Sentiment of a Witness

𝙰 𝙽𝚎𝚠 𝚆𝚊𝚢 𝚘𝚏 𝙻𝚒𝚟𝚒𝚗𝚐

Since my talk with Jupiter, and being given an eyepatch, I felt different. Lighter almost. It was as if a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders.

I guess I hadn't noticed how keeping my knack to myself had affected me until then – I felt like I could breathe again, that when I smiled, it felt less forced, and when I thought of my new family, I felt fully accepted.

I had a new spring in my step, though I suppose Jupiter can do that to just about anyone with his understanding eyes and reassuring smile. And his staff at the hotel show the same sort of energy, which I had noticed fairly quickly, though I grew increasingly thankful for it as the years passed.

Although I still felt like a fucking idiot in an eyepatch. But I suppose it was okay – at least I didn't feel like I was going to pass out because of bright ass lights practically blinding me.

I still spent most of my days reading or sitting by the window in my room, though I did venture out a lot more than I used to. I'd play board games and card games with Jupiter in the Smoking Parlour, watch Dame Chanda rehearse for various performances, talk with Kedgeree at his desk in the Lobby, listen to Frank's complaints about... well, nearly everything.

And then there was also watching Jupiter spy on Martha and Charlie – something that I did not want to get involved with, no matter how frustrating it was to watch them.

I was convinced that this was life. And I was content with it, for once. I didn't care if it never got better – I was confident that this was the best it would get.

And that was fine.

I hadn't expected much in or of my life since finding out my knack, so living at the Hotel Deucalion was more than I'd asked for. It was more of a life than what I had expected. It was nearly hard for me to believe that a few months earlier, I'd been living at a shitty, evil orphanage, and even harder to believe that months before that, I'd been an unwanted, unneeded resident of hell itself.

Due to the... background I had come from, Jupiter decided that it was best if I continued with my education from the hotel rather than an actual school, and even offered to teach me if I didn't want to meet any new people.

Funny that – living in a literal hotel meant seeing new faces nearly every day, and when you're a permanent resident, you'll often find yourself in conversations that you weren't quite expecting to have.

I found that I was soon recognised around the Deucalion by staff and guests alike. It was strangely comforting and took some getting used to – I was Jupiter's nephew now, and people expected certain things of me.

Fortunately, nobody expected me to – or maybe they all hoped that I wouldn't – be as crazy as the ginger hotelier.

And, much to my relief, no one really seemed to question where I came from – except Baz Charlton, who was still rather suspicious of me. But Jupiter told me not to worry about him, saying that he was always like this and needed to learn to mind his own business, as well as calling him a few... immature names. But I can't say that I disagree.

Other than the Charlton problem, there were no other concerns. Although I'm sure, Jupiter had a handful of them – and probably still does. I still didn't have friends my age, and I wasn't particularly fond of talking about families.

But I was still content with life – as I said earlier, this was the best life had been for me for a while. And never in a thousand years had I imagined it ending up this way; this good.

Written: 27-30 September, 2021

Published: 30 September, 2021

This chapter was extremely tough to write, but here it is! I'll be doing a double update today too!