#rowan posts

A friend lost to war

Hazel stood at the foot of the tree. Her eyes void of any tears. A general couldn’t be weak enough to cry. Not even for this. A memorial laid as she stared blankly at the headstone.

‘REESE ETHERS’

‘FRIEND AND SISTER, DIED A HERO’

“I always told you to follow my lead… why was that so difficult for you?” she muttered to the ground. Reese was her friend, she had known her since they had joined the academy together, but she knew one of them would exceed more than the other. Hazel just seemed to be the one who did finish first. Hazel couldn’t look any of her soldiers in the face. She failed at the one thing she sworn she’d always do. Lead.

“General?...” a hesitant, faint voice called out from the crowd behind her. Stepping into view. It was one of her soldiers.

“What? ,” She bit towards him.

He stuttered frantically, trying to get his point across without angering the General,

“W-well… we were wondering- since Reese just died…”

“Don’t expect to not have training tomorrow, we still have a war to win.,” She snapped. The solider did his best to keep his gaze on hazel. He was quiet as too not induce her wrath, so she continued’ “Now, do you want to ask that question now solider?”

He continued to stay quiet, tearing his eyes away from hazel.

“I said- Do you want that answer to the question now, it’s impolite to ignore people, or should we reintroduce some manners to you?” The threat lingered in air as she got her sword out of its sheath and held it menacingly.

As sweat furrowed upon the brow of the solider as he promptly responded, “No ma’am- My question was answered! - “he fidgeted with the lining of his armor while he spoke “-I can also ensure you my manners are alright, General”

“Good, now all of you head to your quarters, we have to wake up earlier tomorrow.!” Hazel announced, ordering the army to head inside.

After Hazel dismissed the unit back to the barracks, she opened the letter Reese left for her. Inside was a letter and photo that made her crumble the paper and toss it to the grave. It made her feel like at any moment she could pop. She could feel her face turning red, she was a

“You were always weak. It was just a matter of time before you went down.” She spat to the body and soul in the grave. She gave the headstone a pitiful expression before shaking it off and leaving the field. As she walked off though, the paper unraveled to reveal the note, paired with a photo of them when hazel was promoted

‘Dear Hazel’

‘I’m so sorry that this happened. If you’re reading this. I’m dead. Please don’t blame yourself. I know you won’t though. Ever since you became general, you have become corrupt. I’m sorry for letting that happen. You’ve become a ruthless monster. I’ve should’ve known that one day, somehow, I would have a friend, lost to war.’

As she walked to her Chambers, she had been called to the throne room by the King. His daughter, Cerise, had come back from her trip to Greece. Cerise was if poison oak was a person. She always seemed to get under people’s skin and irritate the flesh until it bled from insanity.

She turned her path to go down the parallel hallway towards the throne room. There she saw the brunette horror known as Cerise. She was on the smaller throne next to her father, the King.

“You called, your Highness?” She bowed as she declared her presence in the room. The room was filled with council and advisors, with the king and princess on the thrones up against the wall. She was well known across the kingdom as the most ruthless general and soldier. They held the upmost respect for Hazel. To them, she was a weapon, a tool to colonize and annex kingdoms and get them more power.

“Ah yes, Hazel. I did, you’ve met the Princess, right?” The king asked, his tone far more laid back than with any more staff, as him and hazel had become close for the past decade.

Before answering, hazel lifted from her bow, her face dropping as her gaze encounters Cerise, “I’m certain I have met her before, but I could be mistaken sir,” She established, trying to hide the sneer in her voice.

She wished Cerise would go back to Greece and stay there. She hated how arrogant and spoiled the princess was. Hazel believed she was not a good fit to be the Kings successor, nor his heir. She was incompetent in her eyes.

Not to mention how she was before she went to Greece. Cerise would always come in while her army was training and try to distract the soldiers. Whenever Hazel would confront her, she would have the audacity to tell her that since she was going to be the queen someday then she could do whatever she wanted with her army. It peeved her to no end.

She would try and get hazel to “Chill out” or to “relax”, always in a mocking tone, and it never stopped. Cerise constantly bombarded her with belittlement and critics. Hazel noticed that Cerise would hide her sword and amour so that she would be late for training. Hazel and Cerise were not friends, not even acquaintances. Hazel hated Cerise, and Cerise hated Hazel. There would be no exceptions.

“Well, I would like you two to get comfortable together, because, Hazel, you’re going to be her bodyguard!” The King said in a cheerful voice, like he didn’t just doom Hazel to a lifetime of torture.

That is guilt tripping, I am not a fool.

I am sorry for not wanting to deal with your shit at the moment, seeing as my boyfriend is having a breakdown.

We have been told that you have been involved in questionable things in the past. See our PSA post on that one.

2. what was life like in the early days of realising you were more-than-one?

It was difficult. Rose did not want to admit that we were a system. She ignored Damean and Blaine. This resulted in Damean lashing out, unfortunately.

Once she accepted it it was scary, they all had so much to figure out about themselves plus the added stress of school.

We wanted to tell you for a very long time but we were worried how you and others would react.

3. Describe the funniest thing you’ve seen happen between two alters.

*Cairon from lavender system* Perry, your gay is showing.

Damean, in headspace: My gay is always showing!!

Rose, shortly after: Yoda in the first movie - hee hee hoo hoo. Yoda in the prequels - backflips I do! People I kill!

(I was having trouble thinking of anything, this was all I could conjure up)

30. Is there any gender/sexuality variance in-system?

Indeed! The majority of us are male, even though the body is female. As far as I know, all of the males (excluding Blaine of course) are gay. Jessie is bi, Cornflower and Serena are straight. Dew is non-binary.

32. How big is the system?

Oh dear... big

17, although the majority are dormant. See this to know who is dormant.

7. describe a favorite place for you or other alters in the inner world (if applicable) if not then a favorite place in real life! or both!

Our headspace is fairly small. Only two places in it I believe. But we can only access one part - the house.

All of us are fairly attached to our rooms. I spend the most amount of time in Damean’s room. We have a table that we use for system meetings. We also have a small living room where we all sit and play uno or other games.

Our headspace expands as we get new alters. They or someone else make a room for them.

I hope we picked the right one. Apologies for not replying sooner.

1. is there anyone you consider the “host”? has there ever been one?

Yes. We consider Damean and Matthew the hosts. There has always been a host.

12. Do you have any introjects (fictives/factives)? How are they similar to their source? How do they differ?

We have Cornflower. She is a fictive of Cornflower Fieldmouse from Redwall. She identifies heavily with her source. She is almost exactly the same to her source as far as I know (I have not seen nor read it). The only way she is starting to differ is her manner of speech. She is slowly assimilating the normal manner of speech through talking to others (something I have yet to achieve).

13. Describe the most drastic change a fictive has gone through since their first appearance.

Interesting.

We are well. Are you a system as well?

I hope you enjoy our blog.