Wade's visor beeped to life as his alarm system went off, the murder drone's clock showing the time, "8:00 AM", changing to his green-yellow eyes as he woke up. Tina's visor activated as well, the drone girl's own alarm activating she awakened from slumber with Wade.
Stifling a yawn, Wade looked to Tina as he rubbed her back, easing her as she rose upright. "Good morning, sweetie."
"Morning, Wade." Tina replied quietly as she looked to Wade, the two drones smiling warmly as they took in each other's presence. Noticing they were both almost completely bare of clothing, the two drones blushed as Wade began to move off the bed.
"Well, I should get something on." The former worker drone stated as they touched down on the floor, Tina grabbing her green shirt from the counter as she tried to get dressed as well.
"So should I." Tina said back as she put the shirt on, memories of their recent night together still fluent in her mind as she slowly walked over to the kitchen.
The last hours of the past night had been calm for the most part, Wade and his friends detailing their tragic capture, the loss of his brother Ron, the rescue of the drones, and finally, Tina and Wade's miraculous escape from the factory before returning to the base. After the chatter in the bar, the group split off to go their separate ways for the time being, Jasmine going with Wade and Tina to help them into her place before leaving them to watch it while she went to get some food for the next day. During their quiet stay in the apartment, Wade and Tina made small talk over what to do in the future before having what humans would call a... very pleasant night together.
And now, with the new day approaching, the drone couple had to get ready for whatever came ahead. Walking over to his clothes on one of the vacant chairs in the living room, Wade picked up his shirt, slapping it on him before glancing to Tina, who merely wore her copper brown pants and green shirt from yesterday. Smiling at his girlfriend, Wade spoke to her as he turned back around to continue redressing himself. "Seems Jasmine went out somewhere this morning. I don't see her anywhere."
Tina listened to Wade as she inspected the counter, noticing a small sticky note lying on it as she took hold of it. Tina could tell it was left by Jasmine, given the handwriting. The note said, "Morning you two! Went to get some food I forgot to pick up, I should be back shortly after you wake up. - Jasmine"
The pilot drone smiled as she read her sister's note, then turning to the living room to speak to Wade. "She went to get some breakfast, we should expect her to come back any minute now." Opening the fridge, Tina grabbed two cool cans of oil, one for herself and another for Wade. Setting the cans down on the counter, Tina closed the fridge before taking hold of the cans again, taking them with her to the living room where a fully dressed Wade now resided at.
As Tina took a seat next to Wade on the couch, the disassembly drone examined his built-in smartcomm, trying to add all the still active contacts he remembered off the top of his circuits as he spoke to Tina. "It's gonna be hard, being my own person without Ron." Chuckling, Wade smirked at Tina, finding himself unsure at his own words. "Or maybe I'm just overreacting."
Tina chortled at Wade's inconfidence as she tried to bring him some, handing him one of the oil beverages as she spoke. "I think you'll do fine, honey. I've run into some disrespectful humans in my life too."
Wade nodded in understanding as he took a sip of the oil, the sound of the front door opening catching the drones' attention as Jasmine walked in. Carrying a paper bag full of food items, the human pilot spoke aloud. "Morning, you two! Just had to finish an errand I screwed up last night."
"Oh, it's not a problem for us, Jass." Wade replied as he took a sip of his oil, Tina looking over to the kitchen wall as she listened to her sister.
"How was your night? You lovers passed out on me when I came in, so I just rested on the couch." The lover drones gave looks of apologetic concern as Jasmine walked back into the living room, the woman noticing Wade and Tina's faces as she continued speaking. "It's nothing, though. I slept well."
"I hope so, we didn't mean to take up the whole bed." Tina responded as she gave a blush of embarrassment, Wade nodding in agreement as Jasmine replied back.
"I did, really. Besides, you two deserved the bed after all you put up with yesterday. Gotta have some place to blow some steam."
Wade and Tina smiled at Jasmine's comment, then blushed as Wade questioned about her phrasing. "Wait, you mean that as a euphemism or...?"
A knock at the door shut up the discussion, Wade standing up as he offered to handle the visitors. "I'll get the door." Tina nodded as he walked over to the apartment entrance, checking the small peephole before opening the door. Looking down, he saw two beings: a human and drone soldier whom he assumed were from the Coalition given their specific body gear.
While he took notice of the militia duo, the drone soldier spoke up to him. "Good morning, we're looking for a..." He lifted up what appeared to be an ID card, Wade glancing at the object as he heard the drone continue his question. "...Wade Carter? We heard he resided here since last night." Looking to Wade again, the drone stopped himself upon finishing his sentence, then picking himself up as he spoke further. "Come to think of it, you look like him."
Wade smiled warmly as he spoke to the two guests. "That's right. You need something?"
"Eh, more like the other way around, actually." The drone soldier replied as he handed Wade the ID, the former worker drone taking it in his hands as he glanced over it. The ID showed him from when he was still a worker drone, but was thankfully untarnished from the factory as Wade held it tightly. Before he could speak, the human soldier handed him a pouch carrying what Wade presumed were a few more of his personal belongings. The drone soldier spoke once more as Wade took the pouch. "We found these while scavenging the storage bays at the factory, we've been heading around delivering them back to those they belong to."
Wade smiled brightly before finally speaking in a grateful tone. "Thanks, Sirs. If there's anything I can do to help, just let me know."
The two soldiers nodded as the human one replied. "Just doing our job, Mr. Carter. Have a pleasant morning." With that, the troopers departed the apartment complex, leaving Wade to himself as he shut the door.
Heading back inside, Tina and Jasmine looked to Wade as the former spoke to him. "Who was that?"
"Just some boys from the Coalition, and just like Nathan said, they finally found my ID!" Wade answered before showing the card off, Tina grinned happily as she saw it, Jasmine giving a simple smile as he spoke further. "Feels good to have it back, I think that was what was keeping me down a little yesterday."
"Well, at least you won't have to worry about that anymore." Tina replied as Wade put the card in his pocket, taking his seat again before setting the pouch at his legs. Taking notice of the pouch, Tina asked, "What's in that? Battery candy?"
Wade shook his head as he began pulling out the items inside the bag, speaking to Tina as he examined them. "Oh, no, looks like some more of my belongings." Once he was done, Wade put the pouch on the couch's cup holder, on the space behind the drink holders themselves. The items were other various cards and papers with various personal information of Wades written on them, along with Wade's wallet. Wade found it almost comical that the items were all separated from each other, rather than being inside the wallet after getting cleared out.
Tina seemed to agree with Wade's thoughts as he began reinserting the cards into his wallet. "Well, that's silly. They just put everything in that little pouch instead of putting it all back in that thing."
Wade chuckled as he put his ID into the frontal window pocket of the wallet. "Yeah, guess they had to clear every little part of it before sending it off." As he finished restocking his wallet, Wade glanced to the pouch before continuing. "Besides, that IS a nice pouch."
"It sure is." Tina replied before taking another sip of her oil can, Wade putting his wallet away as she spoke again. "On another subject, however, you think we should go see if Nathan's around? Him and Kurtis could come by and have some small talk."
Wade nodded as he started to speak, but stopped as Jasmine spoke first. "Actually, I ran into F earlier while at the market. I heard from her that Nathan was going to be joining her for a date later this afternoon." Glancing to Wade, she finished with, "So he might be already busy for the moment."
Taking his own oil can, Wade shrugged his arm as he replied. "Eh, no problem with that. Don't wanna kill a growing relationship, now do we?"
Tina chuckled lightly as she agreed with her boyfriend. "Indeed, if it were us, they'd probably do the same fo-"
The chatter stopped as another knock sounded at the door, Wade moving to get up again as he glanced to the ladies in confusion. "Another visitor?"
"You think it could be F?" Tina made a wild guess as Wade approached the door, glancing out the peephole in slight surprise before opening the door.
Wade felt as if their talk about the Ceres couple had been a form of summoning as he saw F and Nathan standing at the door, bearing strangely serious expressions as they were greeted by the former worker drone. "F! Nathan! Funny timing, we were just talking about you. Come on in, have a seat."
As the two walked past Wade, F pat him on the shoulder as she spoke to him. "As much as I'd like to visit Wade, I'm afraid we're not gonna be here long, nor are you and the Fowleys."
Wade raised an eyebrow at her reply as he followed Nathan and F, the two simply standing in front of Tina and Jasmine as Wade returned to the living room. "Oh?"
"We're leaving? Should we get dressed and pack our things ASAP?" Tina asked with mild concern as F replied to her.
"Yep, you're on the ball with getting ready, but we're... not exactly leaving." The disassembly drone's words brought a confused face from Tina as Nathan clarified his crush.
"We got a call from J, just as we were heading to one of the diners here." The two drones paused for a moment, glancing to each other as they almost spewed out about their date, but shook it off as Nathan continued with little hesitation. "She told us that Tessa had intercepted some kind of transmission, one that might help us clear up this situation with the company faster than we initially thought."
F gave an affirming nod on Nathan's explanation before adding to it. "Her and J are playing host to a meeting held by the general stationed here, and she wants us to attend." Glancing over Wade and the Fowley sisters, she finished the explanation with, "They especially want you two to come as well, given what you both went through."
Wade and Tina gave blushes of embarrassment at the news, honored by the invitation but also a little uncomfortable with their elevated status as they glanced to each other. After taking a moment to process what they heard, Wade broke the silence. "Well, I did make that promise at the factory, and to J and Tessa earlier... and I intend on acting on said promise." Looking to Tina, his girlfriend gave an agreeing nod as she stood up with him.
"Glad to hear it. We don't have to be in that much of a rush, though, the meeting doesn't start until 10." F stated, Wade and Tina both glancing at the clock to check the time before looking back to their murder drone friend with nods of acknowledgement.
Standing up from her chair, Jasmine stretched as she announced her goals to the room. "Well, in that case, I should hit the shower."
"Right, I'll get myself fixed up too." Tina replied as she looked to Wade, the two sharing warm smiles before heading to the kitchen. Noticing the still unstored items on the counter, Tina spoke aloud. "Jasmine? You mind if Wade and I help store the groceries in the cabinets here?"
"Sure, thanks!" Jasmine answered in a grateful tone as she went off to the bathroom in the back of the apartment, Tina glancing to Wade as she began to take some food out of the bag.
"I'll get the refrigerated stuff." Wade stated simply as he took some items out of the bag, Tina putting her chosen food stuffs into one of the cabinets as they worked to unload the fresh consumables from Jasmine's errand.

I’ve had a lot of adventures in my life.
I’ve traveled, made friends, seen sights, competed in sports, and participated in events.
Sometimes, following any of these endeavors, a small object would find itself in my possession. A knickknack, a totem, a doodad.
Maybe it was a collection of Mardi Gras beads from my trip to New Orleans. Or a t-shirt tossed by a cheerleader at a sporting event. A toy from a claw machine. A mixtape from a friend. A thank-you note. A cheap piece of junk from a tourist’s gift shop.
Whatever they were didn’t matter — what matters is that they were often a representation of whatever moment in time they came from.
I never threw these things away. I set them on my desk or on my shelves. When those spaces filled up, I bought two small storage containers. They’re filled to the brim and I’m currently filling a third.
Why keep the color-coordinated bandana a stranger gave me in the park during Pokemon Go’s heyday? Why hold onto the Save the Date from my high school friend who ended up getting divorced not two years later? What significance or use could I possibly have for those goofy White Elephant gifts my kickball team gave at the yearly Christmas party?
No purpose, no reason and there is none, respectively.
And yet I don’t want to let them go. You see, they are reminders of times and experiences — Keepsakes. Mementos. Souvenirs. In some ways, they’re a physical collection and documentation of my life.
It reminds me a little bit of this weird quirk I have when I play video games.
--
I likely dumped more than 500 hours across all my Skyrim save files. There was no other game, there needn’t be any other game and there still hasn’t been any other game since.
In my adulthood, I returned to one of its many definitive editions for one last victory lap. With my experience, memory and fully-formed adult brain, I approached the game methodologically, in an optimal order, carefully. I built my ideal character and crafted only what was needed — down to the last iron ingot. I explored, I experienced — I did every major and minor quest, making it my perfect playthrough.
One thing I love about Skyrim is the loot. Yes, there’s 20 million iron daggers and boring, inventory-cluttering useless items… but then there’s the special ones.
There’s the unique weapons at the end of each Daedric quest. The trinkets from the Thieves Guild. Spellbooks, statuettes and storybooks. The eerily-delivered note for the assassin’s questline. The robes of the king, the rings and necklaces of Jarls.
You know them — the items with one-of-a-kind names and designs that are specific to each of their quests.
You see, these items carry a story with them. How you stole for them or killed for them. Traveled, battled, talked, stealthed, lied, solved your way into their possession. They’re the game’s biggest treat.
That’s why, at the culmination of my final ever Skyrim playthrough, I bought a house in Whiterun and filled it with these objects.
Weapons and armors on the walls and on the racks, items and books placed carefully on shelves - but not just any weapons, armors, objects and books. Only the special ones. It was a house that told the story of all of my adventures.
I sat down in a chair next to Aela the Huntress in my castle, my throne room. I saved my game one final time.
--
For all of gaming’s swashbuckling adventures, magnificent worlds and large stretches of land to traverse, they don’t always give us too much to remember them by, do they?
I appreciate Skyrim so much for understanding the nature of the epic they were creating. The ability to fill your house with display cases, armor mannequins and weapon racks demonstrates the developer’s awareness of their playerbase and the scale of the adventures they were sending them on.
These are adventures to cherish, to tell tales of, to be remembered.
Will anyone else give me what Skyrim did?
…
The answer’s yes, actually.
It’s a fascinating yes, too — because not every keepsake system is cut from the same cloth. Games offer unique takes on the mechanic that energize it, give it new life and perspective and add layers of meaning to it in fresh ways.
And I’ve got plenty of examples.
--
In The Outer Worlds, special items you collected while out adventuring would be placed in specific locations throughout your ship, The Unreliable, upon return. These included things like:
• Posters • Signs • Various ISO items • Tossballs & Tossball cards • Golden bird statuettes • Many, many more
Sometimes these were stored by the game in your captain’s quarters, but other times, they’d appear in your squad’s quarters instead.
No matter where they got stored, these items were more than just junk. They were signature weapons of terrible villains whom you defeated, they were outlandish garb from flamboyant characters who painstakingly passed away to protect your life, they were motifs of resource-gouging corporations whom you shutdown for the good of cities and planets.
They were special, they were keepsakes. Their addition made The Unreliable feel alive and lived in, part of your own, unique journey, filled with the stories and tales of your adventure and — importantly and specifically to The Outer Worlds — your choices.
—
The second and third installments of the Mass Effect series contained model ships you could buy from vendors that would then go on display on desks or on racks in your spaceship, The Normandy.
These are a little different because you buy them, rather than slice somebody’s head off for them, but they still count.
What makes them still count here is twofold:
• Some model ships only become available after completing certain missions that actually involve the ship you’re buying a model of, so they still serve as a reminder and memento of specific accomplishments in this way • If you transferred your save data through the games, models you collected in ME2 would appear automatically on The Normandy in ME3. Being able to carry souvenirs into a sequel is exceptional, and a feat I’ve not found any other game to match.
Mass Effect: Andromeda saw a return of this feature, too. You ended up re-gathering old ships of yore in this installment, however. Andromeda also featured a more traditional collectible-style search; these model ships were looted from various locations in the world.
The original trilogy used the model ships as landmarks for its major moments, to be remembered across the series, while Andromeda paid homage to the previous games and encouraged its players to explore its world more thoroughly.
—
In Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, building up your burgeoning young settlement of Ravensthorpe is a central gameplay mechanic — as you acquire more resources to build with, the size of the village grows both in length, width and inhabitants.
The game includes optional side quests that change those who wander your evolving home and hub in medieval England. They include:
• Capturing a stray cat • Saving a fox from a burning home • Befriending a fallen hunter’s wolf pet
In each instance, the living being will join your settlement — the cat will stay underneath Eivor’s seat in your longship, the fox will wander Ravensthorpe and the wolf will welcome you in your personal quarters, howling at your arrival.
You can interact and pet them whenever you like, playing a short animation displaying the affection between the two.
These three “collectibles” don’t feel like trinkets, but living, breathing additions to your home that give it joy and life, as well as keep you young.
—
Speaking of Norse culture, central to Biomutant is a form of Yggdrasil — the WorldTree.
Central to Biomutant’s story is saving the old, decaying and currently-being-eaten-by-giant-monsters WorldTree. And there are two impressive quests in the game that reflect back to the player their efforts in saving it.
One quest saves the tree from festering toxins below its roots — and the tree’s colors change from green to fluorescent white as a result.
Another quest by the name of Aurora has you activate monoliths around the map that direct energy to the WorldTree. The quest climaxes by having the tree give off a swirling, sparkling aura that hangs perpetually while you travel the world and complete more objectives.
It even matches your affinity — if you’re taking the side of love and justice, the aura is white, while if you play for the destruction of the planet, the aura will hang black.
What’s special about these to me is that they don’t do anything. They don’t get you any closer to saving the world or the tree, but they definitely did something important –
The WorldTree’s central location in the map and absolutely massive scale allow for it to be seen at all times from just about anywhere in Biomutant’s world. This means, after I had completed these two quests, the fruits of my labor were on gloriously beautiful display at all times.
Biomutant’s mementos aren’t keepsakes you can’t take with you when you leave the planet — they’re visual celebrations of your hard work, an ever-present reminder of your endeavors and care for a dying world.
—
More briefly, Cyberpunk 2077 allowed you to fill V’s apartment with keepsakes as well, featuring dream catchers, posters, paintings, action figures and more.
In Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance Ace Azzameen’s personal quarters would fill up with medals and displays as you progressed through the game.
In The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, some of the most legendary Zelda equipment ever was available to the player, including the Sword of Six Sages, the Fierce Deity Sword, and the Biggorons Sword — all of which can be hung in display cases in Link’s home.
Meanwhile, Uncharted 4 greets players near its opening sequence with an attic filled with memorabilia and keepsakes that Nathan Drake himself has kept after all these years. It’s not us — the players — ourselves collecting and hoarding, but it was lovely to see Drake thinking along the same lines as us souvenir psychopaths.
—
I’ll end with gaming’s classic — Mario. The red-hatted Italian also did the keepsake thing in one of his most beloved installments.
Super Mario: Odyssey allowed you to decorate The Odyssey with stickers and trinkets from your escapades by spending purple coins you could collect while out adventuring on one of the game’s many worlds.
A vanilla Odyssey player’s ship might look the same as it did at the game’s start, but a completionist might have a slew of trinkets and décor, like:
• Peach’s Model Castle • Dinosaur models and trophies • Shiverian Nesting Dolls • A plush frog • Flowers and a watering can from Steam Gardens • Statues of Pauline, Jaxi, Jizo • A lamp and rock fragment of the moon
Hell, the game director himself sounds like he’s read this very article:

“But what about decorating the ship? There’s a shop that appears in many kingdoms where you can buy souvenirs and stickers using the purple coins you’ve gathered.
Collecting memories is one of the best parts of traveling, don’t you think?” –Kenta Motokura

The ability to make The Odyssey your own evolved the traditional fetch-quest nature of collectible gathering and drove the player to go that little bit of extra distance in exploring and engaging with the various kingdoms and mastering the game’s platforming.
--
Video game narratives and their accompanying worlds are monstrously large nowadays. As enjoyers of the medium, us gamers spend a lot of time in them.
Like, a lot.
In recognition of this, game developers have given gamers a number of distinct tools to document their triumphs and sagas — each with their own unique flavor of congratulations and commemoration.
For our enormous investment with huge worlds and long, winding quests, something tangible we can keep hold of provides value, meaning, memories. They make our journey — one which we have committed so much to — special, transcendent, our own.
They give us things no other entertainment medium can give.
So fuck photo mode. A picture isn’t worth a thousand words — my keepsakes are.
(A special thanks to the members of patientgamers for their contributions to this post that helped inform this essay with games I have and have not played.)

Previous
​
So, if you’re just joining us, I work at a haunted zoo now. Since I’ve gotten some rest, it feels like I’ve got my head on straight, at least, so I’d like to continue where I left off.
I sat on the floor in the office after meeting the ghost until I’d settled my rattled mind (and realized I’d forgotten to ask her name, how rude is that?). I took a deep breath and got up off the floor. Walking over and falling into the rolling chair in front of the large screen of camera views, when I brought up the camera that covered the area in which I’d spotted her, she was still there, and it seemed she hadn’t moved an inch.
Sitting there, at a loss, I continued to watch her. The ghost hung around for another five minutes or so, appearing to look at a few things off-screen, though I’m not sure what. Then she walked off into the forest and left the view of the cameras. I wasn’t sure if she vanished into the ether or if she’d gone looking into the trees to look for something.
But that wasn’t the end of the job interview, so let me jump back there. It continued into what kind of animals the zoo had, with Andrew asking me how much experience I had with dangerous animals.
I took a moment to consider the question. “So, ah…I’ve been going hunting and fishing with a neighbor since I was sixteen,” I told him. “We always have to keep an eye out for gators, bears, and hogs. Then there’s snakes, of course…snapping turtles… Since I’ve lived here my whole life and been aiming for a job with wildlife for a long time, I know a lot about the animals in Arkansas in general. But good advice for all of the above is avoid them, so I’ve had encounters, but I don’t know if you’d say I have experience with them.”
“That’s fine,” Andrew said, nodding. “That’s an answer I’m satisfied with. Now, the ghost was the appetizer, Ripley; here’s the main course. To start with, the pay isn’t twenty-five an hour. It’s fifty.”
Staring in shock for a moment, I asked, “Are you serious?”
“Yeah. But that’d be weird to post online considering what applicants think we need, so I halved it.”
“That’s… Okay, why?”
“The animals are already here. You just can’t see them.”
I stared at him for a long moment, some disbelief worming its way into my expression, before saying, “Sorry, what?”
“There’s a chance you’d naturally never see them, or at least some of them,” he continued casually. “It depends on both your genetics and how long you stay on the job. I can naturally see six of them, but that’s it. Suzanne can see all of them, and more. Some are what people would label demons or ghosts. Or magic. Mostly you’d call them cryptids. The ghost was just a warm-up; I mentioned her first because it never takes more than a week to see her if you work the night shift. If you manage to handle her okay, soon you’ll be able to see the animals too. The more time you spend on the grounds, for weird reasons,” he said, wiggling his fingers in the direction of the back door, “the more you’ll be able to see.”
“So, this…this is a zoo for cryptids,” I echoed slowly. He nodded once, waiting to find out what kind of reaction I would have. I gestured vaguely around the room. “If this is a hidden camera show, will you cut me a check for showing up and participating?”
Andrew coughed out a chuckle and shook his head. “No joke. There are a ton of stories out there that have been written to death, pulverized until they’re not the Grimm stories of old and instead they’re Disney films. A lot of those stories come from what some humans have seen. There are dozens of other worlds pressed up against ours, and occasionally things come through by accident. If they’re smart, they’ll lay low and then make their way back when they can. If not, they become local folklore until someone helps them back. I’m just from London, but Suzanne is from somewhere else. She hires people like us for this zoo. Humans.”
Sighing, I shook my head. “That makes no sense. Why would she hire a muggle for a magic zoo?”
Andrew burst out laughing at that, and then waited to gather himself before he continued. “Fair point, but this is less about magic and more about animals, and you’re missing some information that will explain it. First of all, if I misjudge an employee, and they think they can make bank by outing the endangered and valuable animals we have, it’s easy to relocate the zoo.”
“Because magic?” I asked.
“Exactly,” he replied, ignoring the thread of skepticism in my tone. “That means it isn’t the end of the world if that happened, though it is a pain in the arse. But second…let me ask you a question. Speaking of reality shows, say the Discovery Channel put out a call to replace Steve Irwin when he passed. Imagine they had a line out the door,” he said with a gesture, “of people who thought they had the skill and natural talent to replace him, to take on everything he’d been doing his whole life. How many do you reckon would lose an arm, a leg, or their life, by the end of the day?”
My lips parted in surprise and I narrowed my eyes at him. “You’re saying people from…wherever…they’re just as dumb as humans, but they’re worse, because they actually think they can handle these things.”
Andrew pointed the pen at me. “Things. Exactly. You called them things. Suzanne and her friends grew up with them and would call them animals. These animals have dispositions and temperaments that we’ve studied for as long as there have been scientists. Where Suzanne’s from, they know the weaknesses of these animals, and also they’re in enclosures here, even if you and I can’t see the walls because they’re invisible things called ‘wards’. If I hire someone who’s got magic on top of all that, they’ll have almost no instinctive fear.
“Everything here is nocturnal, and every one of them is a hunter. Some of these things? Humans see them and they pass out. Not that I want you passing out, but I need someone who is scared of these things, who knows to stay out of the enclosures no matter what. Not someone who thinks they can train them to do tricks, who gets close enough for them to grab a mouthful of hair and drown them. Once, we had a night shift manager injured, and once killed, because they didn’t take these animals seriously enough.”
Thinking back to the Sea World orca incident I knew he’d been referencing, I remembered wondering how someone at that level of her profession could be so careless as I watched the video on YouTube. It made sense when he explained it like that. I hesitated before mentally throwing my hands up and going all in. “So, why put this place here, then? If they’re endangered and also dangerous, why have a zoo at all instead of just a small reserve?”
He pursed his lips, looking disappointed in me. “Ripley. You know that already. You already said as much.”
Thinking back through our conversation, I said, “The rich humans who pay top dollar to see supernatural animals.”
“Not humans,” he told me. “But people, yes, and they are rich, and they’re making donations and spending their money on a ticket here because everything we have is endangered.”
“So…”
I just let my voice trail off and my mind started to drift. Andrew remained silent, letting me do so. There’s that thing people say, ‘I believe that you believe it,’ which is just a kinder way of saying, ‘Bullshit.’ Parents say it about closet monsters. Psychologists say it to people who say they’ve been abducted and probed by aliens. I wanted to say it to Andrew.
But I also wanted a job. If it meant working overnight at an empty zoo, that was fine. When it came down to it, especially when I took the tone of our conversation into account, this was a zoo specifically focused on preserving endangered ‘animals’, and it was allegedly doing important work. Also, if this turned out to be the real deal and I started seeing the animals, I would deal with it, just like I would deal with an enclosure that had a lion or tiger or gorilla. If it came with a ghost and invisible creatures, I really didn’t see what the difference was, if I couldn’t go in the enclosures either way.
On that note, I’d like you to imagine a kid who looks at a roller coaster, watching everyone screaming and grinning as they go up and down and all around and they’re like, ‘Heck, I could do that! That looks like a blast!’
Then they get on, the first drop hits, and they realize they’ve made a terrible mistake.
“All right,” I sighed. “I can’t say I’m going to turn down a job just because it’s going to be scary. Especially not one with this paycheck.”
Andrew smiled. “Awesome. There’s an adjustment process for anyone working here, similar to a dog that gets adopted, actually. I know the general guidelines of, ‘three days, three weeks, three months’ in terms of milestones, until they finally feel they’re where they’re supposed to be,” he told me, “and you can think of your time here along those lines. I really think you’re a great fit, and once you reach the milestone of working here for three months, I’ll officially consider you our new night shift guard. And I hope you’ll stay with us for many years.”
I nodded and smiled at the flattery of an employer wanting me to work a great job for them for a long time. I’d never had a dog, but those milestones were well-known among anyone who knew animals, especially dogs. The first three days, the dog is getting to know its new digs, exploring, and decompressing. At three weeks, they’ve gotten used to their environment and are starting to get comfortable with their surroundings and the routines of the humans they live with. By three months, they know the rules and follow them, they trust you, and they feel they are where they’re meant to be. I could only hope to be so lucky.
I saw the ghost two days ago and she has yet to make another appearance (for those who are curious, I asked, and her name is Leila), and I still hadn’t seen any animals. I did hear one, though, I feel compelled to note. A growling roar sounded from the lake on occasion, echoing across the vast zoo, sending a shiver down my spine. Whatever that animal was, it sounded gigantic.
Andrew said there was apparently a group that wanted to visit for a birthday and they were offering a huge donation, so he let me know they were making an exception and that this group would be walking through the park that night. That meant I’d be watching people watching animals that, as far as I could tell, weren’t there.
It was anticlimactic. Even the three people who came for the tour just looked like people, not like aliens or something eldritch from another dimension, and I stayed in the security office the whole time. Andrew was the one giving the tour. I watched them spend about five minutes at each enclosure, the hour or so that they were there passing without incident. It was clear that they were able to see all the animals, though, since they motioned excitedly at each enclosure and spoke to Andrew, who presumably answered any questions they had.
If they could see the animals, that was that. There was still that niggle in the back of my head, from my twenty-three years of life never encountering anything like ghosts or cryptids, telling me that this was ridiculous. Waiting for someone to knock on the door, a camera mounted on their shoulder, to tell me that it was a big joke and they wanted to see how long I’d play along. But from all I saw, this was a real place with real, invisible animals.
I do carry a taser and pepper spray in my capacity as a security guard. Though it isn’t for the animals, since they’re in the enclosures; they’re actually for the rare instance of a break-in. Andrew mentioned that it had happened several times it the past, someone trying to steal an animal in the hopes of selling it on the black market. They’d been successful before, but apparently my predecessor Roger was good at his job, and mostly they left in handcuffs.
I’ll be honest, I’m not a huge fan of confrontation, but my job was to call Andrew and then confront the person, not kick their ass. That’s what the police were for, or rather, the people Andrew would call in lieu of police in certain situations.
Fifty bucks an hour. That’s the key here.
Andrew hadn’t set up direct deposit, since he was sticking with a strategy of waiting to see if I’d continue to work there once I found out myself dealing with the animals (I’ve decided I am going to just call them animals). Instead, I got an old-fashioned check after my shift every Friday. The number on the first check was delightful. I went out that evening and had a big dinner at the local diner, order my most expensive favorites on the menu and a big slice of pie for dessert.
When it came to the paychecks in general, though, I had this weird feeling of not wanting to tell my dad and brother about the fact that it was actually $50/hr. I previously mentioned that my dad, his name’s Nathan if you’re curious, works at a local grocery store. Our town has a couple food franchises, but I think its size is just short of whatever threshold Walmart uses to decide where to open. He earns $14/hr. and that’s after the tiny raises he’s gotten over the past thirteen years.
That’s not to say he’d feel bad about not making as much as me. On the contrary, he would be ecstatic for me and really proud. But, like me, he’d be suspicious. That hourly rate was the biggest hint that this was more than just a private zoo for cryptids. And as soon as that fat check cleared without problems, my dad wouldn’t be satisfied with reassurances; he’d want to come visit the zoo and look around.
I’d told him it’s a private preservation with scheduled (expensive) visits only and that it had only eleven animals, so he’d been appeased by me brushing off the idea of a visit. Also, I took a few photos of my workplace; one of the security room, one of me sitting in my chair, one photo of the many screens I watched, and a selfie where I was feigning sleep out of boredom, slouched in my chair with my mouth open in a faux snore. That let him feel like he knew where I was and what I was doing, and that I was safe.
But if I told him I was making double what he thought, my father would practically order me to quit. No job was worth my safety, he’d tell me. I was quite of the opposite opinion, however, considering how crucial any and all conservation efforts were these days. Especially with the steep extinction levels due to humans competing with other animals for space, not to mention climate change. Working in any job that helped preserve species and keep ecosystems in balance, or put them back in balance, was so important.
Then again, my father would also point out something I had realized right away: the fact was that I was working with endangered species that were not from Earth. I wasn’t helping my planet. To be honest, though…that didn’t matter to me. Especially after that talk with Andrew about why he hired a human for this job, I figured whichever dimension these animals came from had the equivalent of us, razing forests to the ground, clouding the planet with pollution, and leaving the animals with no avenue of recourse when yet more land was taken from them.
I really do hope to keep working here for a long time, though, and not just because of the money. I can’t help it; I want to know what these things were, and I want to work with them, to do the job of a zookeeper. The same way you go up to the chain-link fence to get close to a carnivore on the other side who thinks you’d make a nice afternoon snack. You just want to be closer to them, to experience that incredible, daunting feeling of being in their presence.
Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t long before I got what I wanted.
The day after we had the tour go through, I was doing my sweep when I saw the ghost again. She was sitting on a small boulder in the same area I’d seen her the first time, looking identical, blood covering the front of her slashed shirt, the wounds visible underneath. I stopped and stood there for a moment before I decided to raise my hand in a small wave.
The young woman cocked her head at me and raised a hand in the air in an imitation of my gesture, her expression showing a bit of curiosity.
She was low-key, seemingly not concerned with my presence, looking at me as a novel phenomenon in her world. I wondered what that world consisted of. Was she always here, sometimes visible and sometimes not? Or did she have another world next to ours, in the ether, where she left everything in this world behind and floated in her disembodied form? Did she still feel emotions? Was that really curiosity on her face, or was I projecting? Did she feel happiness? Fear? Did she have the option of moving on, or was she stuck here?
Many questions that I might never get the answers to. And that was assuming Andrew knew the answers, since I’d never met Suzanne Cooper and he hadn’t even mentioned that possibility. This place was clearly her baby, but I’m sure running it was a lot of work. Plus, if she was rich enough to own it, she was rich enough to have other businesses and charities to run.
When it comes to the enclosures, they’re all wrapped by a barrier of some kind, though never one that seems adequate. There was not a single place with the ugly metal weavings of a chain-link fence, and no stretches of circular razor wire. Instead, there are nice fences. Black iron, or wrought steel fencing in a similar style to the one circling the perimeter of the zoo, just shorter and with different patterns. Or a spaced picket fence, the wood stained in some tone of brown, or a split two-rail fence. As if to say, ‘This is the border of your enclosure, but we’re just letting you know out of courtesy.’
When I started to pass enclosure number seven last night, a young woman’s voice spoke, “Hello.”
I startled, unaware that I hadn’t been alone. “Oh. Hi,” I said, staring at her standing a few yards in.
She had been next to a large tree and I hadn’t seen her. This enclosure was behind a picket fence, and she walked through the large area of wild grasses and flowers that stretched across the other side of the fence. There were fewer tall grasses closer to the fence, which I guessed was because it had been tromped down by her regular pacing along it when there were visitors, or if she wanted to see the various enclosures of the zoo. Her sudden appearance was a bit weird, considering I had been expecting to see a cryptid and instead I was looking at, it seemed, an attractive Asian woman.
She wore a black kimono, the soft silk robe draped gently over her body, with beautiful patterns of cherry blossoms, more so over her left side, and red and blue birds with their wings spread. A sash wrapped around her abdomen, she wore socks and sandals on her feet, and her hair was up in those rolls that gave volume to the style.
I was no expert on any fashion, much less that of another country, so I just assumed it was all traditional Japanese clothing. Most likely, the visitors who came liked to see a certain time-honored style and that’s what she stuck with. Or maybe she played on stereotypes. That would be amusing.
“I’m Yui. It’s nice to meet you,” she spoke, arriving at the border of the fence and holding out a hand for me to shake.
I’d been standing about three yards away from her, and I’ll be honest, muscle memory tried to kick in. But I only made it two steps, my hand starting to rise, before I froze, the hand falling limply at my side. “Nice to meet you, too,” I answered, my voice quiet.
Damn. I wonder how many times that honey trap works back where she comes from.
The pleasant look on her face faded, and she lowered her hand. “You won’t shake hands with me? Isn’t that rude?”
“I mean, I kind of like my hand where it is. You know, attached to me.”
Her demure smile widened into something more amused. “I would never do something so revolting.”
Looking her up and down, as if more visual information would give me more knowledge of what she was, I asked her, “What would you do?”
“I would be less wasteful,” she said softly.
A finger of ice trailed down my spine, and I had the sudden image in my head of her grabbing my outstretched hand in an iron grip and yanking me over the fence, leaving me to sprawl on the ground. Then killing and consuming me efficiently, without a single careless step, the same way humans slaughtered pigs, using everything from the hog but the squeal. I was struck with a shiver at the idea of her consuming everything from me but my screams.
Slowly, I took one step further down the path, then another. Just as I got to a walking pace, though, I realized the woman had started walking too, in the same direction. I’d have eventually gotten to the end of her enclosure and keep going, leaving her behind, but she spoke up. “Are you leaving?”
I came to a stop, meeting her gaze again. “My job is to walk the zoo every hour. Then I’ll get back to the security room and stay there until my next walk.”
“Have you met the others yet?”
I hesitated before saying, “Just Leila.”
She blinked languidly. “That means nobody welcomed you here.”
“Andrew did.”
She didn’t reply to that. Instead, she slowly started to lean forward, and I flinched backward a few steps further as I saw insect legs start curling out from her back.
No. Not insect. Arachnid.
The eight legs ended in small ‘paws’ with tiny claws, a layer of hairs covering the leg from top to bottom, like any typical tarantula. I took two more slow steps back and my mouth went dry as the jointed legs just kept lengthening, until they were large enough to lever her off the ground.
My gaze had been on the spider legs, but my heart skipped a beat as I realized her human legs had melded together and turned into a bulging abdomen. Her skin was shifting to a carapace, eventually all the way up to her shoulders and down her arms, her fingers elongating and her nails stretching to claws. From there down, her body was that of a pale tarantula with pedipalps the size of my arms and piercing fangs in her jaws that looked like they could take my head off.
There was a moment, my vision blurring, where I was worried that I might piss myself. The part of my brain that still had its humor intact in that moment told me that I should keep an emergency set of clothes in my car, or at the very least, start wearing Depends to work.
“I show you my true form,” she said softly, her voice now raspy like an eighty-year-old after a lifelong smoking habit. “Welcome to Suzanne Cooper’s zoo. The night shift guard for many years was Roger, before he retired and the zoo moved, and I miss him dearly. What should I call you?”
I choked on my words. There was no way my throat was going to cooperate enough for me to clearly get a sentence out. Instead, I realized my legs had taken control of the situation themselves, unsatisfied with my conscious brain’s decision to stand and stare, taking steps backward. I backed up a yard, then five yards, then ten.
My mind focused on the fact that spiders don’t waste anything, and pictured my demise. I’d be wrapped in a cocoon, killed, and made nice and mushy before she had me for dinner.
The whole time, my brain was a frenzied mess, my pupils were probably the size of dimes, and I was staring at that tiny, pathetic fence between her and me. There was so much adrenaline pumping through my body that I felt like my bones were vibrating. The fence was, to my eyes, the only thing between us. The only thing keeping her from tackling and killing me. My only hope was that she’d do it quickly.
But she didn’t move. As I absorbed her innocent, polite words, the look on her face was calm, and I wondered if this was typically the way a conversation went before she devoured her prey. I wondered how many people she’d eaten. Not humans, not people from Earth, but the ones from where she came from. The fact that she doesn’t scare the shit out of those people means they’re staggeringly dumber than humans.
Finally, I rounded a corner, both relieved at having her out of my sight and worried that she would take that moment to come find me. When she’d been within eyeshot, I had at least known where she was and could run in the other direction. But I didn’t hear the sound of faint footsteps moving rapidly toward me. All was quiet, in that deep, smothering way that only an empty business in the middle of the night in small town America could be.
My hands trembling, I barely paid attention to anything but the confirmation that my surroundings were free of the colossal spider as I finally got back to the door. Grabbing the handle and letting my eyes dart around for about ten seconds and my ears prick for the slightest sound, I finally swiped my key card across the pad and went inside, shutting the door behind me and engaging the backup deadbolt.
Maybe that was why they had decided on keycards. If I was running from something and panicking, using an actual key or inserting the card like at a hotel would keep me from getting to safety considering my hands were shaking enough to mix a margarita.
Walking over to my chair, I fell into it, letting my body flush itself of terror as I looked up at the cameras. There she was, still in arachnid form, exactly where I’d left her behind that rinky-dink fence, casually looking around and slowly pacing back and forth. I stared at her as my racing heart gradually slowed, and a minute or so later she turned on her eight legs and walked back into the trees.
Whatever invisible fences the enclosures have apparently work, which is nice, because I wasn’t keen on getting killed by one of the creatures here. And that’s what brings me here, spilling out everything that’s happened so far. Because nearly passing out from terror isn’t something I wanted to deal with at work, obviously, but I keep going over what she did in my head again and again, and I feel like I reacted like a child who spotted a wolf spider on their bed. I started to worry for my overactive sense of self-preservation, at least in my capacity as an employee here.
The spider didn’t even try to hurt me, and so I was feeling a bit foolish. Even annoyed, actually, at the fact that I’d freaked out so hard and took off instead of trying to engage in at least basic conversation. I got the sense that she wasn’t at human-level intelligence, but I was never going to be able to hold any level of conversation with an alligator.
Sure, she did mention that she wouldn’t be so crass as to yank off my hand because she’d rather just have my entire corpse, but wouldn’t a wolf do the same if it was hungry? Wouldn’t any carnivore? Actually, they probably would’ve been satisfied with one of my hands. The fear here was from the fact that she turned into a giant spider. If she’d turned into Clifford, I would’ve reacted the same way, if not better than, meeting Leila.
With that, I decided I’m staying on the job. Considering how frustrated I can get with foolish people, it’s a bit hypocritical, and I’m being a bit of an idiot. But…there are definitely wards keeping them in their enclosures. Also, I signed up for creatures for another dimension, whether or not I believed in them at the time, and I will not let encountering my first one in an objectively boring way be the reason I quit.
The money is a factor, I’ll grant you. Of course it is. And I can’t spend it if I’m dead, but all signs point to surviving as long as I don’t do anything dumb. Also, yes, I’ll admit there’s a not-so-little voice in the back of my head that’s desperate to know what else is here. I never thought I’d do something like this, but finding out these things are real, I honestly do want to learn more about them.
Still, though, I decided to call Andrew at the end of my shift to ask if the pepper spray and taser I carried worked on a certain spider, as well as the other animals I’d yet to meet.
​
Previous
***
/storiesbykaren

first
Luna VI query: Set the source to the leaked files of the first reconnaissance operation of Irisa.
Certainly!
Luna VI query: What did Ryo do during the first hour of the war?
***
Ryo had already reached a state of full awareness after waking up, and yet he hadn't moved an inch, immersed in his inner world as he thought about what he and Elysira had done at night.
And what a wild night it was.
The way that she had skipped the journey to go straight for the finishing line had caught him unprepared. Still, with the mystery of their physical compatibility out of the way from the get-go, Ryo had been left with a lot of time to explore the other hiccups and perks of this interspecies endeavor.
From the occasional accident with her claws to the new possibilities her tail brought to the table, Ryo had enjoyed everything.
There was not an ounce of regret in him, but the memory of their last act lingered incessantly in his thoughts—a vivid Recollection of Elysira’s tail wrapping around his leg and letting silence prevail as his arm shyly enveloped her, allowing them to fall asleep side by side.
The one memory that held him in place, fearing their next interaction when the slightest of his movements would inevitably wake her up, mirroring what had happened all in the previous mornings.
What would she say?
Would she think that they are in a relationship now?
What would he do if the concept of casual hook ups didn't exist for the Irisians?
Ryo touched his face and shook his head, instantly deciding it was time to start his morning routine to distract him from those absurd thoughts.
The brain IO interface captured his intention, turning on the lights on the ceiling with maximum brightness, something that he was sure would wake her up at once given how sensitive to change all Irisians were.
And yet he was wrong.
Elysira’s head tilted away from the light as eyelids fluttered, but the only other thing she did before stopping moving was strengthening her grip on his leg quite a bit, making him realize that her tail had not let go of him the whole night.
Upon noticing how numb his leg felt, Ryo propelled his body upwards, intending to uncoil her tail from his leg and start his day. Hopefully, Elysira wouldn't mention what they did, and he too would be able to pretend it never happened.
However, the moment his upper body lifted from the ground and he got a full view of her body, he was unable to remove her tail from his leg, captivated by a simple but powerful sight.
With her hands inside the pockets, Elysira had used his jeans to restrain her claws, putting herself in a very uncomfortable position, likely afraid of hurting him during her sleep.
His eyes widened, dispersing his previous train of thought from existence. The hand that was supposed to be dealing with her tail moved toward Elysira's exposed neck instead, aiming to wake her up with a gentle touch.
And as if he had just perturbed the stillness of a calm lake with a stone, a barely perceptible ripple of yellow spread on her skin from the contact with his fingertips. It traveled through her neck, reaching the soft lines of her face, and even traveled down her long hair strands.
At the same time that it felt wrong to be able to take a peek at her emotions so easily, Ryo couldn't help but wonder—which other colors had the darkness stolen from him? While immersed in this question, Ryo kept caressing her neck until her eyes opened slowly, resetting all the back spots of her body at once as consciousness took control over instinct.
Elysira’s grip on his leg loosened when she realized she was overdoing it. Her gaze started scanning every inch of him, starting from the accidental scratches of her own making and unashamedly stopping at places she had not seen before.
Unbothered by her curiosity, he even removed some of the loose strands in front of her eyes and threw them behind her long ears to make her job easier, feeling some apprehension only when she lost interest and sought eye contact.
Traces of purple appeared around her black spots as she spoke. "What do you humans do after... what we did?"
Ryo winced, but his tone was gentle. "Silly girl!" He felt deep regret for how he had skipped the part of Irisian relationships in favor of politics when she was teaching him about her species. "It could be everything or nothing."
He expected some intense reaction from Elysira, but there wasn't a lot of emotion showing. As he searched her skin, he also realized he was unable to look at her the same way as before.
From seeing her small breasts, which he now knew for a fact fit on his hands, to the very memory of all evenness that he now was able to associate with the sheen her skin exhibited from certain angles, Ryo realized he had lost the ability to gauge her emotions without feeling a hint desire.
She noticed how long he was staring at her and a hint of yellow appeared. "I don't need everything, but nothing is not enough!"
How did Ryo fail to see that this conversation would inevitably happen when they were having fun at night?
"Oh!" He was unable to keep his mouth shut, which resulted in red and purple manifesting on her skin as he felt the pressure for a quick reply.
He had heard the Irisians speaking terms such as chosen, mate, and family, but Ryo didn't know much about this, and now was not looking like a good time for asking for clarification.
The translator would do its job in conveying his intention. But what would he say? Friends with benefits maybe? He gave up that one on the spot; he didn't consider their previous relationship a friendship, and somehow, he felt a dangerous desire to want more than that from her.
Under the pressure of his previous mistake, he told her the highest relationship he was willing to have without a care in the world for consulting his superiors. "Is girlfriend good for you?"
Elysira’s eyes widened as her skin maintained the same tones. But it lasted only a second before a golden hue took over, leaving little room for her black spots. "Wait, are you serious? I never thought you would consider anything more than being my exclusive pair."
"I am serious, but what's the difference?" Ryo instantly felt he could have gotten away with being just friends with benefits.
"Two differences." She took her clawed hands from the pockets of his jeans and pressed them against his neck in a fast but controlled movement. "One is implied trust." Her head approached him slower as if she would kiss him, but instead, her lips diverted toward his ears where she whispered, "And the other is a promise for the future."
"That seems alright."
As he said that, Elysira had already started taking little bites on his earlobe, her other hand joining around his neck while her tail was sneakily pushing the rest of her body on top of him.
"This will have to be quick, we-"
Ryo was about to give up the time they had for breakfast, when a powerful explosion shook the ground, causing the whole tent to vibrate.
Elysira’s pointy ears began to twitch and her body receded, trying to get of clue of what happened as she displayed purple. "I hear nothing."
"This was not far from here; I don't think it was a landslide." Ryo summoned a window with all the cameras outside and found nothing unusual, even with the infrared inspection.
Elysira could see what he was doing since they had never left the shared augmented space.
"Can we see what Amara is doing? She might know more than us."
He still was incapable of referring to her as his girlfriend even in his thoughts, but he still felt a hint of pride for her quick thinking. "Let's see."
He quickly summoned a live feed and promptly instructed the AI to go through the recordings of the whole night. "Nathan and that princess are still inside the tent. Time to go there."
Ryo wasted no time explaining, quickly standing up to begin the search for his underwear. The floor was still littered with paper sheets, and there were even some opened water bottles around, but he still found what he was looking for before pulling his jeans from under Elysira’s butt and getting dressed with haste.
He wore his shoes but didn't bother with his shirt and jacket, just taking his already loaded gun from the holster and getting some spare ammunition before heading outside cautiously.
"I'm going with you." She got out of the tent almost at the same time as him, proving that not needing clothes had its advantages.
"Stay close." He activated the infrared view mode and scanned the surroundings just to be sure, then hasted his steps towards Nathan's tent which was about forty meters ahead.
There was little he expected would go wrong on such a short journey, but Elysira’s ears began to twitch halfway through, prompting him to stop advancing. "Hear someone?"
"Something." She then used her tail to point uphill, in the direction where the rest of the group had set camp on the previous day. "I think it's a drone."
"Fuck, I hope you are wrong." He raised his 3D-printed revolver and felt like cursing more at the fact he didn't even have a proper pistol, pulling back the harmer and getting himself in front of Elysira.
Thanks to her acute hearing, when he heard the buzzing of the drone, his gun was already pointing in the right direction. Upon getting the first glimpse of the flying object and noticing how fast it was moving, he didn't hesitate to do a partial activation of combat mode.
The world slowed down for a moment, allowing him to see the device flying among the very few beams of blue light that made their way through the canopies. He didn't wait a single second and corrected his aim slightly to the left before pulling the trigger.
Bang!
The drone was torn to pieces and many parts fell about twenty-five meters away from them, at a distance that any explosives wouldn't hurt himself or Elysira.
When his eyes found her behind him, there was yellow and purple on her skin as she asked, "What if it was friendly?"
"The owner can send the bill up the chain for all I care." Ryo lowered the gun and did a full scan all around once more, only to find nothing again.
Her tail wrapped around his arm as all purple on her body disappeared, leaving only a hint of yellow. "Amara won't be happy if it was hers."
Just as Elysira spoke, a circular door opened on Nathan's tent, and Amara took a step outside with red filling her body.
Ryo pictured a scene of a princess complaining about her lost drone, but things only got more complicated instead.
Nathan emerged after her, and the pair began to argue loudly about what to do now that a war had broken out; Amara wanted to march uphill to join her guards, but Nathan held her by the tail when she was about to leave and prevented her for moving, saying it would be too dangerous.
Their argument turned into a messy mixture of the present situation with Amara sulking about a wasted night, which led Ryo to exchange a look of surprise with Elysira.
But their surprise only lasted a moment and Ryo decided he couldn't let those fools keep wasting valuable time.
Clap.
Clap.
Clap.
He had their attention now. "Please don't tell me you're mad because the plant lover couldn't get it up."
Under normal circumstances, Ryo had no doubt his assholish behavior would only instill shame and improve their cooperation.
However, he forgot to account that he was not wearing a shirt, leaving all his scratches exposed while Elysira was disheveled by his side, which caused Nathan's jaws to drop followed by Amara throwing an indignant gaze at Elysira and then at Nathan, who gave Ryo the feeling he might snap at any time.
"Why are you here?" Nathan's calm voice didn't match his clenched fist and rigid posture.
"Information. I want her to tell me what she knows about this war." Ryo had learned about the war by overhearing their previous argument.
Surprisingly, Amara was cooperative. "My brother's army found our position. They were not aware I was here with Nathan and ambushed the rest of my people and Zara; you destroyed their drone but if they saw us they might have a good reason to come here."
"Fuck!" He turned to Elysira and ordered. "Go back and gather my things. Take the essentials first, we are leaving."
Elysira used her tail to squeeze his arm in acknowledgment and rushed back. But when she had barely taken a few steps, she stopped as her ears moved. "More drones are coming!"
After alerting him, she ran to accomplish her task, leaving Ryo in the company of just Nathan and Amara.
"Isn't that great?" He grumbled to himself, but his voice carried loudly, obtaining the pair's attention as he raised his revolver again.
Knowing that the enemy was probably aware of their position, Ryo used infrared view mode to ensure they weren't using the drones as a distraction to pull off an ambush.
And that didn't seem to be the case when the first machine appeared, flying downwards in zigzag from the concentration of trees uphill.
Again Ryo used a partial activation of combat mode and aimed at the drone, yet this time more of them appeared, leaving the cover of the woods in groups of three until there were nine of them in total. But they didn't even try to get close this time, choosing to hover next to the canopies more than two hundred meters away from him, and assuming something akin to a structured formation.
This was extremely weird and enough of a reason for him to retreat a little, getting closer to his tent and taking cover behind a tree.
Nathan and Amara moved too, the botanist getting inside and returning with his gun while Amara's colors blended with his tent becoming hard to spot.
Assessing the new situation in an instant, Ryo concluded it would be better not to engage and retreat considering that those drones would be hard to take down at such distance. But things changed again quickly when the AI triggered a pop-up window, showing that several of the cameras he had set up in strategic places were capturing movement.
And what he was seeing now were several armed groups of Irisians heading towards their position, confirming Amara's supposition that the rebels were coming for them.
With the situation getting grimmer with every passing moment, Ryo thought of a possibility for what the drones might be doing, but his mind was still refusing to believe that the rebels could be as organized as his worst-case scenarios were giving them credit for.
To test this, he immediately tried to contact the space station through radio transmission, and since being found by the enemy was no longer an issue, he set the transmitter to maximum potency to validate his test.
Unable to establish a two-way connection.
He frowned even though that was not totally unexpected.
With only a few minutes at best before this place was filled with enemies, they would have to leave fast or they would be at the mercy of the enemy.
But first, there was something he wanted to say to Nathan, who now was using his tent for cover together with Amara. "Listen up, those fuckers are jamming our comms and they will be here at any time. Take the MLBCS and find a clearing to use it, I doubt they can interfere with the laser. Just don't forget that your immediate safety comes first or else you might not be among the living when the pod arrives."
Ryo and Nathan were technically enemies, but the last casualty in the war between Earth and Mars had happened several years in the past, ensuring that he had no reason to wish any harm for the botanist even though he didn't like him.
As for Amara, it was a little different. He hurried back to his tent without saying anything to her. And he did that not because he wished her harm, but simply because he didn't understand what she had at her disposal to offer any useful advice.
"Wait, what are you gonna do?" Nathan shouted from a distance.
With the adrenalin of seeing how many Irisians were coming helping his sincerity, he shouted back. "I'm not leaving the planet unless mission control finds a way to save Ely too."
After that, Nathan and Amara disappeared from his mind as he took cover behind his tent, slamming his hand against the foldable fabric many times to get Elysira's attention. "Hurry up, we can't stay here any longer."
She left immediately after, struggling to maintain balance as she used a hand plus her tail to carry his backpack, while her gun threatened to tumble from her gasp in her other hand.
And besides, one thing that Ryo’s eyes were immediately drawn towards was the clothes she was wearing—his clothes. While her legs were still exposed, his jacket still covered a bit more than her hips, loosely engulfing her slender frame like a billowing sail.
"I put the food and water in your backpack." She let go of the heavy item right over his feet as she put the gun on the ground and lifted her arms for him to recover his jacket and t-shirt. "You can get dressed while the tent folds."
He might have allowed her to keep the jacket if not for it being an inconvenience to her, so he just took it, making the first time he saw her wearing clothes a very short experience.
"No time for that, it won't fold with all the paper you left on the ground." He said as he swiftly slipped his arms into the sleeves of the jacket and zipped it up in one smooth movement.
Ryo was already considering which path they would take to flee when he noticed something terrible—Elysira’s skin had just been filled with gray as tiny black spots began to appear and disappear as if rain on the sand of a desert.
"What's it now?" He asked, trying to hide how unprepared he was to deal with this.
"Nothing has changed." Elysira averted her eyes. "I'm a burden to you just as I was to Amara. If I had-"
"Oh, shut up and quit the self-pity!" Ryo realized he was being too harsh, but still went on to finish it. "The paper is our mistake and I'm staying because I like you. This simple. Now get your gun and use your goddam camouflage, just like that princess is doing."
Ryo felt awful after saying this, and Elysira seemed quite taken about as she stared at him with wide eyes.
A moment later, however, she bent over and took the gun from the ground, her exterior blending quite well with the surroundings.
Ryo felt bad for her, but now there was no time to talk. "We run now, let's go."
The sound of his own steps was all he heard as they were putting some distance from the tent, making it so that he had to check on Elysira every couple of steps he took to ensure she was following him.
It was only when he heard some gunshots from far behind that he felt her claws tugging at his jacket from behind. "I hope Nathan is like you."
***
This was an account based on what Ryo did during the first hour of the war. The previous narrative is based on the events of the morning of the twentieth day of the exploratory mission of Irisa. According to your current settings, no queries will be suggested.
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There is no sex in this episode, and it is more of a filler episode as to what is to be seen. Next week's episode is definitely going to be worth the wait! All characters are 18+
There was no way for me to take my mind off what Alexa and I had talked about before I went and slept with Luca. Sure, in the moment, it was enough to fog my thoughts and fill them with lustful desire, but it didn’t erase the fact that I was going to be dad, and somehow, I had to tell Luca and Travis. We are not all exclusive to one another, but I hope they will say to me if we are in the same shoes. I’m going to be telling them tonight.
I didn’t know how to go about it. Hey, so you know how I was straight before, like a month ago? Yeah? My ex-girlfriend just told me I’m going to be a dad, I thought to myself, but it sounded stupid in my head, and more than likely would sound stupid aloud.
“They’re going to kill me,” I sighed, tossing on my shirt and slumped down on my bed.
“Who’s going to kill you?” my roommate asked. I had forgotten that he was here; he never really said anything. “Your boyfriends?”
“They are not my boyfriends,” I scoffed. “But yes, Luca and Travis.”
“For what?”
“My ex is pregnant and is claiming I’m her baby daddy,” I exclaimed.
“They are so going to kill you,” he laughed at me. “Those boys are like lowkey obsessed with you, you must fuck them real good if they keep coming back.”
My face reddened at his comment, and I didn’t want to admit the truth, so I just went with it. “Not helpful, and I know,” a slight smirk spread across my cheeks. “I just have to sit them down and tell them it doesn’t change anything, I don’t even know if I’m the father, it has been nearly a month since I last slept with Alexa, and the idea now seems even grosser than it was in those moments before Luca and Travis.
“I’ll start planning your funeral,” he said, giving me side-eye and pulling out his notebook. So, who do you want to speak about? Travis and Luca are clearly off the board now.”
“Bro, just stop,” I huffed. “They’re just going to need to understand.” For a long time I was that straight boy, the one that craved the touch of women, to feel their delicate skin, and no inclination of doing anything with my butt. Alexa is the one that changed me, which I think is for the better, but it was her fault; she was the one that left, and she was the one that did this to me. “Any tips?”
“Just rip it off like a bandaid, and then offer them your cock,” he shrugged. “Bro, you must be so lucky; I’d kill to have two chicks go down on me.” I wanted to laugh and tell him the truth because he was stereotyping my position based on the fact that I’m a jock and Luca and Travis are nerds. But I also didn’t want to make it weird. I know he would have if he had known that I was the one getting filled by both of them regularly.
“It’s nice to be able to get some whenever I want, and threesomes are easy to arrange,” I chuckled. “Well, when you’re not here.”
“Fuck, bro my room sees more action than I do,” he groaned. “If they care about you, it won’t matter, man, but I do recommend getting a paternity test done as soon as you can.”
“I was thinking about that,” I sighed and rubbed the back of my neck. “Do you think I might not be the dad?”
“Dude, you’ve been fucking with Luca and Travis for what? Like a month now? And she left you high and dry like six weeks ago. Don’t you think it’s possible she was screwing with someone else?” He spelled out for me his doubts and created even more doubts within me. Alexa wouldn’t do that . . . I also told her not to touch my butt. . . and she did it anyways . . . maybe to expose me to anal bliss . . . to justify her leaving me for her side piece, I wondered, did she even have a side piece? None of it made sense to me. “If I were you, I’d be demanding that paternity test and bounce when you find out it’s not yours. Don’t let that bitch ruin what you have.”
“How did you become so wise, Camden?” I asked, feeling as if some weight had been lifted from my shoulders.
“To be honest, I’ve been jealous of you with those boys. They remind me of the boy I was once more than just friends with,” Camden divulged, “my father is also a lawyer–”
“Wait, a damn minute,” I interjected. “You’ve had a boyfriend before, I thought you said you were not into that gay shit.”
“Maybe I was just trying to hide it; I haven’t thought about him in a long time. Two summers ago, I started to secretly see my best friend's younger brother after he got outed by my best friend,” Camden told me. “High school romance is not bound to last. College is where you make those friendships that never end.”
“It sounds like you have a wonderful best friend,” I laughed. “Are they just not compatible? Or too complicated?”
“Dating your parent's best friend's son is always complicated, especially when you spend nearly every summer together,” Camden chuckled. “It was just too complicated, and we ended things before anyone found out.”
“Dude, I want to know more. But I really need–”
“To go tell that bitch, you want a paternity test, and tell Luca and Travis you might be a Dad in nine months?” he furrowed his brow. “Text them, text them now.”
Nathan: Alexa, I've been thinking, and I want a paternity test.
Alexa: Wow didn't sleep with anyone besides you, you're the slut, but whatever.
Group Chat Travis 🎮🍆 & Luca 📓🍆
Nathan: Guys, we need to talk ASAP, in person.
Luca: I didn't have Travis's #, everything good Nate?
Travis: He probably wants some dick, Luca gonna get mine too, I wanna run a train.
Luca: I'm not a bottom Trav, you won't fit . . .
Nathan: I mean, I'm down, but we need to talk first.
“Do you mind giving me the room for a bit, they’re on their way over,” I told him, “and Alexa is being a cunt about it, but said fine.”
“Dude, I just admitted so much shit to you, it’s the least I could do,” Camden smiled. “Unless you wouldn’t be opposed to sharing those boys with me.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck.

I’ve had a lot of adventures in my life.
I’ve traveled, made friends, seen sights, competed in sports, and participated in events.
Sometimes, following any of these endeavors, a small object would find itself in my possession. A knickknack, a totem, a doodad.
Maybe it was a collection of Mardi Gras beads from my trip to New Orleans. Or a t-shirt tossed by a cheerleader at a sporting event. A toy from a claw machine. A mixtape from a friend. A thank-you note. A cheap piece of junk from a tourist’s gift shop.
Whatever they were didn’t matter — what matters is that they were often a representation of whatever moment in time they came from.
I never threw these things away. I set them on my desk or on my shelves. When those spaces filled up, I bought two small storage containers. They’re filled to the brim and I’m currently filling a third.
Why keep the color-coordinated bandana a stranger gave me in the park during Pokemon Go’s heyday? Why hold onto the Save the Date from my high school friend who ended up getting divorced not two years later? What significance or use could I possibly have for those goofy White Elephant gifts my kickball team gave at the yearly Christmas party?
No purpose, no reason and there is none, respectively.
And yet I don’t want to let them go. You see, they are reminders of times and experiences — Keepsakes. Mementos. Souvenirs. In some ways, they’re a physical collection and documentation of my life.
It reminds me a little bit of this weird quirk I have when I play video games.
--
I likely dumped more than 500 hours across all my Skyrim save files. There was no other game, there needn’t be any other game and there still hasn’t been any other game since.
In my adulthood, I returned to one of its many definitive editions for one last victory lap. With my experience, memory and fully-formed adult brain, I approached the game methodologically, in an optimal order, carefully. I built my ideal character and crafted only what was needed — down to the last iron ingot. I explored, I experienced — I did every major and minor quest, making it my perfect playthrough.
One thing I love about Skyrim is the loot. Yes, there’s 20 million iron daggers and boring, inventory-cluttering useless items… but then there’s the special ones.
There’s the unique weapons at the end of each Daedric quest. The trinkets from the Thieves Guild. Spellbooks, statuettes and storybooks. The eerily-delivered note for the assassin’s questline. The robes of the king, the rings and necklaces of Jarls.
You know them — the items with one-of-a-kind names and designs that are specific to each of their quests.
You see, these items carry a story with them. How you stole for them or killed for them. Traveled, battled, talked, stealthed, lied, solved your way into their possession. They’re the game’s biggest treat.
That’s why, at the culmination of my final ever Skyrim playthrough, I bought a house in Whiterun and filled it with these objects.
Weapons and armors on the walls and on the racks, items and books placed carefully on shelves - but not just any weapons, armors, objects and books. Only the special ones. It was a house that told the story of all of my adventures.
I sat down in a chair next to Aela the Huntress in my castle, my throne room. I saved my game one final time.
--
For all of gaming’s swashbuckling adventures, magnificent worlds and large stretches of land to traverse, they don’t always give us too much to remember them by, do they?
I appreciate Skyrim so much for understanding the nature of the epic they were creating. The ability to fill your house with display cases, armor mannequins and weapon racks demonstrates the developer’s awareness of their playerbase and the scale of the adventures they were sending them on.
These are adventures to cherish, to tell tales of, to be remembered.
Will anyone else give me what Skyrim did?
…
The answer’s yes, actually.
It’s a fascinating yes, too — because not every keepsake system is cut from the same cloth. Games offer unique takes on the mechanic that energize it, give it new life and perspective and add layers of meaning to it in fresh ways.
And I’ve got plenty of examples.
--
In The Outer Worlds, special items you collected while out adventuring would be placed in specific locations throughout your ship, The Unreliable, upon return. These included things like:
• Posters• Signs• Various ISO items• Tossballs & Tossball cards• Golden bird statuettes• Many, many more
Sometimes these were stored by the game in your captain’s quarters, but other times, they’d appear in your squad’s quarters instead.
No matter where they got stored, these items were more than just junk. They were signature weapons of terrible villains whom you defeated, they were outlandish garb from flamboyant characters who painstakingly passed away to protect your life, they were motifs of resource-gouging corporations whom you shutdown for the good of cities and planets.
They were special, they were keepsakes. Their addition made The Unreliable feel alive and lived in, part of your own, unique journey, filled with the stories and tales of your adventure and — importantly and specifically to The Outer Worlds — your choices.
—
The second and third installments of the Mass Effect series contained model ships you could buy from vendors that would then go on display on desks or on racks in your spaceship, The Normandy.
These are a little different because you buy them, rather than slice somebody’s head off for them, but they still count.
What makes them still count here is twofold:
• Some model ships only become available after completing certain missions that actually involve the ship you’re buying a model of, so they still serve as a reminder and memento of specific accomplishments in this way
• If you transferred your save data through the games, models you collected in ME2 would appear automatically on The Normandy in ME3. Being able to carry souvenirs into a sequel is exceptional, and a feat I’ve not found any other game to match.
Mass Effect: Andromeda saw a return of this feature, too. You ended up re-gathering old ships of yore in this installment, however. Andromeda also featured a more traditional collectible-style search; these model ships were looted from various locations in the world.
The original trilogy used the model ships as landmarks for its major moments, to be remembered across the series, while Andromeda paid homage to the previous games and encouraged its players to explore its world more thoroughly.
—
In Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, building up your burgeoning young settlement of Ravensthorpe is a central gameplay mechanic — as you acquire more resources to build with, the size of the village grows both in length, width and inhabitants.
The game includes optional side quests that change those who wander your evolving home and hub in medieval England. They include:
• Capturing a stray cat• Saving a fox from a burning home• Befriending a fallen hunter’s wolf pet
In each instance, the living being will join your settlement — the cat will stay underneath Eivor’s seat in your longship, the fox will wander Ravensthorpe and the wolf will welcome you in your personal quarters, howling at your arrival.
You can interact and pet them whenever you like, playing a short animation displaying the affection between the two.
These three “collectibles” don’t feel like trinkets, but living, breathing additions to your home that give it joy and life, as well as keep you young.
—
Speaking of Norse culture, central to Biomutant is a form of Yggdrasil — the WorldTree.
Central to Biomutant’s story is saving the old, decaying and currently-being-eaten-by-giant-monsters WorldTree. And there are two impressive quests in the game that reflect back to the player their efforts in saving it.
One quest saves the tree from festering toxins below its roots — and the tree’s colors change from green to fluorescent white as a result.
Another quest by the name of Aurora has you activate monoliths around the map that direct energy to the WorldTree. The quest climaxes by having the tree give off a swirling, sparkling aura that hangs perpetually while you travel the world and complete more objectives.
It even matches your affinity — if you’re taking the side of love and justice, the aura is white, while if you play for the destruction of the planet, the aura will hang black.
What’s special about these to me is that they don’t do anything. They don’t get you any closer to saving the world or the tree, but they definitely did something important –
The WorldTree’s central location in the map and absolutely massive scale allow for it to be seen at all times from just about anywhere in Biomutant’s world. This means, after I had completed these two quests, the fruits of my labor were on gloriously beautiful display at all times.
Biomutant’s mementos aren’t keepsakes you can’t take with you when you leave the planet — they’re visual celebrations of your hard work, an ever-present reminder of your endeavors and care for a dying world.
—
More briefly, Cyberpunk 2077 allowed you to fill V’s apartment with keepsakes as well, featuring dream catchers, posters, paintings, action figures and more.
In Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance Ace Azzameen’s personal quarters would fill up with medals and displays as you progressed through the game.
In The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, some of the most legendary Zelda equipment ever was available to the player, including the Sword of Six Sages, the Fierce Deity Sword, and the Biggorons Sword — all of which can be hung in display cases in Link’s home.
Meanwhile, Uncharted 4 greets players near its opening sequence with an attic filled with memorabilia and keepsakes that Nathan Drake himself has kept after all these years. It’s not us — the players — ourselves collecting and hoarding, but it was lovely to see Drake thinking along the same lines as us souvenir psychopaths.
—
I’ll end with gaming’s classic — Mario. The red-hatted Italian also did the keepsake thing in one of his most beloved installments.
Super Mario: Odyssey allowed you to decorate The Odyssey with stickers and trinkets from your escapades by spending purple coins you could collect while out adventuring on one of the game’s many worlds.
A vanilla Odyssey player’s ship might look the same as it did at the game’s start, but a completionist might have a slew of trinkets and décor, like:
• Peach’s Model Castle• Dinosaur models and trophies• Shiverian Nesting Dolls• A plush frog• Flowers and a watering can from Steam Gardens• Statues of Pauline, Jaxi, Jizo• A lamp and rock fragment of the moon
Hell, the game director himself sounds like he’s read this very article:

“But what about decorating the ship? There’s a shop that appears in many kingdoms where you can buy souvenirs and stickers using the purple coins you’ve gathered.
Collecting memories is one of the best parts of traveling, don’t you think?” –Kenta Motokura

The ability to make The Odyssey your own evolved the traditional fetch-quest nature of collectible gathering and drove the player to go that little bit of extra distance in exploring and engaging with the various kingdoms and mastering the game’s platforming.
--
Video game narratives and their accompanying worlds are monstrously large nowadays. As enjoyers of the medium, us gamers spend a lot of time in them.
Like, a lot.
In recognition of this, game developers have given gamers a number of distinct tools to document their triumphs and sagas — each with their own unique flavor of congratulations and commemoration.
For our enormous investment with huge worlds and long, winding quests, something tangible we can keep hold of provides value, meaning, memories. They make our journey — one which we have committed so much to — special, transcendent, our own.
They give us things no other entertainment medium can give.
So fuck photo mode. A picture isn’t worth a thousand words — my keepsakes are.
(A special thanks to the members of patientgamers for their contributions to this post that helped inform this essay with games I have and have not played.)

Halloway grimaced at the destruction the Administrator's factory had endured, smoke, oil and sparks were rampant all around as the place lay in ruin thanks to the Coalition and those two blasted defectors. While the disassembly squad did put up a well-fought fight, their efforts had proven to be in vain as the Coalition now managed to recover the conscripted drones, ensuring the loss of many potential recruits for the Administrator's Disassembly Division.
Needless to say, Edgar was not happy with the situation, and the next bit of news he heard from Darren only made him more upset. "Our monitors are showing the thieves probing through the storage bays, they're taking everything they see in them. They'll most likely be snagging whatever belongings the captured drones had on them as well."
Still watching the burning factory, Edgar spoke partly to himself with immense disappointment. "We took them here... in the name of progress, to make them better. But rather than brave the path, they'd rather waste away our efforts and demonize the program over trivial fears." Gazing up to the upper portions of the conveyor bay, he finished his quiet rant. "We've only grown with all we've done, with the Administrator's graces... What must we do to prove to them that what we're doing is for the greater good of all?"
One of the guards lightly raised a finger as he tried to point out a fault in Halloway's scheme. "Well, maybe if we didn't go and kidnap thos-"
"RECRUITED, you imbecile! They were recruited." Edgar snapped, giving the guard a glare that demanded he shut his mouth. Swinging his head back to attention, the officer did so as Edgar returned his focus to the matter at hand. "Anyhow, it's clear this place is compromised. Darren, what of the other cargo ships? Have they been redirected already?"
Darren nodded as he answered the head researcher further. "We signaled them just under thirty minutes ago, Sir. They're heading to the Administrator's Command Facility at the moment. It should be secure enough for our transports to land."
Halloway perked up to the middle monitor as Cyn added to Hawk's reply. "I have more of the conversion machines stored there, we can use them in place of the ones we lost at this facility."
"Good." Edgar replied, nodding in pleased approval, He seemed to perk up from the news before turning away from the sight ahead and facing his escort staff, Darren and several other guards standing at attention alongside him before he spoke. "Jenson will want my head for this, I must convince him that things are under control."
"I can help ensure he believes us, Mr. Halloway. I have the right equipment for proof." Cyn stated, her wording translating clearly to the head researcher as he nodded in approval.
Looking to one of his worker drone guards, Edgar asked her, "Is my shuttle available?"
The guard checked one of the consoles for a moment before answering her superior. "Yes Sir, it's stored in the underground hangar to the south. We can take the private subway there."
Smiling in satisfaction, Halloway turned back to lean onto the main console for a moment, glancing over the factory status shown on the screen below before looking to Darren and a few of his men. "Mr. Hawk, you four, stay with me. The rest of you meet us at the railway below this place. And Cyn," He looked to the Administrator with stern smugness as he motioned his arm to the room he stood in. Bring two more DDs to this room, I want to send a little... message to our friends outside."
Edgar stood firm to observe the Coalition trespassers further as the Administrator spoke to him. "They'll be here in no time, Mr. Halloway. Stand by." As Cyn did her invisible work within the console, Edgar kept his gaze on the Coalition troops, several of them moving to leave as they prepared to make their escape out of the factory.
...
Wade slowly opened his wings up as he held Tina, the two having had a moment of ease and calming down after Wade's first feeding. He had wept out his terror over what he'd become with Tina's help, constant reassurances of "It's okay, it's okay..." from her had eased his mental state. Wade was afraid that Tina would be scared of him after that awful sight, perhaps leave him for not being the caring, innocent drone he once was. But she didn't, she refused to leave his side when he needed her most.
And Tina knew this, he didn't ask to become this... thing. He didn't want to be forced to commit atrocious acts unto those around him. He was scared, afraid to even move his body after consuming another drone's oil. But he could, all he needed was a helping hand, a hopeful light in this dark pit he was in.
And Tina was that light.
Now feeling better from his and Tina's quiet therapeutics, Wade held Tina's hands as he looked to her. "I'm so sorry, if I had known you were looking, I... I wouldn't have done it."
"It's alright, Wade." The cobalt drone replied with an apologetic smile as she continued. "If anything, I shouldn't have stopped you like I did. I just... wasn't ready to see that, that's all."
As Wade and Tina concluded their apologies, one of the worker drone soldiers, whom Wade came to know as Sergeant Thomas, walked over to the two, Wade's two canteens in hand and refilled with oil from the corpse Wade was feeding off of earlier. F took notice of him as he reached the couple, speaking to Wade specifically. "Here Sir, I got these filled back up for when you need them. Shouldn't have to worry about another episode for a minute."
The two drones exchanged smiles as Wade took the canteens. "Thanks Tom." He said before feeling sorrow tug at his heart again. "I'm... sorry you had to see that back there."
"Don't fret over it, Wade." He said with a laugh, remembering the worse sights he'd seen before finishing his chat with his ally. "It's something I've been used to in my time in the service." With the brief conversation concluded, Thomas made his way over to the ladders near the end of the conveyor belt, intent on returning outside and getting to the nearest transport back to base.
Seeing the two lover drones no longer engulfed in sorrow and despair, F walked over to them, some of the troops she was standing with making their way to the ladders nearby as she spoke. "You two feeling okay?"
"Yeah, it's just... Did you know? About being able to do this?" Wade asked with a pleading look, yearning for F's honesty as she nodded hesitantly. "...Why didn't you tell me about that?" He pressed further, F's face becoming one of mournful disgust as she gave her reason.
"I didn't say anything cause... because I didn't want you to know about that awful shit, Wade." Steadying herself, F looked to Wade with a stern glare. "If it makes you feel any better, I don't like doing it either. I can only recall one time I've fed off another drone, not one of my proudest moments."
Wade nodded in acknowledgement as he looked back to Tina, still feeling grossed out by his behavior a few minutes ago. "They didn't even tell me about that either, not those company bastards, not the Coalition..." Sighing, he finished lightly. "So that's why Kelly gave me those oil jugs, so that I wouldn't hurt my friends here."
He had flashes of terrible images of taking a bite into Nathan, cringing at the awful thought as F tried to brighten him up. "Hey, look at it this way. At least you took a drag off of an enemy drone instead of hurting your teammates."
Tina seemed to be brightened up as well by F's statement, Wade perking up a bit as his beloved added in her point. "Yes, I say that's what they get for hurting my darling Wade. Seems like a pretty good way to use those skills, if you ask me."
Wade's face lit up more upon Tina's words, letting out a chuckle as he and Tina stood up alongside F. Holding one of Tina's hands, he spoke to the two ladies. "Well, I guess when life turns you into a monster, and you don't wanna be one... You eat the monster."
"That's the spirit." F said with a hearty laugh as the two made a light through a morbid situation, their sorrow and fear washing away as they enjoyed the peace of the moment.
Said moment of peace seemed to decay for Wade as he observed the area again, no more than half of the garrison of troops that came in earlier were still inside, Kurtis and Gerard having left some time ago since the area was clear. Seeing all the blood, the oil, the bodies, remembering all that had transpired in this factory... It reignited Wade's desire for vengeance.
He hated them, hated the company for all these atrocious acts and lives lost because of this phony recall effort. And he hated them especially for taking Ron away from him, the man he knew all his life, laughed with, bled with, cried with... learned with. He didn't know what he was going to do now that he was the only one of the Carter brothers left, how would he live at home? Would he be allowed to be himself after all this? Would he even be granted independence still now that Ron was no longer over his shoulder to help him cross those dreaded bridges?
So many thoughts swam through his mind, his face showing immense, contained anger as Tina and F looked to him in concern. "Wade? Is something wrong?" Tina asked worriedly, Wade snapping out of his thoughts as he eased himself.
"Tina, I don't know who did this, who caused all this to happen... or what turned me into what I am now." Holding her hand, Wade spoke to Tina further, the girl now sharing her boyfriend's anger as she understood his words. "But, if I ever find them out there later on... They're gonna fucking die." He swapped out a hand for a claw hand as he concluded his personal oath, Tina clenching his hand more tightly as she replied to his declaration.
"Well, I won't let you do it by yourself. I have a bit of bad blood with those brutes too, you know." The two shared a glare to each other, determined to get back at those responsible as F prepared to interject.
"Good to hear, I'm kind of hoping to put those people in their place myself." The couple smirked at their friend's sympathy, the three standing together with newfound determination as they prepared to leave.
Wade stopped, however, as he saw a small dot of red light pointed at Tina, right on the side of her head. Immediately on alert, Wade grabbed his girlfriend as he sputtered out, "Tina, LOOK OUT!" Holding her, Wade jumped into the air, barely avoiding a shot of pink blast of energy zooming right under them. F jumped too, taking to the air as her friends landed with a swagger before observing the blast's damage. Rather than a scorch mark like they expected, the pink shot melted part of the conveyor belt, the metal and rubber turning to hot sludge as it began disintegrating.
Looking up to the blast's origin, Wade saw the windows of the observation area opened, exposing the people inside to the chaos beyond them. Probing through the lot, Wade identified a few familiar faces, both before and after his conversion, as well as several worker drone servants. He scowled at two of the people up in the observatory, those two playing a major role in ruining his and Tina's lives, as well as taking many more.
"Okay, maybe I do remember who they were." Wade said with contained anger, Tina glaring at the people her boyfriend was staring at with him.
F held the line as the remaining troopers were now completely on the defensive. "Everyone retreat, we're done here! I repeat, retreat!" She declared to the soldiers as they obeyed without hesitation, F observing them running back to the elevators at the other end of the room before looking back to Wade and Tina. "Come on, you two! Let's go!"
The couple weren't given an opening to the platform behind them as several large, fleshy tentacles, about four in total, got in F's way. The soldier drone tried to cut at it, but another simply got in front of the cut-up tentacle as it refused entry to where Wade and Tina were standing at.
Seeing that they were clearly cut off, Wade called out to F. "F, get out of here! We'll find another way out!"
F reluctantly obeyed Wade's order as she quickly turned towards the elevator, zooming off to the broken doors as she began to make her escape.
With his allies seemingly safe for the most part, Wade and Tina held each other's hands as the former yelled at the scientists, specifically one he met when was first converted. "HALLOWAY!!!"
Edgar spoke aloud to Wade and his love in a mix of disappointment and impressed satisfaction. "W, it seems you've decided to cause a ruckus here. I must admit, you've shown considerable promise with all the damage and casualties you've erected. Even the Administrator herself is impressed."
The Administrator backed up Edgar's statement. "Indeed, if you hadn't rebelled against us, you would have made yourself a squad leader already."
Wade glanced up to the ceiling, intent on finding any manner of escape as Tina yelled out to the corporate staff. "Well, maybe if you had just handled this whole bloodbath better, we wouldn't have reached this point!"
Before looking back to Halloway and his entourage, Wade memorized his and Tina's retreat vector: Built into the ceiling were several vents, large ones from the looks of it. If he could bust one of them open, they might be able to take a detour out of this place.
"Yes, well... while it is unfortunate that our efforts resulted in the harsh demise and treatment of hundreds of civilians, especially those terrorists you're working with, it was wholly necessary in order to recruit you and countless others." Edgar stated simply, seemingly unsympathetic to the lives lost as Wade's glare intensified.
"Necessary? ....MY BROTHER'S DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU!!! He didn't deserve to die for this!" Wade's words echoed throughout the large facility, Halloway slightly shaking his head upon hearing the term Wade had given to his 'owner', Ron.
The head researcher then began to let out a light cackle, albeit loud enough for the lover drones to hear him perform the insulting gesture. "Brother?! Is that what he called you?" He said rhetorically before continuing his gloating. "Well, seems we humans can be more insane than I previously assumed."
That comment rose Wade's rage levels in an instant. Readying a missile attachment, he roared in anger as he fired a flurry of missiles, intent on slaying Halloway and his cohorts for slandering his brother. He wasn't granted the taste of vengeance as two disassembly drones flew in the way, taking the brunt of the onslaught with their wings.
As the two drones floated firm in front of Halloway's team, Tina growled out, the head researcher's jab upsetting her as well as she pulled out her recovered pistol from her jacket. "How DARE you?! Ron and Jasmine are our family! If we could, we'd SHOOT you for saying such a thing!"
"Hmph, I'm certain you would. In fact, I'm sure you could've taken my head off with that meager pistol you've got there!" Halloway said mockingly, his guards stepping up to the open window as their superior continued addressing the two drones. "But, unfortunately, I won't have you doing that. There are more pressing matters to attend to, and I can't have a couple of drones halting progress."
Wade swapped out his missile launcher for a blade, raising it up as he threatened Halloway. "You won't get away with what you've done here, Edgar! Before this is all over, I'll rip your damn heart out!"
Edgar merely gave a witty smirk at Wade's bold words. "Well, I'd certainly like to see you try, but I think the Administrator will have that problem taken care of soon enough." The tentacles came slightly closer to the drone couple, both of them holding each other as Halloway spoke further. "Either way, best of luck to you W, hopefully your clones will prove more reliable than you have here today."
Aiming the sword towards Halloway, Wade denounced his corporate name in defiance as he held Tina's hand. "For the last time, it's NOT 'Serial Designation W'! It's Wade... Wade Carter!"
Edgar, not too amused by Wade's persistence to be himself, acknowledged his preferred identity. "Very well then... Wade Carter."
As Halloway and his staff began to leave the observatory, the tentacles began to move, preparing to pounce on Wade and Tina. Acting quickly, Wade swapped his weapon back to a hand before grabbing Tina. "Tina, hang on!" He said as he carried her in his arms, taking to the air just as the tentacles came at the couple. Just as they were about to grab him, Wade covered himself and Tina under his wings, only granting the tentacles the chance to grab hold of his pod-shaped posture. Taking a deep breath, Wade fought back against the pressure of the tentacles.
He admittedly wasn't sure it would work, but by some miraculous stroke of luck, it did. With all his might, Wade unfurled his wings, knocking off or cutting up the four tentacles trying to crush them. Wasting no time, Wade flew up high, getting a safe distance from the fleshy appendages before looking up to the ceiling vents. "Tina, hold on to me! This is gonna be a daze!" Wade said before mounting Tina onto his back, his girlfriend wrapping her arms around him as he readied a missile launcher. Firing, two missiles struck the grate covering the vent, blasting it open for the two to go through. Wade flew up to it without hesitation, passing through the wound in the ceiling as he entered the vent.
As he flew up the vent, Wade prepared a holo-projector as he flew through the surprisingly spacious vent, which was big enough to allow him to fly through, so long as he kept his wings slightly closed in while doing so. Reaching a split path in the vents, Wade held onto the ledge of one of the paths as he glanced over his map. Seeing a green shape showing his and Tina's position, Wade examined it before spotting the proper path to take.
Tina was quite concerned over their chances as she asked Wade, "Um, Wade? Do we know where we're going in this place?"
Wade nodded as he memorized the escape path. "I'm sure of it, Halloway and his people gave me a map readout of this place when they had me under their service. Shouldn't be too far from an exit, if I'm reading this right."
Climbing up the ledge, Wade flew down the left path, going for some time down the vent as he tried to reach the exit hatches above the building. Upon reaching the next set of four branching vent passages, Wade flew to his left, gliding through the vent system as he continued to his target.
Hoping to lighten the mood a bit, Tina spoke up, admiring the set of wings up close as she rode through the passage with Wade. "...Well, uh... I wasn't expecting you to be having a set of wings so soon. You seem to be a natural at this!" She gave a warm laugh as she steadied herself on Wade's back, finding it amusing at how her beloved was so skilled with something he just got. "How did you learn to fly so well? Did they train you or is it...?"
"Programming? Probably the latter, cause these things feel like they've always been here." Wade replied to his girlfriend before giving a chuckle of his own, slowing himself down as he reached another junction. Landing against a corner, Wade looked up as he saw their ticket out: another vent grate leading to the outside of the factory. As Wade held onto the corner wall between the now three splitting paths, Tina propped herself into a more comfortable position as she held onto Wade. The former worker drone smiled as he looked to his wings, then to Tina as he continued speaking. "But no matter how or why, point is... I might be able to take you places sooner than I thought."
Tina blushed at his offer, rubbing a hand on one of his wings as she gave her thoughts on it. "Ohohoho, well, out of all the ships I've flown... I'd say you'd be my favorite plane to fly on." She gave a wink to Wade, the two giving belly laughs at their flirting as they heard a low boom from the area outside the vent above.
They didn't need to guess what was going on out there, only look to each other as they prepared to fly into the fray. "Well, you up for some turbulence?"
Tina nodded as she gave her reply to her boyfriend. "With you? All the way, dear."
Looking up to the exit vent, Wade readied his wings, Tina holding onto him as he flew up at the vent. Readying a pair of chainsaws, Wade pointed them forward as he cut through the metal grate, allowing the two out of the factory.
Flying up high, Wade looked around the area as he readied his holo projector into a sub-machine gun. Above the factory were several aircraft, mostly fighter planes and small warships. Wade was especially surprised to see a single USN starship, visually identical to the one he saw when he and Ron were coming back down to Earth.
And fighting against these ships were, what else? Disassembly drones, several of them flying about and firing various weapons at the opposing military ships and fighters. Slowing his ascent, Wade caught sight of a few of the transports that arrived here earlier to rescue the captured drones, several of them now airborne and trying to fend off several of the hostile disassembly drones.
Flying towards the transports, Wade looked to Tina as she steadied herself on Wade. "Tina? You don't mind if I go a little feral out here, do ya?"
The drone girl glanced down to Wade, pulling out her pistol as she gave a sheepish reply. "Mm-hmm!"
Wade gave a toothy grin at her response, readying a claw hand from his free one as he spoke once more. "Good, cause I could really use the oil!"
Flying over towards the closest three dropships, Wade flew at one of the disassembly drones, swiping at their head before looping downward and firing with his sub-machine gun. The drone, unable to counter due to the sudden strike, took several shots to their body, oil spurting out from the wounds as Wade flew over to the injured drone. The murder drone yelped as Wade stabbed them in the chest, their core being ripped out not a second after and crushed between Wade's sharp claws. Behind him, Tina took aim at another disassembly drone before firing, a few of the blue bolts managing to strike the disassembly drone's hide, blasting the nanite tail off.
Tina's target immediately glared at her and Wade, flying at them with a pair of swords at the ready before Wade caught sight of them. In the span of a second, Wade swiftly readied his own pair of swords before blocking the attempted strike, Tina turning to take aim at the drone's head before firing. With their opponent stunned and backing off, Wade pressed forward, grabbing the disassembly drone before biting into their neck. The murder drone cried out in pain as Wade drained some of their oil, those cries dying out as the drone's visor went black. Ripping out the core, Wade released the body before crushing the core, then wiping his oil-covered mouth with his arm.
Another hostile drone decided to join the fight as they fired at the couple, Wade blocking the flurry of bullets with his wings before turning to face his next threat. The disassembly drone seemed to catch Tina's eye as it looked similar to the one that helped capture her on the JCJ Central some time ago, but snapped herself off the thought as the drone readied a pair of missile launchers. Focused on evading the incoming missiles, Wade flew around the murder drone, trying to lure the missiles around the aerial battlefield before flying towards another quartet of disassembly drones. With careful flying, Wade managed to guide the missiles into each of the four, however it only seemed to stun them with only minor damage.
Wade's evasion tactic paid off more than he thought, however, as three of the four killer drones were shot at by a pair of military fighters, the injured drones falling to the ground below as the fourth one tried to shoot at the incoming planes. Wade tried to take out the fourth hostile, but ceased his attempt as Tina cried out to him. "Wade, look out!"
Turning around, he saw the disassembly drone that fired the missiles approaching rapidly, a pair of swords ready in their hands as they clashed with Wade's own. With the two in a deadlock, the hostile drone attempted to strike Wade with their nanite tail, hitting him in the leg. The former worker drone grunted from the burning pain as he tried to perform the same action, striking the murder drone's arm as they cried out from the attack. With his opponent stunned, Wade immediately lunged at the drone, chewing into the drone's head as he held onto their arms with his newly generated claws. Once he was satisfied, Wade tore off a chunk of the disassembly drone's head, spitting out before throwing the body away to the ground.
The couple wasn't granted a moment to rest as another disassembly drone flew at them, Wade zooming upwards in a loop before catching sight of the hostile drone, who now readied a pair of laser cannons before speaking to them. "So, you're the newbie that turned on us, right?"
Wade was initially confused by the drone, but looked to them in shock as he recognized who it was. It was L, a male disassembly drone with dark red hair that went down past his shoulders. His attire was of a black suit with yellow buttons holding it tight, and dark grey pants that were tucked to the knees.
Readying one laser cannon out of one claw hand, Wade took aim at L as he replied to his fellow recruit. "Yeah, and if you're thinking of taking me back, you can just turn around and fly back to the factory!"
L laughed like he heard an awfully funny joke before responding to Wade's answer. "Oh, no. I wasn't planning on taking you back to the boss!" Without another word, L fired his laser cannons, Wade dodging the beams as he flew around the murder drone. Training her gun on their opponent, Tina fired at L, managing to score a hit on one of his arms as it fell off from the power of the shot. Flying at L, Wade swiped his claw hand at L, intentionally not slashing his face as L backed off in surprise. Now that he was stunned by the false strike, Wade fired his laser cannon, cutting a smoking slice into L's chest as he began to fall to the ground.
Wade attempted to fly down after him, but was stopped as three more drones flew over to him and Tina, each with blades at their arms as they surrounded the lover drones. Examining the three newcomers, Wade also remembered their identities: the other three recruits he woke up with during their briefing under Halloway's servitude.
D, a female, had a set of curly gold hair, a dark grey and black plaid shirt and no undergarments, The other male disassembly drone, H, bore whiteish purple hair with a small afro style. His attire consisted of a hooded black jacket with two pockets at the lower torso, as well as a set of black jeans. Finally, E was identified by her silver-pink hair, styled up with two buns at the sides of her head. As for clothing, she wore a black leather coat that went down to her pegged feet.
Still alive from the injury he sustained, L flew back up to join his squadmates, readying a pair of chainsaw hands as he spoke to Wade in an oddly friendly tone. "Yeah, sorry, but we've got a mess to clean up, and I can't have you two trying to mess it all up again."
Seeing that they were desperately outnumbered, Wade and Tina looked to each other, then nodding in silent agreement before Wade readied his own chainsaws. Glaring at L, he replied to his former teammate. "Well, bring it on, then!"
L smiled in a pleasant manner as he prepared to fight, but stopped as a hail of bullets came at him and his allies. Looking up, Wade and Tina saw F flying down at the hostiles, letting out a battle cry as she fired at L's team with her missile launchers.
With the enemy distracted, Wade flew at L, slamming into him before backing up with a flap of his wings. As L tried to recover, Wade came at L again, the enemy drone just barely managing to deploy a single sword before holding back Wade's attack. Tina took aim with her pistol before firing at L's face, giving Wade the opportunity to strike. Raising his tail, Wade impaled L in the face, the acid melting his visor as he yelled from the burning sensation. Swiftly generating a claw hand, Wade dug into L's chest before biting into his neck, ripping the disassembly drone's core out as he ceased feeding.
While Wade dealt with L, F gave it her all to distract the trio of drones that were trying to take her down, blocking a hailfire of bullets with her wings while swatting H away with a large hammer attachment. E prepared a pair of scythes before flying at F, intending to cut her down. Hoping to restrain her, D flew behind F and grabbed her by her arms, the latter shunting their wings in order to pull off a desperate maneuver. As E came dangerously close to the two, F deployed her wings again, knocking D off of her before flying downwards. D was too late to evade the attack as E struck her ally, the unintended friendly-fire decapitating D as she fell down to the factory below.
As Wade tossed L's body to the surface, H came up behind the two drones, firing a sub-machine gun at them as Wade took notice of the attack. Tina cried out in pain as she was struck in her left shoulder by H's bullet fire, infuriating Wade. Flying at his rival, Wade readied a pair of missile launchers before firing at H, the disassembly drone turning to flee as he was pursued by several rockets. As Wade began to pursue H, he stopped as a ship hovered up behind him and Tina. Turning to face it, he saw the ship was one of the Coalition's Chameleon dropships, its bay doors open to reveal Nathan, Kurtis and several other soldiers inside keeping watch for hostiles.
Looking back to H, the disassembly drone continued to flee, E flying alongside him as they began to retreat. Wade and Tina looked on in slight surprise as they saw the third squad member, D, carrying the body of a disassembly drone while joining up with her squad.
"Yo, that could've gone SO much better, girls!" H said aloud as he, E and D flew together, D holding L's corpse as she retorted to her teammate.
"Well, if those meanies didn't hurt L here, we could've stopped them!" E groaned in annoyance as she shut down the argument.
"Ugh, forget about L! He got the least kills out of us anyway! Let's get back to the boss!" With that, the recruit trio fled the battle, heading down towards the factory so they could sneak away from the hostile forces above.
Seeing no other hostiles coming at them, Wade searched for F, only for the warrior drone to cut it short as she flew over to Wade and Tina. F smiled warmly at the two before they all looked to the dropship, Nathan calling out to the trio with a wave of his hand. "Come on, you guys! We gotta go!"
Wade and his friends delayed them no longer as they flew inside, Wade and F touching down on the floor of the troop bay as Tina dismounted Wade. With their allies secured on board, Nathan yelled out to the pilots in the cockpit. "They're back! Let's get outta here!"
The ship shifted forward slightly as the pilots heeded Nathan's signal, flying up and away from the factory as a pair of A-20 Lightningrods flew in formation next to the Chameleon. Taking heavy breaths, Tina and Wade held each others hands as they looked back to the factory, which slowly got smaller and smaller in size as they left the battle there behind.
Looking to Tina, Wade examined his girlfriend's injury with mortified dismay, oil bleeding from her shoulder as she put a hand to it. "It's okay, Wade. I'll manage."
"No, I'm not gonna just let you walk around with a hurt arm." In an effort to provide affection and easing of pain, Wade gave a light kiss on the wound, Tina smiling lightly at the gesture before he continued. "Come on, let's get you to-" He paused as he noticed the wound on Tina's arm was splotched with his silver saliva. Said saliva began to sink into Tina's shoulder before regenerating the injured area, repairing the shoulder back to normal as if nothing had happened.
The two were surprised by the regenerative liquid that Wade had spat onto Tina's arm with his kiss, the drone girl gasping with surprise as she felt no further pain in her arm. Taking in this new ability of Wade's, Tina tried to contain her excitement. "You.. you can regenerate wounds with your saliva?!"
The couple laughed in pleasant surprise as Wade replied to Tina. "Yeah, I guess so. I should've figured when Nathan helped me with fixing my arms during our initial run in that place!"
Wade and Tina laughed joyfully for a good long moment before easing themselves, smiling widely before embracing. Wade held his love tightly as he whispered to her. "But besides that, I'm so glad to have you back."
"So am I, love." Tina replied in the same quiet manner, the two holding their embrace as they relished in the calming of the storm. It had been a long and tough fight, but they'd done it. They'd managed to escape the factory alive, and now they could relax knowing that the fight was over for the time being.

Previous / Next
So, if you’re just joining us, I work at a haunted zoo now. Since I’ve gotten some rest, it feels like I’ve got my head on straight, at least, so I’d like to continue where I left off.
I sat on the floor in the office after meeting the ghost until I’d settled my rattled mind (and realized I’d forgotten to ask her name, how rude is that?). I took a deep breath and got up off the floor. Walking over and falling into the rolling chair in front of the large screen of camera views, when I brought up the camera that covered the area in which I’d spotted her, she was still there, and it seemed she hadn’t moved an inch.
Sitting there, at a loss, I continued to watch her. The ghost hung around for another five minutes or so, appearing to look at a few things off-screen, though I’m not sure what. Then she walked off into the forest and left the view of the cameras. I wasn’t sure if she vanished into the ether or if she’d gone looking into the trees to look for something.
But that wasn’t the end of the job interview, so let me jump back there. It continued into what kind of animals the zoo had, with Andrew asking me how much experience I had with dangerous animals.
I took a moment to consider the question. “So, ah…I’ve been going hunting and fishing with a neighbor since I was sixteen,” I told him. “We always have to keep an eye out for gators, bears, and hogs. Then there’s snakes, of course…snapping turtles… Since I’ve lived here my whole life and been aiming for a job with wildlife for a long time, I know a lot about the animals in Arkansas in general. But good advice for all of the above is avoid them, so I’ve had encounters, but I don’t know if you’d say I have experience with them.”
“That’s fine,” Andrew said, nodding. “That’s an answer I’m satisfied with. Now, the ghost was the appetizer, Ripley; here’s the main course. To start with, the pay isn’t twenty-five an hour. It’s fifty.”
Staring in shock for a moment, I asked, “Are you serious?”
“Yeah. But that’d be weird to post online considering what applicants think we need, so I halved it.”
“That’s… Okay, why?”
“The animals are already here. You just can’t see them.”
I stared at him for a long moment, some disbelief worming its way into my expression, before saying, “Sorry, what?”
“There’s a chance you’d naturally never see them, or at least some of them,” he continued casually. “It depends on both your genetics and how long you stay on the job. I can naturally see six of them, but that’s it. Suzanne can see all of them, and more. Some are what people would label demons or ghosts. Or magic. Mostly you’d call them cryptids. The ghost was just a warm-up; I mentioned her first because it never takes more than a week to see her if you work the night shift. If you manage to handle her okay, soon you’ll be able to see the animals too. The more time you spend on the grounds, for weird reasons,” he said, wiggling his fingers in the direction of the back door, “the more you’ll be able to see.”
“So, this…this is a zoo for cryptids,” I echoed slowly. He nodded once, waiting to find out what kind of reaction I would have. I gestured vaguely around the room. “If this is a hidden camera show, will you cut me a check for showing up and participating?”
Andrew coughed out a chuckle and shook his head. “No joke. There are a ton of stories out there that have been written to death, pulverized until they’re not the Grimm stories of old and instead they’re Disney films. A lot of those stories come from what some humans have seen. There are dozens of other worlds pressed up against ours, and occasionally things come through by accident. If they’re smart, they’ll lay low and then make their way back when they can. If not, they become local folklore until someone helps them back. I’m just from London, but Suzanne is from somewhere else. She hires people like us for this zoo. Humans.”
Sighing, I shook my head. “That makes no sense. Why would she hire a muggle for a magic zoo?”
Andrew burst out laughing at that, and then waited to gather himself before he continued. “Fair point, but this is less about magic and more about animals, and you’re missing some information that will explain it. First of all, if I misjudge an employee, and they think they can make bank by outing the endangered and valuable animals we have, it’s easy to relocate the zoo.”
“Because magic?” I asked.
“Exactly,” he replied, ignoring the thread of skepticism in my tone. “That means it isn’t the end of the world if that happened, though it is a pain in the arse. But second…let me ask you a question. Speaking of reality shows, say the Discovery Channel put out a call to replace Steve Irwin when he passed. Imagine they had a line out the door,” he said with a gesture, “of people who thought they had the skill and natural talent to replace him, to take on everything he’d been doing his whole life. How many do you reckon would lose an arm, a leg, or their life, by the end of the day?”
My lips parted in surprise and I narrowed my eyes at him. “You’re saying people from…wherever…they’re just as dumb as humans, but they’re worse, because they actually think they can handle these things.”
Andrew pointed the pen at me. “Things. Exactly. You called them things. Suzanne and her friends grew up with them and would call them animals. These animals have dispositions and temperaments that we’ve studied for as long as there have been scientists. Where Suzanne’s from, they know the weaknesses of these animals, and also they’re in enclosures here, even if you and I can’t see the walls because they’re invisible things called ‘wards’. If I hire someone who’s got magic on top of all that, they’ll have almost no instinctive fear.
“Everything here is nocturnal, and every one of them is a hunter. Some of these things? Humans see them and they pass out. Not that I want you passing out, but I need someone who is scared of these things, who knows to stay out of the enclosures no matter what. Not someone who thinks they can train them to do tricks, who gets close enough for them to grab a mouthful of hair and drown them. Once, we had a night shift manager injured, and once killed, because they didn’t take these animals seriously enough.”
Thinking back to the Sea World orca incident I knew he’d been referencing, I remembered wondering how someone at that level of her profession could be so careless as I watched the video on YouTube. It made sense when he explained it like that. I hesitated before mentally throwing my hands up and going all in. “So, why put this place here, then? If they’re endangered and also dangerous, why have a zoo at all instead of just a small reserve?”
He pursed his lips, looking disappointed in me. “Ripley. You know that already. You already said as much.”
Thinking back through our conversation, I said, “The rich humans who pay top dollar to see supernatural animals.”
“Not humans,” he told me. “But people, yes, and they are rich, and they’re making donations and spending their money on a ticket here because everything we have is endangered.”
“So…”
I just let my voice trail off and my mind started to drift. Andrew remained silent, letting me do so. There’s that thing people say, ‘I believe that you believe it,’ which is just a kinder way of saying, ‘Bullshit.’ Parents say it about closet monsters. Psychologists say it to people who say they’ve been abducted and probed by aliens. I wanted to say it to Andrew.
But I also wanted a job. If it meant working overnight at an empty zoo, that was fine. When it came down to it, especially when I took the tone of our conversation into account, this was a zoo specifically focused on preserving endangered ‘animals’, and it was allegedly doing important work. Also, if this turned out to be the real deal and I started seeing the animals, I would deal with it, just like I would deal with an enclosure that had a lion or tiger or gorilla. If it came with a ghost and invisible creatures, I really didn’t see what the difference was, if I couldn’t go in the enclosures either way.
On that note, I’d like you to imagine a kid who looks at a roller coaster, watching everyone screaming and grinning as they go up and down and all around and they’re like, ‘Heck, I could do that! That looks like a blast!’
Then they get on, the first drop hits, and they realize they’ve made a terrible mistake.
“All right,” I sighed. “I can’t say I’m going to turn down a job just because it’s going to be scary. Especially not one with this paycheck.”
Andrew smiled. “Awesome. There’s an adjustment process for anyone working here, similar to a dog that gets adopted, actually. I know the general guidelines of, ‘three days, three weeks, three months’ in terms of milestones, until they finally feel they’re where they’re supposed to be,” he told me, “and you can think of your time here along those lines. I really think you’re a great fit, and once you reach the milestone of working here for three months, I’ll officially consider you our new night shift guard. And I hope you’ll stay with us for many years.”
I nodded and smiled at the flattery of an employer wanting me to work a great job for them for a long time. I’d never had a dog, but those milestones were well-known among anyone who knew animals, especially dogs. The first three days, the dog is getting to know its new digs, exploring, and decompressing. At three weeks, they’ve gotten used to their environment and are starting to get comfortable with their surroundings and the routines of the humans they live with. By three months, they know the rules and follow them, they trust you, and they feel they are where they’re meant to be. I could only hope to be so lucky.
I saw the ghost two days ago and she has yet to make another appearance (for those who are curious, I asked, and her name is Leila), and I still hadn’t seen any animals. I did hear one, though, I feel compelled to note. A growling roar sounded from the lake on occasion, echoing across the vast zoo, sending a shiver down my spine. Whatever that animal was, it sounded gigantic.
Andrew said there was apparently a group that wanted to visit for a birthday and they were offering a huge donation, so he let me know they were making an exception and that this group would be walking through the park that night. That meant I’d be watching people watching animals that, as far as I could tell, weren’t there.
It was anticlimactic. Even the three people who came for the tour just looked like people, not like aliens or something eldritch from another dimension, and I stayed in the security office the whole time. Andrew was the one giving the tour. I watched them spend about five minutes at each enclosure, the hour or so that they were there passing without incident. It was clear that they were able to see all the animals, though, since they motioned excitedly at each enclosure and spoke to Andrew, who presumably answered any questions they had.
If they could see the animals, that was that. There was still that niggle in the back of my head, from my twenty-three years of life never encountering anything like ghosts or cryptids, telling me that this was ridiculous. Waiting for someone to knock on the door, a camera mounted on their shoulder, to tell me that it was a big joke and they wanted to see how long I’d play along. But from all I saw, this was a real place with real, invisible animals.
I do carry a taser and pepper spray in my capacity as a security guard. Though it isn’t for the animals, since they’re in the enclosures; they’re actually for the rare instance of a break-in. Andrew mentioned that it had happened several times it the past, someone trying to steal an animal in the hopes of selling it on the black market. They’d been successful before, but apparently my predecessor Roger was good at his job, and mostly they left in handcuffs.
I’ll be honest, I’m not a huge fan of confrontation, but my job was to call Andrew and then confront the person, not kick their ass. That’s what the police were for, or rather, the people Andrew would call in lieu of police in certain situations.
Fifty bucks an hour. That’s the key here.
Andrew hadn’t set up direct deposit, since he was sticking with a strategy of waiting to see if I’d continue to work there once I found out myself dealing with the animals (I’ve decided I am going to just call them animals). Instead, I got an old-fashioned check after my shift every Friday. The number on the first check was delightful. I went out that evening and had a big dinner at the local diner, order my most expensive favorites on the menu and a big slice of pie for dessert.
When it came to the paychecks in general, though, I had this weird feeling of not wanting to tell my dad and brother about the fact that it was actually $50/hr. I previously mentioned that my dad, his name’s Nathan if you’re curious, works at a local grocery store. Our town has a couple food franchises, but I think its size is just short of whatever threshold Walmart uses to decide where to open. He earns $14/hr. and that’s after the tiny raises he’s gotten over the past thirteen years.
That’s not to say he’d feel bad about not making as much as me. On the contrary, he would be ecstatic for me and really proud. But, like me, he’d be suspicious. That hourly rate was the biggest hint that this was more than just a private zoo for cryptids. And as soon as that fat check cleared without problems, my dad wouldn’t be satisfied with reassurances; he’d want to come visit the zoo and look around.
I’d told him it’s a private preservation with scheduled (expensive) visits only and that it had only eleven animals, so he’d been appeased by me brushing off the idea of a visit. Also, I took a few photos of my workplace; one of the security room, one of me sitting in my chair, one photo of the many screens I watched, and a selfie where I was feigning sleep out of boredom, slouched in my chair with my mouth open in a faux snore. That let him feel like he knew where I was and what I was doing, and that I was safe.
But if I told him I was making double what he thought, my father would practically order me to quit. No job was worth my safety, he’d tell me. I was quite of the opposite opinion, however, considering how crucial any and all conservation efforts were these days. Especially with the steep extinction levels due to humans competing with other animals for space, not to mention climate change. Working in any job that helped preserve species and keep ecosystems in balance, or put them back in balance, was so important.
Then again, my father would also point out something I had realized right away: the fact was that I was working with endangered species that were not from Earth. I wasn’t helping my planet. To be honest, though…that didn’t matter to me. Especially after that talk with Andrew about why he hired a human for this job, I figured whichever dimension these animals came from had the equivalent of us, razing forests to the ground, clouding the planet with pollution, and leaving the animals with no avenue of recourse when yet more land was taken from them.
I really do hope to keep working here for a long time, though, and not just because of the money. I can’t help it; I want to know what these things were, and I want to work with them, to do the job of a zookeeper. The same way you go up to the chain-link fence to get close to a carnivore on the other side who thinks you’d make a nice afternoon snack. You just want to be closer to them, to experience that incredible, daunting feeling of being in their presence.
Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t long before I got what I wanted.
The day after we had the tour go through, I was doing my sweep when I saw the ghost again. She was sitting on a small boulder in the same area I’d seen her the first time, looking identical, blood covering the front of her slashed shirt, the wounds visible underneath. I stopped and stood there for a moment before I decided to raise my hand in a small wave.
The young woman cocked her head at me and raised a hand in the air in an imitation of my gesture, her expression showing a bit of curiosity.
She was low-key, seemingly not concerned with my presence, looking at me as a novel phenomenon in her world. I wondered what that world consisted of. Was she always here, sometimes visible and sometimes not? Or did she have another world next to ours, in the ether, where she left everything in this world behind and floated in her disembodied form? Did she still feel emotions? Was that really curiosity on her face, or was I projecting? Did she feel happiness? Fear? Did she have the option of moving on, or was she stuck here?
Many questions that I might never get the answers to. And that was assuming Andrew knew the answers, since I’d never met Suzanne Cooper and he hadn’t even mentioned that possibility. This place was clearly her baby, but I’m sure running it was a lot of work. Plus, if she was rich enough to own it, she was rich enough to have other businesses and charities to run.
When it comes to the enclosures, they’re all wrapped by a barrier of some kind, though never one that seems adequate. There was not a single place with the ugly metal weavings of a chain-link fence, and no stretches of circular razor wire. Instead, there are nice fences. Black iron, or wrought steel fencing in a similar style to the one circling the perimeter of the zoo, just shorter and with different patterns. Or a spaced picket fence, the wood stained in some tone of brown, or a split two-rail fence. As if to say, ‘This is the border of your enclosure, but we’re just letting you know out of courtesy.’
When I started to pass enclosure number seven last night, a young woman’s voice spoke, “Hello.”
I startled, unaware that I hadn’t been alone. “Oh. Hi,” I said, staring at her standing a few yards in.
She had been next to a large tree and I hadn’t seen her. This enclosure was behind a picket fence, and she walked through the large area of wild grasses and flowers that stretched across the other side of the fence. There were fewer tall grasses closer to the fence, which I guessed was because it had been tromped down by her regular pacing along it when there were visitors, or if she wanted to see the various enclosures of the zoo. Her sudden appearance was a bit weird, considering I had been expecting to see a cryptid and instead I was looking at, it seemed, an attractive Asian woman.
She wore a black kimono, the soft silk robe draped gently over her body, with beautiful patterns of cherry blossoms, more so over her left side, and red and blue birds with their wings spread. A sash wrapped around her abdomen, she wore socks and sandals on her feet, and her hair was up in those rolls that gave volume to the style.
I was no expert on any fashion, much less that of another country, so I just assumed it was all traditional Japanese clothing. Most likely, the visitors who came liked to see a certain time-honored style and that’s what she stuck with. Or maybe she played on stereotypes. That would be amusing.
“I’m Yui. It’s nice to meet you,” she spoke, arriving at the border of the fence and holding out a hand for me to shake.
I’d been standing about three yards away from her, and I’ll be honest, muscle memory tried to kick in. But I only made it two steps, my hand starting to rise, before I froze, the hand falling limply at my side. “Nice to meet you, too,” I answered, my voice quiet.
Damn. I wonder how many times that honey trap works back where she comes from.
The pleasant look on her face faded, and she lowered her hand. “You won’t shake hands with me? Isn’t that rude?”
“I mean, I kind of like my hand where it is. You know, attached to me.”
Her demure smile widened into something more amused. “I would never do something so revolting.”
Looking her up and down, as if more visual information would give me more knowledge of what she was, I asked her, “What would you do?”
“I would be less wasteful,” she said softly.
A finger of ice trailed down my spine, and I had the sudden image in my head of her grabbing my outstretched hand in an iron grip and yanking me over the fence, leaving me to sprawl on the ground. Then killing and consuming me efficiently, without a single careless step, the same way humans slaughtered pigs, using everything from the hog but the squeal. I was struck with a shiver at the idea of her consuming everything from me but my screams.
Slowly, I took one step further down the path, then another. Just as I got to a walking pace, though, I realized the woman had started walking too, in the same direction. I’d have eventually gotten to the end of her enclosure and keep going, leaving her behind, but she spoke up. “Are you leaving?”
I came to a stop, meeting her gaze again. “My job is to walk the zoo every hour. Then I’ll get back to the security room and stay there until my next walk.”
“Have you met the others yet?”
I hesitated before saying, “Just Leila.”
She blinked languidly. “That means nobody welcomed you here.”
“Andrew did.”
She didn’t reply to that. Instead, she slowly started to lean forward, and I flinched backward a few steps further as I saw insect legs start curling out from her back.
No. Not insect. Arachnid.
The eight legs ended in small ‘paws’ with tiny claws, a layer of hairs covering the leg from top to bottom, like any typical tarantula. I took two more slow steps back and my mouth went dry as the jointed legs just kept lengthening, until they were large enough to lever her off the ground.
My gaze had been on the spider legs, but my heart skipped a beat as I realized her human legs had melded together and turned into a bulging abdomen. Her skin was shifting to a carapace, eventually all the way up to her shoulders and down her arms, her fingers elongating and her nails stretching to claws. From there down, her body was that of a pale tarantula with pedipalps the size of my arms and piercing fangs in her jaws that looked like they could take my head off.
There was a moment, my vision blurring, where I was worried that I might piss myself. The part of my brain that still had its humor intact in that moment told me that I should keep an emergency set of clothes in my car, or at the very least, start wearing Depends to work.
“I show you my true form,” she said softly, her voice now raspy like an eighty-year-old after a lifelong smoking habit. “Welcome to Suzanne Cooper’s zoo. The night shift guard for many years was Roger, before he retired and the zoo moved, and I miss him dearly. What should I call you?”
I choked on my words. There was no way my throat was going to cooperate enough for me to clearly get a sentence out. Instead, I realized my legs had taken control of the situation themselves, unsatisfied with my conscious brain’s decision to stand and stare, taking steps backward. I backed up a yard, then five yards, then ten.
My mind focused on the fact that spiders don’t waste anything, and pictured my demise. I’d be wrapped in a cocoon, killed, and made nice and mushy before she had me for dinner.
The whole time, my brain was a frenzied mess, my pupils were probably the size of dimes, and I was staring at that tiny, pathetic fence between her and me. There was so much adrenaline pumping through my body that I felt like my bones were vibrating. The fence was, to my eyes, the only thing between us. The only thing keeping her from tackling and killing me. My only hope was that she’d do it quickly.
But she didn’t move. As I absorbed her innocent, polite words, the look on her face was calm, and I wondered if this was typically the way a conversation went before she devoured her prey. I wondered how many people she’d eaten. Not humans, not people from Earth, but the ones from where she came from. The fact that she doesn’t scare the shit out of those people means they’re staggeringly dumber than humans.
Finally, I rounded a corner, both relieved at having her out of my sight and worried that she would take that moment to come find me. When she’d been within eyeshot, I had at least known where she was and could run in the other direction. But I didn’t hear the sound of faint footsteps moving rapidly toward me. All was quiet, in that deep, smothering way that only an empty business in the middle of the night in small town America could be.
My hands trembling, I barely paid attention to anything but the confirmation that my surroundings were free of the colossal spider as I finally got back to the door. Grabbing the handle and letting my eyes dart around for about ten seconds and my ears prick for the slightest sound, I finally swiped my key card across the pad and went inside, shutting the door behind me and engaging the backup deadbolt.
Maybe that was why they had decided on keycards. If I was running from something and panicking, using an actual key or inserting the card like at a hotel would keep me from getting to safety considering my hands were shaking enough to mix a margarita.
Walking over to my chair, I fell into it, letting my body flush itself of terror as I looked up at the cameras. There she was, still in arachnid form, exactly where I’d left her behind that rinky-dink fence, casually looking around and slowly pacing back and forth. I stared at her as my racing heart gradually slowed, and a minute or so later she turned on her eight legs and walked back into the trees.
Whatever invisible fences the enclosures have apparently work, which is nice, because I wasn’t keen on getting killed by one of the creatures here. And that’s what brings me here, spilling out everything that’s happened so far. Because nearly passing out from terror isn’t something I wanted to deal with at work, obviously, but I keep going over what she did in my head again and again, and I feel like I reacted like a child who spotted a wolf spider on their bed. I started to worry for my overactive sense of self-preservation, at least in my capacity as an employee here.
The spider didn’t even try to hurt me, and so I was feeling a bit foolish. Even annoyed, actually, at the fact that I’d freaked out so hard and took off instead of trying to engage in at least basic conversation. I got the sense that she wasn’t at human-level intelligence, but I was never going to be able to hold any level of conversation with an alligator.
Sure, she did mention that she wouldn’t be so crass as to yank off my hand because she’d rather just have my entire corpse, but wouldn’t a wolf do the same if it was hungry? Wouldn’t any carnivore? Actually, they probably would’ve been satisfied with one of my hands. The fear here was from the fact that she turned into a giant spider. If she’d turned into Clifford, I would’ve reacted the same way, if not better than, meeting Leila.
With that, I decided I’m staying on the job. Considering how frustrated I can get with foolish people, it’s a bit hypocritical, and I’m being a bit of an idiot. But…there are definitely wards keeping them in their enclosures. Also, I signed up for creatures for another dimension, whether or not I believed in them at the time, and I will not let encountering my first one in an objectively boring way be the reason I quit.
The money is a factor, I’ll grant you. Of course it is. And I can’t spend it if I’m dead, but all signs point to surviving as long as I don’t do anything dumb. Also, yes, I’ll admit there’s a not-so-little voice in the back of my head that’s desperate to know what else is here. I never thought I’d do something like this, but finding out these things are real, I honestly do want to learn more about them.
Still, though, I decided to call Andrew at the end of my shift to ask if the pepper spray and taser I carried worked on a certain spider, as well as the other animals I’d yet to meet.
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I believe she is the angel of death, one of the 4 shades of the primordial one, and here’s why.
TW: Talks of religious themes, demons and The Hierarchy of Angels
Spoilers if you haven’t seen the animation “A Winter’s Night Lazzo.”
The title and constellation for her is called “The Little Dove”. Birds are usually connected to higher beings however the choice of doves for her is very peculiar because Doves are actually symbolic of angels, hence why during American weddings they'd release doves into the air as a symbolic gesture for god to send angels to protect a sacred union that was made before him.
It's even more damning for columbina that she has six winglike feathers on the back of her head because that is in relation to a seraphim angel, one of the strongest of gods legions of angels in the Hierarchy of Angels. The ones carrying fiery swords and sending demons back to hell.
Now this theory of mine is a stretch, but when she’s singing over Signora coffin in “A winters night Lazzo.” I believe columbina singing is to draw attention to the trumpets in the bible that sound for when the end times are close, being that we now know she will most likely be in natlan, the second to the final region before we get to snezhnaya right before the “end” of Genshin impacts chapter 1 story, therefore...she's singing a double entendre, singing signora off to the afterlife(the end of Signoras life marking death) but also sounding for the endtimes of tivat. Not to mention her being the third harbinger and if you look at the 3 most powerful angels that rank the highest one being from most to least powerful being, Dominions Angels First, Cherubim Angels Second and Seraphims Angels being…Third.
Columbia is the THIRD fatui harbinger, with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd harbinger said to have, strength “as strong as the gods.” As Nahida put it it’s a very scary thought. Not to Mention Scaramouches Unsettling voice line about Columbina saying(hesitantly might I add) that he himself could put up a fight(in a tone sounding like even if he were to try her she’d still put him on a T-Shirt) but in a Definite tone saying that Traveller would stand absolutely no match against her is pretty scary.
Now let’s just say Columbina is the angel of death, Scaramouch is a puppet, devoid of a real mortal life, so death to him isn’t something tangible for him, but traveler on the other hand, is mortal. They can die. And it’s hinted at multiple times that Columbinas power might lay in the avenue of manipulating life and death which would also explain while everyone had a somber tone in Signoras funeral she was smiling, unfazed by notions of death because maybe…it’s all she’s ever known. Not to mention Nathans story arch is going to be or revolve around themes of “Resurrection” Aka bending death to bring forth life, and she’s said to be in Natlan with il Capitano makes total sense(at least to me) And even her whole characters ensemble and outfit under her cape doesn’t really “fit” in any nation of teyvat like her other fatui counterparts. Every time we’ve seen her she’s always looked ethereal like an angel, and not of teyvat origin.
These are my theories please let me know what you think as well and I hope to have done a bit of theory crafting justice for our girly Columbina💜

AS Roma 0 - 2 Bayer Leverkusen

Leverkusen scorers: Florian Wirtz (28'), Robert Andrich (73')
Venue: Stadio Olimpico, Rome, Italy
Referee: François Letexier (France)
AS Roma:

Starting XI	Notes	Subs	Notes
Mile Svilar		Rui Patrício
Rick Karsdorp	62'	Pietro Boer
Gianluca Mancini		Diego Llorente
Chris Smalling		Evan Ndicka
Leonardo Spinazzola	74'	Angeliño	62'
Bryan Cristante	78'	Renato Sanches
Leandro Paredes	79'	Houssem Aouar
Lorenzo Pellegrini	30'	Nicola Zalewski
Paulo Dybala	90+1'	Edoardo Bove
Romelu Lukaku	79'	Tommaso Baldanzi	79'
Stephan El Shaarawy		Sardar Azmoun	79'
		Tammy Abraham	90+1'

Manager: Daniele De Rossi (Italy)
Bayer Leverkusen:

Starting XI	Notes	Subs	Notes
Matěj Kovář		Niklas Lomb
Josip Stanišić		Lukáš Hrádecký
Jonathan Tah	16'	Arthur
Edmond Tapsoba		Odilon Kossounou	90+3'
Jeremie Frimpong	88'	Nathan Tella	77'
Robert Andrich	73' 76'	Gustavo Puerta
Granit Xhaka	74'	Exequiel Palacios	88'
Piero Hincapié		Borja Iglesias
Florian Wirtz	28' 77'	Adam Hložek
Álex Grimaldo	90+3'	Victor Boniface
Amine Adli	77'	Jonas Hofmann	77'
		Patrik Schick

Manager: Xabi Alonso (Spain)
MATCH EVENTS
1': We're off!
5': Xhaka fires from distance, doesn't threaten the goal.
11': SAVE! A Roma shot from the edge of the box, Kovář stops it comfortably.
16': Jonathan Tah carded for tugging Lukaku back by the shirt
21': Lukaku leaps as high as he can and hits the header into the crossbar!!
23': Frimpong with a chance! But he tries to chip the keeper off his line and hits it into the side netting.
28': GOAL LEVERKUSEN!! It's a bad backpass by Karsdorp right in front of goal! Picked up easily by Grimaldo who feeds it to Florian Wirtz who hits it quickly past the keeper!
30': Lorenzo Pellegrini caution for lunging into Adli
34': Frimpong gets to a cross and flashes it wide of the post.
41': SAVE! Andrich fires from distance and Svilar punches it away.
42': Pellegrini fires from about 25 yards and misses the far post.
HT AS Roma 0-1 Bayer Leverkusen Bayer's dream season continues??
46': We're back!
51': Chance for Leverkusen on the corner kick, takes a tricky bounce for Hincapié who can only head it wide.
56': Huge chance for Roma, Cristante is unmarked right in front of goal, but he glances it wide.
62': Roma substitution: Angeliño on for Rick Karsdorp
73': GOAL LEVERKUSEN!! Robert Andrich scores from outside the box! Keeper left completely flat-footed!
74': A minor scrap breaks out after the goal, yellow cards given to both Granit Xhaka and Leonardo Spinazzola
76': Robert Andrich runs into the back of someone and hits them in the back of the head
77': Leverkusen double sub: Nathan Tella and Jonas Hofmann on for Amine Adli and Florian Wirtz
78': Bryan Cristante knocks Tella over from behind
79': Roma double sub: Sardar Azmoun and Tommaso Baldanzi on for Leandro Paredes and Romelu Lukaku
84': SAVE! Azmoun denied from close range! Or it might have been a challenge by Hincapié that sent the ball to his keeper.
88': Leverkusen substitution: Exequiel Palacios on for Jeremie Frimpong
90+1': Roma substitution: Tammy Abraham on for Paulo Dybala
90+3': Leverkusen substitution: Odison Kossounou on for Álex Grimaldo
90+4': Abraham heads it over the unmarked goal from close range!
FT AS Roma 0-2 Bayer Leverkusen They just can't be beaten!

AS Roma 0 - 2 Bayer Leverkusen

Leverkusen scorers: Florian Wirtz (28'), Robert Andrich (73')
Venue: Stadio Olimpico, Rome, Italy
Referee: François Letexier (France)
AS Roma:

Starting XI	Notes	Subs	Notes
Mile Svilar		Rui Patrício
Rick Karsdorp	62'	Pietro Boer
Gianluca Mancini		Diego Llorente
Chris Smalling		Evan Ndicka
Leonardo Spinazzola	74'	Angeliño	62'
Bryan Cristante	78'	Renato Sanches
Leandro Paredes	79'	Houssem Aouar
Lorenzo Pellegrini	30'	Nicola Zalewski
Paulo Dybala	90+1'	Edoardo Bove
Romelu Lukaku	79'	Tommaso Baldanzi	79'
Stephan El Shaarawy		Sardar Azmoun	79'
		Tammy Abraham	90+1'

Manager: Daniele De Rossi (Italy)
Bayer Leverkusen:

Starting XI	Notes	Subs	Notes
Matěj Kovář		Niklas Lomb
Josip Stanišić		Lukáš Hrádecký
Jonathan Tah	16'	Arthur
Edmond Tapsoba		Odilon Kossounou	90+3'
Jeremie Frimpong	88'	Nathan Tella	77'
Robert Andrich	73' 76'	Gustavo Puerta
Granit Xhaka	74'	Exequiel Palacios	88'
Piero Hincapié		Borja Iglesias
Florian Wirtz	28' 77'	Adam Hložek
Álex Grimaldo	90+3'	Victor Boniface
Amine Adli	77'	Jonas Hofmann	77'
		Patrik Schick

Manager: Xabi Alonso (Spain)
MATCH EVENTS
1': We're off!
5': Xhaka fires from distance, doesn't threaten the goal.
11': SAVE! A Roma shot from the edge of the box, Kovář stops it comfortably.
16': Jonathan Tah carded for tugging Lukaku back by the shirt
21': Lukaku leaps as high as he can and hits the header into the crossbar!!
23': Frimpong with a chance! But he tries to chip the keeper off his line and hits it into the side netting.
28': GOAL LEVERKUSEN!! It's a bad backpass by Karsdorp right in front of goal! Picked up easily by Grimaldo who feeds it to Florian Wirtz who hits it quickly past the keeper!
30': Lorenzo Pellegrini caution for lunging into Adli
34': Frimpong gets to a cross and flashes it wide of the post.
41': SAVE! Andrich fires from distance and Svilar punches it away.
42': Pellegrini fires from about 25 yards and misses the far post.
HT AS Roma 0-1 Bayer Leverkusen Bayer's dream season continues??
46': We're back!
51': Chance for Leverkusen on the corner kick, takes a tricky bounce for Hincapié who can only head it wide.
56': Huge chance for Roma, Cristante is unmarked right in front of goal, but he glances it wide.
62': Roma substitution: Angeliño on for Rick Karsdorp
73': GOAL LEVERKUSEN!! Robert Andrich scores from outside the box! Keeper left completely flat-footed!
74': A minor scrap breaks out after the goal, yellow cards given to both Granit Xhaka and Leonardo Spinazzola
76': Robert Andrich runs into the back of someone and hits them in the back of the head
77': Leverkusen double sub: Nathan Tella and Jonas Hofmann on for Amine Adli and Florian Wirtz
78': Bryan Cristante knocks Tella over from behind
79': Roma double sub: Sardar Azmoun and Tommaso Baldanzi on for Leandro Paredes and Romelu Lukaku
84': SAVE! Azmoun denied from close range! Or it might have been a challenge by Hincapié that sent the ball to his keeper.
88': Leverkusen substitution: Exequiel Palacios on for Jeremie Frimpong
90+1': Roma substitution: Tammy Abraham on for Paulo Dybala
90+3': Leverkusen substitution: Odison Kossounou on for Álex Grimaldo
90+4': Abraham heads it over the unmarked goal from close range!
FT AS Roma 0-2 Bayer Leverkusen They just can't be beaten!

Began with Chloe being Chloe and standing in front of the train then jumping off last second. Of course 😂 first thing I noticed was the way she sways side to side when she walks. She seemed so happy. I sure hope some tragic shit doesn't go down and her best friend has to sacrifice her in order to save a town from a huge storm, that would suck!
I like the 'superpower' they gave her, you have to make good insults until she gets her way. She used it to get past the big security guy and into the event. She wanted a shirt but it was too expensive, so I stole it, and the cash. I know stealing is not a very morally correct thing to do, but Chloe likes to fuck around, she's rebellious and I think she would do that if I wasn't the one who was controlling her.
I talked to Frank. She still owed him money. It was nice to see another familiar face though.
Into the mosh pit I went, except Chloe bumped into two men and one of them spilled their beer. I apologised and walked away, not sure if Chloe knows how to fight but I'd rather not have to find out. Went upstairs for a better view and then those same two men cornered her. But then Rachel comes in and is like "Hey, Dickhead!" then I ran. Rachel held Chloe's hand and pulled her along and Frank stopped the men. I hope I get to have a deeper dive into Frank's character in this game.
Chloe woke up in her room and I checked her journal. There's a letter to Max, talking about how she's a loser and Chloe's doing great without her. She's lying to herself so she doesn't have to feel the weight of her problems. I know how that feels. There's also another unwritten letter to Max which is a bit friendlier. It ends with "Chloe, the unfriended". Know how that feels too. I think her whole journal is just a bunch of unwritten letters to max. Nice. I get to go even deeper into who she is. I love when games let you do that. Although it'll probably make me feel really bad for her and give me another case of "post-Life is Strange depression" by the end of the game 😁
I knew very well Joyce would realise Chloe was out somewhere she shouldn't be if she wore the stolen shirt, so I just chose the raven one. Found Chloe's phone and looked through her messages. Seems Chloe wanted to hang out but Max ended up not answering her messages after a certain point. I know that feeling all too well. And there's a dude named Eliot, wonder why Chloe never mentioned him to Max.
Downstairs Joyce and Chloe quarrel about David and school. For fucks sake, I wish they gave me and option to be calm! I mean they do, only at the end though. I chose to be understanding.
Went outside and of course Chloe and David didn't get along very well. I just wish I could go in there and tell them their future, if that's what it takes for them to finally be nice to one another. Although I could see David was trying to be nice. Failing, but trying. Anyway, after all that David comes up to Chloe and holds his fist in the most awkward fucking position imaginable, took me a bit to even realise he wanted a fist bump. I accepted, not before pausing and laughing for 5 minutes at his blank ass stare and wonky ass fist 😭 glad they had a little bonding moment though.
In the car David says "We don't have to like each other, but you WILL respect me." I mean, true, but how about come off a bit friendlier? A bit more like a loving, gentle father? I wish he had said something like "Hey, I know you don't think I'm a the best dad, but I genuinely love this family. I really wanna build a healthy relationship with you Chloe, whether you believe it or not. I care about you." But I think after being in the military David's gotten used to people giving orders. I understand. I just made Chloe ignore, no point in fighting.
She dreamed about the crash. William was just singing and them BAM. This is why I can't stand people who speed. I'll be on the road and see some fuckass teenagers goofing around going at lightspeed. They don't know, all it takes is a single mistake to kill so many people. I pray that one day we invent cars that break automatically before a collision. Cuz humans are so immature.
Anyway, at the school Eliot tells me about how everyone knows about the incident with Chloe and Rachel at the concert. I wonder if Joyce will end up finding out.
I then walk up to the fountain and read what it says. "The future needs excellence? The future's an asshole." Chloe said. You haven't the faintest idea Chloe...
I went up to Victoria and talked. She was nice to Kari Chloe, at first. I think that's only cuz Chloe was around Rachel, who's popular, so she's now seen as popular by association. And you know, popular kids in school are basically Demigods.
Then I talked to Samantha, who seems to be very similar to Kate. The same gentle nature. Bit of awkward interaction with her, since she accidentally talks about how a lot of people say Chloe is bitchy.
Chloe played DnD with Steph and Mikey. They seem so nice, they remind me of some of my friends. Again, I wonder why Chloe didn't mention them to Max. Maybe they're not as close as her and Rachel? We'll see.
After defeating Duurgaron, I signed Evan's petition for a fire safety assembly. Maybe this'll actually be useful. Maybe it'll just get Chloe out of class. Time will tell.
To my surprise I came across Nathan Prescott himself being bullied. I decided to step in. Can I just say Chloe's insults are top notch? "Congrats, you've actually got me feeling sorry for Arcadia Bay's most spoiled brat." Perfect. Samantha thought so too, she found it pretty funny. Even told him to stfu! But of fucking course Nathan was insulted by our help. I guess he was going through some tough shit too though. If only he wasn't a future psychopath, I would try to befriend him.
Fast forward to when Chloe and Rachel ditched class and jump onto a train. Now the adventure begins. While Chloe was sitting with Rachel she felt nervousness for the first time. I might be wrong but I sense a crush, was Chloe interested in Rachel before Max? I mean she even trips on her words! 😂 "It's nice Rachel we're having." Idk about you but to me this seems like what people do around others they find attractive. Later they gave me an option to flirt too, and Rachel calls Chloe pretty, so I guess that confirms it.
I just have to say the 2 truths and a lie thing was so awkward cuz Don't Nod decided to put random scenes of the two just staring at each other not talking in between lines. Maybe it was another hint that they like each other? Idk.
Cool thing I noticed while they were playing the game was that Chloe got "hella" from Rachel. Man they write these games so well.
I felt so peaceful while the two listened to music together, the soundtrack of these games are masterpieces alone. I would pay just to listen even if the games were shit.
After the two played the viewfinder game Rachel suddenly walked away and then when I walked up to her and talked. She seemed pissed...I wasn't sure if she was joking or not. Did she not like the prostitute joke?
Later at the junkyard, after stealing some wine from innocent people, the two argued later and Rachel was about to leave. But Chloe asked her to stay, so Rachel asked why. I chose "something more..." cuz I feel like after all that it definitely was something more...but Rachel can't? Is it cuz of Frank? I thought. In LiS I found out that Frank was in a relationship with Rachel. I was so confused. Why go on this whole adventure and then say you can't at the end? What was the point of it all? I felt so bad for Chloe in this scene. I know what it's like to be ditched like that. I still wasn't upset with Rachel, I knew there was something happening behind the scenes.
Chloe started smashing everything in the junkyard. She was frustrated that Rachel left. *staring at mannequin* "You know she's fake yet you can't take your eyes off her. Who else do I know who fits that description?" "I've never understood your hard-on for cameras Max. You took a million pictures of us, and not one of them showed that you were gonna leave me when I needed you most." The writers conveyed the emotion really well. And I relate 100%, I always go to my room and start beating my pillow when I fuck up. The feeling of your gut tightening and your cheeks getting hotter and hotter, the sound of your internal monologue berating you with insults, while your senses of the outside world fade away as you fall into a deep trance of self-hatred. I feel her pain.
Now, for the second time, Don't Nod has made me cry. When Chloe took a step back and saw that she had beat her dad's car. Then in the midst of her regret, the anger sparks again and she continues to smash it, and then falls to the ground crying...fuck man. Holy shit. She probably feels it's equivalent to hitting William himself. I can imagine the guilt. Countless times I've gotten lost in rage and hurt loved ones. Countless nights I've spent lying in bed thinking over my actions, wishing I could just fucking re-wind. I wanted to go in there and give Chloe a hug. We both need it.
Back to the dream world in her dad's car. Except this time, I feel it really is William. His spirit. Giving his girl some words of advice. Not even death can break the bond between father and daughter. This bit was peaceful in a way. Yeah it ended with a burning Rachel and a truck crashing, but I strongly felt that really was William. Those words of encouragement can only come from a father. We all need a William in our lives.
Chloe woke up in the Junkyard. Imagine being Joyce in this scenario. Poor woman. I noticed a crow fly by. Same one that was in the dream. What does it mean?
Chloe and Rachel talked near a big tree. Same big tree that they caught two people kissing at. Turns out the man was her dad...I knew something was up. This is why it's important not to judge so quickly. I know a lot of people out there would be bitter towards Rachel if they were to be in Chloe's position. But we have to remember, behind every mistake is a fellow human being, with their own struggles and reasons behind why they fuck up. It's never black and white. I'm glad Chloe was wise enough to not wanna end the evening on a bad note. I'm glad she went looking for Rachel and comforted her. The conversation in this scene was beautiful. It's these moments that show who Chloe really is. A kind, loving soul.
The burning of the forest conveyed so much emotion. I said it once, and I'll say it again. These games are masterpieces, even the characters are masterpieces on their own. Anyway, they are in deep shit! Burnt down a whole forest! The whole time I just thought what is Joyce gonna do...
At the end there was a blond girl smoking...she seemed to not care about the fire. And I'm not entirely sure but it looked like she had the same tattoo that Chloe has in LiS. Wonder who that is. We'll see eventually.
At this point, I thought about the ending I chose for the other game. I wouldn't say I regret it, but the pain of the ending just gets stronger and stronger as I learn more about the person I sacrificed. I'm already so invested. What a vast range of emotions, and this is only episode 1!
Also, I do have one question, why is the loading screen an illuminati symbol? (Don't answer if it's a spoiler)

Wade's visage lit up with a field of red words as his body's OS began to boot up. Similarly to when he first woke up in his new form, lines of text read out the same phrases and statuses from before. Getting a glimpse at the top left collage, however, he noticed something slightly different on one line of text. "->STRING 'Absolute Solver' BLOCKED BY ADMINISTRATION 'Stargazing_Wade3048'"
The suspicious change was confirmed further as a large pop-up box, now lit up in greenish-yellow, appeared in front of him. It bore a strange symbol in the middle, which was depicted as a hexagon with three arrows extending out from the center. The waking drone could also see text written at the top left of the pop-up, reading, "REASSIGNING PERMS ://; USER ID: Stargazing_Wade3048; ROLE: ADMIN". At the bottom right, a single word appeared only a second after the pop-up did. "[COMPLETE]"
Before the pop-up dissipated, the mysterious symbol flickered out of the box, now replaced by a logo that Wade didn't recognize. It was a circle with several stars and tiny spheres spread all throughout its interior, and encircling the symbol were what looked like two pointy arms, ending at the top of the symbol without connecting at either end.
Upon the disappearance of the pop-up, Wade's vision returned, the buffering icon on his visor being replaced by shocked eyes as the former worker drone jolted up from his makeshift bed. Wade's sudden awakening had apparently caught the attention of someone nearby, as a woman's voice could be heard near him to his left. "He's up! Get me a scanner for check-up!"
Wade was immediately glancing over the area he was in, it looked like some kind of lift bay, with two large hatches opened up at opposite ends of the room. Within the large space, a several people moved about, some out into the massive bridge platform just outside the right hatch, others going to one side of the bay or another as they went to fulfill tasks Wade wasn't sure what to make of.
Seeing one woman, a tan girl with a brown jacket and black pants, approaching him with some kind of handle-bearing device, Wade sat himself up as he spoke to her. "W-Who are you? Where am I at?"
"Easy, Mr. Wade. Name's Kelly, I'm a technician, just got done getting you fixed up. You should be able to-." Kelly said with a pleasant smile to Wade, who interrupted her as he remembered another name, one very dear to him ever since he was first booted up years ago.
"Where's-... Do you know a man named Ronald Carter?" The technician nodded as he continued. "Where is he? I need to see him. I need to see Ron!" He said in a low, yet frantic voice as Kelly ceased her scanning, trying to hold Wade gently at his shoulders in an attempt to calm him down.
"I'm right here, Wade!" Ron said aloud as he climbed up into the Chameleon, Wade looking to him with a look of grateful surprise as he began to stand up.
"Ron!" Wade said as the brothers embraced, holding each other tightly in joy for what felt like hours. After all that trouble and terror, the two were finally together again, like any family should be.
Wade dared to let go of Ron as the two broke their hug, then looking to his brother with a big smile as Ron held him by his shoulders, returning the expression.
"Good to have you back, buddy!" Ron said in low excitement as Wade laughed his own out of his system.
"Same here, man." The Carters joined in a chuckle before Wade looked around the room again. "How long was I out? How'd you meet up with these guys?"
"Close to an hour, the Coalition scared off the bastards that took you away, I went with them after I woke up." Ron almost laughed again as he continued. "I was almost ready to turn one of them into a pile of scrap when Nathan and F showed up. Seems they got rescued from Ceres shortly before things got real nasty."
Wade's smile faltered at the mention of Nathan, the memory of his brainwashed self striking his friend flashing in his visor as he spoke to Ron. "Nathan, where is he?! Is he okay?"
Ron nodded as said drone called over to the two, F at his side. "I'm okay, Wade. Just a scratch."
Seeing Nathan on a bed being patched up by Kelly, Wade immediately fast-walked over to him, Ron close behind. "Oh my God, I-...I'm so sorry man, I-"
"Wade! Dude... it's alright, I'll be fine." Nathan said as he put a hand on Wade's shoulder, smiling. "No hard feelings."
The former worker drone's unease only slightly lowered as he then remembered all the other fallen soldiers, their screams forcing a cringe from Wade as a glimpse of him cutting them down with a laser flashed in his face. Shakily, he spoke further. "And-And all those... I KILLED those people!"
Ron put a hand on Wade's arm as he tried to ease his panic. "Wade, Wade... It's okay. They fought to get you back. If they were still here, I think they'd say the same."
"Yeah, and besides, that wasn't really you out there, since they locked your memories of us up in your head and all that." Nathan added in his attempt to comfort his frightened friend, his and Ron's words seeming to ease Wade down a bit more as F spoke to him as well.
"Wade, don't beat yourself up over it. The boys are right, you're with us here now, so they didn't go down for nothing."
With F putting a hand on Wade's shoulder, he finally conceded in his moping as he gave an agreeing nod. "...Yeah. Yeah, you're right." Taking a deep breath, Wade eased himself before asking his friends, "So, what happened while I was uh... out, so to speak?"
Ron walked over to Wade's duffle bag, still intact from the home invasion the two endured from the JCJenson agents earlier as he explained what had happened since his capture. "Well, after I was told what the hell was going on, I came with these people to help in their mission. They're here to get those stolen drones back, I was hoping to get you before you got turned, but uh... To be honest, it doesn't seem like a bad change."
Wade looked himself over as he completely took in his changed body. "Yeah... what'd they do to me?"
"You've been turned into a disassembly drone, Wade. They wanted you as part of the Division for reasons we suspect are more malicious than the Company claims." F explained as Wade examined himself further, noticing the armband on his black attire.
Morbidly curious, Wade held his hand out, noting the hazard stripes on his arm before shifting his hand to a claw hand. He flexed each finger-blade as he spoke. "Well uh, I'd be digging this if it wasn't for the fact that I used these to hurt others."
Wade's brother and friends laughed at his statement before Nathan asked, "Oh, you think you can turn that into a shotgun?"
Recalling his memories as W, he fulfilled his friend's request, the claws shifting into the desired weapon before Wade gave a confident smirk. "Oh, I sure can."
The four gave heartier laughs than before as F walked over to Wade. "Yeah, you're gonna like your new body. The Company didn't exactly say what we could and couldn't pull outta those arms."
"Maybe I can pull something like that NatFuser we just bought this morning." Wade said with mild excitement, but calmed himself with a sigh as he remembered what was happening around him and his friends. "Ah, but we'll have to see about that later." Finally, swapping his weapon out for a hand again, Wade asked, "So what's the situation here?"
Ron pulled some items out of the duffle bag as he answered his brother. "Well, J's out helping another raid team with another one of those DDs, and our teams have set up a little base inside that factory. Once we're ready, we're to head back inside and continue our push into the conveyor room. Then when we reach that room, we'll break out all the worker drones we find and get the hell outta there." Then, having gotten all the things he wanted out of the bag, Ron stood up with the items before walking over to Wade. "Oh, and uh... I made sure to bring an extra set, since they, you know..."
Hinting to Wade's changed attire, the drone looked to what Ron was holding: It was a set of his old clothes he wore, back when he was a worker drone. Glancing at himself, he held a brief debate about changing his look. His new coat was pretty good, but it did bring back some bad memories from just moments before. Checking his jacket for any important items, he felt satisfied as he found nothing in his pockets before beginning to remove the jacket.
"Eh, not like a nude drone's a bad sight here, huh?" Wade cackled out he pulled off the uniform, his friends laughing at his sense of humor as he removed the pants. Now exposed to the others, Wade took his dark blue pants first, putting them on before grabbing the shirt, then the jacket after that was placed atop his form.
Once Wade was done redressing, Ron smiled as he commented on his changed appearance. "Feels like we're back home, eh?"
"Oh, very." Wade replied with a smirk before speaking further. "Thanks, man."
"Don't mention it, anything for my brother." Ron replied as the two embraced again, taking in the warmth of reunion before Kelly ceased her scanning of Nathan.
"Alright, you seem to be in order thanks to those nanites. Just be more careful next time, okay?" The technician said as Nathan nodded in understanding, the former moving over to the storage bays at the back as Nathan sat up from his bed.
"Hah, yeah, speaking of next time, you guys up for beating down those thieves up in that place?" The veteran drone asked as he motioned his arm out to the building outside.
"Definitely. Someone's gotta give these corpo-pricks a what-for!" Wade said in vengeful excitement as Ron raised a finger.
"What about the others? Won't we need more troops?" F shook her head as she answered the Carters, Wade also now curious at the question put forth to his now fellow disassembly drone.
"Not really, with Wade back, we don't have to worry about capture protocols on our side of things. Besides, with two of us on the same field, we'll really screw things up in there." Raising a finger of her own, F did show partial agreement with Ron's sentiment. "Though once we get close to the conversion bay, we'll have to relay the other teams to meet up at the elevator, so we can get more troops in to help hold the place till we're done."
The Carters both grinned in eager anticipation of the coming fight as they, F and Nathan all stood together, the latter two readying themselves before Wade looked down to Nathan again. "Well, that'll take some getting used to."
Noticing the height difference, Nathan chuckled before replying. "Hah, you're like a titan compared to me! Fits well with you too."
He appreciated the exaggerated compliment before turning to face the bridge ahead, the four former co-workers now standing together as they prepared to disembark for the factory. Turning back to the troop bay behind him, Ron looked to Kurtis resting on one of the seats next to Gerard, the two men readying their own equipment as they prepared to join the team. "Kurt? You and Gerard'll have our backs in there, right?"
The man chuckled alongside his fellow miner as he replied. "You can bet all the gems left at Ceres on that, man. Just keep Nathan safe for me, aight?"
Ron and Nathan both nodded as Wade gave a low wave to Gerard, who showed a crack of a smile as he noticed him. After a short moment of more weapons cleaning, the two miners stood up and joined the group, armed and ready for whatever the facility ahead had waiting for them.
Just as the group was about to jump off the transport, Kelly called out to them. "Wade!" Turning to his right, Wade saw her as she came out of one of the storage bays, two black canteens in her hands as she tossed them to him. Catching the bottles, Wade listened as Kelly explained her items. "You're a disassembly drone now, Mr. Carter. You're gonna need the extra oil after a bit of action."
Looking to the canteens for a moment, Wade glanced back to Kelly with a nod before stuffing the them in his pockets. "Thanks Kelly." The woman returned the gesture as she began to walk towards the front of the ship, intent on handling another task now that her duties to Wade had been fulfilled.
With their well-wishing farewells out of the way, Wade looked to Ron and his friends before speaking. "So, we all set?"
Nathan and F nodded as Ron shared his brother's gaze, shotgun in hand as he nodded to Wade. "Good to go."
Readying a shotgun of his own, Wade returned his focus ahead. "Alright, let's show these crooks what a drilling laser to the rear feels like." With that, The six jumped off the Chameleon's troop bay, entering a steady jog as they began their run back into the factory.
...
Dark, moody lighting and soft chatter dominated the long, spacious corridor as Wade and his team made their way through another unconquered hallway. The hall went high up, at least a dozen meters, and practically empty when it came to objects. No tables, monitors, doorways, not a sign of any other features present inside. The whole place was just a dreary hallway to the next area within the large facility.
Like Ron and J's team, the group hadn't encountered any major hostiles within the new halls, just turrets and other basic security equipment. Such lack of threats had admittedly lowered the guard of Wade and his comrades a tad, enough to keep themselves busy with talk about plans of what they'd do after this whole 'recall' mess was over.
Still though, they made sure they didn't abandon their guard completely, Wade, Ron and F all kept examining around the area while Kurtis, Nathan and Gerard watched the path ahead, ensuring they'd catch sight of anyone or anything trying to sneak up on them.
In the midst of the scouting was more talking, the current speaker being Nathan, who was describing his plans for potential job endeavors after the failure of civilization on Ceres. "Maybe I'll even try and find some welding work, could use some experience on that field while things die down."
Wade chortled as he thought of a fun idea in his head, describing it with light sarcasm. "Maybe you can try building ships through that job? Ron and I always wanted to have a shuttle of our own."
Ron shared the humorous air as he added, "Yeah, his girlfriend would like that idea too, her and Wade were hoping to learn how to fly a ship together at some point later on."
Nathan gave a slight grin at the proposal as he replied. "Well, anything for a friend. Just let me get to know the ropes of the job first."
"Sure, sure thing." Wade replied before the three laughed together at the plan, F and the others smiling in amusement as Nathan spoke further to Wade, now abandoning the happy air with a bit of concern.
"Speaking of girlfriends, did you ever try to call her lately?" As Wade shook his head, he asked further. "You said that she's flying a ship back here, right?" Receiving a nod from the lover drone, he hesitantly asked, "...You don't think she-"
"OH no, don't even say that." Wade said in the middle of Nathan's question, a glare forming on his face as he continued. "And if they did take my Tina, they won't hear the end of it from me." In between his words, he prepped a blade from his arm to show his intentions for whoever would be dumb enough to lay a finger on his love, let alone robo-nap her for such a twisted purpose as this place. Then, taking a deep breath, Wade returned his hand to the now de-bladed arm as he finished with, "I really hope she's okay, though."
Ron walked next to him as he put a hand on his brother's shoulder. "I'm sure she's alright, Wade. Once we're out of this place, we'll find her."
Wade nodded in hopeful agreement as he and Ron walked together, the others keeping their gaze focused around the room as the former worker drone spoke again. "Heh, you know, I was thinking on that whole marriage proposal earlier, you know?"
"Yeah? Any plans for it? A nice place to have the wedding at?" Ron asked as Wade nodded lightly.
"Kinda, I was thinking of who could help out with setting it all up. And, I didn't think I'd need to ask, but there's no one else that bests fit the Best Man slot than you." Ron smiled at the honor Wade was wanting to bestow upon him as he was about to ask, but he stopped his brother as he spoke ahead.
"I wouldn't be anything but happy to, Wade." Wade shared the smile, albeit with a bigger one as he looked to his friends.
And I know we're not THAT close, but... Would you guys mind an invitation? It'd be nice to have company there along with family."
Nathan gave a grin at Wade's request while F gave a light smirk, both accepting their co-worker's invitation as the former spoke. "I'd love to, Wade. Maybe I could come and help set everything up."
"Count me in too." Kurtis said aloud, chuckling as he added further to his answer. "I know a girl who makes quite the dresses for occasions such as those."
Gerard was stuck in thought about the idea. A drone wedding? Hopefully he'd at least get to do something for once rather than lose out to the labor companies use as hazard fodder these days.
"And what about you, Gerard? You wanna come along too?" Nathan asked for Wade, whom looked to the man hopefully as he finally settled on an answer.
"Ah, sure. Got nothing else to worry about at this point. Just make sure I have something to do there." He said in as nice a manner as he could, nice enough for Wade to accept it whole-heartedly.
"I'll make sure of it, man. I hate to leave you out of a fun ti-" The drone ceased his tongue as he and the others caught the sound of light clattering, all of them immediately keeping watch for whatever made the noise. Looking around, Wade couldn't spot anything down the hall ahead, nor did he see an odd shape or shadow on the walls. Anxious, he looked to the ceiling, concerned over something crawling above them as he aimed his shotgun above himself.
Squinting his digital eyes, he saw a faint shape clinging to a long rail bar holding part of the room up. He couldn't tell exactly what it was with only a silhouette visible, but it being there most certainly set him on edge. Seeing it stop almost right above them, Wade only whispered one word. "Guys?"
A haunting chuckle came from the entity above. "Well, seems you're not just bold, you're smarter than that face shows." Said a voice Wade faintly recognized, one his hearing sensors caught when he ran into the house during his capture. As the others began to look above for their stalking opponent, the being's body began to light up slightly, a large 'X' on a visor with five yellow bulbs glowing above it.
Wade and Ron didn't need to guess what it was as they both took aim at the disassembly drone. "Look out!!!" Ron cried out just as the being zoomed down to the group, hitting the ground with a quaking smash, breaking parts of the ground and sending most of the team, excluding Wade and F, to the floor.
"Not even a day and you already leave us?" G taunted, readying a pair of blades as Wade and F both readied a blade from one of their own hands, the others getting back up as the ensuing sword fight commenced.
Clashing his sword with G's, Wade growled out in his face, "Maybe if you didn't robo-nap me, I'd have stayed!"
Lunging forward, F swung her blade as it struck G's own as she joined the fighting. Readying his wings, G shoved at the two drones before taking to the air, prepping a pair of sub-machine guns as Wade and F followed their enemy. Taking aim at Ron and the others, G began to fire just as the two defender drones got in the way, blocking the hailfire of bullets with their wings as Wade held his shotgun at the ready. Once the bullets stopped, Wade swiftly exposed his form before shooting at G, whom deflected the blast with his own wing as he laughed mockingly at the former worker drone.
Below, Ron and the others were caught by surprise as another ring of bullets and laser bolts came at them. Readying his weapons, Nathan could see his attackers: a small group of corporate security guards, mostly human, firing at them with kinetic and laser rifles and two of them staying near the entrance with what looked like sniper rifles. Taking aim with his own pair of laser pistols, he returned fire, fatally striking one of the seven guards coming towards them and causing two more to stumble. With a few of them injured, Kurtis aimed his assault rifle at the two officers, firing a flurry of rounds as the two were struck further, falling to the ground and not getting back up.
Above the sudden firefight, Wade held up his blade as G swung at him, their swords clashing as Wade readied another sword in place of his shotgun as he tried to strike at G. It was immediately blocked by G's other blade as they locked each other into a brief stalemate. Wade grunted as he was struck right in his lower back by a sniper shot, stunning the drone as G kicked Wade away from him. As Wade swiftly recovered, F flew at G, the two striking each other's blades in a blur as they became locked in another duel. With the main threat seemingly distracted, Wade readied a rocket launcher and took aim, firing two at the snipers as they began to run for the door near them.
An explosion and faint cries from the hostile soldiers were all Wade needed to hear to know he hit his target. Looking down to his friends, he saw Nathan and Gerard gunning down one of the last two guardsmen down on the ground, the other throwing a grenade at the bunch as they began to flee back to the doorway. Alerted by the 'clank' from the grenade, Ron and his team rolled away from the small bomb, which exploded before it could inflict harm to Ron and his team. Looking back to the airborne duel, Wade saw F holding G's blades back with her own before flying at the latter. Readying a shotgun again, Wade fired at G, grinning as he managed to strike the murder drone's back, oil splattering out from the wound.
Flying up, Wade swapped his shotgun back for a blade as F smacked G off of her, swiping at the hostile drone before hitting G's sword with hers. Wade looped downward to the duo as he struck at G, the two clashing their swords as well, bringing the three into a violent deadlock. Wade readied his wing to his right, F doing the same as they ensured themselves safety from the snipers nearby. Trying to score another hit on his foe, Wade readied a shotgun from his other hand and took aim, G using his nanite tail to strike at the gun, which fired just as it was hit, most of the ensuing blast striking F instead.
The failed attack gave G enough of an opening to push both drones back, swiftly readying a rocket launcher before firing it at F, sending her falling to the floor. Seeing his friend injured, Wade attempted to shoot at G again, only to be struck in the face by G's tail, the yellow acid damaging his visor as he cried out in pain. Despite attempting to resist , Wade was hit again as the sound of chainsaws neared him, pain surging in his arms as G gripped both of Wade's forearms before sawing them off, disarming him. With Wade helpless, G kicked Wade with immense force, knocking him into the ground below, Ron and Nathan watching in horror as they saw their friend fall hard to the shattered floor.
"Shit!" Ron exclaimed to himself as he looked to Kurtis and Gerard, who were approaching the end of the hallway to check if there were anymore hostiles coming out. Then, glancing back to Wade, he saw his brother being pounced on by G, who readied a basic blade in place of one of his chainsaws as he prepared to kill Wade.
"No you don't!" Nathan said aloud as he tried to shoot G, who readied an EMP generator before activating it, causing Nathan to seize up and fall to the ground with his pistols.
"I'll finish that one later." Wade heard G say smugly as his visor began to regenerate, the former worker drone's sight coming back to see G above him, blade at the ready. Trying to fight back further, Wade tried to lift his tail, but G pinned it down against his foot, leaving Wade completely at his mercy. Deciding to taunt his prey once more, G spoke. "You really are a feisty one, W. Such a shame I have to terminate you after seeing you in action here." Then, raising the blade, G chuckled lightly as Wade grit his teeth. "Hopefully your clones will be less... defiant than you were."
G grunted as he felt yet another barrage of bullets at his back, the drone turning to see Ron aiming at him with his shotgun. "Get the hell off my brother, fuck-face!" The human growled at G, who merely grinned in amusement as Ron moved to fire again. He wasn't given the chance as G struck him with his sword, the blade going right through the man's chest as blood spurted out from the wound.
Wade felt as if his whole world was falling apart as he saw his brother being violently impaled by G. "RON!!!" He yelled out as Nathan recovered from the EMP, shaking his head before seeing the bloody sight before him.
The disassembly drone laughed heavily as he lifted the grunting Ron to his face. "Brother, you say? I never thought you humans could get so deluded."
"No!" Wade cried out further as he saw F, now having recovered from her injuries, flying right at G with a roar as he swiftly pulled out the blade from Ron's body. "NO!!!" Wade yelled again, distraught at the sight of his life-long friend falling down next to him. He immediately forced himself up on his arm stubs, crawling over to Ron as he tried to help his wounded brother. As soon as he freed his weapon from Ron, G immediately blocked F's attack, the warrior drone glaring in anger at her rival. The two drones broke the blade-lock as they took to the air, intent on continuing the fight above the others.
Glancing over to where F had flown from, Nathan saw Wade's forearms on the ground nearby, oil pooling from them as he picked up his pistols before running over to the dismembered limbs. Once he reached them, he picked them up before heading over to the Carters.
At the end of the hallway, Kurtis and Gerard carefully walked towards the large doorway, hoping to deal with the last trooper hiding inside. The two stopped as they heard footsteps coming from within, two more guards coming out with riot shields as they prepared to take the brunt of the former miners' attack. As the two backed away, Gerard readied a grenade of his own before throwing it at the two hostiles, both immediately trying to break away from the bomb as it exploded, stunning the two guards.
Above, F clashed one of her blades with G's before readying the other into a claw hand. Pressing his weapon against F's, G attempted to stab F with his nanite tail. Catching sight of the tail, F caught it in her claw hand, slicing the tail in two before taking the nanite tank in her grip. Hearing a gunshot, F looked to where the sound originated. In between the fight between Kurtis, Gerard and two other guards, F saw one soldier from G's team, now wielding one of the sniper rifles left behind by their owners. Glancing down to where Ron and Wade were, F saw Nathan carrying Wade's arms as he moved around erratically, trying not to get hit by the sniper nearby.
With all the fury she could muster, F managed to push G off of her before quickly throwing the nanite tank at the guard like a bullet. The warrior's aim was true as it hit the corporate agent clean in the head, his body falling to the floor. Her effort to save Nathan and the others left her vulnerable, however, as G swung at F with his sword, the soldier drone narrowly dodging the attack before she was kicked to the ground, shattering more of the battle-ridden floor. Before she could recover from the impact, G flew at her, catching her in his arms before slamming her against the wall. G then pinned F to the wall with his active sword blades, ensuring she was unable to flee his grasp.
As G regenerated his damaged tail, F tried to strike him with her own, only to fail as G quickly pulled out one of his swords before changing it into a claw hand, grabbing the tail just before it touched his visor. At the same time, G impaled F's briefly free arm with his reformed tail, F grunting in agony as she braced for her demise.
As Nathan approached Wade, he frantically observed Ron, who was shifting around in pain as his wound bled onto the ground. "Wade, your arms!" Looking to Nathan, Wade didn't resist as his friend took his damaged arm, putting one of the forearms onto the stump before it re-attached, courtesy of the regeneration nanites.
As Nathan did the same with his other arm, Wade heard Ron croak out, "Wade..." Turning his head to face his brother, Wade looked on in confused sorrow as he awaited Ron's order. "Kick his ass."
His words clicked something in Wade's head as he turned around, balancing himself on his repaired arm as he glared at G, now having pinned F against the wall as he laughed sadistically. As anger began to take hold of him, Wade's eyes shifted, a large, greenish-yellow 'X' appearing in their place as Wade readied his wings.
F groaned from her injuries as she glared at G, the killer drone ceasing his laughter before speaking to her. "Well, F. I thought you were better disciplined to follow orders."
"I joined... to PROTECT others, you butcher!" F spat out before literally spitting in G's face, her physical insult barely dissuading the disassembly drone as he replied.
"Indeed you did." Laughing further, G looked on to F with vile glee, his mouth extending out to reveal his sharp, monstrous teeth. "Now, I think it's time we replace the old guards... and get better ones to fall in line." With that, G gave a low hiss at F, opening his jaw as he prepared to drain his former co-worker of her oil.
Before he could bite into her, a blur came briefly into F's view, immediately pulling G off of F and knocking him to the floor. Trying to look up, G briefly caught a glance of Wade, his claws striking his face as the latter began screaming in a fit of rage. Though his visor didn't indicate it clearly, Wade didn't see what he was doing, only feeling as he slashed at G, screaming and wailing on him in absolute, vengeful fury for what he did to his brother.
F stared to her left as Wade violently attacked G, his claws and nanite tail slicing and stabbing into the disassembly drone without ceasing. Nathan too could only watch in shock (and slight horror) as he saw his friend ripping the murder drone apart through his raging episode.
F very much could tell G was already dead, but Wade kept slashing. Stabbing. Screaming. Eventually, F snapped herself out of her stunned trance as she saw smoke emitting from Wade. "Wade." She said lightly, no response. "Wade!" Said the warrior drone again, still nothing. "WADE!"
That snapped him out of his violent onslaught, Wade stopped as he took in fast, heavy breaths, observing the brutality he inflicted upon G. The drone was left almost unrecognizable, G's head and upper torso were nothing but oil and metal scraps. The only thing left even remotely intact were G's forearms and lower body, oil pouring out from said remains as Wade eased himself.
Examining himself, Wade could see his oil-covered claws, as well as smoke emitting from his arms. He was overheating. He needed fresh oil, and he needed it right now. Focusing on his body's needs, Wade pulled out one of his canteens before quickly opening it, proceeding to gulp down the entire bottle before gasping heavily.
As he recovered, F got up wearily, walking over to Wade as Nathan glanced over to Kurtis and Gerard, who'd managed to beat down the two shielded guards that had arrived to hold them off. "Wade, you okay?" F asked as the remaining damage on her arms healed up.
"Y..Yeah, I'm good." Wade said as a pained grunt from Ron immediately invalidated his claim. Looking over, Wade stared at his injured brother in shock, the man bleeding out from his wound as he tried to get himself up. "...Ohhhhh." Wade groaned in horror as he hastily ran over to Ron, landing on his knees as he looked his friend over. G's blade had went right through Ron, penetrating right through a portion of his heart. Even if they had a medic with them at this moment, there was nothing that could be done.
Despite the wound being obviously fatal, Wade clung to denial as he felt that he wasn't ready to lose his brother.
He wasn't ready for Ron to die.
"W-We can get you to the ship, have a doctor check on you! We can fix thi-!" Wade said frantically as Ron spoke ahead of him.
Wade...WADE!" Gripping Wade's hand, he tried to ease his panicked state. "It c-an't be helped."
Still trying to fight the reality of the situation, Wade glanced to G's corpse before immediately glancing back to Ron, the man trying to steady his weak breathing as he spoke to his brother. "Wade... Go with the team, help those drones."
Wade clenched his dying brother's hand. "I'm NOT gonna leave you again!"
"...You never did." Ron replied with a weak smile as his body began to fail, Wade shutting his digital eyes tightly before opening them at Ron's insistence. "Wade, you're... one of the be-est people I've met in all my life. If I... was g-given a chance to start over again... I wouldn't have picked anyone else to be my brother... but you."
Such touching words brought a small digital tear from Wade's eyes as he tried to force a smile, but his grief weakened him so that he could only crack a faint hint of one. Feeling Ron's grip strengthening a bit, Wade listened to his brother. "Wade... p-promise me one thing." The drone nodded as Ron gave his last words to a teary-eyed Wade. "Find Tina. I-I know she's... still here, with us. K-keep her safe."
Wade's grief began to take hold again as he felt Ron's grip weaken. "Ron?" He said as he saw Ron's face seemingly trail off, his grip weakening ever more. "...Ron?" Wade croaked again, his voice like that of a whimpering dog as he loosened his own grip on Ron's hand. Said hand fell back down to the man's body as the reality of the sight before Wade finally hit him. The reality that his brother was dead.
The reality that Ron was now gone.
Immediately, Wade broke down, burying his face into Ron's bloodied chest and gripping his jacket tightly as he began sobbing. Of all the things that had to befall him throughout today, losing his brother was something he hadn't considered. He thought that they would both get this feud with the company over and done, then just go home and try to fix what was left of the house after the mugging the Carters went through, or perhaps even find Tina and spend the week together while this whole bloody event died down.
So many plans, so many more things he hoped to experience with Ron... and now it all died before his eyes, dying with Ron after he succumbed to death. Wade's weeping grew slightly in intensity as he continued mourning his brother. He couldn't have sat there for any more than a minute or two, but to Wade it felt like hours.
The aura and Wade's low cries afflicted everyone in the room, Nathan held a hand up to his mouth as he merely looked on at his friend mourning his bond-borne relative. Kurtis looked downward in silence as Gerard looked away from the sight, not wanting to expose the pained anger he felt to his comrades. Even F couldn't help but hold back a tear. Sure, she hadn't known Ron or the others around her all THAT well, but the failure to protect Ron was something that troubled her immensely. She hated failing the people she had sworn to protect, and yet here she was, watching one of them quietly weeping over their brother's corpse.
Even then, she knew that they still had a job to do. Ron knew that too. So, steadying herself, she slowly walked over to the crying Wade, putting a hand on his back as he lifted his head up. "Wade... I-I'm so sorry." The drone didn't speak, merely nodding as F continued in the nicest tone she could. "I don't want to seem uncaring, but... You heard Ron, we need to keep going." Readying a radio from her hand, she finished with, "I'll get us some help for the conversion bay."
Wade steadied himself as he gasped shakily for air. "...Right... Yeah. We need to keep moving."
Speaking through the radio, F explained the situation as she saw the reinforcements they were about to call, several humans and drones marching inside the hallway as they prepared for the coming assault. "F to Transport Chi, good to see the cavalry here. We're almost to the conversion bay, but... we've got wounded here. I'm sending Nathan back with the dead shortly, have some body bags ready. F out." Shutting off the radio and swapping it for a hand, F looked to her admirer. "Nathan, could you get Ron back to the ship? Wade wouldn't want to leave him here like this."
"...S-Sure thing, Ma'am." Nathan said, re-affirming F's current authority as he picked up Ron's body, Wade merely staring off into the floor before looking towards the doorway leading to the elevators. As Nathan began to walk with Ron's corpse, he stopped, glancing with sorrow to Wade once more. "...I'm so sorry, Wade." With that, he continued onward, hoping to ensure that Ron could be brought back to have the proper respects paid once this was all over.
As Nathan left the group, Wade kept staring at the doorway, a newfound fire burning in his core. They murdered him. They murdered Ron. And he was eager to make someone pay. He couldn't rest until blood spilled, and with more guards most certainly being on the other end of the factory ahead, Wade could feel hot rage burning through his currently cool oil. He might've been willing to let these corporate punks off with a few dead people, but with this.... This was personal now.
Posturing himself on one knee, Wade looked to the floor, eyes shut as he spoke to F. "F... Are you up for a little killing today?"
F, despite her incentives to help rather than hurt, couldn't help but sympathize with Wade. "...Normally, I'd try to keep blood and oil from spilling. But after what just went up here.... Yeah."
A sinister grin formed on Wade's face, the vengeful drone readying a blade in between his words. "Good, cause I sure as hell am!"

I’ve had a lot of adventures in my life.
I’ve traveled, made friends, seen sights, competed in sports, and participated in events.
Sometimes, following any of these endeavors, a small object would find itself in my possession. A knickknack, a totem, a doodad.
Maybe it was a collection of Mardi Gras beads from my trip to New Orleans. Or a t-shirt tossed by a cheerleader at a sporting event. A toy from a claw machine. A mixtape from a friend. A thank-you note. A cheap piece of junk from a tourist’s gift shop.
Whatever they were didn’t matter — what matters is that they were often a representation of whatever moment in time they came from.
I never threw these things away. I set them on my desk or on my shelves. When those spaces filled up, I bought two small storage containers. They’re filled to the brim and I’m currently filling a third.
Why keep the color-coordinated bandana a stranger gave me in the park during Pokemon Go’s heyday? Why hold onto the Save the Date from my high school friend who ended up getting divorced not two years later? What significance or use could I possibly have for those goofy White Elephant gifts my kickball team gave at the yearly Christmas party?
No purpose, no reason and there is none, respectively.
And yet I don’t want to let them go. You see, they are reminders of times and experiences — Keepsakes. Mementos. Souvenirs. In some ways, they’re a physical collection and documentation of my life.
It reminds me a little bit of this weird quirk I have when I play video games.
--
I likely dumped more than 500 hours across all my Skyrim save files. There was no other game, there needn’t be any other game and there still hasn’t been any other game since.
In my adulthood, I returned to one of its many definitive editions for one last victory lap. With my experience, memory and fully-formed adult brain, I approached the game methodologically, in an optimal order, carefully. I built my ideal character and crafted only what was needed — down to the last iron ingot. I explored, I experienced — I did every major and minor quest, making it my perfect playthrough.
One thing I love about Skyrim is the loot. Yes, there’s 20 million iron daggers and boring, inventory-cluttering useless items… but then there’s the special ones.
There’s the unique weapons at the end of each Daedric quest. The trinkets from the Thieves Guild. Spellbooks, statuettes and storybooks. The eerily-delivered note for the assassin’s questline. The robes of the king, the rings and necklaces of Jarls.
You know them — the items with one-of-a-kind names and designs that are specific to each of their quests.
You see, these items carry a story with them. How you stole for them or killed for them. Traveled, battled, talked, stealthed, lied, solved your way into their possession. They’re the game’s biggest treat.
That’s why, at the culmination of my final ever Skyrim playthrough, I bought a house in Whiterun and filled it with these objects.
Weapons and armors on the walls and on the racks, items and books placed carefully on shelves - but not just any weapons, armors, objects and books. Only the special ones. It was a house that told the story of all of my adventures.
I sat down in a chair next to Aela the Huntress in my castle, my throne room. I saved my game one final time.
--
For all of gaming’s swashbuckling adventures, magnificent worlds and large stretches of land to traverse, they don’t always give us too much to remember them by, do they?
I appreciate Skyrim so much for understanding the nature of the epic they were creating. The ability to fill your house with display cases, armor mannequins and weapon racks demonstrates the developer’s awareness of their playerbase and the scale of the adventures they were sending them on.
These are adventures to cherish, to tell tales of, to be remembered.
Will anyone else give me what Skyrim did?
…
The answer’s yes, actually.
It’s a fascinating yes, too — because not every keepsake system is cut from the same cloth. Games offer unique takes on the mechanic that energize it, give it new life and perspective and add layers of meaning to it in fresh ways.
And I’ve got plenty of examples.
--
In The Outer Worlds, special items you collected while out adventuring would be placed in specific locations throughout your ship, The Unreliable, upon return. These included things like:
• Posters
• Signs
• Various ISO items
• Tossballs & Tossball cards
• Golden bird statuettes
• Many, many more
Sometimes these were stored by the game in your captain’s quarters, but other times, they’d appear in your squad’s quarters instead.
No matter where they got stored, these items were more than just junk. They were signature weapons of terrible villains whom you defeated, they were outlandish garb from flamboyant characters who painstakingly passed away to protect your life, they were motifs of resource-gouging corporations whom you shutdown for the good of cities and planets.
They were special, they were keepsakes. Their addition made The Unreliable feel alive and lived in, part of your own, unique journey, filled with the stories and tales of your adventure and — importantly and specifically to The Outer Worlds — your choices.
—
The second and third installments of the Mass Effect series contained model ships you could buy from vendors that would then go on display on desks or on racks in your spaceship, The Normandy.
These are a little different because you buy them, rather than slice somebody’s head off for them, but they still count.
What makes them still count here is twofold:
• Some model ships only become available after completing certain missions that actually involve the ship you’re buying a model of, so they still serve as a reminder and memento of specific accomplishments in this way
• If you transferred your save data through the games, models you collected in ME2 would appear automatically on The Normandy in ME3. Being able to carry souvenirs into a sequel is exceptional, and a feat I’ve not found any other game to match.
Mass Effect: Andromeda saw a return of this feature, too. You ended up re-gathering old ships of yore in this installment, however. Andromeda also featured a more traditional collectible-style search; these model ships were looted from various locations in the world.
The original trilogy used the model ships as landmarks for its major moments, to be remembered across the series, while Andromeda paid homage to the previous games and encouraged its players to explore its world more thoroughly.
—
In Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, building up your burgeoning young settlement of Ravensthorpe is a central gameplay mechanic — as you acquire more resources to build with, the size of the village grows both in length, width and inhabitants.
The game includes optional side quests that change those who wander your evolving home and hub in medieval England. They include:
• Capturing a stray cat
• Saving a fox from a burning home
• Befriending a fallen hunter’s wolf pet
In each instance, the living being will join your settlement — the cat will stay underneath Eivor’s seat in your longship, the fox will wander Ravensthorpe and the wolf will welcome you in your personal quarters, howling at your arrival.
You can interact and pet them whenever you like, playing a short animation displaying the affection between the two.
These three “collectibles” don’t feel like trinkets, but living, breathing additions to your home that give it joy and life, as well as keep you young.
—
Speaking of Norse culture, central to Biomutant is a form of Yggdrasil — the WorldTree.
Central to Biomutant’s story is saving the old, decaying and currently-being-eaten-by-giant-monsters WorldTree. And there are two impressive quests in the game that reflect back to the player their efforts in saving it.
One quest saves the tree from festering toxins below its roots — and the tree’s colors change from green to fluorescent white as a result.
Another quest by the name of Aurora has you activate monoliths around the map that direct energy to the WorldTree. The quest climaxes by having the tree give off a swirling, sparkling aura that hangs perpetually while you travel the world and complete more objectives.
It even matches your affinity — if you’re taking the side of love and justice, the aura is white, while if you play for the destruction of the planet, the aura will hang black.
What’s special about these to me is that they don’t do anything. They don’t get you any closer to saving the world or the tree, but they definitely did something important –
The WorldTree’s central location in the map and absolutely massive scale allow for it to be seen at all times from just about anywhere in Biomutant’s world. This means, after I had completed these two quests, the fruits of my labor were on gloriously beautiful display at all times.
Biomutant’s mementos aren’t keepsakes you can’t take with you when you leave the planet — they’re visual celebrations of your hard work, an ever-present reminder of your endeavors and care for a dying world.
—
More briefly, Cyberpunk 2077 allowed you to fill V’s apartment with keepsakes as well, featuring dream catchers, posters, paintings, action figures and more.
In Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance Ace Azzameen’s personal quarters would fill up with medals and displays as you progressed through the game.
In The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, some of the most legendary Zelda equipment ever was available to the player, including the Sword of Six Sages, the Fierce Deity Sword, and the Biggorons Sword — all of which can be hung in display cases in Link’s home.
Meanwhile, Uncharted 4 greets players near its opening sequence with an attic filled with memorabilia and keepsakes that Nathan Drake himself has kept after all these years. It’s not us — the players — ourselves collecting and hoarding, but it was lovely to see Drake thinking along the same lines as us souvenir psychopaths.
—
I’ll end with gaming’s classic — Mario. The red-hatted Italian also did the keepsake thing in one of his most beloved installments.
Super Mario: Odyssey allowed you to decorate The Odyssey with stickers and trinkets from your escapades by spending purple coins you could collect while out adventuring on one of the game’s many worlds.
A vanilla Odyssey player’s ship might look the same as it did at the game’s start, but a completionist might have a slew of trinkets and décor, like:
• Peach’s Model Castle
• Dinosaur models and trophies
• Shiverian Nesting Dolls
• A plush frog
• Flowers and a watering can from Steam Gardens
• Statues of Pauline, Jaxi, Jizo
• A lamp and rock fragment of the moon
Hell, the game director himself sounds like he’s read this very article:
“But what about decorating the ship? There’s a shop that appears in many kingdoms where you can buy souvenirs and stickers using the purple coins you’ve gathered.
Collecting memories is one of the best parts of traveling, don’t you think?” –Kenta Motokura
The ability to make The Odyssey your own evolved the traditional fetch-quest nature of collectible gathering and drove the player to go that little bit of extra distance in exploring and engaging with the various kingdoms and mastering the game’s platforming.
--
Video game narratives and their accompanying worlds are monstrously large nowadays. As enjoyers of the medium, us gamers spend a lot of time in them.
Like, a lot.
In recognition of this, game developers have given gamers a number of distinct tools to document their triumphs and sagas — each with their own unique flavor of congratulations and commemoration.
For our enormous investment with huge worlds and long, winding quests, something tangible we can keep hold of provides value, meaning, memories. They make our journey — one which we have committed so much to — special, transcendent, our own.
They give us things no other entertainment medium can give.
So fuck photo mode. A picture isn’t worth a thousand words — my keepsakes are.
(A special thanks to the members of patientgamers for their contributions to this post that helped inform this essay with games I have and have not played.)

Spoiled Rotten Explanation: THIS FILM IS A GUILT TRIPI fully intend the double meaning. Going through the movie the first time Beau feels immense guilt throughout his trip (a word here which means, a journey). In hindsight Mona has put Beau through the worst guilt-trip that a mother has ever put a son through. What is this movie about? What sets everything into motion? GENERATIONAL TRAMAMona’s mother never showed Mona any love or affection. So to correct this, Mona decides to give birth to a child who will love her above and beyond anyone else. Mona will give this child all the love that she was denied. Mona will be the only important person to this child. Mona will keep this child perfectly safe in many ways. The first way to keep him safe is to teach him to fear everything that Mona fears. Mona doesn’t want a father in the picture because that would take Beau’s love away from Mona by giving some love to a father. She has to be the only important person to Beau. That is his purpose and duty. The real world audience is being as cruel to the film as the characters in the film are cruel to the character of Beau. Here we have a movie that won’t stand up for itself about a character that won’t stand up for himself. I’m fully aware that this film was written with great ambiguity. Designed to be taken many different ways by many different people. I think it will take many individual takes to fully understand everything Aster has done in this. So I don’t plan to dismiss others takes on this but there’s this one scene, that through visuals, subtlety, that 99.8% of the audience continually miss, that unlocks the entire story for me. A lot of the positive reviews I have found, at best, treat this as a David Lynch movie that is to never to be completely explained or understood. Aster is something else. Aster always gives you what you need to make sense of everything, hidden in plain sight and usually never given to the audience until the final act. Usually never noticed on a first time viewing. Usually giving the audience a misdirect in the first act like “mental health is the reason for everything happening” that audiences cling to till the very end and beyond. People hate this movie because it doesn’t follow their expectations, it doesn’t follow the formula of a “good movie.” That as an audience we’ve been conditioned to think a movie is good when we can predict it based on another “good movie” of the past. I think Aster set out to smash all of those rules and teach the general going audience a different way of watching or receiving a movie. Putting all the energy in the first act. Never allowing the audience to get one step ahead of the movie. To not take points A, B, C and perfectly snap them into points X, Y, Z for the audience through dialogue or narration but rather through visuals and sound design and the viewer’s logic as well as their detective skills, individual contemplation, after thoughts and shared discussion about this work. Creating a movie that the more time you spend with it, then the more you get out of it. It is astonishing to me that 12 months after its release no one is really clearing up what the basic skeleton of the story is that the movie is communicating through visuals. Cue up the movie to the scene at 2h06m37s The second to last framed photograph on the spiral staircase. Beau takes an extra moment to take this in. It’s a photograph of thee very moment Beau was told by the UPS driver that Mona was dead.2h07m06s The large advert panel that shows MW’s “Security” company that reads ‘Your security has been our business for 40 years’ meaning surveillance cameras and in Beau’s case hidden surveillance cameras. Which is how Mona has a photograph of Beau in his apartment the moment he was told of her death, all of the security camera footage at the trial, and the footage seen on Roger and Grace’s TV. Also how Beau has been under his mother’s surveillance for over 40 years of hidden cameras. This is also how she knows exactly how to mess with him, to keep her baby scared enough of the world, or to make sure he disappoints her at every turn. 2h08m10sAnother large advert panel shows that she owned his apartment building and the first employee photo on that panel is of the man who picked up Beau hitchhiking and drove him to his mother’s.The timeline of success. Mona made her son’s life ‘her’ business, in a nosey over controlling mothering way. On the other end of that coin, Mona made her son’s life her ‘business’ meaning the company and career that she built. Beau was the muse. Not the Guinea-pig for her business. If child Beau needed a cough syrup MW was going to make a safer version of cough syrup for him. As well as what ever he would need in life. Beau gets a pimple MW will make a perfectly safe pimple cream. Time to start shaving, create a safer razor. Then put him in the marketing campaign to show a mother made a perfectly safe version for her own precious child. “Don’t you want the same for your precious child?!” A business model that made her the richest business person on earth. Don’t forget for a moment that Beau is the only source of love she will ever have so she must keep him Perfectly Safe, over protecting him, and instilling all of her fears for Beau, into Beau. Colored cake will give you cancer, people hide razor blades in eclairs, your dick is a monster that wants to kill you instantly. 2h09m01sUltimately the mosaic of Mona made up by tiny photos of her employees that depicts Elaine, Roger, the homeless man in a red button up shirt that walks backwards into Beau’s apartment building, the man who sold him the ceramic mother and child, the lady who sold him the ticket to the play, the catering employee that swings his arms a bit too much when Beau is walking into Mona’s house. So everyone in Beau’s world is employed by MW. Knowing this should give you the most enlightened viewing of Beau Is Afraid. Starting with the production title card of MW that lets us know that this entire world of Beau Is Afraid is of the design of MW.So Mona, with her hidden cameras and wealth, is behind everything; the spider in the building, the notes under the door, the loud music that makes him oversleep, his keys and suitcase being stolen, his landlady hanging up on him, the water in the building being shut off, his card being declined, the invasion of his apartment, the cop on the street, Grace hitting him with her soup truck. Mona also hired teenage Elaine and her mom to be on that cruise as they argue over being able to pay for the ice cream in hand. Mona is the one to point out Elaine to Beau. His mother even attempts to build up Beau’s confidence. Telling Beau and the audience that Beau could match Elaine’s power. Clearly a lie, and completely out of character for Mona to push Beau into entertaining such a fantastical idea of a love interest. Which Mona would never want or allow Beau to have. Mona has hired Elaine to become Beau’s fixation so he never pursues another love interest. If Beau waits for Elaine his entire life, then he will never date anyone or have sex, or have a wife, or have his own children that he would love more than his mother. If Beau shows a drop of love for anyone else that person gets a jealous chandelier to the head. Elaine acts more like a girl who was dared to play with the mind of a teenage boy and fool him into falling in love with her, than a girl this committed to loving and waiting for Beau, who is this genuinely interested in him. They didn’t have enough time together to justify any of that behavior on Elaine’s part. There is a YouTube video that I think is extremely valuable by this professional script doctor, Infranaut. In the first half of the video he plays it off just like the most reviewers have but half way through when he goes spoilers he really nails what motivates Mona to do all of this. Including hiring teenage Elaine. He words it all much better than I ever could and he can make his points more concisely than I can. youtu.be/RG70F_U0aAw?si=qszwRXD8TUEKwuGq
That completes the basic skeleton of the story. These are the things the movie is clearly communicating to the audience. I’ve tried to keep my opinions out of it and just use what the movie is communicating and the same basic logic you would apply to Hereditary to fully understand it (well the best we can). Going forward this is just my half baked theories, opinions, things I’m trying to pay more attention to in my future viewings. I’m open to everyone fleshing it out in their own opinions and theories. I offer to you my own opinions and theories but I do not declare that they are more accurate or correct than anyone else’s opinion. I don’t do this with a motivation to be king of the hill. I do all of this in hopes that if I can bring my understanding of it one inch closer for the next person maybe they can get it one inch closer to the next person having a fuller understanding of it. Then maybe the YouTube reviews and podcasts can start actual discussions about this film instead of everyone just hating on this film. THEORIES THAT HOLD WATERWater equals guilt.He drowns in his own guilt. His baths overflow with guilt. When he’s on the phone with Richard Kind and Beau starts to feel guilt a lawn sprinkler starts only in the sound design subtlety, Jeeves submerges himself in the pool drenched in guilt. The cruise is on an ocean, and a man dies in a swimming pool bringing the teens together but away from Mona which would entail guilt. Aquariums throughout his therapist’s office as well as 80% of all the paintings in the entire production have bodies of water. He needs water to make the medicine go down. Water is needed to clean his wounds in the forest. He lives in apartment number 303, that spells out mom. He’s born upside down not breathing and dies upside down drowning, which is an elaborate form of not breathing. The boat that carries him, IS his mother and when Mona flips on him, so does the boat. The engine sputtering out of control might represent her love for Beau breaking down and burning out. When his boat flips, upon Aster’s insistence, the water splash needed to look more like an ejaculation. So he was brought into the world and taken out of the world in ejaculations. There’s that for the bookends as well as the cave canal. Much like a mother being so upset she has to spank her child (in this case drowning him) afterwards feels immense regret. As after his death and alone cries out in sorrow for her baby. His head gets hit a lot. At birth we hear the high pitched sound after he had been dropped and hit his head. Again in between the 2nd and 3rd acts. This could simply be playing into Aster signature head trauma themes. A lot of the sets I’ve noticed the ceilings and archways look like capsized ships or boats. There’s something to when Beau says “Wait, what does that mean? Wait, why would you say that?” That is some sort of cue to take note of, like Aster is putting a Post-It tab bookmark on the film. As well as the terms “I’m so sorry” “sweetheart” “Baby, baby, baby” said by both Grace and adult Elaine. Then there are these moments when characters are trying to entrap Beau by asking “Do you think your mom is a cunt? Do you ever wish she was dead? Adult Elaine is always mentioning money, that Mona still owes her money. As a teen arguing with her mom over affording the ice cream. I think Elaine sleeps with him motivated by his inheritance of Mona’s wealth. The attic seems to be all the things that Mona has kept from Beau to keep him a timid boy that would never stand up to her. As well as prevent him from ever becoming an adult or “a man.” These three things are; the braver version of himself that would stand up for himself, his manhood (the monster), and Jeeves as his masculinity. (Jeeves, died last time we saw him. He took about 40 bullets) Jeeves isn’t literal nor the monster or his braver version of himself. The monster’s dialogue echos the dialogue Hero-Beau said to his sons. “My beautiful sweet Beau (boys), Don’t be afraid.”Once reintroduced to these three things kept away from him in the attic, Beau stands up to Mona and stranglers her to stop her from saying the words “I hate you” which he just cannot hear coming from her, of all people.The narration of the play sounds like a big pharma commercial voice over, read to us as a mother would read a bedtime story. I recommend utilizing the subtitles in the forest as the background dialogue is doing an audial version of the background actors in Playtime 1967. Elaine dies because she took a toxic 40 year old load that has never been allowed release. Not even from masturbation or a wet dream due to the fear Mona instilled in him that ejaculating meant immediate death. Channel 78, this is a comment on how Beau’s fate is sealed because he has failed his stupid test. Which was the moment where Beau didn’t insist on leaving that exact day. That was the Coup de grâce, that Mona needs for her trial. Note that Toni has taken the remote away from Beau and has it tucked into her waistline while in Nathan’s room, as if the two things are related to each other in cause & effect. Just before this scene Grace is off camera on the phone saying, “Look I’m a mother too but this wasn’t part of the original contract.” Ending that call and going to tell Beau to turn to channel 78. I suspect analyzing why and how Michael Haneke did this in Funny Games 1997 would be worth the journey as Haneke is highly respected by Aster. Both scenes feel boldly connected. In addition to the 2 lists of films Aster named, I truly feel Funny Games and Come And See should be on that list. Some might say a handful of the titles he named were “career killers” like Che, Playtime, Mishima, Mr Kline. I think that they are more-so the exact film each director wanted and at any cost that came with it. Note that these directors look back on these works with a sense of pride, not shame. For the original lists of films Aster has named of mostly unconsciousness influences on Beau Is Afraid is The Lincoln Center ASTER SELECTS, and the Criterion Closet Picks by Aster. Though it was mostly books that influenced Beau Is Afraid none have been listed by Aster to this date and my awareness. I would suspect the Kafka novel of The Trial to be more of an influence than the film of The Trial. If you want a full understanding of Beau Is Afraid you will need to watch some of Aster’s short films; C’est la Vie (Might be a Birthday Boy Stabman prequel), Munchausen. I didn’t get much from the short film of Beau other than his mother has his keys on her desk at the end. The movie and what it is showing us is consistent. It doesn’t flip flop from inside Beau’s mind to actual reality and back and forth. There’s the short scene of Beau imagining a guy kicking in his locked apartment door but we quickly jump out of Beau’s premonition in his mind back to reality, very clearly. To the theories that he’s hallucinating from his meds. The movie has yet to show me his new medication creates hallucinations, not even a warning on the pill bottle. He is only on those pills for 24 hours. I don’t subscribe to the idea this is in his mind or an exaggerated perception of reality. I would say Mona is orchestrating everything to make Beau believe he has this extreme anxiety, but by making everyone in his world act this crazy around him. All of this is really happening to him, every person carrying out Mona’s commands while she watches the cameras and calls the shots on how to mess with him. Preventing him from getting back to her home as she collects evidence for a trial she has had planned since Beau walked into his therapy session at the start. When his therapist writes the word guilty, it is not a comment on how Beau is feeling, it is the verdict of his trial. In the 4th act she completely gaslights Beau blaming him for being the man-child that she created. It’s important to note Mona’s Martyr Complex, how she needs to feel disappointed at every turn with Beau. That being said the attic scene is all figurative things and not literal things. There’s a lot of surrealism and symbolism happening and this is a departure from the reality of the movie into Mona’s attic of “unnecessary things” locked away from Beau. In the first act when Beau is walking home from his therapy session with his new prescription from the pharmacy and he’s listening to the voicemail Mona left for him during his session. This entire sidewalk shot is kind of showing us the entire movie ending with a crowd encouraging and feeding off of the possibility of one’s death. At the trial, more of a court of public opinion. This shot functions like the opening tapestry of MidSommar. Haters can’t see anything. I’ve noticed the lady who sells Beau a ticket to the play is handing out flyers to promote the play My Beautiful Sweet Boys. The big guy who is always in the background is eating ice cream. The main Aster-egg is Archie Madekwe plays the guying recording the jumper on his phone while laughing and explaining they’re trying to get him to jump. Who played Simon in MidSommar who was the only one to freak out that they let the 72s jump. At 8m13s two teens are clinging to Hereditary hardcover script books sold by A24 as they walk off screen being closely followed by the Birthday Boy Stab Man wearing a long t-shirt. A little message for everyone trying to keep Aster in their Hereditary-box. I think the next enlightenment will come from many experts on specific things. All distinct perspectives that don’t cancel each other out but help build upon each other. Every expert should be young enough at heart to hang out with an A24 movie and have solid observations from their own perspectives in their expertise. Someone who is knowledgeable in; Greek mythology, Criterion films, Shakespeare, Kafka, Freud, Christianity, Judaism, Kabuki theater, psychologies, ect. ect. ect. There is a great podcast episode on Beau Is Afraid by a podcast named Jews On Film, that had a clear and unique take on the animated flood separating family members who will search for their families until their dying day. Being displaced by the flood in a land where no one will speak your language and will wrongfully accuse and persecute you. Blaming you for plague, burning down their village and replacing their children’s feet with their hands. Lesson to be learned from that is everyone who thinks things could be cut out for the runtime, because it holds no value to your walk of life’s experience, perhaps what you are cutting is essential to someone else’s experience and therefore knowledge that could help you and everyone else understand the film better. Ultimately I think all roads lead to Mona is a self-made-god with power and unlimited wealth. In lieu of an actual god in Beau’s world Mona steps up and takes the role of the alpha and the omega omnipotent god-figure. She can see everything he does (via the cameras of her security company). He is in constant judgement and constantly tested to see if Beau truly loves his mother as much as she expects him to love her. Living in fear of her everyday of his pathetic life. As far as the blank check mentality of how dare A24 give Aster 35 million for this and it only made 9 million back. For perspective both Hereditary and MidSommar did just about 9 million in their first 2 weeks. And went on for 8 week runs creating enough profits to fully cover the 35 million that was budgeted for Beau Is Afraid. Also A24 understands it will become profitable over time just like The Shining or 2001: A Space Odyssey. Both “box office bombs” and “career killers.”For enthusiasts of Beau Is Afraid, I have 2 cool things to share with you. Both are behind Patreon paywalls but worth a low tier subscription. Fish Jelly Film Reviews had an exquisite podcast revisiting of Beau Is Afraid. www.patreon.com/posts/98137893?utm_campaign=postshare_fanAnd the perfect first time viewing experience in a full watch along video (must have your own copy of the movie) of the kindest and coolest Canadians that you could ever meet, RolyPolyOllie. www.patreon.com/posts/88084361?utm_campaign=postshare_fanI have an X account for all the essential Beau Is Afraid content I am collecting with other Aster films and occasional mentions of cool film related things. @BennyFordClinic I want to be a music advisor for Ari Aster. Eddington playlist. open.spotify.com/playlist/6ydwdZtdaU6e9Yjddt0GjT?si=iY5lvOFZQFaWx3NoX_C_7A&pi=u-ZxLg36eaSHWmI have some great ideas for a Criterion release that should be heard out. Also some merch ideas for Aster to hear out.

Husky Diner Experience Yesterday. Food Good. Lots Of Gang Crap. Notice Your Fax Number Has A 81 In It The Gang Talk Was H.A.

GregCarr gregcarr900@gmail.com15:35 (58 phút trước) đến huskycardservices, surreytalkradio, rcmp_business_link, bcrcmp, linda.annis, Chilliwack-Hope, MP, marc.landry, EMrewards, nacc, info, info, [Info@surreypolice.ca](mailto:Info@surreypolice.ca), tips, tony.luck, Tina

Husky Diner Experience Yesterday. Food Good. Lots Of Gang Crap. Notice Your Fax Number Has A 81 In It The Gang Talk Was H.A.

GregCarr gregcarr900@gmail.com15:35 (58 phút trước) đến huskycardservices, surreytalkradio, rcmp_business_link, bcrcmp, linda.annis, Chilliwack-Hope, MP, marc.landry, EMrewards, nacc, info, info, [Info@surreypolice.ca](mailto:Info@surreypolice.ca), tips, tony.luck, Tina
Hi And Shalom,Service by the female waitress Nadene I think was her name was on her name tag was good. Place is dated noticeably older than the convenience store they share a washroom with. Food was good omelette with a glass of milk sourdough bread. Only two other tables the one table of 3 White men 55ish plus in age was talking about crime the whole time they said they were working for H.A. and in 8 years would be given a car one mentioned my Uncle Dave for some reason who has a daughter who lived with one of them for 4 years until he dumped her. Someone in the back of the place a employee sounded like a Indo male loudly stated his opinion of Whalley Faggots which is a violation of the BC Human Rights code and just plain bad employee behaviour. My first time there. Lots of talk of bootleg cigarettes never seen any of these ppl before. A truck stop is great for smugglers and organized crime and the Ebus from Hope and other places makes a15-20 min pit stop there every day. I have noted gang problems at Esso's before.

At Least 5 times 7-11 Or Esso Contacted Me For More Info But Did Nothing. Bad Service Esso- ESSO 7-Eleven 37866 10376 152 ST Surrey Criminal Gang Activity. Friday May 12 2023 5 PM.

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notmyrealname carr

19:07:42 3 thg 9, 2023đếnAt least 5 times 7-11 or Esso contacted me for more info but did nothing. Bad Service Esso- ESSO 7-Eleven 37866 10376 152 ST Surrey Criminal Gang Activity. Friday May 12 2023 5 PM. Yahoo / Sent Greg Carr <greg...@yahoo.ca> To: Newton Newton , Surrey_Fleetwood , me...@7-11.com , ask.slu...@7-11.com , speedpass....@exxonmobil.com , Brandislounge Info Hide
Sat, May 13 at 6:49 a.m.
Hi,
Young male Indo employee nametag said Jatin made rude comments about me and told me I was not welcome there a female coworker made comments about supporting the Hell's Angels. I bought a pizza sub and large water. While this was going on a White man came in short hair, dress shirt white with handcuffs on his back belt and a gun in a holster on his right hip he looked a bit nervous he gave a grey fair sized package to a female Indo employee and told her to give it to a man whose name I don't remember she immediately opened the locked door to the back went inside and did not reappear. Short haired Asian man verbally confronted a female employee and told her, " We don't want that H.A. stuff here." The man with the handcuffs and gun left the store and departed in a purple vehicle a American built Dodge car parked to the right of the door. There were numerous witnesses and video should have recorded the whole thing. I have never seen a non law enforcement officer with a gun in a store or gas station in my 58 years life before nor have I ever had such a negative experience at a Esso or 7-11. I have been going to that store at the corner of 104 Ave. and 152 St. off and on for a decade no bad experiences before this. Ppl in the H.A. organization have threatened to kidnap myself in the last year. By contrast earlier in the week was at the Shell station 1591 56 St. Delta and would give that experience a 10 out of 10.
Sincerly,
Greg Carr. Were Jatinder and his coworker fired can I and the RCMP have a copy of the video?A BRAIN FRIED COCAINE CASUALTY JEREMY NATHAN DYCK WHO GOT A RESTRAINING ORDER ON ME IN SURREY BC FOLLOWED ME TO HOPE, BC AND MADE SURE I SAW HIM SEVERAL TIMES WITH HIS CRIMINAL BUDDIES OVER THE COURSE OF 3 DAYS INCLUDING BEHIND THE LOCKED FENCE AREA OF CANYON CABLE ON 5TH AVE HE WAS YAPPING WITH THE GUY WHO RUNS THE KINGPIN LOUNGE A SELF DESCRIBED DIVE BAR NEVER SEEN THE BEARDED MAN AWAY FROM HIS BUSINESS IN 2 MONTHS. HE JEREMY TOLD ME HAD VANDALIZED MY RV ANOTHER TIME CONFRONTED ME WITH BRASS KNUCKLES WITH 6 WITNESSES present ON 75A AVE. in SURREY a person in my building called RCMP he another time came towards me with a baseball bat in the rear parking lot of the King's Cross Mall he used to deal drugs at Kelly's Pub and hang with Jason the H.A. guy and Darren Chow the H.A. guy who managed the place. Jason a total druggie threatened me in Chilliwack in the last two months Darren no longer works at Kelly's Pub. He Jeremy used to drive a black S.U.V. with 3 H.A. support stickers and wear Haney support gear showed me pics of him with H.A. full patches. Husky 7620A Vedder Rd, Chilliwack, BC V2R 4E8, Canada Get DirectionsPhone: [(604) 858-5113](tel:6048585113)Hours: Open 24 hoursWeb: local.myhusky.caEmail: [huskycardservices@fleetcor.com](mailto:huskycardservices@fleetcor.com)Fax: (604) 824-0481Facebook Profile: VisitGoogle Maps: VisitFoursquare: Visit
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Husky Diner Experience Yesterday. Food Good. Lots Of Gang Crap. Notice Your Fax Number Has A 81 In It The Gang Talk Was H.A.
GregCarr gregcarr900@gmail.com15:35 (58 phút trước) đến huskycardservices, surreytalkradio, rcmp_business_link, bcrcmp, linda.annis, Chilliwack-Hope, MP, marc.landry, EMrewards, nacc, info, info, [Info@surreypolice.ca](mailto:Info@surreypolice.ca), tips, tony.luck, Tina

I wish I could say that there were spoilers, but honestly, not much happened . . .
Intro: Bill is skulking about doing investigating the site in Capital City where Lucas was shot outside his election headquarters (which, strangely, five months later still has the "Lucas Bouchard for Governor" sign over the door.) After going through the motions of how the attack was described, Bill glares at his stopwatch and declares "Someone is lying!"
Back at the saloon, Lee and Lucas are finalizing the sale of the Queen of Hearts, with Mike looking on in a mixture of excitement and trepidation. After the sale is complete, Lucas asks if he can still use his office at the saloon "a few days a week," which Lee readily agrees to. Lee then asks, oh-so-casually, if Lucas has seen to Elizabeth since he's been back. Lucas admits that he only saw her at the party, and Lee offers a listening ear if Lucas wants to talk. Lucas says he's "fine", and that he thinks that he feels that "we both just want to be friends." Lee says "Okaaaay . . ." as Lucas beats a hasty retreat.
Nathan approaches Elizabeth while the kids are at recess, with Allie's forgotten lunch, and thanks her again for the surprise party. "It was a night of surprises . . . " he says meaningfully, and Elizabeth agrees. Nathan hastens to add that he is glad to see Lucas, because he tends to shakes things up. Elizabeth demurs, and says that it was just getting back to normal. "Good normal?" inquires Nathan. "Good normal!" Elizabeth assures him. Allie comes up and asks what he's doing there, and he says he is bringing her lunch. She protests that he had already made her lunch, and it's in her school bag. BUSTED! Nathan hands her the bag and tells her "Well, now you have two," as Elizabeth smiles.
The Canfields are sitting down to dinner, but family harmony is disrupted when brother and sister start bickering and both storm off from the table. Joseph and Minnie are bemused.
Upon returning to his office, Nathan finds Bill sitting at his desk pouring over some papers. Bill explains that there wasn't enough time for the assailant to stash the gun in the alley, then run back to the car and drive away -- there was two people involved, and Bill thinks Montegue hired them. Nathan protests that he had an alibi, but Bill is hopeful Montegue will make a misstep.
Elizabeth counsels a student, Toby, about poor math scores. Rosemary spies Bill and confronts him about his recent trip to Capital City, confirming that Bill suspects Montegue. Rosemary says that she is talking to Montegue tomorrow to ask him his opinion about the new hotel, and Bill gets agitated that Montegue will suspect he is a "person of interest." Bill warns Rosemary that she is "interfering in an investigation," which she counters with, "Oh, you mean the CLOSED investigation?" Bill relents and asks to listen in on the call, and Rosemary agrees.
Mei and Mike stumble through an awkward afternoon tea -- Mike tries to lean in for a kiss, and Mei "accidently" drops some silverware. Mike then announces that their 5 month anniversary is in two days. Mei is surprised that Mike has been keeping track. They mull over possible dinner places to celebrate, and Mike promises to come up with a perfect plan.
Back the saloon, there's a line of people waiting to see the Governor Lucas. One townsperson, Jed Campbell, is irate at "all this change" with the new hotel, and complains that Lucas doesn't have time for the people who voted for him. Lee suggests a solution for the man's groundhog problem, but he goes to see Rosemary, hoping the Valley Voice will publish something to get Lucas' attention.
Rosemary and Elizabeth have tea together. Rosrmary observes that having Lucas in town has stirred things up, with his "ambition, his panache, his sense of fun . . . " Elizabeth agrees, but frowns, and wonders why Lucas didn't tell her she he was coming to town (AS IF, ELIZABETH! He doesn't owe you ANY explanations!) Rosemary comments that Lucas likes surprises, Carefully, Rosemary asks "Are you . . . happy . . . he's back?" Glibly, Elizabeth answers "Of course, but . . . " and Rosemary wonders if it makes . . . certain things . . . awkward. Elizabeth protests that it shouldn't, but hopes they can go back to being friends. Rosemary almost rolls her eyes, and points that they were never "just friends" because Lucas only had eyes for her from the start. Elizabeth flounces and says that, if she's being honest, she just wants to be friends and know that Lucas is "alright." Rosemary laughs, observing that Lucas is "having the time of his life!" and hopes that perhaps he and Elizabeth will be able to be friends.
Rosemary is writing up Jed Campbell's statement, and observing that there are other people in town who are concerned about the hotel being built. Lee protests that they should support it, especially since he sold the land for it for a bit of a loss, but Rosemary is adamant that the newspaper has to reflect everyone's voice.
Nathan and Bill ask Lucas to consider more security, but Lucas' assistant, Edwin, scoffs at the need for it in Hope Valley. They discuss Bill's suspicions about the confession, and Lucas admits that he, too, found it very convenient, but doesn't remember since he hit his head hard when he fell after being shot. Lucas refuses additional security, and Lucas' assistant shoos them out,
Lily is bouncing around, and Molly admits that it's a strain watching over her at the infirmary. Minnie, Florence and Molly decide that the town needs a day care center, and Rosemary and Elizabeth, joining them, agrees. The women will take turns watching little ones while their parents work, and Henry donates his former office as a day care center. Faith is excited.
Elizabeth approaches Lucas on the street while he is taking a walk for physical therapy. "500 steps to go," he says, and she offers to walk with him a bit. A few steps later, they are discussing Bill's theory of another assailant, but Lucas' dismisses the concerns. Elizabeth tells him that she is glad his injuries are healing, and he adds wryly, "Yes, everything is on the mend," he assures he, as he walks doggedly away, leaving Elizabeth gazing after him.
Elizabeth enters Nathan's office without knocking, and greets Scout the dog. Nathan comes into the office from the back room, shirtless, much to their mutual shock (like she's never seen a man's chest before? Good lord . . .) Nathan scrambles to don his shirt as Elizabeth's eyes almost pop out of her head apologizing, but seemingly unable to tear her eyes off his now-covered chest. She hastily leaves, but as she closes the door, her look of shock gives way to a smile.
Rosemary is on the phone with Montegue, asking pointed questions about how he felt about Lucas' shooting. "My answer would not be fit to print," he declares, but refuses to elaborate. After a few more questions, he hangs up angrily, leaving Bill and Rosemary staring at each other.
Elizabeth goes another round with Toby, who is getting discouraged with his poor math scores. She offers to allow him to skip math tests until they can figure out the best way for him to learn math.
Nathan is in Elizabeth's backyard trying to train Scout as Elizabeth opens the back door and sees them. Nathan apologizes for barging in on her, and Elizabeth tells him that "now we're even." Elizabeth asks him if Lucas is still in danger, since Lucas told her that he turned down additional security. Nathan says he can't talk about it, "but he's the Governor, so . . . " Elizabeth nods, and then adds, "I just worry about him." Nathan stares at her, speechless (you can just hear him thinking 'WHY is she worrying about him?"), then Allie calls him for dinner.
Lucas is reading the Valley Voice, frowning at what he feels is "bad press." But Edwin bursts into his office all excited because they have a "substantial" bidder for the new resort. Edwin cautions Lucas to keep an open mind, because the bidder is . . . Bernard Montegue. Lucas shakes his head in disbelief, and responds succinctly: "No." Edwin begs him to reconsider, telling Lucas that Montegue was "inspired" by a phone call from Rosemary. Lucas reminded him that just six months ago, Montegue was trying to steal their water. "He'd be very hands off," Edwin counters, weakly, but Lucas is adamant.
Mei visits Mike at the saloon, and invites him for an afternoon outing. Mike is delighted and accepts.
At the school, the kids are quietly working on a diorama of the town when Lucas enters the classroom. He has a question for Elizabeth: Would she allow the kids at school to come to a "shameless photo op" at the site of the new resort that afternoon? The kids beg to go, and Elizabeth relents.
Mei is leading Mike through the woods, and they stop at a pretty bend in the river, where she has brought a picnic and laid out a picnic blanket. She tells Mike that the last five months 'have been the best five months of my life," and Mike agrees that it's the same for him. They lean in for a kiss and suddenly all the schoolchildren arrive, with Elizabeth and Lucas, who brightly exclaims that they had found the perfect spot! "It was . . . " agrees Mike, and he and Mei are bemused by Rosemary and Lee arriving in one car, along with Edwin, Henry and Randall the Reporter from Benson Hills in another. (So much for an idyllic, romantic lunch.) Mike and Mei beat a hasty retreat as Edwin berates Rosemary for the negative press. Randall and Rosemary snap photos of Lucas and Elizabeth standing awkwardly together as the kids play in the background, and Randall mentions that the site actually belongs to Benson Hills. Lucas is confused, and Lee reminds him that he did mention that when he sold it. Edwin feels sure they can work a deal with the mayor of Benson Hills (good lord, have these people never heard of deeds?)
Nathan and Bill discuss Rosemary's conversation with Montegue. Bill suddenly notices that Nathan is grooming Sergeant, Elizabeth's horse, and asks why. Nathan explains he had just finished grooming his own horse, and kinda stumbles over "why."
Lily and Faith are eating dinner at the cafe, and Lily is sad because Little Jack has Aunty Rosemary and Goldie has Aunty Elizabeth, but she doesn't have an "aunty". Faith volunteers to be her aunty. The Canfield children stop their bickering after Joseph tells them how sad he is about being estranged from his own brother, and they needed to be friends. Cooper and Angela make up.
Rosemary finds a picture of Montegue at a Union City party the night of the attempted assassination, which means that he probably didn't go to Capital City to shoot Lucas. Both Bill and Rosemary agree it doesn't mean he didn't hire someone . . .
Nathan and Elizabeth drop in on a "town meeting" that Lucas has called. While walking towards the saloon, Elizabeth mentions it will be nice to have Hope Valley go back to 'normal' when Lucas leaves. As they enter the saloon, however, Lucas is announcing that he will be remaining in Hope Valley for the foreseeable future until the resort is launched. Elizabeth and Nathan both mimic the same expressions they had at the end of the last episode . . . confusion/chagrin (I really hope this isn't going to be a regular ending to every episode . . . )
LOVED the previews for next week -- a femme fatale from Lucas' past arrives in Hope Valley spouting French!

It aired only once, about 12 years ago. I worked on it when I was 16. I never told anyone the truth about what happened then. For most of my life, I didn’t believe my own memory of it. But recent events have forced the reality of it back onto me. I think other people should know.
In 2012, my mom passed away suddenly. It was rough for a lot of reasons, not the least of which was having my dad as a sole guardian. He had never been the most involved parent; he was an Executive Producer at a pretty big video-production house here in the city, so he spent a lot of my life away on shoots or working late at the office. To be clear, I loved him and we always had a good relationship. I just couldn’t quite imagine how he would handle raising a daughter alone. I don’t think he could either. Looking back, I think he was having a brief psychotic episode because he really was out of touch with reality. He would cry for hours. He’d have violent outbursts. He kept asking me:
“Where is she?”
After a week or so, my dad got me my first job, as an intern at his company. He clearly wanted to be more involved in my life. He was always trying to push me to be the best at something. His was a “dog-eat-dog” mindset – he thought that somebody else’s gain was his loss and that there was no point in playing the game if you’re not going to win.
He put me to work under one of the editors, Nathan. At the time, I thought Nathan was this really important guy who knew everything. But I think he was actually like 26 and probably felt just as out-of-place as I did. His main personality trait was that he loved to complain. Any time a producer asked him for a change, the conversation would inevitably devolve into a sort-of secret argument, where neither party seemed to know what they were arguing about. Then, after the producer won their passive-aggressive battle and left, Nathan would turn to me and say “I wanna kill myself.” I’d force a laugh, even though it was the 28th time he’d said it that day.
The company mainly got commercial jobs, so I did a lot of work on stuff for toxic candies and prescription drugs. After a few months of that, we got a more unique opportunity. It was an ad for a non-profit organization called “GABRIEL”. They claimed to help “struggling people”, but they weren’t totally upfront about the fact that their help was the religious kind. It was hard to tiptoe around it though, considering that their program primarily involved sending messages to God. GABRIEL claimed that every person was allowed one message to God per lifetime, but only they knew how to send it. Of course, they never told anyone how they did it since the method was “proprietary”.
The ad they wanted wasn’t anything special: a few testimonials, footage of their property, and a little bit of animation. I’d been teaching myself animation around that time, so my dad thought it would be a great opportunity for me to take more responsibility. Actually, the animation I made for the commercial is all I have left to show for it. I can’t find the rest of the ad anywhere, so I’ll link the clip here for anyone interested:
https://imgur.com/gallery/3dEXBQA
For the live-action footage, my dad took a crew upstate to film on the GABRIEL property. Even Nathan went along to help them get a live edit. I wanted to go too, but my dad said that I couldn’t miss that much school. So I stayed at the office and combed through the footage that they would send back each day.
The footage from the first day was pretty standard – just a bunch of location shots. GABRIEL owned a ton of property: a big office building, miles of forest, and a dozen campgrounds. They had people living on these campgrounds for a few months at a time. These were the so-called “struggling people”. They were all partnered up in groups of two, and the partners seemed to do everything together. Eating, sleeping, bathing, hunting. That part kind of made sense to me, as someone who was going through a loss. It’s nice to rely on someone and be relied upon.
The second day, they sent videos of GABRIEL’s “success stories” — interviews of people who claimed they were helped by the process. One video stood out though, because the woman’s story was extremely recent. She’d just sent her message to God that morning. She was an old woman, who looked weirder than the others. Crazier, really. Her eyes seemed glued open and her lips had little streams of blood running through their dry, pruney cracks. She spoke as though she were paying full attention, but she looked like her mind was somewhere else the whole time.
In the video, my dad and the director asked the woman questions from behind the camera. They asked her about what she asked God, but the woman said she didn’t ask anything; just sent a message. Her message was:
“I’m in hell”
I could hear my dad’s quiet laugh in the video, and I couldn’t help but laugh too. This lady was only allowed one message to God. Kind of badass.
On the third day, I walked into the editing suite to find Nathan. Evidently, he’d been sent back early. I assumed it was because his complaining had finally driven everyone to the brink of a manic state. But when I asked him how he enjoyed the trip, he stared through me and spoke with a level of sincerity that I’d never heard from him before. He said, “I wanna kill myself.” The words triggered my habit of fake laughter, but I could tell that wasn’t what he wanted this time. I offered him a hug, which he accepted, and I ended up holding him for several minutes while he cried. I had so many follow-up questions, but this clearly wasn’t a man who was ready to answer them.
When Nathan inevitably left work early, I scrolled through the footage from that day. It was mostly a lot of corny shit: employees happily working, groundskeepers tending to nature, and other deceitful fluff. But I quickly realized that Nathan had brought a hard drive to work with him and left it on the desk. It was full of secondary footage that the crew had been shooting. Moments where they pretended the camera was off or filmed secretly from the woods or on their phones – things they weren’t supposed to record. After sifting through it for a bit, I found a video of a familiar person: the old woman from yesterday’s interview.
The video was filmed at night and from very far away, so it was pretty hard to understand through the dark and the graininess. But I recognized her right away from her posture and mannerisms. She was coming out of the woods with a GABRIEL employee, who led her to a small field and gestured for her to sit in a chair. Then, the employee left. The old woman waited there for a while; a few minutes at least. Eventually, a figure emerged from the trees before her. I could barely make out any of its features, besides its humanoid silhouette. As it stood in front of the old woman, looking down at her, a soft glow started to appear around its stomach. Slowly, as if this were a completely natural act, it started to rise into the air. The old woman tried to reach out and touch the thing but recoiled when it flung its head back and shouted in a booming voice. Most of the audio was barely legible, but this thing’s words were clear as day. It said:
“YOU ALL ARE”
The glow began to get brighter, popping and fizzling until it seemed to consume the thing’s whole body. Black flakes blew away in the wind as the figure disappeared altogether. I called my dad immediately.
When he picked up, he was speaking in a hushed tone. It was clear that he was doing more of his “extracurricular” filming. He said that he and the crew were exploring just outside the GABRIEL property and found something strange: a cage. The big kind that you’d see holding a lion at the zoo, he said. By this point, this was too fucking weird for me. I begged him to leave it alone and come home; they had more than enough footage for the commercial already. But he was obsessed. He insisted that he had to know their secret — how they were sending their messages. He said he wouldn’t be back until he had his answer.
Over the next few days, members of the crew returned to the city. But not my dad. They finished the commercial without him. Like I said, it only aired once. The FCC pulled it from broadcast because it had become evidence in an FBI investigation. By the next day, they’d gotten a warrant to search the GABRIEL property.
From what I read, the property had been completely abandoned when the FBI arrived. No employees, no groundskeepers, no partners living on the campsites. It was like everyone had vanished. Once they arrived at the cage, they found the only person remaining: My dad. Dead.
It was late in the evening when they called me up to identify the body. It was hard for me to handle. His forehead was caved-in. His body was mutilated. Someone had scarred a message into his stomach with a knife. It said:
“What comes after?”
I told the FBI everything I knew — told them about all the footage, which they later confiscated. They told me that they’d received tips about GABRIEL, but they’d never found any bodies to link them to criminal activities until now.
But as they were interviewing me, I could hear a commotion coming from the other room. Then a loud shriek. They told me to stay put while they ran to check on it, but I followed close behind.
The noise was coming from the autopsy room. My dad’s body had suddenly stood straight up. His eyes were glazed over and his skin looked like it was being slowly charred. The bloody message on his stomach began to glow like hot fire. He opened his mouth and threw back his head. In a booming voice — one that wasn’t his own — he yelled:
“THE END”
His feet slipped out from under him as his body lifted up into the air. He was burnt to a crisp at this point, and his flesh broke into ash as he floated higher and higher. The agents tried to pull him back down, but his body only crumbled between their fingers. Before I knew it, my dad’s very existence was erased from the earth. I suppose he’d found his answer, one way or another.
For years, I couldn’t even let myself daydream without my mind slipping towards those memories. Eventually, it stopped feeling real. I’d rerun it in my head so many times that it started to feel like a story, like something I’d made up to avoid some sadder reality. I thought that was where the story ended. But the reason I’m finally writing this is because something else happened, just last night.
I was out with some friends, partying our way across the city. After a few drinks at this one bar, I realized that a guy in a booth had been staring at me for a while. He was a little older than me, probably by about 6 or 7 years. And he was good-looking. He was by himself, which probably should have creeped me out, but my drunk brain took it as an aura of mystery.
I ended up finding an excuse to go talk to him. We flirted for a bit until, eventually, I sat down next to him. We talked for hours, even after my friends moved on to the next location. The guy invited me over to his place. I accepted.
When we got there, I was pretty drunk and excited. I wanted to ramp things up and it seemed like he did too. But when I started to take his shirt off, his face felt wet against my shoulder. I stepped back and he broke down sobbing, sitting down on his bed. I kind of wanted to just leave then, but I have a people-pleasing problem. This guy was a wreck. So I stayed and tried to let him talk it out.
He kept saying how he thought he was ready for this; ready to let someone see his body. He rambled on forever, and his words started to sound eerily familiar to me. They brought back memories that I’d long since tried to repress. He talked about a cage and a fight. About cutting a message into his “partner” and having their message cut into him. And about having to do something terrible to send it. “It had to be one of us,” he kept saying. “Me or him.”
Eventually, he passed out in my arms. But I was wide awake now. I reached my hand underneath his shirt and felt the raised skin of a scar. Then, more of them. The sense-memory of my dad’s mutilated body clouded my judgment. I had to see. I lifted his shirt. Just as he said, someone had cut a message into his stomach, long ago. It read:
“Where is she?”

Location: Mojave Desert, Nevada
Ron observed the near empty plains and hills of the desert while he held onto one of the Chameleon's ceiling handles, the ship he and his friends were on flying past the nearby city of Las Vegas as it traveled to the JCJenson factory far ahead. The flight had been smooth and quiet for most of the way, save for the regular question Ron asked about the Coalition and its ties.
Apparently, these people had been much busier bees than usual over the past few years. Aside from their progressive efforts put forth to ensuring equal treatment of advanced AI such as JCJensons various drone types, they dedicated themselves to finding and halting potential threats to Earth and it's people, not to mention the worlds tied to the United (Space) Nations. Due to their promise and... mostly successful endeavors, they earned the respect and unofficial assistance of certain members of the USN military, with a few even providing select assets and services for their goals or even joining in on the mission if the need arose.
And now, with the growing suspicions and evidence gathered against this Administrator, and the AbsoluteSolver program, things were building up to a boiling point for the JCJenson corporation. The whole recall situation they were pulling off wasn't helping matters for them, perhaps even being the breaking point for official action to be taken against the company by government authorities.
It was quite a lot for Ron to take in, given what he'd been through in the past few hours. But he wasn't going to just go in uninformed on something that was now greatly involving him and his brother Wade. J and Ron's work friends did well in explaining the matter to him, however, clearing up some confusion in the man's mind.
"...So these 'big guns' your friend on the radio brought up, they're supposed to be from the military?" Ron asked as he observed the skies around the ship in the chatter between the five.
"That's right. Captain Preston Mitchell of the USNV Vickers will be leading a small strike force to assist us with the matter." J answered as Ron gave a surprised look as he remembered that ship from when he and Wade came back home, he had merely assumed it was just heading to a dockyard or performing some sort of surface patrol over Henderson.
Ron's surprise caught Nathan's eye as he spoke to him. "Something sound familiar about that, Ron?"
The man nodded as he replied to the veteran drone. "Yeah, when Wade and I came back down here, we both saw that ship flying over Henderson. Quite the ship, from the looks of it."
Nathan smirked at that as he described the ship in question. "Yep, Autumn class Heavy Destroyer. I remember serving on one of those with Kurtis back in the service. Sure, not the strongest, but she could tear up a bunch of gunboats like a hot knife through butter! And that's before she launches her fighter compliment!"
F couldn't help but chuckle as she spoke of the Autumn destroyers. "Can't deny that. Served on one of those myself before I joined the DD bunch." J seemed to look at her fellow disassembly drone in slight surprise as she continued. "The Medrano'd probably give the Vickers some competition, though. She's held off two mauler frigates all on their own."
J's initial surprise was waved off with a smirk as she spoke to F. "Well, seems you're gonna be returning to service with this job, albeit unofficially."
"Hey, if it means stopping these abductions and assaults, then that's all the better." F replied as the two looked to Kurtis, who gave a chortle of his own as he spoke up.
"Yeah, maybe they'll think twice about breaking into someone's home once we-" He was cut off by J's now raised finger as she heard a beep, readying a radio from her arm as she lifted it to her face.
"Yes?" J stated simply as the voice on the other end replied.
"This is Transport Bravo, we've got reports from two of our teams that disassembly drones have been sent out to attack our raid teams! Seems like they really don't want us in that place!"
J gritted her teeth in annoyance as she asked the officer, "How many of them are there, pilot?"
"Only one per team, it seems. Thank God!" The corporate drone relaxed slightly at that, but kept her hearing at attention as the pilot continued. "They're doing a number on us, though! They haven't even tried to snag some oil from our drone people out there! They've gotten some upgrades on those guys for sure!"
Ron felt a little uneasy at the chatter he was hearing in on, only growing more concerned as J asked, "They must be from some of the drones they captured, that means we may have lost some. Do your teams have the capture gear on them?"
"Yes Ma'am, we've already got one of them on the way in now! Should get another report on the situation in a bit." The pilot replied as J seemed to smile confidently at the answer.
"Splendid, do your best and get as many drones as you can back. Our friends should arrive shortly. J out." Shutting off the radio, J looked to her comrades, slightly raising an eyebrow at Ron's uncomfortable expression. "Something put you off, Mr. Carter?"
Ron shook himself off as he replied. "Oh, um, sort of. About those disassembly drones... you said they're made from the drones they've kidnapped? Like Wade?"
J nodded in shared dismay. "Unfortunately, yes. And they've most likely gotten through an assembly of them by now. Worst case scenario, Mr. Carter, your friend Wade may be one of those drones at this point."
Ron's concern turned into near-hopeless disappointment, Nathan looking to him worriedly as the former spoke. "So, if that's the case, Wade might be gone for good."
Against Ron's falling faith, J revived her smirk from earlier. "Let me show you something, Mr. Carter. Over here." She said as she waved a hand over to the back of the transport, insisting Ron to follow. The man did so, his three friends following behind as they walked to the back wall of the Chameleon. Pressing a button on the wall panel, J opened one of the two storage bays at the back, several crates and containers present inside.
Moving to one of the rectangular ones on the floor, J knelt down before unlocking the box's lid. Pulling it open, J revealed its contents to the quartet behind her: two guns, one being a strange rifle with a massive box-shaped barrel, and the other being a basic blaster rifle with four fins extending out from the barrel's end. Next to the weird box-shaped gun were several U-shaped magnets with some metal attachments at the tips.
Standing back up to face Ron's team, J explained their cache. "In the event we attempt to capture a disassembly drone, it's critical we bring a set of these." Picking up the gun, J continued. "This is a magnet launcher, a fancy little tool that can disrupt drones with ease. And this..." J picked up the other gun before continuing. "...is an EMP blaster. Alone, EMPs are useless against disassembly drones, thanks to...certain enhancements to our frames."
"Magnets are still effective, though." Nathan stated as J nodded in agreement.
"Indeed they are, even one of them can hinder a disassembly drone well enough. The more you land on one, the worse said hindrance gets." J added as Ron's face seemed to lighten up a bit at the tools he was seeing.
"So, if we run into him, we can use this to get him back?" Ron asked as J nodded to him.
"Right, how it'll work is that we get a magnet on our target, fry their systems with an EMP shock, then finally, take them back to the ship so our technician over there, Kelly, can work on removing safeguards like memory blocks and admin preferences." J pointed over to a person down near the other wall of the troop bay, a tan lady with short, dark-red hair ending near the neck. Her outfit was of a dark-brown shirt with a black vest carrying various tools and items in its pockets. She also wore a set of black leather pants, as well as a grey backpack with faint red stripes going along the zipper slits.
Observing Kelly working at a small console at the wall near the ship's left hatch, Ron replied to J's strategy. "Glad to see we've got a plan for drones like that."
"Always good to have a plan B, Mr. Carter." The murder drone said smugly, but faltered slightly as she stressed to him, "Though, just because we have this equipment on hand doesn't mean it'll be a breeze. Killing a disassembly drone is much easier than trying to capture one, so if the worst happens... You'll need to be ready to put him down. You got that?"
Ron took a deep breath as he pulled out his shotgun, holding it carefully to his chest as he replied. "Yes Ma'am."
All J could give was a nod before they heard someone from near the cockpit door call to the bunch in the bay. "Get ready, everyone! We're nearing the factory any minute, and there's still some aircraft holding up outside! It's gonna be hot!"
The five nodded among several other troops within the troop bay as J turned back to Ron and his cohorts. "Well, you heard the man. Get yourselves ready for a fight, F, you mind standing guard at the starboard door while we make our landing?"
"Won't be a problem, Ma'am." F said as she walked over to the right side of the room, holding onto a handle near the large bay door that was now opening. Ron put his shotgun away at his back as he and the others joined up at the middle of the troop bay, holding onto the ceiling handles as J took position at the left door. With J and F keeping watch for attacking planes flying around the skirmish-ridden factory, Ron watched as he saw one aircraft, an A-20 Lightningrod, flying past them as it engaged a nearing enemy ship. The A-20 was very similar in design to the old A-10 Thunderbolts, but its wings were arched upwards, with the tips of the wings going sharply downwards. The tail fins were also in an X shape, a set of three engines circling around the tail at the top, left and right sides.
As Ron saw the Lightningrod pursue its target, he saw another Chameleon transport descending down to the factory, which could now barely be seen at the edge of the ships interior wall as it came closer into view. Peeking his head out towards the entrance hatch, he saw what the building looked like: Several small structures surrounding the larger factory underneath the landing pads at its exterior, only two of which were visible to Ron.
The transport jerked to the right slightly as a hostile craft, one of JCJenson's own defense fighters, charged towards them as it unleashed a flurry of bullets. Extending out one of her wings, J shielded the cabin from most of the bullet fire, none of which struck the people inside as the craft ceased its attack. As the craft flew under the chameleon, Ron watched as another A-20 flew after them, its own bullets striking the hull of the fighter as one of its engines caught fire.
Ron held on tight to the guard handle above him as the ship began to descend, Nathan yelping with fright as a missile could be seen coming towards their ship. It wasn't granted the chance to strike as it was shot out of the sky by another Lightningrod plane, the craft passing over the Chameleon as it continued its descent.
As soon as the craft descended, Ron and the other troops let go of the guard handles as most of them began to disembark the transport. Stepping onto the large floor of the landing pad, Ron pulled out his shotgun from behind him, Nathan, Kurtis and F stepping out with him as he looked his gun over. "So, we ready for this?"
"As ready as I'll ever be!" Nathan said vigorously, the EMP rifle held comfortably in his hands as F readied two sub-machine guns from her hands, looking over the area as another man stepped out of the ship.
"Let's show these pricks what happens when you piss off a bunch of miners." Looking to the source of the voice, Ron and his friends could see Gerard, the bully miner from Ceres standing with an assault rifle in his arms.
Raising an eyebrow, Ron spoke to his fellow worker. "Gerard? I didn't see you back in there when we left!"
The man chuckled coarsely as he replied. "Heh, well I don't exactly mingle well with these guys at the table. I hung out in the other storage bay during the flight back here." Then, looking to Ron, he continued. "And as for this, I owe your drone brother a favor, Ron. Don't make me regret trying to do something nice for once."
Smiling warmly, Ron replied back to Gerard. "Trust me, man. You won't." Readying his shotgun, he finished with, "...Or I ain't a Carter."
Gerard let out a belly laugh as J flew over them, hovering in front of the five before she spoke. "Okay, I've got some boys here to help you out, Ron. I'll be leading the team, you four stick close to me. Got it?"
"Loud and clear, Ma'am." Ron said as Nathan, Kurtis and F saluted the disassembly drone, Gerard merely giving a nod as J looked to F.
"And F, I hate to keep you on a leash, but I need you to watch our ship. Make sure nothing takes it out while we're gone."
F nodded with a chortle as she readied her wings. "She'll be fine, Ma'am. I'll make sure of it."
J smirked at F's boldness before the latter took to the air, preparing to get a full view of the area as Ron and the others walked forward past J. Turning around, Ron, Nathan and Kurtis looked to see several soldiers, humans and drones, stepping out of the Chameleon, armed with various weapons and equipment on their persons. Once they all joined up with J's team, Ron took count of everyone with him. About 18 people in the squad, Ron counted. That should be enough to capture a disassembly drone, right?
Ron bit his lip in anxiety as J landed in front of him and the others, motioning an arm towards the entrance doors at the other end of the bridge as she commanded, "Let's go! Keep watch for hostiles when we get inside!"
"Yes Ma'am!" Most of the troops said as their disassembly drone leader began jogging across the bridge, Ron and the others following suite as they made their way to the entrance.
Upon reaching the door, J turned around to observe the air battle raging above her squad as one of the drone soldiers went up to the control pad for the door. After a few minutes of tinkering with the panel and its wiring, the large doors finally opened, allowing the lot to enter and begin their mission.
"Got the barricades down, Ma'am!" The drone officer said aloud as he re-attached the panel to the controls, screwing it back on as J addressed the team.
"Good to hear, follow me!" With that, J took to the air and flew inside, Ron and the others running in after her so they could help clear out whatever threats they would run into.
...
Faint steps and light clanks of weapons filled the quiet air of the hallway as Ron watched the area carefully, being sure not to misjudge his visage while he and his allies scouted the hallway. Much to their surprise, they had managed to get through at least two rooms with little incident. For a highly restricted factory, this place felt like it was lacking in terms of security and defenses. Of what they did have to fight, only a few turrets placed at the ceilings of the rooms. No guardsmen or 'enslaved' worker drones, as one trooper had put it, were found in the rooms they had just cleared either.
Though to be fair, Ron thought, if a disassembly drone was as dangerous as J implied, then maybe this place was already well secure. Keeping his guard up, Ron held the shotgun firmly as he and the assault team reached the end of the gloomy hallway. Tapping a button on the wall panel, J opened the door to the next area before flying inside.
The large room was illuminated in yellowish-white light, and consisted of several wall-like structures, each one going up twice the height of the doorway and complicating the room with splitting pathways. From the looks of it, Ron deduced that there were at least four paths, most of them leading deeper into the factory should one head down a hall.
The rest of the group waited behind as J spotted two turrets at opposite ends of the room, both of which were turning to aim at her. Readying her own laser cannons, she took the shot before they could strike her. With the turrets reduced to melting metal and wires, J returned her cannons for hands before pulling out a bottle and opening it, taking a sip of the oil stored inside. Looking down, J put her jug away before descending to the floor, the others steadily walking out into the room as J turned to face the other end of the hall.
As the team split into several groups, Ron walked over to a wall barricade at his left, Nathan and Kurtis following behind as the three examined the large device close up. At the edge of the structure was a screen, lit up in bright blue as text read off status checks and readouts of energy levels. These structures must've been some kind of power generators for the factory, albeit strange in design and out right in the middle of a potential hazard zone no less. Ron glanced over the power generator as he prayed they could take whatever damage that would be inflicted upon this room and others during his time here.
Looking down the seemingly circular hallway, Ron saw a human-drone duo of soldiers scouting the area, the drone glancing down the left hallway ahead as the human looked to the ceiling. Following the trooper's action, Ron looked up to see for himself what the ceiling looked like. Aside from two burnt turret bases built into the walls, the ceiling had about four circular lights surrounding a glass hemisphere containing... something. Ron presumed it was some kind of singularity, given its appearance as a black void surrounded by an orange ring of energy. Coming up from the power stations were four translucent cylindrical poles, reaching the ceiling in between the lights as orange bolts of energy surged through them.
Ron's exploration of the room was cut short as J called him and his friends over. "Mr. Carter, over here." Moving back to the spot they came in, Ron's team stood at attention to J, whom glanced over the room before looking back to them. "Alright, I got word that several more dropships are on their way here, so I think, given how far we've gotten, we should have a few troops here keep watch so it'll be easier for us to handle the rescue." Looking to the hallway opposite of the way they came, J continued. "Just gotta hold out for the time being until reinforcements arrive."
"How far do you think we are from the... conversion room place, whatever you call it?" Ron asked the disassembly drone with slight embarrassment.
"Hmph, close enough." J replied in amusement before answering the man. "We should be at least halfway to the conversion bay, just a few more hallways and we should reach the elevators leading to the main catwalks at the sides of the room."
Ron nodded in understanding as he heard a nearby worker drone speak to J, raising a hand. "Well, looks clear in the two halls between this one, I'll scout the middle passage and signal fo-HHUAAAAG--!"
Ron's group split in two as they dodged a large laser blast striking the wall behind them, the drone soldier who was speaking seconds before having been sliced in two as his face visor briefly displayed red text which simply read, "FATAL ERROR". As the drone's cauterized halves fell to the floor, Ron and the others looked to see who or what fired the shot.
Ron let out a silent gasp as he, Nathan, and Kurtis got a good look at the approaching being: it was a disassembly drone, donning a black jacket with a set of grey double pockets at the belly and a single pocket at the left of the chest, as well as a set of black shorts. The most striking detail, at least to Ron, was the set of grey brown hair, styled exactly like Wade's. There were a few differences to his face, however. In place of his pure green eyes were a set of greenish-yellow ones, and at his forehead were a set of five glowing yellow bulbs.
"Shit, he's already been turned." Ron said aloud as Nathan readied his EMP rifle, Kurtis pulling out a magnet from a small pouch at his right hip as he loaded the launcher.
"Split up, all of you! Prepare for capture operations!" J ordered as she immediately motioned her arms to both ends of the ring-shaped pathway, most of the troops heeding J's command as they all broke off in order to hide behind the power generators within the room.
Despite J's insistence for cover, Ron dared to try and speak to the drone that was once his brother. "Wade, wait! Don't you remember us?"
His slim hopes of Wade possibly being spared of the memory block J spoke of were shattered as W replied to him. "Wade? I don't know who you're talking about." Then, readying a missile launcher, he continued. "Now, we can do this one of two ways. Either you can run back to your little ships outside and leave this place alive, or I can paint this whole room in blood and oil. Your call!"
"What the hell are you doing, Ron?! MOVE!!!" J ordered again as she flew at him and his two co-workers, the four ramming against a wall at the right of the room as a missile struck the side of the doorway, smoke and fire enshrouding the four. Determined to ensure his job was successful, W walked slowly towards the doorway, swapping out his missile launcher for a blade, and his other hand for a claw hand.
Recovering from the sudden attack, Ron and his friends hid behind the face of the power generator, J looking to Ron with a hint of frustration as Ron spoke to her. "Okay, I know you said they put memory blocks on you guys, but I felt it was worth a shot!"
"Yeah, well now we know for sure, don't we?" The murder drone replied as she readied a pair of blades from her arms. "Keep yourselves hidden until you've got an opening, Kurtis, go for the head when using those magnets!"
The three nodded in understanding as W appeared from around the corner, J swiftly flying at him before striking W's blades with her own. "Move!" Nathan declared as he, Kurtis and Ron raced around the generator and out into the room's intersection. As the two disassembly drones clashed their blades, W swiped at J while also swapping his claws out for a sub-machine gun, taking aim as he attempted to shoot Ron's team. J, however, denied him the kill as she got in the way, her wings taking the brunt of the hail of bullets without a scratch. Wade took the opportunity to try and cut his opponent down, only to once again strike J's blades as the two were locked into a duel once more.
As Ron and his team hid behind the power box at the left of the room, he could see another group of soldiers, two drones and a human, peeking out so that they could get a shot at W while he was distracted. One of the drones fired their assault rifle up at W, who simply blocked the bullets with his wings. Backing up from J, he quickly readied a grenade launcher before firing at the three troopers, who were too late to dodge as one of the drones was hit right in the back by a grenade, sending the other two flying at the wall in front of them before another grenade finished them off. In the midst of screams and explosions, J sped towards W, the two hitting each other's swords as the fighting continued.
Looking back to his team, Ron looked over his shotgun before handing it to Kurtis. "Kurtis, the rifle!" The veteran nodded as the two exchanged weapons, Nathan crouching as he walked in front of the two.
"Get a magnet on him, and I'll hit 'em with this." Nathan said as he held his EMP rifle at the ready, Ron nodding before taking position right at the edge of the generator. Looking up, he could see W pinning J up against the wall, the two's blades locked against each other as J swiped at W with her tail. W flew back as to dodge the attack, which Ron took as his cue as he took his aim. Firing, a single magnet launched out like a bullet, sticking right at the back of W's head. Such a hit caused W to stumble, collapsing to the floor as his HUD began to glitch out slightly.
Nathan didn't need an order to pull the trigger of the EMP rifle, a bluish-white bolt of energy shooting out. To the surprise of Ron and Nathan, W lurched to his left, narrowly dodging the attack as he shrouded himself under his wings. "Missed! Dammit!" Nathan exclaimed as he took cover behind the power generator, Ron doing the same as they checked the EMP gun. "We'll have to give it a sec to charge up, Ron!"
He's a tough guy alright." Ron replied as he saw the gun's power meter rising back up to 25%, Kurtis handing him another magnet as the trio waited for the gun to recharge.
"Keep him down, don't let him get back up!" One of the troops shouted as several of the soldiers broke cover, weapons aimed at W as he hid under his wings. As the now troops stood around the disassembly drone, a few of them grew worried looks as they heard the sound of grunting coming from W, who was trying to pry off the magnet at his head. Pulling hard, W finally ripped the annoyance off, taking a second to steady himself before making his next move. The troops were startled as W unraveled his wings, throwing the magnet at one of the drone troops close to him. As the drone was flung to the ground, the rest of them opened fire, keeping their distance as W shielded himself with his wings.
Peeking out, Ron watched as he saw W slice his wing at three of the soldiers, decapitating them as they fell to the ground in pools of blood and oil. Swapping one blade for a laser cannon, he deflected more shots from the soldiers with his wing before unshrouding himself again. Firing his laser weapon, he struck most of the now fleeing human and drone soldiers, reducing six more troops to smoking, half-split corpses. The generators also spat out sparks and smoke as they were damaged by W's attack, the drone being unfazed at the damage he was causing.
"Eat this!" Gerard said as W heard a clank, the drone looking around before seeing a grenade near his feet. Lunging up, W took flight as the bomb exploded, smoke clouding the drone's vision as Ron breathed deeply, looking to Nathan as they both nodded to each other. Standing up, Ron took aim at his brother before firing another magnet. The attack proved futile as W saw the magnet coming through the dissipating smoke, grabbing it between his now swapped claw hand. Ron looked on in shock as W laughed maniacally, swapping his other hand for a missile launcher before taking aim.
"Look out!" Ron cried out as he attempted to run down the hall, Nathan and Kurtis running the other way as W's missile fired, striking the wall right behind Ron. The blast sent Ron flying across the hall, landing in front of another pathway as he collapsed wearily from the shock.
"Ron!" Nathan called out in grave concern, W taking notice of the sound as he saw J taking flight to continue distracting him. Standing up, Nathan looked to Kurtis. "I'll keep him distracted, cover me!" With that, he ran out into the intersection, Kurtis looking down the hall with grave unease.
"Nate!" He called back to his friend, but was too late as Nathan took aim in the middle of the room, backing into another hallway as he fired at the magnet still in W's hand. Like before, the shot missed as W and J broke off from each other, the former readying a crossbow-like weapon before swooping down and shooting at Nathan. The arrow sent the veteran drone up against the wall, Nathan yelping in pain as the EMP rifle was knocked out of his hands. As W flew over and snatched the rifle from the floor in front of Nathan, Kurtis shot at W with the shotgun, a few of the bullets hitting W's back as the man yelled out, "We could use some help here!"
J answered the call as she swooped down at W, who readied another blade as he and the corporate drone engaged in a fierce fight once more. Kurtis ran over to Ron down at the other hall, the man dazed as his former co-worker helped him up. Hiding behind the wall, the two watched above as J and W exchanged and blocked swipes from their blades.
The air tensed as W and J clashed their blades in yet another deadlock, W readying his tail before J took notice, pushing him off, J held her blades in a defensive posture as W flung the magnet he held at her in a blur. The metal tool struck J on her arm, partially stunned by the attempt as W swiftly after aimed the EMP rifle he stole, firing the mostly charged weapon at his opponent. J grunted from the shock as the blast paralyzed her, sending her falling to the floor, unharmed but dazed.
With the main threat out of the way for now, W landed in the now hazy room, looking for the worker drone that tried to fry his systems earlier. Spotting Nathan, he began walking over to him, readying another blade at his hand as his target tried to pry the arrow in his oil-covered chest off.
"Um, maybe now's the time for a EMP guys?!" Nathan said aloud, his former friend walking ever so closer as he braced for death. As W lifted the sword up, another clank sounded from behind him, the disassembly drone startled from the magnet now at the back of his head. W wasn't given a chance to remove it this time as an EMP blast struck W, the drone grunting in agony from the shock before collapsing to the floor, visor black and mouth shut silent.
Nathan sighed in relief as he saw J and Ron at the other end of the room, the former holding out her own EMP blaster as she and Ron glanced to each other. "Nice shot." The man said with a smirk.
"Hmph, nice throw." J replied with the same gesture, returning her EMP cannon back for a hand as she and Ron walked over to the now incapacitated Wade.
Ron was in disbelief. "I can't believe it, we actually got 'em!" He said as J walked over to Wade's body, the paralyzed drone soldier next to him struggling to pull the magnet off his head as the disassembly drone readied another tool.
"Almost." She said simply before touching Wade's back with her weapon, a puncturing sound piercing the room as J attached a small chip with a yellow screen to Wade.
Watching J remove the weapon from Wade's back, Ron looked on in concern. "What did you put on him?"
Showing the weapon to Ron, J explained as she pulled out her jug of fresh oil. "I gave him a light-grade virus, should keep him down while we take him back to the ship. Don't worry Ron, he'll be fine." Ron eased himself at J's words as the latter drank up the oil from the bottle. Then, hearing steps from the entrance, the two looked to the other end of the hall to see more soldiers coming in. "Ah, here comes our backup."
Noticing the surviving soldier drone on the floor, Ron knelt down before pulling the magnet off the former's head. "Thanks." Was all the drone uttered as he rubbed his head.
Looking to Nathan, J flew over to the injured drone, who seemed to be close to removing the arrow from his wound as he spoke to his boss. "Agh, well, didn't go any worse than it could've, right?"
"Indeed." The disassembly drone replied as she pulled out the arrow from Nathan's chest, oil spurting out as Kurtis ran over to him. "Just be more careful next time, okay?"
"Yes Ma'am." Nathan replied with a proud smile as Kurtis helped him up, the two walking back to the entrance together so they could mend their wounds.
Turning to look at Ron, she spoke to him. "Ron, would you mind helping me get Wade back to the Chameleon? You'll need to help Mrs. Kelly with fixing up your brother here."
"Gladly." Ron said with a warm smile, him and J walking over to Wade's body before the latter picked him up.
"Ron, you'll need this." Kurtis called out as he tossed the shotgun back to Ron, who grabbed it before giving a nod to him.
With his friend back in safe hands, Ron looked to J. "Shall we?" She said as Ron smiled at her, the two making their way to the entrance so they could return outside to the dropship.
...
"We've got reports coming in Sir, drones E and D have reported that they've cleared their designated pads, but more transports are coming in by the minute. On top of that, our fighter squadrons are virtually exhausted." Darren said as he held his headset in his hands, having listened in on the communications from their drones during the raid.
Edgar, however, was almost entranced in watching the last of the captured worker drones being rolled into the conversion unit. Just a few more, and then they could prepare another batch for their transformation. Still, he couldn't ignore the recruit's results that his operative was informing him of. Turning his head, he spoke to Hawk. "Hmm... unfortunate. And what of the other three drones?"
The field coordinator looked uncertain as he answered the head researcher. "Nothing yet, they may be still clearing out the areas the raiders have reached." Edgar seemed to be unfazed by this news, but Darren's uncomfortable demeanor didn't change. "May I recommend we send out another drone or two to help them out?"
Edgar shook his head lightly, but raised a finger to share his own point. "I think we can afford a little bit longer, give it about... no more than an hour. If we don't get a signal, then we shall send out more units."
Though not fully satisfied with that answer, Hawk nodded in partial agreement as the Administrator spoke through the intercom. "I can send out some of our other disassembly drones to assist with the enemy fighters."
"Good idea, do it." Edgar responded as Darren glanced to the room they were in, listening to the Administrator's robotic words.
"Giggle, It won't take long." Cyn said simply as she did her unseen work, Darren turning back to his console as he continued to examine the battle raging on outside the facility.
"Oh, and Mr. Hawk? How are our transports carrying the next batch? Have they arrived yet?" Edgar asked his companion as he looked at the console further.
Once he saw the ships in question down at the three landing pads at the back of the factory, he looked up again. "Yes Sir, they're already unloading the drones now. It doesn't seem that the terrorists are attacking them either."
Edgar tried to hold back a laugh as he replied to Darren's mention of the Coalition and their efforts. "Of course they wouldn't dare to strike the transports, those nincompoops want the property they have onboard."
The head researcher allowed his imprisoned amusement out as he began laughing aloud, G and two other guards quietly joining in as they gave chuckles of their own. As the laughter died down, G spoke up. "Yeah, well it won't matter. They'll see the drones they want back so badly soon enough, and when they do, they'll be having their guts torn out by them too. Ain't I right, Dr. Halloway?"
"Indeed you are, G. Indeed you are." Halloway replied with a grin as he continued observing the last two drones on the conveyor belt in silence, the machine opening to release another organic pod before pulling in another drone for conversion into another member of the Administrator's Disassembly Division.

Events are listed by the day. Events that happen every week appear first, one time stuff after that. If you have anything you’d like people to know about, comment here or message me and I’ll add it in. If you’d like further info about any of the events, look it up! I usually don’t have any extra to add.
Large Scale, Ongoing, and Multi-Day Events

• Pride in the Park at Kleman Plaza. Celebrate the pride and joy of our wonderfully diverse Tallahassee LGBTQ+ community at Tallahassee Pride's annual Pride in the Plaza. Presented in partnership with Visit Tallahassee and the City of Tallahassee, this inclusive, family-friendly festival features musical performances, delicious eats and food trucks, and local and regional vendors all in the name of celebrating with PRIDE. Protip: getting a parking spot under Kleman for Pride is easy, getting out is a total pain in the ass and can take up to an hour. Uber to and fro. Noon-5:30pm
  
• LeMoyne Chain of Parks Art Festival, Saturday and Sunday. Featuring art, vendors, food, and live music from Thursday Night Music Club, The Electric People, Mo & Mary Mac, R & R Sisters with Ed Prasse, Saylor Dollar, Flamenco Del Sur, Tuesday Supper Club, Hot Tamale, Strings of Light, Lee C. Payton, Two Guys With Guitars, Ayoko African Drum & Dance, Mo & Mary Mac, Charles Erwin Wilson, Ben Banks & The Back-Ups, Hot Tamale, SeaBreeze Duo, Ben Wentworth, and more. 10am-5pm both days
  

Local Running, Walking, and Biking Info: https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/
Guided Paddling Outings all around the area: https://www.facebook.com/hsmithoutdoors
Tallahassee Film Society Showings: https://www.tallahasseefilms.com/tickets/
Book Clubs for all tastes: https://www.facebook.com/midtownreadeevents
Live Theater:

• Making Light Productions: https://www.makinglightproductions.org/
  
• Theatre Tallahassee: https://theatretallahassee.org/
  
• Mickee Faust Club: https://www.mickeefaust.com/
  
• Monticello Opera House: https://www.monticellooperahouse.org/
  
• FSU School of Theatre: https://theatre.fsu.edu/productions/
  
• Young Actors Theatre: https://www.youngactorstheatre.com/
  
• Quincy Music Theatre: https://quincymusictheatre.com/
  
• Tallahassee Hispanic Theater: https://tallahasseehispanictheater.wordpress.com/
  

OutdooFarmer’s Markets:

• Lake Ella Grower's Market: Wednesday and Saturday, 11am-2pm. You can always find organic vendors, and foragers: The Holistic Cannabis Community, Artzi Farms, Hickory Nut Gifts, and others. Including Pita Queen! Farmer's Market Nutrition Program Coupons gladly accepted!
  
• Tallahassee Downtown Market: Saturdays, 10am-2pm, Park Ave Parks. Vendors display their arts and fine crafts, jewelry, handmade soap, pottery, Fresh from Florida produce, hand-raised beef and pork, fresh baked bread, jams and jellies, and honey. Live music from different local musicians every Saturday.
  
• Frenchtown Heritage Market: 524 N MLK Jr Blvd. Third Saturday of the month 10am to 2pm. Come grow community and support your local farmers and makers, while you get your groceries for the week! Don’t forget! We match SNAP/EBT, so you DOUBLE your money to go towards locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables! If the guy with the pineapple is there, get it. This is currently only happening on the third Saturday of the month for the next few months while road work is completed.
  
• Tallahassee Farmers Market: 2904 Kerry Forest Pkwy, Saturdays, 8am to Noon. Come see us at Tallahassee's longest-running farmers market! We are a year-round market, featuring local farms and vendors that provide the best seasonal produce, meats, baked goods, and more. We welcome you and your whole family (leashed pets included) to come out and meet your local farmers! Ample parking is available between our lot and the shopping center lot next door (by Red Elephant). Come early for the best selection.
  

THURSDAY, 4/18

• The Hub at Feather Oaks: Bingo. 6pm
  
• Dreamland BBQ: Weekly Open Blues Jam. If you'd like to sing, please bring your own mic. 6pm
  
• Honest Living Vape: Chess-Master Thursdays . Beginners and experts, join us every Thursday from 6-9 for Chess-Master Thursdays. All ages. Bring your board or play ours! Tournaments coming soon! 6pm
  
• Oyster City Brewing Co: Open Mic Night! Join us on Thursdays from 6:30-9:30 PM for Open Mic Night hosted by the incredible Mike Ingram of The Brown Goose! This is your chance to show off your skills! Whether you're a musician, poet, comedian, or have a hidden talent, we can't wait to see what you bring to the stage. 6:30pm
  
• Lake Tribe: Trivia. 7pm
  
• Takko Market Square: Bingo Night. 7pm
  
• The Getaway Grille and Bar: Karaoke with Jared Walker. 7pm
  
• Amicus Brewing: Trivia. 7pm
  
• Smitty's Taphouse: Trivia Lab Thursdays. Teams of 6 or fewer players can compete for $30 / $20 / $10 Prizes + The Golden MacGuffin prize table! New format! Interactive smartphone answering for your comfort and safety! 6 Fun Rounds - 42 Total Questions. 7:30pm
  
• Cap City Video Lounge: The Incredible Melting Man! MST3K Thursday. Join us Thursday as we climb aboard The Satellite of Love along with Joel, Tom Servo and CROOOOW as they enter the post, gooey, science fiction horror realm of stuff not cheese that is 1977's THE INCREDIBLE MELTING MAN! 7:30pm/free but donations encouraged
  
• Studio D: Bachata Fever. We always have a bachata workshop at 8 pm before Bachata Fever. We dance afterwards to the sounds of DJ Bacharod. The class is at 8 pm and Bachata Fever will start at 930 pm. Many times people are learning in class and may feel uncomfortable social dancing while they are still learning moves. We have a welcoming environment so stay and have fun and dance with everyone. That is how we learn. 8pm/Class $5/Bachata Fever $5.
  
• The Sound Bar: Comedy Night. 8pm
  
• Finnegans Wake: Open Mic. 8:30pm
  
• Brass Tap in Midtown: Karaoke with DJ Rah. 9pm
  
• 926: Karaoke. 9pm
  
• Bird’s: Karaoke with Nathan. 9pm
  

• Visit Tallahassee (old Amtrak Station): Understanding the LGBTQ History of Tallahassee. What would a queer history of Tallahassee look like? What are the most important developments in the writing of queer and LGBT history, and how can they be applied to interpreting the queer experience in Tallahassee over the past 200 years? One of the first academic authors of gay and lesbian history earned his PhD at Florida State in the early 1970s and taught some of the first university courses on LGBT history and culture in the nation on the Florida State campus. Why isn’t this story better known, and how can we build on this legacy? How can theory help ensure that we write histories that acknowledge the centrality of race, class, gender, and gender identity, while also always foregrounding issues of political power, labor, coercion, and class? Theory is not about making what is simple obscure, but instead about helping us to see mechanisms at work, and lives lived, that may have left only faint traces in the archive, rounding out and completing the evidence that has survived in greater abundance. Join Professor Charles Upchurch, Professor of British & LGBTQ History at Florida State University, for a 40-minute illustrated exploration of all of these themes as they relate to Tallahassee’s queer history. 5pm/free
  
• Blue Tavern: Jazz Mini-Fest Day One featuring Therese Whichello, Chris Seepersaud Quartet, and Richie Summa Trio. 5:30pm
  
• Oyster City Brewing: Genezone! 6pm
  
• 926: Virginia Man with Oak’s Experiment and npc luv. 8pm
  

FRIDAY, 4/19

• Blue Tavern: Happy Hour with Steve Malono. 5pm
  
• Lake Tribe Brewing: Flannel Fridays with Live Music. 6pm
  
• Hobbit West: Friday Night Dart Tournament. Anyone can Enter! Sign ups at 7:30, Darts fly at 8:00/$10 entry fee
  
• Ouzts Too: Karaoke with DJ Nathan. Best karaoke DJ in town. 8pm
  
• Just One More: Karaoke with DJ Rah. 9pm-11pm/21+
  
• 926: The Hot Friday Night Party and Drag Show. 9pm/$5/18+
  

• Blue Tavern: Two Clever. 5pm
  
• Blue Tavern: Jazz Mini-Fest Day Two featuring Clavé, Robocromp, and The Indefatigables. 5:30pm
  
• Proof: Buck Bonzai. 6pm
  
• Lake Tribe. Barber Brothers. 6pm
  
• Civic Center: Far Out Funk & Blues Fest hosted by Keith Rodgers and featuring music by Loose Ends, Zac Harmon, Klymaxx, Nellie Tiger Travis, Scottie Clinton, DieDra Ruff & The Ruff Pro Band, and Pharaohs of Funk. 6pm
  
• Oyster City Brewing: Seep’s Gumbo Madness! 6pm
  
• Smitty's Taphouse & Grill: Double Play. 6pm
  
• Common Ground Books: Pride & Joy Open Mic Night. Grab your favorite poem, tune up your guitar, rehearse that spoken word piece you've been working on, and come down to Common Ground Books for a special Pridefest Open Mic Night! 6:30pm
  
• Eve on Adams: Haley Brook. 7pm
  
• The Getaway Grille and Bar: Mae West Band. 7pm
  
• House of Music: Dixon's Violin. 7:45pm
  
• Fire Bettys: Madwoman featuring Chef Will & Tonight’s Special. 8pm
  
• Cap City Video Lounge: Humortals Showcase at CCVL. 8pm/$10
  
• The Sound Bar: Soul Medicine. 8pm
  
• American Legion: BBC @ The Legion presents The Rusty Wright Band. 8pm
  
• The Bark: Bambii Lamb with Copyright Claim, Faro, and Almost. 8:30pm
  

SATURDAY, 4/20 Blaze It

• Brinkley Glen Park: Invasive Plant Removal. Join Master Gardener Volunteers at this weekly invasive plant removal event. This is a great way to learn to ID our invasive plant species and how to remove them. We recommend wearing long pants and sleeves, closed-toed shoes, gloves, a hat and mosquito spray. Bring gardening tools such as hand clippers, loppers, trowels, etc. if you have them. We are removing coral ardisia bushes and berries, nandina, tung trees, Tradescantia flumenensis, cat's claw vine, winged yam, Japanese climbing fern, skunkvine and more. Directions: The best way to get there is to take Meridian Rd to Waverly Rd, go to the next intersection and turn left onto Abbotsford Way, then turn left at the next road called Woodside Dr. At the stop sign turn left onto Lothian. Lothian ends in a cul-de-sac and there is a sign that says Brinkley Glen Park. 8:30am-11:30am
  
• Gamescape: Saturday Gaming. Gamescape has relocated from Railroad Square to the Huntington Oaks Plaza (Suite 302, next to the Library) at N Monroe St and Fred George Rd. Open gaming tables are available. Noon-6pm
  
• Potbellys: 7th Annual FAKE St. Patrick's Day Party. 4pm
  
• Duke’s and Dottie’s: Line Dancing Plus Lessons. 7pm/21+
  
• Bird’s Oyster Shack: Laughterday Night Fever. * Join us every Saturday at Bird's Aphrodisiac Oyster Shack for a free comedy show!* 8:30pm
  
• 926: Latin Night. Dance to the irresistible beats of Zeus and prepare to be dazzled by a spectacular drag show at midnight. It's more than a party, it's an experience. 9:30pm/$10 21+, $15 under 21
  

• Midtown Reader: Independent Bookstore Day Celebration. It's our favorite time of year! A day dedicated to books, community, and indie bookstores - Independent Bookstore Day. National Independent Bookstore Day is Saturday, April 27th, and we'll be celebrating at Word of South at Cascades Park with your other neighborhood bookstores, authors, and musicians! Because of this, Midtown Reader is celebrating IBD earlier than everyone else so that we can still have the Indie Bookstore Day celebration you have come to know and love from us! Don't miss out on the fun! Join us in store for these all-day festivities: Kidtown Story Time with the Tallahassee Ballet reading Sleeping Beauty from 11 AM to 11:30AM. Signing Saturday with Rick Campbell, author of Fish Streets Before Dawn, and Sean Sexton, author of Portals, from 3 PM to 5 PM. All-day specialty IBD drinks at the Piebrary. 10% discount for wearing a Midtown Reader tee or past Indie Bookstore Day tee! 10am-8pm
  
• Cascades Park: KidsFest 2024. KidsFest is back for our annual family-friendly event brought to you by Kids Incorporated of the Big Bend. It's a fun filled day with kid centric activities, FREE admission, FREE family Entertainment and even Toddler Town when you need a little break. 10am-2pm
  
• Hot Love Tattoos: Third Anniversary Flash Day And Market. We've been here three years, let's get tattooed! Flash sheets from all 7 of our current artists, first come first served, local vendors outside so you can shop while you wait. Bring us a receipt from any other Lake Ella business to be entered into our raffle! The more places you shop, the more entries you'll get! 11am-7pm
  
• Honest Living Tea House: 4/20 Block Party. springtime is here! come join us for the CURAxHONEST block party on Saturday, April 20th! we will have fun prizes, discounts, a "thrift store throwback" yard sale, food, drinks, booths and activities. it will be a fun time! 11am-7pm
  
• Island Wing Co: Island Wing Company Annual Luau featuring music from LCP & The Gangbusters, DJ Nathan, and Top Shelf Band. Noon-10pm
  
• The Puff: Bud Bash 24. We hope to see you there. Once again, thank you to our amazing sponsors for helping us put together a kickass event. Rolling Competitions, Gravity Bong Contest, Ring Toss where you could win $300+ worth of glass, And more! Live music! Noon-close
  
• Dreamland BBQ: 4th Annual Camp Jam. Join Sunrise Rotary for an afternoon of blues and barbecue in support of Rotary Youth Camp. The event was created to honor the memory of Fred Addonizio, longtime Sunrise member and friend to the community. The Rotary Youth Camp gives children with disabilities a unique opportunity to enjoy a week of activities, fun, and friendship with other children. For many, it's the first time in their lives they've been away from their parents and participating in such activities. Fred was a huge proponent of this camp, volunteering countless hours over the years, putting together different activities and transporting the kids. Our goal is to raise enough money to ensure that there is new equipment that is badly needed currently, as well as creating a scholarship fund to ensure that any child that would like to go to the camp has the means to make it happen. Musical entertainment will be going on all afternoon. 2pm-6pm
  
• Cap City Video Lounge: Pride of 420: A Queer Movie Marathon. 3pm: But I’m A Cheerleader. 4:45pm: Bound. 7pm: Paris is Burning. 8:30pm: Pride (2014, dir. Matthew Warchus). 3pm/$10 all day
  
• Blue Tavern: Traditional Irish Session. 4pm
  
• Moore Auditorium: Spring 2024 Belly Dance Showcase! 6pm
  
• Lake Tribe: Shift 8. 6pm
  
• Blue Tavern: Firefly Rebellion with Larry & The Reeftones. 7pm
  
• Oyster City Brewing: 4 Sticks! 7pm
  
• Signature Lounge: Silly Saturday's Comedy Show. 7pm
  
• House of Music: 4/20 Karaoke PizzaPalooza. 7pm
  
• Retrofit Records: Record Store Day celebration featuring live music from Beach Fossils. Shop opens at Noon, music at 7:30pm
  
• Real Cool Time Records: Real Cool Time Records Record Store Day celebration featuring live music from Medians, Smoke Mountain, Speed Spirits, and Saturnalia. Music at 7:30pm
  
• The Bark: Loudass Country Band with Pat Puckett, Brett Eugene, and Durty Suns. 8pm
  
• The Sound Bar: Tim Russell. 8pm
  
• 926: Pridefest: Queer Showcase. CELEBRATE TALLAHASSEE'S QUEER PERFORMERS! From drag to burlesque and everything in between, this killer variety show displays queer performers of all walks. After spending the day at Pridefest in Kleman Plaza, join us in celebrating our queerness with a night of cabaret! Tickets are cheaper in advance, so grab a couple of these for your friends and catch the hottest show in town! 9:30pm/18+
  

SUNDAY, 4/21

• Bicycle House: Sunday Ride. Ride at 10:30 AM from Bicycle House. We will ride the Cascades trail to the St Marks trail and down to Wakulla station and return, about 31 miles. Ride speed is 12 to 14 mph, with periodic regroups. Vernon Bailey is the ride leader. Vernon is a new CCC member who’s been biking for 50 years enjoys riding with small groups and weekend touring. 10am
  
• Halisi Africa: Soulful Sundays. Join us for Motherland Brunch at Halisi Africa. We'll be serving our brunch special including an appetizer, main course, a sweet, and our signature African mimosas we call ukwaju. The event will also feature an art exhibition by Christopher Barnhart and live entertainment by local artists. 11am
  
• Flippin’ Great Pinball: $25 Sunday Funday. Every Sunday spend a fun-filled time with the family for only $25 plus tax at the arcade! Our normal all-day family admission of $34.99 is just $25 and that includes up to a family of 6 (two adults and four kids). Experience affordable family fun that everyone will enjoy. Noon-8pm
  
• E Peck Greene Park (Behind the LeRoy Collins Library): Food Not Bombs Free Mealshare. We offer free vegetarian/vegan food, water, coffee, personal care & hygiene products, bus passes, and clothing when we have some available to those in need. Contact foodnotbombstally@gmail.com to find out about getting involved. Noon-2pm
  
• LeRoy Collins Library: Tallahassee Go Club Meetings. Come play the captivating ancient game of Go, also known as Baduk, with some friendly games and discussions. Beginners welcome. Visit https://www.tallahasseegoclub.com for more information. 1pm
  
• Gamescape: Pokémon League. Come learn, play, and trade with the Pokémon Trading Card Game and the Pokémon video games! We LOVE seeing new players, so come learn how to play! We play both the Trading Card Game and the Video Game casually and competitively. The store offers lots of different seating arrangements to meet our group's needs, as well as food, drinks, and Pokémon products for purchase. We are also hold regular, officially sanctioned tournaments for Pokémon Trading Card Game and Video Game Competitions! 2-4pm
  
• The Plant: Open Jam. All instruments, all players welcome. 4pm-9pm
  
• Pedro’s: Mariachi Clasico. 6pm
  
• Fermentation Lounge: Open Mic Night Hosted by Conor Churchill. 7pm
  
• Oyster City Brewing: Comedy Night. Come have some laughs with us on Sunday nights! If you are interested in participating in the show, reach out to therealsleepypfloyd@gmail.com 7:30pm
  

• JR Alfred Greenway: Queer Hikes Tallahassee: Pride Week Edition! Join Queer Hikes Tallahassee for our first collaborative hike! We welcome hikers of all skill levels with the goal of bringing LGBTQIA+ people together for fun exploration of local nature while making new friends. Allies are always welcome. LOGISTICS: We will meet at the Pedrick Road entrance of the J.R. Alford Greenway for a nice 3.5 mile morning hike to wrap up Pride Week. Enter the address 2500 Pedrick Rd, Tallahassee, FL 32317 to map yourself to the correct location. The terrain is mostly flat with wide trails and ample parking is available. Please remember to bring water, sunscreen, and bug spray (and pride flags for photos!) as we are expecting a partially cloudy day in the low 80s. There is not a bathroom at the trail head so please plan accordingly. 10am
  
• The Hole (3030 S Adams St): Earth Day Festival. Join us for the 3rd annual Earth Day Festival in Tallahassee , a vibrant celebration dedicated to sustainability, community, and environmental justice. Set for April 21, 2024, this year's theme, "Planet vs. Plastics," promises a day filled with engaging workshops, cultural performances, eco-friendly crafts, and educational activities aimed at uniting communities and highlighting the importance of a sustainable future. Perfect for families and individuals alike, the festival will offer something for everyone—inspiring attendees to learn, engage, and take action towards a more equitable and green world. Don't miss this opportunity to celebrate our planet and be part of a movement towards positive change. 11:30am-4pm
  
• Mickee Faust Club: Earth Day Jam ’24. The Magnolia School is hosting an Earth Day Jam Fundraiser to help raise money for the enrichment and authentic educational experiences of our students. This is deeply important to all of us as our world continues to be an ever increasingly challenging place to live, learn, and thrive. The community can help by sponsoring the event, attending, or contributing. It will be an outdoor event. We will have Lil’ Grizzly Boogie Band and other local musicians, activities for the kids, a Lemonade stand, and Food trucks. There will be a merchandise table with fresh baked goods and T-shirts. So come and celebrate The Magnolia School. 2pm-6pm/$15 solo, $25 for a family
  
• The Sound Bar: Dustin Hatcher Band. 5pm
  
• Common Ground Books: Contemporary Queer Poetry Book Club: Alive at the End of the World. “Pierced by grief and charged with history, this new poetry collection from the award-winning author of Prelude to Bruise and How We Fight for Our Lives confronts our everyday apocalypses. In haunted poems glinting with laughter, Saeed Jones explores the public and private betrayals of life as we know it. With verve, wit, and elegant craft, Jones strips away American artifice in order to reveal the intimate grief of a mourning son and the collective grief bearing down on all of us.” 6pm
  
• The Bark: Tearman, Sp33d Runn3r, and Psycho Tropical. 7:30pm
  

MONDAY, 4/22

• Just One More: Bingo. 5pm-6:30pm
  
• The Getaway Grille and Bar: Margarita Monday, Open-Mic Night hosted by The Saltwater Cowboy. 5:30pm-8pm
  
• American Legion Hall: Cha Cha - Weekly Lessons. 6:15pm/$5
  
• Hangar 38: Bingo. 6:45pm
  
• Vino Beano: Tipsy Trivia. 7pm
  

TUESDAY, 4/23

• Blue Tavern: Happy Hour. 5pm
  
• The Getaway Grille: Tuesday Night Bikes and Trikes. 6pm
  
• Oyster City Brewing Company: Tuesday Night Beer-go! 6pm
  
• Crafty Crab: BOOMIN' Karaoke. 7pm
  
• Gamescape: Hobby Night. Slay the grey together! Join your fellow gamers and turn your pile of grey miniatures into a battle ready army. Need some painting tips? Feel free to ask at hobby night. You can bring any miniature for any game to paint. 7pm
  
• Ology Midtown: Jazz Jam Sessions. 7pm
  
• Island Wings: Trivia. 7pm
  
• Brass Tap in Midtown: Trivia. 1st Tuesday of the month is General Knowledge with rotating themes the rest of the month. 7pm
  
• House of Music: Tuesday Trivia & Karaoke. 7pm
  
• American Legion Hall: Tallahassee Swing Band Tuesday Night Dance. 7:30pm
  
• Burrito Boarder: Karaoke with DJ Roldus. 8pm
  
• Fire Bettys: Comedy Night. 8pm
  
• Poor Pauls: Trivia. 8pm/21+
  
• Blue Tavern: Bluesday Tuesday with Bill Ricci. Every Tuesday is Blues Day @ the Blue Tavern and Blues Meets Girl is a Tallahassee favorite. This perfect, intimate venue provides just what you need for both a mid-week break and authentic blues music experience. 8pm/$5
  
• 4th Quarter: Professor Jim's Tuesday Night Trivia. Popular for a reason! 8pm
  
• Argonaut Coffee: Trivia Tuesday. 8pm
  
• The Sound Bar: Karaoke. 8pm
  
• Fire Betty’s: Open Mic Comedy Night. 8pm/21+
  
• 926: Tacos and Trivia. 9pm
  

• Gallery for Innovation & the Arts at the R.A. Gray Building: The Nine Lives of Florida’s Famous Key Marco Cat. Excavated from a waterlogged archaeological site on the shores of subtropical Florida by legendary anthropologist Frank Hamilton Cushing in 1896, the Key Marco Cat has become an icon of Florida's history and heritage. Join us as Austin Bell, Chief Curator at the Museum of Florida History and author of The Nine Lives of Florida's Famous Key Marco Cat, explores nine periods in the life of the small wooden carving, including how and why it was sculpted by its Calusa creators, its route to the Smithsonian, and its modern-day role as a coveted ambassador of Florida's past. The Nine Lives of Florida's Famous Key Marco Cat is the winner of a 2021 Florida Book Award in the Florida Non-fiction category. Florida’s History Shop will be on hand to sell signed copies of the book. Noon/free
  
• Blue Tavern: Earth Day Sing-Along at the Blue Tavern. 5pm
  
• Crooked River Lighthouse (Carrabelle): Full Moon Event. Visitors can enjoy the gorgeous natural surroundings of St. George Sound and Carrabelle Beach under the glow of the rising Pink Moon and evening sky. Plus purchase some delicious food from one of the local favorites, A Train Stop food truck. April’s full moon is traditionally known as the Pink Moon, and it heralds the arrival of spring. It is called the Pink Moon because it often aligns with the blossoming of a particular wildflower indigenous to the eastern regions of North America—the Phlox subulata. This early spring bloom, commonly known as creeping phlox or moss phlox, also bears the charming name "moss pink." Visitors can enjoy an after-hours self-guided tour of the Keeper’s House Museum and see the exhibit for the lighthouse’s original, historic Fresnel lens constructed in 1894 in Paris, France. Guests can browse the unique nautical gifts and souvenirs in the gift shop. Visitors may also enjoy the glowing bonfire in the park (weather permitting). Bring a chair and enjoy the evening. For those brave souls who are bold enough to venture to the top of the tallest lighthouse on the Forgotten Coast, evening tower climbs are scheduled at 15-minute intervals throughout the event. Climbers will be rewarded with breathtaking views of the bay. Evening climbs cost $10 and climb reservations are encouraged due to limited availability. Climbers must be at least 44 inches tall and children under 12 (FREE) with ticketed adults. Advance tickets are strongly suggested as slots may sell out and can be purchased online at https://www.crookedriverlighthouse.com/full-moon-events/ or in the lighthouse gift shop. 7pm
  

WEDNESDAY, 4/24

• Sugar and Spice Tally: Game Night. Join us every Wednesday Night for community game night. Bring your own or use ours! Let me know if you need to reserve space for a large group. Free to attend! 5pm
  
• Goodwood: Wonderful Wednesday. 6pm/$5
  
• Burrito Boarder: D&D Night. 6pm
  
• Level 8 Rooftop Lounge: Trivia. 6pm
  
• La Florida Coffee & Wine: Trivia Night. 6pm
  
• The Great Games Library: Open Game Night. 6pm/free
  
• American Legion Hall: Sue Boyd Country Western and More Dance Class. Session 2 - Beginner 6:30 to 7:45 pm What: East Coast Swing and Waltz. Cost: $8.00 per person. Wear comfortable shoes you can turn in. 7:45 to 8:15 - Practice dance with paid admission. 8:15 to 9:30: Intermediate - 2 Step and WCS. $8.00 per person or $13.00 for both classes. Vaccines are required. Face masks are optional. Changing partners is optional. 6:30pm
  
• Perry Lynn’s Smokehouse in Quincy: Wed Night Open Mic w/ Steven Ritter and Friends. 6:30pm
  
• Hangar 38: Trivia. 6:45pm
  
• Oyster City Brewing Tallahassee: Trivia. Teams up to 6 players for three rounds with 10 questions and a tie breaker each round. Winners are by round so don’t worry if you need to come late or can’t stay the whole time! Prizes include a round of beer, a 6 pack and a gift card! 7pm
  
• Proof: Trivia. 7pm
  
• Vino Beano: Wine Bingo. 7pm
  
• Fermentation Lounge: Trivia. 7pm
  
• Blue Tavern: Wednesday Open Mic with Doc Russell. The open mic night that has run continuously for almost 20 years, once housed at the Warehouse, lives on at the Blue Tavern. Doc Russell continues as the host with the most. Sign up starts at 7:45pm/free to attend
  
• House of Music: Bar Bingo! Free to Play & Late Night Karaoke. 7pm
  
• Fire Betty’s: Karaoke! 8pm/21+/free
  
• Dukes and Dotties: College Night and Line Dancing Lessons. 8pm
  
• Finnegans Wake: Trivia. 8pm
  
• The Sound Bar: Open Mic Night. 8pm
  
• South Station: Summer Movie Nights. 8:30pm/free
  
• The Bark: Karaoke with DJ Nathan. Best karaoke DJ in town. 9pm
  
• Peppers: Karaoke. 9pm
  
• 926: Dragged Out Wednesday. 10pm
  

• Skate World: SwiftieSkate. Excited for the release of The Tortured Poets Department? SO ARE WE! Join us on April 24th from 4-8pm to listen to all of Taylor's hits-- new and old-- and celebrate the release of the new album! Attendees can skate (skate rental included), get goodie bags, eat cupcakes, play trivia, win merch, take lots of photos, and of course, listen to Taylor's songs all night long! IMPORTANT: Anyone under the age of 18 MUST have a ticket AND a chaperone who is 25 years of age (or older). This chaperone must stay with them inside the building for the duration of the event (no drop offs). 4pm/$22
  
• Blue Tavern: Happy Hour with Grant Peeples with special guest Rosalee Walsh. 5pm
  
• The Bark: Frances Chang with Financial Collapse, Sarah Morrison, and blacksunblackmoon. 7pm
  
• 926: Happy Landing with On The Edge and The Yeah Babys. 7:30pm