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The group of college students were loud as they counted down excitedly, everyone’s eyes on the large clock on the dormitory’s communal tv screen.
As the chanting reached 1, his girlfriend smiled up at him warmly, hands gently pulling on his collar. Samuel smiled back before leaning down, pressing a kiss to her soft lips as cheers erupted around them.
“Happy 2002, guys!” Someone who Samuel didn’t remember the name of but who he believed was in his biology class called, leading to another round of loud cheers that Samuel joined.
-
Dresden didn’t even notice when the digital clock on his desk ticked over the midnight mark, too absorbed in his latest incident reports to care about the shift to 2010 other than being slightly irritated by the far too loud noise coming from the break room down the hall.
He only realised the change in year when he sat up, stretching his stiff back and arms, and glanced at the clock reading “4:40am”. He winced, rubbing a hand over his face and standing to go to bed.
-
Bright winced as Dresden fished the bullet from out of his shoulder. It wasn’t ideal, they’d been dealing with a bandage shortage for weeks now, but the D-class shortage was worse so they’d have to deal with it.
“Just how I wanted to- argh. Wanted to spend my new years.” Bright muttered sarcastically, earning an eyeroll from Dresden as he pulled the lump of metal out of the wound, setting it down in a nearby metal pan.
“Happy 2029.” He deadpanned, causing Bright to bark out a laugh that quickly turned into a hiss of pain as he jolted.
“Don’t make me laugh ya arsehole.”
-
Dresden was numb as he walked through the long corridors in his half-made prison.
Overseer Ludam had invited him to her “party”, but the idea of all the colours and noise felt overwhelming, especially if it meant he’d be surrounded by them.
In most dimensions it was between 1840 and 2043.
In his it was 4041.
He stood and watched the clock within the runes on his arm (not his runes, they weren’t his when they died and they weren’t his now.) tick over to 00:01 and wished for the light and sound to surround him like it once had.
It hadn’t surrounded him like that in so long.
4042.
-
Dresden barely knew what to do. He’d refused to leave his room for the occasion last year, which was a blessing at the time but now meant he was wholly unprepared for whatever was to come.
In S316, new year’s parties had champagne and cheering and countdowns and traditional kisses and light. S316 also had his parents calling him every week and SCP-“Pokémon”.
many things had changed.
He smiled hopefully not awkwardly as Sterling welcomed him into the Sharp Tank. He silently wished Val was with him as he stood to the side of the room holding a flute of sparkling apple juice, not knowing what to do.
Arava and Vivianne wouldn’t be arriving until later and everyone else who he was friendly enough to talk to was either not here or occupied by socialising with someone better than him.
Luckily, Champagne and Benny approached him after a moment and asked him several questions about the “Pokémon” he had studied that he realised when they’d left, smiling brightly and wishing him a happy new year, were probably jokes.
He continued standing there, occasionally greeting and talking to various team members and their friends, until Arava arrived. He gratefully walked up to them and greeted them to which Arava grinned at him in response.
“You were just standing in the corner awkwardly until we arrived, weren’t you?” She asked, causing him to cringe and Vivianne to lightheartedly chide her.
“It is good to see you too, Arava.” he replied, getting a fond eyeroll from his friend.
“We last saw eachother like an hour ago.” She pointed out bluntly. Next to her, Vivianne was obviously stifling a laugh. Dresden opened his mouth to respond but was cut off by a light, high pitched noise.
They turned, seeing the source of the noise was Sterling gently tapping a flute of champagne with a silver coated finger.
“Ah, sorry for interrupting, everyone, I just wanted to say a few words to welcome in the new year!” He announced with a bright smile, sending a cheer through the crowd.
“Thank you,” he started, smile widening at the sound of his friends excitement. “I know this year has been… difficult to say the least, but despite that there have been so many great memories made too, with all of you. I’m grateful for that, and I’m grateful for all of you being here for me and eachother this year. And-“ He took a deep breath.
“-I’m glad we’ve all made it this far. Thank you for being here, new friends and old.” He raised his glass, a large golden holographic countdown opening behind him.
“Happy new year, everyone. Welcome to 2026.”
The cheers that went up around the room at Sterling’s words were noisy and colourful and loud and bright, and Dresden couldn’t help but smile as he joined them.