Oh hey.

So last post was kinda like

Well guess what. That’s probably not gonna change quite yet, so get ready for some more…

Let’s begin.

Here’s Rigel. He’s really hungry. He was left in the office with some food, but mom and dad haven’t been back in a really long time and he’s not sure what to do. He’s just turned three, but he didn’t have anyone to tell him that. With noone to talk to, his speech has pretty much completely regressed.

He’s really good at opening doors on his own now, although he never does unless he’s starving. Right now, he’s starving.

He toddles out of the office. The big people pay no attention to him. Most of them are laying around, but even the ones that are standing have a glazed look to their eyes, and are focused on their own slurred conversations.

He avoids the area where everyone is laying on the floor, and makes his way to the garage. Sometimes the grown ups leave garbage there for a while.

He walks past some dazed mumbling girls, and then another who seems to be painting the wall.

The air in the garage is slightly cooler. One of the tall men glares down at him, and Rigel rushes nervously around the corner.

The only way to get away from the scary man is down the stairs. Rigel has never done stairs before, he had always been scared of how dark it looked down there. But maybe mommy or daddy could be at the bottom, or at least something to eat.

He looks at the first step. It’s almost as tall as his legs. Maybe jumping with both feet would work. He squats down and gears up for the first jump, gathering his confidence. Then he straightens back up, it just looks too high. This time he grabs on to the wobbly railing and drops his first foot down in front of him. He doesn’t quite reach the next step, so Rigel takes a leap of faith. It’s even farther than he thought, and he loses his balance and tips forward.

The tumble down the concrete stairs takes Rigel by surprise, and he ragdolls to the bottom. Thankfully he flipped onto his back midway down, and was able to slide for the last few steps.

Even so, it was seriously painful and terrifying. His tiny body has got to be covered in bruises and scrapes now. He sits at the bottom, wailing for help.

He calms himself quickly, as he’s used to not having anyone come when he cries. Sure it hurts, but at least his body still works.

He almost trips on the legs of a man with glassy eyes. The man squints at him, and then returns to looking straight through him.

Rigel wants to get out of this room quickly, as the two men still standing seem to be yelling louder and louder.

The next room is just as strange, and he doesn’t see mom or dad.

He runs through this room. The man laying on the floor is coughing and groaning, and the other side of the room is full of strange instruments and devices that Rigel couldn’t even begin to identify.

Out of breath, he sits down in the empty room. At least there’s no more scary sleepy people in here.

And yeah, this is the room where Noemi initially passed out. It’s fancy, huh?

At this point, he’s not sure he’ll be able to get back up the stairs. Maybe it would be better to just hide under one of the beds and go to sleep.

“Hey.”

Rigel looks up at the girl. His thumb drops from his mouth.

The girl walks a few steps closer to him, and he stands up.

Girl: Are you okay?

Rigel: ….

Girl: I’m Link. You should probably come with me, okay?

Rigel: ….

Link: What’s your name?

Rigel: Wy-ol.

Link: What?

Rigel: ….

Link: Ry-lo?

Rigel: Um.

Link: Okay… come on.

She’s hardly any bigger than him, but Link walks up and hoists him up into a bear hug. Wobbling slightly, she hauls him into the next room.

So. Who’s missing the extended family??

So they’re all good. Joey has aged up into a teenager, and decided that he loves cold weather. He’s pretty handsome, I guess. Sort of a Jemyn clone, but I like him.

And then we have Sam, who aged up into an adult. And guess what!

As soon as he aged up, he became a hopeless romantic and married his teenage sweetheart, Dorah. They both autonomously joined the military, too. I’m really happy for them. Dorah kind of looks like if Oscar had a baby with Cate Blanchett. She’s just from a random immigrant family though, and her most notable trait is Good.

I’m happy about this, and I kind of can’t wait to have some extended family babies happening!!

Sorry about the short chapter, guys, but I kind of wanted some SUSPENSE. And the only way to get SUSPENSE was to leave it at sort of a cliffhanger. So enjoy your SUSPENSE as you wait for the next post!