You believed in me. You helped me when no one else would. I will never forget that.

Timeline/World: Edge of Forever – Shifting Sands
Current Date: January 30, 2023

Character: Favian Bach
Race: Human
Age: 33
Current residence: Salerno, Italy
 

---

I was headed to work when a man I hadn’t seen in years came up to me. I didn’t recognize him, not at first. He had been one of the first patients I’d ever had under my care. It had actually been near the very beginning of my residency and I suppose it might explain why I didn’t recognize him at first; that and the fact that he looked just so different from the man I’d met all those years ago.

Our meeting was brief, especially after it was clear to him that I did recognize him and he didn’t have to remind me of the whole sordid tale that had landed him under my care. He hugged me, something I didn’t expect but I somehow managed to not stiffen—I did faintly recall how much he had hated touch, back then.

His thanks were sincere, from the very depth of his soul, it felt like. Something about how I believed in him—I try to always believe in the patients that come to me, it’s just my way of doing things—and that I’d helped him when no one else would. He would never forget it.

I won’t lie, it took my brain a few moments longer to make sense of what he was telling me. I did recall how he used to fight and struggle against every single exercise I was trying to work on with him. He was hard-headed and refused to believe that he’d ever regain the use of his arm, hand and fingers ever again. Thinking a bit harder, I did remember that we weren’t the first place he’d been sent to for therapy. Supposedly—I’d only managed to skim the files before he was in the room—the other places had flat-out refused to help him for some reason.

I don’t get places like that. I really don’t. I mean, at times, we weren’t really all that better but it’s still baffling. I did recall how he’d sort of disappeared on us halfway through the session he was supposed to go through and that had been that.

For the brief time that I spent with him before stepping into work, it was clear that his hand was doing better. He still held his arm a little close to his person but he used his hands like a lot of us to talk and he was doing much better than he’d been when I last had seen him, so I could only assume that he’d possibly kept on working at it despite his disappearing act. It made me proud, in a way.

I smiled at him, told him that I was proud of how much progress he’d made since I’d last seen him and that I hoped he continued to keep up that good progress. I’m more than a little aware that our last encounter was years ago and, to some, it might not seem like much progress at all but I still believe in positive reinforcement, if it works for cats and dogs, it certainly works for humans and other non-humans as well—looking at you, Asher.

The smile on his face told me plenty; my words had been the ones he’d probably needed to hear. He thanked me again, told me that he prayed for me every day—I could have done without that, but that’s all right—and then he just kept on walking. I don’t even think that he’d planned on this meeting; it had just happened. He walked in the complete opposite way that I was going and he had been coming my way when our paths crossed.

It certainly helped with my day a bit, my patients ended up being a little grumpier than I’m used to them being and the one younger child I had to help turned out to be a bit of a mess. Not so much on the child’s part; the little one was patient as could be and wide-eyed willing to try the simple exercises I was showing them. The little one’s parents, however, were fussing. The mother far more than the father; she would constantly cut in while I was explaining the bit of work I expected to be done, whining about how it was too much, how her child wasn’t that strong, how it was asking for the moon and the stars and it was clear that I was not the only one exasperated by her behaviour.

Thankfully, after a busy, busy day, I managed to escape back into the fresh air and make my way back home. I’m not a fan of the days when Asher isn’t around but that’s okay; I think it’s not such a bad thing. When I’m not with him, I feel like I’m missing a small part of me and even though we’ve been reunited for not quite two years, it still feels strange to realize that I need him that much.

Final Word Count: 827

I had a dream where I glitched out, then ragdolled violently into the sky and honestly? I wish.

 
Timeline/World: Edge of Forever – Shifting Sands
Characters: Favian Bach
Race: Human
Age: 32
Current residence: Salerno, Italy
Final Word Count: 713 words
 

---

You know that mindset when you think that because you work at a different place, everything will be perfect, sunshine and rainbows? Well, that mindset hasn’t been wrong so far, it’s been pretty calm working there and most of the patients actually do want help and aren’t around just because they badly need to. It’s a pretty big change to how things were at the hospital.

With that said, it’s not perfect. It’s a good place, there are good people and it’s rare that anything seems out of place, but I’ve still heard a few of the patients talk and I’m always just so confused when I walk by their rooms. It’s not always the same people—I’d worry if I saw the same people day in and out, this is a clinic, after all—and that just makes it stranger.

The last odd thing I’ve overheard, though it was more in the slight waiting room than not, was this pair of young women—they looked to be in their mid-twenties though I could be wrong. One of them was telling her friend—I assume their relationship—that she’d had a dream where she’d glitched out, then ragdolled violently into the sky and somehow, she wishes it had been real.

Thinking about it, it worries me for her emotional wellbeing. No one in their right mind would want to be ragdolled violently into the sky. I don’t know how you can ‘glitch’ either, but I’m sure it was something too and just, it left me feeling a little worried most of the day. Wouldn’t have you felt it too? It’s not even what I specialize in, and I know that someone who feels like they could be flung out and about violently into the sky isn’t something that should be even thought of.

Now, there’s the whole patient confidentiality thing going on and as I didn’t know what the two of them were in for, I minded my own business, I kept walking, made it to my room and my waiting client and that’s that, really. I don’t remember seeing either one of them before, and I’m not sure I would want to see them again. It would just worry me that I’d hear something weird out of either one of them.

As someone who doesn’t remember his dreams much, maybe that’s why I can’t really place myself in her shoes if you would. Maybe they were just talking about a game, maybe they were talking about books, maybe they were talking about who knows what and the small little snippet I caught was so out of context that it’s inevitable that it wouldn’t make any sense.

It’s been nice, working here. It’s a lot less stressful and my debt is going down and down some more. By summer next year, I think I’ll have finally cleared it. At the hospital, I’m pretty sure that I still would have had to work on paying that debt back for another five years at the very least. It’s been a relief to budget things and notice just how much I can put aside and how much I can put into repaying that debt.

Living at the house has been something else, too. For years, I’ve been used to this tiny one-room apartment that wasn’t even a one-bedroom so much as it was a single room where everything was. I had so little to my name that I felt like I was surviving more than anything else and right now—and this is a bit weird to admit—but I sort of feel like I’m almost thriving. I don’t know how to put it using any other words. I never thought my life would go quite in the direction it has but I really can’t complain about it.

It feels good to not have to worry about whether or not I can make all of my payments and, well, I’ve been able to eat better in the last few months than I had in years and I feel generally healthier about everything, too.

It was a big jump, this move. It was a big thing to think through and weigh the pros and cons for, but it was very much worth it, and I have no regrets.

I’m letting all of my grudges go. I’m leaving this place, never coming back, and I’m starting anew.

Timeline/World: Edge of Forever – Shifting Sands
Characters: Favian Bach
Race: Human
Age: 30
Final Word Count: 686 words
 

---

I thought he was kidding, at first. I really did. He looked like he was kidding, then again, he usually did. It was how he handled the stress of this whole mess, this thing where this place sucks, it needs more people and new equipment but no one wants to work here and supposedly, we can’t fund the new equipment. I haven’t asked, I’m working here so I can finish repaying my debts and I’m managing well enough but I still have some good years ahead of me that are going to be spent paying that back.

He hasn’t been here long, though he told me that he’s lived here all of his life. He was working elsewhere up until now and I didn’t ask to know where he was working, it seemed like a touchy subject and I didn’t know him well when he first started working, it didn’t feel right to poke my nose right into his personal business.

He’s made of tough stuff, he handles the slight psychiatric ward we have that I honestly wasn’t even really aware we had, they keep it so quiet. It’s on the top floor and everything up there is hush-hush. Everything is locked-doors and reinforced windows though we have those down here on the main floor too. He says he’s ‘muscle’ up there. He keeps the doc and the nurse who work up there with him safe and he keeps the patients safe from one another.

The first time he mentioned them, he actually called them inmates and I know I stared at him, I stared at him long and hard until he just shrugged his shoulders and told me that with all the security that’s set up around the whole floor and the fact that these pretty bad cases rarely even get to leave their room, they seem more like inmates than patients. I took him to his word because I’ve never been up there and I know I’ll never be.

It’s only been about six months but we work pretty similar shifts so we tend to come in around the same time and leave around the same time. We don’t cross paths much during our work hours but still. I thought I knew him well enough, for someone who only got to talk to the guy while we were wandering outside a bit. We both walk and we live in the same direction, so to speak.

So on that particular morning, when he told me that he was letting go all of his grudges—he did tell me he had a rough childhood—and that he was leaving, never coming back and starting anew elsewhere, I was confused. I really did think he was kidding and, it’s weird, but for a few moments there, I swear I wanted him to ask me to go with him. My debts would follow me anywhere I went and I knew I was qualified for a job elsewhere but the thought of leaving this one to find something else was a bit terrifying and, well, he was just a sort of friend, not much more, so it wasn’t quite right that I had these particular thoughts.

He told me that he’d still be working for the next two weeks and then he’d be off.

That was two weeks ago and it’s just so weird that everything feels weirdly empty now that he’s gone. I don’t really understand what my brain is doing. I don’t want to think it might be my heart. I’ve never even given that much thought and somehow, I don’t think he has either. I mean, he could have but it seems unlikely and well, he’s gone, so what’s the point of thinking about this anyway?

My life’s just gone back to the routine it had before he came around. I just don’t have anyone to talk to on my walk home, even though we parted ways halfway through that walk because he lived some streets away from where I did. It’s just one of those things but I still feel a little lost.

Hasn’t anyone told you that you shouldn’t take candy from strangers?

 
Timeline/World: Second Chances – Breathing Again
Characters: Favian Bach
Race: Human
Age: 30
Final Word Count: 637 words
 

---

I miss my sister.

I know it might sound like something strange to say, something maybe out of the blue but I haven’t seen her in years and I feel as though I might never see her again. That might partially be my fault but at the same time, it might be for the best. She’s not dead, but on some days, it feels like she is.

I lost Emma to a car accident. Now, you might say that makes no sense, I just said she wasn’t dead but she’s as close to being dead as she might ever be. This car accident left her in a sort of vegetative state and it breaks my heart. My parents brought her back to the family home and that’s not only across the country, it’s across the ocean. I haven’t seen her in about six years at this point. The accident was eight years ago. I visited as often as I could manage after the accident and while she still was here but once they deemed her healed ‘enough’ to be released, well, my parents wasted no time, they swept her away.

There’s nothing left of my beautiful sister. There’s nothing but a shell and that shell doesn’t even look like her. She stares into nothingness all day; her food has to be pureed; she has to be bathed almost every day, it’s just the whole thing at all and I don’t think it’s far that they’re keeping her alive now when there’s no quality of life to things right now, there’s not.

I think that the part that makes me sad is that I was with her just an hour before that accident. It was a few days after Halloween and we were looking at old album photos where there have always been more photos of her than me but that’s all right. We were usually paired up in the holiday photos and during that particular evening, we’d been looking at Halloween photos from when we were really young but still old enough to mostly manage on our own with just dad following us along the sidewalks but not going with us to the house.

Emma used to remind me that I never should take candy from strangers, when we’d be going through our loot and I’d roll my eyes but then she’d snag this and that piece, telling me they were dangerous stranger-gifted-candy and that I couldn’t trust it. It made me laugh back then, mostly because it was her way of taking from my things the candy she liked—which, as it worked out well, I didn’t like—and she’d give me the ones of hers she didn’t care much for and those usually were my favourite.

For the longest time, I want to believe that Halloween was my absolutely favourite holiday because I could be anything I wanted. I could be a monster, I could be a princess—our parents frowned upon that one but Emma usually helped me to doll up—I could also by a pirate or a ghost. The possibilities were endless and it was the only time our parents let us actually eat candy in the house.

I’m not saying we ever sneaked candy while out of the house but we totally did. Emma was my big sister, she was my escape from reality, she was my best friend for the longest of times because I couldn’t manage to make friends, not easily. I just was that one shy kid who wanted to be everyone’s friend but just couldn’t manage easily. I suppose that’s changed since, in a way. I still don’t have any friends, not really. I do help others though and I think that’s enough for me.

It won’t bring Emma back but it keeps me occupied.

I’ve been trying to impress you, but nothing is going right.

Timeline/World: Main Profile
Characters: Favian Bach
Race: Human
Age: 29
Final Word Count: 603 words

---

Turning his mismatched eyes to the young nurse standing next to him, Favian blinks once, then a second time before he frowns briefly in thought and looks around, as though perhaps her words had been meant for someone else. The way she giggles tells him otherwise and he does all he can to refrain from breathing out an exasperated sigh. He wishes they would get the hint; just as he wishes, oh so very badly, that they would leave him alone.

He didn’t pick this hospital to pick up anyone as a life partner, let alone someone else in the medical field and especially not a woman. He wants someone whose passion differs from his but this whole thing is far from the point of the current situation.

Next to him, the nurse giggles softly and, when he finally spares her a glance, she winks at him before turning away and swaying her hips as she goes. He closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose lightly, carefully. There is only so much more of this he can handle before he has to do something about it and there’s not very much he can do. This hardly counts as harassment, at very least, he figures it doesn’t. She hasn’t done anything outrageous, not yet. She just keeps on trying to impress him or something else just as foolish so she might get his number but she’s just not going to get that number. It’s that one thing.

Favian doesn’t like to mix up his personal life and his working life. They are two completely separate entities. It also is why he would rather find someone who has a passion that differs from his, that way while they might discuss work a little, it would be as a broad subject and not as something that could potentially screw them over.

Shaking his head, glad to finally have some peace, he looks back down to the patient file he’d been trying to read when she came his way and he studies the bare bit of information they’ve been able to get out of his potential new patient. There is so little to the whole thing that he wonders just how much or not they’ve spoken to the young man or if he hadn’t regained consciousness yet and all there is in the file is from what he had on his person when they found him.

Favian isn’t even sure of what he’s stepping into, as far as this potential patient is concerned. All he knows—and he looks into the file a final time to confirm before tucking it under his arm and heading off—is that the young man is likely going to need a lot of work and patience. The level of muscle atrophy that will settle into his limbs as he’s forced to bed rest until his wounds heal will be unpleasant. That is if he ever gains control over his muscles again.

This is something he knows he can work with. Most of his patients are low-level cases but he’s always craved a chance to prove himself… to himself. Favian knows he doesn’t need anyone else’s approval to go on with his life and his profession, and he likes it just fine that way. It doesn’t mean that a challenge like the one he’s about to face isn’t welcome. On the contrary, while the accident that led to the situation was a bad one, he’s still glad enough to appreciate the chance to further his career. So long as he can help his patient to achieve his goals.