Gen Three- Chapter Eighteen

It took me another minute or two to convince my brain my friend was indeed before me and that my mind wasn't teasing me with a dream. I was, in fact, wide awake, and Timber's surprise arrival prompted such an energy boost that I then hurriedly rushed him out of our room so Gilly and I could change. Then we could get the day started for real.

     "Will you please just admit you might like him a little?" Gilly teased as she came up behind me admiring myself in the mirror.

     "I will not because I do not like him. Not like that," I rolled my eyes, too done with this kind of conversation to be annoyed, "I think I look good today. That's all."
     "Why did you choose today of all days to spend extra time on your hair and stuff then? It's a suspicious coincidence."
     "I don't know. We haven't seen Timber in a while. I don't want him to think I've been lazy or something, I guess."
     "Mmhmm."
     "You're impossible, Gil."
     "So I've heard."

Gen Three- Chapter Fifteen

The smile that had been on my lips faded as he laughed.

     "You really don't remember?" Timber wondered.

     "It was kind of a stressful day," I shrugged, "I'm surprised you remember. You didn't look any more focused than I did."

We were recalling the crazy day we'd hoped to meet with Timber's mother. I'd mentioned to my friend that one of my new classmates was in the popular show Glassblown, but that I hadn't ever really seen it. That's when Timber revealed the morning before we left for the lake we'd watched nothing else.

     "I was hyper-focused because I was so stressed." Timber said too confidently.

     "I'm not sure that's something to be proud of." I teased with a laugh.

     "Maybe not," he chuckled, "Anyway, want to get me autograph? It'd be cool to have something signed by a famous person."

     "If you want something written by a famous person, I'll just give you Uncle Prism's shopping list."

     "That sounds even better." Timber went along playfully.

Gen Three- Chapter Fourteen

I expected Zenith Peak to be fancy given that it was a private school in one of the most affluent places in the world, but Zenith Peak went far past fancy. Mom and Aunt Taffy didn't just pull up to a nice building and drop us off. They pulled up to a parking lot in front of an expensive looking road gate where Canary and Crescent had to get out because all typical students took shuttles to their respective buildings. Zenith Peak, apparently, was a series of buildings much like a college campus settled up against the hills. The actual college campus was a bit further down the way. Aunt Taffy drove us up to the gate, some guards double checked the permission she had to drive us new students to the buildings directly, and off we were in this crazy other world. The high school was the closest, so Ember got taken inside first. Then came the elementary, and Merlot was off. The middle school was the farthest away, and Gilly and I hopped out of the car with wide eyes.

     "This feels so..." I began slowly.

     "Excessive?" Gilly finished for me.

     "Yeah."

     "Perhaps a little." Aunt Taffy laughed as she ushered us inside.

Gen Three- Chapter Thirteen

My ears picked up the sound of someone opening the door, but my brain decided not to do anything with the information until several seconds later. There was a gentle 'thumping' sound, a surprised squeal, and the laughter of two voices.

     "Uncle Prism!" Gilly did her best to chastise the sudden intruder.

It was clear by the way he squished her by laying on top of her that our uncle had chosen to lovingly and teasingly wake her up in a ridiculous manner. Gilly's brows furrowed as she tried to frown, but the tickling of her sides by Uncle Prism prevented her fake annoyance from lasting for a single second.

     "Dad, c'mon. My alarm hasn't even gone off yet. Some of us still have to go to school." Canary mumbled, giving us a sleepy glance before turning away from everyone and pulling her sheets closer.

     "Good morning, and hello," Uncle Prism greeted us while ignoring her, "Glad to see you all made it safely. Sorry I couldn't make it yesterday."

     "Well, then we wouldn't have arrived safely. We heard you really wanted to prank us." Gilly responded merrily with a raised brow as she sat up.

     "A lost opportunity, but I'm sure I'll make up for it somewhere."

     "Just as long as we get to help you prank dad when he comes down."

     "Oh, definitely. I've got a whole list intricately planned for when he arrives." Uncle Prism smirked.

Gen Three- Chapter Twelve

Mom couldn't have told a less funnier joke. Then, I glanced around again at the mostly empty house, and I made myself stop being stupid. I didn't want to move, but the storm raged with extra fury outside in that very moment and I understood why we were.

     "Moving? Why?" Merlot went ahead and asked anyway.

     "There's no other choice. Berrybrook has dealt with flooding before, but never on a scale like this. The last time a hurricane made its way all the way up here was over seventy years ago, and it was only a category two. This one now is at its full strength, and with how badly it's been raining all year I'm not exaggerating when I say a good portion of the city is going to be underwater. That includes this neighborhood as well. We're incredibly close to the ocean, and we're settled at the bottom of a small valley. I wouldn't be surprised if the flooding made it up to the second floor. In any case, if the city doesn't start ordering mandatory evacuations by tonight, they'll have to by tomorrow."
     "And that's why you've started packing everything up." I spoke.
     "Exactly. Amaranth and I have been working hard all day here while your father has been calling in whoever was willing to come in to help him take care of the store. We hired some trucks and movers, and we've already gotten two full trucks on their way. The majority of our things are going to be placed in a storage center much further in state."

Vivid Family Picture Spam

Some of the pictures I took back when I was putting together the household for Gen 2.

Gen Two- Chapter Thirty Three

I ran my fingers softly across the sill of the window and frowned at the subtle cold touch of the wood. The hospital did the absolute best it could to keep the heat in and the cold out, but it was impossible for them to make sure all of winter's chill remained where it belonged. The room could have been warmer if the blinds were closed, yet mom refused to block the window unless she was changing. It's not that I didn't get that desire. How many years had she been cooped up in this room for the majority of the time now? Restricting herself more from one of her few connections to the normal world wasn't a pleasant idea. However, I was tempted to go against her wishes for a moment. I truthfully doubted having the blinds closed would seriously make any improvements to mom's health, but it was not a lie to say I had been in a state of high paranoia for a few months.

Gen Two- Chapter Thirty One

Those two solemn words mom spoke lingered painfully in the air. Her eyes darted this way and that, but never got higher than the floor. She waited for someone to say something, for someone to react, but I think the rest of us, at least I was, were waiting for her to keep going. To say it was just a joke. To reveal it actually wasn't that serious. When the silence dragged on until it grew suffocating, I looked to dad. There was no doubt by the stunned expression he wore that mom hadn't chosen to speak to him about this beforehand.

     "Lung cancer?"

Wisp was the brave one to break the tension. Even his soft voice boomed like thunder as the horror was that immense.

     "But..but that's something that only people who smoke and stuff get!" Cerise piped up, her words dripped with denial.

     "It's more common for them, but that's not necessarily true," mom countered gently, "All the horrible bouts of pneumonia I've had are what's done it. My lungs have been weakened so much, it was the right environment for the mutations to thrive.

Gen Two- Chapter Thirty

My whole body froze in an instant. The most movement I could get was out of my fingers, and even twitching them had them feeling like they creaked and popped. What I saw almost made me feel nauseated as everything came at me in both slow motion and quickened speed. I didn't dare turn my head or blink, for I had had this dream many times. It wouldn't be long before my alarm went off. That's how it always worked. My mind would give me the sweetest but briefest moment of relief, and reality would snatch it away just like that.

     "Oh, my baby girl..."

His voice gushed softly, but his words echoed with a boom in my ears. That was his voice. The one I'd almost forgotten. I latched onto the sound with fervor. Dad rarely spoke in my dreams, and if he did the words were practically inaudible. I would try and strain to hear, I would try and get closer, and that's when it would all end.

Gen Two- Chapter Twenty Seven

Thanks to the furry thing darting around my feet, I was doing a truly bizarre dance. My new, most favorite companion in the world practically refused to leave my side, so my senses were on constant high alert. I really didn't need to step on my dog and break the poor thing in half.

     "Alright, Doodle, stop."

I had to do something though. Every step I took was halted because Doodle kept placing himself under my foot. My original plan had me getting a slightly bigger dog, but one look into Doodle's eyes had had me falling in love. They were a stunningly captivating blue. He was a two-year-old schnoodle, which was a cross between a schnauzer and a poodle, with the slightest bit of mutt mixed in. His name when I got him had been Snickerdoodle. I figured the previous owner had wanted to rhyme Snickerdoodle with schnoodle, but I didn't feel as if that name really fit him. That's why I shortened it to Doodle, and he had thankfully had no problem with it. Doodle had also thankfully been well trained from the get-go. He stopped darting about the instant I gave the command.

     "Good boy." I praised, kneeling down to give him a good pet.

Gen Two- Chapter Twenty One

The gentle tapping of me lightly hitting my forehead against the glass of the table beat out a steady rhythm one could make quite the lovely song to if one was so inclined. Song melodies were not what my mind concerned itself with though at the moment. It instead sped through every kind of job or random career I'd ever heard of in hopes that one of the ideas would catch my interest. The best I was getting were possible jobs that would at least not make me want to rip my hair out. However, there failed to be one that I actually wanted to strive for. There was so far nothing that gave me the impression that I would be happy doing it the way Wisp enjoyed his art or Prism loved his film making.

     "I want at least three things written down by lunch!" mom called to me, poking her head out of her bedroom door to add more stress.

     "I know." I growled to myself slowly in annoyance.

Gen Two- Chapter Fifteen

Dead silence rang throughout the house. Time stood suffocatingly still, and the lingering echoes of Uncle Blaze's words rang in my ears. They lost? We lost? Some judge had seriously thought taking Rosemary away by forcing her to live with people she didn't want to live with was the best thing for her? The fact that Rosemary was happier than ever and had soared in school rankings to be the number one student in her class wasn't proof enough of how much Uncle Eden and Aunt Deny had helped her? Shipping her off to the other side of the country during the last third of the school year didn't seem absolutely absurd to the court?

I had no idea what to say. I had no idea of what to do. Uncle Blaze and I just stood there in the silence. He still wore that strange expression I couldn't read, and there was something off about the whole aura he emanated. I could have sworn it was almost as if he was holding back a smile. I stared up at him with eyes unblinking- until those eyes swarmed with tears once more. The tears of heartbreak, not the wet eyes caused by a cold that I had been dealing with all day. My tolerance levels completely shot thanks to the exhaustion of my illness, I was about to utterly lose it. I wouldn't be surprised if my legs collapsed on me again as I turned into that blubbering mess. Seconds away from that happening was when Uncle Blaze's attitude rapidly changed.

     "Coal, wait, please don't cry. I'm so sorry. I'm just an asshole. Phrasing it like that on purpose like that to see your reaction was such a dick move. I don't know what I was thinking." he apologized for whatever reason.

Confusion putting a possible block on my tears, I frowned as I awaited clarification.

     "Eden and Deny technically lost the case, but Mary will be staying with us."

Gen Two- Chapter Thirteen

I had a moment or so to kill, so I snuck across to the other side of the first floor to see how things were progressing with Uncle Blaze and my brothers. I was sure to not let them notice me though, for they otherwise would have made me help them. The only reason I wasn't helping them then was because they thought I was still preoccupied with my previous task.

     "You want us to move it to the front side of the room? But we've always moved it to the back before. There's less heavy lifting and the tree is nice and visible from the street." Prism said in response to Uncle Blaze's unusual decision.

     "Who cares if other people can see our Christmas tree? We always have problems with the sunlight coming in through those front windows on Christmas morning. It ruins the pictures and forces us all to squint the whole time. If we move the piano and drums to the front and put the tree in the back, we won't have to worry about any of that."

     "This thing is so heavy though." Prism complained lightly, pouting at mom's piano.

     "Aren't you the one who's always working out?" Uncle Blaze laughed in disbelief, "What the point in building muscles if you don't put them to good use?"

I was sorely tempted to shout out that Prism only worked out so much just so he could brag, but the taunt wasn't worth getting myself involved in moving the piano that was indeed incredibly heavy.

     "If we're going to move it to the other side, let's pack up mom's planters first. There's no point in having them out now. They'll just get in our way." Wisp suggested.

     "Sounds good." Uncle Blaze agreed.

Gen Two- Chapter Eleven

I was feeling pretty good. Everyone else was upstairs, so I had the whole first floor to myself. I had some plans for later on that Saturday afternoon, but until then I was going to be as lazy as possible. The rational part of me screamed from the back part of my mind that I was going to regret at least not being lazy outside. Summer was gone, and autumn was here. Chilly though still bearable winds scattered the already thick coat of leaves all over the ground. It wouldn't feel like that much longer until the cold bite of winter forced me inside most of the time. I really should have tried to enjoy the decent weather while I had it, but, nope, I opened the fridge to pull out one of the left over grilled cheese sandwiches I had been saving. I would start with it before seeing if it was far enough past breakfast for me down one or two more.

     "Coal!" an angry call erupted from behind me to jolt me and send my heart racing.

Gen Two- Chapter Nine

My search for my sister brought me to Prism's room. I rarely went in there despite our rooms being right next to each other. It was true my brother had been a lot less annoying since dad's disappearance than he had been, but as the weeks progressed he was steadily working back up to his old levels of bothersome once more. A sadness did continue to linger about the house, but the constant somberness and seriousness as if someone had died was gone. I usually on went into Prism's room if I was desperate to use a computer or if I was trying to dig up some sort of blackmail to use on him to get him to stop pestering me. Then there was also the fact that I avoided his room because it often smelled how it smelled when I walked in at that particular moment. Prism was big on working out, and the scent of his sweat was not exactly something I preferred.

     "Forty." Desire counted the chin-ups Prism was doing.

     "I've already passed that!" he said back shakily as he fought slightly to pull himself up another time.

     "Well, there have been some that you struggled with, so I didn't count them."

     "As long as I get my chin up, they count! It doesn't matter if it takes longer than normal!"

     "Whatever," Desire smiled nonchalantly, "You're close enough. Just do a few more, and you'll definitely hit your goal of fifty."

     "Some counter you are." Prism mumbled under his breath.

Gen Two- Chapter Eight

I must have walked around my room a half million times. I had sat quite still after rushing upstairs while I let the situation sink in. It took a long time before the shock wore off. Never before in my life had I seen mom act anything like that. It hadn't even felt like she was the same person I had known for my almost eleven years. There had clearly been a monstrous amount of pain she had been holding back, and I felt horrible about pushing her when she pleaded for peace. I had asked to be yelled at. However, I did feel a little indignant as well. Okay, I deserved to be rebuked, but did she really have to have mocked me like she did? That was the part that was bothering me the most. Surely she knew I hadn't meant to make light of her past the way she implied I did, right? If I ever boasted, in my mind I was only thinking about how cool and amazing mom was for being so strong to get through all that had been in her way.

Having been sitting on my bed for about three seconds, I slid off as my body demanded I move. The little incident had swept my exhaustion away. My body craved to be as active as my racing thoughts now were, but I was a bit scared to leave my room. I wasn't sure what would happen if I did dare to go out the door. Would I somehow make mom angry again? It felt like I would be much safer if I did simply hide out in my room until the following morning.

Gen Two- Chapter Seven

It had been a long week at the beautiful islands, but it was already our last full day on vacation. We would be spending time together as our one big group in the afternoon, but for that morning the girls had gone off to do their thing while we boys went another way to do ours. Most of our time had gone into fast-paced activities like speeding around at the new go-kart track. Now, however, we were slowing down for a nice of lunch of, surprise, hot dogs at Uncle Sap's favorite spot on the islands before we were due to meet up with the girls.

     "I can't believe that more people don't come up here or even know about this place." I remarked as I glanced at the picturesque pond and brilliant view we had from our elevated position.

     "I know! Even the majority of locals don't bother with this area. Although, I suppose I should be glad. This spot wouldn't be as enjoyable as it is if it was full of people and tourists like the beaches and shops are." Uncle Sap recognized.

Gen Two- Chapter Five

I hadn't looked at the clock in hours, and it felt like it had been that long since I last moved. During that first week of dad's disappearance it had been next to impossible to stand being in my room for even short amounts of time. However, ever since I overheard mom's startling confession lazing about dismally on my bed had become my new favorite pastime. I was highly glad there was still a decent chunk of summer vacation left. All I could focus on was what I heard. Homework would be too much of a pain to try and handle too.

On one hand, I understood everything perfectly. Putting together mom's and Uncle Blaze's words, there was no denying it. Dad had been doing something illegal. He was poking around in something no normal person would dare to touch, and there had been people on the other side ready to pounce if he messed up and revealed himself. Unfortunately, he had gone ahead and done just that. So, that was that. There was the other part of me though that simply couldn't wrap my head around it. Dad? Dad of all people, my dad, was involved in something like that? It didn't fit with the person I knew him to be at all. I wanted to know more. I wanted to understand better, but I obviously wasn't going to be getting any answers. I shouldn't have even known what I knew. Mom was still pretending to be hopeful. If she wasn't going to come clean about that, there was no way she would explain everything to me if I admitted I had been eavesdropping.

     "Coal?"

A call of my name and a solid knock on the door made me jump.

     "You can't stay in there all day. You've had plenty of time to mope over the weekend. You need to come eat some lunch since you couldn't be bothered with breakfast." Desire instructed like the determined kind of sister she generally was.

     "I'm coming." I muttered reluctantly, not caring that my response was not audible to her in the slightest.

Purity, Wisp, & Prism- Colored

With there being a rather drastic lack of green that came out in the Christmas Presents (Amaranth and Ethereal's lovely rugrats), I decided that it would be interesting to give Wisp and Prism color to see if that was where the green was hiding. I also decided to take one extra step to give Purity her color as well just to cover all the albinos we've had in the story until this point. Who got which color where was determined with a classic clip of the coin. I like to think the results are pretty good.

To make things a little more interesting, I'd love to hear any ideas anyone has for what these characters would have been called had they been born with their color.

Gen Two- Chapter Four

It had been hard to break out of my melancholy mood, but the challenge I was facing was finally beginning to surge some energy through me. My glazed over expression instead narrowed in determination as I had to now pay attention if I didn't want to get absolutely pummeled. I hadn't even noticed how far ahead in points Rosemary had gotten, or that she was now duking it out with Malachite for first place.

     "You're finally starting to learn." Malachite teased as he only just avoided letting Rosemary total his car with hers.

     "And soon you're not even going to have time to trash talk." she warned competitively.

Malachite simply shrugged and continued speeding along, but there was loud shouting and cursing on his part and raucous cheering on Rosemary's part when her car once again came out of nowhere to successfully annihilate Malachite's car off the track this time around.

     "Are you sure you don't want to pick a different place to read?" I asked the question to one of the others sitting on the other couch.