Thumbs up to AngelicTrinity, LRW, Lady Cougar-Trombone, Rodrigo, ShyMusic, and Doomforzombies because you guys remembered Douglas' dog's name! It is Otis!

I wanna thank Yuki F. Karasu, ereader12 (you were close!), and NeonBlackRoseRevived for the reviews! They are much appreciated. :)

Okay, so here's the deal with this tag: I had a completely different plan for this, one that involved the lie detector chair and a resulting deep conversation between Leo and Douglas, but after re-watching the episode, this is what came out. This still contains the main topic of the original idea, but it's more...personal? To Leo, I mean, because instead of having him sort it out with another character, he's going to sort it out himself.

I think this turned out the way it did because in the episode, after watching it twice, I came to the same conclusion: he's alone.

Head's up: entry's a bit of a downer.

More notes at the end of the entry regarding another shift in the entries from this point forward.

Please enjoy. :)

Episode Tag to: Mission Mania

Chronicle #052

"Modulate"

04/27/15

8:43 PM

I wonder how my life would have been like if Dad had been able to stay.

I know. I sound like a song stuck on repeat on this, but I can't help it. It's one of those things you think about – often, lately, in my case. It's not that I'm ungrateful or anything for the things I have now. It's just that, I've been noticing things, and they're making me think about him.

I miss him.

That's okay, right?

This is something I haven't told Mom yet: it's getting somewhat lonely on the island. I mean, Big D is keeping us busy and all, and there's been a lot of fun things that they try to include on the schedule, but it always feels like everything is a group thing. We only really get individual attention when we're getting assessed with our abilities. Even that is scheduled, too.

But I'm not mad at anyone or anything! No. Not at all. Everyone's trying their best to adjust to this new situation. Plus, it's not like I'm a five year-old that still needs attention. I'm sixteen. I'm old enough to handle things on my own. If I can rescue people out of a wildfire and save my sister out of a plane falling off a tall building, I can deal with all kinds of things, right? Piece of cake. And for someone who will turn eighteen in about a year and a few months, it doesn't make sense for me to be jealous or anything like that. It's just how things are now.

Really, no one has any obligation to me.

And hey – I learned something on my own. After that Highland Hills mission, I learned that the good that comes out from doing your work is better than getting known for it. That's something that I'm going to work hard on to keep in mind from now on. I'm sure I can learn other things on my own, too. I can teach myself how to be responsible, how to be respectful, how to make a good, decent living, how to treat girls right (although with that one, I think my fear of my mother, my grandmother and my aunt had forever steered me away from being rude and stupid when it comes to women). I can train myself to always keep my word.

See? It's not so bad being alone. There will be lots of learning opportunities.

Still, it would've been nice if Dad was here. There are a lot of things I could've learned from him. I remember him being this all around good guy. He loved Mom, he loved me. He was a good friend to all his friends, even to those who he'd just met. He worked hard to make sure we lived well.

When I was younger, I wanted to be like him one day when I grow up. I actually still do.

I wonder what he would have thought if he knew what I'm doing now. Would he be proud? He probably would be, knowing him. He used to keep the terrible crayon drawings I made for him in his wallet. I know that because after he was gone, it was one of things that belonged to him that Mom gave to me. Everything that was in there is still in there, plus the rainy day fund that I store in it now.

I wonder if he'd be a bit disappointed, too. That's the thought that bothered me the most when I realized how I seemed to have taken a backseat in my own life. I mean, I depend everything on how other people steer the wheel, and I let it take over. I let my placement drive me into being upset and a teeny bit desperate at times, to the point that a little control easily gets into my head. I let what other people say drive me into doing things that aren't so smart, drive me into doing things that can hurt others.

I let loneliness drive me into being the kind of man he wouldn't want me to be.

I wish I could tell him that I'm changing everything now. I've decided that I'm done. I'm done. I'm going to start again. I'll make mistakes here and there as I do, but I'm not letting it go on like this. I'm going to focus on what I'm supposed to do. I'm going to find new friends and stick with them. That should be kind of cool, right? I already got a friend who's my age (Era), so we can easily start a crew. That'll be awesome.

It'll be a bit hard, but I can do this on my own.

Still, I wish he could've been here with me to help me figure out how to grow up to be a good man.

Signed,

Leo Francis Dooley

04/27/15

10:01 PM

The Adam Chronicles

Besides the lie detector chair, name another one of Douglas' inventions that he showed Leo, Bob and Spin during the episode.

Okay, so the note: from now on, we're going to have a few recurring OCs. It really breaks my heart seeing Leo the way he's been lately, so we're going to give him some friends. Amaranth's still coming, don't worry (in fact, she'll kind of come in next chapter!), but there will be a few new kids that may or may not be featured a bit more prominently in the entries as time goes on.

Of course, Leo's family will still be the main focus, but the dynamics will change.

Please let me know what your thoughts are regarding this! Or if you'd like to just answer the question above, that'd be great, too!

One more entry, and we'll be caught up! :)