Safe and Sound

Batty

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<div align=center>It had been a little less than a month since the young boy's life had began to feel unreal. He felt he was perpetually stuck in a dream, or much rather, a nightmare. Maybe that was because every time he closed his eyes to sleep a flash of an image or a memorized fraction-of-a-screech would strike terror into his heart once more, and thus lulling him into a state of insomnia. Yes, but that was only the tip of the iceberg in terms of describing this horrid sensation. That's because Oliver had done a very, very bad thing. And it was so unlike him that he felt he was living in the body of a disgusting stranger than himself.

But it was him. It was all his doing. He was the one who flipped out and tore through the once peaceful fields of the campus. He was the one that decimated the body of a bully and injured several teachers. It was him who single-handedly ended the lives of more than one life that day. And it was him who hurt so many, who made his best friend cry, and let his humanity go in favor of pent up animalistic rage that he lost control of. He had no one to blame but himself, and everything that came out of the past few weeks was only the bare minimum of what he deserved. Ugly scars that were stitched over were now healing along his kneecaps and thighs, but no doubt something would stay of that for the rest of his life. A similar scar ran across his neck where his teacher nearly decapitated him, making him almost look like Frankenstein's monster or something. But the medical attention he got for these came with a price. He had been alone the past month, forbidden to visit or accept visitors as he was seen as a 'potential threat' and an 'unstable child'. They hadn't let him do so no matter how much he begged to go see his teacher to apologize even if he knew it meant nothing. He was left to stay under the watch of doctors and soft-toned ladies who asked him questions about his mental well-being. Nobody really was there though to hug him or comfort him whenever he woke up in a cold sweat or with puffy eyes filled with tears. They merely patted his back and fed him sedatives, waiting for him to fall into a fake and empty sleep devoid of comfort and relaxation. His mature mindset had shattered into pieces and were only slowly beginning to reform again. At one point, he asked the staff if he could call his mother for her to tell him everything was going to be okay.

Which was odd, considering the woman never had done anything like that before in his life. Nor did he need her to do just that.

But the boy had changed. It was clear by the hollow gaze he bared towards the full moonlight out his window. He was back at his dorm for once in what seemed like eons. Oliver was allowed to go home, as long as he checked with the nurse once a day to take different sorts of medicine for his sleeping and dillusions. He didn't know what home felt like anymore though, and though this place would have given him a sense of comfort in terms of his roommate he couldn't muster the feeling quite yet. He had hurt her and drove her away. At least, he thought so, since she didn't come to comfort him when his rampage was over. The familiar setting was untouched since he left. He wasn't necessarily happy to be back, but he was relieved to be out of that godforsaken hospital for once. His suitcases laid in an open disarray on the ground beside him, the messy state so uncharacteristic to his pristine sense of organization. He was just sitting with his knees curled to his chest by the open window, balancing limply on the large ledge. He was still in the pajamas the hospital gave him, consisting of grey shorts that wouldn't irritate his leg wounds and a white t shirt that was rather disheveled considering his standards. His light blonde hair was a mop and a mess, and his glasses were folded in his hands. His roommate wasn't home yet, nor did he think the hospital told anyone but the staff that he was coming back. He sure didn't make his return public. Hell, he walked through the halls with his head down and refusing to talk to anyone or make eye contact. There was something darker about him, and though not in his heart but his mind. He had hurt so many people and felt repulsed as a human being.

But as the beasts locked inside of him, his actions never made him feel so good.</div>
 

Emy

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Pham Thi Anh Sang

Anh Sang was young, which was just another way of saying that she was a coward, knew it, and had cut that thought away to be stashed for the day when she could actually deal with the implications. There had been a sinking fear lurking in her mind for the last couple of months, an unease at being in wide open spaces but also the desire to absolutely not be locked in. Trying to find a neutral ground between the two, it had come to her one morning as she played a game of hide and seek with the shadows –it was the not knowing and not seeing that bothered her the most.

So she made butterflies. She made many butterflies, taking even the old ones and reforming them worriedly and needlessly. The ones that the girl original kept for decoration were given tasks as well. You, watch from this side. You, watch from that one. The crafted light served as extensions of her sight, scanning entire areas so quickly and frequently that it became second nature to her. Running back and forth at her whims, the normally pure white light had worked until it turned itself deep blue.

Not truly understanding the significance of that besides the observation that now she was seeing things better, Anh Sang kept their forms as they were. No point in worrying about new things when she was already worrying about the old. In any case, they all reported back to her dutifully, because she was their parent and that was what they owed to her.

...She missed her parents, too. Anh Sang did not lie, because Mommy and Daddy told her not to, even when things were bad. So she just cut and pasted parts together. It came out in pieces, things like Sensei was hurt and Mister Cunningham took care of everything mostly. I made a new friend who was scary at first but it's okay now; her name is Sylvia and I haven't seen Oliver in a while.

So how are things?

They're slow, Mommy.

And it was. Waiting for people to get better, waiting for life to settle back down to what it was before -that was like staring at the horizon and waiting for a mountain to move. Sometimes she thought she could hear the rumblings of it, but it could have easily been just distant voices carrying on through empty valleys.

I know you're busy but are you sure there isn't anything else that you could tell us about?

Oh, there were so many things but the more she thought about it, the more Anh Sang felt like there was this invisible barrier between them. A clear notion of us and them was beginning to form in her mind. Manta Carlos and then the outside world. They weren't the same. Even though she knew that intellectually, she hadn't really thought of what that meant. How was she supposed to describe all of the things on the island when to the outside world, they were only fantasies?

No, not too much, Daddy. Don't worry, okay? I'm a big girl now!

Not entirely a lie. The issue of age was painfully clear to her now, too, but Anh Sang did not think that people could go through certain events without growing up after them. Or was that wrong? She didn't know, and couldn't pretend that she did.

She felt so very strange.

Tiptoeing around the corners of the dormitory, the girl sent out her butterflies before her, the blue ones sending back images so much faster than the others. Faster, she called it, when the difference was only in milliseconds. If even that. This time, when they returned to her, she froze. Her room was on the other end of the hallway but she already knew that her roommate had resurfaced, finally.

Joy came to her first, fiercely, because if she wasn't going to feel glad, she would have to feel afraid. As much as she wanted to still see Oliver as a friend, what had happened would always stay with her. Maybe the years would wear it down -children were good at adapting- but for the time, it was still strongly imprinted upon her.

Yet, she wasn't worried about her own safety. He didn't hurt me at all, Anh Sang reminded herself. Nobody could say that that didn't mean anything. There would be no convincing her otherwise on this point. But the thought of having to deal with either a dinosaur minded Oliver or a distraught Oliver, that was what truly frightened her. She didn't want there to be changes; she just wanted everything to go back to how it had been!

Anh Sang was young, which was just another way of saying that she was selfish, knew it, but didn't really know it. But the child's mind still understood a little about what it was like to be an adult, so she swallowed her fears back up in childish courage as she hurried down the hallway. She made sure not to fumble with the key, taking precious, heart pounding movements to insert it as carefully as possible. She turned the knob. The door opened, and she used it as a curtain to hide behind as she took a couple of steps in. All but the upper half of her face were hidden.

She said, softly in a way that deepened her accent, "Welcome back, Oliver."
 

Batty

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<div align=center>In silence he sat, resting his chin upon his folded up knees. Memories kept relaying to him in fashions unwanted by him, a mixture of both pleasant and nightmare-like. On one hand being in his familiar room brought back happier memories before everything had gone to hell. On the other, well, everything had gone to hell. He couldn't help that sensation of paranoia from worming his way into his brain. Just what was the effects of his actions? Somebody lost a son. Somebody had to attend a funeral. They were struck down in their prime. The more he thought about it, the more frequently his heart skipped a beat. But whatever the emotion that he was feeling had not been shown on his face. The energy for that had been sucked right out of him.

So naturally when a familiar voice rang out after a creak of the door he didn't react as he should have. In normal situations he'd most likely at least chirp a hello or stop whatever he was doing to greet her. His standards weren't anything but normal today, as they haven't been for awhile. Instead his head tilted from the window, looking towards her. Clearly in his face was a look of exhaustion, his glazed over eyes and empty look lacking the youthful energy he usually possessed. But his outward expression wasn't in sync of what he wanted to convey. He was really happy to see her again. He was upset that they'd been separated, and wanted her to know that. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like much will be coming out of him at the moment. With a delicate whisper, he in turned replied

”Thanks, Anh Sang.”.

With that he put his knees down, allowing them to recline loosely before him as he spoke. ”It's certainly been awhile. How have you been?” For him he was struggling to find words and conversational pieces to dodge around what had happened. Maybe, if they ignored it enough, it would go away. But it wasn't a pesky sibling or anything, it was a serious problem. So he had to speak calmly and not ask her about the aftermath. That was for later, because now he just wanted to catch up with his old friend again. If she'd let him, that is.

In all honesty Oliver was terrified out of his wits right now. The uncertainty was killing him in regards to her. Did she hate him now? Oh god, he hoped not. Then again he wouldn't blame her. Maybe it would be best then for him to go away forever. At least then he wouldn't be a harm to anyone but himself. Shaking this off though he looked a bit more gently, melancholy hiding whatever genuine excitement he was experiencing at the moment.

”I missed you.”</div>
 

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Pham Thi Anh Sang

Feeling a little encouraged by their pointed ignorance of that elephant in the room, Anh Sang took a few more steps in, leaving her sheltered position behind the door. But out there in the open, she just felt small and vulnerable. Looking at Oliver now was exactly like how it had been when she looked at Ha Jung a month ago -meaning to find some reinforcement that everything would be okay, only to be immediately struck by how wrong, wrong, wrong things seemed. There was that terrible, confusing fear of not knowing where they were at, which grew with every unoccupied moment.

"I missed you lots, too," she said genuinely through her terror, sitting down on her bed. The mattress bounced her back up a bit, something so regular in her life that she felt a little sick at remembering how many contradictions were kept in this room. "It's been just kind of going." By which she meant slow, but she didn't say that because it brought to mind things like hospital beds and visits that didn't really seem to do anything.

"You should come in. Sit on your bed. It's better." She spoke almost mindlessly, taking an inordinate amount of comfort in how more complex ideas left her mind. Vietnamese and Japanese rose up around her, shielding her from those ugly concepts she had learned in English. Somehow they all seemed harsher in that language; the association with the only real tragedy in her life colored the words in ten thousand cloudy shades.

"It's going to get colder really soon."
 

Batty

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<div align=center>There was a battle occurring in his brain, more prominent than it had been all this past month. He knew this confrontation was imminent, and yet despite his mental preparation he couldn't quell the nasty feeling of self-loathement that he had done everything to cause this. He kept telling himself that his best friend would understand and not completely hate him too. But did he know the certainty of this outcome? Nope.

A bit of encouragement did follow upon being told that the feeling was mutual. Or was she just saying that? No, he was reading too much into things as he told himself. The doctors as the hospital told him not to let his imagination run wild for a bit. Sure he was a logically minded person but childish fear and aversion to what may lie within the dark had caused his mind to go haywire. He didn't stop thinking, he never did. About her, about what had happened, about his future and who he was as a person. Why? Because if he allowed his mind to drift into nothing the instincts would flood his vulnerabilities. He'd lose himself again, and this time nobody would probably be by his side. And then he'd be alone in the dark, where something would get him. Most likely, that something would be himself. He was his own worst nightmare at this point.

But at the very least he had someone to pull him out of that ocean before he drowned. "Same here... ahah..." His agreement to their current state of affairs was true in some cases. It had, for after awhile Oliver got used to this shift in his mind. For obvious reasons being back here was the most exciting thing that has happened in awhile. Which helped explain why his seemingly untouched part of the room felt foreign as he glanced about. Soon enough though he was looking back at her. "But no news is supposedly good news, so I hope things have gone okay on your end." Highly unlikely. After all, he had hurt her teacher-

No. Stop.

He ran both his hands on the side of his head as to keep these thoughts out. But just as he was halfway tempted to curl up into a ball right there he was called over to his bed. He blinked in response as to process and decide his proper course of action. "Oh... Okay." He complied in a shaky voice before sliding down from the window before shutting it a bit more. He grasped his glasses and approached his bed, sliding onto it neatly. Just like he always did, so nothing was peculiar there. Now there was no excuse not to face her. So he turned his body towards hers and crossed his legs. Coming so close to him would probably reveal just how garish he looked at the moment. No matter. He had more important things to discuss.

As much as he wanted to make nice chats to catch up with her he knew there was business and important stuff first. "I..." He began to ask, though did not know himself how he wanted to finish that sentence. But without too much of a discomforting pause he settled for an obvious one. "Have things, um, changed here?" Not personally, but... "I almost forgot what a lot of this was like. But it's nice to be back with it. I remember a lot of positive things here at the school..." He looked down to his lap before wrapping his arms around himself in a self hug. "I hope they're not all gone now." </div>
 

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Pham Thi Anh Sang

Changed? The idea seemed ridiculous to her because it seemed like, clearly, everything had changed. Anh Sang felt like denying that would be silly. But then again, wasn't that just what she was trying to do all along anyways? But everybody else, it seemed like they could bounce back so quickly. The speed that things set themselves back to normal made her head spin in confusion. This is really happening, this really happened, this- did it, didn't it?

Maybe.

So back into a world where everything seemed so normal, she had to stop and wonder every time she saw a contradiction, like the empty bed in her room or the repairs on the fields or people who were going around with injuries that didn't seem to heal. Her mind mind still couldn't deal with it in a way that it thought it should have, the way that it thought adults were supposed to deal with things.

Because I'm not a kid anymore! A corner of the child's mind still was furiously pushing that idea forward but with an uncertainty that hadn't been present before because bad things weren't supposed to happen to children and Anh Sang thought that maybe she wouldn't mind still being just a kid if it meant that life would get better sooner. Or just not have the bad things happening at all.

"I guess," she started hesitantly, "things have been kind of floaty. Things just go on and they don't seem like they're connected to anything in particular. Like, like." She didn't have the words to properly express this sense of disconnect from reality. "Like watching a movie, I guess. It's okay, but that's just me. Everybody else mostly seems okay, though. That's what it looks like."

Watching Oliver hug himself on his bed, Anh Sang suddenly was struck by sadness and this urge to go over and sit down next to him. It worked with Ha Jung sometimes, so she thought that maybe it would work with Oliver, too. And she did want desperately to make everybody happier, but. The fear kept the boundary there between them. What was a push? What wasn't a push? She want to think too much about it so she just kept where she was.

"There's a lot of things still here. Maybe we can go around and look later?" Even if she was scared of messing up, there was still hope in her voice.
 

Batty

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Sitting curled up in a ball for some reason helped the boy in his state of mind. Perhaps things were going to opposite for the young boy rather than the girl he’d grown fond of. He had chalked up himself to be a little man ever since he could utter a ‘please’ or a ‘thank you’. It had been since he could toddle around that he’d been taught by his mother that if he were ever going to be successful he’d ought to learn to get his act together sooner. And what was the result of this? The isolation that always was resorted to when he was faced with tough decisions was no longer an option, nor a security blanket. He had to face his darkest fears head on, and clearly his Achilles heel was showing off its nasty scars. Here he was, acting like a child over something his young mind couldn’t grasp. He killed somebody. He legitimately ended someone’s life through his gaping maw. He didn’t want to believe this. He wanted it to all be a nightmare, hospital hiatus and all, so that the only thing he’d have to face was waking up screaming. But alas his reality was a vile one. And even though he had at least one person in this world that hadn’t run away yet, he still held a paranoia that even that would be taken away by his own volition.

When she began to explain her thought process, Oli looked up in order to listen intently. Whoever was involved in the aftermath needed to be heard. They were more important in his mind in terms of figuring things out. Besides, what she said deemed true for him. This all felt out of place. Of course things were not the same, and for it all not to be so everything feels as if they’re disjointed from one event to another. Unlike her however Oliver couldn’t find a way to snatch himself out of this bizarre dimension of alteration. Anh sang tried to mention it, but the boy returned with a blonde-tinted ‘no’ through a shake of his head. [color=”#00f49f”]”I don’t think it’s the best idea for snuffing out what hasn’t been shattered yet. It has to be like a domino effect out there- one thing falls down and the rest of it does so not too far behind. It’s… It’s”[/color] She herself needed to find the word. And he only had one way to describe everything she mentioned.

”It’s surreal. All of it feels weird and hard to understand. Nothing is the way it has ever been and it’s going to take a long time for it to be so once more. If that ever happens, anyway. Everything has changed for you because of me. Because I lost control your world isn’t the same, and it’s all my fault.” His words by the final portion of his response had become jumbled and shaky from his cracking voice, but even he knew he couldn’t let his stupid emotions get in the way of settling things. He inhaled slowly, as if to catch himself from bursting out again. ”I wish an apology had the magic to fix everything. Like saying ‘I’m sorry’ would somehow reset the world and make everyone healthy again. It’s useless. But…” He looked dead-set onto her. ”I hope that you believe me when I tell you I’m sincerely sorry for hurting you in any way. I can only thank whatever is out there that I didn’t physically hurt you on the level I did on so many others, but what I’ve done to your world? It’s… Horrid...” Oh, now that was an understatement. ”I… don’t know the words to say. I don’t know what to do, or how to turn everything around besides removing myself from this school’s equation. Maybe that would be for the best. I… I don’t know any more. ” What else was Oliver’s deepest fear? Of course, what haunted adults and children alike held back as primal terror- the unknown. And frankly? That felt like crossing a highway blindfolded right about now.​
 

Emy

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Pham Thi Anh Sang

"Oliver," Anh Sang started, but her mind blank in the face of having reality laid down so squarely in front of her. There wasn't the option of skirting on the fringes of the subject anymore and a mixture of panic and despair flooded her heart. Yet, at the same time, she was filled with this urge just to go ahead and cross that line.

Any sane person, any normal child, probably would have just fallen silent, not wanting to deal with something that was obviously out of their hands. But Anh Sang was still learning the limits of what she could and could not do and she was a little emboldened by first, the fact that she had powers, and then the fact that she was challenging a limit at all. Sympathy made her want to do something, childish pride made her think that she could actually do it. She bit her lip gently, reluctance already trying to weigh her down before she had said a single word. There was this entire grand, romantic speech in her head, spinning Vietnamese out at a rate so fast that once she remembered to translate it into English, she promptly forgot it all.

"It's not your fault," she said instead. "You don't need to apologize for anything. I guess you can if it makes you feel any better but you don't need to apologize to me." She hoped desperately that her sincerity in her voice and on her face because at that moment, the single feeling that overpowered her was cold. Her entire body felt cold, even though her thoughts were so chaotic that the ferocity they fought each other with should have made her warm. Right?

"I'm okay." It was kind of true, wasn't it? After all, Oliver hadn't hurt her. Anh Sang couldn't forget that. Sure, he was acknowledging that there were ways people could be hurt besides physically but the girl felt that personally, it hadn't been too bad. Comparatively. She didn't feel sad all of the time, and even though she felt miserable sometimes, it didn't seem to be at the same degree that Oliver was suffering. It seemed wrong, then, to say that she wasn't okay when really, she had been so lucky. "Really, it's okay."

At Oliver's suggestion that he should just leave, Anh Sang became worried. "Oh no!" she burst out, jumping up from her bed as if expecting that he'd up and leave that very instant. "Don't do that!" Suddenly, all of the relief she had about Oliver's reappearance in her life came crashing down on her. Even if she was afraid, that didn't change the fact that she really was glad to see him again. The realization returned her hope. "I don't want you to go! If you do -I guess I'll just have to come with you!"

It was rash, and she wasn't really thinking about what she was saying. But for the degree that the situation registered in her reason, she was fully prepared to see through her promises to the end. She just wanted to keep everybody and everything right by her side. That wasn't so wrong, was it?
 

Batty

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And it was coming back. It was all coming back. Those nightmares, those split-second hallucinations, those things that kept him up way past his bedtime had come back to haunt him at an even more alarming rate than before. To that Oliver began to sniffle a bit, though attempted his best to have a nervous breakdown as quietly as he could. Even like this he was more concerned about the welfare of others. He didn't need to cry. He already made probably his only known friend at this point upset as it was, and the last thing he wanted was for her to be even more so over him. There was a voice that told him to tell her that she didn't need to even bother with him, and let his own walls come crashing down. If she stood too close, they'd end up falling down on her too. At least, that was what he thought. He was just a walking disaster, a mistake. The day he had his powers granted to him was the day he should have realized he was no longer fit to be with other people. His thin pale skin housed a predator underneath, and even with the other reptiles sharing his DNA the tyrant king of them all would be the one he would be associated with. And he didn't want it. No more, no more.

And yet...

His thoughts once more shut themselves down when she called out his name. He struggled to keep his focus on her, especially through his glazed over green eyes. Then there was a pause between them, as he could only assume that both the children had thoughts racing through their heads at a mile per minute. He was about to say something until she chimed in once more, in attempts to quell those depreciating thoughts. And from there, she said it was okay. That he didn't need to apologize... But... What about those things he did? He certainly knew they wouldn't do a thing for him or others. Did they make him feel better then? Well.. He'd still feel awful because he placed a word that got him out of accidentally spilling his lunch on somebody next to actual attempted slaughter.

Still, she insisted that it was okay. Perhaps she felt like it was an accident. It really was though, and even through his troubled state of mind he knew this. His body slipped from his brain's control, which in turn was suspended into this sort of limbo he wasn't aware in. But the question was why. Why did he allow it to happen? Losing control couldn't be an excuse. It was what he had though, and everyone did at least once, right? He was still essentially human, after all.

So there was a little comfort there. At least Anh Sang forgave him, even after everything he did. To that he muttered a thank-you and tried to muster a smile... To no avail. Fortunately, there was a bit of a sign that he accepted that all was okay with the fact that he uncurled from his ball. He didn't need to make a barrier around himself from those that trusted him. If they did him, it was only right to do the same back. "O- Okay." He nodded, rubbing at his eyes as he now sat with his legs crossed. He winched a bit at how much the stitches hurt... But that was a whole different monster to tackle on another day.

Even still that thought of running away and never coming back ran through his head. That was the story of his life, anyway. Being the runt at his old school made him the butt-end of any arguments, and what was the best way to take on a fight? Well, there was none. He'd always flee or hide, as tackling problems bigger than him head-on was seemingly impossible. To no surprise, this scenario was no different. One thing did vary this equation though than the times before. That was that he would have someone that would miss him, if he were to one day disappear completely.

And to this, she seemed distressed. Instantly that old-Olver came out, rushing to calm her down as soon as possible. "Oh no! Anh Sang I'm really not-" Really not what? Was he just speaking loaded words? They would be, had he not been seriously considering it. He calmed down once more. "That's really thoughtful of you, but..." He sighed, scooting a bit closer. "You have this amazing power. You can take light and make it into pretty things. All I can do is turn into terrifying lizards that end up doing more harm than good... What's the point then in staying here? To hone a useless and dangerous power? It's not... I'm not... " He cut himself off then, turning to look at Anh Sang's face. Oh, who was he kidding. He looked down. "I'm sorry. I just don't know what to do anymore. I don't want to leave you, and if I wasn't scared for your safety out there I would just leave to try to isolate myself from any other people. But... I'd miss you too much. And friends don't leave friends behind, right?" He smiled just faintly, holding his own hands together in his lap. "I just want to find someone to take this power away from me. I can't handle it, clearly. And it's come to a point where I'd either have to live alone forever or prevent something like this altogether." Oliver turned towards her, tilting a head with a somber look. "What do you think I should do?"
 

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Pham Thi Anh Sang

"Useless? Why are you calling yourself useless?" The picture that Anh Sang had always kept of Oliver in her mind was of this sweet. helpful boy who always seemed to know absolutely everything. And she did mean everything. Oliver was like the internet, only ten thousand times nicer and cuter. Sometimes, Anh Sang just felt so dumb in comparison. But that was okay! She might have been young but she still understood and accepted that she couldn't do or be everything. The world had magic, after all. It couldn't be bleak forever when something like that existed. That's what she told herself anyways. Things were always easier said than done. But since she liked Oliver, that really did help a lot. Friendship could be magic, too.

At the same time, though, there was a thought dawning on her mind. Maybe it's not as real for him? she wondered. His helpfulness and awkwardness and sweetness and all things that made Oliver Oliver. Maybe he wasn't seeing it all in the same light, Doesn't he know? Anh Sang felt so puzzled because of course, it seemed like he honestly didn't.

She stared at him in uncertainty before walking up right in front of him. As she blinked down at the boy, she was just a bit surprised by a sudden burst of affection that reaffirmed everything in her head. Everything was so clear. And everything was going to be all right, she was sure. The amount of hope and confidence she had in that idea was terrifying.

"Powers classes exist for a reason, you know," she said. "I mean, sometimes my magic looks pretty but it likes going boom a lot, too, so I think I should probably start taking them more seriously, too." Anh Sang hadn't managed to hurt anybody yet but suddenly, the possibility that she could loomed ominously over her. Trying to sound upbeat, she continued, "We can go to those classes together. It might take a lot of time but now I can see you a whole lot more, too! I'm sure the teachers won't mind it that much. I mean, they're supposed to be prepared for things. And even if they aren't, it seems like a lot of them change really fast to go along with things. They're good like that, here."

The girl trailed off. "They really are."
 
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