DOARS- Week 8 Day 3- Just Another Day

Welcome back! Things have been getting very serious in the DOARS, haven't they? I hope you enjoy the next chapter!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear Diary,

Today it's just me. I have no idea how long it's going to be just me.
My brother may never return. My parent's might be permanently gone.

I'd love to ignore those two things, but I can't. If I ignored them then I wouldn't be prepared to face what I might have to face, and that could destroy me. That is something I can't allow. I have to think through all the possibilities and set my self up for my best chance of success. Why? Because I'm the last of the living Sw0rd's. At least on this planet.

It's all part of "prepare for the worst and hope for the best."  That's my motto until I see light at the end of the tunnel.



That means paying the bills and not losing my family's house or possessions in their absence. Fortunately I still have access to my family's bank account and my mother's job is, was, pretty lucrative so I shouldn't have to work for a while, or at least until I graduate high school.

Now, I don't want you to worry that I'm going to become a hoarder. I'm much too practical for that. I'm not collecting any new things, I'm just preserving and taking care of the old ones while there is yet hope. And I do have hope. As for my brother's return, well... I'd like to think that's more probable than not, and my parents... have less of a chance. Much less. But it's still a chance and I'm going to hang onto it.



Just because my brother is there looking for a cure to zombification, doesn't mean that the aliens won't necessarily need to relocate, so I keep up with my work on locating a planet for them if theirs is permanently lost. Because, if you think about it, even if they find the cure or some means to fight against the zombies, their planet will still be over run. It is very possibly too late to save their home. Remember, I've seen it with my own eyes. I've seen the zombie apocalypse that Tony has heaped upon them and it's going to haunt my dreams for the rest of my life. What are 5 aliens against thousand or even millions of zombies? Cure or no, relocation seems inevitable.

We, the gnomes, and the aliens, all of us have to face the fact that the aliens have already lost this war. Now it's all about the retreat.

They still want to save their planet, of course, how could they not? But I hope that doesn't blind them to saving themselves first and foremost. Their zombified loved ones are dead. Their war torn world will never recover. They need to move on.

To where, though? Recently I've been thinking more and more about an alternate type of celestial body. Right now I'm trying to figure out how I might be able to make that work. I won't go into details until I'm sure. After all, you might be Tony's next minion, and then he would know all our plans, wouldn't he? But, I think my idea is quite likely the best chance that the alien's have, if only I can work out logistics.


Moving on to less "heavy" topics, you'll probably notice that the sun is quite high in the sky on this picture and I'm not at school. And it's Tuesday.
I'm taking the day off today.
I'd explain, but if that is really necessary, then I am sorry to inform you that your IQ is not high enough to be reading this diary, and you really ought to put it down now.
And walk away.
Slowly.


It wasn't until about mid-afternoon that my emotions struggled with my mind to get the better of me. A wave of sadness flooded over me as if I was the beach during high tide.

I think I just stared at the shower for half an hour trying to decide what the point was. After all, how silly would it look if a sandy beach actively tried to fight against the tide. I mean really, it'd lose, hands down.

You may have noticed that I am not a beach, though. If you didn't, then you obviously can't follow direction. Seriously, put the book down and walk away. Heck I don't even care if you walk away slowly anymore, run for all I care, just stop reading now.

I'm never like this. Emotional I mean, not abusive. I mean I'm never that either, well apparently not never.. any more. I'm straying from the point, but I'm actually a very kind person almost all the time. The same goes for being emotional. I'm not an emotional woman, I take after my mother in that regard, but as you are acutely aware of my recent history and what stresses I may be going through right now, then I hope you can understand with out judging me too harshly. I will admit to being emotional right now. If I ever have children I'm sure I will be emotional again. I can only rely on your good graces to not hold that against me.

It's just that I'm just not sure how to go on. How do I handle everything? My parents always took care of everything, how am I supposed to fill their shoes? What day of the week do I pay rent? Is it the Tuesday bills or the Thursday bills? Do I pay rent, or do we own the house outright? You can probably see now how ill prepared I was to be on my own... as a teenager.



Baby steps. That's what they always say, right? You have to walk before you can run? I'll do that. I'll take things slow, prioritize. Mom did laundry like there was no tomorrow, so that's what I'll do. I can do laundry. I think she may have mentioned the gnomes' connection with laundry, I'm not really sure how that works, but if this has anything to do with the gnomes, then it gets priority.

Next to my brother, they're the best bet on saving the alien race. They might have some teleportation technology that could force the relocation even if the aliens decide to 'go down with the sinking ship' as it were.

I mean, let's be honest, my family and I, and even the gnomes, have fallen in love with the alien culture and we're not going to let them give up. I love them far too much. Rommich, Zhiddezoe, Pat, all of them are far too precious to lose.

Back to normal life, I can learn to cook... later. We have a lot of leftovers in the fridge, and if I don't think about how they're from the party when I last saw my parents, then I can eat them just fine. That means cooking is very low on the priority list.


When this new life gets overwhelming I can go jogging. That'll keep me active and healthy, it'll help take my mind off things and lower my stress. Just breathe in and out and keep running. I can do that. Keeping my sanity, and thus jogging, is right up there with laundry, but perhaps lower than the bills. If my family can ever be united, it'd be awfully nice if we still had a home to be united in.

As I went through the day I kept a narration with myself. "Ok, do this, now..." and things like that. The laundry needed to get to the dryer so it wouldn't mildew. Easy. I can do that. "Put the clothes in the dryer, Raquel, and don't think about anything sad."  I think it was helping me, though I wasn't oblivious to the fact that I could crack and any moment and give up. I just kept telling myself that I could get through the next five minutes, and if I could do that, then I'd be fine.

I know that might be hard to believe, given my lack of emotion in this entry. But, when there is so much emotion in my life currently, why would I want to continue the theme here? This is my break from it all. This is how I collect my thoughts and 'get it together' as it were. I hope you understand.

Back to my day, again. We really do keep getting side tracked, I wonder if there's a better way to stay on topic....?

"You will be fine, Raquel," a voice from behind me rang out. I jumped a foot in the air and turned to see the ambassador. "Why don't you call your brother and see how he's doing. He's not out of your life completely, and he's not dead. It'll be good for you." With that the little brown gnome disappeared.

He was right, though, I can still rely on my brother... if he can get cell phone reception out there.


Which apparently he can.

The only thing of importance that we talked about was his progress on the cure. It was going slowly, but it was going. After that we just talked about random things and reminisced. The gnome was right, it did make me feel a lot better.

I went to bed with a much calmer heart and a renewed confidence that someday my family would be back together, but for now, I just have to make it through the night. If I can do that, then I'll be fine.


Holding down the fort,

Raquel Sw0rd



~~~~~~~~~

My game LOVES me and sent Lynn and Cycl0n3 on vacation so the teens could have the house to themselves, or well, the teen singular. Anyways, that was perfect for my story! YAY. Also since Hector is not the DW, per random legacy rules he moved out. I let him take Pat with him because Pat SHOULD have been the same age as him, since she was his IF. I'll probably force her to age up the next time I see her to fix the glitch. Maybe when they get back from doing their research with the aliens, I'll do that. ;)