The Pause [Adopted Book]

My Friend

Cycle 8459:

Amber's been teaching me how to paint. Sometimes he asks me to use my willpower the same way I did when I created his studio. I don't think he realizes that it takes a lot out of me. I'm grateful that Hypno was willing to talk with him while I slept through that strain. Amber seems to think that practice will make it easier. I'm not sure if that's true. It certainly hasn't made creating Origin easier, but maybe with the milder powers, he could be right. Hypno hates it when Amber talks like that. He seems to think Amber's been putting ideas in my head, as though I can't take care of myself. It's stupid, but it's nice to know that he cares.

Over the year, I've been subject to a lot of pranks. I've already learned how to avoid most of Hypno's tricks, but Amber is always coming up with new ideas. Thankfully, Amber's are fairly harmless. They usually involve a lot of paint, or slime, or covering my furniture in wrapping paper. I usually don't like pranks, mostly because I get so annoyed when Hypno messes with the nearby villages, but Amber's make even me laugh.

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I felt terrible. In most cycles, this period of sickness went mostly unobserved, but that was before Amber. Now, I had to try and figure out how to hide it from him.

"Masterpiece?" I could hear him hesitantly coming down the stairs. Amber didn't go downstairs much, and had never actually entered my room. I had never told him that it was off-limits, but since he stayed on the top floor he hadn't had much need to go downstairs.

"I'm coming, Amber!" I called to him, and I slowly and painfully got out of bed. After throwing on some comfortable clothes, I opened the door to find him awkwardly waiting outside in the hallway. "Did you need something?" I asked.

"No, not really." He admitted, fidgeting nervously. "But it's almost noon, and I got kind of worried. You don't usually sleep in." I didn't realize Amber had already gotten familiar with my sleep schedule. It would make things a bit harder.

"Just feeling a little under the weather." I admitted, trying to shrug off the sickness. "It happens to everyone every once in a while. I'm sure it will be gone by tomorrow." I knew it would be, or at least I would feel well enough to hide the last few hours of sickness. "You don't have to worry about it."

"Should I get Hypno?" Amber looked alarmed. "Maybe he can help heal you. He knows a lot, so he probably understands how to make the sickness go away."

"No!" I said a little too quickly, then calmed down a bit. "Hypno worries too much. I'll be fine in a little while, promise." Amber didn't look very confident in my response, but he nodded anyway.

"You should probably be in bed, though." He told me, gesturing toward my bedroom door. "I mean, I know you just got out of bed, but you're supposed to stay there if you're sick, right?" Part of me wanted to disagree, to show Amber that I could handle myself when I was sick. The other part of me was sick, and wanted to fall back asleep. I chose to sleep in a little longer. "I'll go see if I can make toast!" Amber announced. "But... if you smell smoke, you might want to grab your staff." I chuckled a little, disappearing back into my bedroom and worming back under the sheets. In less than a minute, I was out like a light.

Although I was sick, I still slept fitfully. It was a shame, because most of the time I would simply pass out and not have to deal with my recurring nightmares. Visions of the original timeline ran through my mind: running to find Funny cornered and terrified; Time, half-dead from Elemental's abuse; Rainbow falling apart before my eyes; my friends from the village dull and lifeless. I hated the flashbacks deeply. I almost wished they would twist into some figment of my imagination, so that when I woke up I could assure myself that they weren't absolutely real.