08-31-2015, 04:03 PM
Tearen sat on the shoreline of the empty beach. It wasn't like the soft, white-sand shorelines he was used to back on Caprica. This beach was comprised largely of pebbles and driftwood. The ghostly scraps of jetsam seemd to create sprawling, bone dry cities that the shore birds and wavecrawlers shared - an uneasy truce between their normal predator to prey relationship. Tearen couldn't understand why the birds found the wavecrawlers appetizing; they were long, twelve legged crustaceans that were an uncanny blood red color, and about the size of his foot. Tearen supposed that the birds just didn't know better; that in a world with puffed jumbras, deep-fried darkroot and lindroosi, the scuttling invertebrates were simply the best that the shorebirds had.
The young boy, around the age of twelve or so, was not alone on the otherwise empty beach. His father and sister lingered nearby, on the dry end of the breaker on which Tearen had chosen to brood. They experimented with arranging rocks in different positions, trying to get the water that came and went with each swell of the ocean to flow in certain directions. Tearen's sister had always been more adept at the engineering trade. Her mind was keen, and though Tearen considered himself a creative soul, Ziejts was sheer genius in comparison. It honestly made the young boy jealous sometimes...it wasn't as if Tearen wasn't admirably intelligent in his own right...Ziejts' mind was simply superior. Still, Tearen had his own advantages, mostly in regards to the social subtleties of school life and how to manipulate his erstwhile 'friends'. Indeed, there were few people whom Tearen considered to be truly on par with him. All the other students at his school were simply a hive-mind of useless gossip and faux-controversy.
As it was, however, school was on break for the and of the Warring Season. The Aschen military went embarked on a new campaign every cycle like clockwork, but when the forces came home, the Emperor considered it important for families to spend some uninterrupted time together. Tearen's father had dragged his two children down to some second-rate province to help set up some sort of engineering clinic. Tearen didn't quite get it, but Ziejts seemed to understand.
Figures.
Growing bored of his introspection, Tearen clambered down from the damp, black rock and waded through the shallow surf up to where his kin goofed around in the sand. Their dark-skinned bodies reflected what remained of the waning, scarlet sunlight, their ebony skin blending into the long shadows cast over top of their experiments. As pure blooded Capricans, Tearen's entire family shared long, straight, silvery white hair, though only soldiers were allowed to have theirs braided, like Tearen's father.
"Done being edgy and dark?" asked Tearen's father with a wry grin.
"Never...you know me. Always looking forwards to the apocalypse." Tearen said back hunkering down and watching the water recede back through the little channels that the pair had dug into the sand. It was neat to watch the water drain along the dark grey sand, as it reflected the tarnished platinum light of the pre-dusk sky.
"...and where will you be when the apocalypse comes?" askes Ziejts, scratching out some strange new shapes in the silt.
"Oh...you know..." Tearen said, raising and eyebrow with a grin, "...at the helm."
...
The young boy, around the age of twelve or so, was not alone on the otherwise empty beach. His father and sister lingered nearby, on the dry end of the breaker on which Tearen had chosen to brood. They experimented with arranging rocks in different positions, trying to get the water that came and went with each swell of the ocean to flow in certain directions. Tearen's sister had always been more adept at the engineering trade. Her mind was keen, and though Tearen considered himself a creative soul, Ziejts was sheer genius in comparison. It honestly made the young boy jealous sometimes...it wasn't as if Tearen wasn't admirably intelligent in his own right...Ziejts' mind was simply superior. Still, Tearen had his own advantages, mostly in regards to the social subtleties of school life and how to manipulate his erstwhile 'friends'. Indeed, there were few people whom Tearen considered to be truly on par with him. All the other students at his school were simply a hive-mind of useless gossip and faux-controversy.
As it was, however, school was on break for the and of the Warring Season. The Aschen military went embarked on a new campaign every cycle like clockwork, but when the forces came home, the Emperor considered it important for families to spend some uninterrupted time together. Tearen's father had dragged his two children down to some second-rate province to help set up some sort of engineering clinic. Tearen didn't quite get it, but Ziejts seemed to understand.
Figures.
Growing bored of his introspection, Tearen clambered down from the damp, black rock and waded through the shallow surf up to where his kin goofed around in the sand. Their dark-skinned bodies reflected what remained of the waning, scarlet sunlight, their ebony skin blending into the long shadows cast over top of their experiments. As pure blooded Capricans, Tearen's entire family shared long, straight, silvery white hair, though only soldiers were allowed to have theirs braided, like Tearen's father.
"Done being edgy and dark?" asked Tearen's father with a wry grin.
"Never...you know me. Always looking forwards to the apocalypse." Tearen said back hunkering down and watching the water recede back through the little channels that the pair had dug into the sand. It was neat to watch the water drain along the dark grey sand, as it reflected the tarnished platinum light of the pre-dusk sky.
"...and where will you be when the apocalypse comes?" askes Ziejts, scratching out some strange new shapes in the silt.
"Oh...you know..." Tearen said, raising and eyebrow with a grin, "...at the helm."
...
And, we dream of home I dream of life out of here Their dreams are small My dreams don't know fear I got my heart full of hope I will change everything No matter what I'm told How impossible it seems We did it before And we'll do it again We're indestructible Even when we're tired And we've been here before Just you and I
Don't try to rescue me I don't need to be rescued
Don't try to rescue me I don't need to be rescued