2 Days Later

— Watedia, Colyath 4, 8054 —

A serene quiet blanketed the dawnlit market street of Compound Tresnon, interspersed with the sounds of crashing waves from the adjacent Mirage Lakefront and merchants beginning to set up their stalls for a new day. The typical crowds were no where to be seen, giving Pierce free reign to jog down the street and take in the early morning sights. Now halfway through the first week of the new school term, Pierce’s life was beginning to settle back down to normal — and with that, he sought to re-establish his morning runs. Between all the events of the past month — the trip to Sikalia and Riverana, training for (and failing at) the ACT qualifiers, Hunger’s Bane and the Bleeder attack, and his ill-fated trip to Rokres — Pierce’s habitual morning runs had fallen by the wayside.

No better time to think than when out for a run, he thought to himself, enjoying the cool early-morning air as he looked out over the sprawling waters of Mirage Lake. And with everything that’s happened recently… there sure is a lot to think about.

His time in Rokres in particular came to mind. When he initially suggested the trip to Rokres, his intentions had been good: he simply wanted to find a lead on where the Bleeders took Minilas, for the sake of Liask and Obra. He couldn’t deny that part of his motivations involved a desire to “get back” at the Bleeders, but even that didn’t seem like a wholly terrible objective to him, given the reputation of the Bleeders in Treséd. And yet, despite starting out on the trip with good intentions, the end result had been anything but — and even worse, he never even learned anything about Minilas’s location.

And now, an entire literal nation is mad at Tresnon… Pierce frowned to himself as he continued running down market street, eventually slowing down to take a detour through the Lakefront boardwalk. Granted, the Rokresians didn’t seem very interested in listening to reason. Davídrius didn’t even seem mad about that part, so I guess I shouldn’t feel too bad, but still. I just want to fucking help out around here, use my speed to save people, kick some ass, and take names. Why has that been so hard to do?

“Hey, Pierce!”

While jogging along the boardwalk, Pierce glanced to his right, toward some of the piers over the lake. Standing at the end of one of them was none other than Liask, dressed in light workout clothing as she waved at Pierce. Upon seeing her, he slowed down some more, taking the turn at the pier to approach. “Early-morning workouts again, huh?” Pierce remarked as he closed the distance.

“Just more of the usual,” Liask replied, her hands on her hips. “Kinda surprised I haven’t seen you around more, though. Last time I saw you durin’ my mornin’ workout was… over a month ago, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah…” Pierce offered a sheepish smile as he finally came to a stop next to Liask. “I meant to make this a routine, but, uh… a lot of stuff happened, last month.”

“True… you went on that trip to Skialia, didn’t you? And then there were Finals, and trainin’ for the ACT, and then, uh… everythin’ that happened over the break…”

Pierce noticed Liask divert her gaze, at which point he sighed in resignation. Turning to look out over the lake, he remarked, “yeah, we really fucked things up at Rokres, didn’t we?”

“We… kinda did, didn’t we,” Liask admitted as she turned to gaze out over the waters as well. “Shoulda put more thought into our plan…”

“We didn’t even learn anything about what we originally set out to learn…”

“We didn’t learn much about Minilas, no, but we still learned somethin’ about the Bleeders, right? That’s still useful. And, at the end of the day, we did save those Konés, even if they don’t wanna admit it.”

Pierce chuckled bitterly. “Maybe, but that was still all you and Conrad. And Relia too, I guess. Obra and I were basically just dead weight the entire trip.”

Liask passed Pierce an uneasy glance before returning her attention to the waters. “…Did you get in trouble with the other Earthians?” she eventually questioned.

“Ugh…” Pierce groaned. “Nothing too bad. I just got a talking to, and my monthly stipend got slashed for this month… honestly, I’m surprised this is the first time SERRCom decided to bring down the hammer. I thought I’d be in trouble after Sikalia, but…”

“What happened on Sikalia?”

“Uh… nothing. Nothing happened. Forget I said anything.”

“Right…”

“What about you? I know the Dean wanted to talk to you and Obra. Did you guys get in much trouble?”

“We have to stay behind for an extra study hall three days a week… and help clean some of the Defense Force armories…”

“Detention and community service, basically, huh? Sounds like Conrad and I got out light, then…”

The two trailed off, silently watching the waters of Mirage Lake in the ever-growing light of dawn. Several moments of silence passed in this way, with Pierce uncertain of how to continue the conversation.

“Hey, Pierce… can I ask you a question?”

“Huh?” He looked over at Liask, noting that she was staring at him with unease. “Uh… sure?”

“Well…” She looked down for a moment, taking a deep breath before continuing, “…you seem a lot more serious when you talk with me, compared to how I’ve heard you talk to others. And, uh… well, I’ll just ask. You aren’t just spendin’ time with me ‘cause you feel guilty about Trenon… are you?”

Pierce pursed his lips as a dull throb ran through his lower torso. “…No.” He then returned to looking out over the lake. “If I was going to base how I interacted with you on any guilt over your brother, then I’d be avoiding you, not talking to you.”

“And you volunteerin’ to go with us to Rokres?”

“That had nothing to do with Trenon. I really wanted to help, that’s all. But, to be perfectly honest…” Pierce side-eyed Liask. “I’ve been wondering for a while, myself. You… really don’t blame me for Trenon’s death?”

“No, of course not!” Liask replied, her eyes widening as she passed Pierce a look as though she were surprised he could even suggest as much. “I told you that before, didn’t I? What happened wasn’t your fault.”

“…Mm. If you say so. But… you aren’t trying to force yourself to be friendly with me, are you? Just because of Trenon?”

“No! …Well…” Liask trailed off, falling silent for a few seconds. Eventually, she said, “I told you about how Trenon wrote to me about you and Phoenix, right? So I felt like I kinda knew the two of you, even if only a little, before I actually met either of you. And then, I heard that Trenon died while tryin’ to protect you—“

“He didn’t ‘try’. He did protect us,” Pierce insisted.

Liask regarded Pierce with surprise, only for a bitter smile to then cross her face. “Yeah… guess so. But I guess what I’m tryin’ to say, is… the reason I like talkin’ with you is ‘cause I get to learn more about the kinda people my brother was willin’ to sacrifice himself for. And the more I learn, the more I think I can appreciate Trenon…”

“You aren’t disappointed?” Pierce questioned with a bitter smirk, “that he’d sacrifice himself for someone like me?”

“No. I mean… I do wish Trenon was still alive.” Liask took a deep breath; as Pierce watched her, he noticed that she was softly stroking the scar across her mouth. “And you and Phoenix… …well, I guess if I’m honest, you do kinda do some dumb things…”

“You aren’t the first to have told me that,” Pierce remarked. “And I doubt you’ll be the last.”

“Ha, probably not. But at the end of the day, you’re still a good person, you know? You went off to fight the Bleeders during Hunger’s Bane, even though I stayed back… and you volunteered to help Obra and I find Minilas.”

“Sure, but we didn’t learn anything about her, in the end.”

“Yeah, but we didn’t know how things would end up when we started. What mattered then was that you wanted to help.”

Pierce remained silent, unsure exactly of how to respond. Eventually, he just said, “you know… you’re a weirdly optimistic person. Most people would be mad at me, right now, for getting us all into trouble at Rokres.”

“Treséd has enough misery all on its own, no use lettin’ it drag you down,” Liask replied. “…That’s what Trenon would always say.”

“…Heh. Guess that does sound like him.”

“Do you have problems with your friends, though? You seem to talk to me easily enough, but Conrad always seemed kinda… uneasy, back in Rokres. And I’ve heard, um… ‘things’ about you and Phoenix, or those other Earthian students…”

“I just don’t see eye-to-eye with people, sometimes. That’s all,” Pierce insisted. “And unlike most people, I don’t just sweep those disagreements under the rug — I address them head-on. And that creates friction.”

“Friction… like a ‘relationship contest’?”

“Ugh…” Pierce pulled a face. “That was… look, Phoenix and I have these kinds of competitions all the time. It’s the only way to stay on our toes, to really show which of us is better.”

Liask passed Pierce an amused look. “By… dating?”

“Hey, look, the question was, ‘which of us is more dateable?’ And the only way to get an answer to that is to, you know, date people.”

“Who’s ‘winning’, then? Phoenix, right?”

“What? How do you know?! Has our little contest turned into that much of a rumor around here?!”

“Well, you are outsiders. People ‘round here may not talk to you much, but they do pay a lot of attention to you.”

“Hmph. Look, I’ll win, in the end. I took a whole month off, sure, but now that a new term is starting, I’m a whole new man!”

“So you say, but all the girls just think you’re lookin’ for, uh… ‘fun nights’.”

“Hey, it’s a nice plus — I mean, look, you have to start somewhere, right? You can’t win a dating contest by not fucking dating anyone.”

“And how do you win?”

“Uh… …I guess the win condition isn’t well-defined. But if I could find someone to date for a month, at least, I bet Phoenix would finally agree that I won.”

“Why a month?”

“Uh, you know… just an arbitrary length, ha ha,” Pierce replied with a sheepish chuckle. Man, I can’t just admit that I’ve never dated someone for longer than that…

“Hmm…” Liask looked down, as if in thought. “What if… I helped?”

“Huh…?” Pierce briefly glanced at Liask before turning to look out over the lake once more — and then snapping his attention back to Liask. “Wait, hold on. What?”

“I-I mean, to win the contest, Phoenix just needs to think you’re dating someone, right?” Liask replied, “well, you know. I could help. By, uh — by pretending to be your girlfriend. That’d work, right?”

“Pretending, huh…?” Pierce echoed. ‘Pretending’ my ass. She’s actually asking me out right now, isn’t she? But… He paused, still in thought, as he looked out over the lake once more — the lake now well-lit by a sun just risen. …She said earlier that she doesn’t blame me for Trenon’s death, and I think she really meant that. But still… I feel like the only reason we’re even talking right now is because he’s fucking dead. She did say that Trenon wrote about us, so there’s a decent chance she’d try to get to know me even if Trenon was still alive, but… damn it, what the hell even is this situation? I’m the reason your brother is fucking dead, Liask, why are you trying to DATE me, of all things?! I don’t understand you at all! This feels so wrong. …But if it’s only for a month, to end this stupid contest… I suppose that wouldn’t be so bad. Then we can stop ‘pretending’ to date, which means I won’t have to break up with her, for real… Damn, this sounds so bad. But she DID suggest it herself, so…

“…It was a bad idea after all, wasn’t it?”

“What? No, wait,” Pierce quickly interjected, drawing Liask’s attention back to himself. “I didn’t say it was a bad idea, I was just thinking about if, um… if, uh… …if Phoenix would fall for it, yeah!”

Liask looked at Pierce doubtfully. “…Really? Uh… would she?”

“We’d have to be pretty convincing, I’ll admit,” Pierce replied. “Going on dates, holding hands, kissing, se— well… spending nights together, at least.”

“I—I see,” Liask responded, fidgeting in place. “Earthians get intimate a lot faster than Tresédians do, huh… but I stand by my word! I’ll help you win! It’s the least I can do, considerin’ all you’ve done for me!”

What HAVE I done for her…? Pierce mentally questioned as he regarded Liask with a forced smile. Just what’s going through her mind? Maybe she actually is just volunteering to pretend, here, out of some weird-ass sense of feeling indebted? But why?! Shit, now I want to go through with this, just to try and see what the hell she’s thinking… “Well… I guess we can start today, then,” Pierce eventually declared. “We can grab lunch. How’s that sound?”

“Uh… yeah! Sounds good!” Liask replied, and then adopted a playful smirk. “I guess I’ll be buyin’, huh? Since your allowance got cut.”

“Aw, man… don’t remind me,” Pierce retorted.

“It’s fine. It’ll be kinda hard to go on dates durin’ the week, anyways, due to extra study hall and cleanin’ the armories…”

“I guess we do need to work around that… but hey, all that matters is putting on a convincing show, right?”

“Uh… yep! That’s right!”

Pierce and Liask continued standing on the edge of the pier, awkwardly smiling at each other in what felt like deafening silence. Eventually, Pierce cleared his throat and turned to begin walking down the pier. “…Anyways,” he remarked, “we’ve been standing around and talking for a while, now. Let’s get back to our workouts. Time rests for no one, and all that, you know.”

“True! Well… see you at lunch, then!” Liask shouted as Pierce began jogging down the pier, leaving her to continue her morning exercises in solitude.

---

That Afternoon

“Alright! The inaugural meeting of the Creators’ Day Planning Committee now officially commences!”

“’Inaugural’?” Twy echoed as she passed her sister an incredulous glance. “…’Committee’?!”

“I see someone is invested in this process,” Phoenix remarked with a smirk.

“Aw, c’mon, sis, it’s all in good fun!” Sky declared as she threw her arm around Twy’s shoulder. She then glanced at each of Phoenix and Kestrel, who joined the twins in sitting upon the floor rug in Sky’s dorm room at WCU. Afternoon sunlight shone through the lone window, offering bright illumination of the modestly decorated room — and the mess within. While the central part of Sky’s room and her bed were cleared in preparation for the meeting she was now holding, there still remained a pile of dirty clothes in the corner, and her desk was covered in haphazard piles of papers and textbooks.

“Anyways!” Sky exclaimed, finally releasing Twy to look eagerly at everyone. “Creators’ Day is in, like, a month and a half, at this point — and since we all agreed to work on something together, we should really start now!”

“Don’t act like this was your idea,” Twy countered. “Remember, Phoenix had to remind you that this was even happening.”

“Shush, you. You can’t blame me for forgetting, anyways. There’s been too much going on, lately!”

“Classes…” Kestrel muttered.

“Yeah, that!” Sky emphatically thrust her index finger toward Kestrel. “Can you believe it? We have fucking homework, now! And the classes are so long! And so boring! Where’d all our free time go?!”

“It’s like Kaoné said, WCU is still a college,” Phoenix pointed out. “Personally, I’m glad that the classes here cover non-Chaotic material. I don’t want this Chaotic stuff to be the only thing I know.”

“Having homework isn’t very different from what we were doing before we came to Nimalia, either,” Twy said. “If anything, we should assume that the last couple months were an abnormal adjustment period, not the norm to expect.”

“Ah, figures the two of you would say that,” Sky pouted.

“Don’t get me wrong, Sky — just because I want a thorough and proper education doesn’t mean I don’t know how to have fun,” Phoenix remarked with a smirk. “Which is why I’m looking forward to Creators’ Day. A full-day holiday to celebrate creative works — that sounds like a hella good time, to me. And the way I hear it, Compound Tresnon is even going to have a talent show, of sorts. That means we need to go big!”

“Big…?” Twy echoed warily.

“Only four of us…” Kestrel added.

“Yeah, but four is all you need!” Sky declared.

“We don’t even know what we’re going to do,” Twy challenged, “how do we know that the four of us will be enough?”

“Of course we know what we’re going to do. I’m going to sing! Duh!”

“And I’m going to make a cute outfit!” Phoenix asserted. “Twy, Kestrel, you two can be in charge of making the background art, and the backing track.”

Twy and Kestrel exchanged a blank glance, only for both of their shoulders to heave in tandem — though only Twy’s sigh was audible. “I guess…” Twy replied. “But we still haven’t decided on anything beyond that, though. What’s the actual song that you’re going to sing, Sky? Or, even better — what’s our overall theme?”

“I was just gonna write a song, but, uh…” Sky adopted a sheepish smile. “Now that you mention it, I hadn’t thought about a theme! Ah ha ha…!”

“I’ve been thinking about a few, myself,” Phoenix said. “Creators’ Day is a celebration of creative works of all sorts, right? Which ultimately means that it’s a sort of cultural appreciation day. In that vein, I think we should do something inspired by Earth’s culture — it’s what we know best, after all. And it can be a chance to show the Tresédians here something that they aren’t familiar with!”

“Nature?” Kestrel suggested.

“The Nimalians do seem to like nature,” Twy agreed. “And personally, I like painting landscapes more than anything else… so we could do something about Earth’s nature, I guess?”

“I think that’s a good start,” Phoenix replied with a nod. “It could be good to bring some greenery to this dreary city, after all!”

“So I should write a song about… Earth’s nature?” Sky pulled a face. “What does that even mean?!”

“Just, like… think about some natural features that Earth has that Nimalia doesn’t,” Twy suggested. “Or maybe about how people’s attitudes about nature on Earth differ from Nimalia’s…?”

“But there’s a bajillion people on Earth! I can’t condense all of their opinions into a single song!”

“True…” Phoenix admitted, her hand on her chin in thought. “Hmm… well… as much as I hate to admit it, I suppose we can focus on America. We are all American, here.”

“I guess that makes sense. I was gonna write the song in English, anyways…” Sky replied.

“Mm…” Kestrel passed Sky a glance. “…Translation implants?”

Sky returned the glance. “Huh?”

“Oh, shit, Kestrel’s right…” Phoenix remarked with a frown. “Think about it, Sky — the Nimalians have those translation implants, right? The translations on those things are pretty damn good for normal conversation, but I don’t think they can match the meter and rhyme of a song, you know?”

“Oh, shit… is it not possible to just turn them off, though?”

“It’s possible to temporarily disable the audio translation, sure, but it’s just inconvenient enough that we can’t expect people to do it for a single song.”

“Well, only students and faculty of WCU have the implants, right?” Twy pointed out, “most other Tresédians won’t. So English is probably fine…”

“Sure, but do you think most other Tresédians would care about a bunch of ‘outsiders’ like us?” Phoenix countered. “I think we should tailor this performance for the students, since they’re more likely to appreciate it.”

“I suppose that makes sense…” Twy mused, and then looked over at her sister. “Well, what if we just did something without lyrics? There are plenty of musical things you can use your voice for that aren’t singing.”

“What? No way!” Sky immediately refuted. “The lyrical parts are the biggest reason I like singing in the first place! Words have meaning, you know — and so do songs! That’s, like, the entire point!”

“And yet, the only way for the Tresédians to understand your song is to butcher the musical aspect,” Phoenix pointed out. “We’re going to have to make some kind of compromise, Sky.”

“C’mon… we could, like, just hand out little pamphlets with the English lyrics, and a Nimalian translation…”

“Again, we can’t expect the Tresédians to bother turning the auto-translation off. Not for a bunch of outsiders they barely know.”

“Another language?” Kestrel suggested.

“Hmm, if Sky sang in a non-English language, then I think that would do it…” Phoenix mused. “It wouldn’t trigger the Nimalians’ audio translation… and I guess there is some neat value in showcasing an Earth language that the Nimalians have likely never heard before. But, Sky, do you even know another language?”

“Oh, this is easy!” Sky replied casually. “I can just do Japanese, or Chinese. No problem.”

“Really? You know Japanese and Chinese?”

“I used to! That counts, right?”

“More specifically…” Twy explained in an exasperated tone, “our parents tried to teach us their respective languages when we were kids, but we haven’t actually used either very frequently. We grew up in Texas, after all.”

“Huh, I didn’t know that,” Phoenix remarked as she glanced between the two twins. “So your parents are Japanese? Or… Chinese?”

“Our mom was born in Japan; our dad, in China,” Twy replied. “Though both of their families moved to California when they were young. And then moved to Texas after the big quakes in ‘88…”

“Oh… makes sense. The quakes did hit California pretty hard.”

“But the fact still remains — we used to know both languages!” Sky declared. “I couldn’t, uh, hold a conversation in them anymore, but… I’m sure the knowledge is buried somewhere in my head. I just have to dig it out, somehow!”

Phoenix passed Sky a doubtful glance. “…Right.”

“If Japanese, then…” Kestrel glanced between Sky and Twy. “…Ask Saito?”

“Saito?” Sky echoed cluelessly.

“She’s talking about the Colonel. Colonel Kaji Saito? Of CSF-1?” Twy replied. “His name is Japanese, sure, but is he himself actually from Japan? I’ve only ever heard him speak English, and he doesn’t seem to have much of an accent. I mean… now that I think about it, I guess he kind of does, but it’s really slight…”

“And more importantly, do we really want to ask for his help?” Phoenix challenged. “Remember — he’s SERRCom. And he doesn’t have any sympathetic ties to us like Luke does.”

“Will we even see him before Creators’ Day?” Sky questioned. “He left, didn’t he? I thought he wasn’t coming back.”

“Mm… just an option,” Kestrel said with a shrug.

“It’s something, at least…” Sky mused. “And I think Clarice still remembers some Japanese, too… maybe I’ll go with that, then. That should be fun!”

“Uh, who’s Clarice…?” Phoenix asked.

“Our older sister,” Twy replied. “But she’s notoriously unreliable, and a bit of a nomad. I’d be surprised if you’re even able to contact her, Sky. You’d be better off asking Sage. …Our brother, the oldest sibling,” she quickly added when Phoenix made to interject again.

“Wow… four siblings, huh?” Phoenix remarked. “I’m just an only child…”

“Sage is a real stick-in-the-mud, though,” Sky declared. “And he’s always busy, too. Well, fine — I can manage well enough on my own! I’m sure I have enough repressed knowledge that I could at least clean up a machine translation. It’s fine!”

“Uh…” Phoenix passed Sky a doubtful look. “If you’re just going to use an automatic translation, then maybe we should—“

“Nah, I got this! Don’t worry!” Sky insisted with a wink toward Phoenix. “Worst case scenario, I can just grab an existing song off the internet! It’s not like anyone’s gonna sue me for copyright out here!”

“And there’s that Sky work ethic, for you,” Twy responded sarcastically.

“Need more details…” Kestrel commented, glancing pointedly between Sky and Phoenix. “For art, backing track…”

“That’s true, we still need to hammer out some more details,” Phoenix agreed. “For the outfit design, as well. We have the general theme, and a language, now we need to build off of that. Alright… hmm, maybe we could…”

With that, the four women continued their planning through the afternoon and evening, doing their best to form a concrete plan for the holiday a month and a half in the future: Creators’ Day.