Recap: Cid secretly mastered the inventing skill and built himself a time machine. He placed the time machine in the corner of the lot in the hopes that no one else would find and use it. Cid then entered the machine himself to get a glimpse into the future.

Cid miscalculated the intensity of travelling through time. He knew he was visiting the futures of different generations of Thrones’s, but he could hardly see. The device must have done something to his eyesight, hindering the quality of his experience. He backed up against the buttons within the time machine, accidentally changing the settings, causing the device to throw him further forward without his consent, too quickly for him to make heads or tails of what he saw.

His hearing still worked just fine. He could make out female voices as well as male voices. He heard arguing. He heard some type of melody. He heard animal grunts.

…He heard his name.

Cid rubbed his eyes with his fists and blinked away dust that was settling within them. He squinted a little to see if it would make a difference, but unfortunately, his attempts to improve his eyesight failed.

He swore someone had said his name… it was a voice he did not recognize.

He could tell two men were standing in a room, one of them holding something bundled up and small. A baby, perhaps?

His gut told him to try to adjust to his surroundings, for he had heard someone say his own name. Could it be possible that one of the men he was looking at was named after Cid, himself?

The time machine bellowed out strange noises before sending him away from the scene. He stumbled to the control panel and started banging on the buttons, hoping to either stop the machine in whatever time it landed in or send him home to his own time. Travelling to the future hadn’t turned out the way he thought it would, and he saw no reason to continue if he wasn’t going to find any useful information.

A bright flash of light shone through Cid’s eyelids and the next thing he knew, a bunch of scenes started playing out before him.

Enough was enough. Cid took his shoulder and slammed it up against the door, forcing it to open partially. The world still didn’t look like his own time.

He started to turn back to the control panel before hearing a conversation.

“Have you read Unrequited Love yet?”

“No, I don’t have any of his early works.”

“That’s a shame, it’s really great, one of my favorites, actually!”

“I’m more partial to the novels he wrote after meeting the love of his life. All of the romances written prior to that moment just don’t give me the same emotional responses.”

“I actually have an autographed copy, you know.”

“What?! You’re kidding me! You have an autographed copy of one of Feign Thrones’s books?”

Cid perked up. He stepped closer to the door, pushing his ear against it to get a better listen.

“Yeah! They say it’s worth an insane amount of money. I mean, the damn thing’s over one hundred years old, and he rarely ever signed any of his works.”

“Geez… I am so jealous…”

The time machine started shaking. It spit Cid out of its doors, sending him flying backwards into the yard of his present-day home.

He took a moment to breathe and look around. His eyes adjusted to the light quickly. He saw his garden. He saw the Thrones household. Yup, he was back in his own time. Cid inhaled sharply, held it for a moment, then exhaled.

It was time to make sense of everything he had seen.

————————————————————————————————–

Graduation was coming up soon, and Russel could not have been more excited for it. Feign, on the other hand, tried not to think about it. Graduating meant starting a life of his own. It meant he would have to be an actual adult for once and start thinking about marriage and a career.

Sure, he liked to write in his spare time, but he couldn’t turn that into a successful job. Nobody had ever read his works anyway, so how was he to know if they were good or not?

That night, when everyone went to sleep, Cid walked into the kitchen to see Feign sitting at the table, brooding (as usual). Cid sat down and smiled at him.

“What’s up?” he began.

Feign shrugged. “Couldn’t sleep,” was his answer.

“Too excited for graduation?”

Feign’s eyes adverted to the tiled floor. He scratched his arm. “Actually, no.” Cid tilted his head. Feign sighed. “Can I tell you something?”

“Of course, I’m your older brother, you can tell me whatever you want!”

“Okay…” Feign looked directly at Cid, his eyebrows furrowed. “I don’t think I’m ready to graduate yet.”

Cid nodded once. “Don’t want to leave your friends?”

“Not exactly… It’s more like…” The two sat in silence for a moment. Feign wasn’t sure how to explain himself. “I don’t have much of a future.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I don’t have any idea what I’m going to do when I graduate… what kind of career I want, what kind of family I want to have, where I want to spend the rest of my life… you know, that kind of stuff.”

Cid leaned forward, placing his elbows on the table. “You don’t have to have that all figured out right away.”

“I don’t think I’m good at anything.”

“What? How’s that?”

“My grades sucked. I flunked every class until Ursula helped me study. I don’t know what I’m good at.”

Cid thought for a moment. “What about… writing?”

Feign perked up. “Writing?”

“Yeah! You’re always thinking about life, contemplating the world… I bet you’d make a great writer.”

A smile found its way to Feign’s lips. “Actually…” He allowed it to fill up his entire face before shaking his head. “No, never mind. It’s funny that you say that, is all.”

Cid held his arms out to his sides. “Feign, I believe you have a ton of talent just aching to get out of that brain of yours. All you have to do is be brave enough to explore it.” He winked. “I have a feeling that whatever path you choose, you will succeed.”

Feign nodded a few times, still relishing in the fact that his brother had just recommended something for Feign to do without having any idea it was already a hobby he actively practiced. It must have been a sign. He stood from his chair and ran to the computer, opening up a fresh new document and typing away.

Cid smiled to himself before heading off to his own room.

With graduation and the twins’ birthday coming up, Irwin and Fantine rebuilt the house.

Irwin and Fantine’s room.

Feign’s room.

Russel’s room.

The kitchen.

Cid’s room.

Waffles’s room and the laundry room.

The bathroom.

The living room.

The one who was most excited for the new change was Waffles. He loved having an entire room to himself full of his own toys and his own fancy pet bed.

At this point, Waffles had officially succumbed to being a full-time house pet. It was simply more luxurious living a pampered life as opposed to hunting all of the time.

Russel and Feign’s birthday arrived and they both aged up into young adults.

Russel gained the Artistic trait and officially chose his Lifetime Wish. He wanted nothing more than to become a Hit Movie Composer one day.

Russel’s traits altogether were Virtuoso, Slob, Supernatural Fan, Party Animal, and Artistic.

Feign realized Cid was cheering him on to do whatever felt right, and he knew that writing felt the most right out of anything else in the world to him. He decided he wanted to become a Professional Author one day.

Upon aging, Feign became Clumsy, which added to his other traits of Loves the Cold, Grumpy, Unlucky, and Brooding.

Graduation took place in the rain, but it didn’t matter to the Thrones family. They were proud of Russel and Feign for making it this far… especially since neither of their grades were very good throughout high school.

Cid was the most proud of Feign, however, for he walked across the stage with a smile on his face and an eager attitude. Feign may not have had a lot of faith in himself regarding his writing career, but Cid had witnessed firsthand the success Feign would eventually experience.

He was very happy about this, but it didn’t silence the thoughts in his head regarding why he heard his name hundreds of years into the future. What could that have possibly meant?