Is that a… are you seriously wearing crocs? Alright, that’s it. Get out of my car.

Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Hopeful Beginnings
Current Date: March 7, 2029

Character: Rupert Sówka
Race: Human
Age: 22
Current residence: Klahanie, Washington
 

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Phantom’s health took a bit of a downturn recently and with a bit of a lump in my throat, though I know that I have her as my disability dog for another good year at the very least. I expected at least two more but there was an incident, and the vets didn’t even think she’d pulled through, but she did. I hadn’t planned to go looking, so to speak, for a new guide dog quite yet, but when the incident happened, I did. I braced myself for the fact that it was going to happen one way or another, and I went for it.

I got in touch with the breeders that both Phantom and Spirit had come from. Their Danes were always, so far, wonderfully even-tempered and they were more than willing to put me on the short waiting list for one of the soon-to-be pups. Now, I knew for a fact that not all their pups made it through the training but I guess I’d gotten lucky at this point and, in a way, I felt that starting sooner, and getting the pup used to the whole thing and get Phan used to the pup wasn’t such a bad idea.

Six or so months go by, and I get a call to come and have a look, again, so to speak. As they do live a short distance off, we got Phan in the car, because she does come just about everywhere, after all, and we went.

As we got out of the car, I could hear other people talking which was strange in and of itself as I knew that the breeders lived with no nearby neighbours, they had plenty of yard for the dogs to roam and other than the sound of dogs, it was rare to hear the sound of other people. I guess that, just maybe, they’d come to check out the pups too.

All I got out of whatever conversation was happening between the two, if that could even be considered that, was one of them exclaiming about the other wearing Crocs—a type of shoes that I’ve heard of but never really had much of a desire to know more about—and how that was a travesty and there was no way that the croc-wearer was getting into the other one’s car. The tone of voice felt slightly aggressive to me and, you know, I sort of asked Fel to make sure Phan was leashed properly since she wasn’t wearing her gear, and we just went to the house.

Let me tell you, Phan was wary as we moved closer to the house, I felt her press tight against me as though there was something scaring her about the surroundings but as soon as the first puppy yip was heard, her tail started wagging—I could feel her butt go left and right along with it as she was still close to my side—and if she’d been of the mind to, I know she’d have started pulling.

We got to meet a precious litter of ten. I know Phan had to keep at least a slight distance from them just for the sake of things, but I got to sit down with them and just let them come to me. Several did, but they came and went. One in particular flopped on my lap more than once and a few weeks later, he was the one we brought home.

Training Spook with Phantom still around has been interesting. She’s taken the role of mother to him, in some way and he’s learning to behave faster than I expected him to. Not that he misbehaves a lot, but he’s still a puppy, and he has a world of energy. In a way, I think it’s been a good thing for Phantom, though. When it’s play time, both of them play together and I feel as though I might not have given Phan, or even Spirit, back then, the exercise they might have needed. I know I’m overthinking things.

I say that training him is interesting, but I haven’t done much more than get him used to basic commands, sit, stay, lie down, and even a bit of roll-over though once he gets much bigger, that’s not really going to be a great idea. I’m fairly certain he’d manage but I’d like for nothing in the house to get broken by those long limbs of his. He’s been a good addition to our household and while I worry about how Phantom is going to handle things when I start putting the harness on him instead of her, all I can do right now is wait.

Wait and enjoy the time I have with both of them until her health issues take over and it’s down to him on his own with us. I’m not looking forward to that, but I know it’ll happen.

Final Word Count: 820

I’m going to need you to take a few steps back before I get real punchy.

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Hopeful Beginnings
Characters: Rupert Sówka
Race: Human
Age: 20
Current residence: Klahanie, Washington
Final Word Count: 805 words
 

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Getting used to a new working dog was hard. I knew from the get-go, though back then I really hadn’t given it much thought. Letting Spirit have his well-earned rest was hard, but I knew he deserved it. Phantom has been with me for a few years, at most, depending on her health, she might have three more years, maybe four if I’m lucky. Letting her go once that time comes is going to be hard too. I know that this whole thing is on me for picking bigger dogs, they just call to me, you have no idea how safe I feel with these big cow-dogs at my side.

Not that the point of them is for me to feel safe, though, on that same note, it is, but that’s beside the point. I’m legally blind and have been from a young age. Everything is blurry to the point of me just needing particular things to make sure I can work and since I work from home, that’s just perfect too. Thinking back as I was growing up, I know that things could have been different, but I also know that these things being different didn’t come from my disabilities. They came from an outside situation.

I was surprised when I was first told I could have a service dog. I was so used to being the overlooked one that I didn’t know what to think. It took some time and some gentle persuasion from both Felix and Lucian before I could decide on the potential dog in question. It almost feels like a lifetime ago and I guess that in a way, it does.

Not as often as I might, I head outside to get us a few things we might need. There is trust to be had when I’m in the stores. Everything is just one huge blur to me, there is no focus point, and there isn’t much I can do about it. That’s why I have special equipment and applications for my computer, everything is read out to me and that took some getting used to because, honestly, at times, the way the computer reads things is fairly unusual. It’s gotten better, though.

Every single day, though, rain more than shine mostly depending on Phan’s moods, we go on walks. For her, these walks are still work-related. She has her harness, she’s there to make sure that I don’t trip and fall on my face, that I don’t walk across a street when I shouldn’t. It still gets her fresh air and a good bit of walking done. Once back home, she gets to run through the yard some to get rid of any extra energy she might have. I see the blob of her running around and it always makes me smile.

A few days ago, we were on the way back home from a somewhat longer walk but the weather had been beautiful, and we’d made it all the way to the park and back, as we approached what I knew to be a corner leading into a busy street, I could hear the sound of a scuffle. Phan’s slowed pace told me that I wasn’t hearing things wrong. Still, we made it to the edge, I found the pedestrian button so I could cross and got that counting down. From the right, which I know was further down the corner, I heard someone telling what I assume was someone else that they’d better take a few steps back or they’d get real punchy.

I don’t like confrontations. I’m sure I don’t need to explain why I don’t like confrontations. They sounded far enough from me that I wouldn’t need to move anywhere, and Phan was just still so peaceful at my side that I allowed myself to feel safe. I did hear steps coming closer my way but just moments before they got close enough for me to worry about, the sound to my left changed and I found Phan shifting just barely forward, letting me know it was time while waiting for me to move.

I can’t even explain how good it felt to take that first step into the street, following Phan’s lead and getting away from whatever it was that was just there. I don’t want to know what was happening. I don’t need to know what was happening. All I know is that something bad was possibly happening and that’s all.

In a way, even if it hadn’t been for my disability, I wouldn’t have wanted to get involved. Now, had it concerned possibly children—I never heard the second person, if there even was one—I might have done something else but, as far as I remember and I’m concerned, it was none of my business and that’s all there is to it.

You will never be left behind if I have something to say about it.

 
Timeline/World: Newfound Worlds – Erisia – Rockbourne Dome
Characters: Rupert Sówka
Race: Human
Age: 20
Current residence: Rockbourne Dome, Erisia
Final Word Count: 811 words
 

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When we had that first proper, everyone-there meeting about the eventual move to Peculiar, I felt completely lost. I mean, in no way, shape or form, am I even anywhere near all that important to even know about this and, trust me, for a while, I felt as though I was only included out of pity. If I were to tell that to Felix, I’m sure he’d give me this hurt look and try to convince me otherwise but if you look at it from my side of things, I think you’d possibly understand my train of thought.

In a way, I know that I am included in this whole new thing because of the people I know. Were it not for that, I never would have been in that meeting. Through Felix, Lucian and then Scott, as I see it on one side, and then, since I shared a sleeping area with them for so long, through Justin, and then Argus, or through the twins, their twins, their older brother and then… Annabelle, I think it was. I’ve met her so rarely.

The way I understand it, though, these two big families are the main knowledge holders for this whole new world they talk about that we’re invited to join them into. A world without a dome. That just sounds so far-fetched, I don’t know how real or not it might be, but if they’re planning on moving there, to start a whole new sort of life there, it can’t all be false information.

I might be half-blind, but I knew that by just taking one look at Felix while we were at that meeting, that he was dead-set on his final decision that, no matter what, he wouldn’t leave me behind. That even if I hadn’t been invited into that secretive meeting—there were many of us and I’m not even sure how they managed it though it was up at the big house—he would have made sure that I never would have been left behind. He’s just that type of person and I can’t argue about it.

I’d lose a part of myself, I think, if I were to try and argue anything about the fact that he wants me in his life, and I need him in mine. It took me a long time to wrap my mind around it. I’m broken, I’m scarred, I’m just not someone even I personally would want to spend time with and I’m talking about myself, so I couldn’t wrap my mind around the idea that Felix would even want to be with me in any way, shape or form. Well, no, I guess that’s a lie. I’ve loved him for longer than I could ever put into words. I was terrified of losing him as my best friend and for so long, I tried to keep my distance because I didn’t want to lose him forever.

I’ve loved him for years and, in a way, I knew he felt the same, but the laws were different when I first came to realize these things and I just couldn’t chance things. Even when those laws began to change. That we’ve made it as far as we have is something of a miracle, as far as I’m concerned. And when it comes to this brand new place that feels more like a fantasy than anything else, so long as everyone I know is going—and that seems to be the care as Charles, Louis and Justin were all there too—I think that I might not mind the idea of going, too.

From what I’ve understood of that meeting, it’s going to be just so different; not just from the fact that there’s no dome—the first main, huge difference—but also the fact that it’ll just be us, the way the world goes right now is going to change in a vastly different way. I’m sure that for some of the necessities, we might still make trips back, but we’ll have to live off of the land, we’ll have to learn a whole different way of life and, you know what, I think I’m okay with that.

At this point, though, I think I’m also in a bit of a disbelieving mode. It really all sounds so out there, the idea of living without a dome when, at school, we learn that the air outside is just so toxic that stepping out into it is a death sentence waiting to happen within just a few minutes. It leaves me to wonder if the toxins in the air are just so heavy that they stay lower to the ground and that the mountain range that they say surrounds the place—Peculiar—is just so tall that the toxins can’t get in.

It’s going to be one of those things, I guess.

You’re not the only one who’s good at backhanded compliments.

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Family Values
Characters: Rupert Sówka
Race: Human
Age: 22
Current residence: Warwick, New York
Final Word Count: 820 words
 

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Things have been a little rough since last December. I’m not really all that surprised, I mean, it’s not every day that some random shooters for who knows what reason show at your workplace and just seemingly randomly shoot people. I still don’t know what happened afterwards. I don’t really know if they were ever caught or anything else. I haven’t been back in the building but once and it was to talk to my supervisors about things best discussed in person.

I’m not sure how long it took, right after the ordeal, for me to be able to let Felix out of my line of sight for more than just a second. A day or four, most likely. After that, it was the nightmares that settled in and those felt even worse somehow. At this point, I don’t think I’ve had any nightmares for a short while, a month, maybe. Before that, it was once a week maybe. They gradually stopped coming and I’m grateful for that.

When my supervisor called that same afternoon, mostly to make sure I was at least physically all right, it was Felix who took the call. I’m not sure as to what was said, and I don’t really care much. The only thing I did know is that a fair bit of our call volume would be transferred to other call centres in nearby towns to ease up the load while everyone that had been there got back on their feet and decided if they felt safe enough to stay on board.

I spent two weeks not even thinking about work, not while the nightmares plagued me almost every single night. After that, I did call in, spoke briefly to my supervisor. I told her I could possibly handle a few hours a week so long as I worked from home the way I had before. I made it clear that I didn’t know if I could go back to the building, even on heavy-load holidays.

I’ve worked one day a week—four or six hours, depending—for the following month, mostly getting back into the beat of things before I was back to mostly offering my regular hours, so long as I worked from home. That seemed to work out for all parties.

Three weeks ago, I gathered my courage with an iron grip, and I asked Felix to drive me to the building. I did need to talk to my supervisor. Seeing the building for the first time since the incident wasn’t as terrifying as I actually thought it would be though it did steal the breath from me for a moment as I took it in.

I made my way up those stairs, preferring to just take my time—though I know I was mostly just not wanting to trust the elevator, in case—and by the time I’d made it up, I had actually calmed down in a way I hadn’t thought I could manage yet while still in this place. There was already someone in her little office, so I sat myself down on the chair in the not-quite-waiting area and I did just that, I waited.

It didn’t take long for that door to open and a face I’ve never seen to step out. She was fairly short and a little plump, but she had a pleasing face. She was, however, muttering softly under her breath about backhanded compliments as she stalked out of that office with her shoulders slowly inching up towards her ears. I don’t know what went on in that office and it wasn’t any of my business but any boss that leaves their employees-slash-volunteers feeling that way aren’t very high on my list of people I like.

My supervisor looked a little sour as she stepped to the door, but her face brightened up some at the sight of me. She waved me into her office, we talked for a little while and, I admit, she didn’t look quite so pleased with the meeting by the time we were done but I wasn’t just going to let this whole thing take over my life, I couldn’t do that.

So, I walked out after promising that yes, I’d let her know if my new hours changed but I doubted. I was willing to work one full day a week at this point and to still potentially give a helping boost during the holidays, but I’d be doing so from home. If the system failed, the system would fail. I still would be there to take the calls but those had been my conditions.

Yeah, she looked pretty sour by the time I stepped out of the place, but it wasn’t as though she could fire me. I was a volunteer for the place, and I helped to take the calls, she needed all the people she could get. It’s all there is to it.

Not one of you will say a word about this, understand? We were never here and this never happened.

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Family Values
Characters: Rupert Sówka
Race: Human
Age: 21
Final Word Count: 827 words
 

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I fully expect to have nightmares about this for weeks. I never imagined that anyone would do this, especially not on this date but I suppose that, on that same note, it makes some sort of twisted sense.

I worked on Christmas; I offered them a few hours of my time, aware that it was a very difficult time of the year for many people, and that volunteers always helped just give the rest of the team a bit of a boost. I’ve worked every Christmas since starting here, usually always just a few hours but they’re enough for what needs to be done.

I also worked on the so-called Boxing Day. I never understood that particular day and why people feel the need to spend even more money now that one of the two big holidays was over. Not that I get Christmas or New Years’ as holidays much; it was never celebrated in my life before and I only celebrate a little now because of the people in my life, that’s all right.

Now, when I work, I usually tend to do it from home but around the holidays, I go in because the volume of calls seems to be so high that the system has a hard time handling things for distance workers. It’s something they know they have to work on but seem to not actually have the funds to pay for, so I go in for a few hours. I went in early in the morning, coming in to replace those who had spent the night there. The place had a fair few people and most seemed to be on call. I located one of the switch-desks—one of a small handful of desks that were used for those who didn’t usually work in the building—and settled in to take my first call.

I think I made it to the two-hour mark—it was nine or so—before it happened.

Everything went offline.

No warning, no notices, just offline. Our systems, the computers, the lights, even the heat. It’s like everyone had pulled the plug on us. One look outside made it clear that it seemed to just be us, everywhere else was still lit.

Then, from somewhere in the building, there were gunshots. Genuine gunshots. I did the only thing that made sense, I hid under my desk, something not very difficult considering my slight stature, and I held my breath. I was in a corner area, not far from the windows, I had my phone to my ear and trying to call Felix but something was keeping me from even connecting to the cell towers.

I don’t know how long it took before people were stomping around on our floor and just randomly shooting. Most of us were hiding under our desks, I think. I didn’t hear any cry of pain or anything else. What I did hear was someone who stopped not very far from where I was hiding but I guess that they might not have thought that the place had been in use, there was nothing decorating the desk, I’d somehow thought to replace the headset and mouse just so, and I’d managed to tug the chair back in to make it look unused.

After an eternity, someone called out that if anyone ever said anything about any of them being here, there would be consequences. That we were to act as though none of this had ever happened. How was that supposed to work? How could anyone expect any of us to keep quiet?

It was almost eleven when the lights came back on and when I managed to make a call out to Felix. I’m aware that I should have called the cops, most likely. Whatever had just happened had been bad, after all. I mean gunshots and threats and the rest? We’re just an organization that tries to keep others from falling into the pit of despair that is potential suicide, we do no harm.

When I got him on the phone, I barely managed to beg him to come get me before I was just brokenly crying. I don’t remember much of anything else. All I remember, right now, is that I’ve been home and glued to his side for hours. He brought me warm soup at one point but he hasn’t budged from my side since.

I don’t remember talking to anyone else. I don’t remember checking in on the others. I don’t know if anyone was hurt—the shots had come from another area down in our large, open-floor room but I do remember not hearing any cries of pain though I guess you can’t cry in pain if the shot takes you out, can you?

The nightmares are not going to be pleasant. Physically speaking, I know I’m fine. Mentally and emotionally, though? I’ll try my best but I don’t know how long I’ll need.

I’ve been told I’m lacking in manners, but what do I need those for?

 
Timeline/World: Until Tomorrow – Hopeful Beginnings
Characters: Rupert Sówka
Race: Human
Age: 19
Final Word Count: 709 words
 

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I never thought they’d agree to my being there; I guess they must have really needed people or I know that Felix would just point out that they saw how much good I could do if I worked with the centre. They were hesitant at first, a dog in the centre was unheard of but it would only be for the first month or so; mostly so I could get some training in with a supervisor not far who could keep track of things and that was fine by me.

Even now that I do most of my hours from home when I’m not studying—that’s coming along well, too—my direct supervisor has access to monitor my calls and my logs; it makes me feel safe to know someone can keep track of things, in a way. It also means that if I feel like I need help handling a caller, I can get that help but at this point, I think I’m doing pretty well for myself and it feels good to listen to people talk and help them however I can. Not all calls are easy to handle but I expected that when they hired me.

While I was at the training centre, though, Phantom out of the way behind me as they’d found a spot for me in a clear corner, I met with a few different people and while most of them didn’t really leave any lasting impression on me, one, in particular, did.

I think her name was Talaina and she had an accent that came out much more clearly when she was excited about something. She didn’t last very long in that cubicle right next to mine. Even Phantom knew she possibly couldn’t have lasted very long.

It was hard to ignore her when she was on her call, she spoke so loudly. It was also in what she said and how she said it. Some people don’t baby others so well though I don’t see this job as babying others, it’s helping them through a hard time in their lives. Talaina seemed to believe in tough love and she would often be brusque and a little harsh with the callers.

I was there when her supervisor—who also happened to be mine—checked in on her at one point and asked her how things were going and that there had been a few notices from nearby workers that she seemed to be a little rough around the edges. She barked a sharp laugh and told him that, yes, she’d been told she was lacking in manners but so what? What did she need them for? These people, they needed a wake-up call, not some hand-holding.

She was there for a couple more shifts and then she was gone. I don’t know if she left of her own will or if they let her go. It was much quieter after that and my work focus was stronger than it had ever been.

When I’d first come in, I’d been told it was possible I would need to be at the centre for a month up to possibly three but after three weeks, going into four, my supervisor said that at the end of the week, if I wanted to get the setup doing at the place where I was living, they could schedule someone so I could work from home. I was commended on my relatable behaviour and that Phan’s own impossibly calm one had been wonderful.

In a way, I think I might have sort of opened the doors to potentially other people with disabilities who need service animals. They told me that I had been the first one to apply though they had one person on the team in a wheelchair.

A week later, the work-from-home setup was ready to use and it’s been going really well since. I don’t have to deal with the anxiety that always comes from being out there, even with Phan at my side and I can appreciate that they’re willing to let me be flexible with my hours since I still go to school at this point. All in all, I’m just content with my life as it is now.

Hiding is my natural instinct, I think. Something scary happening? I’m gone, I’m outta here, you never saw me.

 
Timeline/World: Newfound Worlds – Erisia – Rockbourne Dome
Characters: Rupert Sówka
Race: Human
Age: 18
Final Word Count: 722 words
 

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For most of my life, if I wasn’t invisible, I was the scapegoat, so I learned to be invisible. A few people I’ve shared brief discussions with over the years seemed to claim that this thing I was doing was called ‘hiding’ and that somehow, I was just an easily scared guy who was likely to run away in the face of danger because hiding is just so much easier than, well, facing whatever the issue with.

It took me a long time to realize that comments like these made me want to point these people to the direction of the nearest sharp and pointed option and then tell them to sit on it. As someone who does prefer to be unseen by the common eye so as to not be on the receiving end of things I honestly don’t deserve to be on the receiving end of, I don’t like to pick fights with people. So realizing that I wanted to tell these people to more or less get bent was something new for me and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. I honestly still am not completely sure how I feel about it.

There was one person I’ve met years back, someone who dropped with us for a couple of years before he just sort of… disappeared. Now he was rather easily scared. Hiding was what came most naturally to him and it amazed me just how easy it was for him to get spooked and then just sort of vanish. In a way, I suppose that this is what might have happened to him. It feels like forever ago but it hasn’t been that long and I was left to wonder for the longest time about him.

He wasn’t a bad guy; he lived in the barracks with the rest of us who were there. Until he came to join us, I thought I was at the lowest spot ever on that ‘rank’ thing that seems to be inevitable in the barracks—the old ones more than the new ones—but the moment he stepped in, somehow, I knew he’d end up about as low, if not lower than me. There was something in the way he tried to hide on himself and even this blind bat could tell that he was going to end up in a corner like the rest of us who didn’t want to fight the others for the heated spots.

Even during the drops, I have to admit that I barely saw much of him. I knew he was there because we tended to keep sort of together on the transports but it was rare we were dropped together. It did happen once and even during that particular drop, once we’d settled somewhere—it was thankfully a summer drop but it still was during the time frame when we were dropped in pairs and told to ‘stay alive’ until the pick-up time—I barely saw any of him. He’d be there briefly during the early hours of the day when we’d wake up and just get whatever we’d need to make it through that one day and then he’d be gone until late in the evening.

I never asked to know what he was doing during all those hours and he never offered any information. When we were eventually told that he no longer would be joining our drops, no one seemed to be willing to ask any question either. I did ask a little around to see if anyone had heard from him, but it was as though he’d just completely disappeared.

Some say, he never really made it back up onto the transport on the last drop we ever had with him and that he’s been living off of the wild out there in the drop-dome. I guess it wouldn’t be all that far-fetched but it still is a strange idea. I wish him all the best wherever he’s at, at this point in time. I just hope that he’s still alive and well because if he somehow died out there in the drop zone, I would have wanted for someone to bring his body back. We try to always bring everyone back but I don’t think we’ve had any deaths in years, I’m grateful for that.

I worked hard to get where I am and I won’t go back. You couldn’t make me.

 
Timeline/World: Urbana LaCrosse University – Hopeful Beginnings
Characters: Rupert Sówka
Race: Human
Age: 18
Final Word Count: 636 words
 

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Getting accepted into a school, any school, to further my studies was difficult. It’s something I never thought I would get to do, not with my childhood and the fact that I’m legally blind. Everything is so blurry that there’s a lot I can’t do but with Phantom at my side—letting Spirit have his retirement years after having been at my side for six beautiful ones was difficult—I feel like I can do a lot but it’s Felix who gives me strength, in the end.

During my last two years of high school, I joined a club, though I don’t know that calling it a club is really fair. We were a group of people who were willing to open our doors to anyone who felt the need to talk to others, people with suicidal tendencies, people with dark thoughts, people who struggled with bullying. There weren’t many of us at first but it was just enough.

At the start, no one seemed to really be comfortable with the idea of opening up to random strangers so we opened up the ‘secret box’. It was a sealed sort of mailbox that only us group members had access to. We asked that people not give us any private information like their address or phone numbers, names were optional but they were free to write about anything that troubled them and that seemed to help a bit. We had a half-page in the school journal where we answered some of those nameless letters and after a few months, we got more and more and people actually started coming to us.

It made me realize that I wanted to help others; I wanted to do something with my life that involved being able to help others but, again, this legally blind thing actually keeps me from a good few things but I didn’t let it stop me.

Finding a school that was close and willing to take me in was the first hurdle. The other was being able to make sure that they could accommodate my needs. Audio recordings for homework, Phantom always being at my side. It’s in little things. Things I didn’t have through high school because they didn’t seem to understand that it was a thing but I worked that out as best as I could and Felix has been wonderful.

I feel like I’ve made it so far away from where I was when I was first taken in. I feel like my life is on track and, my disability aside, I feel like I could take on the world. I’m not, going I’m too introverted to handle that kind of pressure but I’ve started looking into working in a sort of call centre, it’s a bit like what we did while I was in high school. A suicide prevention call centre and all. I don’t really have a lot of experience dealing with suicide as a whole but with my studies and the life I’ve lived, I think I could do well in that particular role.

What bothers me though is that I don’t know if I could get into a work place that would let me bring Phantom with me. I might have to work from home if that’s even at all possible but it must. If call centre workers for banks can work from home, certainly someone who holds hope of working for a suicide prevention call centre could manage that as well.

I’m still trying to figure myself out at this point, I know I’m going to do something right with my life and I’m going to be proud of myself for making it as far as I have. That’s all I want. I want to do something with my life and this is going to be it.

Getting caught in the middle of a fight between friends and making them all angry at you is the worst.

 
Timeline/World: Erisia – Rockbourne Dome
Characters: Rupert Sówka
Race: Human
Age: 18
Final Word Count: 608 words
 

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I can’t say that I’ve ever really had friends, not in the sense that I could surround myself in them and feel wanted. My earliest memory is that of my parents, of the house, of my siblings, of the fire and of landing in the barracks. I know there are other memories lost in the midst of these but I try not to dig too far, it’s too painful to do.

Felix has been there for me from the near beginning, I’m grateful to him. I know he’s tried again and again to get me out of the barracks and that alone made it easier to survive down there because that’s what it was all about until they rebuilt and moved us into something better. It was about surviving. It was about who would get to stay warm near the heaters and who would have to try and not freeze to death in the corners. Who would have their food stolen and who could protect their trays. It was exhausting.

I used to listen to others during the quieter moments in class; it gave me something to think about besides my own miserable life. I’ve heard so many odd stories that I don’t even know what to make of them even at this point in my life. They were that strange.

I remember listening to someone who was complaining about how his friends had been fighting and he’d stepped between them to try and break the fight apart but somehow, they’d both turned against him and he’d never felt so small. It was odd to imagine having enough friends for you to be able to step between them to try and calm them down. I don’t know that I’d ever be able to do that, not even if I somehow had enough friends for such a scene to happen. I’m so non-confrontational that even just going through the grinders goes against everything I believe it and they make me so uncomfortable that I end up sick the following day.

The drops aren’t as bad, however. The drops aren’t about besting one another or showing off or anything of the sort; they were different before and trying to survive the winter drops on my own were bad enough but now that we can all gather to a meeting point, even with the girls involved, it’s easier. It’s still not great and I don’t know that anyone likes the winter drops, but it’s much better than it used to.

Do I wonder what it would be like to have more people to call my friends? Not that I don’t have any, I actually have more people in my little friend circle now than I ever had and it baffles me. But I don’t wonder what it would be like, no. I don’t like the thought of having so many people around me at once. I’m sure there’s probably something wrong with my head that I’d rather just be one-on-one with people but that’s just the way I am and I’m not going to change.

Being around too many others at once exhausts me in ways I can’t even begin to explain. It’s like someone is just draining all of my energy off and I have to recharge that energy one way or another. I don’t know how else to put it. I suppose it’s a bit like a battery. So I’m a battery and batteries empty faster when they’re in heavy use and that sounds about right so I think I’m going to stick with that little metaphor as far as my life is concerned, it’s fitting.

I’m the opposite of flexible.

 
Timeline/World: Alternate Earth – Birds of a Feather
Characters: Rupert Sówka
Race: Human
Age: 19
Final Word Count: 658 words
 

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Now and again, Sam will ask me to help with some of the classes at the school. It’s now more of a weekend thing with me due to school and work though I still make room for dancing every day. I wish I could be at the school every day but I know I have to prioritize a few things if I want to manage my life in any way that makes sense. If I want to manage to go through my days, my weeks, my months and years without burning myself out by keeping that candle lit by both ends.

Dancing still is my passion, that’s not going to change but I still do want to help others and that’s why I’m studying as I am and helping at the suicide hotline a few days a week. This is a case of ‘been there, done that’ for me. The tattoo along my inner wrist is my story, it’s my answer to life being a bitch and Felix is my forever-tomorrow. He’s there for me every day and I want to wake up next to him every morning; I want to go to bed next to him every night, I want to spend all of my life with him.

I spent this last weekend at the school, Sam had several new students to teach, though they weren’t so much ‘new students’ as the school was having an open doors weekend so kids and teens alike could come in and give learning to dance a try. All the teachers were asked to come in if they could, no one was forced, it really was just on a volunteered basis and it had been a while.

I’m not much of a teacher; I don’t want to be a teacher. I do well enough one-on-one when there’s a phone to serve as a barrier but that’s about it. The ‘kids’ Sam set me up with, though, they were five- and six-year-old boys and girls. Surprisingly, there were more boys than there were girls and it made me wonder if most of there were around because their parents wanted them to learn or because the kids themselves had expressed an interest.

Not that it matters, not really.

We started the class with some stretching and some basic footwork. I would go to each of the kids and just help them along as I could; you have to understand, all I learned, I’ve learned from Sam. My parents, let alone my uncle, never would have paid for me to learn to dance, especially not ballet, so I didn’t really know how to act like a teacher.

One particular young boy, barely five from what I understand, kept on stumbling over his own feet and I probably spent more time with him than I did the rest of the class, he reminded me a bit of myself when I started. During a break, I confided in him that I wasn’t very coordinated when I started either; I was very clumsy though Sam would likely tell the story otherwise.

The little boy told me that he didn’t think he could ever be a ballet dancer because he just wasn’t flexible. I suppose I wasn’t the best person to argue that point with him since I’m more flexible than I should be but that might have to do with a mild case of double joints but still. I’ve come across a lot of ballet dancers who complain about not being flexible enough but I like to believe that with a lot of careful stretching and practice, anyone can achieve anything they might set their mind to, really.

So I told that little boy as much. He left with a big smile on his face after that day and I’ve asked Sam to keep me updated on whether or not he’d registered for the classes. I think he could be great. I do.