thefirstfleet

LESSONS IN LIFE OR A TALE OF LEARNING     Comfort is a word that could have a thousand-and-one definitions if you ask a thousand people. From simple things such as warmth to something philosophical or even metaphysical, there is no one single, definite answer to the question of what comfort meant. Flipping that question upside down, the lack of comfort was also up to interpretation depending on whom you asked. From ill-designed furniture to not fitting in a group, a barrage of often contradictory answers awaited the unsuspecting questioner. For a little Cassiopeian girl, the answer was quite certain, though: her clothes made her skin feel itchy. Miluvia Izlengil, aged six, was no stranger to uniforms. Coming from a place where most people, including her parents, wore one, the very notion felt not just acceptable, but normal. Uniforms surrounded her: the dark green overalls of the Spacers’ Guild, the colorful Starfleet uniforms, the billowing red overcoats of the Cassiopeian Armed

LINEAGE OR A TALE OF BELONGING   Pt. I Onset   It is a remarkable, but also disturbing fact of life that dreams can feel uncannily realistic. The unconscious mind is given free rein, thoughts and ideas and memories oft relegated into the unsupervised corners of the mind are given the opportunity to step out into the limelight. Sometimes, it is light indeed, old, faded memories returning, given a bright new paint-job, making them feel more real than real. Sometimes, and there are some who say, more often, it is quite the opposite. Light fades and hidden terror bursts out from its shadowy confines, amplified with the lack of the mind’s conscious oversight. It is a darkness that is not merely the absence of light, but an entity of its own. Alas, it is usually a trick of the mind. That doesn’t mean this darkness can’t feel more real than real either. For the person having the nightmare (for after a certain point, it ceases to be a mere dream anymore), it is very much real. The fear is