Lotus Blossom

"You're on," Junior began to grin.

"I can fix that."

Olviere paused for a moment, thinking to himself. "Why did you become a flight leader?"

"Yeah. And this is all-powerful Lord? ...Honored."

Junior took off his helmet and walked over to the barracks. He decided Aria wouldn't need to contact him through the communication headset- It wasn't like she was alone. He walked through the open door, there were already a few people in the room who he walked past, and unzipped his flight suit, which he wore over his clothes. Then he hung it on the top bunk, his bed. He placed his leatherbound book in his satchel and threw it up onto his mattress. Junior turned around to face everyone. Len was closer to him than he expected. He raised his eyebrows. "Hey." @Edema Rue

Junior opened his notebook. The last page wasn't a villanelle, like all of the others. It was filled with scratches and scribbles of different sentences, all at diagonals or upside down in no particular order. They filled the page. As Junior traced his left hand across the page, he felt pain. Closing his eyes, he began to whisper them out loud to himself. He already knew them by heart. They were engraved in his mind and his memory. "My life: A script written with tears as my ink and blood as my page." He remembered when he wrote that one. It was small, and at the bottom left corner of the page. This was the morning his older brother... Yes, he remembered. "Innocence drowned in a sea of shattered promises." This was at the top of the page, and had a small rip going through the middle. His mother had written the antithesis of this in her poem. Her last poem. "My scars are just an overture to a symphony of sorrow." Junior winced as he recalled this one. It was just after Razor had hit him for the first time. Junior lifted his right hand to his cheek, still feeling the sting. His face felt only the ivory and mechanics of his palm in return. "Love is a beautiful lie we desperately want to believe. A myth we cling to, hoping it'll rescue us from this abyss." This one was for his father. Junior had left this one behind long ago. "A storm eroding my wreckage echoes in life's empty chambers. It won't stop. It will never stop." Junior felt a tear falling. All he wanted was quiet. Silence. For once. "Daily drinking the poison of hatred, hoping it will taste bitter enough to cleanse my soul." It was almost as if the ink was still drying for this line. It was right after the argument. "In a world so steeped in malice, even shadows cast their disdain." This was when he got the letter from his brother. The threat. Asking for money. Asking for ships. "The echo of a scream is louder than any justification." This was after the crash. He opened his eyes. He didn't remember the rest. The rest of the page was covered with similar lines. "Death’s embrace seems easier than the weight of guilt." "Taking a life is just borrowing someone else’s pain." "In this world, blood seems to stain everything." "Killing is a hollow victory in a losing battle." "One less heartbeat in a symphony of chaos." As he read them, they got louder in his mind. Faster, faster. Spiraling out of control. "Murder tells you exactly how utterly alone you are in this world." "In a world of shadows, life casts the longest one." "The stain of death lingers longer than the thrill of power." "Taking a life only adds to the silence of the soul." They wouldn't stop. The page was filled with them. Everywhere. "There’s no redemption in spilling blood, just a haunting emptiness." "Murder is the bitter taste of a poisoned existence." "The darkness within grows deeper with every life extinguished." Junior closed the book.

Aria hears crackling and then a muffled sound through her helmet's headset communication. "That was stupid." It was Junior's voice. His poco was hovering at piloting altitude above the caverns. "Radio me if you need.... assistance. You made me do something stupid and I'm heading back to the barracks now."

@Just-A-Stick

Once Junior got out of his flightsuit, he pulled himself onto the iron top bunk of his bed in the cadet's quarters. He laid down on his back on the hard mattress. It was cold. He stared up at the ceiling. The limit. And thought of another line. He thought it over in his head. Again and again. He reversed it then rearranged it then rethought it then readjusted it then replaced it and reconstructed it. Yes. This would be the line of his villanelle. Repeated. And repeated. Until the end.

whoa- i've been summoned by wiz to point out that amyra would be a very very good name but also YOU'RE SO GOOD A DRAWING WHAT IT'S STUNNING

Junior watched as Aria's aircraft docked. He sighed. "Out of air and docking, Lord." He smoothly brought his poco down onto the ground and docked it. He sat there in the cockpit for a moment, then took off his helmet. Junior. He laughed bitterly. At least he'd found a competent wingman. Or, if nothing else, defender. He swung open the door of his poco and jumped down, grabbing his satchel with his leatherbound notebook. He entered the empty hall, and walked slowly, listening to the sound of his echoing footsteps. He unwrapped his hands from the piloting gloves, and looked at his right hand as it furled and unfurled. He listened to the creaks of the intricate mechanics in his palm and fingers, balling them into a tight fist. He pinched one of his fingers, touching only metal in response. No feeling. Of course. There never would be.

[similarly, junior is open to a relationship and plot over the course of the games. PM me first tho, bc i want to work out plot to make it as dramatic as possible.]

Junior whistled under his breath. "Still can't confirm that. There are more than two cadets."