CW: High expectations, sibling fights and toxic friends
Blaze had been born a twin. His twin, Via, was the admin to his watcher. He knew that she loved to spend time with him, but sometimes he just wished that she would leave him alone so he could make more friends. He preferred sitting at the back of the classroom but his sister being the good student she was, wanted to sit in the front. He was hoping that it would be an opportunity for him to make new friends but his sister came up with the idea to spend half of the time sitting up the front and the other half sitting up the back. He didn't feel like he could say no, it was a compromise on both sides and as much as he wanted to make new friends he didn't want to upset his sister either.
In their classes, he always felt like he wasn't good enough. His sister always got the best grades in whatever class they were in while he was stuck being slightly below average. He could see how his sister got praised by their parents for each amazing grade that she got. They praised him as well for each test that he passed, but to him, it was just pity. His teachers always mentioned his sister whenever they talked about his grades. Since she did so well they expected him to do as well, they weren't the same person but it seemed that the teachers expected him to be just as great as Via. He was jealous of how well she did, but he was also angry at her for doing so well. Maybe if she did worse he wouldn't be expected to be better by his teachers or get pity from his parents. He could feel his sister looking down on him, asking him each time if he was happy with his grade, he never was but he said yes either way.
- - - - - -
Going to an academy was one of the best things that could have happened with Blaze. It made him glad that he was a watcher instead of an admin like Via. He was going to his very own watcher academy, meanwhile, Via was going to an admin one. They weren't far apart, only a 20-minute walk away from each other, but he would be having classes without his sister for the first time in his life. He would have a roommate who wasn't his sister, he would make friends who weren't his sister, the teacher here wouldn't know his sister, and if they did they had a different curriculum anyway. This was his chance to live his life the way that he wanted to.
He wasn't paying attention to orientation, normally it was just a welcome and explaining things that would be repeated in the first classes anyway. As soon as it was done he went over to the dormitory building, he was in room 2 and based on the sign it was down the far end. He made his way down as fast as he could and found his dorm; it had his name on the front alongside the name Hermes Fierithan. He was going to head over to the right side of the room, it was the side he always had when sharing with Via, but he paused before heading over to the left side of the room, the side Via always chose. He wanted to try something different.
He heard the door open and his roommate called out, "Hello, roomy! You have the pleasure of rooming with me, the great wonderful Hermes Fierithan. Hold the applause,"
"Well, the great wonderful Hermes Fierithan, I am the fantastic spectacular Blaze Celrinine. You also have the pleasure of rooming with me," Blaze said, he was going to like his new roommate.
"Good to know the watcher I'm going to be stuck with for the next five years isn't some boring know-it-all," Hermes said, placing his stuff over on the right side of the room.
"Same. I've had enough of a know-it-all in my life to last for 50 more lifetimes," Blaze said.
- - - - - -
The next five years were great for Blaze, he made so many new friends. His closest remained Hermes as well as the two watchers that roomed in room 1, Nexin and Cortus. The four boys had so much fun during their time at school, they weren't the best of students barely passing their classes but they were having fun. Via had tried to meet up with him during the weekends that the academies were allowed to mix, but he was enjoying the new life that he was having now, the one without his sister. Part of him missed her, but more of him wanted to spend those free days with his friends. The four of them weren't the teachers' favourites, not by a long shot, his friends often wanted to disrupt the class and cause trouble so he followed along, but Blaze didn't care what the teachers thought. He was feeling better than he had about himself than he had for years.
- - - - - -
After he graduated, near the bottom of the year, he moved in with his three friends in a place closer to ᓵ||∷╎ℸ ̣ ⍑⚍∷╎ᓭ. Via moved in with them as well, their parents had insisted on it. He was glad that she didn't try and hang out with the group, it allowed them to have more fun as a group. He currently wasn't looking for a job, not one like Via had, he wanted to have fun first. He and his friends had been having fun, maybe not all of it was legal, but they were having fun. He was scared when he saw that he had a letter asking him to meet with the High Leader. Blaze thought it could have something to do with all those quite not legal things he and his friends had done, but if it was that why weren't they coming, and why was his sister coming? Blaze was very nervous, he was worried that he was going to be punished to death or anything else along those lines. He could see that Via was there as well, who also looked nervous, he wondered why they were there. Having both of them there meeting with the High Leader made him very confused.
They were brought into the centre room, he assumed this was where the council members met as it looked like a meeting room of sorts. Both High Watcher Gryff Dirsu and High Admin Lysabel Yineria weren't there, so it was only them and the High Leader. Blaze had never come face to face, well face to mask, with such a powerful watcher. He felt shivers go down his back. "Via Celrinine, Blaze Celrinine, thank you for coming to meet with me," she said to the twins.
"It is an honour High Leader," Via said, bowing
He decided to stay silent, he didn't want to make things worse for himself if he was there for a bad reason. He followed what Via did and bowed to the High Leader as well. "I come to you two with an offer. It is time for the council to welcome more to their ranks and I want to offer both of you a place," the High Leader said.
Blaze didn't know what to think, he thought he was coming here to be told off, but instead, he was being offered a job. A job that probably played one of the most important roles in the Main World. Why him, he wondered. He wasn't anything special, he had barely graduated. He could see why Via would be offered a position though, perfect Via. Via then asked, "What does the position entail?"
The High Leader replied, "You will play a part in making decisions that affect the Main World in the surrounding areas. You'll have a couple of different jobs you'll need to do such as helping stop rogue academies, and you'll also get to help in different places such as helping players in different servers or helping with the protection of the Main World. If you accept you'll also get a place to stay at ᓵ||∷╎ℸ ̣ ⍑⚍∷╎ᓭ,"
"I accept," Via said.
"Me too," Blaze said, he wasn't sure if he was the right fit for it but it would get him a job and a new place to stay, and a part of him agreed because in his mind it made him just as good as Via.
It had been a few days since they had started on the council, and it was Blaze's birthday. Their parents were off doing something so they weren't with them but they had left them a gift each. They had just given Blaze some money, it was supposed to be put towards paying rent but now he had a free room at ᓵ||∷╎ℸ ̣ ⍑⚍∷╎ᓭ, so he was probably going to spend it on doing something fun. Blaze was finishing getting ready when he heard a knock on his door. He came and opened the door. "Happy Birthday Blaze!" Via said, hugging her brother.
"Happy Birthday Via," Blaze said, "Is there something you wanted? I'm meeting up with my friends for the day,"
"I thought we were spending the day together," Via said, he could hear the sadness in her voice.
"I changed my mind," Blaze said, avoiding eye contact, he didn't want to make her upset, he just didn't want to spend the day with her anymore.
"But it's our birthday!" Via cried out.
"Well, I want to hang out with my friends!" Blaze cried back, he didn't want to be forced to hang out with his sister, "Just go hang out with your friends or whatever!"
"What friends!" Via yelled as she started to cry, "I don't have any! You're the only friend that I've ever had!"
Blaze didn't realise that she didn't have friends, he didn't know what he thought. It made sense in retrospect, but he still didn't want to hang out with his sister on his birthday.
"Sorry, but that isn't on me," Blaze yelled back, letting his feelings out, "I was stuck with you for years at school and I didn't have any friends other than you. You always wanted to hang out so I never got the chance to make friends. At the academy, I finally met people, and I made friends. So sorry if I want to hang out with them,"
"I wanted friends! I tried to make friends but everyone hated me! My roommate didn't talk to me, I was only seen as competition by other students. You were the only person I thought enjoyed spending time with me! I've wanted to spend more time with you but you're always out with your friends," Via screamed.
"I spend a lot of time with my friends because they make me feel better about myself. You've always been the perfect student, the one the teachers love and our parents were always so proud of you. I got tired of being compared to you all the time, it made me feel like I wasn't good enough. It always felt like you were looking down on me because I couldn't get the perfect grades. My friends from the academy made me feel like I fit in!" Blaze screamed back, letting everything he was keeping inside spill out.
"I tried hard because I wanted to. I didn't make people compare you to me and I've never looked down on you! I always thought you were amazing, the best brother in the world. But unlike you, I've been alone! I've been alone for years and I was just hoping that maybe I could actually spend my birthday with someone for the first time in five years, but I guess I was wrong!" Via yelled, as she pulled her admin screen out and teleported away.
- - - - - -
Blaze didn't care what Via was going and doing, he didn't want to spend time with his sister anyway. He flew over to where his friends were, and he wasn't expecting to find them in an alleyway next to the house the three were still staying in, beating up another watcher. He recognised them, they were in his class at the academy. He thought his name was Brian, but they never liked him. Brian always told the teacher whenever they did something they weren't supposed to, but Blaze didn't know why his friends were attacking him. "What are you guys doing?" he said, flying down to them.
"Brian here was trying to stop us having our fun, so he volunteered to help us have another type of fun," Cortus said.
"Stop, just let him go," Blaze said, he didn't like what his friends were doing.
"Why would we do that? Why are you trying to stop us? You've enjoyed the other types of fun we've had," Nexin said.
"What we were doing before wasn't hurting anyone!" Blaze called out.
"Are you stupid?" Hermes asked, "Of course, it was hurting someone. Each time we stole from a store we were hurting their income; whenever we broke something, someone had to pay for it,"
Blaze froze, he had never thought about the consequence of his actions. He looked back at the past years, thinking about what it had been like to be friends with them. It started off fine, but he could remember when they started to change, and he changed with them. He liked it when they made him feel better about himself, he didn't feel like he was put down by them. Thinking back, he didn't like the person he had become with them. "Stop," he said, "Or I'm going to need to turn you in,"
"Come on Blaze, are you really going to do that to your friends?" Hermes asked.
"I am a council member and my job is to protect the citizens of the Main World, so stop," Blaze said.
"You're outnumbered anyways," Nexin said, "You can't fight all three of us,"
Blaze sent out a sleep spell towards them, he didn't graduate with the best score, but it was higher than the other three. It knocked them out fast, they didn't know how to counter. Blaze messaged some people to come pick them up and went over to Brian and picked him up off the ground, "I'm sorry for them now, and for all of us during the academy," he said.
"Thank you, High Watcher Blaze Celrinine," Brian said.
Those whom he had messaged came over and dealt with his three ex-friends, he did what he needed to do before he flew off, he needed some time alone.
- - - - - -
Blaze ended up flying onto the roof at ᓵ||∷╎ℸ ̣ ⍑⚍∷╎ᓭ. He was crying because he realised how stupid he had been. He realised how horrible he was with his friends, and he destroyed his relationship with his sister. He never knew what it was like to be lonely, not like Via had been, and now he knew. This had been one of his worst birthdays yet. He should have talked to Via when he started feeling bad, she always asked if he was happy with his grade, and he should have just said no and asked for help. Blaze wished now that he had been paying attention to how alone Via was, she had been through only five years of being alone and he was already tired of it after an hour.
Blaze certainly wasn't expecting the High Leader to fly up to the roof a few minutes later. He didn't have the energy to try and hide his sadness, the High Leader always seemed to know everything anyway. "Blaze, do you want to talk about it?" she asked him.
"I- I messed up. I've been so stupid. I didn't realise how everything I had done hurt people until my fri- my ex-friends were directly hurting someone. I got upset with Via this morning, and now I don't know if she'll ever want to talk to me. I expect you'll probably want me out of the council, I know that Via was the one you wanted. You'd never want a stupid idiot like me who barely passed the academy and should be paying for all the stupid things that I did," he said.
"You're not stupid. You have made mistakes, I can't deny that, but you know now. You've seen what you've done and realised that it was wrong. Being able to look back and admit what you've done was wrong is something that makes you a smart person. I did hear of your argument with Via, I think you need to talk about it, just not today. You both have been holding those feelings you had for a long time, let them settle in. I won't ask you to leave the council either, I chose you for you, not for Via. Neither one of you was the reason I chose the other," the High Leader said.
"Thanks. I still screwed up our birthday though. Now I have no one to spend it with either," Blaze said.
"I have work to do, but I'm sure Gryff wouldn't mind spending the rest of the day with you. If you want to spend it with him, he can have the rest of the day off," the High Leader said, flying back inside, "And Happy Birthday Blaze,"
Blaze felt good sharing, it was like a weight was lifted off his chest. He decided he would ask Gryff to spend the rest of his birthday with him, and he would try and talk to Via tomorrow.
WC~ 2951