Aparently the appointment Crystal was talking about was actually some sort of adult playdate with her childhood friend, a girl named Mercy. Mercy's a Diamond too, and currently the two of them are seated a table away from Mercy's Sapphire and I in The Sinking Feeling, an ocean themed cafe with a giant tank pool for customers to swim in. It's pretty cool, but seeing as I don't yet trust this Mercy girl -or her Sapphire for that matter- I can't exactly leave Crystal and go try and figure out how to swim. Maybe I can steal her away and ask her if she can teach me. Though I guess it'd probably be frowned upon for a Sapphire to let her Crystal near anything they couldn't protect them from, and at the moment, I definately can not protect Crystal from drowning. Quite the opposite really. I wonder what the protocol for her drowning would be. Am I expected to try and save her? Drown with her? Get help? I rub my temple. This is giving me a headache. Or maybe it's the cofhol. Crystal made me buy a cup, and while I had quickly decided I hated the taste of the stuff, I didn't stop drinking it in time to realize it was starting to have some really unpleasant effects. Apparently Cofhol is Coffee mixed with Alchohol. Why anyone thought it was a good idea for people to drink both, I have no idea. In fact I can distinctly remember someone telling me precicely not to do that. Possibly my doctor. Probably my doctor.
"So... how long have you been her Sapphire?" My attention drifts back over to the Sapphire seated across from me. The blue sea themes holograms bounce across his face. His hair shines blond. He was born as a Golder. Goldling, excuse me. I wonder why he didn't dye his hair.
"A day or so." Mr.Goldinger, as I figure I'll call him considering I don't know his name, looks surprised. It's annoying.
"Really? You seem so in sync." I can feel my nose twitch. That only ever happens when I'm either extremely annoyed or extremely amused. Right now it's the former.
"Yah. Our periods are even synced already and everything." I narrow my eyes, and he smiles. I don't think he's quite registered what exactly what I've said yet.
"Oh that's- wait what? Excuse me?" He starts, and I snicker.
"You're excused, dip shit. It was a joke." I huff, corssing my arms and leaning back in my chair. He raises an eyebrow, clearly amused. Well, at least the guy can take a joke.
"I've been assigned to Mercy for almost two years now. She's like a sister to me. I was an only child before I came here, so it was a nice change. An abrupt and initally unwelcome change, but a nice change none the less. She's kind of annoying and sometimes I want to throw her off the tippy top of Aitmil, but I put up with her because I love her." He stares off over my shoulder out at the street. I wiggle my eyebrows suggestively, grinning, and he grimaces. "No. Hell no. Sorry, but there's no way I could survive Mercy. Despite her name she completely slaughters her boyfriends self estime. Last guy she dated ended up locked in his rooms for a month before he came out. The girl is brutal." I laugh, and he shakes his head at me, smirking.
"Know your limits, I guess. Right?"
"Right."
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"Come on, Em, let's go swim!"Crystal yanks me out of my seat, and I struggle to stay up right as she practically drags me towards the giant elevated tanke hanging from the cieling.
"Wait crystal."
"We can talk in a minute. Let's go!" We walk under the tank and I look up, brushing my fingers on the glass. I can see people floating in the water and swimming around. There are even fish and coral. I can faintly see the sea bed, though the programming of the tank keeps it almost invisable from this side of the glass. It flickers in and out of sight. Crystal stops and I start to ask why we've stopped, but then my dress turns into a bathing suit and I'm sent flying up into the tank.
"I CAN'T SWIM!" I scream out right before I hit the water. I see someone go into the tunnel I just went through and I thrash around, trying to get to the surface. The world starts to darken and just as I feel the pressure of wanting to breathe overpower my will not to drown, something grabs my waist and I'm being lifted to the surface. When we hit air, I suck in a large breath and grip whoever is holding me up tightly. I hear a familiar voice.
"It's fine. You're fine. Here, I'll get you over to the shore. Just hold on to me and everything will be fine. Okay?" I nod, hugging Mercy's Sapphire. He swims us over to the shore and I scramble up onto land. I can see Crystal swimming around from here. She must not have seen what happened. I'd like to keep it that way. I could be in deep shit for what just happened. I sit down and hug my legs. "You okay?" I look up, and blonde has a concerned look on his face. I nod.
"Yah. I'm fine. A little traumatized, but I'm okay."
"My name's Kaden. We never properly introduced ourselves." I give him a small smile, holding out my hand for him to shake.
"My name's Emberlyn. Or Emmy. Or Lyn. Or Em. I don't really care what you call me. You get the point." He chuckles and I lay back on the sand. "I'm sorry I was a bit of a jerk earlier." Kaden lays down next to me, staring up at the Holo of the night sky.
"It's fine. You weren't being a jerk. I get it. It feels stupid at first. Baby sitting a grown person all the time. You'll get used to it. I just hope Crystal gives you an easier time than Mercy gave me. We were practically at war the first few months. She'd sneak out in the middle of the night and I eventually had to lock her in her rooms. Even then she figured out how to sneak out by hacking the tunnel above her bed." I listen contently as he goes on about his first few months in Aitmil with Mercy. It feels nice knowing that someone from another class can adapt and figure out how to live here. Even keep parts of their old class like Kaden has with his hair. "So I'm guessing you we're origonally a Sapphire. Right?"
"Ya. Was it my hair that tipped you off?" I grin at him ruefully.
"Wait. What?"
"You sure say that a lot, Kaden of Gold class."
"You were a bronzer?" I nod.
"Ya. Born and raised. I even lived in Milyn. Never set foot in Aitmil Shinrei or Astran before my 20th birthday."
"I just thought you dyed your hair or something."
"Nope. Do Sapphires tend to do that on their first days here?"
"Well, they don't dye it bronze. That's for sure."
"That's what I thought."
"Are you going to dye it?" I glance over at him, then back at the sand. I sift it through my fingers, letting it drop back into the sea.
"I don't know." I answer truthfully. "Why didn't you?" I ask.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh4Lp1TAyLX
"I did, at first. First thing I did when I looked down and saw I was dressed in blue on my assignment day, I figured out where the color changer was and I dyed my hair." He stares off into the distance. It seems to be a thing with him. Maybe it's some underlying want to get away. 657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPFI5uhzqpg
"Why is it blond now then?"
"Because after a week in Aitmil having to deal with Mercy's crap, I finally figured out that it was useless trying not to be a Golder."
"Golder?"
"Yah. That whole Goldling this is stupid. Golder sounds better anyway."657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqtnUPC3wBJ
"What did you mean though, about it being useless?"
"I don't know how to be a Sapphire. I never will know. I know how to be a Golder though, how to take charge and make sure everything gets done. How to make sure everyone is relatively happy and safe. I can use that as a Sapphire, but I can't use that part of me if I'm at odds with it, and in turn, I can't protect Mercy properly if I'm at odds with it."
"So what you're saying is that I'll never really be a Sapphire."
"I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that you shouldn't force yourself to be. Don't push away the Bronzer in you. It's who you are, and if anyone has a problem with that, well, they can shove it up their pretentious little assholes." I smile, and he turns away from the Holo and looks me in the eye. "Don't let them change you, Emberlyn. They'll try, but don't let them. You'll catch your death trying to be something your not." We fall silent, watching our Diamonds from afar. After a while I realize I never thought to ask him to teach me how to swim.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9LhHuyby4h
"Hey, Kaden?"
"Ya?"
"Can you teach me how to swim?"
"Any time, Lyn."
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