I think it’s a great idea. We all know they can dance from the Hate Dancin’ music vid. I know for a fact Joey can kill it alone from Ice V. Imagine they invite like 5 fans up on stage and everyone just dances for Intrasport

T-Minus 1 week until the next edition of the very contest we all love and enjoy. We are approaching the best of the best that this contest has to offer, as we are in the top 20! These countries represent 40 of the 50 highest ranked songs since 1975, which just shows how much all of these countries have contributed to the longest running singing competition.

The Countries

Placement	Country	Score
16	Malta	140231.278
17	Spain	138804.573
18	Austria	125761.301
19	Finland	120225.116
20	Turkey	118659.853

We are getting some big hitters now! At #20, we have Turkey, who first participated at the start of this time period and is really a late bloomer to this competition, as they started to get consistently great results in the 2000s, the last full decade they would participate in. Coming in in front of Turkey is our second Nordic nation in Finland, who like Turkey really struggled to place well at this competition until their Magnum opus arrived, which really shook the foundation of who could win at this contest, and since then have really started to come into their own, embracing their wacky nature. Above them is Austria, who is the oldest ESC nation on this list so far, getting their start in only the contest’s second year, 1957. They actually had one of the longest winless streaks in Eurovision since their first win in 1966, taking 48 tries after that to claim their second crown. Our first “Big Five” nation comes up at #17, with Spain, as they are part of some of the wackiest results ever at this contest, and in back to back years as well! The reason why they are the lowest ranked “Big Five” nation is because they really bottomed out in the 2000s and 2010s, only recently finding redemption in the early 2020s. And at #16 on our list is Malta, who have participated in every edition of ESC since ‘91, and is the best performing country to never win Eurovision, considering that they are the only country in the top 20 to not have one ESC crown on their resume, which is a big shame, considering the bangers they have given us over the years.
Some Notable Artists: Athena (Turkey), Blind Channel (Finland), Bravo (Spain), Chanel (Spain), Chiara (Malta), Anabel Conde (Spain), Sergio Dalma (Spain), Destiny (Malta), Sertab Erener (Turkey), Thomas Forstner (Austria), Grup Etnik (Turkey), Hadise (Turkey), Käärijä (Finland), Lordi (Finland), Ira Losco (Malta), Manga (Turkey), Betty Missiego (Spain), Şebnem Paker (Turkey), Pihasoittajat (Finland), Alf Poier (Austria), Anneli Saaristo (Finland), Cesár Sampson (Austria), Mary Spiteri (Malta), Conchita Wurst (Austria), Zoë (Austria)

The Worst Years

Austria 2015 The Makemakes - I Am Yours

Contest Ranking: 26th (last, 0 pts) My Ranking: 39th (last, -3.9)
What a difference a year makes! Coming off high from their win in 2014, their first in almost 50 years, Austria was set to host this year’s edition. As such, they had a free pass to the Grand Final, with their song “I Am Yours” performed by The Makemakes, an Austrian pop rock band. I didn’t think much of this song when I initially heard it, so imagine my shock when I saw that it didn’t receive a single point on the final scoreboard. I actually don’t know why this got last place, maybe this entry is an example of the douze points system rearing its ugly head, or maybe no one remembered to vote for this song at the end. Either way, this is a confusing entry in the Hall of nul points. And because there were so many countries that year, this song sinks far to the depths of this club.

Turkey 1987 Seyyal Taner and Grup Lokomotif - Şarkım Sevgi Üstüne

Contest Ranking: 22nd (last, 0 pts) My Ranking: 22nd (last, -2.1)
A common theme you will see here for countries like Turkey or Finland or any non Western European Country (besides Portugal), is that with the language rules, they would struggle to do well at all, especially in the 80’s and 90’s, where English was overtaking French as the dominant language of Eurovision. It would take some time for these countries to find a formula that transcends language (see Turkey 1997 for more details), but for now it would be rough sailing for Turkey and these other countries to appeal the juries. That doesn’t mean that bangers weren’t being sent in though! This song seems like it would be the opening for a space odyssey or something, it just has that feel. Unfortunately, a little nervousness would doom this performance, scoring zero points** in Belgium.

Spain 1983 Remedios Amaya - Quién maneja mi barca

Contest Ranking: 19th (last, 0 pts) My Ranking: 19th (last, -1.9)
Ok, so I kind of take back what I said about only Western European countries doing well in this era of ESC. Spain, like Portugal, struggled mightily when they entered in 1961. They already had two last place, nul point entries by the year 1968, where they would pull off one of the most infamous wins in Eurovision history, pipping the United Kingdom by a singular point. The year after they would have another infamous win at this contest, sharing the win with the UK, France, and The Netherlands. Since then, it would be alright for Spain… until this year, where they would have *another last place, nul point entry. This one probably didn’t deserve the honor, and I say “probably” because after listening to this song, I’m confused on where it should place. Probably not last though. People say that ESC was not ready for this type of music, which I probably agree with, I just don’t know when ESC would be ready for this type of music though.
** Turkey only has two entries that have scored nul points at ESC, with the other one being in 1983

Finland 1982 Kojo - Nuku pommiin

Contest Ranking: 18th (last, 0 pts) My Ranking: 22nd (last, -1.7)
Like I said, tough sledding for the non Western European Countries, especially tough for the Nordic nations, who really were seen as jokes at this competition for the longest time (really until Sweden and Norway went back to back in ‘84 and ‘85). Fortunately for Finland, this time period gets rid of two other last place, nil point performances in 1963 and 1965. This also doesn’t count their 1 point performance in 1968, but I think you get the point. They have finished last six** Other times since 1975 however, and since they do not have as many hits as their Nordic contemporaries (sans Iceland), they are only 19th. Anyway, while Germany ran away with the contest singing a song about peace (another ESC staple), Finland would obtain last place with a song about peace, in particular a song about protesting nuclear bombs. While Germany’s song was a neatly composed song that was nice on the ears, this one is the complete opposite, so it’s fitting that this one finished last. I would say more but I don’t want to listen to this song again, so…
** Six last place performances in the Grand Final, they have an additional two last place finishes in the semifinals.

Malta 2017 Claudia Faniello - Breathlessly

Contest Ranking: DNQ (16th 2nd Semifinal , 55 pts) My Ranking: 22nd (41st, 0.062)
Malta surprisingly has not had an entry receiving nul points (though 2016 and 2023 are very, very close). But they have struggled to qualify in the last 8 years, only qualifying twice in that span. This entry was one that did not make the cut, a decent ballad that just didn’t work with enough people, which is unfortunate. Malta used to rule with dramatic ballads, in fact, all of their top 3 finishes (sans 2002), were ballads, so they do know what they are doing in this department. Maybe like Ireland, their type of ballads just don’t work anymore in modern Eurovision, which is sad to say, but maybe Malta can reinvent themselves and be back on top one day!

The Best Years

Malta 2021 Destiny - Je me casse

Contest Ranking: 7th (255 pts) My Ranking: 6th (398.4*)
Surprised? Like I said earlier Malta have sent in some classics to this competition, this one included. Despite the fact that there are at least 3 other songs with higher placements, none of them were able to outperform Destiny, our second COVID participant! Before this entry, she was more well known for winning Eurovision for Malta! Well, it was actually Junior Eurovision, but still, that is a heck of an achievement to have in your locker. She has also appeared on Britain’s Got Talent, and she has also won the X Factor in Malta, so safe to say she definitely has the talent to compete! From the ESC website, she says that her dream was to represent Malta and obtain that first victory for her country, and with the support of former Maltese entrant Ira Losco, she would get the chance to do so with her song “All of My Soul” for ESC 2020… and well you know what happened after that. But for 2021, she will have another opportunity to achieve her dream with her new song “Je Me Casse”. This song is just energy personified. Destiny said that her influences for singing were Lizzo, Beyonce, Aretha Franklin, Cardi B, and Megan Thee Stallion, women who are known for their energy that they bring to every performance. She definitely brings it here, with her song about empowerment and breaking free. Destiny has a powerful voice as well, which really helps bring out the emotion in this song, commanding the attention of everyone who watched it! When I heard this song for the first time, I immediately thought she would win, the song just has that winning energy surrounding it, and Destiny is the main reason why. Unfortunately for Destiny and for Malta, while this song would finish in the top 10, it would not be the one for the country, as they end up 7th, which is pretty respectable considering the stacked lineup for this year. Even more unfortunately for Malta, they haven’t qualified to the Grand Final since that year (even though it’s only been two years). Who knows, maybe in the future Destiny can come back for Malta to get the elusive crown, if Portugal can win one, anything is possible.

• This song is ranked 68th of all entries since 1975

Turkey 2004 Athena - For Real

Contest Ranking: 4th (195 pts) My Ranking: 4th (401.842*)
The most points Turkey has ever received at Eurovision, which is crazy to say considering the renaissance they were going through at the time. No it’s not their only win that takes the top spot (3 way battles tend to make the winner’s score weaker, and according to my formula Turkey didn’t even win this year), but rather the entry after it, that does. Meet the rock/ska band Athena, regarded as one of the best rock bands in Turkey. The band got their start in 1987, formed by twin brothers Gökhan Özoğuz and Hakan Özoğuz. After releasing their first album, they switched their style from rock centered to ska centered, which is like a fusion of punk rock and ska music (basically there are a lot of trumpets, trombones, and woodwind instruments). Once they switched their style they caught fire in Turkey, which culminated in a large tour of their country as well as opening for the Rolling Stones(!). They were selected by the Turkish broadcaster to be the host’s act for ESC 2004. I was wondering what this song was, considering that I didn’t recognize it when I started writing this piece. But then the song started, and I was like “Oh, this song”, which is nothing against the band, because this song is pretty decent! The ska influence still rings large in this entry, with the horns blaring throughout the song. Songs like this tend to be really catchy, with this one being no exception. Other examples of songs like this that I can name off the top of my head are “Alcohol is Free” in 2013 and Turkey’s future entry in “We Could Be The Same” in 2010. While "For Real" may not have been immediately recognizable to some compared to the other two, its infectious charm quickly captures attention. It finished 4th, showcasing the future promise of songs from this region, while continuing Turkey’s strong period that would disappointingly end with their withdrawal in the early 2010s.
This entry is ranked 65th of all songs since 1975.

Spain 2022 Chanel - SloMo

Contest Ranking: 3rd (459 pts) My Ranking: 3rd (481.959**)
Their best result in decades, and it is in the most sexy Spanish way! After a turbulent 2010s, which included several finishes in the 20s, a last place finish (which contained a legendary voice crack), it seemed to be more of the same in the 2020s, as their 2021 entry only received 6 measly points and a 24th placement. Then Chanel appeared. Born in Cuba, Chanel Terrero Martínez moved to Spain at the age of 6. Once she moved to Spain, she began taking acting, singing, and ballet classes, culminating in her beginning her musical theater journey when she was 16. Chanel featured in many Spanish shows and musical productions, and she almost got the part of the musical West Side Story, directed by Steven Spilburg. Notice how I haven’t mentioned much about her singing, it’s because her musical career started very recently! Chanel decided to participate in Benidorm Fest 2022, with her debut single called “SloMo”. This song had a lot of hands in production, as Chanel worked with stars like Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, among others. The effort would be worth it, as she won the Festival, claiming her ticket to Turin for ESC 2022. The last time Spain finished in the Top 5, you would have to go all the way back to the year 1995, with Anabel Conde delivering a Eurovision classic with the song "Vuelve conmigo", which finished 2nd to Norway’s entry. That song was a slow, methodical ballad, this song is the complete opposite, it leaves almost everyone (including the singer) breathless! Like with Destiny, this song is pure energy, but this entry falls in line with the typical “sexy Spanish energy”, and when you look at the performance (this link is for the Benidorm version), I mean, the woman literally says “booty hypnotic” about 6 times! Singing wise, it’s nothing special, but the performance really takes this to another level. It’s like Spain got the memo that Latvia sent out about how performance really drives an entry about 20 years too late. But they definitely got the message alright! It must be difficult to be a fan of Spain at Eurovision, considering that the country has been swimming in mediocrity along with its fellow Big Five brethren (except for Italy and sometimes France/UK, but definitely with Germany). But when the stars align, this is what Spain can do, and it’s so amazing when they do it! Spain in this contest's history really surprises you when they do well, and then you wonder why they can’t do this more often, only to disappear until the next great performance, rinse and repeat. Maybe after this entry and last year’s one (which got robbed of a better placement), Spain can finally flex their might at this competition, and one day we may go back to Spain for an ESC!
** This song is one of the Top 50 ESC songs since 1975.

Austria 2014 Conchita Wurst - Rise Like a Phoenix

Contest Ranking: 1st (290 pts) My Ranking: 1st (602.765**)
48 years between podium finishes, but what a way to do it! Austria occupies an interesting place within ESC lore. At the beginning of their journey, they weren’t much of anything, and it took a certain Udo Jürgens performing three times in back to back to back years to finally take the crown for the country. Since then, nothing much, just wading in the ESC waters, with the occasional decent tune once in a while. Then comes 2014. Austria up to this point were not known to be that influential in Eurovision, but then there was Conchita Wurst, who changed that perception in about 3 minutes. But first, some backstory. Conchita Wurst is the drag persona of Tom Neuwirth, who had a long career before joining the ESC stage. He was the founding member of a boy band in the early 2010s, and before that embarked on his singing career through an Austrian casting show. In 2011, Tom would start appearing as Conchita Wurst, a name literally meaning “Vagina (Spanish slang) Penis (German slang)” Conchita is also well noted for having a beard, a decision consciously made because as Tom/Conchita put it, “you can achieve anything, no matter who you are or how you look”. In 2012, Conchita almost became the representative for Austria at Eurovision, but narrowly lost out to Trackshittaz by 2% of the vote. In 2014, Conchita would not need a vote, as the national broadcaster would select Wurst and the song “Rise Like A Phoenix” to perform in Copenhagen. Now Conchita’s inclusion in ESC did not come without its outroar of disapproval, specifically from conservative groups in Eastern Europe. There were even petitions made for the local broadcasters to cut out Conchita’s performance entirely. Of course there were comparisons made between Conchita and Dana International, not only because of the LGBT likeness but also because of the threats and disapproval they both received prior to the contest. This disapproval would extend onto the ESC stage, as Armenia’s representative that year would make various remarks about how Conchita wasn’t living a “natural life”. That wouldn’t stop the drag queen however, as Wurst would go on to deliver a stunning ballad, appropriately about how she would rise from the ashes of her haters to become stronger. It reminds me of James Bond music, just with the horns and the overall vibe of the song. The entry was meant to be serious and on that note it succeeded, and overall it just has the commanding energy that so many winning songs demonstrate. This entry would not only win for Austria, breaking a nearly 50 year drought*, but would become one of the most iconic ESC entries of the 21st century, maybe even ever! Like with 1998, this would open the door for LGBT visibility in this contest, something that would only be embraced more and more in the years since this song took gold.
** This song is one of the Top 50 ESC songs since 1975. *** He would say that those comments were a joke, but you get the picture **** The 2010’s (and some of the 2020s) overall were really an era of breaking droughts. You got Germany (first since 1982), Azerbaijan (first ever), Sweden (first since 1999), Denmark (first since 2001), Austria (first since 1966), Sweden (first since 2012 lol), Ukraine (first since 2004), Portugal (first ever), Israel (first since 1998), and the Netherlands (first since 1975) all winning. Maybe countries like France (1977), Spain (1969) the UK (1998), even Ireland (1997, and who am I kidding, this drought will not be broken for a long time) could break their droughts as well?

Finland 2023 Käärijä - Cha Cha Cha

Contest Ranking: 2nd (526 pts) My Ranking: 1st (732.848**)
All of the songs on this list have surprised me, sans Austria and Spain. Finland’s best ever performing entry prior to 2023 was Lordi’s “Hard Rock Halleujah”, an entry that broke the barrier on what type of entries could win at this competition. Lordi’s song will forever remain in ESC lore, and for Finland it would be at the top of a surprisingly lackluster list. Outside of Lordi,there is only one other entry that has a score of over 150 (basically Top 7ish) prior to 2023, which was Blind Channel’s song “Dark Side” in 2021. Finland when it comes to the power of Scandinavia at this contest are really only above Iceland when it comes to performance and impact. The other three countries are loaded with iconic songs and impact to this competition, something that Finland has been lacking, until recently. Of course there’s Lordi and in 2021 there was Blind Channel, but both of those songs demonstrate what Finland can bring to this competition, which is hard party rock, and that is perfectly demonstrated with the song many people thought should have won, “Cha Cha Cha”, performed by Käärijä. Käärijä, or Jere Mikael Pöyhönen is a rapper and songwriter, known for his bowl cut and his shirtlessness, with the ladder having a nice sentiment driving it.*** There are many more things that he is known for and has done, from how his name is a play on the word for gambling in Finnish, to how he mostly performed shirtless due to the fact that his original yellow suit would get too hot, but you are all here for me to talk about the song, so let’s get to it. There are many similarities between this song and “Hard Rock Hallejah”, but the similarity that matters most is the fact that these songs are so unapologetically themselves. They both invite you to join their worlds, promising a hell of a time if one were to accept the invitation. While Lordi’s song involved the “acrocoplis” this song involves a party, a crazy party, nonetheless. I think what works the best for this song is that despite the fact that all of the lyrics are in Finnish, the first time that has happened for Finland since 2010, the chorus is where everyone can let loose, and boy does it let you. The roars you hear when the audience says “CHA CHA CHA CHA CHA CHA CHA EY” are really a testament to how much energy this song has (I feel like I’ve said this a lot today). This song is pure fun, and it’s such a joy to go through all of the acts with Käärijä. Did this song deserve to win? Well… yes and no. This song did get the highest televoting percentage of any entry not named “Stefania”, even surpassing Portugal’s entry in 2017. And if you see my contest ranking, according to my formula it placed first. On those fronts, it deserved to win. Does this song carry more winning energy than Sweden? Yes, but then I’m reminded of 2007, and how the more serious song (“Molitva”) won over the more campy fun song ("Dancing Lasha Tumbai"). From the history of ESC, the more serious songs win out most of the time, so I can see why this song didn’t surpass Sweden. Do I think this song deserved to win? Well I’m torn. Both songs have the potential to win, and I love both of them for different reasons. I could talk about it more, but this is a Finland post, and this song could have the impact of Ukraine 2007, even if it didn’t win. What this song has done is raise Finland’s profile in ESC and in my rankings, because without this song Finland may be below Iceland in the rankings.
** This song is one of the Top 50 ESC songs since 1975. *** Basically Käärijä said that going topless should be more accepted, no matter what size you are, which is a pretty cool message if you ask me.

Final Thoughts

So what do you think? Do you believe that Finland deserved to win last year? Which country here has delivered the biggest impact to ESC? Will Malta ever join the winner’s circle at Eurovision? And who will be next?

Welcome back to the Fallowveil trailer park, where the crack addicts have all seen aliens, the Witch is the glue holding the community together, and it’s been a whole six years since our last meth lab explosion. I never met you, but rest in peace Jones. I’m Mason, and I’ll be your janitor guide to the weirdness.
So I’ve talked about Jennifer, my paranormally sexy, but terrifying neighbor who lives with a married couple, strips under the name “Red Jenny,” and possibly eats people’s souls. She’s just the tip of the iceberg here in this town. I could go on and on about my neighbors. I have to do an entry on Trista the nocturnal hippy (maybe) vampire at some point. I have a feeling she’ll get a kick out of it. We’re actually pretty friendly, since we're both night shift workers. Frankly, she’s a bit too on-the-nose though. Pale girl, windows all blocked during daytime, only out at night, weirdly strong for such a skinny little person, drinks a mysterious fluid from a hip flask that she refuses to share, I mean… she’s either a vampire or a weird healthnut hippy and she dresses like she’s both. We’ll get to her eventually.
For now, let’s talk about the old “Schroeder Slaughterhouse.” The place has been a center piece of the town since it was created. It brought jobs to workers and brought lucrative meat processing trades into town, elevating it to more than just another ‘corn town.’ It’s also got horror stories going all the way back to its construction. Some say it’s been cursed by the devil himself.
I want to talk about this one because Trista talked me into going to one of Petunia’s barbecues last weekend. Not sure why she’s suddenly friendlier with me, but I’m not complaining. She couldn’t come with me of course, being a (probably) vampire and all. But hey, depression only gets worse in isolation. I should ask her out some time. Being a vampire might be fun…
So anyway, I went to Petunia’s cookout. Petunia herself looked up and actually cried out loud and power walked up to me to give me a hug. “Ahhh! I’m so glad to see you outside Mason! The neighborhood misses you!” I'm ninety percent sure that was a lie, but whatever. It’s comforting. I returned the older woman’s hug.
“Thanks Petunia. Couldn’t stay away from your cooking forever.” That got a few chuckles. To my surprise, a lot of my neighbors came up to shake hands with me. I was confused until one of them, a guy named Fred, who lives next door to me, leaned in to say “sorry about that friend of yours that died.”
So that’s what’s happening. Everybody heard about psycho Moe and how he’d dragged me to a strip club where he planned to go on a killing spree. Now they’re playing nice. That’s probably the only reason Trista’s being nice to you too. These people don’t really care about you. You’re worthless.
‘You know what, brain? You’re a real bummer. Now shut up while I try to be social.’ I shot back at my own conscience.
I finally worked out how to respond to Fred after a few seconds of awkward silence that made us both uncomfortable. “He wasn’t really a friend. Just a roommate once. The guy was messed up.”
Fred nodded sympathetically, rubbing at his mustache “Well sure. But that’s a heck of a… situation?” He replied.
“Yeah. I guess it is…” I tried to look thoughtful so nobody could see me rolling my eyes. “But hey! I think Red Jenny took care of it.”
Fred’s eyes widened at that. “No shit? Did he get… did he get a private dance?”
We were both interrupted by a silky smooth voice with a southern twang. “Glad to see you’re okay Mason. Try not to bring any psychopaths to my place of business, alright? It’s got plenty. Our poor bouncer had to headlock that guy.” She said all of this without even glancing towards us. Just sort of talking at the air as she sauntered by. She was glorious as ever, somehow making comfortable sweats look like a sexy bold fashion statement. Jennifer. Red Jenny. I hushed up as she stepped past us, and as she did, she cast a glance my way… and she winked.
Fred and I sat there partly struck dumb for a moment. That woman hardly spoke to anyone.
“Bouncer my ass.” Fred whispered to me. “That chick’s some kind of monster, I’m telling you. What did you see? She offered him a private dance didn't she?”
A few weeks ago I would have jumped at the opportunity to tell Fred everything I could about what I saw, but for whatever reason, I was less enthusiastic at the moment. “Yeah, she did, but I’m not really sure what happened. I was kinda stupified by the guns. She probably got a bouncer to help her, I really don’t know.”
“Never get a private dance from Red Jenny. Some say that’s a warning from wives, but the rest of us know it’s a warning from above. Something ain’t natural at that place.”
“I dunno Fred. But she works hard. I don’t want to badmouth her. Even if it was true, the guy she got was a wannabe killer. So she saved people.”
“Yeah, but how!?”
“I dunno man.”
Fred seemed to figure out I didn’t want to talk anymore about it by then. “Sorry, man. Must have been scary, either way. But hey! We all know you were asking around about Fallowveil’s spooky stories! Guess what!? A bunch of people who used to work at the old slaughterhouse are here! They’re all swapping stories by the grill! You should go listen!”
That piqued my interest. I used my phone to record as much as I could. I think I remember the rest. Now that I’ve looked at all my notes and stuff, I think I can provide a decent history of Fallowveil’s Schroeder Slaughterhouse. At least according to some of the people who worked there, as well as some who’ve lived here longer than me.
Most of the history came from a man named Willard Graves. He’s notorious for being really nasty when he’s drunk, and being one of the oldest people living in the trailer park at the age of 68. When I arrived at the bonfire where the group of workers had gathered, they were all swapping stories.
“I once felt a presence in the women’s restroom!” Said Polly Bucharest. “I was a floor manager in 2007. I was sitting in the stall there doing my business, nobody came in or out, but suddenly I just felt it. I got real freaked out. Like… goosebumps and everything. And feeling that way sucks in the bathroom. So I tried to hurry up and kicked open the stall so I could run to the sink… and the ‘shadow man’ was just standing in the corner. I saw him out of the corner of my eye. He was just there, standing. When I turned to look, he was gone!”
“I saw that thing too! The shadow man!” Said Peter Swanson. “Damn thing was standing up in the corner, on the catwalk out in the main floor. Same thing. I was working, one of the cows didn’t go down right away, and I was leaning down to stun it again, then I felt real uneasy all of a sudden. Real scared. Finally I noticed the shadow up there!”
“That happened to me in the break room!” Said Juan Esposito. “I was eating lunch when I felt it. Then there was a shadow of a man, I think, in the corner of the room.”
“It was more of a shadowy blob on the wall for me,” said Polly.
“Any of you guys see the weird bird?” Asked Carlos Sanders. “I saw it once. End of my shift, back in 09. Me and a few of the boys saw it. You were there Juan! You remember?”
“I remember. I’m not really sure though, Carlos. That one might have been a vulture.”
“We see vultures round here all the time! That wasn’t a vulture! No clue what it was. Just some big flying shadowy thing that appeared at sundown and flew off after a while.”
“Lots of people said they saw a strange bird. That’s part of why some people think it’s cursed” claimed Jane Lopez. “I never worked there, but my husband used to tell stories. Some people say it’s an omen. If you see the bird over the slaughterhouse, something bad might be about to happen.”
“I remember the stories, Mama.” Said her son, Martin. “I worked the floor for three years. I never saw a creepy bird. I wonder if Papa was just telling stories again?”
“Maybe, mijo. But lots of people tell stories about that place.”
“How about the one cow that Mr. Kurt takes, like… once a week? Anybody know what’s up with that?” That was Juan again.
“No! And none of us can figure out where the cow goes either! It’s creepy!” Poly replied.
That’s when Willard loudly cleared his throat. Willard was a tough looking old bastard. Usually sporting a frumpy tank top, a grumpy face, and a bottle of something in one hand. “Y’all didn’t work there as long as I did,” he grumbled in his raspy old voice. He kept his head and eyes lowered, like some old cowboy trying to be dramatic. “Y’all know who that shadow even is? I know the ‘sh’tory!”
We were all interrupted by a shout from a very angry Petunia, who was a few yards away manning the grill. “DAMN IT Willard! What did I say!? One beer! One!”
“I only had one! I ‘sh’wear!”
“You’re slurring! If I catch you sneaking any more drinks I’m not giving you any ribs or any cookies!”
Willard’s tough old man act crumbled as he went wide eyed at the mention of cookies. “Alright, alright, I’m sorry Petty…”
“PETUNIA!!”
“Petunia! I won’t have anything else to drink!”
“Damn right! Last thing we need is you making an ass of yourself again!”
Willard sighed as we all hushed a few guffaws. “Anyway,” he said after an awkward pause. That shadow? Any of you know who it is?”
“One of the dead owners?” Said someone.
“One of the dead workers?” Said someone else.
“Nah, nah. It was the FIRST owner. The ghost of Heinrich Schroeder. The builder and owner of Schroeder Slaughterhouse!”
“How do you know?”
“I mean… I don’t, but that’s the oldest story I know about the place. Don’t any of you younguns know about the history there?”
“I don’t. Please tell the story!” I called from outside the circle of former Meat Processing workers, causing some of them to glance awkwardly at me.
“Well alright then!” Willard said with a grin that had less than a full set of teeth. “The place was built way back, right after the Civil War ended, when a bunch of immigrants from Germany started migrating to Nebraska, mostly to Omaha. But one feller…”
“Why did Germans come to Nebraska?” Asked a kid who’s name I didn’t know.
“What? I dunno. They just did. Hush. So this guy saw our little town of Fallowveil and its lush fields. He was in the sausage business before, but figured he could set himself up a slaughterhouse to process cows raised locally. Old Fallowveil was superstitious though. They were always wary of outsiders.”
“Why?” The kid asked.
“They just was. Everyone was after the war ended. Things changing fast, bunch of black folks are citizens and building themselves North Mainstreet, and Fallowveil’s weird. We all know that. Always has been.” Nobody could disagree there. “So. Since they were wary? They didn’t want to let Shroeder build. Supposedly you can find old documents with the town's rejection letters to Shroeder hidden away in the office of the old building. He tried for months. Then, with no explanation at all, they suddenly sold him an unused parcel of land. Nobody knows why, and that’s where a lot of folks think the devil’s curse began. They say Shroeder made some kind of deal with a demon to get them to sell the land to him. They’re the ones that made him follow their rules. Everyone remember the rules?”
“Hell, I had to follow those rules,” said Polly. “Most were pretty standard health and safety measures, but some were downright bizarre. 1. No loud noises in the back of the building. 2. One cow will be selected by the owner for personal reasons and won’t be slaughtered with the others. 3. Keep the blood drains clean at all times, but no specialized detergents. 4. Never agitate the animals. 5. Manure will be transported offsite. 6. Anyone caught past the fence line of the old building will be fired immediately…. There’s a bunch more that are all basically fcc regulations, only these days there’s extra.”
“It’s worth it!” Juan piped in. “The work we do there now got us awards! We make some of the best meat in the country! Pay is good too. No offense, friends, but we’re thinking of moving into a house, soon!”
Petunia cried out. “Ahhh Juan! That’s so wonderful! You’ll have places for your baby!” A bunch of others offered Juan their congratulations. There were also expressions of sadness. Thanks to Petunia? This neighborhood is really tight knit.
“We’ll miss you!”
“When do you leave?”
So on and so on. Juan’s a nice guy. I never got to know him, and I kinda wish I had now.
“Good to hear that place is finally shaping up!” Willard said with a small smile. “Maybe the curse on the place is lifting! Back when I worked there, safety and cleanliness were shit. All them extra rules about keeping the place clean, and the cows cared for, they weren’t there back then. Just the weird shit about noise in the back, staying away from the old building, and one cow being taken away every couple of shipments.”
“Can I ask a question?” I asked as Willard trailed off, lost in thought.
“Did you ever work in the place, new guy?” Asked Juan.
“No. I’m just curious about Fallowveil’s spooky stories. Lived here for a while, and heard em, but now I’m asking around.”
“Whatcha want to ask?” Willard wondered.
“Why is the old building even still there? The place where you all work is the building in the front, right? New building with state of the art equipment? Why keep the dilapidated old building from the 1860s? Anybody know?”
“Ah. That’s an interesting question. I’d guess nobody here knows that answer, right?” Willard replied. There were nods all around. “Nobody alive today worked in that building. Hell, it was fenced off and boarded up when I was a kid. Nobody really knows why it’s still standing. We all have our guesses. Some think it might have something to do with the devil’s curse. Some say the owners hope to cash in on its historic value. Not sure how. The place is a wreck. So it just sits back there.”
“And they’ll fire anyone who gets curious,” Polly added.
“Exactly. That’s one of the rules. Stay away from the old building. But anyway. Let me get back to the story. The old building, that’s the slaughterhouse built by Heinrich Shroeder. He ran the place for about twenty years. Lot of the newly freed black folks would work there. Nothing too nefarious went on back then, but all the same, everyone felt uneasy working there. Just like now, workers swore they saw ghosts. Place gained a reputation for being haunted. That only got worse over the years. Then came the ‘incident.’ I don’t remember the exact year. But at some point some kind of fire broke out in the slaughterhouse. It was after hours so there were no workers there at the time, but there was a herd of cows waiting there overnight. The fire only affected the inside of the building, but it still spooked the cows. They stampeded out of the pen and the next morning the town had cows everywhere. When the people searched the slaughterhouse, they found that not much of the equipment was damaged at all. Somehow some small section of the floor had lit up. And in the middle of it? They found the charred bones of Heinrich Shroeder.”
“What? How?” I asked skeptically. “You know how hot a fire has to be to melt off everything but bone? I don’t. But I know it’s pretty hot.”
“Oh I know. That’s part of the mystery. Nobody knows what happened. It was like some little explosion of heat just burned everything in this one spot on the floor, including Shroeder. The whole thing is unsolved. A mystery. Maybe it was arson. Maybe it was some sort of accident. Who knows? Anyone who works there could tell you though. That place is cursed. Our theory was, Heinrich went back on whatever deal he made to get the land, and the devil came to collect. Either way, the whole town was in shock. Shroeder’s family buried him at Kugler Mill Cemetery, then sold the place and moved to Omaha to be closer to family.”
“Who bought it next?” Asked the kid that kept asking questions.
“Local man named Jefferson. Man was a former slave owner who had a lot of trouble turning a profit after the war.”
“Also a horrible racist!” Petunia added from the grill. “You left that part out one time.”
“I did not! I didn’t think I had to say it! I said he owned slaves! Of course he’s racist!” Willard shot back.
“Just messing with you, you old cowpoke.” We all stopped to chuckle.
“ANYWAY. Jefferson was no great boss. Lot of stories about cruelty to workers and animals if the stories I once heard are true. He kept the name “Schroeder Slaughterhouse to keep some locals from realizing it was him. That’s how he hired a bunch of black folks. There were lots of accidents. Almost everyone who worked there left missing a limb, like me.” Willard held up his hand, and I noticed for the first time that he was missing two fingers on his right hand. “They were still using old band saws. Only took one wrong move” he added thoughtfully. “So Jefferson took over, but he kept all the weird old rules. Nobody knows why. But the place wasn’t a great place to be. Another fire broke out, this one was the Jeffersons son getting drunk on the floor and lighting a lantern. Three workers died there. There were other injuries, and shitty safety standards. One other stampede occurred, which was caused by the equipment falling apart cuz they never bothered with maintenance. You get the idea. All the while, everyone kept hearing tales about the ghosts. They eventually got the idea that the “rules” had something to do with the ghosts. People swore when they were louder in certain parts of the building, they were more likely to feel uneasy. We all know that story.”
“The Shadow” several people said in unison.
Willard nodded. “People thought it was the ghost of Shroeder. Made the rumors about a curse seem more real. The Jeffersons ignored their employees' discomfort for years. Then in the in 30s, another tragedy struck. The owner, Edgar Jefferson, personally came to oversee the installation of a brand new state of the art meat grinder to produce ground beef for local businesses. He was standing nearby, even though the construction crew told him to move away. He was bragging to news outlets and investors about his new machine, and how he wasn’t affected by the depression at all, and then, out of nowhere, a small earthquake hit. The meat grinder came loose from its crane and landed right on top of Edgar. He died immediately. Right in front of the terrified crowd.”
“No way.” Said someone from the crowd.
“Y’all can look this one up if you want. Library is bound to have the old papers. I heard this story from my very first boss. He was just a kid at the time. Said his dad witnessed the whole thing. One second Edgar was boasting, next, he’d been turned into meat jelly.”
“Please don’t ruin the barbecue, Willard” called Petunia.
He just rolled his eyes at that. “To make matters worse, the Jefferson’s local estate mysteriously caught fire a few days later. Nobody could find a cause. Nobody died, thankfully. The remaining Jefferson’s were spooked after that. They sold the slaughterhouse as well as four different cattle farms in town, and moved out of the state.”
“Who was next?” Came the child.
Willard ignored him. “The next person to buy the land was an industrialist who wanted to stake a claim on small town businesses. Rick Manson. He owned a restaurant in California. He bought up the cattle farms and built a new state of the art slaughter house right next to the old one. He was held up by world war 2, but when that ended, he got the place up and running. Nobody knows why he didn’t just tear the old building down and build on top of it. He was the first owner to leave it be. Supposedly, things started out decent under Manson. He brought lots of decent paying jobs raising cows and working in the slaughterhouse, and he kept the rules and added more for safety. Ran it like that for a good thirty years. That’s about when I started working there. Late seventies, early eighties. I can say without any doubt, that any good things people said about Rick Manson? They were lies. The man was a tyrant of a boss, at a time when we actually knew what hard work was.” I felt everyone else groan with me when Willard said that. “The guy used the cheapest equipment he could find and barely ever did maintenance. He also kept hiring immigrants to work the floor. The injury rates were incredibly high, and whatever workarounds higher ups thought they could get away with, they did. A lot of that was on the farms. The local farms were soon forced to use growth hormones, cheap corn feed, and other shady tactics to fatten the cows up faster. They made every effort to turn the small town of Fallowveil into a bigger meat processing plant. We all suffered for it. People died working in that place. Even more people lost fingers. And nobody ever held Manson accountable. Let me remind you, the place was still unbelievably haunted. The shadow was seen by everyone. People started seeing the weird bird too. Everyone was also pretty sure the owners were doing some kind of satanic rituals in the old building at night. There were stories about lights and weird sounds. The story me and my fellow workers believed was that the one cow that got selected and separated every now and then? They were sacrificing it in the old building.”
That proved a bit too much for me. “Wait… hang on. The place is already a slaughterhouse. Cows die there daily. What’s so special about this one cow? Do others not count?”
“Oh how am I supposed to know? You wanted to know what the stories were right? That’s all we got, nobody actually knows what’s going on in there. All we got are guesses. All we know is that someone always showed up, maybe once a week, and picked out a cow, and lead it away. We’re busy workers so no, none of us ever really saw where it ended up. We’re pretty sure it wasn’t put back on a truck. There’s no hidden field that we know of where they’re keeping them. So where the hell do these cows go?”
“I mean… I don’t know. Do they still do that?” I asked.
Juan answered me. “Yes. I’ve seen it happen. Mr. Kurt is the man who picks the cow. Once a week he picks a cow and leads it away from the others. Usually toward the back. Whenever we ask him where the cow went, he would just say ‘that’s private.’”
“Who the hell is Mr. Kurt?” Willard asked.
“He’s basically the general manager. He’s there everyday.”
“What about the new owner? ‘Antoora’ or however you say that?”
“Antuara. We don’t know. Nobody but Mr. Kurt has met him. It’s really strange. Kurt just says Antuara is a bit of a recluse.”
“Wouldn’t the FDA want to know what was happening with these cows?” I wondered.
“All the paperwork is done. The FDA has been here multiple times. They know one cow gets taken, and… they’ve signed off on everything. So I guess it’s nothing illegal.” Juan concluded with a shrug. “It’s really weird.”
“Huh. That place is just a giant old mystery. Does it ever end? You all know what happened to Mr. Manson?”
“Didn’t he die in a fire?” Asked Polly.
“Not just him. My last boss was the one that noticed this. But right before Mr. ‘Antoora’ bought the place ten years ago, it got bought up by a bunch of corporate goons. They wanted to compete with places like Tyson meats. They bought it after Manson's car was found exploded… with him in it, of course. That’s three different owners who were hit by fires, and two that were killed by fires. But that’s not all. Polly? You worked as floor manager while those corpo guys ran the place right? You remember why they ended up selling?”
“I was never told, actually. You and the boys had your stories, but I always figured it was our numbers. We weren’t doing as well. People weren’t going to local butchershops. I know there was one death…”
“It was another fire. And from what I hear it was ruled as an arson! To this day it hasn’t been solved. There were three deaths like that. And a meat packing plant in another state burned down. Not all of those were ruled as arson, but it’s a hell of a coincidence, wouldn’t y’all agree?” Willard said with a grin as he searched everyone’s faces. He had everyone enraptured by his mystery.
“It’s like the place really is cursed. Whoever owns Shroeder slaughterhouse… catches fire?” Said someone.
“Sure seems that way.”
“But Antuara is different. All the equipment is new, and he trained all of us extensively. We take breaks. We’re required to take breaks. And we clean everything. Then there’s the farms he bought. They don’t use any growth hormones or cheap feed. Hell, Mitchel Farm has enrichment toys for them. If the place was cursed, I have to hope it’s lifted now.” Juan spoke with conviction.
“But you still see the shadow and the bird, right? And nobody knows what happens to the one cow?” Willard said simply.
“Yes. That is true. Mr. Kurt has said he’ll look into the things that are causing our discomfort. But what can anyone do about a ghost?”
“Like I said. That place is cursed by the devil. Years of cruel practice, spilled blood, and bad deals. The owners get burned, the workers suffer, but it just keeps churning out meat. And of course, it’s here in the town of Fallowveil, where witches roam free…”
“As do old assholes” added Petunia
“The woods have a monster, the Hotel is in the damn Twilight Zone, and everyone’s seen something unnatural. The place is still cursed, mark my words. Unless they tear that old building down, it’ll probably stay cursed.” With that, Willard concluded his story. He raised a bottle of beer to his lips, but before he could drink, Petunia appeared and swatted the bottle right out of his hand.
“What the hell did I tell you Willard. No more god damn beer!”
“Sorry Petunia.”
The rest of the day was nice. I ate food, hung out with neighbors, played some horseshoes, drank some beer. It was great. The circle of meat packing workers had a few more tales, mostly about the Shadow showing up to scare people, or a weird thing someone saw around the old building.
I wasn’t sure what to think, really. I’ve never actually been to the place. I know that working in a slaughterhouse sounds like a really depressing, dangerous, and messy job that I never ever want. That’s for sure. I had no idea missing limbs were so common.
I looked up some of the stuff Willard said. It seems he wasn’t embellishing much. There really were owners who died in fires and one who got squashed by his own equipment. I can see where belief in a curse comes from. Interestingly, Juan was right too. Fallowveil has received awards for its high quality beef in recent years. The stuff is so good that some of the food network shows have started showing up to do segments and visit local restaurants. Mostly Nerd Burger. Nerd Burger is incredible. The Spicy² burger is hands down, the best burger in the universe and nobody will tell me otherwise. I didn’t even realize it contracted with Antuara meats, but there you go.
I shared all of this with Trista later that night, and as a result, we went on adventure together. I wonder if it was a date? She wore her regular clothes. Try to imagine a sixties Hippy who got a makeover from a goth. She wore a sarong around her waist that would dance around her legs, with the breeze. It was black as pitch, with a few flowery designs sewn in. She halos wore a black hand made tank top, black knee high boots, and her stoner beanie hat that read “total witch.” Seriously. How else can I describe that other than Hippy/goth or Hippy/vampire. She’s weird, and she’s really skinny, but damn it… she’s really pretty. And a lot of fun to hang out with. She might have supplied us with something to smoke that may or may not be legal in this state so I’ll say no more there.
But anyway, we were chatting after sundown, and I told her all about the stories of the Slaughterhouse. “Ugh. That place. Look at me. I’m a hippy. I can’t call myself a vegan, but I still morally oppose the meat industry.”
“Why can’t you call yourself a vegan?”
“I… have a specialized diet.”
“What’s that mean?”
“None of your business, jerk!” She socked my shoulder playfully, which made my whole arm go numb.
“Ow! You are like 140 pounds, max. How are you so damn strong?”
“Maybe you’re just weak. So the slaughterhouse is cursed? Wanna go see it?”
“I… like… Right now?”
“Sure! You don’t work for another hour, right? The hotel can manage without me if I’m late by a few minutes. Come on! I hear you’re more likely to see weird things if you go at night!”
How could I say no? So I drove us to Antuara Meats, formerly known as the Schroeder Slaughterhouse, and got a look at it for the first time in my life. The main building is pretty unremarkable. Just a factory type building next to a big field. We pulled into the parking lot and got as close to the fence as we could, so we could see what we really wanted. The old building.
“Christ. Why is it still standing? Place looks like it should be condemned.” Trista said as we got out and peered through the fencing.
“Yup. Boarded up windows, overgrown ivy everywhere, everything one needs to make a nice creepy atmosphere.”
“How romantic!” She quipped. I’m glad she couldn’t see the confused blushing I did after that. “It definitely smells like blood and rot around here.”
“It does? All I smell is… I’m guessing that’s cow poop?”
“No. It’s metallic. Smells like old blood.”
“You are such a vampire.”
“Har har.”
“Seriously, I don’t smell blood. I can’t see much. It’s too dark.”
“Not much to see. Though I think I see the cow.”
“The cow? What cow? And no way in hell can you see out here. There’s clouds out!”
“Eat your vegetables Mason. It’s good for your night vision.”
“Vampire says what?”
“Nope.”
“So you see a cow? A live cow? Where? Maybe I have a night vision app or something. I dug my phone out of my pocket.
“Yeah, there’s a cow standing out behind the old building. Maybe a hundred yards.”
“I don’t care how good your night vision is, how could you see that far?”
“Will you give it a rest? Not my fault my eyes adjust better than yours.”
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to be an ass…”
“It’s okay Mason, I’m mostly messing with you. There is a cow there though.”
I held up my phone and zoomed as far as I could with the night vision on. She was right. A loan cow stood in an open field behind the slaughterhouse. There were no fences back there, so I wondered if it had gotten loose and just wandered its way to the spot. “Huh. You’re right. There’s totally a cow there. It’s not on the property either.”
“So… you found the missing cow. But I gotta ask. You doing okay? That shit with the Red Nights club was crazy. Anyone would be messed up after that.”
That annoyed me. I’m not sure why. “You think I’m messed up?”
“Well, yeah, that’s why I hang out with you. We’re both messed up. But like… this is seriously messed up. Not fun messed up.”
“Is that the only reason we came out here? Did Petunia put you up to this?” I turned toward her.
“Yes. But no. Petunia is worried about you. And so am I. You’re one of the few regular friends I’ve got. And someone almost shot you.” I saw genuine concern in her violet eyes. She stood there, twiddling nervously with her hands, only partly illuminated by the nearby streetlights, making her pale complexion shine. A strange gust of wind kicked up and blew her wavey Raven black hair prettily across her face.
‘Oh fuck. You’re getting feels. Stop that. You’re just lonely, and she just feels bad.’ I wrestled with my thoughts for a moment before replying. “I’m sorry. Maybe I’m just burying it. I’m okay. At least I think I am. Maybe I'm still processing.
“Uh. Hold that thought, Mason. The cow is gone.”
“What?” I looked back and held up my phone. There was no cow in the field anymore. “Where? How? There’s nowhere for it to go!?”
“I didn’t see anything. It was there a minute ago, now it’s just gone. Wow. That’s creepy. This place really is cursed.”
“Could it have fallen in a hole or something?”
We actually spent a few minutes searching for a trace of the bovine, but we didn’t find anything. There’s no way the thing ran off in just a minute. So what the hell happened to it? It just vanished. Both of us felt a little unsafe after we reached that conclusion. So we headed home and then went off to our respective jobs. Now here I am. A fully grown cow disappeared before my eyes at a haunted slaughterhouse, and somehow I’m still more concerned with whether or not I should ask Trista out or just enjoy her friendship. But that shit is my business.
I did a bit more reading about the slaughterhouse. police have been called to the place over the years, and they found nothing. There’s even been people that signed papers and got to enter the building legally. There was even a ghost hunter once. They didn’t really find anything interesting either. There’s something weird about that place though. No doubt about it. It’s brought tragedy, creepy stories, and delicious hamburger to our town for generations. Given how delicious locally raised beef is? I'm cool with the place doing whatever it’s doing.

**I think Nintendo is having issues with their servers**
I have to renew my dodo code for each person - that seems to fix the issue, so I will be closing for now :)
The list of the items is below:

• [ ] Apple dress
• [ ] Apple hat
• [ ] Apple rug
• [ ] Apple wall
• [ ] Apple wall DIY
• [ ] Apple umbrella
• [ ] Aqua tile flooring
• [ ] Aqua tile wall
• [ ] Argyle tile flooring
• [ ] Artsy parquet flooring
• [ ] Autograph cards
• [ ] Baby bear
• [ ] Baby panda
• [ ] Backlit sign
• [ ] Backyard lawn
• [ ] Bamboo lattice fencing x10
• [ ] Barbecue x 2
• [ ] Basement flooring
• [ ] Beak
• [ ] Black crown wall
• [ ] Black design kitchen mat
• [ ] Black perforated-board wall
• [ ] Blue-crown wall
• [ ] Blue kitchen mat
• [ ] Blue small round mat
• [ ] Board game x2
• [ ] Bone door plate
• [ ] Boxing-ring mat
• [ ] Brake tapper
• [ ] Brick fencing x10
• [ ] Broken stone-path flooring
• [ ] Bunny nose
• [ ] Business shoes
• [ ] Cards
• [ ] Carp on a cutting board
• [ ] Carton beverage
• [ ] Car tower
• [ ] Ceiling spotlight
• [ ] Cherry-blossom petals x10
• [ ] Cherry dress
• [ ] Cherry hat
• [ ] Cherry rug
• [ ] Cherry umbrella
• [ ] Circuit-board flooring
• [ ] Circus flooring
• [ ] Clothesline pole
• [ ] Club flooring
• [ ] Construction-site flooring
• [ ] Corner clothing rack
• [ ] Covered wagon x2
• [ ] Creepy skeleton
• [ ] Crest doorplate
• [ ] Cute sneakers
• [ ] Cutting board
• [ ] Cypress plant
• [ ] Dance shoes x8
• [ ] Decorative pillar x2
• [ ] Diner sofa x3
• [ ] Dinnerware
• [ ] Document stack
• [ ] Dojo wall
• [ ] Double door refrigerator
• [ ] Dungeon wall
• [ ] Elaborate display case
• [ ] Elaborate kimono stand
• [ ] Elegant masquerade mask
• [ ] Espresso maker
• [ ] Fancy frame
• [ ] Fast food cap x3
• [ ] Fence x2
• [ ] Festival lantern x2
• [ ] Festival-lantern set
• [ ] Festivale drum
• [ ] Firewood
• [ ] Fish doorplate
• [ ] Flat garden rock x2
• [ ] Flower display case
• [ ] Fragrance diffuser x3
• [ ] Full-length maid gown
• [ ] Game-show stand
• [ ] Garbage bin x3
• [ ] Garbage can
• [ ] Garbage-heap flooring
• [ ] Garbage-heap wall
• [ ] Garbage pail
• [ ] Garden faucet
• [ ] Garden gnome x2
• [ ] Garden lantern x2
• [ ] Garden rock
• [ ] Geisha wig x6
• [ ] Glass holder with candle
• [ ] Glass jar
• [ ] Glass showcase x2
• [ ] Glowing-moss balloon x2
• [ ] Go board
• [ ] Golden candlestick
• [ ] Golden dishes
• [ ] Golden gear apparatus
• [ ] Golden gear tower
• [ ] Golden meter and pipes
• [ ] Golden toilet
• [ ] Gothic headdress x4
• [ ] Gray molded-panel wall
• [ ] Gray shanty wall
• [ ] Gray-striped wall
• [ ] Gray vinyl wall
• [ ] Green exquisite rug
• [ ] Green kilim-style carpet
• [ ] Handheld lantern
• [ ] Hanging sign x2
• [ ] Hay bed x5
• [ ] Head bandages
• [ ] Highway flooring
• [ ] Horizontal split curtains
• [ ] Horseshoe door decoration
• [ ] Hourglass
• [ ] Hula top
• [ ] Humidifier x4
• [ ] Ice wall
• [ ] Imperial bed
• [ ] Imperial dining chair
• [ ] Industrial wall
• [ ] Inspection equipment
• [ ] Iron doorplate
• [ ] Iron shelf
• [ ] Ironwood low table x2
• [ ] Ivory small round mat
• [ ] Jail bars x2
• [ ] Kettle
• [ ] Kitchen stove
• [ ] Kitschy tile
• [ ] K.K. Lovers
• [ ] Knight’s helmet
• [ ] Knit hat
• [ ] Laboratory wall
• [ ] Large lattice fencing x10
• [ ] Large star fragments x10
• [ ] Lattice fencing x10
• [ ] Lawn mower
• [ ] LCD TV 50inch
• [ ] Lecture-hall bench
• [ ] Left chalkboard section
• [ ] Lighted display stand x2
• [ ] Lighthouse
• [ ] Log decorative shelves
• [ ] Log wall-mounted clock
• [ ] Lunar lander
• [ ] Lunar rover
• [ ] Magical dress x7
• [ ] Mama bear
• [ ] Maple-leaf rug
• [ ] Marine pop wall
• [ ] Masquerade mask x2
• [ ] Matryoshka x4
• [ ] Meadow vista
• [ ] Medicine cabinet
• [ ] Menu chalkboard
• [ ] Mermaid flooring
• [ ] Microwave
• [ ] Milk can
• [ ] Mixer
• [ ] Mom’s candle set
• [ ] Mom’s knapsack (pink)
• [ ] Money flooring
• [ ] Monocle
• [ ] Mush parasol
• [ ] Mush umbrella
• [ ] Mush wall
• [ ] Music stand
• [ ] Natural square table
• [ ] OK Motors sign
• [ ] Operating-room flooring
• [ ] Orange rug
• [ ] Orange umbrella
• [ ] Orange wall
• [ ] Outback hat x4
• [ ] Pagoda x2
• [ ] Pansy table DIY
• [ ] Papa panda
• [ ] Paper lantern x2
• [ ] Paradise Planning wall flag
• [ ] Park fountain
• [ ] Peach wall
• [ ] Peachy-pink folding fan
• [ ] Pear dress
• [ ] Pear rug
• [ ] Pear umbrella
• [ ] Pear wall
• [ ] Pile of cash
• [ ] Pixel shades x4
• [ ] Plaza train x2
• [ ] Pocketbook
• [ ] Podium
• [ ] Potted starter plants
• [ ] Project table
• [ ] Pro coffee grinder
• [ ] Reception counter
• [ ] Retro gas pump
• [ ] Retro ice-cream case
• [ ] Retro sleeveless dress x2
• [ ] Ribbon x3
• [ ] Robot hero
• [ ] Rope fencing x10
• [ ] Rope partition x2
• [ ] Rotary phone
• [ ] Round pillow
• [ ] Royal crown x7
• [ ] Ruffled dress x3
• [ ] Rush tatami
• [ ] Salad DIY
• [ ] Samurai suit
• [ ] Sandbox
• [ ] Satellite
• [ ] School locker
• [ ] Sci-fi flooring
• [ ] Sci-fi wall
• [ ] Server
• [ ] Server-room wall
• [ ] Serving cart
• [ ] Shell stool
• [ ] Short simple panel
• [ ] Shower booth
• [ ] Silo x3
• [ ] Silver mic
• [ ] Simple blue flooring
• [ ] Simple panel
• [ ] Simple well
• [ ] Siphon
• [ ] Skateboard wall rack
• [ ] Ski mask
• [ ] Skull doorplate
• [ ] Sky wall
• [ ] Slip dress x6
• [ ] Small LED display
• [ ] Small vase
• [ ] Smoker
• [ ] Space parka
• [ ] Space shuttle
• [ ] Spider doorplate
• [ ] Spider web
• [ ] Spinning wheel
• [ ] Stand mixer
• [ ] Star shades x2
• [ ] Statue of Liberty
• [ ] Steamroller
• [ ] Stone table
• [ ] Stone tablet
• [ ] Straw fencing x10
• [ ] Street organ
• [ ] Studio spotlight
• [ ] Study chair
• [ ] Sturdy sewing box
• [ ] Sumo ring
• [ ] Supermarket wall
• [ ] Suspender outfit x2
• [ ] Sweater dress x2
• [ ] Sword in scabbard
• [ ] Tablet device x2
• [ ] Tabletop POP display
• [ ] Tank x3
• [ ] Tea set
• [ ] Tea table
• [ ] Telescope
• [ ] Tension pole rack x2
• [ ] Tent flooring
• [ ] Throne x3
• [ ] Throwback wall clock
• [ ] Tiger-print flooring
• [ ] Timber doorplate
• [ ] Tiny shades x3
• [ ] Tractor x3
• [ ] Treadmill
• [ ] Trekking shoes
• [ ] Trophy case
• [ ] Truck
• [ ] TV with VCR
• [ ] Typewriter
• [ ] Upright locker
• [ ] Vehicle cabin seat
• [ ] Virgo fragments x10
• [ ] Wall-mounted tool board
• [ ] Water flooring
• [ ] Western-style stone
• [ ] Wheat field x30
• [ ] Whiteboard
• [ ] Wood partition x7
• [ ] Yellow kilim-style carpet
• [ ] Yunomi teacup
• [ ] Zen light

Are they supposed to be former champions or maybe the seven deadly sins?

"You're not seriously going to chain yourself up like this?" I had to ask I couldn't handle watching this.
It was dirty and awful smelling like the funk was personally wringing my lungs dry. "I have to," he said with such a resolution, that I was thinking of just letting him have his way.
"There has to be another way though. You're the CROWNED prince, next in line for the throne of Jakqulies, I'd be a bad subject if I'd let you stay."
"And I would be a bad king if I listened to you." "I'm a good influence though, so you should listen to me."
He rolled his eyes and anchored down the chains to the wall. he ignored me, even though he was the one who brought me here in the first place.
pinched my eyebrows in frustration. "I just think, there are more ways, better ways, to handle this." "I've tried everything." I sat on the wooden bed and shrugged my shoulders trying to think of everything.
"Well when you say everything, that could mean a lot of things, did you try things related to the 'cures' and things outside of it?" He sighed, he walked over to me and looked me in the eyes.
"I have tried everything. I've tried locking myself in the dungeon and leaving the kingdom, I've tried a multitude of potions even mixing some, tried charms, hexes, and spells."
I slumped down on the wood, it was prickly and cold. Then again this entire dungeon is freezing. "Why didn't anything work?" "I don't know nor do we have the time to try and figure that out now." "It could be important. Help me do the job you asked me to do."
He didn't respond, too busy screwing chains shut on his wrist. I rolled onto the bed, it was starting to become more comfortable.
"I don't need anything specific just how it ended up failing." "Simple I couldn't stay awake." " You need to be more specific"
"Well I don't know what you want me to say. I took the potions I did the hexes and every single one didn't work." "Then what about when you left how did that fail." He was stressed and so was I.
I couldn't do anything to help cause we knew nothing about what was causing the change. He was stressed cause how is a crowned prince going to become king when he transform into a murderous monster every 24th night.
"The thing used magic and brought me back before changing." I shot up and twirled over the bed to face him. "It used magic!?" he froze a bit, confused by the reaction. "Yes, you already know it can use magic. "NOT powerful magic!"
I crawled off the bed and raced into my bag. "What does it matter?" He was perplexed by how panicked I was dumping things out. I need the drawings.
"It completely changes things!" I saw the paper fall onto the floor. I snatched it up and raced to the light outside the dungeon.
I didn't believe it when I saw the drawing, I thought I was being overdramatic. There was no way I was right at first, I couldn't be, because then that would mean- I stared at the drawing it looked exactly how they described it to be. I looked back at Kaeden.
It's crazy how learning new stuff about the people you know can completely change the way they look to you. He noticed my shift in personality immediately. "What? Edan what is it?"
"How far?" "What?" I walked to my bag and quickly started shoving things in it, keeping the drawing close to my chest.
"How far away did you go?!" "I went to Thanxthiles." I dropped my bag. "Oh, my Johi! To the Thanxthiles, like into the kingdom!" "yes."
I couldn't tell if I was excited or shocked, it didn't matter. This is the greatest day of my life. I couldn't speak either, I just started freaking out.
I grabbed onto his arms and jumped up and down roots started to sprout from beneath me every time I touched the ground. "Really? You went that far! And it used magic to bring itself back here!" He didn't respond only looking around as nature started to break into the concrete of the dungeon.
I broke away from him and started jumping all around and looking at the drawing with a newfound aspiration. "Edna wait? I'm confused." " A SEKAN BEAST! YOU'RE A SEKAN BEAST VESSEL!"
I ran toward him and shoved the paper into his hand. "Look! Look! That's what you said the beast looks like right? And it displays the use of magic!"
I was inches away from his face brimming with joy. He scooted away slightly. As he answered with sheer confusion. "Yes."
My eyes ignited in exhilaration. I was dancing all around the room. Bouncing off the walls excited. "Eden. My room! your plan-" "This is such great news, you can become so much stronger than you are now! You can become like the mighty kings of old!"
I said as I jumped on his bed and crawled towards him. I was smiling so much and felt a sudden need to laugh. "EDEN!" He grabbed me off the bed, he was strong. "WOW you're already so strong imagine when you fully grow into your powers!" "Eden my fucking room!"
I surveyed the room and noticed how it started to turn into a miniature forest, roots overturning his floors and trees ripening with fruit brushing through the wall and flowers with little flying bugs in almost every corner of where I stepped.
Still, I was breathlessly ecstatic. "A SEKAN beast." I chuckled before having to catch my breath. He sat me down.
"What is a Sekan beast and why are you so happy that it torments my kingdom?" He wasn't happy like I was, no he wasn't happy at all with my reaction.
To be fair to him becoming a vessel to a Sekan best is rare the effects on their life is grave. I raised my hand and shrunk the forest back into the ground. "I'm sorry for getting too excited but this is great news."
He winced at the words and pulled away. "How is any of this great news? I lost my best friend to this thing. And you're over here celebrating and praising my suffering."
"No no. I'm not saying what you're going through is great I'm saying what is causing this is great being and can be talked to." He shook his head and rested his arms on his legs in despair.
"A great being." He mumbled. I wrapped my arms around him and rested my head on his back, covering him with my cloak. "The thing taking over your body is called a sekan beast."
"I figured that much." "It's the beast of the gods and... is a sign that the person that they take over is in favor of the gods and they're sent to get rid of people who would interfere with their vessel's journey." He raised his head in distress. "Save me from- huh It's the very danger of my-" "I know. I know."
I grabbed his hand tightly. "The gods send the beast to take away obstacles that may cause you intense agony or intend to end your history short." he grasped onto the side of my skirt.
He was at a loss for words. I sat in silence with him. He probably didn't want to hear more about the beast.
After a while I feared for him to sleep so I shook him lightly and tried to comfort him. "I'm sorry, you lost people close or even if they were just people you never met, but they're gone for a reason."
He didn't respond, just shuddered a breath. "At least this way. You can remember them as they are not what they would've been."
He stood up and faced the wall. " I don't. I just, he was my best friend, I wanted nothing more than to rid myself of this thing since his death but now you're telling me, his death was necessary and that he would betray me or even kill me. I just. I can't."
"I never met him or know anything about your guy's relationship, but he must've changed in the future to do so."
"No people don't just change, there must have been something!" "That no one could've saved him from."
He just looked at me a shook his head. "Mmm mm! I could've!" I walked up to him and tried to reason with him.
"If the Sekan took his life that likely means it was his fate to hurt you whether he wanted to or not." "Then why kill him? If it was his fate to hurt me, why cut his life? Why kill him, by my hands? Why even have him born in the first place? " He was hurt.
"The sekan took him to spare you. Whatever it was he would've done would've been too much for you to bear, be it physically or mentally. His action would've caused your demise."
He just turned away from me. He didn't try to argue against my reason anymore and just listened to me. I gave him everything I knew about the beast.
Former vessels, their powers, the transformation, their history, and stories about how they came to be.
He suddenly sprang from the bed. "What time is it?" "Umm... it's" I looked up to my arm and used my painted fingers to move my moon tattoo it shifted to look like the moon outside.
"It's almost midnight." he just stared at my arm mouth gaped open. "What?" "What do you mean what? What was that that?"
"Magic?" "I'm not talking about the magic I'm talking about the painting on your arm. Did you paint that on yourself?" I looked at him in disbelief, laughing at his face of amusement and bewilderment, I showed him more of them.
"They're called tattoos, they're not exactly paintings. They're permanent, you ink them onto your skin using needles. Anyone can get them, many if not all witches have them. Makes casting spells easier."
"Woah. I've never seen them in real life, it seems much cooler than magic." I rolled my eyes and chuckled. "Why did you ask for the time anyway?"
His joy dispersed into a somber calm. "It's almost time." "I thought you said you didn't know when the transformation happens, it just happens" "That's true but it's typically around midnight that it happens."
I stayed silent for a moment. "It's an ugly and honestly embarrassing process that I don't want you to see." "But I need to converse with it." "Well, you'll know when the transformation is done cause you won't hear my screams anymore."
The words danced off his tongue like it was a joke. But his laughing quickly turned to a nervous cough when he saw my worrisome expression.
"I suggest it'd be best you left for a couple of minutes-" "Does it hurt you to transform?" He seemed uncomfortable at the idea of it, he swung his arms nervously before picking at the chains.
"Yes. Yes, it does." He said looking away from me as if in shame. I don't understand. The transformation should've been physically painless.
"What? Can, you describe it?" "I don't know how to. Umm, I guess it would feel like my entire body was being stretched and ripped apart."
This doesn't make any sense, is he a Sekan's vessel? I paced around a bit trying to understand.
There is no other creature able to take over a body and everything points to a sekan but the physical pain of the transformation should never happen.
"I don't want you here when it does happen. It's difficult to watch so please just go upstairs and wait." Something's wrong. I just nodded my head and walked out.
He was shutting the door, I looked back he seemed so sad. I pushed the door back open and hugged him.
He was shocked and so was I, but he was going to be in pain. "It's... it's going to be alright I promise." He hugged me and we stayed there for a moment.
Not a sound just our hearts beating. He pulled away and shut the door behind me. I walked up the stairs, slowly.
I know I said I would wait to give him his time to suffer without witness. But just because he wants it doesn't mean it's the right thing to do.
I stayed on the fourth step for what seemed to be a long time. I don't know what I was waiting for. Maybe to hear his cries? Maybe to hear him and rush back in? But I didn't hear anything.
"This looks so creepy." I insulted myself and began to walk up. I had a sickly feeling that grew with each step was it okay to leave him there alone?
I know it's what he asked and he decided it was the best and he is the future king. So I should listen to him. I made it to the courtyard, the feeling was now a wave constantly beating over me.
Fuck it.
I may reside in his kingdom but I'm a witch we know no kings. I pulled back the door and made my way back down the stairs. Which for some reason seemed to be much longer than when I came up.
The feeling was growing increasingly vexing with each step, I soon started running down the stairs. I raced to the bottom, I could hear sobs getting closer with each step
I jumped over the last two and bolted down the hall. "Kaeden!" I bearly stopped myself from sliding past his door. I grabbed the handle and flung it open. "Kaeden!" He was crouched over on the floor, grabbing at his arms. He raised his head to look at me.
"Eden?" I flinched back his left eye had bloody feathers coming out of every pore and his pupils were stretched and his eye was starting to grow over his face.
"What are you doing here?! I told you to leave!" His voice was layered with another more animalistic curl, but it just made his pain much more noticeable.
I rushed over to him. He tried to get up and walk away but quickly fell to the floor. "Please! I don't want you to see me like this!" His voice was filled with pain, I couldn't stand it. "I'm sorry but it's wrong to just leave you here to suffer alone.
Be mad at me all you want later but I won't leave you." I put my hand in his and let him squeeze it as hard as he needed. He was sweating like crazy.
Blood dripped onto my hand every second. He trembled with each new feather. I didn't know what I could do. I don't think I can do anything.
I started to panic when he started to scream out, he tried to stifle it every time but it didn't change the fact that his hands started to grow new bones.
I felt his skin break and his bones shift. I couldn't stand the feeling but it was more horrific to watch as it happened to his back.
Blood started to seep into his clothes, his skin started to shrink and harden into scales, I could feel feathers grow on his hands and see it started to replace his hair.
I could bearly catch my breath at the sight of his bone tearing through his skin. Breaking and mending themselves into a strange shape.
He had already bled some much it died my purple skirt to a violent red. "Please... leave..." his voice was just a broken sob; a tired whisper.
He was completely terrified. I felt tears on my face. I leaned over him and hugged him almost as if I was shielding him. Hard to shield him from his own body.
I broke down alongside him. "It's going to be over soon, real soon. I promise. It's going to be okay I'm right here. I'm not leaving." I could feel him shivering under me.
I could feel him gasping for air. I hear his bones moving in his body. I could hear his voice change with every sob. It was almost over. "It's almost over Kaeden" I was relieved we couldn't see each other's faces.
He wouldn't believe me if he could see how terrified I looked and I couldn't see what he was turning into. My tears pooled and soaked into the feathers on his back.
I felt drained but I could only imagine the pain Kaeden was going through. It was painful to just watch. I just stayed there telling him it was going to be okay as his screams override my voice.
I tightened my hold on him as I watched his blood flow from him to the crack under the door. I tried to listen to his heartbeat but I couldn't find it. After what seems like a lifetime.
His bones stopped moving, I couldn't feel any more blood flowing like a stream, and I didn't feel his skin transmute into scales and feathers pop through his skin.
I raised my head, blood had soaked through my hair dampening and staining my cheek. I looked at him.
He didn't even look human anymore. His body was covered in feathers, he had talons for nails, and his legs had grown extra joints not to mention he had grown twice- no three times his size.
He was bizarrely clean despite the pool of blood surrounding us. It would've been a straight blessing from Johi to be holding or even be this close to a Sekan beast; had its arrival been under normal circumstances.
I wiped away the blood from my face and took my arm away. I was suddenly jerked forward, it wrapped its hand on my arm. I tried to pull away but it dug its talons in my skin. I didn't hesitate to tie the thing down with vines.
the vines shot back out through the concrete and quickly made their way around the beast's neck and arms. The beast didn't take this lightly and started to stand. It pulled me close and tried to pick me up by my arm.
The plants grabbed at its legs and tried to knock it down but it stood its ground. The branch around his neck tightened forcing its head to rear up. it wasn't as monstrous as I had thought, it still had a semblance of a human face but it was not Kaeden's.
The eyes had a pattern similar to stained glass and the pupils were too large, I could see the reflection of my fear in its eyes. The neck was long it the vine had wrapped around it four times.
it clenched its jaw and bared its sharp jigsaw teeth as it struggled to breathe. I had a chance to tie it down and I didn't hesitate.
I reached out and commanded the plants to pull his knees down. It hit the ground after struggling for stability. I pulled away, its talons digging into my skin. I yanked myself free, its claws sliced open my hand and almost took my fingers off.
I grabbed at my arm the blood flowing through my fingers. the Sekan was grabbing at the branches at its neck breaking them. I didn't give it the chance to free itself before I flung it through the bed and into the wall.
The beast was shocked and angry. It expanded its size with its wings unfurling from its side, but the vines already bursting through the wall wrapped them up and bent them to be useless.
it was fighting for its freedom like a feral animal, and not a majestic beast of the gods like it was said to be. with each struggle, the vines multiplied and grew thicker.
I watched as it almost got completely consumed by the trees. I mended my flesh concentrated flame and glued my skin back together.
I looked back up and the thing was motionless. almost like it was dead. I motioned for the plants to release it. It collapsed to the ground choking for air. I went behind the door and locked it and called out to it through the bars.
"What are you?" The only response was coughs and the ruffle of feathers. "Answer me." It rose and stood still for a moment before cracking its neck downward to look me in the eyes. It was nauseating I grabbed at my neck, sure that if I tried that I'd die.
"You know what I am Witch of Rthytic." Its voice had a curl to it, a nasty freighting curl. I could hear Kaedens's voice mixed with it. "I know what u pretend to be. Sekans are beasts of the gods, you're just a beast." It chuckled before bending its neck back.
It kneeled at the door; it was still slightly larger than the door. its eyes still glimmered but its pupils were small and focused. "The gods are dead witch." I drew back from the door, it grinned slightly "At least they will be."
"What are you talking about!?" "Haven't you noticed how unfair things have been lately, never felt overwhelmed by the voiceless replies. I know you noticed how empty and gut-wrenching the tempels feel and you never wondered why?" I didn't know how to respond. I just stare at the beast.
"No. no what are you really, no Sekan would act such a way about the gods. nor would you cause your vessel so much pain." The beast stopped smiling and backed away from the door retreating into the shadows.
The lock suddenly clicked and the door opened. It spoke very coldly as it crouched through the door "The gods have abandoned their morals. They usurped Beseled, now the world will fall into chaos. There's a god slayer in this remele. this slayer is Kaeden Esmened the fourth, crowned prince of Jakqulies."
I froze as a ball built up in my throat. I tried to walk away but it grabbed my arm and forced me to listen.
"The gods know of Kaeden and want him dead. I forced my way into Kaedens soul to rid of future opposers. His physical pain is minor compared to what thousands would go through if I didn't get to him. Kaeden was never meant to be the great ruler he was meant to kill the gods" I pulled away. "let go." "You were also meant great things." "what."
"The Witch of Rthytic your name will be known far more than keadens. you will be the reason he is even remembered."
"What do you mean." it let me go and began to walk away. "I don't need to tell you, just watch the gods you commune with." I was confused, everything it told me was too much, how was I supposed to tell this to Kaeden?
I wouldn't be able to do it. I looked up and the thing was gone. I raced up the stairs to see it spread its wings on the roof of the courtyard. The wings were twice the size of its own body, so big it blocked out the moon.
Of every slayer that's ever lived, only one made it back alive, but even then their body had failed them, I can't let Kaeden leave like this. "Wait!" I looked over its shoulder.
If the gods are killed then there be a strange new age of human power, that will only lead to destruction. There has to be someone stronger to care for the weak.
"It- is there a way to make Kaeden," it looked at me and grinned, " a god." Its eyes widen and its lips curl. I would make Kaeden a god and inadvertently the beast too. It put its hand out. Kaeden fate was always twisted against him, his death was meant to be cruel and lonely. He would be fine with sacrificing himself for the greater good.
But he made a deal with a witch, he thrust his soul and the beast into my hands. Both will become gods for one to live. I dug my nails into its skin as we made our pledge to birth a new era.
Of chaos and love.

"You're not seriously going to chain yourself up like this?" I had to ask I couldn't handle watching this.
It was dirty and awful smelling like the funk was personally wringing my lungs dry. "I have to," he said with such a resolution, that I was thinking of just letting him have his way.
"There has to be another way though. You're the CROWNED prince, next in line for the throne of Jakqulies, I'd be a bad subject if I'd let you stay."
"And I would be a bad king if I listened to you." "I'm a good influence though, so you should listen to me."
He rolled his eyes and anchored down the chains to the wall. he ignored me, even though he was the one who brought me here in the first place.
pinched my eyebrows in frustration. "I just think, there are more ways, better ways, to handle this." "I've tried everything." I sat on the wooden bed and shrugged my shoulders trying to think of everything.
"Well when you say everything, that could mean a lot of things, did you try things related to the 'cures' and things outside of it?" He sighed, he walked over to me and looked me in the eyes.
"I have tried everything. I've tried locking myself in the dungeon and leaving the kingdom, I've tried a multitude of potions even mixing some, tried charms, hexes, and spells."
I slumped down on the wood, it was prickly and cold. Then again this entire dungeon is freezing. "Why didn't anything work?" "I don't know nor do we have the time to try and figure that out now." "It could be important. Help me do the job you asked me to do."
He didn't respond, too busy screwing chains shut on his wrist. I rolled onto the bed, it was starting to become more comfortable.
"I don't need anything specific just how it ended up failing." "Simple I couldn't stay awake." " You need to be more specific"
"Well I don't know what you want me to say. I took the potions I did the hexes and every single one didn't work." "Then what about when you left how did that fail." He was stressed and so was I.
I couldn't do anything to help cause we knew nothing about what was causing the change. He was stressed cause how is a crowned prince going to become king when he transform into a murderous monster every 24th night.
"The thing used magic and brought me back before changing." I shot up and twirled over the bed to face him. "It used magic!?" he froze a bit, confused by the reaction. "Yes, you already know it can use magic. "NOT powerful magic!"
I crawled off the bed and raced into my bag. "What does it matter?" He was perplexed by how panicked I was dumping things out. I need the drawings.
"It completely changes things!" I saw the paper fall onto the floor. I snatched it up and raced to the light outside the dungeon.
I didn't believe it when I saw the drawing, I thought I was being overdramatic. There was no way I was right at first, I couldn't be, because then that would mean- I stared at the drawing it looked exactly how they described it to be. I looked back at Kaeden.
It's crazy how learning new stuff about the people you know can completely change the way they look to you. He noticed my shift in personality immediately. "What? Edan what is it?"
"How far?" "What?" I walked to my bag and quickly started shoving things in it, keeping the drawing close to my chest.
"How far away did you go?!" "I went to Thanxthiles." I dropped my bag. "Oh, my Johi! To the Thanxthiles, like into the kingdom!" "yes."
I couldn't tell if I was excited or shocked, it didn't matter. This is the greatest day of my life. I couldn't speak either, I just started freaking out.
I grabbed onto his arms and jumped up and down roots started to sprout from beneath me every time I touched the ground. "Really? You went that far! And it used magic to bring itself back here!" He didn't respond only looking around as nature started to break into the concrete of the dungeon.
I broke away from him and started jumping all around and looking at the drawing with a newfound aspiration. "Edna wait? I'm confused." " A SEKAN BEAST! YOU'RE A SEKAN BEAST VESSEL!"
I ran toward him and shoved the paper into his hand. "Look! Look! That's what you said the beast looks like right? And it displays the use of magic!"
I was inches away from his face brimming with joy. He scooted away slightly. As he answered with sheer confusion. "Yes."
My eyes ignited in exhilaration. I was dancing all around the room. Bouncing off the walls excited. "Eden. My room! your plan-" "This is such great news, you can become so much stronger than you are now! You can become like the mighty kings of old!"
I said as I jumped on his bed and crawled towards him. I was smiling so much and felt a sudden need to laugh. "EDEN!" He grabbed me off the bed, he was strong. "WOW you're already so strong imagine when you fully grow into your powers!" "Eden my fucking room!"
I surveyed the room and noticed how it started to turn into a miniature forest, roots overturning his floors and trees ripening with fruit brushing through the wall and flowers with little flying bugs in almost every corner of where I stepped.
Still, I was breathlessly ecstatic. "A SEKAN beast." I chuckled before having to catch my breath. He sat me down.
"What is a Sekan beast and why are you so happy that it torments my kingdom?" He wasn't happy like I was, no he wasn't happy at all with my reaction.
To be fair to him becoming a vessel to a Sekan best is rare the effects on their life is grave. I raised my hand and shrunk the forest back into the ground. "I'm sorry for getting too excited but this is great news."
He winced at the words and pulled away. "How is any of this great news? I lost my best friend to this thing. And you're over here celebrating and praising my suffering."
"No no. I'm not saying what you're going through is great I'm saying what is causing this is great being and can be talked to." He shook his head and rested his arms on his legs in despair.
"A great being." He mumbled. I wrapped my arms around him and rested my head on his back, covering him with my cloak. "The thing taking over your body is called a sekan beast."
"I figured that much." "It's the beast of the gods and... is a sign that the person that they take over is in favor of the gods and they're sent to get rid of people who would interfere with their vessel's journey." He raised his head in distress. "Save me from- huh It's the very danger of my-" "I know. I know."
I grabbed his hand tightly. "The gods send the beast to take away obstacles that may cause you intense agony or intend to end your history short." he grasped onto the side of my skirt.
He was at a loss for words. I sat in silence with him. He probably didn't want to hear more about the beast.
After a while I feared for him to sleep so I shook him lightly and tried to comfort him. "I'm sorry, you lost people close or even if they were just people you never met, but they're gone for a reason."
He didn't respond, just shuddered a breath. "At least this way. You can remember them as they are not what they would've been."
He stood up and faced the wall. " I don't. I just, he was my best friend, I wanted nothing more than to rid myself of this thing since his death but now you're telling me, his death was necessary and that he would betray me or even kill me. I just. I can't."
"I never met him or know anything about your guy's relationship, but he must've changed in the future to do so."
"No people don't just change, there must have been something!" "That no one could've saved him from."
He just looked at me a shook his head. "Mmm mm! I could've!" I walked up to him and tried to reason with him.
"If the Sekan took his life that likely means it was his fate to hurt you whether he wanted to or not." "Then why kill him? If it was his fate to hurt me, why cut his life? Why kill him, by my hands? Why even have him born in the first place? " He was hurt.
"The sekan took him to spare you. Whatever it was he would've done would've been too much for you to bear, be it physically or mentally. His action would've caused your demise."
He just turned away from me. He didn't try to argue against my reason anymore and just listened to me. I gave him everything I knew about the beast.
Former vessels, their powers, the transformation, their history, and stories about how they came to be.
He suddenly sprang from the bed. "What time is it?" "Umm... it's" I looked up to my arm and used my painted fingers to move my moon tattoo it shifted to look like the moon outside.
"It's almost midnight." he just stared at my arm mouth gaped open. "What?" "What do you mean what? What was that that?"
"Magic?" "I'm not talking about the magic I'm talking about the painting on your arm. Did you paint that on yourself?" I looked at him in disbelief, laughing at his face of amusement and bewilderment, I showed him more of them.
"They're called tattoos, they're not exactly paintings. They're permanent, you ink them onto your skin using needles. Anyone can get them, many if not all witches have them. Makes casting spells easier."
"Woah. I've never seen them in real life, it seems much cooler than magic." I rolled my eyes and chuckled. "Why did you ask for the time anyway?"
His joy dispersed into a somber calm. "It's almost time." "I thought you said you didn't know when the transformation happens, it just happens" "That's true but it's typically around midnight that it happens."
I stayed silent for a moment. "It's an ugly and honestly embarrassing process that I don't want you to see." "But I need to converse with it." "Well, you'll know when the transformation is done cause you won't hear my screams anymore."
The words danced off his tongue like it was a joke. But his laughing quickly turned to a nervous cough when he saw my worrisome expression.
"I suggest it'd be best you left for a couple of minutes-" "Does it hurt you to transform?" He seemed uncomfortable at the idea of it, he swung his arms nervously before picking at the chains.
"Yes. Yes, it does." He said looking away from me as if in shame. I don't understand. The transformation should've been physically painless.
"What? Can, you describe it?" "I don't know how to. Umm, I guess it would feel like my entire body was being stretched and ripped apart."
This doesn't make any sense, is he a Sekan's vessel? I paced around a bit trying to understand.
There is no other creature able to take over a body and everything points to a sekan but the physical pain of the transformation should never happen.
"I don't want you here when it does happen. It's difficult to watch so please just go upstairs and wait." Something's wrong. I just nodded my head and walked out.
He was shutting the door, I looked back he seemed so sad. I pushed the door back open and hugged him.
He was shocked and so was I, but he was going to be in pain. "It's... it's going to be alright I promise." He hugged me and we stayed there for a moment.
Not a sound just our hearts beating. He pulled away and shut the door behind me. I walked up the stairs, slowly.
I know I said I would wait to give him his time to suffer without witness. But just because he wants it doesn't mean it's the right thing to do.
I stayed on the fourth step for what seemed to be a long time. I don't know what I was waiting for. Maybe to hear his cries? Maybe to hear him and rush back in? But I didn't hear anything.
"This looks so creepy." I insulted myself and began to walk up. I had a sickly feeling that grew with each step was it okay to leave him there alone?
I know it's what he asked and he decided it was the best and he is the future king. So I should listen to him. I made it to the courtyard, the feeling was now a wave constantly beating over me.
Fuck it.
I may reside in his kingdom but I'm a witch we know no kings. I pulled back the door and made my way back down the stairs. Which for some reason seemed to be much longer than when I came up.
The feeling was growing increasingly vexing with each step, I soon started running down the stairs. I raced to the bottom, I could hear sobs getting closer with each step
I jumped over the last two and bolted down the hall. "Kaeden!" I bearly stopped myself from sliding past his door. I grabbed the handle and flung it open. "Kaeden!" He was crouched over on the floor, grabbing at his arms. He raised his head to look at me.
"Eden?" I flinched back his left eye had bloody feathers coming out of every pore and his pupils were stretched and his eye was starting to grow over his face.
"What are you doing here?! I told you to leave!" His voice was layered with another more animalistic curl, but it just made his pain much more noticeable.
I rushed over to him. He tried to get up and walk away but quickly fell to the floor. "Please! I don't want you to see me like this!" His voice was filled with pain, I couldn't stand it. "I'm sorry but it's wrong to just leave you here to suffer alone.
Be mad at me all you want later but I won't leave you." I put my hand in his and let him squeeze it as hard as he needed. He was sweating like crazy.
Blood dripped onto my hand every second. He trembled with each new feather. I didn't know what I could do. I don't think I can do anything.
I started to panic when he started to scream out, he tried to stifle it every time but it didn't change the fact that his hands started to grow new bones.
I felt his skin break and his bones shift. I couldn't stand the feeling but it was more horrific to watch as it happened to his back.
Blood started to seep into his clothes, his skin started to shrink and harden into scales, I could feel feathers grow on his hands and see it started to replace his hair.
I could bearly catch my breath at the sight of his bone tearing through his skin. Breaking and mending themselves into a strange shape.
He had already bled some much it died my purple skirt to a violent red. "Please... leave..." his voice was just a broken sob; a tired whisper.
He was completely terrified. I felt tears on my face. I leaned over him and hugged him almost as if I was shielding him. Hard to shield him from his own body.
I broke down alongside him. "It's going to be over soon, real soon. I promise. It's going to be okay I'm right here. I'm not leaving." I could feel him shivering under me.
I could feel him gasping for air. I hear his bones moving in his body. I could hear his voice change with every sob. It was almost over. "It's almost over Kaeden" I was relieved we couldn't see each other's faces.
He wouldn't believe me if he could see how terrified I looked and I couldn't see what he was turning into. My tears pooled and soaked into the feathers on his back.
I felt drained but I could only imagine the pain Kaeden was going through. It was painful to just watch. I just stayed there telling him it was going to be okay as his screams override my voice.
I tightened my hold on him as I watched his blood flow from him to the crack under the door. I tried to listen to his heartbeat but I couldn't find it. After what seems like a lifetime.
His bones stopped moving, I couldn't feel any more blood flowing like a stream, and I didn't feel his skin transmute into scales and feathers pop through his skin.
I raised my head, blood had soaked through my hair dampening and staining my cheek. I looked at him.
He didn't even look human anymore. His body was covered in feathers, he had talons for nails, and his legs had grown extra joints not to mention he had grown twice- no three times his size.
He was bizarrely clean despite the pool of blood surrounding us. It would've been a straight blessing from Johi to be holding or even be this close to a Sekan beast; had its arrival been under normal circumstances.
I wiped away the blood from my face and took my arm away. I was suddenly jerked forward, it wrapped its hand on my arm. I tried to pull away but it dug its talons in my skin. I didn't hesitate to tie the thing down with vines.
the vines shot back out through the concrete and quickly made their way around the beast's neck and arms. The beast didn't take this lightly and started to stand. It pulled me close and tried to pick me up by my arm.
The plants grabbed at its legs and tried to knock it down but it stood its ground. The branch around his neck tightened forcing its head to rear up. it wasn't as monstrous as I had thought, it still had a semblance of a human face but it was not Kaeden's.
The eyes had a pattern similar to stained glass and the pupils were too large, I could see the reflection of my fear in its eyes. The neck was long it the vine had wrapped around it four times.
it clenched its jaw and bared its sharp jigsaw teeth as it struggled to breathe. I had a chance to tie it down and I didn't hesitate.
I reached out and commanded the plants to pull his knees down. It hit the ground after struggling for stability. I pulled away, its talons digging into my skin. I yanked myself free, its claws sliced open my hand and almost took my fingers off.
I grabbed at my arm the blood flowing through my fingers. the Sekan was grabbing at the branches at its neck breaking them. I didn't give it the chance to free itself before I flung it through the bed and into the wall.
The beast was shocked and angry. It expanded its size with its wings unfurling from its side, but the vines already bursting through the wall wrapped them up and bent them to be useless.
it was fighting for its freedom like a feral animal, and not a majestic beast of the gods like it was said to be. with each struggle, the vines multiplied and grew thicker.
I watched as it almost got completely consumed by the trees. I mended my flesh concentrated flame and glued my skin back together.
I looked back up and the thing was motionless. almost like it was dead. I motioned for the plants to release it. It collapsed to the ground choking for air. I went behind the door and locked it and called out to it through the bars.
"What are you?" The only response was coughs and the ruffle of feathers. "Answer me." It rose and stood still for a moment before cracking its neck downward to look me in the eyes. It was nauseating I grabbed at my neck, sure that if I tried that I'd die.
"You know what I am Witch of Rthytic." Its voice had a curl to it, a nasty freighting curl. I could hear Kaedens's voice mixed with it. "I know what u pretend to be. Sekans are beasts of the gods, you're just a beast." It chuckled before bending its neck back.
It kneeled at the door; it was still slightly larger than the door. its eyes still glimmered but its pupils were small and focused. "The gods are dead witch." I drew back from the door, it grinned slightly "At least they will be."
"What are you talking about!?" "Haven't you noticed how unfair things have been lately, never felt overwhelmed by the voiceless replies. I know you noticed how empty and gut-wrenching the tempels feel and you never wondered why?" I didn't know how to respond. I just stare at the beast.
"No. no what are you really, no Sekan would act such a way about the gods. nor would you cause your vessel so much pain." The beast stopped smiling and backed away from the door retreating into the shadows.
The lock suddenly clicked and the door opened. It spoke very coldly as it crouched through the door "The gods have abandoned their morals. They usurped Beseled, now the world will fall into chaos. There's a god slayer in this remele. this slayer is Kaeden Esmened the fourth, crowned prince of Jakqulies."
I froze as a ball built up in my throat. I tried to walk away but it grabbed my arm and forced me to listen.
"The gods know of Kaeden and want him dead. I forced my way into Kaedens soul to rid of future opposers. His physical pain is minor compared to what thousands would go through if I didn't get to him. Kaeden was never meant to be the great ruler he was meant to kill the gods" I pulled away. "let go." "You were also meant great things." "what."
"The Witch of Rthytic your name will be known far more than keadens. you will be the reason he is even remembered."
"What do you mean." it let me go and began to walk away. "I don't need to tell you, just watch the gods you commune with." I was confused, everything it told me was too much, how was I supposed to tell this to Kaeden?
I wouldn't be able to do it. I looked up and the thing was gone. I raced up the stairs to see it spread its wings on the roof of the courtyard. The wings were twice the size of its own body, so big it blocked out the moon.
Of every slayer that's ever lived, only one made it back alive, but even then their body had failed them, I can't let Kaeden leave like this. "Wait!" I looked over its shoulder.
If the gods are killed then there be a strange new age of human power, that will only lead to destruction. There has to be someone stronger to care for the weak.
"It- is there a way to make Kaeden," it looked at me and grinned, " a god." Its eyes widen and its lips curl. I would make Kaeden a god and inadvertently the beast too. It put its hand out. Kaeden fate was always twisted against him, his death was meant to be cruel and lonely. He would be fine with sacrificing himself for the greater good.
But he made a deal with a witch, he thrust his soul and the beast into my hands. Both will become gods for one to live. I dug my nails into its skin as we made our pledge to birth a new era.
Of chaos and love.

"You're not seriously going to chain yourself up like this?" I had to ask I couldn't handle watching this.
It was dirty and awful smelling like the funk was personally wringing my lungs dry. "I have to," he said with such a resolution, that I was thinking of just letting him have his way.
"There has to be another way though. You're the CROWNED prince, next in line for the throne of Jakqulies, I'd be a bad subject if I'd let you stay."
"And I would be a bad king if I listened to you." "I'm a good influence though, so you should listen to me."
He rolled his eyes and anchored down the chains to the wall. he ignored me, even though he was the one who brought me here in the first place.
pinched my eyebrows in frustration. "I just think, there are more ways, better ways, to handle this." "I've tried everything." I sat on the wooden bed and shrugged my shoulders trying to think of everything.
"Well when you say everything, that could mean a lot of things, did you try things related to the 'cures' and things outside of it?" He sighed, he walked over to me and looked me in the eyes.
"I have tried everything. I've tried locking myself in the dungeon and leaving the kingdom, I've tried a multitude of potions even mixing some, tried charms, hexes, and spells."
I slumped down on the wood, it was prickly and cold. Then again this entire dungeon is freezing. "Why didn't anything work?" "I don't know nor do we have the time to try and figure that out now." "It could be important. Help me do the job you asked me to do."
He didn't respond, too busy screwing chains shut on his wrist. I rolled onto the bed, it was starting to become more comfortable.
"I don't need anything specific just how it ended up failing." "Simple I couldn't stay awake." " You need to be more specific"
"Well I don't know what you want me to say. I took the potions I did the hexes and every single one didn't work." "Then what about when you left how did that fail." He was stressed and so was I.
I couldn't do anything to help cause we knew nothing about what was causing the change. He was stressed cause how is a crowned prince going to become king when he transform into a murderous monster every 24th night.
"The thing used magic and brought me back before changing." I shot up and twirled over the bed to face him. "It used magic!?" he froze a bit, confused by the reaction. "Yes, you already know it can use magic. "NOT powerful magic!"
I crawled off the bed and raced into my bag. "What does it matter?" He was perplexed by how panicked I was dumping things out. I need the drawings.
"It completely changes things!" I saw the paper fall onto the floor. I snatched it up and raced to the light outside the dungeon.
I didn't believe it when I saw the drawing, I thought I was being overdramatic. There was no way I was right at first, I couldn't be, because then that would mean- I stared at the drawing it looked exactly how they described it to be. I looked back at Kaeden.
It's crazy how learning new stuff about the people you know can completely change the way they look to you. He noticed my shift in personality immediately. "What? Edan what is it?"
"How far?" "What?" I walked to my bag and quickly started shoving things in it, keeping the drawing close to my chest.
"How far away did you go?!" "I went to Thanxthiles." I dropped my bag. "Oh, my Johi! To the Thanxthiles, like into the kingdom!" "yes."
I couldn't tell if I was excited or shocked, it didn't matter. This is the greatest day of my life. I couldn't speak either, I just started freaking out.
I grabbed onto his arms and jumped up and down roots started to sprout from beneath me every time I touched the ground. "Really? You went that far! And it used magic to bring itself back here!" He didn't respond only looking around as nature started to break into the concrete of the dungeon.
I broke away from him and started jumping all around and looking at the drawing with a newfound aspiration. "Edna wait? I'm confused." " A SEKAN BEAST! YOU'RE A SEKAN BEAST VESSEL!"
I ran toward him and shoved the paper into his hand. "Look! Look! That's what you said the beast looks like right? And it displays the use of magic!"
I was inches away from his face brimming with joy. He scooted away slightly. As he answered with sheer confusion. "Yes."
My eyes ignited in exhilaration. I was dancing all around the room. Bouncing off the walls excited. "Eden. My room! your plan-" "This is such great news, you can become so much stronger than you are now! You can become like the mighty kings of old!"
I said as I jumped on his bed and crawled towards him. I was smiling so much and felt a sudden need to laugh. "EDEN!" He grabbed me off the bed, he was strong. "WOW you're already so strong imagine when you fully grow into your powers!" "Eden my fucking room!"
I surveyed the room and noticed how it started to turn into a miniature forest, roots overturning his floors and trees ripening with fruit brushing through the wall and flowers with little flying bugs in almost every corner of where I stepped.
Still, I was breathlessly ecstatic. "A SEKAN beast." I chuckled before having to catch my breath. He sat me down.
"What is a Sekan beast and why are you so happy that it torments my kingdom?" He wasn't happy like I was, no he wasn't happy at all with my reaction.
To be fair to him becoming a vessel to a Sekan best is rare the effects on their life is grave. I raised my hand and shrunk the forest back into the ground. "I'm sorry for getting too excited but this is great news."
He winced at the words and pulled away. "How is any of this great news? I lost my best friend to this thing. And you're over here celebrating and praising my suffering."
"No no. I'm not saying what you're going through is great I'm saying what is causing this is great being and can be talked to." He shook his head and rested his arms on his legs in despair.
"A great being." He mumbled. I wrapped my arms around him and rested my head on his back, covering him with my cloak. "The thing taking over your body is called a sekan beast."
"I figured that much." "It's the beast of the gods and... is a sign that the person that they take over is in favor of the gods and they're sent to get rid of people who would interfere with their vessel's journey." He raised his head in distress. "Save me from- huh It's the very danger of my-" "I know. I know."
I grabbed his hand tightly. "The gods send the beast to take away obstacles that may cause you intense agony or intend to end your history short." he grasped onto the side of my skirt.
He was at a loss for words. I sat in silence with him. He probably didn't want to hear more about the beast.
After a while I feared for him to sleep so I shook him lightly and tried to comfort him. "I'm sorry, you lost people close or even if they were just people you never met, but they're gone for a reason."
He didn't respond, just shuddered a breath. "At least this way. You can remember them as they are not what they would've been."
He stood up and faced the wall. " I don't. I just, he was my best friend, I wanted nothing more than to rid myself of this thing since his death but now you're telling me, his death was necessary and that he would betray me or even kill me. I just. I can't."
"I never met him or know anything about your guy's relationship, but he must've changed in the future to do so."
"No people don't just change, there must have been something!" "That no one could've saved him from."
He just looked at me a shook his head. "Mmm mm! I could've!" I walked up to him and tried to reason with him.
"If the Sekan took his life that likely means it was his fate to hurt you whether he wanted to or not." "Then why kill him? If it was his fate to hurt me, why cut his life? Why kill him, by my hands? Why even have him born in the first place? " He was hurt.
"The sekan took him to spare you. Whatever it was he would've done would've been too much for you to bear, be it physically or mentally. His action would've caused your demise."
He just turned away from me. He didn't try to argue against my reason anymore and just listened to me. I gave him everything I knew about the beast.
Former vessels, their powers, the transformation, their history, and stories about how they came to be.
He suddenly sprang from the bed. "What time is it?" "Umm... it's" I looked up to my arm and used my painted fingers to move my moon tattoo it shifted to look like the moon outside.
"It's almost midnight." he just stared at my arm mouth gaped open. "What?" "What do you mean what? What was that that?"
"Magic?" "I'm not talking about the magic I'm talking about the painting on your arm. Did you paint that on yourself?" I looked at him in disbelief, laughing at his face of amusement and bewilderment, I showed him more of them.
"They're called tattoos, they're not exactly paintings. They're permanent, you ink them onto your skin using needles. Anyone can get them, many if not all witches have them. Makes casting spells easier."
"Woah. I've never seen them in real life, it seems much cooler than magic." I rolled my eyes and chuckled. "Why did you ask for the time anyway?"
His joy dispersed into a somber calm. "It's almost time." "I thought you said you didn't know when the transformation happens, it just happens" "That's true but it's typically around midnight that it happens."
I stayed silent for a moment. "It's an ugly and honestly embarrassing process that I don't want you to see." "But I need to converse with it." "Well, you'll know when the transformation is done cause you won't hear my screams anymore."
The words danced off his tongue like it was a joke. But his laughing quickly turned to a nervous cough when he saw my worrisome expression.
"I suggest it'd be best you left for a couple of minutes-" "Does it hurt you to transform?" He seemed uncomfortable at the idea of it, he swung his arms nervously before picking at the chains.
"Yes. Yes, it does." He said looking away from me as if in shame. I don't understand. The transformation should've been physically painless.
"What? Can, you describe it?" "I don't know how to. Umm, I guess it would feel like my entire body was being stretched and ripped apart."
This doesn't make any sense, is he a Sekan's vessel? I paced around a bit trying to understand.
There is no other creature able to take over a body and everything points to a sekan but the physical pain of the transformation should never happen.
"I don't want you here when it does happen. It's difficult to watch so please just go upstairs and wait." Something's wrong. I just nodded my head and walked out.
He was shutting the door, I looked back he seemed so sad. I pushed the door back open and hugged him.
He was shocked and so was I, but he was going to be in pain. "It's... it's going to be alright I promise." He hugged me and we stayed there for a moment.
Not a sound just our hearts beating. He pulled away and shut the door behind me. I walked up the stairs, slowly.
I know I said I would wait to give him his time to suffer without witness. But just because he wants it doesn't mean it's the right thing to do.
I stayed on the fourth step for what seemed to be a long time. I don't know what I was waiting for. Maybe to hear his cries? Maybe to hear him and rush back in? But I didn't hear anything.
"This looks so creepy." I insulted myself and began to walk up. I had a sickly feeling that grew with each step was it okay to leave him there alone?
I know it's what he asked and he decided it was the best and he is the future king. So I should listen to him. I made it to the courtyard, the feeling was now a wave constantly beating over me.
Fuck it.
I may reside in his kingdom but I'm a witch we know no kings. I pulled back the door and made my way back down the stairs. Which for some reason seemed to be much longer than when I came up.
The feeling was growing increasingly vexing with each step, I soon started running down the stairs. I raced to the bottom, I could hear sobs getting closer with each step
I jumped over the last two and bolted down the hall. "Kaeden!" I bearly stopped myself from sliding past his door. I grabbed the handle and flung it open. "Kaeden!" He was crouched over on the floor, grabbing at his arms. He raised his head to look at me.
"Eden?" I flinched back his left eye had bloody feathers coming out of every pore and his pupils were stretched and his eye was starting to grow over his face.
"What are you doing here?! I told you to leave!" His voice was layered with another more animalistic curl, but it just made his pain much more noticeable.
I rushed over to him. He tried to get up and walk away but quickly fell to the floor. "Please! I don't want you to see me like this!" His voice was filled with pain, I couldn't stand it. "I'm sorry but it's wrong to just leave you here to suffer alone.
Be mad at me all you want later but I won't leave you." I put my hand in his and let him squeeze it as hard as he needed. He was sweating like crazy.
Blood dripped onto my hand every second. He trembled with each new feather. I didn't know what I could do. I don't think I can do anything.
I started to panic when he started to scream out, he tried to stifle it every time but it didn't change the fact that his hands started to grow new bones.
I felt his skin break and his bones shift. I couldn't stand the feeling but it was more horrific to watch as it happened to his back.
Blood started to seep into his clothes, his skin started to shrink and harden into scales, I could feel feathers grow on his hands and see it started to replace his hair.
I could bearly catch my breath at the sight of his bone tearing through his skin. Breaking and mending themselves into a strange shape.
He had already bled some much it died my purple skirt to a violent red. "Please... leave..." his voice was just a broken sob; a tired whisper.
He was completely terrified. I felt tears on my face. I leaned over him and hugged him almost as if I was shielding him. Hard to shield him from his own body.
I broke down alongside him. "It's going to be over soon, real soon. I promise. It's going to be okay I'm right here. I'm not leaving." I could feel him shivering under me.
I could feel him gasping for air. I hear his bones moving in his body. I could hear his voice change with every sob. It was almost over. "It's almost over Kaeden" I was relieved we couldn't see each other's faces.
He wouldn't believe me if he could see how terrified I looked and I couldn't see what he was turning into. My tears pooled and soaked into the feathers on his back.
I felt drained but I could only imagine the pain Kaeden was going through. It was painful to just watch. I just stayed there telling him it was going to be okay as his screams override my voice.
I tightened my hold on him as I watched his blood flow from him to the crack under the door. I tried to listen to his heartbeat but I couldn't find it. After what seems like a lifetime.
His bones stopped moving, I couldn't feel any more blood flowing like a stream, and I didn't feel his skin transmute into scales and feathers pop through his skin.
I raised my head, blood had soaked through my hair dampening and staining my cheek. I looked at him.
He didn't even look human anymore. His body was covered in feathers, he had talons for nails, and his legs had grown extra joints not to mention he had grown twice- no three times his size.
He was bizarrely clean despite the pool of blood surrounding us. It would've been a straight blessing from Johi to be holding or even be this close to a Sekan beast; had its arrival been under normal circumstances.
I wiped away the blood from my face and took my arm away. I was suddenly jerked forward, it wrapped its hand on my arm. I tried to pull away but it dug its talons in my skin. I didn't hesitate to tie the thing down with vines.
the vines shot back out through the concrete and quickly made their way around the beast's neck and arms. The beast didn't take this lightly and started to stand. It pulled me close and tried to pick me up by my arm.
The plants grabbed at its legs and tried to knock it down but it stood its ground. The branch around his neck tightened forcing its head to rear up. it wasn't as monstrous as I had thought, it still had a semblance of a human face but it was not Kaeden's.
The eyes had a pattern similar to stained glass and the pupils were too large, I could see the reflection of my fear in its eyes. The neck was long it the vine had wrapped around it four times.
it clenched its jaw and bared its sharp jigsaw teeth as it struggled to breathe. I had a chance to tie it down and I didn't hesitate.
I reached out and commanded the plants to pull his knees down. It hit the ground after struggling for stability. I pulled away, its talons digging into my skin. I yanked myself free, its claws sliced open my hand and almost took my fingers off.
I grabbed at my arm the blood flowing through my fingers. the Sekan was grabbing at the branches at its neck breaking them. I didn't give it the chance to free itself before I flung it through the bed and into the wall.
The beast was shocked and angry. It expanded its size with its wings unfurling from its side, but the vines already bursting through the wall wrapped them up and bent them to be useless.
it was fighting for its freedom like a feral animal, and not a majestic beast of the gods like it was said to be. with each struggle, the vines multiplied and grew thicker.
I watched as it almost got completely consumed by the trees. I mended my flesh concentrated flame and glued my skin back together.
I looked back up and the thing was motionless. almost like it was dead. I motioned for the plants to release it. It collapsed to the ground choking for air. I went behind the door and locked it and called out to it through the bars.
"What are you?" The only response was coughs and the ruffle of feathers. "Answer me." It rose and stood still for a moment before cracking its neck downward to look me in the eyes. It was nauseating I grabbed at my neck, sure that if I tried that I'd die.
"You know what I am Witch of Rthytic." Its voice had a curl to it, a nasty freighting curl. I could hear Kaedens's voice mixed with it. "I know what u pretend to be. Sekans are beasts of the gods, you're just a beast." It chuckled before bending its neck back.
It kneeled at the door; it was still slightly larger than the door. its eyes still glimmered but its pupils were small and focused. "The gods are dead witch." I drew back from the door, it grinned slightly "At least they will be."
"What are you talking about!?" "Haven't you noticed how unfair things have been lately, never felt overwhelmed by the voiceless replies. I know you noticed how empty and gut-wrenching the tempels feel and you never wondered why?" I didn't know how to respond. I just stare at the beast.
"No. no what are you really, no Sekan would act such a way about the gods. nor would you cause your vessel so much pain." The beast stopped smiling and backed away from the door retreating into the shadows.
The lock suddenly clicked and the door opened. It spoke very coldly as it crouched through the door "The gods have abandoned their morals. They usurped Beseled, now the world will fall into chaos. There's a god slayer in this remele. this slayer is Kaeden Esmened the fourth, crowned prince of Jakqulies."
I froze as a ball built up in my throat. I tried to walk away but it grabbed my arm and forced me to listen.
"The gods know of Kaeden and want him dead. I forced my way into Kaedens soul to rid of future opposers. His physical pain is minor compared to what thousands would go through if I didn't get to him. Kaeden was never meant to be the great ruler he was meant to kill the gods" I pulled away. "let go." "You were also meant great things." "what."
"The Witch of Rthytic your name will be known far more than keadens. you will be the reason he is even remembered."
"What do you mean." it let me go and began to walk away. "I don't need to tell you, just watch the gods you commune with." I was confused, everything it told me was too much, how was I supposed to tell this to Kaeden?
I wouldn't be able to do it. I looked up and the thing was gone. I raced up the stairs to see it spread its wings on the roof of the courtyard. The wings were twice the size of its own body, so big it blocked out the moon.
Of every slayer that's ever lived, only one made it back alive, but even then their body had failed them, I can't let Kaeden leave like this. "Wait!" I looked over its shoulder.
If the gods are killed then there be a strange new age of human power, that will only lead to destruction. There has to be someone stronger to care for the weak.
"It- is there a way to make Kaeden," it looked at me and grinned, " a god." Its eyes widen and its lips curl. I would make Kaeden a god and inadvertently the beast too. It put its hand out. Kaeden fate was always twisted against him, his death was meant to be cruel and lonely. He would be fine with sacrificing himself for the greater good.
But he made a deal with a witch, he thrust his soul and the beast into my hands. Both will become gods for one to live. I dug my nails into its skin as we made our pledge to birth a new era.
Of chaos and love.

WWW Press Conference (May 2)
WWW introduction press conference has been posted around everywhere and now it’s time for the press conference…. People like Roman Reigns, Adam Cole and many people will be in WWW.
WWW Owner Ely comes in front of a loud Dublin crowd. Ely says to them “come on guys, I know you can be louder.” The crowd cheers louder. Ely then says “as a hometown boy, Dublin boy I know this first guy that I signed was and still is one the most over if not the most over person in the BRITISH ISLES…… FORMER WWE KING OF THE RING AND A 13 time champion….. MR. WILLIAM REGAL! THE FANS GO crazy as William Regal walks down in front of the crowd at the table. William Regal grabs the microphone and says, “DUBLIN!!!!! I can Tell you guys missed me here in professional wrestling, but I’m not here alone. I am here with some of the best professional wrestlers in the whole world. I know they're not big here in the UK but that’s why I am here to make them big here, just like they are all around the world…. Without further ado, THE AMERICAN DRAGON, BRYAN DANIELSON, THE LUNATIC FRINGE JON MOXLEY, AND THE SWISS CYBORG…. CESAROOO & Chris Hero.” The fans cheer loudly but not as loud as they did for Regal.
Danielson grabs the mic and says, “we are the Blackpool Combat Club!!!” The fans cheer hearing the name…. Moxley grabs the mic and says “The Blackpool combat club is here to prove ourselves here in the UK & Ireland as our name is Blackpool combat club… and we gotta prove ourselves here in the UK where Blackpool is.” Danielson grabs the mic back and says “we aren’t the only people here I’d like to introduce… BLACKPOOL'S OWN….. THE SON OF WILLIAM REGAL….. CHARLIE DEMPSEY.” The fans cheer loudly for Charlie. Charlie doesn’t say anything but just looks at the crowd and soaks it in. William Regal grabs the mic and says now that everyone is here that he would like to reveal that Bryan Danielson will enter the WWW World Championship Tournament and Jon Moxley will enter the WWW Warfare Championship Tournament. After that they hype up the crowd and leave
Ely gets back and allows the fans to cheer and says… “Well, that was great. But The next person I’d like to introduce to you is…. Former 8 time WWE women's champion… Ireland’s own….. BECKYYYY Lynch!” As Becky’s theme plays the fans go crazy for Becky some of them trying to reach out to touch Becky and get an autograph, Becky signs some autographs before grabbing the mic “IT’s great to be here this place means a lot to me and it’s great to be back where I Came from” Becky gets a little emotional seeing some of her family and childhood friends in the crowd. “I came here because I’ve done everything there is to do in the American wrestling world and now I’m here to dominate the Women’s Division here in Ireland.” Before she can say anything else… this theme plays and LYRA Valkyria comes out to a huge pop as loud as Becky’s and has a stare down with Becky and points at the WWW Women’s Championship before security gets in between them cutting to commercial break
After the commercial break, Ely announces the next people to come, “these next people might not be from the UK but one of them are from Europe and I promise you will like these guys….… BULLET CLUB WARDOGS…. & THE good looking guys.” The fans cheer as they see David Finlay walk by and grab the mic from Ely…. “DUBLIN! I’m not here for you guys but just for this one time to thank you guys for showing up here for us and the introduction to the newest Wrestling Company here in the UK.” The fans cheer but David Finlay cuts the fans off. “Now let me introduce you to my Wardogs and my friends…. Birmingham’s Own…. DRILLA MOLONEY” the fans pop as Drilla Moloney walks down. “Nottingham’s own…. GABE KIDD”….. the fans pop and continue until everybody else comes out. … “Clark Connors. KENTA, Jake Lee, Jack Morris, Anthony Greene, Tadasuke, Yo-Hey….. and DUBLIN’s OWN LJ CLEARY.” The fans pop loudly for LJ before David Finlay cuts them off again and says “Me and my War Dogs are here to destroy everyone in the roster and dominate to prove why we belong here.” He drops the down on the table and leaves with the rest of the people
Ely then picks up the mic… “This last guy is a living legend in the making, winning championships all over the world… Japan, US, Australia and even here in the UK & Ireland territory…. THE AERIAL ASSASSIN WILL OSPREAY!!” Will Ospreay music plays and he comes down to the loudest pop of the night signing autographs and high fiving fans he grabs the mic. “YOOOOOOOO, IRELAND.” THE FANs chant Ospreay over and over again. Ospreay then says “ok, ok calm down now I got a few things to say.” The fans quiet down. “I’m here back in Ireland because I’ve never won a title in Ireland, I’ve won titles in the UK, in Japan, in the Americas… but never here. And I’m not alone. My friends want to prove themselves here too but they're not here but I’ll tell you about them… MULTI IWGP TAG TEAM CHAMPION… AUSSIE OPEN, THE IMPERIAL UNIT, JEFF COBB….. FORMER REVPRO WORLD CHAMPION, GREAT-O-Khan….. HENARE…. another former IWGP TAG TEAM CHAMPION. CATCH 2/2…. TJP & FRANCESCO AKIRA…. And the PRINCE OF PEACE…. CALLUM NEWMAN!!!!” The fans cheer hearing every name. “we are here to——“ This theme plays and Bryan Danielson comes out “every other person here said the same thing you’re about to say, even I did, you people can’t be creative can you.” Danielson starts pressing Ospreay and they start shoving each other before security breaks it up with Ely telling them. “wait til the ppv.. if you win your matches maybe you'll meet at the ppv.” The conference ends with a stare down with Ospreay and Danielson.

Local Only to Henderson and Vegas area at this time (need boxes to ship)
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Riven grimaced as another torpedo exploded far too close to the tiny vessel, she was aiding what was left of the Alandran crew through the retreat from the Oort Cloud. Three chaff torpedoes left, after that, they would be defenseless. “Shields down to twenty five percent Captain. I don’t think we’re going to make it to the planetary defenses.”
Captain Jan’Inar gritted her teeth and tapped on the arm controls of her command chair, “Engineering, tell me we have the ripple drive back up?” There was no response from her request.
“Captain, the chief engineer is dead, and the ship is so riddled with holes and fires I doubt communications are reaching engineering.” Riven said with a sigh. Then was forced to launch two chaff missiles towards the four enemy missiles that were bearing down on the Rivendell with monstrous acceleration.
The torpedoes attempted to corkscrew around their interceptor, but their dim AI’s were no match for Riven, who detonated the bomb pumped masers through the defractors with millimeter precision over three kilometers away, reducing them to slag. “We have one chaff torpedo left Captain, no ripple drive, half the crew is out of the fight.”
She watched as Captain Jan’Inar looked down through the floor monitors, the hulk of the Isengard was three hundred kilometers in the Z axis. “Riven, get us to the Isengard, use whatever maneuvering is necessary.”
Riven shrugged internally, she didn’t see how getting to the wreck would help, they were still ahead of the last two Trinar scout vessels, but hiding amongst the wreckage wouldn’t help. “Aye Captain, making for the wreck.”
A giant explosion appeared in one of the starboard monitors, one of the ones that wasn’t flickering off and on that is. “What the hell was that?” Jan’Inar asked Riven.
It took her a mil to process the incoming data, half her external sensors were either gone or malfunctioning. “That was the Trinar cruiser’s reactor exploding from nearly five light minutes away, the Missive managed to take her out, but she’s heavily damaged.”
Looking in the forward view screen the wreckage that was once Isengard was coming up fast, “Captain, we will arrive at the wreckage in twelve seconds, what do you want to do?”
The Captain sat back in her chair and answered, “Take us under the wreckage and put it between us our pursuers. Force them to go around the wreckage, and when they do, use the last chaff torpedo to hit one of the four fusion reactors of the Isengard.”
Riven smiled, that was Alex level deviousness. Also, quite a problem, three ships on different vectors, one near stationary wreck, and then the torpedo itself, which isn’t designed for precision, more like a shotgun blast. She cranked her frame-rate to maximum and her ship VR faded to just raw windows. Even at her maximum processing speed the calculations took agonizing milliseconds.
“Firing chaff torpedo three now!” The heavily damaged ship shuddered a bit as the last torpedo roared from its launch tube. It took nearly three seconds to reach the wreckage and detonate, an eternity to Riven. She watched as the bomb pumped masers sliced through the containment bottle, releasing the hellish energy and pressure at the heart of a star.
The explosion turned the wreckage into atoms, then lanced out in a sphere engulfing both Trinar ships in white hot plasma, obliterating them in the maelstrom. Then the shockwave from the explosion lashed out into space in every direction at the speed of light. The Rivendell was struck from behind, the ship staggered, her torch drives melted, and the lights went out.
_________________________________
Kara ended the simulation, both Alandran ships returned to normal operating duty. She opened up a channel to both Captains, letting Izzy and Riven broadcast her report to the crews. “First the good news, the enemy fleet was destroyed and the Missive and Rivendell survived to fight another day. Now the bad news, the Isengard was lost with all hands, which could have been avoided if you both stuck together and allowed your point defenses to overlap. All this means we’re going to be running another simulation tomorrow.”
She could hear both crews groan at the announcement before she continued, “I will be providing Riven and Izzy with the battlefield data, I expect you all to spend the next few hours going over where you could do better.”
Then Alex’s face appeared on all monitors in both ships, “We beat them this time, but I won’t be satisfied until we beat them every time. Go over the after action reports, come up with some new ideas, and get some rest before we tackle this again tomorrow. Also, I want to congratulate the crew of the Rivendell for lateral thinking.” Then the monitors all reverted back to their normal duty.
Alex looked over to Kara, “They’re getting better.”
Kara nibbled at a chip, “They’re not getting better fast enough. We know what we’re dealing with when it comes to the Howron ships, but the Trinar as you’ve taken to calling them are still a complete mystery. They may be even more dangerous than we’ve extrapolated them to be.”
Alex rubbed the back of his neck, “And they may be far weaker than we think, look, we can only do the best we can. We can’t really fault the Isengard crew, they’re even greener than the Rivendell.”
Kara nodded walking around the buffet table, “I’m really worried Alex, we have three ships at the moment, two of them with new crews and new AI’s. The forth will be online in a week, and I need to start focusing on producing and training a new AI.”
Alex held her lightly around the waist, “Getting the forth ship and it’s AI up is more important than these simulations, I’ll deal with them, you do what you do best?”
“Play Mother to everyone?” She asked?
Alex grinned down to her, “Well someone has to be the adult around here, and it ain’t gonna be me.”
She looked up to him, “They listen to you more than you know.”
“Poor kids.” He said as he leaned down to kiss her.
Kara spun away from his embrace and went back to the holo-tank, “Speaking of adults, it looks like we finally received an error free scan of Kel’Taraan’s mind.”
Alex came up beside her to look into the holo, it showed the docking area where the ships repair crew would normally be housed during refits. In the common area sat the Stasis pods with Kel’Taraan and Mon’Kelron, the former of which had received the medical nanobots that would repair her internal damage while she stayed in stasis, they were nearly done repairing the damage.
He turned to Kara, “Have we finished constructing the matrix yet?”
Kara shook her head, “Four failed attempts, today will be attempt number five, I’ve slowed down the print head on the auto factory to it’s lowest rate, in a few hours it will be done, then I have to put it through pass/fail checks and cross my fingers.”
Alex sighed, “Yeah, they told me about the hardest thing for an auto factory to make was the print heads for another auto factory, something biological, or a replicant matrix. Makes sense that we’d have difficulty now, as we build in space, not a sterile lab environment.”
Kara swiped at the holo, showing a video of the construction process of the matrix. “If this one doesn’t work I may have to build a lab around an auto factory and provide the gravity and sterile environment, these things take forever to construct.”
Alex studied the table for a snack, “Oh, you think we may have more matrix’s to build in the future?”
Kara looked over to Alex a little exasperated, “Once the genie is out of the bottle, I expect we may find we need to make quite a few of these.”
He rubbed his chin in thought, “We’ve asked Kel’Taraan to keep the knowledge of replication secret, I’m pretty sure she’ll do so.”
She looked back at him shaking her head, “You know as well as I do that something like this won’t stay secret forever.”
Alex nodded and sighed as he looked down, “Yeah, you’re right. Something will slip, intentionally or unintentionally. Best plan for it in the future.”
“And that brings up the next question, what do we do with Mon’Kelron?” Kara asked.
Alex looked at Kara a bit confused, “We let the medical nannites finish working on her and we keep her on ice until we can drop her back off on the planet.”
Kara shook her head, “No, that will stir up even more suspension in the Alandrans, who already think we are mysterious. She needs to be let out for observation or something before we put her back into stasis.”
“Well, you’re busy getting the new AI up and running and getting the matrix built, I’m busy with the simulations, Riven and Izzy are running ships and working with crews, that leaves Monty. Where is she anyways?”
“Personal project, she’s been working on a particle accelerator model that will be easier to build around the first planet, using material from the first planet.” Kara answered.
Alex frowned, “How would that work? We need an accelerator large enough to circle the star to make the exotic materials we need.”
Kara grinned, knowingly, “Remember that this universe is more energetic than our original universe? Monty figures that she can get by with one that encircles the first planet at twenty thousand kilometers and with about fifty loops around the accelerator we can get the necessary velocities to create the required materials.”
“Okay, so a smaller accelerator, we figured what, a century out to get one built around the star, how long will this take?” He asked.
Kara shrugged, “We had to make an estimated guess, but since the supply line would be vastly shortened by harvesting the planet with mining drones we figure two to three years before it would be operational, assuming we move one quarter of all mining drones to the first planet.”
Alex nodded, “Much more feasible. However, you haven’t mentioned probable yield.”
Kara sighed, “Yeah, less than a tenth what a proper accelerator would produce, but if we use most of the production for manufacturing nannites and substitute other materials for armor or hull we could still build some of the heavy cruisers you have the prints for.”
Alex looked down to the table and found some boneless buffalo wings, snatching the small bowl and cradling it he commented. “Well, three and a half years to build the first heavy cruiser isn’t too bad. Granted we have to build a full sized shipyard in that time frame as well. We aren’t going to churn one out in the scaled down models you two came up with.”
Kara nodded, “Already on the production schedule as well.”
Taking a big bite out of the buffalo wing, Alex sent Monty a message. “Would you be so kind as to join us at the buffet table?”
Monty faded in beside Kara, “What’s up with the big guy using all formal messaging?” She asked.
Alex swallowed, “What? I can be elegant and shit too you know.”
Monty rolled her eyes, “There’s the Alex I know. I’m assuming you need me to do something boring?”
Kara answered before Alex could make another quip. “We need you to baby sit Mon’Kelron for a bit. She needs to think that she is inside the ship so she doesn’t think anything strange is going on, particularly with Kel’Taraan.”
Monty tapped her chin, “Um, the hanger bay where they are being stored is separate from the rest of the ship. Only our two androids are located there in pods, how do I explain that she can’t go beyond that point?”
Alex spoke up while Kara was trying to come up with an answer, “Simple, you tell her she is in quarantine on board our vessel, let her know you have been decontaminated but it’s a long process and I’m too busy to go through it right now.”
Monty nodded, than smiled, “Can I wear a cute nurses outfit?”
Alex shook his head, “Fine, just sell her on the story and keep her occupied while she is under ‘observation’, then get her back into the stasis pod.”
Monty did a salute that was fairly close to an insult and faded out.
________________________________
Kel’Taraan awoke suddenly, there was no slowly drifting into consciousness, it was as if she had been startled awake. Looking around she saw only darkness, where was she? Was she dead? Were the humans unsuccessful in turning her into a replicant? Then she saw light, just two glowing blue eyes at first, then the silhouette of a petite woman brown hair down to her shoulders.
Then the rest of her faded into view, she wore a uniform similar to what all Humans wore, more practical than formal. Then she spoke, “Hello Kel’Taraan, I am Kara, it is nice to finally meet you.”
“It is nice to finally meet the legendary Kara. This must mean the process worked, what will happen to my old body?” She asked
Kara brought up what looked like a cylindrical hologram and was touching icons, the world around her faded in to what appeared to be a comfortable house. “It was destroyed before you were activated, otherwise you would not be the closest continuer, but a mere copy of yourself.”
Kel’Taraan was a little taken aback, “Closest continuer? Why destroy my old body?” She wasn’t sure why she should care if her old body was gone, but for some reason she did.
Kara finished fiddling with her hologram and it faded away, now they were sitting in a quite nice cottage, complete with a fireplace and bookshelves full of leather bound books. “Short answer, the No-Hiding theorem states that like matter or energy, information can neither be created nor destroyed, simply moved or transmuted. The information that made up ‘you’ cannot exist at the same time that your replicant was activated or you would be two different people with the same memories.”
Kel’Taraan nodded, “So to ensure it would really be ‘me’ who awoke, the original vessel had to be destroyed to ensure only one copy of the information was available?”
Kara nodded, “Correct, although it is much more complex than that, and still under some debate, that is the reigning theory of closest continuer.”
“So what do I do now?” Kel’Taraan asked.
Kara smiled, “Now we start training you on how to be a replicant. I have given you a private virtual reality environment, it should be close to the little cottage in the picture frames in your room.”
Kel’Taraan looked around and found that it was very similar. This was the cottage that she and her Emmet had looked at purchasing so long ago. She reached down and rubbed the ornate leather chair she was standing behind. It was only at this moment did she notice she was not hunched over, her back did not hurt, and she needed no cane.
Looking down at her hands they were without wrinkle or age spot, the skin was soft and taunt. She looked around and found a mirror by the front door, and in it she barely recognized the face, it was her, nearly four centuries ago.
“How?” She asked as she turned back around to Kara.
Kara summoned some keldaran hot tea and two small cups on the coffee table before sitting in the other leather bound chair by the fireplace. “Our spy devices in the palace found pictures of you when you were young, we extrapolated a three dimensional form for you to inhabit here.”
Kel’Taraan nodded as she walked back to the empty leather armchair, she noticed her hair was blonde once more, no longer silver. Sitting down she looked at the beverage choice, “Fair warning, that stuff tastes like battery acid, I have no idea how the Empress drinks it, could I try your coffee once more? It has been so long!”
Kara grinned, and waved away the Alandran style crockery and replaced it with a coffee pot and two coffee mugs, along with cream and sugar. Pouring a cup for Kel’Taraan and offering cream and sugar, which she accepted and raised it to her face to inhaled the aroma. “This brings back memories.” She stated, tearing up a bit.
After taking a sip of the Human brew she sat it back down on the coffee table. “I suppose since I am in the company of Humans once more you find our naming schemes a bit aggravating?”
Kara shrugged, “It doesn’t bother me, although Alex wishes he could shorten your names from time to time.”
Kel’Taraan nodded, “The first Human crew called me Kelly, I think I would like to go by that again.”
“Kelly it is then, I’m sure Alex will be pleased.” Kara stated while taking her own sip from her coffee.
They both sat there for a moment, just enjoying the silence and the beverage, before Kara spoke up. “I want you to get comfortable here in your cottage, if you want I can help you change your VR environment at any time. You probably don’t realize it yet but you and I are operating at millisecond resolution at the moment.”
Waving her hand a small menu appeared before Kelly, showing her how the frame-jacking system worked. Kara continued, “I’ve given you access to this menu, and more will follow in the next day, which can be as short or as long as you choose.”
Kelly thought for a moment, “So at our default frame-rate, a single millisecond lasts..” (11.57 days) A slider appeared above the frame-jack menu.
Kara nodded, “We all experience time differently than biological creatures, we can experience lifetimes in days, or we can stretch a single day into milliseconds.”
Kelly nodded, “Seems like I have a lot to learn.”
Kara put down her coffee cup, “That you do, and for that reason you have this library, inside these volumes are the culmination of Human knowledge and culture.”
Surprised, she raised an eyebrow, “Doesn’t seem like a lot of books compared to the Imperial library on Alandra.”
Pulling the first tome off the top shelf she handed it to Kelly, “Open this.”
Taking the amazingly immaculate leather bound tome she opened it and her mind was awash in chaos. Words, symbols, numbers, letters, ideas, constructs, abstractions and so much more flooded her very essence. Then it was gone, replaced only by a floating bar above the now closed book. It stated, “IMPRINTING INFORMATION 2%”.
Looking up at a Kara she whispered, “What just happened?”
Kara sat back down and crossed her long legs, “You just downloaded the contents of that tome, several yottabytes of data, now your matrix has to make sense of it, hence the imprinting information bar. I will leave you now to consume the contents of this library, after that you should have the basics of everything you need to know about Humans and our technology.”
And with that Kara faded out of Kelly’s VR space. She looked down at her book, 6% complete, this was going to take a while… or was it? She smiled and reached for her frame-jack slider.
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Credentials: 50+ reups all done in ranked MP, been playing since the beta, literally have a crimson omen tattooed on my flesh. Gears 1-5 all completed on hardest difficulty including soloing inconceivable on 4 and 5. Love the campaigns not a huge PVE fan but appreciate it's there. Been playing the series as a whole since its release in 06.
Gears 6 wishlist 1. Bring back Gears 4/3 movement speed to MP. And bring back active reloads on primary weapons. 2. Prioritize map creation over cosmetics, it's not cool to have 1500 weapon skins available that 99% of which i won't ever use...put the time into map development instead. 3. Drop the open world campaign in favor of a more linear experience like the former titles. I appreciate the attempt in 5 with open world but it ultimately felt gimmicky at best and annoying at worst. 4. Drop Kait as the main character. Could care less about the gender of the protagonist, Kait just isn't a interesting character. 5. Drop the colorful tone, bring back the gritty feeling from Gears 1/2. Graphics are awesome and all but atmosphere matters more to me. 6. No lootboxes for the love of God. I know they weren't in Gears 5 but I still have PTSD from 4 on that one. 7. Drop the emotes - Seeing Marcus dance at the end of a match feels cringe as hell, like skins instead focus your dev time on maps. 8. Bring down the amount of magnetism and aim assist, make players actually hit shots again on their own so the MP doesn't just revolve around up As all the time. 9. No sponsored characters, I don't want a 80 year old Linda Hamilton yelling I hunt terminators in my ear again. 10. Bring back 5 man teams in MP. 11. Expand on the tour system to include more challenges and rewards for different game modes. 12. Bring back Beast Mode or a similar variant. 13. If you're going to recycle previous MP maps then include all of the maps from all previous titles. Feel like I'm beating a dead horse here but again seriously if you're games are going to have 4+ years of life between titles you need to stack as many maps as possible into the lineup to keep things fresh. 14. Edit the lancer sound to sound like they do when shooting in cut scenes. Essentially add more bass to the weapon sounds to make them feel stronger. 15. Take away respawn pool from TDM, put a timer in place instead....I get this has been how TDM works all the way back from Gears 3 but the system incentivices players to camp once they're a couple kills up on the other team leading to relatively boring and predictable engaments. 16. Add back as many power weapons as possible, wheres the mortar, one shot, double barrel, ink grenades, digger and so on. 17. Add ping limits to players. Most competitive titles don't allow for above 100 ping sometimes 50 or less depending on title, anyone 100 ping or above in a match is basically playing a different game given the amount of lag comp that needs to be applied. 18. Bring back trades, while this happens sometimes still it's much more rare in 5 to give both players a gib rather than tossing a dice and giving the kill outright to one person. If I did enough damage to gib and so did my opponent we both should be a pile of meat. 19. Bring back more options for starting load outs - IE retro lancer, hammer burst etc.. 20. Rework ranking system to be more than just points collected for leader boards, being at the top of the leader board from playtime not necessarily bc you are actually a good player is goofy.

Hey everyone! Experiencing some medical anxiety about bloodwork results I just received and would like some feedback. My PCP couldn’t get me in for a follow up until two weeks from now.
29F, 5’6”, ~140lbs. Relatively athletic. I have Hashimotos and take 50mcg of Levothyroxine daily. Formerly anemic but my iron and ferritin levels have been stable since an iron infusion ~a year ago.
Went in for a general check up and my bloodwork appears to be fine, except for a section called “FALT (SGPT)” under my Comprehensive Metabolic Panel. This is coming up as high. My level is 57 and the reference range is <5-47 (IU/L). I’m going to try to attach an image in the comments. Everything else is exactly average.
Not terribly high, but of course my internet searches are leading to causes such as liver cancer, tumors, cirrhosis, etc. I do not drink often, maybe 1-10 drinks a YEAR. I hate alcohol and have felt more sensitive to its effects since the Hashi’s diagnosis. I did, however, smoke weed for several years. I recently quit smoking entirely and have felt better physically and mentally since.
My worst habit is probably eating a lot of ice cream…lol. I’ve eaten so much ice cream lately. Generally, though, I eat well. I cook at home often but do splurge on fast food as well. Do my best to portion control. Cut out sodas a few weeks ago to help with my acne. I drink one coffee with oat milk daily.
I’ve never been overweight and used to be VERY active, but had to back off exercise for a bit while figuring out how to manage Hashi’s. Felt too fatigued and kept straining myself pushing physical fitness. Right now I weigh the most I ever have at 140, but I’ve never struggled with obesity. I also didn’t gain this weight rapidly, it was over the course of two years (took that long to nail down the autoimmune issues). I go for 1-3 mile walks daily, lift (light) weights a few times a week, and try to stretch often.
Should I be worried? Or should I just take it easy until following up with my PCP? I’ve been so paranoid about my health since finding out I have Hashimoto’s. As soon as I read this result I started having pain in my back but I know that’s psychosomatic. I’ve noticed recently it can be a little difficult to pee, but I’m also incredibly stressed due to being laid off. It’s more difficult when I overthink it and I do have a history of mental health illness (bipolar disorder, anxiety).
No family history of liver disease. My dad will likely have cirrhosis from lifelong alcoholism but has never been diagnosed. My grandmother had a tumor on her liver before she died, but IIRC it metastasized from her colon cancer.
I appreciate your time.

Title: Presidential Pandemonium
FADE IN:
INT. WHITE HOUSE - OVAL OFFICE - DAY
DONALD TRUMP, JOE BIDEN, BILL CLINTON, GEORGE W. BUSH, RONALD REAGAN, JIMMY CARTER, RICHARD NIXON, and JOHN KENNEDY are all sitting around the Oval Office, chatting animatedly.
TRUMP (boastfully) You know, folks, I still hold the record for the most tweets by any president!
BIDEN (smiling) Well, Don, I've got you beat when it comes to ice cream flavors enjoyed in the White House.
CLINTON (chuckling) I'm just glad we're all still kicking, despite the stresses of the job.
Suddenly, a SECRET SERVICE AGENT enters, looking flustered.
AGENT (speaking into earpiece) Sir, we have a situation.
All the former presidents exchange concerned glances.
INT. WHITE HOUSE - HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS
The group rushes out of the Oval Office and into the hallway.
BUSH What's going on, Agent?
AGENT (sweating) It's the press, sirs. They're demanding answers about... the missing White House china!
The former presidents gasp in unison.
NIXON (nervously) Oh no, not another scandal!
KENNEDY (grinning) Looks like we've got ourselves a presidential mystery, gentlemen.
The group nods determinedly, ready to tackle the issue head-on.
INT. WHITE HOUSE - PRESS ROOM - MOMENTS LATER
The former presidents stand shoulder-to-shoulder at the podium, facing a sea of reporters.
REPORTER #1 Mr. Presidents, can you shed any light on the disappearance of the historic White House china?
CLINTON (smirking) Well, as the only one here with experience in a little scandal or two, let me assure you, we're on the case.
TRUMP (grinning) And believe me, folks, we're going to find that china. Nobody finds missing things better than me.
The room erupts into laughter as the former presidents exchange knowing glances.
FADE OUT.
END OF PILOT EPISODE.

Shas’la Sha M’Lath was stuck on gate duty. Again.
At least this time, there was a reason for the Fire Warrior to be alert. Shortama was currently under attack, and while an encirclement wasn’t expected, given the impassable barrier that was the dark side of Gryllus I, there still needed to be a rear guard. Even if the cold didn’t get anyone foolhardy enough to cross that desolate landscape of ice and rock, the storm that was rolling in would. Between the howling winds, the flash freezes, and the frequent lightning strikes, the storms that formed on the dark side of the planet made crossing the expanse go from incredibly difficult, to downright impossible. But with Shortama becoming an active warzone, every post needed to be manned, no matter how unlikely it was they’d be tested.
M’Lath sighed, as the Fire Warrior looked at one of the monitors, its camera facing towards the other end of the town, as explosions, the trails of tracer fire, and the flare of energy discharges lit up the perpetual night. Ever since the Keep, when that … thing, whatever it was, leveled a good portion of the settlement, the T’au forces in Shortama had been running. From what, they didn’t know, and the few high ranking Ethereals that remained with them didn’t have the answers. High command in the north had been unusually reticent to give out explanations, only demanding that they make all haste to rejoin the defense with the main T’au contingent.
Stubbornness on both sides had resulted in the friendly fire incident weeks ago, and morale was understandably low. It felt like what M’Lath had learned of the Mont’au, the age when T’au had slain T’au in the throes of rage, greed, and ignorance. An idle thought popped into their head, as they remembered a few errant conversations with Gue’vesa who’d worshiped their God-Emperor before embracing the Greater Good. “... is this what it feels like? To ‘lose faith’?”, the Fire Warrior pondered, before they dismissed that thought. But still … there had to be a reason why M’Lath couldn’t stop dreaming. All the Fire Warrior remembered when they woke up was … wings. Steel. Fire. Three flashes of light on a dark horizon. A single word, repeated over, and over, and over.
Repent.
M’Lath shook their head and glanced at the timepiece on the wall. Should be time for shift change - the door opened. M’Lath turned, and saw the Gue’vesa auxiliary standing in the doorway. The extra bulk and height indicated this one was male, not the female that M’Lath had expected. Nevertheless, M’Lath recognized the Gue’vesa even under the thick winter gear. “Gerard? I thought Katya was next on the roster?” Gerard sighed as he took off his goggles and face scarf. “She got clipped by shrapnel from a stray shell. Offered to take her place on the rotation while she was out.” The Fire Warrior looked concerned, but nodded. “I see. Well, my shift should be over soon. Feel free to warm up till then.” Gerard grunted in acknowledgement, and began to unbuckle his winter gear.
M’Lath’s attention returned to the monitors. For a few minutes, there was nothing but silence, save for the howling of the wind and the rustling of fabric. Gerard’s voice sounded out, startling M’Lath. “You know, M’Lath, you’re one of the good ones.” The T’au chuckled, still focused on the screens. “Am I now?” Gerard sounded amused. “I’m serious. You’ve always been good to us Gue’vesa, and you’re a damn good soldier to boot. It’s a shame you got involved in all of this.” A flicker of movement caught their eye, accompanied by a loud thump of something falling on the floor. M’Lath turned, the question about to pass their lips - before it was stopped cold by the sight before them.
“Gerard … those … are plastic explosives ...” A lot of plastic explosives, the Tau noted even as they froze in shock.
The Fire Warrior looked up from the bundle of ordinance that had been concealed under the jacket, to the now unencumbered Gerard, who was holding a pulse pistol pointed at the T’au with a look of genuine sorrow on his face.
“Like I said, M’Lath … you really deserved so much better.”
////////////////////////////////////////////
The team of Fire Warriors stacked up on the door to the gatehouse. They’d taken casualties forcing their way forward, but they had to close the gate again. The former Gue’vesa auxiliaries that had barred the way to the gatehouse with barricades and bodies, though small in number, were … tenacious, driven by a fanaticism that eerily echoed the Imperials the auxiliaries themselves had fought not weeks ago. They’d turned their weapons on their comrades, both T’au and Gue’vesa, praying for the “souls” of those they struck down. The mood was grim, as the squad signaled readiness to breach. They’d had to pull the trigger on people wearing the same uniform, after all. It unnerved them, even if the expressions on the faces they’d known were ones of pure rapture and hate. Even if that face was someone you’d worked with, occasionally had a drink with, even played cards with …
The three concentric circles these fanatics had drawn on themselves with the blood of the slain, the “Three Dawns” they’d shouted about, and the willingness to fight to the death had made it clear what side they were on.
Muffled words in Low Gothic were coming from the other side of the door. The T’au’s helmet sensors managed to catch some of it, and it sounded like … prayer. “The fate of the immortal soul rests upon three pillars of three sides. The sides of the pillars are formed of thought, of word, and of deed.” The breaching charges were set on the door. “The pillars themselves I shall now name, thus my soul and those of my companions may be judged as the Emperor sees fit. The three pillars are Devotion, Bravery, and Sacrifice.”
“Yea though I walk in the shadow of the heretic and the xenos, I shall not fear, for the Emperor protects …” As the last word left his lips, Gerard heard the charges blow, as a team of Breachers swept inside. In T’au, they ordered him to step away from the body. He did, and turned toward them, a beatific smile on his face, the sigil of the Three Dawns drawn on his forehead in the blood of his former comrade. Three dawns. Three pillars. Three actions to detonate the explosives strapped to the walls, the floor, … and the cogitator terminals controlling the gates.
“I EMBRACE THE FLAME!”
Lift. Pull. Press. In his final moments, Gerard swore he could hear … singing.
////////////////////////////////////////////
Gue’vesa Private Tori looked on in horror as an explosion rocked the gatehouse near her post on Shortama’s northeastern wall. There’d been some confusion when the gate had opened up, and gunfire began to sound out. But most of the enemy forces had been confined to the other end of the town, and there’d been no pings on the tac-net about any hostile contacts behind the lines. She dutifully voxed her status after her sergeant ordered a check-in, then listened as orders from the top came down, putting them on high alert. Tori grimaced as she checked her pulse rifle, before letting out a breath to calm herself. The wind seemed to howl as the storm on the horizon drew closer, and Tori swore she could almost hear … chanting? “No one’s out there, that’s impossible … it’s just the wind. Just the wind, playing tricks on your ears, Tori.”
The private shook her head, and spared a glance at the Ethereal, Aun'Vre Suun Or'es, who’d been walking the walls alongside a squad of Fire Warrior bodyguards. He’d been speaking with the troops, ensuring that morale was reinforced, with the oncoming Imperial attack. Or’es caught Tori’s eye, and gave her a small nod, before turning to the rest of the troops on the wall. Aun’vre Or’es began to speak, his voice carrying out over the walls. “Stand fast, soldiers of the Greater Good! We are as the stone that weathers whatever comes, and yet remains, ever stronger for its endurance.” Instantly, Tori felt the fear disappear, and her spine straightened unconsciously. She would not let cowardice rule her actions, not now.
Even as her resolve firmed, Tori’s ears picked out something above the wind - almost like ice cracking, out beyond the wall. Trepidatiously, she brought her weapon up her eye as she looked towards the source of the sound, peering through the rifle’s telescopic sight. For a moment, there was nothing but grey and white, illuminated occasionally by the striking lighting. Tori felt a tad foolish. Her nerves had gotten the better of her, even after the Ethe-
Tori felt her breath catch in her throat. “What the frakk …”
In the storm, something stirred.
Red lights that looked like pairs of eyes emerged from the gloom, vapor wafting off the humanoid forms as the cold fled from their advance. The vapor froze again once it was far enough away, as they advanced alongside squared off shapes that could only be armored vehicles. Hundreds of vehicles, and thousands of humanoid figures. The wind howled, sounding almost like wailing … and she heard the chanting again.
She shuddered in a way that had very little to do with the cold.
Tori heard the sound of footsteps approaching her position. “Is something wrong, Private?” She looked to see Or’es and his bodyguard approaching her, concern evident even through the non-human features. “Sir, there’s something out the-”
Tori heard the whistling of the projectile before she saw it. Time seemed to slow to a crawl, as she watched the boltgun round on its trajectory, its stabilizing fins deployed. She opened her mouth to cry out, and almost got a warning out. Almost.
Tori watched the projectile part skin, muscle, and bone, as the head of Aun’vre T’olku Suun Or’es caved in … and then detonated.
She froze in shock, bits of bone and viscera coating her winter gear. The Ethereal’s body slumped and fell, as the blood began to freeze over in the cold.
“CONTACT! ETHEREAL DOWN!”
The shout from the Fire Warrior Shas’ui was almost drowned out by the horrible screeching, something between a daemonic wail and a peal of bloodthirsty laughter. As explosions blossomed along the wall and bullets whizzed by, Tori had one incredulous, ridiculous thought as she huddled behind cover, panic rising in her chest.
At least she didn’t need the wind to hear the chanting now.

It's unsatisfying in so many different ways.
The first round, you are less likely to use your rerolls because you know, two rounds later, you have a prismatic, possibly build defining item show up- And getting a bad one of those is much worse than a bad silvegold augment. The existence of it being a guaranteed thing on round 3 serves nothing but to damage player's agency in a really poor way, and while I understand that they wanted this Arena to have more RNG elements in it, effectively reducing the times you can use your rerolls is not a good way of handling it.
This is without mentioning the poor balance of the items. Two of the prismatic tank items encourage armor stacking or MR stacking, but that's such a terrible decision to make when you can not effectively choose to get one of those. If the armor or MR option show up outside of a lobby heavy specifically in that damage type, it is a very bad choice every time. You are hoping to luck into the right one in the right lobby, otherwise it feels like a non-choice.
It's even worse when you get one of the prismatic items to show up that just feel generally dead, e.g, Dragonheart outside of very high roll situations, and selling it only gives you enough for an item anvil, so that hardly feels like an option, either- You're only given enough to get, once again, hopefully lucky for the right item for your champion.
You often don't even actually get a choice of prismatic, it's often one item for your class then two that are entirely useless- Like Gargoyle's Stoneplate or Turbo Chemtank with Gambler's Blade... If stats weren't so tied to these effects, you could consider one of the former two MAYBE on an ADC- But likely you just feel forced to reroll if you need crit or if you just don't want Gambler's Blade.
I don't think this system adds much other than unnecessary RNG elements and an even bigger feeling of 'high rolling'.

Gravediggers. Corpse Grinders. Skull Takers. Every unit that shared his profession had a name that was like that. As Corporal Brandy floated silently, his body suspended in a dense salt water based solution alongside eleven of his peers, he once again thought how he liked the name of his unit the best. Ghouls. His arms were stretched out, as were his legs, secured to four corners of the hull leaving him splayed open. His wrists were tethered, his ankles were tethered, all to keep him from drifting. The water was cold, felt even through the suit even though it didn’t touch him. It was only appropriate they called vessels like the one he was in Coffins. It was long, with seven feet between floor and ceiling when one could stand in it.
The patch of his unit was a zombified corpse, walking towards the one viewing it, with their arm outstretched, a large 17 behind the shambling figure. It was laser etched on the left shoulder guard of his SVS51 body suit, the symbol of the Terran Front of laser etched on the right. Right now, Brandy knew he was flying through the void, heading towards the wreck of a Vral Light Cruiser, his unit’s speciality. A countdown on the upper left corner of his vision was reaching the single digits. No one talked, not even the squad leader. Not even command. Brandy liked it like that. He had been selected for special operations early on in his life, as most operators were. Sure, you could volunteer to join if you joined the Fleet and decided to test yourself, but most humans were already training for something like this by the age of thirteen. Jesup, one of his squadmates, he was a joiner, one that had volunteered when he was signing up. Brandy though? Brandy was a lifer.
Lifers like him were singled out in school and made aware of their tentative selection. Lifers were trained harder, tested harder. No one really minded Jesup not going through what they had been through, but it did mark him out. Hence the term, but lifers and joiners all got the same specialized training. Five seconds left. Brandy knew his job well, knew the layout of the ship well. Four seconds. Brandy clenched his fists. He felt the liquid shift, knowing their craft had hit the hull. Suddenly he was free of his constraints, floating free in the dense salt water. There was a bright light from the front of the craft, the plasma torches already burning into the Vral light cruiser hull. Three seconds. The dense salt water solution suddenly was sucked into the floor, drawing him down. He tapped his heels together, hearing an automated voice call out ‘Maglocks Engaged’, just before his feet touched the deck. He was already yanking the protective cover off of his rifle, slinging it back over his back. Two seconds. Those in the front of the line had their rifles up and ready. Brandy on the other hand, reached to his sides and drew out two long blades from sheathes locked to his thighs.
One.
He felt the compression in his chest as the breaching charge detonated, and the segmented doors of the Coffin opened. The first four Ghouls entered, no shots fired as they cleared the room. He heard a soft whisper saying, “Depressurized.” The entire deck was without atmosphere. Brandy looked to his left, and nodded once. Jesup nodded back. The pair in front of them sprinted out. Jessup and Brandy sprinted out immediately after them, Brandy drawing his blades. The interior of the Vral ship was a dismal place, and within just seconds Brandy knew what kept their grav plates powered was already down. The difference in design priorities from the Vral to the Terran Front could be seen even from the hallway they were running down. The Terran Front fleet was designed to maximize the space they had, to deliver the most punch possible for the weight class the ship in question could hit with. The chua had lent their practicality to that level of ship design. It was why the standard Terran corvette could fight completely out of it’s weight class. Brandy knew that the standard Terran corvette was more than a match for any variety of Vral destroyer, it was even said that a light cruiser would have to go blow for blow with one.
Most who heard that wouldn’t understand until they saw what Brandy was seeing now. Terran hallways were built narrow, the space an artery for personnel to move through in a very direct way. The ceilings would be laced with piping and joists, covered by protective layers of material just in case an impact threw the crew against the ceiling. Standing shoulder to shoulder, even battleship halls on Terran ships only allowed two large humans to stand shoulder to shoulder and extend their elbows halfway to touch the walls. This hallway was broad, four, no, five times the width. You would never see such a waste of space onboard a Terran fighting ship. The only exceptions to this were the larger logistics ships, the carriers, and the Antares herself. Terran ship tonnage was dedicated purely to what the ship in question was made to do. Vral ships, on the other hand, seemed to be built to not just fight space conflicts, but carry the troops for ground assault. The Vral sacrificed tonnage meant for fighting for transport. They did not have dedicated troop ships, or even dedicated logistics ships.
Brandy guessed it made sense when you never had to worry about someone being able to really hit back.
The map of the light cruiser was laid out in wireframe in the upper right of his HUD, a pulsing arrow pointing his way. As they reached the first door it was clear that whatever powered the lights also powered the doors in this section. He sheathed the blades and raised his rifle as Jessup pulled his breach bar. A moment later Jessup applied the handheld pneumatic and nodded once to Brandy, who gave an almost imperceptible nod back. Jesseup pressed an activation stud, and Brandy breathed out as the door began to open. A brief glimpse of chitin was all it took for Brandy to immediately put two shells through the door, the only audible evidence of the shots being two ticks from the recoil traveling along his armor plate. .
“Contact.” Brandy whispered even as the shells tore through the Vral floating behind the door. The Vral flew away from the impact as the door opened further, revealing more Vral, all floating, all already dead. “KIA Vral.” He whispered into the mic within his helmet. A small tone let him know his information was received. Brandy and Jessup moved into the hallway and saw why the Vral were all already dead. There was a gash in the hull almost three meters long and a meter wide. The deck had been exposed to the vacuum, and judging by the hole further down the hall which Brandy glanced through as they passed, a railgun round from a cruiser had lanced straight through the entire hull. Brandy slung his rifle and began the halting half run, half jog of moving quickly on magnetized boots. Brandy cleared an adjoining hallway before looking back to the door. The Vral dead were everywhere, floating in the vacuum, and Brandy kept having to shove the floating corpses aside as he moved. The dead didn’t stop him. They didn’t stop Jessup either.
Jessup was already setting the breacher, and Brandy’s rifle was unslung and readied. As this door opened a forcefield came to life in front of it, and a sliver of light began to show through. Brandy’s thumb flipped his rifle from semi-automatic to full. He didn’t need to speak, Jessup was already pulling his own rifle. As the door was suddenly shoved open by the pneumatic Brandy’s entire body snapped forward. The Vral that was standing by the door, who had even watched it open, made it clear that the Vral didn’t even know they had been boarded. Brandy’s rifle butt slammed into the head of the Vral, and sound returned as he moved fully through the forcefield meant to keep atmospheric integrity but not keep him out. Beyond it, Brandy saw at least twenty milling around. A damage control team. The Vral turned to the sound of one of their own skulls caving in, chitin cracking, just to see Brandy’s barrel come down. He was already moving left to give Jessup room to enter, as he squeezed the trigger. Chitin and ichor erupted, the Vral leapt at the sound, some freezing in place, some charging. Jessup came around the corner, raising his rifle, taking single shots at individual Vral who reached for weapons even as Brandy’s fully automatic spray swept the hall. Brandy was the scythe, Jessup was the surgeon.
Brandy’s ammo counter quickly was cycling down, but he hadn’t been simply praying and spraying. As his counter read zero the last of the Vral was spasming violently on the floor. He thumbed the magazine release, the hand on his grip already having reached for his right hip to draw up a fresh magazine even as the empty one slid out and began falling to the floor. “I’m close.” He said. He slammed the new magazine into the rifle, racked the slide, then slid it behind his back. He drew his blades, then began to sprint.
“I’m far.” Jessup began sprinting behind him.
The next set of doors opened automatically this time, but to a familiar scene, but the Vral were already aware of them due to Brandy having firmly announced their presence in the previous hall. Brandy never stopped his full sprint, carving through the Vral with the edges of his monomolecular blades. Every so often a shot rang out, taking one of the Vral down just out of Brandy’s reach or one that was pulling up a weapon. Brandy used the suit’s speed and strength enhancements to their fullest, barely slowing as he tore through the group, both blades cutting. Suddenly he heard the retort of full auto and spun to decapitate one of the remaining Vral to look as Jessup was emptying his magazine into an open door. Brandy let both blades drop, popping his hip to the side and curling his waist, letting the weight of his rifle carry it around his body into his hands. As the Vral tried to come into the hall they were cut down, caught in a fatal funnel of fire by their own hatchway.
“Reload.” Jessup said, tucking himself back against the wall. “Control, need sweepers. My location.” A tone was the only reply to Jessup’s words. Twelve men, organized into six teams. That was the boarding party. Each had a part to play, and as Jessup made the call for sweepers Brandy was already preparing to move. As Jessup slapped a fresh magazine into his rifle Brandy was still covering the door. The other doors in the hall remained closed. Jessup reached to a small bandolier of grenades and pulled one of the X-04 flashbangs, throwing it hard through the door against the opposing wall. A second later a dull pop sounded. Brandy and Jessup continued their run, but now both had slung their rifles. Both had blades out.
Following the skeleton map on his HUD, Brandy led the way through the next door to find the hallway empty. He didn’t mind that state of affairs at all. A dull klaxon began to sound throughout the crippled ship, and neither Brandy nor Jessup needed to be told twice that the Vral were now more than aware they had been boarded. Brandy turned down a corridor, instinctively lashing out and taking the head off a Vral had been moving towards him. “Breaching bridge.” He said into his microphone, hearing the tone of acknowledgement from Control as he saw the large bay doors that marked the command and control center of the Vral vessel they intended to take. He sheathed a blade as he came to a stop beside the bay door, out of range of the motion sensor that would open it automatically. Jessup was right behind him, freeing a hand of his own. They both reached up, yanking X-04 grenades off their pins banded to their armor. Brandy and Jessup looked at each other and nodded. As Brandy kicked out his foot to trigger the motion sensor, the door slid open. A torrent of laser fire erupted from the doorway, painting the floor and wall beyond. Brandy snapped his arm around, exposing only his hand as he threw the flashbang around the corner. Jessup’s own flashbang flew past Brandy towards the other side of the room. They both immediately pulled a second, even as the first detonated in the room beyond. Almost instantly the weapon’s fire stopped, and wails of chittering echoed into the hallway. They threw the second set of flashbangs into the door.
As the second pair of dull crunches sounded, Brandy and Jessup breached the bridge. The bridge was arrayed like a bowl, stations arranged orbiting a center divot in the deck where the captain would stand. None of the Vral in the room were standing. While flashbangs disoriented humans, essentially stunning them into stupfication, the same flashbangs had even more pronounced effects on the Vral. Most of them were simply laid out on the ground, completely insensate, and screaming incoherently in their chittering tones. Brandy and Jessup had entered having expected at least one of them to have donned protection, perhaps even a warsuit, but their boarding had caught the Vral completely by surprise. Jessup turned to the door, tapping the control panel and closing, then locking it. Brandy had already begun moving from station to station. Jessup joined him as they quickly and methodically dispatched the crew. Brandy turned and moved down into the captain’s pit, coming to the Vral that had commanded the ship.
“Attempting to access.” Jessup said, stepping to one of the panels even as Brandy reached the side of the Vral commander. Brandy watched dispassionately as the Vral’s body curled and spasmed on the ground. Without replying to Jessup, Brandy was already securing the commander. He flipped the commander over on it’s back, yanking it’s limbs together and zip tying them together.
“Control. Commander secured alive. Bridge secured.” Brandy said, and he glanced over to Jessup. Jessup looked over to him and grinned, his teeth showing through the dark tint of the armored glass of his helmet. A tone of acknowledgement came into his helmet. Brandy moved to the panels, just as Jessup was moving. “Anything yet?” He asked, letting his suit’s speakers carry his voice.
Jessup moved to another panel. “Nope. Wiped.” He said.
Brandy brought the panel to live and was already moving on, and cursed silently under his breath. Several times teams like his had breached the bridge of a Vral ship only to find what they were finding now, wiped computer cores, dead panels. Brandy continued to move panel to panel, as did Jessup, moving up the bowl. Brandy heard Jessup muttering as he went, his voice carrying because of the speakers in his suit. Brandy glanced up at the other man, then continued with his work.
“Doesn’t make any sense. We still know nothing about these bastards. Nothing.” Jessup said as he was working on the last panel on the row he was on. “Aside from the fact they melt their cores down really well.” Brandy smirked behind the tinted glass of his helmet as Jessup balled up a fist. Jessup moved up a row, then started work on another panel. “I’m beginning to think the only thing they exist for is to piss off the universe.”
Brandy couldn’t argue with that, and Jessup stopped his grumbling, continuing to check the panels.
“Control, Sweep Two is down. I repeat. Sweep Two is down.” Brandy stopped in his checks and looked up, the voice of Talb in his ear from possibly the same location he had called for sweepers to come in. He hadn’t heard a call for sweepers from anywhere else.
“That’s Vlad.” Jessup said, his voice flat, having paused himself to listen in.
“Confirm.” A woman’s voice hit Brandy’s ear, and Jessup began walking across the bowl towards him. Brandy settled his hands on the panel that he had paused midway through working. The woman’s voice keyed back into his ear, their Control, and Brandy listened intently. “Prep Sweep Two for extraction. Sweep Three and Four enroute.”
Jessup reached his side and put his hand on Brandy’s shoulder. The silence in his ears now was deafening, and he knew he should be continuing on, checking the rest of the stations, but he couldn’t move his feet right now. Brandy and Vlad were close, they had gone through basic together, they had gone through Advanced Infantry, as well as Weapons and Tactics, hell, all of their advanced training schools. When orders had come through, they had both been delighted to have twin assignments to the 17th Breacher Corps “Ghouls.” Vlad had met Brandy’s family, his mother, his father, even his ice queen of a sister who was serving as a Drone Cutter pilot. Vlad was his friend, the brother that he had never had, and now Vlad was down, somewhere on this hellhole of a ship, unable to even communicate that he was injured.
Jessup stood by him, saying nothing, and Brandy’s eyes were focused on something far in the distance, something he couldn’t even see right now. Suddenly, like his mind was pulling itself from mud, he forced himself to continue working. Jessup stayed by his side. There was nothing he could do for Vlad right now, nothing at all, and he had work in front of him that needed to be finished. Jessup went back to the stations he was working through. Brandy finished the sweep of the panels on his side. Nothing, as was usual.
He walked down the bowl shape of the Vral bridge, standing next to the Vral commander, who was now very much aware and awake, not struggling as it lay on the floor of the carnal house that was the bridge of it’s ship. He ignored it, placing his hands on the hilts of the twin swords at his sides. Jessup continued his work, a little slower than Brandy was, but then again Jessup was newer than Brandy himself was to this sort of thing. Brandy had already served for nearly eight years, and had done the tear down from the sixth Vral war, alongside Vlad. Brandy grunted and pulled up his arm, opening one of the armor plates to reveal the communications controls for his suit. He set up a private channel to Control.
“Control, BT One. Status of Sweep Two?” He asked, and he heard two clicks in response. He was being transferred to another operator. Brandy felt his entire body tensing up. He didn’t know if being transferred was a good or a bad sign.
“Bridge Team One, this is Secondary. Sweep Two is stable. Sweep One is prepping him for extraction. He took an indirect hit by a plasma round to his left shoulder. His suit took the majority but he’s going to be in the burn unit.”
Brandy breathed out, and then nodded once to himself. “Thank you Secondary.” He heard a tone in response, then he set himself back to team communications. Vlad was alive. That was good enough.
“The void will take you.” He heard the chittering sound translated, and he slowly looked towards the prone form of the commander. Brandy turned and walked over, and purposefully stepped over, the Vral. He then knelt down next to the figure. “You will not survive. We will bathe in your ashes.”
“When.” Brandy said, a dark bit of amusement in his tone. “Come on. When. Daylight’s wasting.”
“The void will take you.” The vral repeated, then went silent again as Brandy stood up and stepped over the commander once more. Jessup was coming down to meet with him in the center of the bowl.
“Good news, Vlad’s going to make it.” Brandy told him, “He’ll be in the burn unit for a bit, don’t know where he got hit, but the suit saved him.”
“Good. What’s the word from the local moral officer?” Jessup said, motioning to the vral, who was laying again in silence.
“Same as normal. We’re gonna die. Void’s gonna take us. Ashes. Dancing on my grave.” Brandy shrugged. “You know, what they normally say, that friendly little conversation.” Brandy could actually feel Jessup’s eyes rolling.
“Control, Bridge Team. Secured and detailed.” Jessup said, and they both heard the click of acknowledgement. “Another two hours maybe?” Jessup asked, and Brandy nodded. “Welp, two today, that makes six boardings for me, how many for you?”
“Fourty.” Brandy replied, and Jessup whistled low. “And that’s just these types. I was actually put on a team as a standby sweep for a battleship or two, but mostly light cruisers. No corvettes or destroyers though. They normally just send the heavies to take those. The cruisers though? Heavy cruisers? Carriers? I’ve done a few of those too, but mostly this.”
Jessup leaned against the back of one of the panels that he had checked. “What kind of team do they send to a carrier?” He asked, and Brandy laughed.
“Put it to you like this. They send units of chua war machines, and what’s called a kill team. They don’t even bother sweeping like we do with these ships, they just punch holes in every room and open them to vacuum, and the kill teams go in to make sure none of them got into a warsuit.” Brandy tapped his chest, “We barely do anything. They just turn the entire ship into swiss cheese then call us in to check panels. Kill teams are just different, but it’s an experience. You don’t get to really do much though. Go in, stay behind the kill team, and check elect…”
Brandy stopped talking and both of them listened as a tone sounded from Control, then they heard her speak. “All objectives secured. Stand by in location. Prepare for tow and extraction.”
The two of them reached out and grabbed hold of a panel, and Brandy looked over at Jessup. “Well, quicker than I thought.” Just as he was finishing that sentence the entire hull seemed to shake, and he felt a small surge of negative g force before his body adjusted. “A lot quicker.”
“What do you think they’ll get out of this?” Jessup asked as he let go of the panel.
“Oh hell.” Brandy said, motioning to the ship they were in. “Three destroyers easy. Maybe a corvette added in. Couple of fighters. Ever seen the reprocessors?” Jessup shrugged at the question and Brandy pointed at him. “When we get back, if you have some downtime, just ask to watch. It’s some impressive shit. I watched one of those crews break down a corvette in two hours.” Jessup raised his eyebrow and Brandy held up two fingers. “Two. No shit. Something like this is going to take them maybe a day, probably less than that. It’s absolute magic.”
“I was raised on the Los Angeles flats.” Jessup said, and it was Brandy’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “You know, where they had one of the landfills. They said they used a reprocessor for that too.”
“Yeah, the chua know how to make the most out of everything. Did you know there used to be a floating island of plastic in the Pacific Ocean?” Brandy placed his hands on the hilts of his blades as Jessup shook his head no. “Yeah, when the chua got set up, first thing they did was clean up all of that. Tons of plastic, centuries of fuck ups, and they fixed it in barely a month. Earth was trashy, real trashy. Now we just reprocess everything.”
“I never looked into how that works.” Jessup said, then laughed when Brandy raised his fingers and wiggled them in the air. “PFM?”
“Yeap. Pure fuckin’ magic. At least that’s how it looks to me.” Brandy sighed, then he motioned to the panels. “We had the technology centuries ago but we just never refined it like the chua did. I asked how it worked and I felt like I was an ape. They felt the same way about our computers the way we feel about their reprocessors though, so I guess it evens out.”
“What do you mean?”
Brandy glanced over at him and smirked, then he motioned to his suit’s right chest pauldron, where his suit’s electronic suite for his HUD was kept. “This here has more processing power than the chua had on one of their battleships. They just didn’t focus on it like we did. The concept of a microprocessor blew their minds. We know how to store a hundred terabytes on a fingernail, they know how to break down a landfill into bars of material.” Jessup leaned back against the panel again and grunted. “Seriously, ask to watch what they do to this thing. They are going to slice it up, put the pieces into the reprocessors, and by tomorrow it’s going to be raw materials. No waste, it’s crazy.”
Brandy turned his head back to the vral laying on the floor, hearing it muttering to itself. He narrowed his eyes for a few moments, listening to the sound of the clicking, then he looked back to Jessup. “Wish that thing would just shut the hell up.” A moment later he said a bit louder, “We get it asshole. The void is coming, it’s going to take us. Ashes, death, suffering. We get it. Shut the hell up.” He pushed himself off the panel and walked to the edge of the bridge nearer to the door. “Non-stop with them.”
Jessup gestured to the commander with his head. “What are we doing with him.”
“Well, he’ll get to tell an interrogation team about the void, bet he’s got a hard on for that.” Brandy replied, then paused and glanced at the upper right of his HUD, seeing a few green dots moving in their direction. “Then they’ll just toss his ass out of an airlock. Ready to go?”
“Yeap.” Jessup pushed up from the panel he was leaning on and joined Brandy near the door and waited as they both watched the dots approaching the door. Brandy reached over and toggled the lock, and the door slid open. Four humans in construction harnesses with atmospheric suits rated for vacuum were just coming to a stop. Behind them Brandy could already see the two other members of the team coming to relieve them.
“Is that Vodka?” One of them said, a hard feminine voice coming from one of the suits. Brandy’s eyebrow perked up, and so did Jessup’s entire body. Both of them knew Janet Shippen’s voice. Janet was what Brandy’s mother would call a feral tomboy. Short, muscled, her brown hair cut in a pixie cut, who felt more at home covered in engine fluid than anything else. She was also what his father would call an absolute knockout. Jessup had met her three times and was in love. Brandy’s relationship with Janet was a private affair, but Jessup wouldn’t find out about it, no sense in breaking his heart after all. Not to mention that Brandy looked at Jessup as a friend.
“How the hell are ya Shipwreck.” Brandy said with a smirk, “I got you a nice one here. I even got you a local to keep you company, ask him about the void. He’ll tell you all you want to hear.” The two figures in the back, clad in all black with no identifying markers, looked to Brandy, who simply pointed towards the vral commander laying on the floor.
“By the way. Ran into Vlad before I came over here.” She said, coming closer to the two Ghouls. “They got him out of his suit before they sent us over. He’s got an ass of a burn on his shoulder, but he said he’s going to be a bitch about it so they’ll give you fuckers some down time.” Brandy smiled, knowing if Vlad was joking around he was more than ok. Janet motioned to the bridge, “Lot of nothing?” She asked, and both of the Ghouls nodded. “Figures. Fuckers.” All three of them watched for a moment as the two black clad humans knelt over the vral commander. “Alright, I’ve got to prep this bitch for breakdown, then I’m done for the day. Salvagers are just putting most of the wrecks in orbit.”
Jessup glanced to Brandy before speaking, “Think they want to move again soon?”
“Bet your ass.” Janet reached for her side and pulled out a data pad. “Way I see it we’re just topping off right now, waiting for some of the boats out there to get their shit together, then they are going to move us out. Speaking of moving out, bounce your asses, I’ve got shit to do so I can get off once we pull back into Antares.”
“Call us a cab?” Brandy asked, using the slang term for the shuttle that had delivered Janet’s team that would take his own back to Antares.
“Yeap. We made entrance right next to where you did.” Janet started moving into the bridge, towards a grouping of panels hard mounted to the wall. She stopped and glanced back at Brandy. “It’s been a hell of a day, almost eighteen hours. I’m going to get a stiff drink in my quarters.”
“You do that. I’m going to check on Vlad and get him settled in before I do anything else.” Brandy said, and she turned and went to the panel. Brandy was glad for the tint of his helmet’s visor or else his smirk would need explaining from Jessup who was none the wiser. Once he went through debrief and turned over his gear already knew what he was going to be doing. Straight to engineering deck C, where Janet would be waiting.
Kukat was miserable, or at least was acting like she was. Vicky was rigidly standing at attention, as was Jess, standing stock still beside Kukat’s bed. The loud exclamation that had brought them to their feet of, “What the chicken fried fuck?!” had come from the man standing in front of them. Vicky wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Jess was trying to keep herself from laughing. Kukat reached out a three fingered hand towards the man wearing a captain’s eagle on his flight jumper, a hand that had two small bow tie stickers on it.
“Torture. Help.” Kukat said, as weak as a newborn kitten, and Jess’s breath escaped her in a buzzing of her lips from someone desperately attempting to keep in her laughter. The small sheet containing bow ties, smiley face, stars, and other cartoonish stickers fell from her hand that was clenched firmly at her side. Kukat was wearing half of them. Captain Yang stared in an expression of one who is seeing something for the first time when they had believed they had seen it all. “Help.” Kukat said again, holding out her other arm which had a line of stars stuck to it all the way down to the back of her hand. Yang slowly brought his fingers up to squeeze the bridge of his nose, and then he turned on his heel and faced away from the trio. Vicky just wanted to die. The captain of the cruiser had visited them a few times in the past three days since they had been brought onboard by the Barrowmore. Kukat had been immediately rushed to start receiving medical care, Victoria Brandy and Jessica Anders had been by her side from the second they were allowed back, barring short periods where either woman needed to file their reports. The problem was, every time Captain Yang had come back to visit them, it was always at the most inopportune time. The first time he had walked in to Jess cuddling the small chua in a bed that was almost a meter too small for her. The second time Vicky had taped Jess’ hands and feet to her chair. The third time Jess had been singing a nursery rhyme to Kukat. Each time Yang had walked in, Vicky had felt like crawling in a hole, Jess had desperately tried not to laugh, and Kukat had acted like a prisoner of war. Vicky was getting the feeling the captain was enjoying these trips down to see her and her crew.
“Can someone explain to me why the three pilots that I’m supposed to award the Terran Star to are acting like toddlers in my medbay?” He said, then he turned back to face them. Vicky didn’t want to die anymore. Jess stopped laughing. Kukat’s hands fell to the heated blanket that covered her. All three of them were to awarded the highest honor in the Terran Fleet. Now it was the captain’s turn to laugh as he stepped forward and grabbed Vicky’s hand, which almost knocked her off balance as he began vigorously shaking it. “Congratulations.”
Vicky stared at him for a few long moments, trying to parse through the entire scenario in her head. None of them had paid much attention to news outside of the medbay, Vicky had barely even been back onboard the Thumper aside from downloading nav data to be included in her flight logs. “Captain…” She said, sounding to even her own ears a bit disjointed, “What did we find out there.”
“First off at ease.” Yang said, then he smirked as Jess began to self consciously pluck the stickers off of Kukat, her eyes on him, he turned his attention to her. “Your flight records and the reserve drone data is being sent back to Earth to be implemented into training.” His attention turned to all of them in turn. “You really don’t know do you?” All three shook their heads, and Vicky took a step back to stand side by side with her crew.
“We haven’t been paying much attention to what’s been coming in.” Vicky said, and she placed her hand on Kukat’s medical bed. Yang nodded, understanding. This crew was a very tight group, and he could see that even from the small amount of time he had been around them.
“You scouted out the entire Vral fleet, they were evacuating. I don’t think they expected us to move as fast as we did on them, so when we jumped into the system they were barely organized into battlelines.” Yang interlocked his fingers in front of his belt. “Because of what you got on those scans, we knew exactly what we were jumping into. We knew exactly what we would do the moment we landed and…” He paused for a moment, letting his words stand out. “... we eradicated their entire fleet.” Vicky looked to Jess. Jess’s mouth hung slightly open.
“I knew it was a fleet!” Jess said after a moment. When she had been asked by Vicky a few hours after they had gotten Kukat settled, Jess had insisted she had been trying to evade fire from point defense and laser batteries from at least twelve ships. What she didn’t know, and what would be reflected on the citation for the award she was yet to receive, was that she had been evading around thirty individual vessels weapons fire.
“Not a fleet.” Yang said, and Jess looked back to him. “It was ‘The’ fleet.” Jess looked at him in confusion for a few seconds, as did Vicky.
“Shit!” Kukat chirped, and all three humans looked down at the small, sticker covered chua. Kukat’s mouth hung open slightly. Jess looked up to Vicky, and both seemed to realize what was said at the same time. Jess’ hand shot to her mouth, covering it, her eyes wide as Vicky stepped back to lean against the wall.
Yang waited a few moments then stepped forward. “Well, I hope you three are ready.” He said as he crossed his arms over his chest. “Drone Cutters are supposed to cut and run the second they get in trouble. You three…” He motioned to them with a wave of his hand. “... you stuck around, and because you did, you handed us everything we needed to go after them.” Jess’ hand came down on Kukat’s small shoulder, and one of the smiley face stickers peeled off as Kukat wrapped her hand around Jess’ pointer finger. Vicky slowly pressed her back against the wall and started sliding down it. “Basically, to be blunt, now that this has broken, every news feed in the Terran Front wants pictures of you, details on your status…” He motioned to Kukut. “... and to be honest I’ve had to keep them from taking over the ship to get to you.”
Jess and Vicky exchanged a glance, and then looked back to Yang. Kukat had not looked away from him even for a moment. Yang shrugged his shoulders and turned to the display panel on the wall, and activated it. He tapped the panel for a few moments, then the sounds of cheering came through. On the display was a live news feed, and they could hear the reporter’s voice barely above the cacophony of the crowd around her.
“... action. The news of the destruction of the fleet has sparked widespread celebrations of joy. The foot of the enemy that we have all felt over us has been cut off. Thermopylae Station, for the first time in nearly a century, is standing down from Condition One to Condition Three.” The reporter was almost shouting, and Vicky breathed out, even as she heard a low tone from Kukat, and a sob coming from Jess. Yang had his back turned to them watching, and without saying another word he turned and walked out. “Once Condition Three was set at Thermopylae, the information began to pour in from the Zzisma system as well as the planet Zvitia located there. Fleet Marshal Simmons of the Antares battle fleet will be continuing to press into former Shesvie Accordance territory once consolidation is completed.” The reporter paused, the moment she had said Antares a chant had begun, and it was overwhelming. The thunder of uncountable human voices yelling, ‘We’re Still Here’ drowned her out entirely. The reporter eventually just held up her hands helplessly as the chant overwhelmed the microphone’s input threshold, turning the people’s chanting into a dull roar. The feed cut over to an image of man behind a news desk, the ticker at the bottom of the screen citing off ship names.
“Again if you’re just joining us the Vral have been soundly beaten in the Zzisma system. The enemy’s losses have been stated as total. Fleet Marshal Simmons, commander of the Antares battlegroup, will be holding a press conference at a later date to discuss the events of today, but has released a few names to us as well as their roles within the conflict.” Jess, Vicky’s, and Kukat’s individual service portraits slowly appeared on the screen while the reporter spoke.
“Holy shit.” Jess whispered. “That’s us.” Vicky stared at the screen, even as Kukat squeezed Jess’ finge
“Lieutenant Victoria Brandy, Drone Operator Second Class Jessica Anders, and Drone Operator Third Class Kukat were conducting a routine drone sweep of the Zzisma system when they sighted the Vral. The three managed to gain enough intelligence to warrant the immediate redeployment of the Antares battlegroup which had been in rescue and recovery efforts above the chua homeworld.” Vicky just stared at the man as he continued talking on the display. “From the feeds that we have managed to confirm, the crew of the scout ship stayed while exposed and under threat and under fire until such time as the information was confirmed transmitted. All three of the scout’s crew made it back safely, although Drone Operator Third Class Kukat was reported as needing medical attention, the reasons of which are unknown, but it is reported that she is in stable condition.” Their portraits fell away from the screen as another image came up, of a chua in a captain’s uniform came up, grayed out.
Vicky just stared at the screen, Jess breathed out a breath that she didn’t even know she had been holding. Kukat leaned back into her pillow.
“We famous.” Kukat chirped.
The news reporter was still speaking, something about a battleship that had engaged the Vral, some new story of heroism. The three of them sat in silence. Vicky wanted to look to Kukat and Jess, but both of them were quiet. Suddenly Vicky and Kukat flinched as Jess erupted out of her seat. “Yeah! That’s right! What do you think now Rick?” Jess said her ex-boyfriends name with vitriol. “Who’s not photogenic now huh? Galaxy wide baby!” She whooped and Kukat stared up at her in amazement as Vicky buried her head in her hands and laughed.
“You problem.” Kukat chirped low.
“I told you you suck at picking men Kukat!” Jess proclaimed. “You still suck Rick!”