Our Tomorrow, Again

Robin rubbed her eyes after her alarm went off and sat up with a sigh. As usual, her dreams had been incredibly jumbled and scattered with her unable to remember any of them. She had the feeling of having lost someone or something dear to her. The feeling persisted no matter what she did. She was missing somebody in her life and she could feel it down to her soul. She didn't know who it was, but there was somebody missing. All she wanted was to find this person that she was missing. The ache had been constant forces long as she could remember and it hurt so much. Why and who was she missing? Even for all her genius, she couldn't figure herself out sometimes. Ugh. Her mind was not a fun place to be when she woke up in the morning due to the feelings that came with dreams which slipped through her fingers like water. Shaking the thoughts away, she stared at the ceiling. It was a Saturday which meant no classes so she could spend the day sorting through the notes she'd made last night in the café. It had all been organised until her impromptu nap. She had been on the cusp of a breakthrough that would propel the whole field of neuro-aetherics forward by probably a decade. She would need to publish on it as soon as she got things organised and sorted out. But… She really didn't feel like dealing with equations and math right now. It didn't appeal to her. A rattling came from nearby and she glanced over at the covered cage. It was already ten, so well past when the birds normally got their chop and their pellet bowl filled. Her sleep schedule had always been abysmal but her birds suffered because she had a hard time keeping a diurnal schedule as opposed to the fact she seemed to be hardwired to operate at night rather than during the day. She forced herself out of bed and went to her kitchenette. She got in the fridge and pulled out the chop container, sighing when she saw how low it was. She'd need to go to the store and pick up some had been frozen and then thawed.more ingredients. Her birds were fussy and wouldn't accept chop that Picky bastards. She went over to their cage and took the cover off, then got into it and took the bowls out.she washed everything, refreshed their water, and filled their bowls then put their bowls back. Honestly, she was glad she didn’t need to cook due to nonstick causing issues for birds and that she just didn’t have the time to cook. Just the time to go shopping for her birds’ produce was bad enough. She had enough for tomorrow and Monday, so she needed to go today or tomorrow. No choice if she wanted to keep their hormones down. "Want to fly some today?" she asked the birds while they ate. She clicked on the coffeemaker and pulled out her tumbler. Nawira looked up from her meal, eyes pinning. Robin smiled. The bird was pleased with her meal and no doubt wanted to go flying. Both birds were free-flight trained which meant they could fly outside and she was glad for it. They had been educational ambassadors after someone had illegally taken them from the wild and raised them. It resulted in them being imprinted on humans so they couldn't be returned to the wild. Once the coffee finished brewing, Robin poured it in her tumbler with an adequate amount of coconut milk and a touch of simple syrup. She didn't mind some sweetness, but the coconut milk brought plenty. It had to be brought in from the most southern parts of Plegia so it was more expensive here in Ylisse, but Plegia had turned her off from dairy milk since they tended to use coconut milk instead. Dairy milk was just too rich for her now and she liked the natural sweetness the coconut milk brought without needing to add extra sugar. She missed the Dallah-brewed coffee from Plegia, but it hadn't taken off in Ylisse and it was too intensive for her morning brew. She grabbed her keys and ID, leaving the birds to their chop while she headed down to her dorm's dining hall. It was mostly empty by this point as it was nearly time for breakfast service to end. She picked up a plate, though she sighed. Her erratic sleep schedule made it hard to get to designated mealtimes, leaving her to depend on microwave meals more often than not. On the rare occasion she did make it to the dining hall, it was usually at the tail end of service like this with slim pickings. It sucked, but there wasn't much she could do about it. She ate what she got, then headed back to her dorm. The birds had finished with their chop. so she put their bowls in the sink. She held her hands out and they stepped up. "Time to fly." she grinned at them and both of them eye pinned. She headed down to the Quad near the edge of campus. A fair few students sat outside, under trees. The sky was blue with puffy clouds and a gentle breeze. The birds had already flown here once before,but it was still a largely unknown area to them. She could feel the tension in their toes and took her thumbs off of them. In a flurry of feathers, both birds took off with a scream. She winced a little, but she had largely grown used to their volume. She opted to sit beneath a tree while the two flew about, flocking together and soaring around. It was nice to see the birds doing what they were built and designed to do. They were large enough she didn't have to worry about most aerial predators. Red tails and peregrines could be pretty urban battle greater risk was in fields and farmland. She hadn't seen any link cam feeds or anything about peregrines or other predators here, so she hoped her birds were safe here. She had been entrusted with the birds, but free flight still posed dangers that couldn't always be accounted for. Robin was so zoned out she didn't notice a person approaching her. Their clothes were unlike anything she had seen before. They wore numerous layers that flowed and rippled in a way she had never seen cloth do before. It was very strange. They seemed to even move against the wind with their own energy. What was this and who was approaching her? Why would someone approach her? She wasn't someone that looked special as her clothes were normal for Ylissean women's fashion. Buying a new wardrobe had sucked, but she didn't want to be pegged as Plegian when she was Feroxi and His Sean, even though she had spent a significant portion of her life in Regia. The person was also…very gender ambiguous. She couldn't tell if they were male or female… They offered a smile and motioned. "May I sit and we talk?" They bore a strong accent the likes of which Robin had never heard before. Were they from Valm or Jugdral? Languages on Ylisse had drifted over time, to no mutual intelligibility, but this accent didn't sound like any Ylissean one before. "Uh sure, I guess." she really hadn't expected to be approached by anyone. The person sat down and looked out over the Quad. They were quiet for quite awhile as they gazed out. Their gaze focused on something which Robin couldn't place until Nawira and Khalir flew back. Robin held her hands out and they landed, a faint smile on her face. She was always happy to take them out and let them do their natural behavior and what they were built for. It was great enrichment and she was dedicated to providing them as best she possibly could. “Why do you keep them?” The person looked at her perks. “Why do you allow them to fly free when predators could harm them?” Again, she noticed the strange accent and the way they spoke a bit stilted. Ylissean clearly wasn’t a language they were hugely comfortable with, but they were doing their best. At least Robin had grown up with the language, though Plegian had been a headache to learn despite how smart she was. "Who are you?" Robin asked. The person blinked before a blush crept onto their extremely pale cheeks. "Ah, my sorries. I am Arielis Vey-Synar." They dipped their head, mop of sea foam green hair flopping. They were definitely some sort of foreigner. Were they from Valm or Jugdral? She knew that Jugdral was incredibly advanced but had never spared it much thought. Neither had she spared Valm much thought either. She didn't want to go too far from home and the permitting required to keep her birds would cost far too much. Even getting them toYlisse had been a headache. Just who was this person? "I'm Robin Asselin. Where are you from? I'm guessing Valm or Jugdral? That name isn't like any that exists on the Ylissean continent. Plus your accent isn't like any I've encountered before." Plus, their grammar was stilted as well. Sorries? Nobody said that. But pointing out somebody's lacking command of a language was beyond rude. A lot of her Plegian classmates had made fun of her in her earliest days due to how she initially struggled with the language. She didn't want to humiliate someone in the same way she'd been bullied as a child. Arielis blinked. "Ah, yes, I am coming from Jugdral. Eddan Node is being my home. Very near the Starfall Expanse." They looked at the birds again. "Are they having names or no? Very pretty but quite loud." They rubbed their ears. "How are you dealing with their noise?" "Oh yeah, this is Nawira and this is Khalir." She showed Arielis each bird in turn. She knew they looked identical to everyone else, but Nawira was a little lighter than Khalir and the blue of her wingtips were more of a Sapphire blue than Khalir's which were more of a cobalt blue. Most people wouldn't see the difference in shade, but it was more than apparent to Robin. "As for the noise, you eventually get used to it…mostly. Keep in mind they're meant to be heard over the open desert. These two were wrongfully taken from the wild and raised in captivity illegally."She shook her head. They shouldn't be with her, but she did her best with what she had. "Ah, I am seeing." Ariel is snapped their fingers and what looked like a link note appeared out of nowhere and they started taking notes. "As for the flying? Do not predators threaten them or are they safe in urban areas such as this?" "Free flight is always a risk. There could be predators nearby, but they're built to fly. Being out like this is great enrichment for them.They don't get to fly everyday, but I bring them out as often as I can." Her non-existent sleep schedule made it hard for her to get them out everyday. Plus, that was unrealistic due to the fact the weather wasn't good everyday either. Right now was just perfect weather, so she wanted to get them out. She put Nawira down and took a Sip of her coffee. "What brings you from Jugdral of all places? Dunno much about it, but I know it's crazy advanced compared to humble Ylisse." Arielis frowned and stopped writing. Apparently Robin had struck a nerve unintentionally. "Conformity, I am supposing." That was all they said on the matter. "Why to be risking your birds for,.." Their face screwed up. "…enrichment? What that?" "Oh, enrichment is something you do for their mental wellbeing. All parrots are incredibly smart and not offering them ways to stretch their mental muscles. It can lead to them plucking their feathers and other nasty behaviors that can be almost impossible to reverse. Some parrots can stop plucking or barbering, but it's incredibly difficult to stop once it starts." She had unfortunately seen it while volunteering at the sanctuary she had bonded with her pair at. Lots of birds with chests plucked clean due to bad care and lack of enrichment. Some parrots had even barbered their wing feathers so they could no longer fly. Sad really. "Ah, kethra! I am seeing now. No animals may be lacking in enrichment, as you say, in Eddan Node. Yes, this is quite good. You do be taking good care of your birds then." Arielis smiled brightly, then it vanished. "Ah, I am missing my cat and dog. Too much permitting to bring to Ylisse,though." They sighed. "Where are your birds being from? Ylisse is not having deserts, hm?" They continued taking notes on then it wasn't a link note, but it was a lot like one. Larger than a link and allowed for much easier typing and even handwriting if the model was high end enough. "Oh, they're from the East Plegian Free Cities, near the border with the Sandsea Republic." She opened her link and opened a map of the continent. She showed Arielis where the birds had been trafficked from as babies before coming to The Feather and Sigil Sanctuary. She had spent a lot of time volunteering the red a ring breaks due to finding it too much of a drag to go home to East Ferox and going all the way across the desert. It was best to just stay there in her mind.parrots without many permits. "I am seeing. You are most interesting, Robin Asselin. Yes, very interesting. Eddan Node is not allowing most interesting. In what are you major?" “Oh I’m here for my PhD in neuro-aetherics. I’m in my first year of it. I was offered full ride, pay, and housing. But with my genius, I may well graduate early. She was already working on her thesis despite having just started on her PhD. It wasn’t hard for her to do because she was simply so ahead of her peers. She would ahve to figure out her current issues that she had been working on last night, but even she had to take breaks. She had spent four hours in the café writing on in an almost manic state because something had clicked in her mind and she just…understood. Now she needed to look through her assorted notes and figure out where the hell she had been in her flow state. "Neuro-aetherics? What is being that? And PhD already, so young?" Arielis asked. Robin nodded. "Went through conventional schooling by twelve with a lot of skipped grades,then went to the Free cities for all of my higher education until now." She petted Nawira's head while she kept her attention focused on Ariel is. She really didn't like to let people know about her genius, but there was nothing she could do about it. Too many people had tried to use her for their own ends. And it didn't help that Plegia had instilled a pretty notable fear of men in her. Nariwa let out a pleased cooing under Robin’s hand. “As for neuro-aetherics, it’s how the mind interacts with magic. What are you here for?” Arielis was asking her a ton of questions so it only felt fair to ask some of the same questions…though it seemed a bit of a trigger point. "Music Shaping. Very difficult as magic is much different here than Eddan Node. Magic is not shaped by words here." Ariel is tapped their chin. "Lexomancers is an appropriate translation, I am believing? We are shaping our magic and destiny through words. All words are holding power, but music is holding its own power." Huh. Music magic was a niche topic as far as all countries on Ylisse concerned, but it sounded like music was important in Eddan Node. She could sense there was more to the the story than Arielis was saying, but she didn't feel right pressing a stranger for personal details when they had just met. Not that Robin would give up much personal info herself. "Music magic is kind of niche here on the Ylissean continent. Most people don't give it much thought. Are you planning on going back to Eddan Node with your information or apply for citizenship here in Ylisse?" Arielis was quiet. Apparently Robin had hit on another sensitive point. She wasn’t sure if it was her own social ineptitude or if Arielis had been through a lot or if it was a little of column A and B. She sighed, running her fingers through her ponytail. "What do you think of Ylissean music?" She was really trying, but her abnormal youth had really bitter in the ass. She simply didn't know how to deal with people her own age in a normal way. Her actual peers were still older than she and always had been. Thankfully, Arielis brightened immensely and started rambling about different artists they'd discovered since coming to Ylisse. Robin only half listened, sipping at her slowly cooling coffee. There were magical tumblers that would keep it permanently hot, but they were expensive for her frugal blood. She was well used to cold coffee and tea by this point, so she saw no reason to waste it. Did it taste the best? No. But would she drink it? Yes. Plegia had taught her to not waste too much due to their historical lack of resources, though the modern day had brought wealth and abundance. Ariel is eventually frowned. "Am I doing the boring with my talking?" Robin shook her head. “I just haven’t really explored too many Ylissean artists yet… A lot of Plegian people still shun Ylisseans and their culture. I already stuck out like a sore thumb due to my age, so I was mostly looking into Plegian artists. Some Plegians do like Feroxi artists, but I have yet to really delve into Ylissean ones.” She was torn between her Feroxi heritage, Ylissean citizenship, and her heavy cultural influence from spending so much time in Plegia. Maybe she should have just studied in Valm instead. But learning anothernew language hadn’t been appealing to her. She had gotten offers from various Valmese programs that would have been far better than this Ylissean one in terms of stipend and living arrangements. But the language issues, culture shock, and permitting headaches with her birds had completely turned her off from studying abroad. Then Jugdral was so ahead of Ylisse and Valm that she’d probably be completely out of her depth… “I’ve dealt with…a lot over my life.” "I am seeing that. I should probably be going," Arielis paused, then took out a link. "Maybe we could be sharing numbers?" Robin hesitated. She really did need friends; she horribly missed her Plegian ones. Plus, Arielis probably hadn't made many—if any a fall. It wasn't often people from Jugdral came to Ylisse due to the massive technology gap. Jugdral was full magitech where the two forces blended. They probably needed friends as much as Robin did. So she took out her link and swapped numbers. Arielis' forest green eyes sparkled. Yeah, they clearly needed friends. "Guess I'll see you around? "she asked. Arielis nodded vigorously. "Do not be hesitating to send me a message or calling me!" Robin nodded in reply and Arielis left. Maybe this was the time to start getting back in touch with her Ylissean heritage. She wasn’t an East Ferox citizen, but she hadgone to school there until graduating high school… She had always enjoyed the traditional Feroxi music and she was sad she hadn’t been able to spend more time on it. Maybe she should look into more traditional Ylissean music. She knew Chordfall was a popular music app here in Ylisse. Blackwave was what most Plegians used. She downloaded Chordfall and started looking through the folk section. She found a group covering old songs attributed to the original Shepherds. Huh, this might be a good place to start, so she chose a song at random. It was played on guitar and with someone on hand drums. The rhythm felt familiar but…wrong somehow.

We've got dust in our hair and smoke in our clothes

But we're laughing like nobody knows

Every road's got a crack or two

still feels lighter walking next to you

Other members of the group joined in, stomping feet and clapping hands to the rhythm. The words felt…wrong for some reason. They weren't right. The rhythm, melody, lyrics... It was all wrong.

╛

Robin sat next to Chrom on a log next to the fire. Someone pulled out a fiddle and started sawing on it. She looked around uncertainly as the Shepherds clapped and stomped their feet. She hadn’t been around them long and couldn’t remember anything yet. Chrom stood and offered her a hand. “Come on; let’s dance!” His blue eyes sparkled in the firelight. “But I—” He cut her off by hauling her to her feet, protest ignored. “I don’t know if I know how to dance!” She couldn’t remember much of anything. She didn’t want to make a fool of herself in front of the other Shepherds. She was their tactician and she didn’t want to lose what little bit she had simply by not being able to dance. “Don’t worry! It’s just for fun!” Chrom smiled, eyes bright. “No formal moves here!” He grinned at the Shepherds. “Let ‘er rip!” The Shepherds began to sing, though it was rough and unrefined.

Pass the bread and pass the cup, If we fall then we get back up. Boots are worn and cloaks are torn, But tomorrow’s always born.

Hey—ho! The fire’s bright, Sing it loud into the night! If the road is long and hard to see, Laugh with me! Laugh with me!

Steel is sharp but wit is sharper, Hope runs faster than disaster. If the gods are watching from above, Let ’em see us win with love.

Hey—ho! The fire’s bright, Sing it loud into the night! If the road is long and hard to see, Laugh with me! Laugh with me!

Count the scars and count the stars, Both remind us who we are. If I trip or lose my way, Drag me back and make me stay!

Hey—ho! The fire’s bright, We’re still here and that’s the fight! If tomorrow dares to disagree— Sing with me! Sing with me!

Chron led Robin around the fire with a dance that seemed to be as old as the land. To Robin's consternation, there was no rhyme or reason to the steps. It was just as unrefined as the Shepherds' voices and more of the common soldiers joined in. Lots of laughing ensued as they danced and sang. Robin made a fool of herself, trying to get a feeling for the steps, but she was out of her depth. Eventually, she gave up trying. Once she stopped thinking and started moving, it was...fun. She smiled and whirled around the campfire, a smile on her lips and a laugh in the air.

╛

Robin shook her head and looked around. What...? What had that been? As quickly as it came, it slipped through her fingers. Either way, she was spooked. She put her now-empty tumbler into its holder and stopped the song. She pocketed her link and picked up the birds hastening back to her dorm. What had happened, she didn't know, but she sure hoped it wouldn't happen again.