Something Different

Oneshot

Ellegaard paced around her new Dome of Concentration, trying to figure out what improvements she could make to the organization system she and Olivia had been working on. Olivia busied her self by making lunch since Ellegaard was preoccupied with her work once again. Ellegaard was grateful for Olivia's assistance because she would forget to eat or even go outside sometimes. Calvin had helped Ellegaard with this in the past, but it was usually when she looked super haggardly. She felt she'd gotten a little better at taking care of herself in recent years, but Olivia wasn't sure she agreed with that. Her stomach growled loudly, jerking her out of her thoughts. Perhaps it was a good time to take a break; she had plenty of time to work on final details later.

She absent-mindedly ate her lunch, lost in thought about the organization system and staring off into space. Usually, she would talk to Olivia, but sometimes she was too wrapped up in thinking about projects. Olivia would then push her to take a break for a few days and work on other duties. After all, she was the leader of Redstonia and still had to take care of her town and citizens. Ellegaard realized she had a lot of bad habits that she needed to work on. She'd made progress on some of them, such as caring a bit more for people besides herself. Olivia was grateful for that, and Ellegaard was horrified she'd been so self-absorbed.

Ellegaard also tended to skip meals when she was invested in projects and would neglect going outside for fresh air and sunlight. Sometimes the only people she would have interaction with were her protege and her assistant, and she would forego speaking with anyone else for days. Ellegaard wondered if that was why she was such a chatterbox when she hung out with her old friends. Ivor was usually the easiest one to talk to when that happened because he was able to keep up with her energy and still contribute to the conversation. She felt bad because she knew she often talked over Gabriel, but she was able to catch herself and let him speak. Soren was also able to keep up with her but sometimes seemed to just sit back and let her talk forever. Ellegaard found it a little strange, but that was normal behavior for Soren.

"Ellegaard?" Olivia asked, interrupting her thoughts.

"Hmm?" Ellegaard asked in return, snapping out of her trance.

"Did you hear what I said?"

Ellegaard donned a guilty expression, "No...I'm sorry. I didn't mean to space out again."

"It's alright. I just wanted to know if you remembered that Soren's coming by later to spend time with you."

Ellegaard was silent for a few moments as she stared at Olivia, "Soren's doing what now?"

"Remember? You told me last week that he was coming to Redstonia to hang out with you."

Ellegaard picked her brain, trying to remember, "Are you sure that's not tomorrow?"

"It's not tomorrow because you reminded me yesterday that he was coming today."

"What!?"

Olivia laughed, "I keep telling you to take a break every now and then. You know I'm capable of finishing the project."

"I know you are, dear. You can go ahead and finish it up. Why didn't Calvin tell me this?" she asked as she stood, "He usually tells me when I see him in the morning!"

"Calvin's on vacation for a week since yesterday."

"He's what?!" Ellegaard exclaimed in confusion.

"Maybe you should get some fresh air."

Slowly, Ellegaard sat down, "You know, I think that's a great idea. Thanks for making lunch, sweetheart."

Ellegaard stood once again and wandered outside, completely baffled at her own inattentiveness. She knew she got lost in her work, but it was never this bad. At least, that's what she assumed. She wasn't entirely sure of her assessment and walked around Redstonia. The sun was high in the sky and everyone went about their business, chattering amongst themselves. Ellegaard started to feel a lot better as she walked around and breathed in the fresh air. She really needed to remember to step outside for a little while instead of being cooped up all day. She couldn't even remember what she and Soren were going to do when he came over. As she glanced at her Dome of Concentration standing in the distance, she knew she wasn't going to spend the rest of the day in there.