This one's been a long time coming lol-

Also the semi-main focus of the AU is based off the Permafrost MC modpack, check it out when you can :D

In this AU, Sabre actually arrived much earlier to the Realm than in the main series. And much, much younger :>

Sabre entered the world at about 4-5 years old, a few years before the start of SL. And he didn't end up in a forest, no; he ended up in the icy and cold lands of the Winter Steves. Being very confused about what to do with this strange child that's not like anything they've seen before, the Winter Steves bring Sabre to Dream. He has no idea what Sabre is either (He doesn't know that he's later Origin's creator through timeline shenanigans), but tells the Winters to raise and protect him like a normal child, since there's obviously no way of returning him to where he came from. So, they did.

Growing up with the Winters, they eventually notice that Sabre gained white tips in his hair, paler skin with a frost-like color at his fingertips, and even started becoming able to mimic the Winter Steves' powers. He became used to the cold just like them, it being as normal as a sunny day to him. The Winters also taught him how to be on his own and defend himself, as they worried that since he was so different, people would either try to hunt him down or run him out of the village. They wanted him to be able to survive in case that happened.

There were also legends told in the village, mostly of a mysterious weather phenomenon known as the Permafrost. It was a potentially apocalyptic blizzard kept at bay by the power of the Heart of Winter and the stronger Winter Steves, with the possibility of spreading over the entire Realm. No one ever saw its full destructive ability though, as the Winters were able to keep it sealed for centuries.

Eventually, the events of SL begin when Sabre is around 9 years old. He meets all of the SL characters (with most of them being confused about what Sabre is, and a few jokes about him being related to the Judge since they look so similar), and lives through the events... including the war against the Demon Steves.

Losing all of his family in the war, and later the attacks of Void on his 10th birthday, it made Sabre shut down emotionally and close himself off from most people. Sabre was the only one left to care for the Heart of Winter, always holding it close in memory of the Winters. He only really talked to the Red Steves, since they seemed to be the only ones that would listen to the strange child that came from another world. Other than them, he was silent to everyone. And to make matters worse, the Permafrost was starting to gather over the land where the Winters, Onsidians, and Giants once lived, it slipping out since the Winters were gone.

Once Colle and the Red Steves disappeared, Sabre vanished into the Permafrost, never to be seen again by that generation.

As the years passed, stories made up of fragmented memories of the lost people started to surface. The other Chromatics told tales of a very powerful, icy star being guarded by a mysterious being, veiled inside the never-ending blizzard. People would sometimes try to retrieve the star, but never came back.

Until a certain Orange Steve went looking for it, hoping to use it to protect his people from the Darkness.

Orange was not at all geared for the situation, however, given where he lived being much warmer and his lack of experience with snow. Orange quickly started to freeze after a while of running from frozen zombies and other creatures, lost in the blizzard. Hoping to use it as shelter from the cold wind and monsters, Orange hid inside a dense patch of bushes, and ended up passing out due to the cold.

At the same time, a now grown up Sabre was making his usual rounds around the area his underground shelter was in. Noticing an out-of-place blotch of orange peeking out of the bushes, he goes to investigate, and finds Orange Steve on the brink of freezing to death. Surprised to see he's still alive, Sabre quickly takes him back to his shelter to warm him up and fix his injuries.

This leads to a week or two of Sabre teaching Orange about the Permafrost and the truth of the Heart of Winter while waiting for his injuries to heal, staying inside his underground shelter. The whole time, Orange keeps trying to get Sabre to react to things (since he's emotionally shut down he doesn't show much emotion to anything) and be his friend. Sabre, who is scarred by the loss of his family and previous friends, does not want to be friends with Orange and just wants him out of the Permafrost.

Uuuntil Orange gets him to crack while Sabre is taking him to the edge of the Permafrost so he can go home. Sabre ends up visiting the Orange Village, and learns about things like how the world has changed since he's last gone out and the prophecy of the Third Hero. Orange keeps nudging Sabre out of the Permafrost more often until he agrees to move into the Rainbow Hub.

This is where the story of RQ can start :3

Now, a little bit of details:

-If Sabre is absent from the Realm for any reason, the Permafrost will spread across the Realm and start to freeze everything just like where Sabre used to live. So you can imagine how bad of a time everyone's having while Sabre is corrupted for the first time.

- As the series goes on, Sabre slowly starts warming up to people and showing more emotion rather than being so stone-faced and closed off. Until after he gets corrupted- When all of that is over, almost everyone's back at square one with him because he lost a lot of trust in people. I say 'almost everyone' because he's not as closed off to Green Steve hehe

- When Sabre first starts showing actual emotion towards people, he gets very flustered about it because he forgot what feelings feel like.

- Sabre contains the Heart of Winter in a glass orb on a staff, being able to use it to amplify his winter abilities.

- When Shy becomes Light, there are now two emotionally detached people. When they're mad at each other, they just have silent stare-offs with small amounts of ice forming around each of them. They also scare the crap out of people accidentally with resting binch face.

- Villain has lava? Sabre freezes it into obsidian no problem and acts like it wasn't a big deal. Big thing of water blocking the path? Ice bridge, seemingly not an issue. When he does do something big or difficult like that though, it's actually very draining for him and he waits till he gets back to the Hub to show how tired he is.

- Sabre has Frost Walker all the time. Just a neat lil thing :>

- When Sabre is exiled during the second corruption arc, he runs off back to the Permafrost with his friends. They end up thriving with Sabre's help, and when the village that the group stays at gets destroyed by Darkness, he takes them to the Permafrost too and they start an underground village that looks fricken cool. Meanwhile, everyone else is struggling-

- Sabre hates fire and heat in general, for obvious reasons.

I have old art of Permafrost Sabre from a year ago, buuut I don't really wanna show it so-

Situations :3

—

(How the drama between the Giants and the Winters started)

Ancient Winters: (Takes the Heart of Winter to better hold back the Permafrost)

Giants: Hey, that's our job!

Ancient Winters: Not anymore!

—

(Sabre seeing the Professor again after... however many years it was between SL and RQ)

Sabre: Goggles? Is that y-

Prof. Red: SABRE-?! HOW IN THE WORLD BELOW DO YOU ONLY LOOK, LIKE, 19???

Sabre: I dunno. Maybe it's a species thing-?

(Meanwhile, Dark and Shadow standing in the bg awkwardly.)

—

(Shy visiting the Rainbow Hub)

Shy: H-Hey, uhhh... is Sabre upset about something...?

(Both he and Orange look at the corner of the Hub covered in ice.)

Orange: (Sick of trying to get the ice off) Gee, what gave it away?

—

Void: Corrupting Sabre couldn't possibly go wrong.

(The Permafrost covers the Realm, and the Darkness might be strong but it cannot handle it being that cold.)

Void: ...I may have made a mistake.

—

(Sabre and friends playing a game)

Funny: Maybe we should go by oldest first?

Rainbow: That just means Sabre goes first though.

Sabre: (Is at least over 100 years old at this point)

—

(Rainbow and Sabre messing with each other, when Sabre ends up smiling.)

Rainbow: (Teasing him) Heeeyyy, look! You're actually smiling!

Sabre: (Flustered bc what are emotions) Heh- hahsjs- hshsksjkajsidh-

Rainbow: You good?

Sabre: I DON'T KNOW.

—

Alrighty, enjoy angy off-brand snowball boi XD