Chance

//warning for: slurs usage/ableism/ bullying/ suicide mentions

“Welcome to the family Ollie”

Ollie was adopted as a baby by two adults named Sarah and West, he was a fast learner however seemed to fall back as he grew. Both parents made sure to be there and assist in his development. The family album was never lacking, that's for sure. First steps, words, big and small accomplishments were all documented. As he grew, Sarah and West naturally had to go back to work. Nonetheless Ollie was smothered in welcome affection at their departure and arrival, this made Ollie a very bouncy and babbly kid.

With as often as they went out, Sarah and West didn't have any family friends. The best they had were stranger interactions in the playgrounds in nearby parks. Ollie was much better at socializing and playing with his parents than anyone else, this particularly started to show when school started.

His parents made things alright academically, with the help he was able to keep up with other students. Socially he was a pretty shy kid, his bubbly and talkative nature made its way out almost exclusively for teachers and other parents. He tried to do as they encouraged and make friends, however he was much better at watching others play.

As other kids started to grow with him, his difficulty with emotional growth became more apparent. Even without an official diagnosis for his autism, everyone saw something was different about this quiet kid. Teachers offered special classes to help Ollie along, Sarah and West were supportive of anything that would help their son.

“two heads are better than one”

Around this time, his parents had been looking into adopting another child. They wanted to find an older sibling figure for Ollie to grow with. So they adopted an 8 year old named Vinnie. In a quieter and more secluded setting, Ollie did much better at becoming friends with his new sibling. He felt much less alone when they were around.

Ollie spent every recess and lunch break tracking down and spending time with Vinnie, they'd made a game of it after a couple weeks. Vinnie would run off and hide with having left a single clue for Ollie to figure out for that day. Ollie didn't find them occasionally but that was ok! No one was mad about it.

Ollie was so focused on finding Vinnie that often he didn't notice any attempts made by others to trip him or bully him. He was still being called slow, stupid, a steady stream of growing insults and occasionally slurs. They went right over his head, or maybe he was just used to it. Those remarks didn't go over Vinnies head however.

What was simply the two walking down the hall would quickly escalate to verbal arguments and physical altercations. Ollie tried often to stop the fights from happening, however with a growing understanding of his place in social rankings, he steadily began to break down. Words held much more edge when yelled in your face than in passing. Words that lead to bloodshed felt much more wounding.

“Tag, you're it”

Now that kids had more reasons, they'd start to beat up Ollie before Vinnie could arrive. Drag him out to back corner fields and put him in his ‘place’. On one of these targeted sessions, Vinnie came running out only to be stopped by someone neither or them recognized. After a short exchange Vinnie promptly beat the hell out of the kids hurting Ollie.

For a week or so after that, Ollie was kept from school while things were settled. That was long enough for a drastic change to occur. Upon reluctantly returning, Ollie was greeted by two changes:

Firstly, bullying had practically stopped altogether. Vinnie seemed to be their primary target if there were any situations to begin with. They took it in stride it seemed, Ollie took that in and started mimicking their relaxed attitude. Secondly, more kids seemed to be wanting friendship from him. Trust me Ollie adored it. He was happy and back to being a bouncy kid and that's how it stayed for quite some time.

For the next couple of years, Vinnie and Ollie continued to be a duo. They'd stopped playing hide and seek as time went on, but they still continued to be a popular sibling pair for gossip and small talk. Ollie had a lot of friends as school got harder, it made it much easier for him to get through. On especially hard days, he'd be allowed to take a friend to a smaller room and relax until things had settled. One of his best friends was a boy named Lucas, Lucas was a very well off small kid. He routinely had Ollie over, helped with tests, etc etc. The two were pretty close and always spent spare time together...With how good things were, and how peaceful, Ollie was oblivious to everything falling apart around him.

One particular night would never leave his mind. It was around 11pm, Ollie was about to go to bed for school and stopped by Vinnie. Upon being asked what they needed, Vinnie tugged Ollie into a tight hug that lasted much longer than any other one they'd given. Though Ollie asked repeatedly asked what the hug was for, Vinnie didn't utter a word. He was eventually let go and they said goodnight. Though he found it odd, he went to bed assuming his sibling had just had a hard day. That happened every now and then after all. In the morning is when things had changed permanently.

“Friends til the end”

He woke up to his parents and police, his sibling had vanished in the middle of the night. Confusion and misery was this kids life for the next few years. He'd gone back to school to find things back the way before Vinnies unknown interference. Turning to his best friend, Ollie found that Lucas was ignoring him too. Were they blaming him? It wasn't his fault! Why would no one talk to him! Well, maybe he could tough this out, he could do that until Vinnie came home right? Do it for vinnie. Yeah.

Vinnie never came home, and Ollie's defenses were slowly wearing down. He couldn't take the fights and verbal slurs as well as Vinnie could, nor could he fight back. He'd get the worse punishment every time. Eventually he'd have to do something, and out of options he tried desperately to talk with Lucas. In a lesser used stairwell, Lucas spilled quite a lot.

//Slur use and misgendering warning//

‘I was never your friend, no one would want to be. People were only nice because of me, who would be nice to you willingly? I was only here because your dumbass fucking sister sold herself out to help you out. Do you hear me? That fuckin tranny had to put ‘their’ own life down to help your pathetic excuse of one. The only people who'd want to be friends with you are the ones who want sympathy points or to use you for something. I got quite a good reputation being around you. Hey look, Lucas is such a kind soul hanging out with such a fucking retard.’

Ollie couldn't take much more of this. Tears stung at his eyes, gritted teeth and a sharp breath. Before Lucas could mumble another word, and before Ollie knew what he'd done, Ollie's hand had connected and smacked the kid into a stagger. The air was heavy and neither moved until the realization fully set in. In one swift motion, Ollie turned and stormed off.

If no one else was going to help him, he'd find his sibling himself. On his own.

“Hide and seek in the real world”

Months and months went on, He'd put more effort into school than ever before. Ollie spent every free moment tracking down pieces, putting information together. Others took notice of the efforts and jokingly asked him to locate long lost items or people, to their surprise he'd locate them as if they'd been standing right next to them.

His frustrations grew when despair started to settle into their world. More and more people were starting to go missing, He managed to turn up most of them alive. Some dead unfortunately but.. it was better than not knowing. Some of his friends went missing to.. never return.

It seemed that whatever was happening in the world was wiping people off the grid entirely. He was going to find where they'd gone. He was going to do this. For himself and for Vinnie.

WELL….. DRSS Happened..! (DRSS was an rp, a space adventure in which Vinnie passed away) And. Things changed, plans changed. A stranger named Declan came to inform him of what had happened to his sibling.. This poor unlucky soul sat in Ollie’s living room and spilled everything as to what happened.

After that, Ollie took some time off work to help find the rest of the families… In all honesty, he came to Yuuko last. He knew it wasn’t her fault but.. To be able to tell her what he knew.. It would take time. The two spoke for a while, and that was meant to be it.. But something about Yuuko made Ollie feel bad just.. Leaving her like that. They’d both lost a sibling after all. So he tried to be friends with her, and they did! They became friends pretty easily..

While Ollie spent time with Yuuko when possible, he was still.. Slipping in work. The loss of Vinnie for a second hit him and it hit him hard. He went as far as to try and quit his job.. His motivation was always vinnie, what was the point if he would never reach his end goal? His boss told him to get a grip and go get some help.. So he tried to! He really did. But.. his sleepless nights only grew in count. He grew cold to others, he took no more joy in reuniting other families. How come they got to be happy? How come they got their family back when he would never get his.

He started to slip into apathy, not working nearly as hard as he did previously… Due to his neglect in work, he’d allowed several people to die. He didn’t find them in time, and some sick part of him felt fine with that. This lasted about a month. In total, 4 people died. He had to go to each family and explain that he’d failed in saving their loved one. However.. It didn’t take long for his moral compass to reset. He felt absolutely horrific for what he’d done and is.. Much less mentally stable… but he has to do his best again, if not for vinnie.. Then for Yuuko.

Just when he'd thought things were starting to look up for him and Yuuko, they'd been invited to a game show. More specifically.. Ollie had become a traitor, helping two strangers host a game about murdering each other. He'd done this because the two promised him technology to bring his sibling back. They lied to him, he was manipulated and dragged along. Yuuko died during the first week there. With nothing left for him, when his life was threatened, he accepted what he knew was poisoned coffee- allowing himself to be drugged and stabbed to death.

""A little late for that, isn't it."