Through The Living Glass

Aela stared at her for a moment, then sighed. "Do you know which direction he went in?" "Oh. Oh! Yes! If you can- that would be amazing!" she exclaimed.

"Oh." She felt super disappointed. "Yes, that."

Tam felt weirdly peaceful. Her chest still ached and she felt like she was going to cry, but . . . something about telling Bat that . . . it was like a huge weight had been lifted off her chest. Maybe . . . maybe trusting other people wasn't such a bad thing, after all. Maybe she could learn how to talk with them and work through whatever she was dealing with. A flicker of hope sparked to life somewhere inside her. Thank you, she whispered.

He got it pretty fast, honestly BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOU'RE DUMB

I know. And Wyrmie knows He figured it out

Affirmative fruit That sounds good

Nodding excitedly, she turned back to the librarian. "Do you think we could talk to In- 3?" @SpiritOfWrath

*writes down for totally innocent purposes* Thanks

Tanner considered murder of chasmfiends, so Simon assassinated Venli, but brutally failed. So Venli murdered Alene, forcing the Ghostbloods to

Aela looked at her, rather excited. "You're sure?"

No you're not *hug*

She hugged him back tightly.

butbutbut you're not dumb

but you're meant to figure it ouuuuutt It can be done.

She blinked. ". . . Male?"

It's fine. It'll be over in a few months Thank you, again *checks pockets* What in the world did you steal?

*hugs back*

"3?" She tried to remember which one that was. "3 is . . . male or female?"

Yeah. Thanks. Sorry that kinda turned into a rant though *hug* thank you

She didn't say anything, but nodded.

"More, huh? Other new people have come here?"

I can see that, don't get me wrong But at the same time, it's really hard on my mental health (especially as a high school senior) when everyone around me has a phone and I just can't have one? People give me weird looks when I say that and they end up not inviting me to things, and I miss out on so much* because I can't contact anyone. I hate having to explain to people that they'll have to use my school email to contact me when they ask for my number And it makes it so, so hard to plan things and do group projects and stuff. I want to be able to talk to my friends but I can't unless I use this super dumb website and it feels really childish I just . . . want to be able to talk to people, y'know? I could do without the social media, I just want to be able to contact my friends instead of being isolated from everyone all day and wondering what in the world is going on with them. *social and academic. Like recently, we were ordering shirts for a play I was a part of but because I didn't have the tech crew group chat I wasn't able to fill out the form, so I ended up not having a shirt and I didn't even know we'd ordered shirts until they were handed out a month later. I can't participate in activities during class that require us to scan QR codes, I can't access specific material not available on a school computer, etc . . . so yeah sorry that turned into an essay I feel strongly about it. I don't plan on giving my kids a phone until they're a little older, but I definitely want to give them one at the very least when they turn fifteen/go into high school. Those are just my views, though.

What color are your bones, good sir?

"No . . . seriously, I just . . . I don't know how to trust people, y'know?" she said quietly. "Like, I know how to trust them, but I don't know how to . . . trust them."

She sighed, her features relaxing slightly. "It's . . . not you. I'm sorry."