Jewel Beetle's story started farther back than most people would ever begin to guess; it's a long sordid tale of a man named
Theodore Price and the reincarnating curse he was captive to for over a thousand lifetimes. (He lost count.) But it all started to shift after he inadvertently hopped through two different dimensions, loosened a dampening curse and met the love of his life. (This time the
actual love of his life, not a toxic and overbearing guy named Willem.)
Everything was going great until she disappeared. Her, the others, they disappeared from the manor they were in and just like that he was separated from a lifeline. It wasn't soon after that he found his way back through the multiverse to his own NYC; but rather than seek her out there, he had something else to do. A cycle to break, with the help of Everet who he couldn't abandon to the cycles alone. So he forfeit his happy ending.
Theo used a ceremonial dagger to end his life one more time - sending him back to the beginning of everything after answering a cryptic riddle. He awoke back in the skin of his first life at the moment that started it all: Willem's wishing ceremony. Theodore played the part of a ditzy observer, wiser than he should be as they once again were bathed in the light of a spell meant to go wrong.
But this time while Willem asked for power and authority, Theo's wish was only to be free of him. Forever. The witch, also aware of this replay of events, instructed him to this time trust in her rather than the King Regent and that his wish would be granted. Willem, unaware until he once again killed the "love of his life" for power realized the witch's duplicitous nature when she cursed him to live with power and without what he gave for it, rather than what he believed would once again happen: cycles of power and control over Theo, who by now had become just an object to him. But his object nonetheless.
So while Willem would go off to start a never-ending search for a
replacement, Theodore was gifted one last reincarnation, courtesy of a witch who he had apologized to "for everything" in his last minutes. She took all that he was, sans the memories of past lives, and sent it forth to live on for that
"happy ending" he was so deserving of.
But then, how did Jewel Beetle come to be? A funny story, really. When a memory no longer has a physical form, it doesn't simply disappear. It needs to be taken, reallocated or fed into the minds and dreams of others as dreams, inspiration, nostalgia and so on. The Memorykeeper collected what was left of Theodore Price and struck a very interesting trade with another
cosmic entity.
And so in exchange for 100 years of servitude to Raiz, Jewel Beetle's wish is to exist again, in a living form, for one more natural lifespan. But the process has been rocky, re-acclimating to a physical form and so his memory - at least for now - is hazy and conflicting.
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