(Part One is here; this is the much-requested spinoff from the Token Human series)
~~~
Oscar Tennyson grabbed his purchases and hurried after the rest of his crew. As usual, they were walking quickly on their longer legs and bellowing for him to keep up. The teeth-and-scales Mighty had no patience for human weaknesses. Of which there were many.
But, as Oscar had just learned, there were some strengths as well. And he couldn’t wait to show them.
He scampered onboard before the door shut, wondering if they would actually leave without him if he dawdled too long. Probably not — who would handle their finances and hunting permits? They’d have to hire someone else, because they certainly didn’t want to do it themselves. But he didn’t want to test that.
He had much better things to test. While the stark metal walls vibrated with the engine’s revs, Oscar wove between scaled biceps and tails to his own quarters. He pressed the panel by the door, which was oversized and cracked like all of them on this ship. The Mighty were not fans of fiddly little buttons or keys. Not when they could have panels big enough to punch, which only broke sometimes.
When Oscar stepped through and closed the door behind him, he felt immediately relieved. This was his private space to decorate as he chose, without worrying that someone would take things down or make fun of him. Ship rules were clear about personal quarters. Oscar’s fake orchids and real cactus made the room homey, along with more posters than the walls could hold. They spilled onto the ceiling, lining it with nature scenes from Earth, sports figures he admired, media announcements, and a good number of fluffy kittens. This was the one spot on the ship where he could feel comfortable, and he was making the most of it.
The bag of refueling station supplies crinkled as he set it on his small table to remove the contents. A high-end store might have had Waterwill bags that evaporated after a day, but this place used regular old plastic. Inside were food cubes, bottled water, and the purchase he was most excited about: six cans of very weak caffeine.
He scanned the label. It was just like the other human had said. Tall cans in dramatic colors, but not much of substance inside. At least, not as far as the average human was concerned.
Oscar couldn’t wait until dinner time.
Before then, he had a permit to submit and several other things to check. The ship should be on the way to Argosha, which was notorious for welcoming outsiders in to hunt the Dagger Birds that were giving everyone so much trouble, but he had better get their paperwork in order anyway.
He grabbed his tablet and left his safe haven, heading back into the public parts of the ship where he could face taunts from any direction. Really, these guys were just like his cousins. At least it was familiar.
Fending off tiresome conversation — “How’s the weather down there?” “Why don’t you ask your mother?” —he reached the bridge and found a corner to stand in. The captain and the pilot were arguing about where to land when they reached Argosha.
“The main site will have more people to admire our ship!”
“The new one is closer to the hunting grounds!”
“Dagger Birds are overrunning the place; everywhere is a hunting ground!”
“Do you want to pay the damages for shooting a building instead of a bird? We can take it all out of your pay, if you want!”
“Fine, but if we land on some overgrown hedge and the ship is scratched, you get to pay for that!”
“Fine!”
The pair of them stopped yelling and sat back in their seats as if nothing at all was the matter, because it wasn’t. Polite disagreements were always held at that volume.
In the brief lull while the pilot manipulated the controls with more force than a lesser console could withstand, Oscar spoke up. “I’d like to come too.”
Both dinosaurian heads turned to stare at him in surprise. “Why?” the captain demanded. “One kick from a bird, and you’re useless to us.”
“Thanks,” Oscar said flatly. “I’ll keep out of the way. I want to take photos of your fighting prowess; I should be able to sell them.”
Both of the Mighty preened at that, as he’d known they would. Ego was big here. The captain agreed, and Oscar didn’t let slip any hints of his secret plan. He just finished working on his tablet, then retreated to his quarters to practice Dagger Bird mating calls.
​
* * *
​
The air on Argosha was breathable but hot, at least this part of it. Oscar was ready with his Tool in his pocket. (He’d gotten out of the habit of calling it a phone, since the Mighty were right in that it did a near-infinite number of things.) (He still smirked quietly at the potential innuendo, but it was a conversation he didn’t really want to have with giant dinosaur aliens, so he kept that to himself.)
“This way,” announced the captain, pointing in what looked like an arbitrary direction into the wilderness. Whooping with the alien equivalent of testosterone, the crew raised their blasters and tromped off the landing pad with Oscar following close behind.
True to his word, he did take some pictures as he went. But he was waiting for his moment.
It didn’t take long to come. The shouting scared off all the wildlife, then the Mighty found a boulder to crouch behind and wait for the creatures to come back. They played a silent counting game to see who was best at guessing when they’d spot something worth killing.
Distant footsteps on leaves made them smack each other in excitement, but nothing appeared between the trees.
Now or never, Oscar thought. Knowing better than to startled his crewmates, he whispered, “Here, let me.” Then he took a deep breath and let loose with his best imitation of a Dagger Bird seeking a mate. “Woarrrrrrk!”
While the Mighty shushed him and wondered what he was doing and started to figure it out, an answering woarrk sounded from nearby.
Then another, then, three.
Oscar wondered if he’d overplayed his hand.
No less than five large and eager Dagger Birds crashed through the undergrowth at once, croaking and flapping, taking offense at each other’s presence. The Mighty all roared and leapt out, firing in every direction.
Oscar dashed for a tree he’d been eyeing, the one with lots of branches, and didn’t stop climbing until he was out of beak-stabbing range. He held tight to the trunk, catching his breath and watching the chaos. Belatedly, he remembered to take out his Tool and snap some photos.
This was actually a good angle. He got a great shot of the captain aiming down the throat of a wide-open beak, then another a split second later when the beak snapped shut inches from his head. Another of the engineer shooting one from beneath. Two of the pilot tackling the largest bird and sinking teeth into the back of its neck where it couldn’t reach to stab.
Other species did their trophy hunting from a distance. The Mighty liked the fight as much as the kill. Their blasters were set on a deliberately low setting, and their teeth were sharp.
Safe up in his tree, Oscar grimaced at how bloody things were getting down below. He yelled another bird call to distract the one about to spear the crewmate who’d been knocked to the ground, and he got a cheerful “Nice save by the little guy!” which was as close to a thank you as he was going to get. The crewmate scrambled up and bit off a chunk while the bird was distracted. A couple of the crew looked like they were bleeding their own blood, but most of it was coming from the Dagger Birds, which were just as stubborn as the stories had said. Not one of them ran off. The last to die fell on top of somebody, which just added laughter from the rest of the crew to the triumphant cheers.
Oscar took a picture of the bird being dragged off his disgraced crewmate. That photo he wouldn’t sell, but would keep as minor blackmail if he ever needed it. Sticking it up on the wall to remind everyone of this moment could be a valuable strategic move.
“We are the MIGHTY!” bellowed the captain, and the whole crew joined in with a deep-voiced cheer. Oscar climbed down to more approval than he’d gotten in the last month.
“Good work by our human here! Who knew you could do that?”
“That’s sure an efficient way to hunt!”
“We should bring you out every time. That was great.”
Oscar took the praise with pride, not bothering with modesty. That was just another word for weakness as far as these guys were concerned.
He managed to dodge when one of them made to slap him on the back with a large bloodstained hand, which just made them laugh more. Luckily the captain directed everybody to gather their kills for dragging back to the ship, rather than chasing the human and messing up his clothes.
Oscar took a position on the lowest branch of his tree, taking a couple more photos as the victorious hunters figured out got to get it all home. If anyone had asked Oscar, which they never would, he’d have suggested going back for a hovercart, or taking them one at a time. But of course they did neither.
Definitely the type to insist on carrying all the groceries in at once, Oscar thought as his crewmates strained to drag the giant carcasses through the undergrowth. He hopped down and kept pace out to the side where there was no blood on the leaves.
They finally made it back to the ship, doing nothing to clean up the smears of blood they left on the landing pad. Oscar darted off to his quarters as soon as the door opened. The rest of them could handle getting the birds into cryo storage, or chopped up right away, whichever they saw fit to do. The lowest-ranking one without significant injuries would be in charge of clearing the blood from the hallways, but only after they’d all taken a walk through the water-and-air blast chamber that passed for a shower here. It had always reminded Oscar of a car wash.
He kept to himself until dinner, sorting his photos while everyone else dealt with the catch and the mess and the injuries. The mechanical medsystem on this ship was just as efficient as the shower. They’d all be in decent shape by mealtime.
And mealtime after a successful hunt was also drinking time.
Oscar usually ate in his room, wanting nothing to do with the raucous meat-tearing and drunkenness. But today was different, because he’d learned something valuable about the liquid they were getting drunk off.
Oscar considered the cans he’d bought, then decided it would have more of an impact if he just took one of the communal supply. So instead he grabbed his new food cubes and a premade tin of spaghetti from his mini-cryo, and followed the sound of laughter.
They were already a little drunk when he got there. Sprawled across chairs with a table full of meat slabs spilling over the edges of the plates. And as expected, there were tall purple cans everywhere.
“Heyyyy, it’s the little guy! Let’s hear it for the human with the surprise talent! Maybe you’re not useless after all!”
“Thanks,” Oscar said as they pounded fists against anything in reach as a form of applause. He leaned against the open doorway and shuffled his belongings so he could get a fork in a meatball without setting down the food cubes. “That was pretty easy where I’m from. You guys really can’t do that?” He popped the meatball into his mouth, casual as you please.
The Mighty of course, thought this was funny, and took it in stride. More gulps from their drinks, more savage mouthfuls of food, and a few questions about the surely-excellent photos he’d gotten, which would make them all look amazing.
Oscar said he’d share the best ones. These would make fine decorations in their own quarters, and would probably be appreciated by the right paying audience.
Then came the moment he’d been waiting for. The captain raised his drink in another cheer, and somebody noticed that the human was the only one without a can in his hand.
“Get the human a warrior’s drink!”
“Bet you he passes out after one sip.”
“Nah, he can take at least two.”
Oscar smiled quietly. If they’d been paying attention, they might have changed their bets at that smile. He set his food down in the hallway to free his hands. When one muscular, taloned arm offered him a can of their most potent intoxicant, he took it. Oh so casually.
Then he whipped his head back and chugged the whole thing.
“Oh! Human’s gonna die!”
“I’m not cleaning up the puke!”
“What the supernova! There are better ways to go than that!”
“Somebody drag him to medical so we don’t have to find somebody else to do the boring stuff.”
“Yeah, he was just getting interesting.”
Oscar ignored all of them, giving the empty can a thoughtful look. It felt like the same thin aluminum he remembered from Earth. And if there was anything his cousins had taught him, it was the proper way to dispose of a beer can.
He dug his fingertips in and crushed it against his forehead. Then while the room reacted to that, he wiped off the drips and threw the can across the room. When it went into the trash on the first try, he was internally very glad, but he didn’t let it show. Instead he picked up his food and resumed eating. “What’s the big deal?” he said. “Is that what you guys have been getting drunk off? How quaint.”
“How in all the black holes—”
“No, he’s gonna fall over any second; just watch.”
“Quaint, that’s hilarious.”
“He’s totally bluffing. Just wait and see.”
Oscar was enjoying being the center of the crew’s attention today. He made a show of sweeping his eyes across the various cans in the room. “None of you has finished a can yet, I see. Was that supposed to be strong?”
There was widespread laughing and elbowing of each other, most of them still clearly convinced that the silly little human was going to throw up and die any second now.
So Oscar set down his food, walked over to the table, and chugged a second one. It was a bit more liquid than his stomach was really happy with, but that was a small price to pay for the uproar that followed.
They exclaimed; they renewed their bets; they drank from their own cans; they got visibly drunker and abandoned their bets.
Oscar leaned against the doorframe, eating spaghetti and food cubes.
After one particularly unsteady crewmate tripped onto the table full of meat, and someone pointed out that the human wasn’t wobbling at all, Oscar said, “You guys don’t know much about my species, do you? Half of what I eat would liquify your insides.” He held up a food cube, eyeing the different colored specks of all the ingredients that made it balanced for an omnivorous digestive system. He laughed. “You guys just eat meat. How boring!”
They only got drunker after that. Oscar was pretty sure that the nearest two wanted to pat him on the back, but the floor was moving too much for them to make it all the way to the doorway. Somebody offered him a raw slab of Dagger Bird. He turned it down with casual scorn.
“Nah, meat isn’t worth eating unless it’s passed through fire. That’s weakling meat you’ve got there. Get back to me when it’s cooked brown.”
They loved that. The party was an epic one, only winding down when most of the crew was too drunk to reach more drinks. Oscar demonstrated his steadiness by picking through the mess to drop his food containers in the trash, then move back to the door.
“Well, it’s been fun,” he said. “I’ll send in the med-drone to make sure nobody’s going to wake up dead. Let me know if you want to get your tails handed to you by any more Dagger Birds. I’ll call ‘em in close for you again.”
He got groggy approval to that.
Oscar left with a smile on his face, and a mild amount of caffeine in his blood. Maybe after stopping by the medcenter, he’d use that energy on some exercise. Thoughts of the run to the hunting grounds, and the way his crewmates had paced themselves, suggested that it wouldn’t take much practice for him to out-endurance the Mighty on the VR treadmill.
I wonder what else I can do?
~~~~~~~~~
By popular request, this is the sequel to the story I posted last week, which is part of the ongoing series of backstory for the main character in this book. (It started that way, at any rate, and turned into a sprawling series in its own right. Fun stuff.)
Patreon opens the day after tomorrow, on May 1st! There's a free tier and everything if you want to keep up without strings attached. And you can even request more delightful nonsense like this.
Onward!
(Cross-posted to Tumblr and HFY.)

“I'm sorry, I need you to repeat that.” A hologram of a hooded figure said, moving the hood to the side as they stared up at the four armed, weasel-like Wellian pirate. “I could have sworn you said, you raided a Human orphanage that sat at the edge of their systems and made off with the young to hold as hostages…..” The figure continued, an odd sort of calm tone in their voice.
“Yeup. Got a bunch of good ones, too. Couple actual human young along with a few galkans, which ‘ll fetch a-”
“Put them back. For the love of the fabric of reality, put them the FECK back before whoever runs the orphanage decides to come for ALL of us!” the figure interrupted, tone no longer calm, but panicked, jabbing a finger at the captain, even as the surrounding crews glanced at one another in confusion, short of the first mate, who was in the brig at the back of the bridge for vehemently disagreeing with such a line of action, and now sat with said young, and only shook their head from underneath the gaggle of children sleeping on his body.
“Already too late, lads. Ah warned ya, but ye didn't want ta listen.” The hammerheadded alien sighed, simply setting back, wincing as a few of his bruises twinged as it rubbed against the little ones, but bit back a curse. “An’ now ye be reapen’ yer deserts.” He said as alarms screeched suddenly, waking the children up, many Of the downy covered galkan heads popping up in alarm, spinning about. “shhh, little uns’. Just yer caretakers coming ta get ye back.” The shark like pirate said, rubbing the galkans heads, making them chirp lowly, and settle back down with the others again, chattering softly.
“Cap'n! Ship to our aft! Looks like an old Hauler type.” One of the sensor officers spoke, catching everyone's attention, and confused the hammerhead for a moment.
An image of the aging, former cargo vessel appeared on the holoscreen, burning towards them with a vengeance. She was beaten and battered, clearly having been put lovingly back together with care over her who knew how many decades in the Black, designed like an old seafaring container ship. MAC turrets replaced her cargo containers on her deck, flanking a massive cannon, raised odd her deck, aimed directly at them, while nose and keel were more heavily armored then a normal. Her hull sprouted more turrets to her fore and aft, with broadside cannons in-between them, aimed outwards,while the eerie glow of whatever engines she now bore glowed behind her, pushing her forward in a steady pursuit.
“Sir, we be out of the turrets firin’ minimum effective range, but we can't do anythin’ about her main cannon.” One of the officers said, eyeing the cannon dubiously. “Not like they'll fire on us anyways. Got hostages, don’ we?” they said as they smirked…. Only for it to fade at the Aquarian shaking his head amongst the little ones. One of the children poked their head up and giggled like a little menace.
“Unca B brought Fleur ” they giggled, making one of the other officers freeze, and slowly turn to face them… noticeably, this officer was a Ka'ri, and had agreed to this as a act of revenge…… but now sported a pale complexion on their body, their massive, cycloptic eye's iris shrunk to a pinprick.
“The Fleur?…..?” they said slowly, before spinning around, hands flying across the console-
“Sir! Massive energy spike in the vessels energy output, engines increasing heat output, they actually gonna'-” the officers report went silent as the screen showed the worn vessel rock as the main cannon fired silently into the black, a pointed shell rocketing towards them at near lightspeed.
“helm’ adjust course. It's a low speed MAC, jus’ let it pass. Dumb humies” the captain smirked, as the ship shuddered, RCS Engines strafing them up….
And then they saw fire erupt from the ‘shell’ zipping towards them, realigning to still hit them, and was closing distance at a rapid pace.
“Sah! Transmission from the ship!” One of the Vox officers called out, as a screen flickered….
And revealed a brute of a man, squished into a chair with a crash harness overtop him and his armor, rolling a cigar between his lips with a frown of disdain. A bandana kept his hair neat underneath, while a thick beard with faint, white stripes in it adorned his face, his thick, bushy eyebrows bent down in a scowl. After taking a draw from the cigar, the human pulled it from his mouth and spoke. “This is Captain Brutus of th’ Fleur De Cadavre. Yeh morons got ten seconds tah hand over me nieces and nephews before me brother an’ I come in there and give the lot of yeh a pummelin’.” Came the deep, bear like voice of the man, even as he flicked the ash forming on the end of his cigar into a tray on the arm.
“......... Feck.” The hologram near the pirate captain whispered quietly, staring at the same screen the captain was.
“and what's a human Pirate got with a bunch of cast offs and nobodies?” The wellian growled back, narrowing his eyes at the brute of a human staring back, even as the room the man sat in seemed to shake, lights flickering.
Nearby, the helmsman on the wellian pirates ship cursed viciously, and pulled hard on the controls, the ships artificial gravity systems fighting to keep the rapid velocity change from affecting the organic occupants.
“that bunch o’ ‘cast offs and nobodies’, as yeh called ‘em,” the brute said, as a slow grin spread across his face, revealing a metal tooth in his grill, “happen ta be me Brothers adopted family, makin’ ‘em ME family. May not agree with me straight laced brother on much, but somthin’ we both agree on is yeh don't touch our family, Stoat brain. So ah'd best be ready tah hand em back, unharmed.”
The transmission cut out, just as the sensor operator yelled.
“BRACE FOR IMPACT!”
the entire ship shook, waking up the other kids, while the ones who had been awake giggled playfully. “Unca B's maaaaaad” one giggled.
/zzzzzzzzzzzzzz/
Several pirates surrounded the spike like projectile that had punched a hole in their ship, splitting the deck apart. The back half, just before the engine on it, thankfully had a flange and had sealed the air in. What worried them most, though, was the hatch on the side, opened up, showing signs of literally being forced through the deck that should have, by rights, kept it shut.
“Kriffing….. the Thall was in this thing?” One said as they inched closer to the ruined marks on the floor.
“No clue.” Another said as they slowly walked closer to the thing and peeked inside. “Huh.” They mumbled. “Only one crash harness is up, all the others are still down…wait, the pilot's one is up too…..”
“Ya don't say” a deep voice said behind them, right before a massive, metal covered fist appeared where their head HAD been, the pirate themselves now embedded in the opposite wall.
“Now the real fun begins” the towering human smirked, rolling his shoulders as he calmly lit a fresh cigar he pulled from a pouch on his armor, “ain't that right?” He asked a smaller figure, who was lighting their own corn husk pipe, and gave a grin up at the other.
“Yep. Let's go and say hello” said a lighter, more bubbly voice, though it had a raspy edge to it, like someone who was used to belting out orders and having them followed to the dot.
/zzzzzzzzzzzzzz/
“Oim one tough Gazookus, which hates all palookas, what ain't be on the up an’ the square-” an eerie, jovial shanty rang out through the corridor, much to the huddling pirates horror, the words distorted either by a speech impediment, or likely the corn husk pipe in the singer's mouth.
“Sonoffa-kriffing-Thall, we should have never gone to that station! Just what in the seven rings of torment did the captain piss off this time!?” One pirate whispered, poking their head out of the corridor.
A light down the hall suddenly had a silhouette of a human, wearing a officers cap and a pipe pass through it, forcing them to duck back down into the cupboard.
“so oi biffs and oi buffs ‘em, and ALWAYS out rough's ‘em-” the voice continued, before trailing off quieter down the hall, making the pirates sigh with relief.
“Thank the void he didn't turn down the hall, there's no way he wouldn't have found us.” Another pirate whispered softly, leaning against the wall.
“BUT NONE OF ‘EM GETS NOWHERE!”
Twin fists punch through the bulkhead besides them, ripping a hole through the wall, right as a wiry form grabs the pirate that had been against the wall and snaps them in half like a toothpick, throwing them to the side, the sound of a hissing piston heard, just before a punch is thrown, and the faint light in the cupboard showed a piston, jutting out of the elbow area along the back of the bulky forearm slamming forward with the blow, helping drive the fist through his opponents chest-
/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz/
The bridge was, understandably, in a tizzy, officers sprinting left and right, barking orders, and getting worrying reports from the lower decks.
Outside the ship, the Fleur De Cadavre kept pace, like some sort of horrific specter hounding them, her cannons tracking them closely, not letting go them once, keeping them locked in, even if the main cannon was no longer aimed at them.
“Sir! Multiple injuries on the lower decks, blunt injuries, broken bones, snapped limbs by the sounds of it!” One officer called out as another ran up, panting.
The officer in question looked terrible, armor beaten and tattered, dented in various places by what looked like a fist, though oddly, it looked like the armor was twisted around said fist mark.
“Sir! We can't stop them and getting close is virtual suicide!” they said as they tried to pull themselves together as the captain wellian snarled, pulling out a small, black vial, and began to load it into his armor.
“All this for a bunch of cast offs.” He snarled under his breath as multiple troopers Surrounded the doorway that had just slammed shut, the sound of pneumatic locks hissing shut.
BOOM
A massive fist suddenly appeared in the door on one side-
BOOM another fist, similar sized, but set lower, and a different shape, appeared on the other side, forcing the door off its rails, even as the metal.tried to hold firm-
BANG!
the doors flew off their hinges as a duo of laughter rang out, one deep and harsh, the other lighter, more jovial, though a chaotic tone accompanied it
“A guh-guh-guh-guh!”
And stepping of the shadows was the hulking form of Dread Privateer Bluto the Terrible, his trademark smirk on his face….
And at his side was the smaller, laughing form of a wiry human, one eye unable to see thanks to a deformity on one side of his face, the result of countless fistfight he had likely gotten in and rumored to have one, his corn husk pipe angled in the air as he grinned widely, though his working eye panned about the room, locking onto each of the soldiers and pirates, noting their position….
All while he tore the lid off a can of a green, leafy food with his bulky hands, calmly tipping it back, before swallowing, smirking.
“So,” Former Commodore Frank ‘Popeye’ Fiegel said, as the synthetic skin on his bulky lower arms separated along his wrists, his fists beginning to spin as capacitors in his arms whined loudly. “Who's da Palookas ahm pummelin’ tahday?” He said with a vicious grin

I’m at a period in my life where I feel like I have nothing to do and find myself going to my phone a lottt.
I’m almost 18 and whenever I would go for a walk or ride the train, I find myself opening up Instagram and all tht.
After I wake up, I would watch like sport games and then I would go to the library and study with my… iPad. Then I would rest by using my phone, even when I go for a bike ride, I find myself responding to texts 😭
However I’m proud to say I don’t use my phone when I start my sleep routine.
anyway, how do I fill this hole of so much… time left?? That I fill by using my phone

(Asher’s Crossing, Central Front)
’The Patrols moved about the cityscape, Guardsman loitered off duty in some areas or sat by heating units. It was getting warmer, but tonight it was oddly chilly. Kestrels having been reinforced by newcomers had now made up a larger portion from the regiments stationed there or being rotated from combat zones. Watchtowers & Ad hoc defenses scanned the perimeter. In some instances Random Kroot hunting raids or in most cases large Local wildlife was always a threat to look after either getting too close, or too hungry. The war had disrupted the local ecosystem, great herds were scattered or redirected from typical migratory paths. Watering holes poisoned by chemicals, or fuel or discarded ammunition. The dead recovered as best they could, those unnoticed or forgotten becoming carrion, turning great predators into hungry scavengers. Acquiring new tastes & new more easily locatsble prey. Mighty Carnadon Felines, Reptilian pack hunters, territorial herbivores, & stray or lost Kroot beasts were normally a threat most could avoid with a steady watchman. Tonight however, a new hunter stalked. Within a command bunker 4 officers & there staff stood, sat or paced around a strategium. It had belonged to the Major General Justinia Quarte, whom they were not missing.’
”I like this version of her more I think.”
’Brigadier General Saker spoke In Jest Looking at a corner of the room, his staff gave slight grins & at least one of the other officers audibly laughed quietly, he had hoped that joke would have landed better, hopefully the others at least gave a polite grin he thought.’
”I don’t…it’s creepy, even if we don’t have to deal with her. I thought they made Servitors to be less…discomforting than that.” ‘Colonel Redtail spoke not hiding there discomfort. Of all the senior staff present they were the youngest, & least experienced. Having earned the nickname Redtail in their days as a junior officer in harrowing deeds & glory. Everyone even at an administrative level referred to them by the name the troopers affectionately gave them, the name following their career even years after.’
”It’s a special kind of Servitor, you’re not going to see one of these off an assembly line or come out of a Penal Rehabilitation Center.” Saker said taking a sip of his Recaff he had given a generous dollop of a Rum from the world he typically garrisoned not terribly far from here. While it didn’t offer much. He admitted this was better than any Kestrel Drink he ever had, though he’d never share such opinions.’
”We’ve had numerous Vox calls come in & redirected thanks to that thing so be grateful Redtail, we’re finally taking our rightful place in this damnable war.” Colonel Cooper, an older man snorted looking over the Holographic display of the fronts. He was starting to get old & really should have looked into Rejuvenation treatments a decade ago perhaps. His cheeks were starting to droop & crows feet always hung on his eyes. He was a no nonsense officer, experienced & calculating in thought as he was a commander. A prime example that a successful officer can garner as much prestige from a command bunker as anyone leading a charge from the turret of a tank or mounted on horseback.’
”Still…” he continued. “It isn‘t going to win any awards for Holodrama performances any time soon.”
’The room gave an audible chuckle & light laughs, the last officer present being the loudest that Saker couldn’t say he knew well enough to remember their name. That irked him slightly that the dour Cooper got a better reaction than his joke. Petty perhaps, but he did his best not to show it.‘
”Regardless.” Saker spoke regaining the initiative of the conversation.’
“We are doing a better job at securing territory than the others. Camburgs defensive line has a breach thanks to us & we can roll it up at our leisure. If we take the capital this campaign will belong to us, not any upstart savages, preening peacocks, or fanatics. I don’t know how the troopers here from the first expeditionary force deal with it. Sharing war & glory with these…lesser forces & being commanded by abhumans & Gangers, failures &…”
‘There was a knock on the door to the Strategium. At this hour perhaps a messenger or runner? It was just starting to get late, the sun had been gone for at least a few hours. The Guards outside apart of one of Sakers own Regiments, not grenadiers, But they were professional & would have alerted him to such intrusions before a knock.’
”Did you order something to eat or drink General?” Redtail asked out of hand, Saker glared at young officer as if commenting about his stomach that, admittedly was getting a bit big He thought.’
(Named all the officers after types of Raptors. Left the last one to you & figured you could paint the scene of what happens next.)
u/PTerrio

Hey guys,
I'm renting a flat in London with 3 other people and am having some issues regarding visual/aesthetic repairs that I can't seem to find answers to online. Most online stuff covers practical repairs like heating and boiler issues. Bear with me while I provide context before I get to the actual question.
Our issue is that when we moved in, we failed to specify the state we expected the flat to be in in our tenancy agreement (I was 20 and doing my best, learned from it). I think we all expected they'd give us the landlord special and paint everything white and be done with it. The issue is that they did not do that and every single wall, railing, everything, is scuffed or chipped or uneven. It actually looks horrible. There were many many issues with the flat when we moved in and we sort of had to pick our battles and put aesthetics on the backburner but we made it clear that this was not move-in ready or appropriate. We asked to do it ourselves and be reimbursed since interactions with the estate agency always dragged out and were rarely productive (It took 2 months for them to send someone out when one of our shower drains was clogged); However, the landlord said he had bad experiences in the past with tenants painting, which I get.
Eventually, the estate agency sent out a contractor, but he showed up without warning, only one person was home, and she was taking a timed exam and could not walk him through was needed to be painted. So he painted a few things using the wrong shade of white, spilled some drops on my shoes, and left. When we reached out to the estate agency, they said we were unprepared when the contractor came, didn't move our things in preparation, and failed to tell him everything that needed to be painted. When I corrected this, I did not receive a response. We kind of gave up and just accepted this was going to be the state of the flat, as we all have very busy student lives and our attempts were just not productive. Especially because our landlord/agency refused to tell us what shade of paint was used on the flat.
Actual Question:
What prompted me to write this post is that our lease is ending in July and while we don't know if we're moving yet, we are thinking about what would need to be done in terms of fixing up the flat to get our deposit back. A few pieces of art have been hung up where we need to have the holes spackled and painted. Additionally, the other day, my roommate accidentally dropped a bottle of wine and stained a large potion of the wall with the splatter. Thus, we need the paint color to be able to correct it. Every other place I have rented from has allowed me to do repairs (honestly preferred it to hiring a contractor); however, my estate agency is insisting that we have to report this officially to them for anything to be done (even asking the paint color!!!). My concern is that if this is done, the landlord will hire a contractor who, just like the other guy, doesn't know how to paint, will spill it on our things, and slap us with the bill when we are more than capable of doing it ourselves and are confident with using our deposit as insurance against any poor paint job we would supposedly do.
Do I have any tenant rights in regards to being gouged for repairs? Whenever a contractor has come to our house, he is never very professional. It seems like a family friend or some guy the landlord may know personally rather than a 3rd party certified plumber or electrician. My reasons for thinking this is that they go out to buy basic repair supplies after coming to the property to see the issue (ex: plunger for the blocked shower drain). Sometimes I will receive calls after a contractor has visited essentially saying that they saw something they believed to be in violation of the tenancy agreement and snitched to the landlord. Lastly, they never do a very good job, especially the paint guy (didn't sand down the areas, just slobbed paint onto it, dripped it onto our floors, and didn't clean it up). Thus, I'm concerned there may be some collusion in that area.
Thank you for listening to this loooooong rant/question/??
Any insight is helpful.

Hey guys,
I'm renting a flat in London with 3 other people and am having some issues regarding visual/aesthetic repairs that I can't seem to find answers to online. Most online stuff covers practical repairs like heating and boiler issues. Bear with me while I provide context before I get to the actual question.
Our issue is that when we moved in, we failed to specify the state we expected the flat to be in in our tenancy agreement (I was 20 and doing my best, learned from it). I think we all expected they'd give us the landlord special and paint everything white and be done with it. The issue is that they did not do that and every single wall, railing, everything, is scuffed or chipped or uneven. It actually looks horrible. There were many many issues with the flat when we moved in and we sort of had to pick our battles and put aesthetics on the backburner but we made it clear that this was not move-in ready or appropriate. We asked to do it ourselves and be reimbursed since interactions with the estate agency always dragged out and were rarely productive (It took 2 months for them to send someone out when one of our shower drains was clogged); However, the landlord said he had bad experiences in the past with tenants painting, which I get.
Eventually, the estate agency sent out a contractor, but he showed up without warning, only one person was home, and she was taking a timed exam and could not walk him through was needed to be painted. So he painted a few things using the wrong shade of white, spilled some drops on my shoes, and left. When we reached out to the estate agency, they said we were unprepared when the contractor came, didn't move our things in preparation, and failed to tell him everything that needed to be painted. When I corrected this, I did not receive a response. We kind of gave up and just accepted this was going to be the state of the flat, as we all have very busy student lives and our attempts were just not productive. Especially because our landlord/agency refused to tell us what shade of paint was used on the flat.
Actual Question:
What prompted me to write this post is that our lease is ending in July and while we don't know if we're moving yet, we are thinking about what would need to be done in terms of fixing up the flat to get our deposit back. A few pieces of art have been hung up where we need to have the holes spackled and painted. Additionally, the other day, my roommate accidentally dropped a bottle of wine and stained a large potion of the wall with the splatter. Thus, we need the paint color to be able to correct it. Every other place I have rented from has allowed me to do repairs (honestly preferred it to hiring a contractor); however, my estate agency is insisting that we have to report this officially to them for anything to be done (even asking the paint color!!!). My concern is that if this is done, the landlord will hire a contractor who, just like the other guy, doesn't know how to paint, will spill it on our things, and slap us with the bill when we are more than capable of doing it ourselves and are confident with using our deposit as insurance against any poor paint job we would supposedly do.
Do I have any tenant rights in regards to being gouged for repairs? Whenever a contractor has come to our house, he is never very professional. It seems like a family friend or some guy the landlord may know personally rather than a 3rd certified plumber or electrician. My reasons for thinking this is that they go out to buy basic repair supplies after coming to the property to see the issue (ex: plunger for the blocked shower drain). Sometimes I will receive calls after a contractor has visited essentially saying that they saw something they believed to be in violation of the tenancy agreement and snitched to the landlord. Lastly, they never do a very good job, especially the paint guy (didn't sand down the areas, just slobbed paint onto it, dripped it onto our floors, and didn't clean it up). Thus, I'm concerned there may be some collusion in that area.
Thank you for listening to this loooooong rant/question/??
Any insight is helpful.

First Reading - Acts 9:26-31
When Saul came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. 27 But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. 28 So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. 29 He talked and debated with the Hellenistic Jews,[a] but they tried to kill him. 30 When the believers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.
31 Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.
Responsorial Psalm - Ps 22:26-27, 28, 30, 31-32
Second Reading - 1 Jn 3:18-24
Little children, let us not love in word or speech but in deed and in truth.
19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth, and reassure our hearts before him 20 whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 All who keep his commandments abide in him, and he in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit which he has given us.
Gospel - Jn 15:1-8
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Beginning with the first reading today, I think we see striking resemblances to today's world. The first reading from the book of Acts this week tells how just after Saul's conversion to Christianity he was not well received (perhaps rightfully so). But what I think people tend to forget is that, at least for Catholics, we profess to believe in the forgiveness of sins every single week! Sure someone might have done some bad things and made some bad choices in the past, but they were done in the past! As Christians we are called not to dwell in the past, but in the present.
On a related note, I think it is worth talking about celebrity conversions. Particularly in light of the recent conversion of Candice Owens to Catholicism. I have seen some pretty nasty comments towards her regarding this, particularly from Protestants. As Christians, when someone converts, we should pray for them! Pray that their faith remains strong and that God may come into their heart and cast out any darkness that is there! When someone converts to Christianity, no matter how perfect that conversion is, Satan loses another soldier. Also, I will place money on the fact that if Candice had converted to Protestantism, it would be PRAISE THE LORD!!! Why is that? I thought it did not matter what branch of Christianity one was a part of so long as one believed in Jesus? Why the double standard? Again, for anyone that coverts to Christianity, instead of attacking them, pray for them!
This brings me to the second reading today from 1 John. "Let us love not in word or in speech, but in deed and in truth." There is a famous quote attributed to St. Francis of Assisi that says

"Preach the Gospel always, and when necessary, use words."

I recognize that this may actually be a misquote of St. Francis, but that is not the point. I think that this quote still has a lot of truth to it. There is a great hymn used in the Catholic Church (I am unsure if Protestants have it as well) called "They will Know We are Christians by Our Love." As Jesus tells us "Not all who says to me 'Lord, Lord!" will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who sent me." The Christian life is about not just professing that we believe in God, but actually living it! If you are attacking a celebrity for converting instead of praying for them, I have doubts that you actually have the Spirit of God and His gifts of grace inside of you.
As a final thought about the second reading, I have described the power of prayer of the saints in that the saints are in perfect unity with God. The holier we become, the more powerful our prayers are. John tells us that if we exist in God, God will answer all of our prayers and will not refuse us. Mary and the saints in Heaven exist perfectly in God. It is for this reason that, in the Memorare, Catholics pray

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession, was left unaided...

Mary takes our prayers to Jesus as her own in perfect unity with the will of God! Because of this, God will not refuse the prayers of the saints!
This is precisely what Jesus is talking about in the Gospel reading. If we are not bearing the fruits of the faith, we cannot be attached to the vine, instead we are cast out to wither and die. But if we do bear fruit, if we are attached to the vine, then God can trim away those imperfections to make us holy. That trimming is of no use to a branch that is cut off from Christ however. Trimming a dead branch still leaves it dead. How do we stay connected to the vine and bear fruit? By actually living the faith, just as John tells us in his epistle!!! Christianity is not just something that we do on Sunday. It has to be something that we do all day, every day.
To wrap up, I want to share some thoughts on Hell. We know that Lucifer (Satan) was originally a Seraphim, the highest order in the choirs of angels. The reason for Satan's rebellion ultimately boiled down to pride. Like a star that implodes to become a black-hole, the divine light that radiated from Lucifer imploded inwards creating a void, an emptiness in Satan like a black hole. I was listening to a dialogue with Peter Kreeft on Pints with Aquinas where he mentioned that he does not believe that there is fire in Hell. Fire generates light. God is light. So, rather, Dr. Kreeft posits that Hell is a total consumption by the self. We become totally and completely sucked into ourselves that we become our own sort of black hole. In some sense, I think I might agree. Fr. Mike Schmidz has always said that the path to Heaven is saying "Thy will be done." while the path to Hell is saying "My will be done." When we go to Hell, we get there by putting ourselves before others, and before God. We see this in the Holy Trinity as well, the Father totalling pouring Himself out to the Son and the Son totally pouring Himself out to the Father, and them both totally pouring themselves out to the Spirit. In Heaven, God totally and perfectly pours Himself into us as we do the same! I am not sure where it is originally from, but there is a great quote that says "To be is to be with." Humans are naturally made for one another. God is inherently relational (due to the eternal spiriations) and we are made in God's image, so we are by nature relational beings. I hope that this makes some degree of sense.
So let us pray:
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
O God, send down Your Spirit upon us, strengthen us so that we may more perfectly live out Your Most Holy Word. We also ask even more so, that you help those who have newly converted that they may have faith even stronger than our own. Amen.
Our response will be "Deliver Us, O Jesus"
From the desire of being loved...
From the desire of being approved...
From the desire of being honored...
From the fear of being despised...
From the fear of being ridiculed...
From the fear of being wronged...
O Lord Jesus, we ask You to give us the wisdom to help others to have knowledge of You and the courage to make You known. You gave us Your Most Holy Church to be a city on a hill, so that the entire world may come to know You and Your glory through Your Church! We ask that you strengthen the members of your body to be able to faithfully continue building Your Kingdom here on Earth and to help us recognize ways that you have already strengthened us to carry out Your will.
God, the Father almighty... Hear and answer us.
O Lord Jesus... Hear and answer us.
Holy Spirit, Spirit of Truth... Hear and answer us.
Mary, Mother of God... Pray for us.
St. Michael the Archangel... Pray for us.
All the saints and angels in Heaven... Pray for us.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
​

If you haven't read about this whole thing yet, then you're lucky to read this from start to finish without interruption. Here's Part 1 of this whole thing!
If you haven't caught up with the last parts, here are Part 7: 1/2 and Part 7: 2/2!
Anyways, enjoy this first part of the finale!

Deep Sleep Reimagined (Part 8: 1/2)

CHAPTER 8: Moonlight
Flashback:
10 years ago, a little girl was out of bounds, wandering in the massive caverns outside of Playcare. She had no one to talk to, and none of the staff had any idea where she was. She only had a flashlight to brighten the path, but the surrounding darkness gave her little steps. No one was there, but someone was watching from afar. Someone concerned about her being lost.
Girl: (jittery) Is…Is anybody there?
Behind her back, a small rock falls, startling the girl as she points around her flashlight, but sees no one. She backed up a bit, only to bump behind a furry surface. When she shines at this “object”, she is greeted by a wide-grinning CatNap. She immediately tries to run away, but CatNap stops her calmly.
Girl: Who are you?!
CatNap: (normal voice, concerned) Hi! I’m CatNap! What are you doing out here?
Girl: P-Please…don’t hurt me–!
CatNap: Oh, no, I won’t hurt you. Have we met yet?
Girl: Um…no.
CatNap: You must be new in Playcare. You look really tired. It’s night time you know?
Girl: Oh, I’m…I can’t sleep well. (upset tone) I just miss my parents. They didn’t even say goodbye…
CatNap: Well, it’s hard if you miss something valuable. But that’s okay, (puts hand at the girl’s head) you have me!
The girl's fear slowly turned into a timid smile.
CatNap: If it’s hard to go to sleep, don’t worry. I’ll make sure to put you in a…DEEP sleep.
CatNap chuckles, while the girl felt more comfort
CatNap: Alright, nice meeting you, but you shouldn’t be here right now. (points at a small hole) Take that hole and you’ll end up straight up in your bed. Go! Before it’s too late.
Girl: (curious) Too late for what?
CatNap: Before the staff knows about this.
The feline walks towards the hole. He then looks behind her to call her in.
CatNap: (reassuring) Come on, little kid. I’ll lead the way…
Girl: O-Okay…
The little girl followed the cat mascot to safely go back to Home Sweet Home.
The flashback ends:
—————————————————————————————————
The artificial time of Playcare begins to turn night, and the place feels more lonelier than ever. You were in a state of deep sorrow, as all of your friends are presumably dead. You only think of one thing: revenge. And CatNap is the one you think is held responsible.
You: (vengeful) Ollie, where can I find CatNap?
Ollie: Wait, are you serious?! You can’t face CatNap by yourself. You need Poppy–
You: I don’t need Poppy, or anyone to help me! I’m going to fight him alone.
Ollie: (begging) Please, don’t do this! I don’t wanna lose any more friends to this place.
You: We already lost them…Hoppy was right. It’s all CatNap’s fault! He’s the reason all of these toys suffered in the first place. (crying) I wish I could’ve saved everyone…
Ollie: Well, he wasn’t always like that. (remembers something) Hey…Did you see the shrine?
You: (wiping tears off) What shrine?
Ollie: The shrine that’s in the caves. CatNap made it for The Prototype, with assistance from CraftyCorn. See, before CatNap turned into…CatNap, I guess there was some pretty serious accident. He almost died but…they say that The Prototype saved his life, giving up his own freedom in the process.
Hearing this, you feel conflicted. You know that this “Prototype” entity is evil, but you never thought that HE would save someone like CatNap.
Ollie: In CatNap’s eyes, the Prototype is his superhero, and has saved this place. So CatNap treats him like a god, killing everyone that opposes him. Us included, if we’re not careful. That shrine…Did it scare you?
You: Maybe…
Ollie: If you think that’s terrifying, just wait until you see the real thing.
You don’t know what to say.
Ollie: (changes topic) Anyways, we’re really close to the end. I sent you a new key. You’re going to the Counselor’s Office instead. It’s not ideal…but it should have enough juice. If you can get that generator going and plug it in…I think we’ll be done!
You: (sighs deeply) Okay, I’ll try–
Ollie: (warned) Oh, and keep your eyes open for CatNap. Every shadow and every flickering light is a hiding spot. He always stalks his prey first. He’ll take away anything you have to defend yourself. And when you’re at your most vulnerable…he’ll kill you. CatNap lives for the hunt.
Those words sent shivers down your spine. You don’t know why, but you felt like every corner and corridor you’ve entered felt like he’s watching you. The moment you progressed your way through every location to power up each generator felt like CatNap planned all along to hunt you. But something isn’t right.
You: But…he could’ve killed me right when I escaped the trash compactor. (angry) Why did he have to kill everyone else?!
Ollie: (thinks) Hmmm…Maybe The Prototype wants you to experience the horror?...Of you leaving the factory?
You thought in your mind that Ollie could be right. And CatNap could just be enjoying all of your indirect torments, and you feel more angered by it.
You: Alright, Ollie. I hope you call again this time.
Ollie: Sure thing! Good luck, talk soon.
As the call came to an end, you went down the room below the statues and got the key.
Meanwhile, back at the caverns outside of Playcare, Kissy Missy and Poppy were still lost in the caves. Kissy was beginning to feel hopeless, and Poppy noticed this.
Kissy Missy: Argh! Where’s the exit?!
Poppy Playtime: Let’s check the other direction.
Kissy Missy: (panicking) We went that way already! Let’s take the left. DogDay might need our help!
Poppy Playtime: Kissy, calm down! (softer tone) Calm down…
Kissy’s stress began to take over her as she sat down on the ground, but Poppy rubbed the fear on her head, which cooled her off.
Kissy Missy: I-I’m sorry. I’m just–
Poppy Playtime: Stressed?
Kissy Missy: Not only that. It’s also about Bobby. (sadder tone) Why would she betray us like that?
Poppy Playtime: There must be some kind of misunderstanding. (comforting) Just…pull yourself together, okay?
Kissy felt consoled by her, so she began to stand up, but as she did, she heard the voices of Picky Piggy coming from the walls.
Poppy Playtime: Do you hear that?
Kissy Missy: (gasps in realization) It’s her.
The two soon went to a little opening where there was a large cave. And there they see the enemy Critters. Picky Piggy was gathering the burnt bodies of Bubba Bubbaphant and KickinChicken. A bunch of the Ruined Critters were carrying what seems to be teared-off legs and the flesh of white skin. CatNap was pleased to see these huge accomplishments, And Picky, despite nearly dying to fill her stomach full, feels some regret for seeing the corpses and parts of the Critters.
Picky Piggy: (drooling) Finally, after all these years I can finally get a proper meal…I’m sorry, old friends, but you served your purpose. Mmmm…
Picky began digging in Bubba and Kickin’s flesh, abandoning her self-control. But CatNap shoves her away, making Picky fall off the hard ground. She was in confusion and fear as she felt his action.
CatNap: THOSE ARE RESERVED FOR THE LITTLE ONES.
Picky Piggy: But…B-But, sire, I’m still hungry. I need–
CatNap: DIDN’T YOU HEAR ME? THOSE ARE FOR THE LITTLE ONES
Picky Piggy: I…(stand up, angry) What about me?! I deserve to get a taste! I contributed to tracking the Critters down!
CatNap: YOU RELY TOO MUCH ON ME. I SAY YOU FEND FOR YOURSELF.
Picky then faced him head on, giving him a piece of her mind.
Picky Piggy: Listen here, CatNap! You promised me before that if I follow The Prototype, I would be fed…WHEN was that promise kept?!
CatNap: (frustrated) HOW DARE YOU DISRESPECT ME AND OUR GOD! THE PROTOTYPE IS ANGERED!
Picky Piggy: ARE YOU THE PROTOTYPE?!
CatNap: YOU HERETIC!
CatNap then scratches her head, causing it to bleed rapidly. In retaliation, Picky charges up to CatNap, which he quickly dodges by jumping up the ceiling. When Picky looks from above her, CatNap drops down and squashes her, while Picky picks her up with her back. With all her might, she lifts CatNap and throws him off, leading to CatNap hitting the wall. When he gets back up, he notices Picky’s miniature toy Critter of herself was carrying a blade to stab him. He remembered he was special to her, so she grabbed the mini Critter tight and threatened Picky in front of her.
CatNap: NOT ANOTHER STEP…
Picky was shocked, afraid of what he’ll do.
Picky Piggy: D-Don’t hurt it!
CatNap: I WILL! SO CHOOSE: THE LITTLE ONE DIES, OR TURN YOURSELF IN.
Picky Piggy: (pleading) NO! I can’t!
CatNap: THEN THIS ONE PERISHES.
CatNap begins crushing the little toy, which it started to squeal in pain. Suddenly, the sound like that of a metal contraption was heard, and when all of those in the cave turned at every corner, trying to find where that was coming from, they saw The Prototype’s claw at a large hole on the top wall of stone. Everyone was filled with awe and fear, and CatNap dropped the plush down to fall on his knees.
Picky Piggy: Is that–?
CatNap: MY LORD! YOU CAME!
It took a few seconds for The Prototype to speak, and when Kissy and Poppy saw this from their position, they were terrified.
Poppy Playtime: That thing…
The Prototype then spoke with different voices.
The Prototype: I see you have nearly achieved your goal, my child. But I’m not pleased about you destroying these other poor toys.
CatNap stared in confusion, having not understood what he complimented him.
The Prototype: I oblige you to let her live. You have one important thing to do, my servant, and that is to get rid of the intruder. (to Picky) As for you, I suggest you hunt the one you despise the most.
Picky Piggy: Are you saying…?
The Prototype: You know what you want…
As The Prototype’s hand leaves the scene, Picky remembers one toy that she wants to get rid off, so she grows confident about it.
CatNap: (shocked) I-I THOUGHT HE WOULDN’T WANT YOU ANYMORE.
Picky Piggy: (mocks) Guess again, CatNap! We both know that we’re just puppets, but if this is how I’ll do my bidding, then fine by me.
As Picky leaves for the tunnels, CatNap is mad at her, and deep inside he feels like the whole encounter was unfair, but he doesn’t want to question it. His faith in The Prototype remains strong.
When Kissy and Poppy witnessed this, they were deeply worried for you.
Poppy Playtime: (whispering) Kissy, we have to find them quick!
Both of them quickly went away to find you.
Meanwhile, you used the key Ollie gave you to open the door heading for the Counselor’s Office. You remembered what Ollie said about CatNap, but that won’t stop you from what you’ll do.
Through different turns on every hallway you went, you find yourself in dark paths, so you light up some flares with your Orange Hand. Upon making your way to a little corridor, at the end of it has a locked door, but with a hole open to the other side. It may be filled by the Red Smoke, but it was enough to see something inside. There was a battery across the room, but before you decided to grab it, there was also a small Bunzo Bunny Toy struggling to walk straight, but it fell helplessly. All of a sudden, the purple furry feline swoops in and grabs the little toy. You could almost miss this happening in a blink of an eye.
Now you’re a bit more skeptical on heading in further. You saw once again the killer who caused their deaths. But then again, you remembered a particular VHS tape back when you and CraftyCorn were in the playhouse. Something that you were conflicted about…
(Memory) VHS Tape:
Leith Pierre: (looking through papers) Okay…this is…CatNap. Uhhh…experiment #1188…(ask someone) What’s his real name again? (someone tells him) Ah! Okay. (clears throat, talks to CatNap) Heya Theo! How ya doin’ bud? Normally I’d have Dr. Sawyer do this but uhhh…out, let’s say. So you got me until they find his replacement. First off: Congrats! This is officially your 4th year in your new body. And you’ve made some real progress pal. I was told that when you and the other smiling critters, y’know, DogDay, Picky Piggy, yadda yadda yadda, were added into Playcare, that you weren’t really getting along too well with the kids like everybody else was. But look at you now! The kids love ya, and that red smoke. I mean–that’s fantastic, isn’t it?! (CatNap doesn’t reply) Is his uh, voice thingy still broken–
CatNap: (broken voice) THE PROTOTYPE WILL SAVE US.
Leith Pierre: (mad) Theo…Nobody’s gonna save you. This prison is where you belong. We’ll let you here and there to go see the kids in Playcare, but your home is here. And as for “The Prototype”, his home is in the labs. THIS is your life now. Get used to it.
(Memory) The tape ends.
That memory makes you sympathetic for these experiments. It clashes with everything that you thought of then and now, and you could go either way. You could turn back and leave the place, but deep inside you couldn’t avenge your friends. So when you grabbed the battery from the other side of that inaccessible room, you continued on.
—
A hallway here, another one there
With the Red Smoke almost everywhere
In the caves, there’s some puzzles to fix,
The environment doesn’t even fit with it
Entering an abandoned office,
You find another VHS tape
When you played it near a TV player
It reveals yet another false cape
The child supposedly meant for adoption
Was turned for testing instead
You know these experiments were indeed horrid
It was like they’re better off dead
In your heart these toys cry for help
In order to escape CatNap’s wrath
He caused so much pain from which he had
But now it’s time to take a new path.
—————————————————————————————————
It seems as if the complex machinery you’ve been fixing for the last moments ago felt out of place. But they’re nonetheless worth the time to fix what kind of mess appears out in the caves at the Counselor’s office. While crawling in a tight vent, the Red Smoke started to approach, and you put on your Gas Mask for protection. You drop down to another vent system, and again drop down. Upon opening the grilles, you went down a small corridor still filled of the Smoke. There were a few doors on each side, but some of them don’t have much to offer. On one door, though, there was a battery that you could see inside the room through the door’s window, so you went in.
Little did you know that someone was already behind you, like you never heard a sound of it coming.
When you exited the door, CatNap grabbed you, took your Gas Mask, and threw you to another room by sheer force. As CatNap closes the door, It causes a shelf to collapse behind it. You began to feel unconscious. Your Gas Mask is gone, and you begin to inhale the Smoke involuntarily as you fall into a deep sleep…
—————————————————————————————————
Dream sequence:
Poppy Playtime: (whispering voice) Find the flower. Find the flower.
There you were, standing at a road with the woods on both sides. You see at the distance the bright colorful abandoned factory under the darkened sky.
Poppy Playtime: This isn’t a place you came back from.
As you look around, the place fades as you were being traveled to a cave of red fog. Later, you find yourself at the entrance of the factory. The place you came in first.
Poppy Playtime: Do you have any idea what you’re doing?
No one was to be seen, and you were then flying in the red fog. You were hearing the joyful screams and voices of children, and soon enough, you were back in the hallways of the orphanage.
Poppy Playtime: Do you know what’s happened here?
You see in front of you a silhouette of two kids chasing each other. You looked behind, and there was a child sitting in the bed, and another one at the doorway. Again, you were flying in the red fog. The voices are getting louder and louder. And then, you were in a classroom at school.
Poppy Playtime: Do you know who we once were?
You see the children sitting in class, paying attention to the teacher. It seems like Miss Delight; possibly THE Miss Delight you were forced to kill. Again, you were flying in the fog, and then, you were in the tubes of the playhouse.
Poppy Playtime: Do you see why we have to end this?
You see two children on the same tube as you were in. They seemed happy, but before you could look around further, you went back to the red fog. Later, you were in a room in the Counselor’s Office.
Poppy Playtime: Do you even know what’s real?
At a table, there was a kid sitting in front of an adult. It seems like he was being chewed on, or a bunch of the staff talking to each other, but about what? Again, you were back flying in the red fog, but as you did, it slowly revealed a figure. Someone you recognized. Someone you encountered the first time you entered this place. It was Huggy, and he was smiling directly at you, with his one hand lifted on a waving sign. You don’t know what to do. You think Huggy might come and attack you like last time. But then Poppy spoke.
Poppy Playtime: No…you don’t.
At that moment, the sounds of an alarm were heard. Then, the people’s screams of fear and anguish surrounded you. Huggy’s image disappeared, and you were met with red lights flashing from the ceiling to the bottom. It was dark, and all you could hear was the tormenting cries. Looking behind, you see an empty platform to where Huggy used to be displayed. Moments later, a metallic claw appears, reaching down to grab you, but as you brace for it, it all fades to black.
It was all a dream.
The dream ends:
—————————————————————————————————
You open your eyes. You heard the phone ringing, but you feel exhausted as you find yourself still on the floor. Nonetheless, you gathered all your strength to pull yourself back up and stand. The phone keeps ringing, and as you picked up the phone, you were thinking it might be Ollie coming for the rescue, but to your surprise. It was the cat who attacked you, making a warning statement:
CatNap: LEAVE PLAYCARE, OR I’M COMING FOR YOU.
At this point, there was no turning back. You fixed up your GrabPack, took the battery and exited the room.

Previous First Chapter Next
Belo led them through a tunnel, past a large door, covered by rubble. They cleared it, then continued through. Sarah had heard them when they landed, disturbing her expedition site, and because of curiosity, she decided to tag along.
"Where are we going?" She asked the Chief.
He looked back at her, as he led the way, with a brightly lit fireball in his palms. "A place only permitted on special permits and a site for pilgrimage for some. There used to be a second entrance, but it was destroyed during the invasion. It is called the Armaya."
Cobwebs lined the walls, as geckos, mice, and other small insects scurried around the descending tunnel. There was a sharp turn, then a left. After a dozen more meters, they stopped, at a large room. Dimly lit, by a faint ray of light. However, just before they entered, Tobi helped Belo light the room.
They were shocked by the ancient drawings and glyphs, fading around the room. In the middle, was a black cube taking up about a fifth of the room and glowed with the glyphs of ancient writing, on all four sides. as if placed there intentionally.
The cube had streams of lava, flowing through its cracks, like a network of rivers. On the cube's surface were writings, written in foreign handwriting and ink. The entire cube seemed to shimmer every so often. At the bottom right of it, a fist-sized hole, outlined by a black metal and cushion-like casing, seemed placed there at the last minute, throwing off the whole aesthetic.
"Woah! No way something like this is down here. Sarah, we gotta take a picture of this." Tobi tried reading what was on the cube, but it was written in an ancient language. He looked at his brother, squinting his eyes at the texts on the massive cube. "Can you read this?"
Osei shook his head. "I can, but it's written in very old writing, making it hard for me to interpret."
Tobi looked once more at the cube. The words started to translate slowly into English, with the help of his contacts. Belo walked in front of both of them, then called Sarah's attention, who was busy, taking professional pictures of the entire room.
"If I may... These texts are from, ancient times. Last updated about 2 million years ago." Belo, started, once they were all ready.
Tobi, Osei, and Sarah were shocked. Sarah spoke up, in disbelief. "How's that possible? The earliest writing system, for our species, wasn't developed until 3500 B.C.E, with the Sumerian Cuneiform, also, what material can survive for that long? Are you saying, there were civilizations, capable of passing down complex knowledge as far as 2 million years ago?"
Belo smiled. "All I know is what's been deciphered, through these texts." He touched the stone, as his handprint showed up, then disappeared. "These stones were not only meant to pass down knowledge but also to warn of the Dark One. A being, that wiped out the ancient empire and broke up the galaxy."
Tobi shook his head. "The Dark One. Why am I hearing so much about them? Shouldn't it be dead by now?"
Belo shook his head and chuckled. "Some believe it to be a fable or a myth but the Dark One is not a creature of the earth like us, or the children of Atlas. It is said to be roaming the universe, hoping to make itself whole once more."
He sensed more questions incoming but raised his finger to continue. "There's more. Before its destruction, the leaders of the ancient kingdom constructed these cubes, called Keystones, made out of versillium, blood, and other contents lost through time, all to preserve these texts and lead the chosen ones, to the Alcore. A supposed piece and important part of the dark ones soul, that can grant the owner immense power and any of their wishes."
He paused to take a breath and walked over to the hole on the bottom right of the cube. Before he could speak, Tobi blurted out. "There's no way, we got all of this, just from one cube?"
Belo laughed, lightly. "No. I've been interested in ancient history since I was a child. Rennayan historians and archeologists got together, with scientists from other planets and because of those nations, sharing their keystones, we were able to piece together and maintain the true history."
He pointed at the hole. "Those chosen by the people must gather at least 200 keystones. Of which, 10, like this one, will lead you to the Alcore."
Saphyra was baffled by all of this information. She was surprised that there was no mention of the keystones in any hard drives that they had seized from the children of Atlas. As well as from her future self.
"That must be Atlas's goal. Picking out 200 guardians, like his children for the keystones." She said, after mulling things over.
Belo nodded at her words. "It's possible since your followers will have to trust and believe in you, to want to thrust their arms inside, to unlock the seal for the Alcore."
Osei stepped back in disbelief. How had he gone on for so long, without such knowledge?
Jelani was ecstatic to hear all of this, once again, but she had never been down below, to personally see the keystone. She was entranced by its design and constant glow.
Tobi walked closer to it. Almost able to read about sixty percent of texts written across the stone. "Wow, if this was all part of some book, it would be an epic for the ages."
A voice paralyzed them, from up above. "A true epic, it would be indeed."
Descending slowly out of the hole, letting out the faint ray of light, was a being they dreaded facing this early on. Atlas, the Cerian Emperor had arrived...
Notes:
This chapter is probably the shortest in the book, will post another later today.
Sumero-Akkadian Cuneiform is the earliest known writing system in the world. Used from 3400 BCE to 100 CE.
Previous First Chapter Next

Previous First Chapter Next
Belo led them through a tunnel, past a large door, covered by rubble. They cleared it, then continued through. Sarah had heard them when they landed, disturbing her expedition site, and because of curiosity, she decided to tag along.
"Where are we going?" She asked the Chief.
He looked back at her, as he led the way, with a brightly lit fireball in his palms. "A place only permitted on special permits and a site for pilgrimage for some. There used to be a second entrance, but it was destroyed during the invasion. It is called the Armaya."
Cobwebs lined the walls, as geckos, mice, and other small insects scurried around the descending tunnel. There was a sharp turn, then a left. After a dozen more meters, they stopped, at a large room. Dimly lit, by a faint ray of light. However, just before they entered, Tobi helped Belo light the room.
They were shocked by the ancient drawings and glyphs, fading around the room. In the middle, was a black cube taking up about a fifth of the room and glowed with the glyphs of ancient writing, on all four sides. as if placed there intentionally.
The cube had streams of lava, flowing through its cracks, like a network of rivers. On the cube's surface were writings, written in foreign handwriting and ink. The entire cube seemed to shimmer every so often. At the bottom right of it, a fist-sized hole, outlined by a black metal and cushion-like casing, seemed placed there at the last minute, throwing off the whole aesthetic.
"Woah! No way something like this is down here. Sarah, we gotta take a picture of this." Tobi tried reading what was on the cube, but it was written in an ancient language. He looked at his brother, squinting his eyes at the texts on the massive cube. "Can you read this?"
Osei shook his head. "I can, but it's written in very old writing, making it hard for me to interpret."
Tobi looked once more at the cube. The words started to translate slowly into English, with the help of his contacts. Belo walked in front of both of them, then called Sarah's attention, who was busy, taking professional pictures of the entire room.
"If I may... These texts are from, ancient times. Last updated about 2 million years ago." Belo, started, once they were all ready.
Tobi, Osei, and Sarah were shocked. Sarah spoke up, in disbelief. "How's that possible? The earliest writing system, for our species, wasn't developed until 3500 B.C.E, with the Sumerian Cuneiform, also, what material can survive for that long? Are you saying, there were civilizations, capable of passing down complex knowledge as far as 2 million years ago?"
Belo smiled. "All I know is what's been deciphered, through these texts." He touched the stone, as his handprint showed up, then disappeared. "These stones were not only meant to pass down knowledge but also to warn of the Dark One. A being, that wiped out the ancient empire and broke up the galaxy."
Tobi shook his head. "The Dark One. Why am I hearing so much about them? Shouldn't it be dead by now?"
Belo shook his head and chuckled. "Some believe it to be a fable or a myth but the Dark One is not a creature of the earth like us, or the children of Atlas. It is said to be roaming the universe, hoping to make itself whole once more."
He sensed more questions incoming but raised his finger to continue. "There's more. Before its destruction, the leaders of the ancient kingdom constructed these cubes, called Keystones, made out of versillium, blood, and other contents lost through time, all to preserve these texts and lead the chosen ones, to the Alcore. A supposed piece and important part of the dark ones soul, that can grant the owner immense power and any of their wishes."
He paused to take a breath and walked over to the hole on the bottom right of the cube. Before he could speak, Tobi blurted out. "There's no way, we got all of this, just from one cube?"
Belo laughed, lightly. "No. I've been interested in ancient history since I was a child. Rennayan historians and archeologists got together, with scientists from other planets and because of those nations, sharing their keystones, we were able to piece together and maintain the true history."
He pointed at the hole. "Those chosen by the people must gather at least 200 keystones. Of which, 10, like this one, will lead you to the Alcore."
Saphyra was baffled by all of this information. She was surprised that there was no mention of the keystones in any hard drives that they had seized from the children of Atlas. As well as from her future self.
"That must be Atlas's goal. Picking out 200 guardians, like his children for the keystones." She said, after mulling things over.
Belo nodded at her words. "It's possible since your followers will have to trust and believe in you, to want to thrust their arms inside, to unlock the seal for the Alcore."
Osei stepped back in disbelief. How had he gone on for so long, without such knowledge?
Jelani was ecstatic to hear all of this, once again, but she had never been down below, to personally see the keystone. She was entranced by its design and constant glow.
Tobi walked closer to it. Almost able to read about sixty percent of texts written across the stone. "Wow, if this was all part of some book, it would be an epic for the ages."
A voice paralyzed them, from up above. "A true epic, it would be indeed."
Descending slowly out of the hole, letting out the faint ray of light, was a being they dreaded facing this early on. Atlas, the Cerian Emperor had arrived...
Notes:
This chapter is probably the shortest, will post another later today.
Sumero-Akkadian Cuneiform is the earliest known writing system in the world. Used from 3400 BCE to 100 CE.
Previous First Chapter Next

As I’ve gone into research on the opinions of people on both sides of the argument, there seems to be one thing that all people agree on: a two state solution.
I admit that there are some extremists on both sides who think the land belongs to just Israel or just Palestine. But most sensible people view this as unreasonable.
But it’s hard for me to view this as a great solution, let alone the only option once the war ends.
If history is any indication, if these countries are left to their own devices, they will end up fighting with each other. And it makes sense, people in both counties are raised on the notion that they have an indigenous/religious right to all (or at least most) of the land of Canaan. (It doesn’t really matter who you think actually does)
I feel that there can be a solution in which a small level of self governance can be granted to both groups of people, if they are controlled/regulated in some way by proxy, but this (to my understanding) is hardly what people mean when they talk about the “Two-State solution”
I understand that it is unreasonable to ask that one people’s moves out of the land while the other pays reparations, though I think this would be the option that leads to the least amount of violence. But there are other ways that prevent the development of a militia on either side.
Here is my solution: Israel is absorbed by Turkiye (thereby joining NATO), and Palestine is absorbed by either Egypt or Saudi Arabia. Both counties can, after a certain amount of time, “apply” for independence, and must be granted it after an extended time. I feel that this solution would reduce tensions, as well as provide a high level of M.A.D. among the two nations. (Alternatively they are both annexed by the same country, though I don’t know how that would work.)
***** I could be wrong on my perception of the “Two-State Solution”, it may be way more nuanced, and just projected as simple by media/activists. And there may be many holes in my offered solution, but it’s more of a concept than steal man. *****
What’s your solution?

I yelled and woke with a start. Sweat dripped down my face. My breathing was hard and desperate. I could have sworn I had just been falling. The stickiness of sleep meddled with the cogs of my mind. Slowly my eyes adjusted to the gloom of my bedroom and I found myself alone, safe and warm. No danger here. My heart rate slowed and I chuckled nervously. Soon all fear had seeped from my mind and all memory of my dream had faded. I rolled out of bed and shivered. Quickly I pulled on a sweater and put on my furry slippers. It was cold in this cabin in the middle of the forest. Although internal plumbing and an electric generator had been added, there was still no central heating. This did not bother me much because I always enjoyed having an excuse to light the fire in the living room. I absolutely loved traditional fireplaces.
I was whistling happily in the kitchen, sipping on a glass of cold water as I poured fresh coffee beans into my electric grinder. The sound and smell of coffee being ground always left me feeling content. As my coffee brewed in my French press I cracked two eggs into a bowel and began to whisk. Fifteen minutes later I carried a steaming hot cheese omelet and large mug of coffee out onto my front veranda. I stood in the open doorway, surveying the beauty of the outdoors in the early morning light. The air was cold and fresh; pregnant with complex mixtures of pine and lavender scents. I looked up to see the sky was a deep blue and devoid of all clouds. The thin, dark silhouettes of the trees that surrounded the cabin stood silent and ominous in the soft half-light of the morning. White coats of frost sparkled and melted on the grass as the sun climbed and brightened. I could hear the distant sound of the stream and the call of morning birds.
I sighed deeply with satisfaction and sat down on my wooden chair. This is what I loved more than anything. More than the city that bustles and bursts with busy human lives. More than squeezing myself between strangers on the underground train. More than the sickening smell of the streets and the soulless lack of any natural sounds. In the city there were no crickets, no owls, no frogs. Out here there was an abundance of beauty. The trees were so patient and still. So very different from the rushed, ill-mannered commuters I had as my usual morning partners. I definitely preferred the trees. I took another deep breath. I blew on the steam that rose from my coffee mug and sipped cautiously. The coffee was rich and delicious and scalding hot. Perfect. I began to eat my omelet letting the serenity of nature continue to wash over me. My mood had not been so elated for many months and I was seriously thinking that I should move here full-time. Currently I was working as an English teacher and had decided to come out here to work on my novel and take a break from the city. From my life. Once my excellent breakfast was complete I walked back inside and decided to start a fire to warm up the cabin. As I stooped to check the small wicker basket near the fireplace, that should contain the dried firewood, my eyebrow arched when I found the basket empty. Huh? I could have sworn it was half-full yesterday. Puzzled but not at all alarmed I picked up the basket. Soon I put on my large, worn black coat and made my way outside.
The frosted ground crunched under my large leather boots as I waded through the woods. Finding dry branches for the fire would be fairly difficult at this time of day as most of the ground was damp by now. However, my plan was just to dry them out in the oven before I used them. After spending a few minutes stooping to inspect sticks of various sizes and dampness I finally filled the basket. “Ok, time to go home.” I muttered eagerly as I rubbed my hands together. The air was still cold enough to make my breath visible and I rubbed my hands together. Suddenly I stopped. My eyebrows furrowed. I did not recognize where I was. But how? I had been exploring the woods for days now and not one time had I gotten lost.
My eyes darted back and forth and my head swiveled in confusion. Very soon a creeping panic began to climb from my stomach up into my lungs. My heart began to thump loudly. I looked up at the sun, the voice of my old man ringing in my mind, “Learn to navigate by the stars and sun and you’ll never lose your way”. I smiled, remembering his warm eyes and loud laughter. I missed him. I closed my eyes, concentrating. “Ok, that must be East, so that means I should walk…” I stretched out my arm and hand, index finger pointed. I turned on my heel. “North. That way.”
After a few moments I found my path blocked by a sudden sheer drop. I was facing an enormous quarry. My face blanched. “What… where the hell did this come from?” Again, panic seeped into my blood. “There aren’t any bloody quarries around here!” I moved forward to peek over the edge and peered down. The drop must be at least fifteen meters! I looked from left to right and saw no stairs or bridges. How the hell was I supposed to get across? My confusion grew and grew. Suddenly I froze. There, lying at the very bottom of the quarry, just near the cliff’s bottom, was a mangled body. The light in the sky was still too young to properly illuminate the quarry’s depths, but I could tell it was a body! My eyes bulged and my mouth opened wide with astonishment. “Jesus! Hello? Are you okay down there?” I yelled. Nothing but cold silence pressed against my ears. Suddenly I noticed a path that I had not seen before. It started to my right and wound down the slope before me. Quickly I started hurrying down towards the person; maybe I could still help? Soon I was at the bottom and I ran up to the body that lay still on the ground. As I got closer and the sun grew brighter I stopped dead. The body that lay crumpled at my feet was – me. “No way. There is just absolutely no way!” I shouted. I trembled as I took a step backward. My foot slipped on a large stone and I felt myself begin to fall to the ground.
Suddenly I yelped and my legs kicked out. I blinked in the sudden darkness and found myself on my sofa in the cabin’s living room. “What the hell? It was just a dream?” I said out loud as I sat up. I felt the softness of the couch cushions beneath me, I could smell the citrus scents leftover from the wash I’d given them recently. I stood up, my breathing still fast. The large windows showed a stormy afternoon. Rain pelted the glass heavily and the wind howled loudly. “What the hell? It was just a dream?” I repeated. I checked my watch. It was nearly two o’clock in the afternoon. I raked my brain, trying to figure out what was happening. But the details of my dream were fading. “I was in the forest looking for firewood. Then I found that body in that quarry.” It had been so real. I felt quite disoriented. Was I truly awake now? Or still asleep? And that body? What had been so terrible about it? The dream had already seeped away. I couldn’t remember.
Still confused I made my way quickly towards the front door. Just as I opened it there was a deafening peal of thunder and a bright fork of lightning lit up the darkling sky. My mouth dropped open. There, just beyond the veranda, as if it had always been there, was the quarry. That cliff! I closed my mouth. “But… how…” Ignoring the icy rain, I walked towards the edge and once again peeked over. In the cold light of another flash of lightening and rumble of thunder, I saw my own body twisted and broken on the ground below. I gasped. My mind reeled. My heart fluttered. “What is going on?” I yelled looking around for some sort of explanation. When I looked back down again my face turned white. The body, my body, was gone. Suddenly I felt the eyes of a stranger on my back. A feeling of dread crept up my spine. A twig snapped. I spun around.
I stood face to face with my shadow. But he did not look like me. Not exactly. Darkness coated his body like a skintight suit and I could not tell what he was wearing. He may have even been naked for all I know. I could see most of his face and hair, but his eyes were cloaked entirely in semi-circles of shadow which fell below each of his brows. He seemed utterly unconcerned about the storm. “You poor thing. You poor, wretched thing.” When he spoke, his voice was not mine. It was deep and commanding, yet gentle. His words came out slow and calm, almost lulling, “I caught you as you fell. You have made a half-choice. You can be at peace forever. But you must choose now.” He stretched out a tenebrous hand and pointed toward the edge of the cliff. Suddenly I noticed something new appear in his hands. It was a book. It was my book. The one I had been writing. Had I already finished it? Or had I just started?
He turned to one of the middle pages and read, “‘Life is the antithesis of peace. Death is the antithesis of suffering.’” He snapped the book closed and turned again to face me, “How trite. Yet, so often the plainest truths are. All you want is peace, is it not? You are right in thinking that life can never provide this.” A cold smile curled his lips. “Even the living forests you so admire are crawling with suffering and conflict. Even the trees that appear so peaceful, so still, are wordlessly fighting each other for light. Racing against each other to claim their own space. It is the nature of the living to struggle.” Confusion fought with terror in my mind. I stammered. “I…I don’t understand. What is this place? Who are you?” Suddenly the man robed in darkness leapt at me and clasped my wrist, “You know who I am”. Small crimson lights flared to life like ignes fatui in the depths of his sockets. He began to pull me towards the edge. “No! Wait!” I shouted, digging my heels into the wet grass. But he was too strong. He snarled, “Isn’t this what you wanted?” and before I could stop myself I was crying from desperation. Then with a strength that could not be human he lifted me above his head, and threw me over the side of the quarry. Lightning flashed as the air rushed through my hair. I screamed as I plummeted to my death.
I yelled and woke with a start. I heard the soft beeping of monitors. I felt the scratchy linens of a hospital bed beneath me. Pain followed swiftly and exploded through my limbs. My voice was croaky and dry as I spoke, “Where…what the hell…what happened?” A nurse rushed to my side. “It’s alright love, you’ve ‘ad a bit of a tumble. Doctor’s got you all sorted. Just rest now”. Her voice was warm and comforting, like a cup of tea.
My memory returned to me slowly. My family did not own any cabin in the forest. The day of the accident I had been jogging in the woods and took my usual route near the abandoned quarry. I remember exactly what had happened. For a long time, I have been overwhelmed with my work and underwhelmed with my life. I wanted nothing more than to finish my novel and bail on all my teaching responsibilities. My father had also recently died after a long and horrible fight with cancer and it was the first time I realized that at my age life stops providing and starts taking. I realized that soon all those things, all those people, I could once rely on were not going to last forever. An invisible fire was lit in my flesh and I felt my time was rapidly running out.
I jogged far, leaving the city limits. As I stood at the edge of that quarry, panting, my sadness hanging on me heavily, I had, for a moment, contemplated jumping. I had thought about it often before. As I stared down, I imagined my broken body at the bottom of the cliff. Then, like in all my low moments, I let the cold inhumanness of the universe fill me up.
With my eyes closed all I could hear was my mother crying over my father’s corpse. All I could hear were the endless calls from the funeral home asking for their money. All the constant knocking of debt collectors on our door. All I could see were the endless medical bills flooding the postbox. All I felt was loneliness. A horrible, unrelenting, unsolvable loneliness. I had no great love, no amazing career, and my writing would never be good enough to publish. All I could feel was the gaping hole my father had left behind. It hurt. For just a moment I convinced myself I did not belong here anymore. My lips trembled. I walked right up to the edge. I felt my sadness swell in my chest. I clenched my fists tightly. I imagined taking a single step forward. It would be so easy. I imagined the air rushing past me. Falling to my doom. I imagined the horrible pain of the impact. But I also imagined the peace that would come after. A peace I craved. I imagined a picturesque cabin in the woods. A beautiful fireplace. A shelter from the city. A place where I could rest. It was in that moment of contemplative despair, before I could fully commit to the act, that the old unstable ground of the quarry crumbled beneath my feet and I had slipped from the edge and fell. Only the shadows were there to catch me.
Recovery was slow. My mother and sister came to visit me multiple times and made the stay at the hospital bearable. How many dreams had I had? How much had I awoken and then re-awoken? Could I be sure I was truly awake now? As I pondered this I tried to remember. But all I could recall was that very last dream. Those dark horrible eyes. The terror of that very last fall. In that moment, I had realized what I wanted. Now I felt rejuvenated in a way I had not felt for many years. The exhaustion of my spirit had finally been ameliorated. I actually looked forward to getting out of bed. I actually wanted to go to school again. My passion for teaching was reignited. Soon after my recovery I even managed to get my novel published but did not make much money.
Many years have passed since my fall and I’m in my 60s now and retired and have never married. I now know that those dreams were not just dreams. That phantom I confronted has remained with me. Whenever the stresses of life pile up and I become fatigued, he comes to me. He still waits for me. He is real. I see his eyes covered in shadow. Tiny pinpricks of red-light flicker therein. At first, I only saw him rarely; glimpses in dreams. As time went on and I grew older and weary of the world once more I began to see him in the corner of my room every night. What’s worse was that in those moments when I feel the lowest I find myself craving the solitude of that cabin. The peace it brought with it. All this I craved despite the price.
Last week I attended my mother’s funeral. It was a small affair, most of her friends having died many years before. I saw my sister there with her husband and children. They are so happy and full of life. I feel a pang of jealousy but also relief. My life was always to be a solitary one. My sister and I cried during the service. When we chatted later we tried in vain to comfort each other. I returned alone to my home in London while she returned home with her husband and children to Edinburgh. I missed her a great deal too. I often thought about our growing up together.
Since the funeral I see him constantly now. Often his shadow-hidden hand stretches out and he holds a revolver. But he does not mean to shoot me. No. He holds the revolver’s ivory handle toward me. Sometimes he holds out a hangman’s noose. Sometimes it’s a long, ornate dagger. Most recently he holds out a canister of helium gas. And a plastic bag for my head. Each time he does this I resist him. Sometimes, when I’m alone, I even yell at him to leave. His face remains dark, stony and enigmatic.
None of this would scare me quite so much if I had not just realized one terrible detail. What turns my blood to ice from fear is that every time I see him he is infinitesimally closer. How had I not noticed before? Perhaps it was a kindness. Gooseflesh runs down my neck as I see him standing insidiously in my cold bedroom. He is near the edge of my bed now. He is patient and has respected my choice so far. Nevertheless, he holds out that same revolver. That same noose. That same dagger. I tremble with fright because I know I will not be able to resist him much longer. Perhaps soon I’ll know if this was all a dream too.

I segmented my love for this IP during the 2016-2019 era of lore content. Back then the writers were active and publishing free and accessible short-format storytelling, on a basis of new lore alongside every major patch every 2–4 weeks. This included comic deals with Marvel; tons of animatics and cinematics; potential novel publications; in-game events; interactive maps/microsite; and by the end of 2016 the Universe website containing all narrative content for audiences to engage with was introduced. Fun fact: there was so much new lore every month, the writers introduced a "Lore updates periodical" to keep everyone up to date with expanding developments.
This was the status quo up until the end of 2021.
After 2021, Riot discontinued short stories but didn't tell fans why. Turns out it was because the Universe site wasn't getting enough useaudience traffic to justify its upkeep. The site was hardly ever updated, despite influential devs trying their best to get the support the site needed. Riot's upper management ignored them, and the site has been riddled with bugs and missing content since early 2018. The writers were later pulled from publishing new short-stories, up to and including tie-in stories with LoR. Instead, Riot was completely dedicated to expanding personalizations and skins, things that were generating audience engagement and revenue. So whoopee, if you love buying skins.
But not all was lost for the lore, because in 2019 Riot announced their third-party publishing label- RiotForge. Their job was to collaborate with studios interested in creating games set in Runeterra. The very first game being released end of 2021. This was wonderful but short-lived. Riotforged was dissolved early this year because it didn't meet shareholders expectations. After 5 games, that even reviewed positively, Riotforge still failed to captivate a large enough demographic for Riot to continue funding future games. Riotforge was a gamble and it didn't pay off.
The League of Legends team also wasn't interested in hosting new lore content any more. After they embarrassed themselves with the poorly received Sentinels of Light event. We know that the faults of multi-platform super event was due to the meddling of Riot's corporate management. But the consequences of which was LoL cut responsibility of lore and left it up to other divisions within Riot (like LoR, Arcane, Riotforge). Unfortunately, the other division was too slow at producing new lore. Which started a frustrating "lore drought" because League wasn't releasing any narrative stuff, even champ VO were getting less and less; and Riotforge only released two games a year; and all LoR had was expansions with illustrations and single sentence card text. I'd hardly call LoR a storytelling platform yet ironically lore fans was seeing more lore in static images than anywhere else at the time.
So the status quo had irreversibly changed from what it used to be, and lore fans grew increasingly restless by the months-long gap between new lore content. The tipping point of this was the poorly received Season 2023 cinematic.
Unfortunately, there were massive lay-offs by Riot's CEOs. Now the company is no longer interested in pursuing and financing projects that aren't League, WR or TFT. Which means the future of narrative content is going to be pigeon holed into one of those platforms. Simultaneously, the narrative teams are still experimenting with alternative ways to boost player engagement with the lore, since they realized that reading short-stories didn't reach the casual League player. So far, all we've seen was the client based Briar teasers that contained some lore. But lore hosted in the client only exists for one patch, and then it's inaccessible forever. We've also seen in WR with Kalista's Odyssey. Which is just a copy-paste retelling of the Ruination novel, and if you read the book, you already knew all the spoilers. Kalista's Odyssey also has the same problem as the Briar teasers, its lore exclusively locked to one patch, once it is over, all that content is inaccessible for anyone that missed it. You could even argue the same for Sentinels of Light event, or Burning Tides. But they both had tie-in stories and cinematics hosted on the website for future players to read/look at. It's almost like not having a regularly updated website for all that lore stuff deprives a lot of new people access to the lore...
Fortunately or unfortunately, it was just Arcane that was critically and financially successful for Riot. BUT Arcane wasn't canon. The creators even said the development of the show had very limited interaction with the devs that had been working on the lore for the main universe. However, the Arcane fanbase easily overshot the lore fan base. Resulting in the narrative teams decision to bend or bin 8 years worth of canon in favour of Arcane's version. Which the narrative teams haven't even started work on yet. But Season 2 is slated for the end of this year and Riot's already made some big promises and things to get excited for. Giddy.
I think that sums it up. Im open to anyone else's thoughts on the matter : )

This covers spoiler content up to latest 2.1 version:
Also I know nothing about HI3rd or anything outside of HSR, so if there is additional meta context I'm happy to include it
Rather than putting in a content dump, I'm breaking this up as concisely as possible for reading, and to see how many of these are right: (will add/update but not remove based on what comes up in comments/additional context)
The 2.2 endgame:

• We know our final boss is "Harmonious Choir" The Great Septimus. Hence an emanatorepresentation of Harmony.
• We can also likely conclude that Robin and Sunday have an influence on summoning this boss, or they summon the boss themselves as an emanator.
  • Trailer panes upwards on Robin's concert to the birth of the Aeon
  • The family are a representation of Harmony
  • We see a Robin banner, a Jade banner but we don't see a Sunday banner. Even though Jade only appears once in Aventurine's backstory or in small mentions under conversations with Topaz, this could possibly mean that Sunday becomes the emanator?
• If we follow the pattern of song releases, with 2.0's White Night being about Aventurine, 2.2's "Welcome to My World (Sway to My Beat in Cosmos)" seems to indicate what the Charmony Festival is and why they are summoning the emanator in the first place:
  • "Rise up into my world"... "Join my dream" Note that it is my world, indicating that the ownership of this world is not shared but owned presumably by the Family
  • "Renew your definition" seems innocuous enough, you probably want to take on a new identity in a new world. But " No more ties" is where it goes off the rails, indicating that you lose your previous identity in doing so.
    • This ties in all the new side content context we are getting: (Vignettes where the customers lose their original identities, Clockie being a normal person in disguise performing and the McCoy storylines)
• If we presume that release cycles follow what we see so far (Phantylia in 1.2, then resolution in 1.3), we can assume 1.2 is the climax arc and 1.3 is the resolution arc.
  • Alternatively, we can believe the massive black hole defeating an emanator of Harmony can do to Penacony and that 1.3 needs Firefly to do something to stop it.
• Post live-stream:
  • Boss design seems to give major Sunday Vibes
    • the buttons on his wing ear and on his coat resemble the 3 buttons on boss coat
    • the ring pattern of his attacks seems rather similar of a multi-pointed compass as what Sunday's halo pattern
  • Boss lore follows their advanced trace material. For Septimus, it's "Lost Echo of a Shared Wish". Foolish dreamer = Robin? False player = Gallagher? THEY could be Xipe?

https://preview.redd.it/s8f8660kgfxc1.png?width=487&format=png&auto=webp&s=9f259dd1f0b5e6e43c6c34236a382d57e8d29e70
If TB had a new path:

• Not sure if it was a leak/ a rumo a spoiler etc, but entertaining the thought if that is real: Which Aeon would it be?
  • A lot of people seem to assume it is Harmony (or a good Harmony). I don't believe that to be true. Aeons are akin to gods and are fixated on their representations. It wouldn't really make much sense to have Paths in conflict with each other.
  • We also see the first Path (Fire Preservation that is drawn) is in direct opposition to the eternal cold that was borne about. Although it is fair to say that in both Belobog and XZLF, we have not yet a conflict between Paths.
  • Erudition
    • Thematically, while Harmony could be the force that encourages the procurement of knowledge, I believe that Harmony's hive mind actually prevents the pursuit of knowledge. Preventing the discussion and desire to know more.
    • The influence of 2 characters possibly lend to this, Himeko and Jing Yuan.
    • Himeko seems to know a lot more than she is leading on, and she plays a significant role in providing information to TB.
    • While Jing Yuan's appearance could be a "Let's call this guy in to prevent TB from having any more Get Out of Jail Free cards", Nah scrap this, Jing Yuan's just the smart strong guy that brings the firepower to clap emanators. (I can't think of any other reason they decided to call this guy in)
    • (Boss seems to spawn multiple singing adds, and Erudition specializes in multi-target damage?)
  • Enigmata
    • We can see that Enigmata seems to have an objective in conflict with Harmony, hence the conversation between Gallagher and Sunday.
    • Problem is, Enigmata doesn't exist as a playable path atm and it would probably be a massive rug pull if it could.
  • Nihility
    • Acheron and Welt are characters heavily referenced to having an influence in the main story. Acheron especially is the only person that can bring people to the other side.
    • DoT, which Nihility represents, is a heavy counter to representations of Enigmata (MZM). Hence TB awakens the path of Nihility with Acheron and swallows up the subconsciousness of Penacony thus saving Penacony in 2.3 (This is too cracked sorry).
    • Nihility is thematically lazy and probably has no interest in this
  • Destruction
    • Destruction is the direct opposition to Harmony thematically
    • TB already has a physical Destruction Path.
  • Harmony
    • Harmony can work, but as an opposition to the Enigmata (GallagheMZM) crew.
    • plays on the extended 2.3 theory.

The 2.3 crackpot:

• We could see something like 1.3 where everything gets resolved, nothing of importance was lost etc. But then, assuming that 2.2 revolves around the Charmony Festival, several plot points are still left open:
  • At the end of 2.1, Gallagher's reveal as the Big Bad and MZM were rather significant plot points. Yet they do not appear in any of the 2.2 trailer content at all
  • Jade is part of the banner lineup in 2.3, which means she likely plays a heavy plot role in the story at that phase. (meaning IPC representation)
  • We saw that TB and crew defeat the Harmony representative and bring down the festival, but this leaves a massive power vacuum in its wake.
  • That's where IPC comes in (hence Jade) and Enigmata crew come in to fight over the remaining rights and property that remains in the aftermath.
  • I'm not sure how it ends but following gacha game logic:
    • No major banner characters die
    • Nothing gets destroyed, or Penacony gets restored. hence still open world
    • which could severly limit the scope of what is possible in endgame.
  • Maybe this is where TB unlocks Harmony Path and defeats Jade crew + Enigmata crew and everyone lives happily ever after. Who knows?

This is all just a theory...

The Haunted Mansion, December 25th, 2018
Me and my friends caught Ichigo holding the next dimensional stone wedge meant to teleport in between worlds. I need that stone to get to the next world in order to help save my kidnapped friend from Death Battle. Ichigo was standing with his back turned to us as he listed to five bust statues singing at him. They sung "Grim Grinning Ghosts" as we snuck up behind him with our weapons drawn just in case if he turns around and immediately attacks.
Holding my new scissor blade "Joyeuse", I was about to pick Ichigo's pocket before the bust statues stopped singing and Ichigo turned around and grabbed my wrist.
Ichigo: Ryuko!? What are you doing here!? I thought Wiz and Boomstick disposed of you!
Ryuko: Not good enough! I am going to take your dimensional stone because I need it to track down the scumbag from Death Battle who forcibly raped me and kidnapped my friend.... Let go of me!
Ichigo still held on before Uzu came up beside him and hit Ichigo's wrist hard with his blunt kendo sword! Ichigo yelped in pain letting go of me before he pulled out his big spirit sword or "zanpakuto" and swung an energy wave into Uzu, causing him to fly into the sky away from here
Ichigo: Getsuga Tenshou!
Me and Isaac were left. I drew Joyeuse as Isaac drew his plasma saw.
Ichigo: Take the stone then! I will defeat you a second time Ryuko, and your little friend with the glowing chainsaw!
Ryuko: I'm getting stronger in new things you stupid prick! Just wait until you get sodomized and you seek revenge!
The five bust statues began singing "Grim Grinning Ghosts" again as we engaged in the duel.
Me and Ichigo clashed blades and we stood pressing them together before Isaac ran up to Ichigo and swung his plasma saw at him, Ichigo swung his blade and blocked him before I swung and Ichigo blocked my blow.
Ichigo dashed in between me and Isaac and skillfully was taking on both of each on each side with just his big sword!
Isaac: Ryuko! He's really skilled!
Ryuko: I know! But watch this!
I jumped back and rose Joyeuse to cast one of my spells!
Ryuko: Scutter!
A bunch of little spiders dropped from my skirt and started crawling over to Ichigo's feet to bite him! As the spiders bit Ichigo he got distracted with his fight with Isaac and Isaac kicked Ichigo in the stomach and he went flying!
Ichigo slammed into a big concrete vase and it shattered, little ghosts rose from the wrecked artifact as Isaac jumped at him with his plasma saw ready to attack again! Ichigo quickly pulled his big sword up to block him once more, at a standstill now they tried to push against each other's blade.
Isaac: Why... is mon plasma saw not cutting through your sword!?
Ichigo: One, it's not physical it's an immortal zanpakuto, a spirit sword of "Zangetsu", and second are you French?
Isaac: Oui!
Isaac pushed back against Ichigo suddenly as they began to swing and clash blades again! Sparks from Isaac's plasma saw showered both Ichigo and Isaac yet they cared nothing of it. It was my opportunity to strike! I decided to activate one of my dimensional links.
I remembered how to cast them so I closed my eyes, quickly cleared my mind and imagined the friends I met in the other worlds in the form of images of their faces on orbs. I saw two new orbs containing an image of Jack Skellington and Sally, I decided to see what they could do. I used Jack Skellington's dimensional link and shouted the spell!
Ryuko: Dimensional link activate.
Upon shouting the spell, I began to feel my flesh disappear painlessly, I still had my hair and clothes, but I was now a skeleton, yet I retained my abilities, vision and strength.
I rose my scissor blade up and darkness emanated from it, causing the nearby skeletons buried near this grave-filled courtyard to rise, many of them holding medieval weapons! I then pointed at Ichigo and the Skeletons charged over to all attack him at once. The skeletons charged, grabbed Isaac and threw him aside, startling Ichigo and making him slam his blade into the ground accidentally before they all jumped on him and started beating him with their crusty, degraded weapons.
Ichigo screamed as he was pinned and was being beaten, Isaac got up and looked at me and I could see the horror in his face when he saw me as a skeleton.
Ryuko: I'm using Jack's dimensional link, it will only last five minutes.
Isaac: Oui?
Isaac shuddered for a moment before I heard Ichigo stop shouting but the skeletons kept beating him.
Ichigo: Bankai!
A spiritual energy burst sent the skeletons flying and Ichigo rose again now with his zanpakuto turned into a black katana-like sword. His power and speed was increased significantly. Ichigo quickly began to jump around and cut the skeletons down into little pieces before he slashed Isaac across the chest and blood gushed! He screamed in pain and fell but was caught before he fully fell down by another ghost.
The ghost revealed itself and it was that skeleton like ghost with the bowling hat.
Ezra: Heheheheheha! Hopefully you don't bleed out or else you will join us in our abode of souls.
Isaac: Chas V'shalom!
Ichigo flew directly at me and we clashed blades and were now at a standstill. We struggled against each other's blade as Ichigo ran his mouth.
Ichigo: What have you trained in!?!?! You're a skeleton, summoning spiders! How?
Ryuko: Magic baby!
Ichigo: Well I am not going to fall to the likes of you, skeleton girl!
Suddenly the plump ghost with the top hat materialized behind Ichigo and pulled his legs out from under his feet, he fell and scream.
Phineas: Don't worry Ryuko, I won't hurt you. Try your spirit gauntlet!
Phineas disappeared before Ichigo got up and shouted at the ghost, wanting to chase after it.
Ichigo: Stay out of this you assholes!
He actually tried to pursue it but this gave me the chance to grab Ichigo and throw him towards Isaac, where Isaac quickly whipped out his plasma saw and sliced Ichigo across the back and then batted him into a nearby mausoleum. Phineas the plump ghost materialized with a key and locked Ichigo in there as the door was quickly shut somehow after Ichigo was tossed in there.
That wasn't the end of the fight however, it only got more difficult!
A few minutes later my skeleton form regained it's skin and flesh and I looked like my original self again but once I turned back, the foundation of the mausoleum cracked and rumbled before the entire mausoleum was lifted off its foundation by Vasto Lorde Ichigo!
The taller, horned, pale masked monster of an Ichigo was very powerful and it picked up the entire mausoleum to throw at me and Isaac!
We both quickly rose our blades and sliced the mausoleum into tiny pieces within a split second, the pieces fell everywhere like tiny pebbles, we stood before the monstrous Ichigo ready to attack again, where we instead saw a red orb glow from his horns before it fired at us, we dodged out of it's way but it only exploded on impact and engulfed the entire courtyard, damaging the mansion and throwing up high into the sky!
We quickly looked down to see us rising above the massive explosion and when it was gone, the wrecked mansion and nearby houses above looked like little ant-sized structures but I could barely see the Vasto Lorde Ichigo swinging at the other nearby ghosts down there as they were angry at him for destroying their home!
Ryuko: Isaac! I got an idea for this bitch!
Isaac: Are you thinking what I am thinking?
Ryuko and Isaac: Summoned swords!
As we began to fall, we used our summoned swords magic jolting each shoulder back and forward left and right, summoning light blue swords which shot down quickly into Ichigo who was too distracted fighting ghosts, as he was being hit he looked up while still swatting at the ghosts and began firing those exploding red orbs from his horns!
They flew up at near light speed at us but we quickly dodged the pure energy balls as we continued to shoot our blue magic energy swords down into monster Ichigo, we got closer and closer to the ground and more of those explosive orbs flew at us, making us dodge faster and faster until Isaac decided to detonate them!
Isaac: Now!
We both clapped twice at the same time and it caused the summoned swords to explode, that mixed with Ichigo summoning another red explosive orb from his Vasto Lorde horns mixed to make a much bigger explosion, so big in fact that the explosion was the same size as a nuclear bomb! The mansion and so many houses were destroyed and it left a massive crater! The explosion threw both of us back into the sky, we screamed going all the way back up! Once we got as high as the literal stratosphere, we were somehow able to talk again!
Isaac: Ryuko? I think we got him!
Ryuko: Are those swords that damn powerful?
Isaac: Je ne sais pas, Ichigo's exploding orbs are that powerful though. Maybe mixing the explosions to make a bigger one!
Ryuko: Those ghosts are gonna kill us, we destroyed their home!
We then saw all the newly displaced ghosts rise into the heavens for their final resting place.
Isaac: Or maybe not. They will become one after le purification.
Ryuko: I think Ichigo will join them!
Isaac: What about the dimensional stone?
Ryuko: What? Sh-t! It's gone?
Suddenly Ichigo flew right up with us, he was no longer a vasto lorde monster but he looked beat up. He had a torn up uniform, black covering the left part of his face, a horn on the left side of his head, and a much larger sword!
Ichigo: Not quite done yet! Give it up Ryuko, you don't even have Senketsu, you are gonna lose quicker! Throw your magic at me! I'll survive it, I am using my true bankai!
Ryuko: Eat this you hollow-merged freak! Fira!
I shot fireballs from my scissor blade but Ichigo blocked them like they were nothing. Isaac moved over to Ichigo to swing his plasma saw at him but Ichigo was much stronger, swinging sideways and knocking the plasma saw from Isaac's hands. Isaac then punched Ichigo in the nose and blood squirted out his nostrils, the blood turned black and faded away!
Ichigo punched Isaac and knocked him into me! I grabbed onto him and shouted another spell!
Ryuko: Sleeperaga!
I shot the spell from my scissor blade but Ichigo caught the spell with his true bankai and threw it back at us, it his Isaac and he quickly slipped into a deep sleep.
Ichigo: You think you can just cast your little spells, go anywhere, take anything, not anymore!
Ryuko: You're just an egotistical little prick aren't you! When I beat you, you will be humbled!
Ichigo: You live in a fantasy girl! Get your ass over here!
I tossed the sleeping Isaac aside as Ichigo flew at me and he swung with immense power but I blocked his attack and we stood at a standstill, both of our bodies sprawled out in midair backs up while our arms were out on our swords holding back each other, Ichigo started to overpower me but I had one more trick up my sleeve.
Ryuko: Weakaga, bitch!
Saying that spell caused Ichigo's sword to being bending and deforming like malleable metal, I soon cut through his sword and he was dumbfounded!
Ichigo: This is not possible!
Ryuko: It is now! This is what payback looks like!
I began to batter the disarm Ichigo with my candy-cane like scissor blade, blocking his punches and getting closer and closer to Joyeuses special release form.
Ryuko: You think I'm f-cking weak? I will show you who's weak now, and I'm staring right him! I will beat your ass and take your dimensional stone and get the hell out of here! Have fun in a block of ice you samurai-ghostbuster lookin' prick! Joyeuse! Activate!
The bow on Joyeuse cocked back and when I grabbed it I began to spin with it pointed out, it didn't go into decapitation mode like my original scissor blade but it instead summoned a massive snowstorm in the air, all the ice was freezing Ichigo as it was targeted for him!
Ichigo: Screw you, bastard!
Ichigo was quickly encased in a huge hunk of ice, and the ground below us was covered in thick snow so we all landed safely on it. Isaac upon finally hitting the snow finally woke up, he woke up and got up to walk over to me.
Isaac: I take it... we?
Ryuko: Won. I beat him.
Isaac: Victoire! Zis feels amazing mon ami!
Ryuko: Sure does hon. Uh, Isaac move. Get out of the way!
Isaac looked up to see his plasma saw falling down towards him, he screamed and dashed out of the way, allowing the saw to fall safely into the thick snow.
Isaac: Oh merci! I would have been in deep trouble if I lost zis. I used it to fight the covers in my hometown. Those covers of Revocs.
Ryuko: Really! You're a tough one and I like that. Let's go get our stone and find Uzu and Gamagoori so we can get out of here.
Isaac: Certainly, honhonhon!
Isaac's French laugh literally caused me to hear French accordion music and smell cheese and croissants but it was for a moment only. Isaac walked over to the frozen Ichigo and punched the ice in an area close to his pocket, punching a deep hole in the thick ice before reaching into Ichigo's pocket and taking the dimensional stone for us to leave this world before replacing it with a regeneration elixir Santa gave him earlier.
Isaac: Happy Hannuakh monsieur Ichigo. Have a health potion once you thaw.
Ryuko: We gotta find Uzu and Gamagoori so we can leave.
Ichigo: You sure they survived?
Uzu: Yes we did.
Uzu Sanageyama and Ira Gamagoori walked over to us and they congratulated us for winning against Ichigo.
Uzu: You won! Amazing job guys!
Gamagoori: Without Senketsu too, or that mint colored glove. Senketsu?
Ryuko: The ghosts gave it to me. It can turn me into a ghost.
Gamagoori: Really! Intangible?
Ryuko: Yep.
Gamagoori: Well now, anyway, we were wrong about you. You surely improved, and I think we have what it takes to save Mankanshoku. However we need to get home now.
Ryuko: Fine.
Uzu: When we get back to nudist beach. I'm going to tell Satsuki of your achievement. I will take a picture and send it to her, maybe she will change her mind and help us out.
Ryuko: Hopefully.
Isaac placed the stone down and a portal formed above it. We all jumped in and Isaac was the last one to go, grabbing the stone and taking it through the portal before it closed.

First off, this is just fantasy, and in fact was written for someone else. If you don't enjoy incest or young sex, please read something else. If you have an idea you'd like to have turned into a story let me know...travisbot@yahoo.com ******************************************************* It was a typical Saturday morning and I was lying in bed with my wife. The sun was starting to come up and I could hear birds chirping outside. I looked over and saw her sleeping peacefully, and I couldn't help but think out the wonderful night of lovemaking we had last night. Reaching under the covers I gave her ass a gentle squeeze, both of us having slept naked as usual. I turned my head as I heard the sound of our 13 year old daughter Emma gently opening our door. She looked at me, seeing my open eyes, Daddy, can I come in the bed with you? I nodded gently as it wasn't unusual for her to join us on a weekend morning. We weren't shy about nudity in our family, and she knew that her Mommy and I normally slept with no clothes on. She would crawl on top of the sheets and cuddle with us until we all got up. I watched Emma walk over in her thin silky pink nightgown and couldn't help but think a little bit about the white cotton panties I knew she was wearing when she went to bed. At 5'2 she was almost as tall as her mother, but was thin as a reed. I looked at her tiny body, still smooth and hairless and just barely beginning to show any signs of womanhood. As she walked up the bed she started to pull the covers back but I stopped her. Honey, Daddy's not wearing any PJs today. It's okay Daddy. I've seen you naked in the shower. Is it okay if I get in? I looked over at my wife. I knew that growing up she was very close with her family. Growing up with parents that were very much hippies I knew that she was way more open about her sexuality with our daughter than most, but I still felt weird about her being in bed with us in just her nighty and panties when we were naked. Please Daddy. Mommy won't mind I know. I looked at those precious little eyes and nodded my head. I did my best to hide my morning erection from her, rolling a little to hide it in the bed. As she climbed into bed I felt my wife roll over. She smiled at Emma and gave her a little wink, Good morning Honey. I looked at them both, wondering what that was about, but knowing that they shared so much it wasn't a surprise that I was left out. As rolled over on my back to give my wife a little kiss, I felt Emma start to crawl up on top of me. I started to stop her, not wanting her to feel my erect cock. My wife leaned over, whispering in my ear, let her baby, it's fine. I still felt a little weird about it, but who was I to argue with these 2 ladies. I looked at my wife, still confused, as I felt Emma's tiny 5'2 and 90lb body lay on top of me. I could feel her warmth against me, my hardness pressed between us. In spite of my attempts at thinking about baseball and my Grandma, feeling her tiny body, with nothing but a thin silky nightgown and little white cotton panties was doing nothing to make my hard on go away. I was worried that Emma, or my wife, was going to be concerned about that. I gasped as Emma squirmed on top of me, her nighty starting to slip up a little bit. I felt my wife snuggle close to us, her body pressed against me as she started whispering in my ear. I couldn't even begin to believe what she was telling me. She told me that when she was just a little younger than Emma she began to explore her sexuality. Her Mother had embraced her young body, taking her into her bed, teaching her about her body, masturbating, how to please each other and a man. Her mother finally encouraging her to have her daddy be her first lover. I turned, looking at my wife...I couldn't believe it...her first lover was her Dad? As my wife continued to tell me this I felt Emma gently rocking her hips on me. As she was rubbing on my now throbbing cock I felt my wife gently assisting in easing her nightgown up. I knew it would only be a few more seconds before there was nothing but her tiny white panties separating her hairless virgin pussy from my rock hard cock. My wife continued to explain that Emma was like she was. At her age there was no stopping her budding sexuality. She was going to experiment, and did we as parents want our child's first sexual experiences to be with some clueless teenager? Someone who might not be gentle and kind, not be a good teacher, to scar her for life? Wasn't it better to have it be safe and with someone trustable who could be a gentle teacher? I couldn't believe what was happening; my sweet 13 year old girl was rubbing her body on me and my wife was trying to convince me that I should be the one to take her virginity? This couldn't be happening. I felt Emma rubbing against me, my wife slipping her nighty up. I felt her hips rubbing against me, but instead of feeling her panties, I felt her tiny bald pussy lips rubbing on my cock. I moaned slightly as her copious pussy juices began coating my cock. I looked over at my wife, I can't do this...I can't take her virginity. Emma rocked her hips and then slid up a little to whisper in my ear, please Daddy. I want you to be the one. I love you, I trust you, I know you will make it special. Mommy told me how good her Daddy was and I want that with you. With that, Emma sat up on me, pressing her tiny slit against my cock and slipped the nightgown over her head. I looked at her thin young body, my cock now throbbing pressed against her little virgin cunt. She looked at my wife who gave her a nod. With that she crawled up my body, straddling my face, pressing her hairless virgin pussy against my mouth. I could smell her sweet aroma, feel the heat of her young pussy. I gently licked her outer lips, spreading them with my tongue. I began to lick her inner labia, noticing how her inner stuck out from her little slit just like her mother. As I twirled my tongue around her clit I heard her moan out, oh yes Daddy. Daddy! DADDY! Just as I was about to press my tongue into her tiny virgin hole I felt my wife pick up her tiny frame and turn her around. She was still sitting on my face, but now facing my cock, giving me the perfect view of her tiny hairless pussy and puckered brown asshole. I began licking her lips again as I felt my wife's mouth on my cock. I moaned into Emma's pussy and I felt my wife begin to lick last night's sex from my cock. I felt Emma lean down and suddenly there were 2 mouths on my cock. Oh Daddy you taste so good. Mommy told me you would. I think you taste even better than Mommy. I gasped as her words sunk in...this isn't the first time they have been together. I pondered this as I spread her ass cheeks, flicking my tongue over her tiny asshole. She pushed back a little, and from her reaction I realized her and Mommy must have talked about that too. I licked her pussy for all it was worth, but 2 mouths on my cock was soon going to be more than I could handle. Girls, please don't stop, I'm going to cum soon. Much to my dismay, before the words were even out of my mouth both of them had stopped. Daddy, don't cum yet. I want you to take my virginity and cum inside me. Please, please! My wife wasn't even waiting for a response, she knew full well I wouldn't be able to resist. Emma crawled down to straddle me again, rubbing her soaking wet pussy on my cock. I moaned, even at 13 she was producing lots of pussy juice just like her Mommy. I couldn't help but wonder if this is exactly how my wife was at 13. The thought made me even hornier. She helped Emma position herself over my cock, taking my cock in her hand and guiding it to Emma's tiny hole. I looked at her hairless pussy lips, just starting to spread as my throbbing mushroom head was pushing them apart. I looked at my wife and child, seeing how much they looked alike. Realizing what a sexy young woman Emma had become. Emma looked at her Mommy who just said, whenever you are ready baby. This is what you wanted. I gasped as I felt her tiny pussy slide down my cock just a tiny bit, the head pushing into her lips, but still not penetrating her. I couldn't believe how tight she was. Even with all that pussy juice it was hard to get inside her. I felt her pressing down harder, both of us moaning as my cock slipped into her tiny tight pussy. I watched as about an inch of my cock entered her, Emma pausing to adjust to my cock inside her. She pulled up just a little until my cock was almost out of her, then slipping down and taking a little more inside her. It was all I could do to stop from thrusting my hips up and forcing my cock in to her tiny tight little hole. I looked up to see my wife watching as her baby got fucked by my swollen cock. She had 2 fingers in her pussy and was furiously masturbating her pussy as she watched. Emma began bobbing up and down now, taking a little more of my cock with each thrust. She had about 2/3rd of my cock inside her and with one hard downward thrust she took my entire cock in her. She moaned as she did so, stopping again to adjust to my size inside her. I just moaned, her pussy was so tight around my throbbing cock I thought I might break her in half. I leaned up to lick Emma's tiny nipples, running my tongue around them, sucking the tiny barely formed nubs into my mouth. She moaned and started to slide up and down a little more on my hard cock, eventually taking me fully inside her with each thrust. I watched, amazed that her wisp thin 90 lb body could possibly take my cock. She was so tiny I thought I would see my cock making her swell as I filled her. She was moaning nonstop now, and my wife came over and started licking her nipples. I couldn't believe how tight she was, and I knew that I couldn't be able to last very long, but I figured she could only take so much of my thick cock in her the first time. As my wife began licking her nipples Emma's moaning increased substantially. I felt her pussy squeezing me tighter, her pussy so tight now it was almost painful. I pulled Emma down on top of me, bringing her mouth to mine I began to gently kiss her. She kisses me back, our tongues poking out just a little bit to touch each other. Emma whispered in my ear, oh thank you Daddy. You feel so good in me. It's so much better than Mommy's dildos. I felt my wife move to the bed behind us and felt her hand begin rubbing my balls. She leaned down and gently spread Emma's ass cheeks, leaning in and rubbing her tongue over Emma's asshole. Emma was moaning into my mouth as we were kissing, bouncing her ass faster now on my cock. I know how much my wife loves eating ass, so I knew that she much be licking and sucking her rosebud, thrusting her tongue into Emma's tight little asshole. I felt Emma's pace increase, and her pussy was pulsating on me. Her tiny bald pussy was so tight and my cock was throbbing inside her. She pulled back from my mouth screaming out YES DADDY, OH, Oh, DAAADDDDY and with that I felt her clamp down on my cock and her tiny 13 yr old pussy began to cum all over me. Please cum in me Daddy. I want to feel your cum in me like Mommy does. Please Daddy! CUM IN ME NOW! That was all I could take and I moaned, gave her one good hard thrust and my hot seed erupted into my daughter's recently virgin pussy. I moaned as squirt after squirt shot in to her hot velvety cunt. I could feel my cum running out of her already, her hole just not big enough to accommodate my cock and a huge load of cum. I felt Emma's tiny pussy squeezing me as I was cumming, and suddenly she let out a scream and her pussy flooded me with juices. It was so much I thought at first she was pissing on me, but then realized it was just a huge squirt. She moaning out, pushing my wife's face away from her asshole and collapsing onto me. Thank you Daddy. That was amazing. I'm so glad you got to be my first. With that she laid her head on my chest and sighed, my softening cock still in her tiny cum filled pussy. My wife laid next to us, smiling at me and nuzzling my neck. I wasn't sure you'd be up to this, but I'm glad that you were. She'll remember this for the rest of her life. I know I sure remembered all the things my parents taught me. I looked at her, still amazed at all I had learned today. My wife gave Emma a little pat and said, Emma darling, it's cleanup time. With that Emma rolled over on her back and my wife squatted he Pussy over Emma's face in a 69. With a familiarity that told me this wasn't their first time they began to lick each other. Emma would rock her hips and squeeze to get as much of my cum out of her so that my wife could lick her clean. Emma did her part licking my wife, sucking her clit in her mouth pulling her hips down to dart her tiny tongue over her puckered asshole. My wife was attacking Emma's tiny pussy when Emma started shaking with yet another orgasm. I could hear her moaning into my wife's pussy. As her orgasm passed she rolled my wife off her, time to clean up Daddy now. They both came over and started licking my half hard cock. Their 2 wonderful tongues on my cock and balls had the blood beginning to return to my partially flaccid member. Emma came up and whispered in my ear, you have to get it hard again Daddy because Mommy needs to get fucked hard. I want to be able to taste your cum in Mommy next. I hope you don't mind if I 69 Mommy while you fuck her doggy style because I really want to learn! It was all I could do to smiled and nod, since at that point most of my blood was in my dick. I just looked at my sweet little Emma as she crawled under her Mommy, and then looked and my fabulous wife with her ass in the air...this promised to be a great few years. Read more

You and your friend are hanging out when you get up to use the bathroom and on your way there you pull something out of your pocket and see that it’s gum but you don’t remember grabbing any gum from anywhere but you decide to still eat it.
As soon as you start chewing you start tasting the 3-course meal and then got to the desert but you don’t notice your skin shifting blue until you look in the mirror and you try to rub it off but it was spreading across your body until your were completely blue and you hear a faint slosh coming from your stomach so you pull up your shirt and see your stomach expanding before your eyes and you try to push it down to stop it but it did nothing as you suddenly realize your moobs and ass were also inflating. Out of curiosity you squeeze your ass and moobs which causes you to moan a little and leak a bit of juice from your nipple and you taste it to realize that you were turning into a blueberry so you try to leave the bathroom but you suddenly get hit by a surge of juice and you get stuck between the doorframe and you try calling for help but no one can hear you since your mouth started to fill with juice so all you can do is do is faint muffles and moans.
You try to push against the doorframe but you couldn’t do it since your arms and fingers started to get puffy and fat which left you stuck,then suddenly your clothes started to rip off you and leave holes in your pants and shirt and then your pants and shirt rip off and fall on the floor but your pants ricochet off the wall and hit your ass which causes you to moan as your body jiggled and sloshes due to the impact and you were left in only your underwear
As you tried to figure a way out of the doorframe your body started to shift up and down the doorframe which caused you to hump the floor over and over and you start moaning because of the impact and it felt good that you didn’t want it to stop and he started to leak juice from his large cock that was the size of a broom until his body swelled into the door more which stopped him from shifting up and down and his whole body continued swelling and sloshing in the doorframe.
Your butt and thighs start joining in and your bottom half starts becoming spherical and your moobs started to increase to the size of a basketball so you pushing against the doorframe again with all your might and you manage to get unstuck but you end up rolling down the hallway and you start hitting a few lockers until something stopped you and you try seeing what it was but your neck was being squished in and you couldn’t turn your neck so you were forced to look up and the ceiling until you heard the voice and recognized who it was.
“Hey dweeb what happened to you?”he said, You realize that the voice was your bully Jack and when he saw your face and recognized you he started to taunt you and make fun of you until suddenly you hear a loud rip noise and realize your underwear snapped off leaving your massive naked body a sight for your bully to see, so he decided to mess with you by fingering you,rolling you,poking you, and fucking you with a broom which causes you to start moaning having orgasms over and over and leak juice from your cock until he stopped and started to roll you and you weren’t prepared for someone someone to took you so you started to moan due to the sound of the juice moving around inside your body and he started heading towards the cafeteria and sniggered at you, and you start crying out for him to stop but he ignored you so by the time you reach the cafeteria everyone stopped eating and stared and the naked Berry that was rolled into the cafeteria until suddenly your body started to shake violently and leak juice until you started having an orgasms and started moaning uncontrollable for a few seconds until someone walked from behind him and he stopped.
Everyone started to laugh at you while some others felt bad for you and many started taking pictures and videos of you which causes you to be sad and angry and everyone started lining up and started to slap you, roll you around the cafeteria,finger you,or fuck you from behind with the broom Jack brought and you started to leak so much juice from having many orgasms over and over and every time he was he would moan louder and louder due to everyone doing something sexual to him that would cause his body to slosh,jiggle, or ricochet until he started crying thinking that everyone was going to make fun of him all day and post online to their friends about his condition until your friend walked up and started to roll you away from the crowd of people into a private place that no one knew about and she tried to calm you down but you were still crying until your friend told you that she was the one that put the gum in her pocket and you get upset and angry until she also said “I had a fetish for blueberries for a long time so when I got the gum I wanted to test it out on you since…I like you and you look cute like this.
You stare at your friend in shock after hearing what she said but you stop crying and you manage to lean forward a bit and kiss her and she understood the message as you blush, then she pushed him out of the spot and started roll him towards the nurse with her to try and juice him but after many tries the juice wasn’t coming out which meant that he was stuck as a permanent berry forever but his friend consulted him and cheered him up until she leaned in and kissed him.
Just then everyone followed them to the nurse and started to roll you around the school until they decided to embarrass you more by rolling you outside the school for the public to see so they make their way to the front and while you were being rolled you you felt happy for some reason even though you were a naked blueberry and was about to be revealed to the public, and then you figured out why you were happy:you were happy because you were a blueberry since it felt good being rolled around and being taken advantaged of from different people.
When they reached the front they pushed with all their might to squeeze him through the door and they managed to do it much to his dismay and happiness, then they started rolling him around town for everyone to see and they decided to go to the park so that everyone can see him and he got embarrassed hearing this so when they reached the park everyone starts running up towards him and started to slap him or jump on him like a bouncy castle and he was so horny about it he didn’t care about what people thought about him.
Ever since the blueberry incident he was known as the School Berry and was left in the park for everyone to see.

I've been around since the beginning of The OA. Following along all this time, The OA's message has taken me on such an incredible journey over the years. The full scope of the journey isn't something that's capable of being explained into words -- it has to be personally felt.
This journey has alienated once close friends. The allegorical allusions this show took me on, was like a rabbit hole for me. I ravenously had to see what was behind each curtain/rung. No matter how painful or what was lost interpersonally.
Much of my family work(ed) in CSI, as detectives, police officers. The Netflix show Narcos I'm associated with by poxy. I haven't really watched it since it's too uncanny valley for me. Too many memories for the family involved. People I knew portrayed by another, dramatized, is just too weird for me.
To say the least, large swaths of my family were no nonsense, pure logic type of people. No spirituality, although catholic. Growing up, my peers, were pressured to live our lives in such a stringent, concrete way. Logic for my family was never overrated. So, I lived a life that was straight forward. Cis Heterosexual. The earth was metaphorically flat for the social circle I was born into.
For me? I was more of an Aerith type (FF7.) Loved nature and plants. Spirits. Animals. Although, in my early years I lived a sterile existence until I opened eye after eye. One advice I was given at a young age was that, "Just because plants don't express pain in the way that we do, doesn't mean they don't feel it." That stuck with me forever.
In my 20's, during a low point in my life, I found The OA, on a lazy late evening (think AM.) It didn't actually grab me initially, but with nothing on, I thought "what the heck." For many, that late opening credits over a snowy landscape had me in awe. My eyes were saucers.
Through the years of waiting for seasons then the eventual cancellation, The OA slowly took me on a pilgrimage (and I know many others too.) I sought the solutions for the world at large. This was during a tumultuous time in The United States. Unrest. Violence. One day, during my travels I found myself stumbling upon a peaceful BLM protest in La Jolla beach, where several dozens of us just quietly prayed.
Previously, I road tripped through LA during OA's initial cancellation (within days of it.) Around the time that one woman took a hunger strike. In hindsight, I wish I had joined her so she wasn't alone. During this time, there was such an indescribable melancholy feeling.
A crowded house song, through the years repeated in my head, over and over, as I traveled from California to Colorado.. I strolled gift shops in a small town Ouray as the song played. I met some sweet people while hiking in the area (no idea why I was wearing vans, I nearly slid down the ice cold waterfall. Lol.)
That particlar song persisted:
"There is freedom within There is freedom without Try to catch the deluge in a paper cup There's a battle ahead Many battles are lost But you'll never see the end of the road While you're traveling with me
… Hey now, hey now Don't dream it's over"
Similar to a prism, there's so many facets to this story that can't be told in a linear fashion such as language. It reminds me of how language is still inadequate for feelings that can't be described. It goes back to our primitive days before language became our primary way of conveying a message.
No matter how detailed language currently is, we're all still playing a big game of charades. There's so many different interpretations to the words we say, that it's difficult in any given situation to make sure you're coming across in a directly way.
Anyways, all of this led me to an almost supernatural synchronicity. Some which still blows my mind. I feel like a pressure cooker wanting to tell someone that story -- to anyone with an open mind. (This leads into the deeper quandaries of time, "inside the earth or above it," and the theoretical discussion of the multiverse.)
With no one to talk to about my experience, I reached out to one of my brilliant childhood friends -- a well known professor who is keen on the metaphysical. Which led me to the understanding I was having what would be called a "Kundalini awakening." As an odd sidenote, the words Liam says in seasons 2 of the OA makes 100% sense to me in a way that it gives me full blown goosebumps.
So all in all, my journey went from a flat straight forward world that transformed into a multifaceted one. A flat world that went round. This insight gained offered no straight forward comforting answers -- nothing to grab onto. It was like free-falling into the abyss, the unknown. I desperately clawed for solid ground in those early years. Seeking out help from my inner circle, which was met with rejection and ridicule. Our "mean girls"- esque clique had no room for this talk. It was too frightening. Too painful to discuss. So they couldn't comfort the bottomless anguish I felt over the world, my life, the connection with my family, nature, and the general strangeness of reality itself.
I felt like I had to march forward into the dark regardless. The show The OA feels like those coloring book activities where it encourages you to finish drawing the picture yourself, albeit in your imagination. Your imagination being a remarkable tool that'll aid you in filling in the lines. While it interweaves your own life into the messages of the OA.
The larger picture? We're all connected. And, once you see it, it's freaky at first. Then the novelty wears off and then it becomes second nature. It's not so freaky. And, you don't need to feel so alone.
I eventually went to the premiere of "A murder at the end of the world" in Los Angeles. Saw Brit Marling, live and in stereo. I felt like I was looking for her and Zal for years prior to tell them about this incredible journey, but after a rushed disappointing encounter, I realized, I didn't need to. (To the fault of no one.)
Soon after I found myself continuing my pilgrimage around the world. I already went to the house in nob hill. Treasure island. The Moraga steps. To locations throughout Los Angles. To speaking to people who were connected to the show. And, yet, there wasn't a sense of completion. I felt whole for the first time in my life, but I needed more.
So, I left the country for the first time in my life this year. I was terrified. (Maybe more so than when I was robbed in San Fransisco. lol.) Right now, I'm far from home, but at the same time, I realize no matter where you are, people are just people. Enemies, friends, acquaintances, nature, bugs, plants, animals, we're all the same -- all connected.
So, as of now, I'm still traveling. I'm quite naive, innocent from an incredibly sheltered childhood. So, sheltered I was rarely allowed to leave my bedroom for years on end, to the point of overt neglect, without socialization. Ala Harry Potter in his cupboard, nothing, but myself and my imagination. I was taught the lie that if I took a step outside, I'd be instantly kidnapped and never seen again.
With all that said, I feel like I'm on the hunt for my tribe. A place where I can finally have some level of peace with. I used to watch/read James and the giant peach over and over as a kid. I sing that song to myself still as a prayer, a chant, a dream world where I'd finally be welcomed home:
"They'll say James, James, James how are ya ? Isn't it a lovely day James, James, James were so glad you came here where we are from so very very very far."
Hoping that some day, that the song that's in my heart will lead me home. Looking back on all these years, since 2016, several people I had been close with have passed away. People who guided me through my depression. People who were a second mom to me growing up.
At the moment, I feel untethered like a kite that could be blown away at a sudden gust, to wind up anywhere. "I took the midnight train going anywhere."
I'm not the man that I was in 2016, sitting on the couch, feeling detached from the tumultuous world outside, bored sometime iin the AM. I miss the comfort of being anchored to the adults I used to look up to, but slowly, one by one, they're disappearing. I question where that leaves me. I know those people's stories/lives will continue on in my heart. What we had will carry with me.
I kept out a lot of details to keep this from becoming a novel, but at the end of the day, I'm grateful my heart is open once again. That I can feel again. Love again. And, to share that love with others.
But, home, I hope I find it.
I hope that I truly find my belonging.
Okie Dokie, , I soon make my trek back home to the city of lights.
​

I only bought the game around 40 days ago, during which I had been playing the game nearly every chance I got. I got into it after they stopped selling EOD and while I felt left out at first, now I am grateful for that fact. I thought that the new edition would basically be like EOD at the same price point, which while still outrageous and ptw, since I played the game a lot I thought that upgrading wouldn't be that bad considering the benefits. When I saw the package that was released, all hope for this game is lost. I can't wait for Grayzone warfare, since I will never be touching Tarkov again after this, and it seems like it can patch that tarkov shaped hole in me.
Also, to all the fanboys who actually paid for the edition, when Tarkov goes under, I hope you realize you were one of the reasons why.

"Oh, here we go... 151°, 623m. Full Helmet. -...mmHmm. Tally. -Look at that smug asshole. Give him a new breathing hole. -Annnnnnd... pop."
The air fizzled as the red flash dissipated. The snow just beyond the barrel hissed gently as it melted.
Through their scope and magnoculars, the sniper team watched as the mark slumped against a wall, cracking smiles as the surrounding Auxiliaries panicked.
"Chalk up another one. That was... what? An Lt.? -Judging by the panic, I'd say so."
A man in a patrol cap walked up to the pair, the crunch of snow underfoot betraying his approach.
Sgt. Madak: You two having fun? Cpl. Korna: Just doin' our jobs, sarge. Sgt. Madak: Good. Now fall in. FALL IN EVERYBODY! Warning order!
The command center for 12th Battalion consisted of a medium-sized tent and a holo-table powered by mobile battery. As a Reconnaissance element, a static facility too-often served as a hindrance. The briefing area was set up in the open air, surrounded on three sides by chest-high rock outcroppings. The Battalion's commanders, 8 Platoon leaders, 4 Captains, 12 Tank jocks and the unit's Sniper teams settled in on the rocks, provided a commanding view of the briefing table and Major Kinly as she prepared to dole out orders.
Maj. Kinly: Good morning boys and girls. We've got new orders from upstairs. We're going back on the attack. And it's our job to pave the way. A low cheer rose Our first step is to ramp our current maneuvers. We'll be increasing our probing attacks along the skirmish perimeter, targeting land access routes from the south in direction of the mountains to our North-West. Our task is seek and destroy. You've all seen their set ups in these small outer settlements, and know that we can breeze through them. That's what we're going to do. Priority targeting goes to any transport vehicles you encounter. Our intel points to Tony not having the aerial assets to supply his troops up North, so he'll be doing it by road. We are to deny him that option. If it has wheels, torch it. Sniper teams, fairly standard deployment. You'll be on Headhunter duty and discreet recon as required. And... that's it, really. If you or your Troopers have any questions, run 'em up the chain to me, I'll get 'em answered. That's everything for now. Captains, come and collect your assignments. And I need Sierras 1 and 2. The rest of y'all are dismissed.
The assembly dispersed to the sound of rising chatter. The two Sierra teams kept to their perches while their sergeants approached the table.
Maj. Malky: Madak. Levers. Sgt. Madak: Ma'am. Sgt. Levers: Boss. Maj. Malky: Alright, no time for suspense. I've kept your teams back because Broadsword dispensed some more orders, and wants my best on it.
The Major entered some commands to the holo-table's control panel. The display zoomed in on a section of the map, now showing a rough image of the Sha'Yo Gate.
Maj. Malky: Here's your target. Tony calls it Sha'Yo Gate. Intel is limited. The kind of limited Broadsword really doesn't like. You're going to change that. This is a recon only OP. Break out the full surveillance kit. Emplacements, static defenses, patrol movements if you can get 'em. Every last detail you can gleam at range. Flyovers and local intel point to that thing stopping a large Ork force dead in its tracks. We need to know if it can do the same to us if we go marching down there.
You'll be inserted here, using our renewed attack as cover. Should draw away any sentries nearby. Hike up, take a good long look, and get back here ASAP. We figure at this stage any indication of presence will tip 'em off. So no popping targets of opportunity, as tempting as it is. Understood? Sgt. Madak: Yes ma'am. Maj. Malky: Good. Hop to it. Thronespeed.
#######################################################################
3 hours later...
The recon team had been hiking for over 2 hours. In that time, they had seen what had happened to the Orks. For over 3 kilometers parallel to them as they climbed, they had witnessed the fate of the Ork assault: long burnt out wreckage of hundreds of Greenskin vehicles, slowly decaying corpses, most of them almost entirely buried beneath the snow. From their direction, the cause was obvious.
To miss it, the team would have been blind. The Sha'Yo Gate stood firm, as if strung between the two mountain ranges it connected. The recon team was approaching up the side of the Western range, the snow atop the Eastern peaks glistening in the midday sun. The rugged terrain impeded the squad's speed, though that was of lesser concern as they worked to remain undeteced.
"This'll be as good a spot as any." declared Sgt. Madak as they reached a small plateau. overlooking the wall proper and the valley beyond it. The fortress itself was still more than a kilometer away, but already details were becoming apparent. The squad fanned out, Sierra 1 splitting into pairs and setting up to look upon the wall with the sergeant picking up his magnoculars, while Sierra 2 set their sights on everything else, looking to avoid any unwelcome surprises or unwanted guests to the viewing party.
It took only a couple of minutes for the team to get sighted in. Scanning up and down, left to right, they were briefly left in awe of the edifice.
"So?" started Sgt. Levers, "What've we got? -A Throne-damned wall of death." replied Corporal Korna, still eye in her scope. There was a hint of a sinking feeling in her voice. "I'm seeing gun emplacements dug in the cliffside. There's patrols down in the valley..."
Before she could rattle off any more details, the sound of stirring engines rose and was amplified off the mountains. Refocusing on the source, the teams watched as a pair of Orca transports, escorted by a trio of Barracuda fighters, launched from a previously concealed launch bay, built directly into the rock face. The Xenos craft rose and turned Eastward, the Cadians silently guessing their destination to be the regional capital.
As he returned to the squad's task, Sgt. Madak's concerns only deepend further, as he cast his gaze beyond the wall proper, to the valley beyond. As he did, he lay eyes on a vast T'au military installation, the likes of which he had never seen. He had been in the first line of storming the Va'nu Sept's base of operations on Aurax 6, but that facility paled in comparison to what he was now seeing through his magniculars. Fortified bunkers, shield domes, more gun emplacements and enough storage buildings to house, feed and supply a whole army. Aspect of the facility rivaled even the colossal logistical facilities the 532nd had to establish in order to operate.
"There's no way we can blast our way through this..." he muttered to himself. Indeed, the entire edifice seemed tailor-made to halt a force such as the 532nd. And the proof of its effectiveness lay in the hundreds of thousands of Orks who lay dead below him.
He turned to his team. "You getting picts? -Yeah, sarge. Got the scanner out too, getting a really good reading. -Good. HQ's gonna want to see ALL of this."
The squad continued to take picts and measurements for roughly 20 minutes, being sure to identify and record every possible emplacement, hangar and patrol route. There would be no lapse in the information they would be passing up the chain.
As they neared the base of the mountains on their return trip to the rendezvous coordinates, Cpl. Perie stopped. His teammates behind him instinctively crounched. His hearing was the best in the unit, and a dozen close calls had taught them to trust his ear. "Down!" he declared suddenly. As the squad hit the rocks, the reason for Perie's reaction revealed itself: A convoy of Auxilia vehicles was approaching, driving through what seemed to be a pre-planned path through the field of slaughtered Orks. The Cadians watched silently as it cleared the last of them onto the open road. 3 Trucks, Imperial-Grade Ridgehaulers, led by a Tauros, with a T'au Devilfish closing out the column.
"Must be off to supply their forces in the North." positted Sgt. Levers. "Probably. McLatchy. If we send out a signal, that fortress gonna catch it? -Not likely sarge. These mountains, the sheer distance we've put in, I reckon we're good. -Perfect. Panela, mark that Tauros. Garced, mark that Tony vic. McLatchy, call in a gun run. Give 'em the marks and have 'em double as our pickup."
The three nodded, the first two engaging their designators.
After only a few minutes of watching the convoy through their scopes, the Vox link crackled to life. "Sierra 2, this is Shockrider 1-1, flight of two Valks. We are now on station, Angels 4. Our sensors have your marks, confirm gun run on heading 1-2-7. Over. -Shockrider, Sierra 2. Confirmed, you are clear to engage on heading 1-2-7. Over. -Shockrider copies. Time on target, 35 seconds."
In the distance, two small blips appeared through the clouds. They quickly grew, taking the shapes of Valkyries, carried by the rumble of their engines.
"Wings level. -Cleared hot. -Dash-2, wings level. -Dash-2, cleared hot. -Fangs out. -Dash-2, Fangs out."
If the convoy had seen the gunships approaching, they hadn't reacted. And the pilots made them pay dearly for that mistake. No sooner than the moment the Tauros went up in a cloud of red beams did the first Ridgehauler detonate. The two subsequent trucks only receiving a split second of exisitence over the vehicle ahead before meeting the same fate. And though the Devilfish shook off the multi-laser fire and the hit from rockets, its armor in turn failed when the second ship struck it with three successive Lascannon hits. It slumped into the snow as its hover unit failed, before fire erupted from the hatches and vents, signalling its death. All the while, the pair of Valkyries screamed overhead, at their lowest passing just a few meters above the now smoking wrecks. The pilot came back over the vox as the ships circled North.
"Shockrider 1-1, coming around for pickup, standing by for BDA, Over. -Copy Shockrider. BDA 100 over 100, all targets destroyed. Nice shooting. Over. -Solid copy. ETA for pickup, 45 seconds. Out."
The squad scanned the wreckage and their surroundings as the gunships closed in, Cpl. Garced spotting something in her scope. "Sarge! Couple of movers, third vehicle. -I see 'em. Tony can't know we were here yet, drop 'em on my count. 1... 2... pop!"
The two unfortunate Auxiliamen collapsed in the snow, the container behind them sizzling at the points of impact.
It was with a final quick visual sweep that the squad piled into the Valkyrie the moment the ramp lowered. They took seats and deep breaths of satisfaction as the craft lifted off, another very successful recon operation.
#######################################################################
Local Time 19:43:17 Gheinar, 532nd Command Center, Strategium.
Colonel McMahon looked on at the holo-projection of the Sha'Yo Gate with a grim eye. The projected images of Major Malky and the other senior commands were stone-faced, while Sierra squad, present in person, watched on a few steps back from the table. McMahon sigh slightly as he lifted his head. "Tough nut to crack." He declared in a dry tone. "Recommendations?"
The room remained silent for a moment, before Major McDonough began to speak. "Sir, normally I'd be first in line to back up a bold attack plan. However this thing is prepared for just about anything we can throw at it. I recommend bypassing it. It's strength comes from it's emplacements. We have Hydras and our own air power, so we can take on whatever it tries to launch at us. But I say we go around." The collected Majors nodded, murmuring agreements through gritted teeth. "I know none of us like it." Ross started. "But everyone here is just going to have to take a hit to 'ol pride that says we can break anything. Besides, there's plenty of fighting left to do. We'll focus our efforts on the regional capital. Bypassing this Gate makes it useless. Better that than validating its purpose by throwing tens of thousands of our Troopers at it for no gain. For once, the Orks are in a position to teach us a lesson, let's learn by it.
Now, we have other buisness. We need to strangle the supply delivery to Tony's forces in the North. Begin deploying assets to cover the land routes. No convoys get through. Our recon team has proven again that our air is getting good at hitting things on the road, let's keep that trend going. Plans on my desk for 0900 tomorrow. Dismissed."
One by one, the projections saluted and faded away. Ross turned and signalled the recon team to approach. "I wanted to congratulate you all on this mission. Without this level of detail, we could have actually considered attacking that monstrosity. The loses we would have incurred, assuming we could take it all... would have been disastrous. And good job not taking any pot-shots. That must have been a tough urge to fight. -It can be, sir. Luckily for us and them, no one worthwhile popped their heads up for a smoke. -Indeed. Well, I need to get this report sent up the chain, so I won't keep you. I'm sure Maj. Malky is eager to put you back to work looking for targets you can shoot at. Dismissed."

Soooo part of my job is to view other hotel reviews in the area on our downtime to see what the competition is up to lol. I went down the rabbit hole on a motel that is no longer exists in this area and I just thought the writer was funny and wanted to share. I obviously changed the names, location, dates. I hope this is allowed and ya'll get a good laugh at this honest review. (and yes this specific place was known for these types of activities hence why they are no longer in business)
We reserved 3 rooms for (the dates we chose) as we decided to make Ptown our pit stop on the way from Ktown to our destination. Our 3 families were traveling to a family reunion, and needed some place to rest our heads. We didn't have high expectations. Seeing the pictures online, we thought SantaClaus Inn fit the bill. It seemed like an older motel, but a place that would have clean rooms and semi-comfortable beds. That's all we needed.
We arrived at 8pm after a long day on the road - ready to check-in and go grab a bite to eat. Pulling into the parking lot, we were immediately skeptical. Lounging in the outdoor pool was a group of 3 adults. Between all of them they had one full mouthful of teeth but enough oddly placed tattoos for even the most crowded rehab clinic. They glared as we put our cars in park. "Who are these strangers, these outsiders?" they seemingly said to themselves. "They don't belong here" they said with their eyes. Apprehensive, we went to check-in. Perhaps they were just passerby's like we were. We shouldn't be so judgemental - let's just get our suitcases into our rooms and go about our business. After a reasonably smooth check-in, we hopped into the car and drove over to rooms 126, 128 & 129. As we parked, we began to notice the other cars around us. Some with broken windows covered with blankets, others clearly permanent residents of this parking lot. Looking up at the second level - broken blinds covering windows - one window adorned with a sheet. One that I might have decorated my room with in college."There's something off here..." we said to ourselves. Why would someone take the time to decorate their window, for an overnight stay? Even a couple of days? Hmm, no matter. We used the keycard to open the door to room 128 - as the door creaked open, the barking started. Not the yap of a trusted companion, but the sound of 3 large breed dogs protecting their turf - barking the same way dogs do at a house when a stranger's at the door. Why would a motel allow 3 large dogs in a 500 sf room?
Once the door opened, the odor was undeniable. Urine. Urine, mixed with cigarettes, mixed with marijuana. No, we can't do this. Cigarette butts in the bath tub - the stench - the dogs. We walked out of the room - we can't do this. Another group in our party was emerging from room 129. "Is your room as bad as ours?", we asked. "It stinks, there's no blankets on our beds..." - looking inside, one wall was covered in a dry-wall compound. A microwave sitting next to the sink - waiting for someone to electrocute themselves. We need to get the hell out of here. As we loaded back into our cars to drive over to the lobby, a scantily clad woman emerged from around the corner to let a man into her room. He had arrived for a business transaction - that much was clear. "Get in the car kids" we said hurriedly.
Walking back into the lobby, we informed the clerk at the desk that there were large dogs next to our rooms, the rooms didn't look or smell clean and we would like to cancel our reservation and go elsewhere. "I can put you other rooms" she said. "Yeah, that won't be necessary - we'd really rather leave and get a refund". "We can't give you a refund - we offered you another room". "But we don't want another room, we just want our money back". "You'll have to come back tomorrow and talk to our manager, I can't do anything for you". Exhausted, we loaded in our cars and left. Better housing at a safer place awaited.
The next morning on our way out of town, we stopped by the SantaClaus Inn to speak with a manager. The same clerk was there. She said "I talked to the manager, and there's nothing we can do for you. We offered you another room, and that is our policy".
Wow...
Well, that concludes this review - proceed with CAUTION and DO NOT BOOK the SantaClaus Inn and Suites Ptown..

I’m trapped. I can hear that thing lumbering through the hallway. My God, what the hell is it? I’m trying my best to keep quiet but I can’t help but whimper. The soft scratching of my pencil on this notepad sounds deafening in the quiet of this tiny closet. I’m almost certainly gonna die in this place. I just hope someone can find this, maybe it will do some good. Or maybe it already doesn’t matter. I’m not sure how long I have until that wheezing thing finds me. Oh God, or that grey stuff might ooze under the door and dissolve me. Oh my God! What it did to Benny, Bill, Jonesy and Donald! To all of them! Even if I don’t survive, the world needs to be warned!
Long story short, I was a cop but I got shot in the head. The doctors said I was lucky, that it went straight through without hitting anything vital. However, I still needed three steel plates to hold my fragmented skull together. Also ended up with permanent tremors in my right hand from brain damage. So it’s no surprise that my cop career didn’t thrive. Just a year later I was a “retired” 45-year-old cop, living on scraps. After a few months, I started to get desperate for work. One evening at my pub, my friend, Graham, mentioned an acquaintance who was looking for employees for some private research institute in the Mojave Desert. “What, are they still blowing A-bombs out there?” I scoffed, eyebrows arched with bemused incredulity. Graham stared down at his beer, “Not sure what the hell they do. But they pay super well, so who cares,” he took a long sip of beer, foam clinging to his lips, “I think it would be a good fit for you”.
Turns out this facility, and it really is known as the “Facility”, was located in the middle of nowhere. When I looked it up online I couldn’t find any information. Later that week I called the number that Graham had scrawled down for me on a beer stained napkin. My right hand was useless to me if I wanted it to do anything that required fine motor function, so when I dialed the number on my phone I had to use my left hand. The phone rang twice before a metallic feminine voice answered and said to hold for an operator. After a few seconds of muted elevator music, I spoke to a soft voiced man who told me my skill set was perfect for their current vacancy: a security management position. He said if I filled out some forms they would pay for me to fly on out for an interview in person.
One month and several NDAs later, I was employed again! By the time I started my new job I realized I had no idea what research went on down here. During the interviews my duties as a security manager had been discussed but any mention of their actual research interests had been carefully avoided, redacted or omitted. The security staff were also told to avoid fraternizing with anyone not from their own department, including security personnel from other sections of the Facility. On my first day I asked others about the nature of the Facility’s research, but no one had any interest. “Just stick to your contract. No point in rocking the boat,” my new boss, Bill, said to me curtly. So since then I’ve not discussed it with anyone else.
If only I had, maybe I would have seen this coming. The section of the Facility which I managed was section B.15. This area, like most of the core Facility, was located several hundred feet below the sun scorched surface of the Mojave Desert and comprised many green painted corridors peppered with tall, wide doors made from dark, stainless steel. The rooms inside were large and sterile. Artefacts were cleaned and studied in these rooms after they were brought from the excavation sites (sites E.1 through E.27). Of course, whether we wanted to know the nature of the research or not, eventually, after patrolling some of the research labs for weeks, it wasn’t difficult to figure out that the scientists were mostly archeologists or paleontologists. I would often find objects of different sizes and shapes lying around in various states of cleanliness. Some looked like ancient amphoras, or large stone bird baths. Others were less identifiable: a chipped statue, a melted lump of some unidentifiable metal or large chunks of a glass-like material. I found this all extremely curious because, as far as I knew, the Mojave Desert didn’t have much in the way of ancient architecture. At least of any ancient civilization that I know.
As the months went by I started to get friendly with the other guards, most of them ex-cops too, and we started playing cards and drinking Irish coffee in the evenings. My two main colleagues consisted of a jovial, short man with orange hair named Jonesy and a much older much grumpier and much balder man, Donald. They were good men and we had a lot of laughs together. My stomach twists when I think about where they are now. Though I grew fonder of my fellow guards, I found myself developing a severe dislike for the white coated researchers. Most of them were pernicious and arrogant. The only scientist my security buddies and me could stand was a scrawny man named Benny. Our favorite thing about Benny was that he never talked about his work.
It was earlier today, at around 1400h, when all the scientists were running from their rooms. They must have received some message a few minutes before and we watched them from the surveillance monitors as they got all excited and leapt up. Their lab coats flapped and flowed around as they jumped to their feet and made for the main exit. Soon after this the large red landline phone near my video surveillance desk began to ring. Expecting the call, I picked up the receiver before the first ring finished, “Hey boss, what’s all the excitement about?” Bill’s voice was uncharacteristically hesitant “The diggers have found a friggin’ huge object out here! The biggest thing they’ve ever dug up, it’s really irregular. They want to bring it to B.15 and I need you to organize the logistics and security”. My brow furrowed, “I guess it’s too big for the main entrance? Maybe we could bring it in via the big doors of the auxiliary hangar?” Bill grunted with agreement, “Yea, we’ll have to improvise a bit but should be manageable. I have no idea what it is… well you’ll see for yourself. I’ll get some of the boys from B.14 to help you out. And just, well…” He paused for a moment, “just be careful.” I grunted, my eyebrow arched from surprise; why was he so afraid? “Um thanks, appreciate it, see you guys soon”.
Donald, Jonesy and I had coffee in the office and called the guards at the hangar doors to arrange clearance. About an hour later we were at the platform near the doors waiting for the cargo to arrive. The massive metal hangar doors had been opened, which was rare. What was more irregular was that nearly every staff member from sections B.11 to B.18 were all gathered together in a silent knot of people. Despite the silence the air sizzled with anticipation, as well as the searing heat. I stood transfixed from curiosity at the massive doorway, waiting in the shade of the hangar as the relentless sun beat down outside. In the distance I saw a black speck grow larger against the bright blue sky. Slowly it took the form of a helicopter which was carrying a large rectangular shaped mass below it.
Within less than a minute the helicopter made its cacophonous approach toward the hangar and gently lowered the object onto an enormous wooden scaffold. I barked orders and signed forms as the guards rushed about, making sure the other personnel stayed a safe distance away. The air was blaring with the sound of the helicopter blades and sand rocketed into my face, forcing me to splutter. “Alright, let’s get this thing processed!” I yelled over the sound of the helicopter as its engines powered down, my colleagues and I wiped dirt from our faces. Bill emerged swiftly from the chopper and shook my hand. We quickly reviewed the paper work he gave me and then he made his way back downstairs to his office in section B.1. He was keen to get away for some reason.
“Alright, it’s officially in my care now. Show’s over. Get the non-essential personnel out of here immediately and secure the object. I want to get Benny up here to analyze it ASAP.” As my colleagues cleared away most of the staff and the excitement died down I was finally able to take a moment to inspect the object. It had been lowered onto the wooden scaffold fitted with wheels just outside the hangar and had been pushed slowly into the center. The few aircraft in this hangar were all currently under repairs and were non-operational, therefore there was plenty of space. As soon as I saw the sheer size of the object, I knew it would be difficult to transport, but not impossible. The object was a wall. Or a large fragment of a wall.
It was about twenty feet long, eight feet thick and ten feet high. At first the wall appeared made from some sort of boring grey stone. However, when I looked closer the wall was… alive. The wall’s surface bubbled slightly. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as I stepped closer. When I was only a few inches away from it I felt cold. A bead of sweat ran down my cheek and I thought I heard something. It sounded like someone far away calling my name.
I felt a strange pressure around my head. A sudden invasive thought wormed to life: throw yourself into the wall. I shuddered and held myself back despite the sudden strong desire. I heard the faint voice of Benny and crashed back to reality. My eyes snapped open and I found my nose an inch away from the wall. It radiated cold like an open freezer and it smelled like rotting clay. The surface of the wall simmered ever so slightly. It reminded me of the fizz of some grey effervescent medicine. I paled as I took a large step backward, “I.. uh, what is this?” I turned to face Benny who stood with another scientist. He glanced at her briefly before he approached the wall to apply more straps. He was careful to avoid touching the wall with his bare skin. “Honestly, we have no idea”.
I got Donald and Jonesy to help Benny transport the wall down to room 278B via the service elevator. Donald grumbled about how badly the wall smelled and Jonesy had eyes as large as saucers when he saw it up close, “It looks so unreal!” Once downstairs I returned to my office to get some more coffee and file away the paperwork. I tried to put the strangeness of the wall out of my mind, but it had truly unnerved me. I felt so tired, my forehead drenched with cold sweat. I had been working extra shifts lately, but I had never been hit by such exhaustion so rapidly. As I sat at my desk facing the surveillance monitors I was unable to fight the sleep forcing my eyes shut.
I’ve had many hangovers in my life, most of them unpleasant, but when I woke up at my desk I’d never felt quite so singularly awful. My clothes were soaked with sweat and my whole body felt exhausted. My arms felt like molasses as I attempted to move. My forehead throbbed and I felt bruised. I also felt a pressure squeezing my head from all sides. It was quite peculiar. I sat back in my seat and rubbed my eyes.
Then I froze.
A hand was lying motionless on the floor just behind the table in the center of the office. I leapt to my feet and rushed forward. I gasped from horror as I saw Donald lying on the floor, his chest sliced to ribbons. Gallons of crimson red stained his blue uniform and his eyes stared up empty and terrified. Pallid and shaking I went to my office landline to call for backup immediately. As the receiver met my ear my stomach dropped into my feet.
The line was dead.
The sole means of communication within the core Facility is done through landlines. The landlines are monitored at all times and any interruption results in an immediate response from security. We had many protocols and fail safes to ensure communication remained enabled, but the line was dead and there was no sign of any response. In fact, how long had I been asleep? What was happening? I rushed back to the monitors. I hadn’t noticed it before but I couldn’t see anyone. The cameras were all operating normally but not a single person could be seen. The corridors were just as green and bare as most late evenings. I looked at the clock, it was only 1817h. I had slept for about two and a half hours. Where were the janitors? My heart was hammering in my chest and I couldn’t catch my breath. Meanwhile my head was throbbing and my eyes were burning. Suddenly I heard an indistinct whisper. Gooseflesh bloomed all over my back and arms.
I’d heard this voice before.
I’d heard this voice from the wall.
I turned to the monitors and searched for the wall. It had been brought back to the surface; the hangar! It sat upon the bare ground right by the massive doors. However, the doors were all sealed. The wall itself looked different. It was enormous! Almost three times longer and taller and wider. Just then, I realized that the titanium blast doors had been sealed as well. My heart rate doubled as I noticed large dents, scorch marks and scratches all over the doors. Someone had tried to break them down. The hangar floor was covered in blood and ash as well as abandoned weapons. My God, I even saw a rocket-launcher lying blackened and fractured near the doors. What the hell had happened?
I spun my head to look at the security control panel on the wall to my left. My heart, already blaring, felt like it leapt out of my mouth. My eyes grew wide as I realized someone, probably Donald, had activated a quarantine procedure. This meant that the entire Facility would be sealed airtight. The only way to open any doors now was from the outside. My God! Why had he done this? Where was everyone? Did he try to wake me? Did I really sleep through all this? I looked back at Donald, my heart still hammering from seeing his dead eyes stare into mine. I sighed sadly and glanced at the clock on the wall. It was currently 1831h. I returned to the monitors and began to rewind the security footage.
Surveying the screens, I watched my past-self enter the security office at around 1600h. By 1610h I had passed-out on my chair, drool dangling from my mouth. “Ok, so let’s see where the wall was at that time. Should be room 278B.” I thought to myself aloud as I clicked on the button that would display the footage from that room as well as the surrounding corridors. The screen was black as the footage loaded and I was about to hit the play button but hesitated. Did I really want to see this? I closed my eyes and took a few slow breaths. I can’t figure my way out of here if I don’t know what’s going on. I have to know. I hit play.
The camera was located opposite the door giving a full view of the room. At first everything seemed normal. Benny and some other scientists had transported the wall into room 278B. It was 1623h when they were taking the straps off the wall. A loud popping sound was heard and the researchers spun around. The lights in the room dimmed and flickered. Suddenly something long and slimy exploded from the wall, curled around Benny, and pulled him in. He screamed in terror as he vanished, his cries immediately silenced. My jaw dropped open and a small yell escaped me.
Without realizing it, I was instantly on my feet, shaking my head in pure denial. My heart burst. What the hell was that? What the hell? What the hell? My head was full of static. I felt tears in my eyes as I watched guards and researchers rush into the room. The wall shimmered, it’s simmering surface began to boil and bubble and it grew three feet higher. I saw it reshape itself so that intricately carved figures appeared on the wall’s edge. I leant in closer and gasped. One of those figures looked just like Benny, his mouth stretched open wide into a permanent scream. I didn’t want to continue watching, but I had to. The guards and researchers were horrified by what they saw before them. Suddenly, without warning, their body postures relaxed, their eyes grew glassy, and their arms fell slack at their sides. Those within the room moved as if sleepwalking. Some stayed still while others left the room. Brow furrowed from confusion and fear, my eyes swiveled to the footage of the corridor outside. The guards and researchers that had just exited 278B immediately began attacking and grappling those around them. I yelped as a vacant-eyed guard lazily shot another man in the leg. The thrall then dragged the wounded guard into room 278B. The mad guard held the wounded guard’s leg fast as he casually walked into the grey wall, pulling the struggling man in behind him. During this altercation I noticed Donald for the first time, he was hiding behind the corner of the corridor at the far end and was firing his gun at the madmen. He didn’t manage to hit anyone though. He then ran over to help a stray researcher to their feet and then they both ran down the corridor and out of view.
I can still hear the cries of pain and pleas for mercy as those who fell victim to the thralls were each dragged into that horrifying wall. With every person it swallowed, the wall wriggled and grew and grew. More and more ghastly decorations began to bloom on its surface, all of them made from the bones or likenesses of those who had been absorbed. The bigger it got the stronger its psychic influence became until it seemed to reach nearly everyone in the Facility, turning them into thralls. I looked on in horror as one by one, all janitors, researchers, guards, diggers, admin staff, everyone gradually stopped what they were doing, mid conversation, their eyes emptying. The janitors dropped their mops and buckets. Researchers dropped precious materials and equipment without care, letting them smash to pieces. In unison they all slowly, with vacant expressions, moved toward room 278B. Among the horde of thralls, I saw Bill and Jonesy, and so many others I knew by face. A guy who’d held the door for me once, a researcher who always slurped her coffee at lunch. Hundreds of people! What filled me with an unnamable dread was that I knew what was gonna happen. I knew what was coming. I tried to shout at the monitors, “Stop! Wait!” I grabbed the monitors and shook them with frustration.
A terror began to fill my stomach, deep and cold and aching. Suddenly I noticed Donald reappear on the screen. He was trying to hold back the researcher he’d helped earlier, but it was useless. I saw Donald, chest heaving from effort, stare with incredulity as he sat defeated on the ground. Everyone else around him stumbled dreamily toward their doom. But Donald refused to give up. I saw him run from corridor to corridor, trying desperately to stop them. He threw chairs and tables in their way but they simply pushed them aside or jumped over them. I saw him run toward this office. I saw him enter, saw myself slumped on my chair still completely unconscious. I saw Donald try to shake me awake, he slapped me a few times and was yelling in frustration. He gave up with me eventually and ran over to activate the quarantine lockdown. I saw him tear down the hall back toward room 278B, pistol in hand.
My best guess was that he saw what was happening in room 278B and decided he was gonna stop it. However, as soon as he got close to the door a long pale tendril burst through the door directly into Donald’s chest. The tentacle had a hooked end and it slashed at him. I saw blood spurt out of him, saw him stumble and fall from the ground in fright. However, he still managed to get a hold of his gun and fired multiple shots at the tendril. It writhed and flailed. Donald took the opportunity to climb to his feet. He grimaced and clasped his chest as crimson leaked to the floor. He moved back down the corridor, much more slowly than before. Eventually he got back to the office. He locked the door and then collapsed. I cried out in frustration. That whole time I was completely useless!
My mind felt like static again for a few seconds. I couldn’t work out what my next move should be. A thought hit me hard, one I should really have thought of before. Why had Donald and I not been psychically affected by the wall? Everyone had been enslaved, everyone had been forced to walk into that wall. Why not Donald? And me? I knew it must be connected to my horrendous sleepiness. My eyes grew wide with sudden realization. “Shit, the steel plates in my head!” Donald had a single steel plate in his skull because of a rock-climbing accident he had in his 20s. When I got close to the wall, had it sensed my resistance? Had it tried to incapacitate me? If so, it means this thing possesses sentience.
While I pondered this, I noticed some thralls re-strap the wall in room 278B. They transported it to the elevator and back up to the hangar. Once there, the thralls moved the wall off the scaffold onto the floor and began to beat heavily on the large metal doors with bare fists. Some even shot at the doors with their handguns. The ricochets killed a few of them but not one single person seemed to even notice. Some of the guards even used a rocket launcher! I yelled with shock as they fired at deadly close range, lazily blowing themselves up, leaving the doors scorched. After this proved futile, the thralls all grew suddenly rigid. Next, they all formed a line in front of the wall and one shambling step after another, all the remaining employees were - assimilated. Even the dead and wounded were not spared. Those still alive carried the corpses of their fellow thralls into the wall.
It was 1705h when the last employee disappeared forever into the grey horror, and the wall expanded to its current size. Without warning, a large writhing mass of twisted limbs emerged from the wall. I gasped from horror. I couldn’t tell exactly what it was because the lighting in the hangar wasn’t good enough, but it definitely wasn’t human. Its silhouette was about seven feet tall and thin and stretched. It had too many legs and it didn’t seem to have a head. This thing lumbered over to the doors and began to strike them with a strength and ferocity one would only find in a starving polar bear. I could tell that the doors were taking strain, and they began to bend, but even then, they would not yield. After about half an hour of smashing the door, the creature stopped and slowly shambled toward the stairs. My heart froze. It was coming here! Or was it here already?
My eyes swiveled back to the main monitor and I was surprised to see Donald still alive. He was scratched and bleeding badly as he shakily pushed himself from the floor. He then looked up at the ammunitions cupboard and began to search through his keys. I saw him curse. He couldn’t find the key with his trembling, bloodied fingers. In the next instant his eyes bulged and he heaved as if vomiting. His body doubled over and long grey tendrils oozed from his mouth and wriggled furiously. He grabbed his throat and fell forward onto the floor. Frozen in horror I watched as his body squirmed and he wriggled as if his intestines were filled with snakes. I continued to watch absolutely transfixed as three long grey tendrils emerged again from between Donald’s lips. Slowly they wriggled free of his mouth. They were about half a foot long, dull grey and thin like spaghetti.
I watched as they slithered toward my unconscious form on the monitor. I bit my lip and stood up. Slowly my brain put two and two together. Bile rose in my throat. I yelled at myself to wake up and see the worms. Just then my stomach dropped and I could feel an itchiness in my belly. I could feel the wriggling itch of a thousand grey eels in my gut. Or was I imagining it?
My stomach writhed and I was about to puke when I saw myself awake and stretch in my chair. The worms somehow realized I was awake and they moved out of view towards the –before I could watch the screen any longer, I heard a hiss and something slimy and long wrapped itself around my throat so tight I couldn’t breathe. I gasped with surprise and strained my neck to look at the monitor that showed the room in real time. I saw from the camera behind my head that something thin and grey had wrapped itself around my throat. I saw two more of those things coming at me from behind as well. They were about to come wriggling up my chair when I grimaced with anger and grabbed my gun from its holster. The thing around my neck was hissing and making awful clicking and guttural noises. Its small worm head had a mouth that bit and it latched onto my neck to suck my blood. I pulled at the leach and pressed my gun up against it. I pulled the trigger. With an earsplitting bang and a sound like a water balloon popping the leach was reduced to sticky goo. I pulled the remnants of the leach off my neck and spun around just in time to shoot and kill the others. I grinned with a mad-joy and yelled with relief. Immediately, a wave of nausea and exhaustion hit me and I fell back onto my chair. “What the hell was that? What the hell do I do now?” I sat still for a moment and tried not to lose my mind completely. I swear I could hear Woody the woodpecker laughing somewhere in the distance. I needed to keep it together. I took a long deep breath and tried to think of a way out.
Summarizing the details of my predicament, I realized I was trapped alone inside the Facility with an otherworldly force. Also, even if I found a way out, I’d potentially be letting an evil into the world that could destroy all life. At once an old thought returned to me, one I’d often experienced as a cop. “If I need to sacrifice myself to save others, I will do so without complaint.” A wry smile spread over my face. “Once a cop, always a cop.” My smile vanished as a I continued to think. “But my God, if this thing gets out. If it gets into the minds of other people. If it gets larger and larger. Could it swallow the world? The solar system? What other monstrosities would it unleash?” I was talking aloud now; the sound of my voice gave a new reality to my situation that made me shudder. I turned back to the monitor. It seems I was all caught up with what had happened. I stared blankly into the screen while I watched my past-self continue to wake and wince from pain. I switched the monitor off and saw my reflection in the blackness of the screen. I was pale and my eyes were wide and unblinking. “What do I do now?” I turned in my chair to look at Donald’s body. Were all those worms gone? Could some still be hiding? And what should be done with his body? Probably best to have it burned. “Poor Donald, he didn’t deserve this”, I muttered softly as I examined his corpse, making sure there were no unexplained twitches beneath his skin. My eyes moved from his body up to the ammunition’s cupboard just above. “Wait, why was he trying to get into the cupboard earlier? We don’t have much…”, my eyes grew large with realization. “Holy crap, he was trying to get the bomb! Me and Donald were gonna use a left-over bomb from the excavation site to blow some random shit up!”
I sighed sadly and heavily. We never got around to it. I stood up quickly and walked up to the cupboard. I pulled out my keys and quickly found the key I’d need. I opened the cupboard with little effort and found the ten kilos of plastic explosive inside. It had already been set up with a sixty second timer and a remote detonator by a colleague. I sat at the table with the explosive, a vague plan forming in my broken mind. “Maybe if I somehow get this wall-thing to eat this bomb then...”
Before I could formulate my thoughts fully, the lights flickered, and the entire Facility was plunged into darkness unceremoniously. My nerves were burning with fear. What had happened? Had that thing knocked the power out somehow? The next few seconds that past were some of the longest I’d ever experienced. However, dim green light bloomed to life and the reserve power kicked in. Then I heard slow, shuffling footsteps in the corridor just outside the office. I froze once again, my insides turning to mush. My mind raced. Had I remembered to lock the door? My stomach leapt into my feet as I heard the shuffling get louder and louder. I heard hoarse, wheezing breaths, as if the thing struggled to breathe. I jumped from fright but remained absolutely silent as whatever the thing was banged on the door with a deafening blow.
BANG! The door shook and bent slightly.
BANG! Silence for a moment.
BANG! BANG! Again silence. My heart was hammering in my ears and I sat deathly still. I could hear that thing breathing louder. After a few moments I heard it shuffle away. My entire body was shaking as relief washed over me. Whatever the thing was, it had walked away and I could no longer hear it. I turned to look at the monitors. Dare I turn them on and check what it was? After a few seconds of consideration, holding my breath, I turned to the monitors and switched them on. I waited in nervous anticipation as the screens flickered to life showing me that all the corridors between me and the wall were currently empty. I didn’t bother checking the corridor I suspected the shambling thing was in. I didn’t want to see it unless I needed to. I’d had just about all the stress and terror I could take and by this stage I felt weirdly calm. It must be shock. A thin sigh escaped me as I stood. The fear in my blood began to feed a furnace of anger in my heart. I thought about all those who I had lost. I felt my expression turn to granite, “It’s time to kill this thing.”
I opened the door slowly, my fully loaded gun in my good hand. Spare ammo along with the explosive and a shotgun was stashed in my backpack, and the remote detonator was tied to my belt. I held a heavy-duty flashlight in my shaky right hand. I moved cautiously through the dark green corridors. I’d never thought of how creepy this place could be until this moment. Gooseflesh crept up my arms and neck as I continued. All I could hear were my soft footfalls and shallow anxious breaths. I cleared the corridors one by one until I made it to the stairs that would lead me to the thing that looks like a wall. I walked up the stairs slowly, my ears honing in on any sound. That’s when I heard it. I heard the soft sound of crying.
Someone was crying. I stopped dead in my tracks. My entire body shook from the adrenaline surging through me. I took one step. Then another. Slowly, I climbed. Once my head could peek over the top, I froze. Jonesy was squatting on his knees, naked. He was between the wall and me, with his back facing me. The terrifying thing loomed enormous before us. It was now framed intricately with the skeletons of hundreds of people, all twisted and screaming in agony. Writhing, tortured souls fused together. Then came the sound of crying and moaning from the wall. I could hear them all. They were all screaming. Screaming for me to help them. To join them. I felt that pressure squeeze against my skull tighter and tighter. I shook my head in defiance. “No! You bastard! NO! I will not join you! You’re not Jonesy!” All at once the moans and wails stopped. I suddenly found myself at the top of the stairs without knowing when I’d finished climbing them. “But we are Jonesy” came a voice that was not human. It was a voice made from all those it had swallowed up. It was as though something had made a distorted copy of the voices of all those people and then just used them all at once to speak. It didn’t understand the concept of individuality. All of a sudden, the wall rippled and grey tendrils squirmed from the flesh of the wall, curling around Jonesy as they teased his face and slowly pulled him in. As he disappeared there was a horrendous sucking, squelching noise. “We are Jonesy. We are all. We can be all. We will be all. All and all and more than all.” The voice was chanting this over and over. Louder and louder.
A deafening blast came from the wall and a slithering, writhing mass of tangled human limbs emerged. It had four legs and several arms. It looked like the bodies of eight or more people shuffled and glued into an otherworldly horror. Its multiple mouths screamed a high pitch squeal that was more horrifying than the screams of the damned, and its sharp pointed teeth gnashed and chomped. I only had a second to dodge this monster. I leapt to the side and fired multiple shots at the thing’s center of mass. Its horrifying body of fused torsos wriggled and bled black ichor. It screamed with pain and jumped at me, grabbing my leg. It tossed me into the air and I almost lost my gun as I slammed into the floor a few feet away. Before I could catch my breath, it was upon me again. From the ground I fired several shots at it. This made it jump away and scuttle down the stairs. With it momentarily out of sight, I quickly got to my feet and kept my eyes on the stairs.
After a second, I decided to kneel and take off my backpack as fast as I could. I pulled out the bomb and started the timer. I also decided to get the shotgun out and get it loaded. I needed to do this now or never. As the final shell clicked into place I heard a roar coming from the stairs. The thing was back. Before I could react, it leapt at me and knocked me to the ground. The bomb flew from my grasp. It bared down on me, grabbing at my throat ready to tear me apart. My reflexes saved me though and I managed to use my shotgun to hold the thing at bay, but it was too strong. Desperate, I kicked it hard in the chest and it let go. I used this moment to grab the bomb that lay behind me; only 37 seconds to go! Terrified and crazed, sweat pouring down my face, my mind in pieces, I rammed the bomb into the creature’s mouth and kicked it back again as hard as I could. I heard it yelp like a wounded dog and it lost its footing. It fell sideways and in that second, I took my shotgun and fired at it in the chest. The force of the close-range blast sent me flying. At the same time the creature was hurled back into the wall where it was enveloped quickly.
My head was fuzzy. I was dizzy and the wind had been knocked out of me. Was the bomb going to work? I felt something warm and wet drip into my ear and touched the side of my head. My fingertips came away soaked in blood. My head was spinning. With a foggy mind I grabbed my bag, collecting my weapons and flashlight. As I stood up I heard a low rumbling sound. The ground beneath my feet shook and for a moment I was confused. Then I looked up at the wall. Its surface was roiling and boiling like I’d never seen before. It was shaking and growing. I turned to run when suddenly there was a massive blast from inside it, and the entire wall exploded into hundreds of small grey chunks. These chunks rained down all around the hangar, smashing several aircraft. The blast knocked me off my feet and this time I definitely passed out because when I awoke I could see daylight through the tiny cracks in the blast door. Where the wall had once been now stood a small blackened crater. I turned around to inspect the wall pieces and found that they – my eyes grew wide and my mouth opened. They were melting. As I approached a fragment of wall, a horrible twisted hand shot out at me. I yelled and jumped away. It was still alive! I watched in dumbfounded horror as the pieces continued to melt and began to merge, just like that scene from Terminator 2.
It was rebuilding itself. Then I heard a groan. My blood became ice. I turned slowly in terror to find the shambling, wheezing monstrosity behind me. Like the creature I'd shot, this one seemed made from bits and pieces of human limbs knitted together randomly. This one had legs which came out its mouth, its head positioned within its torso where the bellybutton should be, and it wheezed in pain. I almost puked from fright but my legs were already carrying me away. I sprinted down the corridors, ignoring all the pain and fear and exhaustion and anger and frustration I had inside me. Without thinking, I leapt into the first janitor's closet I found and locked the door with a dull clunking sound. After catching my breath, I found this notepad and pencil, and have been writing this report in the sterile glow of my flashlight. Hopefully, I have left some useful information for anyone who may find this.
Now I lie in wait for that thing. Now I lie in wait for that grey ooze. What is that thing? Is it truly indestructible? If it can survive a bomb like that, what hope do we have? It’s no wall at all. It’s a membrane. An interface. Somewhere very different is pressing up against us. It has torn a small hole, and was now prying it open further. I should blow up this whole damn place! I should burn it! But would it matter? Or would it just be buried, to be rediscovered? I think even if I survive this, nothing can help us. So here I wait, hoping to be saved, but even as I write this I can hear that thing walking past the door. With a soft click I turn off my flashlight. I try not to breathe. I can hear the snuffling, it’s right outside! I can smell its ugly breath.
Oh God! I hear the jingling of keys. The door is unlocking! How? How?
Oh God! The doorknob is turning...