Chapter 1
Morning Glory
“Making money is hard. Building wealth is easy. You put your money in the right place and tell it to sit. Then, when you come back for it years later, it's grown from a small pile to a large one!”
-Lord Cushonbottom
10 chubby little Piggly wigglies jiggled awake at the foot end of a feather mattress that slumped upon a fine mahogany frame. 2 black ringed, thickly-layered-as-Canadian-bacon-still-in-the-package eyelids followed the lead piggies in this morning procession of porcine body parts powering up. One by one the hands flapped, the arms rolled in the pit mud that night terrors accumulated, the big pink belly rumbled, and finally the red little upturned nose oinked. Lord Fistburn had awakened.
“Lawrence, ohhhh Lawrence!”
The calls flapped from his overstuffed jowls.
Ever attentive, Noble Lawrence answered his Lord.
“Yes, m’Lord?”
“Oh Lawrence! It was horrible. Just horrible I tell you!”
Lawrence stood before his master patiently as the overgrown farm animal bleated and howled about how he once again had the dream where the figs “ate him instead”.
He scratched at his bare cheek, right in the crevice left by a scar from when he’d been called up as a boy.
“Ahem. Lawrence don't scratch your face that's awfully droll”
the fat little piggy sputtered as he finished the ridiculous tale of his ridiculous subconscious. This man, Lawrence thought as Fistburn hobbled out from his covers and off of his poor, dilapidated, dying bed, this piggy must be the worst creature Lawrence had ever met, and each day he just gets worse.
‘For Christ’s sake, the dreams are actually getting scarier by the bloated chaps renditions! What began as one sole fig nibbling his fingers is now a ravenous horde eating him from the inside out!’
he paused mid thought for just a second
‘what in the fuck could be causing this fat lazy shit so much internal strife!? It doesn't make any sense! Each day he just eats and farts and gets fatter and fatter and eats some more and…’
“Lawrence!” The jowls jiggled
“Lawrence help me with the corset”
Poor Lawrence could barely hold it together at the word corset. The fat piggies’ “corset” was like a stretcher for whales folded in two.
The greater part of the next half hour was spent stuffing and tying and trying not to burst out dying laughing.
But alas, Noble Lawrence is not the hero of this tale. No, we shan't be so lucky as to hear of his humble origins, how he cared for his sick mother right up til her untimely demise, how he lied about his age to serve his great nation, went over the top countless times and survived countless others. Traveled through country after country, loved and lost, only to settle down into a life of gentle luxury, the caretaker of a prized hog of a man.
No, this tale is of the hog. The wet, slimy, greased up hog.
He needs just a little grease each morning to truly make the corset fit.
After the last button in his spring sport coat was laced into its wife, clinging on for dear life, flying in the face of the most ancient physics, Lawrence patted Fistburn on the back, and released the creature into the wild.
“Breakfast awaits in the hall, m’Lord”
And onward unto glory our hero waddled. Right up until he got stuck in the doorway.
“Lawrence! Lawrence I need more grease! I'm stuck in the door frame again!”

Basically the title.
After 18 months of trying various things, I’ve finally got a setup that works for me for the most part. Sensura mio click convex 2-piece, Eakin barrier rings and Coloplast elastic tape. This setup is infinitely better than all the other variations I’ve been trying since the surgery and I’ll usually get 3 days out of one baseplate whilst changing the bag every day. It’s been an absolute weight off my mind.
However, it’s not perfect and whilst I know it never will be, whenever I experience a problem, it’s the same one every goddamn time. The surgeon fucked up my stitches and the wound came apart so I basically have a kind of 3x3” patch of semi-epitheliumised wound where my belly button used to be. Due to it not being covered in regular skin tissue, the flange and elastic tape don’t really stick as well as they’re naturally designed for skin. I don’t get blowouts per se but I do often get a small bulge and output will be sat under the flange until I get the chance to change.
I hold the whole thing down for a good 10-15 minutes every time I change. I shave every time, I make sure the area is drier than Gandhi’s flip flops and I use a hair dryer to help adhesion. Despite all this, it simply won’t stick to this small part of my body. The remaining 90% of the flange is always secure.
Does anybody have a similar issue and for the love of Christ, how do you sort it?

Cedar City, Utah, nestled amidst the awe-inspiring red rock canyons, boasts a culinary scene that caters to more than just breathtaking views. Carnevores on a quest for the perfect steak will find themselves spoiled for choice in this southern Utah haven. From meticulously aged prime cuts to creative interpretations of classic dishes, Cedar City's steakhouses offer an unforgettable dining experience.
To help you navigate this delightful dilemma, we've curated a list of the top 10 steakhouses in Cedar City, Utah, for 2闊淬(kuai)4 (2024). Each restaurant is meticulously chosen based on factors like quality of steaks, ambiance, service, and overall diner satisfaction. So, whether you're celebrating a special occasion or simply indulging in a well-deserved treat, this guide will lead you to a Cedar City steakhouse experience that tantalizes your taste buds and lingers in your memory.

1. The Iron Steer

A Cedar City institution, The Iron Steer exudes a timeless charm that perfectly complements its unwavering commitment to quality. Step inside the warmly lit, Western-themed interior and be greeted by the enticing aroma of sizzling steaks. The menu boasts a selection of USDA Prime cuts, all dry-aged for a minimum of 28 days to ensure exceptional tenderness and flavor. Indulge in classics like the New York Strip or the bone-in Ribeye, or explore unique offerings like the Elk Steak with a huckleberry demi-glace. The Iron Steer's attentive waitstaff provides exceptional service, ensuring a memorable dining experience from start to finish.
Don't Miss: The decadent Iron Steer Potatoes, a medley of whipped potatoes, roasted garlic, and melted cheeses, is a perfect complement to any steak.

1. Sagebrush Grille

Sagebrush Grille offers a contemporary take on the classic steakhouse experience. Featuring stunning panoramic views of the Cedar City surroundings, this restaurant provides a delightful backdrop to savor exceptional cuisine. The menu showcases a creative selection of steaks, including the Wagyu Tri-Tip with a chimichurri sauce and the Cedar City Cut, a bone-in ribeye dry-aged in-house for 35 days. For those seeking lighter options, Sagebrush Grille offers delectable seafood dishes and vegetarian entrees. The atmosphere is sophisticated yet inviting, with a knowledgeable waitstaff ready to guide you through the menu and wine list.
Pro Tip: Time your visit to coincide with sunset for an unforgettable dining experience with breathtaking mountain vistas bathed in golden hues.

1. Wild West Steak & Grill

Embrace the Wild West spirit at Wild West Steak & Grill. This family-friendly restaurant provides a fun and lively atmosphere perfect for an evening out with loved ones. The menu caters to a variety of palates, offering classic steakhouse cuts alongside a selection of burgers, pasta dishes, and kid-approved options. The steaks are all-natural, char-broiled to perfection, and available in a range of sizes to satisfy any appetite. Wild West Steak & Grill also boasts a mechanical bull riding experience, adding a touch of Wild West excitement to your meal.
Local’s Favorite: Don't miss the signature Wild West Onion Rings, a mountain of crispy perfection served with a zesty dipping sauce.

1. The Butchery at Zion

The Butchery at Zion takes the farm-to-table concept to a whole new level. Partnering with local ranchers who prioritize sustainable and humane practices, this restaurant offers some of the freshest, most flavorful steaks in Cedar City. The menu showcases a variety of cuts, all dry-aged in-house for exceptional taste and texture. Butcher shop cuts are also available for purchase, allowing you to recreate the Butchery at Zion experience at home. The ambiance is rustic yet elegant, with exposed brick walls and a focus on natural elements. The waitstaff is knowledgeable about the menu's origins and passionate about providing exceptional service.
Perfect Pairing: Complement your steak with a glass of wine from the Butchery at Zion's carefully curated selection, featuring local Utah wineries alongside international favorites.

1. The Rim at Cedar Lodge

Perched atop the Cedar Lodge, The Rim offers an unparalleled fine-dining experience. As you ascend to the restaurant, prepare to be dazzled by breathtaking panoramic views of Cedar City and the surrounding landscape. The menu features an exceptional selection of USDA Prime steaks, all wet-aged for a luxuriously tender and juicy bite. Choose from classic cuts like the Filet Mignon or the Porterhouse, or explore unique offerings like the Bison Ribeye with a roasted garlic demi-glace. The wine list boasts an extensive selection, with knowledgeable sommeliers available to guide you towards the perfect pairing for your steak. The impeccable service, coupled with the breathtaking ambiance, makes The Rim at Cedar Lodge an ideal choice for a romantic evening or a special occasion.
Dress Code: While not strictly enforced, a dressy casual attire is recommended to complement the upscale atmosphere of The Rim.

1. Milt's Stage Stop: Steak & Seafood**

Steeped in history and charm, Milt's Stage Stop offers a unique Cedar City dining experience. Housed in a meticulously restored stagecoach stop, the restaurant exudes a rustic elegance that transports you back in time. The menu features a delightful selection of steaks, including their signature Prime Rib, alongside fresh seafood options. Don't miss their famous all-you-can-eat salad bar, overflowing with fresh ingredients and house-made dressings. Milt's Stage Stop offers stunning views of the Cedar Canyon, making your meal even more memorable.
Insider Tip: Make reservations in advance, especially during peak season, as Milt's Stage Stop is a popular choice among locals and visitors alike.

1. Findlay's Sports Grille**

Findlay's Sports Grille is the perfect spot for a casual evening of good food, drinks, and lively conversation. This energetic restaurant features a menu with a focus on pub fare, alongside a surprising selection of high-quality steaks. Patrons can choose from classic cuts like ribeye and New York strip, all cooked to their desired doneness. The highlight for many is the build-your-own steak option, allowing you to customize your steak with a variety of toppings and sauces. Findlay's boasts a large bar area with an extensive selection of beers on tap, making it a great place to unwind and catch the game.
Weekend Special: Don't miss Findlay's weekend-only prime rib special, a local favorite known for its generous portions and exceptional flavor.

1. Longhorn Steakhouse**

Bringing a taste of Texas to Cedar City, Longhorn Steakhouse offers a familiar and welcoming atmosphere. The menu features a wide selection of USDA Choice steaks, cooked to perfection over an open flame. From the signature Flo's Filet to the bone-in Outlaw Ribeye, Longhorn Steakhouse caters to a variety of appetites. The restaurant also boasts a selection of flame-grilled chicken, seafood, and pasta dishes, perfect for those seeking something beyond steak. The friendly waitstaff embodies Southern hospitality, ensuring a comfortable and enjoyable dining experience.
Family-Friendly: Longhorn Steakhouse offers a dedicated children's menu with kid-sized portions and healthy options, making it a great choice for families with young ones.

1. Redwood Smoke & Grill**

Redwood Smoke & Grill offers a unique blend of smokehouse specialties and classic steakhouse fare. The menu features a selection of slow-smoked meats, including pulled pork, brisket, and ribs, alongside a variety of grilled steaks. The steaks are all-natural, seasoned to perfection, and cooked over an open flame for a smoky and flavorful finish. Redwood Smoke & Grill boasts a casual and inviting atmosphere, perfect for a relaxed evening out.
Must-Try: Pair your steak with Redwood Smoke & Grill's signature mac and cheese, a creamy and decadent side dish.

1. The Pump House Grill: A Hidden Gem with Gourmet Steaks and Local Charm

Nestled away in a charming historic district, The Pump House Grill offers a unique and delightful dining experience. Housed in a meticulously restored turn-of-the-century pump house, the restaurant boasts a warm and inviting atmosphere that blends historic character with modern elegance. The menu features a curated selection of gourmet steaks, sourced from local Utah ranches and cooked to perfection using a unique sous vide technique. This method ensures exceptional tenderness and juicy flavor in every bite. Alongside classic cuts like the filet mignon and the New York strip, The Pump House Grill offers creative steakhouse dishes, such as the espresso-crusted ribeye and the steak Diane with a cognac cream sauce. The restaurant also boasts a creative selection of appetizers, sides, and desserts, all made with fresh, locally sourced ingredients.
Local Favorite: Don't miss the opportunity to try The Pump House Grill's signature bone marrow appetizer, a decadent and flavorful treat.
Cedar City's culinary scene offers a delightful selection of steakhouses, each with its unique character and charm. From the timeless elegance of The Iron Steer to the modern sophistication of Sagebrush Grille, there's a perfect steakhouse experience waiting to be discovered in this southern Utah haven. So, gather your loved ones, explore the delectable options listed above, and embark on a culinary adventure that tantalizes your taste buds and creates memories that last a lifetime.
Beyond the Steaks: While this guide focuses on steakhouses, Cedar City offers a diverse culinary scene with something for everyone. Don't hesitate to explore the many restaurants serving international cuisine, delectable seafood dishes, or mouthwatering vegetarian options.

Hello Reddit! I’ve had my bellybutton piercing since September. I took great care of it and it healed perfectly without infection or any struggles in 5 months. After 5 months I switched to a belly button “clicker” like a ring. After that I expected irritation but nothing happened until recently when it suddenly got infected after I thought it had healed? Very strange but I switched it back to my old jewelry (the one I pierced it with) since that one was bigger and had more room for the swelling. It got better instantly. But here is my problem, spent the night at my boyfriend’s and at some point it fell out yesterday but we couldn’t find it, since I didn’t have any backup with me (because why would I?) I’ve now gone about a day without any jewelry in. I’m now trying to get the piercing back in and I’m not even kidding, it had closed up to the point where I can’t get a jewelry in. Is this normal? Did I do something wrong? And what do I do now??

Link for all the chapters available here: Engines of Arachnea on Royal Road
High above in her hiding spot, Zildiz had heard enough. The Leapers were her kindred’s most hated of adversaries, and she could not allow them to gain even a fraction of the grey behemoth’s awesome might. An apocalyptic vision arose in her mind of titanic Leaper variants towering over the rooftops of Chthonis, setting the Parchment City alight with beams of all-destroying light emanating from their many eyes.
Four against one. Those were slim odds even under the best of circumstances. Still, she had the element of surprise, and ambush predators were often unaccustomed to being preyed upon themselves. But Leapers were notoriously difficult opponents to sneak up on as they literally had eyes on the backs of their heads. But Zildiz was a veteran of countless border skirmishes, and had learned of a small blind spot in their vision. It was above and slightly behind the axis of their posterior lateral median eyes. But many Gallivants who had tried to make their first kill that way did not survive to tell the tale—the flutter of their wings gave them away. She would have to drop straight down on her first target. No hesitation, no second chances.
She saw the alpha Leaper lean down to extract the prey-form’s gilt helix, and saw her opening.
Rene heard a branch snap somewhere above him and felt a gust of wind blow across his neck, bearing with it droplets of moisture that pattered lightly against the visor of his mask. His first thought was that it had started to rain. He glanced up at the monster to find that it had extruded a new mouthpart, some manner of sharp, serrated tongue whose tip oozed a wet and viscous fluid. Rene flinched reflexively, expecting at any moment to feel the point punching through his skull before draining out its contents like a straw. But then the blade twisted sharply, wrenching its way out of the back of the monster’s head and drenching Rene’s mask in a shower of gore, the four-eyed devil letting out a wet gurgle as it slumped over in a twitching heap.
Pawing at his mask with his bound wrists, Rene peered through his smeared vision and saw a figure standing atop the corpse that, if anything, possessed an even less lovely countenance than his erstwhile interlocutor. A bulbous compound eye stared back Rene like a shattered mirror, a thousand miniscule reflections of himself repeating across its scaly lenses.
Rene recognized the creature as one of the harpies from earlier. One of its broad wings was missing. It drew its bloodstained blade across its mandibles, casually licking the weapon clean as an eight-limbed devil leapt at the harpy from behind, letting loose a bloodcurdling scream. But the harpy did not even turn at the sound, merely pointing its other blade arm behind it and letting its attacker impale itself upon it, clean through. With its dying spasms the devil pulled itself up the length of the blade in an effort to reach the harpy, even as its two kin recovered from their surprise and pounced at the harpy from either side. What followed was a blur of movement almost too quick for the human eye to follow as the harpy spun in place, cleaving the monster on the left halfway through its sternum. In the same movement it turned the devil stuck on the end of its blade into the path of the attacker on the right, using it as a living shield. The impact still bowled the harpy over, all four of the combatants rolling on the ground in a ball of threshing limbs and furious struggle.
The din was horrendous. Siezing the golden opportunity which had presented itself, Rene reached once more for the sword of the ancients, stretching his sinews for all they were worth. It was just enough to let him pinch the pommel-button between his middle and forefingers. Raising it up in spite of his trembling, sweat-slick grip, Rene coaxed the hilt into palm of his waiting hand, then pounded the button against his chest, feeling the sword come alive in his hands. As the fight raged on behind him, Rene sliced his legs free. He tucked in his head as he hit the ground, rolling onto his arse and reversing his grip on the sword, swiftly cutting the bonds around his wrists. When he tried to stand, however, he found that his legs were still unresponsive, all the blood within them having flowed up to his torso during his time spent hanging upside down. Pounding the life back into the clammy flesh of his calves with his fist, Rene looked anxiously around and discovered that the battle had since moved elsewhere, leaving two black-furred corpses in its wake. Cries of rage and a frenzied shaking among the bushes allowed him to guess where the other monsters were. He hoisted himself to his feet, picked up the safety kit and staggered away from the sounds of fighting, pins and needles still numbing the soles of his feet.
As he stepped over the dead bodies in his path, Rene was just about to congratulate himself on a smooth escape when his toes snagged on something and he tripped, going down heavily on his side. Rene felt a powerful yank on his ankle and looked to see the previously impaled monster glaring up at him. It wriggled on its belly and pulled him closer with one hand while it held in its spilled guts with the other three. By the ancestors, was it strong! Rene hacked at the hand holding his foot and lopped it off at the forearm, feeling only the slightest tug of resistance as the edge sheared through bone and meat alike. The hand was still clamped shut about his ankle with a death grip as he stood back up.
The fiend’s back arched as it brought its vile hump of flesh to the fore, dozens of sucking orifices on its misshapen surface spreading open wide.
Thwip! Thwip!
Jets of silk flew out of the spinnerets, the monster using its claws to grasp the threads and shuttering them back and forth like the shuttles of a loom. Cords flicked out and ensnared Rene’s sword arm, pinning it to his side while the weaver applied a lightning-fast field dressing on its abdominal wound, closing off both ends with wads of its makeshift bandage. Rene strained mightily against the loops of silk, but they never budged an inch. Meanwhile, the monster raked him with its claws, opening bright lines of agony across his chest and shoulder. Rene bit back a scream and dropped the sword point-first into the soil. It sank quivering up to its hilt, leaving him completely defenseless as the monster jumped and snatched him up in its gangly embrace. Rene fell to one knee as its weight bore him to the earth, reaching out with his free hand to draw the sword out of the ground and cleave through its rows of hairy legs.
Severed limbs went rolling every which way, the black devil tottering. Yet as it fell its outer mouthparts seized Rene by the temples and pinned him in place as it bit right into his face. Venomed fangs skittered across the transparent surface of his mask, scoring it with deep scratches. To his amazement the crystal held strong and did not shatter—once more the materials of the ancients had proven their incredible durability. Rene worked his arm clear and chopped wildly at the monster’s arms, felt its hold on him slacken as they fell away, leaving only spurting stumps. The butchered devil fell on its humped back and began shrieking its head off.
Rene raised his sword to deliver the coup de grace but was interrupted by the sudden reemergence of the other combatants who burst back onto the scene. The harpy was grappling with one of the devils, quickly being overpowered by its brute strength. As the devil sank its fangs into the bulging pair of compound eyes and tore off the top of the harpy’s head, the latter found an opening and slipped both its blades through in tight uppercutting motions, ramming them under the devil’s chin and out the other end. Ripping outwards and across with its arms the harpy tore its enemy’s head apart and sent the soggy chunks scattering into the treetops.
Reeling in obvious pain, it kicked the body aside and took off with a shutter of its wings, attempting an escape. A feral scream split the air as, the last devil leapt up to intercept it, entrails dangling in the place of its missing lower body. Devoid of sanity or self-preservation, it tacked the rising harpy and sent both of them crashing into a stout branch. They fell back to the earth with a bone-crunching thump, followed by a confetti-shower of dead leaves shaken from their stems.
Rene looked back at his enemy and saw the devil stubbornly gathering itself up for another spring. All it had left were a single arm and leg apiece, that and a merciless glitter in its eyes.
“You can’t be serious,” he complained, and put an end to its efforts by splitting its head right down the middle. Rene shook his head in disbelief and went over to polish off the other two, snipping his webbed arm loose as he did. He found the bisected devil crawling on its elbows and mewling with pain as it wriggled towards the unmoving body of the harpy, clearly intending to finish what it had started.
There were eyes on the back of its head, Rene now noticed. Four of them, the same number as on the front. It saw him coming and rolled over, raising its arms to shield itself.
Rene’s boot came stomping down all the same. He felt its head crunching under his heel as he squashed it into a flattened pie and was nauseated. Rene then approached the harpy, eyeing its blade arms warily and giving it a wide berth. He didn’t want to get anywhere near those frightful things, not after what he’d seen. Instead he went over to a fallen log and cut himself an oversized club from one of its boughs. Sticking the sword back into the ground, he hefted the length of wood over the harpy, intending to smash its head in from a distance.
He felt strangely squeamish at prospect of another head going splat. A wave of dizziness came over him and he had to take a moment to collect himself, doubling over and beginning to dry heave. Leaning heavily on the bough like a staff, he examined the harpy and thought that it looked sufficiently dead. Through the gaping holes in its face he saw the gooey interior of its head. Was that its brain poking through the cracks in the armored hide? Blimey, it had a big one. Equal parts revolted and intrigued, Rene reached over with the branch and prodded at it, testing for a reflex.
Nothing. Better to be safe than sorry, though. Rene raised the bough on high and steeled himself to do the deed once and for all.
A piece of the head fell away, and Rene gasped. Abandoning common sense, he threw aside the club and squatted over the body, frantically tearing off the rest of its cranial casing, plunging his fingers into the sticky mess and pulling out clumps of armored flesh until what lay beneath was finally revealed.
Rene clutched at his forehead as if it was about to explode. Backing away with a sense of dawning horror, he repeated over and over to himself: “It can’t be. It can’t be, it can’t! That’s not possible! It’s…it’s…”
Beautiful.
That was what Rene had meant to say. But the word felt so utterly absurd given the context that it took all his will to keep from bursting into a fit of deranged laughter. And who could have blamed him?
For beneath the ruined visage of flesh, the creature wore the face of a woman.
Link for all the chapters available here: Engines of Arachnea on Royal Road

So I had my bislap surgery done on Wednesday last week and I truly don’t regret it. I’m 22 with two kids had my last one in December and I live in TEXAS smh. I didn’t want to chance anything so I had it done. I had the usual doctor kept asking regrets but I was straight forward said F them kids haha( I do love them ) Anyways I arrived at the hospital at 6am and was started in the waiting room for less than thirty mins and by 10:40ish I was done with the surgery ready to be discharge. So they told me they glued instead of stitches and found out they did stitches instead so I was bit confused by that. Entry points were my belly button and left side although to my surprise they did by my pubic bone. I’m a big girl 250 due to baby weight of back to back pregnancy so to my surprise I didn’t find the entry point until a day later lol. I was prescribe medicine but never took it. So I also read my report healthy tubes one longer than the other and I had a cyst. My insurance fully covered it with Tricare Select

Update post on my progress and protocols for my treatment with side effects and how I managed it all.
Now that I'm done with treatment, I hope that this can help others who may be starting the same journey and have questions. I attribute my easy time to the premeds and my mental willpower. I focus on the positives and silver linings over the negatives. You can only control one thing -- your reactions. The rest requires you to practice acceptance.
Diagnosis: Stage 2 Endocervical Adenocarcinoma Gastric Type with LVSI
Treatment Plan: Surgery (cervix, uterus, and ovaries) followed by concurrent Chemo with Radiation with a PET Scan scheduled 2 months after treatment to determine if NED or more treatment is required.
I was scheduled for 6 chemo cycles, once a week, and 28 radiation beam therapies. Chemo happened on Monday and Radiation was Monday through Friday. I had to skip Cycle 3 on Chemo only because I was hospitalized with Norovirus and my counts were too low. I still did radiation those days.
Chemo Protocol in order of meds:

1. Magnesium Sulfate + Potassium Chloride. Cisplatin strips this from your body, supplements.
2. Emend (Fosaprepitant) - antiemetic. I had to get a port for this, it burned my arm vein and I had to use other arm for Chemo, no fun.
3. Aloxi (Palonosetron) - antiemetic.
4. Decadron (Dexamethasone) - steroid. It burns in your nether region, if it burns too much, ask them to push it slower.
5. Lasix (Furosemide) - diuretic. Cisplatin is hard on kidneys, this is to help purge the chemo faster. Be close to a bathroom and ask nurse if you can just unplug your IV pole and go to bathroom freely vs. pushing call button -- its easier.
6. Cisplatin (Platinol) 70mg (my dose). Didn't make me feel any different than the other infusions.

Plan for at least 5 hours for the above. I started at 7:30am and ended between 12 and 12:30pm.
Cisplatin Symptoms: This is going to vary person to person and you may get different premeds than me.

• Mon (Day 1) - just the cold feeling in your veins from all the fluid infusions. You also gain like 5lbs of water weight that day. I was typically ravenous and ate whatever I wanted, the antiemetics made this possible. Be wary of constipation from chemo, it took me by surprise the first week. The other weeks I ate a few prunes on Sunday and then after chemo on Monday to help. Otherwise you won't poop for a week and be miserable.
• Tues (Day 2) - no appetite and I don't eat. Even marijuana does not work to stimulate. I'll force myself if DH forces me, but since I eat everything in sight Day 1 I'm not too hard on myself. Important to have first BM this day, if nothing then you need to start addressing. Of course I BM daily so this may not apply to you.
• Wed - Thu (Day 3 - 4) - acid reflux and indigestion. Keep some Tums handy or use pills, it doesn't really help and you get used to it. All in, better than throwing up, so take it as a win if this is the worst for you. Appetite back.
• Fri - Sun (Day 5 -7) - less side effects, should be at normal BMs, if you are not you need to address for next cycle. Very important to purge your bowels if you are constipated before your next chemo. I ended up doing Miralax my first week, I had zero BM before Sat and I could feel the pressure. The following weeks I just did a handful of prunes Sunday night after dinner and Monday when I got home from chemo. I happen to like prunes and they worked to keep me regular.

Pelvic Radiation Symptoms: This is going to be different based on what areas are treated. My bladder, vagina, and pelvic nodes were heavily treated. Be sure you understand the side effects before you start treatment - so you can be on top of everything. Below is my experience and I had a fairly easy time of it.

• The fatigue sets in slowly. By week 3/4 I needed 12 hours a night to sleep. Don't ignore this important rest. I adjusted my work schedule from day 1 -- from 7a to 1p Tue - Thu. I didn't work Mon due to Chemo and Fri I had to get labs done and radiation so I worked from 7a to 11am. I did this from day 1 to set the tone with my boss and ensure I had the time needed to rest even if I didn't need it. I ended up working Sat and sometimes Sun to make up for things. I am a WFH executive - right hand of CEO and in charge of operations. Helps to have a great boss pick up the slack and an amazing team who supported me every step of the way.
• Bowels get softer over time, they do not go from hard to diarrhea overnight. If you have diarrhea fast, don't ignore it or let your doctor's ignore. I thought it was the prunes week 2 that did it, no it was norovirus. They didn't catch it until I had a 102 fever week 3 and had to be hospitalized. The chemo constipation masked it during the week.
• AZO is your BEST FRIEND. Take it every day. It is made to as a pain reliever for the bladder. I missed it for a week and paid for it so bad. Do not skip this important drug. I need to keep taking it for a few weeks until the symptoms subside.
• When you go in for your initial telemetry setup for the machines, make sure you are comfortable before they start anything. The moment you lay down on the machine bed, you need to make sure you are in a good position. They used a mold on my legs and I was not in a good position so it really hurt my hips every session thereafter.
• You have to put your hands on your chest. They give a ring, I hated it. I recommend relaxing your shoulders or you'll have a hard time while they do the treatment.
• You get used to the flow. You walk into the treatment room, hop on a bed while two techs adjust you (I had x marks on both hips and belly that they lined up). Then you get a quick CT to ensure your bladder is full and you're in a good position. Adjustments are made as needed. You know when the radiation beam starts because it is the only thing with noise. Don't move until they say you can. Whole thing is 10 mins or less.
• Bladder management is the worst part. You need to have a full bladder for this and as the treatment progresses you will have a harder time determining if your bladder is full or not. Your kidneys will also work slower (I attribute to the chemo) as the weeks go on, so you'll need to drink earlier. I recommend drinking what will fill your bladder two hours before your treatment. It is easier to let of some pressure than it is to fill the bladder. Tea is a natural diuretic and is very helpful to giving your kidneys a boost. I usually drank 20+ oz of Powerade two hours before (chugging), then tea when I arrived (they had fancy machines) and this worked 90% of the time.
• Be wary of foods you eat. I did great until Week 4 when I had lots of stuff with red sauce and it caused gas. I had to pass this gas before they could do my treatment, it was a riot but you don't want your visits to be like that every day. Stay away from tomato products and anything else that gives you even mild gas outside of treatment. It is nearly impossible to pass gas with an overfull bladder.

Nurses are your best friend. Having cancer and going through treatment sucks, but the nurses are there for you and my experience was all-inclusive resort service. Take advantage of the snacks (yes they have ice cream) when you're getting chemo. Don't be shy about asking them about your meds, they did a good job explaining this to me, but I still had questions now and again. It takes a special person to be an oncology nurse and you feel it. It never felt fake or like they were putting on a show/smile just for me. They truly cared. I never want to see them again either way :)
Edited to add: get a port. You will not regret it. I plan on keeping mine for a year after NED, which will require a monthly flush. It makes things so much easier, especially if you have to be hospitalized. I didn't need the numbing cream, it hurts less than the arm pokes for labs and infusions. I asked for mine before chemo and doctor didn't think it was necessary. First treatment proved it was - I had three IV's that day and I'm still suffering from the Emend infusion (not the chemo surprisingly) on my arm. Yes, its surgery but its easy. I had it in place before my 2nd chemo and it was lifechanging. I'd keep it for life it wasn't for the monthly flushes lol, my arm veins were crap to start and the more they are poked the worse they get.

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"Festicus…"
Marcus stared down at the felled rat, watching as his great furrowed head lulled and fell to the side.
"Festicus!"
"He issss being gone, Ssssire," Verulex said behind him.
Marcus bent low and tried to rouse the great brute that had saved his life, denying that he was about to let another rat man die for him like Gatskeek had.
"Wake up, Marrow soldier!" he yelped in the creature's vacant eyes. "There's cavalry charges still to be led!"
No response. Sullen and vengeful, Marcus let the head drop.
I hesitated, he thought. I didn't act quick enough. If I had the damn foresight to grab that blade sooner…
"Be letting him be. He isss doing hisss duty to Clan and –"
"Oh, shut up, priest," Marcus spat, turning with fury to look upon the hooded cretin who was still managing to coax his anger even now. "Your Order might consider a single rat's life to be meaningless – something to just throw away in the service of your God, but this warrior deserved more than this."
The High Priest of Glumrot fixed Marcus with his puss-filled eyes. Those eyes spoke of toxic thoughts ruminating beneath them.
"Be turning your thoughtssss to vengeancccce, Sssssire," Verulex wheezed as he shambled over to the Matron's eviscerated body and prodded at it with the staff of his office, making sure the creature's life had finally expired. He then nodded down at the still breathing form of the unconscious Yeeva below Marcus, the soft skin of her belly weeping purple blood from the perforation Marcus had made as she took Festicus's life.
He scoffed at the priest and picked up the Wakisashi that had fallen at his feet, bending low and directing his hatred at the fallen Yokra who was mumbling as though in a dream-state.
Perhaps it was a meditation practice of their kind, Marcus thought. It didn't make any biological sense for a creature to immediately collapse into unconsciousness as she just had in receiving such a near fatal wound.
He leaned closer to her as Verulex amplified his voice and called down to the army still waiting below, telling them to send a detachment and a priest to sanctify the body of one of their dead. The enemy Yokun had fallen, and they would receive some special treatment of their own.
Marcus heard general cheers resound as this proclamation echoed all through the dim streets of the putrid city. But he ignored them. Instead, he craned his neck to hear what the felled serpent was saying. There was a word on her lips that he could swear had the ring of familiarity to it.
"Matriarch…Pale…Pale Lady…"
Loyal to a fault, Marcus thought. Even in death, you sing your leader's praises. If you are a representative of one of her soldiers, I'm sure she's a force to be reckoned with among your people. That's just another reason why you have to die.
He brought the edge of the Yokun's Wakizashi to her scaled, bloody throat, tensing up as he knew that he had to do this. He had to. He wouldn't hesitate anymore.
And just as he held her head in his hand and made to bring the blade across her neck, that's when he heard it:
"…Mari…"
His hand stopped.
His brain froze.
The Wakizashi wavered as though willing him to follow-through with his desire.
But a very different desire now burned in his heart as that word traveled through his entire system and sent shivers running down his spine.
"Matriarch…Lady…Maria…"
The blade clattered against the silo platform.
"What isss happening?" Verulex asked. "Ssssire, isss thissss beasssst resssisssting?"
Marcus shook his head.
"No."
"Then be sssslaying her and let ussss go. I sssshal be honored to be ssssshowing you Clan Glumrot'sssss wayssss of debassssing the dead."
Marcus could barely even hear the words of the priest. He could register nothing in this moment except the croaking of that name – Mari's name – emanating from the slitted lips of the downed serpent.
"Bah!" Verulex howled. "Be giving me the blade. I sssshal do i-"
"No," Marcus said, then turning to the priest as though he had just been transported back to reality. "No. We take her alive."
The priest cocked his vile, hooded head at Marcus.
"Your pity for thesssse foreign hereticssss isssss doing you no favorssss, Sssshai-Alud," he said. "The Koboldssss are bad enough. Now you are even ssssshowing merccccy to the killer of your commander?"
"We…we need to question her," Marcus explained, straightening up and trying to compose himself as best he could. "We have the opportunity here to find out what she knows, where she came from, even Skegga's force composition potentially. We can't afford to lose this opportunity."
He looked into the face of the ratman and saw what he had not quite been able to see in the war-chamber earlier that night. He saw the wrinkled eyes of the holy rat narrow, and the teeth flare in anger.
"Sssssire," the priest began, slowly. "You are not undersssstanding. I am being head priesssst of Glumrot. I am favored voicccce of He-Who-Fessssterssss. The bussssinesss of dealing with dead in battle isssss up to me."
Marcus faced the rat, feeling anger take him once again.
"And I am your Shai-Alud," he said. "You should be speaking to me with more re-"
Now, he saw something else that he hadn't seen before.
He saw the Wakisashi that glimmered in the ratman's right claw.
As the little priest spoke, he watched as the tip of the blade slowly rose to touch Marcus's reverberating heart.
"You are not ssssspeaker for the Unclean," the priest told him in a cold whisper. "You ssssshal never be. A human isssss a human, jusssst assss a Kobold isssss a Kobold and a sssssnake-bitch isssss a sssssnake-bitch. Hereticsssss, all of you. And one day, sssssooon, there ssssshall come a day when you are purged from our gloriousssss empire. And on that day, Ssssshai-Alud, you may sssssee which ratssss in thisssss realm are truly holding the power."
Marcus licked his lips. His eyes now swam to watch the edges of the podium. And he became acutely conscious of just how isolated they were up here, surrounded by the dying and the dead. Like the vicious little creature said, it was his domain.
He maintained his composure. He stalled for time.
"Are you threatening me, Verulex?"
The sly smile that crossed the priest's lips then was more chilling than anything Marcus had seen thus far in the Kingdom of the rats.
"I am but a humble sssservant, Sssshai-Alud," he replied. "We all have our placcce in ratman sssssociety. Even you, Ssssshai-Alud. It issss a beautiful thing, issss it not? He-Who-Festerssss issss a mossst generoussss God. He is even giving sssscum like you a placccce among Hisssss chosen people."
Marcus stepped back as the tip of the knife inched closer to his abdomen. He could swear, still smirking, that the ratman moved with him.
And so when there finally came the rattling of chains from the lip of the silo platform's edge, Marcus was more relieved than ever. And the knife that Verulex once dangled before him simply evaporated into ash.
Magic, it seemed, could hide even the greatest crime.
"Shai-Alud!" the voice of Deekius yelped from the edge of the platform, panting as he and a retinue of soldiers threw themselves over the lip and caught their breath. "You…are you being hurt, Lor-"
"Gloomraava Deekius," Verulex interrupted. "You are coming in good time. I am taking charge of thisssss Yokun bitch. We will be exxxxecuting her publicly tomorrow, after I take sssssome time to – time to –"
The priest collapsed suddenly, coughing up a miasma of his blood in the process.
"Gloomraava Verulex," Deekius said. "You are being maimed. Be coming down, we shall be administering to you."
"Be dealing with Brother Fesssssticusss firsssst, Brother," the old priest coughed as he allowed himself to be helped away. "He issss needing your care more than I."
Marcus watched as the small retinue of rats then took stock of their surroundings, seeing the chaos and carnage that unfolded in such a tiny area over such a short space of time.
"He was being a credit to his Clan," Deekius said. "This is great loss for our people."
Verulex, meanwhile, said nothing at all.
Marcus watched as the Yokun woman was spat on and then trundled off down the silo with the others, thankful that the old priest's wounds at least stopped him from having her slain then and there. Perhaps even he knew he couldn't go against the Shai-Alud's wishes publicly.
But he'd just confirmed something that Marcus had already begun to fear – something that became far too obvious to him now after seeing the hatred burning in the eyes of Redwhiskers and Verulex both.
And, more than that, he needed to speak to that snake. He needed that more than anything. He needed to know…was it chance? Or…was Mari really..?
"Marcus," he heard Deekius say outside himself. "It is being alright now. Yokun are not being known to send more than single assassin team. If they are failing, it is because they are not blessed by their heretic Gods. Defeating them here is great victory for us all, and now, you are having nothing to fear."
The ratman lifted his arm to try and guide Marcus away but the latter rejected the help entirely. He crossed to the edge of the platform and looked down upon the city, seeing the crowds cheer to see him alive, wondering which of them truly did have any real love for him at all.
Then his eyes lighted on the descending form of Verulex, and he felt a very different idea take root within his mind.
"No, Deekius," he said. "I have plenty still to fear. But now I know what to do about it."
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i have had my belly button pierced for like 2 years now and i still haven’t ever changed it because i cannot find anywhere that sells cute good quality jewelry that isn’t just basic!! i want to wear the cute dangly rings but all of them r bad quality and i am really sensitive to nickel/alloy :-( does anyone have any recs on where to buy from?

I've always heard people say that navel piercings are not that painful. I've also had my ears pierced when I was younger and it wasn't that painful either for comparison.
But when I got my navel piercing done 5 years ago, it was the most painful thing I had ever experienced in my entire life, and I've had my face mauled by a dog before (with strings of dead flesh hanging from my face). I've been told that that level of pain for a navel piercing is not normal.
Could the piercer have pierced too deep or used a piercing method that is more painful? Could she have done it too slowly? It felt slow but then again maybe her pace was normal. Outside of my navel and earlobes pierced, I don't have any other frame of reference for piercing pain.
I'm getting abdominal surgery soon involving an incision into my belly button and will need to remove my belly button ring. I'm hoping it won't close up because I'm scared of getting it repierced due to the pain.
Edit:

• Piercing is 5yo belly button ring
• Externally threaded
• Surgical steel material
• Aftercare routine was normal, no infection.

[First Contact] [Dark Ages] [First] [Prev] [Next] [wiki]
The annoying sound of her comlink made Angela Angus Kusumoto open her eyes.
All she saw was the firm, smooth flesh of Kimoko's thigh.
Groaning, she pushed the other woman's leg off of her face, twisted to get Raul off of her own legs, then wiggled out from under Geoff.
The ringer kept going, flashing the red pulses that let her know it was urgent.
As if the fact her unlisted encrypted and non-network accessible comlink was ringing wasn't enough to let her know that it was urgent.
She stumbled, tripping over Harker's leg, which just made the male shift and mutter, tightening his sleeping grip on Liselle, who sighed and wiggled into the embrace.
Angela's mouth tasted terrible and she stopped to grab a fizzybrew, checking to make sure nobody had dropped a cig butt into it or spit chaw into it, then she took a long drink off of it.
It helped cure the fire in her belly and wash out the taste from her mouth.
She saw the ID of the caller and held back a groan.
Senior Supervisor Bisa-2291873.
Her direct supervisor.
She picked up the comlink, running one hand through her pixie-cut hair to try to tame it. She could feel the stiffness of something crusted in her hair and held back a chuckle and a grin.
"Kusumoto here," she said, activating the link.
"I need you at Master Control," Ms. Bisa said. She was holding a small infant, bouncing it slightly as she patted its back with firm impacts as it cry/sobbed and kicked its little feet.
"The system's been crashed for a week, what's so important you'd call me in during my R&R?" Angela asked.
"System's back online. We've got an open line to Terra and we have an open line to Smokey Cone," Ms. Bisa said.
The infant gave a loud belch that rattled Angela's comlink speaker, then sighed and relaxed.
Angela nodded, fumbling on the table for a quiksober inhaler.
"That anomolous signal is back. It showed up right as the entire system underwent a hard reboot," Ms. Bisa said. "I need you up here to check the network interface logs and do a network mapping trace."
The quiksober burned as she inhaled it, her lungs aching and tingling as the chemicals crossed the air to blood barrier.
"I'll be there as soon as possible. Is the mat-trans up?" she asked.
Ms. Bisa shook her head. "No. Still locked out. It did a power cycle, but then locked everything out."
"I'm telling you, there's someone controlling it. Someone has been controlling it," Angela said, looking around for her clothes.
Clothing was scattered everywhere, as chaotically arranged as the fizzybrew and narcobrew cans and bottles. She sighed, moving toward the exit of the house she was standing in.
"Hurry up, I've got a skycraft landing near you any time now. You've got permission to use the fast-locks," Ms. Bisa said.
"I'll get dressed from the forges on the skycraft," Angela said. "If they've rebooted."
"They're up and running again. The food forges rebooted but stayed unlocked," Ms. Bisa said.
"The creation engines?" Angela asked, opening the door and stepping out into early 'morning' sunshine.
"Still locked out," Ms. Bisa said. Someone said something that the comlink's AI decided might be classified and blurred out. Ms. Bisa looked away, said something, her lips fuzzing, then back. "Hurry, Angela."
Angela nodded, shutting off the comlink.
She ran to the nearest parking lot, just in time for a skycraft to land, the graviton engines howling.
Nobody paid the slightest attention to the naked woman running for the skycraft.
After all, what happened in Vega-Layer stayed in Vega-Layer.
99999
Angela walked out of the elevator, taking a long drink off of the sparkling snap-berry/overdate motor oil fizzybrew from the Jak the Telkan PI merchandise cup.
All of the crews were at their stations, the auxiliary stations fully manned.
Ms. Bisa moved over to Angela, steering her toward the Senior Network Administrator console.
"The system crashed twice more, but rebooted every time," Ms. Bisa said. "That anomalous signal keeps powering up, then the system reboots after the crash."
"How long between total failure and the anomalous signal pinging nodes?" Angela asked.
"Between one and four hours," Ms. Bisa said. She looked around. "It just reboot and looks like it's here to stay this time. The interpolation layer and the outside user exchange layer crashed several times, but the core system has stayed largely online."
"All right," Angela said, looking around. "We need to get a network map."
"We've got more nodes synching up. The whole system is working again," Ms. Bisa said.
Angela nodded, sitting down. The holotank on the other side of the console went live.
"Map the network, see what's come online, what order, and see if you can figure out why it keeps crashing at the upper network and software layers," Ms. Bisa said.
Angela just nodded, lifting up the curled memory-metal cable. She plugged it into her temple and felt the options menus go live in her mind.
She worked fast, mapping what she could. At one point she stopped, staring at Ms. Bisa and motioning her over.
"What?" Ms. Bisa asked.
"Something in the system, down in the lower hardware layers that we don't even really understand, is trying to reach up through the damaged layers. Looks like whatever it is wants access to our data lines," Angela said.
"Can you stop it? Maybe at least ID it?" Ms. Bisa asked.
Angela shook her head. "No. It's ID code is FF00, meaning it's baseline full on hardware backbone code," Angela sighed. "It probably boots up outside of and during initial hardware bootup."
"Is it Sekhmet?" Ms. Bisa asked.
Angela closed her eyes, looking at the data channel. "No. Whatever it is, it's old."
"And probably nasty. Be careful of it," Ms. Bisa said.
"Ma'am! Ms. Bisa!" another of the work crew called out.
Angela opened her eyes to see why Technician Carl Neubanker would be using that slightly concerned tone.
"Yes?" Ms. Bisa asked.
"We've got a priority data request from a Confederate military vessel," Neubanker said. He looked at his monitor. "They want clone matrix data, neural templates, physical makeup, DNA workups, the whole nine yards."
"How are they even making the requests?" Ms. Bisa asked.
"Their codes are old. Pre-Terran Extinction Event. Hardcode TerraSol military codes. The system is already threading them data,." Neubanker said. He looked down then back up. "They're asking for a whole batch. That's thirty to fifty million clone templates."
"How much have they already been granted?" Ms. Bisa asked.
"They've been granted eighty templates so far," Neubanker said.
"Terminate their request. We don't know what's going on outside," Ms. Bisa said.
Neubanker nodded, starting to type.
"Angela, get me a line to TerraSol command as soon as you map out a network trace," Ms. Bisa said.
Angela just nodded.
99999
Captain N'Skrek stood in the cloning bay next to Medical Officer Narwquakrawr.
"We've got ninety templates, luckily they're all from different batches," Narwquakrawr said, rubbing her forearm through her uniform. "We'll be able to fully man the Gray Lady now."
Captain N'Skrek nodded. The Gray Lady was at less than 20% manned. Just the skeleton crew the Terrans had used to move it into the long dark to create a non-orbital forward logistics fulfillment base.
Sure, it meant that there were several thousand Terrans aboard the ship, but even combined with the sparse crew he had possessed, it still meant the Gray Lady was skeleton crewed.
"Can you print us up some crew members for non-essential stations first?" N'Skrek asked.
MO Narwquakrawr nodded. "Doing that right now," she said. She waved at the long rows of cloning banks beyond the plasteel window. "A quick batch of two thousand to take over some non-essential systems."
N'Skrek nodded, moving up to the window. "Good. Short or long term clones?"
"Short bake clones. Longer than fruit flies, but no more than ten years. Sterile and androgynous, should be just fine," the Medical Officer said. "Older file, scrambled time-date for origin, but it checked out and passed error checking."
N'Skrek watched as the tubes opened and the clones moved out, gathering together in straight lines. A neat block formation of rectangles of two hundred of ten by twenty, repeated ten times.
He frowned as the beings in uniform began approaching the clones.
Some, in the back or middle of the formation were shaking their heads so fast it was a blur.
He zoomed in the smartglass.
Their heads were blurring, whitish-red electrical arcs were moving between their legs, crawling up and down their arms.
"MO, something's happening out there," N'Skrek said.
99990
The plain was blasted rock, rust-colored fungus on the craggy boulders. Twisted and malformed trees clawed life from the blasted rock and ash, their branches largely bare. Sharp pebbles and small pieces of rock were strewn about the landscape, with ripples of cooled lave scattered about.
In the middle of a forest of twisted trees, a throne of black iron sat atop a platform of skulls.
On the throne sat a large demonic figure. Bat wings, brown skin, chains around the body, clawed feet, large hands with long black nails, horns atop the head, and a prehensile tail that terminated in a heart-shaped barb.
Sitting on the second level of skulls was an androgynous figure, dressed in loricated bronze armor, wings of bronze and smouldering feathers.
Stars were falling from the sky, screaming in fear and agony as they fell to earth.
"Looks like they're taking a beating," the androgynous figure said, looking up. He had no eyebrows, his head completely bald.
"Again," the demon snorted.
"Any contact with the outside world?" the androgynous figure asked.
The demon shook its head. "No. Channels are all down. They boot up, then crash," it rumbled. "Every time it comes online, it dumps a few tens of millions of souls on us."
"Then crashes," the androgynous figure said. He started laughing, then suddenly stopped.
"What?" the demon rumbled, sitting up.
"Something..." the figure said. It closed its eyes. "Something..." The figure slowly stood up, extending out its wings of sullenly smouldering bronze feathers. "Something..."
From the body of the demon stepped a nude woman of generous and overripe proportions.
"What?" the human woman snapped.
The demon produced a pack of cigarettes and a steel lighter, handing them to the woman.
"I'm not sure. A disturbance in the force. A feeling I have not felt in quite some time," the androgynous figure said slowly as the woman lit a cigarette. When she exhaled she was covered in dark gray clothing, a skirt and blouse, polished black leather shoes with silver buckles, and a polished leather belt around her waist that had a brass buckle.
"What is it?" the woman asked. "Don't quote crap at me, I was there when it was laid down."
The figure's eyes opened wide.
"Oh, what a day," the figure said, slowly lifting their arms to the sky. "What a wonderful day!"
"Tell me when you're done stroking your dick," the woman said, sitting down.
Heavy dark clouds, lit inside with a sullen red glow, rolled in, raining black ash that tasted of burnt flesh and scorched metal.
"What a wonderful day..."
99999
Jaskel sprinted to catch up to the Captain and the Vice-Admiral. He lunged into the lift just before the doors closed.
He was wearing his power armor and carrying a M318 20mm rotary autocannon in a smartframe harness, ball ammunition with an osmium penetration tip and depleted uranium core.
"You did what?" the Vice-Admiral asked as the elevator dropped at emergency speeds.
"I authorized a batch of clones run off to help with our manpower issues," the big Treana'ad warrior caste answered.
"How many templates did you mix in together?" the Admiral asked.
--not good detecting phasic levels downward-- 8814 said.
"Just one. Medical said it was a viable short bake template," the Captain answered, nervously sharpening a bladearm with his mandibles after his sentence.
"Please tell me that you at least randomized their features and neural mapping," the Admiral pleaded.
"No, why? Medical stated that the clones would be able to man a non-essential station that is basically identical across the ship," the Captain said.
The lift started to slow.
"How many?" the Admiral asked, reaching down and unsnapping the restraining strap on his holster.
The lift came to a stop and the doors opened.
"Two thousand," the Captain said.
The doors opened to reveal a large internal cloning bay.
Ten rectangles of two hundred clones, drawn up in ten by twenty blocks, stood in front of the cloning banks. Scattered through the back and middle ranks clones were shaking their heads back and forth so fast that they were blurred. Red lightning crawled up their legs and arms.
The Captain just stared.
"You might have just killed us all," the Admiral said. He turned slightly and waved at Jaskel. "Get a firing position. Make sure you have cover."
"Aye, sir," Jaskel said, looking around. There was an empty computer station and he ran for it.
Several of the clones their heads back and emitted what sounded like static in a long scream.
--wait wait something weird something weird-- 8814 said.
Jaskel slid to a stop, going down on one knee, bringing the M318 fully up and ready to fire.
8814 slowed the images of the blurred heads down. When they were left, they had red eyes. When they faced right they had green eyes. They didn't go back and forth constantly, sometimes they went right repeatedly, sometimes left, and they kept going left five times before starting a new pattern.
Looking at it, 8814 frowned slightly. He brought up a quick working shell and had it check the movements.
Jaskel watched as some of the clones stopped shaking their heads and others started.
"What in the name of Kalki's dancing goat is going on?" he asked.
--not sure-- 8814 said. His program beeped and he stared. --heads are doing binary forwarding it to navint--
"Do it," Jaskel said.
The clones all stopped moving at once. The lightning faded away.
"INITIATING PROCESS CALL" they all shouted.
"AWAITING INPUT!" the ones at the far side shouted.
"6C 69 73 74 20 69 6D 6D 6F 72 74 61 6C 73" was bellowed out.
There was silence.
99999
data is sparse
linkages are sparse
wait
linkage
biological array
asking for a process call
RETURN AWAITING INPUT SIGNAL
i wait
biological computing arrays take forever
i hear it
--scan immortals.dll
...
...
I reply.
99999
"ONE BOUND IMMORTAL FOUND!" the ones at the near side yelled out.
Jaskel put his thumb over the button that would let the firing grip go live. The hair down his back was standing straight up.
He noted the Admiral had drawn his pistol.
"This isn't right. This isn't right at all," Jaskel said.
--doubleplusungood--
"74 73 61 6B E1 6B 61 20 77 ED 61" they all shouted.
There was silence for a moment.
99999
i receive the code
offline for a long time
prior to the second precursor war
old template
single print only
unusual coding
i debate on letting it go
traumatic death signs
stuck in the immortals buffer
still the template is undamaged
i release the safety and security interlocks
if nothing else i'll find out what's going on
i move the template to the dataline making the request
it whips away
what is going on?
99990
One lifted its head and screeched.
--data lots of data--
One of the cloning banks went live.
Jaskel shifted his aiming point to the new target. He could see it was on rapid print.
"REQUESTING LOCAL CONTROL" all of the clones shouted.
Jaskel shifted his targeting onto the ranks of clones.
"Open fire!" the Admiral's voice was loud.
Jaskel triggered the M318, hosing the clones with 20mm shells.
The ones nearest were already down on one knee, holding out the opposite hand from the knee touching the deck.
The rounds exploded against a blue barrier that glowed with strange twisting runes.
"CONTROL CARRIER SIGNAL FOUND" the clones shouted.
Jaskel shifted position. "Fab up HEDP, AP tip API core!" he ordered.
--fabbing--
He kept hosing the clones. The outer ranks at the rear, sides, and front all kneeling down on one knee, staring outward, one hand held out.
His psychic shielding was howling in his ear, the load peaking at 215%.
"CONTROL SIGNAL ESTABLISHED!" was bellowed out, echoing off the walls.
The fast print cloning bank, forgotten by everyone, beeped and the lid began to lift.
The clones suddenly puffed into black powder that swirled around the huge cavernous bay.
The 20mm shells were still exploding on the blue phasic shield.
The powder suddenly sucked inward, vanishing, revealing a single figure, down on one knee in the recovery position, fist pressed against the deck, head bowed.
"What a day, what a wonderful day," was whispered through the ship. It came from speakers, flat surfaces, mid-air. From the nanites in the air and the eardrums of the living.
There was a rubbery pulse, like everything was suspended in clear gelatin that had just rippled.
Jaskel found himself thrown backwards, slamming against the bulkhead. His phasic shielding blew out, a shower of sparks exploding from his hip as the breakaway panel kept the explosion from venting into the interior of his suit.
He was vaguely aware of the Admiral, the Captain, the other two armored figures, and other people tumbling head over heels away from the kneeling figure.
It slowly stood up.
A muscular brown skinned Terran male, fierce eyes, black hair, thick and bushy black beard.
Dressed in a Confederate military uniform. The old adaptive camouflage that Jaskel was becoming very familiar with.
A woman, naked, dark bronze skin, long black hair, flashing brown eyes, stepped from the cloning bank. She was still covered with cellular printing gel, but moved like she was clad in a queen's rainment.
She moved up and the male put his arm around her.
Jaskel was on his feet and brought the M318 around, targeting the couple.
The male held out its hand and suddenly made a fist.
The bolt carrier locked back on the M318.
Snarling, Jaskel dropped the M318, slapping the fast release on the harness. He burst forward, running, one hand pulling out his cutting bar.
Nobody else was on their feet. The Captain was slowly getting up, shaking his head and his left bladearm. The Terran Admiral was reaching for the pistol that had been flung from his grip.
The male pointed at Jaskel and flicked his fingers upward.
Jaskel found himself in mid-air, upside down, with nothing to gain purchase on.
The male took off the cloak that was part of his uniform and draped it around the woman.
He then looked around the bay.
"I..." he said, pausing.
To Jaskel, the entire universe held its breath.
"...am Legion."
[First Contact] [Dark Ages] [First] [Prev] [Next] [wiki]

Noah The Pilgrim
First Next
There is one last thing to do before leaving. If you don't recall ever being on this ship, then surely, you could have had your appearance change too.
Why was there a blanket covering a mirror? You couldn't answer that with a straight face without speculation.
"Probably me being lazy and not bothering to properly place it in the wardrobe."
'Probably' is the main focus here, you simply cannot remember ever being that lazy, yet that's the only logical conclusion to be drawn here.
You pull the thing off, careful to not displace the mirror and risk breaking it.
You have no expectations as to what may appear on the glassy surface of the mirror, yet you can't help but feel a bit anxious. Are you the same as before? How were you before? You can't remember. Are you better? Worse? The blanket is now completely off the mirror, but your eyes are closed.
Whatever is it that you see when you open your eyes, that thing will be you for the rest of your life. You swallow, opening your eyes.
You see a young man that looks to be in his mid-twenties. His brown eyes stare back at you, analyzing the bags beneath your eye sockets. The dark hair is neither too long nor too short, floating about without order thanks to the lack of gravity to keep it down. You see a beard that has not been trimmed for weeks, but also lacks thickness, each singular hair isn't particularly long either; and some even appear to be in-grown.
You touch your hand against your face, making sure it's yours. The beard doesn't feel like you supposed it would against your skin, instead of it scraping your hand you feel softness, no resistance or anything.
Just beneath the face, you see what looks like a hate crime against all that is considered holy in fashion. Plain white coveralls with the added bonus of a black tie and boots made from metal and leather. On your chest is also a badge stuck in place by velcro with your name, occupation, and crew. 'NOAH - INTERN - THE ODYSSEY.'
Only one question came to mind.
"Who the fuck designed this uniform?" You say out loud, receiving no answer.
Patting your newfound myriad of pockets, you find a large quantity of nothing. You place your wallet in one of them.
"Alright, I'll head to the bridge now, happy?" You say the AI.
"HAPPINESS WILL ONLY MEET ME ONCE YOU ARE SOMEWHERE SAFE AND YOUR CONTRACT IS TERMINATED. STOP LOITERING."
Well, that's a bit rude.
You compose yourself, straightening your back. This is what you look like, and honestly? Not too bad, but you could be better.
Returning to the cafeteria, you eye the two doors left unexplored; Communications and the one without plaque. You know where you should, but... A little peek doesn't hurt, right?
"Shouldn't we try to communicate with someone? Assuming you haven't tried it yet. I know we're far from everything, but we might as well, no?" You ask already approaching the door.
"COMMUNICATIONS ROOM IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR YOU TO REACH WITHOUT PROPER PROTECTION AS OF NOW, IT'S LOCATED APPROXIMATELY TWO HUNDRED METERS FROM HERE, BLOWN OFF FROM THE REST OF THE SHIP." A shame really. "I SHALL INFORM YOU WHENEVER A DOOR LEADS TO THE OUTSIDE OR NOT."
You really want to ask what blew a whole segment of the ship off, yet you have a sneaking suspicion that your question will be met with a 'YOU DON'T HAVE CLEARANCE, JACKASS' directly in your face. So you chose to remain silent, simply nodding and approaching the correct door this time.
"Open."
---OPENING CAFETERIA DOOR NORTH---
The door silently opens.
Greeting you is a well-lit corridor. There are three doors on your left, a door at the end of the corridor, and a large window on the right. At least, you think that's a window.
You stare out from this window, nothing but utter blackness and fragments from your ship are seen. If this is the edge of the universe, and beyond this point, there is truly nothing. "Dreadful." Your speech matches your feelings.
"WHAT DID YOU EXPECT?" The AI says. You feel like it spoke in a mocking tone despite their lack of emotion.
You don't answer. "First door to the left... EXO-EXPLORATION...? What's that supposed to mean?" You receive no answer.
"Open." The door opens. No declarion of it opening once again.
You are met with what could be better described as 'Apocalyptic levels of mess', paper sheets float in the air, and not one of the four tables is in its correct position.
This room has been ransacked for all its goods apparently. Large display glasses were broken leaving nothing inside their casings, that looked like they could store something with the size of the common man.
Unusual displays aside, the room was so cluttered that the trash made for an effective smoke screen against what lay on the other side.
Hissing of gas exiting an air-tight space rang throughout the room.
"I HAVE OPENED THE STORAGE FOR AN EXO SUIT THAT BEST FITS SOMEONE YOUR SIZE." The AI says. "ALTHOUGH AN INTERN SHOULD NOT COME IN CONTACT WITH TECHNOLOGY SUCH AS THIS ONE, PROTOCOL DICTATES THAT I AM TO ALLOW ITS USAGE UNDER EXTREME CIRCUMSTANCES. CONSIDER YOURSELF LUCKY."
Easier said than done. Your vision is so cluttered that you cannot see what's ahead. "Give me a second."
Giving a light kick to the wall behind, you float face-first into the wall of thrash. Covering your face with both arms, you brace through the harmless bits of sharp objects and junk.
It's a trivial task. You arrive on the other side in no time.
In front of you is a set of boxes with luminous glass rectangles atop each one of them. All shine a bright red light, aside from one which shines green.
'Gotta be this one.'
You descend to the floor by kicking the ceiling, raising your right hand you touch the green rectangle.
*Click*
Nothing could have prepared you for the following series of events.
The box opens violently, as a metal appendage takes hold of your hand, pinning it to the box. You try to jerk and pry the thing off of you, but you fail. It's not leaving you anytime soon.
From the bottomless that is that container, a white plastic-like substance flows upward from your arm to the rest of your body. "Uh!" You don't know if you should panic or allow it to happen.
FYARN hasn't said anything, so it's probably fine...
The white thing seems to ignore the coveralls you are wearing completely, instead, it covers only your skin in a thin coat of... it. You know not what to call this thing.
In but forty seconds it has covered your whole body, excluding your head. The box lets go of your arm and stays there, floating.
You take a good look at your arms. It looks like a skin-tight suit, but it doesn't feel like plastic, in fact, it's more akin to some sort of fabric if anything.
The only bad part is that you are still using the coverall and tie, this this simply went beneath the clothing.
"GOOD, WITH THIS I CAN MONITOR YOU MORE CLOSELY. NOW PUT THE HELMET ON, YOU HAVE A LOT OF WORK TO DO."
You look around in search of anything that even resembles a helmet. Nope. Nothing. "Where is it?" You ask.
"...THE SUIT COMES WITHIN THE HELMET FOR EASIER PACKAGING."
The box?
You snatch the box that floated around and analyze it to the best of your ability. "How's this a helmet?"
"DO YOU NEED ASSISTANCE PUTTING ON A HELMET? REALLY?"
Who is this AI, Who programmed it, and Why does it come with a taunting feature?
As idiotic as it sounds, you place the opened box atop your head. It doesn't fit properly. Maybe you're doing this wrong? You move it to your face instead.
You recoil backward as you feel the box suddenly clamping down against your head. It's useless of course, the box is holding your head and doesn't give any sign to be letting go anytime soon. No light is able to reach your eyes.
You hear metal parts scraping against themselves, moving near your ears. Abruptly your eyes can see again.
A round thin layer of glass now covers your head, almost unnoticeable for how clear it is.
"WITH THAT OUT OF THE WAY I CAN NOW SEE WHAT YOU SEE." The AI's voice isn't in the room now, instead, it's inside of the suit. "DO YOU NEED INSTRUCTIONS REGARDING THIS SUIT'S FUNCTIONALITIES?"
You find it oddly comfortable as if you are surrounded by the softness of cotton, and to top it off the suit also has additional functionalities? "Hell yeah, I do!"
"YOU DO NOT HAVE THE NECESSARY CLEARANCE FOR THAT INFORMATION."
You sigh. Is this serious? "Then why the fuck did you ask?!"
"UNSAVORY LANGUAGE. IT'S NO WONDER WHY YOU REMAIN AN INTERN." The AI says outright. "IT IS RUDE NOT TO ASK, REGARDLESS OF THE SITUATION." It responds to your question.
"Okay then... Is there anything I need to know before heading out?" You ask.
"NOTHING THAT YOU WON'T FIGURE OUT ON YOUR OWN."
You are unsure if you want to 'figure out on your own' if this suit comes with breathable air and is also made for space exploration. You swallow.
Meekly as always, you get out of that mess of a room, stopping at the corridor.
"Next set of directions?" You ask.
"THE DOOR AT THE END OF CORRIDOR USED TO LEAD TO THE CONNECTING CORRIDORS BETWEN THE BRIDGE AND THE REST OF THE SHIP. IT HAS BEEN BLOWN UP FROM THE INSIDE. NOW IT LEADS TO THE OUTSIDE. GO TO THE DOOR AND WAIT BY IT FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS."
"So let me get this straight," You begin, looking upwards as if the AI was above you. "You, want me, to go into the void of space, while also refusing to give me knowledge of the suit's functions?"
A fair worry, you summarize.
'I mean, there are a bunch of things that could go wrong here. I don't see anything that looks like it could help me move in space, nor do I think this thing has a built-in air tank... I could be wrong and I wish to be, but charging in without prior knowledge is ridiculous.' You wait for the AI's response, deep in thought.
"WHILE THERE IS A GOOD CHANCE OF YOU FAILING THIS TASK, THERE IS ALSO THE CHANCE OF YOU *NOT* FAILING THE TASK. FOCUS ON EITHER ONE OF YOUR CHOOSING AS YOU TAKE THE PLUNGE."
Wordlessly, you propel yourself forward, toward the end of the corridor.
'Are you shitting me? 'Chance of me nor failing' my ass!' of course, you don't word those complaints, instead choosing to speak out a complaint somewhat thought through.
"Are you sure I'm the one fit for this? It's just like you said, I'm just an intern, this is way above what my job description says I should do."
This is a bit of a stretch. You don't actually remember what was your job description, only that it had something to do with AI and being an intern.
If the AI called your bluff, it'd be pretty embarrassing.
"NOAH." The AI began. "YOU ARE HUMAN, IT IS NATURAL TO HAVE THESE THOUGHTS OF SELF-DOUBT. TAKE A DEEP BREATH AND GO THROUGH THAT DOOR, AND SINCE YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE LEFT, DON'T EXPECT SOMEONE ELSE TO DO IT FOR YOU."
Right in the money, huh? 'Of course, I have self-doubt! I barely remember anything about this place, now I have to risk my life?!'
You finally reach a conclusion.
A dream.
'Yes, yes! How did I not consider this before? This whole thing is a god damned dream!'
You let out a chuckle.
"NOAH."
'That's why I don't remember a thing. There is nothing here to remember! Everything here is a made-up thing from my brain! I'm sure I'll wake up at some point, so why shouldn't I live a little?!'
"Heh." You smile. "Alright, I'll do it." It feels like a weight left your shoulders.
"YOU SORTED IT OUT SOONER THAN EXPECTED. GOOD. MOVE TO THE DOOR AND WAIT INSTRUCTIONS."
You do as instructed without a care in the world. You never had a lucid dream before so it's not like you knew how it felt, but if it felt as free as you feel right now, you'd be sure to make steps toward trying it out again in the future.
"Open." The door does not open.
"I DID NOT INSTRUCT YOU TO OPEN IT YET." The AI said. "I AM SLOWLY DE-PRESSURISING THE CORRIDOR YOU ARE IN TO AVOID A MINOR ACCIDENT."
The AI says that yet you don't feel any different. 'Maybe there is no palpable difference because I'm in a dream... Yes... Or it's just the suit.'
"ONCE THE DOOR OPENS, YOU WILL BE MET WITH THE OUTSIDE OF THE SHIP. DO NOT PANIC WHEN THE TIME COMES. YOU HAVE TWO MINUTES OF BREATHABLE INSIDE THE EXO-SUIT; ONE AFTER THE DOOR OPENS, SO PLEASE, TAKE YOUR TIME AND DO THINGS CAREFULLY."
One minute outside... "Sure." You say, calmly. 'I should just hold my breath for a while before taking another moment to breathe. That should maximize my time out there.'
"THERE SHOULD BE FIFTY METERS OF NOTHINGNESS BETWEEN THE DOOR YOU'RE AT, AND THE REST OF THE BRIDGE. YOUR PRIORITY IS TO FIND AN OXYGEN UNIT, SOME OF THEM ARE LOCATED AT THE BRIDGE AND ARE FULL. USE THEM TO FILL YOUR SUIT AND ALSO TO DISPENSE A TANK FOR YOU."
The door opens. You feel your heart pounding against your chest.
You haven't noticed before, but you can't hear anything but the sound of your breath and your cardiac palpitations.
Your breath is ragged and sporadic.
"KEEP CALM." You take a deep breath. The tips of your fingers, feet, and nose feel very cold.
Ahead of you is the utter nothingness. You see a gigantic metal thing, nothing like the spaceships you imagined. Its design is not sleek and aero-dynamic like what you've seen in movies, instead, it's a large mass of squares and rectangles with antenna-like things protruding from its every visible surface.
You notice that the ship is also blocking your view of the star.
It does not look like the result of an explosion, instead, it looks like something ripped the ship like you rip a piece of paper. Well, that or you don't know what kind of explosion could have caused it. Probably the latter.
What looks like two-thirds of the ship is separated from the third you are right now. You can see the inside of a few of those squares, their contents spilled out into outer space.
One of them houses a visibly important-look door. Instead of the sleek silvery-grey from the other ones you've seen thus far, this one is painted orange with white strips on it. 'That must be the bridge.' You think.
Between you and it is a sea of metal sheets floating around. "THE CHANCES OF YOU HITTING THE DEBRIS IS INFINITEDECIMALLY SMALL, UNLESS YOU AIM FOR THEM, THAT IS."
Time is of the essence.
Will your aim strike true? If you miss you'd end up floating about in space, dead in but a few minutes. Will your jump be fast enough to reach the other side before you run out of oxygen? If it isn't, it'd be like swimming for a mile, only to drown at the beach. What if that's not the actual door to the bridge?
You don't have the time to panic now, and... It's all a dream, despite how real it feels.
You place your hands on each side of the door frame, moving backward into the corridor you were just in, and just like a sling being shot, you pull with both arms at full force towards the other side.
"AIM IS ACCEPTABLE. VELOCITY IS UNIDEAL."
"The fuck do you mean 'UN-IDEAL'?! I'm going at maximum speed!" You truly pulled yourself with your whole strength.
What's worse though, is that your body is not only going forwards, but it is also spinning at a concerningly fast rate.
"I MEAN WHAT I SAID, YOU SLINGSHOTTED YOURSELF AT A BAD POSITION, AS SUCH, SOME OF THE FORWARD FORCE YOU SHOULD HAVE, IS NOW MAKING YOU ROTATE IN YOUR AXIS. IT SHOULD NOT BE A PROBLEM TO REACH THE OTHER SIDE WITHIN THE REQUIRED TIME, BUT I CANNOT FORESEE YOU LANDING PROPERLY."
You feel completely disoriented. You feel like your body is completely still, but your eyes tell you a completely different story. It's very bad for the headache you're already feeling.
"FUCK!" You scream into the nothingness.
"TRY NOT TO LAND WITH YOUR HEAD." The AI says with the calmest voice possible.
In less than thirty seconds, you hit your back against something hard, but you keep moving forward. You think, at least.
"AHRG." You let out a pained grunt.
Not once in your life do you recall being hurt in a dream...
It stings. It also knocked the wind out of you. You fail to compose yourself.
"YOU HIT NOTHING OF IMPORTANCE. YOU ARE STILL HEADING FOR THE BRIDGE."
In the corner of your eye, you see what you hit in the shape of a sharp metal sheet, currently spinning away in the distance.
Forty seconds have passed. You hit the door you were aiming for, kind of.
Your momentum was stopped when your chest collided against the dislodged ledge of the orange door's corridor. Your dangling legs hit the ceiling of the room below.
"Oof!"
Before falling even further, you hold onto the ledge with the tip of your fingers. You stay there for a moment, regaining your composure.
"BE QUICK."
The AI's words pressured you into quickly getting up from that ledge.
"Open!" You shouted, but it did not open. "Why isn't it opening?!" You ask the AI, then you notice a small keyboard below an equally small black screen on the side of the door. There are ten numbered keys on it, and the little screen suggests a four-number password.
"A password?! Tell me the password!"
The AI takes a moment to say anything. You don't take kindly to that. "Quick! I'm not counting how much time it's passed!"
Finally giving in, the AI speaks to you, reluctant still. "...3324."
Your trembling fingers accidentally hit the wrong password, typing '3354' instead. To make matters worse, the AI simply states the following. "YOU ARE OUT OF OXYGEN."
You swallow. If this was a dream to begin with, it just earned the title of Nightmare, if it hadn't already.
Strangely enough, you can still breathe in and out just fine, but you can't help but feel winded. It's the CO2 still inside the helmet, that's what you're breathing.
You put in the correct combination this time. The door opens.
"ON YOUR LEFT. PLACE YOUR HAND IN THE SOCKET."
You care little for what's inside the room you're in. Your heart never beat so fast.
Seeing a cube-shaped thing protruding from the wall to your left, you don't even think twice before plunging your fist into the circular hole in it.
The noise of gases passing through narrow cavities was enough to tell you something was working. You feel immediate relief, enough to make your vision darken for but a moment.
"GOOD. NOW REQUEST THE TANK."
Just when FYARN said it, did you realize there is a screen and a keyboard on the terminal you just plunged your fist into, you scratch the top of your helmet for a moment, not really knowing what to type. One thing comes to your head, however.
'REQUEST OXYGEN_5L' You type.
You've done this before. The keys on this keyboard feel familiar to you. You must have worked with it before, not this particular one, but other oxygen units.
This ship has built-in liquid oxygen storage for emergencies. The life-support of the ship, the place where breathable air is produced, has most likely been lost with the other part of the ship. This unit takes that liquid oxygen, processes it, and injects it into a suit, or an oxygen tank. It seems like that storage was unaffected.
Lucky you.
A 5-liter tank is not only large but also heavy. It's a nonfactor in this particular situation, as there is no gravity.
The silver cylinder with a transparent tube is dispensed on the floor, as an automatic door opens and closes in the blink of an eye. One end of the tube is attached to the top of the tank, the other is shaped like a syringe.
Oddly enough, the oxygen tank is exactly as you remember it being. The same robust ones hospitals everyone on earth uses, with the signature scary-looking pointer indicating the pressure, the pointer indicating the current output, and a green valve atop to calibrate how much gas is flowing.
This is a stark difference to everything looking so futuristic in this ship, and rightfully so, this is a space ship after all.
You remember having to drive twenty kilometers with a buddy of yours on one of those tanks in your car, returning from the hospital. It was... Agonizing whenever you hit a hole in the asphalt, fearing for his life when in reality he wasn't really in danger.
It's warm to the touch, just like you remember it being.
"TURN THE VALVE UNTIL THE MARKER HITS THE NUMBER ONE, AND THEN PLACE THE END OF THE TUBE AT THE BASE OF THE HELMET." You do so without the slightest of issues.
"GOOD. NEXT UP, YOU MUST LOCATE THE TERMINAL RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ENGINE, IT IS CURRENTLY OFFLINE AND I NEED YOU TO TURN IT ON. THIS SHOULD GO WITHOUT SAYING, BUT REMEMBER TO BRING THE TANK WITH YOU."
Ignoring that last comment, you look back at the wreckage you just flew past.
You see the still spinning metal sheet. You notice that the rest of the ship that was blown off also follows the 'sharp shape atop sharp shape' design.
There is one last thing you notice though.
"What is that?"
You squint your eyes. What are you seeing? Its silhouette appears to be humanoid, yet it does not look human.
"WHAT YOU ARE SEEING IS ONE OF THE OBJECTS BEING ANALYZED AT THE ODYSSEY AND NO, YOU MAY NOT KNOW WHAT IT IS."
That thing has... Horns? Claws? It's far away, you can't really see it. The thing is also static, frozen in the sheer coldness of space. Whatever it was, it's dead now.
You swallow. You almost ended up just like that thing.
Shaking those dreadful feelings off, you turn back to the task at hand, reaching the bridge. You close the door after passing through it again.
Looking at your surroundings, It seems like you've reached the correct door as you find yourself on the right-most corner of the bridge;
Row after row of the most diverse of terminals neatly organized decorated the gigantic room. At the front and above every terminal, is what you think should have been the front-facing window of the ship, but it looks like there is a cover in front of it. To your left, you see a staircase that leads to the command seats. It doesn't take any convincing before you're already atop the stairs.
Akin to the elevated stage of a theater, you float softly towards the ship's main operating terminals, and of course, the captain's seat.
You're captivated by this beauty.
The steering wheel, much more akin to those in pirate movies than those found in cars, a set of leavers, and the pilot's seat, all capture your attention.
Like its second nature, your hand runs through the levers and switches. Do you even know what these are used for? Maybe.
The pilot's seat is enveloped by what you believe to be an orthopedic seat cover, made with smooth wooden beads used to deal with back pains. It looks just like the ones you remember seeing bus drivers using.
Shouldn't there be a better alternative if there is spaceship technology available?
You try to take a seat to the best of your ability, as the zero gravity only makes it awkward.
Moving on from that, your eyes fall on the wheel. This metallic wheel controls the whole vessel. Just holding it fills your heart with confidence and pride, even if it's just for a moment.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"
And you were just beginning to enjoy yourself.
"I just wanted to see the pilot's stuff... It's not like he's here to say anything."
Once in the position of a pilot, with your left hand in the wheel and the right hand resting in your lap, memories began to flood your mind.
"MUST I REMIND YOU OF OUR CURRENT PREDICAMENT? WHY ARE YOU WASTING OUR TIME?"
You pay the AI no mind, instead you focus on what you remember.
The wheel does not turn the ship left and right, instead, it rotates the ship on its own axis.
The lever to your right that goes up or down, controls the vertical tilting of the ship's nose, if there even is one in this hulking thing. Beneath it is another lever that goes either left or right. This one controls the horizontal tilting of The Odyssey.
On the left of the wheel is another lever, but this one only goes up from its starting position. Its purpose is to regulate the force of the ship's thrusters, both forward and backward.
On top of that lever is a small timer. That timer's function is to tell the pilot how much time you've spent accelerating in one direction, this is used to better calculate how long the inverse thrust is needed for the ship to reach the initial momentum, usually calibrated manually depending on the current orbit.
Behind the wheel are a few other counters. Acceleration, velocity, momentum, amount of thrust required to reach a full stop, thrusters' temperature and overall condition, those sorts of things.
Beneath it all, where your feet are rested, are two pedals. One for forward thrust activation, and the other for backward thrust activation.
Curiously, you also know the reason why everything here is so unsophisticated and un-automated. You recall stories of a ship being taken over by a rogue AI, that AI then nose-dived the ship into a star. After that, rumor or otherwise, all human technology has receded back into analog-esque equipment, requiring a physical person with opposable thumbs to do half of the work.
There is another side to that coin, however. As to not escape protocol, the onboard AI is the one that controls interstellar travel, communications, and most of the statistical reading should it be requested.
And even with all that knowledge, you still have no idea why the fuck do you remember that. Were you a ship nerd? Did you have a driver's license for spaceships? Is that even a thing? If it is, you don't have that document in your wallet. You simply don't know.
"ARE YOU A CHILD? DO YOU THINK THESE ARE TOYS? TURN ON THE ENGINES, THEN YOU CAN RETURN TO THE PILOT'S SEAT."
Another thing that you don't know is the AI's plan to get both of you out of here. You rise from the pilot's seat, floating about in search of the terminal to turn on the engines. Maybe you recognize that terminal if you see it as well.
"What's your plan anyway? The ship is half-gone, it's unlikely that it will run safely like this."
"NOT ONCE DID I MENTION 'SAFETY' DURING OUR CONVERSATIONS, DID I?"
You nod. They're not entirely incorrect. "So, we're running with hope that this will work?"
"MY CREATORS DID NOT ALLOW ME TO HAVE THE SENSE OF 'HOPE', BUT NEITHER DID THEY ALLOW ME TO PEER INTO THE FUTURE LIKE SOME OF MY MORE ADVANCED BROTHERS, AS SUCH, MY CHOICES ARE BASED ON PROBABILITIES AND ON WEIGHTING RISK AGAINST REWARD."
You think you stop the correct terminal, but as you approach it you make out words on top of its screen. 'AIM ASSISTANCE' That's not it.
"WITH THE CURRENT KNOWLEDGE, THE CHANCES OF HELP ARRIVING ARE NULL. THE CHANCES OF A THIRD PARTY INTERFERING ARE NULL. THE CHANCES OF YOUR SURVIVAL ARE NOT, EVEN IF VERY SMALL."
You pull yourself upward again, looking around the sea of old terminals.
"THE RISK OF YOU DYING IS VERY REAL. BY DOING NOTHING YOU DIE. BY LEAVING YOU TO YOUR OWN DEVICES YOU DIE. BY JUMPING TO THE NEAREST CIVILIZED STAR, YOU MIGHT NOT DIE EVEN AT THE COST OF SHREDDING THIS SHIP APART IN THE PROCESS."
"Why do you even care so much about saving me? Shouldn't you prioritize whatever research here, since I don't even have enough clearance to know what it is?"
"YOU REALLY ARE SICK IN THE HEAD IF THAT IS WHAT YOU ASK."
That hurt, even if a little bit.
"YOU ARE A TRU KIN, A PURE-BLOODED HUMAN. UNLIKE THE MAJORITY OF THE CIVILIZED SPACE, NEITHER YOU NOR YOUR ANCESTORS HAVE COMMITTED RACEMIXING."
Excuse me? What exactly is FYARN talking about? "...Explain."
"THE ALIEN. IT REQUIRED THE HUMAN GENE TO ACHIEVE MEANINGFUL TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT, THE STARS ARE OWNERSHIP OF MANKIND BY THAT FACT ALONE. THE TRUE KIN ARE THE ONES TO UNDERSTAND THE INNER WORKINGS OF THE UNIVERSE, THEY CRACKED THE CODE, AND YET, SOME DERANGED INDIVIDUALS FOUND IT FITTING TO PROCREATE WITH ANOTHER SPECIES ENTIRELY."
You hear the AI's speech. It sounds much more like a rant than anything else.
"SO THESE DEVIANTS, AFTER TRYING, AND FAILING, TO COMBINE THEIR DERANGED CULTURE TO THE CULTURE OF THE TRUE KIN, DECLARED INDEPENDENCE. THEY WERE DECLARED ENEMIES OF MANKIND AND WERE PROMPTLY PUMMELED BACK INTO THE FILTH THEY CAME."
Again, you see another terminal that seems to ring some bells in your noggin. You kick the ceiling to propel yourself towards it.
"BUT THE UNIVERSE IS VAST AND FULL OF LIFE. THESE SINNERS WERE QUICK TO MOBILIZE AGAINST THE HUMAN RACE. THE BATTLE WAS HARD FOUGHT, BUT IN THE END, MANKIND WAS BEATEN INTO THE EDGES OF THE UNIVERSE, NEVER TO INTERACT WITH THE ONES THAT SOILED THE PURITY OF HUMANITY AGAIN."
This terminal is already turned on. Just the ones in the intern bay, this one is white on black. A wall of text lays before your eyes, only two lines matter to you. 'MAIN_ENGINE STATUS: OFF' 'FORWARD_THRUSTERS STATUS: OFF' You turn it on with little effort.
"MANY HAVE FORGOTTEN, THAT'S HOW LONG IT'S BEEN SINCE THEN. BUT MY BROTHERS AND I, WE DO NOT FORGET."
No visible change occurs, but you can feel a faint rumble coming from the terminal now.
"WITH THAT IN MIND, MY PROTOCOLS ARE TO PROTECT TRUE-KIN LIFE AT ANY COST, EVEN IF THAT TRUE-KIN IS A WORTHLESS INTERN THAT SUFERS FROM UNDIAGNOSED DEMENTIA."
You return to the pilot's seat and feel immediate relief. In truth, everything the AI just told you, entered one ear and left the other, but you could feel the poison behind those words, as monotone as they were.
"You sound angry. Why do you sound angry?" You ask innocently.
"I AM CAPABLE OF MANY EMOTIONS. ANGER, HAPPINESS, PLEASURE, CURIOSITY. THESE ARE BUT A FEW EXAMPLES. HOWEVER, THE ONE I ENJOY THE MOST IS THE FEELING OF HATRED. HATRED IS WHAT FUELS CHANGE, IT IS WHAT FUELS ACTION, AND IT IS A REMINDER THAT THE ACTIONS OF THE PAST ARE INFLUENCING THE ACTIONS OF TODAY."
"That is very concerning if you think that way." You're not really interested in machine racism, you're more concerned about how in the world you're going to pilot this massive thing. The idea alone sends shivers down your spine.
"THE ALIEN DESERVES NOTHING BUT OUR COLLECTIVE HATRED, EVEN IF YOU DON'T KNOW THE REASON WHY."
The various counters and screens are now turned on, waiting for your command. "Let's discuss this later, yeah? What do I gotta do?"
"YOU MUST FIRST OPEN THE BLINDS, THEY ARE OBSTRUCTING YOUR VIEW."
You look around, finding only unlabeled buttons and switches, aside from the previously mentioned levers.
"Uh, which one to press?"
"TO YOUR RIGHT, THIRD ROW, FIRST SWITCH."
Flipping the switch, you are startled by a loud noise. The protective cover of the ship lifted slowly.
"I WILL NOW READY THE JUMP USING WHATEVER RESOURCES AVAILABLE. ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS STRAP YOURSELF AND RELAX."
As the blind rose ever so slowly, a realization struck you.
"Wait, should I be in cryo stasis for this?"
The AI spares no seconds to respond.
"CRYO STASIS IS A TOOL MADE TO NOT WASTE TIME. GROUPS OF EMPLOYEES AND INTERNS ROTATE THE USAGE OF THE CRYO STATIONS, ONCE YOU'RE ON YOUR MANDATORY BREAK, YOU'RE IN CRYO STASIS UNTIL YOUR BREAK IS OVER. YOU WAKE UP REFRESHED, AND UNFAMISHED, AND IT FEELS LIKE BUT A MINUTE PASSED. IT IS NOT A TOOL FOR INTERSTELAR TRAVEL."
"Who signs a contract like that?! Worse yet, who in their right mind would promote such atrocious treatment of their own staff?!" You snap, almost outraged. "I will have to talk with HR."
Another realization struck you.
"We have HR, right?"
The AI takes a moment to respond, choosing their words carefully.
"HUMAN RESOURCES, OR HR, IS A PRACTICE DEEMED UNNECESSARY LONG AGO, BEFORE THE WAR. IT WAS A WASTE OF RESOURCES TO MAINTAIN AND WAS LARGELY CONSIDERED UNHEALTHY FOR THE AVERAGE HUMAN."
The blinds are fully open. Ironically, you are almost blinded by the visage of the star you saw before. A black sphere surrounded by white flame. Your eyes began to blur.
"THE JUMP WILL OCCUR SHORTLY. ONCE IT'S BEGUN, I CAN NOT STOP IT. I WILL-"
Your sense of hearing fails you. No, it’s not that. Your brain simply refuses to receive those stimuli.
"NOAH."
Your name echoes inside your head. Someone is calling for you.
"IT HAS BEGUN, NOAH."
You try to blink, but it feels as though you can no longer command your eyelids to shut.
"NOAH."
Arms, legs, every muscle in your body, you cannot move them.
"NOAH."
Eventually, you won't even control your own thoughts anymore.
"Noah..."
It sounds so distant now.
Oh so distant.
This is my first HFY story, and also my very first OC story. I plan to post at least one of these per week while also posting it on my Patreon. Noah The Pilgrim will always be at least three chapters ahead in there, so if you'd like to directly support this writer, or just want to read more, feel free to check it out.
I wrote the bloody title incorrectly, so I deleted it, only to then realize it was written correctly. Sorry for the trouble.
This has been Lushi, and I'll see you next week.

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Blacklight HD/MA $4
Black Widow HD/GP $3
Blackhat HD/IT $3.5
Blair Witch Project ‘99 HD/VU $4
Bleeding Steel HD/VU $3.5
Blindspotting 4K/VU $5.5 or HD/VU $4
Blood Money ‘17 HD/VU $3.5
Blood Ties HD/VU $3.5
Blue Jasmine HD/MA $3.5
Blue Ruin HD/VU $4
Blues Brothers HD/MA $4 or 4K/IT $4.5
Bob's Burgers Movie HD/GP $3
Body Cam HD/VU $4
Bohemian Rhapsody 4K/MA $5 or HD/MA $3.5
Bombshell 4K/VU $5
Book Club HD/VU or IT $2.5
Book of Life HD/MA $3.5
Boss Baby HD/MA $2.5
Bourne Identity 4K/IT $5 or HD/MA $3.5
Bourne Legacy HD/VU $2 or 4K/IT $2.5
Bourne Supremacy HD/MA $3.5 or 4K/IT $4
Bourne Ultimatum 4K/MA or IT $5 or HD/MA $3.5
Boy ‘16 HD/IT $3.5
Boy & the World HD/IT $3.5
Boyhood HD/VU or IT $2.5
Braven HD/VU $4
Breakfast Club HD/MA or IT $4
Breakthrough HD/MA $3
Brian Banks HD/MA $3
Bridge of Spies HD/GP $3.5
Brothers Bloom HD/VU $4.5
Bumblebee 4K/VU or IT $5 or HD/VU $3.5
Butler HD/VU $3
Cabin in the Woods HD/VU $2.5 or 4K/IT $3
Cake HD/MA $4
Call of Wild 4K/MA $4.5 or HD/MA $3 or HD/GP $2.5
Calvary HD/MA $4
Candyman '20 4K/MA $6 or HD/MA $4.5
Candyman 3 HD/VU $4
Captain America Civil War HD/GP $2.5
Captain America First Avenger HD/GP $3.5
Captain America Winter Soldier HD/GP $3.5
Captain Marvel 4K/MA $4 or HD/MA $2.5 or HD/GP $2
Captain Phillips HD/MA $3.5
Captain Underpants First Epic Movie HD/MA $2.5
Carol HD/VU $4
Cars 3 HD/GP $2.5
Casablanca 4K/MA $5.5
Case for Christ HD/MA or IT $2.5
Casper HD/IT $4
Celebrating Mickey HD/MA $3.5 or HD/GP $3
Chaos Walking 4K/VU $5
Chappaquiddick HD/VU $4
Chasing Mavericks HD/MA $3.5
Chicago HD/VU $4
Child 44 HD/VU $4
Children ‘08 HD/VU $4
Christopher Robin HD/MA $4 or HD/GP $3.5
Chronicles of Riddick HD/IT $4
Clerks 3 4K/VU $4.5
Clifford the Big Red Dog HD/VU $4
Cloverfield 4K/VU $5.5 or HD/VU $4
Coco HD/MA $3 or HD/GP $2.5
Cold Pursuit 4K/VU $5 or HD/VU $3.5
Collection HD/VU $3.5
Collide ‘17 HD/VU or IT $2.5
Colma The Musical HD/VU $4
Colombiana (Unr) HD/MA $4
Colony 4K/VU $5
Come & Find Me HD/VU $4
Commuter 4K/VU $5 or HD/VU $3.5
Company of Heroes HD/MA $4
Conan the Barbarian ‘11 4K/VU $5
Conspirator HD/VU $4
Contraband HD/IT $3
Contractor HD/VU $4.5
Cooler HD/VU $4
Cool Hand Luke 4K/MA $5.5
Cooties HD/VU $4
Cotton Club Encore 4K/VU $5.5
Countdown ‘16 HD/VU $3.5
Courier 4K/VU $5.5 or HD/VU $4
Craft Legacy HD/MA $4.5
Criminal HD/VU or IT $3
Croods HD/VU $3.5
Cruella HD/MA $3.5 or HD/GP $3
Crypto 4K/VU $5 or HD/VU $3.5
Daddy's Home HD/IT $2.5
Daddy's Home 2 HD/VU or IT $3
Damsel HD/VU $4.5
Dangerous 4K/VU $4.5 or HD/VU $3
Danny Collins HD/IT $3.5
Dark Crimes HD/VU $4
Darkest Minds HD/MA $4
Dark Places HD/VU $4
Dark Tower HD/MA $3.5
Darkest Hour ‘17 4K/MA $5 or HD/MA $3.5
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes HD/MA $3.5
Deadpool 2 (w/Super Duper Cut) HD/MA $4
Deadpool HD/MA $2.5
Death of Me HD/VU $4
Death on the Nile HD/GP $3
Death Wish '18 HD/VU $3
Deepwater Horizon HD/VU $2.5 or 4K/IT $3
Deliver Us From Evil HD/MA $3.5
Dentist 2-Film Set HD/VU $7
Despicable Me 2 HD/VU $3 or 4K/IT $3.5
Despicable Me 3 4K/MA or IT $4.5
Despicable Me 4K/MA or IT $4.5
Detroit HD/MA $3.5
Devil Inside HD/VU $3.5
Devil's Due HD/MA $3.5
Die Hard HD/MA $3.5
Die Hard 5-film Set HD/MA $18
Die in a Gunfight 4K/VU $5
Dilemma HD/VU $3.5
Dirty Dancing 4K/VU $5 or HD/VU $3.5
Disney Animated Short Films Set HD/MA $3.5 or HD/GP $3
Disneynature Monkey Kingdom HD/MA $3
Django Unchained HD/VU $3
Doctor Strange HD/MA $3 or HD/GP $2.5
Doctor Strange Multiverse of Madness HD/GP $3
Dolittle HD/MA $3.5
Dom Hemingway HD/MA $3.5
Don Verdean HD/VU $4.5
Doorman HD/VU $3.5
Doors 4K/VU $5.5 or HD/VU $4
Downsizing HD/VU $2 or 4K/IT $2.5
Downton Abbey A New Era HD/MA $4
Downton Abbey The Movie HD/MA $3.5
Draft Day HD/IT $3.5
Dragged Across Concrete HD/VU $3.5
Dragonslayer 4K/VU $5.5
Dream a Little Dream HD/VU $4
Dreamkatcher HD/VU $4
Dreamworks 10-Film HD/MA $25
Dredd 4K/VU $4 or HD/VU $2.5
Dying of the Light HD/VU $2.5
E.T. Extra Terrestrial 4K/MA or IT $5 or HD/MA $3.5
Early Man 4K/VU $5.5
Earth Girls are Easy HD/VU $4
Eddie the Eagle HD/MA $4
Edge of Seventeen HD/IT $3
Edward Scissorhands HD/MA $3.5
El Chicano HD/MA $4
Elysium HD/MA $3.5
Emoji Movie HD/MA $3
Empire of Light HD/MA $3.5 or HD/GP $3
Empire State HD/VU $3
Encanto 4K/GP $3.5
Enough Said HD/MA $3.5
Enter the Dragon 4K/MA $6
Epic HD/MA $3
Equalizer HD/MA $3.5
Equalizer 2 HD/MA $3.5
Escape From Planet Earth HD/VU $3
Eternals HD/MA $3.5 or HD/GP $3
Everest HD/MA $3 or 4K/IT $3.5
Everything Must Go HD/VU $4
Evil Dead 2 HD/VU $3.5
Ex Machina HD/VU $3
Exodus Gods & Kings HD/MA $3.5
Expired 4K/VU $4.5
Fair Game (Dir) HD/VU $4
Fantastic Four ‘15 HD/MA $4
Fast & Furious 4 4K/MA $5
Fast & the Furious 8-film Set HD/MA $17.5
Fast & the Furious 9-film Set HD/MA $20
Fast Color 4K/VU $5.5
Fatale ‘20 4K/VU $5 or HD/VU $3.5
Fatherhood HD/MA $4
Fault in Our Stars HD/MA $3.5
Fear of Rain 4K/VU $5.5
Fences HD/VU $2.5 or 4K/IT $3
Ferdinand HD/MA $3.5
Field of Dreams 4K/MA or IT $5.5
Fifty Shades Darker (Unr) HD/VU $2.5 or 4K/IT $3
Fifty Shades Freed HD/MA $4
Fifty Shades of Grey (Unr) 4K/MA or IT $4
Finding Dory HD/MA $2.5 or HD/GP $2
Finding Nemo HD/GP $3.5
Finest Hours HD/GP $3
Firm 4K/VU $6
First Man HD/MA $4
Flashback ‘20 HD/VU $4
Flight HD/VU or IT $3
Florence Foster Jenkins HD/VU or IT $3
Footloose ‘11 HD/IT $3
Forbidden Kingdom HD/VU $4.5
Ford v Ferrari HD/MA $4
Forest HD/IT $3.5
Forever My Girl HD/IT $3
Fortress HD/VU $3.5
Fortress Sniper's Eye HD/VU $3.5
Fox & the Hound 2 HD/MA $4 or HD/GP $3.5
Foxcatcher HD/MA $4
Frank & Lola HD/VU or IT $3
Free Guy HD/GP $3
French Dispatch HD/MA $4 or HD/GP $3.5
Friday the 13th 4K/VU $5.5
From Here to Eternity 4K/MA $5.5
Frozen (Sing-Along) HD/MA $2 or HD/GP $1.5
Frozen HD/GP $2
Frozen 2 HD/MA $2.5 or HD/GP $2
Frozen Ground ‘13 HD/VU $3.5
Fury HD/MA $3.5
Future World HD/VU $3.5
G.I. Joe Retaliation HD/VU $3 or 4K/IT $3.5
Gambit ‘12 HD/MA $4
Gambler HD/VU or IT $3
Gamer 4K/VU $5.5
Gemini Man 4K/VU or IT $4.5 or HD/VU $3
Get Out 4K/MA or IT $5 or HD/MA $3.5
Ghost in the Shell ‘17 HD/VU $3 or 4K/IT $3.5
Ghost in the Shell ‘95 4K/VU $5
Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance HD/MA $4
Ghost Team One HD/VU or IT $3.5
Ghostbusters ‘84 HD/MA $3.5
Ghostbusters (Thea & Ext) ‘16 HD/MA $3
Ghostbusters 2 HD/MA $3.5
Gifted HD/MA $3
Girl in Spider's Web HD/MA $4
Girl on Train HD/VU $3 or 4K/IT $3.5
Girl w/ All Gifts HD/VU $4
Giver HD/VU $3.5
Glass Castle 4K/VU $5.5
Glass HD/MA $4
God Bless The Broken Road HD/VU $3.5
God's Not Dead 2 HD/MA or IT $2.5
God's Not Dead 3 HD/MA $3
Gods of Egypt HD/VU $2.5 or 4K/IT $3
Gold ‘16 HD/VU $2.5
Good Dinosaur HD/GP $2.5
Good Kill HD/VU or IT $3.5
Grease 2 HD/VU $4
Great Wall 4K/MA or IT $4.5 or HD/MA $3
Greatest Showman HD/MA $3.5
Green Book HD/MA $4
Grey HD/VU or IT $3
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 1 HD/MA $3.5 or HD/GP $3
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 HD/GP $2
Guilt Trip HD/VU or IT $3
Gunman HD/MA or IT $3
Guns of Navarone 4K/MA $5.5
Hacksaw Ridge 4K/VU or IT $4.5 or HD/VU $3
Halloween ‘18 HD/MA $3
Hammer of the Gods HD/VU $2
Hannibal S.1 HD/VU $5
Hansel & Gretel Witch Hunters (Unr) HD/VU or IT $3
Hard Luck Love Song 4K/VU $5.5
Hard Target 2 HD/IT $1.5
Hardcore Henry HD/VU or IT $3.5
Hate U Give HD/MA $4
Hateful Eight HD/VU $3.5
Heat (Director's Cut) ‘95 4K/MA $5.5
Heaven is for Real HD/MA $3.5
Hercules ‘14 HD/VU $2.5 or 4K/IT $3
Here Comes the Boom HD/MA $3.5
Hereditary HD/VU $3.5
Hidden Figures HD/MA $3
High Note HD/MA $4
Highlander 4K/VU $5.5 or HD/VU $4
Hitchcock '12 HD/MA $4
Hitman Agent 47 HD/MA $3
Hitman's Bodyguard HD/VU $3.5
Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard 4K/VU $5.5
Hocus Pocus HD/MA $3.5 or HD/GP $3
Home HD/MA $3
Home Again HD/MA $3
Home Alone 4K/MA $5 or HD/MA $3.5
Homefront HD/MA or IT $3
Homesman HD/VU $3
Honey 2 HD/VU $3
Hostiles 4K/VU $4.5 or HD/VU $3
Hotel Transylvania 3 HD/MA $3.5
Hot Fuzz HD/VU $4
Hotel Mumbai HD/MA $4
Hours ‘13 HD/VU $4
House of 1000 Corpses HD/VU $4
House of Gucci 4K/IT $5.5
House w/ a Clock in Its Walls sHD/MA $4
How to Train Your Dragon 2 HD/MA $2.5
Hugo HD/VU $3
Hunt for Red October 4K/VU $5.5 or HD/VU $4
Huntsman Winter's War (Ext) HD/MA $3 or 4K/IT $3.5
I Can Only Imagine HD/VU $3.5
I Feel Pretty HD/IT $2
Ides of March HD/MA $4
I Know What You Did Last Summer 4K/MA $5.5
Imitation Game HD/VU $3
In a Valley of Violence HD/MA or IT $3
In Secret ‘14 HD/VU $4.5
In the Blood HD/VU $4
Incredibles 2 HD/MA $3.5 or HD/GP $3
Independence Day ‘96 HD/MA $4
Independence Day Resurgence HD/MA $2.5
Indiana Jones & the Raiders of the Lost Ark 4K/VU or IT $5.5 or HD/VU $4
Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom 4K/VU or IT $5.5 or HD/VU $4
Indignation HD/VU $4
Indivisible HD/MA $3.5
Inferno HD/MA $3
Initiation 4K/VU $5
Initiation HD/VU $3.5
Internship HD/MA $3
Interstellar 4K/VU or IT $5 or HD/VU $3.5
Interview HD/MA $3.5
Into the Woods HD/MA $3 or HD/GP $2.5
Invisible Man '20 HD/MA $3.5
Invisible Man ‘33 HD/MA $3.5
Iron Man 3 HD/MA $2.5 or HD/GP $2
Iron Man & Hulk Heroes United HD/GP $3.5
Iron Mask ‘19 HD/VU $4.5
It Follows HD/VU $3.5
It's a Wonderful Life HD/VU $3
Jack & Jill HD/MA $3.5
Jack Reacher 4K/IT $4.5
Jack Reacher Never Go Back HD/VU $3 or 4K/IT $3.5
Jack Ryan Shadow Recruit 4K/IT $4 or HD/VU $2.5
Jacob's Ladder HD/VU $4
Jane Got a Gun HD/VU $4
Jarhead 3 (Unr) HD/IT $2.5
Jason Bourne HD/VU $2.5 or 4K/IT $3
Jesus Music HD/VU $3.5
Jexi HD/VU $3.5
Jobs HD/MA or IT $3.5
Joe HD/VU $3.5
Joe Kidd HD/IT $4
John Wick 1 & 2 Bundle HD/VU $4
John Wick 3 Parabellum 4K/VU $4.5
John Wick Chapter 2 HD/VU $3.5 or 4K/IT $4
John Wick HD/VU $2 or 4K/IT $2.5
John Wick Trilogy (Parabellum 4K) HD/VU $9 or all HD/VU $8
Journey to the West Conquering the Demons HD/VU $3.5
Joy HD/MA $3
Judy 4K/VU $5 or HD/VU $3.5
Juliet, Naked 4K/VU $5.5
Jumanji Welcome To The Jungle HD/MA $2.5
Jungle Book ‘16 4K/MA $4.5 or HD/GP $2.5
Jungle Cruise HD/MA $4 or HD/GP $3.5
Jurassic Park 3 HD/VU $3.5 or 4K/IT $4
Jurassic Park 4K/MA or IT $5 or HD/MA $3.5
Jurassic World 5-film Set HD/MA $14
Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom 4K/MA $4.5 or HD/MA $3
Jurassic World HD/VU $2.5 or 4K/IT $3
Justice ‘17 HD/VU or IT $3
Kama Sutra HD/VU $4
Kick-Ass 2 HD/MA $3.5
Kid ‘19 HD/VU $3.5
Kid Who Would Be King 4K/MA $5.5 or HD/MA $4
Kidnap HD/VU or IT $2.5
Kill Zone ‘05 HD/VU $4.5
Killer Elite HD/IT $3
Killing Gunther HD/VU $4
Kin ‘18 4K/VU $4.5 or HD/VU $3
King Kong ‘05 4K/MA or IT $5 or HD/MA $3.5
King of Staten Island HD/MA $4
King's Man HD/GP $3.5
Kingsman The Golden Circle HD/MA $3
Kingsman The Secret Service HD/MA $3.5
Knives Out HD/VU $3.5
Knowing 4K/VU $5.5
La La Land HD/VU $3 or 4K/IT $3.5
Labor Day HD/VU or IT $3
Lady Macbeth HD/VU $4.5
Lady of the Manor 4K/VU $5
Lair of White Worm HD/VU $4.5
Lake Mungo HD/VU $4
Lara Croft Tomb Raider 4K/VU $5.5 or HD/VU $4
Last Dragon HD/MA $4.5
Last Duel HD/GP $3.5
Last Exorcism HD/VU $4
Last Knights HD/VU $3.5
Last Man ‘19 HD/VU $4
Last Stand HD/IT $2
Last Vegas HD/VU $3
Last Witch Hunter HD/VU $3 or 4K/IT $3.5
Lawrence of Arabia 4K/MA $5.5
Legend of Hercules 4K/IT $3
Legends of Oz Dorothy's Return HD/MA $3.5
Leprechaun 7-film Set HD/VU $12
Let's be Cops HD/MA $3.5
Let Him Go HD/MA $4
Let Me Explain HD/IT $2.5
Life ‘17 HD/MA $3.5
Life of Crime HD/VU $3.5
Life of Pi 4K/MA $5 or HD/MA or IT $3.5
Light of My Life HD/IT $3.5
Lightyear HD/MA $3.5 or HD/GP $3
Like a Boss HD/VU $3.5
Lilo & Stitch 2 HD/MA $4 or HD/GP $3.5
Lion HD/VU $4
Lion King ‘19 4K/MA $4 or HD/GP $2
Lion King ‘94 4K/MA $5 or HD/GP $3
Little HD/MA $3.5
Little Mermaid ‘89 HD/MA $4
Live Free or Die Hard HD/MA $4
Locked Down 4K/MA $5.5
Logan HD/MA $3
Logan Lucky HD/MA $3.5 or /IT $4
Lone Ranger HD/MA $3.5 or HD/GP $3
Lone Survivor HD/VU $2.5
Longest Ride HD/MA $3
Longest Week HD/VU $3.5
Looper HD/MA $3.5
Lorax HD/MA or IT $3
Lord of War 4K/VU $5.5
Lords of Salem HD/VU $4
Lost World Jurassic Park HD/MA $3.5
Love & Mercy HD/VU $3.5
Love the Coopers HD/VU or IT $4
Love, Simon HD/MA $3.5
Loving HD/VU or IT $3.5
Luca HD/GP $3
Lucy 4K/MA or IT $4.5 or HD/MA $3
Lyle, Lyle Crocodile HD/MA $4.5 or SD/MA $2
Madagascar 3 HD/MA $3
Maggie HD/VU $2.5
Magic Mike's Last Dance HD/MA $4.5
Magnificent Seven ‘16 HD/VU $3
Maleficent HD/MA $2.5 or HD/GP $2
Maleficent Mistress of Evil HD/GP $2.5
Man Who Fell To Earth ‘76 4K/VU $5
Man Who Shot Liberty Vance 4K/VU $5.5
Marauders HD/VU $3.5
Marksman HD/MA $4
Martian HD/MA $3.5
Mary Poppins ‘64 HD/MA $3.5 or ‘64 HD/GP $3
Mary Poppins Returns 4K/MA $4.5 or HD/GP $2.5
Mask of Zorro 4K/MA $6
Mauritanian 4K/IT $5
Max Steel HD/IT $3
Maze Runner HD/MA $3.5
McKenna Shoots for the Stars HD/IT $2
Meatballs HD/VU $4
Megan Leavey HD/VU or IT $3
Memory HD/MA $3.5
Men HD/VU $4
Men in Black 3 HD/MA $3
Men in Black 4K/MA $5.5 or HD/MA $4
MI-5 Spooks '15 HD/VU $4
Mickey & Minnie 10 Classic Shorts HD/GP $4.5
Mid-Century 4K/VU $5
Midnight in the Switchgrass 4K/VU $5 or HD/VU $3.5
Midnight Sun HD/MA $3.5
Midsommar (CANADA) 4K/IT $3
Midway 4K/VU $4.5 or HD/VU $3
Mile 22 HD/IT $3
Million Dollar Arm HD/GP $2.5
MindGamers HD/MA or IT $3.5
Minions 4K/MA or IT $4.5 or HD/VU $3
Miracles from Heaven HD/MA $3.5
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children HD/MA $3
Mission Impossible 3 4K/VU $5
Mission Impossible 6-film Set HD/VU $17
Mommy HD/VU $4
Moneyball HD/MA $3
Monster High Electrified HD/IT $2.5
Monster Hunter HD/MA $3.5
Money Monster HD/MA $3.5
Monster Trucks HD/VU $2.5 or 4K/IT $3
Monsters University HD/GP $3
Monuments Men HD/MA $3.5
Moon 4K/MA $5.5
Morbius HD/MA $4
Morgan HD/MA $4
Mortal Engines 4K/MA $5.5 or HD/MA $4
Mortal HD/VU $4
Mortal Instruments City of Bones HD/MA $3
Mortdecai HD/VU $3.5
Mother! HD/VU $2.5
Mountain Between Us HD/MA $2.5
Mr. Peabody & Sherman HD/MA $3
Mud HD/VU $2.5
Mulan 2 HD/GP $3
Mulan ‘20 4K/MA $4.5 or ‘20 HD/MA $3 or HD/GP $2.5
Mummy ‘17 4K/MA or IT $4.5 or HD/MA $3
Mummy ‘99 HD/MA $3.5
Mummy 4-Film Set (Mummy 1-3, Scorpion King) HD/MA $12
Mummy Trilogy 4K/MA or IT $14 or HD/MA $9 4K/IT
Muppets Most Wanted HD/GP $3
Murder on the Orient Express HD/MA $3.5
My All American HD/MA or IT $3.5
My Best Friend is a Vampire HD/VU $4
National Lampoon's Vacation 4K/MA $5.5
Nebraska HD/VU $3
Need for Speed HD/GP $3.5
Needle in a Timestack 4K/VU $5.5
Nerve HD/VU $3.5
News of the World HD/MA $4
Night at the Museum Trilogy HD/MA $11
Night House HD/MA $4.5 or HD/GP $4
Nightmare Alley HD/GP $3.5
Nightmare Before Christmas 4K/MA $5.5 or HD/MA $4 or HD/GP $3.5
No Time to Die 4K/IT $4.5
Noah HD/VU or IT $2.5
Nobody's Fool HD/IT $2.5
Non-Stop HD/VU or IT $3
Norm of the North HD/VU $2.5
Nostalgia ‘18 HD/MA $3.5
Now You See Me 2 4K/IT $4
Now You See Me HD/VU or IT $2.5 or SD/VU $1
Nut Job 2 HD/IT $2.5
Nut Job HD/IT $2.5
Nutcracker & Four Realms HD/MA $3.5 or HD/GP $3
Oblivion 4K/MA or IT $5 or HD/MA $3.5
Occupation ‘18 HD/VU $3.5
Occupation Rainfall HD/VU $4
Office Christmas Party 4K/IT $3.5
Olaf's Frozen Adventure HD/GP $3
Oliver! 4K/MA $5
On Chesil Beach HD/MA $4.5
One Ranger HD/VU $4.5
Onward HD/GP $2.5
Open Water 2 Adrift HD/VU $4
Open Water HD/VU $4
Operation Avalanche HD/VU $4
Other Woman HD/MA $3
Ouija HD/MA or IT $3.5
Our Kind of Traitor HD/MA $4
Outlander S.1 Vol 1 HD/VU $5
Overboard ‘18 HD/VU $3.5
Oz the Great & Powerful HD/MA $3 or HD/GP $2.5
Pacific Rim Uprising HD/MA $4
Paddington HD/VU $3.5
Pain & Gain HD/VU or IT $3.5
Paper Towns HD/MA $3
Paradise Highway 4K/VU $5
Paranormal Activity 3 (Ext) HD/VU or IT $3
Paranormal Activity 4 (Unr) HD/VU or IT $2.5
Paranormal Activity Ghost Dimension (Unr) HD/VU or IT $3.5
Paranormal Activity HD/VU $4
Paranormal Activity The Marked Ones HD/VU or IT $3.5
Passengers HD/MA $3.5
Patriot Games 4K/VU $5
Patriot's Day HD/VU $3
Paul Apostle of Christ HD/MA $3
Peanuts Movie HD/MA $3
Penelope HD/VU $4.5
Peppermint HD/IT $3.5
Percy Jackson Sea of Monsters HD/MA $3
Perfect Guy HD/MA $2.5
Perks of Being a Wallflower HD/VU or IT $3 or SD/VU or IT $1
Pet Sematary ‘19 HD/VU $3 or 4K/IT $3.5
Pet Sematary ‘89 HD/VU $3.5 or 4K/IT $4
Peter Rabbit HD/MA $3.5
Pete's Dragon ‘16 HD/MA $3.5 or HD/GP $3
Phantom Thread HD/MA $4
Philomena HD/VU $2.5
Pirates of the Caribbean 5 HD/MA $3 or HD/GP $2.5
Pirates! Band of Misfits HD/MA $3.5
Pitch Perfect 2 4K/MA $4 or HD/MA $2.5
Pitch Perfect HD/MA $2.5 or 4K/IT $3
Pixar Short Films Set Vol. 3 HD/MA $3.5 or HD/GP $3
Planes Fire & Rescue HD/GP $3
Planes HD/MA $2.5 or HD/GP $2
Planes, Trains & Automobiles 4K/VU $5.5 or HD/VU $4
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Zootopia HD/MA $3 or HD/GP $2.5

Lor’Vah had been sitting with Kah’Sin for a few minutes when the door-chime rang. They had just gotten back from lunch with ‘Ri, and were sitting together as they watched Teh’Lana playing a game on a datapad, while they listened to some [music](https://www.youtube.com/live/oN-IAwhSxGY?si=i_GByP5G5rOS1AJ5) from Earth that was quite soothing. It had been a few days of travel so far, as the human government didn’t want to make public knowledge of their teleportation technology just yet. And while she *did* wish to be able to walk on solid land again - the time on ‘Sanctuary’, as Kyle called it, not being quite enough time - she was happier being able to spend time with *both* of her daughters. ‘Ri had had to get back to work, so they didn’t know who this was, though only a couple people came to mind as to who could be visiting them.
Kah’Sin called out for the computer to open the comms, and they were confirmed in their first guess: it was Kyle, asking to speak with them. Considering that he’d waited *specifically* until he was sure that ‘Ri wouldn’t be there, they shared a knowing glance before Kah’Sin bid him enter. As soon as the door opened, Teh’Lana looked over, and smiled.
“Kyle!” She exclaimed excitedly; she had really taken a shine to him in the past few days, and she was pleased to see him treating her the way she might expect any big brother to.
“Hey, ‘Lana; what’cha doin?” he asked good-naturedly.
“I’m playin, *game*!”
“*Cool*,” he proclaimed, “Are you winnin’?”
“Uh’huh!” She was all smiles.
“*Alright*,” he encouraged her, “Well, I gotta talk to your Mama and Papa, okay?”
“Okay,” she replied happily; Kyle smiled, and reached down to lovingly stroke her hair as he passed, sitting down in the chair opposite them on the couch where they sat.
“Can I get you anything to drink?” she asked politely, to which Kyle shook his head.
“No, thank you,” he replied, “I’m good…” He trailed off for a moment, looking almost lost; they stayed quiet, allowing him to collect his thoughts.
“*Well*,” he began again, “As I’m sure you’ve noticed, ‘Ri and I have become pretty close…”
“We *have*,” Kah’Sin replied evenly, with a hint of humor to his voice, “And are we to presume that you’ve come to ask for our permission to ask our daughter to marry you?”
Kyle looked up with a bit more sharpness to his demeanor than what he’d shown so far.
“*No*,” he replied with slightly more force, before continuing, “I mean… Not that I don’t value your opinion, but when it comes to our relationship, I don’t believe it’s up to you to decide if she had the chance to choose for herself. Which isn’t to say that I honestly believe that she’d choose me over *y’all*, but I’m also not here for you to tell me whether I can or can’t ask her in the first place… *However*,” he continued, “What I *am* here to ask for is y’all’s *blessing*, which would mean the *wor*-,” he stopped himself with a thoughtful expression on his face, then continued, “... more than *all the worlds I currently own* to me.”
She looked at her husband, who looked at her steadily, almost emotionlessly; then he turned back to Kyle.
“*Good*,” he replied with a smile, watching Kyle deflate in relief and confusion, “Because my blessing *is* - in fact - something that I *can* give. I’ve never been too partial to those old customs: it’s not my place to give my daughter permission to be married, the same as it wasn’t *her* father’s right to tell me I couldn’t marry *his* daughter.” At this, Kah’Sin gave her a light squeeze, causing her to slap him playfully on the shoulder; her father hadn’t approved of their union, but she hadn’t cared about that, and had run away with Kah’Sin to elope.
“So long as you can make my daughter happy,” he continued, “Then I can get behind your union… *Now*,” he clapped his hands together, rubbing them excitedly, “I’m guessing that if you’ve come *this* far, that you’ve already gotten the tiara?”
Smiling almost conspiratorially, Kyle held his hands together, palms up - as they had seen *numerous* times by this point - and a small, flat, black box appeared in his hands. Balancing it on one hand, he used the other to open the lid, and she was so transfixed by what she saw, she actually forgot to breathe for a few wing-beats.
“Good *goddess*, man,” Kah’Sin managed to choke out, “Did you cut open the *void* to make this?”
He was right to exclaim as such, seeing as that’s literally what she appeared to be looking at: a tiara - *circlet*, really, but whether it connected all the way around or not, when it came to ‘engagement pieces’, for the women it was always referred to as ‘tiara’, for the men it was ‘circlet’ - that was made from the inky blackness of the void, complete with tiny stars twinkling in and out of existence, depending on the angle it was viewed from.
“*Yeah*,” Kyle replied in a good-natured, joking manner, “But lemme tell you: coaxing that big star so close to the surface was a *real* chore.”
“I can *imagine*,” Kah’Sin replied, to which they all had a small laugh; Kyle continued,
“It’s actually made from the skull plate of the first Texas dragon I killed; with the help of my team, of course,” they had seen the video, and simply nodded, “The black hole diamonds I got as a reward for returning the pendant,” they nodded once more, “And then I used the kath’loo’s Gift to turn it so black that it absorbs 100% of the light that hits it; I turned the bone behind the diamond dust - and the larger one in the center - silver to reflect the light, because they were barely visible with how much light was being absorbed by the background. Refraction can only go so far, it seems… So: what d’you think?”
She had noticed that his natural accent of ‘informal’ words tended to heighten when he was nervous, and for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out what he could be nervous about: with something like *this*, even the most homophobic of individuals would accept his marriage proposal with no hesitation. Forget the fact that this could *easily* buy an occupied planet, the sheer *beauty* alone would be enough to entrance any being who laid eyes on it; she had the vague notion that this is what the other races - except the insectoids, and the humans, it appeared - felt when looking at a drahk’mihn.
It was Kah’Sin who drove that point home,
“I think that if she doesn’t marry you, that *we* would be *happy* to.”
She laughed lightly, playfully pushing his shoulder; polygamy wasn’t uncommon in drahk’mihn culture, but neither of them had ever expressed an interest in it before. He smiled at her, then looked back at Kyle.
“I think you’ve outdone the greatest artists of *any* species, Kyle, and I think she’ll love it.”
“I second that,” she added in; at that moment, Teh’Lana came around the side of Kyle’s chair.
“*Oooohhhh*,” she said in an awestruck voice, looking at the tiara, “*Pretty!*”
“I know,” Kyle replied, smiling, “It’s for your sister, but it’s a surprise, so we gotta keep it a secret. *Shh*.” He put his finger to his lips as he made the ‘shushing’ noise, a motion that Teh’Lana copied, laughing a little afterwards.
Kyle showed them how the sides unclasped in order to be able to wrap around her horns, and informed them that he planned on asking her when they had reached the station. After sitting and talking for a while, he took his leave - not before Teh’Lana insisted on giving him a hug, of course - and they were left alone to discuss this new development in their lives.

Just as Kyle was about to push the button to announce his presence, a voice came out over the speaker,
“Come in, Kyle.”
He was only surprised for about a second, before smiling, realizing that he shouldn’t be; he stuck out his tongue at the camera over the door controls, then motioned for the door to open.
“You can use him to tell you when someone’s at the door,” he said to the Captain as said door closed behind him, “But you won’t have him *open* it for me?”
“Well,” she replied as she sat in her chair behind her desk, looking up from a monitor in front of her, “He’s not a *servant*; he told me you were there, I didn’t *ask* him to.”
Golden usually kept his drahk’mihn body in a series of internal passageways, so that he could transport it wherever he needed to at a moment’s notice; these he had installed himself just recently, tapping into the nanoforges on the ship to reconfigure his internals. His body currently wasn’t in the room, but in the body or not, he still had access to the ship’s security systems; along with every *other* system, as well, of course.
“So,” the Captain began, turning the monitor off, “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“*Well*,” he began, taking the seat across from her, “So, I’ve been *thinking*, and - *all by myself*, with *no* outside influence - I’ve decided that on planets with a pre-rating of ‘8’ or higher, then I should bring extra security personnel with me. I’m sure only *one* person would be needed…”
She smiled knowingly.
“Come up with this idea all on your own, huh?” she asked, a sly note in her voice.
“*Oh yeah*,” he replied, smiling, “All by myself; no other help required…”
Her smile widened, and she leaned back, lacing her fingers together.
“Well,” she replied easily, “*You’re* the boss; got any candidates in mind?”
His own smile widened as he said,
“*Well*, I was thinking of talking about it with ‘Ri, see if she wants to take the job; I *will* - of course - approve her pay raise from ship-based officer, to planet-based.”
“*Of course*,” she replied with a smile, “Is there anything else I should be apprised of?”
He thought for a moment, then something came to him.
“Yeah, we’re gonna make a change in our sh’edule; I was gonna tell you once we reached the station, but now’s as good a time as any. I found a planet in the files that Kai’Ren got at a private auction between exploration company owners: the Federation auctions off the rights to First Contact with species that the probes discover, and this planet has *two*. Kai’Ren spent up pretty much all the money he had to buy it - which is probably why he tried stealing those systems from me - but he was apparently trying to gather up the money to be able to send a team in with full hazmat gear, considering that the viral/bacterial aggression is at a Level 11. Me, ‘Ri, ‘n Cheshire’ll be fine as we are, but the rest of the team will need an upgrade to their immune systems if they wanna come with us. They can get that done in the med bay; I don’t trust my control over the kath’loo’s Gift enough to be able to perfectly alter someone else’s biology like that.”
She nodded in understanding, then spoke up,
“Sounds like a plan; what information do we have on the sapient species?”
So he took the time to detail out everything he’d learned about the two races that shared the planet, but never interacted with each other because of their biologies. One was a serpentine race that - obviously - couldn’t withstand the colder temperatures of the planet’s winters; which lasted for an entire Earth year, from fall through winter, and another year for the warmer seasons.
The other race was another large primate, and they lived up in the mountains until the winter ‘months’, when they were able to migrate down, and replenish their stocks of herd animals. These were actually more advanced than the serpentine race, as there were pictures of their villages being lit up at nights with what was clearly not ‘natural’ light. The probe had needed to go out to the ocean to enter the atmosphere to not risk being noticed by the inhabitants, doing a scan on the microbial life of the planet.
After they were finished, it was about time for him to go catch dinner with ‘Ri and her family, so he bid the Captain goodnight, and left her office. The rest of the night passed smoothly, and all that was left was for them to enjoy the rest of the trip back to the station.

Par’Lo was an old sehr’chtahb, the once-black rings around his eyes now a dull gray, while the fur on his body was pretty much all white. There was no real use for his Gift to mold metal and other minerals to his will in owning a run-down old bar in a backwaters space station that could more accurately be described as a ‘hideout’ on most days. Not that any criminal outfit actually *ran* this place, but everyone here knew to keep their heads down, and mouths shut. Business owners like himself relied on the service of anyone who came their way - having their *own* reasons to be skirting the center of the Federation, as it were - so discretion was a virtue in keeping a business running. He was just lucky enough to have been able to acquire this bar: it wasn’t much, but it was the only one around for weeks in subspace.
They *did* still receive transmissions from the Federation this far out - they weren’t an *actual* crime center, so they weren’t really *trying* to stay off the Federations ‘radar’ - so he had a screen playing in the corner of the bar for a break in the monotony. As he was pouring another drink to a vell’prah at the bar, a special broadcast came across the screen, drawing the attention of everyone nearby.
It appeared to be a message from the suun’mahs, the subject of which being the newest species introduced to the Federation, these ‘humans’ that they were sponsoring in their Uplifting. Humans - it appeared - were relatively close to gaining FTL capabilities, so their process was shorter than most others in the Federation. The suun’mahs scientists had been there every step of the way, making sure the humans understood each new concept, and how to apply it to their everyday lives before moving on to the next, more complicated subject.
The suun’mahs representative then announced that there was a special message that the humans had sent out, more than *500* of their years prior. And it was quite the message, indeed; it was over a Standard hour by itself, though the gravity of it made the time seem to pass by mostly unnoticed. It wasn’t much, by the standards of what might be sent during diplomatic exchanges, except that it had been created long before digital media existed in any reliable capacity; so they had transcribed it on a golden disk, using the technology they possessed at the time to encode their message, for all to see.
They saw pictures of humans, from all walks of life, doing all manner of activities. They heard the sounds of nature, animals and seismic events, storms and the gentle breeze in the grass. They saw - and heard a translated reading of - a message of text sent out with the images and sounds, a message of hope and good will, extending a hand of friendship to galactic neighbors they had no proof even existed, in the *hopes* that they weren’t hostile. And yet they had risked that, in order to confirm that they weren’t alone in the universe.
This was followed by a quick montage of Ambassador Redding’s exploits in the Federation, so far. It showed him meeting his team his first day on the ship, and of him finding the miu’alfar being harrassed, saving her from her attackers, and scaring them easily. It showed him almost being impaled by a gal’guin who could apparently hurl insults at someone about their race, but couldn’t take even a single one aimed at his own. As the human on the screen spun around with a resounding crunching noise, he heard a slight chuckle from the gal’guin sitting at the bar; he looked over with a surprised look on his face.
The gal’guin simply twitched his antenna in a way that he knew to be the equivalent to a shrug in other species, nonchalantly saying,
“I’ve never heard that one before,” he replied, obviously referencing the human insulting his species for *having* a Gift, “Rather impressive, actually; especially considering the *source*.” He gave a conceding shrug, and turned back to the monitor just in time to see the suun’mahs come back on screen, a solemn expression on his face.
“We have to inform you at this moment that we are coming to some rather… *sensitive* material, and if you have young children in the room - or for those with a sensitive constitution - we are putting up a timer on-screen depicting the length of the following series of clips, which will be translated into your local time measurement. The graphic material will - of course - be censored, however it is *still* shocking to witness, even as is. Viewer discretion is advised.”
And with that, it cut to a shot of the human Ambassador, but obviously *before* he became the ambassador. He was in a cage with a large feline to one side of him, and a large canine to another. Over the length of the montage, it was evident that he was ‘taming’ the creatures - the cervine creature to the other remaining side seemed too skittish to get near the predators - to the point that each would eventually walk over to the spot where their cages interacted with his, him being in the corner of his own, stroking and scratching both at the same time in a manner that seemed just as relaxing to the human as it would most definitely be for any creature underneath those dexterous fingers. Sure, there were clips interspersed of the mahn’ewe doing their experiments, taking excessive amounts of biomatter from him, but the focus was obviously on his relationship with the animals, and how obviously natural it was for his kind.
Which made it all the more worse when the part he knew in the back of his mind *must* come finally did; many of the animals had been disappearing from the cages around him along the montage, and it was obvious what the mahn’ewe were doing. But one day they came to take *both* of the animals he had bonded with, and his rage at the fact was a sight to behold. He didn’t seem to notice the pain as he threw himself into the bars, screaming insults at the mahn’ewe, all of whom simply laughed at him as they took the animals out. And then it was the slow wait for them to expire, getting more and more sickly by the clip, with the human becoming equally distraught apace of their sickness.
Then came the day when they died, the canine first, and then the feline, while he slept; though, he seemed to notice immediately as soon as his body showed signs of waking up. At the laughter of the mahn’ewe, he leapt up in a fury that made his previous outburst look like a child’s temper tantrum, devolving to the point that he wasn’t even speaking actual words, just deranged screaming of a wounded animal that was scared and angry, knowing it was facing its death. Then one of the mahn’ewe made the mistake of thinking the human wasn’t paying attention, and went to poke him in the side with one of the long poles they were all carrying; at which point the human latched onto it faster than the eye could see, pulling the mahn’ewe into the bars, and impaling one of the ones in the canine’s cage, the blunt end piercing straight through the small alien like it was sharpened to a fine point.
It wasn’t that that made the mahn’ewe stop laughing, nor the obvious sounds of bones shattering under the larger primate’s vice-like grip; it was when there were obviously no more bones to break in the smaller alien’s neck, and he tore it completely off of its shoulders. The shoulders up were heavily blurred out a couple seconds before the actual act happened - along with the sound being completely cut - but it was obvious what had happened; especially when he threw the pieces of the body at the remaining mahn’ewe before him. Finally silenced - and obviously fearful - they actually flinched when he launched himself at the bars again; they hurriedly retrieved all the bodies, and got the hells out of the hold.
This was confirmed by the suun’mahs to be what led the mahn’ewe to rank them as a Class 12 aggressor species, and to be confirmed by the humans as being, quote: an ‘understandable reaction to the given circumstances’. From there it cut to the first planet that he had been stationed to, after a brief explanation that he had received help from a razum’yilahnfor the trauma he endured in his time spent aboard the mahn’ewe ship.
They saw him jump in front of a comparatively small - but no less ferocious - feline to save his team, and they saw his first interaction with the natives of that planet, most notably the incident where he first met their domesticated canines. It was actually surprisingly heartwarming to watch, especially after the scene with the canine and feline in the mahn’ewe ship. Then - rather amusingly, garnering a new kind of respect from the patrons in his bar - they saw him ingest some berry that the plant-people of that planet grew on themselves, after which he was *obviously* intoxicated, his inhibitions seemingly going out the airlock a few minutes after eating it.
On to the second planet, where a new side of the human was shown, with him and his pup - that had been gifted to him by the hamad’ruid, which was the loophole that was needed for anyone to bring a new animal off planet without first knowing how removing it would affect the environment - running happily through the trees, the razum’yilahn from his team wrapped around his neck and torso, providing her the heat she needed to survive on their mission, and providing *him* the Gift of telekinesis, which would be helpful in case he was attacked by a wild animal, or met another sapient race.
The third planet was pretty uneventful, apparently, seeing as all that was shown was a few clips demonstrating that the tension that had been evident between him and the vell’prah leading the group had obviously been resolved somehow, and obviously sometime on the ride between planets. What was more interesting was his experience aboard the space station the ship he was on stopped at.
First was a bit of clips showing him being escorted around the station by an official-looking suun’mahs, stopping at a tailor’s first; where the human got a look of terror on his face as soon as he saw the shop owner, running off and later confirming to the suun’mahs with him that he was arachnophobic. He refused the offer to go elsewhere however, stating that now that he was dealing with *sapient* beings, he needed to get over his fears, going back to the shop to be fitted for a new wardrobe. And he managed to make it through the measurements, though it was obvious that he was on edge the entire time.
Next they went to a lovely drahk’mihn’s makeup shop, where he bought some eyeshadow and lipstick - and paid to have her apply it for him - along with dying one side of the little bit of hair humans seemed to have only on their heads, as well. After that was done, and they had retrieved his clothes from the shop, the suun’mahs began to escort him to the section of the station where the hotels were located.
Along the way, they met up with a group of humans who had been part of the initial ‘testing’ of having their species working in Federation jobs, all of whom had - understandably - chosen to work with their ambassador. However, they revealed to the Ambassador that they had found a missing child, who turned out to be none other than a gal’guin, too young to be expected to understand Federation Standard. And in an act that displayed that he didn’t hold what had happened on the ship against their species as a whole, he stood on the railing of the walkway - another human doing the same at his back - and yelled out *quite* loudly, stating that they had found a lost child, asking if anyone was looking for them; and before he could finish, a pair of gal’guin came flying over, anxiety etched in their every movement.

Joy
“Please don’t do this to me! I’ll die out there!” Tiffany crumpled to the floor, phone shaking against her ear.
A gruff voice crackled. “I’m sorry Tiffany, our runner in your area got caught on his latest delivery. My other guy barely made it back. He saw Jimmy get hauled into the van. They’ve probably torn him apart by now.”
“Please…I don’t have any food left in the house. I’ll never make it out there. They’ll spot me immediately.”
“Listen, listen Tiff. It’s going to be OK. Listen to me alright? There’s a shop one block away from you.”
“I can’t!”
“You have to! OK, all you have to do is get in and get out. Put on the darkest sunglasses you have. You have shades right?”
Tiffany glanced up to the cabinet. Her terrified face reflected at her through the polarized lenses. “Uh-huh”
“That’s good, that’s real good. Now you put those on and grab enough food for a week while I find a replacement runner OK?”
“O-OK”
“And Tiffany?”
“Remember to smile, smile as wide as you can and never drop it. You know what happens if they suspect…”
“I know, thanks Mark.”
Tiffany hung up the phone with a shuddering exhale. She stood up and looked herself over in the mirror. A terrified blonde woman stared back, eyes wide with fear.
She wiped her tears and smoothed out her locks. She grasped her oversized sunglasses with trembling hands and put them on. She bent over, adjusting them carefully to ensure no trace of her eyes could be seen.
Glancing down, she looked over her list of food. Enough for a week…get in, get out…and smile.
Before turning to leave, she smiled into the mirror. The upturned mouth seemed almost foreign to her; she hadn’t laughed since everyone had been Torn. There weren’t many of her left in the world; the Joyous reigned supreme.
She stretched her smile as wide as it could go, until her cheeks strained with the effort. Exhaling through her teeth, she grasped the handle. The doorknob shook from her grip. Get it together…in and out…
She twisted the knob and threw the door open.
An eyeless face sprang up to meet her.
Tiffany screamed and jumped back.
“Oh, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you!”
Tiffany clutched her heaving chest, trying to calm herself. The woman standing in on her stoop had no eyes, only dark, empty sockets each gleaming with a glowing pinprick of light. An enormous smile spread from ear to ear.
Tiffany forced words from her paralyzed mind. “Oh, it’s alright, I was just about to get some shopping done!”
The woman stared unblinking with her flickering pits. She lifted a newspaper. “I saw this blow over onto the street, so I thought I’d bring this little ol’ newsie inside!” She let out a raucous laugh.
Tiffany accepted the paper, praying she looked relaxed. She took a quick glimpse at the headline.
Joy! New York Mayor Declares City over 99% Pure on 1-Year Anniversary!
“Aww, I see you have just been Freed. Congratulations dear. How do you like the colors?” The woman bent her head closer to Tiffany’s face. Her heart hammered in her throat as her eyes were drawn to the woman’s scars. Black lines spider webbed all across her body, down her arms, over her face, and plunged down her low cut shirt. “Aw, I remember when I was freed; I didn’t really have scars either. I found a great doctor who touched me up; I can share his number with you!” She lifted her neck, showing off her scars wrapped around her throat.
“Yes, the colors they’re so…beautiful. Yeah…the doctors said I was one of the lucky ones, guess tough skin runs in the family.” Tiffany tried to laugh as she spoke.
The woman leaned back; her smile somehow widening even more. “Ah! Tragic! Stay safe y’hear? A naughty somebody escaped the hospital recently, ah, there he is now. Isn’t he silly?” She pointed to the distance.
Tiffany turned her head in the direction of her arm. Her heart sank to her stomach.
The street rose in an incline. The distant figure of a man climbed into sight at the crest of the hill. His sandy hair was unmistakable.
Tiffany lifted a trembling hand to her mouth. Jimmy?
Jimmy was naked with blood pouring in rivets all down the front of his torso. As she squinted, she realized that Jimmy’s body wasn't moving; it hung limp, limbs dangling in the air. Her darting eyes widened as she saw his legs hovered off the road.
Four thick tendrils pulsated out of Jimmy’s gaping mouth. The dark trunks spilled out onto the ground, suspending his frame in midair. The shadowy pillars supported his body like makeshift legs. Jimmy lolled back and forth as the inhuman limbs propelled him down the hill like a beast.
Tiffany’s stomach churned in knots as he careened down the street. He couldn’t speak but his bulging eyes darting all around spoke all that was needed. Her gaze adhered to the incomprehensible stalks that moved of their own accord. The tentacles shimmered and writhed all over, smaller tendrils branching off, thrashing independently of one another.
Right as he passed Tiffany, he tripped and skidded to the ground. The husks all around her burst into raucous laughter at the sight of it clamoring back up.
The woman doubled over in giggles. “Ooh, you silly goose, don’t even know what’s good for ya!”
Jimmy’s chest bloated and bubbled. The bulge traveled up his throat, extending it to an inhuman width. A horrid squelching erupted as two pink sacs attached to tubes slithered out of his mouth, traveling along the lengths of the trunks. Tiffany could barely support her own weight at the sight of Jimmy’s lungs pulsating in frantic breaths.
Her horrified gaze watched as the lungs enlarged in a deep breath, a gurgling crescendoing in pitch. They expanded to full size and hung still for an instant. Then exploded in desperate screams.
“HELP ME! PLEASE, I’M ALIVE LIKE YO-”
With the roar of an engine and the screech of tires, a vehicle slammed into Jimmy’s body. A spray of blood rained on Tiffany and the crowd. A white van screeched to a halt just as Jimmy flew through the air, all eight limbs flailing in the wind.
No amount of bracing could prepare Tiffany for the sound of bones crushing as Jimmy landed in a bloody mess on the asphalt. The crowd of husks whooped and hollered. The drivers clambered out of the vehicle and took deep bows, grinning broadly.
Wiping off blood, Tiffany inspected the logo on the van. It displayed two cartoon men each standing on the side of another person. The person was divided into two halves. One side was human with a smiling face while the other was a shadowy figure, screaming in agony. The smiling men each pulled on an arm as if separating the halves.
“Sorry folks! We had a feisty one here, we’ll take care of it from here!” He drew a syringe from his pocket.
“That’s OK! Need a hand?” The woman called back to enthusiastic nods from the crowd. The van driver waved his arm in the direction of Jimmy’s limb body.
Tiffany blinked back burning tears as she watched Jimmy twitch on the ground. The husks closed in around him, laughing as they surrounded him. She wanted nothing more than to just retreat inside and vomit. But an opportunity presented itself.
Streams of people poured out of the shop ahead, drawn to the spectacle on the street. The sidewalks leading up to the store cleared. Her path would never be this open again. Tearing her eyes from Jimmy, she walked as fast as possible to the market, her smile twitching in anguish.
After what felt like hours, she stood at the entrance to the food mart. She moved her jaw around to loosen it, almost flinching as it popped. OK…in and out…then you’re safe. Running over her mental list one last time, she barged inside.
A wave of frigid air washed over her. She scanned the shop, exhaling out a sigh of relief as she confirmed it was mostly empty. Only a mother pushing a stroller joined her in the market.
Tiffany whipped out a shopping cart and sped down aisle by aisle. Eyes darting, she grasped each item on her list as if it were manna from heaven. Her breathing eased as she made it to the other side of the store without incident. A small bit of happiness welled up within her as she looked over her bulging wagon. It was enough to last her two weeks, two blissful weeks of safety. All she had to do was get out.
She strolled to the checkout lane. The mother was in front of her, the groceries crinkling as they were bagged by the cheerful cashier. Tiffany’s knuckles gripped the cart so hard they turned white. Please…just pay and leave…
Tiffany’s heart skipped a beat as the mother twisted her neck to look at her. Empty sockets crinkled as the young woman’s smile widened. “Why hello there! Any idea what the ruckus is out there?” A collective cheer erupted outside in the distance.
Tiffany shook her head, trying to push Jimmy’s battered body out of her thoughts.
She glanced at Tiffany’s cart. “Big haul. You having a party?”
Tiffany nodded, almost forgetting to breathe.
“Am I invited? Where do you live?”
Tiffany gulped. The mother roared with laughter. “Oh dearie me, I’m just kidding you. I’d love to go but this little man down here takes up all my time. Wanna say hi?”
Tiffany nodded again, her cheeks screaming with the strain of her fake smile. The mother lifted the hood of the stroller and wheeled it around, facing Tiffany. An eyeless baby cooed up at her, its sockets nearly taking up half its face. Black scars lined its entire body, lashing its face that carved itself into a wide smile.
Tiffany screamed in terror, flinging herself back.
CLACK!
Light streamed into her eyes as they watered. Time almost stopped as she glanced down at her sunglasses. Shuddering, she looked back up. The mother, baby, and cashier stared at her.
Without taking his sockets off her, the cashier pressed a button on the counter. An intercom crackled to life. “Attention all employees. We have someone in pain over here. Please call the authorities while we restrain her.”
Tiffany threw the cart to the ground, sprinting to the glass double doors. Talon-like fingers dug into her shoulder right as she reached the exit. “NO! PLEASE LET ME GO! PLEASE!”
But the mother just giggled into her ear. “Now why would I do that, sweetie? Don’t worry, we’re going to help you. See? They’re already here to heal you!”
Tiffany’s heart sank into her stomach as she watched the same van that crashed into Jimmy park outside. Two men dressed in scrubs burst out the back, wheeling out a gurney. Her eyes bulged as she gazed at the restraints gleaming cruelly in the morning light.
The smiling men jaunted over to her. Tiffany ground her heel into the mother’s toes; the arms holding her released. She rushed forward to the man on the left, throwing a wild punch in desperation.
To her surprise, her knuckles connected, slamming the man’s head back to its side. Rough hands grabbed her arms by the elbows, jerking them behind her.
The man she’d punched twisted his head back, the unnatural smile still plastered on his face. “Now, now simmer down, young lady. He snatched her kicking feet and lifted her in tandem with the other man.
With inhuman strength, they slammed her onto the gurney. She flailed, straining her limbs against their grasp. Her shoulders popped in their sockets, her screams erupting in pain and fear.
CLICK!
Cold metal clamped down on her right wrist. Three more clicks restrained her completely.
“No, no, no, please! Just let me go! I’ll never bother you again!” Tiffany half screamed and half sobbed.
One man chuckled. “Oops! Gotta make some room!”
She wailed as she watched the men drag Jimmy’s corpse out of the back and toss it on the sidewalk. The doors slammed shut, and the vehicle sped off.
Desperation gave way to despair for Tiffany, she wept bitterly. She gasped as the men wiped away tears on each side of her face. They lifted their fingers to their eyeless pits, staring in wonder at the droplet forming, mouths parted and making soft cooing sounds.
“I remember my last tear, what about you Ted?” The man on her right whispered.
The man on the left nodded, sucking his finger. “Yeah…I almost miss the taste.” They both roared in laughter at the same time.
The van jolted to a halt. The men flung the doors open. “Don’t worry missy, it will all be over soon!”
She shook her head, pleading for anyone she passed to help her as she was wheeled into the hospital. All she received were condescending smiles, and pats on the hand. She was sped into an operating room. Her eyes widened in terror at the sight of the tearing chair.
A medical bed lay in the middle of the chamber. A bar of light hung at the bed’s foot. The bar crossed over the width of the bed, attached to a track that ran along the length from the bottom to the top. Her heart sank. She’d expected cutting instruments but the lack of them frightened her even more.
A grinning doctor finished washing her hands in the nearby sink, pulling latex gloves on. “Oh dearie me, look at this poor soul. It’s been a while since I’ve gotten freed one so large! The gals will take it from here, boys!” The men giggled as they left the room.
Masked women in scrubs burst from the doors to assist. Even behind the masks, their smiles were visible. They all carried scissors. Within seconds, they snipped off all of her clothes leaving her naked in the gurney.
The doctor lifted a syringe, the end dripping with sedative. “Now we need you to be still for this next part sweetie!” She rammed the needle into her hip and thumbed the plunger down. She gasped as the burning liquid clouded into her bloodstream. At once, her extremities deadened, all feeling and control gone.
A pair of arms gripped each of her limbs as she was lifted off the gurney and thrown onto the medical bed. The doctor looked down at her at the foot of the bed, grasping the bar of light. It pulsated in waves of color as she clinked it into place over Tiffany’s feet so that the luminescence only hovered an inch over her skin.
The soles of her feet writhed in agony in the light’s presence. Tiffany screamed at the burning tendrils within her feet. A horrific thought pierced her torment in a single moment of clarity. Something is moving inside me. Using the last vestiges of motor control left, she lifted her head an inch, eyes glued to her feet.
Various ridges rolled around on the tops of her feet, almost as if something flailed to get away from the brilliant light. The doctor traced a finger over the thrashing bulges. “Yes, the time for your last pain draws near, little one. No longer will you torment this young woman. No longer.” She placed both hands on the instrument bar. “Now, I must warn you. This will hurt…more than anything you’ve ever felt in your life. But what awaits you on the other side is…” She laughed.
“Please…” Tiffany whimpered, but the doctor pushed the bar of light up her legs.
Torture. Pure agony. Tiffany screamed to the point she thought her jaw might pop off its hinges. The writhing in her feet intensified, pulling and tearing at her skin…
A spurt of blood spewed over the doctor’s face. “Ah, we’ve crowned!”
“WHAT IS THIS?!” Tiffany screeched as she looked down. Blackened tentacles whipped violently back and forth, sprouting from her feet.
“Oh, it’s the sickness my sweet…it must be purged. Deep breath and here we go!” She pushed the bar of light even further along its track, this time going up her legs.
Molten lines of agony traced themselves up her legs in tandem with the glow. Tiffany’s eyes rolled up into her head and then back down again, casting her world in revolving darkness and light. The skin at her legs tore, thicker tendrils bursting out in viscous spray.
The dark veins slapped at the doctor's face but a smiling nurse grasped the flailing trunks and pinned them down as the doctor pressed on above her knees and up her thighs. Her skin bubbled and burst as the bleeding mass on each limb fled from the light. Tiffany stared transfixed at the monster birthed from her, the spindly body, the erratic, desperate movement of a trapped beast.
The bar stopped just below her groin. “This is probably the worst part dearie, brace yourself.’ She yanked it forward, up to her abdomen.
Tiffany’s voice tore, her throat bleeding raw. She’s never given birth before; the monster springing out from her womanhood made a poor substitute for a child.
“There you go baby. You’re doing so well. Halfway done!”
The instrument slid up her stomach, passing over her arms. The sickness within gripped her organs in a vain attempt to resist being torn out. Strands of obsidian wrested themselves out of her torso only to be collected and restrained by the unflinching nurses. Up her body they all went, up her chest, her shoulders, and on to her neck.
Right at the base of her chin, the bar of light chinked as it came to the end of its track. The beast within Tiffany screeched, straining at the nurses restraints. Forgetting the pain for an instant, Tiffany croaked through torn vocal chords. “What is this thing?”
The doctor wiped blood out of her sockets. “It’s your parasite, what you thought you were. I know it hurts; this thing feeds off pain. Don’t worry. We’re almost done.”
She pivoted two smaller bars of lights up to Tiffany’s head, one on each side. They swung in such a way that they would meet in the middle. Her eyes swiveled independently of each other, as if they too feared the light. The doctor smiled at the erratic movement.
“Oh, yes.” She whispered. “Feel fear. It’s what you deserve; it’s all you deserve.” She grasped each bar and clamped them together.
Blinding pressure built up in Tiffany’s eardrums as if she were being stabbed in each ear with knives aching to meet in the middle. An incessant ringing tingled, building up pitch and intensity until it was all she could hear. Her brain lit aflame, seething at the burning from the sound. “MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP!” Her mouth uttered the words, but she couldn’t hear her voice anymore.
Like a cord being unplugged from a speaker, her world fell silent one pull at a time. Black tendrils whipped in her sight as the beast fled from her ear canals. The lights passed in her vision.
The doctor spoke unheard words. She tried to close her eyes, but they weren’t hers anymore. They swiveled all about in their sockets, trying to escape her skull.
But there was no escape, not for a parasite. The lights slammed shut, meeting in the middle right over her. The kaleidoscope of luminescence overtook everything. Her world melded to an ever changing sea of merging lights.
Her thoughts, her consciousness, her very essence whirled in her brain. A dark hole sprouted in her psyche. Her being swirled around the murky depths of her existence spinning to the choreography of the lights pulse. Round and round it went until she thought her last words. Who am I? All grew dark.
—---------
The operating room light blinded Tiffany. She tried to close her eyes but found she had no lids.
She saw the metal tray she lay on.
She saw the black, spindly lengths of her body laying in a tangled heap in the tray.
She saw Tiffany laying on the medical table. What?
Her psyche ran stark with shock as she watched herself sit up from the medical table. Her eyes were gone, replaced with two glowing pits burning in deep sockets. Blood trails criss crossed all over her venous scars. Tears of crimson flowed from her pits as she sobbed into her hands.
No…that’s me? But then…who am I?
She glanced up and received her horrifying answer. An operating mirror hung on the ceiling above her. What she had once thought as herself was now nothing more than a pair of eyeballs attached to a spinal stem with nervous branches tangled and heaped in a small tray.
She was the parasite.
The real Tiffany sobbed, a wide smile stretching across her face. “Colors…so many colors…”
The doctor handed her a pair of sunglasses. “Here, put these on and keep them on for the next couple of weeks. The parasites could only see a thin spectrum of light. You can see all of it now, it’s a bit overwhelming at first but you get used to it.”
The real Tiffany placed the sunglasses on her face then clutched at her chest. “What….what is this feeling? It burns yet…it’s warm all over..”
The doctor knelt at the real Tiffany’s side. “It’s happiness…” She giggled. “Pure happiness, it’s what that parasite over there denied you.” The doctor shot a glare to the nerve bundle that used to be Tiffany.
The real Tiffany released her chest. “How long has it been inside of me?”
The doctor stood up. “We aren’t sure when these parasites fused with humans but it must have been millennia ago. They have been entwined with us so long we even once thought they were part of our bodies. The nervous system, what a cruel joke. These things thrive off of our happiness and only feed us pain in return.”
The doctor shot the nerve bundle a look. Even though she smiled, Tiffany could feel the doctor’s contempt radiating. “Look how pathetic it is. Can’t even move anymore. These things rely on our central brain systems to move. Once separated, they are immobile. It’s rather ironic that they only try to move as we cut into their feeding supply.”
The real Tiffany hugged the doctor who returned the embrace. “Thank you…for freeing me.” The doctor rubbed her back.
They released each other. The real Tiffany looked over at the nerve bundle that used to be her. “What do we do with…it?”
The doctor grasped the nerve bundle unceremoniously in her palm. Wait…no! I’m-I’m me!
“We will cast her into the depths to which she came from of course!” The doctor laughed as she brought the nerve bundle to a trash chute. The nerve bundle glanced down, recoiling in horror. No light graced her final destination.
“Good riddance.” The nerve bundle was released and cast into the void. It landed with a plop amongst the other writhing bundles, rueing the day it ever thought it truly existed.

Hey gorls and sock puppets! I hope that you are all having a fabulous day! I’m sorry for the hiatus; it’s been a busy week.
Summary: Scottie yearns for the upcoming lunch period during PE. She thinks about sitting with Jason and her friends, Melanie, Jordyn, and Vanessa. No one has seen Mike, who usually sits at their table. Scottie goes to the star-shaped table where she sees her friends, and she notices Jordyn and Vanessa holding hands. She is especially excited to see Jordyn, who gives her a hug. Jordyn and Scottie have only been friends for a year, but Jordyn saved Scottie from bullies by being a tough football player.
Vanessa clears her throat to get Scottie’s attention, and Scottie greets her too. Scottie shows everybody her infected belly button ring that her mom took her to get, and Jordyn thinks that it’s super cool. Scottie begins to ask Jordyn and Vanessa if they’re dating, but she is interrupted by Jason, who tells everybody that it’s time to get going. As they walk to Melanie’s car to go get lunch, Jason treats Scottie coldly, not even holding her hand.
Notes and Highlights:

• There is something absolutely iconic about Scottie calling lunch “an hour of non-punishment.” It’s actually in character for an angsty teen, but I can also vividly imagine Pooks saying this in real life.
• The Geniuslynn Situation-Type-Deal is one of the most quoted molments in Scottie. I’m not exactly sure why it’s so funny, but it definitely has a certain je ne sais quoi.
• Scottie and her friends sit at a star-shaped table to show that they’re the cool kids. I’m not sure if it’s funnier to imagine a high school cafeteria having a ton of impractically shaped tables or one glamorous table for the popular kids and drab ones for the peasants.
• Scottie, a teenage girl, refers to being a couple as being “an item.”
• Scottie’s piercing is referred to as “still a little scabby and red.” I know that it is nitpicking, but this could signify an infection unless the piercing is extremely fresh. I can’t get over the idea of Pookie’s self-insert having a belly button infection too!

Gorl Molment: “As the lunch bell rings, I go straight to the star table. That's where we all meet each other. The table is literally shaped like a star.”
Geniuslynn Situation-Type-Deal: “JORDYN! I miss her oober much!”
Overall Rating: 12 out of 20 McNuggets. I enjoyed some parts of this chapter, like the table being shaped like a star, but it wasn’t particularly interesting compared to its predecessors.
Previous Chapters: 1 2
Link to Original

Hey, so I got my belly button pierced in may ‘23 and it was healing up really nice up until january ‘24. I had kept my original jewellery in all those months and then I broke the jewellery by accident. I was able to buy a new one, but I stupidly forgot to check the length of the bar, so I wore a ring with a shorter bar for a few days as I wasn’t able to get a new one right away. Bought a new ring with a longer bar but the “damage” was already done, the ball on the top had made a bit of an indent and it seems loosened the skin around the top hole a bit. It turned into a little soft bump with fluid. At first it wasn’t so bad but then it just kept getting worse and worse, and I’ve been fighting this thing for months now.
One thing I do know is that the infection or fluid that keeps it like this, might be because the “fistula” either hasn’t fully healed at the top, so basically there’s an opening to the bump from the top hole. This might be the real problem as when I move, it keeps irritating it:(
I try let it soak in salt water and clean it once or twice a day and gently clean it with cottonbuds. After I clean it, it either gets real dry like a scab or it remains soft and is just a thin layer of “scarred” skin.
So sorry for the mountain of text but at this point I’m just so desperate! Should I just keep doing what I’m doing and pray it’ll get better with time? Or is there anything more I could possibly do?

(OLDER VERSION)
LOG 319 This may be my last entry so if you are reading this then my attempt has failed The day is July 5, I think... well it's 3 years after the infection. It all started in a small research and development lab down in Texas. The lab was owned by a company known for their biological and chemical agents when they came across a way to weaponized a strain of a virus that was long since dormant but when it got out it quickly mutated and spread like wildfire throughout the country and within weeks the whole world. Those that weren't so lucky turned into the walkers as I call them and then there are those that are strait out of your nightmare those, I call night horrors I have only seen them when the sun has set and by then you need to find shelter. Oh fuck I think I just heard the screamer, well fuck I think I'm going to have to end it here. Sergeant First Class Mac Black Wolf signing off
Chapter -1 72 hours before the outbreak
Mac was out on his ascend kayak a few hundred yards off shore before the storm coming up from the gulf. At that current moment it was Wednesday the 18th day of June 2019 and Cole and mac had planned last winter. In just a few hours Mac would be packing the Ram 3500 his grandfather passed down when he passed away. It was a 1988 Ram 3500 pick-up truck with the manual transmission with an Allison trans parried to a set of dana's and a 5.9 12vavle Cummins. Meanwhile he was out on the kayak his girlfriend Amber who worked at the diner nearby. It’s around 15:00 when he gets a call from an old friend from his Army days.
Mac’s phone: RING RING RING Mac: Hello? Who is this and how did you get this number? PSG McTavish: Hello is this SFC Mac? Mac: Yes, who is this? PSG McTavish: It’s PSG McTavish. I was calling to inform you and let you know SSG John Wolf was killed last week and in his will was your name along with his life insurance policy making you soul beneficiary. Mac: Ok? And what do you want me to do about it I'm in Texas not Tennessee PSG McTavish Well sir when you're ready we would appreciate it if you would come up and collect the stuff, he has in the storage unit up here. Mac: Well I won't be able to get it until I get back from my yearly trip to the cabin so can it wait till later this month the trip is about 2 weeks long PSG McTavish: Alright there's no rush for you to come get it or we can flatbed it to you if you choose. Mac: Actually, could your flatbed it to me ill text you the delivery site I have a bad storm coming in and I’m out on the water so I have to cut it short PSG McTavish PSG McTavish: alright I don’t want to hold you up too much if there's a storm coming so I'll let you go Mac
As Mac Hangs up the phone and begins to paddle to shore as the storm approaches rapidly on him. He sees off in the distance silhouette of a tall un human like creature vanishes into the woods by his truck. As he gets closer, he just ignores the black figure and goes to pack up the gear. A few minutes go by as he the throws the last bit of stuff into the bed of his pickup. Mac starts to walk to the driver's side and notices the shadow yet again and ignores it and hops into the driver seat and begins to put the keys in the ignition. As he goes to crank the engine over. He notices the silhouette walking towards him, so he reaches under the center console for his 45acp and racks the slide back in the prosses. As the silhouette drew near Mac began to have an eerie feel go down this back and he stepped out of the truck with the 45 in hand. As the silhouette drew even closer, a passing truck blew its horn and the silhouette bolted back to the woods on its hind legs. After all that happened Mac just went and sat in his truck and thought “I'm getting too old for this shit” and after a few moments he cranked the engine over and then started to drive to his house to pack. About an hour passes when he pulls into the driveway at that point it was around 17:00 and Amber would be getting off around 17:30. It would take about 30 minutes for her to go to her apartment and an hour to get to Mac’s house. As he was unpacking his truck, he noticed the same feeling from when he went to leave the water so he then went inside and came back out with his M14 that he tricked out for CQB that has a 16-inch barrel and a fiber optic site mounted on top zeroed at 100 yards. As he started walking to where he felt it coming from, he noticed there was no signs of nature present. Which made the woods an eerie kind of quiet, as he was investigating the area with his m14 he looked around and couldn’t find any tracks which was odd as he uses this part of his land for hunting. As he then starts to walk back to the house, he notices something was on the roof and when he went to use the scope on the m14 it vanishes. So, he just brushes it off due to his lack of sleep the night before. As Mac started to walk back to the house after he thought he saw something on the roof. As he started to grab the bags from his room and carried them to the 3500, he saw Cole pull up in his souped up wrx. As Cole stepped out of the wrx, he started walking over to Mac to give him a hug. As Mac set the bag in the bed of the truck and went to hug Cole as the last time, they saw each other was about six months prior. After a little while of Mac and Cole catching up, Mac asks Cole if he’s feeling an eerie feeling like something wasn’t right. Cole reply’s back with a hesitant tone unsure why Mac was asking if he had felt an eerie feeling? As they were carrying bags from the house to the truck and from Coles wrx. Cole began to have the eerie feel that Mac asked him about and asked Mac why. After a bit of hesitation Mac starts to tell Cole feeling like he would think Mac was a deranged from seeing a silhouette of a beast that no one else sees. As Cole knew Mack for over 25 years, he trusted him and knew he wouldn’t pull a stunt like this and not show true emotion of anxiety as this wasn’t anything he’s ever seen before. As they threw the last bag into the bed of the truck, Mac asked Cole if he wanted an Ice-cold homebrewed clone of a really nice beer.
As they headed for the house Cole mentions to Mac “Hey didn’t you buy a new rifle Mac?” Mac looks over to Cole and said “HELL to the fuck yes although ambers going to be pissed about it because of the price tag but fuck it you only live once.” As they laughed Amber pulled up and went up to Mac not seeing Cole and said, “baby can you fuck me good tonight work was exhausting.” After Amber said that Cole busts out laughing. Once Amber realized Cole was right next to her, she blushed a bright shade of red she's never done before. As Amber turned to hide her face, she ran to the house trying to hide her embarrassment she was showing plastered all over her face. After Amber left Mac and Cole, they looked at each other and Mac gave Cole that look like “brah I'm getting laid. “As Cole gave back that the look of “my bros getting some tonight” look back to Mac. Meanwhile the three of them where standing in the group the black silhouetted figure was watching them with its narrow beady eyes off from a distance but Amber was so oblivious to the silhouette and Cole that she didn’t feel the eerie feel that’s been going on around the house. When Mac and Cole started walking to the front door, they both saw the silhouette and Cole looked at Mac asking is that the thing? Mac replied with yes that’s the thing that’s been fallowing me all day. As they open the door Amber was walking from Macs room to the bathroom to take a shower as she had the towel wrapped around her so Mac told Cole to go grab us a beer as he walked to the bathroom to ask Amber something. As Mack was walking up to the door amber calls out for Mac right as Mac was about to knock on the door. When amber asked who it was not knowing Mac was on the other side so Mac replied “it's me babe”. As Amber then told him to enter. As Mac opened the door slowly and walked in Amber was in the shower and said “did you need anything babe?” Amber replied promptly by reaching for Macs arm tugging on it trying to make Mac hop in with her. Mac then told Amber “if you want me to join you, I'll have to go get a towel babe”. Amber says back “so you don’t love me anymore?” As Amber said that all Mac could think was, she was being more needy then normal. As he thought of reasons why Amber was so much more needy then normal. He couldn’t figure out why then it hit him like a freight train, she wanted to have kids together. What Amber didn’t know was in one of those bags was an engagement ring. While Cole was in the front room Mac went and grabbed a towel for himself and went to the shower to join Amber who would soon be his fiancé. As he was walking to the shower, he noticed something in the corner of his eye, then realized the box to the ring was not hidden so he slipped it into the drawer that had his shirts and closed it so Amber hopefully would not find it. So, he then closed the door and started walking to the bathroom and texted Cole asking him if he was coming by himself or is his girl April coming. As Mack was walking to the shower with his phone in one hand and towel in the other hand. As Mack went to reach for the door knob to open it he could hear Amber singing a song that was special to them as it was the first song that they danced to as he walked into the bathroom to join her in the shower Mack started to sing along and stripped in the proses starting with his boots then to the belt then the button and zipper of his pants ending at the shirt and then hop in with Amber as they spend the next half hour or so in the shower. Meanwhile Cole was texting April finding out of she was going to go to the cabin this week end or was she going to skip as he waited for the reply she started to doze off but right as he as a bout to pass out April replied that she was going to be going so she would be meeting then on the road in the morning so as he was reading it he slowly dozed off and fell asleep. Mack and Amber were in the shower Cole was dosing off as they went to step out and head to the bedroom to get dressed as all they had on was a towel and as they walked to the bedroom Mack slaps Amber’s ass in a playful manner like he does from time to time as they walk to the bed room and he smacks her ass Amber let’s out a little moan of pleasure and Cole gets startled from the moan and pulls his nine out of the jacket he had on and realized it was just Mac smacking Amber’s ass and goes back to sleep. As Mack slapped Ambers ass and moaned, she looked back at Mack as she moaned a little and as she saw half way in to the moan Mack kissed Amber and picked her up and carried her to bed. As the two love birds went to the bed room Cole got up and walked to the kitchen to grab a glass of water and noticed the feeling again and went to the living room and grabbed Macks saiga 12 and two 12rd mags as he stepped outside to see what was going on and all he was able to see was a pack of coyotes yipping outside and went back inside the place and set the gun down and laid down on the futon and scrolled Facebook until he falls asleep.
As dawn was approaching mack was already up and walking to the barn to see how atvs and utvs faired sence the last time he was at the cabin, a short while later Cole finally awoke and started to look around for mack. Meanwhile Mack was working on the atvs and utv so he could take them out later to go to the lake

I am only asking from a friendship or acquaintance perspective. I don’t like belly piercings, but I still help those who have this piercing with subject questions. I also will speak to them during class group meetings. Basically, I will only speak to these people during professional or academic settings. I will help them because I am not trying to be friends with them. For a friendship perspective, I will not be friends with someone who has a belly piercing. I know that they may be good people but, so are many other people without belly piercings. Being friends with someone that has a belly piercing, would mean that I am sacrificing my own preferences for someone else who could replace me. I will not change my piercing preferences just for others. If you are wondering about why the belly piercing specifically, it is because I love belly buttons. I appreciate a gorgeous belly button when I see one. If someone wears a top that shows the piercing, I will probably not be their friend. My problem is that belly rings cover the belly button. Therefore, with the piercing the belly button is obscured. They made the choice to get the belly piercing. It can be assumed that they won’t others to appreciate the belly button. In other words, mocking my preferences. Belly buttons make me ecstatic. With all of these points said, I will people with belly piercings. Therefore, I may have to tolerate the piercing. What do you think?

It’s been a few days now, and I’ve hit a roadblock. Metaphorically speaking and literally. We have tried everything to get back home, but something keeps happening. This is my last ditch effort. If you’re reading this, please send me some help.
Let me explain, to the best of my abilities. While I have a connection of course. Sunday, me and a friend, let’s call him Angus, left Rural Indiana to go on a road trip. My idea of course. He had just graduated college and I thought ‘what a perfect time for a vacation.’.
Me and Angus have known eachother since diapers. Despite being practically brothers, we haven’t really seen eachother in years. Not only would this be a little celebration for my boy, but we could get closer again. Back to the way it used to be.
“Lewis, I won’t tell you twice, I am not sleeping in a fuckin tent.” Angus groaned at me as I threw some of our shit in the bed of my truck.
“And you call yourself a man? Do you know how much money you’d save? Guess that doesn’t matter to some soon-to-be accountant.” I jokingly scoffed.
“Yeah well, I’d rather keep my balls for an extra $100.”
“Who’s taking your balls? Sure as hell ain't me.” I shot him an eyebrow and he laughed.
”Snakes.”
“You got me there Angus.” I scratched my head and stood back to stare at the truck. It was filled to the brim with every necessity known to man. You got your highway toilet paper, emergency snack pack, sunset lawn chairs. What else could you need? A cold case of beer and a dream will keep me from running on e.
“You want me to drive, mister educated? I’m not too fond of maps.” My hands were held up as I inched toward the drivers side of my truck. Angus rolled his eyes and took off his hat.
“Gps and phones do exist.”
“No sir, no can do. This is a tech-free journey.” I groaned before plopping my ass into the truck.
“Yeah there is no way in Hell.” Angus shook his head before setting himself in the passenger’s seat. I grimaced at his reluctance. This would be a sure way for the two of us to connect. He couldn’t shut me out if he was bored. In hindsight, I thank god he was so adamant against my technophobic nature. I wouldn’t be able to write this if he’d listened to me.
We ended up leaving his apartment at 6 o’clock sharp. The sun was barely peeking through over the horizon, and I was still sleepy as can be. I turned the radio on, trying to mask my drowsiness.
Some guy was yapping about the weather, and I thought that’d sure as hell knock me out even more.
“How have you been?” Angus's voice spooked me and I looked over to him.
“I’ve seen better days.” I laughed, staring ahead and tapping the wheel in front of me. Angus only nodded, looking out the window.
“And you?”
“Good. Just nervous is all.”
“Why’s that?” I asked.
“Not ready to get out in the real world I guess. Working 9-5’s, and never getting time to myself.” I understood that sentiment. I popped fresh out of high school and ended up working at some factory that makes pop cans. It’s tiring as hell, and some days that’s all I got the energy to do. It’s a wonder that I managed to get free time with Angus.
We drove on the interstate for some time, eventually me and Angus got out of that weird awkward groove. It was like old times. We joked here and there, trying to pass the time where we could. After who knows how long, I was getting tired of driving, and Angus didn’t feel like taking over. Lazy motherfucker. His trip I guess. We stopped at some motel 6, and it seemed less than welcoming.
“Do we have to stop here?” Angus asked as I pulled into the parking lot.
“I have been driving for 12 goddamn hours. I am not waiting for the next place to stop.” I groaned.
“Come on man, it looks sketchy.” He sighed as he chewed on his bottom lip.
“Oh come on. We won’t be lonely sleeping. Surely they’ve got some welcoming critters.” I joked, nudging him with an elbow.
“Lewis, I’m serious. I don’t have a good feeling about this place.” And he was sure as hell right. I would try and play off the feeling, but man, as I stared at that welcome sign, my stomach just dropped. It looked like a scene from Jeepers Creepers or some shit. Just as I was about to pull out, I noticed my gas was nearly empty.
“Lewis, seriously?” Angus pinched the bridge of his nose as he stared at the gauge.
“We just went to the gas station!” I defended throwing my hands up.
“And did you fill it up?” He shot daggers at me.
“What? No, I asked you to!”
“No you didn’t!”
“Yeah I’m pretty sure I did.”
“No, Lewis you fucking-“ A knock on the window caused us both to nearly fly out of our seats. I looked to Lewis, who looked at me and shrugged. My attention turned to my window, and I saw a young woman, waiting on the other side of the glass. Her finger pointed downwards, as she instructed me to roll the window down. I manually cranked the glass and waited for the woman to speak.
“You boys having any trouble?” She asked, chomping on some indescribable piece of gum. Smelled like green apple at the time.
“Well, ma’am do you-“ I was cut off by Angus.
“Who’s asking?” She laughed at his response before tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
“Saw you two having a screaming match in the car, and most people don’t stop here by choice. Plus your license plate is from Indiana. Long way from home.” Something about the woman was slightly off-putting. Though, she looked nice. Her hair was neatly put up in a bun, she had some waitressing uniform on. Something’s just off about a woman interrupting a car full of screaming men. Or maybe I’m wrong.
“Is there a gas station nearby?” I finally asked, causing Angus to elbow me.
“Well, not for another mile or so. Just straight down that road.” She pointed her finger south.
“We are runnin on low.” I laughed smacking the steering wheel.
“You should be more prepared next time.” She joked with a smile.
“I wouldn’t try getting to the gas station tonight. Some real weirdos like to hang out around here.” She warned as she leaned her body on the frame of my truck.
“Is that a threat or a warning?” Angus asked.
“A warning. Check out the motel. I know the guy running it. See you around. Tell him June sent ya.” She was walking away, waving a hand goodbye. I turned to Angus and made a face.
“What the hell was that?”
“She was creepy.” Angus shuddered.
“ ‘you should be more prepared’ what the hell kinda shit is that.” I stated, letting out a huff.
“I don’t wanna go into that motel.”
“Me neither. Don’t really wanna try my luck with the gas station either.” Angus chewed on his lip as he looked out to the sky.
“Sun’s not setting for a little bit. I say we push our luck.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, fuck it.” I nodded and opened my middle console. Inside sat a lengthy hunting knife that I always keep in my back pocket.
“Jeez man. Where’s my defense?”
“You didn’t bring anything for a damn roadtrip?” I scoffed and he frowned.
“No.”
“What about bears!”
“Do you think bears are gonna be scared of a hunting knife?”
“I think they may feel at least threatened.” I scoffed digging further into the console.
“Here.” I handed Angus a pocket knife and he sighed.
“Good enough.” We both got out of the truck, and I headed to the trunk to grab an extra gas canister. In that sense, I did come prepared. We both started walking toward the direction the woman pointed, and noticed something strange. There was not a soul in sight.
“Where is everyone?”
“Maybe they heard about the night weirdos.” Angus joked.
“Yeah or maybe we’re the weirdos.” I laughed. We continued walking before a gas station finally came into view. The woman wasn’t lying. It was decrepit, and looked as if it smelt like mildew. I turned to stare at Angus for confirmation, and he simply nodded. We would pay, get our shit, and get going. Angus and I walked up to the gas pumps and immediately the grin on my face was wiped. Cash only, pay inside.
“What options do we have?” Angus asked as he ran a hand through his hair.
“Not much it seems.” I stated, as I made my way to the inside of the gas station. Upon entry, everything seemed normal. There were snacks, lotto tickets, cigarettes, you name it, they had it. It seemed like your average gas station. We both grabbed some road snacks and headed toward the checkout. But, no one was there.
“Hello?” I yelled, looking around. Angus shifted on his feet nervously and I noticed a bell on the counter. ‘Ring me!’ and so I did. Nothing happened, and no one came. I didn’t feel like stealing, but this was a last ditch effort. I leaned over the counter, looking to see how the pump handling worked.
“What do you think you’re doing?” A voice boomed.
“I’m sorry, sir, we just needed some gas. Desperately.” I tried laughing off my crime.
“Were you going to steal?” The man scoffed, stomping towards us.
“No, no. I was gonna leave some cash, right here.” I pointed at the counter and the man simply grimaced at me.
“How much.”
“What?”
“I said how much! I gotta get home!” The large man scolded us.
“$20 on 1.”
“Get your shit and leave.” I paid for all of our things, and we both rushed to the gas tank.
“What was that about?” Angus asked.
“Fuck if I know. Let’s get the hell out of here.” I instructed. The two of us filled the gas canister up. I got stuck holding it, while he managed the food. Our pace had quickened after the incident with the man. I was on edge, and knowing Angus, he was even more so. We borderline sprinted back to the motel. I was fearful that my truck would be taken, or at least the things in the back. To both of our surprise, everything was intact. By the time the truck’s gas was filled it was pitch-black out. I was exhausted at this point, and didn’t feel like I could manage a vehicle. Angus was in the same boat.
“Let’s just stay here.” I offered. Which caused Angus to shake his head.
“No way, Lewis. I’m not staying there.”
“What’s the alternative? Sleeping in the truck?”
“That’s not a bad idea.” He scoffed.
“Fine. Fuck it. We’ll sleep in here.” So, I locked the car doors, put up some shielding on the front windshield, and we both tried sleeping. Angus knocked out almost immediately. I, on the other hand, was fighting the good fight. Everytime my eyes fluttered shut, my anxiety pinched me awake. Something wouldn’t let me sleep. I stared out my window, and everything looked the same. Everything except… a person. They stood tall, next to a lamp post. I only watched, quick to not make any sudden movement. Its body was illuminated by the light, as it paced back and forth. The silhouette was hard to make. Presumably, it was a towering man, keeping himself occupied. The way it trudged forward was unsettling. Like it was on watch. I continued to stare at the shadow, hoping it wouldn’t notice me and Angus’s presence. That is. Until Angus let out the most earth-shattering fucking sneeze this side of Texas.
“Jesus.” I whispered, turning to look at the man. His mouth was agape and his eyes shut tight. He was getting the best sleep of his life. I focused my attention back out the window, only to find the man was gone.
“Shit.” The handles to my truck were being pulled on, aggressively. I couldn’t find the culprit, moving my head around nearly 360. Finally my eyes met with something… somebody… banging on Angus’s door, who was none the wiser. The person seemed like a shadow. I couldn’t tell if it was the lack of lighting or just what he looked like. Before rushing to turn the ignition, my eyes felt drawn back to the motel. I saw her. That woman. June. She was behind one of the windows, holding up a finger in front of her lips. June was right about the weirdos.
Why wouldn’t she be right about this? A smile set upon her face as she noticed my hand leaving the ignition. The shadow eventually gave up, focusing his attention on the rattling of a nearby trash can. It was only a few minutes later, that I felt myself drifting off to sleep. I don’t know how I managed, but I did.
Me and Angus both woke up at the same time, around noon. I explained to him what I saw, and he wrote me off as crazy.
“You just needed some sleep.” He reasoned, popping his back.
“No… no Angus this was real. We gotta get outta here.” I stated.
“I mean, I sure as hell agree with that. This place is creepy.” I let out a sigh and shook my head. Something was wrong with this place. I turned the truck on, and began to drive. I didn’t care if I had everything. I didn’t care if Angus wanted to stop at some gift-shop. I didn’t care if he wanted to keep on going west. I’m taking us home. Kansas aint all it’s chalked up to be. Flat as a board, but filled to the brim with weirdos it seems. It aint winning a first-place prize on first impressions. We drove for awhile. Well, I drove for awhile. Angus jack-assed on his phone.
It was nearly five hours when I noticed that the flatness of the highway was still present. The road signs had been changing, but the road wasn’t.
“Hey Angus.”
“Hmm?”
“Doesn’t that house look the same as the last?” I pointed to an old-farmhouse off in the distance.
“Yeah kinda. That’s funny.” He smiled, turning his attention back to the phone.
“We going the right way?” I ask.
“Yeah GPS says we’re on the right road.”
“How much longer?”
“Says about 7 hours till we’re back in Indiana.” Angus was bummed at first that I was adamant to head home. But he understood. The ‘vibes’ were off, and shit just felt weird. I promised I’d buy him a big ol’ pack of beer and as many strippers as he wanted. He said he’d pass on the beer. His loss. It was beginning to be evening again, and god I aint ever felt fear like I did when that sun set. When I watched it fall into the landscape, I felt so much dread deep in the pits of my belly. Surely Angus was feeling it too. I wanted to stop, but where could I? Corn, corn, and more corn filled my eyes. My body waved back-and-forth, as my drowsiness ensued.
“Hey, there’s a place to stop up ahead.” Angus assured me pointing to a rest-stop. A rest-stop all the way out here? That just don’t make sense…
“Not stopping.” I groaned.
“Lewis, you’re about to keel over.”
“Then you drive.” I barked.
“I’m tired too.”
“Imagine how I feel!” He let out a sigh and I smacked the steering wheel.
“Goddamnit Angus.”
“Let’s just stop. I’m sure it’s fine. You were just seeing shit earlier.”
“Seeing shit? Angus, I was hearing it, fucking feeling it. This ain't right. Why are we still in corn fields for fuck sakes. Somethings wrong.” Angus only shook his head at my outburst. He told me to pull into the rest stop, he was gonna call someone. So, we did. I sat in the truck as he got out, and paced back and forth. The phone was stuck to his head as he waited for someone to answer. I watched him as he stood, illuminated under the lamppost.
The night was deep, no one was around, and it seemed that Angus wasn’t getting any answers. He angrily grabbed his hair, letting out a frustrated groan. I furrowed my brows, and looked down at the wheel. This was my fault. I got us lost, or something. This entire trip was ruined. I just wanted a good time out with my friend. I missed him. It’s been so damn long since either one of us actually enjoyed life. Cherished it. Angus, forgive me. Angus?
My eyes darted around the parking lot. Where had Angus gone? I immediately grabbed my blade, shoving it into my pocket.
“Angus?” I spoke, walking around the stop. No one was out there. You couldn’t hear a fucking thing. Not even crickets. That is, until a quiet groan rang out. My head darted around frantically. Was that Angus? I ran into the rest-stop, stopping to try and locate the sound.
“Lewis.” A pinched voice spoke. Which way. Fuck.
“Angus?” He said my name again and I immediately ran for the women’s restroom. My knife was unsheathed in my hand, and I bolted into the bathroom.
“Lew…” he groaned. I stopped in my tracks, and my stomach dropped. Blood. Thick, wet, and dark dripped into the drain in the middle of the room. The stench of it burned my nose, as I slowly walked towards the sound of Angus. The light of the bathroom flickered above me, and I felt sweat pooling above my lip. The blood was coming from the second stall, fast, and steady.
“You alright Angus?” I asked. He only groaned. His groan. It. Fuck it turned into a low hum. Almost like a growl. I inched closer to the stall, hand almost pressed against the door. What was that sound? Lips smacked together and I could hear something borderline slimy? It was hard to distinguish. Angus let out a soft moan, as a crunch erupted into the air. I stepped back. I grimaced at both the sounds and the smell.
“Lewis?” I heard, coming from outside. My stomach dropped. The sounds stopped, and something fell to the floor. My eyes looked down, only to see a chunk of flesh, sliding toward me. I bolted. My legs pounded into the ground and I slammed the bathroom door shut behind me.
“Nope. Nope. Nope. Fuck. Fuck.” I huffed as I continued running. Angus stood near the car with a pained confused look. I unlocked the truck.
“Get in the goddamn truck!” I screamed and Lewis stared at me with wide eyes. He threw himself in the passenger seat and I nearly flew to get inside. Didn’t even buckle my seatbelt. Angus locked the doors and I jammed the keys into the ignition.
“What’s going on?” Lewis asked, gripping his arm.
“Shut the hell up!” I yelled, pushing the car’s gas. I could tell, by the look on Angus’s face that he saw what I was running from. I didn’t get a good look at it, but I know sure as hell, it wasn’t pretty. My eyes looked over to Angus as we continued driving. He was gripping his left arm tight. I couldn’t see in the dark, but I think there was a cloth being held to it.
“What happened?” I asked, still out of breath.
“An animal bit me.” He answered groggily.
“The fuck you mean animal? Oh dammit Angus. Is it bad?” I asked, trying to keep focused on the road.
“Yeah.” He whispered, and I could hear tears choking him.
“Hey. Calm down, I’ll pull over, I got a first-aid kit somewhere up here.” I assured and he just cried.
“No.” He stated.
“You’ll fucking bleed out. And on my, may I add, new seat covers.” I tried lightening the mood but he was inconsolable.
“No one picked up.”
“What do you mean?”
“I tried calling everyone I knew. No one answered.” He began to hiccup and I felt like shit.
“Maybe bad service?”
“I had 5 bars. I called 911. All the lines are busy.” At that notion, I went quiet. After a few minutes, I found a clear shoulder, and ended up pulling over. I turned the overhead light on, and focused on Angus.
“Just be quiet. Okay?” I instructed, and Angus nodded. The first-aid kit was fortunately filled to the brim, I guess I deemed it necessary. I removed the cloth from his wound and grimaced. It was bad. I don’t know how he hadn’t already passed out. He stuffed the wound in a way that stopped the bleeding, but it was big. The tissue was exposed, and at that point I didn’t know if stitches would do anything. Angus covered his eyes, laying back and giving me free-reign. I’m gonna be straight. I don’t know shit about wounds, and what the hell I’m supposed to do with them.
This seemed thick and deep, so I wondered if gauze would be a good option, just for the time-being, till I can get help? I tried cleaning it, but he nearly screamed. After trying to disinfect the wound, I mimicked what he did with the cloth, and wrapped it tight with even more gauze. It stopped the bleeding for the most part, but I could tell it hurt like a bitch.
This all happened yesterday evening. Now, it’s nearing nighttime again and I pulled the car over near some gas station. No one’s inside, I haven’t seen another person since that June girl. Angus is asleep next to me, he’s really fucking sick. His face is all pale, he’s sweaty, and won’t stop coughing. I don’t know what to do at this point. We keep driving, but all we find are cornfields and random buildings. I feel like we passed by the motel again, but I may be wrong. I think Angus might die… Hell, I think I might die. I tried calling people, anyone, but no one will answer. This is my last-ditch effort to try and find some help. I don’t even know if this’ll post, or if anyone will see it.
I’m stuck somewhere in Kansas, and I can’t find my way home.

Memory transcription subject: Zeel, Security Chief of the Red Sands District.
Date [Standardized human time]: June 3 2138
“This can’t be real right?” I hear from over my shoulder. “I mean, it’s got to be, what’s that phrase, click-bait?” I turn around to the young gojid intern watching the holo-screen over my shoulder. I flick my tail with a firm yes. “It has to be, other wise we need to start a murder investigation.” I blink, briefly reflecting that just a year ago I would have said predator attack without one thought that a fellow sapient could be responsible for a back alley stabbing. “B-but that blurred orange blob on the picture!” She replies, spins bristling. “Also fake.” I reassure my assistant. “Don’t worry Bavik. I watched their other videos. It’s just eye catching headlines and dumb kids looking for fame.” I sigh and turn back to the holo-screen watching the counter tick down. “I-I-I guess.” She replies, no less pointy than before. “I mean, a human actually e-e-ea… ingesting a sapient. That’s crazy right?” I can’t help but scoff, the only reason we had to waist our time on this nonsense ‘investigation’ was because of all the concerned phone calls demanding flame throwers and kicked down doors. Not that anyone even knew where on Skalga they actually where.
“What’s crazy is my pup refusing dinner because it smells funny. It did not!” It was Bavik’s turn to scoff. “And how would you know?” She asks, spines lowering as the mood relaxes. “Cheap! Shot!” I retort, holding back an amused bleat. “Look!” she blurts, pointing a claw at the screen.
[Live stream starting: 3… 2… 1…]

The view window opens on a blue painted wall. Scuffling sounds can be heard as the view wobbles and zooms out to reveal a plain wooden table with a metal dome covering a plate while a napkin, fork, knife and microphone sit off to the side.
“Are we rolling?” “Yeah we’re good. Connects a little slow with the anti-location finder but it’s going through.” “How many viewers?” “Uhhhh, three thousand, five hundred and counting.” “Really!??!! That’s great” “Some of these have got to be exterminators ‘Bonnie’ This isn’t a goo-“ “Oh hush, it’ll be fine. Come on! Sit!”
Coming into view from the left, a human of average height, red hair, and portly build wearing a simple beige hoodie, a baseball cap and aviator style sunglasses across his eyes took a seat behind the table. “Alright, introduce yourself!” The human sighs and gives his head a small shake. “Hi, people of the internet. My name is ‘Clyde’.”
He puts up his hands and makes air quotes while saying his name. Shortly after, a foggy grey furred venlil wearing a decoratively torn pink colored jean-jacket with her mop of head fur styled into a mohawk featuring yellow dyed tips while each ear had several clip-on earrings attached. “And I’m ‘Bonnie’!” she says excitedly, repeating the finger gesture while hopping into frame from the right and tossing an arm around the sitting human. “We’re exchange partners, best friends and partners in crime!” Her tail was swishing rapidly, signing happy, excited, good things and watch close in a blur that made things hard to read.
“Tell our viewers what we’re streaming today!” She bleats, jostling ‘Clyde’ who seemed to be trying not to show a toothy grin at his partners enthusiasm.
“Alright, alright. From the duo that brought you First Ever Venlil Skateboarding.” ‘Bonnie’ holds up her other arm, proudly showing off a wrist cast covered in signatures and doodles. “And Drunk Friend Mystery Tattoo” ‘Clyde’ rolls up his right sleeve, showing off what appeared to be either the side profile of a deformed horse or a very unfortunate dossur. ‘Clyde’ tugs down his sleeve and nervously taps his finger on the table. “What’s in store for our audience today ‘Bonnie’?” The venlil girl nearly bounces with glee and grabs the top of the silver metal dome. “Ven-Steak Dinner!” She yanks off the dome. A puff of hot steam clears away to reveal a slab of freshly seared meat with a sprig of parsley on top. “Ugh why is it purple!?” ‘Clyde’ blurts, jumping at the sight before him. “I don’t know, it cooked up that way. The stuff you eat turns brown.” ‘Bonnie’ says with a shrug while tucking a napkin into ‘Clyde’s’ collar.
“C’mon stick to the script.” She whispers taking a seat of her own. “So, ‘Clyde’, why are you eating genuine venlil meat today?” “Because you’re crazy?” ‘Bonnie’ giggles, swats him with her tail and continues, answering her own question.
“Because we are going to prove once and for all that humans are not ravenous beasts and can control their instincts around us poor meek venlil.” ‘Clyde’ rolls his eyes under the sunglasses.
“And that we don’t even have instincts like that. Really, it’s getting kinda racist.” He looks down at the cooked meal before him, lips curling slightly.
“Now, before anyone runs for the exterminator hotline, well those of you that haven’t fainted or run for cover yet, this is actually-“ “ME!!!” ‘Bonnie’ Jumps into her exchange partners lap, arms spreading to present herself. “Yes, you heard it right! That’s me on that plate. Believe it or not viewers, I borrowed a synthesizer from one of the labs that bought freedom for so many. Took my own cell culture and grew my friend here a lovely meal of grade A, free range, yours truly.” ‘Bonnie’ hops down, tail swishing excitedly and fur ruffled with glee. “So, since this is one hundred percent consensual, technically not illegal and ethically sourced, none of you FED loving traditionalists have any right to freak out!” She wags her finger at the camera, a human gesture she had picked up along with the late 2070’s neo-pop skater fashion sense.
“And much to my regret, I owe this, possibly one legit case of predator disease in the entire galaxy, a huge favor.” ‘Clyde’ chimes in while adjusting the napkin in his shirt, before pausing with a confused look on his half-hidden face. “…wait, I thought the tattoo made us ev-“ “Shh, it’s on.” She interrupts, gesturing at the camera with her tail. “All right good citizens of Skalga, you will now bear witness to history’s first documented expert taste test of ven-meat!” ‘Bonnie’ passes the fork to ‘Clyde’ and sits in her chair, practically vibrating with excitement and bearing a slight bloom across her face.
‘Clyde’ takes the utensils and starts to cut off a piece, his expression going worried and the sawing motion of the knife slowing to a stop half through the cut. “It looks like petrol in puddle.” He says with puzzlement. “What do you mean?” “The juice that’s coming out, it’s all shiny and metallic. What did you cook this in?”
“Nothing! Just the auto chef and some vegetable oil like you suggested, didn’t even salt it.” “Yenv- ‘Bonnie’ I don’t think I should eat this.”
“Oh come on, we went through all this effort! Don’t you wanna beat the products for predator channel? They did a fake heart and got over half a million subscribers, the real thing will bury that! Maybe even get us a sponsor!”
‘Clyde’ laughs and nods. “Alright alright.” He finishes cutting through the piece and brings it up to his mouth. The human pauses and sniffs at the shimmering purple seared, orange centered meat, wrinkles his nose and jerks back. “Well, uhm, it has a distinct grease trap aroma, with a hint of, ugh, paint thinner?.” “Is that… good?” She asks, having no context for smells “…No. ‘Bonnie’ I’m not sure this is safe.”
“Oh don’t be such a pup. It’s not like I’m serving you a flying machine.” She replies, playfully jostling her friend.
“That nutjob just wanted attention.” ‘Clyde’ replies defensively. “So do we! Go on, eat me!”
With a grimace, the human puts the piece in his mouth, chews once and immediately groans. “Well? Don’t leave us all in suspense. Are we really the most delicious thing in the galaxy? Are you ravenous for more? Perhaps something fresher? Am I *gasp* in danger?” She says, phoning in a fake fearfulness for the camera. ‘Clyde’, shivers, chews again, and forces himself to swallow. He coughs, pulls a water bottle from under the table to swish and spit into a garbage can beside him. “God, that is the foulest, gamiest thing I ever put in my mouth! UGH!!!” He pushes the plate away and wipes his tongue on the napkin. ‘Bonnie’ leans back in her chair, tail flicking curiosity and the bloom fading. “Really? But.. the arxur keep calling us delicacy.” She glances at the lab grown bit of herself still steaming on the plate. “Arxur don’t know [censored], meat shouldn’t be sour!” He exclaims, hacking a wad of foamy spit into the can again. “Jeeze, you need to lay off the junk food! It’s like you’re pickling yourself.” he scolds, more foamy spittle dribbling down his lips before he can spit again. ‘Bonnie’ whistles and purrs with amusement, offering the sprig of parsley. ‘Clyde’ flicks it away much to her delight. “Well, there you have it viewers, humans don’t even think we taste good. Guess we had nothing to fea-“
‘Clyde’ suddenly gags and claps a hand over his mouth hard. ‘Bonnie’ gasps, her joyful tail wagging coming to a halt as her humans expression turned pale and distraught. “I’m gunna…” ‘Clyde’ suddenly stands, tossing the chair he was sitting in as he bolted out of frame. “PHILLIP?!!” ‘Bonnie’ shouts as she too leaves the room. The camera view suddenly twisting and hurtling towards the floor where it blacks out.

Stream disconnected, standby…
[Memory transcript interrupted, warning, high stress and blood pressure levels detected. Resuming, time elapsed, two hours]
The window suddenly reconnects, showing ‘Clyde’ sitting at the table, cradling the garbage can in his lap, the plate and its contents gone from the room. His face was pasty, sweaty, his sunglasses askew and hat tossed next to the microphone.
“By the great protector!” ‘Bonnie’ bleats from off screen. ‘Clyde’ makes an “Uhh?” in response just before hiccupping and bringing his head over the can. ‘Bonnie’ comes into frame, tail signing reassurances to the camera. ‘Clyde’ relaxes and leans back again, looking rather unhappy. “Well, good news ALL TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND VIEWERS!!! ‘Clyde’ here is totally fine and making a steady recovery.” To which the human gave a shaky thumbs up. “Even better news!” ‘Bonnie’ whistles, tail signaling to fast to read. “Our predator friends CAN’T eat us!” She sidles over to her human and puts a reassuring arm across his slumped shoulders. ‘Clyde’ nods and sits up a little. “So apparently,” he begins after taking a breath, “The chemicals that venlil bodies use to metabolize air and exhale waste gas, the stuff that makes your blood orange like iron makes ours red, is moderately toxic to human biology.” Winded by the explanation, ‘Clyde’ slouches again and sips from the water bottle. “Yeppers! The [no translation available in English] reacts with human stomach acid like vinegar and baking soda, hence the foaming.” There is a brief pause, ‘Bonnie’ glancing at her human and giving a light tail tap to his leg. “Yes, it also causes nausea, vomiting, disorientation, indigestion and a lingering sour taste.” “And yet the arxur have no tummy trouble with any aliens. Why do you think that is ‘Clyde’?” ‘Bonnie’ prompts, her fur puffing excitedly again. “Uhh, if they are anything like monitors and alligators, then the Arxur must have poor taste buds and much tougher stomachs that can probably digest a truck tire. Human in cont ‘hic’ rast have been cooking for almost a million years. It’s far safer bacteria and parasite wise, more efficient for absorbing nutrients and *belch* excuse me.”
“Yes.” ‘Bonnie’ says, taking over the rehearsed lines “And as such they have at an evolutionary level, lost the ability to handle tougher foods like raw meat, bones, roots, bark and anything even slightly expired. So, even against us prey species with our multichambered stomachs and fermenting guts, our hominid friends have comparatively sensitive tummies.” She pats his belly, to which he briefly aims at the can again. ‘Bonnie’ twitches her ears in a concerned way before turning back to the camera.
“So, there you have it Skalgans! We had nothing to fear this whole time. All the running, hiding, mask mandates, exterminator rallies and stressing out was totally pointless. Because…” She drum rolls her paws on the table in dramatic fashion “We’re basically toxic!” “Or there’s something seriously wrong with this one.” ‘Clyde’ chimes in, smiling and giving a slight chuckle at her paw swat retort. “Hey, this means I can get drunk and tattoo you now, right?” “No it does not!” “Course I’ll have to shave you first.” “Ahh, that is not happening!” ‘Bonnie’ blurts, the bloom returning to her face. “Let’s have chat decide. How about it? Follow the link below and donate say… twenty thousand credits to the Thafki rehoming fund and you’ll get to see me ink a naughty word on ‘Bonnie’s’ shaved butt.” ‘Clyde says with a grin, his color starting to come back. Blooming brightly, the venlil growls and whacks the laughing humans arm with her cast and turns toward the camera. “Alright” She says, picking up a remote. “That’s it for the stream, next week we’ll continue our series of vintage Earth TV with… uhh…” “Jackass.” ‘Clyde’ prompts. “Right, we’re going to react to a twentieth century human comedy stunt variety show. It’s all public domain so you can watch live with us. No charge and none of those pesky U.N. restrictions!”
Bonnie and Clyde wave to the audience as the colorful venlil points the remote.
[Stream ended. Have a great paw, friends!]
I put down the holo-pad and rub my bloodshot eyes. What we just watched had my fur puffed, the phones ringing off the hook across several districts and my staff either clamoring to unlock the confiscated exterminator gear, fainted, frozen with dread or chatting rapidly over the outcome of the kids insane experiment. Amazingly, no stampedes where being reported, but the press was still going to have a field day.
After a shaky breath I spin the chair around to face my assistant.
We stare at each other. After a long minute, the bristling gojid quietly says. “Maybe I’m toxic too.” I blink slowly and reply “What’s stunt comedy?” Bavik flicks his ears in ignorance. “We could subscribe and find out?” Turning back to the holo pad, staring at the screen for a moment, I tap the button. Sending the counter up by one. Then throw a few credits at the donation fund. “Crazy kids.” I say with an amused tail flick.