• Solaea & Blue’s Log

[Isabella, ɪᴛ’ꜱ ɴᴏᴛ ᴇᴀꜱʏ ʙᴇɪɴɢ ᴏʟᴅ]

The day Sol and Blue’s parents vanish, written by both Rory () and Isabella ().

⠀⠀⠀⠀Maybe she should’ve known that they were gone before she even entered the house. It was too still, too quiet, and the door was uncharacteristically locked. Maybe it should’ve been obvious, but the day had been so pleasant and fun and full of smiles and laughter before Blue went off to school and Sol had headed out for some paint and brushes. Sol had set the supplies down, pulling the spare key out from under the doormat—oldest trick in the book—seeing as she never carried one around. Emmett and Juniper were always home, only ever really leaving when they were with one or both of their children.

⠀⠀⠀⠀The house was normal, if a little quieter than Sol was used to. At that point, she wouldn’t have suspected anything. It was too still, somehow, too desolate. But why would anything be wrong? She placed the supplies down by the door, eyebrows narrowed with confusion as she stepped towards the hallway leading to the kitchen.

⠀⠀⠀⠀“Mom? Dad?” Sol called down the hallway, her voice seeming to echo. Silence greeted her in response. Moving into the kitchen, she glanced around, one hand raising to smooth her hair down. An anxious movement, but where in Asterath had they gone? Her gaze flitted over the kitchen, catching sight of a soft pink piece of paper on the counter. Leaning over, she picked it up and, still confused, gave it a swift glance-over.

We’ll be back by dinner! Laea, get some chicken out of the freezer to thaw, will you? Tell Bluebird to clean their room when they get back from school, it’s a wreck in there!

⠀⠀⠀⠀Solaea put the note down again, smiling softly at the note. Her mother had always been such a nicknamer, as much as Solaea had begged her to stop.

⠀⠀⠀⠀They never left the house without bringing Blue and Sol along with them, so she was still left puzzled. They were fine—would probably even have an epic story to recall to their children when they returned. With a shrug, Sol headed for the freezer and pulled out a package of chicken, placing it in the sink before turning around to head back for the art supplies. Juniper usually put them away if Sol went and got them, but she wasn’t there and Solaea didn’t have much else to do.

⠀⠀⠀⠀Putting the supplies away took no time, but it was still a few hours until dinner and even more until Blue got back. She sat at her easel, adjacent to Juniper’s, and began painting. She liked to paint things she experienced the day of, and as this was a new situation, she decided on the kitchen. The kitchen and that soft pink note on the counter. Solaea tended to get lost in painting, this time being no different. She snapped back to herself hours later as she felt the chill of evening slip across her skin. It was easy to tell when the sun was setting aboveground—Asterath citizens could always tell if there was a shift in the temperature of the cavernous city.

⠀⠀⠀⠀With the sun setting aboveground came dinnertime. Where were Juniper and Emmett? Solaea stood and removed the smock from around her torso, heading to the kitchen to wash her hands and arms. A messy painter, she was. The soft pink note was still on the counter, almost taunting Sol as she glanced at it and then glanced down the hall. She paced, opened the front door a few times, paced some more. She didn’t assume the worst, not yet, but anxiety was setting in. Pacing. Opening the door. Pacing.

⠀⠀⠀⠀The chicken was more than thawed, Solaea thought to herself as she paced around the kitchen island. The house shifted from quiet to horrifyingly silent. Blue wasn’t set to return for another hour or so, Sol assumed, as they had an after-school event every Tuesday. Panic.

⠀⠀⠀⠀She began opening kitchen cabinets, drawers in the living room. Maybe they’d left another note somewhere? Checking drawers and cabinets turned to flipping the couch cushions over, pulling the kitchen table out, moving chairs around. With no actual intent or rhyme or reason, she kept moving furniture. Opening everything. Scattering papers and items around the house.

⠀⠀⠀⠀The front door opened with a start, but it was a piercing shriek to Sol. She froze, eyes wide and chest heaving. She locked eyes with Blue, who was positively dumbfounded, staring wide-eyed back.

⠀⠀⠀⠀“What are you doing?” There was some judgement in Blue’s voice, but no fear. Not yet. They set down their backpack by the door and took off their shoes like it was any other day. “Is dinner ready yet? Mommy?” The last word was shouted to a figure that was absent from the home.

⠀⠀⠀⠀Blue walked further into the house. Sol was frozen in place. She could barely breathe. Dinner. Chicken. Get some chicken out of the freezer to thaw, will you? Her hands flew to her face, cupping her cheeks as she fought the rising tears. She ignored Blue, continuing to ransack the living room. Blue kept speaking, kept asking questions, but she responded to none of them. Didn’t even have it in her to look at her sibling.

⠀⠀⠀⠀“Where is Mommy? Is Daddy not home, too?” There was some fear in their voice now, their eyes trained on Sol. However she reacted would decide their own level of worry. If she reacted, which she didn’t. That much was obvious after another hour passed and Sol continued ripping at the furniture and pulling everything out, moving to the kitchen once more once the living room was a disaster. She gave no notice to Blue, only stopping the raid on their home when her arms were shaking and tears began to freely fall.

⠀⠀⠀⠀Where? Where? Where?

⠀⠀⠀⠀Seeing that Sol wasn’t paying them any mind, Blue left for their room. It was strange that their parents weren’t home, but they had no reason to be too scared yet. Sol was acting weird, but she had been acting weird for years. It wasn’t new for her to ignore them, even if it did sting a little more after they had started hanging out again. They worked on their homework at their desk, feet kicking against their chair, humming quietly. An hour passed and they could still hear Sol tearing the house apart. Their stomach gurgled angrily, pulling them back out to the living room.

⠀⠀⠀⠀When will Mommy and Daddy be home? I’m hungry. Blue didn’t know if Sol would pay enough attention to them to give them an answer, but they still tried to get their sister’s attention once more.

⠀⠀⠀⠀“Sol?” She was crying now. Blue was getting scared. “When will Mommy and Daddy be home?”

⠀⠀⠀⠀Sol finally glanced up, ears ringing as she collapsed to the floor and wrapped her arms around her abdomen, head dropping again as she gasped for air. “I don’t know. I don’t know!” she screamed. It wasn’t at Blue or anyone at all, but the house almost shook with the wail she released. She could’ve stayed on the floor sobbing, but she needed to figure this out. Up. Up, they’re fine. Get up, they are fine. Sol fought to catch her breath, running her sleeves over her cheeks as she stood on wobbly legs, teeth clenched.

⠀⠀⠀⠀The moment Sol started crying, a tear rolled down Blue’s face. She screamed at them and their lip wobbled, more tears threatening to follow. As Sol sobbed on the floor, Blue started crying in earnest. Sol was sad and didn’t know where their parents were, which made them feel an overwhelming combination of fear and despair. Not knowing what to do or where to go, they stood over their sister and cried, their sobs mixing together in the cool of the night. Even after Sol stood and left, Blue stayed rooted in place. Sol had told them to stay put, and they didn’t want to mess up and make her stay away too. Eventually, exhaustion took over and Blue padded to their parents’ room, crawled in their bed, and fell into a fitful slumber.

⠀⠀⠀⠀Blue was also crying, which Sol felt a prickle of guilt about, but she didn’t have time to worry about that. “Stay here. Get some leftovers or something,” she said quickly, heading for the front door. She closed it roughly, slamming the door behind her.

⠀⠀⠀⠀Neighbor to neighbor, door to door. Have you seen my parents? Have you seen my parents? Over and over and over and over. Nobody had, and with each passing confused look and shaken head, she despaired more and more. Sol’s feet were aching by the time she returned home, but a newfound hope reinvigorated her as she caught sight of a light on right where her parents’ room was. They’re back!

⠀⠀⠀⠀She released a breath, sprinting up the stars and stumbling at the top, flinging the door open before pelting for Emmett and Juniper. Mom and Dad. She turned through the doorway and opened her mouth to shout their names before realizing the room was empty, save for a bundle on the bed. Blue.

⠀⠀⠀⠀Sol had never gone a day without her parents, and maybe she should have been smarter and calmed down, but it was all new to her. She couldn’t handle the uncertainty, how terrifying it was to be utterly alone. She began shaking as she numbly turned around and trudged back for the front door that had been left open in her excited ascension up the stairs. She closed it quietly behind her as she walked out, sitting on the top stair and staring out into the distance. Houses full of happy families and children, neons of all colors mingling together to create the perfect vision of peace.

⠀⠀⠀⠀But her parents were gone. Something had to have happened. They would never leave their children—Sol knew that for a fact. Something—someone—was stopping them. Sol didn’t have anymore energy left to tear the house apart further, no more energy to run door to door. To think or even exist. With that, she leaned over and curled into a ball at the top of the porch, eyes blank and dull as she slowly fell into a pitch-black sleep.

[Aurora, ᴍᴀʏ ᴀʟʟ ʏᴏᴜʀ ʙᴀᴄᴏɴ ʙᴜʀɴ]

The next morning.

⠀⠀⠀⠀The next morning, Blue woke with hunger gnawing at their stomach. There was no food cooking in the kitchen, no sounds of laughter from their parents starting their morning. Everything was silent and still and wrong. They stumbled out of their parents bed and into the kitchen, hair knotted and still wearing the previous day’s clothes. Nobody was there, not even Sol. Had Sol left them, too? Were they all alone now? Not sure what to do, fear threatening to spiral into a meltdown, a few fresh tears leaked out of Blue’s eyes. They had no other family, knew no other people who could take care of them. The only adult they knew that they really trusted was their teacher at Cogworks, Ms. Kaggath. Maybe she could help them?

⠀⠀⠀⠀Revitalized, Blue put on their shoes and started out the door only to find Sol curled up and shivering in her sleep on the porch. Blue couldn’t help the relief that flooded through their body. Sol hadn’t left them. Maybe she still loved them, even if their parents were gone. Not wanting to leave her out in the cold, Blue knelt down and nudged their sister awake.

⠀⠀⠀⠀“Sol. Sol, I’m hungry.” She stirred under their shaking. “Can you make breakfast?”

⠀⠀⠀⠀Under Blue’s touch, Solaea stirred from unconsciousness, blissfully ignorant of the struggles from the night prior for a few moments. As it all came flooding back, she pushed her hair from her face and shrugged her sibling off, standing abruptly as her jaw clenched. “Get leftovers, Blue,” she snapped, storming into the house and heading for the bathroom. She felt a stab of hunger in her stomach, but was more than sure she’d vomit anything up if she tried to eat. The bathroom door slammed behind her as she leaned over the sink, turning the faucet on. She splashed water on her face quickly, trying to form coherent thoughts.

⠀⠀⠀⠀Nobody knew where they were. She didn’t know what to do, had no way to figure it out. The neighbors knew nothing, their family had no connections that she knew of. The shock hadn’t yet faded, but Sol was trying to push past it. Trying to be reasonable, trying to think of some way, any way to—

⠀⠀⠀⠀Their bedroom. Solaea had never ventured past their doorframe to say goodnight, and had never needed to. But if there were any explanation as to why they’d gone, where they’d gone, it would be in there. She flung the door open and sprinted down the hallway, pushing past her parents’ bedroom door with newfound urgency. The bed was made neatly, the dresser organized neatly. The walls were covered with Juniper’s art, some of Sol’s more recent works. Some rocks Emmett collected on a table in the corner, a wilting plant in another corner. It still smelled like Juniper’s lotion and Emmett’s smoky cologne.

⠀⠀⠀⠀With no hesitation, Solaea went for the dresser. She tore their clothing from the drawers and flung them on the bed, searching for anything that could help. She went through the closet of clothing afterwards, looked under their pillows, in the boxes under the bed that merely had arts and crafts she and Blue had done. Rummaging their room just like she’d rummaged through the whole house the evening before.

⠀⠀⠀⠀Despite everything, it was still a school day. Blue still had to eat and get ready for the day, even if everything was really scary and Sol wouldn’t tell them what was going on. Usually Juniper picked out Blue’s outfits, so they didn’t even think to get a new change of clothes or brush their hair, but were in the habit of brushing their teeth each morning. As they got ready, they could hear Sol moving around elsewhere in the house, and it was almost normal for a minute. But then Blue went back out into the kitchen and everything collapsed around them again. Nothing had changed overnight, and their parents were still gone. Nobody was there to make breakfast or tie their shoes or wish them well as they left for school. Solaea wasn’t in any place to be what Blue needed, and they were too scared to face her again while she was so empty and sad. So they put on their shoes on their own, stomach hollow with hunger and loss, and they walked out the door alone.

⠀⠀⠀⠀Solaea had ruined the peaceful, neat atmosphere of the room. Nothing was where they’d left it, and she was left with nothing. Breathing became difficult as tears rushed down her face again. A hand flew to clutch her chest, breath ragged as she collapsed to the ground, back to the wall furthest from the bed. As she began to drop her head, something caught her eye. Under the plant in the corner, a small sliver of white. What?

⠀⠀⠀⠀Sol coughed violently, mind whirling as she crawled towards the plant on her hands and knees. She pushed the pot out of the way and snatched the white paper from the floorboards. It had been wedged somehow, as if placed there in a rush. Sol eased back to her sitting position against the wall, eyes blurred from the tears even as she calmed herself. She unfolded the paper, wiping her eyes so she could see the very brief string of words on the page.

You were warned of the consequences you would face if you tried to contact me again. Time has not changed anything, Emmett. You were rot that has been long-since cut away, boy, and rot does not get sewn back in.

⠀⠀⠀⠀A sharp, horrified wave of pure cold pulsed through her body. No, no, no . . .

⠀⠀⠀⠀Sol stood with the page, shaking violently as she headed for the door. She gripped it tightly in her fist, the page crumpling. Before she could shut the door, a wave of pure fury shot over here. She screamed, throat burning, slamming her fists to the door with the page still balled up in her fist. She backed up, ripping the pages into slivers before throwing them on the floor, screaming again as she slammed the door, the pages fluttering away behind the door out of her view.

⠀⠀⠀⠀She didn’t know what it meant. She didn’t know how to find out what it meant. They were gone. They were fucking gone. They were gone and they were never coming back. They abandoned their children. Sol headed for her room and shut the door far more gently than she had any others in the house, tears streaming down her face gracefully. Her breathing had steadied and her mind had settled. It wasn’t too much to process anymore, not unfathomable that this had happened. They were gone. She and Blue were alone. Alone.

[Isabella, ɪᴛ’ꜱ ɴᴏᴛ ᴇᴀꜱʏ ʙᴇɪɴɢ ᴏʟᴅ]

Years later, right at the start of the rp timeline

⠀⠀⠀⠀The door at the end of the hall had been shut for years, Blue and Sol avoiding it more than they avoided each other. On the lonelier nights when Sol never came home and hunger gnawed them into sleeplessness, Blue would sit on the floor outside of the door, imagining the ghosts of their parents peacefully asleep in their bed or rattling around like vengeful skeletons. The illusion of them still in there, slowly decaying was too vivid and real for Blue to ever risk opening the door and releasing the scent of death into the rest of the house. So they would sit in the hall and trace patterns into the grooves of the wooden floor, waiting for the day their parents opened the door and returned to them.

⠀⠀⠀⠀Fuck this.

⠀⠀⠀⠀Blue was thirteen now, and a member of a gang. What was so scary about a room they could barely remember the contents of? They were basically an adult, and they couldn’t keep having skeletons in their closet if they wanted to be a real Scorpion. There was probably nothing in there aside from dust. Right?

⠀⠀⠀⠀Pretending that their hands weren’t shaking and sweat wasn’t beading on their palms, Blue opened the door.

⠀⠀⠀⠀Stepping into the room was like stepping back in time. Their father’s books stacked haphazardly on the nightstand, dogeared and well-loved. Their mother’s spare easel in the corner with a half-finished painting too sun-stained to make out. The lingering scent of laundry detergent, somehow still stuck in the still air as if time itself had frozen when the door was closed. Memories flooded through Blue, moments spent reading in bed with Dad and trying on Mom’s shoes, cuddling up between their parents when the shadows in their closet were too scary to sleep alone—memories that they didn’t know they still had.

⠀⠀⠀⠀Tears streaked down Blue’s face as they saw their parents’ faces in their mind for the first time in years. When had they forgotten the sound of their mother’s laugh? Hope much more had been lost without them ever realizing it? They took one step into the room, then another, and another. Soon they were bumping against the foot of the bed, moving on auto-pilot, lost in a haze. Something crinkled under their foot in that final step, drawing them back into the present. Moving their foot, they looked down and saw a sliver of paper, crumpled and torn, but with the name Emmett still visible at the top.

⠀⠀⠀⠀Dad?

⠀⠀⠀⠀Confused and hopeful that they finally had a lead on where their parents had disappeared off to all those years ago, Blue knelt down, finding more shreds of paper under and beside the bed. They gathered the pieces and laid them out in a pile on their mother’s empty bedside table. It would take a few minutes to put the pieces together, but just from a glance, they could tell that the letter was addressed to their father and signed with a very familiar set of initials. A. C., like Artemisia Calico. In a rush, Blue scooped up the pieces of the letter and shoved them in their pocket, leaving the room just as quickly as they entered it. Maybe it would be best to piece together the note with their classmate to see if she knew anything about it.

The shreds of the note on the nightstand