Sitting around is making me anxious. Come on, isn’t there something I can do?

Timeline/World: Birds of a Feather – To Serve and Protect
Characters: Joseph Steinz
Race: Human
Age: 53
Final Word Count: 548 words

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I was raised to be a protector. I came from a family of bodyguards and I was taught everything I was meant to know from a tender age. How to protect, the ways to do it, how to hold a gun, clean the gun, take a clean shot at someone, how to be intimidating—not that this one was a class but according to my father it was a must know. Everything in my life had been about keeping my charge safe and sitting still had always made me anxious, I couldn’t do it.

I ended up raising Timothy much the same way, my charge had a son of his own born about ten or so years after mine was and it made sense to have him look after Anton from the beginning. I do regret it a little due to how dependent on one another they became but there’s no fixing that now and they are doing better.

When I was forced into the Program, things just went to hell for me. I had to step away from the man I’d been protecting all my life, the man, I admit, I was in love with and say what you want, it hadn’t made me any less professional in my protection of him, it was unrequited as it was. I had to step away from my son, from my life, from everything I’d ever known and into a little, lost town somewhere that should have been almost like a vacation for all the sun and the sand but I hated it.

I hated not really having anything to do; I hated this restless feeling that came over me within the first few days of being out there. I was aware it was for my own protection until the trial had run its course—and it took years!—but I still hated every moment of it until Jean was back at my side.

Mind you, I did cheat. I should never have gotten back in touch with him but I had to. He was my reason for breathing and being, I suppose, in a way, I did start my job as his protector early enough on that my sanity might have been somewhat dependent on his presence as well.

With Jean back at my side, however, things just smoothed out. Sure, there were some new scars I wasn’t exactly happy to have but those had come from doing the job I’d been assigned here and it had been a lot more difficult than anything else should have been, my heart just hadn’t been into it because I was away from all that mattered to me and I had a few incidents until I did get myself back on track and I focused better. It made my boss at the time happy and it did give me something to focus on during a few hours of the day.

It wasn’t really enough but it was all I had and I wanted to go back home so badly that I would have faced a potential shot to the head if it had meant being around all those things I’ve been familiar with all my life.

At least, now, I have everything I need and want with me, so I’m all right.

They didn’t know one another yet.

Timeline/World: Days of War – United Eastern Alliance
Characters: Rafael Schakowsky
Race: Human
Age: 35
Final Word Count: 565 words

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Meeting new people in times of war turned out to be one of those things that were a lot more difficult than it was made out to be. You couldn’t tell who was on which side, if they were on a side at all and even if they were on the side opposing yours, there was also no telling if they were there willingly or unwillingly. I think this is what the issue was when we crossed paths with the Southern Rebels ship. Most of us had been with the United Eastern Alliance because it had been mandatory or we’d already been in the service when the war broke out but most of us didn’t want to go on rampages and kill everyone.

I can honestly say that not a single one of us on the medical ship we had started calling home by the time we’d been ‘stuck’ on it for more than a few months with no idea of when we’d ever go back home, wanted to wage a war, we were just trying to survive and help others do the same.

There were tensions when we first crossed paths but it was for an exchange. One of ours that had been shot down in their vicinity for one of theirs we’d picked up from a sinking ship. Ours was in surprisingly good shape and I want to believe he is the reason we’re still around one another, both of our groups. The other was a little ball of fury that was out to kill and maim everyone but Percy and that was a sight to behold considering Percy himself usually strayed far, far away from everyone due to his illness.

Meeting Larz and Casimir was a page turner for me. Sure, they worked for the Rebels but as it turned out, like quite a few of us out there, they really were just trying to survive this whole thing. The war had been going on for something close to a decade when any of us were old enough to enrol or join sides; I think we didn’t really have much of a choice in our lives by that point. The ones who refused to ‘pick sides’ never made it very long unless they were living far out in the countryside.

I learned to open myself up to others a little. I’d always preferred to mostly keep to myself because I just didn’t know what to do in situations like these. I was just one of the medics on the ship and I was more focused on making sure people made it off our ship alive and in as few pieces as possible if I could help it.

Do I miss being on the water? At this point, I don’t. We’ve been grounded for a decade and while I know it was hard for Mishkael up until we found him ways of being in the sky again, it’s for the best. With darkness all around and no electricity whatsoever, if we’d been on the ships while the solar flare took control of everything we’d ever known, we would have been stuck out there and I shudder to think of what could have happened once we’d have run out of rations and the rest.

So really, judging people for the side of things they’re on? Not the best of method to go about things.