Submission (#4703) Approved

[RQ-C-1] Aspirations

Quest: Resonance - Act 1
Act Type: Character
Word Count: 958
Adult Elnin Present: n/a
Regional Affinity: Ealei
Claiming Regional Affinity for: Pollux [ELN2697]
[Adventurer] Rank Unlock Mini-Requirement: n/a

Pollux yawned as he rubbed his eyes, sitting on the steps outside their house. It was still quite early in the morning, the sun barely peeking over the horizon. He squinted, staring off into the distance. The first rays were starting to tint the sea, rocky outcrops and clouds a soft shade of yellow, and even from where he was, he could see the first of the gulls taking to the sky. While he couldn’t hear them, he could already imagine their screechy cries piercing the air. He supposed that was one of the nice things about where they were staying. Their house was on one of the higher elevations, which made coming back from town an absolute pain, but the view from here was breathtaking when watching the sunrise or sunset. He supposed that was why his father had picked this house in the first place, just for the view.

Stifling another yawn, Pollux rubbed his eyes and stretched. He could go back to bed, but since he was up, might as well take a look around town.

Considering it was still quite early, a lot of the shops were still closed, which was fine since he wasn’t really going shopping anyways, and preferred the peace and quiet. It gave him time to mull over some thoughts. They came to Ealei because of his father’s job, but prior to that, he had been in Silveil with his mother, whose occupation was a songstress. A little ironic considering Aria’s timid demeanor.

Out of curiosity, he asked her why she picked that as her profession, considering she was quite timid and shy around others. As someone who had taken a bit more after his mum, he also preferred generally keeping to himself, disliking idle chatter with strangers, so the thought of putting himself out there in front of hundreds, even thousands to be gawked and stared at seemed like the last thing either of them would do. His mother only smiled at him, telling him that she had felt the same at first. While she loved singing, often singing lullabies to him and Apollo when they were still quite young, she had no desire to stand on the stage and sing in front of others. However, it was Artemis who encouraged her, saying that she should share her gift with others, as he was sure they would love to hear her sing.

She was hesitant at first, but taking his advice, she started off small, singing to close friends and family at first, and with their positive encouragement, began to work her way up to where she was now. It was never for fame and fortune, but seeing how happy it made others and the look of wonder and awe on the face of kittoms made her glad she made an effort to step out of her comfort zone.

She asked Pollux if there was anything he liked to do, and while he was hesitant to share at first, he admitted he liked to read and craft theories on things he didn’t understand. Aria asked if he would have liked to pursue the path of a researcher or scholar, and he said he wasn’t sure. He wasn’t like Apollo, who was super outgoing and knew early on that he wanted to become a knight. Though the motives were purely boastful and self-serving at first, after a certain incident, Apollo reflected, and while his goal of pursuing knighthood hadn’t changed, the reasoning behind it had.

For Pollux, he just wanted to learn things by himself. He had no desire of putting himself out there, of wanting to “make a difference” or “share his gift with others”. He was content just being by himself. Perhaps this anti-social behavior worried his parents at first, thinking he would have trouble making friends, which was why they wanted to urge him to pursue a passion, but they never overstepped boundaries or tried to force him to do what he didn’t want to.

Ironically, it was because of Apollo that made him somewhat change his mind. After his brother’s demeanor changed, he noticed that Apollo would put in twice as much effort to help others, and he no longer pestered Pollux as much as he did before, respecting his brother’s boundaries, but still keeping within arm’s length should Pollux find himself wanting a bit of company. Maybe it was seeing how hard at work his brother was that made Pollux want to resolve himself more. Was it still considered his own aspiration if he just wanted to do it to help his brother out? He wouldn’t deny that he had things he was curious about as well, and was more than content just learning by himself, but perhaps… it wouldn’t be so bad to rely on others on occasion. A scholar’s job was to pursue academic and intellectual activities, and while it was still a ways off before he had to fully resolve himself to a single path, it couldn’t hurt to think about it now, he supposed.

A seagull’s cry from overhead jolted him from his thoughts, and it was only then he realized the sun had fully risen now. Oh shoot, what time was it…

Apollo had wanted to meet down by the docks for an “important announcement” he wanted to make, though Pollux had a hunch he already knew what it was. He wondered how long it would take to get there. A squint into the distance yielded a view of Yggdrasil, but considering the eldertree probably made up for nearly half of Ealei with its gargantuan size, that probably didn’t help him with gauging distance.

Oh well. Nothing to do but start making his way there and hope he wasn’t late.