Pathway

## Pathway(10,000 Drafts)

**Pathway** was a courageous agent of the Infinite against the Numbered in one of the 10,000 Drafts. She was broken out by the Tourist and joined her crew of “Forgotten Heroines” on a series of adventures across the 10,000 Dawns.

## Character Overview

### Personality

Pathway is a no-nonsense sort of individual, stern and ruthless about her mission to the Infinite until such a time as innocent people are in the way. After escaping the 10,000 Dawns, she experienced an identity crisis due to how incomplete her universe (and thus, her life) really were, and was desperate to not remain an incomplete sketch with an incomplete life.

When asked, she, like the other four other Forgotten Heroines, confirmed that she was “somewhere in the LGBTQ+ spectrum”. (PROSE: *The Forgotten Heroines of 10,000 Dawns Big Takeover!*)

### Physical appearance

Pathway was a humanoid woman of average height, with light blue eyes, matching short-cropped hair, and pale white skin. She wore a white jacket with blue stripes that ran down the arms, which looked like they glowed, though they giae off no visible light. She wore white pants with similar blue stripes, and a blue t-shirt. (PROSE: *The Forgotten Heroines of 10,000 Dawns Big Takeover!*)

### Abilities

Pathway did not display any particular supernatural abilities, but did wields a katana which people who met her usually described as rather fear-inspiring. (PROSE: *The Forgotten Heroines of 10,000 Dawns Big Takeover!*) Within her original narrative, she'd possessed an “orb” with which to travel the multiverse. (PROSE: *Prototype*) She could play a keyboard and had a beautiful singing voice, having been taught to sing by her mother. (PROSE: *The Leader of the Band*)

## Biography

### Origins

In her universe, Pathway was an agent of the Infinite against the Numbered, with her mother having died in the war against the latter (REF: *Original Series Bible*) over the Creation Machine. (PROSE: *Prototype*) Her father proceeded to train her to fight the Infinite from an early age. (PROSE: *The Leader of the Band*) She saved another hero from 789, one of Lady Frosbite's Numbered servants, and invited them to travel with her in her orb. (PROSE: *Prototype*)

She became the mentor to a hero figure, spending a long time with them; however, due to the unfinished nature of her universe, the identity or even gender of this hero was not actually pinned down and she couldn't remember anything about them after leaving her homeworld. (PROSE: *The Forgotten Heroines of 10,000 Dawns Big Takeover!*) She even harbored romantic feelings, albeit one-sided, for this ever-shifting “you” to whose reality her own nature blinded her. (PROSE: *The Leader of the Band*)

In truth, Pathway's world was one of the 10,000 Drafts, unfinished sketches of the 10,000 Dawns created, but later discarded and locked away, by the Firmament. (PROSE: *The Forgotten Heroines of 10,000 Dawns Big Takeover!*)

### Escape

After escaping her own Draft universe aboard the Black Pyramid, the Tourist formed a scheme to rampage through the 10,000 Dawns and broadcast the results from the View, to carve out a place in the wider multiverse for herself. To this end, she recruited four other “Forgotten Heroines”, one of whom was Pathway. The Tourist, unseen, broke her out of the Drafts and transported her to Dawn 5, where she emerged inside a scrap heap and was, immediately upon emerging, confronted with Ashlyn Oswin. Though initially tense about the whole situation, Pathway, greatly disturbed by what she learned of her own nature, agreed to participate in the Tourist's plan. (PROSE: *The Forgotten Heroines of 10,000 Dawns Big Takeover!*)

### Rampaging

Alongside the four other Forgotten Heroines, Miranda spread chaos throughout the 10,000 Dawns and their attendant Drafts. When they visited Redacted Pinorva's reality, Pathway tried to object to the Tourist's complete destruction of the world and its inhabitants, but was unsuccessful. (PROSE: *Breaking the Narrative*)

Some time later, Pathway had settled inside the Black Pyramid and befriended the other Forgotten Heroines, and slipped away from the control room to a room with a keyboard to practice her singing. She sang, for herself, a wistful song taught to her by her mother, which she related to her own experience with “you”. When the other Heroines heard her beautiful singing, this inspired the Tourist's new attention-seeking scheme of forming a band. Their first performance at the View was a great success, in large part thanks to Pathway's final, solo performance. However, it also prompted the Resident to return the Tourist to her dark-and-gritty roots, and the corrupted Tourist subsequently abandoned Pathway, Shona and Miranda at a convenience sort while departing for solo adventures with Ashlyn. (PROSE: *The Leader of the Band*)

## Behind the scenes

As her backstory in-universe suggests, Pathway was originally a character in early drafts of what would become the 10,000 Dawns, created by James Wylder in high school. Pathway was intended to be an exposition-granting “guide character” in a roleplaying game based on those ideas. In the end, she made her actual debut in 2020 in *The Forgotten Heroines of 10,000 Dawns Big Takeover!*, the opening salvo of the April's Fools' Day *The Forgotten Heroines of 10,000 Dawns* event.