Family Chilacian Dynamics
The average Chilacian family has about sixteen people in it. Some families can be bigger, and some smaller. A healthy family has no less than three people, for reasons we will get into later. You may wonder how you’re all connected! You know you have your Yonis, (GC. Parents) Preyonis, (GC, Grandparents) your Adels, (GC, siblings) and your Thes (GC. Piblings. Neuter of Aunt/uncle) and maybe even your Prethes! (GC Great Piblings). While some of these people may be related to you by blood, most of them are not! Let us look at a single average Chilacian family and explain how all these people may be connected to you.
When your Yonis entered adolescence, between 17-25 years of age, they began to form very important, deep connections with other Chilacians outside of their family. While one of these people would eventually become their Erasti, (GC, Mate) some of them formed a unique connection; Agel (GC. (Col) Pack Bond)*
Agel
Agel is a special, shared bond between several people. This bond can include all the different relations we mentioned above. The only ones that have any kind of blood connection would be the Yonis, and that’s only true for your birth family. While the connection between a child and the yonis is strong, it fades off as they grow up. This may seem sad, but it’s not to be mourned. The fading of the Yonis bond starts the child’s search for their own family!
Consistent contact forms and maintains the Agel. You may not know this, but your body can tell the difference between the touch and scent of not only a potential mate, but of every person you come into contact with! Those you spent a lot of time around grow increasingly familiar to your body, and increasingly comfortable. This drives you to seek physical contact with your friends and family. The maintenance of the Agel is one reason most healthy families have communal sleeping, and why you may feel compelled to embrace your friends outside your family, and to sit and cuddle with them. This is your body and mind working to solidify those bonds, and building the scaffolding of your future family. The Agel is the most important bond in our society, as even the bond between Erasti is born from Agel.
Your best friend today could be your Adels or Erasti in just a few years! Depending on the differing family sizes, you may choose to live with your Adels as you get older, and their family would become yours! Maybe you’ve already seen something like this happen! Perhaps a family member has brought a friend to visit, and over time it was decided that they’d live with you. Suddenly. Your Thes’ friend from work is a new Thes of yours! Maybe they even brought their Erasti, and a child who is now your Adel.
It seems confusing doesn’t it! Well, it can be! Who’s family is who’s? Where do people live? What if your Adel has a friend or child you dislike?
This all gets simplified by your Ankrya.
Ankyra
You may have noticed that most of the adults in your family have an Erasti. If they don’t, there’s likely someone very special to them that may soon become their Erasti! Well, this is true for all but one very important member of your family. One of your Thes would be the family Ankyra. An Ankyra, unlike other Chilacians, will never experience Enkavma, and never find an Erasti, but their Agel is much stronger than in other Chilacians. Consider the Ankyra as the sun around which all the planet’s orbit. The family would be considered your Ankyra’s family! This is why if your name is Anditi, and your Thes Ranadi is your Ankrya, then your full name would be Anditi Rana. When your Yonis go into the Enkavma, your Ankrya takes care of their tasks. If there’s a dispute between family members, your Ankyra resolves it. Two people on their own, an individual and their Erasti, could not function well without the Ankrya especially during their Enkavma
Sometimes when there’s a big conflict between family members, this resolution involves a person leaving the family. While its gradual nature often softens the pain of a broken Agel, it is not unheard of for the Agel to be broken suddenly, by anger or betrayal. The pain of this loss ripples through the family, but affects the Ankyra most. Some Ankyra become sick with grief after this happens, a condition known as Thummeia (GC. Shatter-sickness)
Should this happen in your family, be sure to give your Ankyra lots of affection! However, if the Thummeia doesn’t lift, your other Thes may have to bring your Ankyra to see a healer.
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Memory can be a cruel thing. The sweetness of even the best memories fade while the terrible memories seem to solidify and stay fresh for decades. The happiest of memories, drawn out over years, often wind up infected by a single bad day which shatters the whole thing.
The one courtesy memory sometimes offers is its absence from sleep, and its slow revival upon waking. When memory chooses not to manifest as a vicious nightmare, then In those first moments of consciousness after a long sleep, there is nothing but the awareness of a loved one nearby, the warmth of a bed, the comfort of a pillow.
Then, of course, you feel the churning of an anguished stomach, feel the dried tears crusting your eyes, and the memories wake and attack anew.
This was how TO awoke the next day. At some point they had finally fallen asleep while reading the strangely simple and overly friendly file Snout had sent them. Their communicator dropped to the floor as they sunk into their pillow and nuzzled into DH’s back. They stayed like that, exhausted beyond the ability to dream until their discarded communicator beeped at them from the floor, waking them with a jolt.
For seconds, it was just a normal day. They were safe, comfortable, and had DH nearby. For seconds, nothing was wrong with the world. Then their memories woke, and all the events of the day before, Kei’s attack on Avery, Tham and Vik’s betrayal, and the name that the tiny rodent hacker had given them, flooded back.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
GiDi.
They groaned, and pressed their face into DH’s back, hoping to go back to sleep and forget again, even for a little while. However, just as they were dozing off again, the communicator beeped once more. This time, it roused DH and the chirping that thrummed in their throat and vibrated through their chest stopped suddenly as they gave a discontented groan. They mumbled something, but their tongue was still so heavy with sleep that to TO it was unintelligible.
GiDi. They couldn’t tell DH or Avery, the two were still hurting enough from their own pains. If TO worked things right, they could make the discovery far less painful than it might be. They remembered that as their brain woke slowly, like a cold engine starting up after a long time. Right, until they could talk to GiDi, they had to keep busy. They had to work themself to exhaustion so they could sleep, and so Avery and DH wouldn’t notice their pain.
Bits and pieces of the file they read the night before filtered back to them. They lost most of what they read to sleep, but they remembered the first part about Chilacian families. If they had been a proper Chilacian family, TO realized that they’d probably tell Avery about GiDi right away. The Ankrya, the center of the family, would figure out what to do, and decide if GiDi was part of their family, or not.
But they weren’t a proper family, and even if they eventually morphed into one, that time wasn’t now.
The communicator went off again. TO finally rolled over and reached down to the floor, their hand feeling the cold stone until they finally felt the thin communicator at their fingertips. They grabbed it, and squinting their eyes against the light that came from the screen, read the messages.
===== Forwarding you all the contacts, schedules, and information you need to coordinate today. You’ll probably get more information as the day goes on. I suggest implementing a time-chart - Flit=====
===== Where are you three? We need to get to work - Flit=====
===== Don’t forget to come by our room first - Flit=====
TO sighed as they checked the time. It was later than they expected, but not so late that they were behind. They sent a message back.
===== We need to shower first. I’ll massage Lake and ask them to get our breakfast to your room=====
They sent the messages, hoping that Lake could do that, and then nudged DH, who was fading back into sleep. Their mate groaned and curled up, their wings over their face and over Avery.
“Come on.” TO said, their voice soft, “We have to get to work.”
TO could just see the tips of DH’s ears, could see the sleepy, languid way they twitched for a moment before they dipped back. They realized that their mate’s memories had awoken as well, ripping through the languid, sleepy morning thoughts and disrupting everything with hurt and betrayal. After another moment, DH sat up, rousing Avery as they did. Their confused friend sat up, sleep crusting their eyes and slowing their ears as they strained to remember why they were there with TO and DH.
“Flit and Snout want us in their room.” TO said, not wanting either of them to have too much time to think about everything that happened yesterday, and really not wanting to think about what they learned hours ago. “We only have a couple more days to get ready… And then we’re gone.”
“Yeah. Gone.” DH said. They crawled over TO to get out of bed, but TO grabbed them and held them close for a moment before letting them go. They had nothing else to say, they just wanted to hold their mate for a moment longer.
“What happens after that, though?” Avery asked. “Does it matter? Will things be better after we leave, or will it just get worse?”
TO looked over at Avery as though for the first time. Avery normally preferred to be by themself, and the one time that TO had slept alongside them in training, well, that had been an exception. They recalled from their reading before they fell asleep something about contact, about that pack bond, Agel, being created through consistent contact, and as that bond strengthened the need for contact was stronger. A positive feedback loop demanding more and more affection.
TO reached out, and took Avery’s hand. Avery; their Ankyra.
“I don’t know.” TO said honestly, squeezing Avery’s fingers gently. “But we’re going to get there together.”
Avery gave a bitter grin, their ears pinning back, “Because you’ll make sure of it?” They asked, “You won’t let us get separated?”
TO’s ears dropped. “No.” They said, They had tried that once, and failed. On their own, they didn’t trust their ability to keep them together, not anymore. Still, this didn’t mean they were hopeless. If anything, they felt more confident that they could all stay together if only for one reason.
“We’re going to make sure of it.”
======
They wasted no time once they were up, getting dressed, showering, and rushing to Flit and Snout’s room within twenty minutes. By the time they got there Lake had delivered their breakfast, the three plastic containers sitting on the small table in the center of the room.
“About time.” Flit grunted once they got in. The older Chilacian was lying on the bed, their basic prosthetic sitting on the floor. They rolled their pant leg up past their knee, leaving the stump exposed. It looked a lot worse today than it had yesterday. Yesterday, the stump held a pattern of linear silver scars. Today, several sores had formed, and the space under Flit’s knee was an angry blue.
“I might have something for that.” DH said as they went over to the bed, their med kit slung over their shoulder.
“I hoped you might.” Snout said, a relieved sigh escaping their lips as their ears relaxed from their pinned position. “I wanted to call Goretta, but Flit wouldn’t have it.”
“She’s busy.” Flit grunted as DH sat down on the bed and pulled out a cream and bandages.
“I don't know why you don’t just use the other prosthetic.” Snout sighed, “We know Goretta wasn’t involved-”
“But Vik was.” Flit’s ears flicked back, their eyes narrowed, “I’m not taking the chance.”
“Well…” DH hummed, lips pursed as they looked over the sores. “Once I’ve bandaged this up, you probably shouldn’t wear any prosthetic until it’s healed-”
“Impossible.” Flit said, “I’ll have to wear it when we leave-”
“Then wear your mechanical one then.” Snout said, their ears going parallel to the ground. “Last thing we need is for something to happen to you when we’re trying to escape.”
Snout grumbled something under their breath, but when they looked towards the wall next to them, they muttered only, “Fine.”
“Good.” Snout said. “Meantime, there’s plenty for you to do without using your prosthetic.”
Flit cleared their throat and looked back to Avery and TO. “At any rate.” They said, “There’s lots to do, but before you go off to work on all the things we need to work on, we want to tell you about something we’re trying to do.”
TO went to the table and sat down to eat. They didn’t want to eat and their stomach churned constantly, but they knew that if they suddenly had less appetite than they normally had, that would make DH worry. More importantly, that would signal to DH that something was wrong, that something was bothering TO.
They couldn’t let that happen. They’d eat, even if every bite made them want to vomit.
“What is it?” Avery asked as they took a seat next to TO. They peeked into each of the containers on the table until they found TO’s and slid it to them. When TO looked inside, they saw that the cocopod meat had been shredded and laid over some kind of vegetable patty. Another unfamiliar vegetable, based on the smell, but if Lake was serving it to them, then TO was certain it would be fine for them. They considered flipping the elastic on their wrist over and letting the chip contact their skin, but nobody else had done that yet, and TO figured it was to prevent Vik from using their chips to listen in.
“Well… it’s obvious, isn’t it?” Snout said as they sat across from TO and Avery. “The synths are coming, and there’s a very good chance that they’ll end life on Arkane.”
“And even though we’re getting out, that leaves a foul taste in our mouths.” Flit added. “So... we’re thinking of a way to stop the synths.”