One Hundred-Four Eyes [RANDOM UPDATES]

Chapter 1- Same Old, Same Old

                        Chapter 1- Same Old, Same Old

                Date: 1st Of Newcome, Year MMCLIV

                Time: 6:84

        -BLAIRE-

Dong, dong....

The sound of the those dreadful town bells had waken me up long before now. I was just too weary to really get out of bed.

And yes, I knew that it would make my male caretaker mad, but those little, precious minutes of rest really meant a lot to me. Surely he wouldn't mind this time. Just this once. Especially because of the Choosing being today and all.

However, once heard the pots banging, I knew that I should probably get up. That meant that either my little brother was acting up... or breakfast was ready. I wasn't completely sure, not quite yet. However, I was going to find out.

I slowly trudged out of bed, making my trip downstairs as slow as I possibly could without getting yelled at. I stopped at nearly every item in my room, just to make sure that I could draw out my trip.

The first thing I stopped at was a rather strange object. It was what older humans used to call calendars. It had a list of numbers. These numbers were divided by twelve sections of months, with rather odd names. 

I always found the month divisions of 12 to be unnecessary, as we only have six months to a year. One year would be fairly hot, and the other would be fairly cold. This one, currently, was changing from cool to warm to hot, and then back to cool.

Right now, based on my calculations, today would be Day 1 of January, of 2154. Not that I needed to know anything about it, anyways. I was just curious. I was always curious. Too curious, my caretakers say.

Anyways, I stared at that item for a long time. The edges of this calendar were curling at the ends, and the pages were beyond yellowed. This item was obviously old... probably a good seventy years, with the ink being nearly gone.

After taking some time to study  the calendar, I ambled over to another oddity: something called paper news. It was in a simple, sturdy frame, and it was air-tight, so that the ink wouldn't wear.

I was particularly intrigued with this artifact. Thiis 'paper news' was an early version of what our news was today. Back then, people would type on paper and sell it, for a cheap price. Now, all news was projected on a hologram in our nearest town. That was a cool new science brought in by China, in the mid-2040's. Now, it was no less common than a newly-found epidemic.

It was once said that epidemics were not near as common as they used to be. I remember some stories of the 'Bubonic Plague' and such, and polio outbreaks in the 1930's. Those were fairly uncommon.

I don't know what happened, but somewhere around what would have been called 2075, disease began spreading like wildfire. In history pamphlets, they say that the disease 'smallpox' came back, and this time a vengeance. In the end, smallpox wiped out at least 40% of China, and nearly all of Australia. It was frightening juo think about...

Clearing the thought from my mind, I wallowed downstairs, into the main room. There, I was greeted by my female and male caretaker, and my three siblings.

"Good morning," I yawned, going down the last step. When I looked up, I was face-to-face with my female caretaker.

"Hello, Mother," I said, shaking her hand. That was custom in Northern American families. Children would shake hands with their female caretaker in the morning, and bow for our male caretaker. However, my family liked to bend the rules, so normally, I would shake the hands of both caretakers. After all, it seemed more fitting. We're all about equality. Well, as equal as we can get in these times.

 I remember hearing about a time that everything in Northern America used to be equal and fair. People of both genders, all races, different sexualities were equal, treated the same. However, after the monarchy came in, things were undoubtedly different. Most women were now laborers after the age of 20, and most men worked low-paying, high-maintenance jobs, such as waiting tables or working conveyor belts.

And everyone had a chosen sexuality. Yes, we had all kinds, but they were distributed by the Monarchy. If you ever went against your sexuality, that was an automatic death penalty. Unfortunately, that meant that a large portion of people died every year. In fact, I was beginning to think that our population was acually decreasing...

I was probably right. 

Taking my mind off of those depressing thoughts, I wallowed over to my make caretaker and shook his hand, "Good morning," I said, and stepped away. 

He gave me a cocky grin. "It's the Choosing today."

"Agh, don't remind me!" My older sister, Kiana, complained. That's the last thing I want to remember, is the Choosing!"

The Choosing was... an honored day, yet it was also despised by many. All of the girls, ages 15 to 18, went to our local town once a year and filled a small application. What it is for, I will not know until later on today.

In fact, all I do know is that there are 52 winners from this 'application'. I guess they are sent off from their families to live on a stranded island or something. I always figured that that was the reason why people didn't like the Choosing. They just missed their daughters. I could definitely understand that.

"We have to get you dressed for the event today," my female caretaker replied, half-joyfully, half-bitterly. "Come here, I've got something."

I obeyed my caretaker and followed her, wherever she may be going. I stalked into her bedroom andwatched as she pulled a strange item from her tiny, wooden jewelry box.

I walked closer to see what it was. What she had in her hands seemed to be an amulet, of sorts. It obviously had fake plating, as only the people in neighborhood 82 were permitted to wear that. However,  there was something... unique about this jewelry.

It was unlike any other stone I had seen before. The stone seemed to have a variety of colors, all in one. Normally, they would look mangled, being all mashed together like that, but they seemed to oddly fit. It was like the sea lived in the stone.

It was actually a very pretty stone.

Out of curiosity, I inquired about it. "What is this stone?"

"This," she started, "Is a rare form of Opal. Based on older times, this would be your birthstone. A birthstone is a stone representing the month you were born in."

Boy, she was always a step ahead of me. She knew that I was going to ask about what a 'birth stone' was. She really was a very clever woman.

"Why are you showing me this stone?" I asked, still gawking at it.

Instead of saying anything to explain, she simply put a chain on it, and fastened it around my neck. "It's yours now," she said. "My caretaker used to have this before me, and I had it since I was fifteen. You can have it, now. You are just like my own."

"Oh, mother!" I exclaimed, smirking a little, "I am yours."

"You know what I mean!" she shouted, trying to hide any signs of smiling. "If I could have been given that job, the job of a mother, I surely would have taken the offer.However, I guess it's better than being a slave. Or an explorer." She shuddered.

"You're right about the explorer part. No way would I want to be working without pay. At least, as a slave, you get a meager amount of money. Meager is better than nothing."

"True that," she agreed, nodding. "True that."

Suddenly, Kiana came busting inside of the room. "Blaire, we gotta go! The Choosing commences in ahlf an hour! Here, I have your breakfast. We have to go now!" Ad with that, she hopped out of the door.

I turned to mother again. Unsure of what to say at the moment, I simply mouthed 'goodbye' to her. And with that, I sped off into Kiana's direction.

I would have staed a little longer, but based on the tense feeling in the air, I knew she was about to cry. I didn't want to see that.

That way, if I was sent off to some island, at least my last memory of her wouldn't be crying. I prefer happiness and puppies and kitties.

Happiness and puppies and kitties...