If you’re not too busy listening to the sound of your own voice, I have something you might want to look at.

Timeline/World: Through the Looking Glass – Atheria 3rd Generation
Current Date: May 4, 2059

Character: Yasen Lars
Race: Halfling – Elf (snow) / Vampire
Age: 48, physically about 23
Current residence: Atheria City, Eresiel
 

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I can count on the fingers of a single hand the number of fights I’ve had with Laura while we were growing up. That, in itself, feels like both a good and a bad thing. It’s a good thing because we’ve had so few fights and I think that, just on its own, is great; but on the flip side, we might not have had a lot of fights—most of them about Lilah, sadly—but when we did have fights, they were pretty ugly most of the time and we played avoid-you for close to a week before either one of us would even think about trying to make amends. At least, that’s how it was for me. I can’t really talk for my sister.

It feels like forever ago now, but we had one single fight after she’d moved out, just the one, and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t so much a fight as I was feeling shitty, I acted like a shitty person, I bitched at her about how if she wasn’t too busy listening to the sound of her own voice—I later learned that she’d been trying to actually record something for the system—there was something I’d needed her to look at. All in all, it was not a good day for either one of us or while she was cordial with me during the whole thing, we went a month without talking after that.

It took me two weeks to actually understand why she wouldn’t even look my way when we would cross paths at the market, and another two weeks to stop being an idiot and go apologize to her. She did forgive me but told me to never do it again because she wouldn’t be so lenient. I fully believe her. The situation hasn’t happened again and it’s very likely for the best. Not that we don’t spend a bit of time together now and again, and I know that she wouldn’t let us take care of her gliders if there was no trust between the lot of us as is.

I’m not completely sure why that one fight has resurfaced recently. There haven’t really been any triggers, we haven’t had any arguments, but I think it’s actually been longer than usual since she last dropped the gliders and that might just be why. I haven’t really reached out to ask, I figure that if there’s anything going on, she’ll let us know eventually and that’s about it. I mean, her little trips with Tyr that require us to take in her gliders are never on a fully set schedule, so who knows.

My brain goes to really weird places when it’s just too quiet or I don’t have something to set my attention to. Not that I’m unique or a little snowflake and I can’t claim that I’m the only person this happens to, I just know that this is a thing with me, and I deal with it when it happens. Usually, when my mind starts to wander, I just make it my mission to find Lilah and when she’s not busy with something, I busy us just fine with other, just as interesting things that totally need doing right that very moment.

I’m sure that some people might call me single-minded, but I don’t know that it wouldn’t be the kettle calling the pot black. Plus, with a woman that gorgeous at my side, you think I’m not going to end up being single-minded every so often? It’s not hard to lose track of everything that surrounds me when she comes into my line of sight. She’s had that power over me nearly from the day we met, and I know that it’s not going to change any time soon. It would feel pretty moot to want to change something like this, too.

Anyway. I’ll stop trying to think myself in circles as far as Laura is concerned; if she hasn’t dropped the gliders by recently, she has her reasons and I haven’t been an ass and we haven’t had a fight, so those reasons have very likely nothing to do with me. While I might be at the source of pretty much all of the very few fights we had while we were younger, I know for a fact that this isn’t it. She’s just been busy, and they just haven’t planned an outing recently and that’s all there is to it.

That or something happened to the gliders—which would be bad—but if that’s the case, I’m also not going to reach out to her to demand to have more information. She’ll tell me whatever needs to be told when she’s ready if there’s anything to be told at all in the first place anyway.

Final Word Count: 800

I know what you’re planning to do. It was obvious when I walked in the room.

 
Timeline/World: Through the Looking Glass – Atheria 3rd Generation
Characters: Yasen Lars
Race: Halfling – Elf (snow) / Vampire
Age: 45, physically about 23
Current residence: Atheria City, Eresiel
Final Word Count: 738 words
 

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We still take care of the sugar gliders every few months. At times, I feel like Laura’s just testing me but I know that’s not the case. It amuses her to see me fumble some and these little guys, I’m still pretty damn sure that these guys are plotting to end my life one way or another. She knows my thoughts on the subject and it’s why she does what she does.

I mean, last time, which was just a few weeks ago—and now I know that they’re not the same two as before—they were chomping on their food from what I could hear but the moment I stepped into the room to check in on them, they just went still, staring at me as though I had stopped them in the middle of something stupidly important.

From the look in their beady little eyes, I knew they were plotting evil things and I just know that this was what they were planning. I mean, it was obvious from the moment I stepped into that room.

Yes, I’m very much aware that I am being quite a bit overly dramatic, but I am as I am, and you can’t change me. I wouldn’t want to change me even if it was necessary. Though I would try to change any bad habits I might have if it means that it made Lilah happier. That’s about one of the only things that would make me change the way I behave, I think.

I’m also aware that these little critters probably don’t have enough brain cells—I’m not saying they’re stupid, I’m just saying they’re not hyper-intelligent—to plot my doom. At worse, they might try to take a bite out of my finger if I move towards them too fast. For the most part, I’ve let Lilah be the one to take care of them as necessary. They just keep on giving me weird looks whenever I step close to them.

Why yes, I know that what I deem as weird looks could be anything and it could be nothing at all. It most likely is absolutely nothing at all, to be honest. It just feels weird to be pet sitting. These two. I know that Laura loves them to pieces and made sure that the first two she had lived their best lives until they just were too old to keep going. I don’t know—I didn’t ask—if she thought about going the longer lifespan route or not. Maybe these little critters don’t take well to it.

She didn’t have to tell me they weren’t the same ones though, they’re not the same colour as the original two, though they might be descendants of. One is actually leucistic—all white with black eyes—and the other one looks more piebald though I’m not sure if that would be the proper term. After years, I’d mostly gotten used to the other two, but I guess that there was going to be a change at some point, and it happened.

I was startled when I first saw them, I probably just ended up giving her a seriously confused look when she dropped them off for her trip. I mean, up until that point, they certainly hadn’t been that colour though the behaviour isn’t much different from what I was used to.

There are days when I wonder what she does with them when she’s got work at the clinic. I mean, it’s likely she leaves them home with Tyr, but at the same time, I keep on imagining her with these two in her pockets or something as she works but I can’t imagine that would go over well. Something about not sanitary or whatever. I mean, for the rare times I’ve had to be at the clinic, I’ve never seen anyone with animals anywhere nearby though I’ve heard about one of the older docs who’d wander around with a slighter snake on his shoulder or something.

I mean, that’s half a rumour for all I know about it but still, it’s one of those things and I really can’t imagine pets at the clinic, even if I know there were such things as emotional support animals back then before the world crapped out and dogs and other smaller animals weren’t that much of an unknown in hospitals.

Sugar gliders, though? Nope. Not with those beady little eyes.

Don’t you think I’ve outgrown that nickname? Why don’t we find something more fitting and less embarrassing?

 
Timeline/World: Through the Looking Glass – Atheria 3rd Generation
Characters: Yasen Lars
Race: Halfling – Elf (snow) / Vampire
Age: 44, physically about 23
Final Word Count: 655 words
 

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I don’t think I ever had a nickname, while I was growing up. My parents weren’t really the type of people to shorten names unnecessarily. Some might be tempted to say they were old-fashioned but I don’t care, my parents were good parents and they raised us well, I think that’s the only thing that really matters.

Going to school, though, making friends (though I admit I wasn’t the most friendly one out there), I learned that some did like to shorten their names or, as it turns out, had nicknames that didn’t have much to do with their names at all, more than they had to do with something they’d done before.

I’m not going to point fingers, I don’t like bothering people with names they no longer want to hear, but let’s just say that I remember, during the transition from childhood into teen years, that several asked that old nicknames be left behind because, well, some of those nicknames were pretty embarrassing and I admit that some were.

I’m aware that quite a few of those nicknames were nothing more than playful tease from family members or close friends but some were downright mean and that just goes to prove that kids will be kids and you can’t stop kids from being mean. Look at it from any side or angle you want, we can be pretty nasty bullies if we put our minds to it, no matter what our parents might have taught us.

Though I’ve also learned that with most of us, at least the ones I grew up with, pointing out that you were being a bully was enough to put a stop to it. None of us are mean, not really. Some of us might have a slightly mean streak attached to it—we are who our parents made us to be though we can overcome that, I believe—but we still could talk, we still could discuss, we still could figure out that we were being little asses to those people we’ve considered friends before so it wasn’t all that hard to comply to their request to stop.

At least, that’s how I look at it but I feel like I was an outsider a lot of the time, mostly by my own doing. I was the type who would watch others, just because I didn’t really want to interact with them, and then I’d be on my way when I was bored. I had Laura with me most of the time because we were two peas in a pod—until I became a possessive, clingy ass over Lilah—but we were just usually off doing out own thing, observing others and minding our own business.

I still saw a lot of strange interactions over the years but most of the marking ones really did seem to happen in that little gap between childhood and teen years. When we’re changing in a way that’s a little more drastic than before. When hormones start to settle in and all, it was weird, watching everyone change, little by little, but just the same, it was entertaining. I’m weird, I can admit to it willingly enough. People-watching has always been an interesting way to pass the time, I guess. I’m not going to lie but I’m the odd one out, probably.

Still, I do remember quite a few half-arguments about old nicknames that were best left behind as the school year ended and summer began, or as summer ended and another school year began. We all do grow up quite a bit while we’re on summer vacation after all, don’t we? I think that’s when we did most of our growing up. Summer vacation, the brief break in winter. It’s always when I noticed the biggest changes but I guess that also comes with the fact that I hadn’t seen these people in some time. No matter.

Sometimes I can picture you plotting my death. I can see it in your eyes.

 
Timeline/World: Atheria – 3rd Generation
Characters: Yasen Lars
Race: Halfling – Elf (snow) / Vampire
Age: 43, physically about 23
Final Word Count: 676 words
 

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I think I’ve mentioned that I believe sugar gliders are the cutest thing ever, they are. Laura has two she’s been taking care of for years—though I’m wondering if they’re the same two as the ones from the beginning. I don’t know if they’re like us as far as aging goes or if they’re like some of the other animals that don’t take well to it. I know it also depends on the person and how they feel about letting their pets age or not, anyway.

Every few months, she drops me a note about how she and Tyr are heading off for a couple of days; usually, it’s camping, at times it’s just an outing somewhere, once, it was for a whole week and that was okay, I mostly ended up bringing them back home as usually, just for the couple of days, I tend to spend a few hours at their house and that’s that.

Now, a few days ago, they left for some ten days on one of the maybe-not-tropical getaways. All the note said was that she’d booked them a getaway and they’d be back on that particular date—about two days from now—and if I could please come and pick up the pair to take care of them, so I did. She loaded me down with the usual and then some more for their food needs since they’d be gone longer and it would save me having to prepare food for the cute little buggers.

Okay, okay, yes, I still think they’re cute but I swear that since I took them in for this round, I feel like they’re plotting my death. I can see it in their little eyes. I’m pretty sure I’m just being over-dramatic and it’s just the fact that I’ve been dealing with a clumsy streak over the last while but I still feel like they’re trying to plot my death. They’d probably try to smother me in my sleep.

It’s weird the things your brain comes up with when it’s tired and I think that this is also a bit of the issue. With the clumsiness—and several times of hitting my toes on corners, chair legs and bed edges—comes physical discomforts that actually make it hard to find a comfortable position for me to sleep in so my nights are a little shorter and they leave me a bit more tired than usual. Nothing life-threatening but that mild weariness added into the mix of taking care of these little buggers and my mind comes up with the weirdest of ideas.

I don’t even think it’s possible for these guys to think about much of anything beyond what’s going on in their daily lives. I can’t even imagine that they would know how to plot much of anything. I will be fine, I know I will but at this particular point in my life, I’m sort of hoping that the next two days pass by in a bit of a blur so that these two can go back to their rightful home and I can sleep without thinking that a cute little sugar glider has found means of maiming me in my sleep.

That’s the funny thing, too. They sleep in a slight little enclosure, a place that’s secure for them to sleep in and very warm and cozy and all, so even if they wanted to, they wouldn’t have any means of getting to me at night and just, I know my brain is being weird and I know that they’re not planning on killing me or maiming me but I think a little getaway of our own after Laura comes home from hers with Tyr is exactly what we’re going to need. I’ve already brought it up to my ever-precious one and we’ve been looking at possible places for us to go to. It’ll make for a nice change of pace, I think. I don’t actually really remember the last time I went out like that.

Look! You’re doing it! I’m so proud of you.

Timeline/World: Atheria 3rd Generation
Characters: Yasen Lars
Race: Halfling – Elf (snow) / Vampire
Age: 41, physically about 23
Final Word Count: 532 words

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I am not a ‘pet’ kind of person. Even though I think the tigers, panthers and whatever other big cats roaming the city are pretty cool, I’m still not a pet kind of guy. Then somehow, some way, don’t ask me why, I found myself taking care of a couple of sugar gliders. Well, no, that’s a lie. I know why I ended up taking care of these two tiny little things. Laura had started taking care of a few from the vets, something about filling up her free time or something since I admit I did spend a lot of time with Lilah and I might have been a small bit of a hog. Sue me. I know what I want and that worked out for the best at this point.

So cue morning where she asks me to take care of the two little bundle of whatever-they-are because she’s going to be spending a couple of days away, some sort of getaway camping thing and she can’t take these things along with her. It’ll just be for a couple of days. So, okay, sure, I’ve more or less stolen her love interest for her, despite the fact that we’d decided we could share if it came to that and I was willing to sort of make it up to her by doing that much, not that she put it that way but that was how I was seeing it because I had no idea what I was getting into with this pet sitting thing.

Turns out, these little guys are cute as fuck.

They’re not hard to care for and it only took a few hours for them to win me over. When she came back, I wasn’t really willing to let her have them back because they’d been so cute. They didn’t really need any real taking care of, they could feed themselves just fine from the mix she’d left me, drink just fine from the water, they mostly needed someone to spend time with and most of the time they were nestled up comfortably in the pockets of my jacket. It was cute.

I did get them to do that neat little gliding thing from a pole to another and I was cheering them on like an idiot and all. Lilah might have thought I was completely crazy but it was worth it. The little guys were precious. Not that I got any afterwards, taking care of them now and again when Laura and Tyr head off to wherever it is they go every few months is plenty. I just sort of step over for a couple of days, or a couple of hours every day and tada.

I’m still not a ‘pet’ kind of person, I have enough going on in my life to keep me busy without having to worry or think about feeding something else, bathing something else, taking something else out for a walk or cleaning up after that something else. I tip my hat to everyone who has pets because it takes more dedication than I’m willing to spare for more than a few hours or a couple of days every few months.