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Star Candy (3) : In your mailbox, locker, or desk drawer appears a bag of star candy! There is no indication of where or who it came from other than a small tag that reads: “Happy Star Festival!” The small, colorful pieces of sugar seemed to almost glow faintly, and after eating them, the world looks a bit different. Cartoonish and much less…real. Is it a hallucination? Is it some new reality? The strange vision lasts only half an hour, and after it wears off, the rest of the candy seems to disappear. How strange!
He almost didn't want to try to eat the candy he'd found in his desk. On one hand, this whole Star Festival seemed to be off the rails at points. He eyed the small stone on his desk, next to the one from his mother so long ago. Whisper stones, worry stones, soul stones, whatever they were called, they held a place in his heart. Ren rubbed his thumb over the stone he'd gotten from the alien merchant and eyed the candies.
(He hadn't expected to cry, but hearing his mothers voice again had... triggered something in him. Something he thought was dealt with, but clearly was not)
On the other hand, the candies reminded him of Dinara. Dinara... He sighed. Ren didn't know what to do with that one. One minute, she was trying to murder him - verbally, at least - and the next she was twirling around, new bow in her hair and looking like a bright star among the dark sky. She was like a meteor, here one moment then gone the next.
Moreover...
Dinara was corrupting. She was joining the Negaverse. Not for him, not for anyone, except herself? That was a little bit of a question, but it sounded like he wasn't much a factor in that choice. Except to get more power than him. Ren chuckled to himself. Ah yes, to be out matched by a former cosmos page of all things in dedication. If he was being honest, he wanted to see it, just to see the heights she could reach.
Ren popped one in his mouth, eyeing the glow with a bit of apprehension and watched the world shift. It suddenly wasn't very 'real' but honestly... that was fine for him. The real world was too much pain generally anyway. He let his thoughts drift and sway, reaching up with a hand to draw imaginary things in the air. One hand grabbed the two stones on his desk and he loked at them with fond memories.
His mother had been a frail but kind woman, married to Sloan for money and pride. It was a loveless marriage, Sloan only wanting her for her genes and her money. Yet, Raelyn was always kind to Ren, always gentle and protective in her way. She painted and crafted all manor things, and Ren had one day hoped to sell them for her so the two could get out of the terrible situation they were in. It wasn't meant to be, of course.
Raelyn would die too early for Ren to do much of anything. He could still remember walking into her sunroom, where she did all of her painting and crafting, to find her on the floor in a pool of her own blood. A small signet ring had been locked in her fingers, covered in blood.
Ren had been eight.
His world returned to its relative mundaneness and he covered his eyes with his hands. He stayed like that until his stomach growled and his eyes were crusted from tears.
[ WC: 603 ]
