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peace-coast-island · 9 months

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Diary of a Junebug

Scuba diving at Rownigan and a trip to Silverband Cascades

I didn’t expect to go on another underwater adventure so soon, but I’m not complaining! It’s kind of a two in one thing - an adventure with Jamie at Rownigan and a vacation at Silverband. It didn’t occur to me until now that it’s been a long time since I’ve had one of those with Jamie.

Ever since the entourage disbanded years ago and the university that brought them all together shut down, I’ve lost touch with most of them. Though over the years, I’ve been slowly regaining contact with some of them through social media. We’re all in different phases of life, so it’s nice to have the internet to keep us connected, or at least allow us to check in on each other from time to time.

Jamie’s mission at Rownigan involves a couple other travel companions - one being a familiar face, another one is someone Jamie’s currently taking under her wing at the moment. It’s one of those adventures where you need a small team, preferably with those who are familiar with the area.

The familiar face is Manfred Sarnai, a wandering vampire turned researcher, historian, and adventurer. He was going through a transitional phase when he met Jamie after deciding to hold off on his engagement to his former childhood sweetheart.

Manfred’s story is interesting because not only he’s a descendant of one of the oldest vampire clans in the world, but his ex-fiance happened to be royalty. He had known the royal family since forever because of their family histories, so it was kind of natural for him and the former prince to be close. By the time they were around 16/17, they were unofficially engaged.

The two had planned to marry after Manfred finished with grad school - the royal family wanted the wedding to be earlier, but Manfred insisted on getting his degrees. While he and Adric were close, Manfred, upon looking back, felt that marriage wasn’t gonna work out in the long run - at least for him.

However, things didn’t work out that way when a terrorist group attacked the castle and turned everything upside down. The terrorists were defeated and apprehended, but there were several casualties on both sides, including Aldric’s parents. From there, things changed dramatically between Manfred and Aldric. In other words, they were quickly becoming strangers to each other.

Manfred said that even before the attack he was having second thoughts about marriage. He realized how that going to grad school was his way of making the most out of his freedom before confining himself to the life of a royal. I think it’s one of those things that doesn’t fully hit you until the time is quickly approaching.

He said he didn’t have anything against them as they were genuinely good people. But at the end of the day, they still have an image to uphold, making it kind of hard to tell what’s genuine and what’s for show. I can see why that aspect is what Manfred start to question whether or not he was making the right choice.

Ultimately, he decided that he needed to be out on his own before making a huge commitment. And eventually, his travels led him to Peace Coast Island where he met Jamie and became a consultant on vampires. Along with doing research on various topics, he was also a guest lecturer and dabbled a bit in theater. Sometime later he resumed his studies and finally got his master’s.

It was during his time there when he met singer-songwriter Elliot Marchand. Elliot, like him, was also at a crossroads in terms of his career and professional life. He was also engaged, but he and his partner mutually agreed to hold things off to focus on themselves before moving forward. Because of their similar situations, Manfred and Elliott quickly became good friends.

In the end, Elliott and his boyfriend worked things out and got married. Their situation was basically “I need to take care of myself first before bringing another person into my life kind of thing”, and it made their relationship stronger. Now they’ve been happily married for a couple years and they’re doing great.

On the other hand, Manfred realized that he and Aldric have changed too much to the point that they’re like completely different people now. It sucks to lose something between someone who used to mean everything to you, but sometimes it just happens. For the longest time he didn’t want to admit what he suspected all long until Jamie and the others told him that it was time that he figure out things once and for all.

Fast forward to now and Manfred doesn’t regret his decision. Sure, it was difficult to let go, but there was really nothing left for him back home. And of course, there’s some who are still unhappy with him. However, at this point what’s done is done and he’s got his own life to live. I’m glad that he’s figured things out and living out the life he wants to live.

The other companion who’s accompanying Jamie is Linnea, formerly of the International Sanguine Watchdogs Army. She was the leader of what they called the Linnea Squad, at least until they defected due to internal conflict.

The leader of the army is her father, who she doesn’t have a close relationship with as he favors her brothers. She said she always felt that the only reason why she was given such a high ranking position at a young age was because it’s like some consolation prize. Something along the lines of sorry you’re a girl, or some shit. Yeah, can’t blame her for feeling like iffy about the whole thing.

And there’s also a bunch of other issues that aren’t worth getting into other than she and her quad left on bad terms and now she’s in a tight spot. Really, the only reason why she was able to defect with her quad intact was because one of her brothers - an adopted one - took her side and helped them escape. As far as she knows, no one has suspected him yet, and she hopes it stays that way.

To make matters worse, she lost two members of her squad recently because of conflict. That’s entirely another issue that is intertwined with the main issue of the army. It’s also the main reason why Jamie decided to take the remaining Linnea Squad under her wing, as well as organize a trip to Silverband. In short, they’re going through a rough patch after those two guys walked out, especially since their relationships with them have become complicated.

According to Jamie and the squad, there’s a lot of conflicting information going around, and it’s kind of deliberate on Jet and Gabe’s part. Jet’s is, or was, a member of the squad. Gabe’s not an official member but a childhood friend of Jet’s they rescued and took in. Between the two, Linnea’s the closest to Jet. Right now she’s not sure how she feels about him, especially how he’s been treating her over the past year.

Basically, Jet and Linnea go way back. Jet was taken in by the army after barely escaping a massacre that killed most of his family. Sometime later, Linnea was assigned to watch over him, sort of like a bodyguard. A few years later, Linnea was assigned her own squad, which consisted of Jet, Florina, Nash, and Shirin.

While Linnea was the leader and Florina was second in command, the real heart of the team was Jet. Linnea and Jamie said out of the whole squad, Jet had the most unlucky breaks, and maybe that was why they ended up letting him get away with a lot of things. Obviously it’s not an excuse, but it’s clear that he’s been through a lot of shit, and that can really fuck with your perception of things.

He’d been abused by his parents, which was why he was sent to a children’s home, where he met Gabe. Disaster struck the city, and he and the surviving kids were basically raised in a prison. The kids revolted, leading to a massacre that Jet and Gabe barely survived. They got separated with with Jet escaping and being rescued while Gabe was taken prisoner.

For years Jet believed that Gabe was killed along with the others and suffered from survivor’s guilt. The rest of the squad also went through something similar, barely surviving a harrowing situation where they watched their loved ones and friends die.

Not to mention, they’re only kids. Linnea became a quad leader at 15, and she’ll be 18 in a few months, making her the youngest in the squad. They’ve been through so much at young ages - that’s what growing up in an age of war and political instability does to you.

After Jet was reunited with Gabe, Linnea thought things would improve from here on out. Unfortunately, she was wrong. There was infighting in the army, which caused her and the squad to become disillusioned. A particular incident that left half the army killed was what led to her and a few other surviving squads to rebel when it became clear that their goals no longer aligned.

Then there’s Jet and Gabe. Jamie says Jet’s the kind of kid whose heart is in the right place, but he has a severe case of tunnel vision. He brought the squad together - at first. His attitude made it a bit hard for others to get along with him, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t risk putting his life on the line for them.

However, he can be very pushy and controlling. His stubbornness is considered a good and bad thing. In other words, it’s a combination of his principles and determination that allowed him to get away with manipulating and pushing others around, something that seems to be getting him into a lot of trouble later on.

Again, it seems like he means well, so it’s not like he’s being malicious on purpose, from my understanding. The real issue is that he holds on too hard and that seems to be affecting his judgement. There’s also that controlling behavior and tunnel vision, both which are detrimental to team morale as well. But it’s not one-sided, the rest of the squad admits that they have their own problems too.

Ultimately, it’s a complicated situation where no one’s really in the right or wrong and they were all ill equipped to deal with their numerous and complex problems. Not to mention, they’re kids. Traumatized kids who really don’t know any better because they grew up in a military in a war zone. I don’t think it’s fair to judge them too hard on how they handled things.

Eventually, it blew up and led to a huge fight that didn’t really resolve much. Florina called it an all-out screaming match, which the others say was pretty accurate. Even though it happened weeks ago, the squad hasn’t fully recovered from that, which was why Jamie felt it was best to take them away on a trip. Sure, it won’t solve their problems, but a little escape doesn’t hurt. In fact, in my experience, stepping away from the situation to focus on something else for a bit. But keep in mind that it’s not the same as avoiding the problem and pretending it doesn’t exist.

Instead of working things out, Jet made a bunch of accusations towards Linnea, and then left the squad with Gabe. To make matters worse, it looks like he’s talking behind the squad’s back and playing victim. He claims that Linnea kicked him out, which is obviously not true. The squad wanted to work things out and he refused to cooperate. End of story. No one wanted him to leave - they insisted that he stay and he refused.

At this point, Linnea and the squad aren’t going to fight it. If Jet wants to leave, they’re not gonna force him to stay. Maybe he needs the space and it’ll do them some good if they’re away from each other for a while. Florina believes that part of the reason why they were up on each other’s throats was because they were kinda cut off from everything else, so they only had each other. Nash added that it was the reason why Linnea reached out to Jamie for help.

Like I said, they really have it tough, so they really shouldn’t be handling things alone. If anyone can help, it’s Jamie. Aside from being a badass adventurer who knows a lot about the world, she’s also a mentor/big sister figure a lot of us look up to. There’s a reason why I consider her one of my role models. Really, if it wasn’t for Jamie, I would not be living the life I have today.

Jamie’s helped out a lot of people, so I know she can do the same for Linnea and her squad. Maybe she’ll be able to reach out to Jet and Gabe too once things calm down.

For now, there’s not a lot the squad can do about the situation. It sucks, but there’s just some things that aren’t in your control and there’s no use stressing over that. As for Linnea, she’s slowly coming to terms with the idea that you can’t fix everything. She fell into that trap of thinking that because she’s the leader, she has to always be on top of everything.

I mean, who can blame her? She grew up in a family that placed a lot of high - and likely unrealistic - expectations on her. I wouldn’t be surprised if she has some perfectionist tendencies too since there’s a pattern with that. If I were in her position, I’d be super hard on myself too.

I think Manfred and Jamie helped Linnea come to terms with her relationship with Jet. They were close friends who have been through a lot of shit. And because of their rough upbringings, that caused them to hold on to those who care about them, maybe a little too hard. In other words, they brought out the best and worst in each other.

As much as Linnea wants to help Jet, she’s coming to terms that she can’t play hero, and neither can he. Sure, he can be manipulative towards her, but she can’t say that she hasn’t done the same. There’s only so much you can do alone and communication is a two way street. Not to mention that you can’t help someone who refuses to acknowledge their problems.

Manfred said it best that time can really only tell. Sometimes no matter how hard you try, things just don’t work out. That doesn’t mean it’s for nothing, at least you tried. And if things don’t work, it’s not really anyone’s fault.

He knows from experience with Aldric that you need to learn how to stand up for yourself without pushing others out. I never really thought of it like that, and he brings up a good point. From how it sounds, had he married Aldric, that would mean giving up his independence and living life on Aldric’s terms - or a bubble, as he once put it.

As for the future, Linnea’s not sure how things will work out. She wants to reconcile with Jet, but she’s starting to accept that if it reaches a point where they can’t forgive each other, then she won’t beat herself up over it. She understands that there’s a lot of problems between them, and he hasn’t.

Maybe that’ll change for him in the future. Only time will tell. Linnea has faith in him, and so does Jamie. Even though he’s kinda being a dick right now, the squad says he’ll come around eventually. That’s apparently just his way of doing things - he’s the kind of person who needs to learn the hard way.

The scuba diving adventure at Rownigan is one of those missions where we had to navigate complicated paths to retrieve some objects. Manfred and Linnea are somewhat familiar with the area, so that makes things go by more easily.

Me, being the newbie, I stood by Jamie and tried my best to navigate the labyrinths. Jamie’s been here a couple of times so it’s pretty much routine for her. Still, even for an expert like her, traveling through a place like this can be frustrating. The issue is that the halls and corridors are long winding and just straight up confusing, even with a detailed map. I can see why Jamie needs a small team to help out.

The artifacts were interesting to look at, so that sort of helped with the confusion and frustration. Jamie says although they look like random, everyday objects, they actually contain a lot of valuable information.

She doesn’t know the full story as the details has been muddled over the years, but these artifacts were once part of a huge collection that ended up being lost or stolen. By chance, it turns out that some of the artifacts end up at Rownigan, leading researchers to believe that maybe a lot of them, for some unknown reason, ended up in Pebble River up north. From there, a lot of them got scattered to different parts of the world, Rownigan being one of them.

We found a lot of artifacts that day, most of them being clustered in the same area. Jamie says that’s considered lucky since it means we’ll be able to finish early. The artifacts I found were an hourglass, a pearl necklace, an intricately carved wooden jewelry box, a gold fountain pen, a silver charm bracelet, and a silk shawl. In a couple days, Jamie will hear from the analysts and I’ll learn about the stories behind these artifacts.

After the mission, we met up with the others at Silverband. Today was our first full day at the water park and I had a chill time. Jamie made sure to take us there during the off season so we’d have a relaxing stay.

At some point we had one of the pools to ourselves and that was great. It was also the perfect opportunity to get to know the rest of the Linnea squad. They have no plans as they’re still laying low from the army and don’t really have anywhere else to turn to, so it looks like they’ll be staying with Jamie for a while. since that’s the case, then I’m looking forward to seeing more of the squad. I like them and I want to get to know them more. And most of all, I hope things work out for them.

Tomorrow we’re gonna explore the city, so a change of pace from today. And if it’s not too late, we’ll probably hang out at the park a bit. Maybe we’ll have a pool to ourselves again. That sounds like a nice way to end the day after being on your feet all day at the city.

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#animal crossing #diary of a junebug #headcanon ramble #animal crossing pocket camp

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