You should be on the run.

Timeline/World: Birds of a Feather – Colours
Characters: Yannick Beaumont
Race: Human
Age: 30
Final Word Count: 555 words

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I’ve met some crazy folks before in my life. I mean, I certainly wasn’t all that great company before, myself but that has changed over the years and by spending time with the rest of my colourful family. I beg to differ on the statement that ‘it takes all kinds of folks to keep this world running,’ however. Some of the crazy I’ve met while selling my craft makes me wonder if it’s the craft or if there’s just an extra load of crazy in our neighbourhood.

Not that I’m saying our neighbourhood is bad, just that there always seems to be a lot of crazies but I guess it does come with the territory and most of them aren’t so bad. We’ve had all one or two encounters with the weird one who’d give us the evil eye and tell us that we were doomed, that something bad was going to happen or that we should be packing up and running away because we were all in danger of some sort. It ranges from quiet little warnings, almost behind closed doors to raving and ranting and arm waving when we’re passing by.

I feel the need to point out that it’s not just our group that seems to be targeted by these things. They do this with every passerby that goes along their routes but brighter colours do seem to attract them so there is that one thing. Sunshine gets a lot of attention from these folks, not only from the bright colours he’s constantly wearing but for his young looks and almost child-like demeanour when he’s outside. It’s something to watch his face darken because someone’s said something he didn’t want to hear, it always startles the folks but it doesn’t seem to stick with them very long, considering they’re back to it all just a few days later.

I’ve never understood all these end-of-the-world types. What brought them to how they are today? I know the path my life took, I know why I’m where I am and surrounded by those I am surrounded with, but these loners with the signs they hang onto, claiming the end of the world is coming, what happened for them to become this way? Do they not have a family; have people who can look out for them? It makes me a little sad to see them huddle out there, especially in winter, it gets so cold.

I’ve tried to help one before, but the way they reacted to me and the offered help has taught me that it’s best to let them have their lives as they are now, no amount of wanting to help them will do me any good and it certainly won’t do them any good. It’s sad, but there are a lot of sad things in this world, so what can I do, really?

It’s not hard to tell who’s been bothered by these folks and who hasn’t when we get home. It’s all over our faces, some handle it well, and others just don’t. There’s nothing we can really do about it because this is our home, we’ve lived in this building for almost a decade at this point and none of us want to move, so we just deal with it as best as we can.

I’m pretty sure this is the real thing this time.

Timeline/World: Birds of a Feather – Scattered Throughout
Characters: Robin Baltimore
Race: Human
Age: 32
Final Word Count: 575 words

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I still remember how giddy I’d felt after the first time he’d taken me to his bed, it had felt wrong and yet so right. With life at home a little strained, my now ex-wife having finally admitted that our child wasn’t so much ours as hers and I’d wished that someone had told me about the one fact that this beautiful girl I thought to be my daughter had skin so dark that it was clear she could never have been mine but no one had ever said a thing. Were the big guide dog and the dark sunglasses in most public settings not enough of a hint that I couldn’t see? Was the fact that they’d seen my ex-wife grow big with child not enough to let them know that this dark bundle of love was not adopted? I just don’t know.

I wish Zaa had been in my life back then but we’d parted ways for a while, after a fight I can’t really recall the reason why. He came back into my life just out of the blue but it was at the perfect time. I told him about ‘my’ scientist, I told him about the research, the translating I was doing, the fact that he’d pulled me to his bed and it had been amazing and Zaa became an overprotective sibling. He didn’t say a thing but I could tell in his demeanour, in how stiff he stood beside me every time with met up with him that he thought there was something wrong, that it wouldn’t last. He never said a thing and I’m grateful to him for that.

I thought it was the real deal; I was a stupid, foolish enough idiot to think that just maybe he’d leave his wife for me but I should have known better. They were something of a power couple; they would never have parted ways, even if there wasn’t a whole lot of love going on between them. When he told me that he had to go back home, a continent away, to his wife and that he wished the best for me in my life, I was devastated. He knew that I was going through a divorce, he knew I’d just learned that the daughter I had loved as mine wasn’t, he knew all these things and yet he was a callous arse who only thought of himself.

In hindsight, I shouldn’t have been surprised; he’d always been focused on his own person, always. If he wanted something, he took it and I’m the only one who was swept away by a passion that really wasn’t a passion at all. It was nothing but a sort of physical release for him and I think that’s what left me bitter about it all in the long run. It just hurt so much.

My brother was at my side through it all. He invited me to move back into his house and while it took some discussing and cajoling, I did. It was for the best. I lost Topaz along the way, she’s lived a long beautiful life but that’s all right. Now I have Sapphire at my side and I cherish every moment with her the way I did Topaz and I don’t need anyone in my life. At least not in a personal way. That’s not to say a little pleasure now and again isn’t a nice extra.