Rising Shards

In a corner of the void traversal exhibit, a display caught Zeta’s eye. It might’ve been a boring one for others, but for a lot of people in her shoes, it was not a pleasant one. I don’t think she knew anything about her parents when we talked about it in class, so I didn’t remember her clamming up or looking nervous about it. But as she stared intently at a big wall of text with photos about “The Avoidant Generation,” I could guess what she was thinking.

The aptly named Avoidant Generation was my parents’ generation, and that of Zeta and Stella’s parents as well. It was marked by a very popular movement among Cani families to leave this world and explore the void to escape all the problems in this world. And in a lot of cases, the “avoidant” part meant “bail on your family completely.” Some did bring their kids with them, but the luckier ones ended up splitting from their elders who wanted to go into uncharted worlds far away, even if that ended up being incredibly painful in its own way, as Stella and Zeta both learned.

The display even had an ad I remembered seeing in magazines when I was really young, a Cani family smiling holding gate rosin with the text reading, “Avoid to the void! Let’s get the heck out of here!” The text on the display explained some of the origins of the movement, from Cani traversal becoming easier to the more sinister influences of a now dismantled conglomerate that wanted Cani off this world, and decided convincing us to leave was the best way. There were also a lot of Cani that were plenty terrible on their own and willing to bail on this stable world for a less stable one for selfish and often cruel intentions, which again, the Faleur sisters and I knew all too well about.

“Sounds kinda like…” Zeta trailed off. “Yeah.”

“Yeah.” Stella repeated.

Our new friends joined us as well, and Cyri nodded solemnly at us.

“It's unfortunate we're the generation following these shitheads,” Cyri said, throwing in a quick “Excuse my language,” when Zeta gasped at hearing a swear word.

“Mom, aren’t you like…old, though?” Calista asked. “Isn’t this your generation?”

“Quiet,” Cyri said. “I’m on the fuzzy space in generations where I’m not quite that one, and not quite the one after. And I would never abandon you to go into the void. Or drag you far in there to avoid paying my bills.”

“Only safe void trips as much as they can be!” I said.

“Exactly!” Cyri said. “Our generation’s the one picking up the pieces, so keep fighting the good fight.”

“That’s right!” I said, maybe a bit forced on the excitement, but I could tell this had struck a nerve with Stella and Zeta. I pointed at a line toward the end of the text. “And I like that this notes that this wasn’t a totally widespread phenomenon. I always feel bad for folks in this generation that weren’t into this movement but still get the ‘avoidant’ label.”

“And their generation name is sort of a pun, that must suck,” Tiafel said.

“A-void-ant,” Calista said. “Heh. That sucks.”

“Very important to note,” Cyri said. “Not the pun, the thing Evy said. I owe a lot to aunts and uncles and such when my parents pulled the ol’ ‘get the heck out of here.’”

“I didn’t really have anyone like that,” Stella said quietly.

“I’m sorry, dear.”

“Thanks,” Stella said. “But…things are better now.” She smiled. It took me a moment to realize she was smiling at me, which hit me with a lot of feelings, as emotional looks from Stella tended to do.

“Things are better for me, too,” I said.

The rest of the exhibit was a lot more fun, because it documented some of the weirder void nodes that had been discovered (Zeta was particularly fond of one detailing a place where its people looked like cute plushies).

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