If I told you everything, I’d lose my mysterious allure.

 
Timeline/World: Newfound Worlds – Erisia – Peculiar
Characters: Argus Areleous
Race: Human
Age: 23
Current residence: Peculiar, Erisia
Final Word Count: 771 words
 

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For a few months before we were set to finally step permanently into Peculiar, I was still trying to find someone who would take my spot. When I’d first accepted the job, so I’d be taking over my instructor, talk of Peculiar hadn’t really started. I think we’d still been digging through and walking the distance. Had talks of our move into this brand new world already happened, I wouldn’t have accepted.

Add to this that I ended up being saddled with the kid who clearly had the old guy fooled but not me about his interest in learning this particular trade and I was at a bit of a loss. It took me almost six months to get through to that kid and get him to pick another specialty. Six months that I could have spent trying to find someone else to take over for me.

It was only a month before we were due to step into that brand new world that someone finally stepped up to the job.

I had a month to teach them pretty much all I knew but, thankfully, they already had a good chunk of the knowledge they needed. They’d come from another job doing similar work but not quite the same. So, it really was just the finer details that I had to teach him.

As it turned out, he was a ridiculously quick study, and I can’t even put into words how glad I was for that. I hadn’t wanted to have to delay my departure any longer than I had to. I still had to figure out how to disappear in the end and I’d had in mind to send Justin ahead with the others that had been leaving on one particular day.

In the long run, I ended up mostly just sort of disappearing. I finished teaching the guy what I knew, avoiding answering his questions about why I was leaving since he’d so readily told me why he’d left his old job. Had I been the playful kind, maybe I’d have told him something about how I couldn’t just tell him everything as it would make me lose my mysterious allure. Which, you know, that’s such a load of bagged brown stuff that it makes me laugh. I have nothing that could even resemble allure and, you know, I’m fine with that. I have Justin with me and that’s all I want.

So, on the day we were mostly all supposed to head over, in batches throughout the day, I was ready. Most of my siblings already had, at that point, sort of disappeared. Most had faded into nothingness, little by little showing themselves less to the public. In the case of some others—Archelaos, for one—things ended up being a little different, but his methods worked too.

Seeing as few knew who I really was now that I’d had that particular job and I tended to keep my head low, I opted on just, you know, disappearing. Some possibly knew that most of us already had a presence underground to a point, and, well, it would be a lie to claim that the underground is free of violence, it is not. There is possibly more violence happening underground than not so that any of us might have somehow met our ends while underground isn’t all that far-fetched.

The thing is, though, my trade isn’t all that obsolete. We do have a couple of vehicles we were able to bring in. Getting them onto the transport was a feat in itself and I’m surprised by it all but I’m glad, on that same note. This place is huge. Alexandro still flies his drones out over the unknown parts, and it stretches out far and wide in all directions. Not far from where we are, going further and further away, there’s a forest and the deeper you go, the closer together the trees and other things growing out there so happen to be. I don’t know how long it’ll take until we head out into that to discover more of the world but, for now, I’m not in any rush.

There’s something about the air, it feels so fresh, even on the hotter days. The sun is bright, the sky is clear, and the rain tastes pure. I don’t even know if I really know what pure tastes like, but this is what it feels like out there. There’s just so much for us to discover and so much for us to do that the downtimes are more than deserved and they’re worked hard for.

I really appreciate being here.

None of you seem all that confident that this plan is going to work and that makes me a little reluctant to come along.

 
Timeline/World: Darkness of Space – Alcohol Inside
Characters: Tonic Fairchild
Race: Boozeling – Tonic
Age: 2 771, physically about 20
Current residence: Aboard the CS Black Coral
Final Word Count: 832 words
 

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I wasn’t sold on the idea of getting back onto that spaceship. For one thing, I knew how tight of a fit it would have been with all of us and while they readily accepted me and I tried my best to be part of the family, if you would, I’m still very much so a loner. I know that Cognac—Adrien, I know—is much the same. We’ve both tried as hard as we could but we’re the ones that came in ‘late’ to being added to the family. Adrien was found on a colony, and my pod was lost in space for more years than I care to think about.

So, when they first started talking about getting back on the ship, I didn’t really want to. The thing is, however, that they are family and despite the fact that I am not as close to any of them as I could be, they are my brothers, and I wouldn’t have wanted to be left behind. I figure that Adrien must have thought the same thing, I saw the look on his face when they first talked about the change. It must have mirrored my own because there was the flash of an understanding look that crossed his face back then.

As it, it is what it is at this point, truly.

So, I did get on that ship, I was glad to have my own room though it was small. It suited me just fine. Adrien did come to spend some time of the initial trip with me. We didn’t talk much, we merely sat together and did our own things. I miss the animals from the planet. I miss the big cat that I feel I had begun to almost make a friend out of. Had it been a possibility at all, I would have nearly wanted to take it with, but I know better. A big cat of the sort would have been miserable on that ship.

Maybe it wouldn’t have been quite as miserable on the new ship, but I still wouldn’t have done that. It wouldn’t have been fair one way or another. Said new ship is comfortable, I can’t complain. The rooms are much bigger, and they do try to include everyone during meal times and during the longer travelling time when we don’t have any proper destination.

Recently—though I’m sure they’ve been discussing it for a few months at this point—they’ve brought up the possibility of going to fetch Zen. I didn’t even really know that we had an extra brother and from what I’ve heard of the way they speak to him, he was shipped off to this faraway planet for the safety of others. It feels unfair that he was forced into that situation, but I don’t know anything about him, it is possible that he might be comfortable where he is, now. I won’t lie, there were days, though rare, that I somewhat wished that they had never found me. I wouldn’t have had to feel as though I didn’t belong—something of my own doing, really.

None of them seem all that confident that Zen might want to join us. He has been living on that planet for so long that I don’t know that he’s ever honestly met any of them. He seems aware of their presence—from communication that has come through—but that is all I know of the subject. That they seem to lack that certain confidence as to how their idea might or might not work out, in the end, makes me reluctant to even offer my thoughts on the subject. Not that I have much to offer.

In the long run, it really does come down to the fact of whether or not he would want to join us at all. One thing that also swayed my decision to join them, in the long run, is that all of us are gifted and not all of our gifts are easy to handle. We know how to support one another and if need be, I know that if I feel myself slipping, they will have my back. I am aloof in their presence, but they still are my brothers.

What if Zen has learned enough control for his gift that he might feel comfortable joining us? I really don’t know. It truly will come down to whether or not he even wants to see us at all. Until they have fully decided on whether or not we are dropping to the planet to see him, they will not tell him of the potential plan, and it makes sense. I would not want someone telling me that they might be coming only for them to change their mind and not show up. Especially if it is someone that I have not seen in too many years to count.

We’re almost at the planet, though; at least, that’s what I’ve understood. So, we’ll see.