As always, thank you to u/SpacePaladin15 for the wonderful universe that is NoP! Thank you to u/cruisingNW for proof reading and helping me make this chapter as good as it can be, you're the man! Honestly LoM wouldn't have gone very far without him! If you haven't you should absolutely go read Foundations of Humanity! It's very good AND it just updated!
A big thanks to u/Saint-Andros for helping with proofreading! He writes Out of Our Elements which is a very good one! If you like a good fic in the wilderness and a pair of cute 'friends' ;) you'll love OOE!
Also thank you to u/brotanics! For this wonderful fanart of Taisa. And this one! She's so cute I'm gonna die
And thank you to u/Jimdandy117! For this adorable fanart of Chris and Renkel! Dear god help he's adorable I love him so much
Thank you u/SlimyRage, or AsciiSquid on Discord, for makin' Vengineer Taisa Gamin'. She's absolutely adorable, I love her lil' workers apron. She looks so excited to get to work!
Thank you u/Braquen! For this astounding Pixel Art of Taisa after a few range day dates with Chris! Her little hat and gunbelt are absolutely astounding!
Thank you u/VeryUnluckyDice! For this Artwork of Taisa and Chris as characters from One Piece! I've never seen or read it before but it's incredibly cute!
Thank you to u/creditmission for their wonderful work of several LoM fanfics!
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Memory Transcription Subject: Taisa, Venlil Starship Engineer, Crystal Star Shipping Co-Owner
Date [Standardized Human Time]: October 16th, 2136
My ear twitches as it catches the first sounds of morning coming from the kitchen, and Chris snorts at the sudden interruption. I delight in the comforting pull of his arms, even if it tugs my wool a little. He draws small circles in the wool of my back, gently coaxing me to wake alongside him, even as his groggy grumble reminds me how long I’d already been awake.
“G’Mornin, Darlin’.” He yawns before planting a small kiss on my snout, eagerly met by my own happy mewl as I stretched and wove my claws through the ‘wool’ on his chest, “Sleep well?”
“Better than I would have thought…” I purred, nuzzling up into his neck as I stretched, reaching for my pad on the bed-side before flicking it on to a notification from over a claw ago that it’d lost signal. “Don’t know if Mama even responded.”
“I’m sorry, Darlin’.” He whispered, pulling me in tight to his chest with a sorrowful look on his face.
“I hope they’re alright.” I whispered back, pressing in close as I pulled my eyes from the empty screen, dropping the pad to fall into the mattress beside us.
“I’m sure they are, hon’.” Chris’ voice poured through me as he held me tight, his hands still gently caressing my wool as the sounds in the kitchen grew ever louder. “Though, if’n we make it out the other side of all this, I think your Pa’s gonna have words for me again.”
“Mama too!” A small burble of whistling laughter filled my throat at the memory of Papa angrily jabbing a claw up at Chris’ hulking form when we’d returned from The Cradle.
“I’ll bet they’re happier to see us alive than they will be angry we stayed.” Chris rumbled in reply, his hand trailing lightly through my wool down my back.
“I hope so.” I sighed, stretching in his grasp, doing my best to work the lethargy from my limbs as the tantalizing taste of whatever Darlene was cooking reached my tongue. “For now let's just…”
“Get through this as best we can? Agreed.” Chris grunted, finishing my hanging sentence as he propped himself up against a pile of pillows and suddenly pulled me against him. A soft bleat of surprise slipped from my mouth, quickly silenced by a wonderfully warm kiss that I eagerly pressed into. A small smile crossed his lips as we hung there, separated by no more than a breath of air before he spoke. “Smells like Ma’s makin’ up somethin’ delicious.”
“Of course food is the first thing your mind goes to once you’re actually awake.” I laughed, my tail slipping from his leg to playfully tap the side of his face as I slid down to nuzzle his neck.
“When Ma’s cookin’ you bet it is!” He replied, placing another, softer kiss on my crown before shifting out beneath me and rising to his feet with a stretch and a yawn. “‘Sides, it beats stayin’ in bed all day just… waitin’.”
“Yea, yea I suppose it does.” My ears drooped at the mention of what was coming, that hanging specter of the Extermination Fleet slipping to the forefront of my mind as I ran my claws through my wool, peering into the old mirror in the corner. “What did you want to do today?”
“First: eat breakfast. Then we feed the cows real quick ‘fore they get upset. After that, I figure we go up to the peak again and watch the lightshow. Hidin’ won’t do us no good anyhow, least we can have a nice view if’n it all comes down.” He answered, his voice stiff in its attempts to be nonchalant, doing his best to stay upbeat despite the subject. “Make a few sandwiches and snacks, take a nice hike and just watch.”
“Think that’ll help at all?” I asked, my voice only just louder than a whisper as I turned from the mirror, finding him already dressed and, for the most part, groomed.
“No clue, but I bet it’ll feel a lot better than sitting in a dank hole waiting for it to end anyhow.” Chris shrugged, pulling his hat down tight on his head as he bent over to give me another kiss. “‘Sides, I bet Roscoe’d love to find his way along for a bit. Though you might have to fight him o’er the peaches.”
A jolt of surprise flicked up my ears as I felt my tail wag at the thought of the dog joyfully chomping at the peaches, his little shoot-tail wagging as fast as he could manage. “That does sound nice…”
“Thought you’d like that. Now, how’s ‘bout we get some breakfast?” He asked with a smile, stepping to the door with a sure stride before swinging it open and gesturing me through. “After you, Hon’.”
The delightful, familiar taste of sizzling potatoes, carrots and all manner of spices I couldn’t recognize filled the air as we stepped into the kitchen to find Darlene hard at work over the stove, whistling happily as she was surrounded by what I thought had to be the entire kitchen’s worth of pots, pans, skillets and tools. Michael and Ryan were sat at the island across from her, chatting idly as Roscoe happily trotted to Chris and I.
A twitch of fear zipped down my spine and out of my tail as the dog looked up to me, letting out a soft whine as he licked his chops and plopped to the floor before rolling over to show Chris and I his belly.
“Good Morn’ Roscoooe! Time for some belly rubs, ol’ buddy.” Chris cooed, stooping over to vigorously rub at the dogs belly, eliciting a rising rumble of groans, pants and whines as the brown and white mass of fur wiggled back and forth happily. “You happy to see Taisa again, bud?”
A lolling, pink tongue fell from Roscoe’s mouth as he basked in the moment of adoring attention. I glanced up, finding Chris’ parents and Ryan watching me hover off to Chris’ side. Michael gave me a nod and a small smile, gently encouraging me forward to Chris’ side. “He still won’t bite ya, unless’n ya consider over-eager kisses to be bitin’.”
The light warmth of a small bloom spread under my wool as I stepped forward, crouching at Chris’ side. Worry flashed through my mind while I looked down at Roscoe’s glistening, pointed teeth before being rapidly replaced by amusement as he let out an adorable, appreciative grunt that sounded far too much like Papa after settling into a good bath to relax.
You’ve come this far already, he was plenty gentle last time you were here paw-feeding him peaches.
My paw slipped into his fur, met by a warm, soft blanket that I hadn’t fully expected as I slowly massaged my claws through his coat, eliciting another battery of pleased groans. Before I knew it, both of my paws were hard at work rubbing and scratching though his fur as if I weren’t touching a predator like it was nothing to be worried about.
Maybe because it isn’t. You’re in love with one, after all.
The distinct clink of plates being set on the countertop snapped me from the luxurious fur of Roscoe’s coat as Darlene’s sing-song voice filled the air. “Breakfast is served!”
“Taisa, I couldn’t rightly convince Michael or Ryan to give up a Naw’lins breakfast today but don’chu worry. I’ve got the vegan options set aside for ya in the green bowls and the blue carton next to the coffee is the vanilla oat…” She paused a moment, obviously searching her mind for a ‘better’ word than whatever the actual one was. “Juice? It’s good to cut the coffee with, if’n it’s a bit too strong for ya. Oh! And the orange pitcher is orange juice if ya really don’t like the coffee!”
I looked across the table, finding four green bowls and a platter amongst a scattered sea of different colored bowls, platters and trays. Ryan leaned forward, gently sticking his fork into a thin, flaky white slab sat atop a blue plate before setting it onto his own.
Is that…
Does it really matter anymore?
Chris pulled his eyes from the spread of food in front of us, glancing over at me with worried eyes as the rest of his family set about preparing their own plates. He slipped into a stool with a soft creak, pulling a plate in front of himself before settling a napkin across his lap. Another zip of fear bolted down my tail at the thought of my Love digging into a cut of flesh like his brother was. I could feel my ears swiveling with anxiety as my tail all but twisted itself into knots and I watched him gently skewer a few pieces of fruit and collect a scoop of some steaming medley of vegetables.
Is Chris going to?
It's lab-grown, isn’t it? Not a single animal was hurt making it so why shouldn’t he? Is it really any worse than a plant when it’s grown in a lab?
My wool flared with worry as I settled into the stool next to him, nervously fidgeting with the plate and ‘fork’ in front of me as I watched Chris’ family take their picks of the spread on the table. Each one had picked at least something off the… other plates before picking a few pieces of fruit: a steaming helping of rice and vegetables, a scoop of those delicious crispy tubers Papa loved or whatever those fluffy, golden pillows were off the green dishes. Chris looked over to me again, his gaze making me feel like I was little more than an upset pup about to throw a fit for not being entirely comfortable.
Disappointment…
That’s not what he thinks and you know it.
But what if he does? What if I a-
You’re not. And we already knew what he was when we made our decision. It had to happen sometime, didn’t it?
I let out a soft sigh, placing a paw on his thigh and meeting his eye as he took a crunchy bite from an apple. “Chris, what do you want to eat?”
“I’m fine with some fr-” He started, talking between chews of his apple, earning an annoyed look from Darlene.
“No, not what you’re fine with, what do you want to eat?” I repeated, pressing my paw a little tighter to his leg as my tail found its way around his ankle. “I… you don’t have to try and dance around what you are for my sake, Love. I love you for you, not your diet. If I could get past the eyes I can get past this.”
“You sure?” He whispered, glancing from me to that same plate he’d kept looking at in the middle of the table with a few cuts of pink and speckled black meat on it. “I don’t wanna ma-”
“Chris, you’ve done nothing but take supplements, indulge Papa’s cooking and eat a genuinely concerning volume of string-fruit for the past few herds. Yes, I’m sure.” I answered, patting his leg and taking a deep breath before watching as he looked to his family for a moment and then back to me.
Chris’ mouth hung open as he tried to stammer a response, some assurance, some empty ‘I’m fine’, before he sighed, setting his hand softly on mine and squeezing gently before I turned my paw over to squeeze back. “… Thank you, Darlin’. Mama’s blackened Red-Drum n’ grits ‘re worth it, I promise you that.”
“Go for it, big-guy.” I purred, doing my best to bolster my confidence as he leaned forward to take a scoop of the off-white grain, dropping it into a bowl before gently laying a sliver of pink and black flesh across the top of it.
A silver spoon cut a piece of the meat free along with a scoop of the ‘grits’, he drew in a deep breath as it hung just before his mouth, closing his eyes with a small smile that reminded me all too much of Mama when Papa made one of her Mama’s recipes. The spoon slipped into his mouth, the food disappearing with it, prompting a pleasant groan from Chris before he leaned back in his chair and let out a contented sigh. “Stars I’ve missed that. No offense to your Pa’ but ain’t nothin’ beat’s Ma’s cookin’.”
“I t-think he might contest that.” I replied, as a shiver passed through my wool at the thought before I quickly batted it away, doing my best to plant my foot against the building anxiety in my chest. “What should I have?”
“Can’t go wrong with Ma’s pancakes and some maple syrup! Fluffy as all hell and just as sweet.Fully Vegan too!” He replied, pointing to the golden pillows before breaking off another chunk of flesh as his voice turned mischievous. “‘Tween that, some fruit and a good helping of roasted vegetables, I’m not sure you could fit much else.”
“Excuse you! I can eat my fill plenty!” I bleated back, pulling my eyes from the contents of his bowl to look over the ‘pancakes’, catching a trio of amused eyes watching us as we bickered. Defiantly I leaned forward and skewered one, plopping it on my plate before collecting the flask of brown syrup, dumping a hardy portion on top of it and cutting a slice free to pop into my mouth.
Stars above was he right.
The dough all but melted in my mouth, the nutty sweetness of the syrup mixed with the light airy taste of the pancake to make something that far outstripped any dessert Strayu I’d ever had. I found myself letting out a trill of happiness as I took another bite, my tail wagging ecstatically at each delicious chew before my plate was suddenly empty again.
“Don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone go through one of Ma’s Vegan pancakes quite that fast other’n Annie.” Ryan laughed before skewering another few golden brown chunks of potato and popping them in his mouth.
“Well lucky for her, seconds are an option!” Darlene replied with a broad grin, gently cutting her meal up as she watched me reach for another delicious pancake. “So, what are you two getting up to today?”
“Well,” Chris mumbled past a mouthful of his food, holding a fist to his mouth seemingly appeasing her, even if only just, before continuing. “I’s figurin’ we’ll take care of feedin’ the cow’s for y’all ‘fore we head up to the outlook to… watch.”
“Oh! Thank you, Son.” Michael responded, sliding his now clean plate away from himself as he spoke. “Guess Ryan an’ I can get some work done in the garage then!”
“I’ll have some snacks and a good dinner ready for you two when you’re done! Won’t do to go up there and be hungry!” Darlene exclaimed, a flash of excitement in her eyes as she started to rattle off options she could have ready for us to take up.
“Thank you Ma’. Whatever you decide on I’m sure we’ll love it.” Chris stated, a small smile pulling at the corners of his face as he scooped the last of the grits from his bowl.
It’s like nothing’s even happening to them. Just like it’s another normal paw.
[Advance Transcript by Time Unit: 8 Hours]
The silence of the forest around us echoed with the sounds of calling birds and rustling leaves that sounded strikingly familiar to the preserves at home, the dragging weight of a ‘lunch box’ that was positively stuffed to the brim with food hung on my shoulder as we steadily plodded our way up the mountainside. The sky far above had shifted, the pale blues and white clouds of day deepening into streaking purples, fiery oranges and brilliant yellows as the sun had begun to set. It still amazed me that he got to see the night every paw, watching what Heartwood River had built an entire festival around, something that most Venlil never even saw in the first place was so common, so beautiful.
It was astoundingly, beautifully, breathtaking.
Chris’ heavy footfalls a few tails ahead pulled me from my thoughts, the soft, hollow clunk of his guitar on his hip accompanied the jangling clink of the golden buckles on his rifle’s sling as he spoke. “Not much farther now, Darlin’. You still good carryin’ dinner? I can take it off ya’ ‘til we get to the top if’n ya need.”
I stifled a snicker as I readjusted the strap, picking up my pace so I wasn’t slowing us down. “I’m fine. Not like I’m gonna let you carry everything, Heartwood. Besides, lower gravity certainly helps!”
“Oh? You gonna jump up to give me another kiss?” He laughed, slowing his stride for a few steps to let me catch up. “Certainly wouldn’t mind any.”
“Oh really? Maybe I will!”” I purred back, sticking my tongue out at him as he shifted the rifle around to rest against his back, prompting another thought to surface in my mind. “Why’d you bring the revolver and the rifle?”
He gave a noncommittal shrug and grunt, his hand rising to rest on the gleaming pistol as the holster squeaked and groaned a little under the weight. “Just… feels like somethin’ I can control in all this. ‘Sides, she’s like an old good luck charm. Pappy always told me I’d never be alone so long’s I kept a good rifle by my side when things got rough. I figure there ain’t nothin’ much rougher’n this.”
A soft mewl of understanding slipped from my snout as the path beneath our feet leveled out, the trees in front of us fading away to a vast expanse of rising mountain peaks and deep, tree filled valleys framing the setting sun like a perfectly placed photograph. “Mama always seems to feel better when she’s got that old rifle of hers around, said having it nearby always calmed her nerves.”
“I’m surprised that monster doesn’t knock her on her ass! I need to get her to let me send some rounds through that thing sometime to feel it out.” He replied with a smile, gently setting his old wooden guitar down, leaning it against the low edge of the rock outcropping before slinging his rifle free and bringing it to his shoulder to look out across the valley. “Ol’ Isabella ain’t never let me down, she’s like a lucky charm ‘s far as I’m concerned.”
“I know you said your ‘Pappy’ gave her to you for those competitions you two used to go to, but I don’t think you ever told me why it was that gun specifically.” I asked, nonchalantly setting my load down on top of the rock outcropping, doing my best to hide the wag in my tail as I tried to nudge him into rambling again. It was always cute when he got excited about something.
Same thing he said about me getting tail deep in oil, spare parts and burnt carbon.
“Ol’ Izzy? She’s a Henry Model ‘60. Same gun the ‘hero’ used in one of our favorite movies set back in the eighteen hundreds, or at least a really nice replica with some customizations Pappy and I had ‘our’ gunsmith down in town do.” He answered, slipping the lever down with the sweet sound of well maintained linkages and religiously oiled parts.
“What’d you have them do?” I asked, leering around his side to stare up at the rifle in his hands, my ears raised with interest as he lowered it and crouched to my height to show me.
“Most of it was to do with the action, bringin’ her up to competition grade. Lightening a few parts here, strengthening a few bolts there, tightening up some linkages over yonder. Cleaned out the rifling, added a loop lever and made the trigger feather weight. Top it all off with the blackout finish to make the gold pop against her ebony furniture and damn if she ain’t pretty.” He let out a chuckle as he polished a smudge from the rifle’s gleaming flank, a fond look on his face as he brought his eyes up to cast a gaze out across the mountain range. “Hell, Pappy always used to joke that she ‘was the only woman that boy’d ever need’. Mama never was a fan of that one...”
Stars I love it when he gets like this.
“Is that normal, for Humans?”
“Hmm?”
“Getting that attached to a firearm? Mama used to spend a whole half-claw taking her rifle apart, oiling it, checking the connections and making sure everything was right before putting it back together again. She said it helped calm her down when her leg hurt.”
“Firearms specifically? No, not really, most people just have something what’s important to them for one reason or another. Pa’s ol’ telescope was another gift from Pappy and whenever he gets stressed out he just sits there and stares up at the sky with it. Ma’ loves her ol’ mixer from the restaurant, anytime she gets wired she dives straight into making something to keep her hands busy…” He sighed as his hands tightened around the rifle for a moment before he leaned it against the rock outcrop and sat down. “For me, Izzy’s one of the few things that ain’t family that’s always been there and… she’s really the last thing I have of Pappy… Man, I miss him sometimes.”
“He sounds like he meant a lot to you, Heartwood… I wish I’d gotten to meet him.”
“He did, Darlin’... He sure did.”
Silence fell between the two of us as I slipped down to sit beside him, the only sounds around us those of the forest itself and the hollow, musical winds of the valleys beyond. Chris’ hand found my back, my tail slipping tight around his wrist as I pressed into him. Everything was quiet again as we watched the sun dip below the distant horizon, the spectrum of vibrant colors slipping away to the deep black-blue of night and its tapestry of stars.
Stars above but that moon was beautiful.
I’d seen it last time we were here, but not like this. This time it was massive, a glowing white spot-light casting down onto us, the rising mountains and the rest of Earth below it. A dusting of black dots zipped back and forth in front of it, Earth’s defenders settling into their final preparations as the Extermination fleet no doubt closed in.
Like it's trying to shine a little light of its own.
Michael had shown us video from one of Earth’s orbital telescopes of the U.N.’s opening salvo, a veritable basin of FTL propelled asteroids they had managed to drop from warp just in front of the fleet had sent them scampering out of the way as best they could. More than a few Federation ships had been turned to scrap-piles against the rocks while a few pawfuls more slammed into each other in their panic. It was crafty, that was certain, I’d never seen anything even close to it tried before in any of the history books I’d read. Humanity, it seemed, was pulling out all the stops they could think of.
I’d be lying if I said it didn’t give me at least a little hope.
“What was the movie?” I asked, breaking the silence with a whisper, doing my best to lift the mood back up to something positive. I nuzzled his neck gently before I rose, padding over to root around in the bag to find what Darlene had packed for us.
“Old western flick, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. ‘Bout a few outlaws durin’ the civil war a few hundred years ago tryin’ to steal a bunch of gold and what not. I’d show it to you but… well it’s kinda violent. Don’t think it even made it near the data-dump.”
“Heartwood, after what we’ve gone through I think a ‘rather violent’ movie is the least of things to be concerned about me bolting off for. Once this is all over I think a claw spent curled up in bed watching a movie would be well deserved.”
“Well… it’s a bit more than thaaaat.” He stated, his voice stretching as I heard the smile I knew was spreading on his face fill his voice clear as the river. “That’s the last movie in the saga, can’t just watch one!”
“Then we can make a whole paw of it!” I replied, my voice a happy, joking purr as I pulled the first platter of vegetables and ‘nut-cheeses’ from inside the bag before meandering back over to Chris. “Get some more of that ‘sushi’ from the place you won’t shut up about in Tokyo, put the movies on the holo-viewer in our cabin and just relax.”
“Damn if that don’t sound like a nice date night to me.” He replied, reaching up to snag a slice of apple from the tray as I set it on the rock in front of me.
He glanced over, meeting my eyes as we sat and watched the gathering storm in the void beyond, his voice strong and confident as he spoke, even if his inflection was still horrible. “I love you, Tai… Whatever happens, I love you.”
“I love you too, Chris.” I affirmed, staring back into his eyes before placing my crown gently to his forehead. “Whatever happens.”
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Platform: DOS or Mac, can't remember exactly which, but more likely DOS.
Genre: Roguelike.
Year: Around 1995, give or take a year.
Graphics: Did not use ASCII like other games of its time. Used simple shapes to represent characters, enemies, and items.
Notable Characters: Unknown. I recall that the hero looked like a light brown circle with a green triangle for a hat.
Notable Mechanics: Typical roguelike. Randomly generated dungeons, fog of war, hunger and thirst, etc.
Other: I do not know the actual year of the game's release, just that I played it in the early 90's. I remember that items found in the dungeons were either potions or food. I recall enemies looking like grey demon heads.

I don't remember anything before this in enough detail to describe, but it isn't relevant to the second part of it.
This is about a scary browser game my mind made for me. I am seriously considering making it, since it'd be pretty funny if it was real.
The game was a restaurant simulator kind of thing themed around "The Big Game." Baseball I assume. You clicked a customer to receive their order, and clicked and dragged the appropriate items around to complete it. The art style was what I can only describe as "generic featureless clipart traced over as pixel art." Everything was on a single screen, and said screen didn't even take up the whole screen. It was like playing on one of those old flash game websites, with a bunch of icons for other games on the side.
The first customer ordered popcorn-adjacent food, and they were located on the left side of the screen. They were kind of a bowling pin of a man, two blobs of flesh tone and Shirt Color (I think white) outlined by thin black pixely lineart. The popcorn machine was on the right. It was pretty interesting - one button would populate the machine with kernels, and there was a container that allowed you to drag one droplet of Hot Oil at a time into it. Naturally, the Customer's first order was a single delicious droplet of Hot Oil.
The second customer was located at what seemed to be a drive-through window, for some reason. It was just a featureless black rectangle in the center of the screen, on the baseball concessions stand(?)'s back wall. The stand has some kind of coffee drink (or just drink in general) and I assume it would be served here. The coffee customer is A Single White Pixel, who resides in the center of the screen.
The third station is probably hotdogs or something, I don't know but it definitely exists. The customer is some kind of animal, maybe a lukewarm dog. I think it's the thing that does the tutorial.
The scary part.
Sometime after the Hot Oil order, while messing around with the popcorn, the game froze up slightly and wouldn't progress. There was a sort of Scratch-style speech bubble (and/or notification sound) that alerted the player to go pay attention to something.
I heard a Youtube-Commentary-Esque voice go "Oh, this thing?" in reference to the Single White Pixel. Naturally, he (I assume it'd be too immersion breaking for me to have been playing the Scary Game because I am a coward) clicked on the Single White Pixel. The game screen tinted red, a loop of a decently-fast siren played, and A Vaguely Rectangular Scary Pixellated Face appeared, blood red, next to the Pixel. A moment passes, and then An Even Scarier Face appears. It kind of looks like if ascii art only consisted of these characters: _ . In case you wanted more of the Even Scarier Face, though, the rest of the computer screen tinted red, and everything on it that looked vaguely circular had the Even Scarier Face put on top of it.
I woke up hot and vaguely itchy, which I assume is why it ended like that. If I do make this fake dream game I'll add some kind of endless mode with no jumpscare to spite my brain or something, and also because it'd be fun.

As always, thank you to u/SpacePaladin15 for the wonderful universe that is NoP! Thank you to u/cruisingNW for proof reading and helping me make this chapter as good as it can be, you're the man! Honestly LoM wouldn't have gone very far without him! If you haven't you should absolutely go read Foundations of Humanity! It's very good AND it just updated!
A big thanks to u/Saint-Andros for helping with proofreading! He writes Out of Our Elements which is a very good one! If you like a good fic in the wilderness and a pair of cute 'friends' ;) you'll love OOE!
Also thank you to u/brotanics! For this wonderful fanart of Taisa. And this one! She's so cute I'm gonna die
And thank you to u/Jimdandy117! For this adorable fanart of Chris and Renkel! Dear god help he's adorable I love him so much
Thank you u/SlimyRage, or AsciiSquid on Discord, for makin' Vengineer Taisa Gamin'. She's absolutely adorable, I love her lil' workers apron. She looks so excited to get to work!
Thank you u/Braquen! For this astounding Pixel Art of Taisa after a few range day dates with Chris! Her little hat and gunbelt are absolutely astounding!
Thank you u/VeryUnluckyDice! For this Artwork of Taisa and Chris as characters from One Piece! I've never seen or read it before but it's incredibly cute!
Thank you to u/creditmission for their wonderful work of several LoM fanfics!
Special thanks this chapter to u/ SavingsSyllabub7788, AKA for lending a hand, and a character, in the form of Kurlek and his 'Against the Herd' show! If you don't know what fan-fic they've written I'd be surprised but they're responsible for Death of a Monster, I highly recommend it! (And they also have their own non-NoP story called 'Looking for Friends, Will Travel' and it's astounding!)
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Memory Transcription Subject: Taikel, Venlil Farmer, Venlil-Human Exchange Host
Date [Standardized Human Time]: October 14th, 2136
Off they go again, Stars only know if this ends well. Polani guide them, please…
The fading crackle of Polani’s engines split the black void of night as my daughter bolted off for yet another Paw of doing what she thought was right. Taisa had said they’d had them stop doing only individual runs after they’d transported the last of Lentan’s refugees here, now they were attached to ‘The damned Mercy again’, according to Chris. Spending the last paw, and it looked like this one as well, taking holds full of refugees up to another ship before going right back down to get more. Most of them ended up in the capital before being shuffled about to whatever shelters, or willing citizens, that could be found with any room.
The Festival was in full swing and, despite the slowness these last few paws, I was doing well! The pawful of Human families that ventured out from the shelter had shrunk under the watching eyesof so many Venlil, doing their best to look as non-threatening as they could manage. Many of them had decorated their visors as well: twining flowers, painted skies and twisting, pastel landscapes adorned the masks instead of Chris’ plain, shattered visor.
They were smaller than I’d expected after spending so long with Chris as my only reference, from what I’d seen of him helping the new-comers last paw, the man towered over most of them. Their gaze didn’t bother me anymore, after all that’s happened in the last herd or two, but they still tried their best to not look at any of us directly. Chris and Taisa had said it was, apparently, the directions they’d been given by the U.N. to ‘avoid any possible negative incidents’ before boarding Polani.
All I knew was that they were all, in spite of everything that was happening on the Arm, just as nice as Chris had always endeavored to be. They certainly liked my scrambles! And Ervena’s Hikic and Tentrel’s ‘Pierogies’ were stampede-setters this Night from humans alone! At this point more than a pawful had come back for seconds and, I was starting to think, to see a friendly herd of coats. It seemed, considering the company, that Tevyin had made an effort to put the more Human friendly merchants in the same row which I suspected was Lentan’s idea; or request, at least.
It was nice, and somehow unsurprising, to see how they treated their children and just how familiar their pups behaved. Renkel, Ervonen, a few of their new herd-mates from school and a pawful of Human children were happily playing not far from the lapping waters of the basin, a chorus of laughter and up-beat whistles dancing on the last whispers of night’s gentle breeze. Renkel and Ervonen, it seemed, had made even more friends now as the pair enthusiastically told them everything they knew about VP’s flora and fauna. The Human children weren’t quite as cautious as their parents, staring at Renkel and Ervonen with rapt attention as the pair enthusiastically fielded questions whenever they sprouted up around them.
“Excuse me, Sir?” A measured, quiet voice asked, drifting to my ears as I watched the pups play. “W-What are you selling?”
I brought my eye-line around to peer at its source, raising an ear in question as I found a wiry, short Human woman looking pointedly to my side. >Hello! Friend!< “Taikel is fine! This is just my best approximation of a Human ‘Breakfast Scramble’! Made, mostly, with Venlilian vegetables and a few po-tay-toes that Chris and Taisa brought us!”
“Th-Thank you. I’m Sasha, by the way.” Her posture shifted, a bloom of confidence raising her spirits and filling her voice as she spoke. “That sounds good! Can you do three? My parents would probably love those.”
“Three? No problem, Sasha!” I whistled back, my tail swaying with exaggerated happiness as I dumped three, and a half, helpings of vegetables into the skillet with a burst of steam and the delicious sound of sizzling firefruit oil. If there was something I could do to help the refugees brave enough to leave the shelters feel more welcome then I’d do it without a thought!
“That smells astounding.” She commented, her voice carrying the familiar sound of an interested Human I’d grown to appreciate over the last few herds.
“Tastes even better.” I answered, swirling and tossing the rapidly browning chunks, shoots and leaves around the skillet before topping off three bowls and setting them on a broad stained-amarek tray. “I’ll be needing this back but it’d be a shame for you to spill your meal!”
“Thank you!” She replied, her voice beaming with positivity as she turned to root around in her bag. “How much are they?”
“Free of charge!” >No Need, Enjoy!< I whistled, holding my paw up to decline her payment. “Just happy to help.”
“Really?” She hesitated, her visor twitching to look down at the food. “You don’t want anything for them?”
“Nope, enjoy!” I whistled, doing my best to approximate a smile as she scooped the tray up from my counter. “Just make sure you come back to let me know what you think!”
“I’ll be sure to, thank you Taikel!” She called as she slowly walked away, carefully balancing the tray.
Just a little bit of light.
---
Memory Transcription Subject: Lentan, Venlil Head Exterminator, Heartwood River Exterminator Office
Date [Standardized Human Time]: October 15th, 2136
It worked…
The chill air of night breathed through my wool as I stood at the front gate of the Night-ward Shelter. One of the ‘peace-keepers’ the U.N., assigned to help keep the facility safe, that stood close by my side kept quiet as I surveyed the buildings. I had thought Elena was exaggerating with the expediency the Humans could erect such structures but yet here I stood seeing it with my own eyes.
The buildings, excluding the materials at least, matched much of the new construction Heartwood had seen over the last few [Solar Years] which certainly helped quell some fears in town. The effort flattened some ears, won’t deny that, but that braying by Farzen and Marlek left a foul taste in my mouth. I thanked my parent’s stars that they were one last solid infraction away from my chance to dump them on another department for ‘regional training’ or whatever other reason I could make take root.
A pawful of Human families milled about the shelter’s common courtyard, bouncing with hushed voices of concerned adults drifting beneath the up-beat laughs and giggling squeals of playing children who either didn’t understand why they were here or wanted to ignore it as much as any one of us. Beautifully, there wasn’t a single empty room in the shelter. I’d double, triple and quadruple checked, it was at capacity and fully stocked but for a few Human-specific medicinal supplies Elena had informed me Crystal Star Shipping would be delivering at the end of this paw, once they were done with their other assigned tasks.
Thank the stars for her efforts. Now it's in Polani - and the fleet’s - paws to keep them safe. May her star shine ever brighter.
The gate swung open with a whispering, motorized whir, the peace-keeper in the gatehouse giving my escort an inscrutable nod from behind his visor as we passed. The conversation among the adults ceased as their visored eyes fell, pointedly, all around me. The excited calls of the children doubled down when they noticed me, the herd of excitedly curious, visored pups being held at bay by nothing more than the calls of their parents and the presence of my escort as they watched me plod a trail to one of the still-gleaming tables the Humans had gathered around.
I glanced around the herd- no, ‘pack’ was the correct word for Humans, I believe -gently bowing my head before I spoke. >Friend. Talk?< “Good Morning, I am Lentan, the local head exterminator. I trus-”
“Exterminator?” A low, almost hissed, voice burbled up from across the rubber coated metal, belonging to a broad Human male tossing his hands about in odd gestures as he spoke. “What do you want? Here to tell us to keep our ‘predatory claws’ away from your town?”
Is that Human hand language? Fascinating, perhaps Elena can teach me more.
I let out a small, placating laugh that tumbled from my snout as I shook my ears in the negative and held up my paws, doing my best to mimic Chris’ ‘no harm’ gesture I’d seen him use a pawful of times. “No, quite the opposite, actually.”
A surprised, almost oppressive silence settled across the table as a tide of visors stopped trying to look around me. “I’m here to check in on the shelter's progress and ensure you’ve been provided everything you need to settle in comfortably. Anything else you need you can either request through the U.N. or through me. Although it might be a more Venlilian version, I will try my utmost to ensure it is here as quickly as can be managed, given the circumstances.”
“Hell you care for?” The same Human asked, leaning forward to study me, his gruff voice sounding more like the river during the glacier-melt than a man. “Last I checked it was you’s guys that was comin’ to bomb us in the first place.”
“Sir please, I have no ill inten-”
“Oh?” Another voice from the pack spoke up to cut me off, higher pitched than the man and far closer to Elena in register than Chris, though the words beyond the translator were certainly different I could still feel the suspicion lacing them. “And how do we know you won’t just send your jackboots in to deal with us when you get the first excuse?”
“I assure you, as the person who offered Heartwood as a possible refugee center in the first place, that I’ve no such inclinations, ma’am.” I replied, my voice shearing past the mumbled agreements from the surrounding pack. “And so far I’m quite happy with that choice. I hope you all, should you choose to stay in the long term, can settle into Heartwood just as well as Christopher has managed.”
A wave of confused murmurs passed across the gathered pack, lurking beneath the calls of excitement from the playing children.
“If you would like me to leave I will happily abide.” I started, pulling their full attention back to me with a polite flick of my ears. “But, as I said, I simply wanted to ensure your facilities had everything you felt you needed. Heartwood is, keeping the U.N.’s- hmm -advice on interactions in mind, open for you all to visit. We have several wonderful restaurants, shops, the open forum and plenty of friendly coats that I am sure would be happy to help you, and your children, feel more at home in this… difficult time.”
The man and woman from earlier stayed quiet, their visors watching the children busying themselves with a black and white ball. Silence fell across the Humans in front of me as they stared at me from the sides of their visors, the blooming question of what they looked like sprouted in my mind before I cut it low. I doubted that was something they’d be comfortable doing with me at this point, all things considered. Stars, they’d probably worry I’d ’send in the jackboots’ as an overreaction. No, I’d ‘take the win’, as Elena put it, for now.
Nothing but the raucous sound of playing children, the building whispers of a nightward wind and the gravel shifting beneath the soles of uncertain feet filled the air as I waited for a response.
It did not come.
Very well then.
“Uh- hmm… with that I will leave you all to think it over. Please, do not be strangers, the town, and myself, are here to help.” I sighed, taking a step back as my escort turned to follow close behind, his posture as indecipherable as the face behind his visor.
As we walked toward the gate I heard one of the Human kids call out, something about keeping a head up. I thought it an odd piece of advice, given heads are usually up anyhow for most species, though I didn’t realize it was directed at me until it hit me.
Literally.
With a solid thump and a hollow, rubbery pang the ball the children had been playing with had bounced off the side of my head, ruffling my wool and putting a persistent ring in my ear as it fell to the ground a few short tails ahead of me. My head was reeling as I shook the fog free from my mind only to find my escort bent over me trying to get my attention.
“Lenta- -ou oka-?”
I shook my head again, ruffling my wool out as the ringing faded and I pulled myself to my feet. The spots in my eyes faded with each rapid blink, a gentle paw rubbing at the stinging spot beneath my wool confirmed that my ear was most certainly still there despite the numbness. “Yes, yes, Peacekeeper Manzia I’m fine.”
“Good.” He stated, standing up and turning toward the, presumably, wide-eyed kids that had crowded around us.
Stars, how long was I on the ground?
“Who did it?”
A flurry of hands rose, pointing all around the pack at different children as a chorus of ‘He did!’ ‘No she did!’ ‘ Uh-uh he did!’s sang out. I stepped forward, tentatively picking up the ball and hefting it in my paws as I heard the sound of feet on gravel from the approaching parents undercut the children’s voice.
“If no one fesses up then you’ll lose the ball for the da-“
“Mr. Manzia, it’s quite alright.” I stated, stepping up to his side, ball in paw. “My chimes may have been blown about but it’s nothing a glass or two and a good meal at the Rekan can’t fix.”
The ball made the same twangy pang as it had against my skull as it bounced to the ground before I awkwardly kicked it over to the nearest pup. I wasn’t sure how you were supposed to kick this ball but that certainly wasn’t it. “Please, don’t stop your game on my account. I hope you all have a good rest of your paws.”
A mumbled wave of agreement passed over the adults as one of the children scooped up the ball and watched us make way for the gate once more.
Stars that one hurt.
---
Memory Transcription Subject: Rensa, Venlil Farmer & Ex-Exterminator, Venlil-Human Exchange Host
Date [Standardized Human Time]: October 15th, 2136
Polani, please, hurry them home.
The cold Night winds called through the festival’s stalls like the distant howls of a nightside predator rasping against the windows of the Warren. The wafting tastes of cooling ovens and muffled whispers drifted through the air around us as Taikel and I settled down onto our Festival spread. Renkel happily pushed himself between us, letting out an upbeat beep of excitement as the bonfires by the basin side lit before his tail fell still and his ears swiveled to the empty space to Taikel’s left.
“She’s gonna be alright, Rekan.” I whispered, my tail tightening around Taikel’s as I passed a comforting paw through Renkel’s crown.
“They’ll be home before you know it.” Taikel affirmed, pulling us in a little closer to him before giving Renkel a reassuring nuzzle. “And I’m sure Chris’ family will love to meet you, Son.”
“I hope so…” Renkel all but whimpered, his paws worrying at his tail like Taisa had used to do when she was scared.
Like you used to do…
The lights strung through the stalls behind us tapered away to little more than a dim glow, casting long shadows across the ground around us before finally fading away to the black void of night. Kelthen’s long, drawn out whistle signaled across the silent basin, echoing for a few long moments before a hundred candles flickered to life along the shoreline. The flotilla of light cast off into the glimmering black waters of the basin, turning the flat, glass like surface into a mirror of the tapestry above us. This was our first festival where Taisa wasn’t here with us, through university, through her applications and through the job, and her blooming relationship, no matter what she was un-endingly excited for… she was still here for the festival.
But now she wasn’t.
And I understood it. As horrifying as it would be to the ‘me’ of only a few herds ago I understood. If they could manage to get another herd of Humans off Earth, another herd of people out of harm’s way then it would be worth it. If they could get Chris’ family, favoritism that it might well be, I’d still love to see them safe…
I hope so too, little Rekan, I hope so too.
---
Memory Transcription Subject: Ulmic, Gojid Exterminator, Heartwood River Exterminator Offices Rank: Honored Exterminator Officer
Date [Standardized Human Time]: October 15th, 2136
Protector help me if I have to respond to another panicked ‘Human’ call from a shut-in gray-snout this paw I will lose it.
“No, Ma’am, the humans cannot ‘hypnotize us with their voices’. They just have a lower register than mo-.”
“But what if you’re wrong?! These humans-”
The grannie’s voice dissolves into a mess of whistling in my ears, and I breath a long… long sigh. This lady thought it was good and neighborly to tell me about some paranoid nonsense while I had a snout full of strabundt, clearly on my meal break given my noticeable lack of silver, and had barely given me the space to finish the wrap in my paws.
“Ma’am, if they could do that, then-” I tried to calm her just as I was saved by the blessed beeping of my alarm, “Oh dear, look at the time, that must be the office! It has been lovely chatting with you, but I really should take this call!”
She fumbled about in her tail pouch for a moment, pulling her pad free and opening it to reveal one of Rux’s ridiculous articles about how ‘Humans can hypnotize you with a glance’. “But what about this! Rux says he has proof!”
“Uh huh.”
“A-And I’ve seen them do it! That predator here in town! There’s no way so many of my herd would fall to him if they couldn’t!” She all but squealed, following me toward the edge of the Forum while tapping insistently at her pad and a video from outside of the Rekan at the last ‘Music Night’. “You have to look into it, it's true!”
“Absolutely.” I answered around the meal pack I was very deliberately securing before slinging it across my shoulder with a grunt. “Yep. I’ll make sure the office will see right to it, Ma’am. Have a good paw, now.”
Hoo! Blessed be, thank the Guide that’s over with.
Night’s cold, whispering winds were at my back as I quickly padded out of the forum, howling through Heartwood and lifting golden leaves to dance through long shadows cast by streetlights. Cold had never really bothered me, not that it ever got this cold in Dawn Creek, but I was certainly feeling it this paw as the lingering warmth of Bernia’s Starrise Simmer rested comfortably in my belly. Bernia and I had come to agree, after the last herd or so of paws, that Heartwood was the right move, not just for me but for us!
Well. Despite the News.
The arrival of this new wave of Humans was slightly unsettling; I’m not ashamed to admit I was ready to douse some fires, but even with a whole pack of humans at our gate Heartwood was still so… Calm. Dawn Creek wasn’t so bad, not before the humans showed up, but even on its best days I had to check my tank the next waking. Here, I feel like I don’t even need to carry it! Something about a town as small as this just feels so right. I wouldn’t call myself a ‘local’, not now and not for a while yet, but I could certainly see us staying long enough for it, even if the Humans stuck around. Still, I couldn’t banish the nagging worry in my gut about them.
Cool wind rippled through my quills as I tugged my suit back up over my shoulders, hauling the zipper shut while I thought of last waking’s briefing that flicked through my mind. Despite the dreadful duo’s complaints Lentan had been adamant that he’d planned for everything and was more than willing to ‘accept the risk’ of helping another sapient being to avoid extinction; predator or not. The Office was split, but I was surprised to find myself agreeing with him! He wasn’t wrong, the Humans, from the token few I’d met and seen on the holo-screens, seemed barely any different from the rest of us. Protector preserve us, but Bernia and I had even taken a liking to some of their shows!
It was odd, even a little worrying sometimes, watching these things - these people - I knew to be predators showing emotion, feelings, concern for their friends, families, their fellows, even animals… Feelings that I knew all too well myself! After all my [Solar Years] of work in the Office I found myself deciding a predator, a sapient one at that, should not only be allowed to exist but had as much of a right to it as the rest of us did.
Every passing paw brought more news from the U.N. about the extermination fleet’s progress as they made their seemingly inevitable march toward Earth. I couldn't help but feel we held some responsibility to make sure the ones that ran, like Bernia and I would have, had somewhere to run to. Even if it made me uncomfortable.
The Federation I’d known and grown up in felt so far away every time I watched FedCom broadcasts about the fleet, all that pilot-lighting about a people who’d professed nothing but a want for peace. For a people who still hadn’t hurt anyone, on VP at least. The loss of the Cradle still hung heavy on my heart but I couldn’t blame the Humans for it after the videos I’d seen of their soldiers putting themselves between civilians and Them.
The steps of my new office met my feet before I knew it, lifting me from my pondering as I walked up the paw-hewn slabs of swirling valley-stone to the broad, dark-wood doors. I shook the cold from my joints as I stepped in from my second meal break, quickly met by the drifting sounds of a pair of paws hard - who am I kidding - hardly working in the locker room reaching my ears.
They were listening to that idiot again. Kurlek and his absolutely idiotic ‘against the herd’ program Farzen had become so infatuated with that she was still trying her hardest to pull Marlek in with her. There was a time when even naming your show that would’ve been cause for an investigation.
“During all this my dear viewers, we have to ask a simple question: How? How has a predator managed to gain this much support from our Federation leadership, so much that eleven leaders have fallen for their lies of supposed peace?! Sure, Tarva is understandable, she has always been a weak and ineffectual leader riding on the backfur of the incompetent previous administration; but those eleven included Kolshian leader Nikonous himself! How could the humans gain such support?”
Oh this ought to be good.
“Well my fellow herdseekers, it’s the same reason so many Venlil are in support of the Exchange Program: Clearly the predators can force predatory taint to be spread through their gaze alone! What is more likely? That thousands of Venlil and major trusted leaders of the Federation have simultaneously come down with predator disease, or that the scorched flesh eaters have some way to force prey to their will via gaze alone!”
How does that even make sense? They wear visors.
“Luckily for all of us watching, we might soon be talking about this in theory, as 38 species managed to come to their senses and are attempting to save us from the predators on our streets! Hopefully after their inevitable victory the sight of forward facing eyes and blood soaked fangs will be forgotten history. We’ll be back with a special guest after a word from our sponsor!”
Guide save me, a few herds ago and I might have agreed with this idiot.
An upbeat jingle played as an advertisement for some schlock supplement or another claiming to ‘keep you safe from the predator’s gaze’ spewed from the speakers of Farzen’s pad. Had that been what I’d actually thought? The kinds of things I would have agreed with before all this? Just flippantly deciding to condemn an entire race to death for sins they can’t even atone for? For things we only thought they might do?
“Stars above we’re in deep.” Marlek sighed, torquing the nozzle on the flamer in his paws down tight with a whistley grunt before continuing. “Hopefully the fleet does its job.”
“Before long we’ll be free of it all again, treated like the heroes we actually are. Deluded fools, the lot of them. Can’t even smell the taint beneath their snouts; were it up to me we’d’ve burned that wretched thing before it even stepped off the shuttle. If we weren’t stuck here I’d b-be…” Farzen’s voice stumbled as she harvested a glance over her shoulder, seeing me standing in the doorway, my posture, presumably, displeased.
“Go on. You’d be what?”
“I-In the fleet.” She finished, the Nevok’s gleaming claws tightening around the flamer in her grasp as she let out a wary honk. “Doing what we’re supposed to do.”
“You mean what you want to do. Don’t conflate your desire to destroy what offends you with what our purpose is.” I growled, jabbing my claw down into the table at the reminder of why I’d been hired. “It’s like you two fuel huffers want a war. Is that what you want? Just so you can have your vindication?!”
The worst kind of Exterminator, a self-centered one. I’d happily take the extra desk work if it meant Lentan firing these idiots.
Silence filled the gear room, the pair didn’t say a word, just staring back at me with barely restrained disdain plain on their features as I straightened my back and turned around. “You’ve still got more maintenance checks and requisition orders to do. Lentan has authorized me to put you two back on field duty if you complete them on-time, correctly.”
Not brokering a response I took a few steadfast steps across the hardwood floors back out into the office proper as the whining complaints of Kurlek spilled into the air accompanied by the measured responses of whatever wool-brained ‘scientist’ he’d decided to invite on.
Warmongering hate-filled idiots that’ve done far more harm to this office than good. Waste of a good set of suits.
I shook my head as I turned towards Lentan’s office, a new purpose in mind beside my end-of-shift report.
Disgusting. Bound to be a better way than this.
---
Memory Transcription Subject: Taikel, Venlil Farmer, Venlil-Human Exchange Host
Date [Standardized Human Time]: October 15th, 2136
If only they’d just turn ‘round and go home.
The hollow howling of Night’s returning winds roared overhead, whipping at the hanging lights and loose decorations strung from the rafters flailed about wildly. When I’d been a pup my Papa had told stories about pups he grew up being whisked away to the night because they didn’t pay attention; I’d realized they were just a way to scare me to be safe pretty quickly, but they certainly worked for a few [Solar Years]! Pup-stealing or not, these winds were still an inevitable force that always felt like they’d never end, their tugging claws stymied only by the wind-breaks and a healthy dose of caution.
Just as inevitable as that damnable fleet.
More news from the U.N. had come, and it was far from good. The Humans had pulled into themselves the last few paws, barely leaving their shelters as that final bit of weight finally settled onto them. Stars, aside from Sasha only a paw-full of Humans had popped by last waking to say a quick hello before picking up a few meals of their own and disappearing again.
Taisa and Chris were still gone, off doing everything they could to help before the inevitable finally arrived. They hadn’t come back at the end of their ‘shift’ last paw, electing to stay as long as they could manage before it all came apart. My heart had nearly turned to ice when she told us they were staying to help the Mercy with her last trip, promising to be out of harm's way before the fleet arrived.
That little tumbling stone in my stomach had grown heavier and heavier over the last few claws since, remembering the horror I’d felt when they’d returned from the Cradle. The sight of my daughter’s pride and joy beaten, scorched and toasted, the stains on the deck and her. In my heart I knew there was no way to get her to change her mind, for all that timidity she’d had when she was a pup she was still her mother’s daughter and Stars help me if I’d ever tried to get either of them to drop something, once they’d gotten their claws into it.
For now though, it wouldn’t do me any good to worry my tail off on it; Rensa was at my side helping to finish the prep-work for this paw’s cleaning, and Renkel was safely in class for at least another half-claw or so. Other than the odd sale and the howling wind it was unusually quiet for this time of the festival, not that that wasn’t without good reason but it was still far too… unnerving.
A skillet’s clang against the table at my side cut through the festival’s silence as my love let out an unbelieving gasp. I found Rensa leaned against the table, her pad in one paw as the other gripped tight against where her leg met her prosthetic. There were tears in her eyes as she dropped the pad to the table at my side, rushing forward to wrap her paws around me as tight as she ever had. A hard, wracking sob poured from her snout as she bawled into my wool, the prosthetic buckling a little beneath her as I pulled her tighter into the hug, doing my best to comfort her, even if I didn’t know the source of her anguish.
She was rambling, babbling and sputtering incoherently into my wool as soaking tears poured free like an open flood gate. The weight in my gut grew, pulling at my heartstrings with the weight of the world. I'd only seen her like this a few times before, when she’d lost her parents and when she’d finally cracked after being injured. Rensa didn’t crack easy.
Then I saw it, the message on the screen from Taisa.
And my heart stopped.
---
First Prev. Next

Been waiting on adventure mode release for the steam version. Finally the beta is around so time to continue the grand saga of worm man.
The first two valiantly died back on the ascii version. Worm man 1 died climbing out of a well after a poor dodge from a bandit. Worm man 2 gallivanted to the frozen tundra and had a 2 day fist fight with a penguin. Kept the thing pinned with its pinky toe the entire time. after valiantly killing the beast in front of its entire flock. We fled south finding the closest cliff, promptly jumping off to our deaths.
But Worm man 3. In an effort to relieve the glory of 2 we traveled far north in search of penguins. Unfortunately we couldn't find any in sight. Instead settled for an obese raven. pinning it by its foot a quick couple punches to the head and wings saw the quarry defeated. Continuing onward there was a cave nearby with a woman living in it. I believe a night creature of some sort. but when I arrived she through the first punch so talking was out the door. The first lucky punch did significant damage to her throat. Her attacks against us mostly bounced off our armor or were easily dodged. A few rounds of generally back and forth until another lucky hit severed her hand and twisted the arm. A couple more rounds after that she fell to her wounds. We found a millstone and a lot of dwarf body parts around it. So probably not a nice woman. She did have an amulet sitting about...probably from the dwarf. Continuing on food was running low and I could not for the life of me seem to forage. I think with it being winter there wasn't much to pick, the few towns I tried had no food I could easily find. In this I accidentally found an old fortress of mine. Only realized it was mine when I descended in to find fish men wandering about. The apparently had no problems with me raiding the old tavern for some rum. No food though. onward again there was another cave with some night creature living in it. this one met me outside and a bloody duel ensued. This foe far more skilled than the last, or perhaps the open field gave him more room to dodge. He quickly bit off one hand then the other. With nothing left I tried grappling him with my arm stubs but he simply dodged away and watched as I bled to death.

These challenges are for 35% off coupon code. Probably are best for collection. For deliveries still need to pay same delivery fee. This doesn't feel like a great deal to me and is basically an ad, unfortunately. Pizza shops always have 35+% off coupons. In the UK they seem to always have 50% off and nobody ever pays the full price (I've recently moved to the US).
All challenges are in u/dominos profile. Here are the valid codes I found along with my solutions:

• roll35 code (35% off any): this challenge mentions a link containing dominos-copypasta-roll35. Code works in their online store and shows 35%-Off Menu Priced Orders. Previously Large (14") Hand Tossed Deluxe would be $19.99 with $6.49 delivery and $2.35 tax or $28.83. With the code it's $12.99, $6.49 delivery, $1.73 tax or $21.21.
• gimme35: this challenge shows a slice of pizza in ASCII and bottom row contains Braille ASCII (International) ⠛⠊⠍⠍⠑⠒⠢ is gimme35. Use https://www.dcode.fbraille-alphabet to decode Braille.
• gimmedatpizza35: this challenge directly mentions it.
• reddit35: this challenge mentions ASCII symbols, so using JavaScript can decode them - '80 105 122 122 97 32 105 115 32 102 111 114 32 82 101 100 100 105 116 51 53'.split(' ').map(Number).map(_=>String.fromCharCode(_)).join('') returns Pizza is for Reddit35, alternatively this other one has the same code, which can be found by reversing the text and adjusting the order of text.
• SHARETHEPIE35: this challenge mentions a Base64 encoded string, so decoding using JavaScript atob("UExFQVNFIEZFRUQgVEhFIEVNUExPWUVFUy4gVEhFWSBMSUtFIE9VUiBQSVpaQSBUT08uIFlvdXIgQ29kZTogU0hBUkVUSEVQSUUzNQ==") we get PLEASE FEED THE EMPLOYEES. THEY LIKE OUR PIZZA TOO. Your Code: SHARETHEPIE35

Also Dominos seem to have lots of 4 digit voucher codes but I wasn't able to found any valid ones from these challenges. Outside these challenges, coupon sites mention 9221, 9222, 9224 codes for two medium 2-topping pizzas for a total of $13.98 and then there's a $6.49 delivery fee + $1.82 tax (ends up at $22.29) + tip.
The following codes didn't work for me and likely have expired, and my solutions:

• SUCHSMART35: this challenge mentions "⠠⠊⠋⠀⠽⠕⠥⠀⠉⠁⠝⠀⠙⠑⠉⠊⠏⠓⠑⠗⠀⠞⠓⠊⠎⠂⠀⠽⠕⠥⠀⠙⠑⠎⠑⠗⠧⠑⠀⠑⠭⠁⠉⠞⠇⠽⠀⠼⠉⠼⠑%⠀⠕⠋⠋⠀⠁⠀⠏⠊⠵⠵⠁⠲⠀⠠⠽⠕⠥⠗⠀⠠⠉⠕⠙⠑:⠀⠠⠎⠠⠥⠠⠉⠠⠓⠠⠎⠠⠍⠠⠁⠠⠗⠠⠞⠼⠉⠼⠑", it's Braille (Unified English variant) and decoded says IF YOU CAN DECIPHER THIS, YOU DESERVE EXACTLY 35% OFF A PIZZA. YOUR CODE: SUCHSMART35
• HELP35: this challenge mentions HELP35
• THATSGOOD: this challenge uses Atbash cipher (basically a backwards alphabet), so Vevi szw z kraaz hl tllw blf gslftsg, "gsrh hslfow yv roovtzo?" Fh gll. Blfi Xlwv: GSZGHTLLW becomes Ever had a pizza so good you thought, "this should be illegal?" Us too. Your Code: THATSGOOD

You can try the codes using like https://order.dominos.com/powestore/3693/coupon/roll35, and just change the last part to try to keep guessing. Although it's specifically for the Midtown NYC store. Capitalisation of the letters doesn't matter. Coupon can only be entered once any food item is put in the cart (it can be removed later), and then at the bottom of the checkout page there is "Have a coupon or promotion code?" with "ADD COUPON" where it can be entered. Also, it's sad that their emergency pizza program has ended https://www.dominos.com/emergency-pizza/, being unemployed it would have helped.

I'm new to this sub, but as I've about 40 book ideas and at least 5-10 mapped out, I'll be back. My future fiction aside, I've a non-fiction project which is a labor of love for the food and beverage industry.
I've a book that was compiled in Vegas by barkeeps from about the 1940s to 1990s. It is a lost book. It does not exist anywhere in the world, and originally was spiral bound, self published, and fully typed. There is no history, I can't find anything about it, and most of the recipes are lost to time. You also can't copyright recipes, so I am bringing this back for people. I am self publishing.
The last sole copy of this book on the planet belongs to a friend, who lent it to me.
I successfully scanned the entirety, but there are some serious ASCII artifacts throughout, breaking up some recipes. Some scans went wrong, so looking to make alphabetization is correct will also be important. It is frustrating to edit this thing, and never get past the "B"s lol
I'd definitely pay for a AI formatting solution, or a human solution! The issue is I feel like giving someone a project like this is a big ask, even paying. LOL It's like trench warfare and will be quite a slog, but also anyone could do it.
So is "help formatting the ASCII artifacts, bring the recipes back in order, cross reference the recipes, and also refer back to the original copy to correct errors, etc" a thing?
What would be my best course of action. I have a full time job, and I want this done. This is more about getting something back into the world than it is thinking I'll profit. Cheers all.
edit: I did the scan myself at our local mail store. Sophisticated printer. These are not normal sized pages, but maybe 9" x 7". If there's a method of properly rescanning (something I never thought about) I'd foot the bill on a second run of the text. Thanks all.

As always, thank you to u/SpacePaladin15 for the wonderful universe that is NoP! Thank you to u/cruisingNW for proof reading and helping me make this chapter as good as it can be, you're the man! Honestly LoM wouldn't have gone very far without him! If you haven't you should absolutely go read Foundations of Humanity! It's very good AND it just updated!
A big thanks to u/Saint-Andros for helping with proofreading! He writes Out of Our Elements which is a very good one! If you like a good fic in the wilderness and a pair of cute 'friends' ;) you'll love OOE!
Also thank you to u/brotanics! For this wonderful fanart of Taisa. And this one! She's so cute I'm gonna die
And thank you to u/Jimdandy117! For this adorable fanart of Chris and Renkel! Dear god help he's adorable I love him so much
Thank you u/SlimyRage, or AsciiSquid on Discord, for makin' Vengineer Taisa Gamin'. She's absolutely adorable, I love her lil' workers apron. She looks so excited to get to work!
Thank you u/Braquen! For this astounding Pixel Art of Taisa after a few range day dates with Chris! Her little hat and gunbelt are absolutely astounding!
Thank you u/VeryUnluckyDice! For this Artwork of Taisa and Chris as characters from One Piece! I've never seen or read it before but it's incredibly cute!
Thank you to u/creditmission for their wonderful work of several LoM fanfics!
First Prev. Next
Memory Transcription Subject: Christopher A. Dewey, Human Merchant Ship Captain, Crystal Star Shipping Co-Owner
Date [Standardized Human Time]: October 12th, 2136
At least Heartwood is chipping in, guess it’s another little light in the dark.
Polani’s systems hummed along with happy determination and the distinct sound of her drive spooling down thrummed though her frame like a bow across a well-tuned bass as it pulled us from subspace. The stretched stars receded, their multicolored spectrums of light coalescing into distant, shining white dots amongst the sea of the void. Earth filled the viewscreen, bejeweled by a bustling spray of starships scattered within her orbit that were all hard at work evacuating and preparing for the coming fleet.
Night was falling again when we’d left VP, her polar winds all but throwing us into the sky as if the planet itself was urging us on. Taisa and I were happy to listen, pushing Polani for everything she had, even if it wouldn’t make the jump any faster. The people of Heartwood, with the help of a few human hands, had been building shelters near about as fast as we could deliver them, guided by massive flood lights that lit up the whole valley so much that even the Venlillian Night was held at bay.
Watching those buildings get hauled out of their compactor crates was something. An entire steel frame, walls, and roof were up in an hour with the interiors not far behind. One of the hands said both shelters were slated to be done later today or early tomorrow; seemed they just needed to check wiring and tie it into Heartwood’s grid. Either way, they’d be done before we were back with the first group of refugees.
The festival, in spite of it all, was still going on; Taisa and I figured they wanted to keep some kind of normalcy amongst everything. Apparently the town hadn’t missed a single festival in something like two hundred years and they weren’t gonna stop now! The prep was already done, after all, and I couldn’t fault anyone for trying to have a good time before… that happens. The response to the workers we’d brought in yesterday had been surprisingly accepting, though not without a little wariness from a few of ‘the usual coats’, as Taisa had put it. But between Lentan, Shenod, Salamar, Ulmic, a whole herd of helping Venlil and a few familiar vendors from the festival happily selling them all kinds of festival food, I was hopeful the workers and the coming refugees were going to feel welcome enough.
Lentan’s new U.N. liason, Elena, had sent us another authorization code for evac-landing, this time at the recently renamed ‘Dulles Interplanetary Space-Port’ and told us the first of our passengers for Heartwood would be there waiting for us. Polani’s helm let out a soft chime as I sent a hail to the controller, requesting a landing vector with the codes we’d been given attached. “Dulles Interplanetary, VP-2865-HR requesting vector to land under attached authorization.”
An answer came back immediately, a curt, quick voice snapping from the speakers alongside a plotted approach vector for us to follow. ”VP-2865-HR, Dulles Interplanetary, approved for landing, Pad 14-Bravo North. East approach over Chesapeake Bay, vector 2-7-8 your heading.”
“Pad 14-Bravo North en route from Vector 2-7-8 afirm. VP-2865-HR, out.”
Polani’s nose sparked with reentry flames that danced across the viewscreen as we struck the atmosphere, burning an approach vector out across the open ocean. The dull, well working groan of her inertial dampeners spooled to life as I hauled her nose over to brake our speed, clearing the encroaching red, orange and yellow of atmospheric fire only to be replaced by the shimmering deep blue waters of the Atlantic and Maryland Coast beyond.
The scrubby sea-washed coast rolled beneath Polani’s hull, her engines greedily sucking in the rich, cold coastal air and pouring out echoing calls across the rolling dunes. Small clusters of farmhouses, well beaten dusty dirt roads and brick towns zipped past as we rolled on along our vector. Taisa let out an appreciative whistle as she watched from her side of the viewscreen, her tail’s pleased twitching a far departure from the nervous wreck she’d been the last few paws.
We’d both been concerned, to some degree, that Heartwood wouldn’t accept any refugees, at least not in an appreciable number; but Lentan’s project was far more than either of us could have hoped for. Darno had let us know that Shining Waterfall was actively outright refusing any Human refugees, alongside an ocean of other rural towns doing just the same, but he and Natus had tried their best to get something set up in town. I appreciated the effort even if it, ultimately and unfortunately, hadn’t bore any fruit.
The peninsula beneath us fell away to dark, muddy brown waters of the Chesapeake and an ever-present procession of ships streaming out to sea. Some were undoubtedly working, taking shipments to where they needed to be and doing their damnedest to pitch in in any way they could for Earth’s defense; the others were, more likely, off to hide on the ocean, hoping the Federation couldn’t find them amongst the churning waves. Overhead in the distance we saw shaded outlines of star-ships of all kinds climbing ever onward to the void above, transporting refugees and hauling parts to the yards in one last-ditch effort to add just one more hull between Earth and those who wished to scrub her clean.
D.C.’s bustling skyline rose into view on the horizon, her vast sprawl pressing against the Chesapeke’s lapping banks. It wasn’t long until we’d be landed at Dulles, taking on another ship’s worth of scared, huddled people grasping for anything to keep themselves and their families safe. The weight of my pad was like lead in my pocket, tugging at my attention and prodding at the back of my mind to try again. To try to get Ma, Pa, Ryan or Annabelle to leave again.
The U.N. had been keeping tabs on the fleet and, more importantly, were publishing it for people to see. Guess they figured it’d be better to give people every scrap of information they could in the face of what just might be the end. They said they’d managed to hold them off an extra day or so with some odd off-and-on jumping, ditching subspace disruptors in their path and pulling a hit-and-fade before they could fully wake up. Apparently some runs were a lot closer than others.
The ‘how’ didn’t really matter to me, I didn’t know how it worked nor were the UN keen on talking about it; I was just holding out hope that it’d keep on working. Taisa said something about the buoys pushing out a fake gravity well to trick the drives into an emergency shutdown, which had a tendency to be rather disruptive. Either way it sounded terrifying from either end of the coin, diving headlong on a fleet that could wake up at any second in the hope of breaking something or just being a sitting duck in a tin can while a bomber fell on me like a ten pound hammer… Certainly wasn’t something I’d wanna deal with in the slightest.
“What’s that weird spire?” Taisa whistled, breaking me from my thoughts as the soft tinking of her claw on the viewscreen shattered the silence.
Weird Spire?
I traced the line of her gaze out across the skyline, finding her staring at the distant peak of the Washington Monument rising above the rest of D.C. Despite the weight that’d been hanging in my stomach a few seconds before, I couldn’t help but laugh as I eased back on the throttle to set up for our approach. “That’s the Washington monument. We built it… god, around two hundred and fifty years ago now? It's meant to honor my country's first president. There's some old baggage there but I’ve always liked seeing it when Ma’ an’ Pa’ took us to D.C. for the museums. Somethin’ about it just feels right, I suppose. Do the Venlil have anything like that?”
“Closest we have is the Cattle Memorial.” She grimaced, letting out a small whistle as the mall fell out of sight behind us. “What kinds of museums?”
“Loads of ‘em. Natural history, Art, entire buildings about specific cultures, beautiful gardens and my favorite - probably be yours too - the Air and Space Museum.”
Her ears perked up in that adorable way they did whenever she got excited about something as her tail tapped enthusiastically against the bulkhead beside her. “Oh?”
A wry smile tugged at the corners of my mouth as I saw her enthusiasm grow with every word. “Covers everything from our first flying machines to our, far more recent, discovery of FTL. Though their hangar is way more involved. Pretty sure they already managed to line up getting one of the prototype drives on display, now that I think of it.”
Her eyes were all but glowing as she stared at me across the center board, the familiar hum of Polani’s thrusters switching to reverse thrust pouring through the frame around us as we slowed down. “You have to take me there!”
“If everything wor-”
“When.” She stated, her voice firm with resolve as she stared me down, one paw hovering over her console. The droop in her ears and slowing of her tail betrayed the fear behind her words, but I was thankful she was trying for me. It helped. “When this all works out.”
“When this all works out,” I replied, pushing down the bitter worry eating at my heart. “we’ll have to go. Make a whole weekend of it! Good food, full museums and some amount of restraint so you don’t go rooting around in exhibit displays.”
“I’ll hold you to it, Heartwood.”
Silence filled the helm but for the sound of Polani’s systems as I eased her down on our marked pad, the soft crush of the landing struts welcoming us to Earth once again. The distant whir of hydraulics heralded the ramp’s descent, letting in the distant sound of someone calling groups to board. Taisa and I rose to our feet in silence, her tail slipping around my wrist as she padded at my side down the stairs.
The flitting early morning east coast light filtered into the hold alongside scattered, weary voices as we settled down to sit on the bottom step. Thankful eyes fell on Taisa and I as families filed aboard one by one, excited children frantically waving to who was probably the first Venlil they’d ever seen in person. It was refreshing to see the unquenchable enthusiasm of young kids, even if they didn’t know what was coming; they were still just so excited to see someone new. Boy… were they in for a treat when we got to Heartwood!
Elena’s message had said we’d have a hundred passengers aboard this run and a hundred on the next, families with children only. Taisa and I had wondered what Lentan was up to with his shelters, especially keeping them reserved for families, but as long as they got good people out of harm's way then we didn’t care. The ‘twenty minutes’ this was supposed to take passed by like molasses in winter as we sat and watched. Families and the bags they’d brought with them quickly flooded the deck as a handful of peacekeepers and organizers helped stow their luggage away for the trip.
Every passing minute made the weight pulling at my heart sink ever lower; Taisa’s pressing warmth at my side did little to quell the torrent of worry I felt brewing in my gut, but I would never give it up for anything. The last family hustled aboard as the embarking co-ordinator shot me a thumbs up before jogging off to their next pick-up. The weight strung taut as I stared at the smattering of people settling into the hold for the trip, tears welling in the corner of my eyes as I couldn’t find them anywhere in the throng of families before us.
They weren’t here.
Taisa’s tail squeezed my wrist as she pressed a little closer, wrapping me in a tight hug and whispering quietly before rising to her feet. “We can call them on the way, love. Maybe they just weren’t ready yet.”
I nodded, forcing myself up to follow her into the helm, the echoing thud of my boots on the deck under my feet punctuating the tempest of worry brewing in my thoughts. On autopilot, I slipped into my pilot seat, sending out my request for clearance to depart before hauling Polani’s nose skyward and zipping off. We clipped through a sea of clouds, punching out into a clear blue sky as we reached for the black void beyond. The storm of worry in my mind crystallized, coalescing into a single, tangible emotion.
Fury.
I had told them to be there, secured them a spot, be it in the shelter or with Taisa’s family, and pulled every feeble, tenuous string Taisa and I had to make sure they’d be able to get off world as soon as possible and they didn’t take it. Ma' and Pa' had said they would be here when we got here and then hadn’t followed through. So far as I was concerned, they’d lied to me.
Before long Polani escaped the bounds of Earth’s gravity well, her jump-drive automatically spooled up as soon as the sensors detected it was safe to jump. Within a few moments the stars had once again stretched into long streaks across the viewscreen as the constant thrum of the drive dropped an octave and launched Polani out across the stars.
I couldn’t say a word. Couldn’t make a sound, through the boiling rage I felt in my chest; Taisa’s tail was still wrapped snugly around my wrist when she rose from her seat and slipped into my lap with a sigh. “You want to call them?”
“Not sure I should right now.” I grumbled, my fingers finding their way into her wool. “Don’t think I’d have much pleasant to say.”
“Maybe ‘not much pleasant’ is what they need to hear.”
“Maybe…” I trailed off, my other hand resting on the pad weighing down my pocket.
“You have to at least try, love.” She stated, closing her eyes and pressing her head into my chest.
“I know, Darlin’, just hate havin’ hard conversations with family.”
She let out a small mewl of agreement before shifting to peer up at me with one big, amber eye. “Those are usually the most important ones though, aren’t they?”
“Yea…” I mumbled, pulling my pad free and unlocking it before staring at the call-log. “Doesn’t make it any easier though.”
>No it doesn’t.<
I held my breath for a long moment, staring at the call button and trying to will my finger forward before I let out a long, heavy sigh and tapped the button. The up-beat chiming song of the FTL-call filled the silence of the helm as agonizingly long seconds dragged by with, the smiling picture of Annabelle at the harbor dig in Cypress shaking back and forth with each beat. Just as I was about to cancel the call the chime stopped, Annabelle filling the screen with a quick flourish of her messy hair.
“Hey Big Guy, Taisa, wha’s up?” Annabelle asked, her thick drawl still present despite her travels, words tumbling past her heavy breathing as the edge of a broad pine crate just barely peeked into view at her side.
“Good to see you again, Annabelle.” Taisa whistled, forcing an upbeat tone into her voice as she shifted to better look at the pad.
Again?
“An’ you.” Annabelle replied, concern flashing across her face as she studied me through the pad. “Everythin’ alright, Chris?”
“Ma, Pa', an’ Ryan weren’t at Dulles.” I replied, pulling my hand down my face and out my beard with a heavy groan. “I know we tal-”
“I still ain’ goin’.” She chimed in, the view shifting as she set the pad against the crate to pull her messy auburn hair up into a single tie before letting it flop against her back, her attention shifting to Taisa. “As much as I’d adore getting to see your people’s festival, the museum’s far fro-”
“We know, Anne, we know. I think that’s a whole ‘nother issue we need to talk about but it ain’t the one I’m callin’ for.” I replied, stepping in before she tore off on another dissertation on every piece they hadn’t managed to get offloaded to the bunkers the U.N. had set up outside London. I loved hearing about her work, but now wasn’t the time. “I need help to get them on one of our next runs.”
She nodded, picking us back up and leaning against the crate, framing a bold red label: ‘Fragile: Handle With Care’. “I can try, but I don’ know that I’ll be much help considerin’ my own stance.”
Another long sigh tumbled from my mouth as I ran my fingers through Tai’s wool. “Better than nothing, Anne. Thank you.”
“I don’ want ‘em in harm's way anymore’n you do, Big Guy. I’ll try an’ help.” She replied with a sigh of her own, her video cutting out as she continued. “Now, I do still need to get these artifacts movin’, I’ll still be here, don’chu worry.”
“Gotcha. Gimmie a sec.” I replied, a mote of hope sprouting atop the ball of grief festering in the pit of my stomach as I pulled up Ma' and Pa’s contact card and put Anne on hold.
That same up-beat jingle of the FTL-call mocked me for a long moment before the smiling picture of Ma'and Pa' was replaced with a video-feed of them outside on the porch swelled into view while the drifting chirping chatters of distant birds filtered through the speakers.
We stared at each other through the connection for a few hanging seconds, the only sounds exchanged being that of Polani and the familiar tune of home. I finally broke the silence, my voice heavy with hurt, worry and anger as I spoke. “Where were you? We agreed that you three wo-”
“No, Chris, we didn’t agree.” Ma’ stated, cutting me off with a stern voice. “You told us what you’d managed to set up and expected us to go with it.”
“You should go.” Anne’s voice chimed in, startling Ma’ and Pa’ as Pa’ tapped at the screen with heavy, clumsy hands. “Ain’ no reason for you three to stay behind.”
“And there’s a good one for you to?” Ma’ retorted as she crossed her arms, staring daggers at the screen.
“Better’n whatever yours are now.” Anne sighed, the sound of roller wheels clacking on rough concrete punctuating her words. “I’ve got a duty to history. You two are just deciding to stay for stayin’s sake and Ryan wants to try an’ make up for whatever ‘failure’ he still thinks he’s gotta atone for.”
“No, we ain’t.” Pa’ rumbled, all but growling as he leaned forward. “Ryan may feel like he’s got something to prove an’ your Ma’ certainly doesn’t want to abandon the collection of our entire lives. Visitin’ VP’d be one thing, and god knows I want to, but leaving everything behind to let it turn to ash ‘neath these murderous assholes while most of us end up left behind? Now that I can’t abide.”
“Pa’ that ai-”
“And I refuse to be just another nail in the coffin for the Venlil if’n this fleet does manage to do its job. The U.N. don’t wanna admit it, but I’d put dollars to donuts that’s their next stop when’n they’re done with us. Either they do the same thing to us there and chuck our friends in the pot along with or it’ll be somethin’ far worse for the lot of us. If’n we don’t stop ‘em here there'll never be a safe place for us in the galaxy. Not VP, not some barren rock nor the void itself, it won’t matter, we’ll be hunted till the end of time.”
“Pa’ please…” I whispered, doing my best to meet my father’s eyes through the camera. “Tai’s family’ll have us, an’ if you don’t wanna stay there the shelter in town will take you in just the same. Don’t make me come ge-”
“You’ll do no such thing, young man.” Ma’ cut in, knocking my words short as she leaned forward and jammed a finger at the camera. “We’re not goin’ anywhere an’ you can’t make us, no matter how big you think you’ve got o’er the years.”
My heart plummeted as she pulled away from the pad with an all too familiar huff, her hands gripping her arms tight as she tossed her hair over her shoulder and refused to meet my eye, everything a stark reminder of a hundred ‘arguments’ I’d thought I could win when I was far younger. My mouth was dry as I spoke, the hope entirely gone from my voice. “That it then?”
“That’s it.” Pa’ stated with a small nod, his voice tight with a tinge of grief as he rolled his jaw. “Don’t know what’ll come of it, but it's what we’ve decided.”
“Pa…” Anne’s voice wavered, trailing off weakly as the echoing sound of her cart's wheels on the pavement came to a slow stop.
My chest tightened, Taisa’s tail squeezing my wrist as the helm fell quiet again while Pa’ and I stared back at each other through the pad for a long, hanging moment before he spoke again. “I wish you two luck, kids, hopefully this all rolls on by, they turn tail, run off and ain’t nothin’ come of it. But I doubt it… We love you all more’n anythin’ else on Earth.”
“We love you too, Pa.” I whispered, biting back tears as Ma’ gave a nod, squeezing her eyes shut tight.
“Love you too, Pa.” Annabelle sighed, her camera flicking on to show her leaned back against the crate beside her.
Pa’ gave a small smile, his eyes shifting across the screen; his voice was tight with worry as he tried to bolster some confidence into it. “Taisa, do your best to keep him safe, ya’ hear?”
“I will, I promise.” She whistled, sitting up a little higher as her tail tightened reassuringly around my wrist. “If you do change your mind…”
“Thank you, Taisa.” Pa’ answered, giving a small nod as he spoke, one hand casually brushing at his eye like he always did when he didn’t want anyone to see him cry. “We’ll let you know if we do.”
With that, I watched Pa’s finger reach across the pad, cutting off the call as his eyes started to well with tears.
“Fuck…”
“That didn’t go quite as well as you was hopin’, huh big guy?” Anne sighed, nervously running her fingers through her hair.
“No, Anne, no it definitely did not.” I mumbled, tightening my jaw as Taisa pressed into a close, comforting hug. “Don’t suppose I cou-”
“Nope.”
“Thought not.”
“Sorry…”
“It’s alright just- just stay safe, alright Anne?”
“I’ll do my best, and if I change my mind, you’ll be the first to know, promise.”
“I’ll hold you to it.”
“I’m sure you will. I love you, Chris.”
“Love you too, Anne.”
“Taisa?”
Taisa let out a small mewl of acknowledgement as her ears swung around to face Annabelle on the pad. >Yes?<
“Love him like I know you do; Lord knows he needs it.”
“I’ll do my best, Annabelle.”
“Thank you.”
I watched as she let out a long, heavy sigh, the distant sound of rollers on concrete fading in as she forced herself to her feet. She hesitated for a moment, staring at Taisa and I through the pad before nodding. “Good luck, Chris.”
“Good lu-” The call ended before I could even finish the sentence.
Fucking stubborn as always.
---
First Prev. Next

I know there is a discord channel for this but I am specifically interested in hearing feedback on these ideas. Also I've had so many thoughts and I want to commit them to writing before I forget.
Minor spoilers for Kerfur upgrade.
Most wanted:

1. Multiplayer (I'm sure it's been mentioned but this is my most wanted feature of all)
2. Colorblind mode please!! I can't tell if the polarity and frequency are enabled by just looking at the colors. I also can't tell when drives are written or not without having to get close and hovering over them to read the popup. Downed servers are easier to detect but only because the light is flashing
3. Vertical drive racks
4. Resizable GUI and HUD and console text
5. Press up arrow to go through command history just like in any normal command prompt
6. HUD element backgrounds/backdrops for better readability
7. Equipable watch item to add time to HUD
8. Module/upgrade for "Overlap Protection" to make the yellow Save Signal button obsolete and to prevent you from scanning a new signal before you've saved the one you've just completed.
9. Placing drives from your hand/inventory onto the drive slots should load the drive immediately
10. There should be an action to take a drive from a rack and put it right into your hand
11. You should be able to reach the drive slot for processing while sitting in the chair
12. A couple default textures for each custom item. Maybe some flags with Ariral logos or
13. A Retrieve option that would serve as an opposite to the Place command, allowing you to pull whatever is highlighted in a container with a single button press
14. Sortable containers and inventories (name, volume, and quantity)
15. Digital wall clocks

Would be nice:

1. 'sv.time' command to print the current time on the console
2. 'sv.map' to show a crude ASCII map
3. Allow TVs to access camera feeds
4. Key fob for ATV to remotely honk the horn and find it when it's lost. I know you can use the radar and targeting but this would be more immersive
5. A way to see signal and processing process in the HUD (I thought it would be funny to have a brain implant that you wear to connect you to the computer)
6. A quick food dispenser that you can load up and put in your fridge. Then when you use it you get one food item from inside
7. Catch fish and put them in an aquarium
8. Dedicated wallpaper and carpet items that are easier to align than posters
9. Advanced poster placement that allows for fine precision
10. Squirrels, rabbits, frogs, and stray cats running around outside
11. Woodpeckers too
12. Lava lamp
13. Small land based drone on wheels with better battery life than the flying drone
14. Newspaper delivery
15. Robotic plushie that walks around the base
16. Omega Kerfur dance option
17. Even more lighting options like a ceiling light, purchasable candles, a disco ball, and a blacklight
18. Doorstop
19. Wall mounted storage similar to medicine cabinets
20. An underground escape tunnel out of the base
21. A push cart/dolly that you can basically drive around and use to carry extra stuff. Probably would be a bit unreliable to make it balanced
22. Bedsheets and pillows, body pillows too
23. Galaxy light for your bedroom
24. Purchasable software update for the control center to give it a slick new interface (perhaps more prone to crashes though)
25. Computer monitor upgrade
26. Pedometer to track how many steps you've taken (just for fun)

Fixes/quirks:

1. The first action for Omega Kerfur should be Follow so when I'm spamming I don't have to turn it off then on then make it fix a transformer
2. Cameras should or could have a lower frame rate to make them be less resource heavy and as an added bonus make them creepier. The only lag spikes I've had have been when kerfur's camera is on the computer
3. The emergency beacon lights should go off more frequently. Like just a pulse or two when the transformers go down
4. Make Kerfur calm tf down a little. It's so tough to keep him under control when he's following you
5. When you ship a box with no drives you get an email saying the data was not sufficient instead of one saying that there was no data. If you receive an email from doing this maybe it should be something off the wall like someone ranting about politics, or office drama, or lore related stuff
6. The CRT TV should have a toggle that crops the aspect ratio to 4:3 rather than stretching the video
7. The radial menu option is cool but it should still show the popup that lists the available options
8. Wall items have odd shadows when placed next to a wall lamp
9. Nails should have a different sound to indicate that you've successfully nailed two things together
10. Change the icon for the button that resets Kerfur's pathing. It's not clear what it does and it looks like an undo button when it should be a pause button imo

Scares:

1. Make the clocks show weird times or start a countdown
2. Give the clocks an alarm that randomly goes off and needs to be stopped manually
3. Make Kerfur become possessed once in a while
4. Control center chair spins around
5. Psychedelic mushrooms that randomly alter your vision when eaten
6. Alien broadcasts taking over the TVs
7. Drive eraser starts spewing out cassette tape strings
8. Rooms appear to get smaller
9. Different noises for pinecones falling. Maybe grass rustling or twigs breaking. Just anything that doesn't sound like a fucking table falling out of a tree every 3 minutes
10. Utility closet becomes an infinite corridor
11. Elevator malfunction that launches you up or drops really quickly
12. Murals and wallpaper appear to be melting
13. Radar goes extra fast
14. Some tantalizing item appears on the parking lot out by the bunker but when you go outside it's gone
15. Arirals dangle something in front of the window to scare you but then there's a loud noise behind you
16. Decoration lights are too reliable, they should flicker or turn off once in a while
17. Shrimp come to life if left out too long and make their way to the river
18. Administration office could use some flickering lights or strange noises
19. Doorbell/buzzer
20. Security cameras point at you when you get near
21. Shower in the control room turns on randomly
22. Time dilation bubbles that cause things to slow down in a small area
23. Mannequin falls apart when you get close
24. Arirals fill your shopping cart on the computer with shrimp but they don't send the order
25. Nokia electronic trash starts ringing or vibrating

As always, thank you to for the wonderful universe that is NoP! Thank you to for proof reading and helping me make this chapter as good as it can be, you're the man! Honestly LoM wouldn't have gone very far without him! If you haven't you should absolutely go read Foundations of Humanity! It's very good AND it just updated!
A big thanks to for helping with proofreading! He writes Out of Our Elements which is a very good one! If you like a good fic in the wilderness and a pair of cute 'friends' ;) you'll love OOE!
Also thank you to ! For this wonderful fanart of Taisa. And this one! She's so cute I'm gonna die
And thank you to ! For this adorable fanart of Chris and Renkel! Dear god help he's adorable I love him so much
Thank you , or AsciiSquid on Discord, for makin' Vengineer Taisa Gamin'. She's absolutely adorable, I love her lil' workers apron. She looks so excited to get to work!
Thank you ! For this astounding Pixel Art of Taisa after a few range day dates with Chris! Her little hat and gunbelt are absolutely astounding!
Thank you ! For this Artwork of Taisa and Chris as characters from One Piece! I've never seen or read it before but it's incredibly cute!
Thank you to for their wonderful work of several LoM fanfics!
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Memory Transcription Subject: Lentan, Venlil Head Exterminator, Heartwood River Exterminator Office
Date [Standardized Human Time]: October 10th, 2136
Stars above, this has been horrible.
The faint, rumbling crackle of thrusters roaring to life filled the cool twilight air, rousing me from my thoughts and pulling my gaze from the Heartwood’s shifting canopy high above. The gleaming, polished skin of Polani rose from behind the walls of the port, her nose slowly slewing over skyward before zipping off to leave the distant crack of the sound barrier lingering in her wake for a moment. A long, hanging breath slipped from my snout as I shook the lethargy from my wool, turning back towards the heavy hewn doors of the office to attend this paw’s meetings.
A good name for her so far, hopefully she lives up to it again. Now on to helping her manage it.
There were few things I felt like I truly believed in anymore and thankfully Polani was, in some ways, one of them. Her and the Cause. For now though, I believed most in doing as much good as I could manage with what was before me, even if the route was… distasteful.
The usual silence of the office was undercut by the malcontented grumbling of Farzen and Marlek as Ulmic sat finishing his start-of-paw paperwork. Cistara and Barast had aired their relative grievances with my plan earlier, though unlike the other pair, they were far more concerned with security than they were about taint or corruption. It pleased me to see my younger officers had taken to shaking off the shackles of such restrictive thinking, Cistara’s feathers had hardly ruffled at all.
The troublesome pair’s voices quieted as they watched me pad past the lobby, making purposeful strides to the light that spilled from my office's cracked door. Ulmic glanced up, flicking me a brief, formal >Hello, Sir.< “Good Waking, Lentan. Your first… appointment is waiting in your office, Sir.”
>Thank you.< “Have they been waiting long?”
“Ten minutes at the most. Said the-”
A loud, angry grunt belted from Farzen’s mouth, cutting Ulmic off as she stared daggers at the door to my office. “This is incredibly shortsighted, Sir. Just one has done far too much da-”
“Quiet.” >Do not.< I stated, my voice flat as I briskly passed her. “You’re already on withered soil, don’t even start with me. Ulmic, find something.”
Her mouth snapped shut, Ulmic letting out an amused, clicking grunt as he rolled himself back from his desk, beckoning the two to follow him. “Ya know, I think the fuel aerators need the accelerant buildup scraped clean. Again. Should only take a claw or so, and I will be double checking your work.”
The pair let out another weak, protesting grumble before slinking off to do as Ulmic ordered. The graying Gojid turned, his posture assuring me he’d do his best to keep them out of my wool for the paw.
Good hire. Lucky to have him now. Never does to have spoiled pups in the guild.
The door to my office gave a familiar, welcoming creak as I gently pushed it open, softly rapping my claws across its wood to announce my approach. “Good Morning, Ms. Rabonette, apologies for the delay.”
The Human seated in front of my desk looked up from a broad, multi-colored padfolio that contrasted starkly against her dark gray clothes, Amarek-bark-brown hair speckled with gray locks and skin as white as the sands of the burning. She did her best to not bring her visor to look directly at me as I quietly closed the door before swiftly padding behind my desk. “Good waking, Mr. Lentan; Elena is fine. It was no worry at all, you’ve given me a good break and some time to get my documents in order which has been… a rare commodity these past few days.”
“It’s been hectic for us all, I suppose.” >Consolation.< I agreed, sliding into my seat with a long sigh before collecting my pad and swiping through the collected files. “I needn’t tail-chain you, Elena, I assure you I can handle being looked at.”
Her visor hung for a moment, remaining pointed at the wall as she replied with a hesitant voice. “Are you sure, Lentan? I’ve met a few Venlil who say the same and then lock up fo-”
“I’ll be fine, Elena. You don’t need to worry for my sake.” I answered, receiving a non committal shrug as her visor rose to fully look at me.
“I must say, we’ve gotten plenty of inquiries from mayors, town committees, business owners and average citizens alike, but I think I can count on one hand the number of exterminator offices, especially rural ones , that have called offering a space to build refugee shelters.” She stated, flipping to another sheet in her pad as she continued. “So, what makes your office one of the outliers?”
“I do.” I replied absently, sliding my pad across the desk to her, displaying a sat-map of Heartwood and a few clearings circled in orange. “The town’s population, as of the last census, was four thousand two hundred and fifty eight of mostly Venlil. I would like to keep the Human refugee population to 10% of that, or lower, for peoples ‘safety’. It would not do for my office to have to give up other important duties to ke-”
“Four Hundred people?” She asked, the slightest hint of surprise sprouting in her voice as she set a brass pen down on my desk with a loud clack. “Not the biggest allowance but not nothing, especially for the area. What’s at those locations currently?”
“Nothing.”
She paused, her visor fixed on the pad sat upon the desk before drifting to me. “Nothing?”
“Nothing. One site is the open field just dayward of our festival grounds which is owned by the town, the other is a flat, dry clearing dayward from town near the river bank, which I personally own, and the third is an area atop the valleyside which has severalof zoning disputes.” I answered with a reproachful whistle, panning the map around to highlight each location. “I have listed them in order of ease of use and availability. I would suggest two camps, one at zone one and one at zone two.”
Her visor’s gaze hung on my snout, the emotion behind it unreadable through the polished surface, though the concern in her voice apparent as she spoke. “Land is all well and good, sir, but it's not a shelter. Where are they going to actually live?”
“That, I think, is something your people have a far better answer for than we do.” I whistled with an upbeat note hanging in my voice, relishing in the pleasant shift in her posture as she leaned back in her seat while I loaded the next file. I turned my pad to show her a story about the ‘renovations’ to a place on Earth called ‘McMurdo Station’ and a flyer for a company named Archer Prefab that had provided the buildings. “Your companies have done an astounding job with quickly filling such a demand at the proper ‘scale’ for Humans. Four of their largest barracks units in each camp, or ten of their mid-sized ones, and a pawful of support buildings would more than fill the need!”
She sat, thinking for a moment and nodding in the same, familiar manner as Christopher before speaking. I couldn’t see her face and, though she had no tail to speak of with which I could read, I could hear the interest weaving through her voice. “And I presume you also have a solution for getting them here and putting them up?”
>Of course I do.< My tail bounced at the question, a pleased whistle slipping past my teeth as I swiped to the next file on my pad, showing Elena a gleaming picture of Polani plying through the sky over Heartwood. “There is, of course, a local shipping company formed from the exchange program that, I think, would be more than happy to handle shipping of both materials and refugees. As for construction, we have plenty of eager paws that our local Human has made a good impression on that I’m sure would be ecstatic to help welcome more of your kind under Polani’s watch.”
“So I’m aware; Crystal Star Shipping is the company name, correct?” She asked, jotting something down in that blocky Human script I’d tried, and failed, to begin familiarizing myself with. “And they’re under contract to help with the evacuation efforts already?”
“Yes, and Yes.” I responded, flicking to the next file which showed her Christopher and Taisa’s contract, which my long-time friend had been so eager to send when she’d heard of my plan. “I should think this would fall under those responsibilities, yes?”
“That it would…” She responded, her voice trailing off as she tapped away at her pad, letting silence fill my office as she quickly wrote a few more things down on the padfolio in front of her before quickly tearing it out and sliding it across the desk. “They are currently servicing the Hope and the Mercy’s North American corridors for L.A., D.C., Chicago, Toronto, Ontario, Boston and NYC so they are occupied. Their planned duties for tomorrow are changed. They will have two deliveries of the compacted frame and internals of the buildings, as well as forty extra experienced hands to make sure they’re put together right along with them. If you have your volunteers ready and waiting then it should be done before you blink!”
She paused, looking to me to make sure I was keeping up before I hefted my pad and gave her an encouraging flick of my ears to continue. “If those volunteers have any issue working directly with Humans, that they do not feel they can push through, but still wish to help, I am certain something can be found for them to do. The day after that, they will be bringing in two sets of passengers: two hundred per run.”
“They’ll be done that fast?” I asked, my claw hanging over the screen of my pad as I looked up to her, my ears falling back with surprise.
“Mr. Archer is adamant his buildings, ‘assembled by his trained technicians’ as he put it, take no more than thir- er… six or seven claws to complete. Even the barracks sized ones. Though for packaging purposes, these will be the twenty person buildings, not the fifties.” She confirmed, swiping her finger in a fluid motion across her pad before turning it to me and tapping at a clean line above her own. “Sign this and we’ll get everything in order.”
That easy? Another step on the path taken with just a signature?
I left my mark with a flourish, feeling a heavy weight falling free from my shoulders at the thought of having helped take at least some Humans out of harm's way. “Done.”
“Thank you, Mr. Lentan. Now, if you’ve nothing else I’ll get out of your hair… or wool, as it were.” Elena stated, rising from her seat and hesitating a moment to adjust her visor before taking a step to the door.
“One thing, Elena.” I breathed, my claws tracing the familiar, worn in lines under my desk as I looked up at her visor.
“Yes?”
“What do you look like? Without the visor, I mean.”
She was quiet for a moment, her hand slipping free of the door handle as she studied me through her visor before she finally spoke. “Are you asking me to take my visor off, or to describe myself?”
“The former, if you are comfortable with it.” >Certain.< I answered, straightening my back and raising my ears.
Her posture relaxed as a dextrous hand ending in fiery red nails rose to the edge of the visor, hesitating a moment before a cautious, if not slightly joking, tone slipped into her voice. “As long as you promise not to set your torch toters on me.”
“You’ve my word, Elena.” I replied, raising my tail high, receiving a nod before she slowly slipped the visor free.
Her face was soft, her features rounded and welcoming like many of the pictures of Humans I’d taken the time to study over the paws since they’d arrived. A small nose sat above eltavi-bloom lips and a tapestry of spots on her skin that I’d read the Humans called ‘freckles’, all framed by those long, curling brown and gray locks. The image of a Human’s face in person was far more interesting than the pictures I’d studied thus far.
But most interesting of all were her eyes.
I had prepared myself, of course. Studied pictures, anonymously talked to a few Venlil exchange partners and forced myself to push past the fear I knew lurked in the back of my mind at the thought of those eyes despite all my efforts. But those dark, burnished copper eyes that peered back at me were far more energetic than anything I’d seen on my pad. They looked more like freshly tilled, rain kissed soil than the murderous black beads belonging to the predators on our standard-issue training material; not that those were even accurate in the first place, anyhow.
No, these had depth, intelligence and soul behind them just like any person I’d ever met. As I watched her fidget in place they shifted, from rich brown to gold-flecked and back again like a full fall of Heartwood’s own sun-lit golden leaves drifting down before the tapestry of the Stars. They were absolutely beautiful.
If people only took the time to look…
Silence hung in my office as the seconds ticked past, Elena’s mesmerizing eyes flicking off of me to the wall over my shoulder and back, only to turn her face away and start pulling her visor back down. “You ok Lentan? Didn’t take you for the freeze-y type.”
“Sorry.” I whistled, shaking my wool free of my stupor before continuing. “Just… first time I’ve seen a Human in person. Well, there’s Chris but I’ve never actually… taken the time to… ahem… you have very pretty eyes. You can keep the visor off for now, I will be fine.”
A flash of surprise lifted her eyebrows as those captivating eyes flicked back to me before a small smile tugged at the corners of her cheeks. “That’s good to hear, Lentan. Certainly helps build confidence for this endeavor if the local Chief Exterminator is this accepting!”
I sat back in my chair, a small twitch of happiness zipping down my tail at the musical sound of her laughter as she set her belongings back down next to her.
[35 Solar Years] ago I’d have fought someone that said a predator could make such noises. Stars, I was a fool. Maybe… Maybe she could understand…
“Elena, you asked what makes the HREO different earlier. Do you still want to know?”
She studied me for a moment, checking the gleaming time-piece on her wrist before answering. “I've got a few hours before I need to be on my way to my next meeting, I don’t see any harm in it.”
Someone who, for once, wouldn’t scream to the stars and have you destroyed…
“Very good. This conversation may not leave this room. If that is acceptable to you, then I will continue. If not, you are excused.” I answered, flicking my tail to her seat as I stood and padded to the door, pausing and allowing a moment for her to decide, before silently locking it. “Feel free to sit back down if you like but I’d prefer we weren’t interrupted by my subordinates.”
“Ok… I can do ‘hush-hush’.” She whispered conspiratorially, her gaze lingering on my back as I returned to my desk; the sound of her seat scraping on the floor was almost deafening in the quiet office. “So why is your office different, then?”
“The answer is still the same: Me.” I stated, my claws still tracing the familiar lines set into the bottom of my desk. “Me and my friends.”
A confused look crossed her face as she glanced over her shoulder at the door before looking back to me with a soft, low voice. “Your friends?”
“Indeed, my friends. When I was a younger coat in the force I was… enthusiastic.” I sighed, pulling up some photos on my pad to show her. My black wool clad in the exterminator suit, spattered only by a few of my Mother’s white flecks instead of the basin of gray that dominated it now. “Fully invested in everything the exterminators believed, stood for, and practiced. I met and exceeded every statistic, mark, and quota my predecessor, Hienet, had set for the office. Topped extermination efficiency, burn rates and aptitude evaluations for everything I could and if I wasn’t first for everything else I wasn’t far off from it.”
“Within a lawful of [Solar Years] I was doing the lead work for a farmer’s share of Heartwood’s extermination calls and I loved it. Until one paw I didn’t anymore. One paw, when I was working alone, long before anyone in the office’s employ now was hired, I was sent out to find a Kelach one of the day-ward farmers had reported in their treeline.”
“A Kelach?” Elena’s voice split me from my recounting, her head tilted like a pup hearing a new sound for the first time.
“Large night-ward predator. Eat mostly fish and smaller animals… though I’m not convinced that’s all. Anyhow, which predator it was isn’t the important part. I started looking for it, tracking it the best I could to put it to the torch, to do my job. Before long I was deep in the wood, following tracks, dung and broken foliage along the riverside,” I swiped through my pad as I spoke, pulling up one of the Dawn Creek Natural History Museum’s over-dramatized pictures of a Kelach to show her. “That’s not particularly accurate but it's at least mostly the right shape. I found myself going in circles, following its footprints before I finally had to stop to take a rest after nearly a claw of following it.”
Elena muttered under her breath, something about a ‘weird looking [Earth Predator]’ as she looked at the pad, motioning for me to continue before setting the device back on my desk. “I settled down with my back to a tree, catching my breath, eating and hydrating before I continued after it. I only had another half claw I was approved to search for before I’d have to return for my rest claw and I’d be scorched if I left it out there to hurt someone if I could help it. It took a moment, amongst my panting and chewing before I’d noticed that everything had gone silent. Nothing but the sound of the wind in the trees and the thump of my heart in my chest reached my ears. And the heavy, grunting breathing of something a lot bigger than me.”
Elena’s eyes went wide while she listened, her jaw tightening with worry as I continued the story. The sentiment was endearing, considering the obvious conclusion of me not being dead. “It was right there, no more than two, maybe three tails from me. The size of my exterminator van and staring at me. I just froze. It knew I was there, knew I was food, I was certain of it b-but it didn’t do anything. It just stared at me and I stared back, the both of us stock still before it let out another loud, rolling grunt and turned to walk away.”
“I couldn’t do anything but watch as the predator that could have split me in half with barely a thought just… chose not to. It just chose. A predator had looked at me, at its prey, and decided not to eat it. It had thought about it and came to a conclusion that I just couldn’t understand. And didn’t understand for a long time.” I sighed the last few words, my ears batting away the memories of paws upon paws of being unable to think of anything but the encounter. “Nobody believed me, they all said I’d been mistaken. That it wasn’t possible, that if I kept up talking like that I’d end up in a facility, all except for one.”
A panel in my desk clicked, the familiar weight of cold metal falling onto my paw pad before I quickly gripped it tight. “She was fascinated by my story, wanted every detail of it I could remember and then some. She was relieved that we’d never found that Kelach afterwards, relieved that a predator had been left to roam free so close to Heartwood. At first that didn’t sit right with me, like it was wrong for it to even exist at all.”
I set my paw on the desk, drawing Elena’s gaze, the trinket still held tight in it as I continued talking. “Then she showed me statistics and charts and tables and a whole weave of evidence about what good a managed population of wild predators could do for a rural community. Reminded me that, despite it having been free to roam for herds of paws it hadn’t hurt anyone. She showed me that it was all connected. That predators weren’t bad. I know for you Humans it's obvious, I’ve managed to get a pawful of the more restricted publications translated for my own consumption and… and you prove it, you prove she was right.”
My paw opened, dumping the metal links to the desk with a soft, jingling thunk as Elena leaned forward to look at the symbol. “I know this doesn’t mean anything to you but for me? For me, the last few herds of paws have been… vindicating. I’m just sad I couldn’t do more with the time I’ve had, so many good ideas and progress thrown to the winds of night just to stay safe, so much suffering, so many injured friends and an endless mountain of loss all for nothing.”
Elena was quiet as I finished, leaning back into my seat, doing my best to hold back the burn of tears at the thought of the friends I’d nearly lost to injury and the ones truly taken by accident, attacks, and the guild’s plain negligence. “Why’d you keep doing it?”
A quick paw brushed away the tears as I sat back up again, shaking as much of the grief free of my wool as I could before I answered. “Because if I didn’t someone else would, for all the pain this office has brought we’ve done far more good than most others manage. I’ve added plenty of orders and tasks that aren’t torching predator pups and parents to the roster and it's helped. My officers, save a pawful, are less radical than those in districts that just patrol, patrol, and patrol all the time. Even with that I just feel dirtier and dirtier with every passing paw.”
“I don’t think you should, Lentan.” Elena whispered, running her thumb along the links with a thoughtful hum. “It's gotten you this far and you are helping and I think that’s what's important.”
“Thank you, Elena. I needed to hear that from someone else for once.”
“Even if they are a Human?” She asked, her voice lifting with a note of amusement as she slid the symbol back to me.
“I-I think that might actually make it more important.” I answered, taking the chain and slipping it back into its compartment with a solid click. “It’s proof.”
“Well, I’m happy I could deliver the proof you needed.” Elena smiled, a small laugh dancing in her voice as she collected her belongings, pulling her visor down as she stood and extended a hand.
“It is certainly reassuring.” I replied with a laugh of my own before taking her hand in my paw. “Ah, yes, the ‘handshake’.”
Her hand slid free as she turned to the door, taking a step forward before stopping and slipping her visor back up as she held out her pad. “If you ever feel like you need some more ‘proof’, give me a call?”
I stared at the pad for a moment, thoughts of conversations unimpeded by time, or the federation’s snooping, sprouting in my mind as my tail started to slowly wag behind me. “That sounds lovely, Elena, thank you.”
She tapped her pad to mine, trading contacts before dropping it back into a pocket on her coat with a sigh. “Guess that means it's back to the grind for me. God help us if this doesn’t all work out.”
“I have hope that it will and, apparently, hope’s done well by me so far.” I whistled back, slowly padding over to quietly unlock the door.
“Hope might be all we’ve got in the end. This has been nice, Lentan. Please do keep in touch.”
“I assure you I will, Elena. Though you might end up with more questions than you think you’ve bargained for.”
“I look forward to it, have a good rest of your paw, Lentan. Hopefully your meetings go better than mine” She smiled, giving an upbeat chuckle before pulling her visor down as I started to open the door.
“You too, Elena.” I replied, watching as she made her way toward the lobby, being greeted by Salamar and Shenod on the way as they returned from a call.
In the office’s best paws. May Polani watch over you, and the rest of your kind, Elena.
“Now onto the mayor.” I mumbled to myself before letting out a sigh, turning to look at our dispatcher across the room and whistling to get her attention. “Estera, send my next meeting in when he gets here, please.”
>Understood.<
Stars, I feel better.
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Hello, here is the latest changelog.
Content: * Adds ASCII Art to 619 by Holli-Git * Additional Achievements by RanikOrtega * Crafting Musical Instruments by Maleclypse
Balance: * Pain is painful by GuardianDll * Removes 5.45 from bullet bank, breaks the kord by tenmillimaster * toaster pastry tastiness by anoobindisguise
Interface: * Tile cover is now named concealment, because that's all it actually does. by RenechCDDA
Mods: * [MoM] Add luminance to Eaters by Standing-Storm * Tune evocation spells with scale modifier. by MNG-cataclysm * Too much pain shuts down your powers by Standing-Storm * XE: Trait to avoid learning dream magick by Maleclypse * allow incandescent lance to repair metal items by Blueflowerss * [MoM] Edit portal storm conditions to support moddability, use that for Telepathic Shield in MoM by Standing-Storm * Tune channeling spells with scale modifier. by MNG-cataclysm * [Xedra Evolved] New Arvore spell--Verdant Imprisonment by Standing-Storm * More specific messages for being unable to use supernatural powers by Standing-Storm * [MoM] High levels of weariness turn off your powers by Standing-Storm
Bugfixes: * fixed issue where ImGui processes input that happens with no ImGui screens visible by katemonster33 * Fixing screen artifacts left on the screen after closing keybindings UI by katemonster33 * Vegetarian Foraging now provides the proper proficiencies by 7erracotta * 'gathering sights' should be 'gathering sites' by abadams * Fixes issue where loading a forge with coal does not work by katemonster33 * Missing commit from #69186 by Drew4484 * Rotten food doesn't become fresh when crafted with by RenechCDDA * NPCs can develop vitamin diseases by RenechCDDA * Fix migrating from item variants when the variant has been deleted by anothersimulacrum * [MoM] Awakening > u_awakening by Standing-Storm * Crafting will unseal containers when contents are removed by RenechCDDA * Fixed monsters which regenerate in the dark regenerating in daylight by nornagon
Infrastructure: * Pop out incompatible tools from workstations by harakka * Test case: NPCs prefer to use guns by RenechCDDA
None: * [MoM] stop using premonition if you don't have premonition by GuardianDll * Fixed removal of tree tops over faction camp logged trees by PatrikLundell * Add DPavonis as valid comment commander by DPavonis * Revert "ci: avoid leftover changelog update branches" by casswedson * Rename fatigue to sleepiness by I-am-Erk * Fix snippet by Uwuewsky * Remove extern ter ids by Procyonae * fix and cleanup few itemgroups by GuardianDll * Lore: update UPS description by hexagonrecursion * Get roofs generated for basecamps by PatrikLundell * Implement weapon proficiencies in C++ (and improve proficiency xp gain for short training durations) by anothersimulacrum * reword the guilt messages by anoobindisguise * Concrete Mixer audit by Karol1223 * Throw error if recipe definition is missing any valid combinations by RenechCDDA * LIXA: update laser pipe breaking description by DPavonis * Fix food fun reduction test not actually having any reduction by RenechCDDA * Redo instability: per-tree and static with mutatedness by anoobindisguise * NPCs taking canned food donations no longer remove the food from the can by katemonster33 * "rows" is defaulted to just spaces by Procyonae * Aftershock: Add an ATM to Port Augustmoon by John-Candlebury * Allows setting fixed special scoped parameters for start locations by Procyonae * fix: update create PR action v4 -> v6 by casswedson * Forest biome terrain oter_id -> oter_type_id by Procyonae * Fixing ImGui popup size issue, and small input bug by katemonster33 * Random bit of wander code isn't unbiased by Procyonae * Routine tileset updates on 01 April 2024 by kevingranade * Removes all hardcoded overmap_connection_id references by Procyonae * Improved task activity feedback slightly by PatrikLundell * Properly obsolete aftershock obsoletion by GuardianDll * Restore drops to real spawned monsters that are meant to have them by RenechCDDA * Properly obsolete Xedra Evolved obsoletion by GuardianDll * Make mansion ferals scenario specific by Procyonae * Monster faction shenanigans by Karol1223 * LIXA: congealed light nerf by DPavonis * EOC temp monsters don't drop items or corpses by default by anothersimulacrum * doc: LOCKABLE_DOOR, DOOR_LOCKING by hexagonrecursion * Routine i18n updates on 30 March 2024 by kevingranade * Appease clang-tidy by anothersimulacrum * Misc LIXA dialogue adjustments by DPavonis * [DinoMod] Ceratosaurus HP increase by Karol1223 * Make some newer mutant mammals actually use proper harvestlists by Karol1223

As always, thank you to u/SpacePaladin15 for the wonderful universe that is NoP! Thank you to u/cruisingNW for proof reading and helping me make this chapter as good as it can be, you're the man! Honestly LoM wouldn't have gone very far without him! If you haven't you should absolutely go read Foundations of Humanity! It's very good!
A big thanks to u/Saint-Andros for helping with proofreading! He writes Out of Our Elements which is a very good one! If you like a good fic in the wilderness and a pair of cute 'friends' ;) you'll love OOE!
Also thank you to u/brotanics! For this wonderful fanart of Taisa. And this one! She's so cute I'm gonna die
And thank you to u/Jimdandy117! For this adorable fanart of Chris and Renkel! Dear god help he's adorable I love him so much
Thank you u/SlimyRage, or AsciiSquid on Discord, for makin' Vengineer Taisa Gamin'. She's absolutely adorable, I love her lil' workers apron. She looks so excited to get to work!
Thank you u/Braquen! For this astounding Pixel Art of Taisa after a few range day dates with Chris! Her little hat and gunbelt are absolutely astounding!
Thank you u/VeryUnluckyDice! For this Artwork of Taisa and Chris as characters from One Piece! I've never seen or read it before but it's incredibly cute!
Thank you to u/creditmission for their wonderful work of several LoM fanfics!
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Memory Transcription Subject: Taisa, Venlil Starship Engineer, Crystal Star Shipping Co-Owner
Date [Standardized Human Time]: October 8th, 2136
A quiet first paw back. Safe, simple, profitable and fast. Just what we need.
Polani’s thrusters all but sang, urging Chris on as he sent her into her first real cycle in paws, the pin-pricks of distant stars dancing in the viewscreen were a familiar host of companions as we returned home from the Capital. The hold was empty again after we’d dropped our load off at one of the communication arrays over the Capital; something about parts, rations and more than a fair share of crates we weren’t allowed to even think about looking in. Now Polani was light and free to burn to her - and Chris’ - heart’s content, but for the few crates of liquor Ervena had asked us to bring back for her. At least our account was just a little fuller, neatly making up for the more… expensive of our repairs.
Two good paws in a row with my favorite people in both! Stars above, thank you for all of them; I don’t know what I’d do without Mama, Papa, Renkel or the rest of Heartwood…
A long sigh slipped from Chris as he leaned back in his seat, stretching his arms out over his head before casting his eyes over to me. “Well, got another hour… to wait ‘fore we gotta de-orbit…”
But most of all, him.
“Are you asking if I wanna be productive, or if I want to cuddle?” I sighed back, feigning exasperation in my voice as my tail flicked back and forth with amusement. “‘Cause I can think of more than a few system checks we could run!”
“I mean, I didn’t say that.” He laughed, an adorable smile spreading across his face along with a small, rosy blush. “Though, we always could add ohhh I don’t know, ‘five more minutes’?”
“Oh? Well I’m sure I could almost certainly find something for us to work on for a half claw or so…” A twitch of fondness flicked through my tail as a purr poured from my snout, my feet finding their way beneath me to stand while my claw tapped sarcastically against my snout in thought before a poor imitation of a smile tugged the corners of my lips. “Oh who am I fooling; come on Heartwood, that bed isn’t gonna warm itself.”
“Aye aye, Ma’am!” He laughed in return, his hand taking my tail in a wonderfully warm grip as he followed me to our cabin.
My tail bags slid free alongside my satchel, the buckles on the pile of cloth letting out a metallic clink as I set them on the desk beside the still-gleaming model of Polani. The now-empty vase of flowers I’d gotten him when I had confessed caught my eye as he passed me, steady footsteps stopping at the closet before moving onwards to the bed.
I should get him more of those, he said he liked how the Eltavi smelled the most.
Chris’ boots sent a loud thunk through the deck plates before the familiar whoosh of him hauling the heavy covers harvested my attention to him sliding into bed, his arms wide for me to crawl into his comforting embrace.
A soft purr built in my throat as I climbed up onto the vast bed and into his arms. My tail tapped against the covers while he pulled them back up over us before pulling me in close, a suddenly surprised look crossing his face as I let out a wall-eyed gasp. “Wait a second! This isn’t maintenance! Stars above I’ve been tricked again by my Human’s dastardly wiles!”
“And now that I’ve got you where I want you you’re not going anywhere!” He replied, a broad smile and a belly laugh splitting his mouth before planting a warm kiss on my crown that I happily nuzzled into.
“Oh noooo, the horror!” I giggled back, closing my eyes as I rested my head against his chest with a contented sigh. “Seriously though, we’re definitely going to have to check the levels on loop three again. I thi-“
“I know, I know Darlin’. We can do that ‘fore we get landed. Rather not crush the gear on her first flight back.” He replied, resting his chin on my crown as one of his hands worked through my back wool, leaving delightfully warm traces as he went. “For now though we can just lay here and rela-“
CLICK
My ears perked up at the sound of an unsilenced pad unlocking in his other hand behind me as an expression of embarrassment bolted across his face. I let out an amused whistle as I started to turn to get a good eye on the pad, the thumping of my tail renewed. “Whatcha lookin’ at the-“
“NOTHIN’!” He exclaimed, the hand at my back quickly shooting up to cover my eye, and most of my snout, before getting caught by my paws long enough for me to see what he was looking at.
“Tru-k ki-s?” I asked through his wrist, my ears perking up with interest as I tried my best to shove his hand aside.
A long sigh spilled from his mouth, sounding astoundingly like when Mama caught Papa doing something he knew he should’ve been more careful with. “Yes, Darlin’. Truck kits.”
“Why?”
“If I say it’s a secret will you drop it?” He asked, desperate hope in his voice as the hand returned to the wool on my back.
“Not likely.”
He let out a long - now feigned frustration - sigh, shaking his head with a barely noticeable smile. “Cause your Mama said your birth-paw was coming up soon, and I know you’s in-fatuated with mine and Pa’s. They ain’t that expensive anymore, plus Detroit Consolidated is runnin’ a special, so I figured it’d make a good present and we could probably write off under the business anyhow...”
Scheming as usual, I see.
My tail’s assault on the covers renewed at the thought of spending our downtime between resting in the forum and assembling my own custom truck! “I will do my best to forget I saw this, and act real surprised on my birth-paw, so long as you promise to build it with me.”
“Wouldn’t dream of any other way, Darlin’.” Chris smiled, shaking his head with a small chuckle as he squeezed me a little. “Now, you didn’t see nothin’ so get on back to snooz-“
Ping!
He went silent for a long moment, his embrace loosening as the second turned to a minute. “Fuck.”
“Everything alright, Heartwood?” I asked, a chill running down my spine and out my tail that felt horridly familiar. His hand slid aside as I started to turn over in his arms, letting me look at the open message in stark black Human and Venlil Script that stared back at us.
—
To: Crystal Star Shipping Concern,
From: United Nations Fleet Command
Subject: Clause 1.14.5 Enactment
Under Clause 1.14.5 of Contract 42317890-EX-7 you are ordered to report to the attached nav-beacon coordinates in the Sol system to aid in the evacuation of Earth within 24 hours. Primary operations corridor is also attached. Federation Extermination fleet is expected to arrive in the Sol System within seven (7) days without delays or intervention. Joint Human-Venlil operations are ongoing to slow or deter their approach.
Failure to abide by this summons will invoke Clause 8.3.1 of Contract 42317890-EX-7 and result in the forfeiture of provided assets, exchange program benefits and any and all preferential treatment on behalf of U.N. authorities, immediately.
The Crystal Star Shipping concern is to be compensated at triple rate for this time and any expenditures pursuant to duties required during this period.
Your service to the U.N., and all of Humanity, is greatly appreciated.
Addendum: Stars above I’m so sorry to do this to you both again, but I know you wouldn’t stay away anyways. I wish you both well and the best of luck; for us all. -Tarva, No Relation
Attachments:
Nav. Cord. 485-4118-7963-Ma
Pri-Op. Corridor: NA/EU-Zones
—
“Fuck.” I agreed, my heart turning to ice as the phantom growls in my ears echoed like rolling thunder and my blood ran cold as a nightside wind.
A long, hanging pall of silence fell across us, broken only by the diligent, eager thrum of Polani’s systems. My pulse was racing as I stared at the message, reading it and re-reading it over and over again, the horrid memories of the Cradle bolting through my mind. The growls roared in intensity, sending my attention flicking around the room as I could feel the echoes and putrid warmth of that monstrosity's breath pushing across my snout. I shrunk back, pressing myself fitfully into the safety of Chris’ mass, wishing I could just hide from everything again.
Pathetic.
Polani and her Herd above, please not again. I can’t do this again. Don’t ma-
And the Humans can? They deserve help just as much as the Gojid did.
I don’t want to die*. L-Last time was too close. Don’t want to be some horrid pred-*
Horrid what?
Arxur… Horrid Arxur’s meal.
Then what ar-
“What are we going to do?” Chris’ voice rumbled, rolling through me as his hand in my wool massaged at the worries in my gut. “I… I gotta go. I can’t leave people behind, not again, ‘specially not my family. But I’m not gonna haul you into harm's way again. You don’t deserve to suffer any more for what we do.”
My voice failed me as my mind scrambled against my own thoughts, my paws clenched, digging my claws into the wool of my tail, forcing a small whimper of pain to slip from my chest even as his voice softened in my ear. “You could stay home, keep Polani up and running and I-I’ll make do. Maybe ask Darno and see if he’d be willing to help… again. Don’t worry, we’ll do our best to stay safe. Hopefully be home long before the Federation ever gets to… to Earth.”
His voice broke on the last words, holding back the tide of emotions I knew he was feeling, knew that they were far more similar to mine than they were different. I could feel his chin shift against my crown, choking back tears as he shook his head, trying to shuffle off the crushing weight of what this all meant. Memories of the vast cities of Humans we’d flown over flitted through my mind like flowerbirds on the wind, wiped away by the searing flash of anti-matter, leaving behind craters of glass in their place.
Stars, no.
Well?
Well what? We can’t stop it. Can’t stop them just because we want to.
So help him. You know he’d move the stars for you, wouldn’t he?
My paws slipped up from my tail, gently pulling my ears down flat against my head, slowly tracing the jagged, new curve. Chris was silent now, unmoving as he stared at the viewscreen set in the side of the cabin down to the surface of VP far below.
What about home? When their fleet is gone and Earth has been ‘purged’, what happens next?
We’re next. Mama, Papa, Renkel and everyone else…
“I’m going.” I stated, keeping my voice as solid as I could while I turned over to look him in the eye. “You don’t deserve to go into this alone and I can’t- no. I won’t -let you. I’m with you, for better or for worse.”
A single, warm tear fell into my wool as he pressed his head down onto my crown, his voice a soft murmur as he spoke. “Thank you, Darlin’. I-I’ll do my best to keep us safe.”
“We both will.” I replied, pulling myself up into him as a knot of guilt in my chest that I hadn’t known I’d been holding onto split loose. “I promise.”
“Together?”
“Together.”
Memory Transcription Subject: Mercet, Sulean Captain, Owner Operator of Federation Shipping Vessel Stellar Companion of the Companion Shipping Concern.
Date [Standardized Human Time]: October 9th, 2136
Auras preserve them.
The meadow of stars cast across the galley’s viewscreen and the sound of my crew conversing around me did little to ease the anger burning in my throat. The fleet had slipped their moorings and gone underway to leave Federation space no more than a rotation or two ago, charging off to burn the Humans’ Earth to ash. It was stupid, childish and shortsighted; far from anything even remotely resembling a coherent plan.
Everything I’d come to expect from Sand-brained Captains like Kalsim and Malins.
I’d never seen them in combat, the blessed auras had seen and preserved me far from anywhere near the Arxur lines, but I’d certainly dealt with enough of their captains. They were hot-headed, short to temper, rarely above water on their finances and even more rarely taking, or selling, routes with any measure of safety. Then again, at least they stayed true to their deals unlike those aura polluting Nevoks and Fissians.
If this fleet was going to succeed it would do it by strength of numbers and staying in the fight, and, it would seem they’d chosen to absolutely abandon the latter. I was no pred-hugger like those idiots who’d voted to support the Humans but I certainly wouldn’t have turned down someone else pitching in against the Arxur, even if it was just to put them to the torch at the first point of convenience, but I could certainly see a bad plan for what it was. Thousands of ships had made the jump, possibly one of the largest singular forces the Federation had fielded in a hundred rotations! All to turn a single planet to glass.
And they’d left the logistics at home.
“Auras, Protector, Inatala, the Stars and everything else DAMN them!” I slammed the cup in my hoof down on the table in front of me, tossing my antlers back with a frustrated bellow as the galley fell silent. “What happened to TOGETHER? All this cold-air about ‘doing everything for the herd’ and when the time comes they leave us behind!?”
“Captain?” Betek’s voice drifted to my ear, filling in the silent wake of my outburst as I turned to fix my herd in my sight, finding the Takkan only a pace or two from my side. “Are you alright?”
“Far from it, Betek.” I replied with a sigh, gesturing to the seat across from me and turning my gaze from the surprised faces staring at me back out onto the stars shining in the great void beyond. “It’s cold-sand, every weight of it. Shortsighted, wind-brained nonsense to send the fleet like this.”
“Ah.” She agreed, settling into the seat with a creak as she turned her own eyes on the viewscreen with a grunt. “I am not particularly a fan of the Krakotl’s choice for starting another war, either.”
“Bah.” I spat, waving a hoof through the air to brush the statement away as Kitsen and Valletho slid into the other seats at the table. “I couldn’t care less when, or if, we do it. I care far more about how. They’re predators; if we don’t deal with them now, or point them away at the very least, we’ll be stuck with them down the trail anyways. And if that happens, then we’ll have to deal with them eventually just as the Venlil are.”
“So you,” Kitsen’s voice trailed off, the start of a question hanging in the air as he wiped the spilled juice from my outburst off of the table. “want the Humans destroyed?”
Doubt crossed my mind at the question, the memory of the Human ambassador’s impassioned speech echoing as distantly as the stars behind the viewscreen. “I didn’t necessarily say that.”
“I told you Nikonus knew something was coming!” Valletho squawked, landing on the silence like a falling tree, tossing his head to the side as he ruffled his feathers in agitation. “I say turn them to glass! They destroyed the Cradle, killed my friends in the Corps and tainted Aafa. Inatala’s light will burn them, and their wretched world, clean before we purify the Venlil; or at least the ones that can still be saved.”
“Stars…” Betek whispered, wide eyes staring at Valletho as she pulled back in her seat a little. “Valletho, you watched the speech, I know you did, how could you say that? They’re not the Ar-”
“They’re PREDATORS, Betek! They just control it better than the grays.” The green Krakotl screeched, his claws biting against the soft, faux wood of the table. “They’d rip our throats out just as soon as they looked at us! Inatala protect the poor Venlil that have, foolishly, allowed them into their homes. The fleet’s action will be swift, decisive and total; those Predators have little more than a sordid fleet of old Venlil ships to defend themselves. Like a flight in a breeze as far as I’m concerned.”
“Unless the fleet runs out of munitions, food or fuel.” I grunted in return, gently squeezing the fruit in my hoof. “Then they’ll be little more than targets.”
“Hah! As if those primitive apes could stand against us that long!” Valletho’s chirping laugh filled the galley, grating on my ears as he continued. “No, Captain, I know my fleet, they don’t stand a chance. Logistics left behind or not, the Humans will crumble like Dossur before a hurricane.”
“And if they don’t?” Kitsen asked, taking a bite from his Wax fruit before continuing. “What if the Humans dig their heels in and put up more than the fleet’s prepared for?”
“They can’t.”
“Well, you heard it here, everyone. The Humans are finished because Valletho says they can’t possibly be a problem.” Betek replied through a booming, mocking belly laugh that poured from her as she slapped a heavy, sarcastic hand across her knee before the up-beat rise of her ears fell away. “Valletho, have you taken even a moment to think about why they deserve this?”
“Because they’re predators.” He answered, with the same confident finality as saying the desert is hot.
“That’s it? Nothing they’ve done? Nothing about what they’ve said? Nothing about who they are beyond that they are Predators?” She honked, a flare of annoyance flooding into her voice as her ears flapped angrily at the smug, preening Krakotl.
“I don’t need anything else. It’s the Krakotl’s purpose after all, Betek.” Valletho leaned back, folding his wings across his chest with a smug flare of his crest as he let out a self-assured twitter. “We protect the herd and you can be sure we’ll do it night and day; even if the herd does not want us to.”
“Valletho,” Betek sighed, a forlorn sadness crossing her eyes as she stared at the security officer’s vibrant colors. “who says the herd needs saving from them? They want to help. Want to make friends and allies not dest-”
“Predator-shit LIES!!!” Valletho squawked, jabbing a claw into the table as he rose from his seat. “They are predators, Betek. They will say and do anything to get near us, if it means an easier meal. The very fact that you believe their lies are why the fleet is necessary!”
I watched as the pair bickered, plucking a Jumen nut from my bowl to slowly gnaw away at it as my gaze drifted back out the viewscreen while I thought. Betek had a point, even if they may have just been candied words, the Human ambassador had spoken of friendship, of helping us drive back the grays. Helping make us safe again.
But Valletho was right.
They were predators, gifted orators or not; they were still bloodthirsty, flesh eating abominations with Auras that were surely bleaker than Jiln’s most sun seared deserts and darker than the void itself. They had invaded the Cradle, all but inviting the grays to fall on the already embattled Gojid like a hammer blow to turn their world to little more than ash, glass and death. In so far as we knew, the only Gojid alive were either on Federation worlds or were… cattle.
“-ek, Kitsen, I’m sorry you two can’t understand it bu-”
“He’s right.” I stated with a snort, turning my eyes from the stars back to the crew at my table and around the galley. “I may not like how they’re doing it but they’re doing the right thing. People or not, the Humans are still predators. And the Fleet protects the herd.”
“See!” Valletho let out a triumphant, almost deafening, squawk, flapping his wings erratically as he hopped from his perch on the back of the seat. “Before long, the terror these predators have wrought on our herds will be nothing more than a distant, sordid memory.”
Betek was quiet, the broad Takkan engineer flicking her ears solemnly as she leaned back in her seat, her gaze more focused on her hands than on Valletho or myself. “Whatever you say, Captain…”
Kitsen rolled his shoulders and let out a low nicker under his breath as he studied me; his ears were spread broad in that ever familiar splay of confusion he had when he wasn't sure what to say. My friend stood with a sigh and shook his fur with agitation as he turned to amble back to his stateroom. “It's been a long day and this has, somehow, been an even longer conversation. I’m going to go get some rest. I distinctly remember receiving, and distributing, your orders to your stations. I suggest you both get them squared away.”
Betek let out a low, begrudging sigh before pushing herself to her feet, actively avoiding looking at the ecstatic Valletho as he hop-walked from the galley off to his security station. She lingered, as the doors slid shut behind him, leaving us, mostly, alone in the galley but for the primitive. “Captain, are you sure?”
“Yes.” I replied before popping another Jumen nut between my teeth and crushing it with a solid crack. “Yes I am.”
>Understood.< She stiffened, turning to quickly walk from the galley aft to her engineering spaces.
Are you?
I shook my head again, slapping the thought away with my antlers as I closed my eyes tight. This was no time to second guess myself, or the Federation. Not once in my life had they failed me. In all my [Solar Years] amongst the stars I’d never seen a singular Arxur vessel within light-years of me. That had to mean something about their effectiveness.
As I opened my eyes, forcing myself to my hooves, Tefen caught my attention. He stared at me from across the room, his paws clenched tight on either side of his untouched meal. To say I was unfamiliar with how the primitives emoted would be an understatement, but there was one sentiment I could recognize anywhere.
Disappointment.
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As always, thank you to u/SpacePaladin15 for the wonderful universe that is NoP! Thank you to u/sruisingNWfor proof reading and helping me make this chapter as good as it can be, you're the man! Honestly LoM wouldn't have gone very far without him! If you haven't you should absolutely go read Foundations of Humanity! It's very good!
A big thanks to u/Saint-Andros for helping with proofreading! He writes Out of Our Elements which is a very good one! If you like a good fic in the wilderness and a pair of cute 'friends' ;) you'll love OOE!
Also thank you to u/brotanics! For this wonderful fanart of Taisa. And this one! She's so cute I'm gonna die
And thank you to u/Jimdandy117! For this adorable fanart of Chris and Renkel! Dear god help he's adorable I love him so much
Thank you u/SlimyRage, or AsciiSquid on Discord, for makin' Vengineer Taisa Gamin'. She's absolutely adorable, I love her lil' workers apron. She looks so excited to get to work!
Thank you u/Braquen! For this astounding Pixel Art of Taisa after a few range day dates with Chris! Her little hat and gunbelt are absolutely astounding!
Thank you u/VeryUnluckyDice! For this Artwork of Taisa and Chris as characters from One Piece! I've never seen or read it before but it's incredibly cute!
First Prev. Next
---
Memory Transcription Subject: Taisa, Venlil Starship Engineer, Crystal Star Shipping Co-Owner
Date [Standardized Human Time]: October 7th, 2136
I could stay like this forever.
The gentle warble of birdsong lilting from the speakers of Chris’ window-screen stirred me from my sleep as the dim, blossoming light of a mock earthly sunrise filtered through the room. The wonderful warmth of the heavy, loving arms wrapped around me tempted me back to the void of sleep, eager to reclaim the first calm rest I’d had in paws. As the weight of sleep pulled at my eyes I felt the mountain beneath me shift with a long, grumbling groan before giving me a tight, loving squeeze.
I breathed in the new paw, cool and sharp with the chill only a new harvest and her new Sun could bring, my heart alight with Chris’ own that beat against my ear. The soft, everpresent rise and fall of his chest pushed me too and fro as I nuzzled closer, reveling in the warmth of him. My ears bobbed, knocking the covers aside to look out beyond the old familiar weave of our blanket. I admired his room and the work he, Papa and I had put in to pull it all together. He shifted again, the groan solidifying into a coherent attempt at speech this time, along with another of his tight ‘good morning’ squeezes.
“Good Morn’, Darlin’.” Chris rumbled, planting a soft kiss on my crown before letting out a long, cavernous yawn as his fingers worked through my wool. “Sleep well?”
“Better than the last few paws.” I responded with a groggy, quiet mewl as I gently nuzzled into his neck. “No shade-terrors, which is nice. What about you, Love?”
“Like a rock.” He replied as his hands slipped from my back to spread in a broad stretch above his head before shifting to scoop up his pad in one hand, flicking it open with a deft movement as the other fell upon my back again. “Like a rock…”
My gaze drifted to his face, the screen in his hand cast long shadows across his features, exaggerating the slight scowl that tugged at the corner at his face. “Are you sure?”
He hesitated, a small lump sliding down his throat as he swallowed and pursed his lips before letting out a small sigh. “Not really, Darlin’, not really.”
“Ryan?” I asked, shifting on his chest to better meet his eyes.
He nodded, a shine in his eye as he swiped a finger across his pad to open a message window, a small picture of Darlene smiling brightly popped up at the top of the screen. “Ma’ says he’s doin’ better, been helpin’ Pa’ out with some of the chores, feedin’ the animals, clearing some brush and whatnot but…”
My tail slipped around his raised thigh, giving it a soft squeeze to tell him to continue. A heavy sigh slipped out from underneath me as he gently shook his head, his off-hand nervously working its way through my wool, building a purr in my chest despite the subject. “But I just can’t help but feel I could’ve stopped him from needin’ to get better in the first place.”
“Love,” I started, stretching my arms around him for a hug as best I could from atop his chest. “if we hadn’t gone back at all he wouldn’t have the chance to get better in the first place. Things could’ve gone better, they could’ve gone a lot better, but they could’ve gone a lot worse too.”
“A-And I know that, Darlin’, it’s just th-”
“That you feel like it wasn’t enough?” I sheared in, pressing my head deep against his chest with a comforting whistle.
He was quiet a while, his hand still working through my wool as he stared down at me before letting out a quiet, almost ashamed answer. “Like it wasn’t even close.”
My ears fell as I pulled myself up closer to his face, nuzzling into his neck as I spoke with a comforting mewl. “Well, I think we put in everything we could.”
Silence filled the room, but for the still rising sound of an earthly day as Chris’ hands continued to massage away the tension that strung through my back. The small, roiling sound he made when he was thinking poured into my chest as I laid there, waiting for him to be ready to face the paw. At least we didn’t have any plans to get to now that Polani’s hull was patched and squared away; even if the new panels were a shade or two darker than the ones around them.
Eventually he grunted, giving my back a final, deep, and thorough scratch that sent an arch down my spine and through my tail as it slipped free of his leg. I let out a dreary mewl while a long, satisfying stretch wracked my body as I reached my paws up and out to repeatedly tap them on his face. “Ready to get going, big guy? I think I hear Papa cooking up first meal.”
“Yea, yea I’m goin’.” He laughed, taking my paws in his massive hands, pulling them gently to his lips with a smile, before sitting up and pulling me into a tight hug. “Now, c’mon, don’t want your parents gettin’ too curious.”
“Oh? About what? We’re not doing anything!” I asked, mock innocence in my voice as my tail lashed about mischievously while I stretched my neck as much as I could to plant a kiss on his lips.
“Mhm.” He chuckled, a warm smile spreading across his face before he pulled me all the way up to him and pressed into another kiss for a long, wonderful moment before pulling back again, letting out what almost felt like a possessive growl. “Totally innocent.”
“Absolutely!” I responded with an amused, bouncing whistle, sticking my tongue out at him and hopping down from the bed to stretch my legs, a nagging pang of worry bolting through my heart as I felt the last of his warmth, and its safety, fall from my wool. I took a small step back before slipping my tail around his ankle, gently tugging at it to beckon him out of bed and after me, doing my best to claw back that confidence I’d had only a few moments before. “Innocent and hungry! Wonder if Papa has any of your Ma’s peaches left.”
Chris twisted in bed, running his hands through his beard and rubbing at his eyes before forcing himself to his feet with a long groan that burbled into a happy laugh. “Of all the things I expected you to latch on ta’, peaches weren’t it, Darlin’. Next we’re back on Earth I’ll make sure we get plenty of ‘em for ya.”
“You better!” I teased, softly poking a claw at his side as I turned to pad out to the kitchen, my tail falling free of his leg to wrap tight around his wrist.
The savory, smoky taste of Papa’s first meal drifted about the air of the kitchen as we stepped out into the hall, the warm sound of my family sitting around the island chatting about the paw before them, beckoning me on just as much as the food itself.
“-aw away from everything before the night? Could do, maybe go out to P-” Mama paused, her ears swinging to me as her tail curled happily and a warm, amused purr poured from her snout. >Good Waking.< “There you two are! Was wondering when you’d join us!”
“Just one of those morn’s. Slept a little too well.” Chris rumbled with a laugh, sliding into his seat with a small smile as Papa slid him a steaming bowl of chopped vegetables. “You got any of Ma’s peaches left over?”
I let out a pleased trill as I hopped into my own seat next to him, watching Papa pull a few slices of peaches from one of the glass ‘canning jars’ Darlene had sent them in, setting them in the bowl along with my first meal. “Thank you Papa!”
“You’re welcome Little Star.” He purred back, returning to his own first meal before dolling out another scoop as Renkel loudly clanked his skewer against the now empty wooden bowl.
“So, what was that about a ‘paw away from everything’?” >Curious.< I asked with an interested whistle before popping a deliciously sweet slice of peach into my mouth.
“Oh, nothing interesting.” Mama whistled back, happily munching away at her side of steamed vegetables next to her stringfruit. “Just deciding what to do for the paw. I had figured you two would have more to do on Polani.”
“We didn’t have anything planned today, not that I know of at least. What’d you have in mind?” Chris replied, jumping in ahead of me before setting about digging into his own meal.
“A few things around town, drop Renkel off at school, run some errands, relax beneath the Heartwood and then whatever else we want, I suppose. Just a nice, relaxing paw away from the farm now that the next harvest is in the ground.” Mama replied, her ears twitching happily as she popped a chunk of sturen in her mouth with a trill. “You two are welcome to tail along if you like!”
My ears rose with interest as I chewed at my food, the idea of a paw out with my family certainly sounded better than just clawing about in Polani’s walls and hiding from the shadow prowling in my vision. “Could we stop in at Parnel’s?”
“I don’t see why not.” Papa answered, glancing at Mama with a questioning tilt of his head, receiving a quick >Yes.< in return. “I need to speak with Balmun about getting some more Sunsap planks for the bean trellises and a few parts for the crop pickers as well so we’ll be getting two or three crops with one harvest! Maybe once we pick that up we can go to Tentrel’s for some of those ‘pierogies’ of hers, might need to see if I can’t snag her recipe.”
>Confusion< “But Mama you said we were going to the Rekan to see Ervone*-*” Renkel started, looking up at Mama with big eyes as she reached over to tap his snout quiet.
“For last meal, Rekan. Papa’s talking about second while you are in school!” >Quiet.< Mama replied, gently kneading her claws through Renkel’s crown. “Now go get your stuff, don’t wanna be late to school for your first paw back from the rest paws now do you? Then you wouldn’t get to tell everyone all about your fishies until second meal!”
>No! No! No! No!< Renkel’s eyes went wide as his tail flailed about behind him and he hopped down from his stool to bolt upstairs to his room. “Fishies!!!”
“That sound good to you two? Rensa and I can head out now to drop him off at school and meet you in town if you like.” Papa whistled, pulling Mama close for a loving nuzzle before letting her go to ker-thunk up the hardwood stairs after Renkel.
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Chris stated, sliding his now empty bowl away from himself before hurriedly standing and giving a soft kiss to my crown, earning an amused look from Papa at his now turned back. “I am gonna go get ready to head out so we don’t miss them.”
“Well, Little Star, we’ll see you in a bit. Meet us at Balmun’s?” Papa asked, setting the dishes in the cleaner before easing the door shut with a click followed by the heavy whirr of the machine coming to life.
At the lumber yard? Why not the forum?
“Balmun’s? That works I suppose, I’ll let you know when we’re on our way.” I replied, giving him a small hug and a thankful nuzzle before starting to pull back.
“I look forward to spending a nice paw with you… and your boyfriend.” Papa whispered with a small laugh, pulling me back in to happily headbutt my crown. >Teasing.< “A little surprised that the Human is the best one I think you’ve ever brought home.”
“Papa!” I all but bleated in response, a rush of bloom spreading across my snout and up my ears as I pressed them back flat in embarrassment.
“Am I wrong?” >Amusement.< He asked, squeezing me tight as a proud purr built in his chest before he stepped back, letting me free of his arms. “Might not be anywhere near what your Mama and I had pictured but I certainly like him.”
A hanging quiet fell over the two of us broken only by the low rumble of the cleaner and the distant, excited brays of Renkel collecting his school supplies for the paw. “He’s my favorite too.” I finally answered, my tail slowly swaying behind me as the embarrassed bloom fell away to a content, happy warmth at the thought of my Christopher.
“I’m happy to hear it.” >Love you.<
>Love you too.<
[Advance Memory Transcription by Time Unit: 2.5 Hours]
The familiar, muffled sound of Balmun’s lumber yard filled the air as our truck rocked to a stop next to Papa’s, the shearing roar of the mill growing all the louder as Chris excitedly threw his door open, slipping his cracked visor back on his face. The delightful taste of fresh milled lumber touched my tongue as I pulled in a crisp, cold breath before letting out a contented sigh and bobbed my ears towards Chris. >Interested?< “Tastes like someone has a fresh load of Amarek on the blocks this paw!”
“Wonder what he’s asking.” Chris rumbled, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips as he swung the door closed with a solid thunk. “Gotta get back to workin’ at some point now that she’s good and ready I suppose.”
“Yeah, yeah we do.” I replied, my ears betraying me as I padded along towards the door at his side.
He hesitated on his next step, a heavy hand finding its way to my back just shy of the door as he kneeled down to bring himself, and his gleaming visor, eye level with me. “We’ll be fine on cash for a while yet. We can wait till you’re ready, Darlin’. I’ll be right here for ya; every step of the way.”
The worry in my shoulders eased a little at the assurance as I leaned forward to thankfully headbutt up into his chin, letting out an appreciative mewl as I did. “Thank you, Heartwood. You still want to see if you can get a few bands for cheap, don’t you?”
“Oh abso-lutely.” He laughed, planting a small kiss on my crown before standing up straight with a wide, tightlipped smile wrinkling his lips. “Even if it’s not for selling, I’d love to do a little personal work.”
“Oh I’m sure Papa would be happy to help!” I whistled back, my tail swishing happily as he swung the door open in front of me, beckoning me inside.
“I’m sure Taikel would be happy to help but I’d have to know wha-”
“Happy to help with what?” Papa mused, his tail flicking about with interest as he looked up from the sample planks Balmun had set out in front of him and Mama.
“Not sure yet; wanna see what my favorite lumber supplier has in store for his favorite Human!” Chris laughed, sliding onto one of the heavy, paw-made stools in front of the sales counter.
“Stars above, I wish I’d never said that.” >Amusement.< Bulmun responded with a whistling laugh, his ears high and happy as he slid the plank samples Papa had gone through down in front of Chris. “Went straight to your ears.”
“Oh come on Bulmun, even if there were other Humans in town we both know I’d still be your favorite!” Chris retorted with that same tight-lipped smile, running his thumb along the polished surface of a thick Heartwood plank.
“Depends on if the other ones spend more money or not.” >Teasing.< Bulmun stated, watching Chris inspect the samples with an interested eye before it wandered to me at his side. His eye lingered for a moment on my ear, a flick of questioning concern passing through his tail as Chris sat and thought.
>You Alright?<
>Arxur on Cradle. Hurt a lot. Doing better. Safe now.<
>Scary. Happy to see you two safe.<
>Thank you.<
His attention slipped from me and back to Chris at my side, a mock tone of impatience slipping into his voice as he spoke again. “What were you thinking of making, big man?”
“Bookshelf for my cabin on Polani. Something good and heavy so it doesn’t get knocked around too much when I have to haul her over hard.” Chris replied absentmindedly as he set aside the sunsap sample with a shake of his head before sliding the heartwood and amarek planks forward with an assuring tap. “What’s the best price you can do me on twenty or thirty board-fe- er, sorry. Ten or fifteen board-tails of these, squared and planed.”
Bulmun’s tail curled in thought as he tilted his head, pulling the samples close to himself with a hum. “At that volume? Fifteen credits a board-tail for the amarek and twenty four for the heartwood. Give me the dimensions you want and I can have them done and ready by early next paw.”
Chris let out a surprised whistle as he leaned back in his seat, shaking his head for a moment as he thought. “Bulmun that’s near half more than you charged us last time!”
“Well last time you two bought lumber from me you bought it in the hundreds of board-tails not a pawful more than ten. This is a fair sight less than that so you’re not getting the bulk discount. If you want to haul off a shipment worth then it’d be ten and eighteen.” The gruff, gray Venlil responded, shaking his wool out before continuing. “And at that point I’m hardly taking home a profit. So, which will it be?”
“The few tails of heartwood for now I suppose, but damn if you ain’t runnin’ me out for it!” Chris laughed, tapping the plank of dark golden wood on the counter. “How’d the slabs we brought on back from Earth sell?”
“Gone within a few paws! Got plenty of folks clamoring to get more of it next time you’re looking to fill some empty space in the hold. Never fails to put a bob in my tail watching folk rush to get their claws on every board-tail they can of that Earth lumber; especially the coats I distinctly remember bleating in the forum about the ‘Human threat in town’ just a few paws prior!” >Satisfied.< Bulmun replied, quickly tapping out a work order before turning back to us and Papa with a playful laugh. “Now, you made a decision there, Taikel? Can’t have you just standing there wall-eyed stuck on choices for a half claw again.”
“I’m thinking, I’m thinking!” Papa stated, his snout resting squarely between his paws as he stared down at the bright yellow plank of sunsap next to the thin, pale gray planks of basinwood, his tail flicking about in thought. “Just not sure what would hold to the wind be-“
“Oh stars above, sweetheart, just get both of them.” Mama blurted with mock exasperation, her tail coiling lovingly around Papa’s as she slid her credit chit across the counter to Bulmun.
“Sweetheart that’s far too much lumber fo-“
“At worst, it saves you a trip later this harvest for something else, right?” Mama answered, cutting him off before he finished the statement with a happy, teasing purr. “Besides, I know you’ll be back here for one or the other within the herd to make something for me anyhow.”
“I’m sure I will, love.” Papa replied, returning the purr with a small headbutt before filling out the order pad and sliding it back over to Balmun.
“Yours should be ready at the same time as his, I can have Yethen deliver it out to the farm if you like…” He trailed off, looking over to Chris for a moment before continuing. >Amusement.< “And I suppose I can waive the delivery fee for my favorite Human and his hosts.”
A broad smile split across Chris’s face as he spread his hands in that adorable shrug of his he did when he was excited. “See! Can’t deny it, Bulmun, I got witnesses now!”
“Hey! I was here last time too door denter!” I bleated with mock offense, reaching up to gently swat a paw at his cheek.
“Well yea, but now I got more’n one. That there’s legal standin’ where I come from! Probably…” Chris laughed in response as he got to his feet from the stool and quickly nodded to Bulmun before meandering towards the door. “Now, I think someone needed to go pick up some drone parts?”
“Indeed I did.” Papa responded, flicking a quick >Thank You.< to Bulmun before following after Chris and I. “But we already managed to get them on order with Gevon so we can either go to Parnel’s or Tentrel’s first.”
“I’m partial to Parnel’s but I think that’s obvious. We could stop in at Tentrel’s and get some to-go though.” I replied, stepping back out into the cool twilight air with a contented sigh as my tail slipped around Chris’ wrist.
Mama and Papa exchanged a glance, their entwined tails slowly swaying back and forth before Mama spoke up. “That’s fine by us, just can’t get too carried away in there.”
“We’ll see about that.” Chris laughed at my side, running his warm fingers through my tail tuft. “Y’all want us to follow or ride along with you?”
“Follow works; stars only know what she’s gonna decide to bring home to your hangar anyways.” Papa answered as he and Mama turned to pad off to their truck.
Chris gave me a quick shrug before gesturing towards the dirty white of our truck. The doors gave a solid clunk as we pulled them shut, the mill’s sounds falling to little more than a muffled din behind them and the idle of the engine. I felt Chris’s eyes fall on me as the truck’s heater breathed to life, a concerned interest spread out across his now visor-less face. “Feelin’ a bit better today, Darlin’?”
My tail stopped, curling in confusion at the question as I turned an eye on him. “A little, why?”
“‘Cause that’s the first time you’ve called me Door Denter in days.” His hand found my paw, giving it a small squeeze as his face softened back into a small smile. “I’m just happy to see you happy is all.”
My tail twitched against his wrist as his words took root in my mind, a blossom of warmth spreading in my chest as his fingers stroked through my tail tuft. He wasn’t wrong, this was the best paw I’d had since the Cradle and I certainly wasn’t going to complain.
[Advance Memory Transcript by Time Unit: 3 Hours]
The dancing, golden leaves of the Heartwood high above drifted down around us as we walked to the forum to settle in and relax for the last half claw of the paw. Despite nearly a half claw in Parnel’s yard, I’d managed to avoid getting too filthy for once, aside from the slight pall of dust that Chris had had to knock from my wool after I’d fallen out of the service panel of an old Starliner M110 Shuttle while foraging for anything useful I could till up.
Mama, Papa and Parnel had laughed their tails off at the image of me sprawled out in the dirt while Chris had only let a small chuckle slip past his visor as he helped me to my feet again. Still, I’d managed to pull a functioning spare balancing gyro for Polani for my trouble. It’d been the primary gyro for the shuttle but it was the same part number all the same!
Chris gave my tail a small, teasing squeeze as he looked up at the twilight sky, a tight smirk crossing his face before he looked down to me. “So, basejumper, have a good trip this paw?”
“Oh don’t you start that with me, Door Denter! I’m sure I can find more embarrassing nicknames for you than you can for me, mister ‘Blacksburg Burner’!” I retorted with a snorting whistle, my tail lashing his wrist about back and forth as we walked. “Besides, got the part I wanted, didn’t I!”
“Don’t know that I’ve ever seen you not find what you’re lookin’ for, Darlin’. It’s honestly pretty astounding to watch.”
“A good engineer always gets her part!” I whistled, bumping against his side as the wall on my right fell away to the open air of the forum.
“That it would seem she does.” Chris replied, slowing to a stop as Mama and Papa kept walking onward to the Rekan, an upbeat, self-amused tone falling into his voice. “And a good pilot always makes his times.”
“What does that even…” I started to ask, my voice trailing off as I looked away from the forum and the river beyond to follow his gaze to the bustling front door and patio of the Rekan.
A veritable field of tables and chairs spread out from the broad, open windows of the Rekan’s interior, herds upon herds of people were sitting, happily chatting with each other over food and drinks. A soft blue light lit the stage just inside, casting long shadows off of the familiar instruments resting in their stands.
There, hanging above the entrance was that same sign I’d helped Mama and Ervena put together last time proclaiming another ‘Human Music Night’ was happening this paw. Chris’ voice pulled my attention from the vast herd in front of us as a few of the Rekan’s servers poured from the door toting familiarly brown drinks, food, and menus out to the waiting herds. “Surprise, Darlin’. Sorry for bein’ quiet about it but your Mama wanted it to be a ‘perfect paw’. I-I hope it’s not been too much.”
“Too much?” I started, watching the happy herds reveling in each other’s company as I thought about the wonderful paw I’d had. Thought about how little I had thought about it. About how little I’d felt that breath on my neck. The eyes on my back. The teeth in my ears. My voice caught in my throat as I started to answer my own question, a few warm tears tumbling forth into my wool. “T-This paw has been wonderful. I-I think this was a good start for what I needed. Thank you, Love.”
“Wouldn’t settle for anything less for you, Taisa.” He replied, kneeling to wipe the pawful of tears away and pull me into a soft hug.
“So,” I whistled quietly in his ear, my tail slipping from his wrist to happily wag behind me. “got your songs all planned out?”
“O’Course I do.” He gasped, mock offense in his voice as he pulled away, a broad smile painting his face.
“Well then, you’d better get to it; wouldn’t wanna keep all your fans waiting.” >Encouragement. Do great.< I laughed, following at his side as he started to walk towards the Rekan’s waiting front door, picking up roving ears and interested tails from the waiting herds along the way. A shiver of excitement zipped down my back and out my tail as the sound of the bar rose around us. The distant sound of Mama and Papa greeting Ervena and Tronen reached my ears, while Renkel and Ervonen chattered away with his picturebook between them, driving away that ever-present whispering growl that haunted my mind.
This is… better. Not perfect, but certainly better.
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A “not canon” Estala adventure.
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The following is a thread on the website ParanormalActivitySightings.Skalga, with the thread titled “Weird Krakotl experience on Skagla”, posted 2267, Jan 5th.
Yargle: Hey, so I had something weird happen to me today, that I can only explain as… Paranormal.
So I'm a Human, living on Skalga (this will become important) and I was wandering around the new forest rebuilding project when this VCE (Violent Crime Eradication) Officer started harassing me.
I won't go into what the stupid Venlil was doing, since it's not important, but it was your standard anti–human racism. The VCE was getting all aggressive, asking me what I was doing, and what I was holding. I was drinking that new energy drink “MangoMangoMango”, which comes with a free mango to promote it amongst Krakotl.
He asks what it is and I tell him it's just a MangoMangoMango drink, at which point the strangest Krakotl just swooped in out of nowhere without a sound.
At first, I was all “Oh no, a Kalsim!”. She was dressed in an old VCE uniform, back when they were called the Exterminators, and anyone cosplaying as those racists is generally super anti-human.
But instead, the bird started screaming at the VCE, telling them that their harassment of me was “unherdlike” and “Stupid feddie thinking”. VCE didn’t like this and tried to arrest her, upon which the Krakotl tazed the VCE. Several times.
At this point, the Krakotl turned to me and asked for the mango that came with the drink, which I gave since I was terrified of the bird. She ate it gleefully, then… Just, Just flat out fucking faded away.
I'm not even joking, she disappeared like a ghost. Am I going crazy here or is this paranormal activity?
Decary: Oooh, spooky.
Fireblaze: Obvious troll is obvious, this forum is about real paranormal activity sightings, stop making fun of us.
AsciiSquid: I… Had a similar thing happen. I've not told anyone else but…
Well, I'm a Kolshian on Skalga and I was trying to get some… possibly illegal substances. Turns out the dealer was this Earth’s Finest nut job who started threatening me. I also had brought that same energy drink, and the guy asked me what it was while waving a gun around. I responded and again… Suddenly this Krakotl was swooping in. As you described she was in this old exterminator's costume.
The dealer didn't like this at all, shouting about KFK and Kalsim and tried to shoot the Krakotl, which had no effect. Then the Krakotl pulled out their own gun and shot the guy in his kneecaps, shouting that “Racists get their kneecap privileges removed”
After which she asked for the mango, which I gave to the crazy bird. After which she ate happily then walked through the spehing wall.
I managed to get a quick picture of the Krakotl though
>Attached image is a photo of a Krakotl Exterminator, happily eating a mango.
Ottwo: Sir, you're not supposed to provide actual proof. This is a forum where we run around in the dark at random noises. None of this “proof” stuff.
Braquen: I looked up the Exterminator's ID on their uniform. References someone called “Estala”. Federation-era exterminator, well known for being one of the major reformers of the Skalga Exterminators into the VCE. Died 30 years ago at the age of 124 after falling into a food coma during the opening event of the first Popeyes to open on the Gojid cradle.
The attached image is the picture of Estala from her Wiki page.
Yargle: Yeah! That's the Krakotl I saw!
Vaill the venlil, Exterminator: This is a joke right? A hoax you all planned to troll us with?
Seggan: I got a theory… Give me a bit.
Seggan: This is CONFIRMED. You can try it yourself. You just need a mango as an offering, then say the word “mango” three times and Estala will appear.
The video is shown featuring a human male, presumably Seggan. They have a mango in their hand.
Seggan: Mango mango mango
In an instant, Estala appears between frames, and the Krakotl looks happy.
Estala: Hey you got a mango for me?
Seggan jumps at this, looking visibly shocked.
Seggan: Holy shit, a ghost!
Estala: A ghost? Where!? Haha, just kidding. So about that mango…
Seggan takes a moment to regather their wits before continuing.
Seggan: So you know that you're dead? What unfinished business keeps you in this place?
Estala: Yeah I kinda noticed that. Nothing in particular is keeping me here… Although that mango in your hand is looking unfinished.
Seggan: So there is no vengeance to be had that's stopping you from crossing over to the other side?
Estala: Can you even get vengeance against old age? All this talk, you sound like the annoying guy constantly following me around.
Seggan: Guy? What?
Estala: Yeah this human skeleton wearing a black cloak with a scythe. Constantly going on about crossing over. I'll tell you what I told him: there are still racists everywhere, and now I have cool ghost powers, look!
Estala starts spookily “woooo”ing in as they phase through a wall, before returning moments later, still “woooo”ing
Estala: See, spooky.
Seggan: Fascinating, this is nothing like I thought a ghost to be.
Estala: I'm like a Halloween special from the Exterminators show. So anyways about that mango that you’re not currently eating…
It should be noted that during the entire video, Estala has not moved her gaze from the mango in Seggan’s hand. Seggan eventually hands over the fruit.
Estala: Yay!
Estala proceeds to messily eat the mango, before fading away, only living behind a confused Seggan and mango splatters.
Seggan: That is not what I expected….
Vastus: This has to be a trick Edit: Holy shit confirmed!
Julian Skies: CONFIRMED! This is huge, this is proof of ghosts and an afterlife.
SplodyFace: Didn’t work for me, though I’m not on Skagla
Bnnuy_beans: Confirmed, and Estala is adorable, at least for an original member of the fascist KFC brigade.
xXKageAsashinXx: OK we might have a problem. I’ve been seeing if anything can keep Estala away, and nothing I’ve tried has worked so far.
Lead: No effect
Silver: No Effect
Gold: No Effect
Protection charms: No Effect. Estala asked what the weird symbols were for.
Salt: Kinda works? Estala gets distracted while eating the salt before asking for the mango.
Owen102: An invincible unstoppable mango addicted ghost… better hope she remains benevolent.
Saint-Andros: Found something that works. A glass window stops her flat
The attached video shows a human Saint-Andros doing the ritual behind a pane of glass. Estala can be seen swooping in, before slamming into the glass. She sticks there for a moment before humorously sliding to the ground with a loud squeaking sound. She remains there for a few moments before fading away.
Grand_Venlil_kisser: Makes sense. Her wiki page says she was one of the 10% of Krakotl who can’t see glass.
Jenny: Has anyone tried different offerings since it says on her wiki she was very… ‘food motivated’ in her life?
Oscara: So after testing, while the summoning ritual is the same (Saying KFC three times doesn’t work), Estala will accept literally anything as an offering if it’s edible. I’ve tried with KFC, mangos, burgers, chips, tacos, pizza. Also, Estala is adorable while eating, I’ve never seen a happier Krakotl.
Objectively Ulchid: What about if you say the ritual but don’t have an offering?
PinHead: Could be risky, but interesting info if anyone is willing to risk it.
Yostaibibi: OH GOD DO NOT SUMMON ESTALA WITHOUT AN OFFERING, IT IS NOT WORTH IT.
Bainshie: Wait you can’t just say that without info
Jkob: Now I’ve got to know
Jkob: Oh god I should have listened, see the video
The attached video shows Letian Jkob doing the summoning once again, with Estala appearing.
Estala: Hey, you got a mango friend?
Jkob: Sorry, no mango today ghost.
Estala: That’s fine. What about other food, I’ll take anything.
Jkob: Nope, no food here either.
There is a moment’s pause before Estala’s wings slump in dejection, hurt in her voice as her Krakotl eyes fill with tears.
Estala: But why would you call me with promises of mango if you don’t have one? I thought we were friends. This is the second time this has happened now, this is just really mean
Jkob: I’m sorry, I can go get something.
Estala: No it’s fine, I’ll just go back to being dead and all.
Estala doesn’t fade away this time, instead slowly waddling off dejectedly, silently sobbing as the ghost Krakotl leaves the area.
Handel: How could you, you MONSTER!
Jkob: I didn’t know it would be like that!
Handel: I’m going to summon Estala and give her two mangos to make up for you!

As always, thank you to u/SpacePaladin15 for the wonderful universe that is NoP! Thank you to u/sruisingNWfor proof reading and helping me make this chapter as good as it can be, you're the man! Honestly LoM wouldn't have gone very far without him! If you haven't you should absolutely go read Foundations of Humanity! It's very good!
A big thanks to u/Saint-Andros for helping with proofreading! He writes Out of Our Elements which is a very good one! If you like a good fic in the wilderness and a pair of cute 'friends' ;) you'll love OOE!
Also thank you to u/brotanics! For this wonderful fanart of Taisa. And this one! She's so cute I'm gonna die
And thank you to u/Jimdandy117! For this adorable fanart of Chris and Renkel! Dear god help he's adorable I love him so much
Thank you u/SlimyRage, or AsciiSquid on Discord, for makin' Vengineer Taisa Gamin'. She's absolutely adorable, I love her lil' workers apron. She looks so excited to get to work!
Thank you u/Braquen! For this astounding Pixel Art of Taisa after a few range day dates with Chris! Her little hat and gunbelt are absolutely astounding!
Thank you u/VeryUnluckyDice! For this Artwork of Taisa and Chris as characters from One Piece! I've never seen or read it before but it's incredibly cute!
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Memory Transcription Subject: Salamar, Gojid Exterminator, Heartwood River Exterminator Offices Rank: Extermination Officer
Date [Standardized Human Time]: October 5th, 2136
Can finally get back to work. Another paw, another pile of ash on the wind.
The rumbling warble of my alarm woke me from a deep and dreamless sleep as the familiar bronze light of the venlillian sun filtered into my cold, empty, apartment through the gaps in my blinds. My claws tugged at my quills as I ran them across my face and out across my back, squeezing my eyes shut and trying to shake the alluring call of returning to sleep from my muscles. The covers fell to the floor with a soft, almost distant whumf as the dacham weave crumpled into a heap of gray and pink textiles.
Stars burst across my closed eyes as I tried to rub free the fatigue clouding my vision and mind before sitting up with a long sigh, swinging my legs out from the bed to plant them on the hard stone floors to shove myself up to a waiting first meal, followed by a warm bath. “Come on, Sal, Lentan said he wanted you in early this paw.”
Protector save me; if it’s my first paw back from ‘leave’ and that Ven has me watching them aga-
The annoyed sentence fell apart in my mind, faltering as I thought about the ‘Protector’ and what it’d ever actually done for me, or my people. She’d let me be abandoned here. Let me wander scared, hungry, and alone for nearly [0.75 Solar Years]. Now the Cradle was gone. Not lost. Not captured. Not subjugated with some hope at future freedom.
It was gone.
Glassed by the grays into, from what few pictures the public had been shown, little more than a polished ball. A few good pawfulls of people had made it through in the deeper raid shelters, a few hundred thousand but… But that didn’t fix what had been done. Didn’t fix that it was still gone.
It was where my parents had met; though that was the end of any love I had for it. I was left to flutter in the wind, no uncle, or aunt, no grandparent or cousin; nobody who would raise a claw to catch me. Before they all stampeded off to that ‘cradle’ and left me behind to fend for myself alone on a planet I’d hardly known. A place I’d never even seen; nor would I ever get the chance to. The place that I should feel something about. Some hate towards the Humans that had invaded it in the first place? Some loss? Some sorrow? Some anger?
Some… something.
But it wasn’t there.
That burning pit of rage in my chest that I felt like I should be feeling… never sparked.
No. All that was there was apathy. Apathy and loneliness.
At least there’s something to look forward to next paw… Could always ask the Huma-- Chris abo-
The clatter of my lashing, frustrated tail smacking into the side of the hardwood table at the end of my bed snapped me from the depths of my mind with a start. I let out a small grunting laugh as I shook my head at the thought. I doubted it was something he’d want to talk about, certainly not with me.
I skewered a few vegetables and scooped up a pawful of amarek seed pods for first meal, tossing them in my mouth as I poured myself a glass of water to tamp them down with. The perfectly ripe mel roots and sturen gourds cut cleanly as I crunched away at the zingy, sap-filled pods. When we were still working together, Rensa had always mothered me about having so much sugar so soon after waking, but I suppose it never really stuck.
The sound of water filling the bath filled the air as a thin pall of steam drifted through the small bathroom, setting moisture onto the tips of my quills as I watched the waters roiling, soap slicked surface. Warm water spilled into my fur as I slipped into the tub with a long groan, soaking for a few blessed minutes just enjoying the warmth. A long, tired sigh slipped from my snout as I thought about everything I’d need to get done this paw. Outside of work, one thing stuck out far more than the others.
I hope Lentan has good news this time.
[Advance Memory Transcript by Time Unit: 1.5 Hours]
My walk to work was just as chilly as it had been every paw for the last [19 Solar Years]; not that it was a particularly long commute anyhow. Nor was it ever lacking in something, or someone, to watch. The Heartwood’s golden leaves twirled as they fell through the warm light that filtered through the sky above, painting the clouds beyond a beautiful array of purples, reds and oranges. The friendly, familiar hustle and bustle of Heartwood’s people welcomed me as I padded past the forum, staring up at the rustling golden canopy high above.
Eyes and ears followed me through my commute as people of the town watched me go. Some were with their herds, no doubt gossiping about me, the office and, of course, the Cradle. Others were alone, sympathetic tails curling in my direction as they went about their own paws or tended to their storefronts. It was odd, having people be sympathetic to you for a loss you didn’t even feel. Feeling like they were mourning the loss that should’ve been yours more than you ever would or could.
The heavy, sharply-chiseled blocks and broad Heartwood doors of the H.R.E.O. came into view as I passed Town Hall. Lentan's old tray-truck was in his reserved spot beside the street, signaling that the Chief was, as always, here early. The welcoming, whining creak of the aging, unoiled hinges sounded out into the office’s quiet lobby as I swung them open, finding the slight but familiar tinge of ash and accelerant hanging in the air.
The office felt more like home than my apartment ever really had.
As annoying as some of them may be, my coworkers were the closest to a family I’d ever managed to find since I was abandoned. Aside from the few wispy memories of my parents I still clung to, some of the best I ever had were last-meals at Rensa’s or Shenod’s, or winding down after long paws of field training, or of helping with the festival.
I missed having Rensa around more than anything I felt about the Cradle, about my ‘family’ that was still the- were still there. My ears flapped as my tail thumped annoyedly against the ground, trying my best to drive off the encroaching thoughts before I stepped into the office proper with heavy, plodding steps towards my desk. I slung my satchel across the back of my seat, collecting my duty kit and slipping it onto my belt with a grunt of frustration as I looked to Lentan’s office.
The door was open, light spilling across the floor like a wash on the riverbank as the rhythmic sound of the Chief’s claws tapping away at his pad danced through the opening while I made my way across the short distance. I hesitated just shy of the light, listening intently as his voice drifted to my ears. “-ic, I think you’ll find the H.R.E.O. to be just what you’re looking for. Quiet, friendly, wonderful food for when the cubs come to visit and well off the pa-...”
Lentan trailed off, the silence being filled by a curious, unfamiliar grunt before his more familiar, amused tone called me out. “Salamar, you’re no cub anymore, no need to hide in the door. Come in.”
A rush of warmth flooded just beneath my fur at the mock reprisal as I stepped forward and slowly slid the door open the rest of the way. >Apologies< “Good Waking, Sir. You wanted to see me?”
“Indeed I did.” He replied, flicking his ears to the chair in front of his desk on my left, and the broad, slightly graying Gojid with well kept white quills sitting in it. “I thought you might like to meet, and thank, our newest officer.”
The man turned in his seat as he stood, grunting out a gruff, if not welcoming, greeting with a shallow bow. “Good waking, Salamar. Lentan has told me plenty about you, and your more… recent duties. I am Ulmic.”
My quills shook with annoyance at the thought of my last few paws of work before my mandated ‘leave’. It was far more like a one man pup-sitting service just keeping Farzen and Marlek’s hides out of the fire, and trouble. I spared a glance at his satchel before returning the bow, spying the gleaming, well worn mark of a Senior Exterminator. “And you, Ulmic. I wish you better luck with them than I had.”
“We’ve met before, unfortunately. I’d bet credits to greeol I’ve handled far worse in my time at Dawn Creek.” He replied with a deep, rolling belly laugh, as his tail thumped against his leg. “These two are more like spoiled cubs than anything else and I assure you I’ve got experience a-plenty with cubs, young and grown, at this point.”
>Good to hear.< “Is there anything you’d like my help with? I’ve got the full report from their last incident at my desk.”
“I think that’d be a good start, yes.” Ulmic answered, taking a step before stopping and turning to Lentan. “Unless you’ve anything more for me, sir?”
“Nothing pressing. More immediately, Salamar, you are to get Ulmic situated; he’s at the desk across from yours. Once he’s squared away, make sure he has any equipment he needs and give him a tour of town along with Shenod, once he’s in.”
“On it, Sir. Would you like us to take Farzen and Marlek with us to keep an eye on them?” The question tumbled from my mouth as I slid clear of the door frame to let Ulmic pass.
>No.< Lentan shook his head, his tail mirroring the motion. “Estrea will keep an eye on them, they could do to get caught up on their paperwork this paw. Dismissed”
>Yes Sir.<
Ulmic stood over the empty desk in front of mine, rooting about inside his oversized satchel for a moment before producing a wood-set holo-frame, setting it down in the corner and turning it on with a tap of his claw. Images of a happy family flickered to life across the screen as Ulmic let out a warm, affectionate chuff before digging back into his bag for a few other personal items.
My heart panged like an empty canister as I slipped past his side to pull the file from my desk, watching as the image switched to the next in queue, showing Ulmic and the woman from the last picture pressed tight with each other in a well lit park with high, happy ears. “Beautiful family, Ulmic.”
>Appreciation.< “Thank you, Salamar.” He answered, accepting the file with open paw and plunking it onto his desk before flipping it open to skim. >Welcoming.< “You should come by some time, Bernia makes the most delicious Tefek Roast.”
“Tefek?” >Unfamiliar< I replied, smoothing my quills out before sliding into my seat.
“It’s a traditional recipe she got from her mother.” He answered, his voice a little distracted as he read through the report from the festival. “Big chunks of Tefek in a rich broth with a few other savory fruits and vegetables.”
“I can’t say I’ve heard of it, unfortunately, I was born here.”
“Me too, and neither had I before I’d met her. It’s really quite popular back on-” Ulmic hesitated, his quills flaring as his ears fell to the sides of his head and he finished with a sigh. “It was quite popular on the Cradle.”
“I’m sure I’d like it then, but I wouldn’t want to be a burden…” I hesitated for a moment, the distant sound of the office’s front doors swinging open harvesting my attention before I returned to watch the older Gojid pull his eyes from the file in front of him to stare at the Holo-frame. “Did… Did you lose anyone?”
“No- well yes a few but no one I was… close to. A few distant cousins and an aunt that were still planetside but we’ve not spoken in quite some time. I suppose I’m one of the lucky ones.” Ulmic’s eyes lifted, searching my face as he spoke in a soft, pained tone. “I’ve been informed my Brother and his family were evacuated in the first wave, thankfully. Though I have little information on where they ended up once the glass was cold, outside of being ‘On Earth’. And the Humans’ ‘U.N.’ has been far from helpful in trying to get in contact with them.”
“Ulmic?” I began, chewing at an idea that popped into my mind as Ulmic’s attention sullenly returned to the report in front of him. “How do you feel about Humans?”
He stopped, looking back up from the report again with a bewildered look on his face as Shenod’s heavy footsteps entered the room. >Confusion< “Currently annoyed but… I’ve met a few seemingly good ones now, at least. Why?”
“Because I think,” I started, grunting a little as I pulled myself from the chair and gave Shenod a quick flick of acknowledgement before tapping a claw on the singular string of blocky Human script farther down the page. “that one might be able to help.”
“Ah, yes; the big one. We’ve met…” Ulmic replied, a flick of recognition crossing his ears as Shenod came to a stop between our desks.
“Well I’m sure we’ll come across them at some point this paw.” Shenod responded, placing a broad, sympathetic paw on Ulmic’s shoulder before continuing. “For now though, it’s been a while so we need to get caught up and make sure you’ve got everything you need.”
[Advance Memory Transcript by Time Unit: 2.5 Hours]
The solid thunk of closing doors punctuated the cold, quiet twilight air as Shenod, Ulmic and I dismounted from the van at the rear of the office, overlooking the distant basin and the darkened, quiet festival grounds. Ulmic let out a long, appreciative whistle as he rocked on his heels, his quills flaring along his back arching in a broad stretch. “I think I might be getting too old for those jump seats. Feel like my back’s been put through a dacham-thresher.”
“They’re certainly not comfortable.” Shenod grunted, padding around the front of the van to stop at our side. “But they’re still better than those ones they had when we started!”
“You mean those hardened hydro-plastics? Might be one of the worst seats I’ve ever had the displeasure of sitting in.” Ulmic laughed in return, turning his attention from the fields in front of us to split it between Shenod and I. “Would you believe we still had a pair of the old trucks with them mounted in the bed?”
“Stars above, why?” Shenod asked, his ears an incredulous splay of confusion. “We got rid of our last one… [8 Solar Years] ago now and it couldn’t have been a day too soon!”
“They were always one of those problems that weren’t quite pressing enough to be a top priority but just annoying enough to always come up in the office reviews. Well, that and the budget, I suppose.” Ulmic sighed as he turned his attention back to the open, gently waving field between us and the choppy waters of the basin. “This where the town has its festival?”
“That it is.” I answered, stepping forward to his side after Shenod had prodded me forward, pointing at the shore as his ears traced the rim of the valley. “It's held at the basin side. We pitch in with whatever the organizers need to get running. Usually it’s help moving the wind-breakers in place, clearing any overgrowth, lending a paw to the vendors and lighting the bonfires.”
“Not far off from what Lentan has yo-” He hung up on the sentence for a moment, setting his jaw before correcting himself. “Sorry, it's been ages since I changed offices. What Lentan has us doing to help the farmers with their fields. Can’t say I’ve heard of many offices pitching in on civilian affairs.” >Odd.<
“It's certainly similar.” The answer shot from my mouth like a Talkan lighting off from the basin. My words fell short, being swept away by the gentle breeze dancing through the valley this paw leaving behind an awkward, empty silence. A memory came to mind as I watched Ulmic’s tail tap against his leg in thought. “He told me, when I’d asked why he was making so many changes, when I was barely more than a cub, that he ‘felt we should be more than just a shield against the predator’.”
Ulmic’s attention turned to me, keen interest in his eyes as he listened. >Go on.<
“He said that ‘Exterminators should be a core pillar of the community itself and be ready to step in for anything that community could ever ask of them’. Then that next festival he sent us, Shenod, Rensa and I, to see Yinav and offer her anything she needed.” My quills pressed against the cold metal of the van as I leaned against it and looked to the drifting spectrum of clouds filling the sky beyond the Heartwood. “I hadn’t understood it at the time. Hadn’t understood why, or how, anything other than destroying predators could be the best thing we could do for the town. Couldn’t begin to grasp how it was even remotely helpful to carry someone else's load to their stall, clear their fields or help set up some festival when I could’ve been at their side with my torch keeping them safe instead.”
“And now?” Ulmic grunted, the interest in his eyes was dripping from his voice as he shifted, tilting his head my way.
Now?
A small ember of warmth in my gut told me how I felt just the same as the memories that came to mind of the paws spent helping Yinav, old as she was now, get everything started and ready for the festival. Or the pride at paws spent carefully torching fields to prepare for the next crop rotation before helping Coleck with hauling his new equipment down from the delivery truck so he could get it configured.
“Now I look forward to it. I enjoy helping around the festival more than ‘normal’ exterminator work. It feels… productive helping the community, giving back to the people that took me in when I was alone.”
>Admirable< Ulmic’s attention turned from me back out to the distant festival grounds, the area left empty but for a small herd having a picnic beneath its awnings. “I should think it's quite rewarding, then. Certainly sounds a far more peaceful, if perhaps more strenuous, brand of community work than we’d had in Dawn Creek. And you, Shenod?”
“I’ve been on-board with it since Lentan first enacted the schedule. Chief’s had my name first on the list to help for the last what… [14, 15 Solar Years] now?” Shenod replied with a hum as he hefted his pack up onto his back before hoisting mine up towards me and turning to head out into the street, beckoning us after them. “I quite like exterminating, working to keep the community safe. But helping it flourish? That’s a glowing reward all its own and the kind of work I love.”
>Cautious Excitement.< “I think, if watching that pair of overgrown cubs will allow for it, I’d quite like the work myself.” I answered, swinging my own pack around onto my thermal-suit-clad back before padding after Shenod out onto the soft, black asphalt.
I followed the pair through town, noticing more and more sympathetic ears and tails following us as we went. That creeping weight of feeling like I was lesser for not grieving as much as the herds around me for a loss that wasn’t really theirs pulled down at my heart again. Ulmic’s tail dropped, his quills rising defensively beneath his suit as a mote of grief fell into his shoulders.
Before my thoughts could get away from me I heard the familiar, drifting notes of Chris in the forum accompanied by the new, far less practiced sounds of Renkel and his ‘ukelele’. I still couldn’t believe the Human had decided to teach the pup music, let alone that he’d bought him an instrument himself and, according to Rensa, insisted he teach him to play for free. Ulmic’s ears perked up at the sound flitting on the wind, his head tilting with curiosity as the tightness in his shoulders faded away.
“Little early for them this paw, eh Salamar?” Shenod grunted, shifting the pack on his back a little as we turned the corner to the edge of the forum, finding our view blocked by the herds milling about at its edge.
“Little early for who?” >Confusion.< Ulmic asked, standing a little straighter to see over the mass of Venlil in front of us before letting out a knowing grunt. “Ah, the Human. Lentan has informed me of his ‘departmental policy’ where he, or any other Humans, is concerned.”
“That won’t be a problem for you, I hope.” Shenod stated flatly, fixing Ulmic with a curious ear as his eyes stayed on Chris, Taisa and Renkel along with the smaller herd that’d formed around them.
>Just fine.< “I’ve no intention to be involved in another near diplomatic incident and I have no problem with Humans so long as they aren’t making one on their own.” Ulmic responded, his ears twitching with amusement at the discordant notes and raucous giggles Renkel was tugging from the strings of his instrument as Chris leaned close to instruct him. “Is i- he -teaching the pup music?”
“I was just as surprised when Rensa told me.” I answered, watching as Chris slid Renkel’s paw a little further up the length of the instrument, the sounds gaining a sprout more structure as Chris guided the pup through the right motions. “He’ll surprise you, usually in good ways if you’ll let him.”
“That seems to be the trend with them, at least the ones I’ve met.” Ulmic chuffed, his tail tapping against his leg as he shifted his position to get a better view. “They are… not what I had expected.”
“Not what I’d expected either.” Shenod hummed as he and I stepped forward to ply through the crowd and out into the forum proper, earning a flare of surprise from Ulmic’s quills before he started to follow after us with a grunt of protest.
Chris spotted us over the well groomed flower beds and short, stunted trees, giving us a pleasant wave as we approached, sending the attention of the herd gathered around him towards us. He’d lost the lower part of his visor while they’d been gone, leaving his mouth exposed as he called out a greeting to us. It was surprising, looking at his teeth without the ‘context’ of his eyes was not nearly as horrifying as I had thought it might have been.
“Afternoon, Gentlemen and… Ulmic? Guess you really did get to thinkin’ about takin’ up a new office!” Chris laughed, slapping one of his broad hands against his knee as his surprisingly familiar looking teeth flashed past the shattered edge of his visor.
“That I did, Bernia and I felt it was finally time for a… a change of pace after so long in Dawn Creek.” Ulmic responded, the press of his quills against his suit falling as Shenod and I settled down onto our usual ‘bench’ at the side of one of the planters.
“Well we’re happy to have you, Ulmic. Stars, we might need to invite Alvi and them over one paw!” Taisa whistled from over Renkel’s shoulder, her tail wrapped tight around Chris’ wrist as she ran her claws through her brother’s wool, prompting the pup forward to Shenod and I.
A flash of something passed across Ulmic’s quills as she spoke, a happy, burbling laugh spilling from his mouth before he responded. “I suppose you might, although I think Bernia and I would like to get settled in before having any ‘emotional umbrellas’ around.”
Taisa met his laugh with her own, leaning gently against Chris’ side as she spoke. “Well you just say the word and I’ll give them a call. Now, I trust Uncle Shenod and Salamar have given you a good tour?”
“That they have, just as beautiful as I remember it…” He trailed off, shifting uneasily on his paws as he looked between the two of him, his ears flapping with thought.
Chris watched him for a moment, his hand tugging through the fur on his jaw as he leaned back on the bench. “Something on your mind, Ulmic?”
Ulmic hesitated, his mouth opening and closing as he looked for the right words. “Just… you two were on the cradle, right?”
The pair, and the herd around them, tensed. Chris and Taisa shared a glance, Taisa’s lopped ear flicking slightly as she pulled herself a little closer to Chris, the sound of Renkel’s barely restrained beeping while he climbed into Shenod’s lap the only sound amongst us.
“Yes, yes we were.” Chris rumbled, warryness lacing his words as his fingers ran through Taisa’s tail tuft. “Why?”
“I was… looking for someone, my Brother and his family. I know they were evacuated bu-”
“Where were they?” Taisa whistled in quiet question, her ears swiveling about with concern as her coiled tension started to unwind.
“They lived in Comet’s Gate, it’s- er, it was -the largest city on the Sandall Islands”
“The Sandalls…” Chris leaned back with a contemplative hum, his fingers working through his beard again as he thought before letting out a stiff grunt. “Those islands were under the Hope’s aid corridor. She dropped off her refugees in Houston, not too far from the port if I remember correctly. I’ve got some friends there and I’m sure our U.N. rep’d be happy to help, if’n he’s the time of course. Just have Shenod or Salamar send us their names and I’ll get on it here in a few hours.”
“Thank you…” Ulmic replied, his mouth hanging open for a moment as he started to look for a seat.
“Not a problem, Ulmic, we’re more than happy to help.” Chris replied, his usual more upbeat growl returning as he pulled the guitar back up into his lap, pulling lilting, happy notes into the air and earning a happy squeal from Renkel as he squirmed free of Shenod’s paws before bolting to his own, smaller instrument.
Ulmic settled down onto the bench at my side, pulling in a deep, relieved breath of the thick, flower laden air as we watched the pair of ‘musicians’ before he leaned towards me. “It wouldn’t be a burden at all to have you over for last meal, Salamar. I’m sure Bernia would love to meet you.”
I thought for a moment, watching Chris’ fingers dancing across the instruments strings as the twirling, golden leaves of the Heartwood rained down on the forum around us. “I think I’d like that, Ulmic.”
>Very good.< “I’ll let Bernia know you’ll be along then.” He responded, pulling his pad from his pack and sending off a message before leaning back and staring up at the Heartwood’s canopy high above.
We sat and watched, for a time, letting the paw pass us by as we watched the ‘terrifying predator’ give music lessons to every pup that would listen, just waiting for a real call to inevitably come.
It never did.
That Tefek sure does sound good.
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As always, thank you to u/SpacePaladin15 for the wonderful universe that is NoP! Thank you to u/cruisingNW for proof reading and helping me make this chapter as good as it can be, you're the man! Honestly LoM wouldn't have gone very far without him! If you haven't you should absolutely go read Foundations of Humanity! It's very good!
A big thanks to u/Saint-Andros for helping with proofreading! He writes Out of Our Elements which is a very good one! If you like a good fic in the wilderness and a pair of cute 'friends' ;) you'll love OOE!
Also thank you to u/brotanics! For this wonderful fanart of Taisa. And this one! She's so cute I'm gonna die
And thank you to u/Jimdandy117! For this adorable fanart of Chris and Renkel! Dear god help he's adorable I love him so much
Thank you u/SlimyRage, or AsciiSquid on Discord, for makin' Vengineer Taisa Gamin'. She's absolutely adorable, I love her lil' workers apron. She looks so excited to get to work!
Thank you u/Braquen! For this astounding Pixel Art of Taisa after a few range day dates with Chris! Her little hat and gunbelt are absolutely astounding!
Thank you u/VeryUnluckyDice! For this Artwork of Taisa and Chris as characters from One Piece! I've never seen or read it before but it's incredibly cute!
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Memory Transcription Subject: Renkel, Venlil Child, Honorary Crystal Star Shipping Mascot
Date [Standardized Human Time]: October 2nd, 2136
Fishies and fun this paw! School is fun but fish are better! I wonder if Ervonen will like them?!
Mama’s paw shook me awake and she nuzzled my snout with a happy beep. “Good waking, little Rekan. Did you sleep well?”
“Mhm…” I mumbled, my tail slowly wagging beneath the covers as I squeezed my Rekan one last time before giving a big yawn and a bigger stretch to nuzzle back up at Mama. “I’m hungry.”
“You always are, little one.” Mama laughed musically as she pulled my covers aside and scooped me from my bed to set me on the floor. “Come on, I’m sure your Papa’s got something good cooking for first meal.”
“Then we can set up the fishies?!” I bleated, my tail wagging so hard, my whole body was moving! It hurt a little but I just couldn’t help it as I looked at the box waiting in the corner.
“Of course you can; a little dulbet told me Chris and Taisa are very excited to help you. Now come on, wouldn’t wanna keep them waiting, now would we?” Mama whistled, her tail poking at my side before I grabbed it to follow her while bleating excitedly.
“Fishies!”
Chris’ loud rumbling laugh and Taisa’s soft bouncing whistle echoed upstairs as Mama led me down for food. The taste of Papa’s food and the rumbling in my tummy almost shaded my excitement for the promise of setting up my new toy and learning the ookaloo…ukayook… tiny guitar! My tail was thumping against the stairs’ walls behind mel as Chris turned in his chair to look over at us. “Good Mornin’ lil’ man. You excited?”
>Yes! Yes! Yes!< My head and tail bobbed and nodded as fast as I could manage as I clambered up to sit between Mama and Taisa, earning another happy laugh from Chris as he leaned back in his chair and ‘winked’ at me, getting an annoyed tail flick from Mama. “Well, once we’re done with eatin’ we’ll get started. Don’t go inhalin’ it, though; I don’t wanna get in trouble with your Mama now!”
“I’ll try my best!” I whistled back, squirming in my seat as Papa slipped a steaming bowl of crispy browned veggies in front of me before gently nuzzling my crown. “Good waking Papa, thank you!”
“Good waking, Rekan. Eat up, sounds like you’ve got a busy paw in front of you.”
Uh-oh…
I stared at my bowl of food with my skewer in my paw as I thought about if I should eat fast or slow. Chris had said not to get him in trouble with Mama for eating too fast, but Papa said I should eat up… It was confusing so I wasn’t sure.
Mama leaned against my side, letting out an amused, curious mewl as she looked between the skewer and the bowl before sighing and scratching her claws through my wool. >Silly pup.< “Go ahead, Rekan. Just don’t make yourself sick again.”
>OK!< I replied, flapping my ears for a moment before popping the first chunk of mel root into my mouth with a happy trill and then dug into the rest of the meal. Mama and Papa are the best cooks; at school they just had salads and fruit for snacks! My teacher said I should ask Papa to make a big serving for the class's first Night-Party! Papa said he’d think about it, but I knew I could get him to if I asked real nice and promised to be extra helpful with chores.
Mama, Papa, Taisa and Chris were talking. I wasn’t sure what it was about though, sounded like grown-up stuff about their ship and money and stuff. The last chunk of the crunchy green one disappeared from my skewer before the scrape of my bowl on the counter said I was done. I looked over to Chris and Taisa, my tail flicking about behind me as I threw my paws into the air and squealed. “Fishies!!!”
“Alright, alright lil’ man, let's get that tank set up for ya. You comin’ Darlin’?” Chris laughed, sliding his chair back with a funny chatter before stretching and letting out a long groan.
>Of course.< “Yep, Papa can you check in with Parnel for me, please? They should fit in the truck just fine.” Taisa asked Papa, her tail slipping around Chris’ wrist as she gave Papa a headbutt. She was scared again, Big Sisters weren’t supposed to get scared, I don’t think… I didn’t like it when she was scared; it made me scared, too.
“Of course, wood-chip, I’ll let you know if he’s got anything he thinks you can work with. Want me to drop whatever he’s got off at the hangar or bring it on back up here?” Papa replied with a happy, questioning whistle as he pulled away to grab his jangly keys.
“The hangar is perfect, thank you; I’ll send the lock-pass to your pad so you can get in. Thank’s again, Papa.” Taisa beeped, her tail gently tugging at Chris’ wrist.
“I’m gonna watch Earth Fishies!!!” I bleated as I bolted up the stairs, the clickity-clack of my claws on the wood following close behind me as I burst into my room and pulled the colorful, fish-covered box out from the corner.
“You are positively bouncing there, bud.” Chris’ deep voice sounded from the door along with Taisa’s adoring mewl. He reminded me a lot of Uncle Shenod, they’re both always really nice to me; and they’re both huge! I wonder if my teacher would let me bring him to school, one paw…
>Understandable!< “I think if you asked Mama she’d say that’s about what I looked like the first time she took me to Parnel’s.” Taisa whistled, her tail slipping free from Chris’ wrist as she stepped forward to look at the box. “Well, ya gonna get it open?”
>Yes! Excited!< The box came apart quickly, Chris and Taisa laughing while I did my best trying to cut the tape open with my claws as my tail thrashed about behind me with excitement. After what felt like a full claw it finally opened, revealing my rightful fishy treasure inside. “Yes! Fish time!”
“Noooot quite, little man.” Chris said, sliding the box aside, spilling the contents across the weave on the floor. “First we gotta build some stuff, and we can’t forget the tank! Fishies aren’t very pretty if they don’t have any water to swim in.”
Taisa pressed close to his side, her tail slipping back around his arm again as she pulled out her pad, picking up a little blue book turning it over in her paw and opening it. >Interesting.< “This certainly doesn’t look too hard.”
“Oh it’s not, these mechanical tanks are way easier to get together and care for than…” Chris trailed off, sharing a glance with Taisa before reaching over to drag the empty glass tank in front of him. “Anyways. Let’s get sta-”
“Easier than what?” I asked, tilting my head as I scooted over to pick up a really flat gray fish.
Manta Ray!
“Uhm…” He looked at Taisa again, they were doing that thing Mama and Papa did a lot when I asked questions. I dunno what it means but it sure does happen a lot. “Than an aquarium! It’s a really big building with real fish in it. You can go watch them swim around and learn all about them! My family used to go to the one in DC every summer.”
A whole building full of fishies???
“I WANNA GO!!!” I bleated, my tail yanking my body about as it swept back and forth across the floor. “I wanna see the fishies too!”
“Well, Renkel, if’n your Ma and Pa is alright with it, then at some point I’ll be sure to take you.” Chris laughed, tousling my crown as a big smile filled his face and my tail wagged with anticipation. The other pups at school said they thought smiles were scary but Ervonen and I knew better! Chris kept Taisa safe and made her happy and that was all I needed to know about him and his teeth. “But for now we got a fish tank to build. Why don’t you and Taisa go get some water while I get the stand all put together, huh?”
Taisa’s ears swiveled with worry as her tail tightened around his arm; she was scared again, I don’t like it when she’s scared. I think she’s sad about her ear too but Mama lost her whole leg and she’s ok! I lept up from the floor and hugged Taisa before letting out a confident bleat as I bolted through the door toward the bathroom. “I’m a big pup! I can do it all by myself!”
“Ohhhhh no you don’t, little Rekan.” Mama laughed from the hall before scooping me from my paws to swing me up to her chest. “Your Papa just left and I am not gonna let you three do this without me!”
“But Mamaaa-”
“Don’t you ‘but Mama’ me, Renkel. Last time I asked you to fetch me some water, you dumped half of it on the floor and the other half on yourself. Come on, let's go get you some water so they can get it all ready for you.”
“Water for Fishies!”
“Water for Fishies, indeed.” Mama laughed as she carried me to the bathroom, Chris and Taisa’s voices fading to little whispers behind us. Mama set me on the soft woolgrass mat next to the top before rooting around in the closet for her mop bucket. She pulled the wooden bucket out after a second, then turned to me with high happy ears as she bent down to press it into my paws. >Goofy. Love you.< “You hold onto this for me while I draw the water, alright Rekan?”
>Love you too!< “I got it!” I exclaimed as I held the bucket over my head, following Mama to the side of the sink as she started the faucet. My paws couldn’t quite reach high enough to get up to the counter… Maybe I did need help.
“Thank you, Renkel. Up you go!” Mama whistled as she took the bucket and slid it under the running faucet before turning to hoist me up to the counter to watch.
>Excited?<
>Yes!<
>Favorite yet?<
>Flat Gray one!<
>Have to show me.<
>Yes! Excited!<
>Can tell. So am I.<
The rushing of the water came to a stop as it got just short of the top, then Mama hoisted the bucket free from the sink and set it on the floor next to her as I hopped down from the counter on the other side of it. “You grab one side, Renkel, I’ll take the other.”
I’m a big pup, I can do this!
I grabbed the bucket with both paws, helping Mama hold it up with an excited whistle as I followed her back to my room. Taisa and Chris were almost finished already! The tank was up on a big wooden base and they’d even gotten all the sand in the bottom!
“There you are, bud, was worried you’d gone for a swim in there!” Chris rumbled, crouching down to take the bucket from Mama and me as Taisa played with the fish and funny plants on the floor.
“Nope! All dry!” I replied, holding my paws up to show him as I padded over to Taisa. “What are you doing?”
“Getting your new friends set up! They’re very cool, can’t believe they’d put this much effort into something like this!”
“Oh, people loooove their fish tanks.” Chris answered, bending over to scoop up the plants before dropping them one by one into the swirling water with a plop. “‘Sides, at this point this kinda AI work is so easy I could probably do it with the right program and a few hours to play with it.”
“Still, this much for just something to look at?” Taisa asked, slipping the manta ray into my paws as Mama sat down behind me and pulled me into her lap with a squeak as I showed her my favorite fish.
“Very nice Rekan, what’s it called?”
“A Manta Ray! It flaps around and eats all the little stuff floating in the water!” The toy’s fins flopped in front of me as I bounced it in the air to show Mama what it did. “Chris said it’s a filter feeder!”
Chris stepped to the side as Taisa stood on the tips of her paws to drop in the first fish, a long blue one that fell with plunk, hanging in the water for a moment before it started slowly swimming about the tank.
And then a yellow one, and a green one and a silver one and a pawful of orange ones! They were swimming around like a holovideo I never thought I’d ever get to see! I could feel my tail flailing about happily behind me, slapping against Mama as she let out an ecstatic, amused whistle of laughter and pulled me tight against her. “Happy, Rekan?”
All I could do was flick my ears and stare.
Chris turned to me, nodding his head at the manta still in my paws as he spoke. “You wanna do the honors for the last one, little man?”
Manta!
Mama let go as I hopped to my feet and Chris lifted me up level with the top of the tank, the fish inside looked funny through the churning water as they explored their new Robo-fishie home. I gave the Manta a hug and let out a happy trill before leaning forward to drop the flat-friend into the water. He fell in with a splash, throwing water up at Chris and me, making the Human splutter as Mama, Taisa and I bleated with laughter.
“Alright, back on the floor with you, ya menace.” Chris grumbled, setting me back on the floor so I could see the tank.
The Manta was lazily flapping through the water, gliding past the other schools of little robo fish before it banked around a big rock and passed by the front of the tank. Mama’s paw touched my shoulder as she crouched at my side to watch with me, my tail coiling with wonder as I stared up at the dancing ocean in front of me. “What do you say, Rekan?”
“Thank you Chris, Thank you Taisa.” I answered, giving each of them a hug, not taking my eyes off the tank for a second.
“No problem at all, lil’ man. Now, you let me get cleaned up and then we can go get you started on the Uke, eh?”
Best. Paw. Ev-
///---///
ERROR: REMAINDER OF LOADED TRANSCRIPT CORRUPTED.
ERROR CODE: 48623-MS. INCORRECT STORAGE OF DATA ITEM.
SOLUTION: ATTEMPT RECOVERY? Y/N
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ATTEMPTING…
ATTEMPTING…
ATTEMPT FAILED.
SOLUTION: LOAD NEXT TRANSCRIPT IN QUEUE FOR ‘THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE BLACKSBURG BURNER AND THE SKALGAN SHOWSTOPPER’? Y/N
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SOLUTION ACCEPTED. LOADING NEXT TRANSCRIPT.
///---///
Memory Transcription Subject: Mercet, Sulean Captain, Owner Operator of Federation Shipping Vessel Stellar Companion of the Companion Shipping Concern.
Date [Standardized Human Time]: October 3rd, 2136
Holy Auras help me. I think I’m going to go insane.
The rolling thrum of the Companion’s drive pulsed through her deck plates, stirring me awake in my chair as it shifted higher for a moment. The streaking stars in the viewscreen pulled my attention from the scattered cargo order papers I’d fallen asleep over at my desk. Despite [29 Solar Years] underway and [14 Solar Years] with my own command I’d never really gotten used to the beauty of subspace travel.
A long sigh slipped from my snout as I sat up, scratching my antlers and pulling the papers closer, sifting through the disorganized stack until I was satisfied they were mostly in order before forcing myself to my hooves and out the door. Companion’s stretching officers' stateroom corridor greeted me with a cold silence but for the distant muffled voices of my crew in the galley below me. My ears bobbed, batting away the thought of a meal before checking on the new pilot at his duty station. A pilot’s job at sublight was far from complicated, but then again, you never could be too careful with those primitives where technology was concerned.
The door into Companion’s sprawling helm opened with a reverent chime to the tune of Cleansing of the Auras, revealing the stretching stars zipping past on the broad viewscreen that filled the space. Tefen, that fresh-furred Yotul pilot we’d been… assigned, was sat at the helm staring through the viewscreen ogling over the scenery.
May be a primitive but he’s got a good eye for beauty at least, I suppose.
The primitive’s ear flicked a moment as he pulled his attention from the screen and onto me, leaping to his paws with an enthusiastically barked address. “Good Afternoon, Captain! On course and on time, Sir! [1.5 Hours] until we reach the edge of Calex.”
I cringed back from the noise slightly, my ears furrowing with annoyance as I fixed him with an eye. “When is your relief?”
“[3 Hours], I’m set to be relieved by Sketeth, after she wakes up, on final approach to the docking yard, Sir.”
He’s a respectful primitive, at the very least. Better than the last one they sent us to work and maintain the loaders.
“Very well, as you were. We’ll make a sailor of you yet, primitive.” I grunted, turning back to the door, the sound of my hooves clacking on the decking punctuating the relative silence.
Tefen’s swaying tail fell still, his ears sinking back flush against his head as he dropped back into the pilot's seat. “Aye, Sir. Thank you, Sir.”
Primitive or no, beating him down won’t help him learn. It certainly didn’t help you now did it? Nor is it particularly good for one’s aura.
I paused in the open threshold, the dancing notes of The Cleansing of the Auras hanging on the still air as I chewed back a sigh and spoke. “Good job, Tefen. Keep at it, through effort your aura grows.”
The quiet rustling of the Yotul’s tail dragging across the floor behind him reached me before his voice as I passed through the waiting helm doors. “Thank you, Sir, it means a lot. I’ll do my best, Sir.”
There was dejection in him, despite the words and tail, but that was far from my current concern. I had a ship to run and an offload to organize. Heavy-load cargo stations were rarely an issue and I could count on one rack the amount of times I’d had offloading issues with one, but it certainly never paid to let someone else sink your profits. No, I’d learned that lesson well by now; if you want something done right you oversee it yourself.
The deck beneath my hooves rang out down the empty halls as I strode toward the lift and the distant sounds of my crew in the mess below. The warm chatter grew as the lift descended, individual voices drifting to my ears through the bulkheads as I stepped out into the crew berthing hall, acknowledging Betek with a flick of my ears as she passed; the broad Takkan engineer returned the gesture and hesitated before continuing aft towards the internal ‘special cargo’ hold. “Good Day, Captain. Not long now before port. You looking for someone?”
“You as well, Betek. Not currently, just doing my rounds, I’ll be along to the hold shortly. Everything in order?”
>Aye.< “Locked and stocked sir. Outrigger four sprung an error after we loaded her up at Fathret, read as a loss of cargo-lock hydraulic pressure. Shouldn’t be anything much and it still engaged the pins but it may well be a pain in the tail to get free.” She sighed, crossing her arms as she spoke.
“I’ve faith you can square her away. [12 Solar Years] now I think it’s been and I’m not certain we’ve found anything you couldn’t manage.” >Thankful.< I snorted, stomping my hind leg, thinking back on the day Kitsen and I had gotten Companion and set out on our own, before continuing. “Companion’s no clean hull at this point.”
“We’ll see, Mercet. Old hull or not, not much outshines these old Vallet Super Haulers for reliability.” Her brow and ears furrowed for a moment as she shifted on her feet, her attention drifting to the server panel mounted next to the bulkhead as her ears swung back up. >Joking< “Except maybe one of those fancy Khoa Jumpwerks K934 Supers…”
I rolled my eyes, turning from her to walk towards the galley and the voices inside as I tossed my head over my shoulder. “We’ve had this conversation every time something comes up, Betek, I’m not tossing Companion just because you want something new to work on!”
“Can’t blame a girl for trying, Captain.” >Had to try!< She replied with a wheezing laugh, waving me a brief goodbye as she turned to plod off on her way, the solid thud of her feet on the deck fading as she went.
Auras preserve me or that engineer will end up being the death of me.
The door into the galley slid open with a low, struggling hum as I stepped forward, letting the muffled voices within flow forth like an undammed river.
“-elling you that the fleets are gearing up for something. I’d bet it’s the Humans, those Protector-forsaken predators are trouble and I’d bet you a hundred creds and a cask of Red-Algae ol’ Nikonus knows it. This much movement this fa-”
Valletho’s impassioned squawking faltered as he noticed me, the Krakotl security officer’s vibrant feathers flaring with embarrassment for a moment while Kitsen’s amused nickering filled the air, the graying Iftali raised his speckled snout in the air as he spoke. “Good morning, Mercet. I set a bowl of Jumen nuts and Wax fruit aside for you earlier.”
Don’t think I could ask for a better business partner, First Mate… or cook.
“Thank you, Kitsen.” >Needed this.< I replied, bowing my antlers in thanks as I passed my friend and slid into my seat, pulling in the bowl of succulent fruits before turning my attention on Valletho. “Now, what was this about Humans and fleets?”
Valletho smoothed his stark green feathers, puffing out his chest and shaking his beak out before continuing. “Well, as I was saying, Sir, the fleet’s don’t move this many hulls into one place unless they’ve got a reason to. When I was in, the most I ever saw in one place was during a ceremony on Nishtal and, from what I’ve heard, that was a drop in a rainstorm compared to this. Nikonus knows something is coming that we don’t. You know what they, and the Arxur, did on the cradle just as well as I do. I be-”
The newly restarted squawking intensified as I started eating my meal, Kitsen shooting me an amused flick of his tail as he dove snout first into an argument with Valletho, doing his best to rile him up further and further.
Holy Auras I’ve done it now.
---
First Prev. Next

RAMMING SPEEEEEED
God.
Motherfucking.

DAMN.

Did this take a while in the making.
For those who care about the long and short of it, as usual, details are in the comments.

First.Prev.Index.

Mesik System Periphery
Not far from a ship named Socivotychek
—————
A quartet of Shish-Hash-Ait stand in the control center of a recommissioned surplus patrol vessel. Despite the presence of atmosphere, all four of them, women by their heights, wear sealed walking frames in varying stages of obsolescence.
The ship’s interior, like their spacesuits, is anachronistic, deprecated. Wall paneling is stripped, exposing asbestos-insulated pipes, wires, and girdering, and at every operational console, a grafted-on, commercially available controller.
Fifty years prior, the ship’s pair of heavy infrared pulse turrets, one atop the vessel and another just below its nose cone, had seen use defending supply lines in some long-forgotten resource skirmish.
Today, their use is something entirely different: disabling a ship called Socivotychek. A dull glow in the dorsal turret’s focusing array is the only outward hint of its firing as the unarmed vessel’s final thruster is slagged into a useless, thermally-emissive slurry.
Taking her hand from the targeting stick, the woman at the gunner’s console raises a pointer finger, spinning it clockwise twice as she rattles off a jargon-dense report.
"Thrusters deft, antenna deft, all accompanying drones are compounded." Of all the others, her suit is the most recent— a lightly armored combat variant; black armored plating guarding brushed steel hydraulics, with rounded, full facial visor.
"Take us in." She nods to the pilot beside her who, despite being in space, wears a visibly refurbished diving frame.
The one-way valve in the pilot’s helmet lets out a rhythmic hiss as she silently wrangles the shitty, mass-produced control interface. The odd, elevator ride-like sensation of acceleration dominates the bridge’s atmosphere before she finally speaks up, her heavily accented voice nonetheless laden with a professionalism that betrays her ratty attire.
"Bearing conflux; speed conflux, coming in at 5;2;25 Predicate Differential to orbital plane. Hooks are adept."
Taking aim, gunner fires. There’s a pneumatic thump, then a violent straining as, somewhere outside the patrol craft’s hull, a pair of steel cables strain to accommodate tiny differences in the now conjoined ships' speeds.
The gunner nods to a pair of women who’ve thus far waited by the airlock door in total silence. “Retrieval team, you're up.”
The pair of women, one in a commercial technician’s suit and another in a combat engineering frame, stand and wordlessly depart. On one’s back, a trio of acetylene tanks and a welding mask taped to her helmet, and the other, a heavy circular saw hanging from a tether attached to her chest.
A minute passes in their absence, then two, then four, eight. Gunner toys with her joystick, depressing the trigger just far enough for it to spring back into place. The tiny clicks produced by her nervous fidgeting slowly grow in frequency, until, finally, she gives in to the sense of imminent, looming catastrophe.
"You’re sure there’s no distress signals?"
Pilot chews on her breathing mouthpiece. "Senescence on the EM bands."
“Subspace?”
“Likewise.”
“Mmhmm.”
Hearing this, the gunner turns her full attention to the turrets’ sensor feeds, resigning herself to the fact that this is the only answer she’ll get. Time, she assures herself, is on her side. Even if the bizarre ship had gotten out a subspace distress call— a means of communication significantly faster than light— it would be several minutes for the call to be received by any nearby population centers and hours until a FTL-capable battleship could arrive on the scene.
As far as she’s aware, instant methods of travel and communication are all things that just don’t exist.
Not more than a few light-hours away, however, the quantum transponder aboard the Helpless Daybreak Sentinel Flutter in the Empty Vastness works overtime accessing servers halfway across the galaxy as Cas tries, and fails, to find a specific, infuriatingly elusive image.
Mau-Aff-Tim, Underpaid Intern.
Shish-Hash-Ait.
—————
Huh. Apparently To-Sav-Sottn got married to Ve-Liih-Ekstrz while I was offline.
I don’t really follow celebrity drama, but it’s weird they’d follow through on what everyone was calling a marketing stunt for the recent album.
I float in the center of Cas’ null-gravity bedroom, flicking through the last couple weeks’ worth of notifications that have built up while I was offline. I’m not sure when exactly they turned back on the non-emergency internet connection for the survey ships, but it gives me something to do while I wait for Cas to pull up the thing she wanted to show me before I’d be dropped off with my parents or something.
Her words exactly.
“Yo,” she calls, native voice spoken over by the translator’s text-to-speech, “I finally found it.”
I glance up to watch Cas’ fingers— all twenty— blitz over her control interface, a bizarrely large board of buttons (a buttonboard?). Her display, a quartet of liquid crystal display monitors, flicker as an image resizes itself to display over all four of them.
The image is... old.
Incredibly old.
Displayed on all four screens is an image both yellowed like paper and textured with the same abrasive roughness as corroded metal; a jagged mess of compression artifacting, lost resolution, sharpening and yet more compression artifacting; a screenshot of a screenshot of an AI upscale of a screenshot.
And beneath the almost tangible layer of digital decay is a webpage.
A simple webpage, made with thick fonts and bright colors and dithered graphics; crude, unrefined, and personal, more personal than anything I’ve seen in a while. Centered above a tiling, primitive CGI background are paragraphs of black, chunky runes identical to just about every other instance of precursor writing I’ve seen.
I choose my next words carefully. “Cas... how old is this?”
She shrugs. “Good question. The text is dated, 1998, but it’s a useless reference point without an epoch to go off. The year doesn’t match up with any known common eras, either.”
“Aren’t there estimations for stuff like this?”
“Sure there are.” Her lips part in a whisper of a smile as she talks— the most explicit emotivity I’ve seen from the alien. “Its physical source was isotope dated to be anywhere between ‘fuck old’ and ‘fuck older’, somewhere in the ten hundreds of thousands of years. The picture’s a helluva lot harder, though. They found it baked into the machine code of an operating system, no metadata and no telling how long it went undiscovered.”
It occurs to me why Cas might want to show this to an alien species. Provided she’s actually realized I’m an alien species and just hasn’t saw fit to bring it up for whatever incomprehensible reason.
Even still, the pencil pushers at IBSAC will definitely want to see this— it’s not just xenoarchaeology; it’s xeno archaeology.
“Well, what’s it say?”
“What,” she asks teasingly, “you can’t read ancient ASCII?”
I flick my ears, immediately thereafter realizing she both isn’t going to see the expression through my helmet or know what that means. Nonetheless, Cas seems to pick up on my response. “How about that tablet of yours?”
“My PDA?”
Turning it over in my hands, I switch to the translator application that had been idling since Aus-Lamn-Katt had installed it on the device. The interface is obtusely technical and way too small for a handheld screen, but sure enough, there’s a button with a camera symbol sequestered away in a far corner of the UI.
I hold the camera preview up to the screen. My PDA struggles with the fluorescent displays, over, then undercompensating, before finally superimposing lines of legible text atop the ancient glyphs.
—————
Hi future, you're looking at the personal webpage of me, Max!
I hope everything's going okay in your year. Coming to you live from the year 1998, things are spectacular! I just got my first Personal Computer, and there's so much to do on the information superhighway!
It lets me do amazing things: read the news, talk to my friends, send electronic mail, and even fresh up on sports.
I can't even what's been done with these crazy things in the future. Maybe you can even talk to them? That would be crazy, B.W.L!
I know it’s an ask, but if you could pass this along, I’d be much appreciative. Even if you can’t actually write back to tell me, I’m sure I’d love to hear how far you've come.
Love, Max.
—————
Below the paragraphs is an image, depicting a smiling... something-or-other caught in the flash of a digital camera. Its upper body and shoulders seem vaguely similar to Cas, but the similarities end there. The precursor— I'm guessing it's a true precursor— stands tall, on two legs, and wears a simple cloth sweater. It leans an elbow on a glistening CRT monitor enframed in an eggshell case.
There must have been billions of them at the time the photograph was taken; all of them, save for a single name and a face, now lost to history.
For how simple the picture is, it’s a lot to take in.
“Y'know,” I start, breaking the silence, “Max seems nice. I think I’d like to have met him. Face-to-face, I mean.”
"Mmhmm,” Cas concurs, ”he does, doesn't he?” She goes quiet, studying the picture for a moment, then adds, “Do you think he could have guessed how long the photo would’ve lasted?”
I doubt it.
I’m still in the process of putting why into words when the screen changes again, this time without her ever touching it. The new image is ominous and minimalistic— a centered header, alongside an official seal, and paragraphs of simple, black-and-white-text.
“Hey, uh, Cas?”
She’s noticed, too.
The alien says absolutely nothing as she reads the messages, scrolling down every few moments to reveal yet more text. Still in utter silence, she reaches for her helmet that had been floating beside her for the past few minutes.
It seals with a dull click.
“Hey, Tim, something came up.” Her voice, a neutral deadpan, is as perfectly emotionless as the featureless visor on her face. “Your folks don’t mind if I run a quick errand with you, right?”
“Uh...” I wait one, then two, then three seconds for the voice of Yah-Li-Qeltt, or Aus-Lamn-Katt, or anyone to chip in. They haven’t seriously left me to my own fucking devices, have they? “I, u-uh, I think.”
“Cool, cool,” Cas nods and produces a small key from her work station, leaning back in her hybrid chair-slash-pilot seat to reach for her display cases with those almost disturbingly long arms of hers.
Giving me a full view of her screen.
Breaking up the lines of text— ‘Asc-eei’, she called the syllabary— is a photograph of what’s clearly a Shish-Hash-Ait ship, captured in striking clarity. The insignia on the hull is perfectly visible: two diagonal lines, forming an upward-facing baseless triangle, flanked by a pair of convex curves dotted at the apex.
The mark of the Ankelli.
The sound of Cas fiddling with her display cases stops as she physically turns her head to face me, having picked up on my staring. The alien’s faceplate, featureless and metallic, glistens in the dim lighting as I’m given an acute stare.
“Tim,” she says seriously, pointing a thumb at the screen. “Do you know these folks?”
“No, no, no, no, not personally. It’s a paramilitary corporation. Corporate muscle, union busters, debt collectors, that sort of thing. Those kinds of people aren’t a thing in your future society, are they?”
Cas laughs. “You’d think that, wouldn’t you?”
“There- there are?”
“Mmhmm.”
Turning the key in the fluid-spattered power saw’s case, she gingerly lifts the polymer cover up from its mounting, releasing a plume of rust-colored dried flakes.
“Thing is, Tim, for all the welfare and public infrastructure out there, nobody’s shoving it down anyone’s throats. If you don’t want to work, that’s on you, but you still gotta ask for food and housing.”
She goes quiet, gingerly, carefully lifting the imposing saw from its mounting and running four hands over its surface with intimate familiarity. She gently inserts a battery, also sourced from her desk, and flips a trio of switches, prompting indicator lights on its body to glow a dull orange.
I’m finding it harder and harder to believe the saw isn’t stained with alien blood, but would she? Would the Cas I know keep a power tool that I can only guess was used to kill someone mounted in her bedroom?
“As rare as it is,” she continues, “a few people are too lazy to work and don’t want to ask for food. They don’t want to ask for a roof over their heads, or a table to dine at, or power to keep the lights running. It’s not that they don’t want a nice life— hell, they think they’re owed one— it’s that they’re always just a little too good for handouts.”
She goes quiet again, pausing to depress the tool’s trigger. The oddly smooth, toothless blade begins to thrum, then whine, then stops being audible altogether as it accelerates and keeps accelerating and keeps accelerating, appearing to spin backwards and forwards and backwards again, now oscillating too fast to see as it picks up speed.
An incandescent halo of friction appears around the blade’s circumference, shimmering with heat, and Cas lets it run for a few more seconds before finally letting up on the weapon’s trigger. The safety cover snaps shut around the blade, though it doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to spin to a stop.
“And those folks, Tim, rare as they thankfully are,” tiny flakes of dried blood— it has to be blood— dance in front of her visor, drifting on invisible air currents, “would do anything to keep their pride.”
Cas Sellivim, Freelancer
Spacer.
—————
A hullcutter saw, as defined by the System Administrator of Industry, Commerce, and Labor, is “a specialized variant of the conventional handheld circular saw, easily differentiated by the smooth appearance of the blade’s cutting edge”. It’s an elucidating, palatable, easy-to-understand explanation that tells the average person everything they need to know about what a hullcutter saw is.
It’s also an explanation that gives rise to an annoying misconception— it’s not that the sawblade just doesn’t have teeth.
Quite the contrary; there’s thousands of different serration patterns available on the commercial market for just about every hardness, speed, and material density you can think of. Instead, the polyboride crystalline cutting surfaces, embedded into a radially homogeneous carbon disc, are too small to be seen with the naked eye.
Because they spin into the millions of RPMs.
I keep mine tethered to my lap as I go through the process of prepping the Daybreak Sentinel for a coordinate jump. It’s my weapon of choice, and it was the weapon of choice for my ancestors, as well: repelling boarders, dissuading stowaways from camping out in maintenance, and back in the days of indentured contracting, extensively during labor disputes. Turns out, nanoserrated buzzsaws capable of gliding straight through a warship’s hull make for strong arguments in favor of fair wages.
Tim interrupts my train of thought, voice strained on the edge of panic. “Cas, what the fuck is going on?”
Oh yeah, that’s right. I have Tim over. In my ship. With me. Because I invited him on a social visit.
I probably do owe him an explanation.
“A few light hours’ distance from here, the mercenary company you mentioned shot down an unarmed ship.”
“Uh...”
“And since I have an armed ship, I'm gonna do something about it. You should get into my bed.”
“That’s not a funny joke, Cas!” He pauses, glancing at the null-gravity sleeping bag, then visibly stiffens. ”I-It was a joke, right? It’s hard to tell w-”
“Oh, no,” I wave a dismissive hand. “I’m being dead serious. It’s the only other crash-rated piece of furniture in this room.”
Putting over on his personal maneuvering unit, Tim busies himself with strapping in as I launch the maneuvering drivers on my console, having already engaged my own five-point harness. The top two screens flicker for a moment as windows depicting several external camera feeds open, then resize themselves into full-screen mode.
It just isn’t the same as using a cockpit.
I swing a pair of volumetric joysticks out from behind the monitors, taking no small pleasure in the tactile clunk as the pivots lock into place. Two analogue sticks, each capable of moving, and staying locked, in all six directions. One to modulate the ship's rotation; a second directional acceleration. Intuitive, responsive maneuverability in a low-price, commercially available package.
Somewhere deep in the Daybreak Sentinel’s mechanical bowels, her jump drive begins to let out a deep, mounting whine as it starts manufacturing a probabilistic waveform. The plants in my bedroom’s green walls start quaking.
I start easing on forward acceleration, prompting the ship to let out a dull, shuddering whine of complaint as I guide her into motion.
Five feet of laminar armor, spaced with overlapping pockets of vacuum to provide a cushion against heavy impacts. Rolled steel atop rolled steel atop rolled steel atop a homogenous, precision-milled hypercomposite skeleton.
She’s a lazy girl for her size, but once she gets up to speed, there’s not much that can stand in her way.
I keep accelerating, demanding just a little more out of her rearward thruster arrays as the whine of the jump drive grows into a roar. There’s no directional source, but an all-consuming, world-thrashing jitter that claws at the inside of my skull.
And then it stops.
There’s only a dull click and a duller sense of nausea as the camera feeds white out, overtaken by static, and slowly fizzle back into resolution, now displaying an entirely new scene.
One of carnage.
The feeds are dominated by the massive hulk of the ship in distress, the Socivotycheck. It looks almost biological in appearance; like a massive ribcage, the ship’s internal support structure peers out through unfinished sections of plating and heavy areas of damage. Cuts and scores along its surface bleed mechanical fluids into the emptiness of space, and like a harpooned beast of yore, it’s tethered to a smaller craft by a pair of heavy steel cables. Dotting its hull are bright orange sections of slagged metal, and in the wreckage are the nozzles and pipes of ruined thrusters. In the far off distance is even more glowing wreckage— some other ship.
I keep accelerating as my headset crackles to life with a radio transmission. "Yah-nnme, xetztl; qou hadhe lletz; twi iitz-cuu; Sish-Hash-Ait?”
“Cas,” Tim interjects, helpfully translating, ”they're gonna fucking shoot at us unless we slow down and identify ourselves.”
I put my second pair of arms to work, swinging out another pair of volumetric joysticks out from behind my monitor with one hand, one at a time, as I launch the fighter drone’s control program with the other.
“Nah, not really.”
Clunk-clunk.
"There’s a helluva lot more hull around us than there is them.”
A screen displaying diagnostic information, alongside a feed of the drone’s singular camera, takes up the bottom two monitors as I wrap my second pair of arms around the freshly deployed control sticks. Even more information is beamed into my HUD— munition counts, relative velocity, fuel gauges, reactor strain, thruster temperatures.
Two ships. Four interfaces. Forty-eight directional inputs and I keep accelerating the Daybreak Sentinel straight forwards, only making microadjustments to the heading. Pings vibrate the Daybreak Sentinel’s hull as she slams into tiny bits of debris caught between her and her destination.
Of course, the fighter drone isn’t ready. Its access panels are open, it only has a quarter tank of propellant, most of the auxiliary thrusters aren’t wired into the ECU, and I’m still waiting on half the armor plating to finish being fabricated. Still, it’s a platform with four guns and two missiles, and that’s all it needs to be right now.
I keep accelerating, inputting the key command to disengage the drone’s explosive disconnectors. A pop, then a shudder travels up the room as the shockwave travels through the Daybreak’s frame. Seventy-nine meters per second and counting.
I peel the now-freed drone down and away from the ship. It darts ahead, zipping into and then out of the other feeds’ view as it pulls thirty-four Gs before suddenly pivoting and accelerating upwards as I align the targeting reticle and depress the trigger. A long, trailing burst of autocannon fire erupts from its quartet of 25mm guns, their recoil violently shaking the feed and their muzzle flashes threatening to blind it with their strobing.
In the vacuum of space, the weapons’ barking retort is perfectly mute. I keep accelerating. Ninety five meters per second.
The long arc of tracers lance out, threatening to vanish in the blackness of space before erupting against the swooping contour of the enemy ship. I toggle the zoom to watch a raking trail of disfigurement dances across its hull, warping the polymer surface into disfigurement and biting deep into the metal below.
Good hits. I keep accelerating.
The patrol boat finally responds, pivoting to bring its dorsal turret to bear and in the process casting off the lingering aura of explosive residue that had formed around it. For a moment, the faint glow of cabin lighting is briefly visible illuminating the smoke as the entire craft rotates. Its dorsal turret comes to life, faintly strobing as it continually fires and traverses in an attempt to bring its pulse laser to bear against the harrying drone.
I keep accelerating. The Daybreak Sentinel closes the two and a half kilometer mark, thundering through space as her thrusters are finally brought to their maximum output. One hundred and thirty meters per second.
My drone zips past the patrol ship, strafing and corkscrewing and pirouetting as it outpaces the turret’s lethargic hydraulics. I let the drone coast on its own inertia, not yet bothering to slow the craft down, as I whip it around to once again face the enemy craft and unload into its exposed flank.
I keep accelerating. One hundred and fifty-seven meters per second. Where bits of debris pinged off ship’s hull— micrometeorites, wreckage from ancient battles and belongings lost into space— they now shake it, each impact a violent shudder as flotsam and sections of the Daybreak mutually annihilate one another.
A flash of light envelops the drone’s feed, followed by two lingering trails of smoke that darts towards the ship, homing in on the turret and consuming it in a cloud of light, smoke, and explosive residue. Arcs of electricity writhe in the charred wreckage, soon sparking out. I start pulling the drone back around.
The patrol boat spins again, this time forsaking the drone in favor of the steel hulk that’s been bearing down this entire time. Its secondary turret, a smaller, nasal pulse laser, pitch and yaw as its lenses just barely light up on the visible spectrum, shooting wildly. At the same time, it accelerates, desperately trying to clear itself from the path of collision. The steel cables connecting it to its quarry follow and pull taut, violently jolting back into place.
My drone, having been pulled around, orbits in front of the ship’s fore, delivering another burst of fire into its turret and sensor arrays, mangling its front beyond recognition and totally disarming the vessel.
Just in time for the Daybreak Sentinel to have just closed the final kilometer.
I pull my arm off one of the drone’s joysticks, draping it over my seat’s backrest as I turn to address Tim. This close, there’s no escape from collision course.
“Hey, Tim.”
"Hey, Cas.” His voice wavers, then he adds, ”The pinging is normal, right?”
“Nah, not really,” I admit, “that’s the hull getting shredded.”
“THE HU-”
“Anyway,” I interject, “I just thought I’d let you know that in about five— now three—seconds, we’re gonna hit a ship going about two hundred and fifty meters per second. But don’t worry.”
He makes a small, strangled sound, failing to verbalize, so I give him an encouraging thumbs up.
He is thrown across my bedroom.

A brief comment about these notes

I use Legend Keeper to store my notes, so my notes were spread across many different pages. I have put each page under its own heading. I tried to clean them up a bit, but I barely had the time to do all of this before my lunch break ended and I am leaving this mostly done so that I can go actually get some food.

Important

Before they enter the actual city (right before). Warn the players about the random loss of autonomy both in the characters doing something or not being able to do something; they can decide their reasoning. The players need to be made aware that this will happen to them before it happens, or they might not properly listen to you when you do it to them. If they ask why or whatever, tell them they are being affected by whatever is going on in the town.

The Hook

Grandvine is having serious issues with memory loss and just plain strangeness. They've always had population issues; nobody wants to live in a nearly deserted town whose only real purpose is their winery. They don't have a mayor, and haven't for quite a long time. They have an assistant mayor who has done all of the duties of the mayor, but they weren't elected and just sort of took over the job. At one point, there was going to be a boom in population, so they built dozens of new houses, but ultimately, no one ever moved into those houses. It has room for perhaps some hundred people to live within the town, but less than 50 do. More live in the outlying vineyards. However, some are reclusive.

The Letter

Hello, my dear Casper Goodwyn
I thank the Gods that you have graduated! I know I can count on someone like you. Grandvine, which I may remind you is your birthplace, is in serious danger. I don't have any proof, but even as I write this, I feel something sinister nearby. I suspect a truly evil force has taken residence in our fair city. Bizarre things have been taking place.
You may remember that Grandvine makes some of the finest wines in the region. Well, not anymore! The vineyard where our most talented farmer lives has ----
I don't know. The man was a recluse, and nobody seemed to be able to remember anything about him except that he always made his deliveries in the dead of night so nobody would see him. Well, the deliveries have stopped. Someone went to check on him, but nobody was there. It is clear someone left in a hurry in the middle of them reading and drinking wine; the book they were reading was found on the floor with dried wine stains on it. Of course, his next of kin should inherit the land, but when I checked the records, there is no record of anyone living there, ever. Likely just a fault with a previous mayor, I think, but then I looked into it and the mayor at the time took meticulous notes and has so much detail written about the construction of the farm and its progress.
That's not all! People have been being hypnotized and doing strange things for no reason! In one instance, nearly the entire town was hypnotized into throwing a party at an abandoned house for no reason! It looked to be a birthday party. But nobody has lived in that house since an old couple died there seven years ago. This sort of thing has happened three times now! One time we all came to while eating a feast thrown in honor of NOBODY!!
Someone mysteriously moved all the furniture in city hall! They moved it exactly where I wanted it, but I never told anyone that I wanted it moved yet!
Food randomly goes missing, and sometimes recently slain wild animals show up in people's homes. People frequently can't seem to remember where they got things.
A woman who hadn't had any partners in well over a year suddenly became pregnant!
There must be dozens of ghosts or something infesting the town and who knows how long they have been here?!
[A large ink spill is here, but it seems as though there was only one more small thing; perhaps a signature]

NOTE: While people normally cannot talk about the monster or anything related to it, there is a loophole here because the mayor is talking about a threat caused by fey or ghosts. This isn't a plot hole that I later had to cover up, I swear.
NOTE: I am leaving the names of my characters in here because it is too much effort to change. Sorry. The graduation mentioned is graduation from the hero's training school that they had to attend to gain the ability to to hero work. You'll probably need to change this letter significantly.

Before Arrival

Every session or so, have something unexplainable happen such as missing food, missing money, extra money, extra arrows, or killed and cleaned animals (butchered if your party doesn't have someone who can cook well). Sometimes they find their enemies have fresh wounds on them that none of them made. If they think too hard about it, tell them that there aren't wounds, nevermind, and to move on. Sometimes lightly gaslight them about little things. If they press say you must have misspoke earlier, because what they are saying just isn't true.

The Arrival

The place feels extremely lonely for some reason they can't place.
The assistant mayor, Seline, claims she didn't send the letter, and that one of the citizens must have sent it posing as the mayor to appear to have enough clout to summon the party. However, now that the party is here, the assistant mayor could use their help in solving the haunting or whatever else is going on. She encourages them to stay in some of the houses, free of charge. Most of the houses are furnished.
If the town asks why there is no mayor, have Seline explain that there was some complicated bylaw or something that prevents an election and that they can't have a mayor without an election. This isn't true but she believes it is. If they press her, make her visibly have a headache [trying to remember inconsistencies gives people headaches] and tell them it is complicated and she doesn't want to get into it.

The Journal

At some point in the city, Rena finds a backpack. It has a few journals in them, as well as some fresh food. There is a kit for making dyes, a collapsible fishing pole, and notes about fishing written in Nikos's handwriting. The two journals contain several things

• A history of everything the party has done. Some complaints about Dmitris not doing much work. Worries about how stressed Rena is. Concern about Casper and Rena fighting. Praise for Lance's ability to get them a ship.
  
• The writer seems to know the party well.
  
• There is a small painting of Rena. It isn't great, but it's not bad.
  
• A love letter to nobody signed by Rena Castellana
  
• A few lovely poems written to Rena Castellana.
  
• There is a description of hanging out with Nikos and learning to fish. The owner of this journal apparently worked at some docks but never learned to fish with a pole and can only fish with a net.
  

The Singing Woman

The party will meet several people. There is a mute woman who sings a strange and slightly disturbing song wordlessly constantly, and she seems to be fairly out of it. The townsfolk will say that she has lived in the town for twenty or so years. She is a beggar and is squatting in one of the homes. She seems harmless enough, but she also seems aware that people, in general, look down on her for being a squatter and a beggar. A DC 14 Performance (Wisdom) check will reveal that the song is just 7 notes repeated over and over. The woman will appear friendly. If they try to talk to her, she will write on paper. Keep in mind that she is aware she can't talk about the monster, but might try to hint at it in ways that result in blank pieces of paper. If they press her about why she is singing, she will originally hand them a blank piece of paper. It says "to keep me safe" but that hints at a threat that she isn't able to mention to them, so it appears blank. When they say it is blank, she will look unhappy and write that she is unable to explain why. If they approach her too early and dig into her too deeply, do not have her try to teach them the song yet because she doesn't want to risk them learning it, singing it and then stop singing it. This would cause them to disappear and reappear from the monster's perspective, which would cause it to want to kill them to protect its secret.
Keep in mind that you still can simply tell them that they do something, don't do something, or believe something but don't know why and can't help but do, not do, or not believe what they are told.
When she believes they can handle the monster change her attitude. She will write on paper, but the paper is blank. When they tell her this, she will write down to sing the notes she is singing exactly or make themselves entirely and utterly deafened; magically or with some serious creativity because any sound getting to them whatsoever will prevent them from being immune to the song.

NOTE: The woman isn't mute, she just pretends to be for the sake of being able to not have to talk to people so she doesn't ever have to stop singing.

NOTE: You cannot talk while you are singing, so anyone singing cannot speak. If they write anything down about the monster, the victims, or anything even remotely related to either of those, the party will see a blank piece of paper.
NOTE: If they figure out to deafen themselves, make sure to keep in mind that they cannot communicate verbally.
NOTE: If the party spends a lot of time deafened but not with the singing woman, let them see evidence of strange things, but never the actual monster. They will have better memories.
NOTE: If they go to The House too early, remember that they cannot see the trap door leading to the cellar, because that is where the monster makes its lair. Unless they are singing or deaf.

Locations:

• City Hall. That's where they can find Seline.
  
• Windmill, the miller, Jeremy, says that he has a cold iron good luck charm in his house above the door frame on the inside that keeps him safe from fey, curses, and some ghosts, and he keeps three rings of salt around the entrance to the windmill and to his house. He bakes his bread with extra salt (noticable, but not inedible, not even bad). Salt has been known to protect against some spirits, demons, etc., so that might be a clue (it is intentional misdirection). The cold iron charm does work to keep fey from entering his house so Casper can't enter. If Jeremy grows suspicious, he will throw salt at Casper, which will not harm Casper, but will convince him that Casper is strange but not fey.
  

  Jeremy is safe from the monster because he is a vital source of food for the town and killing him would provoke people to leave as they would stop having flour from his mill.
  

• Fields of Wheat, but too much to harvest, seems like two plots of it all planted but only a man and his wife live in one of the two houses. The other house was never lived in.
  
• Inn, but the inkeeper has a strange photo of herself where she is smiling but she is standing off to the side The innkeeper reports that sometimes she finds random items in bedrooms, even though nobody has rented them recently.
  
• Leatherworking, but all of the hides have been left to rot. People claim and adventurer or something must have hung up the hides and then left in a hurry. Look more into how tanning works.
  
• Jail, but no guardsmen; people claim that they just lock criminals up themselves.
  
• The orphanage, but they had to send all of the orphans off to Dougcliff because there was no one running it
  
• Locksmith; nothing strange. She has a wife who runs the library
  
• Library, but the logs of who checked out looks is sloppy, missing names blank lines, spilled ink
  
• Half a dozen furnished homes that never had residents. A few had some but the people got old and didn't have anyone to inherit them.
  
• A sheep's pen with 50 sheep and no owner. They were found wild and were corralled by another farmer who is having trouble keeping them all sheared and offers to sell them some sheep
  
• There is a cat that they can find freaking out. If they try to talk to it, they will find out it is deaf.
  
• There is a pack of stray dogs.
  
• The tailor wears a wedding ring but has never been married. She also has a child and a grandchild in another city, but she doesn't know who the father is; she thinks it must have been a hero who visited and then left and never came back, but she can't remember.
  
• Pawn/Thrift shop: Owner seems sort of dishonest, but isn't actually plot-important. He doesn't know where he got the majority of what he has for sale.
  
• Temple to all of the gods, the community as a whole maintains it. They've never had a priest.
  
• Weaver: The weaver thinks it is a cursed caused by ghosts.
  
• Tea House: A very young teen runs it.
  

They asked if anyone had not been affected, so I told them about the miller.

The Note

AT SOME POINT the party will walk into an alley way, kneel down, throw bread onto the ground, and then suddenly have a note in their hand. If they look for the bread again, it is gone.
The note reads:

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Nobody can help you. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀. Everyone has gone crazy. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀. The city is doomed.

The obvious blank spaces are important. There is an ASCII symbol for a blank spot used for braille that you can copy and paste.

A few random notes

NOTE: If the party seems lost, have the singing woman walk by again to prompt them to talk to her (again?) and have her try to teach them the song rather than wait for them to ask her about it. NOTE: Detect Magic will not detect the song, but it will trigger that there is magic around them. The school is enchantment. Identify will tell the party that people aren't under the influence of magic.

"The House"

If they get inside, the place is musty, like nobody lives in there. There are two paths through the dust; one leads to a trapdoor hidden under a rug in the kitchen, and the other leads up the stairs to where a ladder door leads to the attic. REMEMBER, the party actually cannot see the path to the trapdoor or the trap door unless they are singing the song or deafened.
In the attic, there is a bed, a small stockpile of food, and several water skins, some of which are empty and some of which are full. If they go here at night, the woman is sleeping here. If they wake her, she will immediately start to sing and fearfully scribble down a note. The note is, of course, blank. After giving them the note, she will shoo them away. The more they talk, the more panicked she gets. If they don't stop, combat with the monster will start here, and the woman will run away onto the roof through a window. If they somehow stop her from singing, the monster will kill her.
If they get inside, they find the remains of dozens of dead townsfolk, who have been hacked into pieces by some large, scythe-like weapons. All of the meat of the people has been sliced off and devoured entirely. Valuables have been left behind, though they are mostly very badly damaged and any metal is rusted. A little gore is here and there as the monster is a messy eater. Despite the mess, there are no flies down here, but there is rot. The bones are rotting; the oils and what little meat is left. The stench is powerful, but not unbearable. If they investigate for long, they will all get grappled as the monster appears and attacks them.

"The Monster"

The False Hydra has been mixed with Dead Hands from Under the Well and the Shadow Temple from LoZ:OoT. I rarely pull from one source. I will refer to the monster as the monster or the Dead Singer, while the hands that do the actual killing and go about town are based off of the hands from that boss battle in the game.
The Monster itself can make itself unable to be seen or heard while its Dead Hands are still alive, but it cannot make people forget it while in its lair without singing, and it doesn't sing in its lair because it knows someone can counter its song. After all, it killed the father after he learned it. So, if it sings here and its song is countered, someone might be able to be in the room with it and it won't be able to defend itself.
Note: The Death Singer does not make people unable to perceive the Dead Hands, but they will forget about them while they cannot see them. If all of the Dead Hands are defeated, the monster will temporarily lose the ability to be unseen, but the Dead Hands will return to life shortly after (2 rounds maybe?)

Information to give after the monster is beaten:

The assistant mayor is, almost as soon as the sun comes up, is promoted to being the actual mayor. She asks you to stay behind and help with cleaning up, rebuilding, and helping with the funerals. Because the party is 2 more days away and the city is one days travel, the mayor is able to convince you to stay for one day to learn more and help.
Luckily, it seems like the monster rarely left behind corpses and always took them to be eaten, so the city is relatively clean.
The conclusion people arrive at is that the monster was trying to terrorize you into fleeing the city because it recognized you as a potential threat, and didn't know if it could defeat you anymore.
The singing woman informs you that the song she sang not only made the monster not unperceivable but made the singer invisible to the monster. The monster didn't sing in their lair so their song couldn't be countered. Her father was the owner of the vineyard, and a talented wizard. He somehow solved the mystery and learned the countersong. Because he is a powerful wizard, he managed to circumvent the monster's power in ways that were lost to the world when he died. He stopped singing the song to teach it to his daughter, but when he did so, the monster became suddenly aware of the wizard and knew it had done something. At its first opportunity, it killed the wizard. That event made the woman learn that if she stopped singing, the monster would know she existed. To protect herself, her started living in the attic above the monster's lair. Because the monster's hands could never find her, she was able to have a safe place to eat and sleep. The reason this place was safe was simply because the monster didn't ever think to check so close to its lair. After all, it knew it killed the people living here and just plain did not expect the audacity of the woman's decision to hide so close to the monster.
[The God of Death in your setting] reveals to you all in a dream that he sent C'zar back to help you fight because they took pity on her, but only sent her back long enough to get revenge. Once she got her revenge, [God of Death] took her soul back to paradise, as was proper for someone who died. As the God of Death and the Dead, that is the most they can do without breaking their own laws.
Edit: Re-reading this, I realized that I did improvise and disregard some of my notes. So, my advice is that you should disregard any part of my notes or your notes that get in the way of things playing out in a fun way.

Darkest PD https://github.com/egoal/darkest-pixel-dungeon/releases/download/v0.6.0/darkest-pixel-dungeon-0.6.0.apk
Fushigi No PD https://github.com/HappyAlfred/Fushigi-no-Pixel-Dungeon-Apk
No Name Yet PD https://github.com/RavenWolfPD/nnypd-apk/blob/mastennypd-0.4.1-release.apk
Remixed Dungeon https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nyrds.pixeldungeon.ml
Shattered PD https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.shatteredpixel.shatteredpixeldungeon
SPecial Surprise PD https://github.com/hmdzl001/SPS-PD/releases/download/0.9.4testers/sps-0.9.4-TesterParty-TheStart.apk
Sprouted PD https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.github.dachhack.sprout
Yet Another PD https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.consideredhamster.yetanotherpixeldungeon
Cursed PD https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TR4EsGU0BYba0fydXHRjysWqPI7Biapview?usp=drivesdk
Deistic PD https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwfxiENm5VHGQUZFZTJGZEY0OFU/view?usp=sharing
Goblins PD https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.locastan.pixeldungeongoblins
Lovecraft PD https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VO3iPlFb6dSGF1g7tzZk6gLBq12KXRme/view?usp=sharing
Lustrous PD https://github.com/Zrp200/lustrous-pixel-dungeon/releases/download/v0.1.3/lust013.apk
Moonshine PD https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.moonshinepixel.moonshinepixeldungeon
Perfect PD https://github.com/FunnyGameNS/PD_Perfect/blob/mastepdp_0.3.0_58.apk?raw=true
PD Easy https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EN8hQrgc0cutXNJ5jeCasExqO2APBEfview?usp=sharing
Remake PD https://drive.google.com/open?id=1l6bgXpj-npQXQSnGvmfM1JVMUNUMVpkH
Re-Remixed Dungeon https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.quasistellar.rpd&hl=en
Skillful PD https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bilboldev.pixeldungeonskills&hl=en
Survival PD https://www.dropbox.com/s/iax5pie43ss7990/core-debug.apk?dl=0
Unleashed PD https://drive.google.com/open?id=1as9viukB0j5aZHRg9p1PJZvbX0oirw4q
3D PD https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ikoAMw6MAqa-Tk3zH0s35pNGLBA8ql9h/view
30iDburg PD https://github.com/3oiDburg/WuWuWu/releases/download/v1.0.0/3oiDburg.PD.apk
ASCII Dungeon https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lw2OwbnEz2VDVNqWgVuqsp87-QvSsAoN/view
Classic Dungeon https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ekdorn.pixel610
Dungeon Run WIP https://drive.google.com/open?id=1oRvHFn3FSCoDYZ8Hc8e6G2a6BBcCdVU1
Easier PD https://github.com/G2159687/ESPD/releases/download/171021/171021.zip
Easier Vanilla PD https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s-V29nxHrFjSlUqfvwDxQl_D-0laV4xy/view
Easy Dungeon https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jdBbAZlfHxYVOGKUqa8UqbIEdNMZY528/view
Experienced PD https://github.com/TrashboxBobylev/Experienced-Pixel-Dungeon-Redone/releases/download/ExpPD-2.3/android-release.apk
Frog PD https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/617049584979673093/634418137567330304/FrogPD-2.apk
Harder Sprouted PD https://github.com/Smujb/harder-sprouted-pd/releases/tag/V1.1
Hell Dungeon https://drive.google.com/open?id=1nqiyNyGJQGcQ4ejI8f1Xk3Bc0W_gwyjn
Hell Dungeon Rewarded https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.weeboo.pixeldungeon3&hl=en
Jazz Dungeon https://mindaugasrumsa.itch.io/jazz-dungeon
Minecraft PD https://www.reddit.com/PixelDungeon/comments/9u4c4v/the_beta_version_of_minecraft_pd_is_here_if_you/
Mo' Food Mod PD https://www.reddit.com/PixelDungeon/comments/2fwotd/mo_food_mod_v113_for_pixel_dungeon/
Palantir https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.quasistellar.palantir
PD Easy Mode https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2xTN1nKxr-pZHVxeTl2LXZoWnc/edit?usp=sharing
PD Echo https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.etoitau.pixeldungeon
PD Legends https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8Gye-jMIC47d24wYWNzajIwaWs/view
PD Prayers https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-CGwQ76yigGw-7lcIt__PHGXEBPnk1xO
Phoenix PD https://www.dropbox.com/sh/h6fepqjsajco1tc/AAA7nQcNXI8e_O9Duz2oCHWoa/Phoenix_PD_beta_1.021.apk?dl=0
Pixel unDungeon https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.ayal.pixeldungeonundone
Plugin PD https://www.dropbox.com/s/zk6zladbrebfm2f/Plugin%20PD.apk?dl=0
Prismatic PD https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TKkjOvHRUdM5V5ke66oactHEYTHuIIUV/view?usp=drivesdk
Random Dungeon https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-r4n_GvO0vtNy02MGR0b1ROREU/view?usp=sharing
Rat King Dungeon I couldn't find a link for this one check back here on April the first
Ripped PD https://www.reddit.com/PixelDungeon/comments/2kgig5/ripped_pixel_dungeon/
Rivals PD https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FlYzWBuW-Wm9if970cnvkimekRvCWozY/view?usp=drivesdk
Shattered Trap Dungeon (I personally really like this one) https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1q-46fyXbcfJsE3HXPrPqOVUosL6xgKQV
Soft PD https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wolispace.softdpixeldungeon
Summoning PD https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.trashboxbobylev.shatteredpixeldungeon
Too Cruel PD https://github.com/juh9870/TooCruelPixelDungeon/releases/
Tunable PD https://drive.google.com/file/d/1k6Ia9pswXIMQU-Bi6ukXefnryUqIEDRC/view
Yet Another Shattered Dungeon https://github.com/Smujb/yet-another-shattered-dungeon/releases/tag/V0.3.6
Your PD https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dit599.customPD
Added PD https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wzSU40sM3kUdiy4qzMZ-K9KUjWsZD5uW
Hollow Dungeon https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.quasistellar.hollowdungeon
PD Origins https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-fltpSZ6XTBORaUWC8AaTB42FrC_OW5B/view
Regrown PD https://drive.google.com/file/d/18XmiYHnkoJlnkL-728FPHgRlyY1ij6sZ/view
Torment PD https://github.com/juh9870/torment-pixel-dungeon/raw/autobuild/tormentPD.apk
Dixel Pungeon http://arfonzo.org/dix/pub/DixelPungeon_r60.apk
Dragonic PD https://github.com/duyhoang5152/DragonicPixelDungeon/blob/masteTest.apk
Enjoy
(Edit I will put together a updated page with more mods and the latest version of each mod)

As always, thank you to u/SpacePaladin15 for the wonderful universe that is NoP! Thank you to u/cruisingNW for proof reading and helping me make this chapter as good as it can be, you're the man! Honestly LoM wouldn't have gone very far without him! If you haven't you should absolutely go read Foundations of Humanity! It's very good!
A big thanks to u/Saint-Andros for helping with proofreading! He writes Out of Our Elements which is a very good one! If you like a good fic in the wilderness and a pair of cute 'friends' ;) you'll love OOE!
Also thank you to u/brotanics! For this wonderful fanart of Taisa. And this one! She's so cute I'm gonna die
And thank you to u/Jimdandy117! For this adorable fanart of Chris and Renkel! Dear god help he's adorable I love him so much
Thank you u/SlimyRage, or AsciiSquid on Discord, for makin' Vengineer Taisa Gamin'. She's absolutely adorable, I love her lil' workers apron. She looks so excited to get to work!
Thank you u/Braquen! For this astounding Pixel Art of Taisa after a few range day dates with Chris! Her little hat and gunbelt are absolutely astounding!
Thank you u/VeryUnluckyDice! For this Artwork of Taisa and Chris as characters from One Piece! I've never seen or read it before but it's incredibly cute!
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Memory Transcription Subject: Taisa, Venlil Starship Engineer, Crystal Star Shipping Co-Owner
Date [Standardized Human Time]: October 1st, 2136
Transcript begins in Dream Format. /// WARNING: Dream Content Includes Events Viewers May Find Distressing. /// Load Relevant Output Format? Y/N
N
Loading Transcript in Conscious Format Beginning at Earliest Resumption.
No no no no no no please no. Y-You’re dead, you c-can’t hu-
I woke with a start and a yelp, the fleeting image of the Arxur’s open maw and echoing, bone-chilling laughter etched into my mind as I scratched and scrambled against the covers and broad arms that held me fast. Frantic fear flooded my mind as warm breath poured down my neck and I tried to pull away in my panic, my claws gripping into flesh and cloth as my legs thumped at the mass beneath me, doing everything in my power to get away from the specter of death haunting my mind. The arms snapped aside, letting me free to bound to the floor, whipping around with a high, angry hiss as my eyes fell on the broad figure on our bed.
The figure shifted as Chris’ gasp and rolling groan of pain snapped me from my fervor, the sound sliding into a pained, cooing voice. “Ach- Ea-Easy Tai. It’s j-mph-just me.”
Frantic panic washed away to horrid guilt, the unsettling warmth running down the tips of my claws matching the pair of angry red slashes that dug across Chris’ forearm. The breath in my chest fell short as I took a hesitant step forward, grief flooding my mind as he looked past the gashes to me. Concern shone in his eyes as he slipped free of the covers, holding his arm level before gently slipping the other around me and pulling me tight.
The wet warmth of my own tears flowed into my wool as I stared down at thin puddles of red filling the shallow lines criss-crossing his forearms. “O-oh Stars no…”
“It’s alright, Darlin’, it’s alright. You’re home and we’re safe. Can’t say I’s havin’ the best...” He shook his head, cutting the sentence short before switching to another track. “I’ve had girlfriends do far worse than a few–tch–cuts and scratches before.” He answered with a small laugh as his other arm pulled me tighter, his heavy chin resting softly on my crown. Chris’ gaze drifted, his chin shifting through my wool as he looked to the window-screen and the swaying, tranquil video of the mountains near Chris’ home at night before a long, almost whining yawn fell from his mouth. “Damn if I don’t need some more sleep though.”
A small nod bobbed my head as a murmur of agreement tumbled from my snout, my tail gently wrapping around his uninjured forearm as I slipped from his embrace to pad a few paces over to the armoire for my tail pouches and satchel. My voice came out unsteady and wavering as I pulled a reef of dacham weave, and a small tube of sanitizer I’d picked up when we were in Tokyo from one of my satchel’s many pockets. “I’ve g-got some bandages and some disinfectant.”
Chris leaned forward, offering me the arm without hesitation as a small smile crossed his face. “Always prepared, huh Darlin’?”
“You wo-wouldn’t believe how n-nasty a cut can get i-f you leave it be.” The edge of building guilt in my stomach blunted a little as I remembered the times I’d helped classmates patch up cuts and scrapes they’d gotten in our labs, doing everything I could to try and make my way into any herd I could find. “W-what did you mean that this isn’t the w-worst thing you’ve had a girlfriend do to you?”
Chris let out a small laugh, interrupted by a sharp gasp as I gently spread the disinfectant across the cuts, his eyes scrunching shut as he balled his fist tight. “Damn that stings. I–heh, lookin’ back it’s kinda funny –well one of my exes out in Houston when’n I was younger, pretty blonde girl named Darlene, weren’t too happy none with me goin’ out on another rotation ‘board Thunderer only a few weeks after I’d got back from the last un’ and uh…”
>Continue< My ears perked as I wrapped the fresh bandages tight around the cuts, cinching it off before giving the arm a small, affectionate lick of apology. Chris rubbed his other hand through his hair, gently hauling my tail off with it as a mock grimace flashed across his face. “Well, we had an argument about it and I guess she wasn’t a big fan of ‘Darlene it’s my job, I told you that when’n I met ya’ as an answer. That started a whole fight, she said things, I said things… she got real upset, I said something stupid I can’t rightly remember and then I got to movin’ when she pulled her Pa’s ol’ Sharps rifle down off the wall and clicked back that hammer. I ain’t lyin’ when I tell ya that thing sounded like thunder and the devil comin’ after me all in the same.”
My wool stood on end with surprise as he finished the story with a laugh before rolling his wrist and testing the arm. A small, worried beep popped from my mouth as I spoke, ducking under his arm to press against him while my tail slipped around his uninjured arm. “I’m sorry… I-I just sa–”
“You don’t gotta apologize, Darlin’. I ain’t goin’ anywhere and ain’t no one gettin’ their grubby damned claws on you e’er again.” Chris rumbled, his hands pulling me close against him as they ran through my wool in comforting reassurance before a broad yawn split his mouth. “‘Cept maybe the bed.”
The idea of curling up warm in bed for another claw or so certainly sounded like music to my ears rather than pacing a warren where every shifting shadow felt like another danger just lurking to pounce on me. “That sounds nice, Heartwood…”
He gave a slow, groggy nod before standing, hoisting the covers aside and unceremoniously falling to the soft mattress below, turning to me with open arms to invite me in. The mattress gave way beneath my paws as I clambered up beside him, pushing close to the comforting warmth of my favorite person on the arm while the weight of the cover fell across us like a shield against the world beyond.
Safe…
Hopefully.
[[Advance Memory Transcript by Time Unit: 6 Hours]]
Stars above she’s gonna need some love.
Polani’s shining hull stood tarnished and beaten on her pad in front of us, the erratic pockmarks and dents marring her polished plating looked more like scars on an old veteran than the battered void-panels of a starship. Chris let out a long, appreciative whistle as his eyes scanned her broadside, his cracked visor hung from his hip brushing against my tail that wrapped tight around his wrist.
“Damn… We ought find whoever built ‘er and buy ‘im a beer. I’ve no idea how she got us through that.” He rumbled, pointing a surprised finger up at an angry notch that ended in a divot kicking out from the hull. “But I’m damned happy she did.”
“Starliner certainly know their craft…” I answered with a quiet voice, my ears twitching to search the horizon as I trailed off.
The hollow, whining screech of Darno’s shuttle called out across the sky as the distant dot flitting about the treetops grew ever larger on approach to the port. The old, grimy hull of the shuttle had been cleaned at some point in the last couple of paws to reveal a fading livery from ‘Iten’s Shuttle Services’. A small bloom of excitement sprouted in my chest as the shuttle touched down with a sigh, sagging down onto her gear as the ramp hummed and sank to the ground.
The old Yotul padded down the ramp before turning and hurrying over to us as his tail slowly swayed with pride, a pair of dark woolgrass bags bearing the logo for the Mist Drinker in his paws. “Cap, Chief, good to see you two. Natus wanted to make sure I told you two hello, and that she’s happy you’re safe. Also made me promise to make sure her ‘favorite exchange partners’ got their meals.”
“Good to see you too, Old Timer.” Chris replied with a small laugh, his fingers gently scratching through my wool as his gaze turned back up to Polani.
“Day warms you, Darno.” I whistled, my attention split between him and Polani’s wounds as my tail gently tugged at Chris’ wrist with a restrained wag. “I hope you’ve had a… better last few paws than I have.”
Darno’s posture softened as he looked me over, his tail slowing slightly as he set the bags down between us and sighed. >Comfort. Safety.< “I’d be lying if I said I’d rather be back there getting shot at than here spending time with Natus and tooling about with Day-Lee Cruiser. What’d you have in mind for Polani? I thought you two’d said the U.N. had handled everything that needed doing while you were lookin’ after Ryan?”
>Thank you. Appreciated.< “I’m willing to agree there.” I replied as a shudder racked through my body, shaking my ears out to try and knock the prowling memories in my mind away. “They got the big problems fixed, and I definitely intend to double check their work and redo the service fluids, but right now I’m more worried about her hull than anything.”
Darno’s graying snout perked up, his tail swaying a little faster as he turned his eyes up to the battered hull. “I think I might have just the thing!”
“Oh?” Chris rumbled, shooting a side-eyed glance down at him before stooping to scoop up the bags of food with a smile. “Lead the way then, bud.”
The old Yotul all but ran up Polani’s ramp and to his quarters, leaving Chris and I scrambling to keep up as he dove into his berth and started loudly rummaging around in the various drawers and cabinets lining the walls before letting out a happy, satisfied chuff. “There you are!”
“And what exactly is that, Darno?” I asked with a weary chirp as I leaned in through the door, studying the mass of electromagnets, oscillators, thick wires and steel he held in his paws. “Looks more dangerous than helpful…”
“That all depends on how you use it, Chief!” Darno responded, a loud, barking laugh bouncing from his throat as he turned it over, revealing a broad metal diaphragm.
An idea sprouted in my head as I looked down at the odd contraption and the not-so-distant memories of my harmonics classes flooded back to me with a squeak of excitement. “Is that what I think it is?”
“Depends, do you think it’s a hyper-acoustic-fault-finder?”
My tail was lashing back and forth as I nodded excitedly, jerking Chris’ arm about beside me as he looked between the two of us with a high-browed expression of confusion splayed across his face. “A what now?”
Darno opened his mouth to speak, hesitating on the answer for a moment before flicking his ears for me to answer. >Go Ahead.<
I could barely contain my voice from bolting off as I turned an eye to Chris. “A H.A.F.F.! I got to make one as a project in one of my classes! You mount them to the outside of the hull and they pour a sine wave, or something like it, through the hull and measure the returns. In the end the problem that we ran into, and really the point of the lesson I suppose, twas power. To really get much out of them you either need a lot of them or a lot of it, and batteries just can’t feed it enough.”
“So it’s… just a big ass speaker?” Chris asked, tilting his head a little as he stooped to get a better look at the device in Darno’s paws.
“Kind of? More like the driver and the hull is the speaker! Good thing the hanger’s still on the grid; it’d take a whole…” My voice trailed off as another connection flashed in my mind while I stared down at the thick blue cable that ended in a broad federation standard high power socket head. “Unless of course you just plug the thing into the drive and pull power from there! My professor always said that portable units like that never really bloomed on the market since he’d ’never met a Chief Engineer ok with letting someone else touch their drive outputs’. Stars above Darno, when did you find the time to even build this thing?”
Darno’s ears splayed out with a conspiratorial flap, his tail thumping the metal cabinet at his side with a soft clang as he spoke with a low, rolling chuff. “Well you two spend a whole lot of time in quarters during jumps so I gotta entertain myself somehow!”
A rush of warmth spread across my snout and up my ears as I felt Chris’ hand tighten a little around my tail, a choked cough slipping from his throat before he did his best to brush past the statement. “F- Achem -Fair enough. Is it just the one? Is that gonna be able to… measure? All of her? Seems like a lotta hull to cover with just one sensor.”
“By my tail no that’s not enough.” >Amusement.< Darno barked, setting the H.A.F.F. down on the bench beside his bed before slinging the doors to his cabinet open and all but diving back inside. “I don’t rightly remember if it was two or three more but I assure you, Cap, I’ve got enough to do the job right.”
“Well I suppose that’s why we hired you, eh Old Timer?” Chris chuckled, leaning around the side of the cabinet door as Darno lept back out, a trio of H.A.F.F.s in his paws.
“Four total! With a hull like Polani’s we could probably manage just fine with three, but four should give us [Leagues] more resolution! Just need a quarter claw to calibrate everything and get ‘em singing!” >Pride< He exclaimed, thumping the trio down on his workbench next to the first. He hesitated a moment, his eyes lingering on the devices before flitting back over to me, a twitch of hope rising in his ears as he spoke. “It’s your ship, Chief; what do ya think?”
Chris’ smile went wide as I stepped forward to examine the quartet of devices, my tail gently tugging at his wrist excitedly as it fought the comforting anchor. >Appreciation.< “I think you’ve done a job as bright as starlight Darno, and I’m happy to see it!”
“Good shit, Darno.” Chris followed, gently scooping up one of the H.A.F.F.s to turn over in his hands as Darno’s tail floated pridefully. “Helluva job… You need help calibrating them or should we get started on something else while you get ‘em set?”
“Thank you, Chief! Thank you, Cap!” Darno barked, seemingly startling himself with his own voice as his tail set to wagging. “Ahem. I think I can do the calibrations myself, just need to get them on the hull and tune them; not really hard, just time consuming is all.”
“Hop to it then, Old Timer.” Chris replied with a laugh, gently handing the lump of polished steel down to Darno. “Means we got some work to get to ourselves then, eh Darlin’?”
“You bet, we’ve got plenty of maintenance work to double check!” I whistled, my tail tugging at his arm at the thought of getting paws-on with Polani as Darno slipped the H.A.F.F.s into his tool satchel.
“Sounds like a plan, Chief. I’ll let you two know when I’m ready to start diagnostics.” Darno chuffed, his tail happily and excitedly swaying about behind him as he hurried off to the hold.
Chris’ eyes drifted down to me, a small, comforting smile on his face as he gently scratched my tail tuft. “Ready, Darlin’?”
>Yes.< “When you are, Heartwood.” I replied as a little warmth bloomed in my chest before flooding up my snout to my ears.
We walked down the quiet hall, the click of my claws bouncing around the rafters opposite the thump of Chris’ boots on the deck plates. The glint of a divot in the bulkhead harvested my attention, drawing my eye to the last, faded flecks of stained blood the U.N. cleaning crew hadn’t managed to clear. A shiver ran out of my tail, coiling tighter on Chris’ wrist as we stepped into Engineering. That familiar, welcoming hum of the core helping to chase off that horrid voice waiting in the back-fields of my mind.
“What first, Wool Ball?” Chris asked, a jump of humor in his voice as he gave my tail a gentle squeeze.
A long, mock sigh tumbled from my snout as I unwound my tail from his wrist to slap his side with it, receiving a soft chuckle as I headbutted his shoulder with a whistle. “Fluid levels and error codes. The ramp is still a little jumpy and I saw a callout for thrown codes from the thrust vector actuators they replaced, it’s not hard to trip those if you install them wrong so it’s not terribly surprising. After we’ve got those all harvested Darno should probably be done getting everything prepped for the H.A.F.F.s.”
“Then let's hop to it, I suppose.” He replied, clapping his hands together as he fell in behind me on the way to the reservoirs.
It was therapeutic, getting my paws to work again with Chris at my side, that nagging worry in the back of my mind fading further and further away by the second as I ran purge cycles and pulled dipstick after dipstick from their reservoirs, wiping them clean and checking their levels, happily finding them all to be right where they needed to be. All except one, the hydraulic loop for the rams on the cargo ramp was low by [.35 Liters], enough to account for air that’d gotten trapped in the system when the line blew.
“Chris can you get me the hydraulic fluid? Brown jug on the third shelf.” The request slipped from my mouth without a second thought, earning me a soft kiss on my crown before the steady thump of Chris’ boots plodded off towards the storage cabinets on the far side of the space.
Silence fell across the engine room but for the constant low humming of the core, sending a chill down my spine as the excitement of Darno’s new toys fell away only to be replaced by the feeling of distant eyes boring into the back of my head. My tail tightened on Chris’ wrist finding only air as I took a step towards where he’d been as the echoing laughs of the Arxur prowled in my mind setting my nerves on fire with fear and worry. My ears flitted around the room as I searched fro somewhere to hide, somewhere to feel safe.
The hard metal of the bulkhead met my back as I pressed into the corner to hide and slid down to the cold deck plates below me, my breath heaved in my chest as my tail found it’s way to my kneading, nervous paws.
It’s dead. It’s gone. You’re safe. It’s dead. It’s gone. You’re safe. It’s dead. It’s gone. You’re sa-
“Easy Darlin’. I got ya.” Chris’ soft, whispered voice found my ears as his hand gently touched my shoulder, slowing the building stampede of my mind and helping to calm my frazzled nerves. His other hand slipped under my paws, holding them tight as he slipped to the deck at my side with a sympathetic hum before gently pulling me to his lap.
We sat in silence for a few minutes; warm, gentle fingers helping to pull me back from the brink of panic, my erratic panting falling away to measured, even breaths as I pressed close to Chris’ chest with an embarrassed sigh. “Th-thank you, Heartwood. I… I’m sor-”
“Don’t need to be sorry, Darlin’. I’m here for ya no matter what.” He replied, the warmth in his voice pouring into my heart as he pulled me close. “Never need to apologize, certainly not for this…”
Does he…
You know he means it.
His voice trailed off, hesitating for a moment like he’d wanted to say more before gently squeezing my paw as I craned my neck to lick his chin and responded with a mewl. “Thank you, Chris. That… that means a lot.”
“You mean a lot to me…” He sighed, leaning forward to plant a kiss on my crown with a happy grunt, sending a bloom of warmth through my chest. The soft thump of his head against the bulkhead reverberated around the room, his warmth falling into my wool as his other hand slipped into the wool of my stomach. “So, just the codes left?”
I nodded, my tail coiling tight around his thigh as a contented whisper slipped from my snout. “Y-yea. Can you hand me my pad?”
“Of course.” He answered, slipping his hand from mine, pulling the pad free from my tail pouch before pressing it into the now open paw.
With a flick the screen lit up and I navigated to link the pad to Polani’s monitoring software and booted the diagnostics screen. A pair of errors popped up, declaring a ‘Thrust Vector Actuator Failure- Starboard Actuator 13-B Code-48195-EC Inverted Electrical connection’. “Yep, installed it backwards. Ten minute fix…”
“Faster we get it done, faster we get to sit down and relax while Darno ge-” Chris and I both stopped, listening as the pitch of the core’s consistent hum dropped, shifting downward with a new load.
A building whine interrupted him as the bulkhead, decking and Polani’s very frame came alive with an oscillating whine. “Nevermind… faster we get it done the faster we get to play with Darno’s toys, I suppose. Damn if that don’t sound like an old ass amp…”
I crawled from Chris’ lap, tugging him to his feet before we got to work fixing the last thing on our list. It was a simple fix, done in only a pawful of minutes. It took longer to get the thruster panel off than it did to flip the connection and fix the error, although the building hum wasn’t exactly pleasant to listen to.
Another minute or so and we were outside watching as Darno fussed over his pad before letting out a triumphant bark as his tail rose with pride. “There you are! Good and calibrated, now let's get you lot put to work! Everything squared away, Chief?”
I nodded, peering around his shoulder at the pad as Chris and I slowed to a stop beside him. “Sounds like you’re all ready to go. Need any help?”
“Nope, was just waiting on you two.” He answered, tapping a claw on his pad as the high, whining resonance emanating from Polani intensified for a few moments before fading away completely.
“Well? What’ve we got, Darno?” Chris asked, leaning over the old Yotul to stare down at the colorful 3-D map of Polani’s hull.
“Nothing too terrible.” Darno replied, leaning to turn the pad so I could get a better look. “I think we’ve got three, maybe four, panels that need replaced from buckling, couple spot-welds, and a whooole lot of buffing. Otherwise everythings held up pretty alright.”
“Looks about right to me.” I agreed, reaching out to pan the model around the screen to make sure he hadn’t missed anything. “I’ll see if Parnel has some left over from the scrap hull, if not I’ll just have to order some. Shouldn’t be a problem with what the U.N. left in our account, shipping might be an annoyance though… Probably take a few paws to get here and another to mount them up but that's about it.”
“Sounds like that’s about all we can get finished up for today then.” Chris nodded, looking up at Polani’s hull with an appreciative eye. “Darno you can stow the H.A.F.F.s in the hangar for now if you like. Add ‘em to the diagnostics setup you two was talkin’ about.”
>Agreed.< “Sounds good to me, Cap.” Darno chuffed, padding over to Polani to disconnect the nearest one. “I suppose let me know when the new panels are due in and I’ll be here, unless you’ve got something else in mind to get done?”
Chris and I shared a glance. >Nothing here.< “Not that I can think of. Thinking about touching her paint back up but I think we can handle that on our own if we do.”
“Tell Natus we said hello and thanks for the food, bud. Have to get her out here one of these days, if’n she’s willin’ to fly in your rustbucket, of course.”
“Hey!” Darno barked back, his tail swaying about with amusement as he pulled down the second and third H.A.F.F.s. “I’ll have you know that that ship can’t rust, thank you very much!”
“Alright, alright fair ‘nough ya got me there.” Chris put his hands up in defeat, a smile playing out on his face as he let out a belting belly laugh before looking over to our waiting truck.
“I’ll see if she’d like to come, she’s certainly been talking about wanting to take a ride on the Day-Lee and see my new shop. Be a good opportunity to clear two fields with one harvest.” Came the muffled reply from Darno on the far side of Polani, the hollow metal clung of the last H.A.F.F. dropping free echoing out across the port and fading as Darno trudged back into view on his way to the hangar. “You two can get going, I’ll go ahead and lock up once I’m done, wanna service my machines now that we’re back.”
My tail set to wagging at the idea of getting to do more work with my paws, another extra distraction to stave off that ever present feeling of dread building in the back of my mind. A hopeful ear turned to Chris as I took a step forward towards the hangar, my tail tapping his side with every wag. “We could always help…”
A small smile and a laugh broke out on his face as he bent over to pull me into a tight hug. “That we certainly can. Well, you can help, I’ll probably do some paperwork and see what business I can drum up over a whiskey… or three. Just remember some of us have to actually sleep and setting up a fish tank and teaching guitar to someone else’s baby brother is something better done rested.”
Stars, I love this man.
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Hello, here is the latest changelog.
Content: * Boomers now leave fleshy gibs on detonation by TheSaddestGoomba * Add cougar kittens and fix cougar taming in mods by Termineitor244 * Add earthworms to the game, as a food source by juur * Simulate hair growth over time. by MNG-cataclysm * Remove final mentions of Valhallists. by MNG-cataclysm * New Utility Tools by RanikOrtega * Overhaul the open-air market by Milopetilo * 410 craft adjust, 357 primer fix, XL holster length fix, add onion dish by Paprika-H * More trash in rolling trash cans by Milopetilo * readd heavy ballistic vest by epebe * Soldiers' rifles have more/various weapon mods by ANickelN * Cinnamon for Deluxe Oatmeal by LordBarkBread * Add 7 new frog zombie varities and audit existing frog zombies by TheSaddestGoomba * Add QUIETMOVES and SILENTMOVE flags, apply them to [Magiclysm] bugbears by Standing-Storm
Features: * Adds social/asocial mutations by fairyarmadillo * Allow monster corpse teeth to be used to make traps and weapons by SariusSkelrets * Adds Chiropteran (bat) mutation line, and the subaquatic navigation system CBM by fairyarmadillo
Balance: * Changed leather vambrace encumberance from 5 to 2 by Kantonine
Interface: * Set priority for containers that have auto whitelisting. by Skrassh * Mutations list selector starts in the active column by gtim
Mods: * [Bombastic Perks] Add overwriting perkchain support by Standing-Storm * [Xedra Evolved] Consolidate some Arvore traits by Standing-Storm * [Xedra Evolved] Adjust Barkskin by Standing-Storm * Update Sky Island to include expedition timer support for new zenfs siedbars by brianAckermann * [Magiclysm] Fun with Flags, spell edition by Standing-Storm * [MoM] Remove obsolete files by Standing-Storm * Change screw driving and fine screw driving qualities to bolt turning and fine bolt turning for XE's blocky pistol. by gettingusedto * Tamable Wildlife: add Cougars to list of tameables by Consoleable * [Magiclysm] Last Mage on Earth start by Standing-Storm * [Magiclysm] Add spells that allow you to gain the various +mana traits by Standing-Storm
Performance: * Avoid wasteful loop in map special road connections by akrieger * Skip MGOAL_Find_Item if the player is busy. by KyrasRisven
Bugfixes: * Adds missing samples to some XEDRA Evolved and Magiclysm monsters by fairyarmadillo * NPCs can overeat, starve, and dehydrate to death by RenechCDDA * Fix printf format showing up in message log by gtim * Fix erroneous mapgen monster names in non-English games by BrettDong * Increase search range for important locations and quest hubs by MoocowTG * [Magiclysm] Fix Peaceful Rest hobby by Standing-Storm * Allows Infrared vision to see through smoke by fairyarmadillo
Infrastructure: * Added SMALL_HIDER flag to various monsters. by munzaboss * Update houses to utilize palettes by Milopetilo
None: * Blend z0 triffid grove and fix terrains "roof": by Procyonae * Adding bronze chisel attempt 2 now with recipe by Consoleable * Make houses use walls from palette by Milopetilo * Removes Incongruent Book Spawns from Child Mobs and School Libraries by DoctorBoomstick * Update JSON_FLAGS.md by RedMisao * fix milling products by PatrikLundell * Fix typos by omahs * Typo fixes by Procyonae * Update tool.json to include missing recipe for bronze fileset by Consoleable * Parametrize linoleum color in domestic palette by Milopetilo * [wasm] build with -fexceptions by nornagon * [wasm] prepare web bundle data separately from build by nornagon * [wasm] use CCACHE_COMPILERCHECK to hopefully improve cache hit rate by nornagon * Fix speedloader reloading by mqrause * Defensively insert a \ after $(LLVMInstallDir) by akrieger * Tweak one sentence in last delivery mission by Fris0uman * Fix WASM experimental release build failure by BrettDong * Enable clang-tidy check modernize-use-emplace by BrettDong * Create experimental release tag on the correct commit by BrettDong * Fix Unicode quote text style errors by BrettDong * Add some basic exception reporting for emscripten by nornagon * Update map::place_spawns() to use std::optional for monster name by BrettDong * Weekly Changelog 2024-02-12 to 2024-02-19 by kevingranade * AK-74m gets knighted with the obsoletion stick by DoctorBoomstick * Camp workers actually eat the food spent on them working by RenechCDDA * Rewrites Lore-Inconsistent Scenario Descriptions by DoctorBoomstick * Fix map deserialization error by BrettDong * Fixed the amount of gunpowder in 338 Lapua ammunition and the mod locations of AXMC by wwkk222208 * Enable clang-tidy check readability-duplicate-include by BrettDong * Unify quotes in text and comments by replacing unicode quotes with ASCII quotes by Qrox * Use compile commands generated by CMake directly in clang-tidy CI by BrettDong * Extend clang-tidy unit overflow check to watt and kilowatt by BrettDong * Use mutation id to identify inline enchantments by BrettDong * Fix wrong usage of string_format() and _() by BrettDong * Made gates.h typed and the following adjustments by PatrikLundell * Set new_game before loading JSON data by RenechCDDA * Fix compile warnings in MSVC by BrettDong * Externally link debug info of MINGW executable by alef * take 2 of ccache for emscripten build by nornagon * Fix abnormal terrain generation in old version archives by wwkk222208 * fix: force wield weapons for exodii npcs by casswedson * Routine i18n updates on 17 February 2024 by kevingranade * disable verification in emscripten builds by default by nornagon * properly migrate ammo by GuardianDll * Fix infinite looping in msvc builds in fragment test function by kevingranade * Fix error in clang-tidy.sh by BrettDong * Weekly Changelog 2024-01-15 to 2024-01-22 by kevingranade * Glazed carrot recipe tweak by Norwaivhi