Aito

Far off like a distant memory, where the night is ever-present. I search for my name, alone in my slumber, it whispers back. A vague dream, where I stumble upon a room, I find it among many mirrors. I cannot see my reflection, yet I was shown many things, abounding in truth. A mirror ripples, like water from a clear lake, a portal to the past. There I find a void, a field of stars, blossoming in the iniquity one after the next. Stained with rage and tranquility. An overgrowing cosmos, born from war & triumph. The sky glows, abundant in the moonlight and an ethereal mist. A hidden tower comes into view. A place for learning & training, filled with ash, a library full of tattered books. A book filled with my knowledge dwells within, though I cannot read it. I fell deeper into my dreams, just to forget that when I looked up I no longer needed the books. For I could read the stars, lost within those paranoia skies.[break][break]

backstory

Valentine was born to two loving parents from very diffrent parts of the globe, his father was a Japanese man with a bit of french in his blood, and had moved to the USA 20 years ago, where he met and fell in love with a french creole woman in Louisiana. Many thought it odd that such two drastically different people could fall in love, but they worked. She was the fire, the storm, and the passion, and he was the tranquility, the calm, and the romance. His mother sporting her almond skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes, often enjoyed seafood much like his father, however, where she preferred hers cooked in a myriad of herbs and spices, he preferred his raw. Often resulting in one of the only few arguments they ever truly had, sushi or seafood boil. It was over one of these arguments with individual friends that they had heard one another's conversations. After his mother had spoken her piece about the situation the two friend groups merged, and the two became inseparable. It was love at first debate, and so they met, became friends, fell in love, wed, and had their first son; Valentine.

To no surprise of many, he had been named this considering he had been born on Valentine's day. Yeah, yeah, real original. The young boy was teased for it rather often. Then a few years later they gave birth to their second son, and a few years after that, their daughter. However, save for their daughter, both boys looked drastically different than the other. Valentine took after his mother, and his brother took after his father. Often causing them to get teased, which resulted in a myriad of fights in nearly every school. To make matters even more challenging their parents moved them to Japan just 10 years after their middle child had been born.

There the bullying continued, worsened even, sometimes resulting in them coming home with a bit too many cuts and bruises, forcing their father to take measures into his own hands. Or rather their mother forcing them to take Jeet Kun Do lessons at the local dojo. Learning self-defense proved to be worthwhile, and considering their dad knew a little himself, having taught them what he knew before entering them in the classes so they could get ahead of the curb, it had made the experience into that of one of bonding rather than just self-protection.

Often they came home to home-cooked meals, extra school work given to them by their very own parents wanting them to once again stay ahead of the curb and succeed in life, and the pressures of the society around them to either excel or parish and be nothing more than a social pariah. Of course, this resulted in numerous amounts of stress for their children the pressure to succeed, to be better in life than those around them, to be even better than their peers, but their parents still made sure to take time out for them to relax. For them to decompress, often with it being family trips, games, sports, or indulging in their hobbies. All in all, it was pretty normal and standard life for them and their children.[break][break]

Me, Myself, and I!

Sounds narcissistic, but sharing a household with two other siblings, always being looked at strange by those passing when walking with his brother, always being told to be the example, to be the leader, to be the best. Well, shit crumbles, shit falls apart, and sometimes the best is only what you make of it. That's what it ultimately always bubbled down to for Valentine. Living in a country where people who looked like him were scarce, save for his own family and the occasional tourist had that effect on people's mentality. On the plus side, he had always been told he was attractive, so it could've been worse, he could've been born ugly. Though he was easy on the eyes and intelligent, he found his attention span was always directed toward the clouds, or rather the stars above them. He had always been a night owl, often going out at night, running around with the local hooligans to spray paint something, grab food from the local shop, or just go out the local districts where he'd game in the cyber cafe.

Though one thing he had always found interesting, ever since stargazing in the states nearly every night as a kid was the stars, their meaning, the fact that they were trillions of miles away and visible in all their glory, the way the space operated and warped time so that stars, molten rocks that had already imploded were still visible, how people used them as maps, and more importantly his crutch, something he found himself obsessed with astrology. Despite his quick uptake on things, he had found that people who lived their life by a schedule, a code, and a pattern often had more success. Though the one he had chosen for himself was often viewed as absurd by most, he didn't mind. He lived his life according to his horoscope, and often he found that it led him in the right direction, and if it didn't he'd disillusion himself into thinking that it did. Everyone had their quirks after all, and he figured his vice wasn't that bad.

Fast forward a few years, and here he was taking college courses, working for an IT internship, living his best bachelor life, and spending time with his siblings when he could, how he could. Life was easygoing, things were simple, and outside of his asshole boss, things were relatively decent. He figured if anything this life he lived was a good one and he was grateful for it as it could always be worse.[break][break]

Then it was, maybe...

Having finished his last homework assignment, in advance he thought he'd have a little downtime to relax. He was just trying to have fun, and enjoy his day at the cyber cafe with his brother after he had gotten off work at his internship for an IT company. Then a memory of a light crashing from the sky plagued his mind, monoliths rising from the ground, sinkholes, monsters running around, a fucking barrier out of nowhere, and then a message from something claiming to be Earth. Well, for now, things had certainly gone to shit, but on the plus side at least he didn't have to go to work the next morning. Though knowing his boss, and on the off chance this was some type of stress-induced hallucination he figured his boss would probably ask him too.[break][break]