Nothing was out of place.

Timeline/World: Atheria 3rd Generation
Characters: Kimberly Storm
Race: Halfling – Human / Strife
Age: 41, physically about 25
Final Word Count: 563 words

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I admit that I do have a slight perfectionist side, that coupled with just a bare hint of what they’d called ‘obsessive-compulsive disorder’ back then, and there were certain things that bugged me. I say a ‘bare hint’ because it’s just about right. I don’t need to wash my hands every time I do something, I don’t need to open or close doors, lights or anything else a set number of times, I just like my things to be placed perfectly so, otherwise it bothers me.

It also doesn’t really apply to everything; it’s mostly things on shelves, things that are out on display. So books, because I have a pretty big collection of hardcovers and paperbacks I love to read, compact discs, because I’m old-fashioned but everyone still has those despite the fact that it’s easier to just get music on thumb drives nowadays but I like to be able to look through my collection and just, things like these.

Thing is, the way I need these to be, the order, tends to change now and again, not often but often enough that it gives me something to do, usually when I’m sick—a pretty rare occurrence—and I guess that you could say it actually soothes me to fix these things. I’m not the type who’ll go haywire because someone didn’t place the book back in its spot or perfectly aligned but it will bug me and I’ll just take it from where it is and place it back where it should be, at least in my mind’s eyes.

This particular habit has led to funny, at least to me though I’m sure he’s found them funny later on, situations with Demetrius. I’m an orderly soul. Considering my lineage, I suppose that could be worth a chuckle. Keys? Bowl in the entryway, magazines, because yeah, we still get stuff and it’s interesting to read, in a particular rack. These don’t need to be in order or anything but I like them to be in the area they should be at; it just makes sense to me. So I admit that often enough before, not as much now, if I’d spot his or my keys—not everything works with key cards after all but most things—elsewhere than in the bowl, I’d take them, bring them back and most of the time, not long after, I’d get a ‘where are the keys?’ out of him. I found it hilarious.

It was a little hard at first, this living together thing. This whole thing about getting used to his habits and mine. Getting used to who was placing what where and how we’d set things up. I might have a bit of a hard time adapting to major changes but I’ve worked on that in the years we’ve been together and I’d like to think that I have adapted, that I’ve changed and it’s all thanks to him. I’m glad, I really am and I wouldn’t change a thing about how our life has panned out since we first met.

I would be a very miserable soul if he hadn’t been there with me from the start and my life would be pretty meaningless, so even if I have to go through all the changes I did for us to be together, I’d do it all over again if it meant being with him.

What have I told you about being careful?

Timeline/World: Atheria 3rd Generation
Characters: Roslyn Freeborn
Race: Human
Age: 42, physically about 28
Final Word Count: 553 words

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In a way, I guess this makes me crazy but I wish my parents would have gotten on my case after I really screwed up. When I tried to do shit I shouldn’t have even tried before, shit that backfired, landed me in a coma for I can’t remember how many months and just, I learned my lesson, I did, but I still wish at least mom, since this is her heritage, would have at least gotten angry, even just a little. Told me to never do it again, to be more careful, to—I don’t know.

I mean, I understand this whole relieved thing that I woke up from the coma bit, I do but at the same time, I feel like they overlooked the biggest issue.

I also learned my lesson, which I suppose makes this whole wanting them to be mad at me for this whole thing moot, but I just can’t explain it. It crosses my mind now and again and I’ve brought it up to mom a few years ago, she sort of shrugged and told me that I had learned my lesson, so why get angry about it when it wouldn’t really change the outcome?

I should let it go, I rightfully should. It did teach me to better learn things before I put them in practice. It taught me to slow down and ‘smell the roses’ as that old statement goes. I mean, I still love a lot of the things I did while I was growing up but I guess that, in a way, I’m not really going to rush headlong into any of it without really being sure that this is absolutely what I want to try.

There are some things I still do without really spending much time thinking on. Things that I know I absolutely want after a single look at them. Like that one tattoo I got just before I was bonded to Aaric. It’s a small little thing and it only shows in certain conditions but I still love it to this day and it means the world to me. I didn’t spend days debating whether or not to get it. I saw the design in a dream, I scribbled it down carefully after I woke up and I just knew that this was it. The one thing that would be with me forever, just like our bond will last forever and then some.

So I guess, in a way, it’s time to move on from that one belief that they should have been mad at me, no matter that I’d pulled my ass out of a coma, no matter that I’d almost died, that there was now a permanent white streak in my hair to remind me of my failure. Looking at it from that angle, maybe that streak is enough. I can’t do anything about it. I’ve tried to dye it but the dyes don’t stick. I’ve cut it to the scalp—I actually had a short undercut style for about six months before I moved on—but it still grew back right where it was, exactly the size it had been before and just, it’s there to stay, never getting any bigger or any smaller. Okay, fine. I can accept that this is a good enough reminder.

It feels like time is running out, but I don’t know why.

Timeline/World: Alternate Earth – Family Stays Together
Characters: Thierry Price
Race: Human
Age: 21
Final Word Count: 550 words

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The nightmares were beginning to be a common theme to my nights and I couldn’t even begin to explain why they were there, to begin with. I’m currently being an over-dramatic dork but I’ve been running short on sleep since the beginning of the year and I can’t even begin to explain why. There haven’t been any incidents, no stalking, no maiming, nothing. It’s been peaceful and I’ve barely even had to give people the evil eye so I don’t know why I feel the way I feel.

I know it’s probably a stupid little thing, just a small thing, like a switch somewhere that needs to be flipped but I can’t begin to find it. I’ve tried. I’ve combed through each day of the past December, each day of January so far and nothing, there’s nothing. We don’t even fight, we don’t argue, I might huff a little when I get cranky because I don’t sleep enough but that’s a result of the nightmares and a cup of tea tends to calm me down for a while.

The nightmares are always the same. There’s nothing but a dark room, a timer on the wall that’s slowly ticking down and this feeling that the world is on the edge of ending. I don’t know if that ‘world is ending’ vibe is a personal one or a general one. Either or, they both would be unpleasant. To most, this wouldn’t be such an issue, I guess, but repeat the very same dream—with the timer ticking further and further down!—every single night over the span of an almost month and it’s easy to understand why I’m feeling frayed.

It’s almost to the point where I’m thinking it would almost be useful for me to talk to someone about it but what good would it do me? What can a doctor get out of the dream that I have on and on and on every night with nothing more than a timer and a sense of dread? I suppose they might get more out of it than I do, to say the least, but I’m still at a loss and I don’t really want to have to talk to a shrink.

I’ve mentioned the nightmare to Cooper a time or two but not much more often. I don’t want him thinking I’m starting to go crazy but I think I need to bring it up again because keeping that kind of thing bottled up is making me a liability as far as his safety is concerned and his safety is more important than my sanity, so I’m going to have to do something about it. So might as well talk it out with him.

I’m not very hopeful that talking about it again will do me any good but I think I’ve come to a point where not talking about it is just not an option anymore. I need to figure out what the issue is and put it to rest because otherwise it will most likely drive me crazy, if not just drive me to distraction and a distracted mind on the kind of thing I do for a living is asking for an accident and something akin to a death sentence, I can’t do that. So I’ll talk.

Let’s just get this over with. I have better ways to spend my time.

Timeline/World: Atheria 3rd Generation
Characters: Opal
Race: Timeless – Heavenly Dragon
Age: Ageless, physically about 28
Final Word Count: 572 words

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There had been something wrong for as long as I could remember it and my memory is endless, there is little I forget though I wish I could. All of my time spent as the gate guardian is time I wish I could somewhat forget. Not all of those who were within were aware of what was going on and I wish that those who could have made a difference had been aware.

However, there was only so little I could do. My task, my reason for being was the gate I protected, the gate where I could decide, depending on the colour of the aura that surrounded them, who stayed and who did not. So many I turned away because of a simple mistake. So many I could have let inside if there had been loopholes but there certainly had not been, I looked and I had plenty of time to look.

I knew there was corruption within the leading figures since the eldest three had been replaced, so to speak, there had been corruption. That much was proved when I tried to make a point about how ridiculous the rules of entrance past the gates were. I was given a look, told to state my points and move on; there were better ways for time to be spent.

This reaction had certainly not been the one I had been expecting and it stung, it made me wonder as to my place, despite the fact that I had been made for what I was doing. This particular incident is what made me step away and down. They could very well deal with their upcoming souls on their own, I could no longer remain the gate keeper, and it was leaving quite the sour taste in my mouth.

It took me time to learn to control my shape and most especially my size but it was an interesting discovery. I was an endless wanderer until I found my charge, feeling a connection to the tiny thing, almost as though it, no, he, had been waiting for me to come about and sweep him away. I kept him safe from the world at large and he kept me company. The overly large heavenly dragon and the tiny little slip of a mortal. It would have likely been comical if it had not felt so good, so right.

Even now, all of those years later, it still feels right and good, I have not been in my dragon form in quite some time and I am planning a small outing to elsewhere with my precious to stretch my wings. It will be something that is long overdue and while I believe that it is not so much a necessity as it is a desire, I believe I am indeed overdue and this time away under the warmth of the sun, while the area here is chilly, will do both of us some good.

I haven’t mentioned the getaway yet since this is so new and I want everything to be perfect before I sweep him away. My desire is for everything to go smoothly and I knew it will, I only feel mild discomfort at the idea of using one of the special doors since I know it is partial magic and partial technology and I don’t mingle so well with the latter, so the Keeper will be opening the door for us. I can’t wait.

You mentioned you knew where they were keeping them. Can you get us there?

Timeline/World: Modern Monotony – From Greece with Love
Characters: Asarel Areleous
Race: Human
Age: 26
Final Word Count: 565 words

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He hated car rides, they made him motion sick. Planes were not much better and it was best to not get him started on boats, the rocking of the waves was the worst. However, at times, car rides were inevitable. Especially when one claimed to know the location of items that had been missing for a long enough time that they’d been thought lost without any chances of retrieval.

So he’d gotten dressed that morning for a, hopefully not too bumpy, car ride that would take him close to an hour outside of the city and that still required getting out of the city. He hadn’t wanted to be the one to do it but he’d been the one with the necessary knowledge of the missing items to be able to confirm whether or not what was in front of his eyes were the real deal or not, else he was sure that another one of his siblings would have been happy to go.

He’d tried to sweet-talk his way out of it. One of his brothers could have gone and shown him the items during a video call but he’d known that wouldn’t work out. Noticing the finer details of counterfeit pieces was better done in person. He hadn’t been the one to major in restoration like these and yet, he’d studied these paintings for years, fascinated by their histories, so trying to pin the whole thing to another sibling hadn’t made sense either.

Thankfully, the car ride had been smooth sailing. They’d left early enough that they’d avoided the worst of the traffic issues usually found around the routes they’d been required to take and the scenic side of the travelling had been done on newly paved roads and had been so smooth he could have almost, oh almost drifted off during the ride but he hadn’t been quite that lucky, sleeping in a moving vehicle just wasn’t a possibility, even with a good heaping of natural remedies to keep his motion sickness down low.

The trip as a whole turned out to be for nothing and he’d been so angry at being led around this way to see old, supposedly lost paintings only to their not even be counterfeits that he’d almost walked home. Never mind the distance to cover, it hadn’t mattered. His contact had failed in doing what seemed to be the simplest of facts, confirm that the items were indeed where they were going and that no one would take them anywhere else until he was there to look them over.

Camera feeds proved that there had been not a soul. Not one person came or went. He hadn’t thought to look further back in time on the security feed, but he would have found out that over the last few months, the paintings in question hadn’t even been anywhere near the location. No one had seen them or even heard of them.

Wringing his contact’s neck would have been a good idea but a moot one. Whether the information was a flat-out lie or there had been a serious case of misinformation, it didn’t matter in the end. The paintings were not where he had been told they were and he was coming back home empty-handed, he hadn’t known what to tell all of those hopeful faces other than the truth and the truth had hurt.

The more you experience it, the more you get used to it.

Timeline/World: Atheria 1st Generation
Characters: Taliesin Kaminari
Race: Demon – God of Fate
Age: 4 400, physically about 28
Final Word Count: 541 words

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I would like to call bullshit on this particular not-fact of life. Sure, it can apply to plenty of things but just the same, it doesn’t apply to a whole world of other shit. Take nightmares, for example, the kind that repeats themselves over and over again, usually based on a past life experience that likes to cling the fuck away to you because it can. These nightmares? They’re bullshit. The more you experience them, the more you want them to be over with. You don’t get used to them, you just can’t.

In the cases of certain folks, this asshole included because yes, I know I’m an asshole—or used to be, my sister would say with an amused twist to her lips—these nightmares have physical reach into the world of the waking, so experiencing it again and again? You’re still not going to get fucking used to it.

I didn’t get fucking used to it.

Thankfully, I don’t actually get that particular nightmare anymore, thanks to Thaddeus’s presence and patience. Not that I would have said that after I’d just met him but fools are the only ones out there who never change their mind and I’ve changed my mind for the better.

See, in this case, the more I experienced his presence at my side, the more I got used to it, the more I wanted more of it and look where that got us now; a lovely daughter. Mind you, I appreciate my first born just fine and I wish him no ill will, at least not anymore, but this daughter was planned and prepared for and everything I couldn’t be for River. I was pretty sure I’d have won ‘Worst Dad Award’ for every year of her life but I think I’ve done well enough in that case.

So sure, there are some things that, the more you experience them, the more you get used to them and the more you might actually even get to enjoy them but in some cases, the opposite is very true and the more you experience something, the more you’re going to hate it, wish it would die and wish you could die with it.

That nightmare? If it ever were to surface again, I think I would lose my mind, it was that bad. I’m not easy to rattle but this was enough to do it. It doesn’t help that as time went by and Thad became a part of my life, that nightmare shifted to include him and not in any way that would have made the nightmare easier to handle, it was the opposite, to be honest and that alone was enough to make me lose my shit even more, until those needing to intervene did.

I don’t even know why I’m going on about all this. I just saw this one statement in a book I’d been skimming and it made me want to rant and rave. I guess I’ve mellowed out something fierce over the years because my ranting and raving was a lot more in-your-face than this before. Can’t be a bad thing, still have my mate and our daughter comes by often enough, so I guess all’s well. Mostly.

Did you not think about how this would affect everyone else?

Timeline/World: Atheria 2nd Generation
Characters: Dayna Jones
Race: Human
Age: 68, physically about 26
Final Word Count: 530 words

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These words should have been in a dictionary somewhere, marked as someone’s famous last words. I’m pretty sure they’d have been on the tip of a lot of peoples’ tongues if they hadn’t been vaporized by the nuclear death that destroyed the whole world while we were bubbled up into safety. At least, all of us minus a small handful were safe from that big bang that reduced the world to smithereens.

Unlike most of the kids from the latest generation, I’ve had time to discover the world, to wander and get lost, to do stupid ass things I do regret but not to the point of keeping me awake at night. When the big break happened, I said things I do very badly regret but I know that wasn’t really me saying those things, it was the puppeteer just teasing all of his strings to perfection until there was nothing left of the peace we’d known for so many years prior.

I wish the guy was still alive so I could rearrange his face into something else entirely but I suppose that wouldn’t quite be like me at all. I’ve turned into something of a pacifist and I like it that way just fine. I never was much of a fighter unless I absolutely needed to and there hasn’t been much of a need for that since we were reunited. Sure, there was the lockdown but that had nothing to do with me, not in a personal way so it wasn’t my fight and I stayed out of it.

Raising Clara has been the one thing that taught me more about life than any of my trips out there before the world ended. I would never have learned all I know now if it weren’t for this tiny bundle of joy when she came into our lives and while she no longer is a tiny little bundle of joy, she’ll always be my little girl. I love reminding her of that, her reactions are always precious and I get a kick out of it. The words are as much a tease as they are a gentle reminder that I love her, no matter her choices in life, no matter what she does or what she might not do.

I know that each action I take, no matter how small, has a repercussion on the world as a whole. I throw out a plastic bag? I could have recycled it, given it a second life. Now it might be out there, some animal might find it in our landfill (not that we have a landfill, we recycle everything but this is just an example, really), try to eat it and choke on it or get stuck in it. One less animal. Multiply that by however many other bags and just, yeah.

I’m not very good with words. I never was. I’m better at the ‘show’ part of show and tell than the ‘tell’ part. I’ve always been. It got me in trouble a little while I was growing up but I suppose it doesn’t really matter anymore. Those who need to understand me do and that’s the important bit.

We all talk about it.

Timeline/World: Atheria 3rd Generation
Characters: Jasmyn Brakstan
Race: Halfling – Angel / Human
Age: 42, physically 26
Final Word Count: 575 words

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Growing up was one of those things that fall into the category of ‘I don’t know if I want to remember this or not.’ There were days when everything was peachy perfect and other days when I wanted to rip my hair out but I think that everyone is like that. I can’t be the only one who had days wanting to maim everyone and days when I was fine with the world in general and then the days when I wanted nothing more than to curl in a ball of misery and never come out of my room again.

Days when I hated mom, days when I hated dad, days when I wanted to maim someone for no other reason than I could and just, I couldn’t explain it. It took breaking down and asking mom about it before I learned that this was both a somewhat normal growing up thing but also a sorta normal thing considering my bloodlines. I hadn’t expected it, not on mom’s side of things, she since she’d told us she’d been born a little differently than the norm, both her and Aeolus.

On dad’s side, I hadn’t expected much either, I mean, I know about the shadows and the nightmares and all, though I guess I know now and I wasn’t really aware of all the details back then, but I still hadn’t expected these mood swings.

After a few tests and head doc sessions and I wasn’t so much chipped as I was given this little necklace and it helped. Before too long, I’d switched the necklace to a single ‘industrial’ earring across the top of my left ear and I’ve never taken it off, other than for once-overs and upgrades. Not that the whole thing is very strong, just enough to keep my moods steady. I promised my parents I’d let them know if I ever felt anything similar to what had ‘landed’ me in this situation in the first place.

Wearing that protection, as it stands, has taught me that I shouldn’t really keep anything bottled up inside. It’s not so good for me and not even because of my bloodline but just in a general sense. Bottling up doesn’t do anyone any good and being open and willing to talk about what bothers me has helped me keep a good relationship with my siblings and my parents, has kept me from completely ruining my relationship with Christiaan because trust me, I could very well have ruined it if I’d bottled up the way I’d done it as a child. Bottled up and pushed away, it would have been ugly.

I do still have my ups and downs but I know that everyone does so it’s not the end of the world if I wake up one morning and I’d rather just roll in bed and hide for a few hours than be a responsible adult and head out there. I’m allowed that much and it doesn’t happen often.

At times I feel silly because of it all and I feel like my emotions are stronger than anything I could control, it makes me feel weak, I know that this particular thing isn’t really normal but talking to a shrink has never really helped me in that regard, so I try to not let that get to me too much. I talk about it when I get one of those days but that’s it.

Feel free to argue with me any time. I live off it.

Timeline/World: Through the Looking Glass – Lost in Translation
Characters: Ghost Sedes
Race: Angel – Seraphim
Age: Unknown, physically looks about 18
Final Word Count: 552 words

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Living with Lucifer and Lin had had its ups and downs. I honestly think that living with anyone will have its ups and downs and no matter where you go, you will meet some who will strike you as being completely opposite to what you believe in but that is a natural part of life, it is something that cannot be truly helped or changed. One should not try to change others to better fit their views; it will always end in a disaster.

Let’s take Maksim, for example.

He was a smart lad, he was. He was well-behaved around strangers until you got to know him even just a little and after that, all bets were off. I don’t know where he got his need to argue from but he’d argue, and quite calmly so, always finding loops and holes in everything, for hours.

Donna made the mistake of arguing with him just once, going on and on about not giving up and not stopping until getting the last word. It lasted for something close to six hours, just mostly quiet back and forth about the most mundane of things until Donna gave up, in tears, parched and needing a whole lot of liquids to make up for all that had been sweat out during their argument and they never spoke again. Maksim wore the brightest, most amused smiles I’d ever seen on his face and I admit that I found it slightly amusing myself.

I did feel bad for Donna but it was common knowledge that Maksim should not be argued with, it was a lost cause, and still, it had happened on a whim to have the last word. I don’t understand that particular need but that might come from the fact that I speak so little, myself. I have never found a reason to share more than a few words at once and only if it ever really is necessary.

Between Lin who could not truly speak with words though his singing voice was gorgeous and myself who had no desire to speak unless it was an absolute necessity, our surroundings were quiet. Lucifer seemed to feel no need to break the silence and that is all there was to it.

Now that I’m on my own once more, away from the deeper layers of hell and back at my brother’s side, this silence has not changed and it still is peaceful when I’m on my own. That is hardly to say that there are no chatterboxes up here who’d love to do nothing more than to chat your ears off because they have nothing better to do but I know how to avoid them and Seraphiel always gives me this amused look when he finds me lounging in the garden on my own, peaceful as could be while he’s had to deal with messengers and problems and who knows what else.

I don’t envy him his job, I really don’t. I know that one of these days I might have to partially take over though it shouldn’t be a necessity. At least, I know how to take care of most of the things he does take care of on a daily basis, I just haven’t been able to bring myself to see to them and help him.

I gave you plenty of time to think about what you did.

Timeline/World: Alternate Earth – Birds of a Feather
Characters: Alessio Speziale
Race: Human
Age: 42
Final Word Count: 537 words

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Unlike Saoirse, while she still was a living, breathing presence in these halls, I’ve never been very big on punishments, that and I never really saw any of the kids do anything that might require punishment and that includes Silvius who’s gotten into trouble often when he was much younger. Never for bad things, at least, I didn’t see them as bad things, I saw them as things his artistic soul was craving to try and he did.

I know I wasn’t a very present father, I want to blame Saoirse’s overbearing presence but I blame myself, I do. I should have tried harder. I did at first, when she’d go for harsh punishments I’d gently talk her down from it, never out of the punishment because she just wouldn’t be budged on that particular point. At least it never did turn out to be overly bad things, in the long run, just some time out against the far wall to think about what they’d done.

I never let her take meals away from them; I never let her raise her hand to them. I might not have been a present father but I still all I could when I was about to make their lives as pleasant as I could. I regret not being more present, not doing more for them but I can’t fix that now.

What I do now is also what I’ve been doing since she’s passed on, since Gina has found her place at my side, since my children have forgiven me my distant parenting presence in the past. I’m there every morning, I’m there in the evenings as often as I can, I help with the meals, I look homework over for those who still have them, I listen to hopes and dreams, I take my place in the audience for plays and dances and games.

There is so much more I wish I could do but I can’t really think of anything else that would be meaningful. I want my time with my kids, even the grown one, to feel important, to be meaningful and not just filled with physical tokens that only mean something for a moment and rarely for long. Loving these kids of mine is the important part, letting them know that I’m here now and that I’ll be here for as long as they’ll have me.

I have to remind myself, now and again, that I’m their father and not their friend, not that they’ve ever really done something that would require me to really turn on the ‘father’ flag. They’re all so well-behaved; I’m amazed by this every day. With Saoirse’s overbearing nature, they very well could have tried to act out now that she was gone, they could have turned into rampaging little monsters and yet they didn’t. I love and adore my kids and I wouldn’t change a thing about them. Even Santos, whose life I was worried would keep on teetering on the edge, has changed drastically and for the better, I was terrified he’d do something stupid but having Royale at his side has saved him in ways I know I could never have.

I have the most wonderful family.