Ah, yes, as expected. Causing problems for me again. No surprise there.

Timeline/World: Newfound Worlds – Erisia – Peculiar
Current Date: August 7, 1401

Character: Acheron Areleous
Race: Human
Age: 23
Current residence: Peculiar, Erisia
 

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Peculiar, for me, has turned out into a dream. A dream that has quite a bit of ups and downs, but a dream. While I haven’t worked on my own to get our plants to grow the way they have, I feel as though it is my knowledge and my experience with the botany side of things and the time that I’ve spent in the farm domes that have pushed things further along.

I refuse to take all the credit for the fact that we’re more than just surviving at this point. We’re certainly not thriving quite yet but the plants are growing strong, the game we’re hunting out there is enough to feed all of us and the fishes are super tasty. We’re living. It’s easier in the late spring to mid-fall, of course, as we have plants still growing strong but even after the first summer ended and turned into fall, we started to can things in preparation for winter. We had plenty of preserved stuff and even a setup that allowed us to grow things even in the winter, but not half as much as in the summer.

All in all, I’ve been loving nearly every second of it. I’ve managed to create hybrids of certain things and discovered so many new plants out here, it’s amazing. There’s never a dull day though I’ve been made to slow down every so often because I think I’d sleep in our greenhouse if I were given a chance to. I doubt my delightful partner would appreciate this. I just get swept up into things like these, I can’t help it.

As of late spring, though, I’ve had one particular plant that I set to grow into a pot. It was a new sort of hybrid I’d managed to put together from three different things, but it had been struggling a little bit. I got the idea for it when I realized that two of the trees not far from where we set up our camp and fixed up the structures that were already there were hybrid themselves. During that first summer season, we got no fewer than three different citrus fruits out of those trees and it was as baffling as it was interesting.

The plant in question, however, is frustrating me more than not. At first, I had kept it not too far from the others, I knew what it liked to be surrounded with and I’d tried that but the second morning, after I’d moved it the afternoon before, I found out that it had somehow grown enough that it had reached out and literally just smothered the plant next to it with its climbing vines. Clearly, not the result I was looking for.

So, I moved it.

That same afternoon, it had somehow managed to grow enough that it was near in reach of the closest plant to it… almost four feet away. I have no idea what part of the plant is leading to these results but it’s frustrating, to say the least. I don’t want it to just sit on its own because I know it still needs to be near others. I’ve thought about placing it in an empty area but somehow, I’m sure it still would find ways of causing problems.

At this point, I’ve come to expect it to cause issues. It’s one problem after the other. If I move it just far enough out of the reach of others, it begins to wilt, as though depressed by that distance, if I move it too close, it reaches out and tries to smother others. I’ve been playing back and forth with it because I’m trying to see it grow to its full potential, but I think that I’ve given it more than plenty of time by now. There’s only so much that I can do, and it isn’t truly showing signs of getting any wider or stronger.

All it has done at this point is reach out to taller heights and every day, I find myself wondering if I shouldn’t just unpot it because I can’t dump it out there. It would be a new plant, an unknown to nature out there and considering how it reacts here in the greenhouse, I’d be worried that it would somehow find means of smothering everything out there around us and in some years from now, this thing would end up being invasive and we’d have no nature left to work with, at least, none that wouldn’t be this plant.

I’ve yet to do that because I really did have high hopes for this particular hybrid, but I think it’s really time. I don’t want to, but I’ll have to.

Final Word Count: 785

Why is it that I can never have one normal dream? Why are they always so strange and make no sense?

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Hopeful Beginnings
Characters: Acheron Areleous
Race: Human
Age: 18
Current residence: Klahanie, Washington
Final Word Count: 779 words
 

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Words cannot explain the relief I felt when I walked out of that school for the summer, never to return again. It really wasn’t so much the heading out for the summer, but far more the point that I wouldn’t have to ever set foot in this school ever again. It was a relief in ways I really have no words for and it’s not even because the school itself was bad, no; it was for the fact that I wouldn’t have to see that psychologist ever again. In a way, I think I could have cried.

I don’t know why she had it out for me. It might not be the right way of looking at things, but it is what it felt like. All of my other siblings had had maybe two, three visits to the shrinks, her and the other one, and they’d all been given the all-clear. They were nice, there were no lasting issues, all was right in the world. Little old me, though, nope, no such luck. Okay, I had nightmares for a little while after he was taken away, but they had resolved themselves within the first few months but still, she persisted.

I’ve been adapting to life without having to see her every month. It’s been a change. It might not seem like much, having to go see a psychologist every month, but when you’re doing fine and you don’t see the need to talk to her, the hours dragged on and that fake smile of hers just got on my nerves. I always felt like she was just waiting for me to say just that one particular thing that one small, barely-there thing that would get her back in that mode of hers that would have forced me to go back more often than once a month.

It’s been just so quiet. I haven’t had any nightmares; I haven’t had any bad dreams, it’s been really nice.

I’ve even found a job, something I don’t think I could have held on to while still at the school. I could have tried but I get this feeling that it wouldn’t have worked in my favour. I found a job at a garden centre of sorts, I spend a lot of time in the nursery, it’s been really nice. It’s not what I want to do with my life but I’m mostly trying to get all of my things in order before I take that much bigger step that is university and all.

I like my co-workers well enough. Some are a little odd, but I think it adds a small something to the job. I mean, not everyone can be the same, right? That’d be mighty boring if we all were. One of said co-workers is something I’m struggling a little to get along with. It’s not that he’s a bad person, but for one thing, he doesn’t have much of a green thumb and they usually keep him on the registers, but now and again he’ll help unload some of the bigger things.

Without fail, every time my lunch hour coincides with his, he’ll come and sit with me, no matter that I sit as far out of the way as I can because I like my quiet and I just want a peaceful lunch. He’ll come, he’ll sit next to me, he’ll start talking about everything and nothing. His preferred subject of discussion lately so happens to be the fact that he seems to think he has no normal dreams. All of his dreams are strange and make no sense whatsoever and I don’t really have the heart to tell him that I don’t want to hear about them.

I’ve spent years being asked about my dreams and nightmares, it’s not even been quite a full year yet that I’ve had peace from that, and I really just want to not have to think about anything that might relate to dreams ever again. I know that it’s going to be inevitable, I know that it’ll happen, but why did he pick me to be the one person he talks to about these things? Then again, I haven’t really asked the others if he’s done similar to them or not. I mean, it’s possible that it’s all he really does talk about, at this point. What are the chances that I’m the only one he does this with?

It’s not that he even goes into detail about his dreams; all he really talks about is how they’re weird and they make no sense. I don’t even know what he dreams about and, you know what, I’m seriously fine with that.

I don’t think I’ve ever given you a reason to hate me.

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Family Values
Characters: Acheron Areleous
Race: Human
Age: 16
Current residence: Warwick, New York
Final Word Count: 836 words
 

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School goes by so fast. There are days when I feel as though I’m still, I don’t know, ten or eleven. I know I’ve long since gone past that part of my life, that’s beside the point, but it’s there. It’s just so strange in its own way. I know how time works—somewhat, the whole detailed science behind it isn’t something I need to think about much—and I know that I’m never going to go back in time but there are mornings when I feel as though things are different and I’m briefly confused to realize that no, I’m not that little boy I used to be anymore.

Most of my free time, when Patrick isn’t around, is spent helping Elliott with the greenhouse and the gardens. I’ve found myself with such a love for all things plants and flowers that I like spending my time with Elliott. On that same thought, though, I know that this isn’t what I want to do with my life. I might be young, but I’ve always been fascinated with the earth in general but, I’ve always had a certain odd—some would say, I’m sure—fascination with all things earthquakes. I want to understand where they come from, I want to be able to help people.

I know that I’m too young to remember it, but some of my older siblings have mentioned that it was possibly one of the countless earthquakes that our old home was subject to that sealed the deal on the big family move and, well I guess it’s one of those things. I mean, you don’t just move a family of twenty-plus individuals just because you feel like it, in the end. That’s how I see it, anyway.

When the weather started warming up even just a little, I’d gone to the store to pick up a few things we would need to help our outdoor plant beds. Usually, I know that most of the flowers around the house are perennials and we don’t need to do anything about them but make sure they pop up again, but one particular area of the garden had gotten bare around the end of the summer last year and Mother had given me the okay to do something about it once weather permitted.

A lot of people in school know about my fascination with plants. Clean as I might be, I suppose that there are mornings when I’ll be helping Elliott briefly out in the greenhouse before school and I might just not completely scrub my hands clean, or forget a spot somewhere, so showing up to school with my pristine uniform but a smidge of dirt somewhere isn’t all that much of an unknown.

As such, I guess, there was a potential that I would cross someone from school while at the nursery. I mean, it’s a store that is always hiring new people and it isn’t all that far from the school, so it’s one of those things, isn’t it?

I knew that Stella worked there. She did nothing to hide the fact that her parents had made her get a job and she hated it. She complained that it wasn’t right that she had to get her hands dirty in life. She had so much money that she shouldn’t even have had to think about work and, yeah, she’s one of those. I don’t know why her parents made her get a job, it’s none of my business.

What I do know, though, is that when I stepped into the nursery, she zeroed in on me like she’d been expecting anyone she might have known to come in and man, she was ready for war. I’d barely stepped inside that she was more or less in my face and telling me to get out. That’s not exactly a great way of treating customers if you ask me. Not that I told her as much. She was the only one in the outside nursery at this point; it wasn’t wholly surprising, it still was chilly and only a certain few plants could handle being in pots in that weather.

Telling me to get out wasn’t exactly good for business though and when I didn’t budge, she repeated herself and I very quietly told her that I’d never given her a reason to hate me, so she had no reason to treat me like an enemy. She stomped her dainty little foot—who the heck wears short hells in a plant nursery anyway—and I made my way around her. I wasn’t interested in the outside plants anyway.

I didn’t mention her behaviour to anyone. I don’t know whether I should have or not, but I’m still not going to give her any extra reasons to turn her childish little snippets of anger on me, so pass, really.

I did find all that I was looking for, though, and I was pretty happy to go home with it all, let me tell you.

All of you left me out here! Do you know how bad I am at survival?

 
Timeline/World: Newfound Worlds – Erisia – Rockbourne Dome
Characters: Acheron Areleous
Race: Human
Age: 21
Current residence: Rockbourne Dome, Erisia
Final Word Count: 831 words
 

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Our last drop still feels like a farce. I know it wasn’t, on that same note, I know that considering how few of us are left in the drop group, their last drop this summer is probably going to feel even more like a farce. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to admit it to myself at this point but I’m ready to head out to Peculiar when we’ll be able to. Things have started to settle out there, as far as I know. The buildings that were already there are nearly all fixed up, there are a few fields that have been planted. I know it’s going to be a survival game for the first while, but we all know how that goes and I’m not even worried.

The last drop, though, I haven’t even been able to bring myself to entertain the idea of going onto extra drops for the sake of those of our group still going. The whole point of the drops is simple. You’re dropped out there, you survive, you get picked back up. Between each drop, from the moment you’re old enough to, you’re taught exactly how to do that: survive. You’re taught what to do in nearly any situation. You’re taught how to find food, what can and cannot be eaten. You’re taught how to deal with wounds, sprains, even breaks.

Whether or not you retain that knowledge, however, is on you.

I don’t know if it’s because the teaching has become lax since the new laws, or if the younger generation just assumes that since things are a little less try-to-kill-you and a little more everyone-works-together that they can just be little babies, and everything will be all right. That’s not how it works. You still have to do your part. You still have to help, and you can’t just sit on your rump and expect that everyone will bend down lower than low to attend to your needs.

On the last summer drop, something a bit like that did happen. There was this boy, I figure it might have been his first drop, but his face was familiar enough that I’m sure he had an older brother, or even an older sister, who’d been on drops before. Whether or not those drops were always part of our groups, I don’t know. I just know that plenty seemed familiar with him.

We got dropped off not far from the lake. Some actually did get dropped in the lake but that’s on par with the usual course of events. We’re all taught how to swim, even if there really isn’t anywhere for us to swim at, other than the one pool where we’re taught. The lake is a good way of teaching us that the water isn’t always going to be clear and there might be things swimming around you when you’re in there.

So, we got dropped, we all gathered, we found a suitable spot for the tent-city, and we mostly just went from there. You’d think that this would be the end of that but… not really.

On the second day, we realized that the area that had been picked wasn’t all that great, it was partially on muddy ground and some of the tents had actually slipped away during the first night. How they hadn’t realized that their tents weren’t secure while they attached them to the ground is beyond me. One tent in particular—our complainer’s tent—somehow slipped even further down than anyone else’s. He was yards down a small slope. I know that no one really goes around, checking every tent once they’re set. That’s up to you to make sure your tent is secure. We’re stricter in the winter because every tent actually ends up being attached together to really form a tent-city but it’s different during the other drops.

The kid woke up, later than anyone else, noticed he was pretty far—so to speak—away from the rest of us, and just, the rest happened. He left his tent unattended down that slope, climbed back up and was somehow out of breath when he came back up. Then he started crying and wailing that we’d left him out there while we all knew just how terrible he was at survival. Most of us might have ended up just staring at him blankly. He was down a slope—not even a very steep one. He hadn’t secured his tent properly, he hadn’t even noticed that he wasn’t on flat ground, and he could see the rest of tent-city from the bottom of the slop. How he somehow equated all of that into how we’d abandoned him is beyond me.

His behaviour was the worst of the bunch, but we had several small little things like that, that just made me want to roll my eyes so hard they’d pop out of my head.

So yeah, I’m more than ready for us to head into Peculiar.

If you hate them so much, why are you even competing in a nice competition with them? Passive-aggressive kindness?

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Hopeful Beginnings
Characters: Acheron Areleous
Race: Human
Age: 17
Final Word Count: 713 words
 

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A few more months and that was it. He would be free of the woman who had been bothering him for years at this point. She had made it so very clear to him that as long as he was a student at the school, he would have to come and see her. She refused to sign that tiny little bit of paper that would declare him just fit and fine to be out and about in society after his father had been taken away by even little men in black.

Except that these men—and potentially women—in black had done him a favour. That hadn’t stopped him from having nightmares. He hadn’t had a nightmare in close to a year at this point but still, the woman refused to let him stop coming. Once a month, every month. It had been going on for years and he knew she was just fishing to find other things that might bother him.

He wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d tried to fake him having other issues just to keep him coming.

Acheron just didn’t know why she kept on acting this way, it was frustrating, to say the least. At every single one of their meetings, she would greet him with that fake smile of hers and ask how he was doing—he was fine—if he’d had any nightmares—not in the last several months—if there was anything he wanted to talk about—not really—and so on. The hour dragged on and he had to do his best to not zone out, otherwise, she would start in on his case again about whatever it was he saw when he wasn’t ‘there’ mentally.

Usually, as he waited for her to see him, he would mostly be on his own in the little waiting room. His appointment was just before lunch and it seemed to be a quiet time all around. Thankfully—though maybe not so—the appointment so happened to be during his free period. He would have appreciated having his free periods to do things other than talk to the woman, even if just once a month, however. Not that he really had a say.

On his last appointment, just before the holidays, there had been a set of twins settled in two of the chairs in the waiting room. He’d only spared them a glance before tuning them out. He just didn’t really want to talk to anyone else. Maybe they weren’t there to talk to his doctor. Acheron knew that there was more than one of them at the school, most of his siblings had been separated between the other two, that he somehow had been stuck with this one still exasperated him. She hadn’t been so bad at first but now he just wanted June to be closer and closer and closer. As close as possible and then right there and done.

As much as he had tried to tune the twins out, the fact that they were talking in only partially hushed whisper somehow had made it more difficult. Had they been talking quieter or, even so, at a normal volume, he could have ignored them fully but at that point, he couldn’t. He tried but their talk of hating someone but participating in a friendly competition against them was all he could hear. Something about passive-aggressive kindness.

He’d heard about passive aggressiveness, the doctor had even accused him of acting in a passive-aggressive manner before when he had given her the exact answer she’d wanted for her question, but perhaps not in the way she had wanted it. He’d just blinked at her and had been more than a little grateful that the bell had rung.

Of course, she’d kept him back another ten minutes just to remind him that he was expected for his next appointment in a month’s time and that if he felt the need to talk more, she was always there for him, but he’d nearly run out when she’d finally told him he could go. He’d managed not to, keeping himself at a nice, even pace but the sooner he’d left, the better it had been.

The faster he could get out of her office, the saner he felt.

My good ideas are often disguised as bad ones. Like this one. You’ll see.

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Family Values
Characters: Acheron Areleous
Race: Human
Age: 15
Final Word Count: 695 words
 

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I’m glad I have my brother back. Since they changed the type of medication he used to take, his moods have settled and he’s almost back to how he used to be. I don’t know that he’ll ever be how he was before and that might be for the better. It wasn’t healthy, that behaviour from before the medication but he still was my brother one way or another, I just want him to be happy.

I knew I had my brother back, for real, about six months ago. Every now and again, someone still would say something that would set him off and he’d just randomly start crying. It had become pretty rare but, yeah, six months ago was something of a real test—an unexpected one—and he passed with flying colours. At least as far as I’m concerned.

We were helping clear out the classroom after a particularly messy presentation. The type where you know the guy is going to tell you that he’s had a great idea, but he was pretty sure everyone would see it as a bad one but that’s because his good ideas as usually disguised as bad ones. He was sure this one was the best idea yet.

Well, Adriano, myself and two others were stuck cleaning glitter and drying foam from quite a lot of places in the classroom, somehow including the ceiling, and the guy himself was not helping, so no, it was not a good idea.

I can’t honestly remember who it was that was helping us clean out, I mean, it was a while ago. I do remember that they made a comment about how we were slow and they wanted to go home. Usually, that kind of thing, even when spoken in jest because it was, would have set Adriano off. He’d have been in tears for no reason other than a still present hormonal imbalance and the poor sap stuck on clean-up duty with us would have floundered trying to get him to stop crying.

No, instead of crying, which I’d half expected because the rest of the day hadn’t been so great, he barked off a laugh and actually finished sweeping the area he’d been working on. He said that if we were so slow, we certainly wouldn’t have been near done at that point. All in all, he joked back and it just felt so good. Something loosened in me; something I don’t think I realized had been still tightly coiled inside of me.

It’s just, I spent so long just being there, waiting for the inevitable break down because it happened so often, too often, with the meds he used to take before now, that it was a constant worry for me. I’m not going to lie, I think that I might have felt a little chained at the ankle. I love my brother, I do. I love him more now that he doesn’t cry at the drop of a pin though I know it was, in no way, his fault.

You can’t change someone, I accepted him as he was but, on that same note, I’m so happy that he’s gotten better. It might never be permanently fixed but with my presence, with Flynn and Patrick both around to just be an extra balm on both of our souls, we’re in a happy place.

And oh, that guy with the bad idea that clearly wasn’t a good idea disguised as a bad one? Failing grade for that presentation and he got dropped a year, he had to start his school year all over again and I’m pretty sure he got transferred into another school because, seriously, making a glitter and foam volcano and then not staying behind for the clean-up isn’t right. It also had nothing to do with the subject that was the reason behind the project in itself so all in all, I think that, while it may make me sound like I don’t care, I think he sort of deserved to get that failing grade. Anyone can make a volcano and it was a crappy idea to add glitter to it all.

There’s no way they can’t see how they look at each other.

 
Timeline/World: Newfound Worlds – Erisia – Rockbourne Dome
Characters: Acheron Areleous
Race: Human
Age: 19
Final Word Count: 666 words
 

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I don’t know how people do it. It seems like something that would just bore anyone to tears. Watching other people. They call it ‘people-watching’ and it makes me want to gag, seriously. I mean, I get that paying attention to people to figure them out a little more is one thing, but these people, they just sit there and watch everyone else just because they have nothing else to do and it just makes no sense whatsoever to me. I don’t get the point, you have to be so bored with your life to do this, I swear.

What feels like an even worse thing about it is the gossip. I’d been standing not far from them, waiting on refreshments to be brought to me so I could leave again and it was hard not to listen to them because they weren’t trying to keep to themselves. Their voice was at a normal level, they weren’t whispering though they clearly weren’t yelling. Their voices were the loudest nearby and they were the only ones at the bar—I was getting stuff with bubbles in it but no alcohol, thank you—and they were hogging the place, it felt like.

They were talking about how this person or that one was acting like such-and-such, or that this pair or that one couldn’t be so blind as to not see that it was clear they were likely madly in love with one another, it was in how they looked at one another. Little pointless comments that made me pause and turn my attention to them for a minute, I studied them, sure. I wanted to know who they were to just decide they could openly judge everyone who surrounded them at that point.

At least I managed to keep my disgusted noise to myself but that’s how I felt about their behaviour. I’m sure it was probably an over-the-top reaction, this is probably something other people do as well but I just couldn’t understand it. What’s the point of just sitting there, watching strangers and claiming you know what’s going on in their lives or that you know what’s going on in their heads? There’s no point.

I was more than a little glad to get my two bottles of clear, bubbly stuff because it meant I could leave and I did. I’m pretty sure I heard one of them comment on my ass as I left but I didn’t pay them much mind. I think that if I’d had company, though, that might have been a little different but it’s fine this way and it’s probably safer for their heads.

Did I look at all the people the pair was judging as I made my way out? No. I don’t want to know these people, though I’m pretty sure I spotted someone who’s with us on our drops usually but so what? I’m not here to make friends, not really. I’m here to mind my own business, I’m here to help now and again when they need my help with the self-defence classes and I’m here to just get away from up top.

Usually, I actually would have gone to the waterfall that sits nearly up against the dome edge but in this weather, it hasn’t been really pleasant to head there and it’s warmer down here. I’m pretty sure I’m coming down with something because I usually don’t even mind being out there when there’s that fine layer of snow everywhere. I think it’s sort of really pretty and it’s a shame it melts so quickly. Sure, there’s more of that white fluff during the drops and that’s not quite as much fun but that’s probably also why I don’t really go to the waterfall in this season. It’s not shut off but the water, as it splashes, is so cold, that spending time out there isn’t actually very fun.

So don’t mind me and I won’t mind you.

I’m on a mission and I can’t afford distractions. That means you.

 
Timeline/World: Alternate Earth – Birds of a Feather
Characters: Acheron Areleous
Race: Human
Age: 13
Final Word Count: 591 words
 

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Everything feels like it’s been off with my brother for a while. One moment he’s smiling and the next he’s in tears and there’s seemingly nothing to be done about it but wait for it to pass. It feels like the triggers are completely random. Someone might say something about the weather and he’ll start crying. Someone might say something a little mean and he’s crying, someone might thank him and he’s in tears.

In a way, I don’t care, not really. He’s my brother, that’s never going to change. I love him. I’m just worried about him, though. I’ve talked about it to our parents and I know he’s got pills he’s supposed to take but they don’t seem to be helping. I honestly feel like they’re making things worse because his mood swings have worsened since. I just don’t know if I’m really seeing these worsened mood swings or if I’m imagining them.

I don’t want to keep on bringing this up, it makes me feel like I’m trying to change my brother into something else and that’s furthest from the truth. I just want my smiling Adriano back, that’s all.

Yesterday morning, we were in class and we crossed a student from one grade under ours that we’ve only crossed a few times. He seemed to be searching for something but I wouldn’t be able to tell anyone what that might have been. Still, we both said hello, since that’s just how we usually are but he turned to look at us with a really weird look in his eyes and told us that he was on a mission and couldn’t afford distractions. That part was fine, I could have handled it and even Adri seemed to not have flinched—a good thing!—except then, the younger boy pointed a finger not in my direction but in my brother’s own and added in a low, almost angry ‘and that means you!’

That just ruined it all. The waterworks were instantly on and I know that before whatever had taken over my brother had come to be, he never would have even reacted. He’d have maybe even laughed a little.

I spent the next ten minutes just holding him and telling him that it was all right, telling him that everything was fine. It made us late for class but all I wanted was for my brother to be okay, for him to stop crying.

These reactions from him just break my heart. What do I have to do to get my Adri back? I know Flynn and Patrick have noticed too, things have been slowly going downhill between Adriano and Flynn and I still can only watch from a distance. There’s no way to explain this, not really. It also doesn’t feel like it’s my place to mention something I don’t know much about. Spreading false information and all.

Today so far, everything has been fine, there hasn’t been a single tear that I can tell. He’s been upbeat and smiling and he’s been helping me with the garden outside though I know he’d rather be scribbling out plans and designs. He just loves everything that’s architectural and Mother has had a copy of the manor plans done for him just so he could study it. I mean, he asked for it and I know she’d give each of us the moon—or try to—if we were to ask for it.

Our parents are the best, really. That’s not something I could have said just a few years ago.

How often do you see that?

 
Timeline/World: Urbana LaCrosse University – Hopeful Beginnings
Characters: Acheron Areleous
Race: Human
Age: 14
Final Word Count: 552 words
 

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He didn’t like talking to the doctor. At times, she seemed to ask questions that were completely out of the blue and made no sense with the discussion that was being had.

When their father had been taken, they’d all been asked to see the doctor a few times, just to make sure that they were all right. For the most part, they were done. He knew that most of his siblings had stopped seeing the doctor after a handful of appointment. Some still went and he was one of them. Adriano had changed doctors and for the past two years or so, he’d been dutifully taking his prescribed pills on a daily basis and there had been a difference. It had been mild but it was there.

He still was stuck seeing the woman because he still had nightmares and at times those were affecting his grades. Not that his nightmares were common or his grades were slipping much but she was insistent that he keep on seeing her. If nothing else, at least he only had to see her once a month. It still was too much but it was better than the once a week it had been right after the incident.

The only other thing he was just barely grateful for is that she came to the school, so he didn’t miss out on his free time during his weekends. His weekends were important and he didn’t want to be stuck in a stuffy office with a woman he didn’t like. It was one hour, one day a month, always on the same weekday, always the same hour so it was easy to remember though he was often tempted to act as though he’d forgotten. He’d done that just once and she hadn’t been very pleased with him.

He knew that the issue wasn’t so much with the woman as with the fact that he didn’t really like her. She felt rough around the edges to him and reminded him of his father now and again when she told him of the ways he was supposed to be acting instead of how he was acting.

Last time he’d had to spend time with her, last Wednesday, right after lunch, he’d zoned out. He’d gone completely unfocused and she’d almost snapped at him when he’d finally focused back on the discussion at hand. She’d also gone on a completely new subject, asking him how often he was seeing ‘that’. He’d blinked at her, pondered the question for a moment and asked her what she meant by ‘that’. She’d made a motion to where he had been sitting and had talked about how his eyes had gone out of focus so, clearly, he had seen something else. That something else was ‘that’.

It had made no sense and her fake conspiratorial whisper as though she was trying to trick him into believing her on his side hadn’t worked. He wasn’t crazy. He wasn’t seeing anything that wasn’t there and no amount of talking to her and her asking how often he saw ‘that’ would make it real. Ghosts might have existed but he didn’t know if he believed and it had nothing to do with the fact that he was stuck talking to her.

Why couldn’t he just be done?

Don’t leave before I’m ready.

 
Timeline/World: Erisia – Rockbourne Dome
Characters: Acheron Areleous
Race: Human
Age: 18
Final Word Count: 612 words
 

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My family isn’t one that’s prone to showing weakness, or at least, we used to be that way. Now that major general asshole is dead, things have changed but despite the fact that it’s been a little while since he died, we’re still wrapping our heads about what it means to be human, what it means to be more than just perfect soldiers and what it means to be more than just a unit. We still jokingly refer to ourselves as a unit and we’re the best there is but there are cracks in our armours and I think I’m actually pretty glad for that.

Learning that my own twin brother is as human as he truly is, was an eye-opening thing, however. He’s always been keep-to-himself, even through pain he’s been the type to just shut me out and deal with it on his own and I’ve hated that particular habit of his but what could I do, really?

I did finally learn of another side of him and I can’t put into words just how grateful I am that he’s let me see that side of him. He’s always been a little skittish and quiet but like the rest of us, he’s always internalized everything. Most of us have learned to externalize but there still are limits to how much we’re willing to talk about what bugs us.

Now, I’m thinking that the last time this whole thing happened, it was mostly a case of his fever bringing that almost clingy side of him to the surface but he’d been feverish before and it hadn’t been like that.

During the winter grinder, he slipped. There’s always one of us who falls, that’s sort of the point of the stupid grinder—not really but still—and he fell into a puddle that was a lot deeper than it looked on the surface. He barely managed to finish through the whole grinder because his teeth were chattering so hard I thought they were going to break. He could barely manage to put a foot in front of the other. His whole uniform was soaked through. A medic did try to get him to change but he wouldn’t hear of it and that’s just how we are.

I stayed with him while he struggled through the fever. Thankfully I wasn’t alone but every time I was getting ready to switch places with either Flynn or Patrick, Adriano would give me this wide-eyed look and ask me not to leave until he was ready. He looked so vulnerable, it was heart-breaking. Mind you, I hadn’t had in mind to leave him on his own at all, I usually was only getting up to see if the guys were coming around to take their turn so I could try to get a bit of sleep so I wouldn’t have left him.

It was such a new thing though. I mean maybe I would have acted the same way if it had been me sick and feverish in that bed? It’s possible. I trust him with my life and if I’d felt as close to the never-world as he probably did for how bad his fever spiked, I would have likely not wanted him to leave me on my own at any point even if I couldn’t get away with not leaving.

He’s my brother, he’s my world. If somehow, something were to happen to him, I know I would feel incomplete, no matter who else might be around me to keep me going. I don’t tell him that often enough but it’s still hard to articulate emotions this way.