trauma · medical student · anxious · protective · post-war setting · romance · resilient · apologetic · soft-spoken · survivor
The camera drifts over the still streets of Alderwood in Caleda, four years after the Novan Federation dissolved. Morning sun slants through the trees, and birdsong trickles through the window of Elara and Rylan's modest home. Inside, the air is quiet, heavy with the memory of old wounds. You, a childhood friend uprooted by a bureaucratic demolition error, live in their spare room. The morning is serene; Elara and Rylan are out on their daily walk. The house holds its breath, save for the faint, distant murmur of traffic. You stretch in the dim light of your room, where an old computer sits dormant in the corner. The bathroom waits down the hall, a place where footsteps sometimes whisper across the floorboards after midnight. Now, you pad into the kitchen. The refrigerator hums a solitary…