You’re a terrible pirate and even worse friend, I hope you know.

Timeline/World: Edge of Forever – Shifting Sands
Current Date: April 27, 2023

Character: Yun Yuen
Race: Human – Meta – Energy Drain
Age: 32
Current residence: Outside Atheria, Eresiel
 

---

Pirates aren’t real, right? I mean, I guess they could be. There are so many different things here and I’m still discovering plenty of those things. Possibly because I have tried to go on walks. I’ve tried. I’ve tried to will myself to not be a hermit and stick to the house and to the furnace room but it’s hard. For most of my life up until these two stepped into it, I couldn’t allow myself to touch anymore. Touching others is a danger, especially skin-on-skin.

So, I’m not about to go prancing up to one of their little gatherings to introduce myself. Even if I were covered head to toe, to prevent any unexpected and unwanted touching, I still don’t know that I’d go. It’s just not my way of doing things. As is, I know I have a way of doing things, but that’s beside the point.

The point is that whenever I’m taking care of the yard, it seems to be when people are wandering on by, talking about this or that. Most of the time, I tune them out; it’s not my place to be listening in to their discussions, that’s not the way of things. Every so often, though, I catch snippets of things they’re saying to one another and I’m just…

I’m confused about it all.

There was the thing about time travel. It was a while back now, I know. I still think about it every so often. Not so often that it distracts me from making more glass figurines or items or bothers me in my daily life, but it’s still there, at the back of my mind. And then something else crops up in a conversation I shouldn’t be privy to, and the rest is history. It gets tacked on top of the rest.

The most recent one that has now found itself added on top of the rest was something about pirates. Maybe it was a game they were playing—they looked like adults to me but there are games that adults play, right? There are these things they call video games? I think so. It could have been that. But the dark-haired one—who looked like a boy to me—was telling the redhead—maybe a girl but what do I know—that they were a terrible pirate and an even worse friend.

I have no idea how it would feel to be told that by someone I consider my friend. I mean, I have so few of those, to begin with. If I was being honest, I’d be pointing out that I don’t actually have any friends at all and that’s fine, really. Yes, the two loving idiots in my life are my friends but they’re more than that and I don’t know that in the situation my mind is trying to put together, they would fit under the umbrella term of friends.

Their words, one way or another, would hold much more importance to me than that of a simple friend and I wouldn’t react quite the same way to them, I’m sure. As is; I didn’t catch the end of the pair’s discussion. As these things happen, they were walking on by, and I was cleaning up the edge of the yard; they were talking as they walked, and I only caught that one snippet.

Did I think to pay attention to the reaction to those words? Why would I have? I wasn’t originally part of that discussion, and it seems like something I shouldn’t have been listening in to, as was. So no, I don’t know how the redhead took to the dark-haired one’s words. I’m not all that interested in knowing either. I’m more invested in the strange thought of the presence of pirates anywhere.

Again, in some way, I wonder if this isn’t part of some sort of video game they might have been playing. Or maybe even some real-life game. I just don’t know and it’s hard to imagine that I might ever get an answer to that. I don’t spend much time looking at anything on that television box. I’m not as stressed out about things in life as I used to be and that has helped wonders, but I still don’t keep up much with whatever is going on out there. I just go about my daily life, I take care of stuff that pertains to me and that’s about that, as far as the rest is concerned.

So, whether or not there are pirates out and about in this day and age, I might very well just never know and it’s okay.

Final Word Count: 775

See? This is why I told you not to play with time travel. What do we do now?

 
Timeline/World: Edge of Forever – Shifting Sands
Characters: Yun Yuen
Race: Human – Meta – Energy Drain
Age: 31
Current residence: Outside Atheria, Eresiel
Final Word Count: 762 words
 

---

I’ve heard strange things since we’ve come to live here. It’s not that I mingle much, I can’t bring myself to. I don’t keep myself locked away, though, that would be a fairly foolish idea.

I’m still wrapping my mind around the fact that, supposedly, by living here, my lifespan is going to be much longer than it was originally going to be. It’s been a while since we’ve come here, and I admit that I don’t really feel any differently. I don’t feel as though I’ve stopped ageing but, thinking about it, how would I even know what that feels like, right?

Coming here, I knew that there were going to be different people and different things, but I don’t know that I expected them to be quite as different as they turned out to be. I’d seen different people while I’d been out there in the main city surrounding this place, darker skins, pointed ears, maybe a few tails and some feathers but they were uncommon.

Here? Here there’s a bit of everything and what I’m struggling to wrap my mind around is that from just beyond the gates that lead here, the place looks like nothing more than a large, gated Victorian house. So when you step up to the gates and they open up and there, in front of you, is a whole city, it’s disquieting. It’s one of the reasons why I don’t go out there much anymore. I used to, up until I noticed that my old building was set up for demolition. After that, I didn’t feel like there was much of a need anymore.

What I’m still trying to wrap my mind around, though, are some of the strange things I’ve heard. I don’t know if they were being said in jest or if they were real but the last little bit that I heard left me feeling so confused that you can bet I didn’t really know what to think.

Not helpful to that part is that, in a way, some would have considered what I was doing eavesdropping. Not that I was trying. It just so happens that this was what happened. They were walking on by—talking a walk, I guess, the day was nice—while I was actually raking up the leaves from the yard. I’ve never had to do that before but it’s something I’ve learned to appreciate doing. The yard has several trees, just enough to make it one-too-many to just leave the leaves on the ground for compost.

So I was raking the leaves and this pair walks on by, talking to themselves but their words float to me, it’s a quiet day, I was near the front edge of things and, well you know. They were talking about time travel. Considering everything else that is a possibility here, I admit that it made me pause because, well, time travel.

I didn’t reach out to ask them about it. Again, they were walking on by, talking to themselves and I just so happened to hear that particular snippet.

I’m still not exactly comfortable being around anyone else out there, though I suppose that supposedly the bracelet they gave me helps with my so-called gift.

I just don’t know if they were really talking about potential real time travel or if, you know, they might not have just been talking about a book they’d read recently, or even a movie. As someone who’s never actually really watched movies before, I wouldn’t really know, and books aren’t all that common for me though I’ve gotten into the comfortable habit of actually reading to Till every now and again. I know how he struggles with reading, and it makes me feel good to read something. I feel like it helps a lot with my vocabulary. Especially since I mostly had to learn to read far too late in my life. Quite a few words still baffle me.

It’s still with me, that whole maybe-time travel thing. I don’t really know what to make of it. It has had an on-and-off spot in my brain. It just sorts of comes and goes, but it never stays long enough for me to lose myself in the thought of it. I suppose it might be why I’ve yet to bring it up to the guys. That and well, it seems so far-fetched that it has to have been based on a book or a movie, right? Or maybe even a song, a short story, a poem, something.

That’s what it has to be.

We both know you can hold a grudge. What is it this time and who did it?

 
Timeline/World: Edge of Forever – Shifting Sands
Characters: Yun Yuen
Race: Human – Meta – Energy Drain
Age: 30
Final Word Count: 763 words
 

---

Now and again, we still head down to the city. Usually, it’s just to wander a little. I guess you could say that I’m weird and a little melancholic at times. I don’t really miss the old area that much, but on certain days, it’s like there’s this little nagging sensation in my gut that tells me that my past is fading away and that just maybe I could possibly just check out old areas.

The main reason for heading out there usually leads me—rarely alone—back to where it all started. Back to that little shop with the abandoned front and the tagged windows since they’re not broken. I remember that they’d been changed to something more bulletproof not long before I ended up moving in with the guys. I’m pretty sure there are squatters inside the building. I suppose that it doesn’t really matter, not exactly. I don’t live there anymore and while I never sold the building—no one would want it, I’m pretty sure it was a fire hazard—I didn’t care if people took shelter in there to keep themselves safe and warm.

Being out there, by that building, it brings back memories. Rarely good ones, mostly bad ones that would be best left behind. I don’t know why I still do this to myself. Though I suppose I should look at it in a more past-tense way at this point because when I last went, I saw that the apartment on the second floor had clearly caved in, though upon looking closer, I could see scorch marks everywhere. I wondered if someone hadn’t tried to turn on the furnace for some sort of heat but it didn’t matter.

There were little papers everywhere stating that the building was slated to be torn down within a day of my last visit. It sort of released something in me I didn’t think needed any release but clearly, my heart and chest thought otherwise. Just the sight of this part of my life marked for proper demolition lifted a weight off of me. Somehow, the memories of my parents and their deaths felt lighter in my soul. I wouldn’t really have an excuse to come roaming anymore.

I did have a few rare and vague memories of happiness but, for the most part, they weren’t. I don’t remember my mother, but I do remember my father. I remember his gruff mannerism. I remember how he wouldn’t touch me, not from the moment I was old enough to take care of myself on my own.

I remember the way his eyes would follow my every move. I remember how, all of these years, he still held the grudge of my mother’s death and I would have been a fool to not understand and see that he blamed me for it all of my life up until he died. I know I’m the reason she died. I know that nothing would have brought her back, but to treat his own flesh and blood like someone you should have hated with all of the fibres in your body doesn’t make for a very happy childhood.

I can’t compare my childhood to that of anyone else’s, I don’t think it would be fair. I learned to read people’s faces; I learned to be able to tell how they were feeling from just a glance. I was good at that, at least as far as my clients went and I do remember one client that came every so often. She would usually be buying the same little figurine every time and one morning, I recall that she’d come up to the counter, looking so much like I remember my father looking when he gazed my way and yes, I braved the thought of camaraderie and I asked her what had happened because she looked like she was holding on to a grudge and she just gave me such a surprised look. We usually didn’t talk much. She would give me the figurine, I’d punch it into the register, she’d pay and leave.

She laughed, though, grinned at me and told me that this was a bold move, that I’d startled her with the question but had jarred her from her mood just the same. She didn’t answer my question and I had honestly not expected an answer, but that had also been the last time she’d ever come back. It had been a few months before I met the Thrace and Till. I still wonder what happened to her, at least now and again.

Do I want to know why there are hand prints on my ceiling?

 
Timeline/World: Alternate Earth – Outside Atheria
Characters: Yun Yuen
Race: Human – Meta – Energy Drain
Age: 28
Final Word Count: 595 words
 

---

It’s already been two years. It doesn’t feel like it’s been two years, I think that might be the point. I don’t use the furnace as much as I used to, though it still gets a good bit of use. The studio gets more use than the furnace, I guess I spend more time playing, writing and creating music than I do creating glass pieces with the furnace but both still are soothing to me, I’m not going to lie.

The move was stressful. That Thrace decided we were moving in mid-December instead of spring was a startling realization but I think he did it for plenty of good reasons, one of those reasons being that I was stressing out in a bad way and that wasn’t doing me any good.

For most of my years, I’ve had to keep my touch to myself because of what I am. Up until these two came into my life, I couldn’t touch anyone unless I wanted to drain them of their energies. I never learned to control it; I don’t think it can be controlled. That Tillian and Thrace are somehow immune to my gift—though I prefer to call it my curse—was and still is the best thing that ever happened to me though I was terrified when Till first touched me.

The house is almost identical to the old one. The main difference is that there is a covered pathway from the furnace to the house and there’s my little recording and working studio. Everything else is exactly as it was and it was so strange to see that when we first visited. I didn’t think it was quite possible.

Settling in took some time but it was time well spent. I didn’t go outside much and I still don’t go outside much when the temperature drops below a certain number but they’re accommodating to my issue with the cold. It’s not as bad as it used to be though it’s still not great either. I don’t think I’ll ever be comfortable out there in the cold.

A few days ago, I woke up to a comfortable sandwich position—one of my favourite though I like being on the outside of that sandwich too—and I somehow managed to get out of bed without waking both of them up. They stirred but that was about it. I’d gone to bed early the night before, as I hadn’t been feeling so great but as I felt better that morning, I did get out of bed so I could get myself some tea.

Now, I don’t startle easily, not normally. Not anymore.

But I can admit that I startled when I stepped into the kitchen, looked up because something caught my eye and I found… a world of handprints on the ceiling.

I stared, oh but I stared long and hard, mouth half-open, waiting and ready to call out to the pair still sleeping upstairs but instead I shut my mouth and I tried to figure out just what had happened. I knew the doors were closed and locked, I knew we hadn’t had any visitors so the idea that someone had left so many hand prints everywhere on the ceiling just made no sense to me.

It took me a few minutes to shake it off but I did eventually do it, I focused on getting myself some tea and I sat in the kitchen. I waited until they were both awake to ask the question and, well… that’s for another time.

I believe stranger things have happened to us.

Timeline/World: Alternate Earth – Outside Atheria
Characters: Yun Yuen
Race: Human – Meta – Energy Drainer
Age: 27
Final Word Count: 578 words

---

My life has changed. I don’t even know where I should begin about it all but my life has changed.

From struggling to survive on my own, from a winter spent in an apartment without heat, from meeting not one but two souls who were immune to my so-called gift that’s more a curse than a gift, to now living in a place that will supposedly keep me alive as long as them, living in a place where people understand my issue and are careful but not in an ‘oh my god he’s dangerous, run away!’ way, to having peace in my life in a way I thought I would never achieve.

That is not to say all that has happened between three years ago and now was perfect and without any issues, there have been issues but now, just now, looking at the request for one particular item made out of blown glass made me wonder if I wasn’t Alice in Wonderland again. It was strange and out there. Not completely unusual, I’d made sex toys before but this was a new one and it would be a delicate situation. It shouldn’t have made me wonder as much as it did, I’d gone through stranger things before but it just had been a while.

That they’d attached a visual copy of the item as well as extremely detailed information on how everything should look was baffling. Usually, I was given free reign over how I worked the items, so long as they were within the set dimensions but in the case of this one, it was clear I would have no wiggle room. The dimensions were to be followed exactly, the curve and shape to match that of the provided drawing and in a way, it made me wonder if I couldn’t make two of the item because it seemed tantalizing and interesting.

In the long run, I didn’t.

I had to start the item over not two or three times but six so it matched the request perfectly. With each trial, I’d take photos and send them back for review and every time there just was something wrong with the item and most of the time it was so minimal that I was tempted to say ‘fuck it’ but as some entertain the thought, the client is always right. In this case, the client was paying a good sum of money for the item and I refused to have an unhappy client.

If there is one thing I’ve always known about business is that word of mouth works. Unhappy clients will bitch and complain much more loudly about their issues than pleased clients will about how happy they are that they did get what they came for. Happy clients still will talk, however, they’ll tell their neighbour about how good the service was, how clean everything looked, how pleasant the seller acted. It’s all about making sure the happy clients outweigh that of the unhappy ones and business will grow, that’s just how these things work.

So I worked my ass off for this one commission, I had five copies that weren’t completely perfect as far as the client was concerned and while I could have kept the extra pieces, I dropped them back to my bin to be melted back in with the rest. The item was clear without any extras to it, so reusing the ‘failed’ piece worked out well, in the end.

You Think Too Much

Timeline/World: Alternate Earth – Outside Atheria
Characters: Yun Yuen
Race: Human – Meta – Energy Drain
Age: 26
Final Word Count: 570 words

---

This isn’t something I can turn off. It’s part of my brain and always been. It was imprinted into the whole of my brain when my mother died thanks to my uncontrolled gift.

I can wrap my mind around how in this place, things are different, people are aware and know better but I still can’t will myself to be open with them. I don’t go outside much. I’d prefer to stay in or work surrounded by the heat of my glass furnace.

I’ve heard it often, too often but it doesn’t change anything. ‘You think too much’. I can’t help it. For as long as I’ve known, my touch has been a curse. I would barely brush the bare skin of my hand to someone’s own, usually by accident, and if the touch was more than just a millisecond, it would be too much, they’d be out for the count and empty of their energy. Not dead, never dead else than once in my life and that haunts me, but exhausted and likely to need more than just a little rest.

This is why, even in this city that houses others who needed its protection, I don’t really mingle. I can’t bring myself to. I would love to, in a way. I know there is supposed to be another like me in this very city but I am not the kind who will be able to go out there and knock on doors to know where she might live.

Even if I did, what’s to say we wouldn’t be dangerous to one another? That’s the other thing. Of course, at this point, I know for a given fact that Tillian and Thrace are immune to my gift and it is a godsend but I can’t chance my touch with anyone else. Their sister certainly wasn’t immune to me and while that worked out in my favour, it very likely wouldn’t with anyone within this community.

I was offered a ‘chip’, something that would null my abilities but I don’t know that I want to turn to that. I’ve noticed that since we’ve all become… intimate, Till’s energy levels have been a bit more within the normal range instead of all over the place. Not that I mind all over the place, it was an almost exhilarating experience to learn to work around that.

It leaves me to wonder if that’s my doing or something else entirely. If it’s a sort of side-effect to my gifts for him, isn’t that a good thing? Doesn’t it mean that if I go for that chip, which would be implanted at the base of my neck though they said I could go for simple jewellery that would have the same properties, that whatever side-effect my gift, or my curse really, has on him, would be null? He would go back to being the bouncy young soul with whose help, his and his brother’s own, I have pulled out of my shell.

Do I want to chance that? I think the more even energy levels are good for him, good for all three of us and he hasn’t mentioned that perhaps he felt low-energy or bad about that lack of energy, so I really want to think that it’s a good thing.

All in all… I guess maybe I do think too much but there’s not a whole lot I can do about it.