Installation 10: Meeting Jerome and Pete

Why hello there once again! Sorry I haven't been writing much recently, the school has been breathing down my neck about writing this story. Why should they care, I'm not crazy for believing this. Whatever, though. I can't be bothered to argue with them over this. I will persevere, fear not, readers! Wow, I really do hope someone reads this. Anyway, off that path! To the past!

Okay, but before I continue, let me warn you all. This part will cover some heavier topics. I try to tread as lightly as possible over them, but please continue with caution. Stay safe!

Jerome's history, for the most part, is a simple one. However, let me preface it with this: Jerome never wrote an account of what happened. All of this information will be stemming from the girls' accounts, as each one of them got bits and pieces of Jerome's history from talking to him. That being said, there may be parts where we jump a bit. I hope you can follow along.

Jerome was a natural-born, as I've told you before, with a human father and a bacca mother. Jerome was enough like his tribe that he wasn't ever looked down upon for being a hybrid. He could hunt like a bacca, he spoke their language, and that alone made him one of their own. Of course, there were a few baccas here and there who didn't quite like that Jerome was difference. That's to be expected, after all. They never really did much about it, from the accounts. From what I can gather, Jerome lived a pretty good life among his people. He was the best amongst them with an axe, which was probably what scored him so much respect from his peers. He was strong enough to be adopted by the chief as his own son. This, in the process, adopted Jerome's mother to be his wife.

Now, this is common practice among baccas, especially at that time. A single woman's worth to the men of the tribe was determined by the strength of her child. If she did not have a child, she would be considered worthless, and left to live a lonely existence. If she had a child who was not of much use, one of the tribesmen (or women, as baccas were progressive in that sense) would be allowed to choose the woman to be their wife. If her child was extremely noteworthy, as Jerome was, she would be taken in by the chief of the tribe as their own. This was so the child would still have another parent to help it grow properly, while keeping its mother by its side. You would assume that through this practice, the new wife of the chief should earn some form of respect from her peers.

This was not the case for Jerome's mother.

Her fellow baccas believed lowly of her. She had mated with a human. She was foul and a disgrace to their pure tribe. They believed it had been purposeful, that she had mated with a human in hopes to have a child special enough to gain the chief's attention. Though Jerome tried time and time again to defend that that was not the truth, his mother begged him to be quiet, to not lose the tribe's respect on her behalf. This always enraged Jerome. If only they knew the truth, they would be so much kinder to her. If only they knew the truth, they'd treat his mother as the warrior she was.

But the tribe would never know that she hadn't chosen to mate with a human.

They would never know this was forced upon her.

In fact, herself and Jerome would be the only two to ever know this information, at least within their tribe. The chief wasn't even told, despite the fact that he did the bacca equivalent of marrying the woman. The only other person who would know this information would be Hope, who wrote of it shortly in her book. It was Rosie, however, who heard the story of Betty.

Betty is the name of Jerome's beloved diamond axe, the one with which he earned himself so much respect from his peers. However, that is not the end of Betty's story. You see, Jerome didn't choose a random name for his axe. No, the name Betty was on purpose. Betty was to be his younger sister, after all.

Let me share with you this story.

Soon after Jerome's mother was taken in by the chief, the woman found herself pregnant. A few months into the pregnancy, their natural tests predicted it would be a little girl, and Jerome's mother was more than ecstatic. She took every measure she could to ensure the child a healthy birth, and was so proud of the idea that she would be the first in their known history to birth a hybrid and true-blooded bacca. She had decided the girl would be named Betty, and Jerome began to grow excited at the prospect of a younger sister. The medical bacca kept a check on the pregnant woman, and it wasn't until the four month mark that problems began to arise. The child stopped developing, the bump from the baby no longer growing. No one had a clue on what to do, and it was only one month later that it was discovered the heartbeat was gone. Betty had been lost.

It's not completely understood why this occurred. Not much research has been done about the reproductive development of baccas, so science has absolutely no explanation for what could have happened. However, based upon the track record of potential mothers of hybrids and pure-bloods, of any species, it would appear as if the body can only develop to support one type of child, not both. That's why most families will only ever have one type of offspring in their lineage. Hybrids are more likely to give birth to healthy hybrids, while pure-bloods are more likely to give birth to healthy pure-bloods. Jerome was just an exception in that way.

Well, anyway. Sorry about that, I've always been a bit more science-orientated. I find it fascinating, the complexities of the body. Now, we're gonna shift over to another story. I'm going to teach you what is known of Brandon's history, which isn't too much.

Most of what's known of Brandon's history comes from Rosie's account, who never got a full story out of the boy. What is known is that he lived with a group of hybrids ever since the day he awoke, never knowing anything of his life prior to that moment. The hybrids were all odd ones, with one being a mudkip hybrid and another being a wither hybrid. Based on what is known of his group, I would assume they were all manufactured as well, probably by the same facility as the one who created Brandon. Brandon spoke fondly of all of them, but spoke most fondly of a rabbit hybrid. Her real name was never recorded, but Brandon frequently called her Pwincessly. She was the one who created Brandon's beanie he loved so much, and she always made sure the boy felt comfortable in his new home. In fact, she was the one who began the nickname of Pete.

Unfortunately, however, life is never kind to the protagonist of any story that is to be told.

The poor girl's fate was sealed when a group of humans found it necessary to harass their little camp in the woods. She was shot, non fatally, but the humans wouldn't let anyone come near her to save her life. She played dead so the humans would leave, and bled out shortly after. She died begging Pete not to hold it against the humans, to stay happy for her.

So Pete did. And he accepted the offer of school when it arrived on her behalf, because he knew that's what she would have wanted for him.

And really, that's all that's known of Pete's history. There's nothing more that I've found of it. So I'm going to end this installation here. I'll go into the others next time, since the bell is about to ring. Until then, see ya! Peace out!