Year 0 Month 0 Day 0
In a place between reality and dreams. Where memories lurk and shift in the impossibility of oneself. A place of revelation, anticipation, and dread. Here and now Zephyr learns who he was, is, and has ever been. His life laid out in front of him, complete and unvarnished, thrust upon his psyche. Everything he’d ever done, thought and seen without that little filter inside of us all. No ego, no little white lie to make himself feel better.
Every triumphed laid out before him, with all the adoration he felt. The looks of his friends, his family, and the downtrodden were defeated. The sometimes somber looks from his parents, buried beneath their cheering. Things he’d never truly noticed before.
With nothing hindering his small bubble of memory, he seemed to shift outside himself, taking in everything around him, forcing him to see how he affected the world, and not just himself.
He watched and felt as he went to work day by day, having good and bad days. Watching as he rationalized doing the job over and over no matter how bad it got. Convincing him, it would get better. Like his job wasn't that bad, other people had it worse, invaliding himself.
Then there were the lies he told himself. The time he wasted in a job that he didn’t want, in a place that he didn’t like, and paid nowhere near what he should be making. All the time wasted from school, to now. The sunk cost of it all. For so long he’d been battered, degraded, and overwhelmed for so long. It was like a twisted Stockholm syndrome.
He watched all his highs and lows, his regrets and delights. Then there were the small things with the biggest effects—the small cruelties, the petty actions filled with excuses or schadenfreude that he believed were just how you survived. Now he saw the looks, the hurt, and the pain buried beneath them. Incidents long forgotten came to the front. Ancient traumas and scars reopened.
His soul was wept, scoured for all its dark moments, as small acts of kindness bled through like tiny lights in the inky dark. Only for another small cruelty to cut him once more.
He had watched everything, seen it all unvarnished, fresh, and devastating, from his embarrassing childhood, middle school, and high school to his now unfulfilling career,
There was no time between traumatic events as he was forced from one moment to the next. He wanted to weep for everything of who he once was. For the first time in his existence, he truly felt he understood himself. Like the most intense form of unwanted therapy. Through it all he found himself wanting.
Once the storm of life passed, Something seemed to take all that energy accumulated through his entire life, and it began to change. A warmth felt through his entire soul, caressing as it flooded his entire being, shifting it as something new began to form inside. He realized the purpose of the scouring he had just endured, as a piece of his soul could rise from long-forgotten depths. A piece of his soul returned, a long-forgotten desire to run.
#
A scar reopens replaced by Zephyr, a man raked through and in shock as everything he just experienced was to much.
Thump. Thud.
His knees hit the floor before he fell to his side and began to weep. His entire being felt raw and scrapped. To many harsh truths for him to handle. He was gasping as something in his mind finally began to move.
“I need—” he could barely get the words out between breaths.
“I need to apologize to everyone.” Moving to stand, he found he just couldn’t. The grief was too much. It was hours of gross sobbing, intermittent panic attacks, promises to do better, and failed attempts at moving out of the fetal position before he was finally able to even begin to piece himself back together. Only now, so many of the pieces had been shattered, rotted, and turned to ash. Leaving behind the gaping wound that was Zephyr.
Someone he didn’t know if he was ready to be. Ready to even recognize his new self. So he lay there on the carpet a few feet away from a soft couch, screaming for the lie of who he once was, sobbing for who he is, and fearful of what he might be. All he knew was that everything had changed.
Year 0 Month 0 Day 1
With his mind still pulling back the pieces of itself, Zpehyr finds himself searching for anything to feel normal. He knew that would be hard, if not impossible after what he experienced. At the moment he didn’t care. Without much thought, he found himself on autopilot, moving through his normal morning routine, tossing himself into the shower, and grabbing a quick bite before putting on his suit from the day before. It was wrinkled and might have smelled a bit, but it was there and familiar.
Before he knew it, he was already at his office, which was very dangerous seeing as he had driven there from home. He would later swear he didn’t remember at all even getting in his car.
In fact, it wasn’t until mid-morning that Zephyr realized he was in the office sitting in front of a his computer when suddenly, “AHHHHHHHH!!” A scream of frustration and anguish came from somewhere in the office, snapping Zephyr to the present.
“Huh? Where what? Did I really go to work?” His heart started to beat faster. His breathing became erratic as he shoved himself away from the desk, grabbing onto the side of his desk to keep from collapsing, as tears began to fall again. What is wrong with me? I don’t want to be here. A deep seat sense of disappointment permeated his being at this fact. I am falling a apart and I still came into work. Morbidly curious, at what he even could have been working on he took a deep breath and forced himself to turn and look. Three seconds in he let out a hysterical laugh. As a wave of relief washed over him. He had been typing up his letter of resignation. It was already done all he needed to do was hit send. I guess I’m going through with it.
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“Hey, Zephyr.”
“Huh?”
It took him a minute to register the other voice, and when he turned, His manager Jimmy, a man who had been grieving him since the first day he started as his manager. The fact his father got him the job did not endear him to anyone as well as the fact he loved to talk down to everyone. What was worse was he was fresh out of college, with a degree having nothing to do with this place, and he was convinced his micromanaging would save the company. Since taking over, they were behind on everything, and he blamed everyone but himself. The condescending puckering of his lips was ever-present, and even now, was no different as he clicked his tongue at Zephyr. Not even registering the snarl, nor the manic look in his eyes. “You really should iron that. Appearances are important around here and isn’t that the same suit from yesterday? What have you even been doing? I emailed you this morning, and nothing. This is not going to look good on your quarterly reviews.”
“Fuck you! Asshole!” He shouted at the top of his lungs.
Jimmy’s response was a self-satisfied smile as he asked calmly, “What was that?”
BAM! Zephyr slammed his chair into the wall behind him. His heart beat out of his chest as he let it all out. “I don’t need to listen to your narcissistic, gas-lighting ass, making me feel crazy, always dumping on me. Blaming me to management when you fuck up ‘cause you don’t even know how to do your own fucking job!”
Slowly, Jimmy leaned back and shouted with a sneering laugh, enjoying every second of Zephyr’s meltdown, “Zephyr finally snapped!”
Bam! He didn’t even notice the fist. He was already on the floor with a broken nose. “Fuck!”
Zephyr stood over him, his hand shaking, “You know you deserved that!” Finally, what he had done when he saw some of his other colleagues occurred to him. Some were horrified, the others seemed in a daze. Strangely it was only the younger co-workers who looked horrified. “What the fuck am I doing here?” A co-worker he didn’t recognize stepped in front of Jimmy's hands close to Zephyr. He jumps back, avoiding him, “Don’t fucking touch me!”
He was slowly backing up as the man took another step towards him. He didn’t know what the man was trying to do, nor did he hear what he was saying. The blood rushed to his ears, “STAY AWAY!” The man lifted his hands and backed away
Crash Shatter!
The sound of breaking glass caused all their heads to turn to see an irate older woman, Becky. One of the nicest people in the entire office stomped away from the pain of shattered glass, an office chair stuck halfway through. “AH!!!!” she screamed, running out of the office. It made sense to Zephyr that the company was big on nepotism, and more than once, she was forced to work overtime and skipped over promotions while constantly being threatened with her job.
Then it was chaos as more desks and chairs began to be thrown around. Zephyr thought he saw people fighting each other but none of that registered. Just the gnawing guilt over punching his manager. The fear of what would happen, all of it hitting him. And all he knew at this moment was; he was fucked up. “I need to leave
He ran. Everything was too much. He was screaming as he ran, just trying to get home.
He did not realize until later that he hadn’t needed to type up his letter of resignation; he had delivered it himself with a five-finger punch, and that made him smile.
#
A giant of a man wearing a stylish set of purple robes, and a massive wizard hat sits in a large wooden chair, a fireplace lite behind him and a view of an open sky. With a set of books that look to small for the man in the video. He looks into the camera a kind smile on his face as he stands. “Welcome back to Cultivating Magic, my little disciples. For those new, I am your most magical host Archmagus Tim.” The man takes of his hat and bows with a flourish, small sparks of flame dance around his hands, and a small bolt of lighting dancing in his eyes.
“It has been a long year, and I am more than grateful to you, my audience, and to the world we live in. But it is important to remember the beginning—the day everything changed and the people we lost.” Tim shakes his head tiredly, “And I would like to personally out to rest certain—rumors.”
“Let us look back at that first day.” The screen changed showing footage of people running through the street, people huddled in corners, attacks, and general chaos before cutting back to Tim. “None of us knew what was happening or why. I was just a simple scientist-gamer, with only a few thousand subscribers. Then the awakening. It broke—” His voice trailed of breaking slightly. “Ehem. It broke so many of us. We saw who we were and so many could not handle what they saw.” His eyes went distant before continuing, “Many simply gave up, letting themselves waste away or left the world behind. Many more went against the injustices they saw. Taking it upon themselves to rectify it.” He held up three fingers. “I know at least three governments around the world were replaced in its entirety. Not to mention the many coup attempts.
“So many lives lost.” A slide showing a set of numbers appeared replaced Tim. “It is estimated seventy-five percent of the population of seventy did not survive themselves. Twenty five percent between seventy and fifty, and five percent between forty and fifty and a two percent between twenty-six and these are just the numbers that we hope to curtail in the future as we get everyone the help they need as they awaken.”
The camera cut back to Tim in the room,“It is good to remember these people as they were not as a number. This was the greatest tragic event our age has ever seen. And we still don’t know why.”
“But beyond the tragedy there is new beauty to be seen.” The image cuts to a woman blurring across a building, towards a man in a ski-mask. The video shifts to a package disappearing from a pedestal, and a to a man in martial arts robe running up a wall. The video cut back to Tim as he plays with a little flame as it danced around his fingers. “And we are still learning of its pitfalls. Rifts and there like. How people changed after. “
“We are all people, we grow, we love, we all make mistakes. And we all must give them time to piece themselves back together. Do no accuse them of being replaced. They are our friends and family who have just gone through a traumatic experience. Many are forever changed.”
Tim bowed his head placing his hat over his heart. “Today is a day of remembrance for the lives lost on the day of awakening. I am thankful for you all joining me in honoring the people who were lost.”
Placing the hat back on he smiled, “Now, something a bit different there has been a rumor going around that ever since the incident at my academy we’ve been shut down by the government. That is in fact untrue. We’ve been busy clearing up a lot of misunderstandings and untruths spread about us making it a bit harder to get these videos out to you. We are meticulous in ensuring our information is accurate, and we have the reproducible steps. And boy do we have some things for you. I am pleased and excited to say we got something big coming and so many more fascinating things coming! So don’t forget to like and subscribe and don’t forget that notification bell, for our latest videos. So we can keep bringing our content to you.”
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