Through some twisted turn of fate or as the truth of afterlife, I was born again. A fresh new life to start with? Great. I'll take it.

Being born gave me another bout of intense pain. I couldn't tell what exactly happened, since all of my senses were out of all kinds of whack, but I could definitely tell you that it hurt like hell. I needed a way to let out this torment, something to lessen it. I tried to yell out, but could only scream and cry.

The only thing I recognized feeling was the ringing noise when the thunderbolt struck. The doctors who delivered me from my new mother and my new father talked in muffled voices. Through the ringing was a constant beeping, most likely the heart monitor for my new mother.

All of a sudden, it sped up. New Mom started screaming again. I was wrapped in a sterile white cloth and handed to New Dad, who took me hurriedly and held me awkwardly.

I must admit, I miss being held like this. Being held carefully and tightly. Being held like I was precious and fragile... It moved me. I started crying again, this time through the dull pain that had just subsided. In a short moment, I thought I would be going into a new world without a mother, but my worry faded as the doctors beheld something I had always wanted: a younger sibling.

I used to be the youngest of 4 children, the runt of the litter. Now, that will change! I hoped.

It was a second after I saw the second child that my ears became clear. Aside from the bawling my counterpart was emitting, in very clear English, the doctors asked my new dad for my name.

"For the boy?" One doctor with a clipboard asked. Her pen was at the ready.

"He will be..." New Dad looked over at New Mom. "...Gainsboro."

I thought to myself, with short, abstract thoughts worthy of being called infantile. 'Gainsborough? England?' As if he could read my thoughts, he justified,

"Like the shade of gray."

I found that unusual. He means to name me Gainsboro? Like the strange off-white gray? Instead of the town? Without missing a beat, he added,

"He has my gray eyes and I'd bet my hair too," as though I were saying what I were thinking. He nodded with an air of finality. The doctor then asked,

"And the girl?" which prompted 2 questions from me: "My twin is a girl?" and "Will she look like me?"

New Dad looked at New Mom one more time, this time letting me see her. While her eyes were red from the trauma and pain, her irises were already red. The purple bags beneath her eyes and dark brown, frizzled hair made her look like she just woke up from being unconscious.

She waved her hand to New Dad like "You name them" and leaned back.

"Huh," he vocalized. Apparently, he hadn't thought of a name for my sister, who was presently crying in another doctor's arms. The doctor stood in front of my dad and cooed to the girl, trying to get her to calm down. It was working, if her quieting down was any indication. "Red eyes too..." dad said pensively. He was like this for about 5 minutes until, out of nowhere, mom said,

"Desiree. Like desire. Like the red," in neat, succinct sentences. The doctor looked to dad, he shrugged, and she wrote the name down.

"Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Argent. You have 2 more beautiful children."

The doctor said 2 more? Great. Now I'm not the oldest anymore. Thinking of getting practically bullied by my older siblings made me irritated and tired. I didn't want to deal with that shit again.

I fell asleep fast in my dad's arms. Time for a restart, I guess.

WEEK 1

I really don't want to be a baby again. Baby food tastes bad and... excreting myself is humiliating. Everytime I get hungry, I can't control my emotion of disliking baby food so much to not force my infant body to cry. Everytime I... shit myself, I cry for having to deal with the feeling and the inevitable cleaning that I hated so much now. At least I dont have to think about my future.

Back to the topic of older siblings, I only had 1. 1 older sister of 5 years. She had a weird hair color: a sort of dull mahogany. You could say it was either gray or red and still be correct. Her name? She was Cinna. Cinna Argent.

These are some weird names.

I still haven't managed to learn either of my parents names, though I hope I will soon. Since New Mom is the one who's staying home taking care of all the children - including me, now - I should learn hers fairly soon.

WEEK 4

I expected to learn Mom's name first but completely forgot that moms make their children call them either mom or mommy or momma. New Mom prefers just Mom.

In a small argument my parents had, I managed to hear Mom call my dad "Grey."

Whether this is a nickname or his actual name is up for speculation.

Either way, I fumbled out my first word sometime after that. In a bid to get something to drink - because I was fucking parched - I attempted to speak. The underdeveloped vocal cords and tongue of an infant aren't to be underestimated. However, through all of the weird gurgles and cooes I made, I slipped out "gray."

It instantly got his attention from the kitchen, but he didn't give me a water. He instead yelled,

"HONEY! Little G said his first word!" Then he came over to me and started poking me and tried to get me to say it again. I was still thirsty, so I tried doing it again. Mom came into the room, followed by Cin - which was Cinna's shortened name - and started cooing to me too. I did say it again, but the idiots still didn't get me water or whatever.

Then I remembered there was another way to get them to give me my milk.

As much as I hated it, I cried. At least I could say that it definitely worked?

MONTH 1

So I learned that Desiree managed to squeak out Mom's name. Mom and Dad got into another argument. Dad almost got to yelling at Mom, if it weren't for Desiree saying her first word, "Car," which got the attention of both of them since Mom's name is Carmine.

I was able to hear what their argument was about. Well, a little. Dad was getting irritated with some person at work, Jacques or Jack. Mom said to lay off and let it be, but Dad disagreed, saying "He seems small now, but he has Alice wrapped around his finger."

Then Desiree said her first word and the entire conversation was dropped.

Ah, parenthood.

I also have suspicions that the world I'm on isn't Earth.

Let me explain.

All of the names I have heard so far, sans Jacques/Jack and Alice are kind of... different. Carmine, Cinna, Desiree? Red. Grey (I learned that this is indeed my dad's name, as he wrote it down on some sort of contract or manifest) and Gainsboro? Gray.

I once saw my dad turn on the television set that didn't look like a television set. While I am used to flat screens, I am not used to "glass screens" where the screen and really the entire set was just what seemed like a large glass pane. What was on the TV was concerning.

It was a news broadcast. At first it was just a news anchor. This anchor, though... Light purple hair? What the hell?

There's even more. After a brief summation of events in very fast, unintelligible English, there was some footage that I didn't understand.

First off, the footage was of nothing. It was just a screen of black. Or seemingly nothing. The black started shifting and moving, and there were red lights and pale white specks in the blackness. As if we could understand what that was, some live footage came up of a train. It wasn't moving, in fact, it looked like it was stuck. Out of nowhere, something black fell on the train and then more black fell and then... Static. The footage was cut off. It was at this point that Dad started crying. Mom held a hand in front of her mouth and grabbed the remote.

Right before she turned it off, I saw the headline:

"Mountain Glenn overran by-" then the screen shut off.

I'd never heard of a "Mountain Glenn," but it was a familiar name. I felt down inside of me like it was a place I knew.

It must have been a tragedy. Something told me it was.

MONTH 6

God, I hate baby hands. They're so small and inaccurate and weak and soft.

I just hate being a baby in general. It's humiliating. I believe I said this before.

Well, it got even more humiliating when I was introduced to more people. I didn't even try to remember them except for the fact that a lot of people on my dad's side had gray hair, no matter their age. The older folks had lighter gray or just plain white hair.

Moving on, being carried everywhere is fun and all, but I would like to try to get on my legs. I did so once, but keeping balance has been so damn hard. I am getting a hang of it, though. I might be able to start walking soon.

Cin is turning into a "responsible" kid. She's been doing simple things like bringing me or Desiree our milk or just trying to entertain us. It doesn't really work for me, but I think I'll manage being treated like a child by her.

A lot of my little cousins back home treated me like I was around their age. I humored them and told jokes and did silly things around them.

I miss home. I wanted to do a lot with my life yet... I didn't know what I could do with it. I didn't know then, so how could I have known now? A new life? I could correct the little mistakes, but until I prove beyond a reasonable doubt that whatever world I'm on isn't Earth, I can't tell.

Maybe I'll be a doctor like my old parents and grandparents wanted me to be. Maybe I'll join the military like my old dad and his dad. Maybe I'll do something useful.

God, I miss home.

MONTH 8

I did it! I'm walking! Albeit, rather clumsily and with a few minor hiccups, but I did it!

Desiree got to do it too. Literally minutes after I started walking, she did. I guess that's cool.

I also squeezed a full sentence out too. For months I had been confined to single words.

This would have been an achievement, if I hadn't remembered that I could speak perfectly fine less than a year ago. Or at least what felt like less than a year ago.

Of course, Carmine and Grey made a big deal out of my sentence and me and Desiree's locomotion.

Not much for more evidence yet, but I should get a better grasp as soon as I get mom and dad to read me some bedtime stories and/or nursery rhymes. It'll be a while till then.

YEAR 1

It hasn't been exactly a year since I was born, but I learned some of the nursery rhymes to help me speak.

There were the common ones, like Little Miss Muffet, the Itsy Bitsy Spider, and the like. Was it Three Blind Mice or Three Wise Mice?

Moving on, I haven't heard the name of one that I did not recognize, but it had a word that was a bit different and a bit more complex. The word was grim, and it was used like a noun.

I had been constructing short sentences in the months prior, so when I asked "What's a Grim?" I got an answer I wasn't expecting. Carmine said, and I quote,

"They're big bad monsters that like scaring people."

Which gave away which world I currently existed in. I was on Remnant.

Oh shit.

Now don't get me wrong. I love RWBY. It's just that life on Remnant? Tragic. Very tragic.

Living a life of constant fear because you never know if the Grimm will come. I hope I'm not the same age as the main characters, but I also hope I am.