Two weeks passed. Just like that.
Snap. Gone.
One minute you're saying, "Yeah I'll totally do something productive this break," and the next you're halfway through a pizza at 2 A.M. wondering if that one VR shark actually winked at you.
Everyone was kinda doing their thing.
Relationships were blooming like spring allergies—fast, sudden, and slightly chaotic. People walked around the streets holding hands, laughing under flickering streetlamps, and sharing slushies like they weren't living in a half-radioactive, post-collapse world. Cute. Wholesome. Slightly suspicious.
Me? Oh, let me fill you in.
Cue the mental camera zoom. Time for the Orion Update.
"Hey, you. Yeah, you. So here's what I've been up to during the holidays."
First off—the Nexus Drive. Big nerd energy, I know. But I've been obsessively working on that thing like it's a rare boss battle and I'm one level under where I should be. It's... almost done. Just one or two calibration nodes left, and I'll finally be able to test it without frying the power in the entire block.
Sorry, neighbors.
Also—VR time with Leah. We hit up that ancient ruins sim and spent a whole hour pretending to be time travelers with foam swords. She found a bunny helmet and refused to take it off. Said it made her "feel powerful." Honestly, I believe her. Girl's terrifying with a sword.
And then there was that date Rin set me up on.
Yeah... that.
Okay, quick story. So, Rin casually drops a "hey, I got someone you should meet" during one of our game nights. Next thing I know, I'm sitting across from a girl named Kaya in a tiny rooftop café sipping overpriced soda and pretending I'm not awkward.
Kaya was cool. Really. Into vintage tech and old Earth music. Like, really old. She asked if I'd ever heard of someone called "Taylor Swift" and I had to fake confidence like, "Oh yeah, she did that... one old anthem thing, right?"
The date was decent, but I dunno... something didn't click. Maybe I was too distracted thinking about calibrating a radiation node while chewing fries. Or maybe I'm just broken in that department. Meh.
Oh, and I've officially started MMA and jiu-jitsu training. Because when the world's a mess, punching things (in a legal, respectful, dojo-sanctioned way) just makes sense. My instructor's a beast. I'm not sure if he's human or like... part bear. But I'm learning. Slowly. Painfully. But learning.
Now here we are. Three days left of freedom. No pending work. No obligations. Just... vibes.
Everything feels good.
Like, suspiciously good.
You ever get that? That weird pause where life seems chill, people are laughing, the world's not ending (at least not right now), and yet—deep down—you feel something's... off?
Yeah. That.
Cue camera shift again.
"Okay, real talk time."
I guess what I'm trying to say is—I've been feeling kinda... lost.
It's not dramatic. I don't cry at night or scream into a pillow. It's more like this lowkey ache. Like a song stuck in your head you didn't even like. Quiet, but always there.
Losing my parents—it didn't hit all at once. It hit in phases. First, the disbelief. Then the silence. And now? The slow realization that some parts of me stopped growing the day I lost them. And maybe they won't ever come back.
There's stuff I wish I told them. Stuff I wish I heard from them. Things I've had to figure out alone.
Well—not totally alone.
I've got Leah. She's a little chaos tornado wrapped in a hoodie, and somehow she holds herself together better than most adults I've met. She's strong. Smarter than me in a lot of ways. And every time I see her sketching by the window, I remember why I keep pushing forward.
And then there's Cas, G, and Ri.
Cas, with her calm logic and laser focus, who always reminds me that plans can exist even in a world like this.
G, who acts like he doesn't care but remembers everyone's coffee order and never lets you feel out of place.
And Rin—loud, wild, messy Rin—who throws color into every gray day and reminds me not to take life too seriously.
They're my people. My anchor. My reminder that yeah, the world fell apart—but we didn't.
So yeah, life's weird right now. Kinda still in pieces. But for the first time in a long time... I think I'm okay with that.
Because even in a broken world, you can build something new.
Even if it starts with pizza, punch training, and foam sword battles.
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