The Architect sandbox [The Archiverse series]

Chapter – "Accidental Collisions"

First-Person – Sebastian

(Sebastian point of view-offical chapter)

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I didn't sleep much last night.

Even for a leopardkin, where isolation is tradition and silence is comfort, I couldn't shut off my brain. The words from that exile article kept playing in my head like a warning siren wrapped in polite language. Polished. Legal. Cold.

This morning felt heavy. I didn't eat breakfast. Just walked. My uniform felt tighter than usual — maybe from growing, or maybe because I knew too much now.

When I got to school, I kept my head down.

Tiger girl waved at me. Wolf boy nodded. Usual stuff.

But then, I saw him.

Olive.

No—Oliver.

He was walking through the hall like he didn't care who saw him. Ponytailed, brown cloak over his uniform, hands casually flipping through something—

A phone?

Yeah. He had a phone.

Not one of those cheap beetle-brand ones the younger cubs used. This was older. Sleek. Scuffed around the edges but still working. Looked like something from the older era, maybe Earth-side.

What was more odd was how he used it: like it wasn't just a device, but a mirror. His eyes weren't locked onto messages or games. He was reading… something. Notes? Maybe diagrams?

He didn't look up in time.

Neither did I.

Bump.

I staggered a bit. Clumsy. Stupid. My shoulder hit square into his.

He took a step back, blinking in mild surprise. The phone nearly fell from his hand, but he caught it last second.

"...Oh," he said flatly, eyes adjusting. "Sebastian."

My name. Just like that. No 'hey,' no big reaction. But the tone — it wasn't cold. It was like I was someone known.

I stared at him. "Watch where you're walking, Olive."

He didn't flinch at the nickname. Not anymore. That was a bit disappointing.

"Same to you," he said, slipping his phone into his cloak pocket. "That one's got claws."

I blinked. "What?"

He pointed vaguely behind me. "Porcupine kid running down the hallway. Spines half-raised. You'd have gotten impaled if I didn't take the hit."

I looked back.

Damn. He was right. A porcupine boy had just sprinted through the hallway. He dodged both of us, barely brushing past where we'd just stood.

"Huh…"

Oliver adjusted the strap of his bag. "Anyway. You alright?"

I nodded slowly. "Yeah. I'm fine."

He gave a small nod, then turned to keep walking down the corridor.

For a second, I just stood there. Watching his back.

There was something… off about him lately.

Not bad. Just distant.

Not in the shy way like before.

Now it was like his mind was somewhere else.

Like even when he was standing here in school, in this magical, beastkin-run system… he was still thinking in another dimension.

Like his soul was halfway packed.

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I adjusted my uniform and walked off toward Civics class, but I couldn't stop thinking:

He wasn't a shadow.

He wasn't a misfit.

He was a ghost with a heartbeat — and I had no idea if anyone else could even see it but me.