past when the Formless Style gave him visions of the future. It suddenly begins to rain, and as Ace approaches the fire, he sees his berserker state again. He simply runs away from it, eventually coming to a staircase overflowing with water, where he sees Ridill impaled by a mysterious masked figure. He attempts to summon Seagazer to fight it, but is unable to. The figure then summons Seagazer themself and attacks Ace. Ace manages to deflect it and run to Ridill's side, where he pulls the Seagazer in her chest out and engages the masked figure, before Ridill's corpse wakes up and drags him into the water. His vision returns to the real world, where he pulls himself onto shore from a lake in the Abandoned District. He finds Lace sitting on a train car in front of him. She decides that she has earned his trust, and reveals to him the nature of Seagazer as a Reflection of a theoretical Demonic Arm that never came to be. He asks about why Seagazer chose him, but Lace doesn't have an answer. The two are then approached by Cam and Gene, who take them back to help Basil with her fight. While on the way there, Cam comments that he's excited to hear that Lace told Ace about the Second Tormented.

Ace assists the rest of FLOW in helping to dispatch a massive swarm of featureless bodies. After the battle concludes, he is taken by Mic back to the lake, where he is surprised by Ruth who attempts to have a genuine conversation with him for the first time in months. He asks her why she is remaining at FLOW, to which she responds that she feels a need to make her Formless Style training mean something. When Ace rejects this, Ruth says she wants it to mean something anyways, which causes Ace to simply walk away. Later in the day, he retuns to the lake for a third time, where he encounters Ridill. He talks with her about how he's adapting to his new condition, and how he is taking some small joy in being able to express himself more freely.

In the Derelict, Ace's Flame returns to Instrumentality's floor alongside Fio. They are greeted by the Golden Knight, who tells Ace that his faith in his colleagues is oversimplistic and weakening him. Ace responds by saying that the Coda hasn't really thrown anything challenging at them to prove that. The Golden Knight then leads Ace to the Queen of Flames, who offers him a position as her seventh Pyromancer, promising to grant him a world where he can finally escape his problems. Ace tells her that what he truly wants is a world without the Coda meddling with it. The Queen tells him that this too, is something she can provide, and keeps the offer open. Ace decides to accept it, but tells the Queen that she shouldn't expect loyalty or help before storming off.

*To continue reading about Ace's Flame, please see Pyromancer of Laughter.*

### Global Offensive

A few days later, Ace visits Mic in her room and forces her to take a walk outside with him. Later that day, he participates in picture day at OPIA, where he gossips with Melli, Lugh, and Cam about various relationships in the organization. He is also present when Mic undergoes a Reflection-induced transformation as a result of emotional distress. The following day, he joins the Gate heads to decide on a plan of attack for the incoming global Demonic invasion. Ace suggests that they focus on Gravnir, as he believes that the Court of Death might be searching for information on the Formless style. After the meeting adjourns, he heads to the Gate of Humanity with Ridill to assess its agents. While on the walk, he dunks Ridill's head in the garden's lotus pond at her request to wake her up. Once the Gate of Humanity gathers, Ace gives each agent a personalized critique and a mission they have to fulfill before the end of the day, or else they can't go on the mission. After the Gate disperses, he joins Danger in helping him pick out a Reflection. He suggests One of A Kind, but after the Reflection's consciousness rejects Danger, he backs off from giving suggestions. However, upon recounting his time with Vaultwatcher, he inspires Danger to bind to that Reflection.

Ace then oversees some of his pupils in the VR chamber. He then participates in a virtual capture the flag game in which he acts as the flag. While awaiting capture, he speaks to several other FLOW agents, namely Justice and Basil. After the game, Ruth attempts to speak to him, where he tells her that he's still mad at her for remaining at OPIA, and that he doesn't understand her attachment to making the Formless Style mean anything. He tells her that she isn't a hero and shouldn't try to be, which angers her and ends the conversation. Some time later, Ace deploys to Cialla in a truck with himself as the driver, alongside Arg0s, Ridill, Cast, and Breach. After briefly stopping at a rest stop, the group arrives at a Ciallan village, which is familiar to Ace as it is the one he sees in his dreams. He tells Ridill that they should probably invest in fire safety measures before going to a nearby inn to rest. After spending some time being pestered by Danger about his movies, Ace was called to answer an alert regarding a massive assault by Compulsion on both Cialla and Fuse City. Before deploying, he was given "haste" by Treble. After Helena used her Reflection to open a portal to the Ciallan border, Ace rushed out and ran towards Fuse alongside Mic, using their newfound abilities in tandem to greatly increase their speed. Upon crossing the border, he was stopped by the same Reflection-warped warrior that fought him when he lost his Flame. Ace sent Mic ahead and fought the figure before continuing on to Fuse. Once he returned to the city, he immediately broke into Compulsion's "Demon factory" in the Undercity, using his Flame-based teleportation powers to dodge several traps and L0V3R C0LD. He killed one of Compulsion's bodies by using it to intercept an attack from a possessed Radmilla Saakova. He then escaped the facility with unconscious possessed as well as Compulsion's thrall in toe, but teleported back to ensure the thrall remained in the factory as it fell into the Coda, while he remained safe in Ridill's ESP.

After the mission, Ace immediately redeployed to Cialla to assist the refugees created in the wake of Compulsion's attack. While cleaning up the same village he foresaw in his dreams, he noticed a strange feathered creature, which he chased and grabbed. He attempted to get it to talk, but the creature could only chirp, not speak. When he let it go, it ran towards the aqueduct where his dreams of the village end. He then continued helping refugees and met up with Ridill, Willow, Arg0s, and Mic. He helped Arg0s get a handle on his emotions and work up his fighting spirit. He then took the group present to the aqueduct to let them know what exactly he was seeing in his dreams. After accurately guiding the group through the aqueduct to an underground hill, he explained the visions he'd been forseeing. During the subsequent discussion of those visions, he briefly spoke to Seagazer, and asked her if she was "having fun". Announcing his desire to see what was at the top of the stairs, Ace led the group to the top of the hill and discovered the original home of the Flame of Creation. After eating lunch at the ancient shrine and leaving, he and Willow were taken to a nearby noodle shop by the Director to speak to Gram. During their conversation, Ace was able to discover that Gram was Flameless just by the way he talked. After Gram was attacked by a Ciallan zealot, Ace attempted to push him away, but ended up teleported to a building deep beneath Cialla anyways. At Gram's request, he split off from him and explored several trials set up by the Seers for a younger Ridill before regrouping with Willow and the Director. He then exited the ruins with Willow and Gram and was incredibly confused to find them at the Flame of Creation's temple again. When asked by Gram if he was willing to lay down his life for Ridill, he replied that she's the only one who's ever given him direction, and that his life's already given up anyways. After arriving at a nearby inn, he spoke with several FLOW agents about who's Flame he'd feel comfortable eating. He eventually went to a room with Lyst to siphon some of her Flame, and they discussed their current emotional and physical states. That night, he and Willow ambushed Gram during his fight with Ridill to help even the odds.

## Abilities

Before having his Flame removed, Ace was a practitioner of the Formless Style, a martial arts school practiced by the Galatine family for thousands of years that was famously used to slay the God of Dreams during his attempted domination of the world. The Formless Style allows Ace to predict the movements of his opponents by reading their Flames. However, the training needed to achieve mastery of the Formless Style also led to Ace possessing no traces of the Element of Dreams in his body, creating a metaphysical "hole" that makes him a prime target for possession by malicious entities. To resist this, Ace has to constantly keep his emotions and focus in check. The Formless Style additionally has a secret ability, which is the power to continue animating one's body even while the consciousness is asleep or otherwise suppressed. This alternate, Flame-less personality inhabiting the body is erratic and often violent, but also peerlessly durable and powerful. By being fed the Flames of others, Ace is capable of remaining lucid. He can also spend this Flame to perform a variety of techniques, including moving at incredibly high speeds and teleportation.

In the FLOW entrance exams, Ace scored an 86, or an A+ according to the parameters of the test. This demonstrates a near peerless athletic, intellectual, and tactical skill, by the standards of OPIA.

### Reflection

Ace's Reflection was Vaultwatcher. Vaultwatcher manifests as a metal ring with a skull on it. The ring is connected to the eponymous "Vault" that the consciousness of Vaultwatcher inhabits. By making deals with Vaultwatcher, the ring is able to produce copies of the Demonic Arms and other weapons created by Vaultwatcher during his life by using Flame. Additionally, Vaultwatcher can possess the skull carved into the ring, making it move. He mostly uses this to talk and to bite people.

While Ace wielded Vaultwatcher, the main ring was accompanied by a second ring with an eye on it.

Ace additionally has a mysterious connection to the Reflection "Seagazer", a powerful Reflection with a variety of abilities. After his Flame was removed from his body, he was able to summon it even without Vaultwatcher's assistance.

## Trivia

* Galatine is the name of the legendary sword wielded by Sir Gawain of King Arthur's Round Table
* Dedicated fans of Ace refer to him as a "schmeated dreamboat".

## Gallery

Ace's Reference, drawn by Roma
Icon art by Spacey Chase

Possessed Icon by MD

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Above and Below
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 I'm Still Alive
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Bedside Manners
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Lock And Key
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Dear Sweetest Me
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Tumbling Down
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Uneasy Future
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Night Ride
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Beachside Burn
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Neon Sparks
11. ↑ Sum of Experiences
12. ↑ Colt Classic
13. ↑ Light Inside
14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Superhero
15. ↑ Chasing Ghosts
16. ↑ For Today
17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 For Tomorrow
18. ↑ Crossing Threads
19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Dying Flame
20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 No Options
21. ↑ Take Your Time
22. ↑ Through The Gate
23. ↑ Lost Blade
24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Strong Enough
25. ↑ Ultimate Loser