Arknights: Living the Dream

Chapter 2: Realization

Terra really is beautiful.

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I feel as if each step I take across the Lungmen streets, the more I process my situation.

A couple hours ago I was just laying down in my bed, listening to music, and thinking up scenarios to put myself into.

Now, I find myself inside those very same scenarios. I know I'm not dreaming, I can still smell Swire's drunken breath for heaven's sake!

...

I try to imagine what my father, well godfather, is thinking now that I have disappeared.

He's either panicking to the best of his abilities, or he's sitting in my room and getting sentimental. I don't think I know him well enough to choose between these two.

He was always more of a caretaker than a parent anyways.

...

I think back to all the situations in my life where I was pushed into a corner, I had no clue what to do and was extremely confused. "What did I do in those situations?" I ask myself.

I calmed myself, made a plan, and went with whatever happened.

I unconsciously grab a cigarette from my pocket and light it.

I again look up to the Lungmen skyline, the cigarette smoke lightly covers the distant buildings.

"... Well, that's step one done." I mutter to nobody.

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Reaching my apartment building, I use the trash can as an ashtray before walking inside and heading towards the elevator.

I close my eyes for a bit while riding up the elevator. No matter how hard you try, it's hard to be truly calm when you've just been transported into another world completely different from your own, having to piece together your own backstory that you don't know.

*Ding*

The elevator doors open.

...

My apartment is a simple 1 bedroom and 1 bathroom. Just imagine a hotel room that someone can personalize.

I empty my pockets on the nightstand and lay down on my bed.

As I lay on my bed I let my mind catch up to everything that's happening.

It was easy for my mind to block out the situation in the bar. I already was sort of familiar with the place due to my dreaming, I had Swire's drunkenness to distract me momentarily, and I was with other people.

When you're by yourself is when it truly sets in. You don't have anyone to distract you, you don't have anybody to pay attention to, you only have yourself and your thoughts.

.

.

.

I make my way towards my desk and take a seat. I open my laptop and make a new document. I sigh and repeat what I had already told myself in my head.

I will write down every dream of Terra I've had.

If ever something happens that can relate to my backstory, I will go to this document and figure out what dream it relates to.

I take a sip of water and begin writing.

An hour later.

I end up with a system that sorts out my dreams by time. Early life and adult life. I would include middle life but I already have solid evidence that my middle life was mostly spent at the Victorian Royal Guard School, so I didn't find any need to.

I've only written the early life dreams that work with me going to the Victorian Royal Guard Academy and the fact that I have ice arts. I only wrote adult life dreams based on the same criteria and whether or not they work with early life backstories.

I look over the document once more to reaffirm that it's accurate to my memory.

Early Life:

1: Parents killed off while I was still a baby. I was found by Rhine Labs and experimented on as Ifrit was, but with a focus on ice rather than flames. I had escaped around 14 and traveled somewhere.

2: Had moved to Victoria with a middle-class family. I had become infected one way or another and was abandoned by my parents because of it. I had awakened my arts after getting infected and joined a gang. I left the gang at 16 after a couple years.

3: Moved to Ursus due to bad conditions at home, but my family and I couldn't find any homes. My family had died from a large blizzard, I had only survived due to awakening my ice arts that made me more resistant to the cold. I was taken in by Kaschey and had left after he was killed by Talulah.

Adult Life:

1: I was introduced to Emperor somehow, and he invited me to Penguin Logistics after I moved to Lungmen. At this point Penguin Logistics only had Exusia, Texas, and Mostima. I had played a big part in the company growing, before eventually leaving after making enough money to live on my own.

2: I had joined Penguin Logistics after meeting them in a bar one time. I was just kinda a distant mercenary they could count on in combat, like Texas if she hadn't already worked with Penguin Logistics for a long time. After making enough money I put in my two weeks and bounced.

3: I had joined up with Chen after moving to Lungmen and worked at the LGD for a little while. I hadn't met Swire or Hoshiguma at all as I mainly just roamed around the city until Chen needed help with something. After making enough money I left the LGD.

...

I really did spend most of my nights dreaming about Terra.

In the adult section, I was able to get 3 dreams that fit all the early life dreams as well as the regular criteria. I really did have nothing to do those nights...

Well that's all in the past. I've really been moved to Terra, so I'm not gonna just sit around and act as if everything is normal.

Everything isn't normal, but that's fine. It doesn't matter whether something is normal or not if you can enjoy it.

And I will enjoy my new life here.

(I am sorry for this very short chapter. I wanted to include a chapter that discussed Azrael coming to terms with the fact that he's been transported into Terra, but I couldn't write it as well as I wanted to, so I just decided to throw all of it into a single chapter with some planning for future chapters and go from there. This is pretty much a filler chapter that is important to the story if that makes sense. Also, I have planned out an update schedule, so check my profile for that. I am again sorry for the short chapter, but anyways, Thanks for Reading :)

Uploaded on February 13, 2022. 1077 words.