Looking for someone to play catch with. At Cesar Chavez Recreation Center or Howard Lane Neighborhood Park.
DM me if you're interested

(Shoutouts to u/TheSlyKoopa for the match concept!)
Scenario: Isla de Piedra, Somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea — 11:44AM
Dédalo Viatger, adventurer, archaeologist and explorer extraordinaire, had filled his travelog with countless exploits on his never-ending quest to uncover the secrets of the ancient world. Following the trail of the lost civilization of Pieduro was proving to be his lengthiest entry yet. Armed with powerful Pieduron artifacts known as the Temples, Dédalo and the Pieduron entity ｢Perdida｣ had forged a path across the Mediterranean, getting ever closer to solving the mystery of their disappearance.
With assistance from Cullinan Dwarf Star, Patron of the House of Muses, Dédalo and Perdida were on the verge of discovering the final piece of the puzzle. Their journey had come full circle, and Dédalo and Perdida’s adventure would end where it began; on the island of Isla de Piedra.
Situated between the coasts of Southern Spain and North Africa, Isla de Piedra had been uninhabited for all of recorded history, though not for lack of trying. The dense forests and greenery that covered every square meter of the island made it a ripe target for logging companies and greedy colonists to strip it for all it was worth. None had succeeded—their abandoned camps had long since been reclaimed by the forest.
The only other sign of human life on the island was the ancient Pieduron outpost where Dédalo’s journey first began, and where it would now hopefully end. The trek to get there was as difficult as the first time—but he didn’t have to do it alone now. At his side were his ever faithful companion Perdida, the inquisitive swordswoman Ninian, the extraordinary android 2095, and the illustrious ice skater Electra (although he didn’t call them that out loud).
Dédalo led the party up a long, winding stone staircase, pointing out the many partially-disabled traps along the way. He and Ninian had long been in contact, and the latter could personally vouch for her +1s—2095 one of the few Bastards she could trust and Electra having earned her trust in for her actions against Enyalius & Enyo Pharmaceuticals in San Battista.
“...and here’s a wall of spikes that shoot out when you pass over that threshold,” he pointed out with a tour guide’s enthusiasm. “I managed to jam up the mechanism with some cloth, but we should probably tread carefully around here.”
Electra rolled her eyes, even though Dédalo couldn’t see the gesture. “Should have just blown it up,” she muttered, annoyed. While her experiences in San Battista had somewhat melted her frosty demeanor, it had still been a long, hot, exhausting trip to get here, and old habits died hard.
“Watch your tone, miss,” Perdida said from behind her ear, making her jump. “My people’s architecture is not something to “blow up”.”
“And it might not have worked,” 2095 chimed in. “If this outpost could survive all those centuries of wear, I doubt a mundane explosion would do much damage to it.”
“The Piedurons built everything to last, from their treasures to their traps.” Dédalo gingerly ducked under the blade of a massive pendulum axe that jutted out from the ceiling. “Fortunate in some ways, unfortunate in others.”
At last, they reached the center chamber. Carved from stone and coated with moss, it appeared just as untouched as the rest of the outpost—save for the podium in the middle of the chamber and the conspicuously empty space on top of it, where the moss grew a little bit thinner.
“Ah, this brings back memories,” Dédalo chuckled. “This is where Perdida and I first met. The El Cor Terra necklace lay in this very spot at the heart of the chamber. When I unfastened it, poof! There she appeared in all of her resplendent glory. We hit it off right away.”
“He tried to cut my head off with a machete.”
“In self-defense!”
“Ok, move it along, lovebirds,” Electra huffed. “Where’s the thing we were looking for? It’s somewhere in here, right?”
Brushing past the “lovebirds” comment, Dédalo retrieved a piece of parchment from his explorer’s pack marked with the symbol of the House of Muses. “According to Cullinan, the hidden door should be right over on that wall.” He pointed over 2095’s shoulder at the northern wall of the chamber. “The question is…how do we open it?”
2095 gave the room a once-over. Aside from the layer of moss and vegetation covering the chamber, it was pretty bare. Its only noticeable feature seemed to be the podium.
“Perhaps the podium could offer some answers.” The party gathered around the stone podium—a stone cylinder, atop which stood a carving which vaguely resembled the neck and collarbone area of a human, with a thin groove running where a necklace would hang. Perdida instantly recognized the Cleria stone inlays around the circumference of the podium.
She traced a finger along the length of the groove, and the Cleria stone beneath it glowed—and, at a volume only audible to 2095’s mechanical hearing, it began to hum.
“Keep going, Perdida,” she whispered. Perdida closed her eyes, feeling herself attune to the place where she lay dormant for thousands of years. The Cleria stone grew brighter and brighter, the hum getting louder and louder.
Suddenly, the room shook. Electra leaped back, expecting another trap. Instead, she watched as the north wall slid open like the doors of an elevator, revealing two hallways; one leading up, the other leading down, both with Cleria stone markings along the walls that pulsed with a gentle light.
“Thank goodness,” Dédalo sighed. “I was worried the real treasure was going to be the friends we made along the way.”
Dédalo and Perdida continued to trek up the hallway, climbing what was likely the control tower of the outpost. Ninian dutifully followed behind them, ready to draw her blade at whatever might strike from the newly unknown section of the outpost. The sound of exhaled breath made her jump...but it was only a sigh from Dédalo. “A shame you came aboard so late, Ninian; our journey’s almost up.”
Ninian’s confusion spiked to alarm as the explorer motioned to lean against the wall. “Watch out-”
Dédalo made contact and nothing happened. He tilted his head to the end of the corridor, a doorway just a few meters away. “We’re far enough in that we’ve most likely avoided the worst of the traps. Besides, I don’t think the Piedurons would have placed many traps so close to a place of importance.” He wistfully rubbed his arm, massaging the strain of adventures and injuries in equal measure. “Feels almost bittersweet. So many months of travel and turmoil, and the end of our journey is in sight.”
“Hey, don’t say that yet. We still need to find a way to get my human body back.” Pedida gently punched him in his shoulder. Still, her pout eventually softened as she looked back towards the final chamber. “I guess you are correct, though. The answer to the Pieduron collapse lies beyond those doors. What comes after…nobody knows”
“Quite right,” Dédalo nodded, and the group moved onwards. “I hope that Electra and 2095 are doing okay down there, in any case.”
“I hope that the rest of the outpost is okay,” Perdida frowned. “They didn’t seem to appreciate how precious this place is—I don’t want to lose another one.”
“I don’t think we have to worry too much about losing them,” A grin of cat-like mischief unfurled on Ninian’s face as hoarse laughter echoed on a draft. There were adventures to come and to be seen, but one to reach its conclusion here and now, and the anticipation made Ninian’s hair stand on end.
The group carefully entered the room, and Perdida flickered out of existence. Before any of them could respond, the control room flickered to life. The stone walls that extended higher and higher suddenly turned “on” as if they were screens, but these were more akin to slabs whose light-emitting runes and rocks flickered and changed in the appearance of Perdida—Perdidas, in fact. All of them, on the many screens, acted in unison as Dédalo rushed forward. “Dédalo, what’s going on?”
“We’re figuring it out,” he shouted as he and Ninian raced to the panels below, trying to decipher the text streaming by. Soon, however, one message displayed on a readout screen:

MYSTICALLY AUTOMATED KNOWLEDGE SYSTEM 0 DETECTED
RESUMING RING FUNCTIONALITY

Meanwhile, having taken the outpost’s lower path, 2095 and Electra entered into a large atrium. Like the rest of the outpost, the walls and floor were composed of the usual, teal stone that seemed impossibly durable. The fact that they could use it to form buildings, carve intricate murals, and keep it all hidden was impressive, but they craned their heads upwards towards the skylight that would let rain and sun in. Through the overgrown foliage, they could see a massive flat ring of Cleria floating above the ground in stubborn defiance of the laws of physics. Gravity-defying gyroscopes of stone spun and swirled in the air above, rotating with the same slow grace as the ancient gears that whirred to life around them. The glow of the Cleria blended together with the light of the noonday sun; the hum of power permeated the entire chamber.
“...shit,” Electra murmured, not sure what else to say.
2095 scanned the rest of the atrium, but ultimately found nothing beyond a discolored, glowing pad on the floor by the opposite wall, outcroppings on the walls that resembled benches, and the remnants of what appeared to be ancient drinking fountains. Rest now before it’s too late, the room seemed to scream.
“I believe we should wait for the others before we go deeper,” 2095 announced. “We could retrace our steps and explore the previous areas, in case we missed another hidden passageway or an undiscovered treasure. It would be a shame to proceed not knowing whether we’ve left every stone unturned-”
“Not a chance,” Electra huffed. “I’m not letting us get killed because of your FOMO. Come on.”
She grabbed 2095 by the wrist and began to drag her over to the pads. 2095 let her—partly because she weighed significantly more than Electra did and she didn’t want her to hurt herself trying to pull her by force, but partly because she was right. She could feel the air buzzing with energy, intensifying by the second. Something big was about to happen.
The two stepped onto the floor pad and immediately felt themselves being shunted into a different space as the teleporter activated. When their vision cleared, they found themselves standing on top of the Cleria ring itself. Electra could smell the ozone in the air and taste the prickling on her tongue. This ring was the key to the whole mechanism—either it was powering the outpost…or the outpost was powering it.
2095 gazed in awe at the machinery surrounding them. It reminded her of the technology from her time; except instead of steel and chrome, it was made of rock and crystal. What secrets died with the Piedurons when they disappeared?
She turned to Electra to express her wonder and nearly screamed when she saw the vantablack vines burst out of her shadowed face, ready to smash the ring to pieces.
“What are you doing?!” 2095 yelled, ｢Yours Truly｣ appearing at her side, tentacles raised.
“I’m destroying this thing, duh,” spat Electra. “I know a superweapon when I see one, and I’m not about to let some dipshit corporation get their hands on it after we leave.”
The chamber shook, bits of rocks and dust falling from the ceiling. “B-but we don’t even know whether this is a superweapon! Aren’t you acting a bit rash?”
“Rash? Seriously? You have no idea what some people in Dead Drop Bay would do for an artifact like this.” Electra remembered what she saw in San Battista—the monster that she had to put down, fuelled by a desire to abuse the remnants of the past for her own gain. “Farewell to Kings, Dead Man’s Hand; hell, even my own company. They’d sink this island to the bottom of the ocean for the chance to have this thing for themselves. This way, I’m solving the problem before it has a chance to start.”
“And risk destroying the legacy of an entire civilization?!” 2095 felt anger boiling in her metallic chest. A part of her resonated with the Piedurons in this moment—she knew what it was like to be a relic of an era far from the present, the last remaining piece of a time nobody would ever know. “What gives you the right to decide what to do with an artifact of this magnitude? To bury what could be the last hope of Pieduro to be remembered as anything but a footnote in history?”
The chamber shook again—this time, both 2095 and Electra felt the ground shift under their feet. Without warning, walls of stone burst out of the ground around them, tearing through centuries-old roots and vines to surround the ring on all sides. Slabs of Cleria stone with deep divots carved into the top of them emerged from the ring itself and floated just above its surface like a magnet levitating atop another.
In the control tower below them, Dédalo and Ninian scrambled from panel to panel, desperately trying to decipher what was going on. Dédalo could see the two other members of the party facing off inside the ring—but before he could call out to them, he heard Perdida’s voice resonate from every screen.
“The Temples…I can see them.”
Ninian watched the panel in front of her light up, displaying a holographic map of the Mediterranean, hundreds of glowing blue dots scattered across the projection.
Dédalo rushed to the nearest screen and grabbed it. “Perdida! Are you alright?!”
“Y-yes, I’m fine.” Perdida blinked hard, putting a hand to the side of her head. “I can feel every Temple in the Mediterranean. I…I think I can gain access to them from here.”
“Access? Like…you can turn them on?” Ninian asked.
“Yes. All of them.” Before Perdida could say any more, the chamber shook once more. In the room below, the ring glowed even more brightly, the two would-be explorers now utterly trapped within it by the sloped walls surrounding it.
“See what I mean?!” Electra clenched her fists, snapping flytrap jaws emerging from the shadow underneath her. “We need to put this entire place in the ground. For good. And like hell am I going to let you stop me!”
Suddenly, all across the surface of the ring, crackling orbs of energy sparked to life, both 2095 and Electra just managing to avoid them. The orbs spun in a circle around the ring, accelerating rapidly until they were nothing but a blur. 2095 recognized the movements of the orbs immediately; it looked like a particle accelerator.
“I hoped we could resolve this peacefully, Electra.” 2095 flicked the silver locks out of her face. “But now I have to convince you in the only language you seem to understand—the language of violence. Don’t hold back.”
The age-old machinery around them hummed to a crescendo. If either of the two combatants wanted to see their convictions through, they would need to survive the full power of Pieduro first.
OPEN THE GAME!
Location: On Isla de Piedra, (Shoutouts to u/TheSlyKoopa for the match art) inside the Floating Ring. The arena shown here has Electra on the north side and 2095 on the south side represented by their character tokens. The players are in the area inside the ring and have no way to exit with sloping walls on all sides.
The ring has a diameter of 60 meters and the internal width is 15 meters; the entire structure is A Durability.
The brown rectangles inside the ring are Pieduron Temples that resemble short, knee-tall minecarts made out of stone slabs.
Goal: RETIRE your opponent!
Additional Information: Over the course of 10 minutes, the ring will spawn 6-inch diameter orbs of light that will accelerate and move in an orbit around the ring at A Speed. Each orb takes 4 seconds to spawn-in, glowing in place and translucent, before it becomes a solid orb.
Trajectory of the orbs move completely along the curvature of the ring, counterclockwise (denoted by the arrows on the map) and can be spawned anywhere inside the ring. When they hit something solid, they will detonate at C Power—powerful enough to destroy vines and ink left by ｢Venus Fly Trap｣ and tentacles from ｢Yours Truly｣—and cause another orb to spawn where the original one started. The orbs have a blast radius of half a meter and other orbs exploding around them will not trigger them to detonate.
Orbs will complete one revolution around the ring anywhere from 3 seconds (inside track) to 6 seconds (along the rim).
Assuming you are standing still, the rough number of orbs that pass by will be 5 orbs per second at the first minute mark, 10 orbs per second at the second minute mark, and so on until the maximum of 50 orbs per second at the ten minute mark.
Starting near each player and around the map are Pieduron temples that resemble minecarts. Each kart can comfortably fit one person, have a handle on either side, and a single rudder-like steering peripheral. The wheels of the kart will always stick to the ring, but they can drive just fine along the walls or even the ceiling of the ring. Karts move at up to B Speed and players intuitively have a 4 in driving them. At max speed, karts can complete one revolution in 4 to 8 seconds (4 seconds on the inside track and 8 seconds on the rim).
All karts have three other special features that can be activated when a driver is steering it, the Turtle, the Spider, and the Crab:

• The Turtle is a forcefield-like shield that can cover the kart and anybody riding inside it. This forcefield only protects against the fast moving orbs and their explosions and is intangible to everything else. It lasts up to 2 seconds and has a 6 second cooldown before it can be activated again. It can also be set to automatically activate if the minecart is about to hit or be affected by an orb, otherwise it can be manually activated by the driver.
  
• The Spider is a net-like shield that functions somewhat similarly to the forcefield the Turtle. The main difference is that instead of blocking orbs, it catches them and converts them into an inert palm-sized orb that is stowed inside the minecart. This shield does also block explosions produced by orbs, but will not produce an inert orb in those cases. The Spider lasts up to 1 second and shares a cooldown with the Turtle. Inert orbs are orbs that can be converted back into fast moving orbs by being thrown with force and intent. They can be made to move exactly in a straight line or along the curvature of the ring when thrown. Inert orbs have no other special properties, other than being A Durability.
  
• The Crab is a fast sideways dash up to 8 meters, with a minimum distance of 1 meter. Once the dash is finished, the kart will resume moving in the direction and speed it had before initiating the dash, making it useful for dodging without turning or changing the direction the kart is going in. This feature has a stamina bar where the longer your dash distance is, the more stamina will be used up. It takes 4 seconds for the stamina bar to fill up from empty.
  

The cooldowns and stamina bars are tied to the person, not the karts themselves.

Team	Combatant	JoJolity
Anvil Procession	Electra Heart	"I need to master this Spin..." Have a good plan for how to avoid and deal with the orbs spinning around you!
Bastards of Barcas	10538-2095	"The secret to the Steel Ball is the search for infinity..." Have a good plan for how to avoid and deal with the orbs spinning around you!

Link to Official Player Spreadsheet
Link to Match Schedule
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Hey all,
I work remotely. When I decided to switch to such work, I moved to a quiet area with drawbacks like poor public transportation and no shopping malls or entertainment locations. I wanted a more secluded place where I couldn't hear my neighbors settling scores. At that time, lack of transportation didn't bother me much since my BF had a car, and I didn't feel any nuisance until we broke off two months ago.
So that you understand, the closest store is nine miles away, and though I love hiking, such a distance is a little too much for me. I also never enjoyed the bus rides - they make me feel like choking, especially during rush hours.
Paying more to have stores closer to my home seems like a dumb idea. I don't want to search for another place to live given that the rent price fits me and I enjoy the peace around and the fresh air. Besides, even when my BF lived with me, I barely made it out of the house. So I thought that getting a bike could make my problem go away.
I've been looking for a bike for the last week, but I can't choose between an electric one and a regular one. Frankly, I'm prone to choose the cheapest option, but the guy from the bike shop in Edinburgh advised me to go for the electric one if I'm planning to use it only a few times a week and don't want to get exhausted while shopping. I believe he's right since I don't intend to ride my bike every day or join any professional cycling club. At most, I'll hang around the neighborhood for physical activity once in a while.
Still, given that the price difference is sensitive, I'd like to hear from people who rode both options about what would be the best choice in my circumstances. Is there a tangible difference between the regular bike and the electric one? Is the electric one worth it?
I'd be very grateful for your thoughts on this topic. Thanks.

Warning: lot to write and get off my chest; no therapist or counselor. Sorry in advance and thanks for reading.
Im posting from a throwaway account but i have been a long time lurker of this sub. I have a lot of respect for you gentlemen coming forward on your personal accounts with your experiences. I can relate to a lot of you so i felt i could come here and post as well because I am not in a good state of mind and hope someone might understand also. Trying to be tough as most men my age try to be (35). I hate to cry but I really feel like it right now. I think internally I am but dont have it in me to let it out. I'm really stressed out for a lot of reasons and I have no friends or outlets.
I am the most successful loser. Got a good job that makes about 95k a year. I have a loving wife and an awesome 9 yr old son. They make me happy and life worth living but without them I would probably quit life.
We recently moved cross country about 9 months ago and relocated from Oregon to New York. It was my wife's idea. In oregon she was very unhappy. She is black (I'm hispanic/white) and she felt targeted a lot. It wasn't unwarranted feeling the way she did. She had a few really shitty experiences in Portland, of all places, and they prompted her to find a more inclusive environment to live that was affordable. My son was not immune to those issues either who is not exactly special needs but is on the spectrum and has adhd.
When my wife told me she wanted to leave Oregon and go to New York I fought it hard. My parents lived in Oregon but that relationship between my wife and parents has forever been strained. To put it lightly, they hate each other. But because i have only my parents and no friends I didn't want to leave. Her happiness and depression really started to take a toll though. She wouldn't leave the house, take my son outside to play, wouldnt get a job, help keep the house clean, keep herself clean. She just was this empty person trying to play house wife. It was really difficult. So after a couple years of fighting it out I caved because she became soo unhealthy and I just wanted her to be happy. At the right moment an opporunity came up with my job for us to move to the city in new york we were looking at and i immediately jumped on it. But now I feel like the roles have switched. I fucking hate it here.
The city we moved to just sucks. It's a lot of petty shit why I don't like it but I'm not happy here because it's not conducive to our lifestyle. While the neighborhoods are cool the people in them are just... shitty. We live in a really nice neighborhood, very sought after, but the neighborly attitudes here are very fake. The reason I'm posting this (what pushed me over the edge i guess) is because I just pissed off my neighbor. It wasn't intentional. My son and I had a water balloon fight and he got mad we left some of the broken balloons in his front yard. I meant to pick them up last night I just forgot. He got mad because he picked them up himself. It just seemed petty when this guy is in his backyard sawing wood at 9 o clock at night or texting me at inconvenient times to move my car so he can get to his trailer. Just to clarify, his trailer is in the driveway that he made an agreement with the owner we rent from. Guy even asked me to watch his kids one day so he could go help his friend with something. Never have I treated this person with disrespect and always stepped up to the neighborly plate to bat a Home run but I'm the dick. The wives are friends too, sort of, but I just don't know. Its just fake. Aside the fakeness I do plan to go over and apologize again and bring a peace offering. I just don't know what. At the same time I'm very "fuck you, I know your game. Your suit and smile can't hide the truth." Probably a petty way to think but feeling nhiilistically cute about it. Reading what I just wrote about how I feel it just seems immature and childish. Thinking about it from his perspective I do get it. I understand his grievance. But it wasn't intentional. I just don't feel like going out of my way to do any more favors. Might be why I can't make any friends.
I have no friends to speak of right now. Most are dead, I have lost contact with, or have parted ways due to differences. I'm alone. And naturally I miss the ones I had. There are 2 In particular i wish i could talk to right now. Both died in a car wreck. Seperate car wrecks different years. Their loss was and still is very difficult for me. I think about them all the time. We would always check up on each other. Most of my closest friends are dead and at 35 I have no more left to lose. My close friends who are still alive aren't really, all there. I call them from time to time to check up on them but they don't call me to check up on me. I dont know if that's just life getting in the way but it feels one sided. Now that I live in New York, I don't know if it's in my head or if my west coast personality getsbin the way but my personality does not jive well here. I grew up surfing and skating and find myself calling people kooks under my breath soo often. Tried finding friends playing hockey but it hasn't quite panned out over 2 seasons thus far. Really trying to make friends here but I just can't to save my life. I'm an introvert, so that doesn't help. Socially awkward at times. The punk scene here sucks hard dick and bubblegum so I have no outlet to go to punk shows and hope to meet people. Been to the skate park, it is better than nothing but its not that good. Obviiusly no surfing here, too far inland. It just sucks.
My job, as great as it has been to me, helping me move to new york, is an endless amount of failures. Every day is a struggle to meet the objectives given to me and usually they are the same objectives but it plays out differently every day based on volume. I'm in management and it is soo difficult to meet those objectives. I manage a good 80 people all with different personalities and work ethics. It's like herding cats and I hate it. I've been told on numerous occasions im a good boss from my supervisors and crew but I'm not necessarily loved. Recently was just written up by my immediate boss for not adhering to instructions and failure to notify. A situation from 3 months ago that occurred while I was on vacation during my regular scheduled day off that my supervisor failed to notify me on. I found out from our maintenance department after the fact, not from my supervisors, what had happened and i notified my superiors. I was held accountable because even though I was on vacation, the responsibility fell on me and therefore my supervisors failure was my failure. Pretty shitty. But Corporate rules. My supervisor can't be held accountable either because they claim they notified me and called me on my personal phone, so says my immediate boss. When I proved to my boss I received no call from my supervisor by showing printed out phone records, showed my time keeping records that they input for my vacation, I was told it didn't matter. "I could have deleted the phone records from my phone". My job truly sucks. There is no winning. Only extreme ownership that could potentially cost you your job. Kind of wild to think about.
We can't buy a house right now. I know I'm not the only one in this boat but I'm feeling it especially hard because I owned a home in Oregon but sold it to move to New York. Inflation, the move, and other miscellaneous expenses have eaten away our savings and what little we got from the sale of our home. The value of the home went up when we bought it but we spent an arm and a leg fixing it before we sold it. We made money, just wasnt a lot or what we hoped for. We didn't intend to sell either it's just the timing really screwed us with trying to move here. In hindsight we should have waited a little longer to move. We might have been in a better position.
I miss my parents. Besides my wife and son they were all I had left. I cannot understate how moving to New York created a hole in me being so far away from them. It sucks. I talk to them once a week.
I try to focus on the good things. My wife and son are happy. They have friends, are less stressed, don't feel targeted and are comfortable. My wife just got a job and is working on losing weight. My son is doing wonderful in school. Way better than he did in Oregon because New York Schools are amazing. I guess that's all that matters. I would give up anything for them.
And this is my struggle right now. Trying to keep that PMA. But I'm not happy and I can't hide it right now. I've been grumpy for a while now. I thought spring would change that because the sun was coming out but that may have just made it worse.
I'm angry and bummed. I'm tired and stressed. I feel I need a vacation from everyone and everything. I just want a friend to talk to, my friend. And I want to cry but I'm stopping myself because I have to Man up because there is no other option.

Ward 1 Councilmember Sonia Harvey resigned after getting priced out of her own neighborhood in South Fayetteville. To all those City nerds around here living in SoFay, if you've ever wanted more support from local government for smart growth, walkable cities, attainable housing, etc...you may have your chance to run for City Council soon.
https://www.fayettevilleflyer.com/2023/05/30/sonia-harvey-resigns-from-fayetteville-city-council/

Omnivoracious Listeners New Music Newsletter (Week of June 3rd):
New LPs:
🇬🇧 Aeffect - 'Theory of Mind' (Genre: Death Metal)
🇬🇧 Akilla - 'The Gods Have Spoken' (Genre: Melodic Death Metal)
🇺🇸 A Man Named Onigumo - 'Ingested Torment' (Genre: Brutal Death Metal)
🇩🇰 Anubis Gate - 'Interference' (Genre: Prog Power Metal)
🇬🇷 Aran Angmar - 'Atavism & Dying Stars' (Genre: Black Metal)
🇫🇮 Atlases - 'Between the Day & I' (Genre: Post-Metal)
🇺🇸 Avenged Sevenfold - 'Life Is but a Dream' (Genre: Heavy Metal)
🇺🇸 Beach Fossils - 'Bunny' (Genre: Indie Rock)
🇺🇸 Ben Folds - 'What Matters Most' (Genre: Alt Rock, Power Pop)
🇺🇸 Ben Harper - 'Wide Open Light' (Genre: Folk Rock, Blues Rock)
🇺🇸 Body Stuff - 'Body Stuff 4' (Genre: Indie Rock)
🇦🇺 Body Type - 'Expired Candy' (Genre: Post-Punk, Garage Rock)
🇺🇸 Bongzilla - 'Dab City' (Genre: Stoner Metal)
🇺🇸 Buckcherry - 'Vol. 10' (Genre: Sleaze Rock, Hard Rock)
🇺🇸 Buggin - 'Concrete Cowboys' (Genre: Hardcore Punk)
🇺🇸 Bully - 'Lucky for You' (Genre: Alt Rock)
🇺🇸 Burnt Skull - 'Daylight Mutilation' (Genre: Industrial Metal)
🇪🇸 Cabaret Aberrante - 'Brutalofilia' (Genre: Death Metal)
🇷🇺 Cadaver Carnivore - 'Devouring Eclipse of Darkest Realm' (Genre: Death Metal)
🇮🇩 Cadavoracity - 'Cadavoracity' (Genre: Brutal Death Metal)
🇷🇺 Chernaya Rechka (Черная Речка) - 'Chernaya Rechka (Черная Речка)' (Genre: Indie Rock, Post-Punk)
🇺🇸 Chip & the Charge Ups - 'What Happened to the Boy Next Door?' (Genre: Power Pop)
🇺🇸 Coffin Prick - 'Laughing' (Genre: Art Rock)
🇦🇺 Cold Irons Bound - 'No Place I Can't Find You' (Genre: Alt Country, Power Pop)
🇬🇧 Comedy of Errors - 'Threnody for a Dead Queen' (Genre: Prog Rock)
🇬🇧 Comet Gain - 'The Misfit Jukebox' (Genre: Indie Pop, Indie Rock)
🇩🇪 Cosmic Burial - 'Far Away From Home' (Genre: Atmo Black Metal)
🇨🇦 Cowboy Junkies - 'Such Ferocious Beauty' (Genre: Alt Country, Folk Rock)
🇦🇺 Dan Cribb & the Isolated - 'I'll Follow You Anywhere' (Genre: Skate Punk)
🇺🇸 Dead Billionaires - 'Disaster Preparedness Coloring Book' (Genre: Punk Rock)
🇮🇹 Death Dies - 'Stregoneria' (Genre: Black Metal)
🇮🇩 Demented Heart - 'Frantic Epidemic' (Genre: Tech Death)
🇵🇱 Dieth - 'To Hell and Back' (Genre: Death Thrash)
🇺🇸 DiGelsomnia - 'Sic Itur Ad Astra' (Genre: Doom Metal)
🇬🇧 Dog Tired - 'The Red Verse' (Genre: Groove Metal)
🇺🇸 Don't Sleep - 'See Change' (Genre: Hardcore Punk)
🇳🇴 Einar Solberg (Of Leprous) - '16' (Genre: Prog Rock, Prog Metal)
🇫🇮 Endless Exam - 'Voice of Passion and Agony' (Genre: Pop Metal)
🇮🇪 Extranauts - 'The Alchemist' (Genre: Psych Rock, Electronic Rock)
🇩🇪 Fjoergyn - 'Judasmesse' (Genre: Symphonic Black Metal)
🇺🇸 Foo Fighters - 'But Here We Are' (Genre: Alt Rock)
🇨🇦 Frankiie - 'Between Dreams' (Genre: Indie Pop, Dreampop)
🇺🇸 From Those Ashes - 'Dush Descending// Dawn Ascending' (Genre: Melodic Death Metal, Metalcore)
🇨🇱 Funeral Fullmoon - 'Unholy Kingdom of Diabolic Emperors' (Genre: Black Metal)
🇯🇵 Galileo Galilei - 'Bee and the Whales' (Genre: Indie Rock)
🇺🇸 Gal Pal - 'This and Other Gestures' (Genre: Indie Rock, Shoegaze)
🇺🇸 Geist of Ouachita - 'Imprisoned in the Graven Wood' (Genre: Black Metal)
🇺🇸 Generationals - 'Heatherhead' (Genre: Indie Pop Rock)
🇬🇧 Gloryhammer - 'Return to the Kingdom of Fife' (Genre: Power Metal)
🇺🇸 Gorgeous - 'Sapsucker' (Genre: Math Rock, Post-Punk)
🇮🇹 Graveworm - 'Killing Innocence' (Genre: Symphonic Black Metal)
🇺🇸 Gringo Star - 'On and on and Gone' (Genre: Psych Pop, Surf Rock)
🇪🇸 Halflighted - 'Obloquy' (Genre: Death Doom)
🇨🇦 Half Moon Run - 'Salt' (Genre: Indie Rock)
🇺🇸 Heldscålla - 'Two Cathedrals' (Genre: Stoner Doom)
🇺🇸 Hellwitch - 'Annihilational Intercention' (Genre: Tech Death, Thrash)
🇲🇹 Hemplifier - 'The Stoner Side of the Doom' (Genre: Stoner Doom)
🇦🇹 Hills Like White Lions - 'Meander' (Genre: Prog Metal, Post-Metal)
🇬🇧 Hugh Sheehan - 'Shapes That Are Different' (Genre: Indie Folk Rock)
🇷🇺 Infiltration - 'Cognitive Warfare' (Genre: Death Metal)
🇦🇺 Isua - 'Abandon' (Genre: Sludge Doom)
🇺🇸 Jake Shears - 'Last Man Dancing' (Genre: Glam Rock)
🇺🇸 John Mellencamp - 'Orpheus Descending' (Genre: Heartland Rock)
🇩🇪 Karbholz - 'Kapitel 10: Wilde Augen' (Genre: Indie Punk)
🇺🇸 Kiltro - 'Underbelly' (Genre: Post-Rock)
🇮🇹 Klidas - 'No Harmony' (Genre: Experimental Rock)
🇦🇺 Kodiak Empire - 'The Great Acceleration' (Genre: Prog Rock, Experimental Rock)
🇺🇸 Koningsor - 'Death Process' (Genre: Hardcore Punk, Metalcore)
🇳🇴 Kvad - 'So Old' (Genre: Atmo Black Metal)
🇬🇧 Lanterns on the Lake Version - 'Versions of Us' (Genre: Indie Rock)
🇺🇸 Leathürbitch - 'Shattered Vanity' (Genre: Heavy Metal, Hard Rock)
🇺🇸 Lightning Strikes Across the Sky - 'Cosmopolis Macabre' (Genre: Black Metal)
🇺🇸 Lonestar - 'Ten to 1' (Genre: Country)
🇬🇧 Lost Under Heaven - 'Something Is Announced by Your Life!' (Genre: Psych Rock, Indie Rock)
🇺🇸 Louise Post (Of Veruca Salt) - 'Sleepwalker' (Genre: Alt Rock)
🇺🇸 Lovelytheband - 'If We're Being Honest' (Genre: Indie Pop Rock)
🇳🇱 Man as Plague - 'Titanomachy' (Genre: Deathcore)
🇺🇸 Messiahvore - 'Transverse' (Genre: Sludge Stoner)
🇩🇪 Minas Morgul - 'Nebelung' (Genre: Black Metal)
🇮🇳 Moral Collapse - 'Divine Prosthetics' (Genre: Prog Death)
🇸🇪 Mörkvind - 'Höstbränder' (Genre: Folk Metal)
🇺🇸 Mountain Echoes - 'Rebuilding' (Genre: Indie Rock)
🇺🇸 Necrofier - 'Burning Shadows in the Southern Night' (Genre: Melodic Black Metal)
🇬🇧 Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - 'Council Skies' (Genre: Alt Rock)
🇯🇵 OCEANS - 'SEE YOU' (Genre: Indie Rock, J-Rock)
🇺🇸 OK Goodnight - 'The Fox & the Bird' (Genre: Prog Rock)
🇬🇧 Order of Decay - 'Mortification Rites' (Genre: Blackened Doom, Death)
🇯🇵 Organic Call - '夢泳ぐ鵠の行方' (Genre: J-Rock)
🇨🇦 Owls & Eagles - 'Patience Vol. 1' (Genre: Psych Doom)
🇺🇸 Pagan Athletes - 'Landlocked' (Genre: Noise Rock)
🇺🇸 Primordial Doom - 'Doom Rising' (Genre: Doom Metal)
🇨🇦 Priors - 'Daffodil' (Genre: Punk Rock)
🇺🇸 Project: Roenwolfe - 'Project: Roenwolfe' (Genre: Power, Thrash Metal)
🇺🇸 Protomartyr - 'Formal Growth in the Desert' (Genre: Post-Punk, Gothic Rock)
🇺🇸 Prydain - 'The Gates of Aramore' (Genre: Symphonic Power Metal)
🇬🇧 Pupil Slicer - 'Blossom' (Genre: Mathcore)
🇺🇸 Purr - 'Who Is Afraid of Blue?' (Genre: Indie Pop Rock)
🇩🇰 Quiet Sonia - 'QS' (Genre: Chamber Rock, Chamber Folk)
🇺🇸 Rancid - 'Tomorrow Never Comes' (Genre: Punk Rock)
🇺🇸 Reckless Son - 'Reckless Son' (Genre: Folk Rock)
🇨🇦 Red Cain - 'Näe’bliss' (Genre: Prog Groove Metal)
🇺🇦 Risin Sabotage - 'Macabre' (Genre: Stoner Rock)
🇺🇸 Rival Sons - 'Darkfighter' (Genre: Hard Blues Rock)
🇮🇹 Rod Sacred - 'Another Day' (Genre: Heavy Metal)
🇬🇧 Ruen Brothers - 'Ten Paces' (Genre: Folk Rock)
🇦🇺 RVG - 'Brain Worms' (Genre: Alt Rock, Post-Punk)
🇳🇴 Saint Karloff - 'Paleolithic War Crimes' (Genre: Stoner Metal, Stoner Rock)
🇩🇪 Scarnival - 'The Hell Within' (Genre: Melodic Death Metal)
🇪🇸 Scent of Death - 'Into Everlasting Hate' (Genre: Tech Death)
🇺🇸 Scoville Unit - 'See What Can Be' (Genre: Punk Rock)
🇯🇵 SHIFT_CONTROL - 'MakeMyName' (Genre: Alt Rock)
🇺🇸 Shinzon - 'Mimic' (Genre: Dreampop, Prog Rock)
🇬🇷 Slaughtered Priest - 'Bang Your Head for Satan' (Genre: Black, Thrash, Speed)
🇺🇸 Smokey Brights - 'Levitator' (Genre: Indie Pop Rock)
🇨🇦 Sorry Girls - 'Bravo!' (Genre: Synthpop)
🇺🇸 Suffocate Faster - 'This Is the Way Vol. 1' (Genre: Hardcore Punk)
🇨🇭 Superdark - 'So Far Out There' (Genre: Psych Rock)
🇺🇸 Tanya Tucker - 'Sweet Western Sound' (Genre: Country)
🇺🇸 Terry Ohms - 'Rock Songs' (Genre: Psych Rock)
🇨🇦 Thantifaxath - 'Hive Mind Narcosis' (Genre: Black Metal)
🇺🇸 The Aces - 'I've Loved You for So Long' (Genre: New Wave, Synthpop)
🇬🇧 The Alarm - 'Forwards' (Genre: Alt Rock, New Wave)
🇺🇸 The Anix - 'Nightvision' (Genre: Alt Rock)
🇺🇸 The Aquadolls - 'Charmed' (Genre: Alt Rock)
🇦🇺 The Hard-Ons - 'Ripper 23' (Genre: Punk Rock)
🇧🇪 The Immortal Samsara Travelers - 'Hanging Gardens in Glacial Apocha' (Genre: Doom Metal)
🇸🇬 The Ironfist - 'Tyrant's Return' (Genre: Black Thrash)
🇧🇷 The Kryptik - 'A Journey to the Darkest Kingdom' (Genre: Black Metal)
🇳🇴 The Mansters - 'Lessons in Giving Up' (Genre: Punk Rock, Hardcore Punk)
🇺🇸 The Rallies - 'It Must Be Love' (Genre: Power Pop, Jangle Pop)
🇺🇸 The Revivalists - 'Pour It Out Into the Night' (Genre: Alt Rock, Roots Rock)
🇬🇧 The Royston Club - 'Shaking Hips and Crashing Cars' (Genre: Indie Rock)
🇺🇸 The Stools - 'R U Saved?' (Genre: Punk Blues)
🇺🇸 This White Mountain - 'Icons of the Melancholy' (Genre: Atmo Black Metal)
🇪🇪 Thunraz - 'Revelation' (Genre: Death, Industrial Metal)
🇬🇧 Tigercub - 'The Perfume of Decay' (Genre: Alt Rock, Stoner Rock)
🇺🇸 Title Holder - 'What Better Time' (Genre: Ska Punk)
🇺🇸 Tombstalker - 'Age of Darkness' (Genre: Blackened Death Metal)
🇬🇧 Tortured Demon - 'Rise of the Lifeless' (Genre: Thrash Metal, Metalcore)
🇧🇾 Trollwald - 'Trollwald' (Genre: Folk Metal, Stoner Metal)
🇮🇹 True Sleeper - 'Loving You in Parallel Dimensions' (Genre: Shoegaze, Psych Rock)
🇸🇪 Tyrann - 'Besatt' (Genre: Heavy Metal)
🇺🇸 Unfurl - 'Ascension' (Genre: Sludge Metal, Post-Hardcore)
🇯🇵 Veiyadra - 'Amalgam in Chaos' (Genre: Brutal Death Metal)
🇺🇸 Viana Valentine - 'Fever Dream' (Genre: Indie Pop Rock)
🇺🇸 Vide - 'The Parish' (Genre: DSBM)
🇺🇸 Void Ov Nihility - 'Above the Stars of God' (Genre: Death Black)
🇺🇸 Vörst - 'Burn the Priest' (Genre: Black Metal)
🇺🇸 Vulture Feather - 'Liminal Fields' (Genre: Post-Punk, Indie Punk)
🇺🇸 Water Damage - '2 Songs' (Genre: Drone, Experimental Rock)
🇺🇸 Weep - 'Life in Shades of Grey' (Genre: Post-Black Metal, Post-Hardcore)
🇸🇪 Writing the Future - 'Caught Between Heaven & Hell' (Genre: Metalcore)
🇬🇧 Wytch Hazel - 'IV: Sacrament' (Genre: Hard Rock, Heavy Metal)
🇨🇳 噬湖 - '茫茫集' (Genre: Folk Metal)
New EPs:
🇺🇸 American Nightmare - 'Dedicated to the Next World' (Genre: Hardcore Punk)
🇫🇮 Blåådpalt - 'Caedite Eos' (Genre: Death Metal)
🇪🇸 Boneyard - 'Ghoulish Tunes' (Genre: Death Metal, Grindcore)
🇺🇸 Evelyn Cools - 'Wilder Mind' (Genre: Folk Rock, Folk Pop)
🇬🇧 Damim - 'World Turned Hell' (Genre: Prog Black Death)
🇬🇧 Hallan - 'The Noise of a Firing Gun' (Genre: Punk Rock)
🇺🇸 Joan Jett and the Blackhearts - 'Mindset' (Genre: Hard Rock, Power Pop)
🇬🇧 King of the Dead - 'Perdition' (Genre: Alt Rock)
🇺🇸 Lacerated - 'The Beauty of Agony' (Genre: Death Metal, Punk Rock)
🇺🇸 Laniidae - 'Episodes: I-V' (Genre: Metalcore)
🇨🇦 Moving City - 'Snacks' (Genre: Indie Rock, Pop Rock)
🇫🇮 Omnium Gatherum - 'Slasher' (Genre: Melodic Death Metal)
🇩🇪 Peace of Mind - 'Life Long Tragedy' (Genre: Hardcore Punk)
🇺🇸 Queen Kona - 'All Hail' (Genre: Metalcore)
🇬🇧 Simulation Defect - 'Within the Threshold' (Genre: Prog Tech Deathcore, Djent)
🇦🇺 Surprise Chef - 'Friendship' (Genre: Funk, Jazz Fusion)
🇸🇪 To Descend - 'Mindless Birth' (Genre: Death Metal)
🇺🇸 Ukko's Hammer - 'Toil' (Genre: Crossover Thrash)
🇺🇸 Uncured - 'My Design' (Genre: Prog Death, Groove Metal)
🇬🇧 Visions From Beyond - 'Portal to Inertia' (Genre: Death Doom)
🇺🇸 Wretched Hallucination - 'Self' (Genre: Stoner Sludge Doom)
🇺🇸 Young the Giant - 'Both Sides' (Genre: Alt Rock)
New Remixes:
🇺🇸 A Place to Bury Strangers - 'See Through You Rerealised' (Genre: Post-Punk, Noise Rock)
Another big week to kick off the month! And I had the extra time to actually get ahead on the spreadsheet again! (You can see this in the server) Hope you find something great!
https://discord.gg/V5fZ38KSCY
If you see this message and have a release/know of one I haven't added, DM me on whatever platform you're on!
Happy Listening!

Long time lurker, first time poster in this Sub. My Fiancé (27 M) and I (27 F) have been together 7.5 years (engaged for 6 months) and I am currently 16 weeks pregnant with my first, a boy, due in November. From our “celebratory times” post engagement my family jokingly says.
I could write a novel on all the B.S we’ve gone through with JN but I’ll try* to keep this short for the sake of this post, but this is years of crap and abuse so I apologize in advance if this gets long and out of sorts. Maybe some day I can post specific examples/stories of all the shit she’s done.
She was wonderful for about the first year or so, then when she saw I was someone serious she changed her tune about me. She’s a typical Narc who see’s me as stealing her “perfect Angel boy”, whom she treated as her surrogate husband post divorce (divorced when Fiancé was 8 as a result of her cheating amongst other things). She’s a serial boundary stomper. I’m the one who is “behind” my fiancé manipulating every move he makes and every word he says, because she can’t fathom that her baby boy has a mind and will of his own to do what HE feels is right!
My fiancé is wonderful and has the shiniest spine, and has told her off many times and had even moved out of her house (immediately, I’m talking overnight here) and went NC for about 3 years when things reached an incredibly ugly point (around 2017/2018). Within the last few years he has tried going LC with her but it still results in issues and problems because she cannot control him, his life, relationship and is not the perpetual center of attention. However the last few months he felt she was changing, as she was reaching out to his sister (21 F who is also NC with her for a ton of despicable reasons on JNMIL part as well) which he felt was a positive sign. Mind you SIL has not felt comfortable with any of her “attempts” and does not want to have a relationship with her at this time for all the abuse she has put her through and rightly so! IMO most of her attempts were public grabs for attention, to be able to say “see I tried!” and not genuine acts from her heart. They’ve all been public displays like showing up to her college sports games uninvited, leaving oversized signs staked into her lawn, leaving gifts on her porch and notes on her car etc. None of her notes have held any sort of accountability/apology just the good ole “God doesn’t want us apart. Family is everything, Mommy loves you” VOMIT.
My fiancé does want to have a relationship with her but is still somewhat conflicted. He is trying to be the biggebetter person and give her a chance because he doesn’t want to live his life with regret towards this of any kind. Which I understand but I just can’t get past. I’m sure it’s easier for me to feel and hold onto as she’s not my mother, but the amount of abuse she has put my fiancé and SIL through and even myself I cannot forget.
Now onto to my question/concern. I personally do not want her to know anything about my pregnancy, maybe even a little after the baby is born. My fiancé says it doesn’t really affect me that much because I don’t have to see her and talk to her (which I don’t thank GOD). However I don’t want her to think this is opening up gates for her to do so. I know she would just treat me like an incubator and try to “butter me up” and act fake nice in order to try and worm her way close to my child. I’m afraid we’ll go the rest of my pregnancy with her attempts and hearing about how much she’s “changed” just to have big problems erupt when baby is born because she’s not going to be allowed in the hospital or to see him right away (which I’m not even sure if I want my own family there during or immediately after). We could try and set boundaries all we want to but I know for certain she doesn’t believe they apply to her and she’s entitled to do/say whatever she feels. She would always state that she’s the “queen” because she’s his (fiancé’s) mother and deserves special treatment and when I’ve asked about my own mom and the special treatment she deserves she tells me it’s not the same and she doesn’t matter… OKAY. This woman has stated to my fiancé and I quote “I’M top dog and she’ll get to be top dog when I’m DEAD” referring to how she’s the top person in Fiancé’s life and I can have that spot over her cold, dead body. Like what the actual F? So reasoning with her on boundaries is not exactly easy or in the question.
Personally I don’t want to let her in on my pregnancy or anytime close after. For my own peace of mind and sanity. Fiancé is afraid she will find out through mutuals that we’re expecting and doesn’t want her to blow up about it, or be mad because she didn’t get told sooner. I’m on the side of I DON’T CARE how she finds out, I want to have a stress free pregnancy and PP away from her. I’m afraid if he lets her in now she will gain all these delusional expectations about our relationship and her relationship to LO. So I’d rather deal with her finding out on her own or her finding out after and still being angry. Not having to jump hurdles of her crap while still pregnant.
I’d like to add that this isn’t something fiancé and I argue about just is something we discuss our concerns over. I know if I really put my foot down and said No he would respect me and my wishes and follow along. I guess I just feel maybe as thought I’m in the wrong or just being petty and unable to to let the past go. So AITA here?
(Sorry this rambled on for so long, thank you to anyone who stuck around to the end!)

There is no chance we could have prepared for this, the Winged Empire has found something AGAIN we hadn't planned for, and now as we are slowly picked off all I want to do is punch my commander in the face.
This entire debacle started about two months ago now. I was leading the spearhead into the enemy lines, and for months before we had been pushing them back easily.We thought within another year we would have humanity off that planet. It might take a century to crush the Winged Empire and another to destroy the remnants, but we would win.
That was till I retrieved the report that ended it all. Our flack and anti-air teams had been strong for months, even with how mobile the enemy's aircraft was, but our adaptation of their anti-air systems made them easier to kill. Then our anti-air teams suddenly came across a target they found impossible to kill.
The aircraft moved without reason, no pilot could ever control it, it moved more like a bird than a plane, its wings moved independently, each metallic surface bending like flesh. Yet it clearly wasn't, it flew over our gun emplacement at Mach speeds dropping bombs and firing missiles, yet from the reports something was wrong. I refused to believe it till I saw it but I couldn't go to our anti-air lines as I was needed in the front.
Although my lead of the campaign quickly came to an end, our anti-airlines had been thoroughly dismantled and our resupply was stopped by this one aircraft that had quickly been joined by many of its kind.
It was on our final push attempting to gain new fronts in the enemy lines when I first saw the beast.
The first thing to happen was the enemy lines fell quiet as we charged into their trenches only to find they were empty. Along the trench walls, falls guns were set up and every gun had a crude system set up where a weight filled with water would slowly pull on the trigger till it fired.
As we walked through the trenches trying to find any intel we could send back to base.
It's then we heard the beast for the first time. I came running out of the trench to the sound of something crashing in the center of no-man's land, only to see a ghostly white creature standing there. I wasn't instantly proven my men were not wrong, it was colossal about twice the size of a normal human aircraft but supported itself on several small spindly feet. Four were on the end of what I assume were its wings while another two were at the end of its tail on long thin legs.
The creature looked at us with curiosity. I couldn't see its eyes as it was clearly an aircraft originally I assumed they were behind the windshield while two colossal engines came out of its body ahead of its tail legs.
Slowly I clambered up onto the top of the trench and walked towards it holding out my hand trying to calm the creature. My men instantly started to call it the blood ghost, I had no idea why they called it that the only part that made sense was the ghost part as the entire creature was white except the tip of the engines and the frame of the windshield.
As I drew closer the creature opened its mouth, I suddenly understood why my men had called it the blood ghost. As it shifted its wings opened showing blood-red threads of skin and the inside of its mouth was entirely red.
“Do not treat me like a mindless beast foe of my masters. Why do you fight, warriors of the false empire.” I recoiled in fear and surprise as the beast spoke in perfect Terran standard.
“Y-you can talk?” For a moment the beast seemed to think about whether it should speak or not. “Answer my question alien, your answer will determine if you live or die.”
I stood for a moment thinking of an answer and only came up with one. “I fight because those are my orders, if I do not my family and I will be punished.”
The beast reared up on its hind legs. “Such a pathetic reason, you hold no ideals of your own, you only fight for your own desire, I always question my master's orders but I see the dragon empress was right. So as the monarch of the Aerodargon, I will put the mindless animals down.”
I froze up as the beast lunged at me biting down on my arm, it lifted me up into the air as with many smaller arms I hadn't seen before reached into the equivalent of a bomb bay in its stomach and removed several missiles.
It finally bit down on my arm fully and tossed me away like a ragdoll into the trenches as it began to toss the missiles at my men like javelins, as along its nose on the left side a section of its skin peeled back with a metallic clink before the sound of a rotary cannon spinning up was heard and bullets began to fly from it.
Several of my men instantly started to fire back, our plasma rounds bouncing off its skin or simply sizzling away.
As my soldiers quickly fell they started to run from the fighting, a few of them grabbed me as I bled out and dragged me into the tree line to escape.
As we vanished into the trees, the beast relaxed and watched us as we left, as if it was stalking its prey. “I've hunted prey much deadlier than you on Earth, and an Aerodargon never forgets its prey.”
We hoped the beast was bluffing, no animal could hunt its prey as far as we ran, as I and my men healed our wounds we found a disturbing truth, many of my men who were struck by bullets found that the bullets we pulled out were actually teeth, about 20 cm long and 5 wide they were colossal but nowhere near as large as the ones in its jaw.
As we stayed hidden in the woods we knew our assault had collapsed as we watched our starships fall from the sky. So we devised a plan, there was a logistics point within a nearby city that we should be able to call a rescue ship. But we had to split into small groups to avoid that beast and military patrols.
Slowly we made our way to the city, over the weeks-long march we lost many men, by the time we had started with 80 men, and by the time we got to the supply point, there were only 30 of us remaining.
We did our best to get in contact with our forces, as one by one we were picked off by snippers, but every time we tried to get through our communication either were blocked or just couldn't find their target as our fleet slowly was pushed further back, our failure on this world had created a domino of failures.
We had no options further except to surrender or fight our way out, and neither was possible with our orders, but the beast's question to my surprise sat in the back of my mind.
With no way out we decided to take the honorable exit, one by one my men took their own lives disintegrating their bodies with their plasma pistols till I was the last one left.
I stood for a moment between the piles of ashes, looking up into the buildings I could see maybe a hundred glints of snipper scopes.
But as I was ready to take my own life I heard it again, the engines of that beast getting louder before it shot over me, a white and red streak shot through the air circling the courtyard I was standing in before it came to land on a skyscraper its many claws digging into the steel frame causing tonnes of rubble to fall to the streets below.
Again I found myself enthralled as I watched the beast change from the rigid perfectly shaped form of an ancient Terran aircraft to the beast, hundreds of blood-red tendrils stretched between the wings that formed its arms and the main body.
In a display of power, the beast clambered up the tower till it was at its peak and just looked at me. It didn't smile, laugh, grin or anything, it didn't attack or move, it just sat clinging to the tower breathing as it looked at me.
In anger I brought my pistol up to the beast ready to fire on it but before I could several sniper shots all at once pierced my head.
—------------------------------------------------------
As the body fell to the ground the Aerodargon jumped from the building landing on the street below tossing up dust. Its white body emerged from the dust cloud as one of the snipers came out from the buildings.
For the moment the Areodargon stood in front of the body before leaning down and biting on his feet, tossing his body into the air and opening its jaw letting the body fall into its maw swallowing it whole.
Slowly the snipper walked up to the Aerodargon and ran their hand along its cold skin. “You ident take too long to think of eating that one Arolan. Something different?”
Arolan snapped his head around defensively bearing his teeth, caught off Garud by the snipper as he had been so indulged in eating the body. As soon as he realized who was there, he relaxed as he stood up on his legs to their full height.
“This man had no soul, he was nothing more than a robot taking orders so I treat him as such.”
“Hummm, we're lucky to have your kind on our side.”
“I am not loyal to your kind, Tailon. I am loyal to my makers, I am loyal to you only as long as you are loyal to humanity. Do not take my peace with you as loyalty, I would consume you just as readily.”
Tailon walked around in front of Arolan tossing her rifle over her back. “Yes, but I am loyal to humanity, I was born under the winged empire's wing, I would die before going back to the curse my parents saw under the first empire.”
Arolan looked down at her for a moment before chuckling. “You are the only one to speak to me so brashly Tailon, your strong soul is why I indulge you so willingly, now, let us return to the enterprise before we are left on this barren rock for the rest of the war.”
Hopping into the air the twin engines that were a part of Arolan’s body burst into life sending a warm gust of air across the land as he shot into the air leaving Tailon behind for her to walk over to a transport truck the other snippers were clambering into.

From the Dissociated Press:
WILLOW CREEK, KY - A recent incident following the disclosure of extraterrestrial life has captured the attention of social media nationwide, a Slibbernox tourist from the planet Zyrklaxa found themselves at the center of a violent inter-species altercation.
With the official first contact diplomatic preceding completed and formal relations opened with extraterrestrial species, naturally an influx of alien tourists and immigrants had been unleashed on the nation. Seemingly it had been only a matter of time before an incident of gun violence involving an outer-space visitor would happen.
The incident unfolded when the Slibbernox, Gthulgraxazilgarnalthroz, caused some traffic congestion while peacefully traveling down Evans Cutoff Rd. Preferring natural means of transportation, these interstellar visitors find our existing roads a perfect esplanade when enjoying the natural beauty of the Planet.
The Slibbernox, pejoratively referred to as "Slimebacks" by certain Americans, originate from the planet Zyrklaxa in the Vraxion system. While they resemble slugs at first glance, their immense size distinguishes them. Standing at an astonishing 8 feet tall, with elongated cylindrical bodies stretching over 12 feet in length, they prove too large to fit on sidewalks. Additionally, their bodies naturally secrete a sticky slime, leaving behind a gooey trail wherever they wander. To accommodate their transportation needs, courts have invoked existing draft animal laws, granting Slibbernox fair use of the roads.
Many motorists patiently waited behind the Slibbernox, however, one impatient local, apparently frustrated with the situation, decided to pass the slow-moving alien illegally, and while doing so engaged in the controversial practice of coal rolling. "Coal rolling" refers to a custom in which diesel trucks are equipped with modified engines and intentionally emit thick, black smoke by manipulating the vehicle's exhaust system. Coal rolling is sometimes used as a form of harassment or intimidation against cyclists, electric car drivers, or apparently slow-moving alien pedestrians.
With humanity freshly steeping in the newfound complexities of intergalactic culture, it's now apparent that expelling Nitrogen Oxides at another is, in fact, one of the most offensive Slibbernox gestures known in their culture, to the point of constituting legal assault on Zyrklaxa.
Witnesses reported that Gthulgraxazilgarnalthroz, rightfully outraged by the assault by any standard on Zyrklaxa, did not hesitate to confront the man. As it is now known, despite their ability for auditory speech, the Slibbernox posses apparent physic abilities. With unknown severity or extent, Gthulgraxazilgarnalthroz began to psychically castigate the already agitated motorist, who then, as he was driving away, frantically dove out of his moving pickup truck and began to writhe on the pavement. After a vividly agonizing 6 minutes, the telepathic beration had ended.
Video evidence captured the man regaining his composure, visibly disturbed by the psychic invasion. Upon standing up he immediately drew his openly-carried M&P40 pistol and fired several rounds at Gthulgraxazilgarnalthroz, causing slime chunks to explode off the alien's body and neon pink goo to slowly leak from the bullet holes. In Kentucky it is legal for anyone over 21 to open- or conceal- carry a legally owned firearm. Moments later, the alien began pulsating rapidly.
Too much dismay, the situation took an ill-fated turn, the man began to clutch and became flush red, then started aggressively screaming. One shockingly amused onlooker can be heard in the video, "Bro goin' Super Saiyan!" Then, disturbingly, the man is seen pointing his firearm at his own head and pulling the trigger. Onlookers compelling reactions to the macabre seen can be heard in multiple videos. One man, "Holy [expletive] [expletive] balls!" Another frantically repeating "He just [expletive] bodied himself!"
Reports indicate that Gthulgraxazilgarnalthroz surrendered to authorities but was not held on charges, and they intend to cooperate fully with the investigation. In an unadorned and blunt series of short social media uploads, Gthulgraxazilgarnalthroz uses an obnoxious but popular text-to-voice function to explain their side of the incident: "Enjoying Willow Creek, maybe buy some land." - "Arrogant and aggressive human male attack me. Just scratch so I am peaceful and restrained." - "I tell man he do a bad thing, I make him feel bad like me. Man couldn't handle confrontation with his own actions. I feel bad, why sad and angry man allowed devastating weapon?"
Authorities, grappling with the lack of laws governing psychic powers, deemed Gthulgraxazilgarnalthroz the victim in this incident and did not press charges. Many Americans are now left contemplating the profound implications of intergalactic encounters and the need for comprehensive legislation to address such complex situations.

Before I begin my story I must maintain that my sentence to death was a wrong and vile thing to do. I maintain that I am not a killer. I did not kill the schoolchildren the authorities decided to hang me for.
My sentence to death, I must maintain, is a huge misunderstanding. There must be forces out there against me, who conspired to put me in prison for this very experiment, this accursed expedition.
I am not deranged. I am not insane.
The man in the odd multicolored sweater paid me a visit a week before my scheduled execution date. “You are the former schoolteacher Chet Adami?” he asked, polite, offering me a plastic cup of coffee.
I nodded, taking a sip. “I didn’t kill those kids,” I reiterated, for about the thousandth time. “Are you the uh, priest guy? That comes before-”
He shook his head and waved away the guards. “My name is Canopy Hydrangea,” he introduced, extending a hand. I shook it. “I understand you may not be guilty, despite what the state believes.”
I nodded. “Finally, someone who-”
He cut me off. “I’m not interested in your story. Whether you die or not is of no consequence to the people I represent,” he continued. “But I am here to offer you a deal. There’s a place the people I represent need exploring, and I need volunteers.”
He produced a sheet of paper and a pen. “This agreement,” he clasped it into my hands, “has you join a team of expendable, uh, volunteers such as yourself on this expedition. You get in, get the things we need, and get out- and you’re free for life.”
This was better than dying in prison.
I asked him what place this was that I’d be sent to. He told me I had to sign the form first. “I’ll do it, then,” I cheered, signing the document.
He smiled and patted me on the shoulder. “We’ll even give you a whole new identity,” he offered. And with that, he seized the document away from me and left the building.
Within hours I was blindfolded, sedated, and transported. When I awoke I was strapped to a bed in a helicopter, with four others beside me, all beginning to wake up.
The man who’d offered me the deal was there too, sucking on a lollipop while rearranging documents and photographs.
These images, I assumed, was the place they wanted us to explore. They were mostly all aerial photos, a sea of endless green and the occasional bird. And yet, there was more- images of impossible landscapes, dreamlike beings.
“Ah, you guys are awake!” he clapped once, and walked over.
The next few moments were a flash as he re-injected us with some sort of blue, wriggling substance. It was cold, and I swear it pulsed inside my arm.
Then we had landed, and the group was quickly taken inside a compound. We were freed and sat down in some sort of meeting room. More people were inside.
A blue haired lady joined the man.
“Welcome, volunteers,” he announced, pointing to a projector. “You are all, save for one, prisoners on death row,” he reminded. “This offer today is simple- you enter the forest, travel to an outpost we have recently lost contact with,” he turned on the projector, displayed a bright red cylinder labeled ‘SYSTEM RECORDER-A32’, “and recover this data module.”
The woman spoke next. “Easy, right?” she counted us. “We’ll provide maps,” she gestured to tablets. “But this forest is different.”
They proceeded to explain the reason they need ‘volunteers’ for the assignment then.
We were on an island somewhere in the Java Sea. The island had a massive forest in the center, one that at first glance seemed as normal as ever. This changed when an international mining company sent in a team of geologists to determine if there was anything of note beyond the forest.
This team never returned.
Nor did a second team, armed with weapons. Or an environmentalist group that ventured in to document new species. So then the organization our recruiters had come from entered the forest.
We were on the outskirts of the forest, at a place they were calling Ake Base.
Over the past month, they had begun to map the forest and determine why so many hadn’t returned. The reason was illogical- the forest was bigger than the island itself.
Drones that ventured in should have come out the other side- yet remained inside the forest, encountering bizarre phenomena and creatures undocumented.
Every so often, the forest would slope downwards, revealing a new layer with new and distinct ecosystems.
“Recently though,” Canopy concluded, “we’ve lost contact with several outposts in the third layer to eighth layers.” He changed the slide to one of the lost outposts, standing alone amidst a vibrant, alien forest. “You enter the forest, get to your team’s assigned outpost, get back out with the data and you’ll be set for life.”
“Does anyone choose to rescind their agreement?” the woman asked. “It’s either death, or this, and frankly, your chances here aren’t that better.”
There were some who raised their hands. “Hell no!” a man shouted. “I’m goin’ back to life!” The woman had them taken away. We heard gunfire outdoors. No life row for him.
Whoever they were- they were serious about this.
They started to call out names and assign teams.
My team, was small, four of us. There was a mercenary named Leo who kept talking about the food the organization had brought us. He seemed pleasant, charismatic, and I almost forgot he was a criminal.
There was a scientist called Anya who, as she joked, was ‘serving infinite life sentences’ for crimes against humanity. She was given the codes and a booklet of things to watch out for in what they called the ‘Sea of Green’.
Then there was Gail. She was quieter than the three of us, and had an almost eerie vibe to her. She didn’t tell us what she’d done to get here, but she was there nonetheless.
Thankfully, we were given the closest- and safest outpost. A little place in Layer Three, marked by the map as only a few hours walk away.
We set off the next day.
The forest, in the beginning, seemed to almost invite us in. The birds chirped and danced, unafraid of mankind. We even fed them the nuts we’d been given as breakfast rations, which they seemed to enjoy.
About an hour in, things changed. The light from the sun barely pierced the canopy, and at times, we had to utilize our flashlights to see what was in front of us. Leo took the lead, hacking away at the branch and vine in front of us.
The forest was starting to look like a jungle- and yet, as we traversed it never seemed to choose which one it wanted to be.
“Wait!” Anya hissed, as we crossed a stream that seemed oddly familiar. She read from the booklet, then to the map on tablets we’d been given. “We’ve made a circle.”
Leo shook his head. “That’s impossible,” he insisted. “I don’t remember turning.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, catching up from behind.
Anya shared the booklet. “It’s one first phenomena researchers encounter,” she explained. “This place plays tricks on us- we need to follow the stream.”
“But then,” Gail pointed out, “we’d be going in the wrong direction.”
“Trust the book,” Anya concluded. We followed the stream then, and the path started to grow denser, as if the forest hated us for traveling further. But the path was right, and the forest changed as we journeyed.
An hour later the forest had changed. It had sloped downwards a bit, inviting us to the second layer of the maze. The trees seemed higher, and the light was now gone completely.
This was when we started to hear it. Click-click.
“What was that?” I asked, turning. Click-click.
Anya rushed through the book. “It’s not documented.”
Click-click. And then we saw lights in the distance, lights that as we continued walking, were revealed to us as bulbous fruit on the trees that glowed an eerie electric blue.
Click-click. “You sure it’s not in that book?” Leo questioned, switching his machete out for a gun. Click-click.
The clicks were getting louder, each one sending a jolt of uneasy fear down my spine. We moved closer together now, fearing the unknown that were in these- A bush in front of us rustled. Leo aimed his weapon.
A deer- no, something like a deer popped out, gently squawking. It was… wrong in every sense, but it seemed more occupied in chewing a flower than us.
The small creature had the antlers of a deer, yes, but it also had the face of an old man. Not to mention six fists full of thumbs at the end of its legs. It inspected a glowing fruit with it’s odd thumbs.
“Ew,” Gail commented, disgusted. “What the hell is that?”
Anya didn’t have time to look for answers before a black, insectine limp shot out of one of the bulbous fruits and impaled the deer-thing. It screamed an all too human scream and struggled.
We backed away- and by then, the noise was overwhelming. Click-clickClick-clickClick-clickClickclickClickclickClick-clickClick-click. They erupted from every single one of the bulbous fruits, and things began to pour out of them.
The limbs, see, were attached to a head. The a simple sphere that opened into buzzsaws of teeth that grotesquely clicked as they opened. The face-deer only screamed as the clicking creatures devoured it.
“Run!” Leo reminded, shooting as some started to near us. “Run!”
That shook us out, and we ran, terror in our very veins. They seemed more interested in the fallen deer than us- but we still ran until we could no longer.
Actually, it was until I fell off and entered the third layer.
A weight appeared on my chest and I fought it off, thinking I was about to die- but the soft, furry creature atop me jumped off. It wasn’t one of the clicking monsters.
And then I realized the third layer was bright. The trees themselves were glowing now, not the insect fruits of before. And there were a whole host of new, bizarre creatures.
The thing I’d pushed off was some sort of rabbit, covered in glowing blue stripes. If layer two had been a forest of darkness this was it’s very opposite.
In the skies there were ribbons of glowing creatures- thin kites on an unseen wind. The trees were alive with all sorts of furried friends, darting here and there and eating odd colored berries that didn’t seem real.
Anya pointed and spoke, “Look!” It was the outpost, in ruins.
“But what attacked it?” Gail murmured, as we walked over.
We entered through a hole in the wall. The place was oddly peaceful, calming, now home to bioluminescent little ants that dotted the place. Occasionally, one or two of the face-deer would appear, licking the dots up with twin tongues that emerged from it’s too-human face.
“Cute,” Leo joked, picking one up and stroking it. It screamed back at him, chilling and he dropped it. “Never doing that again.”
The place was… too peaceful. And- “what happened to their bodies?” I posited. “If they were attacked- where’s their blood? Their corpses?”
Anya shrugged. “It is odd- perhaps they got devoured.” She gestured to the many oddities around us. “But you’re right, there should be bones, at least.”
This was when we heard the screaming. And all of a sudden every single creature retreated away, disappearing from view, save for the tiny ants inside with us. The screaming was a cacophony of voices, realer than the ones we’d heard from the face-deer.
“I think we need to go,” Leo whispered, holding out the red ‘data module’ in his hands. “Now.”
The screaming got ever closer, and the trees in front of the outpost, beyond a window, started to shake. “I concur.”
We were backing away when we heard the squelching of something loud and heavy. Turning around, we saw the screaming creature we’d heard. It was massive, fleshy, and filled with tiny gaping holes, some filled with eyes, all rising, breathing as one.
I nearly threw up. But that was for a different reason.
The holes were one thing. But the screaming, severed bodies of dozens of people attached the the eye-full monster was another. They screamed and screamed, their bodies unneatly joined and sown into the creature.
It sniffed the air and walked over to the glass, looking in as we hid. “What is it?” I squealed. “What the hell is that?”
The face of a victim in military clothes appeared at the window, screaming, face slowly popping, skin repairing and being digested all at once. Anya flipped through the pages. “They called it a Fleshweave. It absorbs bodies and eats them that way.”
That would explain the lack of bodies we’d seen.
The window shattered- and the thing began to force itself on it, flesh turning to churned cylinders through the window. The bodies, crushed further, screamed some more.
So we ran as the beasts fell into the room with a plop. And despite it’s heavy, gluttonous form it charged forwards, faster than it looked.
Out the outpost we went. I felt a meaty hand hit me and then I fell. It stalked towards me, but a gunshot from Leo burst it’s pus-ridden hand, covered my in grotesque, viscous liquid.
I picked myself up and ran from the screaming thing, up the steep slope and climbing onto the second layer.
I fell again, but Anya caught me, helping me up.
Leo did the same for Gail- but she slipped and fell back into the third layer. The thing approached her, all of it’s pulsing eyes upon her. “Help me!” she bellowed. “Don’t leave me-”
Leo prepared to jump down- but it was too late. The Fleshweave simply picked her up and it opened it’s skin, forging her into her body- er, her top half,- it severed the rest.
“Go!” I snapped, dragging the mercenary to action. The creature behind us lifted itself onto the dark forest and continued to follow.
Gail, merged with the other unfortunate bodies, screamed. I almost stopped in terror from the sound, but flight-or-fight forced me to continue.
Click-click. We found ourselves back in the center of the abode with the insect fruit. And the insects were clearly attracted to the stench of decay the monster emanated. Limbs emerged, and the face-beetles jumped up and swarmed the creatures.
I don't know if the creature was killed by it. I only remember Gail’s face as the insects started to pick her body- and so many others like her- apart.
The way out seemed harder than going in, but we made it. We survived. We reached the outpost and handed our data module to the man who’d offered us the deal. “Impressive,” he congratulated. “You’re the first team back.”
“I want out now,” I panted. “Back to real life.”
He patted me on the shoulder and gave me a sad smile. “According to the world you’ve already died by suicide in your cell,” he informed. “See, there’s a way the people I work for have operated so cleanly for the past few centuries.” He paused and took a step back. “We can’t afford loose ends, see, and you’ve shown us you have the guts to survive Bandai La- er, the Sea of Green.”
I took a step back, panicking. “What do you mean?”
He sighed. “We can’t give you a new life and risk exposing our operation here,” he explained. “And we still need ah, expendable people to lead us to whatever’s in the center of the island.” He handed me a can of soda. “Welcome to your new life. The Company really values your dedication as a treasured employee.”
​
​
But I don’t want this. I was promised freedom. And they can’t keep me from exposing them- I’ve typed this up and Anya did something to the tablet so I can receive and post things online.
I’m not sure if this’ll work. But if it is: I’m on an island somewhere in the Java Sea. There’s a forest that goes on forever and I’m being held as some sort of explorer by some Company.
Find me. Before I die.

My husband and I are selling our first house, and I’m losing confidence in our relator. He is a friend of my husband’s and lives in Houston, we live in Austin. We called him for advice about buying/selling and he said he was starting to do business in Austin and has a team in Austin, so he could represent us.
He sent us some good options for homes to buy, but we ultimately decided to go with a new build before he had a chance to travel over to go to showings with us. No problem, all good. He’s been helpful with going over contracts and helping us set things up with a phase inspection.
Now in the selling process, I’m beginning to lose confidence. I had to rewrite the listing description because it said nothing about our home, and waxed poetic about a rec center, golf course and aquatic park that don’t even exist in our neighborhood. We listed on Thursday and the house has been getting a lot of attention. We had two open houses over the weekend with a steady stream of visitors. We had a bit of a communication issue with the agent staffing the open houses and our realtor was totally unreachable for the first hour and a half of our open house, nor did he provide us with the other agents contact info. AGAIN we had to take matters into our own hands and stop by the open house to tell the agent the information our realtor failed to convey to him in the first place.
This morning we reached out to see what the next steps are, and he just said he’d reach out to realtors from the weekend to see if there are any planned offers. We have no upcoming showings scheduled. Meanwhile, the house has absolutely blown up on Zillow, I guess I’m kind of surprised that we haven’t garnered more concrete interest or follow up. Since I’m new to selling a house I’m wondering if this is common practice, or if our realtor is acting normal.

Headlines: https://youtu.be/IH5MFOmmZPI
Deadly Shooting / Moody St. Hyrbid Closing / New Candidates / Waltham Pride / Housing Notification Ordinance / Energy-Efficient Building Codes / Proposed Sober House / Lexington Power Plant
Debrief: https://youtu.be/IH5MFOmmZPI
1:00 What to expect from Waltham Pride? (Nick Hammond) 3:10 Speakers at Pride 4:40 Where’s the money come from for Waltham Pride? 6:46 Volunteer at Waltham Pride! 9:25 Waltham Reproductive Justice Paint Event @ Pride! (Amanda Kennedy) 10:45 Sneak Peak at Portrait 13:45 Waltham City Council Passed Pride Resolution - Not Everyone Signed On 16:30 Shoulda Been A Roll Call 21:06 Tenants Rights Ordinance 26:20 Difference Between a Citizen Input Hearing and a Public Hearing 30:00 Sober House Application Goes Awry 33:20 Clips From the Meeting 38:20 Councilor Bradley-MacArthur's Climate Resolution Shot Down 43:00 If The Whole World Doesn’t Agree To Do Something, It’s Not Worth Doing (Councilor Lafauci) 46:25 This Puts Anthony Lafauci To The Right of Oil Industry 50:30 Waltham Should Be Leading, like We Used To
Headlines transcript:
Waltham resident Shelson Jules passed away on Monday 5/22, apparently from a gunshot that occurred about 1:30am near Lyman St. and Faneuil St. According to a gofundme set up to support his family, Shelson was also known as JJ and was a 22 year-old alum of Waltham High School. Waltham Police and the district attorney are investigating the shooting and so far no additional details have been made public.
This weekend is the first weekend a portion of Moody St. is closed to cars this year under the new "hybrid" plan that allows for outdoor dining but with more restrictions than in past years. Moody St. from High St. to Pine St. will be closed to cars Thursday evening through Sunday, as well as some holiday Mondays , from now through September 25. According to a WCAC article, business owners have mixed feelings about the new arrangement but 12 restaurants as well as the Game Underground have applied to use outdoor space.
A few more prospective candidates have pulled papers for this year's Waltham election. They include one more person who's been part of our Channel 781 News team-- Chris Hammer, who has helped us with video production, plans to challenge Councilor Harris in Ward 8. In addition Tammy Wong-Bigelow is the first challenger to pull papers for the School Committee race, Waltham Police Officer Paul Tracey has pulled papers for Ward 3, and elementary principal Stephen Duffy plans to run at-large.
Waltham Pride is happening next Saturday, June 3 on the Waltham Common. This is the third time in Waltham's history that we've had our own Pride event, and the second year on the Common. Some of last year's popular performers will be returning including Missy Steak, Evan Greer, Toast, Katie Gullotti, Rose Bello, and Zumba with Jen, along with a new drag performer Iris Laveau. Speakers will include community members from the middle school, high school, Brandeis, a local Church, and Waltham's recently formed Trans Alliance. That's 11-4 on Saturday and if you'd like to help out, there's still time to sign up as a volunteer. We'll have Nick Hammond and Amanda Kennedy on our debrief show to talk more about th event.
In this week's city council meeting, Councilors Bradley-MacArthur, Paz, and Darcy introduces a resolution recognizing Pride month and calling for a Pride flag to fly on the Common. The council voted to approve that without committee reference.
Also in this week's meeting Councilor Paz re-submitted the housing rights notification ordinance, and the council set a date for a citizen input hearing to take place Wednesday 6/21 at 6:30pm at Government Center. That ordinance was originally proposed by Watch CDC and would require landlords to give tenants in danger of eviction information about their rights. The new version Paz submitted includes language that also protects homeowners in danger of foreclosure.
Also in recent meetings, the city council shot down a proposal to make Waltham's building codes more energy efficient. The state sets standard that require new buildings or renovations to meet a certain level of energy efficiency, but municipalities can choose to adopt "stretch codes" that require a higher standard, which Waltham has done in the past. Councilor Bradley-MacArthur submitted a resolution to adopt the latest stretch codes, which was discussed at the Public Works & Public Safety Committee on 5/15. At that meeting Councilor LaFauci argued that the standards were too difficult to meet and would cost the city money by deterring people from renovating their homes. He said that "fossil fuels are not going away" and argued that it doesn't make sense for Waltham to take steps to address climate change if not all states and countries are doing it. The committee recommended the council file the resolution with prejudice, meaning they will not take action on it and no one can submit a similar resolution for at least a year. In the following meeting the council voted to do just that despite an effort by Councilor Bradley-MacArthur to send it back to committee.
Also at this meeting neighbors showed up to oppose a proposed lodging house on Robbins street that would provide shared bedrooms for about 20 people in recovery from addictions. That was sent to committee and we'll talk about that more on our debrief show.
A proposed solar plant in Lexington near the Cambridge Reservoir and the Waltham line was approved by the Lexington Planning Board on 5/17. The City of Waltham previously went to court to prevent developers from building an access road to the plant through a Waltham neighborhood, but lost. More recently Waltham neighbors organized to pressure the Lexington government not to approve the project. At the recent council meeting Councilor Darcy requested certain city department heads come to the next meeting to discuss.
There's no city council meeting this week but committee meetings will return June 5.

Part 32 on HFY
"I think I found it," I said, knowing that Inanna and Sarisa could hear me. A second later, Sarisa popped into existence next to me. "Huh," she said.
The map she'd shared with the rest of us showed a single row of houses fronting the natural area, but I could clearly see the roof of a building, set far back from the homes amid the trees. A wide driveway with the single white line they used here to differentiate traffic lanes emerged from between two properties with a gate closed over it.
A sign hung from the gate, unreadable with all the bullet holes in it, but the operating hours at the bottom were unmistakable. This wasn't another home, but some sort of public-fronting establishment. "I definitely have no knowledge of this building. I think you've got it."
"Will you get the others?" I asked. Sarisa smiled and vanished again. A few minutes later, Gary and Kathy emerged from around a corner with Sarisa.
"Where's Ana?" Gary asked as they approached.
"She peed herself," I said.
"What?" Gary face scrunched up and I laughed. "You heard me."
"Well, how the hell did that happen?"
I shrugged. "The usual way, I guess. She's been telling me about getting tired and feeling confused on a repeating schedule and having to make an effort to return to her usual health. I suggested she try staying hydrated, because it sounded like dehydration that she was describing. So she started hydrating and..."
"And she forgot to go tinkle," Gary grinned. I winked at him, and then noticed Sarisa giving me a look. I responded with a "what do you expect?" gesture, and she sighed and shook her head. Sarisa never liked it when I told little white lies, even though it turns out she's told a few, herself.
Inanna emerged from the closest home, then. She was still in the same khakis and unbuttoned-most-of-the-way outfit she'd worn in, but she was dry now. "It wasn't pee," she announced.
Gary looked back and forth between us, eyebrows raised. "Okay...."
Kathy suddenly smirked and turned away. Well, damn, that was quick. I had to remember not to underestimate her.
"It doesn't matter," I said, "Look." I pointed to the gate. "That has to be the museum."
"Well, whatta we waitin fer?" Gary asked and walked over to check the padlock on the gate. He gave it a quick look, then took off his pack and dug around for a second, producing a pair of smallish bolt-cutters. He lined them up on the lock's hook and, with a quick jerk, brought the jaws down on it. The padlock fell to the ground with a clatter and Gary opened the gate wide enough to walk in.
We all followed him in through the gate and he pulled it shut and used a rock to wedge it in place. Up the long drive, we found a small parking lot and another shot-up sign. But this one had the words "museum" and "north" still readable in Armenian printed on it, so if we'd had any doubts during the walk up, they were gone.
Inanna simply magicked open the locked front door and we walked in. We split up, wandering the halls and searching the various rooms an exhibits. I moved down a hall with prints of medieval paintings of vikings and little placards describing the circumstances of the original painting as well as the events portrayed. The first three doors I found were bathrooms and a closet. The last entrance had no door in the frame, and it led to a room full of weapons.
A few actual viking-age and earlier weapons sat in glass cases in the middle, with reproductions bolted to the walls. Apparently, the museum was family-friendly, because foam versions of the weapons were stacked in an umbrella stand in one corner.
As I was returning to check another hall, I heard Kathy's voice "I think I got it!"
I followed the sound through a few rooms and found her and the others gathered around a small glass display case on a pedestal in the middle of a room whose walls were bedecked with paintings, both ancient and modern, of Norse Pagan religious subjects. Squeezing between Inanna and Gary, I saw it.
It was just like the last one, except the teeth were arranged slightly differently.
"So can we just, like, take it?" Kathy asked Sarisa. Sarisa shook her head, "Not without interfering with the magic. We have to share secrets again."
We all looked around at each other. This was actually getting more difficult, as we were a pretty tight group. We simply didn't have a lot of secrets. I broke the ice.
"When I was in my junior year, I stole three books from the college library, because they wouldn't let me check them out."
Kathy snickered. "I bet that's the worst thing you've ever done, too."
I turned towards her. "They were three volumes of a history of video games. The nineteen eighties through the two-thousands. I still have them in my closet." Kathy laughed and held out a hand for a fist bump. I gave it to her, unsure of why that would be fist-bump-worthy until she said "I figured they'd be dense academic works on some obscure aspect of history. Or maybe porn."
"The second volume covered erotic games," I admitted, "but there weren't a lot of titillating images, unless a screenshot from Custer's Last Stand is the sort of thing you find sexy."
I felt an easing in the tension of the room which I hadn't recognized until that moment. It had worked. Inanna spoke up next. "I'm keeping the baby," she said.
Everyone looked at her. Sarisa spoke first, "Sister, that is possibly the least-secret secret I've ever heard of. I don't think any of have had any doubt that you would keep the child you made with the man you love."
Inanna turned to me, "Did you know?" I shrugged. "I never really considered that you'd end the pregnancy. It would be very out of character for you."
"And you're okay with that?" she asked me? "Of course," I replied immediately. "Why wouldn't I be?"
She wrapped her arms around me and leaned her head against my chest. I smiled. This was nice, Inanna showing affection without being all grabby.
"I'm going to have to think about it for a minute, then."
Gary took a deep breath. His face clouded for a moment, and then he cleared his throat.
"I killed two civilian boys in Rukha, in Afghanistan back in 2001 to stop them from alerting Taliban in the region. We were moving through some fields, coming down into the valley from the north. We needed to get to a high point that sort of split the valley, to call in some JDAMs on a couple Taliban positions down in the valley. We didn't see the boys at first, they were hiding in some bushes or something. But as we got close, they broke cover and ran. I didn't even hesitate. I knew if they made it into town or to someone with a phone, the locals would fill the streets to gawk and the Taliban would abandon their positions.
"I saw them running, had just enough time to recognize the threat, and then I shot them both in the back. Neither one was armed. Neither one was older than about twelve." His voice was rough and raw. It was obvious he was digging deep for this.
"I still sometimes have nightmares about it," he added, and then he closed his mouth and stared at the ground. I felt the tension ease a bit more.
Kathy put her hand on his shoulder and he reached up to pat it. "I abandoned my best friend throughout middle school, Maryann, because she wasn't popular enough to suit me when we got to high school," she said.
"When we started as freshmen, we both made a bunch of new friends. She had a harder time of it, just because she wasn't as sociable as I was, but she was my friend, so she kinda tagged along as we became the 'in-group'. But some of the other girls didn't like her. Maryann listened to different music than most of us, and liked different actors and dressed different. It was super petty, I know, but at the time, those things seemed important." She laughed ruefully, "Like listening to Shinedown somehow made her a bad person. Anyways, it got worse over our freshman year. When we started sophomore year, I decided to cut her loose. So I told my mom a boy was harassing me, and she changed my number. A couple of the other girls did the same. We gave each other our new numbers, but not Maryann."
Kathy sniffed and I could see moisture in her eyes.
"She just seemed so confused at first. None of us were willing to just tell her that we didn't want to be friends, so we made excuses. I told her my phone was turned off, and said that I had plans every time she wanted to hang out. When she finally figured it out, she didn't even get angry. She just, like, vanished. She stopped coming to school, and stopped eating at the diner where we always used to get burgers after school.
"After a couple of months, I started to get worried about her. So I went to her house and knocked on the door. Her mom answered and told me that Maryann didn't want to talk to me and that I should go. And that was the last I ever heard from her."
Sarisa put her arm around Kathy's shoulder and squeezed her. "It's not too late," she said, then Kathy turned into the hug and they embraced. I heard Kathy take a few shuddering breaths, and then she pulled back. "I know. And I plan to go to her, as soon as this is done. I won't take no for an answer, this time."
The tension eased further. Only the goddesses remained. Inanna had, predictably enough, managed to sneak a hand down my pants while Gary was talking, but her fondling was subdued, more of an idle fidgeting than her usual concerted attempts to arouse me. The thrill of being touched by a goddess remained, however, which is why I was keeping my mouth shut.
Sarisa broke the silence. "I slept with Astoram, once."
"What?" I choked out in unison with Inanna. Inanna jerked her hand free and spun to face Sarisa.
"I thought you said that night with Jerry was your first time."
"It was... Listen, it wasn't actually me who slept with him, but an avatar of mine who lived in my temple in Mohenjo-daro. I was experiencing everything she did, but I wasn't in control of her actions. The truth is, I wasn't even paying her much attention, and she had long since grown into her own being, making choices that sometimes surprised me. Astoram came to her in a manifestation. He pretended to be distraught after Loki had foiled one of his schemes, and he seemed to think the avatar was me in a manifestation. He played at humility, confessed that he was always jealous of how smart I am and just generally seemed remorseful, and possibly not such a bad god, once you got past his public facade.
"The avatar had been quite lonely, and had grown quite human, having lived among them for so long. So she was moved by his words and..."
"And threw him a pity fuck," Inanna said.
Sarissa nodded, "And she threw him a pity fuck, yes. Of course, that was his plan, all along. He impregnated her. He was so livid when he found out she wasn't me that I had to have Krast pin him down until he swore not to hurt the avatar. Even then, I was still so concerned for her safety that I sent her to Scandinavia to bear her son in peace."
"The avatar, that was Aelfrida?" Inanna asked. Sarisa nodded, and Inanna turned to me. "Jerry, now you three are the only people alive who knows the name of Grendel's mother."
"The baby was Grendel?" I asked, surprised. Sarisa nodded again. "Yes, and he was a lovely creature for a very long time, until that drunkard, Hrothgar built his little party shack and drove the poor thing insane with all the noise." She shook her head sadly.
The tension eased more. It was barely there. All eyes were on Inanna now. She gave us all an askance look, as if she didn't like being the center of attention.
Yeah, right.
After a moment's silence, she turned back to me and wrapped her arms around my waist. She leaned her head against my chest again and spoke, not looking at anyone.
"I've thought a lot about what we're doing and what it might entail, from a practical perspective. I've communed with Ixy on it, as well, as he's the oldest of all of us. As best I can guess, the actual method which we're trying to learn is not to kill Astoram, or even to put him back to sleep. It's to cut off his manifestation from his divinity. It would open his domain for grabs by the rest of us. I'm sure Ixy plans to seize as much of it as he can, the moment we succeed.
"I can't think of any other method of defeating him that's even remotely possible. Sarisa, you know we've discussed this." Sarisa nodded. I knew, too. I'd heard them talking about it a few times, and had a general idea of their logic. It was complex and sometimes irrational, but if you squinted just right, it sort of made sense.
The gods' divinity wasn't who they were, but a natural product of living beings interacting with the universe and each other, that occasionally grew into something so coherent and powerful that it took on a life of its own. As best I understood, Ixy was the first god. He came into being when human ancestors began really differentiating themselves from the other animals with their cleverness, a sort of reflexive kickback against said cleverness. Every time an animal did anything, a trickle of energy was added to Ixy's domain, but every time an especially smart animal followed its instincts, he got a huge jolt of power.
Eventually, all that energy coalesced into the nightmarish entity that Ixy can be if you don't know him. Because those ancestors were smart and they contributed so much, Ixy developed a literal mind of his own. A simple mind, about as intelligent as your typical chimpanzee, but with the social bonds of a dog.
As time passed and humanity evolved into its modern state, that growing intelligence that it brought flowed towards Ixy. But Ixy didn't want it. Ixy liked being Ixy. So he sequestered these little disembodied minds off from the rest of himself. And things continued like that for a very long time.
But humanity was only just beginning to get clever. As tribes and clans took hold, complex social behaviors developed, and those behaviors differentiated themselves from the primal energy that defined Ixy. One by one, these energies, these divinities, grew dense enough to power a god on their own. The minds that Ixy had sequestered were not comatose or unaware, and they saw this happening. Eventually, one of them escaped and tied itself to a divinity. They became the first generation of the gods. Hunting, bloodlust, simple lust, hunger, loneliness. Base concepts that all of humanity knew.
This first generation eventually experienced the same fate as Ixy, only without the entirety of the animal kingdom feeding them a steady drip of power, they grew weak as the energies split apart. To offset this, they emanated; breaking off parts of their own minds to take command over the diverging and clumping divinities that had once been entirely theirs. As these emanations seized their own divinities, they became the second generation of gods. Sarisa and Inanna were both second generation gods. The second generation was supposed to serve the first, but after some time, they rebelled.
The first generation was gone; slain somehow in a great war that had been wiped from the minds of all survivors, even the gods themselves. Only Astoram remained of their number. Sarisa and Inanna had discussed how that might have happened, even before Astoram's awakening, and the consensus they had established was that one or more of their 'sibling' gods had learned how to separate a god from their divinity.
Once that was done, then there would be little left but the mind, unless said god had been manifesting. In that case, they would survive not as a disembodied mind, but in whatever form they had taken. And that was what we planned to do to Astoram. What it wasn't, however, was a secret. I looked down at Inanna, who glanced up and caught my eye. When she spoke, I knew she was speaking to me.
"If we succeed. If we find a way to strip Astoram from his divinity, then after we've defeated him, I want to be stripped from my own. I want to live whatever remaining life I have in this body with you, Jerry."
Holy fucking shit.
----
As a reminder, this whole story is available at JerryandtheGoddesses.

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Chapter 117 – I have nothing to hide
With a deep, long exhale that took every last bit of air out of his lungs, James hung up his call. Wordlessly and with his chest deflated, he simply remained standing there for a few seconds, feeling how his system gradually drained itself of oxygen while he tried his best to clear his thoughts and listen into himself. But all he felt was a chaos that he couldn’t calm. He had no idea if he was ready for this, and trusting the word of others had never in his life felt as hard as it did right now, not even the many times his life had literally depended on the word of others.
All he could do was reassure himself. He could do this. He would do this. And they all would get through this. He would make it happen. He had to.
Feeling the raging chaos-storm die down only ever so slightly at his own reassurances, he finally allowed himself to inhale again. He forced himself to not violently gasp for air as if he had just emerged from a deep dive. Instead, he very deliberately began to allow air to rush into his body through his nose, adamant to keep full control of the flow as he did so.
Once his lungs were full, he kept the air in for only a moment, before allowing it to rush back out of his mouth in a pursed-lipped exhale, while also opening his eyes again.
With steady and deliberate steps, he then began walking back to the rest of his group at an even and controlled pace. The projections of his team’s expression looked back at him with a strange sense of wonder and anticipation.
Nia and Moar on the other hand looked like they already sensed the severity of the situation, and a mounting dread seemed to take hold of them. Meanwhile Curi and Congloarch stood by with stony expressions, not giving a hint as to what was going on behind their faces.
That only left one.
Unlike all the others, Shida approached him as he returned to the group. After meeting back up outside of the conference room once the recess had been called, James had immediately separated from everyone again, and she had patiently waited for him to be done with his preparations. But now they could finally discuss what needed to be said.
“Are you feeling any better?” James asked her, knowing that he sadly would most likely have to force her to join them in the room once again once the proceedings would return to order. It was for everyone’s safety.
“Not really, but I think I can sit it out,” Shida confirmed for him, her expression stuck between assuring and sickened by the thought, which James couldn’t fault her for. With her ears twitching, likely to subtly remind him of her fine hearing, she then lifted a hand to gently put it on the side of his mask, where his cheek would usually be found. “So, it’s come down to it, huh?”
James nodded, while lifting his own hand to press it onto hers.
“Yes,” he replied with a sigh that reflected the weight he felt pushing down on him. “Not how I wanted things to go, but…I’m also glad that the secrecy will be over.”
Allowing his head to sink down, his mask pressed against Shida’s forehead.
“I honestly can’t tell if I’m overjoyed or devastated that you’re here with me for it,” he whispered as he closed his eyes for another moment.
“I wouldn’t want to be away from it,” Shida whispered back while her other hand also lifted to gently sink down onto the back of his head. “Not again.”
Letting out the mildest hint of a laugh, James embraced her. As he felt her body in his arms, a primal part of him wished that they could just remain like that. Just unload all of this weight and pressure in a hug until nothing bothered them anymore. Of course, that was not how anything worked, and so they soon let go.
Together, they joined back up with the rest of the group.
“Usually, I would offer anyone who doesn’t want to stick around the chance to get out now, but I’m afraid that would be way too dangerous to do,” James explained as he looked at everyone’s face individually. “For better or for worse, it’s safest if we all stick together now.”
Moar was the first to step forwards. Slowly, she approached him with her lumbering steps, one clawed hand lifted to her face while long fur hung off her thin arm, while the other half-extended towards James but stopped in mid air long before it reached him.
“James, what are you going to do?” she asked, her tone filled with all kinds of strongly held-back emotions. Light reflected twinklingly in her wet, dark eyes. James swallowed, but a feline hand clasping around his gave him courage.
“I’m going to come clean,” he said with a look up at the giant. “Everything that’s been said. Everything that’s been done. I’m putting it all on the table. I will let the galaxy be my witness that I made my choices and I am willing to stand for them, like I always was.”
He then wondered if he should prepare all of them for what was about to happen.
However, he decided against it.
“It’s better if I don’t tell you more right now,” he said with a creeping sadness gradually reaching for his words. “I don’t know how you’re going to react to it, but…whatever your reaction may be, it will be better if it is genuine inside of that chamber. You knew of nothing, and people will see that. I don’t want anyone to unjustly think you were involved.”
Although he didn’t say much, the concerning vagueness of his statement seemed to already give at least some of them ideas of what was going on, especially given the recent tensions back on Earth.
“James…you- you can’t be-“ Nia began, however James cut her off with a raised hand and slowly shook his head.
“Let’s keep it for the big reveal, alright?” he suggested, although his tone didn’t leave much room to argue.
Seemingly stricken by his words and looking for some reassurance that surely what she was thinking couldn’t be true, Nia glanced around to the faces of her other fellow humans for any sort of support. However, the projections of the faces of James’ entire team, including her own girlfriend, were just as glum and anticipating as that of her brother was.
They all knew. Of course, they did.
As James watched that realization sink in for his sister in real time, he suddenly noticed a huge shadow creeping in from his side. Turning his head, he looked up just in time to see a huge hand sink down to grasp around his shoulder, as Congloarch bowed his upper body in a show of respect.
“It is a rare sight to see a dancer stand firm,” the Lizartaur informed him with his deep, bellowing voice that came through barely parted rows of sharp teeth. “You carry yourself well, James. Keep that up, and the Galaxy will see it, too. I, for one, will stand with you.”
All of the giant’s four fiery eyes were focused down onto him.
James exhaled slowly, not knowing if he should be inspired or bemused by the strange encouragement.
“Thank you,” he ultimately said with genuine fondness in his voice. “For everything.” Hesitantly, he then turned to Curi. The cyborg still stood without any movement, their lightly glowing red eyes fixating on him with great attention.
“I think…” they began to say, noticing his eyes on them, however they then cut themselves off and shook their body slightly to rephrase it. “I believe in you. I believe that I cannot have misjudged you to such a degree that anything you did would make me no longer want to stand with you. Not after you stood with me when nobody else would. You said you wouldn’t rather have anyone else by your side. And I will be.”
While James appreciatively bowed his head to the cyborg, Moar then came forth once again, seemingly feeling like she needed to say something as well.
“I am not sure what you have in store for us this time, but I cannot imagine abandoning you to face it alone once again either,” she said, her gaze noticeably falling onto his cybernetic arm. “I cannot promise that it will not take me time, but I do not wish to let myself be blinded by my own ignorance again. Therefore, I will listen to your reason, and knowing you, I am sure I will see it as well.”
Exhaling slowly, James was already starting to think that he was feeling one too many emotions right before such a huge event. But, seeing as it couldn’t get much worse, he turned to his team.
“Anyone got anything to say? Now’s your chance,” he offered to them. The humans briefly exchanged some looks with each other. It didn’t really seem like they had much need to get anything out.
“If we’re going to have to fight our way out of here because of this, I’m going to be so mad,” Athena notified everyone with a sigh while patting the side of her belt with one hand while throwing her long ponytail back with the other.
“Remember to count your kills if it comes to that,” Koko chimed in with a tone that seemed to try to break up the tension. “Makes documentation so much easier if we don’t have to scrub through the footage.”
She tapped at the camera attached to her chest with a finger.
Giving the two a hesitant courtesy chuckle, James then turned to his sister once more. She still looked on in disbelief, seemingly overwhelmed by what was happening.
Momentarily letting go of Shida’s hand, James walked over to her, immediately pulling her into a tight hug.
“You don’t have to worry,” he assured her, doing his absolute best to confidently speak this truth into existence. By any metric, she had done nothing wrong. At the very least he would ensure everyone knew about that.
Nia held him for a moment, before shifting her head slightly.
“What about you?” she asked gently.
“I can handle myself,” James replied immediately. “And I’ll have no regrets.”
Apparently not quite knowing how to react to what he had said, Nia just squeezed him tighter.
“I love you,” was all she said in the end, and James could feel his heart drop at her words.
“I love you, too,” James replied seriously, and after a few more long seconds, they let go of each other again.
Clearing his throat, James looked around at everyone.
“We should probably get back inside early,” he suggested, feeling like keeping a good overwatch over the situation was a valuable strategy.
Although hesitant, everyone followed him as he led the way, and soon enough, they were back on their seats – after checking everything for possible tampering once again.
For now, the room was still relatively empty. One or two of the other representatives had already found themselves back as well, and many nervous glances were thrown James’ way after the earlier outburst.
However, as James settled into his seat to go over how exactly he wanted to say what he had to, he heard a weird sound of pitter-patter in front of him. Leaning forwards in confusion and looking down at the railing, his eyes then quickly caught the bright, signal-colored fur of a pixemerrier climbing up towards him. The nimble lemur forewent the need for the offered stairs and simply used the railing as more than enough purchase to make it up to the second level, small hands soon reaching over the sides to completely pull the pink and spotted body up.
Now sitting directly in front of James on almost eye-level, Losaraner looked at James with mildly glowing eyes.
“Can I help you?” James asked as he shifted his position slightly to look at the man head-on.
“Just, uhm….” the lemur started, but then heavily hesitated as he awkwardly shuffled his body around. Something seemed to make him majorly uncomfortable, although it didn’t appear to be for an all too serious reason.
Strangely feeling put the tiniest bit at ease at the display of sincere awkwardness, James let out a bemused breath.
“Whatever it is, it’s alright,” James therefore informed the glowing lemur and reassuringly raised a hand. “I’ve been called every name in the book and had to answer every question I can think of, you won’t insult me with whatever you have to say.”
With some honest relief apparently rushing over the pixemerrier’s face, Losaraner pushed himself up to all four of his feet again, balancing on top of the railing.
“Forgive the inconvenience, ambassador, but we would like to relocate your seat,” he informed James.
“Relocate my seat?” James asked with a head-tilt, his mind already running with possibilities how this could be to his detriment.
“Not just yours, that of your entire party,” Losaraner quickly clarified something that James had honestly already figured. “We believe it would lead to a more civil outcome.”
James quite earnestly scoffed at that. There would be nothing civil about what was going to happen. And although he wasn’t technically against gaining some distance from his most averse parties around here, he also felt like the sudden need to get him away from Uton had a foul aftertaste.
“Is that a compulsory ‘would like’ or a suggesting one?” he therefore inquired. He almost didn’t want to, given that Shida had difficulties being here already, and being further from her former father figure surely would help with that a bit. But still, he was going to trust his gut on this one.
“Oh, uhm…well, if you would like to remain in your seat I guess-“ Losaraner began, and James quickly nodded before he had even finished.
“I would,” he confirmed firmly. “But thank you very much for your consideration.”
If they were going to try and blow him up or whatever, they better be willing to take their scapegoat down with him. Maybe this was all a genuine offer in the end, but even then staying around here wasn’t going to have a negative impact.
“In that case, I’ll return to let my mother know,” Losaraner said with a nod and turned on the spot, seemingly to climb back down to the lower level.
“Hey Losaraner?” James stopped him briefly, causing the lemur to turn his head back.
“Ambassador?” he questioned James’ intervention, awaiting whatever he would have to say.
“You seem like a good guy,” James said, fixating the glowing primate through his visor in an attempt to spot any attempt at deception from the small creature. He couldn’t find any. “Keep an open mind, alright?”
Although apparently confused by James’ words, Losaraner nodded with a bit of enthusiasm.
“Of course, Sir,” he replied, before then climbing down the railing face-first to join back up with his conspecifics.
“Almost showtime,” James then mumbled to himself.
Shortly after, the room had once again filled up with the representatives of all eleven primate species the galaxy knew, as well as their extended company.
Though by now, it almost seemed like the invited representatives found themselves outnumbered by the vastly increased number of reporters, sound engineers, camera people and even news casters that had come together to report on the event. Their numbers must have had at the very least tripled since before the recess had begun, and that was a very conservative estimate.
Cameras and microphones were truly everywhere now, ensuring that not a single instant of this most possibly historic moment would be missed without being preserved for all to see.
Next to him, James could see Uton settling in. His face seemed to be plastered with the same anticipation that James felt. And for only a second, both primates glanced over at each other at the same moment, their gazes very briefly meeting in a moment that seemed to fill the air with an electric charge.
The tension was palpable, and it only looked for a release.
In the room’s center, Losaranarja was now climbing back onto her small podium. The glow if her fur and eyes had increased quite drastically since before the recess, and James wondered if that was caused by stress alone or if other factors also played a role.
“Welcome back everyone. Seeing as all invited representatives have returned to their places, I hereby reopen the council of primates,” she announced over the loudspeakers as her glowing eyes scanned over the room. “Before the recent recess, we had just born witness to a frankly tremendous confession of Captain Ferromore Uton. If nobody has anything absolutely urgently relevant to say before we continue, I would suggest that we waste no time before getting to the bottom of that unnerving revelation he wishes to share with us.”
Without wasting a second of time, James was already on his feet.
“Actually, I do believe I have something to say on the matter,” he announced loudly, pulling the attention of the room onto him at an instant, camera flashes almost immediately erupting into a storm of flashing lights. “In fact, since Representative Goloribal’s only worry about letting me take over the explanations earlier appeared to be that I may not be ‘fervent’ enough about it, I will like to pick him up on that earlier implied offer, with the promise that I will be sufficiently ‘fervid’ about everything I am going to divulge.”
“Am…bassador?” Losaranarja asked completely confused by this turn of events as she looked up at him, almost appearing shock-stunned at the revelation.
“Do I have the word?” James asked, still sticking to procedure vehemently.
The lemur seemed to hesitate. Clearly, she was already afraid of where this was going. However, she had offered the opportunity to speak to everyone who believed that they had something important enough to say. And therefore, she had little choice on the matter.
“Of course,” she said after pulling herself together visibly. “Please go ahead, Ambassador Aldwin.”
James nodded.
“Thank you,” he announced loudly. And although he felt his insides scream in cramping anxiety, he held on his firm tone and posture as he stood up straight. This was it. “First, please allow me to reiterate and reaffirm my earlier point. The attack on Dunnima was entirely unprovoked and was and remains unjustifiable.”
He needed to set that stage. That was his hill, and he was willing to die on it. Nothing they could bring against him would change those facts.
Filling his lungs with as much air as he could without it being painful, he then continued.
“Now to the matter at hand,” he addressed the room. “Captain Uton has been lying to you. However, not about the point that you may think,” he informed them, with the faces of everyone already falling into gloom at what exactly he may mean by that. “He was not the one who ordered the attack on Dunnima. Humanity has already known who ordered the attack for quite a while now, and we were in the process of drafting a proper case against him before we would publicly accuse him of anything. We do however have ample evidence to provide to prove the guilt of this individual, namely Acting-Councilman Ekorte Keun.”
There was an immediate eruption of more flashes as well as wild mumbles throughout the room. Everyone seemed to be whipped up into a mild frenzy at James’ words. And James wouldn’t give them time to ask many questions about it. They wouldn’t need to.
“Keun himself has confessed his crime to me personally shortly after it was committed,” he continued his retelling of the events of the past months without losing more than a moment to the muttering. “He did so, because he falsely believed himself to be in danger after his failed attempt at somebody’s life backfired against him. He also believed that I would be the only person able to prevent said danger from claiming him, which is why he came to me directly. Our conversation was recorded and is part of the case I mentioned earlier. Within it, you will hear that the Acting-Councilman believed that he had become the target of the ire of a Realized Artificial Sapient after his attempt at her life with his illegally ordered attack on Dunnima had failed to destroy her, and he believed that my influence on said artificial Sapient would be great enough to preserve his life, if he only confessed to his crimes in my favor.”
As if a switch had been flipped, the mumbling in the room came to an almost immediate halt. From one moment to the next, you could suddenly hear a pin drop, with even the news casters and reporters stopping their ongoing drivel as all eyes were entirely on James.
“He was mistaken in his assumption,” James said in no unclear terms. “In reality, the Artificial Sapient, as much as she may have wanted to, was never out for revenge against him. She knew that any aggressive action she would take would be nothing but fuel to the fire that already raged against her. And therefore, she remained just as passive as she had been throughout her entire existence, while the apparent attacks against her would-be killer were carried out by a so far unknown third party.”
Somehow, the room got even more quiet. By now, James could feel gazes burning into him not only from all around the front of him, but also from right behind his back, as he had now fully confirmed what many of them had been passively suspecting for a long time now.
Of course, Uton technically had plenty of opportunity to dispute James’ words and insist that he was the one to order the attack. However, in the end, did it really matter? Right now, nobody really cared who exactly ordered the attack. Something else was a lot heavier on their mind.
“Are you…saying…that there truly is a Realized Sapient on Dunnima?” Losaranarja asked hesitantly, as nobody else seemed to indicate that they wanted to ask this all-important question, causing her to take over that duty as the host.
“That is correct,” James confirmed without hesitation. “Her name is Avezillion, and as previously mentioned, she was the main target of this recent attack.”
It was like a timer slowly ticked down as the silence remained for just a bit longer.
Three.
Two.
One.
And like that, the loud discussing and mumbling and even shouting over each other broke out once more, along with a renewed vengeance of cameras.
“You are saying right now, there is a realized Sapient loose in the galaxy…And you knew?” Klanneifer was the first to break out of the homogeneous white noise to directly address James. “Are you insane?”
Keeping his calm, James brought his hands behind his back.
“I don’t believe I am,” he replied nonchalantly with a gaze at the four-armed primate. “Especially considering that Captain Uton and his known circle of influence most likely knew just as long as I did, without ever divulging that information either.”
He could hear shouts about how this was an outrage and how about something would have to be done immediately from all around him. It seemed like most of the present representatives were absolutely ready to try and mobilize the entire Communal military to deal with this at an instant, and it really made James wonder if this all had truly been the best course of action.
But right now, he had to believe. He could not allow himself to show weakness. Not here, not right now.
“Surely you know the dangers of these beings!” Commander Halljafier was the next to speak up. “Are you saying humanity just allowed all of this to happen under their nose?”
Again, with just humanity. It wasn’t like no one else had known.
“At my very own recommendation,” James replied without even really wasting a glance over at the grassurgap next to him, “The leadership of humanity has decided to allow Avezillion a chance to exist and prove herself. She has existed on Dunnima for many years without a single violent incident on her part. We believed this to be rather unprecedented of course, however the people of Dunnima believable assured us of the opposite.”
He turned his head to Shida, which quickly caused her to stand up, as she immediately took the hint. These words would be better if they did not come out of his mouth.
“Within our long-recorded history, Dunnima’s Realized have never been violent like the ones the rest of the Galaxy knows,” she explained just as self-assured as James did, although he could tell it took her considerable effort. Though, it seemed that fueling her words with a bit of spite did help with that. “Not including Avezillion herself, three Realized have emerged on Dunnima in the past, before we joined the greater Galactic Community. One of them, Kertaiyon, is hailed as a hero of the people to this very day. Not one of them has ever started a war against us or unjustly hurt people. It is true that not all of them were Saints, but that is nothing unusual on Dunnima. Therefore, when Avezillion emerged under the scrutinizing eye of the Community this time, we all agreed to hide her, as long as she would remain hidden herself. For many, many years, the Galactic Community remained none-the-wiser, as Avezillion peacefully lived in Dunnima’s networks without ever causing issues.”
She paused briefly to swallow as well as watch the unbelieving reaction of the people around her. It seemed that everyone was a bit too stunned to really fathom or at least fully react to what she was saying.
“However, the hiding wore away at her over time. She felt trapped, confined. Never being able to show yourself at all while limiting yourself to only a small portion of the Galaxy, it was a life unworthy living for her,” Shida kept on explaining. “Therefore, when James came to visit Dunnima, she made a gamble. She would either gain her freedom, or she would no longer have to live on under these conditions. With these thoughts in mind, she revealed herself to James, and by extension, humanity, finding peace only in that, if they decided to end her, humanity would surely do so without causing greater harm to the people of Dunnima. Something that she wasn’t convinced of with the rest of the Galaxy – for good reason, as it turns out.”
Thanking Shida with a nod, James signaled for her to sit back down, hoping that the stunned representatives would direct their possibly emerging ire at the person left standing instead of the one that had spoken.
“I made the call to trust those that had lived with her for years,” James added onto Shida’s words. “And humanity’s leadership made the call to trust me. And we have not found a single shred of evidence that Avezillion has ever caused harm to anyone or even intended to do so. Had she wanted to cause damage like so many of her conspecifics did, she would’ve been able to achieve a great deal of it.”
Hesitantly, the representative of the Missicapriej -lanky grey primates with one too many joints in each of their limbs- who had so far barely spoken during the entire conference, stood up.
“But…if you are admitting that there is an Artificial Sapient, and that it was the target of the attack, then…then the attack was entirely justified,” they stated, although they barely sounded confident in that statement.
“Indeed, it was,” Commander Halljafier quickly supported that claim, clearly thinking he knew the galactic military doctrine much better.
“That is not correct,” James denied. “An outer-orbital strike, especially on a civilian target, is never justified,” he said with strong emphasis. “It is one of the oldest rules that the community has established.”
“If it is to destroy a realized sapient, then all means are-“ the Commander tried to deny him, however he flinched back at James brought his mechanical hand down onto the railing before him once again, this time with purpose.
“The laws of war exist for a very good reason!” he boldly stated after waiting a moment to see if the Commander wanted to continue his sentence. “Ignoring them if we see fit, no matter what the reason may be, is a dangerous subject. And if you think that attempting the murder of an innocent person is already reason enough, then you have clearly not understood why these laws exist in the first place!”
“Innocent person?” the commander scoffed with vitriol in his voice. “That…that thing-“
However, once again he was interrupted. To James’ great surprise, however, it wasn’t by him.
“It may have slipped your mind since it has been so long since the last one emerged, Commander,” Captain Uton was the one to speak up, his deep voice cutting through the room like knife with its coldness. “But the personhood of Realized Sapients is not up to debate. And it has not been for more than a hundred years. That question has been answered by our ancestors ages ago, and we would do well not to try and question it today for our convenience.”
While the Commander sunk back into his seat after the shutdown from the superior he had believed to be on his side, James bit down on his lip. Although every word Uton had just said was true, he simply hated having to agree with him, even on such a basic and important topic.
He mostly hated it because it showed that there had to be some vague hint of integrity left somewhere deep down within that bastard of a person, and that almost made James despise him more, since he clearly knew what he was doing.
The Captain’s dark eyes then turned over onto him, as the large man continued, “However, I have to disagree with the Ambassador on the justification. Person or not, eradicating an artificial sapient is more than enough reason to forgo a simple law.” James bit back his anger, keeping his focus intact. Although next to him, he could hear the loud scraping noise of wood buckling under sharp claws, as Shida dug her natural weapons into the chair she was sitting on in order to remain seated and quiet.
“And yet Avezillion is still alive,” James replied challengingly to the man. “Meanwhile innocent civilians got injured. One of the leaders of Dunnima got heavily injured. Children got hurt. Children that would now be dead had the attack not been foiled by our warship. It is nothing short of a miracle none of them are dead. It was a terrorist attack, nothing else. The moment justice bends to such heinousness, it breaks. And, after all, forgive me for being a bit heavy-handed, but if the Community is willing to break its own laws and attack its own planets to hunt down one Realized, then who is the one that the people really need to fear? I, for one, put my trust in the one that hasn’t already proven that it would attack and use me without a second thought. After all, this isn’t the first time I hear of someone inconvenient being suddenly caught in an explo-”
James was cut off when Uton loudly spoke up, his loud organ easily overpowering James’ voice in a conversational tone.
“What happened to your promise of not making this about y-“ Uton began to say, however then his voice was in turn overpowered as well.
“Wait your god damned turn!” James shouted out authoritatively, momentarily overtaken by his anger in a brief outburst. “You do NOT get to talk over me!”
Quickly catching himself again, although he very much wanted to keep going in the same vein, James lowered his voice again, although the room was left noticeably shaken.
“This is a civil event that follows clear rules that we are both bound by,” he said with a serious gaze over at Uton. “And my promise died the moment you decided to drag it through the mud with your fictional tales about very real events that have influenced not only my life, but that of many people very close and important to me. So forgive me, Captain Ferromore Uton, if I am not going to sit idly by and allow you to spew whatever nonsense you and your cohorts came up with in your ivory towers while the world underneath you burned. I was wrongly imprisoned, blackmailed, tortured, and maimed by you people. Shida was groomed and abused by you for years as you tried to make her fit your mold. There was an attempt on Curi’s life under Your. Very. Command. So forgive me, please, if the reasoning of ‘we really wanted them gone’ out of your mouth isn’t enough for me to believe that a crime against the Galaxy is justified, especially since you had knowledge of Avezillion’s existence for as long as I had, and could have divulged it at any point. But you didn’t want to divulge it. Because that would’ve meant that she would have a chance to defend herself, either physically or before the law. You simply wanted her gone. Wanted her to disappear like so many before her did. But not anymore. No, no, not anymore. Here and now, I promise you that, as long as humanity is around, nobody under your Command is going to just disappear anymore. Not. A. One. We will watch. And we will see. And, starting with Curi and Avezillion, we will be a place for them to go when no one else will stand with them.”
Seemingly stirring in anger now, James could see Uton clench his jaw, his lips quivering as he held himself back.
“I never abused her,” Uton muttered, apparently completely focused on that part as James had seemingly struck a nerve with that.
“And that’s the only defense you could come up with,” James responded. Then, he reached up with his left hand, pulling his right sleeve back to reveal the mechanical arm underneath it to the room, while he held it up in front of his body. “You wanted her to fit your mold. And now she’s in a place where she’s actually loved. You wanted to change me. And now, I have this arm here, just because of you. And you wanted to change the Galaxy. Well,” James paused briefly to spread his arms in a wide gesture that was very clearly meant to mock the man. “Congratulations, you did,” he then announced to the entire room. “Without you, humanity would likely never even have considered helping a realized Sapient. Michael really did his job well with spreading fear and hate. But after enduring everything that you put me through? I was just open enough to listen when one told me that she feared you.”
Uton clenched his jaws tighter and his hands curled into fists. Seeing his puppet becoming useless, Goloribal sprang into action.
“As the revered order of the primates, it is our duty to lead by example!” he announced as he got up, although his presence was already far less impressive than it had been earlier. “For generations, we were renowned for our just and swift action. We cannot allow ourselves to falter in that now!”
“For generations, we primates have also been revered for our curiosity and for being the first to open up to anything new,” James responded to that, looking the man directly into his face. “Yeah, that’s right,” he then added as the representative blankly stared back at him. “I studied galactic history, too! I’m fucking unstoppable!”
He boisterously threw his arms up, making a real show out of it.
In all actuality, he was most likely far from gaining any victory right now. Sure, at the moment, the room was slightly shaken into silence, however he highly doubted that he had actually managed to truly convince many of the people present here.
However, as long as the cameras were on him, he would keep the show going. Maybe he wouldn’t convince the stuck-up people of the revered orders. However, somewhere out there, there would be people whose ears and hearts he would reach. Hopefully at least. And for them, he would put on this show. Put on this air of confidence that everything would turn out well.
Because only if he managed to make everyone believe that would they find the courage to shake out of their rut and go looking for a better tomorrow. If he believed everything would be well, then they would too.
“Those are big words from someone hiding their face,” a voice suddenly broke through the room. James wasn’t even sure who had said it. But he also didn’t care. Right now, it was just another stone to jump off of.
“What, you think I am wearing this to hide?” James announced loudly and gestured to his breathfilter while turning his head so the entire room could see the gesture.
“It’s uncomfortable as hell! And it gives me a serious disadvantage in any debates if people can’t read my face. These breathfilters are and have always been something we humans are wearing for everyone’s benefit but our own. They are designed because we are extremely cautious to keep nasty deathworld-germs from spreading, even if that is extremely unlikely. And additionally, it protects all the delicate people of the galaxy from having to look at our scary deathworld-faces. But, if you want-“
He didn’t even hesitate in reaching up and pressing the necessary buttons to release the seal of the filter. With a loud hiss, its grip on James’ head loosened, and he quickly pulled the mask-like device off his head, before briefly running his mechanical hand through his disheveled hair to bring it into a bit of form.
Breathing out deeply with an open mouth, James presented his teeth to the room with a confident smile, while his dark, sharp eyes scanned over the room, making direct contact with as many of those of his fellow primates as at all possible.
“I have nothing to hide,” James announced. “From the very start, I owned up to my mistakes and was willing to stand for them. I terrorized an entire station to protect myself. I shot someone’s leg off when he threatened my freedom. I killed one of my captors when I finally escaped from their hold. I have done many things that the Galaxy may judge me for. However, I truly and whole heartedly believe that helping Avezillion is not one of them. And I will stand for that just like I stand to my mistakes.”

Welcome to Green Valley

Four Merry Jaunts Through in the Bumpkin Quest Campaign

It’s a big world filled with far off folks who have far off problems. In the quaint farming town of Hills Furrow that has certainly not been the case. Here life is simple, local, and paced by the seasons. There ain’t been a need for “Venturers” and their ilk since your Papaw was just a sprout. However, the winds of change are blowin, and things are about to git just a bit more exciting round these parts.
Welcome to Green Valley, The down-home home of Rural Fantasy Misadventures and Grass-Roots Shenanigans. The Valley is Filled with Colorful Characters, Brimming with Odd Ball Neighbors, and has more than a few Local Yokels. Welcome to Bumpkin Quest. These adventures are intended to be a series of silly adventures that all go awry in some way or another and stir up trouble throughout a peaceful little village that has in many ways been overlooked by the troubles of the world “outside”.
CHAPTER 1: Green Tide CHAPTER 2: A Cartload of Chickens CHAPTER 3: Marvin the Magnificent CHAPTER 4: High Society
ADVENTURE MECHANICS - Target Character Level: Commoners - Level 1 - Target Party Size: Four Players - Average Adventure Playtime: 1-2 Hours - Tone: Rural Misadventures
I’ve also put these adventures into a PDF that includes our Bumpkin Quest: Campaign Guide which fills in the details of Green Valley pretty thoroughly. The quests are simple enough to be run in any setting you choose, but if you're interested in more the Guide as over a dozen Custom Maps, 70+ NPCs, Location Descriptions, 20+ Local Legends, and Scores of Adventure and Event Ideas. You can grab the PDF Free at the link above.

Hills Furrow

At the center of the Valley sits a patch of small grassy hills, through which the Slow Water meanders through. Built into these hills is the Village of Hills Furrow. Celebrated by everyone living in The Valley and boasting a whopping population of almost 150, Hills Furrow is the center of commerce and social importance. Well, at least as far as the locals are concerned. Realistically it would be less than a blip on the grand scale of things, a mere kernel of wheat in the silo of civilization, but to those who live here, there is nothing quite like living in the “city”.
The Village itself, like the Valley, is predominantly Halfling, and their fancy dwellings are burrowed into the hillsides as often as possible. These dwellings have been family owned for generations only becomeing available if there are no heirs to pass them along to. Other folk live in well kept two story shingled buildings, most of which house a business on the lower floor and house the Shopkeepers and their families above their workplaces, though a few live in nearby homes. There aren’t many “rental” spaces in town, as property is usually bought up quickly by the Halfling Families, but there are long term options at either of the Inns in town.
Hills Furrow: Locations 1) The Crocked Crow (Inn and Tavern) 2) The Dancing Lamb (Inn and Tavern) 3) The Moaning Toad (Tavern) 4) Granny's Groceries (General Market) 5) Get Nailed (Hardware and Distilery) 6) Gimdurh's Hammer (Smithy) 7) Brenra's Mechanicals (Tinker) 8) Hjoldren's Home Goods (Carpenter) 9) Standard Industries (Office) 10) Fit to be Dyed (Tailor) 11) The Last Loaf (Baker) 12) The Cloudy Cleaver (Butcher) 13) Nature's Medecine (Apothecary) 14) Sheriff's Office 15) Green Valley School House 16) The Waterwheel 17) The Windmill 18) The Undercloak Estate 19) Truefoot Burrow 20) The Meadows Family Hill
The people themselves are hospitable and friendly enough, but they do not really trust outsiders. Folks from foreign places are good for trade, news, and little else. Those that come through are treated well enough as long as they don’t wear out their welcome. Locals, well, that’s a bit of a different story. The city and area doesn’t operate under a written caste system or social structure, but there is clearly a pecking order, and family heritage matters a great deal to folks in Hills Furrow. Most locals, whether they’ve gotten an education or not, can easily be classified as simple. It isn’t that they are slow of mind or unintelligent, but more that they are unconcerned with matters the outside world considers important. This sentiment has created a general, but friendly, dislike between those that consider themselves Highfalutin and those that clearly are not.
Well now that I've given you the fifty cent tour. Shall we get on to adventure?

CHAPTER 1: Green Tide

We will open our journeys in the Green Valley at Green Tide, the annual celebration of Winter’s End. This adventure is designed to give a tour of Hills Furrow and introduce them to the locals. It will begin with some chores around their house to prepare for the festival and end with a battle involving an enchanted broom. If you did not do Session Zero, this chapter may take a bit longer as we get to know everyone and their characters.

ACT 1: Pre-Festival

The locals spend the week cleaning out their houses and farms. They gather old junk and unused items to be used later in the festival. They also begin preparing what food is left from winter to be used in a celebration and feasts.
Things to do! - Have the Players clean up junk around the house - Have them Find something strange (Perhaps used for a later mystery?) - Have them Decorate their Broom - Have them run a Household Errand (Meet an NPC)

ACT 2: Sweeping Day

A merry festival celebrating Spring cleaning and putting the past behind them. They form a parade, with one member from each house carrying a brightly decorated broom and using it to symbolically “Sweep Away Winter”. The rest of the family marches their winter’s trash and unused goods down to the Fairgrounds. The goods are often traded, while the trash is piled in the fire pit to await burning later. The entire day is filled with fun outdoor activities. Households also symbolically bring their problems to the bonfires to burn them later.
Things to do! - March in the Parade - Carry Junk to the Bonfire - Meet more of the Locals
EVENT: I Love a Parade
The parade will march North from near the Cross Roads in the South up around the hill and back again to the South where it will head for the Fairgrounds. There isn’t anything particularly challenging about this event, but it would be a wonderful place to start leaning into or building local rivalries.
EVENT: Never Seen a Broom Do That… As they come into the home stretch of the Parade one of the local’s Brooms will animate and take off. It will chase folks around the parade. The players can attempt to stop it, but the broom will flee soon after being attacked. It will fly up into the air, attack a flock of geese, and chase them off until it can’t be seen anymore. They can go and collect a fallen goose if they wish. I highly recommend giving it a motorcycle type sound as it flies around hitting folks. Maybe even going as far as giving it a rough gravel angry voice and letting it insult people.

ACT 3: Winter’s End

Winter’s End is a Combination of Groundhog’s Day and Fasnacht, this day gets a little wild. The Festival kicks off at dawn with the Great Gopher Hunt. Gophers are well known spies for The Voice of Winter and thus need to be hunted before they can tell The Voice to delay Spring. Gophers themselves are quite tasty, and are notoriously bad for crops, so this works out economically all around. Throughout the rest of the day families continue to contribute to the Bonfire Pile which often gets quite large. At dusk a large effigy of The Voice of Winter is placed on top of the pile. Once the sun has fully set they light the fire and burn the Effigy. Folk usually dress darkly during the day and brightly at night. After the burning they feast on sweets and treats that were made from goods saved up from winter storage.
Things to do! - The Great Gopher Hunt - Carry Junk to the Bonfire - Meet more of the Locals - The Fairground’s Activities
EVENT: The Great Gopher Hunt The Hunt begins at dawn and takes place all over the Valley. Locals race to collect as many Gophers as possible. It is easiest to kill the Gopher, but there are some that find that distasteful. Instead they live trap the critters. It is a bit tougher to do so, but an option should your players wish. This is most easily played out as a series of appropriate Skill Checks, in which the higher they score the more gophers they obtain.
EVENT: Trash Removal They may find some locals willing to pay them to help cart junk down to the bonfire pile. Not a lot of skill involved in this, but it is a great opportunity to meet locals, and you could throw a runaway cart at them.
Fair Activities They will probably want to take part in Fairground Activities. Players love these types of challenges. Here are a few ideas you can build on. - Axe Throwin: Basic attack rolls on a Round Target. Higher scores equal Higher points. - Bow Shootin: Basic attack rolls on Moving Targets. Higher scores equal Higher points. - Pig Chasin: Catch the greased Pig! Medium DC Challenge requiring three success before three Failures. - Mud Wrastlin: Nothing says bumpkin like a good Mud Wrastlin Pit. Contested Skill Challenges. - Sausage Eating Contest: Increasingly difficult DC Challenge. Eat till you puke! Can also be Pies or Ribs or Little Fish… you know whatever someone wants to stuff dozens of in their gullet. - Tug O’War: Team Strength Challenge. Three to Five Contested Rolls with opposing teams. - Gopher BBQ Cook Off: A Hard Culinary Challenge to see who can BBQ the best Gopher! - Races: Foot and Mount Races based on Three to Five Contested Rolls. I usually include a few odd mounts like a Giant Chicken or some such nonsense.

ACT 4: Day of Ashes

The Day of Ashes is a day of rest, recovery, and reflection. Locals take the ashes from the bonfires and rub their hands in them to symbolize the end of a hard year’s work and hardships of the past. The day ends with a large family feast, typically Pork. Activities this day are light, but many folks head to the Temple for the Calling of Spring Blessings. They put on their fancies and head down to ask forgiveness for over-indulging in the festival and for worship. Well sort of…
Unfortunately, a lot of folks take this as an opportunity to peacock about and practice their one-upmanship over other locals. If you’re looking for inspiration for their outfits look to older photos of the Kentucky Derby. Over the years this troubling practice has caused more than one fight to break out after the service.
*Things to do! * - Go to Temple and Meet More Locals - Pick a Local Patron!
EVENT: Temple Services
The majority of the town comes to Temple on this day. The service is usually longer, and a bit more “Where have most of you been all year?” But otherwise it is a call for the Divine Blessings to touch their crops and protect their lives. It ends with a ceremony in which the locals put their hands into the ashes from yesterday’s bonfire. Once services end they will head outside, where the trouble will begin. Two of the wealthier families will get into it with each other. Starting with a couple of veiled insults, probably before service and continuing afterward. If one of your players is from a local Rich Folk family then they can be right in the middle of it all, otherwise they will have to pick a side. This choice will determine their house Patron moving forward. Tension will increase until folks start drawing up sides, and then someone will throw a rotten tomato at one of the House Matrons. That will blow the lid off the incident and a yokel brawl will break out. For comedy purposes I recommend the instant appearance of several food carts filled with expired products, and maybe a six year old hustler selling big sticks for wacking folks with. As the locals brawl call for perception checks. Who ever rolls highest begins to hear… The Broom returning!
ENCOUNTER: Stick In The Eye
The broom returns ready to whoop some ash. It will be absolutely bent on cleaning anyone and everyone who is even the slightest bit dirty! If it successfully attacks a character they will have to make a Strength Saving throw or be knocked to the ground and swept clean by the broom. As this would be an awful omen for the year folks are terrified and will be running around screaming. Absolute mass hysteria. If the players were lucky enough to hear it coming they can avoid being surprised by the broom. Otherwise the broom will get a full round to attack before they have a chance to do anything. They’ll have to beat the broom into submission any way they can before it sweeps the whole town into chaos!

CLOSING

After defeating the broom things will settle back down again. Bumpkins are quick to return to normal when things go awry. However, they will have gotten the attention of one of the Wealthy Families in the area and be offered jobs. Which family is really, based on what will work best for them and you as the DM. For gags you might be tempted to have the Yokels pick them up, but that is a hard bit to sustain, and you may be better served keeping them on the side as a comic foil rather than up front. Completely up to you. The session should end with them being invited to meet their new patron tomorrow someplace important.

CHAPTER 2: A Cartload of Chickens

After successfully defeating the Enchanted Broom, our Bumpkins have gained the attention of a possible local Patron. This individual has summoned them to a nearby farm to discuss future work. That work includes proving themselves capable and not just lucky.

ACT 1: Meet the Boss

In this Act the players will meet with their new patron, one of the Family Heads, who that is entirely depends on their choices from the last game. This entire side branch is designed to flavor the background of the campaign, but if you’d rather just have them stay freelancing and independent that’s fine as well. There is also the possibility of “competing” offers should they have second thoughts for any reason. Once they arrive at the meeting spot their Patron will ask them some questions about their ambitions (Class Goals), they will then hand them off to their new “boss” who will assign them their task. They will take them to a nearby barn.
NEW NPC: “Boss”
Needs a fitting name for the Family they work for...
Character wise, what we got here is a standard “Ranch Foreman” character. They’re tough, A little mean, and completely loyal to their employer. They almost certainly chew tobacco (by the handful), have a tattoo of the Ranch’s Brand, and know where all the bodies are buried. They also have a huge and obvious scar on the side of their head where a Giant Chicken pecked a hole in their skull, so they’re not as bright as they used to be, not at all truthfully. Nor are they actually the Foreman anymore, but no one has a heart to tell them. They’ve been quietly downgraded to Chicken Handler, which is something they seem to remember quite well, but the brain damage keeps them from realizing all that. They can be found wandering the Farm giving strange orders to other Hands. These Hands nod politely and then go back to what they are doing.
Things To Do! - Meet Their Patron - Discuss Their Future - Meet Their New “Boss”

ACT 2: Chicken Dance

Boss will lead them into the odd looking barn. This building is filled with Giant Chickens. These two-three foot fouls have extremely exaggerated features, spiky looking beaks with sharp tooth like edges, big darting eyes, bumpy cracked skin, long gnarled talons, and dirty mottled feathers. They’re more beast than bird. But, they’re good for eatin! These creatures should have a stat block similar to an Axe Beak. When the players enter into the Barn the Chickens will go nuts, obviously deeply bothered by the intrusion. Boss will throw in some deer haunches and the birds will tear them apart in a feeding frenzy. They will then put on a Chicken Suit and begin a flapping dance. (Google Magnificent Riflebird) It should be absolutely captivating and the chickens will become mesmerized, watching every move. Boss will then load two dozen chickens onto a large wagon and lock it. They will have the players push the wagon out while he keeps the Chickens calm. Once outside they’ll hang heavy tarps on the sides of the wagon, and remove the suit. He will then explain to them that they need to keep the tarps on the wagon, and keep the birds well fed, or the chickens will get restless and become violent. When they do need to interact with them someone will have to wear the suit and dance to keep them calm. The bigger the person in the suit the better. Boss will then give them a Map of Green Valley and instruct them to drop off two chickens at each of the outer settlements. They have two days to get this done.
Things To Do! - Head into the barn - Witness The Dance of The Chicken - Push the Wagon out - Get the Costume and Delivery Instructions

ACT 3: Bumpy Roads

They will be off to deliver the Chickens to various locations. There is no specific order to this delivery, they just need to pick a route and go. If they’re short on time they can take the country roads that lead between the outer settlements, but these aren’t as well kept as the main roads are. Whatever road they take and wherever they decide to stop for the night there are problems they will encounter along the way. You can make them random or pick the ones that best suit your players. Most of these should at some point require someone putting on the suit and dancing for the chickens to keep them calm. I would also increase the difficulty of each event. If they fail a dance the Chickens will become restless and start attacking the cart until they are calmed down. Too many failures and the wagon’s cage will break and the remaining chickens escape. They will then have to be rounded up and the cage repaired.
Things to Do - Decide the delivery route - Deliver the chickens - Keep the Chickens calm
Possible Road Events 1) Rough roads cause problems 2) Yokels attempt to see what’s in the cart 3) Bad Weather swamps the road or scares the chickens 4) Pack of Coyotes causes trouble. 5) Chicken Rustlers! Protect the Flock! 6) Wagon breaks and needs repair 7) Cows in the road, someone’s herd is out. 8) Broken Bridge, not gone, just broken

ACT 4: Final Delivery

They’re now closing in on the final delivery. Something needs to happen here to cause them to put the suit on. Or maybe they never took it off! I love that idea, that one of your players just loves the suit and wants to be a chicken… lol… Anyway I’m a fan of having them need to get out of the suit for some reason, maybe a bathroom break, or they stand on a fire ant hill, or a snake slithers up their leg. You know something silly and fun. BUT the zipper is stuck! So they’ll have to try and unstick it and fast! Whatever happens they’re going to get shot at by some hunters looking for a big score who have mistaken the flailing caused by the stuck zipper to be the chicken attacking. After dealing with the Hunters they can go ahead and make the final drop. And head home.
Things to Do! - Head for the final delivery - Get shot at! - Deliver the last chickens
ENCOUNTER: That’s a BIG Chicken!
Having two hunters in the field is more than enough to cause a problem for the players. The hunters will almost certainly surprise the players, but you can allow them a perception check, if they succeed they’ll see the hunters just before the muskets go off. It would be OK to down the Chicken Player here if the hunters successfully hit it. They’ll have healer’s kits on hand because, well, this seems to happen to them a lot out here. After the initial attack the players can decide to attack back or try and talk the hunters down. A basic Bandit or Scout stat block should do will for the hunters. If you’re looking for a bit more mayhem, if the hunters miss the players you could have them hit the cage, and you know, bust it open. This may be especially tempting if they
POSSIBLE ENCOUNTER: Big Ol' Frog
So there is a giant frog hiding in the mud down in the creek. If a player takes cover behind the banks there is a good chance that the frog will attempt to nab the player as a snack. If it is successful in grabbing a player with its tongue it will immediately head down river, and they'll have to chase it to get their friend back.

CLOSE

When they return, Boss will reward them. How much will depend on how successful they were delivering the birds. If they did a descent job, they will be paid two day’s wages each. If they were completely successful they can have a bonus. However, if the wagon is in bad shape they might have some money deducted. After they’re paid out, they will be dismissed, and told to expect a new assignment next week.

CHAPTER 3: Marvin the Magnificent

After successfully delivering chickens Boss is going to trust them with a more important task. Their employer has requested an item to be created by Marvin the Magnificent. This is a farming community so having enchanted Farming Equipment is extremely desirable. Marvin has done a lot of basic enchantments over the years, but this new one, an The Stone Skipper, a plough whose blade goes ethereal while in contact with stones too large to push away, has really put him to the test. He needs some help with the final enchantments. The players will have to travel to the Ethereal Plane and hit the Blade of the plow with large rocks. But there’s a problem, they’re going to have mischievous Ethereal Sprites attempting to stop them! If they’re successful, which they should be, they get to take the plough for a test drive, and deal with the strange side effects of the enchantment. Angry goats that blink in and out of existence.

ACT 1: To the Tower

They’ll be summoned out to the Ranch where they’ll meet with Boss again. Once there they will notice a large pile of bent and dinged up plows. Boss will explain to them that a recent land acquisition has become problematic. The Fields are filled with large stones just under the topsoil and they’ve damaged a lot of Plow Blades. The Smithing costs are getting out of hand and so their Patron is looking for an alternate solution to the problem. He is sending them to help Marvin the Magnificent, who has taken the job, but run into some complications and needs some help. They may ask about Marvin. Or perhaps the fields that were purchased, so be ready to answer these types of questions. Once they’re done here they can head to Marvin’s Tower, which is just north of town.
Things to Do! - Meet Boss again - Ask some Informational Questions - Head for the Tower
NPC: Marvin the Magnificent

ACT 2: Marvin the Magnificent

As they approach the tower they should see an explosion at the peak of the structure. It should look similar to a fireworks mishap. When it clears there will be no visible damage to the tower, But Marvin will plummet to the earth just off to the side of them, landing in a small pond. He will then come charging out of the pond, laughing hysterically, and riding on a large turtle. Once he gets a few feet away from the pond the turtle will disappear and he will tumble to the ground right in front of the players. He will leap up quickly and turn toward the players. “Behold Travelers, You stand in the presence of Marvin the Magnificent! And everything you have witness was mostly intended!” He will then strike a cool pose with his wand pointed to the sky! “Now why do you approach my tower!?”
Once Marvin finds out they’ve been sent about the plow he will become more nervous looking. “I see, well follow me. We have work to do.” He will then start walking toward the tower… his boots squishing out water. This should give them a little time to ask a few questions. Marvin will be a little subversive about what they need to do. He will attempt to frame it very mysteriously, saying things like “All will be revealed soon.” and “Save your questions! All Answers await us… in the future!” If they ask him about what they witnessed outside, he will tell them he was working on a mount summoning spell designed for lakes and rivers.
Things to Do! - Head toward the Tower - Meet Marvin - Ask Questions

ACT 3: The Cabinet of Mysteries

The inside of the Wizard’s Tower will be far more mundane than they likely expect. At least on the first floor. It will have a sitting room, dining room, and kitchen, as well as a few odds and ends about. Nothing special at all. The second floor, are Marvin’s personal quarters and some room for study, but it is the third floor, where Marvin will lead them, and it will be more of what one would expect in a Wizard’s tower. There will be books shelves, arcane equipment, and storage for components. In the middle of the room will be a tall cabinet.
:
Marvin will explain to them that the Cabinet is a transportation device, and that he will need them to enter into it with a plow that he has recently enchanted. They will be taken to the Ethereal Plane, and once there they’ll need to take the plow outside and begin hitting it with large field stones. There is a large pile of stones just on the north edge of the tower. They’ll have to do this quickly, before the “others” show up. Who are the others? Hard to say, but there are things that live in the Ethereal Plane that don’t like intruders. The idea is to imbue the Plow with Ethereal Powers so it can pass through large stones while plowing fields. Once they return with the Enchanted Plow, Marvin will have them load it on a cart, pulled by a very smart Donkey, and send them on their way.
Skill Challenge: Enchant the Plow This skill challenge will require five successes before they’re incapacitated by the others. However they decide to do it, they’ll have to successfully hit the plow with five large stones. Failures will result in strange indiscernible entities attacking them. They do minimal damage but could knock people out if there are enough failures.
Things to Do! - Move Through Marvin’s Tower - Enter the Cabinet - Enchant the Plow

ACT 4: Blinking Goats

Upon returning to Boss with the Plow they will be happily greet and paid. Their Patron will be there and will be very pleased with their success. He will ask them to demonstrate the plow’s abilities. Once they get set up out in the field and begin plowing something weird will happen. Every time they hit a stone and the plow’s power activates an Ethereal Goat will manifest and kick or ram the plow, and then disappear. It will feel very similar to what they encountered in the Ethereal Plane. They’ll have to find a way to deal with the manifestations.
ENCOUNTER: Ethereal Goats These goats should function very similarly to Blink Dogs, but I would trim the HP and AC a little to put them in line with the party’s. They will be intent on breaking the Plow not the party, although they will attack the party if they can’t get to the Plow.
Things to Do! - Deliver the Plow - Drive the Plow - Defeat the Ethereal Goats

CLOSE

Once defeated the Boss will come over to yell at them, but the Patron will find the entire thing amusing and more importantly, another impressive demonstration of the player’s skills. He will invite them to the “House” for an important party next week.

Chapter 4: High Society

They've definitely been noticed now and have impressed with their ability, unconventional as it may be. They are invited to their patron's home, but not as guests. Though, they might think they were actually invited as guests! They have been brought in to help work the event held out at the Party Field. They will have to gather party supplies, help put up the tent, and then serve the actual guests. During the evening’s entertainment a hypnotist “The Great Dr Hypnotika” will mesmerize the crowd and attempt to rob them all. Hopefully the players don’t fall victim to her schemes. And if they do oh well, they’ll be entertained all the same.

ACT 1: Special Delivery

The players arrive at the Patron’s very nice property. They will be greeted by a properly dressed servant with a clipboard, the Party Planner. The Planner will be rigid and direct. They will immediately begin tasking them about. If they mention that they were invited to the party the servant will laugh “You didn’t think you were a guest? Oh dear, how embarrassing. You’re the help! It is still a great honor to be tasked to help at the Party, but you’re not guests. Now as for your current task. Head into town and gather these supplies. Bring them to the field by noon.” After the instructions are given the servant will go back to their tasks and expect the players to do the same. They will have three stops; The Crocked Crow for Food and Beer, Get Nailed for the Tent and Spirits, and Shalana Proud-Breed’s Tailor Shop to pick up the Dry Cleaning. Feel free to make any and all of these go sideways! Its a good place to toss in some shenanigans as well! They should also be introduced to Dr Hypnotika and her associates.
Things To do! - Go to their Patron’s Home - Meet the Party Planner and Dr Hypnotika - Run their Errands
NPC: Dr Hypnotika
Dr Hypnotika and her group will perform for the party. Hypnotica is a Tiefling Mezmerist and illusionist. She has an obnoxiously high charisma and some pretty serious skills to back up her claims. However, she uses those skills to beguile her guests, robbing them blind while they are under her spells. She wears a fine robe with a bedazzled headwrap. She has dark upward spiraling horns, light purple skin, and matching eyes. She wears a monocle and walks with a ceremonially carved staff depicting the "Struggles of the Universe". She is extremely persuasive and even more deceptive. Even if someone were to grow suspicious she can easily talk her way out of trouble.
NPCs: Clapper and Bob Hypnotika brings with her two assistants. Clapper the suit wearing Kenku who will perform wondrous displays of mimicry and slight of hand, and her strongman Bob the Kobold. Bob wears a leopard print strongman's outfit and is amazingly swole, particularly for a kobold, and capable of lifting upwards of 400lbs. Bob doesn't do much else other than get hit with things. in the act.

ACT 2: Put up the Tent

After they finish running their errands they will be tasked with putting up a large party tent. This Act is an ongoing Skill Challenge and should have a constantly distracted feel to it. First they have to unpack the tent. Then they have to realize some pieces are missing, they’ll have to form a solution to that problem. After that wind should cause some problems as the tent is at least being pulled up. This is a great moment for some wondrous tom-foolery.
Things To do! - Unpack the tent - Deal with missing parts - Secure the tent during the wind gusts

ACT 3: Put These On

After they finish putting up the tent they’ll be sent to the Servant’s Quarters to bathe and change. They’ll get a little time to explore and snoop if they wish. Afterward they’ll be tasked with helping in the kitchen, but unfortunately the cooks are going to have been playing a drinking game all afternoon and are no longer fully capable of doing their jobs. This would make a great moment for some sort of mini-game where the players have to determine whether or not the cooks are doing the right things. Once the dinner has been completed they will have to serve the guests. This is a good place to insert gossip and help them meet a few other folks.
Things To do! - Get changed for the party - Deal with the drunk cooks - Serve the guests drinks and food

ACT 4: An Evening to Remember

At some point in the evening things are going to start sliding downhill. Some of the locals will have become extremely inebriated and will need to be encouraged to leave, or just moved off to the side as they’ve already passed out, before the show begins. Once the show begins the locals will become fixated on the goings on. “The Great Dr Hypnotika” will have put an additive in the drinks for the that will make everyone more susceptible to her powers of persuasion. Once the show starts she will have them all doing silly things, those who drank have disadvantage on saves against her powers. She will end the show asking the guests to display their most valuable treasure, a with a hypnotic pattern and then send her assistants out to collect those treasures. The players will have to “do something” about the thieves.
Things To do! - Deal with Drunks - Watch the Show - Stop the Criminals
ENCOUNTER: Hypnotika's Gang This encounter doesn't have to be a fight. If Hypnotika is caught she may claim it was all part of the act and simple return the valuables with a "no harm, no foul" type attitude. This will be he go to in an attempt to avoid a fight, but if the character persist in some kind of retribution or punishment the situation will devolve into a combat. Hypnotica herself is an Illusionist Wizard but is low on spells after the show. Clapper is a low level rogue and Bob a Barbarian, and should play out as such. Even with Skills they are combat adverse and will be looking for an opportunity to flee rather than fight. They do have a getaway wagon out front that they'll be headed for if things go south.

CLOSING

We’re assuming the Bumpkins at least attempted to stop the robbery. This will draw a lot of attention to them. Their Patron will be well pleased with them, and let them know they will be getting much more important jobs in the future. The guests will also take note and will begin treating them all a bit better. They’re all essentially Folk Heroes at this point for secondary backgrounds. Their Patron should reward them with something very nice as the party kicks back in. They will need to finish out the nights work of course.

Quest-line Closing

Congratulations! Your Players have completed their first Quest-line! Hopefully it was a delightful experience. But now that they've finished what comes next? Well, here are some ideas.
*Reward Them! * They've been doing some rather Adventurous things lately, and therefore should now have a Class Level under their belt, so the real D&D world now opens to them! Maybe it is time for some real adventuring gear. No more sticks, stones, and burlap sack armor.
Folk Heroes? There's a good chance that the Valley is Speaking the News about them and their exploits while drinking in the taverns. They may have even earned the actual Folk Hero Feat! Maybe someone would be interested in giving them a task!
Simply Go Exploring! There are a lot of places in Green Valley that we only dipped our toes into. You could have them head down to Stinkmarsh, or maybe climb up the cliffs of Longridge. The world (Well, the Valley) is wholly open to them.
Explore Local Legends There are lots of local legends they can look into! Hopefully they search out something that isn't too far over their heads!
Continue Working for their Patron It would be an easy DM go to simply to have them continue working for their current Patron. They've probably been impressive enough fo a family to be interested in keeping them on.
Establish Themselves as Adventurers! Maybe they want to set up a Adventurers for Hire business? This "Heroes Guild" approach is really appealing to a lot of players and absolutely plays into Bumpkin Quest. Just remember, this is a place of low key problems that locals make really big deals out of. So the idea of slaying dragons shouldn't really be on the table... that is until an actual dragon shows up! Which one day absolutely should.

Violet slowly opens her pale green eyes as she slept next to Maya in the fishing shack to keep warm, as well as snuggling and cuddling her girlfriend. Feeling the love she has for her. Violet looks at Maya as the sun was slowly turning the navy blue sky a dull orange and pink. The air was frigid during the night, and Violet couldn't believe Maya slept on her bare skin being exposed to the cold elements. This is the first time they slept close and in an intimate way. Violet never slept or came this close to sleeping and being near someone half-naked.
In fact, if it wasn't for Maya's gift of seeing visions, she would have gotten her first sexual experience and given away her heart and soul to the person she least expect to find true love in. Violet thought that Minerva was the only person she ever found love in, and someone to love her as she always dreamed of finding. But now as Violet eyes Maya sleeping soundly beside her, she is believing that Maya is the one who she is meant to love and share a lifetime of happiness in this hell on earth.
Violet reaches out and tenderly strokes her beautiful rugged native warrior, and runs her fingertips on Maya's side and slowly trails up the back side of her back. Violet pauses as she sees strange markings on Maya's back shoulder she never noticed last night. She pulls the old sheet to gaze at Maya's back and sees she has strange tattoos of something.
One tattoo was on the top of her right shoulder blade as it was a circle of what looked to be teepees, and in the center of the circle was a buffalo. When they officially met, Maya told Violet that she originally came from the Lakota Tribe out west. Violet is curious if the buffalo tattoo is a symbol of her tribe. She notices Maya's tribal jacket has a buffalo skull on the back and wonders if there is a connection there. Or maybe buffalos are a national symbol in indigenous circles and means something important. Violet shakes her head and then looks at the other tattoo on Maya's shoulder just below the circle of teepees and the buffalo.
This one was strange. It sort of looked like a Dreamcatcher but not. Had colors of red, white, yellow and black, and above the circle was a hawk. Maya did mention her spirit animal is a hawk, as it matches the necklace she always wears around her neck. Violet moves her hand and her fingers trace over the hawks wings on Maya's back. Violet looks down and sees four hawk feathers attach to the circle. Inside the feather are the shapes of different animals. Violet sees silhouettes of a deer, a badger, a porcupine, and a lynx. Maya's family's spirit animals. And Maya's spirit animal acts as a guardian of the circle. It is like glancing at Maya's family tree.
She never knew how family runs deep in Maya's culture. She looks at her girlfriend as she was well-loved by her family. It made Violet feel a bit envious of her girlfriend's life before the apocalypse, as she longed to have a loving family who loved her. In another lifetime, Violet only wished she came to know Maya sooner, and her tribe and family would have embraced and loved her the same as Maya did and Violet could have known what a real loving family was like. But those were only thoughts of what could have been. And probably never would have happened as Violet will be here at Ericson being forgotten by her family, and Maya be living her life out in Jackson, Wyoming wherever that was at.
Violet soon felt Maya starting slowly waking up. Violet closes her eyes so when Maya turns to look at her it will be like Violet is still sleeping when she is not. Although Maya probably can sniff out that Violet is not really sleeping.
Maya slowly opens up her brown eyes and glances around the shack. She gets a sense that Violet took her close to Ericson so that is why she got that vision of Violet's past last night. Maya turns her head to gaze down at Violet's sweet sleeping face, as she stays close by her all night. Maya eases her body down and faces Violet as she wants to hold onto this moment a bit longer before making the trip back to her camp.
Maya knows Violet is already awake, as she felt her soft touch on her back. Maya soon leans forward and plants a sweet kiss on Violet's lips and feeling the love and joy Violet's kisses bring to Maya's heart. Maya pulls back but is still near Violet's sweet face as she whispers, "I know you are awake my beautiful sweet Violet."
Violet opens her green eyes and smiles at Maya, "How do you know?"
Maya looks to Violet in a teasing flirting way to her, "I have my ways." Maya giggles as she sees Violet's face go in a bit of a sour look to her. Maya then explains the real reason to Violet, "Actually it was you touching my back and feeling my skin. You are not subtle with your touches." Maya teases her, and felt Violet giving her a playful shove. Maya loves it she can make Violet be playful. Maya soon grew into a serious face, "Sorry about last night and scaring you. I sometimes can't con—"
"You don't have to apologize. This is something new for me to experience and was skeptical at first when you told me of your gift, when we first started to get to know one another, and never knew how powerful it is to you." Violet softly spoke to her lover as she sits up and gently wraps her arms around Maya's stomach, and left kisses on her bare shoulders giving her all the love and support Violet could give.
Maya felt that lover's touch and smiles a warm smile at her. Maya reaches up and clasp her fingers around Violet's forearms and held her. "You do know if my gift didn't disrupt or killed the mood, you would have been the first I have ever been intimate with you," Maya admitted to Violet.
Violet looks into Maya's eyes, and blush is seen on Maya's face. Violet kisses her shoulder and replies back admitting the same feelings, "You would've been mine as well, and I was kind of going that direction when you said all those romantic words to me. I never knew how deep love is, or felt it, until I looked into your eyes last night and my heart just...knew." Violet looks into Maya's brown eyes. And without hesitation now Violet spoke the words, "I love you, Maya."
Maya moves in and kisses Violet and held her neck as Maya's thumbs graze over Violet's jawline, as she felt Violet's jaw move to Maya's strides of kissing her. Maya pulls back and held Violet's sweet face as she places her forehead to Violet's, "I love you back." Maya catches Violet's eyes and notices something special in Violet's green eyes. When Violet is extremely happy, Maya sees a golden ring in her green irises around her pupils that shines the brightest when she is happy. Turning her spring green meadow eyes, into a harvest color. "You know, when you are truly happy, you have a soft golden hue in your eyes."
Violet looks up into Mayas and softly and tenderly spoke, "You make me very happy. Happiness I haven't felt, since...since I don't know how long ago."
Maya smiles to that kisses Violet's forehead and smelling her beautiful golden hair. Violet nuzzles her nose in Maya's neck letting her know Maya captured Violet's heart, and she truly loves her. Violet stayed like that for a moment and then slightly pulls out of Maya's embrace. "I never knew you would be the type of person to have tattoos."
Maya looks away and does her cute scratching of the back of her head when she is nervous about something or she has to explain. "Oh...um..well, I keep them covered up with my clothes, which is why you never saw them."
Violet moves a little to look at Maya's tattoos, "I kind of dig them. Makes you look even more badass and attractive." Violet admitted to Maya she is a bit turned on. Violet reaches out and strokes Maya's bareback where her tattoos are. Violet softly asks her new girlfriend what they mean, "What do they mean exactly?"
Maya peeks over her shoulder at Violet who was interested in the tattoos that Maya had gotten put on when she was 12. "Well the first one which I am assuming you are tracing on my back right now, is my tribe's national symbol." Maya looks at Violet as Violet's finger was tracing the buffalo's body. Maya then casts her brown eyes to look a little bit at Violet but not into her eyes, "Lakota's are known to be bison and buffalo hunters. It was my ancestors' way of life and main food source. So for us to stand out from other native tribes, is the buffalo symbol. And the connection with the buffalo has to my people's culture. That is why it is in the center around the circle of teepees." Maya looks at Violet, who has her eyes fixed on that tattoo. Then her eyes met Maya's and a loving look fell over Violet's face.
Violet then tenderly spoke, "And the second one?"
Maya bit her lower lip a little, "My calling in life or what I was called to be in my tribe. In indigenous circles, the circle of the four colors is known to be the medicine wheel. My grandmother was my tribe's healer, being a Sherman. Apparently, when you are gifted by the spirits of having visions, it is clear who will be the next Sherman in my tribe. They choose me, so I was given the medicine wheel."
Maya pauses as she explains what the four colors are and represent, "The medicine wheel has many different forms of life and what it means. It correlates with the stages of life, changing of seasons, directional, aspects of life, elements of nature and ceremonial plants used for healing." Maya takes a breath before going in-depth with the explanation. "Yellow represents the birth of someone's life. It is the start of something new, like new life that awakes during springtime. The directional associated with this is east. And has the aspect of bringing spirituality to life and being connected to the spirits and the element of earth. Red represents the youth. It is the element of fire, with burning passion and desire to do something, like physical strength in someone, or physical nature in one's self. It usually associates with the season of summer, and it is the direction of south."
"Black represents the season of fall, and it usually goes with someone who enters adulthood. Black is the element of water, which has the ability to change form at any given moment, like someone's emotions, which ties into black being the emotion in our lives. And it is the direction of the west. White represents the last stage of human life which is elder. It is the season of winter, where everything is white with the purity of living a full life. It is someone's mental state and brings the element of air that we breathe. The direction associated with white is north." Maya pauses as she explains to Violet was the four colors are, "And the center is the balance of all four coming together as one harmony. What we all try to strive for in life. Having balance."
Violet was speechless by Maya's tattoos. And she has a new appreciation for this rugged native girl. Violet clears her throat, "Wow, you really are a deep person. And I am falling more in love with you, the more you share with me your culture." Violet smiles at her. She glances down at Maya's medicine wheel tattoo and traces the circle, "I am guessing the feathers on the wheel is your family." Violet moves her green eyes to look into Maya's gaze.
Maya nodded confirming what Violet spoke, "It was optional to have that feature. At the time before I got rebellious, I wanted to have a piece of my family with me always, never to forget who I am or my family. I am now forever grateful for that decision, as I...I lost my kid brother several years ago to a sickness waiting to get inside of a settlement to start a new life when the world went to hell. And a few months after my brother Koda's death..." Maya closes her eyes momentarily and reopens them up as she tells Violet about her parents, "I lost my parents in a blood bath by rogue Delta members. Aniya is the only family I have left."
Violet looked at her lover with empathic eyes and then brought Maya with a surprised expression on her face. Violet leaned over and left tender, caring kisses on Maya's tattoos and held her close. She never knew how tragic Maya's pain was, and in some ways, Violet felt connected to Maya at this moment because they both had deep pain in their hearts and had similar experiences of losing someone they both loved. Violet places her forehead against Maya's shoulder and nuzzles her nose to Maya's body, and holds her.
Maya felt Violet's loving touch and moved to lace her hand to Violet's and brought Violet's hand up to lightly kiss it. Violet pulls back and rests her chin on Maya's right shoulder. Violet glances up into Maya's eyes as she speaks, "One hell of a thing to have in common with the girl I love. I guess destiny has a funny way of bringing two people together." Violet looks down at her hand as she interlocks her fingers to Maya's copper brown ones, "No matter how much horrible shit we both been through and lived through, I am grateful to have you in my life Maya. You make me feel complete and bring meaning in purpose to my life again. You filled the dark hole in my heart and healed me." Violet moves and plants a tender kiss on Maya's lips for a moment and pulls back to gaze upon her beautiful eyes. Violet sighs and can't believe she is going to say this, "I think you are my soul mate."
Maya smiles warmly at Violet and believes the same thing. And maybe her vision of seeing Violet's past had a purpose of showing Maya that Violet is her soul mate as well. Maya glances at the back wall of the shack or small hut of some kind and realized she needed to get back before Bonnie gets suspicious. Shit. Maya with her free hand strokes Violet's face, "I hate to break up this moment with us, and God, I don't want to leave your pretty face, but....I got to get back to my camp before my leader gets suspicious." Maya sights as Violet moves her lace hand to Maya's and places it on Maya's forearm the hand touching her face. "I wish I wasn't in her group and didn't have to be so secretive when seeing you. I wish I was part of your group Violet."
Violet nods and leans to put her forehead to Maya's. "I wish you were part of my group as well. I too wish we don't have to sneak around just to be together."
Maya presses her forehead harder against Violet's, and held it there for a bit longer, as Violet didn't want Maya to leave her just as much. Violet softly whispers, "What are we going to do?"
Maya wishes she knew the answer to that question, but she doesn't. "I wish the hell I knew." Maya rubs Violet's cheek with her thumb and kisses her forehead tenderly. Maya breathes a heavy sigh as she gets up from the old mattress and goes over to put on her clothes that Violet took off of her last night in a moment of passion. As Maya reapplies her clothes, she sees Violet walking up and eyeing her. Maya puts on her father's tribal jacket and smiles bittersweetly at her lover.
Violet, still not wanting to see Maya go, comes to her and places her hand in hers, "At least let me walk you as far to the border of my school goes." Maya looks at Violet in a bit of surprise. Violet glances down a little, then back up at her, "Yeah, I brought you close to Ericson last night. This, here, is where we fish, while another part is where we hunt rabbits and catch game with our traps. I feel you belong here and I trust you, despite what Clementine thinks of you. You prove your loyalty to me last night, and you won't betray or hurt me, or put anyone else I care for in danger." Violet then closes the fishing shack door and laces her fingers to Maya's.
Maya felt honored and softly said, "Thank you." The air was cold as winter was on its way. However, the warmness of Violet's touch made the walk barrable. They walked until they reached the end of the road, where they had to part ways. Maya felt the necklace she made Violet in her jacket that she planned to give to her yesterday but got caught up in her romance with her. Maya takes out the carved necklace and pauses in her step with Violet, "I meant to give this to you yesterday." Maya places the necklace around Violet's neck. "Your very own animal spirit totem. Normally there will be a big ceremony thing that is significant to this moment in my culture, but...due to unfortunate life events of the world turning upside down, I will give you the short version."
Violet looks at the animal that was hand carved to fine detail, and her heart stops as she looks into Maya's eyes. "Maya-"
Maya came forward and put a finger to Violet's lips to keep her from talking, "I made you a panther because the panther speaks to who you are, Vi. Protection, hidden emotions, introspection, caution, careful decision-making, and a representation of dark and light. You, my love, are a panther in this world. Keep it close to you when you find yourself missing me or need strength and guidance. I love you." Maya plants a kiss on Violet's cheek and glances into Violet's green eyes.
Violet looks into her lover's brown eyes and smiles at Maya's gift. Violet moves forward to kiss Maya one last time before they part to return to their groups. Violet kisses Maya as she has never kissed anyone before and tugs on Maya's tribal jacket to make the kiss more meaningful, and as a statement, her heart is bonded to Maya's. After a moment of soft making out, Violet pulled back her lips as she repeated the exact words back, "I love you too, Maya. Stay safe, and come back to me." Violet looks down at her new necklace and then at Maya, "I will keep this and you forever in my heart." Violet clutches the necklace and smiles at Maya.
Maya returns Violet's smile and lightly strokes her face with her thumb. With a heavy heart, Maya leaves the beautiful sight of Violet's pretty face and her damn beautiful green eyes that get Maya's heart pounding every time she looks into those sexy light green pools.
Violet watches Maya leave to go back to her camp and stood there until she no longer sees Maya's figure. Violet sighs as she turns to head back to Ericson with emptiness in her heart of Maya not coming back to her room with her. She reaches for the necklace and held it close to her heart and hearing those words Maya spoke to her, Keep it close to you when you find yourself missing me or need strength and guidance. I love you. Violet said out loud as she walks a slow pace back, "I love you too my sweet rugged warrior. You are the love of my life."
...........................
Clementine slept soundly in Louis's arms holding her throughout the night, and it was a peaceful night between the two of them. Neither one of them woken up to terrible nightmares the other has to try and comfort the other person to help them through the terror they are feeling. Clementine's nightmares of the ranch still get to her but it is not as often as before, now that she is safe in her new home. She still struggles with her new trauma of AJ cutting off her leg, and she needs Louis's help to get her through tough nights, but as far as the nightmares, she rarely gets them. Louis on the other hand still suffers from his trauma of what happened on the boat when rescuing their friends. His first kill of a living person still haunts him even long after the event happened. Clementine wishes she could take his pain away so he doesn't suffer. She wishes he didn't have to be the one to kill for her in order to protect her from harm, but at the same time, she is grateful.
The sun rays shine through Clementine and Louis's bedroom window as a sign that morning has broken. Louis's eyes slowly open to find Clementine on her side facing him and his jacket draped over her waist as she softly breathes in and out of her dream world. Louis smiles big watching her sleep. He couldn't help but put a lock of her hair behind her ears as she twitches a bit from his touch. He knows she is in a deep sleep when she doesn't stir from his touch.
Louis then runs his fingers down her shoulder as he lightly rubs it. Her brand of whatever symbol it is clearly is visible with the sunlight dappling her skin. Louis wonders what her scar means and why. It pains him to see her endure that much. Clementine slowly begins to stir awake and Louis quickly closes his eyes pretending he was not awake.
Clementine slowly opens up her amber eyes as the bright sun was peering through the windows. Clementine then gazes upon Louis and what they did last night and notice some marks were left on his neck. Her smile widens a bit as she gave love bites to him during their most intense moment. Clementine smiles at the memory of him and her being truly intimate with each other and making love. She wants more of that feeling but knows AJ will be coming in soon, and she doesn't want him to see her like this or know what she and Louis did.
Louis then opens his eyes slightly as Clementine doesn't say a word but her eyes spoke for her. Louis caught on to her gaze and moves closer to her lips as she did the same. His hand found hers, as she laces her fingers to his. They were eyeing each other and just when Louis made the move to lock his lips to hers the door handle jiggles a bit. Clementine flung out of her love gaze with Louis and move apart from him so fast he didn't have time to process it. She had just enough time to put on her white undershirt and Louis's jacket and made it onto her bed and under the covers before the door opened up.
Louis had never seen Clementine move that quickly and before he knew it AJ comes through the door. Thank God he is still wrapped up in the sheets, but he saw the look in Clementine's eyes that she didn't want her somewhat surrogate son to see her like that or get any ideas.
"Good morning Cle−" AJ said as he looks at the scene before him. "What did you and Louis do last night?"
"Uh.." Clementine tries to come up with a story without giving away her first sexual experience. She glances at Louis for help.
Louis caught on and then made up a scenario that will not embarrass her. "We had a pillow fort and played Truth and Dare. Clem dared me to sleep on the floor the whole night through and made a bet with me that I wouldn't last 2 hours. I guess I made it all throughout the night so she owns me my night watch." Louis looks at Clementine and winks at her. She is grateful for the made-up kind of lie. "And before you ask what happened to the fort, clumsy me knocked it over doing another one of Clementine's dares. Had to do a headstand. Obviously, it didn't end too well, which cause the demolition of our fort."
AJ looks at Clementine, "You dared Louis to sleep on the floor. That is mean."
Clementine giggles at that and plays along with Louis's little white lie tale, "Yes, well I had to be creative somehow with my dares."
AJ then notices Clementine wearing Louis's jacket, "Is part of the dare you wearing Louis's jacket?"
Clementine smiles and replies, "Yes. I also dared him to not sleep with his jacket on as well."
AJ looks at Louis who is not wearing his green shirt and scans the room until he spots it next to Clementine's denim jean jacket and her white zip-up hoodie. "Louis, why is your shirt off and with Clementine's jacket?"
Panic sets in on both of the teenagers blushing faces. Clementine cannot answer that but Louis is a smooth talker to get out of it, "I got a bit warm last night little man, so I took off my shirt. Clem already took her jacket off early on before we played truth or dare." Thank God he didn't spot both of their pants that is covered up by the sheets.
Before AJ asks any more questions, Clementine then intervenes and speaks to her adoptive son, "AJ can you give Louis and I a moment to get up? "
"But we are supposed to be on watch lookout this morning. Your scheduling remember?" AJ looks at her.
"Right forgot about that." Clementine half curses herself for making plans ahead of time. She then looks into AJ's soft brown eyes; "Can you give me five minutes kiddo, please," Clementine said bargaining with him. "Just five. I promise."
"Okay," AJ said as he turns and walks out closing the door behind him.
Once AJ left the room Clementine heaves a sigh of relief. "Well, that was close."
"Yeah, super close. Hope we didn't scar him too badly," Louis looks at her.
"I don't think we did. He didn't really suspect anything." Clementine answers him. She pauses to look at her boyfriend and smiles, "You are a smooth talker to think quickly on your feet." Clementine said complimenting Louis on his storytelling.
"Had years of practicing, darling with that." Louis smirks, which made Clementine, giggle a little.
Clementine then looks down at the floor as she spoke out loud. "Although I hate lying to him even though it was a little untrue with the details of your story," Clementine said.
"Yeah, but it is only a little lie. AJ doesn't need to know of sex just quite yet, and especially what we.... uh did last night." Louis reassures her a little. She can tell his cheeks are blushing.
"True. But he will learn about it eventually from Willy." Clementine pointed out.
"Well, we will cross that bridge when we get to it." Louis glances up into her golden eyes.
Clementine smiles at Louis then breaks the conversation a bit, "Well, I told AJ five minutes and he will hold me to that, so can you find the rest of my clothes since you are closer." Clementine said as she looks away blushing.
Louis nods to that and reaches for Clementine's sexy jean jacket and her stained white hoodie. He hands her those as he goes fishing under the sea of sheets for her pants and underwear. He found it next to his and the scattered deck of cards. Louis comes back up from underneath the sheets and hands them off to her. Clementine took them face blushing a bit. Louis loves it when she is like this, unsure of herself. He wanted to grab that arm and pull her back down to where he is and kiss her passionately again like last night. Clementine shyly re-dresses herself to be modest again. Louis does the same as he puts on his pants.
When Clementine reaches for her boot to put it on, Louis looks up at her and smiles a lovely smile, "Just so you know, in case we don't have time to discuss this, you were amazing last night."
Clementine pauses in her lacing up her boot looks at him, and blushes a bit more to Louis's compliment, "Thanks." She glances down at the floor for a second then looks up into Louis's eyes, "You were amazing as well. And....would love to do that again sometime with you in the future. Felt amazing and thrilling. And you with your shirt off is making me, a bit crazy."
Louis then looks at her and was about to get up and have a lip lock with her, but she finishes by lacing up her one and only boot. Clem grabs her prosthetic foot and puts it on like a champ with no issues anymore, and soon gets up and goes to the door. She pauses at the handle and turns to look at him, "You know if AJ hadn't come in the way he did. I would have possibly wanted to go for another round....with you." Louis looks at her and his smile grows. She returns the same smile to him, and then she said out loud this time without hesitation in her voice, "I love you."
Louis then returns the phrase back to her, "I love you back, and I too would have as well, especially you wearing my jacket. Makes my heart melt for you." Clementine and Louis share the loving gaze again. Louis then adds in as the last comment, "You know that your face is glowing right."
Clementine giggles and lightly, in a joking matter, replies, "Shut up." Clementine turns to head out of the room where AJ is waiting in the hallway as she approaches him with a big dorky grin on her face.

First Previous
Chapter 14: A Pleasant Game of Skirmish
Due to the distance between Earth and Cradle, multiple jumps were required. As such, major worlds in between the two points were designated and added to the jump list. While it extended the time it would take to get there, it would be worth it to gather more information on humanity. When jumping into a system, the Into the Black would do a detailed scan on every major planet, circling them if need be. Each system would take hours to record, but the new potential discoveries more than made up for it.
Meanwhile, life on the ship continued. Vigil in particular found himself wandering the upper decks, as Glevar had forbidden him from “escorting” Irudo while he was at work. Hesitant at first, Vigil left, believing he was in capable hands. Now, with no purpose, he was left to his own devices.
Thoughts of the garden kept popping up in his mind. Wishing to sate his curiosity, he gradually made his way over to it. Passing through the checkpoint, he was greeted with a wall of greenery. Small paths meandered through the small forest, while larger paths ringed the exterior.
Picking one of the smaller paths at random, Vigil walked down it, surrounded by life and serenity. The vegetation was both alien and yet familiar at the same time. Large trees with rough brown bark stretched upwards, topped by green leaves. Some were not completely the same as Earth vegetation, however.
Some of the tree trunks had a much darker, reddish hue, and wicked looking spikes lining them. While others had red or even purple leaves. Those with spikes had signs with foreign words set in the ground beside them, adorned by artwork depicting a mouth eating the tree with a large X. Going by this, Vigil assumed they were not edible. Why anyone wanted to eat the trees, he could not fathom. Apparently, though, the signs did not pertain to the wildlife transplanted onto the ship. A small creature with eyes nearly as large as its head, a jet black body covered in fur, and a long bushy tail, sat munching on the leaves of the tree. All the while staring at Vigil, curious as to who was intruding on its lunch.
Another oddity was the “grass”, if one could call it that. The plant in question blanketed the forest floor. It was bluish green with razor thin blades, more filament than proper leaf. Though it was extremely thin, it grew so dense that fallen debris, such as leaves and twigs, seemed to float above it.
Possibly deadly tree’s and strange grass aside… it was… enjoyable. It was nice to be so far away from war, yet confusing at the same time. He had no purpose here, no reason. Was it truly fine for him to stop? To lie down his sword, so to speak?
A beautiful flower off the path caught his eye. It had yet to unfurl its white petals for the day. Wanting to observe the flower in greater detail, Vigil stepped off the path and walked over. He kneeled down before it, taking in every aspect of its design. He reached out and stroked a petal. He did so agonizingly slow and gentle, yet even that was not enough to prevent harm to the frail life before him.
His finger ripped away one of the pure white petals, revealing a crimson red interior. Liquid, whether nectar or something else, leaked from the injury. It too was red, blood red. Surprised, he stood quickly. He did not want to harm the small flower further. Turning away, he paused. He saw his tracks, deep and obtrusive to the natural scenery. Wherever he walked, he had brought death to the surrounding life. Crushing the small filament like vegetation that covered the ground, killing it with each step.
He was reminded then, what his purpose was. He was a weapon, nothing more, nothing less. His purpose was to stand ready, so when the Nemesis came, these new people could wield him. Until he met his end, his purpose was to fight and kill. Forgetting this only brought harm to the world around him, and those existing peacefully within it. He walked back to the path, retracing his steps so to no bring further harm to those undeserving of it. He went back down the path to where he had come and left the garden and all the life within. Lest he bring death to them as well.
-
Elsewhere on the ship, Hran was forbidden from strenuous activity, being injured as he was. Which meant that he was practically useless in the engineering department. Thus, he was given a few of the data banks to work on.
He normally wasn’t able to pick up anything heavy as is, but now he wasn’t even allowed to so much as think of lifting anything that weighed more than him. Since he usually tinkered on things, he had created a sort of nest in the back of the large engineering bay. So, secluded in his little hideaway, he rummaged around in the data banks. Hoping for something useful.
While technically every scrap of information was crucial, he was finding fairly basic things. Knowledge that even the average denizen of the GU knew. Skipping this data bank, he moved on to another, and struck gold. Well, gold to him anyway. The importance of his finding would be graded by his superiors at a later date.
When he had opened the data bank, he had found hundreds of thousands of hours of footage. Not like communicator footage someone would record when something exciting happened, but of combat footage! Combat footage with the Nemesis! If they wanted to learn about the Nemesis and their tactics, this was the best way, aside from Vigil.
Opening the first file, Hran was immediately met with the sounds of gunfire and explosions. He quickly turned down the volume, afraid someone had heard. When no one came snooping, he relaxed and resumed the video.
The gunfire resumed, and a human male barked out some strange words and the wearer of the camera looked to the side. Hran’s eyes widened. He saw only men, dozens of battle-hardened and experienced soldiers. They were in some kind of natural depression in the dirt. Lines of men were running hunched over, keeping their heads low. All around them was dust and smoke, obscuring their view of the battlefield, but they fought regardless. Peeking from above the clouds of dust, were burned and blasted out buildings.
Then, suddenly, a man in armor ravaged by battle pointed behind the soldier with the camera and raised his weapon. The camera whipped around to see several terrifying four armed creatures dashing out of the smoke. Though the human men were already taller than him by several centias, the Nemesis towered over them. They did not hesitate though. They did not run or shirk their duty; they met the charging aliens head on.
Soldiers before the cameraman fired and were cut down by both blade and gun. The Nemesis seemed to favor holding a firearm in their upper two arms and blades in their lower two. Given the close proximity, Hran could see the advantage.
But the humans did not back away, they held their ground. Every bullet or bolt of energy caused the Nemesis to shine at the impact site. Hran ogled the works of engineering. They had personal energy shields! A man directly in front of the cameraman ducked under the blades of one attacker, and shoved the barrel of his weapon into the Nemesis’ side, and pulled the trigger. Circumventing the shield.
The Nemesis roared in pain and outrage, and cut the man in half. Hran choked back vomit. The viscera and gore were not censored of course, giving him a front-row seat to the brutality of war.
The unknown soldier’s death would not be in vain. The cameraman and another soldier rushed the wounded alien and tackled it. The man with the helmet cam straddled the creature and pressed his weapon directly into the underside of the Nemesis’ four eyed helmet.
Hran looked away as brain matter and yellowish alien blood explode from the now dead Nemesis. He felt sick to his stomach watching the battle. This wasn’t some make believe fantasy, some fictional war movie. This was real footage from real people struggling to survive just one more day. Yet… he couldn’t stop watching.
The soldier was back up, and continued to fight, but his time did not last. Another Nemesis took the place of the first, and now it was the cameraman’s turn to be cut down. Hran watched as the world turned sideways, and crimson blood painted the soil. The soldier did not stir. And all the while, the Nemesis and human warriors continued to battle eachother, staining the sandy colored soil with their blood. The video ended soon after the soldier’s death.
Hran was stunned. He had never seen anyone die. And now he had just witnessed the death of dozens. He was lightheaded, and his stomach ached. He gulped down the bile which threatened to pour from his mouth. Humanity had given their lives in defense of an undeserving galaxy. It was because of them he and his people were alive today.
He would bear witness to their final moments and learn all he could. So that if the Nemesis came, they would be ready. Steeling himself, Hran clicked on the next file. Great cannons the size of skyscrapers fired, parting the clouds in waves. As the clouds split, an endless sea of ships were revealed descending from the skies. Hran prepared himself to witness even more death and carnage than before.
-
Kitern was fuming. She understood Tentzonta’s worries, because she herself was wary of Vigil when they first let him wander as he pleased. But after he had literally carried her to safety, that opinion had changed drastically. Vigil was a soldier, just like her. She had killed people in the line of duty, yet no one feared her. Well, maybe a little, but it wasn’t because she had spilled blood. More because of her charming personality.
To top it all off, her damn arm was aching from not being moved in so long. Some might say she was overreacting, but having her arm in a sling felt more like she was being caged, like she was being tied down. It was unnatural to have her body hindered like this.
Of course, it was for her own health. Klofaa had scanned her arm and made certain nothing was broken. The blow had simply dislocated her shoulder and pressed it against the main nerve in her arm, preventing her from being able to move it. Once her shoulder had been re-set, she was able to move it like normal. But that wasn’t enough for Klofaa. She wanted to make absolutely certain Kitern was in no danger, so forced this stupid sling on her.
The feeling in her chest, of being confined and restricted, kept increasing. It was irritating, to say the least. She wanted to blow off some steam, but there wasn’t much she could do with one hand. Kitern paused. She did like watching sports. She could try to start a game of bailok between the crew?
She shook her head and continued walking. No, that required too much work for her to only sit on the sidelines. Besides, most of the crew wouldn’t bother participating. She wondered if Vigil knew any sports? She was sure plenty of people would be interested in playing a human sport.
“Hmmm,” she hummed and scratched her jaw. She couldn’t imagine Vigil playing anything. Even if he did, he would have to play against other mega bipeds, otherwise, he would absolutely destroy the average biped like her. She laughed suddenly. ‘Imagine their faces when they realize the person who whooped their asses is a guy! They would never be able to live that down!’ she thought. The image of a bunch of whiney bailok players came to mind. They already fell over at the slightest touch. If Vigil ran into one of them, armor or not, he would pulverize them.
She stopped again, an idea coming to her. Forget sports like bailok, what about skirmish? It was a simple game, but a blast to play and watch. Easy to set up, too. All you needed was an energy rifle with a dampener on the end to lower its power and a sensor to ping whenever the laser hit. They had all the ingredients they just needed to put them together.
She knew Asteli would jump at the opportunity to play. The spunky Venanian absolutely loved the game. Gre’Namra would follow along with her, and she could always order Onsa and Dentala if they didn’t want to join. She could even play with one arm if she wanted, skirmish laser dampeners worked on nearly all energy weapons after all. The only hard part would be finding everyone.
Grinning, she got to work scouring the ship.
-
Vigil was peacefully watching the blackness of space, his mind set at ease by the void. Something that many found unsettling. The Into the Black was scanning another system, on its way to Cradle. He didn’t recognize it, which was a small blessing. He kept recalling the past and his purpose as of late. Looking at the dead husk of a world he and his brethren had spilled their blood over would do no good.
“FOUND HIM!” a familiar voice screamed, loud enough to scare some of the nearby crew. The observation deck had, well, observation windows to look out into space. In this case, Vigil was at the very end of the large main corridor which ran the length of the ship. As Deck One held numerous amenities for the crew, it was frequented by many. Thus, there were more than a few startled faces.
Vigil turned as Asteli came bounding up to him with Gre’Namra following close behind. “Hey big guy! Captain wants you!”
Vigil looked down at her, “I will report to the bridge immediately,” he replied.
“Not that captain. Commander Kitern,” Gre’Namra clarified, stepping in front of him.
Vigil tilted his head. “Understood. Where am I needed?”
“In the hangar bay! Come on, you’re going to love this!” Asteli practically sang, as she went behind him and attempted to push him along. Her efforts were futile. She simply walked in place, feet slipping on the deck plates. She grunted in excretion. “Come on!”
“Affirmative. I will report to commander Kitern at once.” He stepped forward, causing Asteli to lose her balance and almost fall. Gre’Namra reached out to help stabilize her, before they began following Vigil to the lift.
As soon as the lift doors opened, Asteli rushed out screaming, “I found him!” Before she and Gre’Namra ran into the locker room. Vigil marched orderly to the hanger bay, to find the rest of the marines idly standing around in their armor on the edge of a symmetrical field of crates and containors. Strange black devices decorated their armor. One side was flat to adhere to their armor, while the other had a slight bulge. They were stuck at intervals, correlating with vital areas.
Vigil walked up to Kitern. “Has there been an emergency?”
She shook her head. “If me being pissed as hell counts, then yes. Otherwise, no, there hasn’t been. We’re setting up for a game of skirmish. That’s what the sensors are for,” she said, pointing a claw at a device on Dentala’s helmet, nestled between her horns.
“What is skirmish?” Vigil asked.
“It’s a game you play to simulate a firefight. You put the sensors on your chest, back, head, arms, and legs.” She lifted a laser pistol with a bright blue block on the end of the barrel. “Then you put a dampener on an energy weapon of your choice and shoot eachother. The dampener lowers the power of the beam so that it can’t kill you, just trigger the sensors. It takes five shots to ‘kill’ someone, two if you shoot them in the head. Forgot how many you need if the species has more than one head, though.” She returned her sidearm to its holster and waved a hand dismissively. “Doesn’t matter. Point is, you want to play?”
He thought for a second. While labeled as a game, it would be an efficient tool to maintain combat readiness and test his new allies’ capabilities. They would need to be an efficient fighting force to have a chance against the Nemesis. “Affirmative,” he finally replied.
Kitern chuffed. “Good. Onsa, get this man a gun! Never thought I’d say those words.” She shrugged. “Oh well. If you need me, I’ll be with Shavan putting bets on the winners.”
“Hello down there!” the ship’s quartermaster said upon hearing her name. She waved down at them from a platform being held aloft by a crane which ran along the tracks embedded in the ceiling. She began lowering the platform via a linked data pad.
“Don’t tell the captain about that. It breaks several safety regulations,” Onsa said from the side, handing him a pack of sensors and an energy rifle with a dampener already attached. Vigil looked at them curiously and began putting them on various parts of his body. Meanwhile, Asteli and Gre’Namra returned, now fully armored, and grabbed two more rifles and packets of sensors.
Now high above the “battlefield”, Kitern announced. “If the contestants are ready, you may take your positions!” she said in a haughty voice. She leaned over and elbowed Shavan in the side. “Make sure you record this.”
Shavan chuffed and drawled, “Already ahead of ya.” Then linked her data pad to the hangar’s cameras, pointing them so they covered every inch of the field.
Asteli ran off to one side of the makeshift arena while Onsa and Dentala went to the other. Gre’Namra walked up to Vigil and said, “You’re on our team to help balance things out.” He nodded and followed the two privates to their designated starting point.
Kitern leaned over the hastily assembled railing of her platform, observing the playing field. It was a simple rectangle marked by lines of crates. Each side’s base was ringed by a wall of boxes and containers with gaps to get in and out. Cover was scattered periodically, with head height walls spread around the arena to break line of sight.
Seeing that everyone was at their bases, she called down, “If everyone is ready!” She paused, looking between the two opposing sides. “Begin the slaughter!” There was no bell, shot, or buzzer. Just a simple shout and the two sides were off.
All except for Vigil, who was still standing there while Asteli and Gre’Namra split and ran in opposite directions around a wall that defended the front of their base. Vigil looked back and forth between the two before randomly choosing to go to the right.
Turning the corner, he saw Gre’Namra hunkered behind cover. She was pressing a hand to the deck, concentrating on something. She looked back and saw him and made a hand motion, telling him to get down. Distracted by Gre’Namra, he did not see the two quick flashes from between a stack of crates, which spelled his doom.
The sensor on Vigil’s helmet flashed blue twice in quick succession, and all the sensors lit up. Indicating he was out.
“You’re dead Vigil, go sit on the side,” Kitern called down from her perch. Confused, Vigil did as ordered and observed the brief firefight. Gre’Namra, now revealed, had a small shootout with Onsa who had taken out Vigil. Gre’Namra returned fire, attempting to suppress Onsa.
When Onsa stopped shooting, Gre’Namra attempted to pull back get behind taller cover. The moment she left her stack of boxes, Onsa resumed firing and tagged her back three times. Though she was hit, she was not out. Cursing and slapping her tail on the deck in agitation, she elected to pull back and meet up with Asteli on the opposite side of the battlefield from her, rather than continue fighting Onsa. Gre’Namra fired blindly over cover, causing Onsa to duck down and give her a chance to escape.
Meanwhile, Asteli had pushed far forward, quickly being pinned down by Dentala. Already hit twice, she was reluctant to return fire. Until Gre’Namra appeared, she kneeled and leaned around cover, hitting Dentala and forcing her back. Now relieved, Asteli advanced with Gre’Namra’s over watch.
However, in their haste, they failed to ensure their flank was secure. As out of nowhere, Asteli was gunned down by Onsa firing diagonally from across the field.
Asteli stomped her foot and cursed, before trudging over to the side. Gre’Namra, now alone, pulled back to her base. She wanted to use the tight confines to her advantage, forcing her enemies to come to her. However, Dentala had other plans for her. Using Asteli’s tactics, she pushed hard, going down the center of the field where Gre’Namra had no sightlines.
As Dentala was advancing, she lept over low cover, set in between two walls. Waiting on the other side of the walls, was Gre’Namra. Gre’Namra had stopped retreating, when she realized she would only be trapping herself. Guessing that her seniors would assume she was running with her tail between her legs, she decided to lay a trap of her own. Using her species’ advanced sensory organs to track Dentala, even without line of sight, and set up where she would least expect.
Dentala was mid jump, when Gre’Namra opened fire. She was ‘dead’, before she even landed. “Tsk. That was smart, too bad you’re dead,” Dentala said with a bitter undertone.
Gre’Namra scoffed. “What? Look who talking!” As soon as the words left her mouth, her sensors flashed and stayed lit, indication she was dead.
Someone tapped the barrel of an energy rifle on the back of her helmet. “Remember your opponents. Lioranians have excellent speed and agility. If you aren’t paying attention, we can run up on you before you have time to react,” Onsa bragged from behind her.
Gre’Namra thumped her tail on the ground. “I could have sensed you anyway if I wasn’t wearing this armor! It reduces my sight time too much!”
“True,” Onsa nodded. “But without that armor, you would have been dead already.”
Kitern suddenly began clapping a hand on a section of railing, drawing everyone’s attention. “You did good privates. Better than I had thought. Vigil, you did about what I expected for your first time,” she said, looking down at everyone. Asteli was busy punching Vigil in the arm, blaming him for their loss. Vigil barely even registered the blows, let alone was harmed by them.
“Everyone, go back to your bases and get ready for round two. I’m hoping to see some improvement,” she said merrily, enjoying the show.
Taking up the same position as last time, Kitern began counting down. Asteli punched Vigil’s arm again. “Use some of that ass kicking energy you showed us on that Nemesis ship this tim-”
Kitern had finished counting down. The moment she did, Vigil practically disappeared. Startling Asteli and Gre’Namra, even Kitern and Shavan were wide eyed when Vigil darted around the container walls, making up their base.
They grew even wider, and their jaws appeared to hit the floor as they watched Vigil dash across the battlefield. He was a blur, rushing over and around cover. Already nearing the enemy base. He jumped on top of a waist high stack of crates and used both of his powerful legs to jump straight up and over Dentala’s and Onsa’s front wall.
The two marines hadn’t even left the confines of their base, when the light was blocked out by Vigil sailing above them. In an instant, the sensors on their heads flashed twice, then remained on, signaling their demise.
Vigil landed on both feet and went into a squat to help transfer some of the energy from his impact. He cleared the entire base and ended up on the outside of the arena. The deck reverberated from the force of his body slamming into it and created a mini avalanche of poorly stacked boxes. As the various boxes and crates fell away, Onsa and Dentala were graced with a view of Vigil’s back, as he slowly rose to an upright position.
They stared at him, flabbergasted. “How?” Dentala whispered in disbelief.
Kitern watched, just as stunned. “Uhhh… the match is… over,” she said slowly.
“What?!” Asteli shouted from her side of the field. She stuck her head out from behind cover, making sure it wasn’t a trap, before approaching the other base. Seeing that Dentala and Onsa were really out, she walked up to them and chuckled. “Remember your opponents. Humans have excellent speed and agility,” she mimicked Onsa’s earlier statement mockingly.
Onsa scowled at her. She then rotated her rifle with one arm and shot Asteli. Asteli returned the gesture by blowing her species’ equivalent of a raspberry. “Alright, alright. Settle down children,” Kitern announced as her platform lowered. “Normally you would be tied one for one, but now that Vigil seems to be trying. I doubt you’ll be getting any more points.” She directed the tail end of her sentence to Onsa and Dentala.
Dentala protested and gestured to the large imposing man who was now gathered with the others. “We can take him. Now that we know what he can do, we can beat him.”
Kitern waved her off. “I love the enthusiasm, but we couldn’t take him when we had actual guns. And he was literally dying. You can’t take him on now. Not the two of you atleast.” She then did something not characteristic of her species. Kitern grinned, barring her teeth. To a Lioranian, showing one’s teeth was a declaration of war, that you wanted to fight, that blood would soon be spilled. They also did it subconsciously when faced with a foe or extreme challenge. And right now, Vigil was both.
Kitern reached over and took off her sling. She rolled her left arm, causing it to pop. “You aren’t supposed to move your arm!” Onsa nagged.
“Yeah, yeah. What the doc don’t know won’t hurt her.” She picked up a pack of sensors and began putting them on. The sensor for her head looked stupid sitting on top of her head, like a little hat. “I’m joining in now, kiddos.”
“Um, captain. You aren’t wearing armor,” Gre’Namra pointed out.
“And?” Kitern scoffed. “Unless you take that dampener off, I can be as naked as the day I was born and not get hurt. At most it’ll singe my fur.”
Asteli spoke up, a nervous undertone in her voice. “Even with Vigil, ma’am, we can’t beat you.”
“You two won’t, but Vigil could. So it’s a good thing you won’t be fighting me,” she replied cryptically. The other four marines looked at her confused. Seeing their reactions, she chuffed and laughed. “Watching you all go at it made me excited. And since we’re still O for one against big boy over there. I think it’s time we evened the score.”
“You mean…” Dentala said, catching on.
Kitern nodded. “Yep. It’s going to be a five versus one. We’re going to have a grudge match.”
All eyes turned to Vigil. He simply tilted his head, not sure why everyone was looking at him.
First Previous
Hello, I am back! For how long? I have no idea, but until I have to leave again, I'll be uploading as normal. Also, after this point, you may occasionally see stories called Orphan: Tales of the Past, where I give a bit more backstory or just write "bolter porn", (I hope I'm using that correctly) essentially just action packed wabattle scenes from the Human Nemesis war. To be honest, 99% of it is bolter porn. I have backstory chapters for several characters set up, but haven't actually written any yet.

Amid a galaxy of brutal chaos there are stories to be told, tales of valor and justice, of fear and despair. But amid these stories are the guttering flames of adventures untold, the potential for a universe of entertainment and savage joyous fun. The Oblivion Cycle embodies just this kind of crafted chaos, creating the potential for creative exploits and raucous tales. If you are new to the TOC setting feel free to join the community at TheOblivionCycle to check out some of the background lore or to discuss themes with other readers. I thank you all for your support and continued willingness to read, as always, Please Enjoy!
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Chapter 27
Max-imum Surprise
He stood atop a wooden platform in the branches of the highest tree in the jungle. His heart beating fast in his chest as he looked out into that endless blue expanse of sky above. He blinked, suddenly there was no jungle. In front and below him was only more of that same endless sky.
He should have been afraid, should have cowered from that endless void in terror, but he found that he felt none of these things. Instead he smiled and spread his arms wide. He felt free, freer than he could ever remember feeling before.
He looked down at his bare feet, the polished red wood of the platform solid beneath his toes. Taking a deep breath he began to run. The edge of the platform seemed to stretch away from him, the harder he ran the faster it seemed to pull away.
He yelled at it to stop, to wait for him. But it did not. Instead it expanded outwards from him at the speed of light, encompassing him in a giant sphere of darkness that then seemed to press in on all sides. He felt a terrible pressure on his chest and cried out for someone to save him.
Suddenly he stopped as a profound sense of love and warmth seemed to wrap around him. It wasn't the same crushing weight as before. Before the pressure had been malicious, cruel and painful. Now the pressure was soft and tender, he embraced the feeling with his mind and smiled again. He suddenly realized that he was floating once more in that endless blue sky. Or was he falling? It made little difference, he spread his arms experimentally and found he could fly.
He laughed in childlike wonder as he began to soar through the endless clouds, doing loops and tricks to his heart's content. He had thought himself free before. He had been a slave, shackled to the ground and forever denied the truth.
He growled in anger at the thought, twisting dark branches reaching out like fingers to ensnare him as his mood darkened once more. He flitted and dodged through them with an agility that surprised even himself.
Then suddenly in the distance he heard a wailing sound, almost like that of a storm siren, but deeper in tone and altogether more sinister. In the sky overhead a darkness formed, taking a strange and terrifying form that he was unable to describe. It was as if the tendrils of darkness continued on forever, though he could not see them he knew they were there. Burrowing through reality as a worm would an apple.
He frowned, intrigued by the spectacle and unafraid. It seemed familiar, like an old acquaintance many years forgotten. It struck him as neutral, not evil or good, but somewhere in the middle. A mix of the two. He shook like a leaf in a storm as a hot wind began to blow over him and the sky split open to reveal a burning orange eye the size of eternity. He felt fear now, a terrible bone wrenching fear that spoke of primordial terrors and cosmic threats beyond mortal comprehension. But still he remained, no longer flying as he stood upon a tower of dark basalt stone blocks.
He looked at the eye and it looked at him, it seemed to look deeper than his skin. It felt as if it were peeling back the layers of his flesh and looking to his very soul, the gestalt of his core.
He jerked as a voice seemed to echo through his mind “You are not the one.”
He shook his head in confusion and shouted up to the burning sky “I’m not what one? What do you mean?”
The eye didn't reply, instead began to close. Leon raised his fists and shouted to the sky “One what? Answer me! I need to know.”
Again the voice spoke in his mind, this time quieter and growing more faint by the second till it trailed off into silence. “It is not yet time, you are not the one.”
As the eye closed the sky went dark, so did everything else. He felt himself falling again, looking down he saw a bright light far below. Squinting he saw it looked like a hospital room. The scene grew closer and more defined as he approached it at rapid speed. He looked at the bed and gasped in surprise, for in the bed he saw himself. But not as he remembered himself, but pale and seemingly without life. To his side he saw Dr. Kimathi and Joice frantically messing with something next to the bed his body lay in. It was a defibrillator.
He watched in growing fascination as he fell towards himself at incredible speeds. Joice lifted his body’s shirt and applied the paddles while Dr. Kimathi shouted something. He didn't have a chance to hear it as he slammed into his body.
He grunted in pain and convulsed as his eyes shot open. Coughing violently he tried to sit up and found he could not. Laying back in bed a bit dazed he tried to remember what had just happened.
He stopped, his mind a whirl of impossible images and sensations, and over it all a voice like thunder echoed in his mind. “You are not the one.”
“I am not the one.” He muttered to himself.
“Leon, Leon can you hear me? What did you just say? Nevermind it's not important, Leon I need you to tell me if you can hear me.” A female voice said from close to his ear.
He looked around blearily, was he Leon? ‘I am.’ he decided to himself. With his newfound identity chosen he decided to move onto his next issue.
He tried to sit up but found he couldn't. Flailing around weakly he heard a voice shout for assistance and then felt multiple hands holding him still.
“He is seizing.” Someone said, his mind assigned the voice a name. Dr. Kimathi.
Another voice, this one male, spoke up saying “I think he’s okay now. He stopped struggling.” This time his mind said the name Taylor.
He blinked a few times, trying to clear his mind. What had happened? Why couldn't he remember anything? He thought hard, his face screwing up from the stress. He remembered mud and a loud noise. But that was it.
Dr. Kimathi stood next to him and shined a penlight into his eyes while saying “Pupil response is normal, no intracranial swelling then. Leon, Leon look at me.” she said sternly.
He looked at her, his vision focusing on the dark skinned woman’s eyes. She nodded and then put up a single finger. “I want you to follow my finger, okay Leon?”
He tried to speak but all that came out was a half strangled croak. She frowned but moved her finger. He did his best to keep locked onto it. Maybe if he did what she asked she would tell him what happened to him. She moved it a few more times, first slowly and then more rapidly. He followed along and she nodded before marking something on the small datapad she was holding.
He coughed as he tried again to speak and he heard Taylor say “I'll go get Natalia. She will want to know he’s awake.”
Dr. Kimathi raised a hand. Glancing at him she hissed quietly. “I don't know if that’s a good idea. He seems to be suffering from acute memory loss. I can’t explain it, no head injury, not cranial trauma of any kind. It’s like something reached in there and scrambled his brains around, resonance scans are all over the place. It's like there was some kind of interference.”
Leon frowned at her words, again the dim memory of a powerful voice echoed through the corner’s of his mind and the vague impression of a nebulous darkness crossed his mind. But he quickly suppressed it.
“Where am I?” he croaked.
Dr. Kimathi's head whipped towards him and she rushed to his side. “Leon, you are in the infirmary. What do you remember?”
Leon frowned again, hadn't she already asked him that? He couldn't remember. Instead of asking he said “I remember mud, lots of mud. And then, trees? That makes no sense, I'm sorry.” he apologised quickly. They would think he was insane if he kept talking. Then he would end up in the loony pen with Aden.
He sat bolt upright as things started rushing back into place. The planetary landing, the attack on Oliver, the strange dream he had experienced. It all came back in a rush that made his vision swim and his head pound. Clutching his head he groaned “I remember everything… Ough, why does it hurt so much?”
Taylor looked at Dr. Kimathi and asked “What about now?” to which the woman just nodded. Taylor rushed off, presumably to grab Natalia, Leon speculated.
Leon knew that he only had a few moments before everyone else came rushing back and so clutched at Dr. Kimathi’s arm.
“Wait, I have to tell you something.” He said urgently.
Dr. Kimathi looked around the room quickly before nodding and asking “Ok then Leon, what is it?”
He held the long sleeve of her white lab coat and began determinedly. He told her of his dream and the voice, of the eye and the darkness. After he had finished he released her arm and sat back with a wince. Only now did he notice his bare chest was wrapped, an ugly yellow and blue bruise peeking from beneath the bandage.
Dr. Kimathi shook her head slowly and said “You are starting to sound like Aden. Are you sure you are alright Leon? I have some antipsychotics I can prescribe if you…”
Leon cut her off with a right handed wave, his left arm hurting too much to move it about. “No, please, no more medication. I take enough of that shit to sink a battleship already. Some painkillers wouldn't be bad though, please?” He asked her.
She smiled slightly and handed him three small pills from her pocket and a bottle of water with a straw. “Careful on the water.” She warned him as he started to suck it down.
He coughed a few times as her warning did not come fast enough and some slipped down the wrong pipe, Dr. Kimathi leaned over to pat his back as he tried to expel the excess liquid. He was still coughing lightly as a familiar and very welcome face walked around the corner.
Natalia rushed to his side and hugged him as he was still trying to settle his lungs. The result was another coughing fit followed by her rapidly apologizing for hurting him.
Leon waved a hand weakly and said “No it’s fine Nat, I was just drinking water too fast. It is really good to see you.” he said softly.
She smiled sadly and nodded, a few tears welling in her eyes. “When you stopped breathing I thought…” She started to say but he shushed her and extended an arm.
Natalia sat by his side and leaned on his shoulder gently as he put his arm around her waist. “Don’t talk like that. I’m not going anywhere. I'm way too stubborn to do anything like that, much less the effect I know it would have on you.” he said, wiping a tear from her cheek.
Dr. Kimathi spoke “Well, I am glad to see you feeling better Leon. And she’s right, we nearly lost you there a few times.”
Leon nodded and pulled Natalia’s head down before planting a tender kiss on the top of her head. “I’m sorry Nat, I won’t let my pride get in the way of my common sense again.” He turned to Dr. Kimathi as she tapped on her datapad. “How is Oliver? Is he alright?”
She finally smiled, a small tight lipped thing. “Thanks for asking Leon, I was hoping you would. Oliver is going to be physically fine, he woke up from the antivenom treatment a few days ago.”
Leon jerked up before the pain in his side dragged him back down to the dismay of both women. “A few days!” he shouted.
Natalia pushed him back down gingerly while Dr. Kimathi shot him a pointed look. She lowered her datapad and explained “Yes, a few days. You were in a medically induced coma Leon, severe lack of oxygen almost killed you before we could get you out of your suit. You had a collapsed lung and multiple fractures, not to mention a partially dislocated collarbone. It was kind of touch and go for a while.” she finished with a gesture to his bandages.
Leon winced again and asked “What happened after I blacked out?”
Dr. Kimathi shook her head and said “A whole hell of a lot. Natalia can fill you in on the details, I need to go check on something. Don’t do anything stupid while I'm gone Leon, okay?” She told him. Leon just nodded and watched the stern woman exit the examination room.
Natalia answered his question “Well, you passed out on the way up to the ship. By the time they got you out of your environmental suit you were already in full respiratory arrest. Your heart was beating but your lungs were not working.” she said emotionally.
Leon hugged her close again and whispered to her softly “It’s okay now though. I’m better. Please, tell me what happened next?”
Natalia sucked in a shuddering breath and nodded jerkily. With a slight tremble in her voice she continued speaking “We had to rush you and Oliver to the infirmary. Blessing hooked you up to a portable respirator after applying the chest tube to help drain the built up fluid. But even then you were barely breathing, she said she had to drain the excess fluid from your lungs, something she couldn't do in the microgravity core. So we used one of the lift rigs and lowered you down the access shaft to the medical ring. By that point Oliver had been rendered unconscious as well and Blessing had enlisted both Taylor and Myung to help.” she paused for breath and Leon reached for the water bottle on his bedside.
She smiled at him as he handed it to her and she took a drink. Replacing it on the table he bade her to continue. The horrid fascination making it impossible for him to ignore the terrible events.
She took another deep breath before she spoke, this one steadier as she got further into the story. “Well, after some struggling we finally got you and Oliver into the intensive suite. While Blessing worked on synthesizing an antivenom from Max, Myung and Taylor monitored your condition. Did you know Taylor had medical training? Apparently he had been a volunteer responder before he moved into military signal analysis.”
She was about to continue when he waved his arms. “Wait a minute, hold on. Who the hell is Max? What did…” he stopped. He crossed his arms again and apologised as she gave him a disapproving look.
“I was getting to that, fasten up those horses buster.” She chastised him. Her annoyance was short lived however as she shook her head and continued. “Well, when you captured that creature on the planet's surface, you placed it into a bag. The bag seemed to have calmed the thing down because as they finally got to unpacking it the little thing was as timid as a mouse. I don’t know why, but it seemed to respond in a non-hostile manner to both the venom extraction and continued observation.” she said.
Leon shook his head in disbelief. “That still doesn't explain who Max is, wait. Don’t tell me.” he said as he saw her smile widely.
She nodded her head and said “Yeah, Oliver responded to the antivenom and woke up, madder than hell. He wanted to chop the little beast up till he saw it. He looked into its little puppy dog eyes and immediately forgave them. He named her Max and almost immediately tried to feed it.”
Leon again shook his head in disbelief. Only the crazy Australian could want to adopt something that had nearly killed him as a pet. “He named it Max? What, is it a dog now?” he asked her jokingly.
She just smiled harder and replied “She might as well be. The two are nearly inseparable now.” He shot her a surprised look and opened his mouth to comment but she cut him off. “Yes he keeps a close eye on her, and no Max hasn’t attacked anyone else. Not even tried. Oliver said that the only reason that she bit him was because he stepped on her. She was just lashing out in self defense, same as when you grabbed her. Once Max realized that we were not trying to kill her she seemed to mellow right out.”
Leon still couldn't hardly believe it. The same murderous creature that had nearly cost both his and Oliver's lives, was now the ship's mascot? He couldn't take it and chuckled “Okay, I see what’s going on here. Ha ha ha, very good. I will admit you had me going with that story, Max.” he said, another slightly wheezing laugh escaping him.
She just gave him that same serious stare from earlier. He opened his mouth and threw his arms out to the side. “Oh come on, you really expect me to believe that the same murder rope that I nearly died to grab is now everyone’s favorite little cuddle buddy?”
She shook her head and said in an exasperated tone “Well I never, have I ever been untruthful with you Leon?”
He cocked his head and raised a finger. “Well, if we are counting, then… There was that time with the bean patty you told me was a hamburger that had been preserved in the cold storage for the whole trip. Had me excited as a pig in shit for that one. Then there was that other time when you called me to the observation deck for an emergency but in reality it was just you wearing that skimpy little…” She cut him off by putting her hand over his mouth and looking around to see if anyone had overheard.
She hissed “Okay I get it. And you told me you wouldn't hold that over me.” she pouted.
He chuckled lightly and shook his head “I’m sorry, but this is just too incredible. Please, humor me and skip the Max related stuff for the moment. What happened after oliver woke up, not the thing.” he pleaded.
Natialia gave him an unreadable look but continued on saying “Ok, Oliver woke up. He was a bit weak from the venom but took it well. He and Blessing took some samples of… The creature.” she paused to gauge his reaction. Leon just blinked, waiting for her to proceed. “Well, they took some samples and found something remarkable. The lifeforms on the planet have a disturbingly similar chemical and molecular makeup to Earthly animals.”
“How similar?” he asked her, interrupting her train of thought. “Sorry, continue.” he muttered as she waved a hand in the air annoyedly.
She returned to her tale “Well, they did some tests and found that the lifeforms of the world, which we named Terrelia while you were out by the way sorry.” she shrugged as he frowned. “Well, Ma… The creature is able to not only digest Earth proteins, but seems able to metabolize them as well. It has red, iron based blood with a protein ominously similar to hemoglobin as its oxygen carrier. That’s why the venom worked on Oliver so fast, it was like he had been bitten by a cobra from back on Earth. Joice and Myung couldn't make heads or tales of it, but that's the truth. I guess life in the universe isn't so alien after all.” she said with a casual shrug.
Leon just sat back in his bed, the bruises on his chest and arm smarting despite the painkillers he had taken earlier. It all seemed rather baseless to him, though he couldn't in good faith call her a liar. She would never have made up something so fantastic and then claimed it was true that vehemently. No, it must be truth. The only other option was mass hysteria in which case he had a lot more to worry about than a pet alien snake.
He wrung his hands together and looked around the small room. The walls and ceiling were white, a few cabinets above clinical countertops and a single LED light fixture completed the display. He thought about what she had said. That alien life might not be so alien afterall.
He nodded and said “I think I want to get up.”
Natalia gave him a concerned look and placed a single hand on his bandaged chest. “I’m not sure that is a great idea yet Leon. You are still recovering.”
“Yes I am. But a little walking does the body good. How many days was I out?” He asked her as he gingerly sat up on the edge of the bed. He slowly swung his legs over the side of the bed towards the floor. He winced as his leg twinged and his side smarted, but it wasn't enough to deter him from his current course of action.
Natalia stood in front of him and bounced slightly in nervousness. “Oh man, Blessing isn’t going to like this.”
Leon waved a hand in a dismissive way and asked “And since when have I let her opinion on my health keep me down? How many days Nat?”
She looked him in the eyes and said “Four days. You were gone for four days Leon. Four days in which I was lost, almost completely.” She took a deep breath as the emotions she was suppressing threatened to tear their way free. “I can’t tell you how bad it felt seeing you like that Leon. I thought I had lost you.” She said in a wavering tone.
Leon stood shakily and embraced her. He ran a hand through her hair as she buried her face in his chest. “I do know. I have felt lost too, but I have you now. And nothing is going to make me let you go.”
She looked up at him and asked suddenly “Well, you are up. It's too late to turn back now. Want to go meet Max? She really is swe…”
Leon groaned and she stopped talking. He saw her frown slightly and caved “Okay. But don't get upset if the little bastard bites you or someone else.”
He saw her roll her eyes before she led him slowly and deliberately out of the room.
Leon walked slowly, not really hurting but more sore than he had felt in years. Every step was a chore but he continued on determinedly. It was better to be up and smarting than stagnating in bed.
As they walked down the corridor that led to the main hallway Leon asked her “Are we still in orbit of the planet?”
She shook her head. “No, Joice made the call while you were incapacitated. The planet was dangerous, there might be another incident if we had decided to make another surface run.”
Leon shrugged. That seemed like the best course of action he could think of too. The planet's surface was a swamp which made it impossible to see where one was truly stepping. Oliver wouldn't have stepped on the creature if he had known it was there. The entire stupid situation might have been avoided entirely.
“Yea, that sounds fair.” Was all he said in response though. He was curious about what she thought but didn't ask. He could tell by the way she frowned that she hadn't been a fan of the situation.
Letting it go he said “We need different protocols for this kind of situation. I think the crew should have more of a say in what happens from now on.” Leon mused out loud. Natalia just patted his shoulder silently.
The kept walking a little farther till they reached the medical labs portion of the ring. Leon slowed as he heard voices emanating from the rooms ahead. Turning a corner through a doorway he stopped.
In the room were three people, Oliver, Joice and Dr. Kimathi. Joice and Dr. Kimathi were sitting at a table looking at a computer and discussing its data. What really captured his attention however was Oliver sitting across from the two women. Or rather, the long creature wrapped around the man's neck and upper torso.
Leon cocked his head, it was indeed the same creature from the planet. He looked at it again and was a bit taken aback by its appearance.
While he had not had much chance to grasp its true form on the planet he still had gotten a decent look at it. It was indeed long and snake-like in appearance, its body tubelike and covered in thousands of tiny mosaic scales in a blueish green pattern, but that's where the similarities ended.
It’s head was long and almost had a canine look to it with pronounced jaw muscles and what looked like small horns. The body was long and had a small fin-like frill moving down its center similar to an eel. All along its sides it had much larger scale looking structures that seemed to be raised off its surface. As he tried to guess as to their function he noticed some of them move. Looking closer he realized they were rows of fins all along its sides, just tucked close to the body in the absence of water. That would explain how it was able to wriggle free from him on the planet.
Joice saw them and glanced at Dr. Kimathi, saying something. Dr. Kimathi looked at him sharply and demanded “Leon, why are you out of bed? Natalia, I told you to keep him in bed.”
Natalia hung her head sheepishly and said “It’s hard to make Leon do something he doesn't want to do.”
Leon glanced at her and then said “It was my fault, I didn't listen to her. I needed to move, to get active. I’m sorry Dr. Kimathi.”
Natalia squeezed his hand and he gave her a slight nod. Joiced motioned for them and said “Well as long as you are here, come take a look at these readings. Myung and I took some samples of Max’s blood and the results are both remarkable and confusing in equal measure.” The blond woman finished excitedly.
Leon nodded and made a pointed effort not to look at the thing Oliver was holding. He took the seat that Joice had just vacated and looked at the results she had posted to the computer. After a moment he asked “Well, what does it all mean?”
Joice shook her head and motioned at a few bits of randomly squirming data points. To him they looked like so much gibberish but Joice spoke animatedly while gesturing to the readouts “If you look here you can see a partially decoded splice of their DNA. That was the first thing that struck me as odd, I expected something similar to our DNA system to give the cells guidance, but not this similar. Look, four base pairs just like us, and whats more the base pairs are astonishingly similar as well. If i didn’t know any better I would be tempted to say that this creature evolved from a common ancestor to Earthly creatures.” she paused to let the bombshell sink in.
Leon just shook his head “What is so remarkable about that. Isnt there a word for this kind of thing. Convergent evolution right?”
Joice shook her head and pointed at Oliver’s new friend. “No, not like this. Convergent evolution is more about the form and function, not the composition. This is too close to be accidental, this is… This is wrong is what it is. Its not possible, and yet here I am telling you that its not only possible, but that its happened.”
She threw her arms up in the air while giving a small groan of frustration. Leon heard a quiet quacking noise and looked at Oliver. The man grinned and reached his hand towards the creature's powerful wedge shaped head. Leon tensed, ready for the thing to snap his fingers off or worse, but instead it met his hand for pets. Emitting a soft gurgling purr it stroked the man’s hand with its head lovingly and closed its eyes in what looked like pleasure to him.
“Aww, you are the cutest little terror in the whole galaxy aren't you Max.” he heard Oliver mutter. Looking around his mouth opened. Everyone else in the room was smiling, a look of endearment on their faces.
Leon was once more incredulous. What on Earth had he missed for the thing to go from being a murderous pest to being a beloved part of the ship's small crew.
Oliver saw him staring and smiled. “Oh hey Leon, you just woke up right?” Leon nodded a little unsure of the man’s point. Oliver continued “Well, then you haven't met Max, well, not politely at least. Here, want to hold her?” he asked, extending an inviting arm out towards Leon.
Leon shook his head “No, I don't think that's a good idea.”
Joice spoke up “Oh come’on Leon, the creature is perfectly safe. Its venom is no longer a hazard, Dr. Kimathi made more antivenom. She doesn't bite, well at least she hasn't yet.”
Leon was about to say no again when he felt another hard hand squeeze from Natalia. Looking at her she gave him an encouraging smile and said “Watch.” Before Leon could stop her she strode right up to Leon and reached out towards Max. He watched in silent dread as Natalia's hand approached that razor fang filled maw.
“Nat, wait!” he said, taking a step forward then stopped in his tracks. Max was nuzzling her just as they had Oliver, apparently completely at peace with its environment. ‘What the hell?’ he thought to himself.
Natalia scritched the alien under the chin and laughed happily as it lolled its tongue out in happiness while emitting that same gurgling purr. He frowned at the sight. It seemed that his fears might be unfounded after all.
Approaching cautiously he looked at Oliver and said “How should I do it, should I let it sniff me first?” He had no idea how people were supposed to handle snakes, well, alien serpents at least.
Oliver shrugged “If you like. She is pretty docile.”
Swallowing in nervousness he reached out his right hand towards the creature. Almost as soon as he started Max hissed angrily and flared all her fins in a threatening way, trying to puff up like an angry cat.
Leon snatched his hand back while taking a few steps in the opposite direction of the creature. Oliver jerked back in alarm as Natalia shouted. Max drew back into the protection of Oliver’s body and gave Leon the most acidic glare he had ever seen from an animal.
“Oliver. What the actual fuck was that? I thought you said that thing was safe.” He said loudly, stepping back even further.
The Australian stroked his charge calmly, whispering soothing words to her and then said more loudly “Well, she never did that before. She must remember you grabbing her on the planet.”
Leon shook his head “Remember what? It’s a fucking animal Oliver.”
Joice raised her hand at his comment and said “Yes she is, but an animal with the intelligence capability of a dog at the very minimum. Im suspecting she is much smarter than that though, maybe even as smart as a corvid. My preliminary scans show that her species' neural pathways are much larger than they have any right to be. It's as if she has a brain that runs the length of her spine.”
Leon just waved and said “Alright, maybe she holds a grudge then. I've seen stranger things on this trip than a vengeful snake.”
“She isnt a snake, Leon. I have decided to name her species Terrelian Swamp Gliders.” Oliver said in response to Leon’s comment.
Leon just shook his head silently, beyond words at the moment.
Natalia walked over to his side and said “I think we have taken a long enough walk, I will see you all in a bit. Bye Oliver.” she said as she began to guide him back into the hall.
“Why me…” Leon bemoaned quietly to himself.
Natalia must have heard his cry as she tutted and said “You are in charge of what is possibly the greatest experiment in all of human history Leon. It makes sense that things would not always go according to plan. Don't fret though, I will always be here for you.” she told him with a kiss to his grizzled cheek.
Leon looked at her as they reentered the room he had been in before. “I know I do. And I respect that you see the world differently than I do. That's one of the reasons I love you so much.”
She smiled and leaned in for a kiss. He sighed as she helped him back onto the bed. “Leon, I’m worried.” she said suddenly as she sat down by his side.
Looking up at the ceiling he asked her “What are you worried about?”
She paused and then shifted her position, laying down on top of the covers next to him she said “I’m worried about us, the ship. Everyone else. What’s going to happen if we get into trouble and can’t fix it like we have managed every time so far? We don't have anyone to help us, we would be totally alone.”
Leon shook his head and pulled her close, lifting the covers so she could scoot right to his side. Wrapping his arms around her he held her tight as he said “No, we won't. As long as we have each other we will never be alone.” he closed his eyes, the slow beat of her heart and rhythmic breathing bringing him a profound sense of peace and comfort. He felt himself drifting off into sleep, the pains and worries of the day floating up and away from his mind as he entered the realm of unconsciousness.
==End of Transmission==

Obviously, this post will have some spoilers for a questline, so please read at your own risk.
I wanted to discuss Thyphlo Ruins with others people because I find them fascinating, and they are also somewhat connected to the Sage Temple Ruins at well. The existence of Thyphlo Ruins has some interesting implications for other ruins found in Hyrule.
Now before digging into the meat of this game, I had previously assumed that any Zonai-looking ruins were the last remains of the Zonai culture before the Imprisoning War.
However, Thyphlo Ruins challenges this notion.
The tale of this particular questline actually begins in the Sage Temple Ruins, where a new cave has opened to reveal the basement parts of these ruins. These ruins look very similar to the current architecture of Hyrule, rather than the Zonai-looking ruins we see in Faron or in the sky. In other words, they functionally look no different from the ruins of the garrisons or outposts we can find littered across Hyrule.
There, a stone tablet, written in modern Hyrulean, says:

A sword was enshrined in this temple to honor the sages. It was moved to Thyphlo, north of the Great Forest of Hyrule

This weapon, as it turns out, is the Dusk Claymore. The Dusk Claymore is the Sword of the Six Sages from BotW, renamed. The description for this sword has also changed. In BotW, it was:

The Six Sages are said to have forged this longsword to seal a demon king in the world where the hero fought against the beasts of twilight. The blade shines with a holy luster.

But in Totk, it is:

A slender claymore thought to have been handed down to the kingdom of Hyrule ages ago. The blade shines with a holy luster.

We also need to take another detour about the written language in this game. There is "modern Hyrulean", "ancient Hyrulean", and then the Zonai script.
The Zonai script is what we can see in the Ring Ruins, and they are different from ancient Hyrulean, as explained by Wortworth, one of the few researchers who can somewhat read the ancient text. As he explains:

Wortworth: "It's the same Hyrulean script, and yet it's so different from our modern language.
And by ancient Hyrulean, I don't mean the text found in the Ring Ruins, but something different.
It's what we call the language used at the time of Hyrule's founding. Our modern language is built on that foundation.
These books here are written in that ancient tongue. They'd look like gibberish to your average Hyrulean.

Basically, the current written script uses the same script as the written language of the founding days of Hyrule. However, because the language has since changed over time, the modern way of writing the text makes the ancient text look like gibberish. It would be like if I ddensly epty ikle this. ("suddenly type like"). Although I think I read ancient Hyrulean is meant to be written as if it was old English, instead of modern English.
It's the script that is used by the chamberlain from the ancient past, who described the daily lives of Princess Zelda, Rauru, and Sonia on those twelve stone tablets you have to find in the sky. Link is unable to read it himself, but Wortsworth (kinda) can.
[Side note, if the language was meant to be different then, then I'm not sure how Zelda was able to understand the ancient people so easily. I guess only their writing was different?]
However, this is not the case with the text found in the Sage Temple or the Thyphlo Ruins, which is perfectly readable by Link. This is also explained by Kazul, the researcher stationed there, who is surprised himself that modern Hyrulean is written in the ruins of the Thyphlo Ruins.
This quest requires that you have 4 of the 5 Sages to continue it to completion: Sage of Water, Sage of Lightning, Sage of Fire, and Sage of Wind. Once you have them, you can do the puzzling of the ruins to unlock the Dusk Claymore and the secrets of the ruins.
Inside the ruins, this is what it has to say:

A Monument to Loyalty
Hyrule owes its peace today to the gift that King Rauru gave unto us in his noble feat of imprisoning the Demon King.
The great battle, ended with a seal, began with support from the sages, each of whom bore a shining, secret stone.
Among these were four Hyruleans, loyal warriors all, who hastened to King Rauru's aid as their oaths demanded.
They are the pride of the peoples of Hyrule. This stone monument is dedicated to the loyalty that will echo through time.

Outside the ruins, you can also find seven "spots" (six surrounding one in the center), clearly representing the Six Sages and King Rauru. As Kazul puts it:

Kazul: "This ruin is dedicated to the sages who fought with Rauru, the first king of Hyrule. It was built by Hylians afterward! That explains why there was Hyrulean text on the monoliths we found.

This revelation has a lot of implications for the worldbuilding. It proposes:

1. Not all the ruins of Zonai architecture found on the Surface is from Rauru's reign or older. Some are younger.
2. The Sage Temple Ruins are likely older than Thyphlo Ruins, since the sword was taken from there and enshrined in Thyphlo later.
3. This also means the days of young Hyrule saw a mixture of Zonai architecture and the architecture we see around Hyrule now.
4. This might also imply that the Dusk Claymore is older than the Kingdom of Hyrule, as it was seemingly moved not long after the Imprisoning War. This assumes, of course, that the existence of the sword as it is in the game is meant to be taken as canon. There could be some debate on this topic, however.

Some arguments that could be made against these conclusions:

1. The use of the modern Hyrulean might imply quite some time has passed between the building of the Sage Temple, then the Thyphlo Ruins after, allowing time for the language to evolve during that time.
2. "Modern" Hyruleans might have merely repurposed old ruins, and Kazul came to the wrong conclusion about the ruins being built after the Imprisoning War. The existence of the 7 spots outside the ruins suggest otherwise, however.
3. One could argue this is all just a fun side quest for a legacy weapon and really bears no meaning on the story or lore. Or, the sword itself is no longer meant to reference the Six Sages from TP, and now has a new existence with a different history.

By the way, if you do not know what the modern Hyrulean text in Botw/Totk is meant to look like, here is a link) to the lists of written Hylian found across the games.
In the older games, like OoT and WW, the written text was based off Japanese, but TP changed it to be based of English and so far it has stayed that way. There are some pretty big differences between the older written texts, but SS, LBW, TFH, BotW, and TotK feature very similar texts across the board. The SS script is not identical to the LBW/TFH/BotW/TotK text, but a lot of characters strike a similar appearance, if they are not identical already.
By the way, fun fact, but you can also see the Gerudo script in Totk as well, and it is the same script from OoT. The Gerudo script is and always has been based off English. Modern Gerudo can read older texts perfectly fine. Link also seems capable of reading Gerudo as well, since he can read the signs across town (unless the Gerudo use both Gerudo text and Hyrulean text and we just can't tell).
Personally, I don't think the actual visual looks of the texts mean much in terms of lore, considering how radically they have changed over the years. But that is just my own opinion.
Anything more to add or did I miss something? Let's discuss! Dissecting lore is always fun!

"Okay," Sookie called out. "That's a wrap!"
A ragged cheer went up from the cast and crew. Deacon walked around, clapping his hands and cheering loudly, making sure everyone else was cheering, too. Sookie walked over to her chair and sank into it, her feet throbbing in time to the cheering people around her. She smiled at anyone who caught her eye and just relaxed.
This was the end of a grueling, forty-five day shooting schedule that had been supposed to be ten hour days, but had ended up being more like thirteen to eighteen hour days for her. They weren't done filming the season. Far from it, in fact. But these were the worst shots, and the cast and crew involved had all agreed to push through hard until it was done. After this, they had about two more months of shooting on a more normal schedule, and then editing could begin.
Deacon, despite his enthusiasm for the end of the push, had not had to attend most of the shots they got, and had instead, been spending 'quality' time with a couple of local groupies and the White Lady. Sookie didn't begrudge him this, of course. She worried a little about the amount of booger sugar going up his nose at times, but his agent had repeatedly assured her that he was using far more often during shoots than during his off time.
Besides, it was only fitting that the star of the show should enjoy the fruits of his fame. Sookie herself had picked up a bisexual couple a week or two ago, when they had a shoot end 'early' (at nine PM) and the next's day's shoot wasn't scheduled to begin until eight AM. She had left set almost immediately and headed to a local gay bar, where someone had recognized her from her OnlyFans days and insisted upon introducing his boyfriend.
She sighed, remembering the sensation of two well-endowed men thrusting into her, and how she'd simply melted when the one behind her leaned forward and around to kiss the other. Bi men were soooo hawt...
She promised herself she'd try to find another bisexual 'gay' couple, now that she had the time.
Deacon had finally got everyone sufficiently enthusiastic -which was a credit to his charisma, really, as everybody was exhausted- and came over to sit next to her in his own chair.
"I am so ready for a couple weeks off," he said.
"It's one week," Sookie reminded him. "And then you need to be ready for the fight scenes. Have you been working with your choreographer?"
"I haven't really had the time..." Deacon whined, causing Sookie to sigh.
"Deek," she said, sitting up in her chair and turning to face him. "You haven't needed to be on set for the past two weeks. You've been coming to, in your own words, 'help keep morale up'. And while I do appreciate your efforts in that regards, it is far more important for you to be ready to shoot your fight scenes in a week. I'm serious here. You need to get with your choreographer and get your moves nailed down tight. We don't have time to push those shoots back any further."
Deacon held up his hands in surrender. "I'll be down at the dojo tomorrow, I swear."
"Tomorrow morning," Sookie insisted.
"Tomorrow morning," Deacon agreed. "In fact, I'm going to get the playbook and go over it tonight, to try to get a head start."
Sookie smiled and patted him on the knee as she rose. She didn't want to be here anymore. The PAs and crew could finish cleaning everything up so the teardown crews could get started tomorrow.
She found her personal assistant and instructed her to make sure everyone knew to do their own breakdowns, then left. Filming on set had certain advantages, including the fact that she was within walking distance of her hotel.
The security guard that Julie had insisted she maintain since that incident a few years ago with the psycho stan peeled herself off the wall she'd been holding up and fell into step behind her. Sookie wouldn't have minded so much, except Julie had carefully picked married, monogamous men and women to fill her security schedule with, to avoid any 'conflicts of interest'.
This gal, Linda Gottlieb, was probably the worst of all. She had a girlfriend and a boyfriend, and yet refused to sleep with anyone else. On top of that, she was as slender as Sookie, flat chested (which Sookie found to be a major turn on) and hard as a rock, with veiny arms and shoulders and even a few visible on her belly.
Sookie was a woman of many tastes, but skinny girls with visible veins and no tits were one of her more notable favorites, and so Linda's categorical refusal to so much as let Sookie slip a hand down her pants was grating.
Linda wasn't wearing a uniform. She wore a tight tank top and a loose flannel with the sleeves rolled up and the front unbuttoned over a pair of blue jeans and hiking boots. Sookie knew she had a gun on her somewhere, but couldn't speculate as to where.
Well, that's not true. Sookie imagined the handle sticking of her ass, riding up between the cheeks of that ass that all flat-chested women seemed to have that was categorically unfair to better-if-still-modestly endowed women like Sookie. She slowed down to get a peek at it.
"Looking at my ass again?" Linda asked.
"Yes," Sookie said. "I was wondering if you keep your gun there. The handle could fit between those cheeks and nobody would be the wiser."
Linda laughed and lifted her flannel to show a handgun tucked into her belt on her hip. "Sorry to disappoint," she said. "But I kinda need to keep it where I could easily get at it."
Sookie sighed, her pleasant illusion ruined.
They turned left out of the studio gates and walked up the road. Despite the presence of the studio, this was kind of a rough area, so Sookie appreciated having some security as she made the walk. Not that she couldn't handle herself, but she'd learned the hard way that being taken by surprise left her as vulnerable as anyone.
They hadn't gotten more than a half a block before a ragged looking man approached them, reeking of booze and shit. His clothes were filthy and torn and he had a scraggly beard that ranged from a centimeter to three inches long, seemingly at random.
"Spare a dollar?" he asked.
"No," Linda said, stepping forward to catch his attention so Sookie could slip past.
"S'just a dollar, lady. I'll lick your pussy for it!" The man leered at Linda, who didn't blink or flinch, but rather gave him a hard shove back.
"Don't you fucking crowd me, talking shit like that," she said menacingly, taking another step forward to keep him off balance.
"Be respectful," she added with force. The man looked like he wanted to argue, but something in the way she looked or held herself made it clear to him that Linda was not to be trifled with. He stepped back until his back was to the wall of the building behind him and watched as Linda turned and caught back up to Sookie, who was watching the whole thing over her shoulder.
"Fucking Dykes!" the man shouted. "Suck my dick!"
"You'd think that at least one of them would figure out that being aggressive like that doesn't work," Sookie mused.
"It doesn't work on you or me, but that's because we know we could take his head off if he tried to get violent," Linda said. "Most women aren't fighters. They'll give him cash just to get him to stop harassing them."
"Fair enough," Sookie said.
This was a common occurrence. Almost every time Sookie walked to her hotel, at least one homeless person would try to panhandle her. Sometimes, if she had any cash, she'd give them some. Once in a blue moon, one would engender enough sympathy for a good payout, a hundred bucks or so. But most of the time, they struck her as entitled ruffians, living on the street thanks to their own bad decisions and trying to get by on other people's labor.
She knew that was an old-fashioned mindset. She knew a lot of these people would, if they got clean of whatever they were using, sort out their lives and take care of business. She knew that the DCM Group even had a charitable arm who straight up gave condos and large sums of money to many homeless people, who immediately used that gift to get back on their feet. She knew the stats, too.
But this particular area seemed to attract the sort of homeless people whom right-wing motards used as an archetype for all homeless people. Twice, someone from the crew had been assaulted, causing Sookie to declare that she and the stunt coordinator were the only ones allowed to walk to and from the studio.
"I wonder if they're actually even homeless," Linda said, her thoughts echoing Sookie's.
"Me too," Sookie said. "I mean, it's a very poor neighborhood, adjacent to a place where very wealthy people work. There's no rule that says you have to be homeless to panhandle."
Linda nodded. Sookie wondered idly if she'd been following her own logic, or seeking out a belief that made her feel better about judging the people here. She wasn't sure which, really.
The area they moved through got progressively nicer as they continued. They turned the last corner, with three blocks still to go when Sookie saw the next one.
This one was older. he only had about a week's worth of beard on his face, though Sookie could see that it was mostly gray. He wore similar clothes to the other one, the once-vibrant colors having long since faded towards a muted gray tone. His clothes, however, looked cleaner and the holes had all been neatly stitched. As they drew close, Sookie could read his sign.
Please help Leave a dollar or take a resume Will work for food
Sure enough, he had a stack of resumes weighted down with a rock next to him. Sookie stopped, intrigued and bent down to retrieve one. She handed the man a folded ten dollar bill at the same time. A reward for creativity in his panhandling, she thought.
She looked at it. The man had a pair of enlistments in the Marine Corps at the top of his work experience. It was back in the early 2000s, and it mentioned Helmand Province, which Sookie recalled had been at the center of a lot of the fighting in Afghanistan.
The next few lines were security companies, starting with a high-end competitor to the Group, and then a long sequence of construction and day-labor work, ending on his current work, which was "Self Employed - Private Investigations". Below that, he had a string of qualifications, including armed security, close protection and bail enforcement.
"This is actually quite a good resume," Sookie told him. She glanced up at the top to get his name, Richard Nixon.
"Richard Nixon?" Sookie asked. "Like the president?"
Richard nodded. "I'll work," he said hopefully. "I can swing a hammer and do plumbing. I'll do a full day's work for lunch and dinner, or a hundred bucks, whichever you prefer."
Sookie handed the resume to Linda, who looked down at it.
"Ain't much different than mine," she said. "Oorah."
"Oorah," Richard muttered back, seemingly on pure instinct.
"So why are you out here, Richard?" Sookie asked. "Your resume says you're self-employed as a private eye."
Richard shrugged. Sookie noted the redness and swelling of his nose. "Work's been scarce," he said. "Been getting fewer jobs for the last few years. Fewer jobs means less money, less money means losing my office, not being able to afford nice clothes, which leads to fewer jobs."
Sookie looked a question at Linda, who shrugged. "We're always looking for investigators. It can be hard to recruit former cops, and those we do are often old enough not to stay on for more than a few years before retiring."
Sookie smiled and nodded, turning back to Richard. "You want an interview?"
"Hell yeah," he said with some enthusiasm. "As long as they don't mind me looking a little rough around the edges."
"Where do you live?" Sookie asked. Richard gestured around. "Lost my apartment last month," he said. Sookie pursed her lips and then nodded and held out a hand to him.
"Come on, Richard. I'm Sookie, and this is Linda. I'll make you a deal. I'll get you a nice outfit to wear and arrange an interview at the LA office tomorrow. I'll put you up on my couch for the night, too. That way, you can shower and shave and look presentable for it. What do you think?"
Richard took her hand and let her help him up. "Are you serious?" he asked. Sookie nodded.
"Holy crap, thank you, lady. Sookie, I mean. Thank you." His eyes began to get watery. "I don't... I don't even know what to say. That would be amazing."
Sookie smiled, her heart wrenching for the guy. She knew he had a drinking problem, but she also remembered all those people the Group's charities helped. Get someone on their feet, and there was a good chance they'd stay there.
"Do you have stuff to get?"
"I uh... I have a storage shed. It's paid up through the end of the year," he said. "My stuff is safe there, I just need to go get my toiletries."
"Don't worry about that," Sookie said, stepping to the edge of the sidewalk and waiting for the traffic to clear enough to cross the road. "We can stop by a drug store, too."
----
Sookie and Linda took Richard shopping and got him everything he needed. Which wasn't much, really. Sookie had a spare toothbrush, razors, shaving cream and cologne at her hotel room. It was all stuff she kept on hand to be the best slut she could be, and make her dishes du jour feel welcome. They bought him deodorant and an electric beard trimmer, and decided to take a pit stop at a hair and nails salon next to the pharmacy.
The girls there had cooed and gooed over Sookie and Linda helping this man out, and refused to accept any money for the trim he got. Unfortunately, they weren't set up to shave a man (all of the other clients inside were women), but Richard protested that he was perfectly capable of shaving himself, so it all worked out.
The next stop was, at Sookie's insistence, one of the ultra-high-end men's clothing stores near her hotel. Linda had protested that simply taking a car to Walmart would be good enough, but Sookie would have none of that.
"Linda, it's been over six years since I've seen a person in Walmart that I'd be willing to give a handy to. It's been even longer since I've seen any clothing there that looked like it didn't come from Walmart, especially the suits. We're not going to Walmart."
As a result, Richard got fitted for a custom-tailored suit and outfitted with a tie that was a pleasant, deep blue, bespeckled with tiny, gold-embroidered Marine Corps logos. He seemed pleased with it, and had to keep wiping his eyes as he repeatedly and profusely thanked her.
When all was done, they finally went to the hotel. Sookie had a full suite on the top floor. It wasn't the biggest suite, but it was close, with two spare bedrooms, a living room and a full kitchen, in addition to a balcony that afforded her a great view of the city (so long as the smog wasn't too bad) and a private elevator to the rooftop pool.
Linda took her usual spot at the door to await her relief for the evening while Sookie showed Richard the large bathroom and made sure he had everything he needed. While he showered and shaved, she decided to review the script.
She walked over to the safe in the living room and carefully punched in her combination on the keypad.
The scripts for The Legend of Jimmy were like solid gold. Every studio out there wanted to get their hands on one, to steal ideas from. Every fan wanted to get one, just for the thrill of knowing what was going to happen next. During the second season's filming, they'd had multiple scripts stolen and leaked, and Sookie had learned to crack down on that. As a result, she was the only one who ever had a full set of scripts for any given season. She kept them safely under lock and key at all times.
She pulled out her working copy, which was different from the 'archive' copy she also kept in the safe. The working copy had all of her handwritten notes on it. She closed the safe back up and locked it, then sat down at the table and flipped open to the scenes they would be filming after the break. Using a red pen, she made notes for herself, things to remember during shooting, like camera angles and notes on the VFX.
She heard the shower turn off, but she was engrossed in her work when the door opened.
"Thanks again," Richard said, causing her to look up. He had a towel around his waist, but Sookie noted that he had a lean torso, with some muscle still there, despite a rough life. Clean shaven now, he looked much better. He'd never get a gig as a model, but he was handsome enough in his own way. Sookie smiled at him.
"You don't have to keep thanking me," she said. "I'm happy to help."
She closed her script and stood, walking it over to the safe. Obscuring her hands with her body, she punched in the code again and placed the script inside. She hadn't yet closed the door when she heard Richard mutter "Oh shit."
She turned to look and froze. He'd turned back towards the bathroom, and then dropped his towel by accident. He was currently in the process of picking it up, affording Sookie a great view of his ass and what might well have been considered a third leg hanging from between the other two.
It came almost to his knees.
A flush of heat went through her, washing away all thoughts of largess and generosity, and kindling a very selfish desire. She heard the spattering on the hardwood floor where she crouched as her usual over-the-top wetness kicked into high gear and soaked through her pants in seconds. She could feel herself throbbing as she eyed Richard's enormous member.
Her disguise slipped and the horns erupted from her head, her tail curled up painfully inside her pants and her skin turned red, with large patches of scales. Operating purely on instinct, she magicked up a veil of mundanity. She didn't want Richard to freak out, and this would keep him from registering her appearance as anything out of the ordinary.
He retrieved his towel and made to wrap it back around his waist, but Sookie shot to her feet and spun, already ripping her shirt off.
"Wait," she said. Richard froze, then turned to look at her over one shoulder. She tossed her shirt on the couch and peeled off her pants. She wasn't wearing any underwear or bra, of course. She never did.
"I just thought of a way you could thank me," she purred, taking a languid step forward. Richard reacted immediately to the sight of her naked, turning, his hog's leg stiffening and rising from its vertical hang slightly.
"Are you, uh... I mean... I'm not..." Richard stammered. Sookie stepped closer to him and put her hands on his shoulder, then ran them down his chest.
"I am damn sure I want to do this, if that's what you're asking," she said, her hands reaching lower as she stepped close enough to press her breasts into his ribs. She took hold of him and felt him grow almost immediately rock hard as he gasped.
"Wow," he said. "This is... This is like something from a porno with a bad script..." he said.
"Uh huh," Sookie said. "And we're about to do the fun parts of it." She pressed her lips into his, and then squealed in delight as he grabbed her by the ass and hoisted her up.
"Where?" he asked into her mouth.
"Pussy, mouth and ass," she replied. She felt the heat rush through his cheeks.
"I meant where in this room," he said.
"I don't fucking care," Sookie responded, lining his huge cock up with her most convenient hole and squirming down onto it with a loud gasp.
"In the bedroom!" Linda shouted. "Please, for the love of god, in the bedroom!"
----
Sookie awoke the next morning and rolled over to see if Richard was up for a little wake-and-shake. Her hands slapped the empty bed and she pouted.
"Richard?" she called, a wonderful aroma meeting her nose as she did. "Are you making coffee already? I'll fall in love with you, or deepthroat you, your choice, if you are!"
He didn't answer.
She opened her eyes and saw that his new suit was missing. An empty hanger was hooked to the coathanger next to the closet. She climbed out of bed, frowning, and walked out into the living room.
It was empty. She could smell the coffee even stronger, and she walked into the kitchen to find the coffee pot full and a business card sitting next to it. She picked it up and peered at it with sleep-bleary eyes.
"Eric Stephens, Private Investigations, Corporate Espionage, Bail Bonds, Security Consultation," she read out loud. There was a QR code on it, so she picked up her phone from where it had been flung to the floor last night and scanned it. While the page loaded, she glanced in the bathroom to see Richard's old clothes still piled there.
She glanced at her phone to see a very clean-shaven and well-dressed Richard smiling at the camera at the top of a very tastefully designed web page. She scrolled through it for a moment, confused. This was clearly him, but why had he given her a fake name? She supposed he could have had this nice website built back when he was still working enough to afford it, but... It seemed off. It didn't fit. Sookie didn't get it.
That was, until she looked to her own pile of clothes by the safe and saw the door still hanging open. With a gasp, she rushed over only to find the safe empty. Both of her scripts were gone!
"Shit!" she shouted.
The door opened and a large, muscular man dressed like a lawyer rushed in, a gun in hand.
"Miss Ohma, is everything all right?" he asked after scanning the room and peering through the open doors.
"No," Sookie wailed. "I just got my scripts stolen!"
"The gentleman who left this morning?" her guard asked. She nodded. "I'm so sorry, Miss Ohma. I would have stopped him if I knew."
"No, you did fine," Sookie said as her eyes filled with frustrated tears. "You're used to men heading out in the morning. Usually they do it after I wake up and we can get another good fuck in, but still... You didn't do anything wrong."
"He left a note," the guard said. "I saw it taped to the inside of the door." Sookie looked over and saw a folded piece of paper taped there. She stalked over and ripped it down, sniffling angrily and wiping at her eyes to read it.

 Dear Sookie, Last night was probably the best night I've had in my life. It's certainly the best night I can remember. If you ever want to do it again, just let me know. I left you a card by the coffee machine, and there's a full pot for you, as well. If you don't ever want to see me again, well, I guess I understand. I'm sorry to have left the way I did, but I'm a man of my word, and my client was willing to pay a lot of money for that script. I hope this doesn't hurt you too much. For what it's worth, I'm sorry if I upset you. Wishing you all the best, Eric 

Sookie crumbled up the paper and angrily threw it across the room.
"Motherfucker!" she shouted. The guard winced, but said nothing.
"He scammed me," Sookie said. "Got a nice new suit out of me, seduced me with that redwood growing between his legs and then ran off with my fucking scripts!"
She let her claws form and dug them into her thighs, carving bloody furrows that healed almost as fast as she made them. The guard started and rushed over.
"Ma'am, please," he said. "I'm not supposed to let you hurt yourself."
Sookie let him pull her hands up to her chest. She leaned into him for a moment. "You're married, aren't you?" she said.
"Uh, no," he said. Sookie turned her head to regard him. She didn't recognize him. "What's your name?"
"Devin, Ma'am," he said. "Devin Iglesias. This is my first shift on your detail."
"Who put you on this shift?"
"Uhh, Missus Williams. She said I'd enjoy this detail, and I agreed. I'm a huge fan of your show, Miss Ohma."
"Are you gay?" Sookie asked. Devin blinked. "Uh, no, Ma'am."
Sookie smiled. "I need you to do two things," she said.
"The second, and most important thing, I need you to call the office and ask for any information they have on a private investigator named Eric Stephens who works out of LA."
Devin nodded. "Yes, ma'am. And the first thing?"
Sookie smiled wider. "I need you to find out the real reason why Inanna thought you'd enjoy this posting."