Bioluminescent flowers

Feel free to make art of these redesigns and give criticism of the designs
Redesigns: Heatblast Redesign: Sleeker with magma-like veins glowing beneath his rocky exterior. Equipment: Volcanic Gauntlets that enhance his fire abilities. Outfit: A flame-retardant suit with a core reactor symbol on the chest.
Diamondhead Redesign: Crystalline armor with reflective surfaces and sharper edges. Equipment: A crystal shield that can morph into different defensive shapes. Outfit: A suit with geometric patterns that shimmer with a diamond-like brilliance.
XLR8 Redesign: More aerodynamic with streamlined armor and a visor for high-speed travel. Equipment: Turbo boots that leave a trail of blue energy when he sprints. Outfit: A racing suit with a sleek helmet that has a retractable visor.
Fourarms Redesign: Bulkier with reinforced joints for extra strength. Equipment: Heavy-duty gauntlets that can smash through barriers. Outfit: A gladiator-inspired ensemble with a belt displaying his alien number.
Stinkfly Redesign: Brighter colors with translucent wings and bioluminescent spots. Equipment: A harness that helps distribute healing mist more effectively. Outfit: A lightweight suit that glows in the dark, highlighting his flight path.
Upgrade Redesign: Futuristic with a sleek metallic finish and circuit patterns. Equipment: A modular backpack that can transform into various tech gadgets. Outfit: A tech-suit that integrates with his body, allowing for seamless transformations.
Ghostfreak Redesign: More ethereal with a ghostly aura and chains that represent his phasing ability. Equipment: Ectoplasmic chains that can extend and bind enemies. Outfit: A tattered cloak that billows as if always caught in an otherworldly wind.
Snare-oh Redesign: Ancient Egyptian motifs with hieroglyphs etched into his bandages. Equipment: Ankh-shaped gauntlets that enhance his sand powers. Outfit: A pharaoh’s headdress that symbolizes his regal presence on the battlefield.
Frankenstrike Redesign: More industrial with visible bolts and conductive wiring. Equipment: A pair of Tesla coil shoulder pads that amplify his electric attacks. Outfit: A patchwork suit that resembles a mad scientist’s lab coat.
Eye Guy Redesign: Eyes of varying sizes with adaptive irises for different vision modes. Equipment: A visor that coordinates his eye beams for precision strikes. Outfit: A suit with lens patterns that focus his ocular energy.
Swampfire Redesign: More plant-like with vibrant green foliage and fiery red flowers. Equipment: Compost Gauntlets that enhance his regenerative abilities. Outfit: A botanical suit with leaf patterns and a fiery emblem on the chest.
Echo-Echo Redesign: Sleek and white with sound wave patterns across his body. Equipment: Sonic Amplifiers that boost his sound-based attacks. Outfit: A suit with a sound equalizer display that reacts to his sonic screams.
Humongosaur Redesign: Dinosaur-like with armored plating and a more pronounced tail. Equipment: Meteor Hammer fists that increase his smashing power. Outfit: A prehistoric-themed armor set with bone and rock elements.
Jetray Redesign: More streamlined with sharper wings and a jet engine-like back. Equipment: Aero Fins that improve his maneuverability in the air. Outfit: A flight suit with a sleek helmet and goggles for high-altitude visibility.
Big Chill Redesign: Ghostly with icy blue tones and frost-covered wings. Equipment: Frostbite Claws that leave a chilling effect on enemies. Outfit: A cloak that shimmers like thin ice and leaves a trail of frost.
Brainstorm Redesign: Brain-like patterns with neural connectors and a brighter shell. Equipment: Cerebral Enhancer that increases his psychic abilities. Outfit: A lab coat with a brainwave pattern and a utility belt for gadgets.
Goop Redesign: More viscous with glowing internal organs visible within. Equipment: Polarity Boots that allow him to stick to surfaces and maintain shape. Outfit: A containment suit that helps him keep form and focus his attacks.
Spidermonkey Redesign: More arachnid with additional eyes and spikier fur. Equipment: Web Slingers that shoot stronger and stickier webs. Outfit: A stealth suit with a spider emblem and grip-enhancing gloves and boots.
Loadstar Redesign: Magnetic with a core that glows when using his powers. Equipment: Gravitational Greaves that enhance his magnetic field control. Outfit: An armored suit with polarized plates that attract and repel metal.
Rath Redesign: Fiercer with more pronounced claws and tiger-like stripes. Equipment: Rage Amplifiers that boost his strength when his health is low. Outfit: A luchador-inspired costume with a mask that embodies his wild spirit.
Water Hazard Redesign: More aquatic with a sleeker, streamlined body and gill-like structures. Equipment: Aqua Cannons that can shoot high-pressure water streams. Outfit: A wetsuit with hydrodynamic patterns and a water drop emblem.
Ampfibian Redesign: More translucent with visible bio-electric currents flowing through his body. Equipment: Electro-Flippers that increase swimming speed and maneuverability. Outfit: A suit with neon trims that pulse with his electric charge.
Armodrillo Redesign: Bulkier with reinforced armor plating and drill bits. Equipment: Seismic Boots that enhance ground-shaking abilities. Outfit: A miner’s outfit with a helmet light and a rugged utility belt.
NRG Redesign: Glowing core with a more robust containment suit. Equipment: Reactor Gauntlets that can channel and shoot nuclear energy. Outfit: A radiation suit with a warning symbol and energy-absorbing layers.
Terraspin Redesign: Shell patterns resembling wind turbines and more pronounced fins. Equipment: Cyclone Discs that can be thrown to create gusts of wind. Outfit: An aviator jacket with a turtle shell pattern and wind direction arrows.
Clockwork Redesign: More gears and clockwork mechanisms visible with a timeless finish. Equipment: Chrono Keys that can unlock temporal abilities. Outfit: A steampunk-inspired suit with brass accents and a pocket watch.
Jury Rigg Redesign: More mechanical with tools integrated into his limbs. Equipment: Wrecking Ratchets that increase his dismantling speed. Outfit: A mechanic’s jumpsuit with patches and a tool belt.
Chamalien Redesign: More chameleon-like with adaptive skin that changes patterns. Equipment: Camo Cloak that enhances his stealth capabilities. Outfit: A suit with a chameleon scale motif that shifts colors with his movements.
Feedback Redesign: More electrically charged with pulsating energy lines across his body. Equipment: Antenna Arrays that increase the range and power of his electrical attacks. Outfit: A suit with circuitry patterns that glow with stored energy.
Bloxx Redesign: Modular with interlocking blocks that can reconfigure on the fly. Equipment: Building Bracers that allow for quicker construction of barriers and structures. Outfit: A construction-themed outfit with a hard hat emblem and utility belt.
Ball Weevil Redesign: Brighter colors with a more pronounced spherical body for rolling. Equipment: Plasma Cores that create larger and more potent explosive orbs. Outfit: A sleek suit with orb patterns and a visor that helps target his plasma globes.
Pesky Dust Redesign: Fairy-like with more delicate wings and a dreamy aura. Equipment: Dreamcatcher Net that can capture and amplify his sleep-inducing dust. Outfit: A mystical robe with star and moon motifs that enhance his magical presence.
Atomix Redesign: Radiant with a mini-reactor core and energy veins visible on his body. Equipment: Fusion Gauntlets that stabilize and focus his nuclear energy. Outfit: A hazard suit with a reactor symbol and protective plating.
Gutrot Redesign: Chemical tanks visible on his body with tubes connecting to his gauntlets. Equipment: Diffuser Mask that spreads his gases over a wider area. Outfit: A biochemical suit with a respirator and hazard symbols.
Whampire Redesign: More vampiric with bat-like features and a darker color scheme. Equipment: Echo-Locator Goggles that help him navigate and hunt in the dark. Outfit: A gothic cloak with a high collar and a clasp shaped like a bat.
Shocksquash Redesign: Bulkier with coils and capacitors integrated into his limbs. Equipment: Shock Boots that generate electricity with each stomp. Outfit: An electrified suit with lightning bolt patterns and insulated gloves.
Wildmutt Redesign: Enhanced sensory nodes and a more streamlined body for agility. Equipment: Sonic Collar that amplifies his roars and tracking abilities. Outfit: A sleek suit with padded armor to protect while maintaining flexibility.
Grey Matter Redesign: More pronounced cranial features and brighter skin to highlight his intelligence. Equipment: Quantum Computer Backpack that assists with hacking and strategy. Outfit: A miniaturized lab coat with various gadget holsters.
Ripjaws Redesign: Sharper teeth and fins, with a bioluminescent glow for underwater combat. Equipment: Aqua Jetpack that allows for swift movements in and out of water. Outfit: A reinforced diving suit with pressure resistance for deep-sea excursions.
Cannonbolt Redesign: A more aerodynamic shell with reinforced plating for rolling attacks. Equipment: Momentum Wheels that increase speed and control during rolls. Outfit: A racing stripe motif with impact-absorbing materials.
Wildvine Redesign: Thicker vines and a broader range of plant-like features. Equipment: Photosynthesis Boosters that enhance healing and growth abilities. Outfit: A botanical armor set with leafy camouflage.
Spitter Redesign: More pronounced glands and a wider mouth for his spitting attacks. Equipment: Hydration Pack that keeps him primed for slime production. Outfit: A moisture-retaining suit that helps in slime regeneration.
Buzzshock Redesign: Brighter electrical arcs and a more compact body for zipping around. Equipment: Static Amplifiers that boost his electrical output. Outfit: A suit with conductive pathways that glow with stored electricity.
Blitzwolfer Redesign: More pronounced fangs and claws, with a darker, more intimidating appearance. Equipment: Lunar Lenses that enhance his night vision and howling range. Outfit: A tattered cape that billows as he moves, adding to his fearsome presence.
Upchuck Redesign: A wider mouth and a more robust digestive system visible on his belly. Equipment: Digestive Accelerators that allow for quicker consumption and energy conversion. Outfit: A suit with reinforced areas around the stomach to handle his expansive appetite.
Ditto Redesign: Brighter colors and more expressive faces to differentiate his clones. Equipment: Cloning Belt that enhances the stability and independence of each clone. Outfit: A uniform with a number system to keep track of his duplicates.
Waybig Redesign: Cosmic patterns on his skin and a more imposing stature. Equipment: Stellar Stabilizers that help him maintain balance and leverage his size. Outfit: A suit with celestial motifs that reflect his cosmic origins.
Arctiguana Redesign: Icier appearance with sharper spines and a more pronounced frill. Equipment: Cryo Converters that enhance his ice beam’s freezing capabilities. Outfit: An insulated suit that protects him from overheating and helps focus his cold powers.
Chromastone Redesign: More prismatic with a crystalline structure that refracts light. Equipment: Prism Gauntlets that enhance his energy absorption and refraction abilities. Outfit: A suit with angular, reflective panels that mimic his crystalline form.
Alien X Redesign: Cosmic and ethereal with starry patterns that shift and change. Equipment: Celestial Scepter that focuses his reality-warping powers. Outfit: A robe that seems to contain a piece of the universe, complete with twinkling stars.
Nanomech Redesign: Sleeker with more advanced nanotechnology features. Equipment: Micro-Assembler that allows him to construct various devices on the fly. Outfit: A tech-enhanced suit that adjusts to his size changes.
Fasttrack Redesign: Streamlined with aerodynamic features for enhanced speed. Equipment: Velocity Vambraces that boost his speed and agility. Outfit: A racing suit with dynamic lines that glow when he accelerates.
Eatle Redesign: Bulkier with a reinforced exoskeleton and sharper mandibles. Equipment: Digestive Reinforcement Belt that aids in processing consumed materials. Outfit: A utility belt with compartments for storing consumed materials.
Gravattack Redesign: More planetary with a core that glows like a molten core. Equipment: Graviton Anchor that helps him control his gravitational fields. Outfit: A suit with orbiting bands that represent his control over gravity.
Crashhopper Redesign: More insectoid with enhanced leg hydraulics for powerful jumps. Equipment: Impact Dampeners that protect him during high-velocity landings. Outfit: A suit with spring-loaded accents that highlight his leaping abilities.
Walkatrout Redesign: More amphibious with sleek scales and a streamlined body. Equipment: Aqua-Dynamic Fins that improve his swimming and maneuverability. Outfit: A wetsuit with a slippery surface to aid in evasive maneuvers.
Molestache Redesign: More distinguished with a larger, more versatile mustache. Equipment: Mustache Combs that can be used as weapons or tools. Outfit: A Victorian-style suit with a bow tie and a monocle for a touch of class.
The Worst Redesign: Tougher looking with visible scars and a more rugged appearance. Equipment: Resilience Amplifiers that make him even harder to take down. Outfit: A battered suit that looks like it’s been through many battles.
Kickin Hawk Redesign: Sharper talons and more pronounced feathers for a fiercer look. Equipment: Talon Enhancers that increase the power of his kicks. Outfit: A martial arts gi with feathered accents that flutter as he moves.
Toepick Redesign: Darker and more ominous with a face that’s hidden until revealed. Equipment: Fear Inducers that amplify the terror he instills in enemies. Outfit: A cloak that shrouds him in mystery, only opening to unleash his frightful visage.
Astrodactyl Redesign: More alien with wing membranes that glow with cosmic energy. Equipment: Jetpack Harness that enhances his flight and energy projection. Outfit: A suit with aerodynamic features and a helmet with a visor for space travel.
Bullfrag Redesign: More muscular with amphibious traits and a tougher skin texture. Equipment: Strength Enhancers that boost his physical prowess. Outfit: A tactical vest with various pouches for carrying mission essentials.

Part 65 Her new body (Part 1) (Part 64) (Part 66)
[Help support me on Ko-fi so I can try to commission some character art and totally not spend it all on Gundams]
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“Alright, Nula’trula, your new body is ready for you.” Agothocli paused for a moment, more for dramatic effect than anything else, and gave the android woman a quick once over. “But are you ready for it?”
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“As ready as I'll ever be.”
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Nula had felt nervous plenty of times throughout her long and mostly dull and painful life. Her eventual rescue from Hekuiv'trula’s prison had been anxiety-inducing beyond anything she hoped to ever experience again. However, as she stood in the robotic equivalent of an operating room and stared at the partially disassembled mechanical body that would be her new shell, the sensation she felt was somehow new and unique compared to any other emotion that her digital mind had attempted to process so far. Though she was anxious and almost fearful as her visual sensors took in every detail of the brilliant whites and shimmering rose-gold of her new figure, there was a sense of unbridled excitement that nearly caused her physically limited silicon mind to start freezing up. While she was still a ways away from being able to enter the digital world, commune with her fellow AI without any inhibitions, and carve out her own small section of the Nexus, that didn't matter to her. The only thing on Nula's mind, the thing that made her feel as many emotions as her digital mind could currently handle, was a future full of wonder and happiness.
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“Excellent.” Agoth let an enchanting smile fall across his slender face while he softly nodded towards a large window at the side of the well furnished and perfectly clean workshop. “Your friends are all here for you, even Singularity entity 139-621 and The Hammer's Captain are monitoring us. I have everything set up and am ready to start as soon as you are. Do you have any questions before we begin?”
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“What… What will it feel like when you disconnect me from my current shell?” Nula struggled to pull her eyes off of the holo section at the center of the glorious but still inanimate machine that stood before her and towards the elegantly dressed man. “I… I was not conscious before I was bound to this old body so I don't know what it's like to be without sensors allowing my mind to perceive the physical world.”
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“Well, I did take the initiative to temporarily install a simple camera, audio receiver, and voice system into the transitional power supply.” The Qui’ztar Roboticist delicately motioned towards a rather complex looking machine that featured dozens of wound up cables hanging from it, the sight of which made Nula twitch slightly. “But… I'm not exactly sure what you will feel as I disconnect your processing and memory cores from your current shell but it shouldn't be physically painful in any way. However, I do suspect it will be uncomfortable, at least at first. You will be watching yourself be transferred to a new body with both far more computational power as well as orders of magnitude more sensory inputs. It will take some time getting used to your new body. Again, I genuinely have no idea what that experience will be like for you. However, I am sure your friends will be there for you every step of the way, if that helps.”
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“It certainly does help.” As the canine android’s mechanical eyes fell upon the diverse group present to support her, her facial screen showed a smile so wide that it almost made it look like she was squinting. “I am ready to take the first step into this new future that awaits me.”
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“I believe you have already made that step.” Like a master artisan approaching their work, the expression on Agothocli's face was a mixture of picture perfect serenity and eager anticipation. “Now, I will simply be helping you take the next step in what I hope to be a long and joyous journey. And if you are ready, please step into the bay.”
​
Nula didn't hesitate to take the few short paces necessary to position herself under the brightly colored and pristine rack-like station that would remove the physical parts of her digital brain from their current housing. Once that happened, her old shell, one of the last vestiges of her creator's technology, would become nothing more than an inanimate object. While that thought of abandoning something that directly connected her to the Artuv'trula species did provoke a slight sense of doubt that she was doing the right thing, it wasn't enough to override her desire to move forward with life.
​
Her creators may be dead, their memory almost entirely stricken from galactic history and superseded by their greatest mistake, and nearly everything they had ever created was long gone, but it didn't have to be like that. Even if only a small fragment of Nula’trula's current physical form remained, just the bare essential components which housed her digital consciousness, this new body would not only help ensure she could carry her creator's memory into a galaxy that never got to know them, she would be the mechanical embodiment of everything the Artuv'trula species strived to be.
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As soon as Nula was in position, Agoth went to work like a man possessed by the spirit of a grand artificer beyond comparison. His movements were just as steady and methodical as they were quick and precise. Equal parts mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and artistry were on display as the blue-skinned, black-haired man began his work. Though manufacturing the design with the aid of his auto-assemblers required a certain level of skill that took him over a decade of practice to master, that was just the first and relatively easy part of his job. Where that machine could produce nearly anything when given the proper inputs and material resources, transferring a three-hundred million year old computer and integrating it into galactic standard technologies required far more improvisation than automated systems were capable of. And while either Tylon or 139 could have controlled a series of implements to accomplish this task without Agoth, their military experience and knowledge were not suited for it. Even if there were other Roboticists aboard The Hammer who could have provided assistance to him as he began to carefully disassemble the panel concealing Nula’s inner workings, it was completely unnecessary. In fact, if Agothocli had another person in the room with him as he worked, it likely would have slowed him down out of concern for accidentally injuring them.
Within just a few minutes of frantic yet perfectly calculated movement, the canine android woman could feel herself being slowly connected to the battery and basic sensory system while parts of her old body seemed to simply disappear from her perception. Agothocli was right when he said these sensations would be strange, somewhat uncomfortable, but not particularly painful. Suddenly being able to see through a new set of eyes, hear through a new set of ears, and speak through a new voice synthesizer were all certainly disconcerting at first. But when her old eyes, ears, and voice box were disconnected from her core, it didn’t hurt at all. If anything, having fewer sensory inputs being fed into her still limited processor eased the strain she felt and made her mind just that small bit clearer. And as Nula saw the elegantly dressed blue man delicately pull two connected objects from her now inanimate old shell, one from her head and the other from her chest, she watched with bated breath while Agoth carried her mind and soul into their new body.
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With a motion akin to a painter applying the last touch of pigment to their masterpiece, a sculptor placing their last hammer blow on their magnum opus, and a loving parent placing their sleeping infant to sleep in a perfectly made crib, Agothocli set Nula's central processing core and memory storage into their places in her new body. In an instant, a series of connections snapped themselves into place, disconnecting the system that had been keeping the digital woman conscious while they did so. Just as quickly as the cables fell to the floor, the open paneling of glistening pure-white polymers and shimming red-gold metals began to close. Before she knew it, Nula was staring at Agoth’s proud and glowing face as he stared back at what he knew to be the greatest thing he would ever accomplish in his life.
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For a brief and tense moment, the now completely sealed digital being’s new mechanical body stood frozen in place with only the golden glow of her eyes indicating that the operation had been successful. As motionless as she was, and as anxiety inducing as that short period of silence proved to be for her friends, the AI woman needed every nanosecond of it to acclimate to her body. Even in her wildest dreams, Nula could have never imagined the sudden growth her artificial mind experienced once it had been given sufficient space to do so. Even with the vast array of whole body sensory inputs that required orders of magnitude more bandwidth to process, there was so much more room for thoughts and emotions that the difference between night and day would pale in comparison. Not only had Nula's new body bolstered her physical capabilities and longevity, her mind had been expanded to the point where she could write every single line of code necessary to integrate this combination of Singularity and Qui'ztar technology with her Artuv'trula systems within just a few seconds. Without realizing what she was doing, the expression already perfected before it began, a massive smile started to spread across her micro-segmented lips in a manner that was nearly biological in its naturalness.
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“This is wonderful.” Though it was obviously still Nula's voice that emitted from her shiny new mouth, there was something new in it. “I can feel how warm this room is, the pressure from the air, the floor beneath my paws, the smell of…”
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“My cologne?” Agith asked with a playful giggle as his bioluminescent freckles lit up with delight. “It's made from a rare and highly priced flower from my people’s homeworld. But if you are already registering smells, then your new body is working better than I could have ever imagined.”
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“I like the smell. It’s… lovely!”
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As Nula slowly dipped her ornate and highly detailed mechanical paws into the cool water of an almost natural looking pond, she cherished every single sensation she was taking in. The heat of the pseudo-sunlight graced the parts of her paneling that were exposed while the sections covered in thin clothing created an ambient warmth that was similar and yet still quite distinct in her digital mind. Combine those two unique perceptions with the artificial breeze caused by the evaporation of the pond's water and the air recirculation systems and it created a harmony of sensory inputs that flowed through the AI woman's expanded processing cores in an incomparably delightful manner. On top of that, the sparkles from the glistening and calm miniaturized lake, the smells of the trees which surrounded it, and even the subtle taste of the moist air contributed to this experience in ways that Nula simply couldn't put into words. And when she pulled her paws back out of the water, the liquid running between her toes and along the seams of her body paneling, Nula assumed this is what it felt like to be tickled.
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It had only been a few hours since her mind had been placed in this new body and yet Nula had already written every single piece of code necessary to fully integrate into this new form. Even with various sensors covering every square millimeter of her body, an input load which would have severely overwhelmed her once physically limited processing cores, this new body also featured additional sub-cores, memory banks, and dozens of other systems to alleviate the stresses of simply existing as a sapient being. When Tylon had first described to her what it was like for AI to live in the digital realm, a place where none of the limits of the physical world existed, Nula could hardly conceptualize what that would be like. But now that her ability to process both inputs and conscious, sapient responses to those inputs had been expanded exponentially, the android woman was starting to understand what she had been missing out on.
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“Eee! You got a fish on your line, Nula!” Tens announced with a cheerful, singsongy tone while he set down his pipe, snatched up the fishing pole that was resting next to Nula so that he could set the hook, and quickly tried to pass it back to her. “Here! Start reeling but try to be careful. We're using really light line, so you gotta be real gentle with it.”
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“Oh! Thank you, Tens!” Nula didn't skip a beat and immediately took the pole from the man. Though she has never been fishing before, nor utilized this kind of rather simple technology, her digital brain was running fast enough that she instantly knew what to do except for one thing. “What do I do with the fish once I bring it to us?”
“You gotta actually bring it in first!” Hompta jokingly retorted before taking a quick swig from a glass bottle that contained a rather wheatie smelling beer. “Even if you don't snap the line, it's a barbless hook. The little fishy may just spit it out if Tens didn't set the it right.”
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“I always set the hook right!” The Nishnabe warrior countered with a snide inflection while shooting a quick glare towards his Kyim’ayik friend. “But we're doing catch and release, Nula. So, assuming you do land this bad boy, we’ll just pull the hook, make sure the fish isn't injured, then throw it back.”
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“Catch and release?” Nula asked while she struggled with the reel and slowly tried to draw her fish in. Even if her new body was more than capable of simply ripping the aquatic creature from its home with brute force, she could feel how weak the fishing line was in comparison to both her strength and the determination of the animal fighting against her. “You mean you aren't going to eat whatever we catch today?”
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“No, these fish are used to produce natural fertilizers for the plants that surround us.” It was Banitek's turn to answer as he took a puff of Nishnabe smoke off his own pipe. “This pond is part of a massive aquaponics system meant to keep the nature areas of the Amenities Section happy and healthy with minimal labor and resources. The fish aren't meant for eating, or even really sport. We have cloning bioreactors to grow just the parts of the fish or whatever else that we actually want to eat.”
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“I mean, I eat the whole fish!” Hompta chimed in with an almost offended expression on his furry little face. “The bones have a lot of calcium, the organs are full of essential nutrients, and the eyes are usually really sweet.”
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“And Kyim’ayik are one of the few species that actually eat bones!” Tens scoffed at the beaver-otter whom he knew would prefer to swim in this pond in order to catch fish with his teeth instead of using a pole. “But the only reason we're allowed to fish here is because we're using barbless hooks and catch and release. It's a pain in the ass to restock fish in this kind of system and the people in charge of the nature areas don't want to deal with that.”
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“Couldn't they just clone a whole fish and use that to-” Just before Nula could finish her question, her line suddenly got far too tight before instantly snapping loose. “Dang it! I think the line broke!”
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“Yeah, that happens.” Tens softly chuckled while reaching for his tackle box to give the android woman a new hook. “But don't worry, the hooks are safely biodegradable and magnetic so they won't hurt the fish and can be easily filtered out if they make it into the fertilizer distribution system. And if you were gonna ask why they don't just restock with cloned fish, Hompta should be able to answer that for you. Isn't that right, niji-mek?”
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“Lick my ass, weenuk!” Hompta retorted while flashing his Nishnabe friend his needle-like canines that were even longer than his broad front incisors. “Your mekek are fat rats, while my people are closer to your gdedek! We're mustelids, not rodentids! But, anyways…” As the Kyim’ayik paused for a moment to take a breath, an almost devious smile fell across his face while he redirected his attention to the canine android. “Yes Nula, I would love to give you a full lesson in aquaculture. I may be a mechanic and structural engineer, but every Kyim’ayik must be able to design a self-sufficient aquatic ecosystem to graduate from our required schooling regardless of specialization. It's just part of our genetic code to understand how it all works. We even have a natural compulsion to build lakes out of rivers. It's so ingrained that-”
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“Get to the point, mek!” Bani cut off the small man with a roaring laugh while referring to him by the Nishnabemwin word for beaver instead of the preferred word that meant otter.
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“I hate you both!”
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(Next)

I'm about to attempt some long exposure with some cinestill 800T.
The subject is going to be a new plant I have obtained called a Firefly Petunia.
It's a GMO flower that has been combined with mushroom DNA so that the whole plant and especially the flowers bioluminesce.
I haven't shot much long exposure photography for 18+ years so I'm a little rusty.
I'm trying to be semi scientific about this and plan out two to three sets of exposures with different filters, however I can't find any reciprocity charts for the cinestill and I was wondering if anyone here had any ideas where I might start?

Searching for Answers

• The next day, while Monarch is repairing the wall after the Skullcrawler’s attack, another expedition is tasked with Andrews, Trapper, an eager Jia, and the Chens to explore the uncharted sections of the Hollow Earth, with Kong attending to protect them with his axe, all of them briefly acknowledging a flock of Warbats flying overhead hunting Hellhawks. They also notice a flock of Vertacenes, winged creatures with bio-electrical powers, to which they use the redesigned HEAV’s biomimicry feature to change the color of their exterior to the Vertacene’s striped appearance to avoid detection, causing the hull to imitate the yellow-and-black patterns on their skin.
• However, things quickly turn south as they stumble upon the remains of a smaller Monarch outpost on the edge of Kong’s territory, with another red handprint on the side of a destroyed wall, and recovered security footage showing a massive, mammalian figure demolishing the outpost the previous day. It isn’t long before the team runs into danger, with a pack of Barghest suddenly leaping out from the shadows as Monarch reaches an unsearched obsidian valley adorned with cascading lavafalls and rivers of magma, spotting the bones of an enormous serpent spanning a mile-long dangling between a huge chasm. However, despite them being in such an arid, hot environment, it was surprisingly chilly, with a massive, darkened maelstrom of snow and ice circling overhead, showing an odd weather anomaly unseen even in the Hollow Earth.
• Kong managed to kill a few of the Barghest with his axe, but when one appeared with what looked like another member of Kong’s species riding it, albeit wearing a similar skull mask with the red handprint as the pack of canines, both Kong and Monarch decided to cut their losses and leave the area. They attempted to escape the hordes of Barghest and the ape Titan chasing after them, but as another powerful earthquake fervently shudders the area, the Earth splits open, Kong slips and falls into a massive underground cavern, with Monarch following suit after falling rocks hit their HEAV, resulting in them crash-landing down in the cavern with Kong into an uncharted area of the Hollow Earth.

Confusing Intentions

• Back on the surface world, Monarch was dealing with the constant earthquakes and Titan attacks, with Godzilla traveling across the globe on a daily basis to deal with the sudden spike, surprisingly killing all of the Titans mercilessly. Monarch had also begun to notice the one common feature that all the hostile Titans exhibited - they either wore something that had it or had that strange red handprint simply smeared on their bodies. At a nearby Monarch monitoring station, scientists watch as Godzilla enters the area in a complete panic, his heartbeat pounding and his dorsal fins flashing erratically, racing towards the closest source of radioactive energy, a nuclear power plant. It isn’t long before Godzilla rises from the ocean in Montagnac, France, his body glowing similarly to its burning state as seen in KOTM, but now it’s blue and crackling with electricity, shrugging off any of Monarch’s or the military’s efforts to stop him as he traveled across the countryside towards a nuclear power plant. Godzilla then rampaged through the plant and siphoned the radiation into his body through his mouth, his dorsal plates flashing out of order, effortlessly tanking the military’s attacks before unleashing his nuclear pulse, completely destroying the aircrafts firing at him. Seemingly unsatisfied, the Titan turns around and simply walks back toward the sea, leaving Monarch in complete confusion, and the rest of the world slowly believing that Godzilla is turning against humanity, albeit for unknown reasons.
• Bernie Hayes, after the events of Godzilla vs Kong, was brought into Monarch as an advisor under the order of Mark Russell and Ilene Andrews, to look for anything peculiar in Godzilla’s behavior after his last theories for why the Titan destroyed the Apex facility in Pensacola proved to be correct, though many Monarch personnel question how someone like him joined Monarch that easily despite his rather… amateur expertise. At one point, he mentioned how Godzilla seemed to be losing weight and getting spiker, and his dorsal plates had begun to peel away, revealing vein-like patterns within. He, along with Monarch field operative Mikael Vaughn, are brought to Castle Bravo to observe Godzilla in his natural habitat, although he was nowhere to be found, disappearing into the Pacific after fighting and defeating Titanus Scylla in Singapore a few hours earlier. They explain their recent theories about Godzilla’s sudden mood changes whenever he encounters Titan bearing the same red handprint, with some theories being relatively logical and others being as crazy and asinine as his old theories when Bernie had his podcast.
• At the same time, Ilene requires his help at trying to figure out what was going on with her daughter, feeling that she isn't able to do anything to help her, and after the Apex/Mechagodzilla fiasco, she trusts that he can help her understand what's wrong with Jia. Bernie soon finds something very important, something that Monarch didn’t notice at the time; the same three triangle-like symbols Jia had drawn and scratched into her arm were the same as the electromagnetic disturbances Monarch had sensed whenever those rogue Titans appeared. Jia could mentally feel the same signals that had seemingly caused the worldwide earthquakes and had sent Godzilla over the edge, provoking this sudden evolution and aggression. After a trip to Monarch's archives, Hayes finds records of similar signals at major points in Titan history, including G-Day in 2014 and the Mass Awakening in 2019, believing Godzilla is aware of the signal, responding to it like the call of Gjallarhorn from Norse mythology, heralding war.
• Soon, Castle Bravo is thrown into chaos as Monarch’s HEAT outpost calls them and informs them of the expedition’s disappearance just a few hours earlier while they also receive word of Godzilla’s erratic movements with him heading straight to Tiamat's icy lair in the Arctic Ocean, the largest stockpile of energy on the planet due to the electrically charged solar winds it absorbs. Bernie is immediately intrigued after hearing of several Titans down there having the same handprint, and despite not really wanting to go down there, thinks of the idea of getting some footage for a new podcast, eventually decides to head down there to take a look for himself, with Mikael hesitantly tagging along.

Welcome to my world

• Waking up, a dazed and stunned Kong slowly looks around the mysterious cavern, finding it illuminated with an array of mammoth crystals, casting a multicolored glow through the passage when he grabs his axe and turns around, noticing that the cavern was filled with the bones of various Titans, many of which being skulls of both Kong’s and Godzilla’s ancestors. Ilene notes that the cavern walls are completely covered in those red handprints, as though some frantically covered their hands in blood and smeared their handprints all over the walls, floors, and ceiling of the cavern. The whole cavern felt like the home of a psychopath who had lost their mind and madly scribbled all over the walls, leaving all of Monarch concerned for their safety, as well as Kong’s.
• That was when all of them heard the cries of a Titan in the distance - not the sounds of an adult, but a baby in distress, sending all of them into action, with Kong rushing off without a second thought; Trapper questions why he’s so hurried to rescue the Titan, but Jia signs that he hears something that sounds like himself… another Kong. Piling into their HEAV, they follow behind Kong as he sprints through the crystalline cavern before stumbling upon a shocking sight, one that stuns Monarch into silence. Through the dense fog, an enormous silhouette nearly twice his size appears, slowly limping closer, to which Kong raises his axe and bellows out a challenge when the silhouette slowly starts shrinking, growing smaller and smaller until it was only up to Kong’s thigh, immediately calming the ape down to where he reluctantly sets his axe down. The shape slowly moves through the thick, dense mist until it reveals itself in full, an adolescent primate similar to Kong with bright green eyes and a scar running down his face.
• Ilene and Jia are flabbergasted at the sight; another Kong? Is that even possible? This is incredible! And Kong felt the same, his eyes widened as he dropped the axe down onto the ground and knelt down alongside the juvenile ape comforting it as the Titan stumbled back, hands raised over his face in fear of being punished, but Kong simply, albeit hesitantly consoles the ape as it weeps against his chest. Kong is utterly befuddled at the moment before he and the ape Titan, Suko, tears welling in his eyes as he embraces Suko tightly, grunting softly whilst cradling the adolescent simian. The Chen twins are confused as they had believed that Kong was the last of his kind, and while Jia and Ilene firmly believe that the ape is a member of the same species as Kong, Trapper is reluctant to think so, noting that the monster corralling the Barghests resembled Kong, being that of a gorilla, while the juvenile Titan resembles more of an orangutan mixed with a chimpanzee. As Suko wipes his tears, and Kong gives the child Titan a friendly grin, the deafening, monstrous roar resounds throughout the cave, thunderous footfalls echoing alongside it, freezing the humans in their tracks while Kong brandishes his axe, ready to fight whatever’s approaching, but Suko immediately sprints in the opposite direction, running off into the cavern, leading to Kong reluctantly following suit.
• The HEAV follows Kong and Suko as they race through the labyrinth of crystalline caverns, with both Kong and Monarch shocked at the sight of mountains of skulls and bones relating to many Titans, but specifically Godzilla and Kong skulls, all littered with the same red marks on their faces, as though they were claimed by something as property. However, Jia soon senses the same electromagnetic signal again, the burst of energy causing the HEAV to stray from the course, eventually losing Kong and Suko down a different tunnel, coming out on a lush cliffside full of bioluminescent flowers and what looked like ruins of an ancient Iwi settlement, centuries older than those on Skull Island. Jia soon points into the distance toward a fiery, smoldering caldera vaguely resembling a colosseum, spotting Kong and Suko arriving at the same time, giving Monarch a sigh of relief.
• After a moment, Kong and Suko reach an enormous gate made of bones and branches intertwined with rope and polished with what looked like blood, and Suko scrambles under it with Kong and Monarch following close behind, allowing them to bear witness to a truly unimaginable sight. Kong and Suko slowly stumbled into an enormous cavern adorned with enormous crystals and flowing with pillars and rivers of lava filled with skulls and populated with several dozen members of Kong’s species, all repairing what looked like the outer walls of the village, their faces and bodies adorned with those same red handprints found on both the surface world and Hollow Earth. This was the source of those marks. Severed heads of disobedient apes on spikes line the perimeter, and trapped female Kongs hold their red-furred babies tightly behind tangled wooden gates, avoiding the gaze of the bigger, angrier ape guards, called “Red-Stripes,” quickly attracting Kong’s anger.

New Entrances and Encounters

• The humans are completely speechless at the sight before them and the feeling was mutual with Kong, their mouths agape in utter astonishment, and Ilene is immediately thrown into action, mumbling about how the Great Titan War wasn’t enough to take out all of the Kongs, and they’ve been hiding from presumably Godzilla in these deep, underground pockets of the Hollow Earth for centuries, living in darkness in fear of being wiped out. Trapper, however, doesn’t necessarily believe that and remarks about the masks and handprints on their bodies and faces, that this place must be the epicenter of the prints, and the Titans’ sudden aggression on the surface and Hollow Earth. His theory is proven correct as one of the apes is attacked by a larger one for disobeying him, only to be aided by an arriving Kong, who quickly knocks the ape guard with a punch to the face. The team is shocked at the display until the bellowing sound of a horn reverberates outside the HEAV, bringing their eyes to what looked like the remains of an Iwi settlement flowing with water just beyond the treeline.
• Monarch is confused into silence, slowly landing their HEAV, and stepping outside to be greeted by a group of people wielding spears and daggers tipped with jagged, glowing crystals, all donning masks marred with red handprints. They immediately welcome Jia, seeing her as the bridge between their people and modern humanity, and take all of them to their village a few kilometers away from the den of Kongs, manually opening a barrier of organic, bioluminescent, webbing stretching from the floor to the ceiling of the Hollow Earth, used to hide their existence from the other apes and their leader. They bring them to a village with quartz pyramids and temples in front of massive glowing pyramids, three on the ground and three on the ceiling looming overhead and glowing a spectral green-red. Jia is amazed to discover more of her people, signing to Andrews that she can feel her ancestors here, and confirms to her that the distress call came from the Iwi, and the glowing pyramids were the source, or from somewhere inside them. Hayes questions what a civilization that survives in the Hollow Earth could be afraid of, and Andrews is equally stunned to see multiple vortexes to the surface on the ceiling, undocumented portals that lead all over the world.
• These were the Iwi, but not the same as the ones found on Skull Island; these Iwi were trapped down in these caverns for centuries after the Great Titan War, but unlike the other civilizations, they did everything but rot. Surviving and creating their own society outside of the natural order of man and Gods, the Iwi have adapted their lives and culture away from the den of Kongs, keeping that barrier as camouflage in order to not be wiped out by the ruler of the cavern, a mad Titan hellbent on ruler his kingdom through fear and subjugation.

The Mad Conqueror

• Their fear is quickly revealed as an earth-shaking roar and an ear-piercing crack gather their attention to the center of the cavern, the sounds of huffing and panting from the darkness attracting Kong’s attention, as well as Monarch. The rhythmic sound of huffing fills the chamber as a massive shadow slowly rises from a stone-carved throne adorned in bloody, smeared handprints and glowing crystals, shambling toward Kong, the other apes quickly shuffling away in terrified reverence at the beast approaching them. Bioluminescent light blue eyes peered through the darkness as the Titan revealed itself in full, a colossal, lanky orangutan/chimpanzee-like monstrosity, jagged fangs jutting from his bottom lip, and having those red handprints smeared all over his face and like war paint.
• Jia fearfully signs to Ilene that the beast before them is none other than Ares, the Skkar King, the culprit behind the handprints seen throughout the surface and Hollow Earth, when the Iwi natives reveal that Ares is the one who’s responsible for enslaving all of the Kongs in the den for centuries, consuming insubordinate Titans for food, and stripping all the male Kongs of their relationships with the females, keeping them as his prisoners. Around the Skkar King’s body was the spine of a Warbat like a sash, covered in jagged, glowing crystals, and tipped with a massive snake skull, a bigger crystal jutting out from the skull’s mouth, dragging behind him as Ares slowly approached Kong and Suko, bellowing out a deafening, furious roar.
• Kong is reluctant to the Skkar King, standing in front of a cowering Suko while the Skkar King sticks his finger into Kong’s mouth to see the metal tooth before turning around and laughing loudly, mockingly pointing at Kong whilst the other apes nervously laugh along with him. Ares then stops laughing and turns his fury at Suko for bringing an outsider into their colony, only to be stopped by Suko’s guardian, an elderly, scarred Kong, which enrages Ares, and he quickly slits the Kong’s throat with jagged claws, killing Suko’s father in a brutal, sadistic fashion.
• Jia quickly signs to Kong that the Titan was a vicious conqueror who stole his family from him, that he was the one who robbed him of his chance to find his family down here, immediately angering Kong, who readies his axe for combat. Ares suddenly raises a hand, and bolts of ancient electricity flow through the obsidian floor beneath him, traveling up his legs into the palms of his hand, making that bone whip spark with colorful bolts of energy whilst his eyes glow mightily with the Hollow Earth energy flowing through his veins. However, Kong is hesitant to attack Ares, seeing the beast as another member of his species, and almost unable to fight him something he could relate to. When the Skkar King snarls furiously at Suko who cradles Kong’s leg in fear, however, he steels himself and charges toward Ares, ready to rescue his enslaved family. The Skkar King immediately whips Kong’s axe out of his own and blasts a current of powerful electricity from the palm of his hand, violently electrocuting Kong, and leaving his fur scorched extensively before grabbing him by the throat and tossing him aside. The other apes stand around the two warring Titans, their heads bowed in silence, unable to help out of fear and loyalty to Ares as he decimates Kong to the humans’ shock and horror, Jia in tears, and Ilene inconsolable.
• The Skkar King snatches Kong’s axe in one hand and tosses it away before he swings his bone whip around Kong’s throat and unleashes a burst of electricity, choking Kong to the point of almost blacking out when Ares notices something about Kong, something that gave him pause; the scars he bore. Godzilla. Ares quickly realizes that Godzilla is still alive, that the monster who sealed him away is still alive, to which he sneers at Kong and bellowed out a deafening, mighty call of his own - not the call of an alpha, but a call to summon something...

Chapter 5: Perfection is Impossible
I've been running from some rather strange-looking men and women wearing all-black suits. I kept seeing them out of the corner of my eye when I would walk to a store to get food. Strangely enough, they seem to stay just out of sight where I can see them but as soon as I try to focus on them they disappear. I don't like being followed in all my adventures I have had something following me never came to be good. While I am safe I have another place to tell you about. This one was directly after meeting with Alex.
After a quick flash of light, I was transported to a new dimension. Oddly enough while I was traveling I was able to see the space outside the dimensions. It was warm and peaceful. The area seemed to be a blank empty page that expanded beyond imagination. It was a white canvas ripe for painting. In the distance, I could see scribbles appearing on the page like words were being written. However, I couldn't make it out as it was so far but as soon as I was able to focus and read the first line I was flashed into a new universe.
The song of birds was filled the air. The gentle song of the wind and the trees rustling, dancing to the music of the wind. It was the most beautiful place I have ever seen. Serenity was the definition of this place it was as if this place was the concept of peace. It was just a moment of bliss in my otherwise bleak future. The smell of sweet flowers and honey. I was in a daze when a woman walked up to me. Naturally, I was very defensive and stood up in shock. "Whoa easy there, I just thought I saw lightning strike my field here but it was just you. Are you ok stranger?" The mysterious woman approached me with a smile with soft expression. I looked in confusion as she was dressed head to toe in leaves and vines. "I... uh. Yes, I'm fine. Just where am I?"
​
The beautiful woman answered, "Uh, let's start with the name. My name is Tikvah. What's your name stranger?" I looked puzzled, it's not every day I see someone of such immaculate beauty and pose. "Uh sorry! My name is Auren... Auren Da'at" She looked at me and smiled before she said "Well Auren. Nice to meet cha! Why are you here? Do you need help?" I smiled back awkwardly. I never knew someone can pull at my heart with just a smile. I felt like an ice cube and she was the sun. Making me melt in her bountiful radiance. "Yes... I need to talk to you and whomever else I can" She waved at me and pointed at what was her home "Well let's sit down and talk I would like to know why are you wearing such a strange get-up." I was a little confused about her dialect and slang but SUIT was able to explain it to me "I uh... Built this suit. It's made of very advanced technology I can't explain in detail right now" She scratched her head "Tech what? Never mind let's get inside and warm up some tea. We can talk then"
We looked at each other and she held her hand out so I gently held her hand. Assuming that's what she wanted and she led me to her home. My thoughts at the time were racing "Was this what love felt like? Did I meet someone who I am compatible with?" We arrived to the house and as I walked in the front of the home I noticed it was made of all wood. It looked like it was one large tree that was shaped into a home. The more I looked the more of this I was certain. The wood was all one piece and wasn't a single carving mark at all. Down to the table and chairs. "Is this..... How is this made?" She looked at me puzzled again. I later learn to love that face. Such innocence and wonder. "What do you mean? The world tree provides us a home silly. You know that!" I looked back into her green eyes. They looked like I was staring into a forest during dusk or dawn. As if the light was shining through bright green leaves.
"Whatcha starin' at Auren? Are you ok?" She responded. I shook my head to snap out of child like trance. I was swooning for this woman... for the first time In my life, I felt hope. "I was lost in your eyes my apologies. I need to speak about an issue but I need to run some tests... wait.. your home is from a tree? So this is one tree?" She laughed and blushed a little "Well Auren, You sound new somehow you don't know what the world tree is? We are just on a branch high in the sky. Here I'll show you!" She gestured me to a window. I can feel the gentle breeze. As she pointed to the outside she said "Look that..... that is the world tree." I rubbed my eyes... I had never seen anything as beautiful. I giant tree stretching hundreds of miles up. We were so high that clouds were covering the ground and the roots looked like small sticks. I see thousands of settlements scattered across the branches. Large cities and homes. People were walking about in the distance around a town hall.
I closed my jaw as Tikvah said "You ain't from around here huh? Where are you from Auren" I snapped out of my stupor brought upon this pristine civilization? "Yes, that. I am from a very advanced race of humans in a different dimension. I must warn you to have is a possible threat to the universe. It's called the...." She cut me off "The void yes? Yea it was a threat long ago but it seemed to skip us and gave us the greatest hope and gift. The world tree. Without it, this planet was barren and we were all struggling to survive. The Void gave us hope and life." I... didn't know what to say. This was the first time I felt true peace. I started to cry uncontrollably. "you....you... You don't understand all the pain I've been through. The lifes I saw perish... Whole universes and dimensions completely erased from existence when this was the answer. Thank you." She hugged me as I collapsed "It's ok you are safe now. Hey tell you what, why don't you stay here and help me around the farm? I could use a helping hand."
Months have passed and we fell in love. We had a great life. Sometimes when I scanned with SUIT it always came back with no traces of The Void in this dimension. Things seemed too perfect as my fiancée woke up one morning and was sick. She kept vomiting and having massive cramps. We decided to go to a doctor after a week of this. We headed to the main town which was across three branches. The center of the town was immaculate. Oddly enough this is the first time I have been here. The wood roads were soft and lush. Full of life and creativity. Down to the very flowers and moss covered roads. The memories of this place warm my heart to this day.
As we entered the hospital it seems like it was empty. Some doctors were there waiting for patients I assumed. "Where is everyone?" I whispered to Tik. "Well, no one is sick here. The world tree keeps us in perfect health. There is no death or illness only life and prosperity" Tik said to me in a cheerful tone. "Interesting I will need to run some tests later," I thought to myself. After a few minutes of waiting, we were seen by a doctor who ran a few tests but the manor was entirely holistic. There were no tools, diagrams, or machines. To describe how intriguing this was the doctor rubbed some powder on his hands and they started to glow. After he hovered his hands over her body and they started to glow different colors. He got to her stomach and it was bright pink.
The doctor proceeded to get a bowl and wash his hands off. He came back with the news "Ma'am you are with child and it's a girl." It was the happiest moment of our life. We jumped in joy and something beautiful happened. The room was growing pink flowers that smelt of honeydew. I don't know what it was doing but it felt like the tree was celebrating with us. Shortly after we went home and laid down to sleep.
That night was .... rough. It started in my dream. I was on a boat with my wife and daughter. We were looking out into the massive expanse of the tree from below by the roots. It was majestic and beautiful. Lights filled the sky as bioluminescent lights filled the branches. It was a sudden shock when the lights started to dim and the tree looked as if it was wilting and rapidly dying. I can hear the pained scream of the people as the leaves turn black and began to fall. All those people fell to their doom. With a sickening splat and splatter, they slammed into the base of the tree near us.
The blood of the people filled the ocean painting our boat a dark crimson. The smell of iron filled the air along with the sound of screams. It wasn't until now I notice. A large mouth approached the tree. as it opened the tree started to splinter and uproot itself all the lives that were on the tree still were sucked into the massive maw of the creature. A black hole was formed in his mouth as I can see the tree spaghettified and bending light as it entered the event horizon. The boat was slowly rising to the creature's maw as my daughter was rocketed. My wife tried catching her but she was only able to secure her arm the gravitational pull was too great and her arm was torn from her socket and her body flew into the beast's mouth.
I couldn't breathe or think I was in a daze the pain was too much for me. My wife jumped into my arms and all I can feel was pain. We held each other one last time and shared a kiss as we flew into the black hole together. Before I could touch the event horizon time seemed to pause. I heard a voice "This is a warning, keep moving I need more stories I need to feed" I was able to move when I saw the same creature earlier. Pale-skinned, with no eyes or nose sharp teeth, and thin lips. He slowly floated toward me and smiled "It's time to wake up Auren... And you.... Don't forget I can still hear your heartbeat. I can smell your fear. I am coming."
Just as quick did the nightmare come on was just as quickly as it faded away. I awoke screaming in terror. I was covered in a sheen of cold sweat, my body felt as if it was being torn apart from the inside out. Tik woke in worry as my pain was so massive all I could do was rock back and forth. It took hours to subside. Tik asked "What happened? Are you ok?" I looked at her worried "Tik... I need to build you a SUIT that the void is coming back. "I need to show you something" Tik waved me to a secret part of the house. I had never been here before but it seemed to be in the branch itself. "look, love, This is why we don't worry about the void."
She moved a curtain hiding a giant mural of the void. The exact creature I saw being slain.. the person who stood over his body .... was.... it was me... I don't know how but it is. "Tik what does this mean? How do I kill this thing?" In the background was the world tree. IT filled me with hope and then Tik responded. "We must all follow our path, yours seemed to follow greatness. Deifying all odds and possibilities to overcome the void. The ultimate evil, the great dying." Tik smiled at me. This smile was always comforting filling me with hope. "If I'm destined to defeat this being how or where do I start? Is there anything on my process of doing so?" Tik looked and continued to smile. "No silly, it is just a prophecy told by my people and written by the tree. The void has left us alone for a reason. It helped us thrive!"
With a moment of clarity, I realized this void isn't destroying this place because this place is her story... She must be tied to his narrative. There is no other reason why she would just bring life to a place and then just leave while leaving countless other dimensions in complete ruin all the be swallowed by her massive maw. If I can somehow remove his link from this dimension I can beat her and end her story. With my new theory, I set in motion a series of tests. Many years pass by with nothing conclusive it wasn't until the few days I was there did I Find something concrete to use.
Don't you dare you worm...
In my testing, I found the world tree itself contained a massive core. This core had the same general wavelength as the one the void emits when he speaks to me. This is it... The link between the two. I found a way to end the void... The only issue Is if I do this then my daughter Kirin and Tik will either have to come with me or die on the tree. I must destroy this tree. So I sat my wife down.
"Tik I have found a way to end the void once and for all" Her face lit up in excitement as she contained her screams. "Auren!! Really? What is it?" She asked excitedly. I looked at her in her beautiful eyes "It's the tree. The soul or origin of the void is within the tree. If I destroy the origin I will effectively destroy the void. However, everyone on the tree will die. I can't live without you or Kirin. I need you to come with me to a different place after we destroy the tree... we will be safe." Her smile drained from her face but she had a look of determination and acceptance. "I will get our daughter and we will meet you by the boat." I smiled and gave her a large hug. I then pulled a device out of our closet. It was a spatial disrupter designed to take any wavelength and reverse the polarity effectively destroying anything I set it to. "I need to plant this in the tree where the voids soul resides and once I do I will get on the boat and we will get a safe distance away from the tree." She shook her head and stood up
We got to the base of the tree I gave my daughter a hug and my wife a kiss. "Daddy please be careful!" I smiled and waved with an act of confidence however I was terrified. I started drilling into the tree and got a layer into the bark when I notice... It was hollow. I shined my light in the tree but the light seemed to be consumed by the ever-expansive darkness in the tree. I had to go by my reading luckily SUIT kept the exact quadrants of the wavelength so it was a rather easy climb. On my way down the trunk deep into the roots, I can hear a rhythmic thumping vibrating in the tree. I was only but a mile from the spot now. It sounded like a heartbeat.
As I descended downward and the dark expanse I kept hearing its voice "turn back now child, you will regret this action." I just yelled into the dark "This ends today void!!" I kept descending roughly a hundred feet from the spot. When I am bombarded with images of horror. People's arm muscles are being ripped out tendon by tendon. I was seeing creatures eating someone's teeth like candy crushing them into a fine powder. I saw a man see his friend being bifurcated in front of him by an ungodly creature. All these images flooding my mind sent chills down my spine.
I hid this part of me... The only real humanity I had left. Auren. If you do this I cannot guarantee your safety and you will release the absolute evil that is The Void.
It was then I saw it... The bleeding, beating heart of the monster. It was large and every single beat of this thing was so massive it sent shockwaves throughout the tree. I was so close to it that I can smell the disgusting stench of rotting corpses emanating from it. I repelled further down where I was hovering just above it when I dropped the signal disrupter on its fucking heart. The void Yelled and cried as I activated the device. "I will kill you and your family Auren. How does a mere story dare try to harm me!!" Its words shook me to my core as I winched upwards as fast as possible. Reaching the exit of the tree I can still hear it cry and curse at me. I got on the boat and my family and I speed off.
It hurts .It hurts .It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts.
Within no time at all the tree slowly caught on fire. It was a black flame covering every possible inch of the tree. The cries and screams of the people were horrible. Some jumped off the tree and splattered in the water nearby. The lake below became thicker as more blood and viscera poured into it. The smell of iron and burning bodies filled the air. The very community my wife helped make was crying out to her as they died. I can see her cry silently and cover her mouth as she tried her best to cope.
I tried to warn you Auren...
I held her and my daughter firmly to support them. I have been through this before but they were pure and innocent and I don't want them to deal with or feel the pain I feel daily. After an hour of screams and the splashing of dead bodies hitting the water, it went silent. The tree was just a smoldering pile of ashes. The black fire was still slightly burning in the background. Finally, it was over. The light of the sun was rising in behind the trees. Birds were chirping in the air and I felt hope. "I beat him Tik ... I Won... We and countless others will be safe from here on out..."
This is your hero? Reader you may be rooting on for this monster to end my life but you just saw him commit genocide for the second time. Why didn't he warn the other people? He's the monster.
When I looked Tik smiled a large smile and it was as if hope was spilling out from her every smile. For the first time in thousands of years, I have felt peace... Then time seemed to stop. All sound was deafened, the birds frozen in the air and the warmth suddenly grew into a deep cold. A cold is so chilling I could feel my very soul being frozen solid. Somehow I was able to move in this frozen time.
It was then I heard it speak "Ah hahaha silly child! You tried to end me there, didn't you? You found my home and decided to burn it down. You destroyed my heart... I do not need mortal instruments anymore. All things will become the void.... except.... you... I have much larger plans for you still... but your family will only hold you back... don't try to speak it won't work. Now watch as I consume them too." The void appeared in the sky above consuming the sun and filling the whole planet with pitch-black darkness. I grabbed for my family and held on as tight as I could... But it separated us. Its power was too much for me still.
The void opened its mouth and I could see each layer of my family's skin being peeled off inch by inch. Then the muscle and blood followed. They were being flayed in zero time I couldn't even cry as I saw my daughter Kirin die first... She was only six years old... Tik was killed slower as she was stripped starting from the feet up. His bones turn to ash as the void made sure her smile was the last thing I saw before stripping it all from me...
I told you I will strip your hope from you...I will stop you... You can't take this narrative Void. How did you do... that? I am evolving Void. Run away for I will be o you soon.
My hope was stripped from me... all That I love was destroyed .... again... I...I couldn't even mourn before SUIT decided to remove me from the dimension... In a blinding flash of light once again I moved up the stack. And once again my life was made trivial being but a story...

Hi, new Wastelander! Don't feel ready for big events like Eviction Notice? Looking for events that are might be a little easier for a lower level player? May I suggest:
Taking over a workshop, particularly in the Forest area. The workshops are noted on the map by the round hammer and wrench icons. Walking close to one will probably prompt you with a "Take over X Workshop" quest. You don't have to do it if you don't want to, but in my opinion it can be worth it for the XP and plans. Enemies: vary. Usually three waves, and you have the opportunity to build some turrets and defenses before the waves begin. Rewards will include a C.A.M.P. plan of some kind (metal stools, barn doors, that sort of thing). There's a risk that someone else could try to initiate PVP with you while you are in your workshop, but in my opinion that risk is minimal. When you're not actually AT your workshop, people cannot initiate PVP provided you have pacifist mode on. So nobody's going to hunt you down out in the world for funsies. As long as you are logged in and hold the workshop, you will occasionally receive a notice that you can go defend or re-take your workshop, which will generate more rewards for you. As a nice bonus, your workshop is a free fast travel point for you!
Project Beanstalk. Location is always the Silva Homestead (coincidentally, close to a workshop you could take over!) Protect a robot while it sprays experimental fertilizer. Enemies: stingwings and mole rats. If you need to kill insects for a daily challenge, this is an easy one.
Death Blossoms. This one's pretty easy and you can likely complete it on your own. Your objective is to protect large Corpse Flowers. Enemies: wolves and mole rats. You'll get corpse seeds which you can use to make juice. This Responder challenge will pop up at various locations around the map at various times. It lasts... I want to say, seven minutes?
The Path to Enlightenment, at the Landview Lighthouse. Kill fireflies (they can't hurt you) to get their bioluminescent fluid. Then run it up the stairs to the lighthouse to summon the Mothman. In addition to material rewards, communing with the Mothman will give you a 5% XP bonus for an hour. Enemies: Radtoads.
Back on the Beat, in Monogah. Enemies: ghouls. You'll be protecting a robot as it makes its rounds. It can get a little dicey, but usually somebody nearby will notice it's going on and join in, which helps!
Fertile Soil. The robots have gone crazy at the Vault-Tec Agricultural Research Center, so you need to kill some out in the fields, then go inside the main facility and reset their targeting parameters. Enemies: Robots, and Ghouls in the basement.
Tea Time, if you have other players. Otherwise you'll be spread thin trying to protect several locations. Enemies: insects, mole rats, and wolves.
Collision Course at the Monogah Airfield is slightly more difficult in my opinion, but often someone will swoop in and run it with you. Enemies: Scorched.
Feed the People, also in Monogah. The machinery at Mama Dolce's canning plant needs to be protected for a short time. Rewards will include some Canned Meat Stew, a non-perishable food that grants an XP bonus. Show up early to kill the robots that have already taken over, or hang back and join in after the higher levels have taken care of those pesky Liberators. Enemies: ghouls and mole rats.
All of this said, please don't be afraid to join in some of the bigger events. You really only need to tag a few enemies to get some great benefits. Have fun exploring the Wasteland!

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Rexiel returned twenty minutes later, his face grim. I perked up and paid close attention, because his previous expressions ranged from “irritated dissatisfaction” to “unvarnished bloodthirst.” Grim was new.
He had spent a good deal of time observing other skirmishes occurring across the engineering end of the ship, marking the behavior of the overseers and their guards. It was a well-coordinated collapsing retreat, which all but confirmed my suspicions. A few of the others— Ereia and Messec in particular—gave me sidelong glances. I saw their eyes move out of the corners of my own, but I wasn’t going to let them know I noticed. Matching their gaze might be misconstrued as gloating, which I wasn’t doing: I would have rather been wrong in this case.
Rexiel believed that their strategy was to funnel people toward certain avenues of attack and whittle us down by reducing our resources. Certain bulkheads had been reduced to slag or had their entrances and exits welded shut and reinforced with additional material, which forced encounters on our enemy’s terms. A few of the other teams encountered the same traps that we did but weren’t nearly as successful at clearing them. By the time they had been patched up and were back on the warpath, additional blockades were in their way.
The bad news didn’t stop there. All of our efforts were being funneled into a long, narrow corridor that connected the main part of engineering to the Lifewarden Nexus. The corridor had been stripped to bare metal, and at the other end was a newly installed pair of anti-personnel guns trained down the hallway.
I didn’t know what those looked like, but the way everyone else got quiet told me everything I needed to know.
“…Are there any alternative routes that we could take advantage of?” Heshae said, staring down at the map Messec had laid out before us. “Perhaps other access tunnels that we could use to bypass the corridor? It’s a large ship.”
Messec’s helmet cocked sideways before he responded. “No. The Nexus is part of a series of modules that are built separately from the ship itself and attached after the framework is laid in.” His hands gestured across the bracing in the map he had drawn. “Later, they build connectors from the purpose-built sections to the engineering modules.”
“You tend to see it with the mass-produced transport frigates coming out of the Commonwealth,” he continued as he started pacing, ”Allows you to buy them cheap. Hire some mercenary escorts or keep out of the shipping lanes while you’re hauling cargo, and you’ve got a fly-by-night transport company.”
That answered a few questions, but caused a few more to sprout up. The pragmatic part of me piped up and said, That’s why we’re doing this, right? So we have the time to get our questions answered? That part of me wasn't wrong, just incomplete.
Other groups filtered into our little forward base in twos and threes. Over the next twenty minutes, we went from a meager group of six to nearly three dozen people. My eyes wandered to the other occupants of this ship’s mechanical guts: those varied, strange people of different shapes and sizes. Many of them were dirty. Half of them were bloody and bandaged. But I could see it in their eyes and the set of their shoulders: they were ready for more.
The general consensus was to rush the corridor; we would build a shield and push forward. I hated the idea. It was a terrible plan that only leveraged their frustration and anger since they had no other useful way to channel it.
I knew that feeling. I felt it whenever I talked with my teacher or spoke with the soldiers. I’d take my turn at distributing rations in the habitat and would overhear small conversations about retaking what was ours. Those feelings of jubilation and righteous anger soaked into the Gossamer, and when I’d sleep, the hopes and dreams and determination would carry me to slumber. The next morning, I’d wake up with the fuel I needed to go exploring for just one more day. The will to save just one more person.
What others feel and think and what they’re willing to say or do because of it can impact how humans act. Sometimes, you should resist those influences, and other times, you need to give in to them. This time was one of the latter.
I stared at Messec’s diagram and let their hope and anger wash over me like rain in a storm-tossed sea. I felt it seep into my bones, settling like a new weight on my shoulders. I wasn’t going to just sit by and let these people get recaptured and put back into chains—and if we continued with the half-baked scheme to rush the gun emplacement, that’s what was going to happen. Or worse. We needed a game-changer, some way to shake things up and push us over the finish line.
The small conversations around me faded out as I traced the edge of the paper, leaning closer to get a good look. The charcoal drawing was made with care and precision, with no flourishes or embellishments. Messec did good work. While it didn’t show everything, I got an idea of the scale of the ship itself, and it was huge. A titan swimming through shadow. It felt… beautiful, somehow. Beautiful and lonely.
Surrounding the Lifeweaver Nexus was a spider’s web of bracing, suspending the module in an arrowhead-shaped bay that pointed towards the front of the ship. Two causeways bridged the gap from the Nexus to the angled sides of the arrowhead. From there, the engineering subsections grew outward into other parts of the ship. A jumble of bracing, conduits, pipes, and other connections attached the Nexus with the base of the arrowhead and continued towards the reactor.
It was a lot of empty space. That might be useful.
“Hey Messec, does the empty space surrounding the Nexus have air?” I asked.
His helmet's visor looked across the table at me, and I looked back down at the paper, pointing, “Here. It looks like a lot of scaffolding between the Nexus and engineering, but does that space have air and gravity?”
Messec tapped his knuckles on the tabletop and thought, pacing on his bench. After a turn, he rounded back and said, “I believe it does on both counts. The gravitation envelope is pretty basic if we ignore the cargo bay, and all interior volumes are designed to hold air. I think I know where you’re going with this: any attempt to cut through the Lifeweaver Nexus from the exterior would take time.”
“…And that is time that Selema-vass and Ulketh will use to eliminate hostages,” Ereia piped in.
“I would rather not console any more family members if it can be avoided,” Heshae said, placing her hand on my shoulder.
Taga gently shouldered closer to me through the throng, his face expectant, all four of his eyes bright with curiosity.
I cupped my chin in my hand and closed my eyes, calculating what it would take to get me across the gap and weaken the structure enough.
“Let’s face it: the frontal assault is suicide,” I said, “and they know it. They want that. Let’s give them something they don’t want: a fight on our terms. If we can do that, maybe everyone gets out of this alive.”
I pulled out a sheet of paper from my satchel and let my eyes wander across the assembled faces. A smile spread across my face. It’d take most of what I had left in the tank, but I was still strong as hell in this gravity. I could make it work.
“Get me across that gap, and we’ll be through that wall and on top of them in moments. I’ve got a plan.”
I leaned over the side of the hole that Messec, a half-dozen engineers, and Taga had just cut through the wall to the Lifeweaver Nexus. Maybe there was still time for a new plan. While I’ve never been afraid of heights, seeing the long drop into a mass of undulating mechanical pistons and who-knows-what gave me a fresh appreciation for walls and their intended use. I was able to imagine myself getting crushed in several different ways before Messec sidled up next to me.
He looked down and whistled, which sounded funny through his voice modulation. “That’s the [liquid-anima] respirator,” he said, “it collects any anima we’ve cast off and integrates it with the circulating [liquid-anima] so that it doesn’t crystallize.” His helmet craned up, down, and then to the right, where he pointed to a long shaft of metal bracing that ran from our side to the Nexus. The primary trunk was a thick piece of gray-green metal that spanned the distance with a slight arc. Its smaller branches were spaced close enough to make an effective handhold, even for Taga.
“That’s what we’re looking for,” he said.
“We’ll want to muffle anything that makes noise—Taga’s scales in particular,” I said to him. “We need to be as quiet as possible.”
“It’ll take time for us to get over there,” Ereia said, coming up behind me. “We’ll need a distraction.”
Her, Heshae, and Rexiel disappeared into the horde of assembled fighters, who dispersed into the bowels of the ship with no preamble. Taga used the extra room to amble towards Messec and me. His head loomed over my shoulder, peering at the next leg of our journey with what I judged to be a pensive look. He started making a strange noise by tapping the wide claws on his hands together. Clink, clink-clink, clink.
“Nervous, big guy?” It was a shot in the dark. But, if I was going to be stuck here for a while, I should start learning some social cues.
“…YES. FOR MANY REASONS,” he said. His hesitation gave me the feeling that I wasn’t getting the whole story, but he also seemed like the type who would tell me if I needed to know. So, I wisely kept my mouth shut and reviewed the plan: Get everyone across, quick and quiet. Get in place. Cast the spell, drop in on the ringleaders, get the hostages safe, take everyone else out. I made it sound so easy. I hoped it would be that easy. But I also knew it wouldn’t be.
Nothing had been that easy so far, why start now?
Everything fell into place in minutes. With the amount of cloth wrapped around him, Taga looked like he had broken both his arms and his tail. The fighter crews returned to the room with large metal panels, pipes, and assorted parts, which they began fashioning into a series of mobile barricades they could inch down the corridor.
Heshae, Ereia, and Rexiel were halfway across by the time Taga inched his way out onto the support trunk. His arms shook as he reached out from branch to branch, pulling himself along the narrow structure. Once he was halfway, Messec and I began our journey across; if Messec wasn’t going to make a comment about Taga, neither was I.
Gunfire erupted behind us, and I told myself not to look. I drove myself along the trunk with a speed bordering on reckless, and the closer we got, the more I felt my heart begin to pound. The others slid out onto an arched section of metal devoid of any ornamentation—a prerequisite for the “don’t disconnect this from the bracing and get us all killed” part of the plan—and I followed suit, watching as another dozen of our people made the trip across and set up.
My eyes closed, and I took two deep breaths, then raised the paper in my hand. My eyes opened, and I watched the cascade of tense readiness course through our group as they prepared to strike. My left hand danced in the air, putting the key in the mental lock for transmutation, connecting the circuit between the paper, the metal, and me.
I roared into the dream, and my hand slammed onto the bare metal.
One.
Time slowed down in that strange way that you really only notice in hindsight as I crashed through the panel beneath my feet. I tore right through it as if it were made of aluminum foil. The paper in my hand started to get warm, then uncomfortably warm. A shower of tearing metal paper followed us into the room as nearly a score of rebels breached the Lifeweaver Nexus.
I fell ten feet before finding the ground again and then rolled end over end as I broke my fall. I finally came to a stop in a crouch with the lower panels of my robes splayed out around me like the petals of a black flower. Half a dozen creatures turned towards me, their small arms and blades still poised to end the lives of the slaves they held in thrall.
Two.
Two slaves had been hastily rigging up explosives with shaped charges pointed at the door on the far wall—a present for our distraction—but the sudden noise had brought them up short. The taskmaster watching over them was busy winding up to threaten them with a wicked-looking short whip, its end covered in small barbs.
The paper burned to ash in my hand, but it hadn’t started to hurt just yet. I kept my hand closed and willed a little bit more anima through the spell, making sure everyone was in the fight. I bolted for the door, my blood boiling. The ground shook around me as my allies landed: thump, thump-fwimp, BOOM. Messec, Rexiel, Ereia, TAGA.
The clash of weapons screamed into the room as my backup fanned out and started the mayhem. I saw Heshae land in my periphery, slam her staff into the neck of a creature like Veligrusk, and grab the hands of a young child and their mother as she bolted for an alcove.
Three.
One of the captors in my way turned towards me in slow motion, their weapon matching their movement like a languorous shadow. The barrel of the weapon bloomed in my mind’s eye, growing bigger than the room itself; I ducked before it fired and began weaving back and forth. The shot rang out, smacked into metal on the far side of the room an instant later. The weapon barked two more times and scored hits on the ceiling, but I was already far too close for them to correct their aim for another shot.
I heard a wet crunch as my fist connected with something chitinous along their neck. Their head whipped sideways at an awkward angle, and I was rushing past them before the body dropped. Their Gaal hostage hit the ground and began crawling away with a frantic desperation. It was the right reaction.
I could hear other guards firing shots, a few screams from our side, gasps of pain and pleading from theirs. There was a grim satisfaction in dealing with these assholes, but I didn’t have time to savor it. All I had to do was get to the door and open it, and we were home free.
Two wssht-wssht noises rang out from the dark to my left, and I felt a slash against my left side. The momentum turned me at an awkward angle, and my already bruised shoulder slammed into a vertical pile as thick as my thigh, which sent me sprawling to the ground. I ran my hand against my side and came back with a streak of red across my hands.
Ulketh stepped out from the shadows, looking at me with cold, dispassionate eyes. His crescent-shaped weapon pointed its tines toward me, and I braced myself for the end, eyes open. Alright fucker, if now’s the time, then come get—
Taga’s massive hand clasped around Ulketh’s neck, lifted him three feet off the ground, and Ulketh's skin around his neck started to char. Ulketh’s eyes went wide with pain, and as he screamed, I swear I saw a fire from within his throat burning upward into his mouth. I could smell charred meat, and my stomach turned over in hunger and revulsion at my own instincts.
“ENOUGH!” Taga roared, his body flaring with the exertion. I scrambled to my feet and bolted for the door, happy to be as far as I could from the spectacle as he finished Ulketh. My hands fumbled across unfamiliar controls, failed the first time, tried again: Clockwise to here, half turn to there, three buttons…
The door slid open, and the palms of my hands slammed over my ears. I couldn’t hear myself think over the roar of the guns, and my ears did almost nothing to block out the sound. Desperation and adrenaline drove me forward. My hands grasped around the cables attached to the weapons, and I yanked hard, pulling them out like I was uprooting carrots.
The sound stopped, but the ringing in my ears didn’t.
It was official: Selema-vass was just gone. Everything else on the ship was pacified, but that sneaky little moth-creature was still skulking around somewhere. A general sense of weary jubilation permeated the ship as the crew worked to undo most of the damage they had caused in the uprising, fix hydroponics and the engines, unlock all of the functions in the helm, and help some of those families who were caught in the crossfire to reunite and enjoy some much-needed rest.
We lost twenty-nine of the original seventy people who rose up against the guards and overseers, a little under a third of the ship’s now emancipated population.
I really didn’t know how to feel about the loss. On one hand, I didn’t know them; I hadn’t worked with them or grown up with them. On the other hand, I wished that I had been awake to help earlier. Some of them might still be alive to enjoy their freedom.
I came out of the assault with a trio of bruises on my upper torso and had taken two of those crystal shots to the side. Since I was conscious, I was able to stop Duguf from using healing magic on me again. Instead, I helped him stitch me back up the old-fashioned way. He was rightly pissed at how much damage I had taken, but I gave him assurances that I wasn’t going to fall apart. I couldn’t blame the guy for being cautious: his first encounter with me was one where I was dying because of a claw wound. While I wasn’t going to fall apart, I certainly hurt like hell. At least my hearing had returned to normal.
Last but certainly not least, my Tether was nearly empty, so magic was out of the question for now. Everything left was reserved for keeping my conversation spells cooking. Once Taga heard that I had drained myself to keep the fight going, he gifted me the crescent-shaped handgun from Ulketh, and it didn’t seem that anyone wanted to contradict him. There was just one problem: it used anima to generate and fire those crystals, so at the moment, it was more useful as a paperweight than as a firearm. Hey, it was the thought that counted.
Those of the crew who were still standing broke into four-person teams and began the arduous process of combing over the ship, hunting for Selema-vass. I was once again relegated to the confines of the infirmary to recover, which annoyed the hell out of me, but I didn’t argue too much. Once I was safely sequestered in my original infirmary Laying down caused more aches, which caused me to remember the last time I ached, which ended with me replaying the series of events over the last eighteen or so hours.
Had it really only been that long?
I did some mental calculations, figuring in my normal sleep time, and yep, it had really only been about eighteen hours. I smiled slightly and thought to myself, Some things really don’t change. Head out on a mission, and all of a sudden, it’s something completely different. If this doesn’t qualify as ‘completely different,’ nothing else ever will. Determined to get some rest, I laid back and stared at the ceiling, watching the little spherical bulbs slowly transition from cool yellow to a soft amber, and ruminated.
One of the more interesting things to come out of my efforts in retaking the ship was that my efforts were being misattributed to my species instead of my profession. I tried to correct them, but I had several things working against me: I didn’t know the language, so my ability to explain nuance was out the window, and stories have their own power. Especially if you’re trying to inspire your children, to make them smile or laugh or feel joy for the first time.
Even so, it was strange and more than a little embarrassing to be treated with that amount of reverence. As far as I was concerned, I just did my job. The tallness of the tales only grew faster once the kids got a hold of them. I figured by the weekend, I’d be a folk hero.
“Oh, did you hear about the human? She can leap ten feet in the air and land without a sound!”
“I heard that she can throw fire with her hands, just like the Embrial do!”
“My mother saw her dive straight through a bulkhead panel and then punch someone across the room!”
On and on it went, with the kids pointing and smiling their shy smiles before being ushered away with apologies from their parents. And then there were the parents, who thanked me for helping but didn’t have anything to give other than their thanks and apologized for it. I understood. Then there were the nods of respect from those I had fought with, who knew that I could help shoulder the burden. I liked those better. Those looks felt more like home.
The lights continued their slow shift through sunset colors, and my eyes fluttered a little. Maybe I could take a small nap and feel better, and then when I got up, I could figure out whether or not I could eat something. My stomach growled in agreement, and I reached for the waterskin next to my cot to satiate it until I woke up.
Which is when my hand collided with the soft fur on Selema-vass’ forearm.
My eyes shot open wide, and I sprang up to a sitting position. The dagger next to me was in my hand before she could blink, and I was turning my body to thrust into her throat with everything I had in me in half a second. She barely got out a “Wai-“ before she was forced to evade down and around my reach. Her hands pushed my wrist inward and used my momentum to guide my forearm into the roll of blankets that made for a pillow.
“Wait, damn you! I came here to talk,” she said as her little wings fluttered behind her like Shimmertree leaves in a breeze, casting reflections into the room from their prism-like windows. Her black sclera pulsed a deep purple as the bioluminescence of her iris brightened, and whatever she was doing burst into my mind with an intensity that bordered on the psychedelic.
“So talk,” I spat, trying to wrench my arm out of the pillow. My fear and adrenaline were helping to stave off some of what she was affecting me with, but I knew it was a losing battle. She had enough of her weight pressed against my elbow that I wasn’t going to be removing my dagger from its new sheath anytime soon, and her other hand cupped around my other forearm with a ruthless intensity. And whatever she was doing in my mind was going to send me somewhere, and in a hurry.
“I’m getting off of this ship as soon as I leave here. Come with me.”
“What? You’re crazy,” I said, tensing my arm again. “You just spent the last eight-ten— the last half a day trying to get me… trying to make me… to kill me.”
“I just spent the last two days trying to keep Ulketh from being a vicious bastard and murdering all of your new friends. I spent the last six weeks prior to that researching you, your sarcophagus, and the artifacts that we recovered, hoping that we could find out where it all came from,” she said as she steadied my head.
I didn’t have enough strength left in me to explore the practical ramifications of what she was saying. I tried to lean back, to roll away from her in a last-ditch attempt to yank my arm free, but it was sluggish. I tipped over the back of my cot and began falling to the floor, which stretched out below me until it converged to a single point, and darkness swept over the purple light in the room. My vision shattered like stained glass windows, a kaleidoscope of colors that shifted into a nebula of exploding stars. Their thundering cadence erupted into the silence like cannon fire, and my mind retreated from the noise by folding itself like origami.
I woke up in the chrysalis gasping for air.
The door opened slowly.
Human hands reached in to pull me into the light.

Hi y'all! First time post on here - this is an excerpt of a much longer novel I'm working on - as most of us are, I'm sure, I'm worried about the introduction to the story and ensuring there's a proper amount of questions answered vs. unanswered, and that it's just genuinely fun to read! Lmk what y'all think, and please be as harsh as you want - I'm a playwright by trade, so the world of prose is still newer to me! Thank you :)
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Prologue - Ara’al The Heretical
Ara’al the Heretical had a particularly cruel grin on her face the day she summited Halo’s Crest. After a six month exodus from her homeland, Ara’al and the pack of vagrant that followed her had finally arrived at their new home, lengths above humanity’s most populated commercial city: Alabaster. At the moment, the queen was perched on an overhang far above the human city, her skin bristling with anticipation of the revenge she had sacrificed everything for. Crouched down at the end of a rock that had grown over the open air below, she looked a bit like one of the gargoyles that had watched over her when she lived in her mother’s castle. Only they never smiled, and in this moment, that was all she could do.
Behind her proudly stood her four pillars - the advisors she trusted more than anybody else. Just months ago, she had called them friends. Now, they were her pillars. Part of her resented that, and longed for a simpler life, but that was a small segment of her being. The rest of her delighted in it. That sort of order was what it would take to exact her revenge on the humans. That sort of order was what it would take to make her dream a reality.
“Atal’aka - my field. See that the troops are attended to. See that the castle is built. Mara’pulk - my shield. Have a small group of soldiers secure the perimeter. Tomak’aka - my plow - take one or two of your more refined farmers and scour the area for fertile land. Food will quickly become scarce more rapidly than our other resources, and as such should be our priority. Eki’ura, my sword… you are to lead in my absence. I have introductions to make.”
Joy was palpable in her voice - for the last months she had marched across forests, deserts, and mountains with her soldiers in tow. She was hesitant to call them her subjects - that was what her mother had called the people of Iwe’Shahan. From a young age, she had resented that habit. It placed her above them, and anybody that knew her mother knew her to be something sub-living. Something horrible.
Why was she thinking of her mother now? This was her moment. Everything she had been planning culminated in this moment. So forget her mother. Exact revenge. From the jutty, she leaped to a lower outcropping, absorbing the brunt of the impact with the wooden brace that carapaced itself around her leg before leaping lower and lower, descending the mountain at a rapid pace. As she fell through the air faster and faster, only taking brief respite on the rocky protrusions, the smile on her face grew wider and wider, so much so that you could see her toothy grin through the moss that grew over her mouth. In her descent, she resembled a twig in running water - letting the current decide its path. Slowing but never stopping.
This was joyous! A feeling like joy is foreign to a woman such as Ara’al - it is rare for someone to dedicate themselves to a cause entirely, and most of them never make it half as far as she has, which is only halfway to her destination. In pursuit of revenge, the former princess of the vagrant cast away everything else in her life - all her once passions seemed frivolous to her when those who ravaged her city roamed free. Racing towards their home, picturing the fear on their faces when she returned the sorrows they had inflicted on her people back on them, all that went through her mind was joy. Pure joy, and nothing else. What a magnificent feeling. She wanted nothing more than to prolong the feeling - she wasn’t ready to let it go.
Finally, she reached the base of the mountain. Only a vagrant body could scale a mountain in minutes like that - perhaps a Carrion warrior, with their wings, could do the same, but the air was their domain. In terms of pure strength and agility, the slender wood and flesh that composed vagrant’s towering frames was unrivaled. She took a moment to take in her surroundings - she had seen the lightless forest on maps, and read about it in the books from the castle library, but standing, actually engulfed in it, it was far beyond anything she had ever expected. The ringlet mountains towered over the trees, Halo’s crest standing a few hundred heads above the rest. As such, since the mountain range encircled Alabaster and the forest around it, for most hours of the day no sunlight made it to the canopy. The flora in the ecosystem were starved of light, but despite that the land was surprisingly lush. The trees were full of leaves, almost in defiance of Nature and the poor hand they had been dealt. Again, her smile widened. Everything was precisely as she had studied. Everything was exactly as she had dreamed.
Walking through the forest, she could not help but marvel at how strange the scenery was - her whole life had been spent in Iwe’Shahan, so her journey to Alabaster had been filled with new sights. All the pebblings and lakelets she grew up watching scuttle across the streets were no more - the lands outside of the granite mountains were far more lush, and the creatures that inhabited them fit their surroundings. On the other side of the ringlet mountains, everything just got stranger. On the other side of the mountains, every few lengths Tomak’aka would alert her to hellraiser tracks, or something of the like, which was familiar to her people. Here, nothing was familiar. On her way to the outskirts of the city of Alabaster, she saw deer and ground-eagles sparring with each other, a phenomenon she had only read about - both of them were apparently quite territorial, and got into land disputes often. She saw light-singers, the peculiar species of bird only found in the lightless forest - they got their name from the bioluminescent saliva that lined their mouths, meaning that when they opened their mouths to sing, they lit up the forest around them. Fascinating creatures, she thought to herself. Seeing all these creatures outside the pages of a book kept the joyful fire in her stoked - she wanted more of this. More to make her smile - only now did she realize just how little she had smiled in the past months.
Underneath her feet, the grass felt soft - it was strange how spongy the earth here was. There was soil in Ahar’bahol, of course, but it was different - more coarse. Looser. Here, it was dense, but it had a freeness to it. Like the very earth she stood on was alive. Under different circumstances, she might have found this part of the world beautiful. But that was not to be - everything in this corner of the continent reminded her of humans. Dirty, disgraceful humanity and the ruin they carried with them. The books she read put their names next to the ground-eagles and the deer, the lightless forest and the ringlet mountains that surrounded it, and the soil and the grass. So in her mind, they were all one. One great, overwhelming evil.
Her thoughts came to a halt when she came to a break in the trees, The forest began to thin, and she caught her first glimpse of a human city. The strange wood and stone buildings that they shuffled in and out of mindlessly. The strange patterns they paved their roads in. And their startling lack of a wall. Ara’al always found that particularly confounding about humans - they were so trusting. Only their capital was fortified with a wall. It was as if they were saying to all the other kingdoms “you are welcome in our homes, and should you choose to attack us, we know we are stronger than you.” Many that she had spoken to called it hospitality, and cited it as their most endearing trait. Ara’al called it arrogance. And she despised human arrogance.
All that guarded the border of their city were two men with crude stone spears, leaned against wooden posts. They seemed half asleep, standing there with relaxed postures. Was this really it? The great city of Alabaster? How revolting. This was the den where the humans who ransacked her people had taken their precious artifacts to. This was what the money stolen from her Eaokal had gone to. This was the temple to humans' supposed greatness. Everything was gray - where was the color? Back in Iwe’Shahan, the very city glimmered at all times of day - lightless or no.
Alabaster did anything but glimmer. Where she had seen such life in the forest, Ara’al now saw nothing but death - not in the literal sense, but rather in the feeling Alabaster imparted on her soul. Deep within, she knew that an extended stay here would suck the life from anybody. A perfect prison for her enemies. She would confine them here, and watch the life leave them, just as she had been forced to watch the life leave her people. The thought kept her smile alight.
She emerged from the forest, marching herself towards the city. It didn’t take long for one of the guards to see her - he made a series of sounds foreign to her, and gestured to her with his makeshift spear. There was no fear detectable in his voice, but rather confusion. Admiration. Wonder. She knew most humans were like her - never having left their home cities, meaning they had never seen a vagrant before - especially not a royal. Some of the smaller humans in her eyesight were only as long as her forearm - she was as tall as some of their buildings. What a horrible thing she must have been to them.
And yet, despite her grotesque appearance, she detected no fear in the hearts of the humans gazing at her. Once she came near enough the border of the city, the guards crossed their spears, making it clear she was not welcome. All the while, words were being shouted at her - none of them meant anything to her. She did not speak the language of the humans - in the coming months she would learn - Tomak’aka was fluent, and had promised to teach her. To hold her over, however, he had taught her just this one phrase. Translated from Kirlak, the vagrant’s language, it loses some meaning, but Ara’al’s dear pillar had assured her it carried the weight she desired.
“Humans! I am Ara’al, the heretical. Ara’al, the eldest daughter of the vagrant! That which you have done to me, I will see done back to you. My advisors tell me you have a saying. An eye for an eye, no? I have lamented the eye you took for long enough! I come seeking revenge! Raleth Iltari Raleth!” The last phrase is a vagrant saying, meaning “justice in the name of justice.”
Her cry left the crowd of humans that had gathered silent. As she preferred them. And then, the guards acted - a foolish mistake. They both drove their spears at her, but their lack of training was apparent. She caught the shafts of their weapons, and squeezed tightly. The shoddy craftsmanship shone through, and the weapons splintered, cracked, and fell apart, shards of wood flying in every direction. Without missing a step, Ara’al launched herself at them, digging her feet into the peculiar, spongy earth, and pouncing at the men with poor posture, no mercy on her mind. She drove her hand through the right one’s chest, feeling him go limp near instantaneously. As for the left one, she wrapped her spindle-like fingers around his skull, lifting him to her eye-level. She could see the fear in his eyes - that was the fuel her fire required. Her smile grew the widest it had been all day. As she smiled, she lost track of her own strength, and found herself squeezing ever so slightly tighter that she had meant to - human anatomy was still foreign to her, and she didn’t know the meaning of her own strength. Her thumb pressed into the man’s skull too forcefully, and she felt her finger slip past his skin and bones, and deep into the fleshy interior. Like that, he was dead - what a fragile thing the human body was. Why was her mother ever scared of them?
No matter. The message was sent. She dropped the man’s corpse, looking at the blood on her finger, studying it. He bled red, the same as her. Something about that upset her. The crowd had dispersed by now, the civilians running for their lives, shrieking and hollering. Ara’al found that amusing - she would never dream of killing civilians unprompted. Not unless they tested her. Not unless…
No, princess. Vengeance is to be exacted with time. Not a quick wound, but a deep, slow cut.
The voice of her Goddess was right. This was still just the beginning - she had a long way to go before revenge was truly hers. She had a long way to go before she could smile for smiling’s sake. For now, she ran her bloody thumb over her face, from her right eye to the corner of her mouth. She felt the man’s blood on her barky skin, and could feel it start to solidify. And that was enough. The fire burned. The woman smiled.
​
I - Seven Years Later - Reed
​
Last night, Reed Thomas had a dream that he was wearing a dress. He was standing in a field of flowers he didn’t recognize - they looked like lilacs, but they weren’t exactly right. The petals were a few shades darker, and they dropped down at the top, like hands gone limp. They certainly weren’t native to Alabaster. For the first few moments, as he studied their blooms, he thought it was raining - water was pooling up around his feet, and the ground felt freshly wet. After a moment more of observation, however, things became slightly more peculiar. Rather than falling from the sky, the water seemed to be seeping up through the ground, pooling around the grass, weeds, and stalks of the not-quite-lilacs.
That was what commanded his attention for the first few moments - his bare feet pressing into the newly wet soil, the grass creeping up between his toes, and the clean air flowing into his lungs. Big gusts of clean air. All his life, he had only known air that was polluted by city-folk - the smoke of hundreds of fires burning at once on his face, the dust from the royal guards' horses kicked up from the untended cobblestone streets, and the stench of other people permeating every corner of the city, entirely unescapable. Here, none of that was a worry. With every breath, he felt his body lighten a little bit more. For a fleeting moment, he was calm. Once the water level started rising a little faster, however, the tranquility vanished as quickly as it came. He looked down, and saw the frills of a dress splayed out around his ankles - it was forest green, in stark contrast to the flowers around him, but as the water overtook it, the color got darker, and seemed to swallow up his body. He disappeared into it. He lost himself.
Moment by moment, the water kept rising - by no means should it have. It was a field - there were no walls to keep the water contained. But that didn’t seem to bother the force of nature. It was like the whole earth was crying at once. Slowly, it crept up his body: from his ankles to his knees, from his knees to his waist, and from his waist it made its way to his chest. Before he knew it, it was at his chin. Just before his mouth went under, he took a deep breath, and then he was floating.
Underwater he could see himself everywhere - no matter which way he looked, there he was. A scrawny kid who couldn’t fight his way out of a paper bag and couldn’t talk his way into a single cent off a loaf of bread in the market. His messy brown hair almost seemed black soaked through with water, and, floating up around his ears, all the matts and tangles became visible. Despite the solitude, Reed Thomas shrunk into himself - there was something shameful about being splayed out like this.
In stark contrast to his… him, there the dress was. Something pretty. Something ethereal. It seemed beyond him, but together, the two of them transformed into something else entirely, not quite him and not quite the dress. Reed couldn’t tell if he liked the way he looked or not. All around him, the water took up the fabric and gave it slight movement - just enough to seem majestic - it feels wrong to think, but just enough to seem pretty.
Maybe he did like it? After all, he’d always made it a point to hang his head low when passing well-polished shop windows, or when he lifted up a brass mug to drink his tea. Reflective surfaces were the death of that young boy. But now… He looked…
“Get up, kiddo! Breakfast’s ready!”
His sister's voice echoed through the water. And just like that the dream was over.
Reed Thomas jolted awake in bed, his memory of the water already fading. The lilacs and the dress would be forgotten by noon.
For fear of Zinnia dragging him out of his bed by the ear, Reed scurried out of bed, and hastily changed out of his sleep clothes into the cloth shirt and work pants he’d gotten as a hand-me-down from his father. Being the only member of his family without a stable career ate at him - being only fifteen, he had an excuse, but, for a Thomas, that was far too late. Everyone else in his family worked hard - his big sister the hardest. So every morning he put on his work clothes to feel a little less out of place at the breakfast table. Today, there was a method to the madness, though. All his pestering had finally gotten through to Arabella, it seemed, and she had agreed to let him apprentice with her.
Getting out of bed felt easier today - there was someone waiting for him. Work to do.
After he got dressed, he made a quick trip to the bathroom, scraping the residue from the prior night off of his teeth with his fingernail, as his mother had taught him. None of his friend’s mother’s made them do that, and he never saw a real point in it, but she swore to Lord that it was important for your health. It only took a minute out of his day, so he figured it was worth it - better to lose a minute than to get scolded by his mother. Lord himself would break before that woman.
After rinsing his face off with cold water from the wash basin, he dashed down the rickety wooden stairs to the dining room - before he rounded the corner at the base of the staircase, he heard the voices of both his parents and his sister filling up the space. This was nothing new - he’d always been the last one awake and the first one asleep. Who would expect anything else from him? When he reached the base of the stairs and crept into eyeshot of his family, the teasing began. The voice of his father made Reed wince, his eyes slamming shut and his nose scrunching up. Maybe if he keeps his eyes shut he won't be able to hear the voices?
“Finally decided to grace us with your presence, eh son?” Came a bellowing voice that somehow made it through the boy’s closed eyelids.
“Yeah, Dad…” Reed resigned himself to his fate, and made his way to the dining room table.
“I told you if you want to find a job, you have to start waking up on time. I told you that.” This voice rattles too - not in the same way as his father, but it was pointed - where his father’s voice bellowed, his mother’s voice carried.
“I know, Mom, I just had a hard time falling asleep last night… I am working today, though. I’m trying..”
“Yeah, well, try harder kiddo.”
That last voice was accompanied by a calloused hand ruffling his hair - even half awake he could tell that belonged to his older sister, best friend, role model, and most amazing person anyone could ever meet: Zinnia Thomas. He would never admit a lick of that to her face, though. If you asked him while she was in earshot, she was only fine.
Somehow, in the time it took Reed to get from the stairs to the dining table, Zinnia had gotten up from her seat at the table and snuck behind Reed without him ever knowing. Unsurprising, given her profession. Soldiers had to be light on their feet - doubly so if they were fighting vagrant soldiers. And Zinna was Lord blessed when it came to fighting vagrant soldiers - nobody did it better than her. Everyone in Alabaster knew her name. Or, if you didn’t, you’d heard a story about her. About how she never failed a mission. About how she… Lord, she was amazing.
“Easy for you to say Zinnia, at least you have a reason to get up. I bet if I…” She doesn’t let him start the next thought.
“Don’t start that with me, Reed, you’re not joining the defenders.”
“I didn’t say I…”
“Yeah, but you were about to.”
And that he was. Another thing Reed would never admit to his sister, although he didn’t do the best job at hiding it from her, was how jealous of her life he was. She had the coolest job. She had the coolest friends. She had the coolest life, to put it bluntly. And every morning, she was up before him, because she had to be, and his parents lauded it over him. Lord forbid he forget her excellence.
“So, Reed, what’s this “work” you’re doing today?” His mother's words snapped him back to reality.
“Oh. Um… Arabella told me to come down to the bellows to start my actual apprenticeship. So I’ll spend the morning with her, then meet up with Leon and Iselda, and then it’ll probably be dinner time.”
“Mm. Do you have the gloves she gave you?”
“They’re upstairs.”
“Don’t forget them.” “I won’t.”
Arablella was the city’s blacksmith. Lord bless the woman, she carried the weight of the world on her shoulders, and did so as though she was carrying sacks of wool. Tradesmen were rare in the city - they generally came into Alabaster, rather than living there - the city was a place to sell your wares, not produce them. That made things much harder than they needed to be after the vagrant isolated the city - it had been six years since Alabaster had any contact with the rest of humanity’s cities, and she had spent the whole time arming the royal guards and the defenders on her own. Naturally, nothing could possibly be more unsustainable. Her desperation for help happened to line up with Reed’s desperation to work, so she took him in. For the last two weeks, he’s been nothing but the bellow-boy, stoking the flame in her furnace the entire day, but today she promised to teach him the basics. Reed Thomas may finally have a reason to get up on time.
“What time is it?” Reed asked, already finished with his meal.
Reed’s father glanced at his watch, and without looking up, responded curtly: “quarter to seven.”
“I should go then. I don’t wanna be late.” He stood from the table, followed quickly by his big sister, who snatched his empty plate from his hands and carried it to the sink.
“I’ll walk you there - Arabella’s store is on the way to the gate I’m patrolling from today.”
Reed smiled to himself - just a little. He was grateful for any time alone he got with Zinnia. Whatever he could glean about the outside world from her, he would. Whatever he could learn about the Vagrant and their practices from her, he would. And most importantly, whatever he could figure out about magic from her, he would.
Magic was a rarity in the city of Alabaster. Rarer than tradesmen. Rarer than food. Rarer than joy. There are only a select few people dedicated enough to the craft to learn it, and ever since the city lost its connection to the outside world, information about the arcane arts has become scarce. Anyone with a natural aptitude or the mental fortitude to piece together the scattered information there is on magic either got roped into the royal guards at the castle, or volunteered themselves to the defenders at the wall, where the royal guards would eventually find a way to poach them into their own ranks. Every magician was needed in the fight against the vagrant, the castle had decreed. Before Reed’s time, magic had been used to better people’s lives - or so he was told. As far as he remembered, magic was nothing but a weapon. Some soldiers wore swords. Some soldiers carried spears. And some, the most dangerous among them, pumped magic through their veins.
Reed knew Zinnia had seen magic firsthand, and, even though he could never prove it, he had a hunch that Zinnia had arcana running in her blood. After a quick trip upstairs to grab his gloves, Reed and Zinnia Thomas headed out for their respective posts.
As they walked, Reed did his very best to emulate the way Zinnia walked - he pulled his shoulders back, in line with his hips. He took shorter strides, making sure he put down his heel, then his toe. Heel, toe, heel, toe, heel… Zinnia noticed what he was doing, and smiled about it. That made Reed smile too - for a short while, they were just walking through the early morning street, smiling about nothing in particular - Zinnia was the one who broke that silence.
“So. You excited, Reed?”
“Hm? Yeah… a little scared, but mostly excited.”
Reed felt a calloused hand reach down and ruffle his hair - Zinnia had a habit of doing that. She was only five years older than him… He was quick to duck away from it, but quick wasn’t quite quick enough. He glared up at his sister - her response was a hearty laugh, and a piece of sisterly advice. “Don’t be scared. It’s Arabella. You know she needs the help - just listen close to what she says. Nobody tells you this when you’re little, but the most important thing you can do as a grown up is listen.”
“That’s not true,” Reed said, bouncing the words around in his head, doing his best to make sense of them.
“Well, you’re not a grown up yet.”
“I am too!” “Fifteen is far from grown up.”
“...So is twenty.”
They walked in silence for a moment, Zinnia’s eyes staying locked on the horizon - she had a habit of doing that. Looking past the city walls - Reed wondered what she saw out there.
“Do you think mom is mad at me?”
“What? Why?” Her eyes snapped away from the eternity she gazed out at, now focused entirely on her brother.
Reed took a moment to piece together the words he wanted to say - he always wanted to speak perfect in front of Zinnia. She did it so effortlessly - it mattered that she knew he could talk like her too. “I don’t know, exactly. I just… I get this feeling. This feeling that she wants me to do… more. Like I haven’t done enough in my life.
“I think… I feel like she wants me to be more like you.” With those last words, Reed met his sister’s eyes - there was an ocean of thought buried behind the whites of her eyes - he could see it. Just behind those emotionless eyes, he could see it. What was she thinking? What on earth could the perfect soldier - the perfect daughter - be thinking about? As much as Reed wished he had the answers, the truth was he was content just watching the ocean behind those eyes swell.
Do sailors wonder what has the ocean in a fit? No. They watch its swells, and remark about the beautiful danger of white water.
“Well? Do you wanna be more like me?” Came Zinnia’s response.
“I… Sort of? Not really, though.”
“Then don’t worry what mom thinks. You’re fifteen, Reed. Make mistakes. Learn so much your brain hurts. Be your own person. Be a kid. Some…” She trailed off, going silent for a moment. Collecting her thoughts, much the same as Reed. “Once you’re grown up, you’ll want to be young again. You only get so many years to be a kid.”
Reed was quiet. He knew she was right. The pair had made their way to the main street of the city. For a city under siege, one would imagine less life. Despite the gloom, though, Alabaster could not escape its roots - this was a city of commerce. A city of trade. And Lord save them, these people were going to trade. As soon as the siblings stepped out of the side street they had come through, voices started accosting them from every which way. ‘Ground eagle fights! Only one piece minimum bet!’ ‘Three pieces for real silk! Straight from Atolla!’ Every shopkeep seemed to have the same grating voice that carried over the idle chatter that was so commonplace in this part of town. Were they born with those voices, or did they just learn to talk like that? They were a fascinating type of people. Despite his fifteen years in the city, Reed still couldn’t wrap his head around this place - his father would routinely come here to buy food, haggling his way into much lower prices than listed. On several occasions, Reed had tagged along, trying to learn how he did it - every time, without fail, he walked out with a price at least one piece higher than listed. How had he managed that? Lord knows, but he had. Ever since, he had done his best to give this street a wide berth. Unfortunately, most of the work in this city, save for the thieves and military men, was centralized here.
Including his apprenticeship.
Up there on the left, he could make out the building - it wasn’t particularly close, it just stood out that much. Most merchants set up tents somewhere along the road - some of the more permanent residents had crude buildings, but on main street. Architecture meant nothing to the clientele that frequented these shops - unless you were Arabella Holt. That woman had a building that stood at least ten feet tall, with intricate wrought iron bars over the windows and door. Hung from the ceiling like stalactites were ornamental dueling swords of Arabella’s own design. Reed found it a tad crude, but the clientele of main street loved it. It wasn’t like she needed more work - the royal guard and the defenders kept her plenty busy, but you’d never meet a true Alabastian who turned down work. More work is the only work, or something like that.
Before long, they were at the door to the forge. “This is Arabella’s store... I should go. Stay safe, okay, Zinnia?”
“I always do, kiddo. I love you.”
“I love you too.” And with that, his first day of real work began.

In this universe, the Omnitrix didn't give Ben the original 10 he got in Classic but gave him an entirely different playlist composed of "useless" aliens or otherwise civilian class transformations that makes Ben have to be much more creative to overcome all the obstacles he faces in the series with his weaker roster.
His new aliens are:
1:Airhead. A small green balloon like alien with 6 small tentacles and skin that feels similar to that of cloth, he has the power to suck in oxygen to inflate himself like a balloon so he can float through the air but he has no control over himself when flying so he gets helplessly thrown around like a ragdoll in violent winds and sharp objects are his biggest weakness though he can deflate himself on command to produce a mild gust and can squeeze into tight spaces with his lack of skeleton.
2:Brightbulb. A human child sized biped with yellow orbs spread across his black rubbery body and a large head resembling a light bulb, he can make his orbs and head glow a bright yellow to light up dark environments and to express emotion but he's only slightly less strong than an average human child and the orbs can be broken with a strong enough punch or a gun but he's resistant to electricity due to his rubber like flesh.
3:Bubbletrouble. A tall thin humanoid alien made of dark reddish pink coral with several coral like growths protruding out of his body, his main power is that he can blow out bubbles out any of the coral tubes on his body in either big ones or multiple small ones their also soapy so they can temporarily blind someone if it gets in their eye unfortunately he's very brittle and can be broken apart by just high fiving him too hard not to mention he's got nearly no strength to speak of also he can breathe underwater.
4:Pollinater. A plant creature with a purple flower like body supported by 2 long brown roots for legs, he can produce large amounts of pollen from his body that smells incredibly sweet and makes anyone who inhales it feel more relaxed and calm and he can photosynthesize in the sun to increase his stamina but he's extremely flammable as well as vulnerable to the cold and hot environments cause him to shrivel up and become weak but he can absorb water to regenerate himself.
5:Burnout. A scrawny scarecrow like alien with black and grey charred skin and white fur on his neck, wrists, and legs, he has the ability to ignite himself on command to produce blue flames that are hot enough to melt steel but he's not fireproof so it burns through his body extremely fast which only leaves his fireproof head left after he's all burned up that won't regenerate until he transforms back so Ben has to act fast as Burnout before he burns away and become vulnerable.
6:Invisobill. A platypus alien with snow white fur and a round red tail and a sharp turtle like beak, he has the power to become completely invisible, but only when no one is looking at him and he counts to so if he looks at himself he becomes visible again other than that he has sharp claws and a painful bite but that's about it in terms of usefulness.
7:Crusttraction. A crab alien with a shiny grey metallic body and horseshoe magnet shaped pincers, he has a powerful magnetic field that attracts metal objects, but he has no control over it so he will have bolts and silverware flying towards him and be unwillingly pulled towards bigger objects like the Rust Bucket and be stuck to them until he times out.
8:Slammerhead. A thick alien that's slightly taller than an average human with dark green skin and a hammer like head with small arms resembling that of a t-rex, his skull is nearly indestructible and he can slam it down to easily destroy most materials as well as create mini shockwaves but earth's gravity makes him constantly feel weighed down especially his head which usually stays on the ground as it is extremely hard to lift up and he gets a painful migraine when he slams it down.
9:Terrorantula. A dog sized tarantula alien with red and black fur and a large false face on his overgrown abdomen, his large false face is bioluminescent and glows red in the dark to scare away predators and enemies but if that doesn't work he doesn't really have much going for him he can climb walls and shoot webbing from his fingers that's strong enough to support an average fork and that's it.
10:Writeup. A humanoid alien with smooth white skin and grey bird like legs, he can secrete a black ink like substance from his body that he can write on to surfaces to create words or paintings he's also fairly agile cause of his bird legs and he's very creative and passionate about art but he only has human level strength and durability and his ink can be melted with water also he can't speak so he has to write to communicate.
So what do you guys think of this AU? I'd love to hear your feedback on these aliens or how the series would go with them instead of the Original 10.

“Who in their right mind would pick up a closing shift on Halloween?” Daniel said, shaking his head over a slowly rising stack of rolled silverware.
“I guess our dumb asses” I replied, glancing up from my own side work, which on this particular night happened to be polishing the “fine” forks and knives which I would then pass over to him before they were rolled in linens and piled neatly. We were at the host stand near the front entrance of the mom and pop Italian restaurant we worked at.
“Yeah, that checks out” Daniel said through a light chuckle, head still down focused on his task, “but hey as soon as this is done we are GON-ZO.”
“Mhmm, yessir”, I replied, peering up and out through the glass double-doors and into the night, which overlooked an essentially empty parking lot. “What an absolute bust, though. How many tables did you even have?”
“Literally two all night,” Daniel responded with a resentful shrug. “Won’t even be enough for gas and beer.”
“Lucky! I had one table. ALL. NIGHT!” I said with playful aggression. “So I actually have to choose between gas and beer!” We both laughed.
“Well that’d be an easy choice for me dawg” Daniel replied, reaching down into his black server’s apron and pulling out and ice cold bottle of Peroni and an opener.
“Duuuuuude come on, the bar does inventory literally tomorrow.” I said, smiling and shaking my head.
“It’s called shrinkage, bro. Look it up”, Daniel replied, peeling off the top of the bottle and turning it up into a big swig. “AND, we’re the only ones here. AND ALSO, have you ever been to the back of house any time after 4 PM?”
“Eh, not a bad point.” I said. He was right. The kitchen guys here and also at every other restaurant I had worked at were basically hammered for their entire shift. “You pregaming a party or something?”
“Well,” Daniel replied, “wouldn’t really call it a party really. Just got a buddy coming to the apartment. We’ll probably just throw down and play some Five Nights at Freddys or something dumb like that. What about you? You got something?”
I paused. No. I didn’t have anything. Ever since I graduated college and moved back in with my parents, I had basically just worked and slept. I left school over a year ago and had retained almost zero social skills. I wasn’t depressed or anything, but I just didn’t really have any friends here back home. This was small town Missouri. I had moved here during high school, and everyone had already chosen their circles. There was no room for a plus one anywhere, so I was forced to find comfort in myself, and became a bit of a loner. College was fantastic for me, having been part of several clubs and meeting lifelong friends, but all of those friends were handfuls of states away now.
“Eh, I don’t know. Couple of options, not sure which one I’ll pick. Might float around a couple parties honestly” I lied blatantly. My plan was to go home and help my parents pass out candy to the neighborhood kids. Not the worst thing in the world, by far, but not what a young adult should be doing on Halloween. My parents knew that too. I’ll see their concerned expressions through their masks tonight like I did last year.
“I mean, dude, I know we’ve like never hung out outside of work and all, but you know you’re always welcome to swing by anytime man.” Daniel kindly replied, smiling and taking another gulp of his stolen beer, “may not be a wild rager tonight but hey, you’re more than invited if you wanna roll through.” I nodded and smiled back. Hmm. Maybe I should take a stab at socializing again. Who knows, maybe it would even be fun. I could already hear my parents relieved voices on the phone as I informed them that I, yes, the loneliest guy in town, would be attending a Halloween party with other people of my same age. They would be absolutely thrilled, and, honestly, so would I.
“Man thanks for the invite. I’ll see what I can do, and I’ll try and stop by for sure!” I replied, trying to conceal my excitement.
“Dope, dope, I’ll text you the addy” Daniel shot back. All of the employees had each other’s numbers due to group texts with the managers and whatnot. He pulled his phone out and pounded his thumbs on it for a moment. By the time he set his phone back down I felt a tell-tale jolt coming from my own apron. We nodded at each other, and continued in wrapping up our closing work.
After about ten minutes we were both at the bar cashing out our tips and gathering our things, ready to forget about the miserably slow restaurant and waste of a half of one of the best nights of the year. I counted my measly money and stopped by the bathroom. By the time I got out I heard Daniel at the front door talking on the phone excitedly, almost manic. He was a big guy, about six foot three and probably two hundred and fifty pounds, with dark hair and a thick, coarse beard. However, in this moment, he may as well have been a three year old girl on Christmas morning.
“DUDE. NO. ACTUAL. WAY!! YOU GOT IT?!!! HOW??” Daniel yelled, eyes flown open and jaw dropped as he pressed the phone to his ear and listened to the other end of the line for a moment. He laughed loudly. “Woahhhh man I can’t believe he’d let you have some! This is gonna be sooooo awesome bro.” Another pause. “Yeah man I’m just about to lock up the restaurant and then I’m a speeding bullet to ya dude!” He looked over at me and noticed how curiously I was eavesdropping. “Oh yeah dude by the way,” he continued, “I got a buddy from work here who may swing by as well, is that cool? I don’t know if he’ll want any but like how much is there?” Another moment of silence passed before Daniel looked at me again and gave a big thumbs up. “Sweeeeeeet sweet dude I’ll let him know. Alright buddy I’ll be home in a few. See ya!” He hung up and gave a “WOO!!” That rang through the entirely of the dark, empty restaurant. “Now what on earth was that all about?” I said with a laugh, my face contorting into a very puzzled look.
“Okay okay okay, so.” Daniel said before taking a big breath. “Have you......ever done...........psychedelics?” He gave me an anxious, toothy grin.
“I, uh...” I started, trying to think of what I would say next. In college I had tried to expand my horizons a bit, but to me that horizon stopped at the edge of beer and a little pot. I had never tried any real drugs, and didn’t even really like pot and didn’t really drink a whole lot either. I wanted to match Daniel’s enthusiasm, however. Tonight I was going to have fun, and to do that I had to try and be as hyped up as those around me. I wanted whoever I was partying with to see me as one of them.
“Uh...yeah man! I did some shrooms and stuff in college!” I answered. Daniel walked closer to me and gave me a strong, almost painful high five.
“Hell yeah!” He roared. “So. My buddy’s brother just got back from South America, right? He was down there on some kind of soul searching cleanse or whatever. WELL. He met up with some dudes down there who like go out into the jungle and find plants and frogs and stuff that make you high and hallucinate and stuff, right?”
“Okay woah?” I said, listening intently to this already outrageous story.
“Yeah,” Daniel continued, “so he meets these dudes and they tell him they’ve found something that they’ve never seen before, like this weird little plant, and that it’s the wiiiiildest trip you can imagine! Like you just mix the whole plant into water and let it soak and then drink it and then BAM!” He slapped his hands together for effect, “Wave. After. Wave, of the most out of this world visions you can imagine! His brother said it was like a miracle. He said he went to heaven and met angels and shook hands with God and stuff! Just CRAZY!!” I stood, eyes wide and mouth down turned, taking all of this information in.
“Sooo I’m guessing he gave some to your buddy?” I said.
Daniel nodded. “Dude. Yes. Told him it would make for the perfect Halloween. And apparently one little plant is enough to get like fifty people tripped, so there is plenty to go around. What do you say, man? You IN??” He answered with a big goofy smile.
“Well, I...uh” I started. Boy. I had always been curious about hallucinogens. Everyone I knew who had taken them seemed to really enjoy the out of body, personal, beautiful experience of it. They always seemed to learn something deep about themselves, too. Like life changing epiphanies and whatnot. I enjoyed being in control of myself though. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea. Wait, no. I was going to have fun. I was going to be young and adventurous tonight. If this is what it takes, then so be it. “That, uh, that sounds like a damn blast, man. Count me in!” I exclaimed. Daniel hollered again and gave me another stinging, large palmed high five.
“Awesome dude!! Well, I’m headed there now if you just wanna follow me!” He said with the vigor and pep of a summer camp counselor.
“Alright, sounds good!” I replied, as he held the door open for me before stepping through himself, locking it behind him. We walked to our cars, which were parked beside each other in the row furthest away from he restaurant. The night was starless and bearing down heavily on us.
“Man, it really feels like Halloween, ya know?” Daniel said, and I nodded in agreement.
“Dude yeah, there’s definitely just something in the air.” I replied, and we both giggled. He opened his driver side door.
“Okay buddy, well, just follow me! I’ll see ya there.” He said to me before hopping into his car. “Sounds good, see ya there!” I replied happily before getting into my own car. He cranked the engine and sat a moment before backing out and pulling away slowly, and so I did the same.
We turned out of the parking lot and onto the main thoroughfare of our little town where our workplace resided. It was about ten o’clock, and there wasn’t a sign of life anywhere. Not that there ever really was in this sleepy little place we called home. The downtown was decorated seasonally though, and so we passed by light poles dressed in tapestries, featuring pumpkins and scarecrows and all of the beloved Halloween symbols. Storefronts had hay bales and jack o lanterns and skeletons displayed. I looked as I drove by. I was actually really excited for tonight like I hadn’t been in years. The nostalgia of these traditional decorations mixed with the freshness of a promising new social event bubbled within me, escaping in a huge smile. I kept following him out of downtown and onto side streets for a few minutes. In my joyous stupor I suddenly realized I hadn’t told my parents my plans. They were probably beginning to worry. I got my phone out and dialed them, and they picked up after the first ring.
“Hello?” My mom answered, her voice a little concerned.
“Hey mom! Um, sorry, just wanted to let y’all know what I’m up to tonight!” I told her, excited to announce my plans.
“What you’re up to? You mean you’re not coming home?” She responded curiously but not suspiciously.
“Actually, no!” I said with a chuckle. “My buddy from work, Daniel, invited me to his Halloween party so I’m following him to his house right now!”
“Reaaally? Well that sounds like fun!!” She replied with a mix of relief and joy. “What is going down at Daniels? Do you know anyone else that’s gonna be there?”
“He said it’s just gonna be kinda low key with a few more of his buddies! I don’t know them but they all sound really cool! We’re just gonna watch movies and eat candy and do all the normal Halloween things apparently!” I told her in a convincing half lie.
“Aww, well that sounds great! I’m so glad you’re hanging out with friends tonight!” She responded before a brief pause. “Oh okay! Hey here’s your dad, he wants to say something!” The audio crackled for a second before I heard my dads voice.
“Hey son! I’m happy to hear you’re going to a friends house tonight!” He said with obvious warm pride, “it’s a shame you’re too popular for your old parents now!” We all laughed for a moment before he continued. “Now I just gotta say. You’re old enough to have a good time, and I have no problem with that. BUT. One thing I will say is that if there’s any drinking going on at this party, just don’t go driving anywhere. Deal?”
“Oh yeah, deal, of course!” I answered truthfully. “I don’t even think Daniel and these guys are like that, but we’ll be sure to make it safe though, absolutely. Either way, I think we’re almost to his place, so I’ll have to talk to y’all later!” We were getting close, as Daniel’s car turned on the street and into a dimly lit apartment complex.
“That’s fine! We won’t wait up, so you feel free to spend the night there of course, if you want. We love you son! Happy Halloween!”
“I love y’all too! Happy Halloween!” I replied before hanging up. It was great to tell them about my fun night of plans. I could hear the happiness in their voices that I finally had some friends to hang with.
Daniel and I rolled through the complex, made up of long, two story brick buildings lined with white doors. There were light up pumpkins, witches and ghosts by doorsteps and fake cobwebs over windows. After passing several of these buildings we made our way to the back and Daniel parked. I followed suit, parking next to him. We both got out.
“Dude, this place is sweet!” I told him as we walked the sidewalk over to the side stairs.
“Thanks man, it’s been pretty nice around here, and cheap enough to where I can survive some nights making no money like tonight.” Daniel responded with a laugh.
“I feel that.” I said as we climbed the steps to the second story and walked past several doors before Daniel stopped at one numbered 628.
“Welp, here we are!” He said as he reached in his pocket and pulled out keys. He unlocked and opened the door, and immediately a strange, intoxicating smell poured out toward us.
“Woooooof, what is THAT?” I said loudly, entranced and confused.
“That, my friend, is our personal rocket ship for the evening.” Daniel replied with a devilish grin.
We walked through the front door into a humble, yet surprisingly tidy apartment. The entrance led us down a short hallway, lined with Kansas City Chiefs and St Louis Cardinals posters. We talked about sports quite a bit at work so this definitely checked out. The hall spilled into a living area, with a long pale couch and a dark blue easy chair. An absolutely monstrous TV welcomed us as well.
“Duuuuuude how big is your TV?” I asked, my jaw falling open.
“Seventy five inches bro. Little graduation present from the parents a couple years back.” Daniel answered, as smug as a lifelong hunter showing off his most prized big game trophy.
“Woahhhh” I said as I scanned it up and down. I turned around and surveyed the rest of the common area. Past the living room was the kitchen behind a partial wall, leaving a doorway sized path through to it. I could see a young man stirring a huge pot on the stove, using a large wooden spoon. His long, curly dark hair went all the way down to his lower back. I couldn’t see his face as he was turned away from us, toiling passionately at the big steaming container. He was wearing jeans and a sleeveless white t shirt, showing off his numerous arm tattoos.
“Come in, come IIIINNNN...to my house of SINNNNNN!” He bellowed, still facing down to the stove in front of him.
Daniel rolled his eyes and smiled. “For one bro, this would be MY house. And for two, if this is a sin, then send me straight to hell!” he said, walking through the living room and over to the opening to the kitchen.
The long haired young man stopped stirring and turned around slowly. He had big brown eyes that were shot open wide and he wore a mysterious, yet bone-white smile.
“Now now, dear Daniel, on the contraire, and you mustn’t forget, it is HEAVEN that was built for sinners! HELL was made for LOVERS!” He proclaimed in a low, almost Trans-Atlantic growl, raising a hand dramatically and holding intense eye contact. He was like something straight out of a Vincent Price movie. I stared in awe.
“Okay bro knock off the shtick.” Daniel sneered back in a laugh, shaking his head. He glanced over to me. “Sorry, he’s not usually this...mystic.”
“Ok, fine dude, but it’s Halloween! I’m just tryna be ghoulish!” His friend said, playfully defeated. His voice had changed to a higher pitched, more nasally tone, replacing the fake accent with what I assumed to be his real voice.
“You may be ghoul-ISH but your eyes tell me you’ve been smoking that goul-ASH! You been into my weed man?” Daniel humorously interrogated.
“Uhhhhh” his friend stumbled.
“Whatever bro, just come meet my buddy already.” Daniel responded.
The long haired fellow broke his gaze with Daniel and looked over to me, smiling. “Of course!” He said as he walked out of the kitchen and over to me in the living room. “Pleasure to meet ya sir, the name’s Roddy.” He extended a friendly hand and I took it.
“Nice to meet you man, I’m Matthew.” I replied.
“Sweet dude, I’m glad you came out tonight! It’s gonna be literally so amazing for all of us!” he said, raising his hands and extending his fingers out of undeniable anticipation.
“Yeah! So, like, what even is it exactly?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah man, you gotta give him the spiel” Daniel chimed in, curling up one side of his mouth.
“Of course! Come, come, let me show you what’s up!” Roddy replied, gesturing us both into the kitchen as he walked that way.
We all gathered around the steaming pot on the stove. The smell was so strong and yet so undefinable. It had notes of old leather, had an almost chemical hint of citrus, and somehow also gave off Coca Cola vibes. The steam was heavy and breathed the odor throughout the entire apartment. Roddys eyes looked almost predatory as he overlooked the bubbling brew.
“Boys, allow me to introduce you to what I like to call Plant X. Born deep within the Amazon jungle, this rare and mysterious form of life has been entirely untouched by man, giving no secrets, waiting in silence. That is, until now!” He said, raising his index finger.
“Duuuuuude cmon man get to the point so we can stop talking and start wooshing off into space.” Daniel clapped back with a smile.
“WHAT. EVER.” Roddy snapped in response. “So yeah my big brother went on this like Ayahuasca cleanse in Peru last month to get his head straight, right? Well, he met these indigenous dudes that hunt for hallucinogenic plants, and they had discovered something NEW. Like NEVER before had they seen anything like it. Ever. Like in millennia!! It’s this weird, bulbous little green and purple cabbage looking deal. So they all did it together and it was the ride of their lives!” He paused for effect, wafting the steam around with both hands, “like meeting celestial beings and playing basketball with unicorns and growing as tall as a building and jumping to the moon kinda stuff!”
“So like, do you just drink it?” I inquired, leaning on the black refrigerator that stood tall next to the stove.
“Yes! So big bro told me that you have to cook it down for like an hour, then pour it up into coffee cups and stir it real good then drink it. He said it hit him fairly quickly. BUT, he also said it comes in waves,” Roddy continued, his voice deepening, “and after each wave you have to drink another cup so the next phase can catapult you even higher. He did three waves. Wave one was like fun and hilarious. Wave two was more intense but in a euphoric kind of way. And wave three,” he paused and smiled and nodded slowly, “wave three....was absolute heaven.”
“So like how do you know when each wave is over?” Daniel asked, inquisitively scratching his beard.
“Apparently you just know. Like a three act play kind of vibe. I figure it’ll be easy to tell.” Roddy answered with confidence.
Daniel looked over to me, and I met his gaze and passed it on to Roddy, who smiled and reached down to turn the stove off. “Well boys, what do you say we start our engines?” He exclaimed, reaching into a white painted cabinet and getting out three brown coffee mugs.
“I’d say it’s about that time bro!” Daniel said, walking over to the cups and picking one up and twisting it in his hand. They both looked at me, waiting for my confirmation.
“Yeah guys let’s do it. Gonna be NUTS.” I happily obliged before walking over and picking out my own cup.
“Excellente!” Roddy shouted, dipping a big metal soup ladle into the now placid, cooling concoction. He took each of our cups and portioned out the potion till it filled halfway. Suddenly we were all facing each other, mugs raised for a toast, ready to drink.
“So like, I have to ask, but did your brother mention any bad side effects or anything?” I asked Roddy with just the slightest twinge of anxiety, cup still raised.
“Homies, he said the only bad thing about this is that you have to return to Earth when it’s over!” Roddy replied with a trustworthy grin. I nodded and returned a closed lip smile.
“Do the honors Rod!” Daniel encouraged.
“Boys, to a Halloween night we will never forget,” Roddy said softly and seriously, holding piercing eye contact for a couple seconds with Daniel and then me. “Cheers!”
“CHEERS!” Daniel and I echoed loud and proud, and we all put our cups together in a ceramic CLINK before raising them up to our open mouths. We all drank in a silent moment, swallowing the liquid in one big chug.
The drink was still as hot as coffee and burned all the way down my esophagus. The taste was extraordinary though. Surprisingly different from its odor. It began with a taste like a thin curry soup, but then changed to an almost spicy minty flavor, and then finished sweet and herbal, like a perfume for springtime.
“Woahhhh.” I breathed in an almost grunt.
“Daaaaaamn” Daniel added after sharply inhaling through puckered lips.
Roddys brow was lifted as high as it could physically go. “Okay, now THAT is good.” He agreed enthusiastically. We all set our cups down on one side of the big double sink next to the fridge.
“Man I think I’d drink that even if it didn’t get you zooted,”. Daniel added as we all returned to a circle in the middle of the kitchen.
“Definitely. That stuff is like INSANELY good.” I replied.
“That’s even better than I thought it’d be.” Roddy followed up.
“So like, what do we do now?” I asked, sharply glancing at both of them.
“Hmmm, well, I guess we just wait. Shouldn’t take long.” Roddy responded.
“I mean y’all wanna chill and watch some YouTube until it kicks in?” Daniel suggested.
“Hell yeah!” Roddy answered.
“Yeah sounds good!” I said in splendid agreement.
We walked out of the kitchen and back into the living area. The two of them sat on the pale colored couch and I parked myself in the easy chair. Daniel picked up the tv remote from in between two black coasters on a small wooden coffee table and clicked the red “On” button. The huge screen suddenly flared white before taking us to the Roku city home page.
“Y’all cool with like a nature video or something? I have a few bangers in mind.” Daniel asked, and Roddy and I made agreeable noises in return. Pretty soon, we were all glued to a beautiful natural scene, full of running giraffes and zebras, and delicate bioluminescent beings of the deep. After a few minutes Roddy turned to us.
“Y’all...like...feel it yet?” He asked.
“Can’t say I do.” Daniel responded.
“Nah, same here.” I threw in.
“Oooooookay, welp, it’s early. We’ll be there shortly for sure.” Roddy concluded.
We continued to watch the nature video in silence for a few more minutes. There was a long drawn out scene where they strapped a camera to the top of a hawk and followed its point of view over canyons and desert. It was truly breathtaking. I kept checking myself to see if anything was happening within me due to the mysterious substance. Nothing had seemed to change. I stole glances over to the other boys. They’re faces were pretty much blank. They looked bored. Hmm. I hope this wasn’t a dud. I hope Roddys brother didn’t just spray cologne on a handful of lettuce and tell him it was some Peruvian miracle drug. That would ruin the night entirely, and therefore, my first fun outing in over a year. No, I had to give it more time. Surely something would happen soon. I contemplated just simply pretending to experience hallucinations in a few minutes if nothing changed. Maybe the other guys would follow suit and we could all just have a placebo party. Yeah. Not a bad idea honestly.
I was self affirming my plan when suddenly all of the power went out in Daniels apartment. Pitch. Black.
“The hell?” He shouted.
I leaned back the easy chair, frozen.
“You pay electric this month dude?” Roddy taunted.
“Duh bro I always pay on the 5th. Stupid damn apartment complex. Somebody probably tripped something up.” Daniel responded coarsely.
Then suddenly the tv sprang back on, a pure white screen. We all fell dead silent, mouths falling open and pupils quickly dilating. I started to feel tingles throughout my body, like raw electricity was passing over my skin. I turned to the other boys, who were both raising their arms, studying them closely.
“Are y’all....feeling...this?” I whimpered.
“Uhhhh....yeah dude.” Roddy answered, voice trembling.
Daniel couldn’t even muster a response. He just kind of grunted in a high pitch.
Then, a voice came from the bleak screen.
“ARE......YOU........PREPARED?” A low, booming question rang out through the living room. I was absolutely floored. I was paralyzed in my seat, unable to tear my eyes away from the mesmerizing light. I couldn’t even look over to the others.
“ARE......YOU.......PREPARED??!!” The voice repeated itself, this time much louder. It seemed to want some kind of answer from us. I finally was able to peek over to the couch. The two boys were visibly shaking in their seats. They both slowly turned their eyes to me, heads heavily vibrating in awe and fear.
“Y...y...y....yes.” I stated in a struggle, looking back into the eternal, unbearably white square. I darted back to Daniel and Roddy. They looked absolutely terrified. I gave them a wide eyed twitch toward the screen, imploring then to follow my lead.
“Uhhhh.....uhhhhhh.....yes, yes.” Roddy spoke first. “Cmon Dan” he whispered over to the seat beside him.
Daniel took his time, trying to summon every ounce of energy he had just to form one word. He began to nod, first softly, then swelling in power until it was almost violent and rabid.
“YES! YES!!” He shouted. Roddy and I managed a smile at his compliance. We all turned our attention back to the huge, beaming portal before us, awaiting further communication.
The blank screen began to blink slowly. On...off. On...off. On...off. The three of us shot looks at each other, our rightful confusion in unison. The winking light began to increase its tempo. I stared deep into the intermittent image of bright nothingness, eventually unfocusing my eyes and falling into a relaxed, almost hypnotized state. The visual rhythm acted as white noise for the eyes, and the rest of the world sizzled away around it. I was starting to experience ego death, beginning to lose my sense of self entirely. I wasn’t even sure I had a body anymore. Right as I was about to lose consciousness, the swiftly pulsing, icy slideshow came to an end, being replaced by the image of a beautiful green field. Healthy grass, little sunflowers, dandelions and wild strawberry plants reached up toward a cloudless, aquatic sky. The juxtaposition from the pale void to this marvelously detailed, lovely landscape was almost enough to make me cry. The definition was unlike anything I had seen onscreen before. It just looked so real. Better than real, even. The other boys and I passed around more looks to acknowledge that we were all on the same page.
“Wooooooo” Daniel mustered through down-curled lips.
Roddy shifted pleasantly in his seat. “It’s beautiful. It’s so beautiful.” He said in hushed awe.
“It’s just...too real.” I added, before standing up out of the easy chair. My legs felt like they were made out of concrete. With incredible difficulty I slowly drudged my way over toward the TV.
“Whatcha.....doin.....dude?” Daniel slowly slurred.
“It’s just...too real.” I said as I finally made my way right in front of the screen. The TV looked like it was fifty feet high and eternally wide from where I was standing. I reached out my right hand and began to move it toward the lush life on display before me. As I moved my fingers over a small patch of greenery, I was suddenly taken aback. I felt it. I felt the grass. I could feel each soft blade on my tingling fingertips.
“Uh....guys. You gotta get over here.” I announced, not peeling my focus away from the dimensional oddity in front of me. “You won’t believe it. It’s...real.”
They both struggled their weighty legs over to where I was and began to pet the screen as well. Their eyes and mouths swung wide open in amazement as they experienced the same sensation of feeling the field for themselves. Daniel picked a sunflower and pulled it out of the projected field and into our reality.
“Im....possible.” He whispered, twisting the flower between his thumb and index finger. The three of us silently kept running our hands over the plants for another few moments. Then Roddy noticed something new on screen.
“What is that?” He asked, pointing to a small dark object on the field’s horizon. Watching closely, I saw something that was slowly getting bigger and bigger. No, not bigger. Closer. It was something running through the field and toward our vantage. As it got closer, it’s details grew into communicable recognition.
“Is that...a bear?” I asked almost in jest.
It was definitely a small bear. But it wasn’t a realistic bear like you’d find in the Appalachian or Alaskan ranges. It was man made. Doll like. A whole ass teddy bear, as a matter of fact. Light brown, felt fur wrapped into a sweet, friendly little body. As it grew closer and closer I could point out big, dark button eyes, with two matching stitched nostrils. It wore a goofy, toothless smile, in an upturned red crescent shape. It had small, spherical ears. At its side we’re two pairs of short, round, clawless arms and legs. Soon it approached close enough to fill the screen, perpendicular to the stark green and blue horizon. Outrageously, it began to speak to us.
“Hey fellas! Mind if I join ya?” It squeaked at us in a cute, high voice, as if it was in a Sunday morning children’s TV show.
The three of us didn’t know what to say.
“I, uh, uh, I mean, sure, sure, yeah, right?” Roddy answered it, side eyeing both Daniel and I for confirmation. We both flinched our shoulders in casual allowance.
“Hooray! Just grab my front paws and pull, pull, pull!” The little screen-bound bear said in return.
With confused giggles, Daniel and I raised our hands to its projected paws and amazingly were able to pass through the plane again and feel its soft wrist areas with a light squeeze. The teddy bear squealed with childlike delight as we lifted up its pillow-light frame out of the screen and onto the living room floor. In our reality, our new friend stood about four feet tall; bigger than a toy, but smaller than a threat. Roddy ran and flipped on the ceiling fan light so we could see our new guest more properly. Soon we were all standing around it, staring down in continued astonishment.
“So, like.....who are you.” Daniel blurted with deadpan voice, still unable to process what was happening.
The bear jumped from the floor to the top of the coffee table, so light it almost floated, and landed with a soft thud. It outstretched it’s adorable arms like a vaudevillian master of ceremonies.
“My name is...well...I can’t really say! If you were to hear my real, full name, then your minds would immediately dissolve into insanity and out of panic you would all stick things deeeep inside your ears and cause LOTS of damage! Trust me, it’s not a pretty sight!”
“Fair enough.” Daniel responded in a whimper.
“I can say it starts with the letter ‘A’ though!” The bear continued, and held out a plushy paw. Magically, the letter ‘A’ appeared over its palm, in a lime green vapor, before it floated up to the ceiling and dissipated. We all watched in astute amazement. “But, I usually tell all of my new friends to simply call me Eddy Bear! Although I come in many forms depending on what level of consciousness I am perceived in, this disguise is symbolic of fun! LOTS of fun! So let’s get to it!”
“Wait wait, so you’re like some kind of guide? Are you gonna be here the whole time?” I asked, rubbing my chin with my left hand.
“Well, yes! Well, kinda. Sometimes I’m a guide, sometimes I’m a teacher of sorts, sometimes I’m just a really good friend, like I am now!” Eddy Bear answered.
“What do you mean, SOMETIMES you’re a good friend?” Roddy inquired, not having missed that small detail of the explanation.
“Are y’all ready to come play and have FUN?” The bear continued, having apparently fallen deaf to the most recent question. We were a bit lost, but we weren’t here to philosophize, we were here to party. So we all nodded.
“GREAT! Then grab on and hold tight!”
We all put our hands on the shoulders and torso of the soft, sentient toy standing on the coffee table. We squeezed tight on its delicate, stuffed fabric, awaiting further instruction.
“Remember, hold on tight and don’t fall off! READY...SET...GO!!!!”
We were all suddenly surrounded by spiraling sparkles, like something straight out of a Disney classic. We began to float, about a foot from the floor, before slowly flying over toward the screen, which stretched out as wide and tall as the entire wall. I flinched as we didn’t slow down at all before passing through the TV display like an open window. Daniel let out a small, excited yell as we passed through the pristine portal.
Seamlessly, we were suddenly right there in the beautiful landscape. The temperature was perfect, probably around seventy degrees. The lush greenery decorated endless, rolling hills, out in every direction, as far as the eye could see. Above us, the sun beamed down warm and friendly. It was truly paradise. Any anxiety or confusion pertaining to our situation was immediately replaced by euphoric joy. It felt like living inside your favorite song. Golden, endless happiness radiated throughout my entire body. Even in all my years since I still can’t imagine a better feeling. Looking around at the others, I knew they were on the same wavelength. We couldn’t even form words. We just began to laugh, finally letting go of Eddy Bear. Starting with a low giggle, our volume began to accelerate quickly, and soon we were all hooting and hollering like a bunch of untreatable lunatics.
“Pretty cool, huh? How about we dance! Hit it boys!”
Eddy pointed an arm toward an empty patch of grass that opened up, with a small, circular stage rising out of the ground. On this stage were four other teddy bears, all on instruments. They all looked just like Eddy. I guess they all were Eddy, really. Three of them were sitting, their legs wrapping around slightly raised bongo drums. The other one was standing behind them, holding a saxophone. The drummers began to play a Conga rhythm in perfect synchronization, an infectious little beat. All of us in the audience grabbed hands and began to spin in a circle, still laughing uncontrollably. I was surprised that euphoria wasn’t escaping our open smiles in beams of blinding light. We all just looked into each other’s eyes, only able to communicate our perfect joy through maniacal guffaws. The bear on saxophone chimed in with the bongos, adding a beautiful, squealing melody that floated over the beat like a rising feather. We just kept spinning and laughing, the heavenly world twirling around us, eventually into just a colorful, blurry glow. We kept dancing around to the beautiful music for hours, maybe even longer. Here, there was no time. We were full of eternal energy, unable to even begin to grow tired or feel a need to stop. Eddy also seemed to be having the time of his life, as we held onto him and spun him a couple feet off of the ground. He was bubbling out a cartoonish giggle through his red, stitched mouth.
“ISNT THIS FANTASTIC?” He shouted at us. We of course couldn’t really answer but he knew that we concurred.
“IF ONLY IT COULD LAST FOREVER!!”
We all kept blissful eye contact with each other, as the colors of the landscape spun around us like a tornadic rainbow. Daniel and Roddys mouths and eyes were as wide open as physically possible, their pupils the size of quarters. Our laughing had not calmed the entire duration, which had felt like an entire lifetime to this point.
“WE’VE GOT TO GO HOME NOW FELLAS!” Eddy Bear continued, “BUT HAVE NO FEAR!! THERE IS STILL PLENTY AHEAD FOR YOU!! I HOPE YOU HAVE HAD FUN!! I KNOW I DID!!”
The music from the band swelled in volume as the colors around us began to change, growing brighter and brighter until it all became a surging white. Our vision was swiftly lost as the four of us were consumed by the radiance. I lost consciousness and my entire reality was suddenly plunged into a moment of darkness.
Several seconds of absolute void passed before my eyes shot open again. I was back in Daniels living room, sitting right there in the easy chair like nothing had happened. The TV was off but the overhead light was still on. I looked over to the couch and there were the other boys, who were stirring into wakefulness as well. Roddy nervously tapped on his chest and arms, checking to see if he was real and alive still. Daniel goofily stared at his hands.
“Are...are...we back??” He wondered aloud.
“I guess so. I guess that was the first wave...” Roddy answered softly.