Chapter Text
"That concludes the morning announcement for today!" You curl up against the belly of your tabby cat pillow. You must have left the TV on last night, no less on the Fia news channel. "We hope that everyone has a wonderful day!" shouts the news person again as you reach for your remote. You search, aimlessly, trying to turn it off. In the aimless search for the remote control to turn off the television, you reach out your hand; only to stop when you hear the presenter say, "Remember! The possibilities are endless!"
Your eyes darted around your room looking for the TV. You were expecting to see a photo of the dark-haired Captain of The Order, pointing his thin sword forward. His face contorted as though he was screaming an order. You could see his soldiers charging forward. A photo of The Leaders and The Order from the Lifting Festival last month is displayed instead. Within the photo, eight individuals hold hands while channeling their magic to create a black 16-pointed star with seven smaller six-pointed stars encircling it. In the photo behind the Order and Fia Leaders is a cheering crowd. "The Proposal" symbolizes their alliance.
Your stomach tightens; you look down at the screen, trying to determine if you've seen this photo before. The Lifting Festival happens annually, but the photos are always different. Not everyone attends at the same time. You don't see the Attendant of Aerana or the Attendant of Caenum, which implies it isn't the first year. In the second year, the Captain was there, but you too don't see him. It can't be the third year, because in the few instances this happened all three were present.
The screen changes to another photo showing Lustris, the first leader, shaking hands with Asgore, the King of Monsters. A banner at the bottom reads, "Together We Stand". You released the breath you didn't even realize you were holding. That's right, it has been four years since the Monsters emerged. Four years since you were stuck in the hellish loop.
"They ought to stop using that line." You mutter to yourself, getting ready to go to work. As you chose a linen turtleneck with a blue crocheted design on top, along with simple dark blue leggings, you sighed to yourself. A dark shawl would match the outfit. After wrapping the shawl around your shoulders and letting it rest lightly, you grab your bag and head out to work. You hear someone calling out to you as you are locking your door.
“It's great to see you today! Are you going on a date? Well, you certainly look nice today!” Your neighbor, Miss Thomas, is sitting on her porch as usual with her white Shih Tzu, Missy, lying at her feet. You wave and smile as you walk down to your driveway to your car.
“Thank you, Miss Thomas! Although I am certainly not meeting up with anyone today. I'm simply heading to work today.” Knowing she would try to lecture you, you move to change the subject. “I thank you for your kindness, Miss Thomas. Has Noah come by today?”
She laughs, "He will get here soon, don't worry, he takes good care of me." While reaching for Missy, she murmurs, “Though he should get another wife so the grandbabies will have a better life. He shouldn't be working and taking care of those gremlins, as well as me."
"Well, I'm glad you know they're little devils! Tell Noah I said hello!" Getting into your Scion and setting your bag in the backseat, you hear a "Will do!" and drive to the office where you have to work today.
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As soon as you have fixed the computer problem, you head to the IT department to do your job. Honestly, they treat you just like any other IT employee. While you could handle updates and broken keys, you don't. You enter a small room with a few desks that are arranged around a shelf of broken computers. The walls are a stark off-white with a red stripe cutting through; the floor tiles are designed with particles so that you can't see just how filthy the floors are.
You choose the desk just to the right of the door, on which sits a laptop that is updating at an unforgiving 7%. Thinking about the poor sap who has likely been dealing with this for hours, you slide it to the side and start setting up your laptops. There are two separate spreadsheets: one for statistics and note-keeping, and one for all of the actual testing of all security servers.
During the boot-up of the servers, you ignore the door opening until you are suddenly embraced around your shoulders and cooed at. "Why didn't you tell me you were coming in today? I would have worn something to wear out!" Rita, the head of the company's IT department, smiles down at you. As both of you are lovers of complaining, you quickly became friends. You grin at her and stand to give her a proper hug. Her mood dragged as she complained. "Honestly, the absence of you makes my dull days so much worse. Are you free for lunch today? Mike canceled on me this morning, asshole."
“Sure, but I thought you weren’t dressed to go out?” You point out her faded purple hoodie and worn-out jeans by waving your hand across them. She scoffed and waved her hand.
“I can just pull the hood up so people won't know it's me. You know, celebrity style." she laughs. Her hand flicked back to toss her auburn hair, which had been pulled back in a messy half-up-half-down style.
"Wouldn't you have to be a celebrity to do that?" she gave an offending gasp before putting her hand on her chest.
“It was the rudest thing you could have said to me. You don't consider me a celebrity?"
“Not at all.” She simply nodded and walked away to the laptop that was updating. Seems like she's the one who has to deal with this.
“Ugh, still?! This thing has been updating since yesterday!” She closed the device and moved it to the desk behind you, pulling a chair from the middle desk. “It makes no difference to me if you don't see me as the celebrity that I am, so I’ll let you get on with work. If I finish this early, I'll go home and change into something breathtaking.”
As you turn your attention back to your laptop, you mutter, "I think you should dress like that every day, Rita." Then, you say, "Yes, show me why I'm wrong. Show me how stunning you can be."
She sighs as she says, "I try, but it's not something I can do every day." You hear her as she begins to type.
Once everything is up and running, you test the security of the company's network. You decide to take a look at some personal servers after a bit of waiting. All automatic programs work well with little downtime on them. There was only one child who tried to dox you, but that is automatically met with two hours of staring at a black screen. You check the security tests and report no problems, so on to the next test. In the corner of your eye, Rita leaves the room holding the faulty laptop. You sigh, leaning back into the creaky chair. These things are always so tedious, especially for someone in your field who has to test everything by hand.
After months of testing, you were able to create a reliable program to handle the majority of the work. With how diverse every network is, most wouldn't even be able to start creating a program because of how much time it takes. There were nearly a million different networks you had to compare to find a similarity, then have the program determine what it meant and how to adjust to it.
You've been doing the same tedious work for the last four years. You let out a bitter laugh at the irony. You spent about five years doing the same thing over and over, and now you're doing it again. You find it hard to stay awake during these moments when you wish you could run away, go somewhere you have never been before. Here yet not here. Maybe you should take a nap, after all, you are tired. No, you shouldn't fall into that vicious cycle again, you can't. Maybe you should take some time off. Maybe go back to working for Th-
An email from the CEO of this company interrupts your thoughts. He wants to know if you have time to prepare a report on the results of the security tests to determine whether there has been any attempt to break in; not just a list of any flawed programs. This is not a big corporation, but it is well known in the area and pays its employees well and on time. It's an unbelievable thought that someone would be interested in its employee or client information for a company of this size and reputation. It is one of the few genuine companies, though there are some unpleasant managers there and there. You respond that you will and that the report will arrive after lunch. He replies thanking you for your time.
As you start up the next test, you search for any oblique activity that occurred from the previous month. With two cups in her hands, Rita enters the room. She places one cup a bit away from you and stands for a moment over you. “You know, the way you type is so clever. Because I know you can't type well the usual way, so instead of giving up or trying harder, you just invented a keyboard that is just for you." As she sips her beverage, she continues to say, “It's incredible how fast you type with one hand! I'm a fast typist, but if you have 26 letters distributed over four fingers, does that not mean you're doing loads of different combinations? For example, three taps on 'I' results in a 'T'?" Grabbing the cup she set down, you wave it up in the air. "Yes, that's for you. Answer my question.”
While taking your first sip, you realize that it is pure black coffee. You pause from your work to quietly pray for Rita's downfall, murder is not the feeling you were hoping to experience today. Your eyes flash to her. “First of all,” you begin, raising the cup to point at the door, “that door? I want you on the other side of it. Why would you serve someone black coffee? It makes me want to slaughter your dog and serve it up on the finest of plates. Then drink the tears you shed.” As you take another sip, you raise your finger to tell her to wait. "Yes, it's almost like Morse Code, only with more buttons. I occasionally switch them up out of curiosity or when I'm feeling like typing with one hand."
You stare at each other, you take another sip, she stands with green eyes wide. She hesitates for a moment, unsure what to say, which isn't about the way you work. "Would you eat a dog?" she asks with surprise.
“I’ve had to before.” You acknowledge.
She places her hands on her hips, stunned. "Like you've killed and eaten a dog before?"
Your head tilts to the side as you mirror her stance. "You're Fia, right?" you ask, amused. "Were you born in this century?"
“Not quite. I was born in the mid-late 20th century, 1954."
"That makes sense. I was born in the 13th century." She recoiled to the center of the room, holding her hands up in surrender.
"Holy hell! If that's true, then you would be a Consul." You nod to confirm her suspicions, and at that moment she begins to pace as she speaks. "Should I bow or greet? I'm not sure where to differentiate between the two.”
Stopping her with both hands on her shoulders, you look into her eyes. "Yes, my age makes me a Consul, but like you, I was raised human. No need to greet me, my rank doesn't require it.” As you let go of her shoulders, you explain. "In all, there are sixteen greetings and bows, but you should not be concerned about them since you are still far too young for a Fia and have no need for them." Slowly, she nods. “Are you okay?” A nod follows. "Are you nodding because you now realize that I'm a Consul?" Another nod. After sitting back down, you say, "I'll let you calm down. I've got to finish this before lunch. Thank you for the murder juice."
After a moment, she says, "You’re welcome. I'm sorry." You wave your hand with a smile. She walks back to the desk she was at before and sits. You return to your work.
The feeling that you ruined something crept up the back of your mind. Thoughts that you couldn’t be friends with those younger, or those with shorter life spans. They’ll eventually leave like all the others. The feeling to stop before it gets dangerous; to pull back.
You could hear your mother’s voice now, “Go out and befriend the Olden children. I hear they’re the same as you! This way, when I am long gone I will know you will not be alone in this world.” You never really had a problem with being friends with younger Fia or with humans, the problem lies in the fact that most of the time their parents would be Fia. Your parents were human so you aged at the same time as a human, however if you were raised by Fia parents you’d age every 20 years or so.
This meant that any younger Fia you met when your parents alive were still babbling babies. You were very unsettled the first time you met a 36 year old baby, they looked like any other 2 year old. After that you only met younger Fia when you worked for The Order.
You had befriended many humans before, loved some of them. At first your only friends were humans, hence your mothers constance nagging to have some Fia friends, you lived and loved as a human when you were a child. However, it was always the pain of outliving them that made you hesitant, if you could bare that pain once more. Humans also hurt you and the ones you love more than once. You’ve lived through many wars and, no matter how tight you held on, you always lost something dear.
Maybe this was what made you never bring up your age to Rita and in turn not ask her for her age. The hesitation made you set an invincible wall between you, a wall only you could feel and see. With a sinking feeling deep in the pit of your stomach, you realize, Rita just walked head first into that wall and she knows it.
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