(I currently have a poll up that you have a week as of me posting this to vote on. I'll elaborate more in my notes at the end)
Volume I: Ant. 3 Teaser:
"OW! Hey! Would it kill you to not be so rough with the bandages!?" The injured girl complains as Vernal tries to change her bandages so she can go to bed.
It is approximately 11:00 p.m. and Vernal has been at it for the past 15-20 minutes. It would be over faster, but Sophia's constant squirming in response to Vernal not grasping the concept of the word "gentle" has put a slight slowdown on the process.
"I'm only doing it how Mari showed me. Give me a break already. I'm trying."
"I'll give you more than just a break!" Sophia snaps at her.
"Quit your whining!" Vernal responds. "If you weren't so busy being a wimp and squirming and just hold still, we'd be done by now."
"Would you shut up?!" Interrupts a voice from a neighboring tent. "Some of us are trying to sleep!"
"If you want help going to sleep, how about you come in here and repeat that?!" The injured girl's friend yells back for the both of them.
There was no response.
"That's what I thought." She called out again before turning her attention back to Sophia. "Anyway, I'm only doing it how Mari showed me."
"Well I don't remember feeling like I was getting my skin ripped off when she was doing it. Can't we just get her to do it? Or Raven?" She pleads.
"They're probably sleeping right now, so no. You'll just have to bite the bullet. Now quit your bitching and suck it up!"
After a few silent seconds, Sophia gives up and reluctantly lets Vernal continue with a grumble.
"Fine… But only if you promise to be more gentle…" She tries to at least get her to agree.
"I'll try, but I'm not making any promises."
Sophia simply responds with a sigh before speaking.
"I'll take it, I guess…"
After about another ten minutes of torture, Vernal finally finishes changing Sophia's bandages as she reaches for her canteen of water and downs a couple pain killers. Though Sophia hated every second of that experience, she has to admit that Vernal did let up a bit and made the experience at least bearable.
"There… that wasn't so difficult." Vernal says as she leans back on her palms.
"Easy for you to say..." The girl mutters. "You have an aura so you don't have to deal with this kind of stuff since your wounds heal instantly."
"Well not instantly." Vernal corrects her. "But just really fast-"
"Ugh! You get the point!" Sophia interrupts her with an irritated voice.
"Oh come on. Don't be like that. Look I'm sorry, okay? If I end up doing it again, I'll be more gentle."
Sophia laughs.
"'Gentle', my ass!"
"Look, I promise, alright? You know I'm good on my promises."
The moment Sophia hears the word 'promise' from Vernal's lips, she averts her gaze over her left shoulder where her vest sits. Her eyes focus on her deck of playing cards peeking out from her breast pocket.
"Okay, fine…" Sophia says quietly without returning her gaze to Vernal, her eyes still fixated on her cards.
The look in the injured girl's eyes were almost reflective and slightly stressed. Vernal, noticing her friend's expression, sees this as a clue and reaches for her deck.
"Hey, how about a quick game before you sleep to help you relax a bit?" Vernal offers as she pulls out Sophia's cards.
"Nah, I'll pass." Sophia rejects her friend's offer, laying on her back.
Vernal is slightly surprised and can't help but question her rejection.
"You sure?" She says, raising an eyebrow. "We don't have to make any bets this time if you're worried about that."
"Yeah. I'm sure." She says with certainty. "And besides, I'm done making bets and gambling anyway."
The brown-haired girl didn't know how to respond. For as long as she's known Sophia, gambling is pretty much her main pastime and she could never pass up an offer if someone wanted to play with the stakes of lien involved. In fact, Sophia was usually always the one to introduce stakes.
"Is everything okay, Sophia?" Vernal asks her friend as she leans forward a bit.
"Let's just say I had a…- What do you call it again? An 'ephepany'?"
"An epiphany." Vernal corrects her.
"An epinaphy." Sophia tries to repeat as she struggles to pronounce the word.
"Close enough." She rolls her eyes and gives up. "So anyway, what was this 'epinaphy' of yours?"
"Remember that time when I had to pay off a debt to you?" Sophia sits herself up with slight strain. "I got desperate and got Simin involved by asking him to help me get out of it. When he came back with the money he agreed to help get for me, I noticed he had bloody bandages on his arm. Like he'd been in a fight. Now I don't wanna jump to conclusions or anything because I don't really know for sure what happened or how exactly he got that money and frankly, I don't think I really wanna know. But one thing I do know is that it made me realize I was making mistakes- arguably bigger mistakes than what originally cost me people that I cared about. And Simin helped me see that, though he probably doesn't even know it. So because of that, I chose to distance myself from him out of fear that I might get him involved in something that will get him hurt. This is also why I'm deciding on dropping gambling. I don't want to end up going full circle. It's my mistakes that led to me losing everything, but they also led to me joining the tribe. And if I keep doing the same shit I've been doing, I'm afraid I might do something that'll hurt the tribe or the kid. And on top of that, I'll be even farther from my goal."
"Your goal? And what happened last time exactly?"
"It's… a long story… and besides, I don't think you want to end your night with a sob story." Sophia says with a casual, dismissive tone.
"I have time."
"Oh… well… uh… okay… Wasn't expecting that, to be honest… are you sure you want to…?" Sophia asks as she's visibly nervous to let her friend in on her past.
"What're you so nervous about?"
"I'm just scared that if I tell you it might change how you see me."
"Well is there anyone else you've told?"
"Raven." She then says out loud. "But that was it. I told her not long after I first joined."
"Then let me put it this way. Raven isn't the type of person to judge other people unless she feels she has a good reason for it. If Raven didn't judge you when you told her your story and still kept you around, then I'm not going to either- especially since I work directly under her. Think of it like you're talking to a… er… a brown-haired, tan-skinned, teenage version of Raven… Look, you have my word that I won't judge you."
"Promise? As a friend?" Sophia asks for reassurance as she holds out her pinky.
"Are we really doing this?" Vernal chuckles at her gesture. "We're not eight, you know."
"Vernal." Sophia says to let her know she is serious.
Vernal sighs and quickly regains her composure once realizing how much this means to her friend and links her pinky finger with hers.
"Alright. I promise as your friend." Vernal tells Sophia.
"Alright." Sophia deeply exhales with a bit of hesitation, lowering her head as if she is thinking of a way to start. "So... to start off, there are a couple things I wanna get out of the way. First, you know how I call Simin 'Lu', a lot?"
"Yeah?"
"That was what I used to call my little brother. It was my nickname for him." She confesses.
"Why did you used to call Simin by your little brother's nickname?"
"Well…" Sophia gives an embarrassed grin as she averts eye contact and lets out an awkward chuckle while blush enters and fills her cheeks. "...we all cope in different ways."
She gives a saddened expression with a hint of self-loathing.
"And," She adds. "...in a way, because I associated Simin with Lu, that sort of had a big effect on giving me that kick into me having my ephinapy when he told me off that one day. I know it sounds dumb, but that's just how it is. It doesn't sound dumb, does it?"
"It does sound a little dumb." Vernal says without hesitation.
"Hey! You were supposed to disagree with me!"
"But you hate being disagreed with."
"Only when it's inconvenient for me!" She jokes, trying to gain some lightheartedness before shifting back to serious.
"Second thing. Now I'm sure you're aware of my gambling problem."
"I'm pretty sure everyone is aware."
"Well I just want you to know, I don't do it just because or because I want to feed a craving or because I find enjoyment in it- even though I do actually find enjoyment, but that's just a coincidence and besides the point. My main reason for gambling is because I was trying to help someone close to me."
"And who would that be?"
The girl hesitated to answer for a moment. For a split second, she reflects on everything she did and why she did it. She had good intentions, but she never meant for them to get hurt, especially when all she wanted to do was help. And when she did mess up, she tried to protect them from her own mistakes. But it only led to tragedy. After her reflection, Sophia answered Vernal's question and revealed to her the person she was trying to help:
"My sister."
This is Sophia's story... and her remorse.
**TEASER CHAPTER END**
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Hey everyone!
The third anthology chapter is on the way! I've been working extremely hard on it and it is almost ready to be posted. However, I'm currently entering finals week and will be graduating next week. So I'm currently trying to balance things out. Also, anthology chapter 3 is really, really long. So because of that, I have a poll for you to vote on. This poll will determine whether you want me to split this chapter into multiple chapters or just post it as one big monster-sized chapter.
The chapter coming up is Sophia's backstory and the main purpose of it is to set up her arc as well as tease two new characters that will make their official debut later on down the line. It's also meant to give a lot of insight and worldbuilding into Mistral, especially the slums, and tease a future arc that takes place way, way down the line regarding Mistral's criminal underground.
As for this teaser chapter, the main purpose of me posting this is mainly just to get your attention and let you know the next chapter is just around the corner and let you know about the poll.
Another thing to know, anthology chapter 4 has also already been revised and will be posted relatively soon after anthology chapter 3. This was mainly because I accidentally revised them out of order, but that's fixed now. Then after that, we just have anthology chapter 5 and then we're back into the main story!
Anyway, with that said, I'll see you soon! Very soon.
(unofficial) fun fact: This teaser chapter was originally going to be the opening to anthology chapter 3. But now anthology chapter 3 will be jumping straight into the backstory of Sophia.