"A very small fish in a great big lake." That's how Havok felt the day she first stepped into the Tattered Realm. It was a phrase she'd heard many times in her life, but only now did she understand just what it'd meant, to feel so insignificant in comparison with the world around you.
Shiggy was the embodiment of the phrase. A tiny freshly hatched Whimperial who'd ventured headlong into the first lake it'd discovered, only to immediately come face to face with monstrous deepwater Snarls.
By sheer luck, Havok was wading in a nearby creek- a fingerling of a river that branched off of the impressive lake- and overheard the panicked chirrups of the infant Whimperial and came to the poor Kith's aid.

Not wanting to leave the dear creature behind, lest it attempt to return to dangerous waters, Havok promptly adopted it and asked for an alliance. The Kith- now dubbed "Shiggy"- and Havok discovered the realm of Central Hope mere hours later and both were welcomed with open arms by the Headmaster, and told they could stay as long as they like. For now, their adventures would have to be of the academic kind....At least until Shiggy is a little older and, well, a bigger fish.
-07/12/2021


Havok was used to being the quiet one in social scenarios before coming to Hope. A wallflower, some might say, though Havok felt more like a coffee table.
A coffee table was there to be used. Not in any nefarious or sexual way, but in the most literal sense. You place cups on coffee tables, and in return for holding your drink safe and aloft, the cup leaves a ring- a piece of itself that mars the surface but shows that a connection was there, however brief.
You bump into coffee tables. Hit your shin against it in the dark of night and curse it for ever being there in the first place. It's in the way.
But Havok didn't feel that way with Shiggy. The little Whimperial was skittish and quiet. Nervous energy bubbled from it similar to the bubble it resided in.
For the first time, Havok had to be the person who reached out. If Shiggy looked nervous about something- which was usually always- Havok lent a sympathetic ear. Instead of feeling like she was just a bystander in life Havok began to feel a sense of personal worth by being the person someone could rely on to empathize with them and bring out their best.
Over the course of a week, Shiggy experienced his own moment of personal growth, as one day Havok awoke to an evolved form of the once shrimpy Whimperial. Shiggy had grown from the size of a volleyball to the height and length of a small Labrador Retriever. His scales were dazzling, as were the luminescent spots than ran the length of it's body. With this transformation came a new personality. Shiggy was smiling for the first time since Havok had allied herself with him. As the pair left the dormitories to see the Headmaster, Havok found herself smiling too.
07-19-21