ty for the encouragement! Here's another part, with a new POV:

✵ ✵ ✵

Tristan

I always thought that I was an outcast, as people would never bother to interact with me. Someone would never willingly come up to me and strike up a conversation. I mean, who would talk to someone who looked sleep-deprived, depressed, and like a murderer? It was understandable, I was sleep-deprived and somewhat depressed. I guess I also made bad choices, and meeting an ex-criminal was one of them.

I’m an orphan, so I never knew my parents. My real ones anyway. A couple adopted me when I was young. They were really caring, as if I was one of their own, and even paid for my martial arts classes, but they were always very busy and distant. Now, even as a college dropout, I have no friends, no family, and nothing valuable to my name. To be honest, I don’t mind. I don’t make an effort to make friends anyway. I just focus on my martial arts classes. I’ve always been talented at that, even when I was just a kid, so why would I give it up? Maybe my father was the leader of the martial arts mafia or something. But like I said, I never knew him, so how could I know?

Anyway, I should tell you about how I met an ex-criminal. When I first met her, I actually didn’t know she was a criminal at all. I was just going home from my martial arts class when I came across a taller-than-average girl. She had a loose ponytail and her eyes were a striking brown, almost black shade. She was busy looking at her iPel 41x9 (a phone-like projector device that I wish I had), then looked up and noticed me. 

“Oh, hello,” she said. She nodded at me, half-smiled, then looked back down at her iPel. 

“Hey,” I replied quietly. I walked faster, hoping she wouldn’t think I’m some weirdo following her. It didn’t help that I was probably dressed like a rat in martial arts merch either.

“Do you do martial arts?” she asked, not taking her eyes off her iPel. 

“Uh, yeah. How did you know?” I mean, I supposed it was obvious, seeing what I was wearing.

The girl eyed my clothes. Shrugging, she looked back down at her iPel and started quickly walking away. I began running to catch up with her.
“Hey, wait up!” I yelled. 

She was pacing faster now, almost like a jog. She turned her head towards me to shoot me a half-disgusted, half-uninterested look. I ran even faster, but my legs were starting to ache, especially after the intense workout and training I just finished. I was looking at the concrete until I saw her sneakers. They weren’t moving, so I slowed down.

“You can stop running now. What do you want?” the girl asked impatiently. 

Like a fool, I forgot. 

“If you’re not going to say anything…I might as well go. I’ve got a cat to feed.” 

“Oh! Sorry about that. Uh, do you need any help going home?” I asked. 

“Excuse me?” Her eyes widened. 

“Wait, I’m sorry, I don’t mean to say that, it just slipped out. It’s just that no one’s ever… No one has really ever said hi to me before,” I murmured.

The girl sighed. “Look, you might have nothing better to do, but I better get moving if I want to get home in time. I don’t have any time to feel sorry for you.”

I nodded, embarrassed. “Oh, okay.” I quickly turned and ran away, my face turning hot. I couldn’t believe I had just blurted that out to a stranger! But that was how it started, and this ex-criminal… Well, she turned out to be friendly and super smart, and we became acquaintances, if not friends.

---

It's cool how you did NaNoWriMo, @pangolin. I probably wouldn't have enough commitment to work on a novel of my own for a whole month, honestly. And good luck on your screenplay!

I have tried to write one or two piano songs before, though I feel like now I could make so much better ones. The problem is that I just don't have the time nor inspiration. As for guitar, I haven't tried to yet, but if I do make a piano song, I could probably try to transfer it over to guitar chords, which would be easier for me than just straight up thinking up a guitar song. 

Survival skills sound cool. I don't know anything really about it, but I do like hiking and being outside. I don't really play sports, but I do badminton for fun (not professionally, just as a hobby).

I recently finished the book Out of Range by Heidi Lang and I thought it was pretty good. I'd recommend it. How about you?

Have any of you done anything or are planning to do anything for winter break? 

new part! 

❀ ❀ ❀

Akira

Three weeks after I had gone to court, I was just taking a stroll while scrolling through my iPel when all of a sudden, a boy in baggy clothes came up to me. What really caught my eye though, was his dark brown hair, streaked and tipped with gold. I greeted him and I heard him greet me back. What makes this boy worth mentioning, though, is that he asked me if he could walk me home when we met only about five minutes earlier. Now that’s what I call weird. He said it was because he didn’t have friends, and I get it. He had dark circles under his eyes, looked depressed, and  he would pass for a serial killer trying to escape the law. Oh, but as someone who’s a reformed criminal, I can’t be talking.

We somehow bumped into each other again, and we had a conversation. Eventually, I gave him my number, though it was just in case he needed me for anything since I felt bad, and we’ve become what I would call friends. Since then, I’ve learned a few things about him, such as his name. Apparently, the boy’s named Tristan. Making friends with Tristan would be my first good deed since I’ve become a reformed criminal. As he supposedly seemed to have no friends, I’m sure he is delighted he finally has one.

Anyways, After being released, I needed to find a job, and I quickly found a suitable one that was a secretive organization called GAP (Government Analyzation Project) that analyzed the government and everything else. The way it worked was simple: if the organization approved of it, they would check it off in a folder. 

This organization obviously wouldn’t even think about hiring a former criminal as a worker, but since I had charmed them with my  smarts, which I use like ten thousand times a day, I got the job. After that, they have found me to be useful (I guess criminal experience came in handy), and have become rather dependent on me to figure out if their analysis had any flaws. 

I recently realized something about the government as I was going through the history books of the “ancient” 2000s. I admit, I was a bit surprised to learn that back then, they had democracy, and it was different for every country. Nowadays, it’s basically what the ancients would call “totalitarian” where one person ruled the entire country, but in this case, it’s the entire world. These days, we don’t call it “totalitarian”, but we call it princeps-mundism. 

Currently, the person who holds the position as “ruler of the world”, or Princeps Mundi, is Henry Johnson. Here’s how princeps-mundism works: The person who is currently the Princeps Mundi stays in the position for as long as he wants, which is typically until he wants to retire or dies. Once one of those things happen, the position is passed on to the son of the past Princeps Mundi. If the past Princeps Mundi doesn’t have a son, he has to write a formal document, letter, or something similar, or mention who he wants to be his successor. If the past Princeps Mundi fails to do so, which rarely happens, then someone worthy who works under the government will be chosen at random.

What this has to do with my work is that the current Princeps Mundi has recently announced that he would retire. This was shocking news, but he later said that he wanted some free time to spend time with his kids or something like that. It seemed reasonable, yet the successor Princeps Mundi had named wasn’t specific. All he said was anyone who seemed reasonable and smart enough could be the successor. This has become a worry for people, but the government sorted it out, and there will be a few people chosen and then the people would elect it, like democracy. It seemed like an ancient tradition, but it was what the government agreed was best.

I can’t spot any flaws in the way our government works, to be truthful. The only thing I think that is very, very wrong is that only boys can become the Princeps Mundi. Now, this is absolutely unacceptable because first of all, it’s sexism. Second of all, girls are just as worthy to become Princeps Mundi, if not more, due to our relatively quick thinking (womens’ brains are about five times faster). Third of all, we’re living in 2384, not the colonial times. During the 17th century, wives, or women in general, were only allowed to stay at home and do housework while their husbands went outside to work. From 1872 to 2197, girls have been able to run for president. Then, all of a sudden, Matthew Genier, who used to be Princeps Mundi during 2198-2277 decided that girls were lesser beings than boys and took away our right to be able to run for president along with every other right that Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and other women's rights activists worked so hard for.

I sighed and stopped thinking for a moment. I took a deep breath. It was times like these that I got lost in my thoughts. I took out my iPel and scrolled through the latest news. I stopped at the news of the possible candidates for the Princeps Mundi. There was this guy named Lucifer, someone named Harry, another named Nathaniel… But then I read a name that made me literally freeze. Theodore Kamiyama… Wait, that’s my father!

My father’s running for Princeps Mundi!? Now that’s unexpected. I always knew my father was good at his job, after all, he had a high salary, but I didn’t know he was so good that he was a potential candidate for Princeps Mundi! But then again, I should have seen it coming. It’s not like I know much about him anyway. When I was a child, my father would always play around with me, giving me his utmost care and attention. Those were the good old times. But now, he’s so busy with work that I doubt he even knows I completely skipped college and that I’ve walked down the criminal path before retiring.

I am sort of hoping that he’ll win, but as I said, he’s been so busy with the government these days that I never get to talk to him. It’s fine, of course, as I am basically already an adult, not a clinging child, but I still wish he could at least call me sometimes. It would be nice to know how he’s doing. 

Anyway, just the other day, I found a stray cat sleeping  at the front of my door. It was cute, and I assumed it was a stray because it had no collar on, but just in case, I made sure not to get too attached to it. The cat has been pretty sweet, always by my side. The cat almost reminds me of how my father used to act… But it’s most likely a coincidence. I sort of “jokingly” named the cat Theodore after him, “Theo” for short.

Over time, I grew closer to Theo and although I didn’t want to at first, I’ve grown attached to him. Sometimes I just sit there, staring out my window, and talk to Theo about all my troubles and things I’m thinking about, like how my mother hasn’t been able to contact my father in a while. Honestly, I know I should be worried, and I am, but he’s probably on some kind of business trip that he forgot to tell Mother about. He has done things like that before, so I’m not going to fill up my head with worries concerning him. I’m sure he’s never done that with me anyway, as a real father should.