We all know you stopped listening to what I was saying five minutes ago, so your input is not appreciated.

 
Timeline/World: Through the Looking Glass – Atheria 2nd Generation
Characters: Order Caelum
Race: Demon – God of Order
Age: 1 506, physically about 27
Current residence: Atheria City, Eresiel
Final Word Count: 752 words
 

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It would be an interesting lie to state that I’ve always gotten along with my brother. We are of two absolutely opposing powers though that, in a way, is what makes us work fairly well together, in the long run. Even when we were younger, before the powers were granted, though they were granted from a young age, he was fairly headstrong and more often than not, I knew he wasn’t paying attention to a single thing I told him.

I used to let it slide. I mean, I’m more than a thousand years his elder, he had all rights to not want to listen to this old fart, if you would. I could understand where he was coming from just fine. In a way that most might not be able to wrap their minds around, we truly are related. Our parents are indeed the same and no, there are no other siblings between him and me. Let’s just say that I was possibly planned, and they had then decided that the one was more than enough and my brother, well, a little slip here and the rest is history.

Remembering our parents seems moot, at most times. From the moment I was actually mature enough to handle myself, they weren’t exactly present in my life, which made it all the more startling that they’d had another offspring so long after they’d had me. They left him to his own devices even earlier on than they had me; it might be why we bonded in the way we did and were gifted at nearly the same time.

Thinking back, I’m fairly certain that I spent more time with him once our parents had left him behind. We both lost track of them and it was possibly for the best. By that point, he still was fairly immature, but he was young, and I didn’t hold it against him. I had no qualms about reminding him that when he stopped listening to me, however, he had no room for input on the decisions that made up the big changes to our lives and there were fairly big changes back then.

In a way, I think this is possibly what shaped things. What taught him that, at times, not listening to your elders wasn’t in your best interest. Not that I expected him to just stop and listen to me as though his life depended on it, but I did need him focused on what I had to tell him every so often. There were times when we had to decide on things that had fairly big impacts on our lives and those decisions couldn’t be just taken without long discussions and, even before the gift, long discussions weren’t something he cared much for.

I want to believe that the way things happened has led us to where we are now. There were good decisions, there were bad decisions, but in the general sense of things, things balanced themselves out.

Sure, everything went to hell when the puppeteer came about. I want to believe that even if I hadn’t been around, Chaos would have been able to keep his power rooted, but the puppeteer was surprisingly strong and while I take no credit for my brother keeping a secure grip on his control, but I was there with him and I believe that we balanced one another out.

Some believe that order is perfect. Order is not perfect. As an individual, I am furthest from perfect and my power, if pushed too far, is not a good thing. Those who seek perfect order may never find it. For things to be exactly as they should be and ordered just perfectly so to the tiniest of details… well, it will never happen.

On smaller scales, I’m well aware that my power can do good, but on much bigger scales, much as light and darkness are one and cannot truly be separated, order and chaos cannot thrive without the other. There needs to be a balance and that balance cannot be achieved when everything is on one single side of your scale. At best, everything will topple and need to be done over, and over again.

We’ve come a long way. We’ve changed as we’ve moved along in our lives, and I think that the paths we took and the mistakes we’ve made have made us into who we are, and these very people are exactly as they should be. No one will change my mind.

It was like watching two storms clash; you two can never agree on anything.

 
Timeline/World: Through the Looking Glass – Atheria 2nd Generation
Characters: Order Caelum
Race: Demon – God of Order
Age: 1505, physically about 27
Final Word Count: 710 words
 

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I do find comfort in things being orderly but it is not something I crave. Not everything has to be placed just so. Not every action has to be done just quite right; my need for nice and neat things has nothing on the gift of my godhood. I think I would have lost myself to insanity long ago if that need had been a necessity and I very much so doubt that I would have ever let her into my life.

Can you imagine? Everything in its place to the millimetre close. If it was so much as out of place in a way only I could see, things would not have ended well. Adding someone into that kind of obsessive behaviour is unhealthy and would have only led to heartbreak and devastation, I’m certain.

No, I’m not one for absolute cleanliness and order. I do like a clean house, I do like things neat but I do not need them to be placed just so and they can even be set elsewhere, so long as the final, long-term result is pleasing to the eye.

Such was not the way of life long ago, while I still was young, even prior to my brother ever being born.

It was actually a little before I came to have this power handed to me, a power that took my name from me. I still marvel at those who are gifted but still are strong enough to retain their old names. Mine vanished from my mind the moment I was gifted and clearly so, so did my brother’s own to the point where I cannot even recall what either of our names actually were. I could ask, I know I could, but after so long being called as I am, trying to settle into another name feels like it would be far too complex.

I grew up with these siblings, as I recall them being. They were not my own siblings but they were siblings and they were part of the village where I was born. I believe they were a little older than I was, a few years at the most but little more than a few months if I focus a little more. They were constantly arguing about things, it wasn’t an angry sort of arguing, there’s this arguing that children will do about which game to play and where to go next, it was that kind of arguing and they never could agree on anything.

Watching them, it often felt like watching two storms clash and, trust me, I’ve witnessed that several times. In the valley where I grew up, it wasn’t unheard of that we would get two different storm systems coming in from opposite ends. I suppose it’s one of those things with the terrain that surrounded us; we were placed just so in the world, I guess.

Once I left, I never actually looked back. The only time I went back was when I felt the pull of my brother’s birth and even then, it wasn’t anywhere near where I had been born. Our parents were far from sedentary.

I witnessed his coming to life, I spent so much of my time with him, I think I spent more time with him than our parents did at that point. They weren’t very much into playing parents.

Some seem to believe that demons are made and not born. I cannot speak for others out there but I can confirm that we were born; a result of a sexual encounter as with just about every other species on this planet. That I have as few siblings—only Chaos—as I do is akin to a mystery though I know that our parents didn’t spend all that much time together, they each roamed as they cared, very much going separate ways but they seemed to be inexplicably drawn back together once in a blue moon and well, the two of them in a single room rarely resulted in anything other than what you see before you today.

Though not all of these meetings resulted in a new birth, of course. Most did not but two clearly did as here I am and so is my brother.

You’re welcome to come over any time.

 
Timeline/World: Atheria – 2nd Generation
Characters: Order Caelum
Race: Demon – God of Order
Age: 1 503, physically about 27
Final Word Count: 610 words
 

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When the puppeteer first came, I just knew things would fall apart. I think that all of us with some godhood blood in their veins knew something was going to happen, it was just near impossible to know what that ‘something’ was. While I was worried about the possibility of loss, I was admittedly more worried about my brother. I knew what loss would do to him and it was not the prettiest of things.

I stayed with him when loss happened. I invited him to spend time with me since it would remove him from a place that felt filled with despair. He was fine at first. At least, for the most part. He deteriorated quickly and there was nothing I could do to save him.

In hindsight, I should have had someone open a doorway into the dark, it would likely have done less damage than dropping him into a padded cell did but I wasn’t all that aware of the possibility of the dark. That and I was afraid that once in there, he would be unrecoverable. I am aware of how the dark works. For the most part, it lets you leave when it seems to sense that you’re ready to leave and some rare cases could be reached while in the dark but those are indeed very rare.

What if Chaos had been too broken to be retrieved from the dark? That may as well have been what stalled my hand.

Once it was clear that inviting him to stay with me was not going to work, I found myself taking him to the padded cells where he would be medicated, where a stronger chip could be implanted though I’m still uncertain whether that helped him at all or not. He was a broken man and only her return would fix him.

I tried to visit him every day, with each visit he was more and more withdrawn and it made visiting difficult. I admit that I turned into a coward, I stopped visiting so often. What had been a daily visit turned into an every-other-day visit, turned into a weekly visit and then into a twice-a-month visit. I still feel shame in that slip of mine. Maybe I could have helped him remain anchored a little more if I’d visited him more.

Not that I can continue to beat myself over the head about it. This whole ordeal was years—decades—ago. It has slipped into the past and while I know it has left scars that are both physical and emotional on a lot of people, it had slipped into the annals of history and will not be forgotten.

I believe that forgetting this particular situation won’t change the past or even the future. I can’t imagine that there is another puppeteer out there just mad with power, waiting to take all of us out because his mind is as crazed as that of those he broke and left behind. At least, they were crazed until those who were meant for them came back and sealed the cracks.

My presence was on and off once Nicole had come back. I wanted to be there to help my brother come back to his true self but it is true what they say about love. It is stronger than most anything else and I know that it is his love and adoration of her that helped fix him. Seal those cracks, bring him back to near normalcy… or as normal as Chaos might ever be.

I love my brother and I have failed him. Never again will I let that happen.

I wish I could lie about something like this, but I can’t.

Timeline/World: Atheria 1st Generation
Characters: Order Caelum
Race: Demon – God of Order
Age: 1 502, physically about 27
Final Word Count: 561 words

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I still remember the look of absolute loss on his face when I told him. I had never lied to my brother and I wouldn’t have started then, it would have destroyed him in worse ways than her departure did and all I wanted was to salvage what I could of his delicate soul.

Most people believe that because my brother is Chaos, in name and nature, that he’s made of strong stuff, that he can endure everything but it is so furthest from the truth that it hurts to think about it. People don’t seem to realize that Chaos and Order both are precarious things. Always teetering on the edge.

I’ve had a lifetime to adjust to my own life and I’m more balanced than him, he’s always been more unstable but it came from coming into his power as he did. No one should have had to handle that but he did and I want to believe that he did so well. If I hadn’t been there, he might not have managed much in the same way but I don’t know that it changes much, in the end.

When the break happened, when people left, we watched them go. Left and right, seeming without reason, people parted ways without so much as a backward glance and it was upsetting. I know that many wanted to blame my brother, wanted to claim that it was something he had done but why would he have? He had found someone to call his own, who accepted him quirks and all, why would he have ruined that? Just to be petty? That’s not like him.

Of course, it was proved that he wasn’t the culprit, but the harm had already been done. I know I lost my brother in the following weeks, he became something akin to a vegetable and I almost left myself but I couldn’t. This was my brother, my flesh and bone, I had raised him more than our parents since I’m more than old enough to be his father and all but I’m glad I’m his brother.

I stayed with him.

The walls were so empty, everything echoed. Of course, some had stayed behind but there were so few that it seemed almost moot to go out and try to speak to with them. I still did, because I figured that it only made sense to try and keep what ties we still had going. We couldn’t let the evil that had tried to break us win. Some were in no better condition than my brother, others, the rare lucky ones, had managed to not be pulled apart by the monster that had delighted in our suffering.

It took years until folks started to come back. It was slow at first, one here, one there, then that trickle almost became a torrent as it seemed like everyone was coming back at once. It was a sight to behold but I was still holding my breath. Did it make me a bad companion to hope that my brother’s own come home first? Did it make me a bad person that I was more worried about his well-being and heart over how my companion would be upon her return? I never asked and I don’t know that it holds much importance anymore.

We’re all back and there and alive. That matters.