Day 2: August 2nd-Childhood/Adolescence/Young Adult Life (Overlooking English Bay)
What Kaidan had missed the most apart from his family when he was at Brain Camp had without doubt been English Bay and the views.
Well, not only the views, but the scent of the ocean air, the colours of the sky as the sun set, and the screams of the gulls and other birds rising to a cacophony at times that he somehow found he didn't mind.
Truth be told, he still misses everything about the place, even now on the Normandy.
Brain Camp was too quiet, too void of colour and it took Kaidan ages to fall asleep without the sounds he had grown up with and accustomed to.
He misses the ocean, the ports with their ships, the contrast of the sandy shores and the greens of the grass and trees against the endless sky, and the skyscrapers piercing the heavens above.
Kaidan misses gazing at the sky with his father at night through the telescope; his father teaching him the names of stars and planets and constellations, later quizzing him on them.
When Kaidan had been young, before Brain Camp, he had longed to explore the vast worlds out there, both in his own system and every other.
But now, years later, he still dreams of the English Bay; the sounds of birds as the sun rose and painted the world in vivid colours.
He misses the snow, too, so different from the one on other planets, yet so alike it makes his heart ache to think of home, of family, of childhood and building snowmen and snow fights and snow angels.
Kaidan wants to take Shepard there, one day, to his family. To show him thing the Commander never got to experience growing up. He wants to teach him skiing, make him hot chocolate and curl up in front of the fireplace wearing woollen stockings and sweaters knit by his mom.
Kaidan sometimes tries to describe the way the Bay feels and looks like, but even with vids and photographs it's impossible to explain the place to someone who's never been there, and even those that have don't see the Bay just quite like he does.
But if Kaidan's to be honest with himself, he prefers it that way, because it makes English Bay even more unique and special to him, because he's the only one to see it that way, and it makes him cherish and miss the place even more.
It makes Kaidan nostalgic, too, thinking about the place and growing up there; makes him long for what once was and will never be the same again. He most often finds the thoughts of nostalgia to be pathetic though, because each day things changes, nothing will ever be the same way again and that's okay, that's how it's meant to be.
Static is never good, and it worries him, sometimes, thinking about the place as he remembers it, not knowing how he'll react to the place when he returns one day.
If it's still standing, a voice will sometime whisper in his ear and Kaidan ignores it as best he can; fearing the truth about the statement. It's still standing; it will never fall, not as long as I still remember it.