Hi I just came across a novel, chosen by the moon novel by izabella W. Its on pay by chapter websites, I've opened and read a few chapters but I can't seem to find any free version or chapter version anywhere. Please help. If anyone has read it I'm willing to take spoilers. Here's the advert I found below of it on Facebook.
Lycanthrope species is a disgusting race. And I, Delan Riley, am nothing more than a human scum in their eyes never expected those species would turn my world upside down. Since when the lycans managed to penetrate our town, like in the early 1900's we have a hierarchy, upper class = the lycans, middle class = mated humans, and lower class = the normal humans, who were basically considered scum. I endured their torment day after day, vowing to run away from them one day, until that day came and everything changed.
Dylan POV "Humans," I scowled at the principal's words from tannoy. "The Alpha twins will be celebrating their birthday tomorrow, as such, festivities are in order." Oh great, the Alphas twin children. Adrian and Arya are the worst lycans alive. I swear just because they are the alphas kids they literally get away with everything. If their birthday is tomorrow, then the wolves are going to be worse than ever. "All students will be present to greet them, two lines will be made, with humans on the left and the lycanthrope on the right. Any mated human will be at the front of the line for their year, you will all also be in order of your school year. That is all." Chat broke out the minute the tannoy was finished. "We haven't had a school gathering since the alpha king visited three years ago, before his sons coronation." Nick was right, the last time we all gathered like that was for the king and queens visit, when he decided to let the world know that he was to renounce his title to his only child, son Josh. "That sick bestard, he wants to make sure everyone is there so those idiot twins can find their mates." Yes I was mad, my fists connected with the table in front of me once more as I thought about how disgusting the situation was. You see the twins will be turning 17, so it's very possible someone in our school could be their mate, finding a mate is sacred to a wolf, the minute they say that one word your fate is sealed. They will turn your mind, morph you into being a lover of their kind, and then you'll give in.

That won't happen to me, I'm growing old to see the world as it once was, and I'm going to choose who I'll be with. No one will take that dream away from me.

Once dinner was finished, I just wanted to sleep. I'd had a very long tiring day, I quickly sat down on a small stool my mother kept in the storage closet and removed my shirt while my brother Freddy sat at the table to do his simple homework. It wasn't long before my mother came in with a large bowl of warm salt water and some cotton, this was going to sting I just knew it. She was here to help me with the wounds caused by wolves yesterday. She slowly began to unwrap the bandage from around my torso and slowed down drastically when it came to the final layer, I felt it peel off every wound and my fists clenched in pain. "Jesus!" I heard my mom exclaim once the dressing was completely removed. The air on my back was nice though and I sighed as my arm covered my once again exposed brests. "This is more than 15!" I began to hear sniffles coming from her and sighed turning round to look at her face, only to notice tears streaming down it. "Mom I'm fine, it's alright." She shook her head. "It's not alright, I'm your mother I shouldn't let these things happen. I'm so sorry. Your father would have..." here she goes again. Every single time something happened she'd always bring up dad, it really annoyed me because no matter how much we all wish he was here, he just isn't. My father was kiled by THEIR kind, almost 5 years ago when they actually managed to take over. When the lycans managed to penetrate our town my father rose up with some people from the neighborhood, to defend our livelihood, it was futile to say the least. We lost many people and I watched as my dad was ripped apart by two fully shifted wolves, I ended up shoting him to stop his suffering before they dragged me to the courtyard, i was the person to receive the first lashing of the town when I was 12! The wolves have been pretty strict with me since that day. "Stop being stvpid!" Was I harsh? Definitely! Did she need to hear it again, absolutely. "Dad is dead, we don't know what he'd do because he never knew this life. He never knew this world." I know what he'd have done, most likely attacked the guy who held the whip and got himself kiled in the process. "The best thing you can do for me, is stop crying and help me, next time don't insist on helping if you can't handle it." She began to wash my open wounds with the warm salt water causing loud winces to leave me, I knew it was necessary to prevent infection, but my god it hurt like a betch. "Some of these are really deep Dylan!" She sniffed again and my eyes rolled in my head. "I told you, I'm fine, just wrap me back up so I can get to bed." My mom was obviously more impacted by my injuries than I was, I suppose that always the case though. When it's happening to you, you've just got to get through it but when it's happening to someone you love, you just want to take their pain away. She quickly placed a fresh bandage around my waist and chest and wrapped it tightly for compression. The bowl of water that was used was now red in color, I guess from the blood my back was dripping with. "Can you keep your head down please? At least just this week. You can't take any more lashings." I simply nodded before standing up away from the stool, I walked over to Freddie and ruffled his hair in affection. "Good night squirt." He giggled and fixed his hair slightly. "Night Dilly." I smiled walking upstairs to my little bedroom, as soon as I was inside i shut the door and flopped down on to my bed on my stomach and I took a minute to cry to myself at the pain in my back, what my mom did was important but it hurt, not that I'd ever tell her. My hand covered my mouth quickly to muffle any noise I might be making. I couldn't tell anyone, I had to be strong because more and more people were crumpling these days, and my mom would break if she knew how much I was suffering. Sleep followed me shortly after, she was right though about me needing to keep my head down for the time being, I could not take another lashing! After a long night and an even longer morning, we were all finally stood in the hallway at school waiting for the twins to arrive. "Mine!" Everyone that was stood in the hallway tensed up, as we were seniors, me and Nick were stood towards the very back of the human line. All the mated people were situated directly opposite their wolf mates in their years. We stayed silent and still as Arya walked down the hall and stopped directly in front of Nick. His eyes widened in fear, unsure of wether to look up or keep his head lowered. "Look me in the eye, mate." He glanced at me slightly as if asking what he should do. "I said, look me in the eye." He slowly moved his eye line up to look at her face. I took a glance myself to see her eyes pitch black with lust. "I... can't... I mean... erm." Before he was able to mutter anything else, two wolves from opposite, grabbed him out of the line and dragged him behind Arya. "Hey!" My head shot up before I could stop myself. My mouth also forgot its place as I jumped out of line. Everyone's head shot to me as my eyes widened in realization at what I'd done. Adrian, the other twin, walked up to me before punching me right in the stomach, I doubled over instantly. Feeling the sting in my slightly healed back. "I know you... You were publicly flogged only two days ago." God I hate this guy. "I also have it on good authority, that you openly spoke out against our rules and regulations in yesterday's class." My head shot down the line slightly to see Erin, looking a little frightened, her mate, the beta to be was looking at her, nodding his head in reassurance. "You traitor, you grassed on your own kind?" I yelled at her before feeling a fist connect with my cheek. My head whipped to the side from the force, while my class members gasped. I'm so done with this treatment, right then, I wasn't in charge of my actions. My fists curled up and my stance became a lot more defensive. My head snapped up to the alpha to be, and I looked him in the eye. "You don't know the meaning of the word disrespect." I suddenly hurled my fist towards his head, which he easily dodged, but my foot came up and kicked him instead. He stumbled backwards from the force with wide eyes. "You... you Actually hit me!" He didn't even sound annoyed, more shocked. Everyone in the hallway was watching, waiting for the alpha to do something but instead he simply stood up straight, regaining his composure. "I think everyone should get back to class." He began to walk away, following his sister when I called him back. "What about Nick?!" "Simple, He's my sisters mate. He now belongs to her." Argh, he's not an object. "He's not her property." A chuckle left his mouth, before turning his back to me again. "All humans are property." A short while later everyone made it to science class, our teacher Mrs Mathews is mated to the lycans pack doctor, she also now has a four and two year old with him. She was one of the first humans to be cohered into a false relationship. "What were you thinking young lady?" I rolled my head at her before looking at the empty seat next to mine. Nick was with that stvpid wolf girl right now. Being changed, I'm so angry it's ridiculous. "I was thinking, this guy is being a prick. Did you hear him? 'All humans are property.' It's bull shet." I looked up and the whole class looked at me like I had three heads. Talking shet about wolves is one thing, but talking about an alpha is punishable by death, attacking an alpha is an even worse offense. There was then a knock at the door and in walked Erin and her band of mated bestards. "Sorry we're late Mrs." "Erin, how are things between you and bata Monroe?" She blushed, the traitor actually blushed at the mention of his name. "He spoke to me last night about trying for a baby. We need a good strong boy to take over as beta." I scoffed looking at her as she took her seat. "You guys are actually pathetic, why can't it be a girl? Those mutts are basically Neanderthals" I voiced my opinion and saw all the shocked faces around me. Calling the lycans mutts, is the same as them calling us scum. After lesson had ended the entire school was called into the hall for assembly. This is where any human who has been found to have broken the rules were punished, usually 10 lashings were goven out or something similar. "Welcome to the school assembly, congratulations to the alpha twins for finding both your mates. Now on to the business at hand, as the 5 year anniversary of the new world is coming up, we have been informed that the alpha king will be visiting our district next week, this is very exciting news. We want you all to look your absolute best, she wolves and mated females will wear exemplary dresses made by seamstress. Male wolves and mated men will wear tailored suits. Anyone who doesn't comply will be reprimanded." The Alpha King?! No one has met him yet, he took over the throne three years ago when he turned 18. He really didn't make any appearances though, great, this month is going to be a nightmare. "As for the humans, you will be given a new uniform to wear for the visit, these are to be neatly ironed and worn to the highest standard. As for the following humans, based on your attitude this past week, you will be coming to the front and facing punishment. Tony summerset?!" Tony's head shot up as he looked around, he was in the year below but he shared my views when it came to the lycans. He slowly walked up to the front of assembly, almost instantly his top was t0rn in two and he received 10 lashings. A girl named Kara was next and she too received 10 lashings. A few more people went up slowly accepting their fate then suddenly my name was called. "Dylan Riley." Inside I was terrified but I simply shrugged my shoulders, I guess I did kind of expect this. Although I'm not sure if my back can take any more damage. "You attacked an alpha, correct!" His eyes bored into mine as I bowed my head submitting to his authority. "Technically, no." Everyone in the school gym looked on in fear, as my head moved to the front row of the wolf side. Adrian sat, with a werewolf girl in the year below, her name was Jana, I guess he found his mate. Nick and Arya were no where to be seen though. Adrian gave me a shrug as if to say he didn't tell, before smirking at my comment. "He hasn't officially taken the alpha title yet, so he's just..." i looked at the principle and noticed his eyes black and his claws out, he was in what lycans call a half shift, triggered when the subject has become angered. He turned to two security wolves and gave them a nod, Almost immediately i was forced onto my knees, my arm was slammed on a table and held in place by one wolf, while my body was held in place by the other. "Ok, I don't think this is needed, I have alpha blood, a stvpid human girl can't hurt me." My head snapped to Adrian who had stood up in front of the school to stop what was happening. "Nevertheless, humans need to know their place." With that the pressure on my arm increased as our principals hand pulled my sleeve up before a long claw punctured my skin. The searing pain shoting from the fresh wound had my eyes scrunched and my fist clenched, I bit the inside of my cheek hard instantly tasting blood, however no sound left my mouth. He continued to write, using my skin as a canvas and his claws as a marker, it went on forever, my vision blurred slightly at one point as I turned my head away. After minutes of torture, he was done and the pressure on my arm eased, instantly I snatched my arm away, hissing through my teeth at the pain. I was about to scurry off stage, when I was roughly grabbed yet again, my arm being held in the air by the principal while my feet were inches off the floor, blood dripped from the wound and the pattern he had made was on show for everyone to see. Loads of people gasped, even the wolves looked slightly horrified at what had happened. "This is what happens when a human decides to speak out. I can promise, anyone who so much as says one word about our way of life, will have the same punishment." My arm was starting to seriously ache from being held in the air for so long, and the lack of blood flow to my suspended arm was causing me pins and needles, still I refused to make a sound. I held the tears back and I bit my cheek harder causing more blood to fill my mouth. "That's enough Bradley!" Adrian growled, he was still stood up and looking at the scene in front of him. His eyes hard as he stared at the principal a low warning growl erupted from his chest which had the head teacher gulping, he quickly let go of my arm causing me to crash to the floor. A small cry left my mouth as I hit the hard floor. Immediately I scrambled away, my foot just missed the high step leading to the stage and I fell, waiting for the impact of the ground, but it never came. Two strong arms wrapped around me catching my weak body causing me to look up, my eyes widened as I noticed Adrian had caught my falling form. "This isn't part of the human punishment program!" Adrian growled causing me to tense in his grip, I pushed him away from me before fixing my uniform top. The room was deadly silent, taking in the scene in front of them, while I stole a glance at my forearm. Carved into my skin by his devastating claws were two words, words that would most definitely scar my body for life. 'Human scum' "Lessons must be learned, she received lashing merely two days ago, and clearly it had no effect on her." Another growl left Adrian's chest as he stepped on to the stage, I wasn't bothered though, you would think I'd be ashamed but I simply smiled slightly. I fixed my sleeve a little so it wouldn't rub on the fresh wound before speaking. "It doesn't matter," the whole room looked at me shocked by my attitude. "I would rather be labeled human scum, than have any resemblance to your kind. I'm proud of what I am, how many of you can say that?" After my amazing little speech, I walked right down the middle between the humans and lycans and out the door. No more compliance, I'm going to get away with as much as I can without getting into too much bother. There will come a day when the lycans power will fizzle out. When it does I'll be ready, I'll be waiting for the day we take our world back. As for the best part about my plan...

No one can stop me.

"Ouch, not so hard." I seethed as the school nurse cleaned my new wound with antiseptic. "If you had of just kept your mouth shut, this wouldn't have happened." I turned to my right looking out the window at the few clouds that were floating in the blue sky. "Like I said, I'm proud to be human, and now everyone knows what I am." I clenched my fist together as the nurse began wrapping a bandage around my forearm. It had been a good few hours since the incident in the hall, and I had been forced to come to the nurces office after I had tried to clean my wound by splashing it with water from the tap, it also refused to stop bleeding. "You are impossible. Can you please just try and stay out of trouble? For one day, that's all I ask." Our school nurse is a wolf, she's one of them. However she hates the way they treat us mere humans, she thinks we should all just live in peace with equal rights. Like that would ever happen. "All I've done is stay out of trouble, but you are just going to humiliate me anyway, so what's the actual point?" "The pack were discussing a public execution, Dylan. You need to walk on egg shells from now on, not just for you but for your family as well." No ones been publicly executed in over 4 months, I'm flattered they're considering it. They only execute people who they believe are the biggest problems to society. "Well then... I'm flattered." I chuckled, before looking at the patch job. 'Huh, not too shabby.' I quickly stood up from the human nursing station and pulled the sleeve of my shirt down covering the evidence of ever being hurt. "This is serious!" I just gave her a blank look before leaving the room. On the way out I heard her call back to me. "Please just think about it." I gave a clipped nod as I walked away wondering how I'm going to tell my mom about this. Later in the evening... "Dilly why you say that?" Freddie looked up at me with a mouth full of bread. "Don't speak with your mouthful!" My mom scolded him as a bashful blush made its way to his cheeks. "Sowwy mommy." His reply was muffled as he swallowed the last chunk of food. "I said it Freddie, because it's the truth. The wolf race are a pathetic excuse for..." my mom cut me off with an extremely stern look. "Dylan! They have ears everywhere, one more word out of you and it's your room." I scowled, my hatred for the Lycan kind growing stronger as each day passes. "What more can they do to me, lash me? Beat me? Brand me? They've ran out of options." I stated slamming my hands down, then severely regretting it as sharp pain shot though my wound. "What was that?" My head shot to regard my mothers worried expression. Her eyebrows were raised and her eyes were dull and judging as she looked at me. "Nothing, it was nothing." I quickly took my plate in my hand and began to walk to the kitchen. "I'm not really hungry, and I have homework to do!" My mom caught hold of my forearm causing me to drop my plate suddenly, I watched it slowly fall before shattering on the floor. I retracted my arm quickly and turned to Freddie. "Stay there and don't move until it's cleaned up ok sport?" He just nodded with wide eyes, I turned back to my mom and noticed her curious stare on my arm. Her grip shifted to the other side as she turned it around before pulling my sleeve up. The bandage was showing and a bit of blood was seeping though after the wound had been disturbed. "What the hel happened?" My moms eyes widened as she began to fumble with the bandage. Before she could unravel any of it I snatched my arm away. "I had an accident at school. No big." I began to gather the large pieces of the broken plate up ready to put them in the bin. "What did you do Dylan?" She looked at me with pure worry and only then did I realize what the wound must look like to someone who didn't know. "For gods sake! I didn't do it to myself! I got publicly punished at the assembly alright? It's no big deal." Her face dropped instantly and she stepped towards me, causing me to step backwards. "Mom, I'm ok. So back off will you." "What did you do? I've never known them to cut someone's arm as a punishment." Her shock and accusation was evident in her voice and I sighed heavily. "I spoke against the alphas son." I may have hit him too, but I wasn't going to divulge that part to her. "It's not one big cut, mom, it's a brand, 'human scum' carved onto my arm." "They've branded you now too?!" My eyes rolled at her hurt tone as I went to get the dustpan and brush. "You're so much like your father." A sigh left her mouth as she spoke, running a hand through her hair, while I quickly swept up the little pieces of the broken plate. "You've had a new uniform delivered. It's laid out on your bed. Dylan, Please just try and stay respectful in the future, I don't want my daughter to be completely mutilated. Although you're not far off." "Gee, Thanks." I then walked over to my little brother Freddy before blowing a kiss into his neck and hearing him giggle. "So sport, how's school going?" "It's ok." He shrugged before going back to coloring a dinosaur picture in. "Well that's good, stay out of trouble, ok little man?" Heading upstairs and into my room, my thoughts wandered to the permanent graffiti scar very slowly healing on my arm. Disgusting beasts. Think they own the world because they're faster, stronger and can shift. Pah. If you ask me they are not all that.

The second I walked into my room my mouth dropped open. On my bed was some grey pants laid out neatly, which wasn't the surprising part, no, what shocked me was the grey high neck no sleeved button down shirt, every single set of uniform had sleeves except this one. They've done this on purpose those, mutts. They want the world to see my arm and know what a disgusting creature I am. They want the world to know that I, Dylan Riley, am nothing more than 'human scum'.

During the last week, I've been horrible, in class I've been loud in voicing my views, I've insulted at least everyone to some degree, I didn't care about the consequences, and I certainly didn't think about them. I haven't seen Nick at all since he was claimed, and to make matters worse today was the royal visit. Oh yes, werewolves and mated humans alike were spending every waking minute preparing themselves to meet his royal majesty, king of the wolves. Unclaimed Humans however would rather stick pins in their eyes. "Dylan, get down now... you're going to be late." She was right, I was dawdling this morning, I really couldn't be bothered today, I gave myself one last look in the small mirror and sighed when my eyes met my newly uncovered brand. It had bad bruising around the letters, and was still extremely tender to touch, it was definitely healing now though. I made my way down the stairs and came face to face with my mother who was seeing to Freddie, she was helping my brother get his coat on when she turned to me. "You ready sport?" Freddie nodded his little head at me and smiled while I quickly slid my shoes on. "Just Remember, the alpha is bad enough, Dylan, please, please don't do anything to anger the king." My mother stopped us from walking out the door to tell me something she had been telling me continuously for the last couple of days, it was almost as if the entire human population of our district was expecting me to do something stvpid. "Try and have a good day." I rolled my eyes but nodded, even I know not to push the king, he could kil me in the hallway like it was nothing. In fact I plan on staying out of his way for the entirety of the day. "We will see you tonight mom." I stated before me and my brother began our walk to school, his little hand clutched my own tightly as we went. Usually Nick would be with us, as he lives next door, well he used to, now he's residing in the main pack house. I quickly dropped Freddie off at his school and watched him get the wolfsbane neutralizer before walking into him building giving me a small wave before he went in. With my new scar on complete show, and my figure being complimented by the skin tight shirt I was wearing, I sauntered down the street to school, I gave my name and year in and took the wolf's bane neutralizer injection with no problems at all. It was finally getting into school that the problem occurred. Walking through the halls I was met by many looks, some of pity some of disgust. You see every single non mated human in the school was wearing a long sleeved version of the uniform I was given. All the Wolves and mated couples were scattered around in fancy floor length dresses or tailored suits. As I turned the corner I noticed a couple, now this couple happened to catch my eye the most out of all of them because it consisted of Arya and Nick, eating each other's faces off. "What the hel!" Nicks head shot to me as his eyes widened. He too was dressed in a tailored suit, a navy blue tie hung on his neck to match Aryas dress. Why was this happening all the time? It's always my friends that get completely brain washed. I shook my head in disbelief before turning my back on him. I heard his fast footsteps behind me as I rounded the corner. "Dylan?!" He ran right in front of me, stopping me in my tracks, making me drop my bag off my shoulder and almost causing me to bump into him. "Let me just explain..." "Has she marked you?" I mean you could almost see it in his eyes, she had marked him, and knowing the way life goes he's probably even mated with her. "Actually... Don't even answer that." I aggressively picked my bag up off of the floor and stormed off down the hall. "Dylan, just listen to me, Erin was right, it's so hard to resist your soulmate, and Arya is actually ok once you get to know her." I just kept walking, he caught up to me walking beside me but it didn't matter, I completely ignored everything and everyone. 'I'm so not in the mood today' getting into class was good though, I said hello to Mr Foley and took my usual seat. Nick sighed then took his bag off ready to sit next to me, but I snapped before he had the chance. "Traitors and mated idiots sit on that side of the room." I didn't look him in the eye as I pointed to a seat right at the front of the classroom on the opposite side. His eyes widened as he turned his attention back to me. "You can't be serious Dylan." I gave him a blank look before grabbing my book out of my backpack, I placed it on the desk then began to write the date on the top line. "I've sat in this seat for as long as I can remember." I ignored him, his voice sounded sad and shocked. "Dylan? Wait! What is that?!" Before I could react Nick had grabbed hold of my branded arm and turned it to see the letters. "Oh my God! What happened?" I snatched my arm away from him and shrugged as I continued to write in my book before grabbing my water bottle out of my bag. "The principal happened, it was my punishment for speaking out against Adrian and Arya. I wear it with pride." He just held a complete look of disbelief. "You spoke out against them?" I shrugged, what did he think I'd do. "It's no secret that I despise this stvpid new world and the mutts that control it. You were my friend, I wasn't going to let them just take you without saying something, although that is exactly what you seem to have done. Enjoy the view from your new seat!" "Don't be like that, Dylan, I'm your best friend, I'm sorry about your arm, but..." my eyes rolled inside my head at my friends words. "Anything with the word 'but' in, isn't an apology, it's a rationalization." I took a drink of water from my bottle and kept my eyes facing forward, ignoring his every attempt to try and talk to me. "Dylan?.. Dylan?... Do you know what? Erin is right, if you push us all away you won't have any friends left." He huffed before walking over to the empty seat and sitting down, I could feel him glancing up at me every now and again but I didn't respond. "Good morning class, please settle down." He looked at me then at Nick and frowned, we've never sat apart, we were friends before the new world even began. I just shook my head telling him to forget it. "So... as you know the king will be arriving in a short while, but until then lessons will go on as normal." Its funny seeing teachers in the same uniform your wearing, mr Foley and his wife are the coolest. Human teachers and doctors only have slightly more respect than we do. Because of Mr Foley's status him and his wife have better access to food and drink, Mrs Foley is cool, sometimes she even makes sure mr Foley brings some in for me. Ya know, coz I'm their favorite student. It's not in a weird way, it's just they were friends of the family before the new wold took effect. Mr Foley and my dad were buddies from high school, so it goes without sayin really. "All the mated humans will be at the front of each years line again, after that you will all be placed in status, Nick, as your mated to Alpha Arya, you'll be at the front of your line. Dylan as you have been branded..." his voice trailed off as he looked at me. "Yeah yeah, I'll be at the back of the line behind everyone. I get it." I huffed, moving my sight towards the window once more. "I am sorry." I turned to face Mr Foley again, he looked genuinely upset and that look of pity wasn't something I wanted to see. I gave him a clipped nod then turned away again. "Anyway, on to the subject matter, 'Of Mice and Men, page 64, Nick why don't you start us off with the reading."

"Of course sir." Nick began reading the book but I switched off, today is going to be a long day. After almost an hour and a half of reading comprehension, the bell chimed signaling lunch. I shot up and out of the classroom before anyone could say anything. Today, I was avoiding drama like the plague.

I wandered the corridors straight to the lunch hall. All the people I would normally hang out with we're all mated so I grabbed my lunch quickly, and sat down at the end of the human table. Let me lay the lunch hall out for you. On one side of the room you have two long rows of tables, with simple benches that make it look like prison, on the other side of the room you have multiple round tables with fancy chairs. Yup you get it. The humans sit at the prison tables and the wolves and traitors sit on the fancy tables, they get fancy food, fancy drink and most importantly they get pudding. what I would give to have some pudding. "Dylan can we just talk?" Nick quickly took the spot next to me as he set his lunch tray down. I looked at his food which had been placed on a ceramic, circular white plate. God that looked good. I sighed knowing he was going to talk anyway. "Fine, you have two minutes." I used my fork to take a bit of pasta off his plate and shoved it into my mouth. God that was good. "After I left school, I was taken to the pack house with Arya, and I really got to know her. It took a few days for me to finally accept being with her, but ever since life has been ok, and the sax... well that's a whole other story." Eww, I didn't need that mental image in my head. "I'm glad your happy." I stated before deciding I had no appetite. His face held shock before he sighed in relief. "That means a lot Dylan, I mean you know that your opinion matters to me." I cut him off before he could say anything else. "I said I was glad your happy. I didn't say I approved of what you've done. You've basically turned into one of THEM, I can't ever forgive you for that." He looked hurt, but I couldn't care less about his feelings. He placed his hand gently on my arm and went to open his mouth when a growl sounded out. All heads whipped to where it came from, Arya was stood holding a glass of soda and a plate, she was looking right at me and Nick and I would totally be dead if looks could kil. Nick quickly retracted his hand, his whole face fell and you could see sorrow flood his irises. "You sit with me now, get away from that, that... scum!" Wow, Nick was such a lucky guy. NOT. "You heard her. Get away from me, go sit with your new friends. I'm happy for you, and I understand where your coming from, but don't come up to me again and pretend you didn't betray your own kind. Don't pretend you didn't betray me." I shoved a little bit of food into my mouth before standing up and walking out of the cafeteria, leaving my tray on the table. I was walking through the hallway to the classroom, you see I decided to spend lunch with Mr Foley in his room, when I happened to hear voices in the corridor. "Is it wise for her to actually be present when the king arrives? Surely she could be placed in the dungeons, it might actually teach her some respect?" My principal was speaking to the alpha of our district, huh, if I stayed and listened do you think they'd notice, maybe they could smell me?! "Everyone is to be present, if the Riley girl does one thing out of line she will be dealt with severely, child or not. That girl has been a blight to the district since day one, she's dangerous, if she puts one hair out of place I will personally break her into submission." Oh shet, they were talking about me specifically, and they mentioned the dungeon, that's not been used in months. Normally I would have listened in more but something about the entire situation didn't sit right with me, all of a sudden, I was on edge, and simply wasn't interested in the slightest in hearing how my misery was to be enhanced. I backed up slightly before turning around and bumping head first into one of the hottest man I had ever seen. I lost my balance immediately and fell straight on to the floor letting out a small grumble in the process. His eyebrows knitted together quickly and his breath hitched in his throat as he looked upon my fallen state and gasped. "Mate!" He whispered, his eyes fixated on mine. Now, I had seen and heard that many times to know what that means, I gasped before taking a step back. 'No, no, no, no, no. This can not be happening.' He growled slightly before stepping towards me. Oh Shet!

So there's this anime movie I've been searching for for a while now, it's about these 2 kids, a black haired one and a blond one. The blond one is loved by everyone in class (popular kid). The blond kid and the black haired kid go to the attic/ top of some building at some point and get transported into a fantasy world. They get separated and tested. We only see the black kid's test, where he has to select which among certain statues are correct based on a riddle. The kid picks a frog statue based on the riddle and then gains the right to enter the world. I remember the statues being golden. The announcer of the test then says "the kid before you got 50 seconds" or something like that. After the black haired kid got in he was betrayed by a carriage guy who turned out to be evil. The blond kid turned out to have some trauma regarding his sister (maybe) and something to do with football. The black haired kid had to fight his mirror self at some point and won. At the end there was this lady commander and everyone was fighting these shadows that took over the world. I don't remember what happened after that.

The things that defines Kanye, or his thesis if you will, is that he does whatever the fuck he wants and that he is unique, for better and worse. He would rather be a leader than a swallower.
The College Dropout is Kanye going against the grain of rappers being drug dealers and murderers from the ghetto. Kanye grew up in a middle class suburb. He still dropped one of the greatest rap albums of all time. Late Registration was him backing up the claim he made in Last Call: "...and come back next year with the whole fucking game." Graduation was his victory tour during a time of great popularity for Kanye.
808s was not a rap album at all, it was synth-pop; Kanye singing over melancholic beats about past relationships. And he blew it out of the water, and influenced multiple artists and hip hop music as a whole. MBDTF was his magnum opus during a time of despair, sure you may have hated Kanye, people did back then including Obama, but after that album, could you truly say he made bad music? After listening to Runaway?
Then came Yeezus. Yeezus is Yeezus, I don't think I need to explain. TLOP was a schizophrenic album at its core, with heartbreak and sadness and bragging and anger and happiness. No one expected it. Ye was a slow theraputic album. Then Kanye decided to make a gospel album. Why? Fuck you, that's why. Donda was a horrid mess of an album that somehow was great. No one expected it, Kanye didn't bow to anyone during the making of these albums. Kanye did as he fucking wanted.
Kanye is also unique. Who else can make Runaway? Who else can make Last Call, or 30 Hours? Only Kanye can, there is an aura of uniqueness around him. When he retires; there won't be anyone near his level of uniqueness or skill for years.
And then comes Vultures. I listened to it when it came out. It was okay. BURN, BACK TO ME and STARS were my favourites. I would give it a 6/10 on the whole.
It was also the antithesis to Kanye. It was bland, commercial hip hop at its innermost core. Kanye didn't do what he wanted - he made a rap album that stuck to a list of checkboxes, focusing on making radio hits that bowed to the mainstream of trap music. The album didn't feel like Kanye, it felt... bland. Vultures could be made by someone else. That can't be said for the other albums he's released.
When I listened to the drums at the end of KING; I felt something in my heart. It was sadness, disgust, apprehension. The album was okay, but this wasn't Kanye. It felt like some skinwalker, taking his body and voice and using it to create a mediocre mainstream trap album.
This wasn't him. Kanye would not create Vultures, not the Kanye of old at least.

So I’m a pre-T 18yo trans guy and my biggest dysphoria giver is my height.
I’m 164cm (5’4) and it’s really bothering for me. I was never good at making male friends therefore my friend group is 3 girls + me. Two of my friends are naturally taller than me but the third one often wears heels which makes her appear taller as well and it makes me feel really insecure when I think about it.
We had a shorter dude in our class that was still taller than me and my friends made constant jokes about him being short which made me feel anxious since well I’m even shorter and when I talked to my best friend about it she brushed it off saying that I’m making a big deal out of it while it’s nothing and they aren’t laughing at me so I shouldn’t be so pissed.
I feel bad when going out in public since I have long hair (which doesn’t give me dysphoria, I really like it and I’ve had short hair before and honestly I looked awful and now I’m getting compared to Sirius Black so I’m fine with that lmao) and adding my height to that I just instantly get slotted into the “hey ladies” when I’m out with my group (or even when I’m alone I also get the ladies tag, all in all I’m not passing).
Another thing is my brother - he’s 7 years younger than me and is now entering the puberty and that made me feel super insecure because I see him reaching my height and I know that one day he will be taller than me but that honestly makes me want to cry. I tried talking to my mother about it (since she’s the only one who knows in my family beside my amazing cousin) but she’s not that accepting and still thinks that my “phase” will pass and she just simply got mad at me for talking to her about it telling me that I know that my brother will finally be taller than me because he’s a “real man”. I think life is really unfair because my mom and my dad are both taller than me and I already stopped growing so maybe it’s a punishment for my super cool personality /hj
Anyways, do you have any tips to feel less dysphoric? The summer has come and I can’t wear my combat boots to appear taller now because I will simply melt to the ground.

In the 19, nearly 20, years I have lived my life, I was raised a Christian by American conservatives in a middle class environment and am fortunate to experience countless memories of joy, laughter, and growth with (mostly) everybody I have met. Each memory with the people in my life holds a special place in my heart, and I will forever cherish the bond we built.
The thing is that until the end of eighth grade, I had a strange obsession with East Asia. Looking back, it was very embarrassing and I condemn my parents for enabling me to become a weeaboo (by “weeaboo”, I mean “a person who is overly obsessed with East Asian culture, especially Japanese culture, to the point that they fetishize the culture in an unhealthy way”). I was the textbook example of a weeaboo who had a terrible case of “yellow fever” (sexual preference towards East Asians). Loving the image of East Asian culture without having any real idea what it stood for and seeing the East as a utopia, my fetishization of East Asia, especially Japan, was born out of the shame I have with the Western culture I was raised in. I never felt like I could fit in with my Western peers who I often looked down upon and did not want to be associated with. It got to the point that I became unsatisfied with my home town, my physical appearance, and even my closest friends. This combined with the surge in anime, K-pop, and other media on the internet really got me hooked and believing really fetish-y things about the Sinosphere. I hate being reminded of it and have tried to move on.
However, I am thankful for my exposure to Eastern culture, though it was through a very bastardized, Westernized lens. I am grateful for my exposure, even though it started out with something as intellectually undemanding as Vocaloid music (songs sung by a Japanese voice synthesizer). The best part about the exposure was that it helped me leave Christianity and join Buddhism at age 11, which greatly helped with my mental health considering I was experiencing suicidal thoughts since the age of 8. Though I had awful misunderstandings of Buddhism in the beginning and still do not really have a Buddhist teacher, I am glad that I have the resources to connect myself with other Buddhists and take refuge in the Triple Gem.
As I left my gross misconceptions of the Sinosphere behind back when I was 14 while still having a healthy interest in it, my eyes were eventually opened to perils which threaten not only the homelands of Buddhism (East, South, and Southeast Asia), but also the sustainability of modern humans. These two perils are Western culture and capitalist fascism.
The West exoticizes and misrepresents Buddhism and the culture of its home, the East, as a whole. I am ashamed to be born in a culture where this was encouraged, which I am worried could lead me to fetishizing Eastern culture again.
But what I know for sure is that the West’s hyperindividualism is harming people, both those whose lands are invaded and its own people. This combined with the West’s growing rejection of education, including that of the knowledge the West itself has given to the world for humanity’s benefit, makes it clear that it is lacking some of the Sinosphere’s cultural strengths. Everybody should hold collectivism and education to the same degree that the Sinosphere does, otherwise we would be left with an unsustainable society that would destroy itself.
There is nothing wrong with speaking Western languages, eating Western foods, watching (most types of) Western media, wearing Western clothes, and especially nothing wrong with using Western inventions, but we are now seeing that the West’s hyperindividualism and rejection of education is destructive and spreading like a cancer.
It is only Buddhists who make an effort to assimilate to the East (had they not been born into it) who can see the West with its hyperindividualism and uneducatedness, promoted by its creation of its spreading ideologies such as capitalist fascism and social Darwinism, for what it really is: a cancer. I can now see the direction the United States, the most populated and powerful country in the West, is going due to the rise of ultra-capitalism and/or fascism supporters.
Rarely the phrase “Western”, as in “formed by the combined foundations of Greco-Roman civilization and Western Christianity” (Gabbe), raised positive thoughts in my mind since I learned about it shortly after discovering Buddhism. “Western” when used in the context of medicine is an exception to this, but we are now seeing more and more Westerners dishonor the progress their ancestors made towards modern, mainstream, dare I say, Western medicine as they fall for anti-vaccine and anti-mask pseudoscience.
Nowadays, some who use the word in a derogatory context are uneducated reactionaries that bash anything and everything Western, yet hypocritically promote the Western political ideology of fascism. A strength that a majority (though now a decreasing number) of Western countries have is their progressivism, supporting scientific advancements, women’s rights, racial equality, and the LGBT+. However, this is not just becoming less common; being a progressive Westerner is not enough, not enough to end Western imperialism, to save the sacred truths taught to us by the Shakyamuni Buddha, or to empower the working class.
Although I never fully approved of Western culture after my weeaboo phase ended, my early teen self still ended up falling into the anti-social justice warrior side of YouTube that I now recognized hindered my understanding of what actually ruined my country, the United States of America. I still did not feel comfortable calling myself a Westerner but mainly because the West did not widely accept Buddhism and has several times in its history persecuted Buddhists. At the same time, I was deceived by a bastardized form of Buddhism common among Westerners (known as “secular Buddhism”, which picks and chooses aspects of the Buddha’s teachings instead of accepting them as a whole), so I was a bit more of the classic, stereotypical atheist neckbeard who fetishized the East up until 2020. Since then, my views became more progressive similar to those of American liberals and I denounced traditionalist Western beliefs, but like the average American liberal, I did not see Western culture, both traditional and progressive, as the peril I now see it. It was not until around the end of 2023 when I discovered the Western problem.
It was a slow burn that started with my discovery of Buddhists on the internet talking about how the West misrepresented Buddhism to appeal to “self-help” consumerists, Christians, and New Age followers. In the Westerner, I originally saw only a person who followed harmless customs, traditions, and other norms that came from a part of the world where Buddhism was not the dominant religion (if you could even call the non-theistic dharma as taught by the Gautama Buddha a religion). And so, I did not believe that Western civilization needed to fall for the safety of the dharma, let alone for its own people. After all, I thought to myself, the West has contributed so much to science and the modern world as we know it. I still believe to this day that there are no superior cultures and that each one simply has its own unique strengths and weaknesses, some of which are only subjective. However, while looking through Buddhist forums, I was shocked to hear about the West’s pollution of Buddhism and my knowledge on Buddhism skyrocketed as I learned that I fell victim to the Dunning-Kruger effect. I started reading sutras and immersing myself with Buddhism by listening to those who have much more experience than I do. There are hardly any Buddhists in my community and the only Buddhist center within reach is a New Kadampa Tradition meditation center (FYI: the New Kadampa Tradition must be avoided since it has a reputation for financially exploiting members and its monastics have allegations of drug trafficking and sexual abuse), so books and the internet are all I have left.
Practicing Buddhism in the West is nearly impossible without a community, without a Buddhist teacher, without any resources written by Eastern Buddhists. Reddit user u/Tendai-Student, a “lay Tendai Student [sic] with aspirations to become a Priest [sic]” states the following:
It is exceedingly challenging for a Westerner who is interested in Buddhism to find reliable information. Bookstores' Buddhist sections are rife with myths about the religion (we will come to some of these misconceptions below). Buddhism-related disinformation abounds in university classes. Misinformation about Buddhism abounds in publications with a Buddhist theme. Even Buddhism-related english-speaking [sic] Reddit boards are prone to carry false information.
Buddhism is constantly distorted in the same way: to make it more agreeable to Abrahamic faiths(especially Christianity in the west) [sic]. To imply that it is subject to Western standards, Western religion, and Western consumerism and materialism.
…Asian teachers are frequently excluded from English-speaking Buddhist places (meditation centers, university forums, periodicals). Asians make up the majority of Buddhists in the United States, despite the fact that popular images of Buddhism in the West make it appear otherwise. In the minds of Westerners, Buddhism is a religion of white converts. They don't even pay attention to the odd lack of Asians in some Buddhist areas. (u/Tendai-Student)
It is no wonder that I went through a phase when I was a weeaboo with “yellow fever”. The Westerner commodifies and commercializes these Buddhist practices and East Asian customs like they do with several other cultures. Its misuse and stealing of Buddhism is the worst because its teachings are for us to end suffering by ridding ourselves of the three poisons: greed, ignorance, and hatred (which the Westerner promotes).
My realization of this drew me away from the West, similar to when my obsession with the East began. The difference is that my interest in the East now is not because of a fantasy born out of misguidance, especially not a sexual one. I now know that there is more to the East than its pop culture. But I cannot help thinking that none of this would have happened and I would better understand Buddhism had I been born to and raised by Buddhists in East Asia, or even a majority Buddhist country in South or Southeast Asia.
However, the possibility of a cycle starting with a yo-yoing fetishization of the East makes me anxious. When I realized what I was doing at first was fetishization, I did further research and found out that the West is to blame for its portrayal of the East in its media. This in turn makes me denounce the West and brings me back towards my obsession with the Sinosphere, which could lead to more fetishization.
Despite this, I am glad that at the very least, my interest is more than just wanting to live a kawaii lifestyle, hoping to have a “submissive housewife who will look young forever”, or all that neckbeard squick. I do have to say that there is something else that is drawing me towards the Sinosphere, not to mention that it is the region where Buddhism is dominant (the same is true to a lesser extent with the Indosphere). Even though I am not a huge fan of tradition since I am very progressive, when a region’s culture gets something right, they get it right. In addition to Buddhist values, the Sinosphere holds education and collectivism to a high degree. It is no wonder I find their people so much more intelligent and caring than people from my culture.
It is common knowledge that countries such as Japan, China, South Korea, and Singapore have the highest average IQs. To add to this (unbeknownst to many), even less developed countries, e.g. Mongolia, with high Buddhist populations around the same region, have average IQs higher than developing and undeveloped nations outside the region. The most agreed upon reason for this is cultural factors rather than genetic or economic factors. To conclude, Buddhism combined with values in the East Asian cultural sphere creates the best “brains” to represent humanity, thus the West should make way for them, especially considering the East’s superior collectivism.
Of course cultures do not stay the same forever because they change over time. One big thing that is different now in the Sinosphere and Indosphere (the latter I am mentioning because it is where Buddhism came from, though it is not as dominant in the cultural region as it was) is that they are generally much more patriarchal and anti-LGBT+ than they were up until the last several centuries. However, Buddhism treats same-sex relations and being transgender the same as heterosexuality and being cisgender (preferring celibacy among monastics, though depending on the school of Buddhism, those in the monastic order may be treated as their birth gender, even if they are transgender), and in addition, the Buddha taught that women are just as capable of attaining enlightenment as men. Even outside of Buddhism, there are records of same-sex relations as early as the Shang dynasty in China and the temple walls in Khajuraho, India depict homosexual activity. As for feminism, China was matrilineal until the Han dynasty era, when Confucianism and filial piety became mainstream in the area, while India, home to over 100 different ethnic communities, has had a few matriarchal and egalitarian societies pre-European colonization. In the modern era, numerous people in the two cultural spheres are becoming more supportive of gender equality and the LGBT+, which in some cases may be due to Westernization (not that it redeems it) or simply the individuals’ progressive political views not influenced by Western culture.
What has stayed the same for the most part, besides Buddhism, is the Sinosphere’s and Indosphere’s value of collectivism in honor-shame societies and the former cultural sphere’s emphasis on education; this is what Westerners, as well as people all over the world, need for themselves. If the West is going to fall due to hyperconsumerism, late stage capitalism, and uneducated leaders, those living in the West would be better off joining Buddhism and assimilating to the East. Arguably, the best way to do this is to move to a majority Buddhist country, preferably one in the Sinosphere (its core countries being China, Japan, the Koreas, Taiwan, and Vietnam). Leave everybody you know from your home behind, especially non-Buddhists. Just to make things clear, Westerners are not necessarily evil and it is not their fault they were raised in a Western culture, but having these people in your life will hold you back from collectivism, quality education free of anti-intellectual quackery, and above all, understanding the dharma.
After you have left everybody in your life and started anew, you can immerse yourself in the culture. Again, abandoning Western food, media, clothing, and especially inventions and scientific breakthroughs is very unnecessary. Your main focus is reprogramming your mind to think like a person (specifically a Buddhist person) in the Sinosphere/Indosphere, utilizing the high educational standards, putting the collective over the individual, and taking refuge in the Triple Gem. Before moving, though, it is best to make yourself familiar with the customs and learn the language of the place you are moving to. To aid your assimilation, it would not hurt to start dating one of the locals who strongly identifies with the culture, regardless of their race. Someone living there who is not ethnically East, South, or Southeast Asian who is still very involved in the culture would be very helpful to your assimilation as one who is ethnically East, South, or Southeast Asian (I am clarifying this to discourage racial fetishization). This may be difficult as you would have to win over approval from their parents, let alone convince them to see you as another Easterner, but if you manage to do so, that would be fantastic. To make things easier, you could plan to move to a country where people treat women as equals and are relatively accepting of the LGBT+ so you would not have to worry about gender roles or whatever. Think of places in the Sinosphere such as Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, or if you are planning on going to the Indosphere (which is not too big of a step down) since they did give us Buddhism after all, Nepal and Thailand. Your most important goal, however, is to rewire your brain to think in a more Sinic or Indic way and be more in touch with Buddhism.
You can hardly consider yourself a Westerner if you manage to do so, being Western only in your country of origin (and possibly race as well). I am definitely not like those other “people” from the West who strongly cling to Western culture because they just do not understand. Western cultural merit is almost solely from the proxy of our ancestors’ inventions, scientific discoveries, and political revolutions. Considering that the West is being brought towards the wrong direction in the modern era, we should get out of there culturally, if not physically, until it all hits the fan.
If the West continues its defilement of the rest of the world, when it falls, it will bring it all down with it. We must not lose or else everybody loses.
This pressure has a good side; because the bigger the great threat becomes, the more we will push ourselves to assimilate and raise children to fight for us. Considering the infectability of Western anti-intellectualism and “main character syndrome”, how could our Western peers know better? Buddhism is not a proselytizing “religion”, so our best bet is eliminating the promoter of the three poisons, the Westerner (especially the Christian Westerner), from our own lives. How it will run to us as its society collapses under itself and we welcome it to assimilate but say “we told you so”! The older I get, the better I know the Westerner. The better I know the Westerner, the easier it gets to excuse hostility against them, especially from the Sinosphere.
From my perspective, the ones to blame are not the angry, low-middle class white males in the rural United States nor the boba conservative bananas and right-wing coconuts who suck up to the West’s biggest scum, but rather the ones who have brainwashed them to fall for chauvinism, reactionarism, and laissez faire capitalism.
Realizing this, I am now closely investigating the sources of these beliefs which make up the foundation of social Darwinism and, when combined with totalitarian thinking, capitalist fascism. This is after I noticed that these systems are unsustainable and would destroy themselves from the inside out. The slow, painful destruction of communities who fall victim to them are well known to me. If one looks carefully, they can see the consequences that have been unfolding since the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic. You may wonder: were the founders aware of this? My guess would be that they were not but were evil nonetheless because they were too selfish to think about the future, their descendants.
If this is the case, then it is the duty of us, the opponents of these ideologies, to spread the word faster than the ideologies are currently spreading in the West. It is hard for me to believe it is not the case considering that both Western political ideologies are fundamentally reactionary. Besides, I doubt they would want civilization as we know it to collapse.
I have a social Darwinist as a maternal uncle who sometimes meets with my parents, maternal grandfather, and younger brother and with his political conversations, often sourced from flawed studies, Russian news, and 4chan, I can easily study the principles of its theories. Both of my parents are also conservatives who support Trump and other immoral American politicians. Being raised by the two of them, I bet I could disguise myself as a Western right-wing traditionalist, maybe even a social Darwinist, since I know the way they speak, to whom they flock to, and how to make them give one their full attention. It would probably be easy to do this as some right-wing grifters can fool American right-wing audiences into thinking that they share the same beliefs (e.g. Thomas MacDonald).
Their kind are gullible because they do not listen to fact checkers and often do not do research to see if who they are listening to really practices what they preach.
Even though there are Westerners who are not like this, the West cannot coexist with Buddhism, let alone the cultures where it is dominant, as the West ruled by colonizing tirthikas and it will likely always be for as long as it lasts. And just because their culture is not as viable as the one founded on Buddhist, Sinic, or even Indic values does not give them the right to imperialize the rest of the world and bring it down with them. We can welcome the Westerner willing to change its ways, turn it into one of an Easterner, and have its culture go through a quick and painless demise, or the Westerner can continue its power trip, destroy everything it touches along with itself, and society will suffer a slow and painful death. This is what the conclusion that I have come to so far as I examine capitalist fascism and Westerners’ connection to it.
The Western doctrine of capitalist fascism rejects an aspect of maitrī, fulfilling beings’ basic needs, and substitutes it for a privilege towards the bourgeoisie and the exploitation of the workers’ labor (also known as Vergegenständlichung or “objectification”). Thus it denies the worth of the collective, only concerns itself with greedy individuals, and thus is immoral. Unlike what the non-Buddhist capitalist wants people to believe, all beings have an altruistic Buddha nature, but it is corrupted, being difficult to notice as it has only conditions without a beginning (listed in the Avijjā Sutta). Abandoning capitalism, both fascist and non-fascist, gives power to the people as it ensures a more guaranteed right to life instead of having not even one thousand billionaires own more than half of Earth’s population combined, more than each one of those billionaires could ever spend in their lifetimes.
Should the Westerner, especially one who pushes capitalist fascism, strengthen its grip on humanity, it can be said that it would make its own naraka.
And so I stand by my plan and encourage others to do the same because it is in the name of the Unsurpassable Enlightened One. By protecting our kind against the Westerner, we are defending the Triple Gem.
If it is not already clear, the disapproval I feel towards the societal values and prevailing norms of the West has led me to question my place in this environment. I believe that meaningful change can only be fostered if the West is put into its place and the Sino-Buddhist East motivates our minds.
In Vietnam, where the culture is predominantly Sinic with some Indic aspects and little European influence, we can see the promotion of quality education, collectivism, and Buddhism (practiced by a forgivable 15% of the population), very unlike the nearby country of the Philippines. In the Philippines, its citizens cling to the Anglo-Saxon and Hispanic culture brought to the country by American and Spaniard imperialists. The effects of this are very clear in their average IQs (Vietnam: 89.53 vs. Philippines: 81.64) and PISA scores (Vietnam: 1403 vs. Philippines: 1058). They are both developing countries in Southeast Asia that were colonized by the West, but because Vietnam kept its culture more pure and stuck to Buddhism (or at least Sinic philosophies), its people are better educated compared to the nearby Westernized countries in a similar economic situation.
In short, Westernization leads to the following:

1. The native culture becomes diluted
2. If Western thinking intrudes, mental degeneration takes hold of the native population and its society slowly degrades along with the West itself as it eats itself from the inside out

Those who cause this to happen must be stopped, especially those who endanger Buddhism. We must not wait for the fruition of their karma for their sacrilege of the Tathagata’s teachings because by then it would be too late, and even if it is instant karma, every bodhisattva’s job is to end suffering.
Those who spread the harmful ideologies bring themselves and others away from the Buddha’s word are polluting humanity by having them join their rat race that will only end in their own demise. They are leading to the ruin of many and thus, I do not consider them to be human but instead parasites.
There is a disgraceful Western belief that for a short amount of time was not held by the majority but is now very pervasive in the West and also is the foundation of reactionarism, chauvinism, and capitalism in all cultures. It says: “My individual rights matter the most and freedom means my right to violate the rights of others.”
This Western babble is followed by numerous all around the world and sows disharmony in societies where it becomes the norm. This idea provides basis for several types of Westerners, including but not limited to:

• the “Karen”; a middle-aged, entitled, often white and anti-mask/anti-vaccine female who makes trivial complaints
• the “Chud”; a racist, misogynistic, right-wing male (usually young) who browses 4chan everyday and has a high likelihood of becoming a mass shooter
• the dayangma (Hanzi: 大洋马); a sex-obsessed young adult Western female, majority white but sometimes POC, is conventionally attractive (to Westerners), sleeps around, and in some cases creates spawn that do not know their father(s)
• the angry white male; self-explanatory, right-wing and traditionalist (sometimes a social Darwnist or capitalist fascist), commonly rural, evangelical Christian and have never seen a POC before
• the “Trad Wife”; a prudish, sometimes uneducated, female who lets Western males walk all over it and raises spawn who are likely to become angry whites
• the New Agehippy; generally a teenager or young adult, a well-meaning but poorly educated white liberal or social democrat who misappropriates Buddhism and appeases Muslims
• the AmeriKKKan fathegrandfather; a middle-aged to elderly, chauvinist male with children, sometimes also grandchildren, and is unconcerned about social justice and similarly to the “Karen”, falls for pseudoscientific conspiracy theories
• the neckbearded otaku (Hiragana: おたく); a hairy white male with “yellow fever” and mediocre hygiene, for the most part subreddit/Discord server moderators who stalk and kidnap East Asian ladies (if not teenage girls)

The growth of these groups is evidence of the degradation of Western culture, showing that it must retire as the dominant culture and make way for the much more sustainable East. Once the manuṣya realm on Earth is completely tainted by the West, Buddhas can no longer arise in the world because the dharma would be known by nobody and the Vinaya are forgotten or destroyed.
The future generation will not remember the dharma unless we halt the growth of the parasitic culture that promotes overconsumption, hyperindividualism, and anti-intellectualism.
The Westerner has a remarkable contrast to the Sinic or Indic. The Westerner has a grasp on this world so strong with its weaponry since the 16th century, using force to disrupt the traditional lives of whatever native people it saw, safe for those in a few countries (even though some of those countries are still being Westernized). The Dutch, English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish built colonies from the Americas to Southeast Asia. The kingdoms were blessed with powerful militaries, strong economies, stable governments, and advanced technology that allowed their cultures to spread. But after half a millennium and looking back, was any of this really earned? And is the Westerner’s conquest over yet?
Since the Great Schism of Christianity, the Westerner trained itself for roughly one thousand years. It trained itself in several aspects, but it forgot an important piece, the dharma. The cunning Westerner, blessed with advancements, used them to tyrannize other peoples on a scale never before seen. This was the beginning of the Latter Day of the Dharma. The dharma is declining because of the savage Westerner. And so, it leeched off of any people it got a hold of, including predominantly Buddhist peoples. Even during the decolonization of the 20th century, fundamentalist Christianity spread and threatened the dharma. To make matters worse, previously Buddhist peoples clung to Christianity as taught by their colonizers; the French in Vietnam and the Spanish and Americans in the Philippines. To this day, the Philippines is a lost cause along with its majority Muslim neighbors in Maritime Southeast Asia. The cunning Westerner turned the Filipino against us and now Buddhists make up only 2% of the Philippines’ population. Now, the Westerner sees Buddhism as nothing more than an aesthetic, a self-help lifestyle, or a decoration that they can commercialize and cherry pick aspects to integrate into their religion or lack thereof.
It is excellent for someone from the West to learn the dharma as this will turn them into a more compassionate and wise person, but they must not enforce the Western gaze onto it and discard parts of the Shakyamuni Buddha’s words they do not like. To be fair, some aspects of Buddhism would be nearly impossible for a Westerner to understand unless they assimilate.
Buddhism is not materialist or blind belief without evidence and it belongs to the East, so stop pretending to be something you are not while pushing stereotypes of Asian Buddhists.
However, even though Buddhism is not materialist or very in line with the Western worldview, it is uniquely human. Walpola Rahula, a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk and writer explains it this way:
Among the founders of religions the Buddha (if we are permitted to call him the founder of a religion in the popular sense of the term) was the only teacher who did not claim to be other than a human being, pure and simple. Other teachers were either God, or his incarnations in different forms, or inspired by him. The Buddha was not only a human being; he claimed no inspiration from any god or external power either. He attributed all his realization, attainments and achievements to human endeavour and human intelligence. A man and only a man can become Buddha. Every man has within himself the potentiality of becoming a Buddha, if he so wills it and endeavours. We can call the Buddha a man par excellence. He was so perfect in his 'human-ness' that he came to be regarded later in popular religion almost as 'super-human'. Man's position, according to Buddhism, is supreme. Man is his own master, and there is no higher being or power that sits in judgment over his destiny. (Rahula 3)
How could one even consider the Westerners who diluted Buddhism human themselves at this point? If it were not for them, Westerners may have a better understanding of the teachings of the “man par excellence”. We are lucky that the only Westerners who necessarily see us as inferior are white nationalists and fundamentalist Christians, otherwise the Westerner could have committed a genocide that would have left millions of us dead. Westerners are competitive beings, so they rarely act in concord towards each other. It is only when there is something that draws them together or away from a common danger.
If everybody on Earth becomes a Westerner, they would wallow in their shamelessness and would have nobody left to exploit except for each other until they destroy themselves.
Until they are the only ones left, they will vilify and exploit anything non-Western until they only have each other, then leading to a chaotic world of undignified militaries, economic inequality, corrupt governments, and little or no innovations.
Unless the Westerner considers even the slightest of inspiration from the East, it will continue to follow hyperindividualism and have apathy towards its education. That is why the West is falling. Those from the West who are smart enough to realize that the West’s flaws that it spreads are deciding that the West is not worth maintaining and its resignation is overdue. If those from the West abandon it to assimilate to the East, it would make the West’s death quicker but more dignified.
This is more than a fad but rather the realization that Western society would be best being a passing fad itself. The West gave us great inventions, food, clothes, scientific discoveries, etc. and once it is gone, the East can pick up where it left off just fine.
We will never abandon the Triple Gem because we recognize it to be more than a spiritual, exotic aesthetic or trend. To do so would make us just like those others in the West who Asian Buddhists look down upon. When the time is right, each and every one of us will surround ourselves with the people who know the dharma better than anyone you have met in the West and we can finally be at their level. We shall be Western only in our country of origin and/or race, but in every other way, we will be Easterners; Buddhist Easterners who will take back what rightfully belongs to us.
When we (and hopefully Buddhists outside of both the Eastern and the Western world) do this, consumerism will lose some of its biggest prey. Even though it may not seem like it at first considering we are abandoning everyone we have ever known, we are doing our ancestors a favor by joining the culture that strives towards the end of suffering. We will be leaving our cultures’ ways of thinking behind, but doing this will save face for our lineage, especially the Western lineage as we would be preventing the creation of more “Karens”, “Chuds”, dayangmas, “neckbeards”, and other degenerates. We will not be annoying dorky nerds and certainly not “neckbeards” who are overly obsessed with and fetishize the culture but people making an effort to get closer to the dharma and surrender to the East.
Although we are collectivists, we must seek personal liberation first for the good of other beings. Once the West collapses and its former supporters come running to us, we shall welcome them. If some do not recognize this before it is too late, well boo hoo! They will have a better birth with the world we will create. Some of them, especially their unlucky spawn, would probably be better off dead and reborn into a better life, maybe even the Pure Land.
The way it is looking now, the West is falling and becoming the world’s laughingstock, which is a good thing. The quicker it falls, the less painful it will be for the Westerner and everybody else. Western culture will not be missed, but we can keep the best of it and continue the innovations that the creators would wish to see. We will remember the legacy of them and be thankful while never forgiving or forgetting the ones who ruined the West.
Works Cited
“Ignorance Avijjā Sutta (AN 10:61).” Translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu. Dhammatalks. 2017, https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/AN/AN10_61.html. Accessed 31 May 2024.
Gabbe. “Western Culture.” Wikipedia. 25 May 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_culture#:~:text=The%20core%20of%20Western%20civilization,Roman%20civilization%20and%20Western%20Christianity. Accessed 31 May 2024.
Rahula Thero, Walpola. What the Buddha Taught. Oneworld Publications, 1959. Accessed 31 May 2024.
u/Tendai-Student. “栄真Eishin (u/Tendai-Student).” Reddit, 31 May 2024, https://www.reddit.com/useTendai-Student/. Accessed 31 May 2024.
u/Tendai-Student. “Buddhism is being MISREPRESENTED in the West Marginalisation, cultural appropriation, misconceptions and what you can do.” Reddit, 2023, https://www.reddit.com/WrongBuddhism/comments/14zc6xg/buddhism_is_being_misrepresented_in_the_west/. Accessed 31 May 2024.

The more conspiracist someone in New Zealand is, the more likely they are to bring up Zimbabwe. I know that because I have a cooker in my family, and by god, you’d think the place was his home country for the amount he talks about it. But it’s become a real conspiracy for the right, and an angle from verified bad actor accounts that was modded out of this sub at our beginning.
And the reason why there’s a direct correlation between conspiracists and Zimbabwe stans is that you can’t help but notice their fears of history repeating fall apart somewhat when you actually look into it. For a start, you can blame one person for the deaths and economic devastation caused by Mugabe, and that Tony Blair, because he kicked the whole thing off when he walked back Thatcher’s promise of 50% of the compensation for white landowners. Thatcher did like one decent thing and Blair came in and messed it up. Not without context. But through its entire history, it is the UK’s choices and the choices of her colonial government there that spur change and negative outcomes in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe was first thought to be mineral rich at its early 1890 settlement, and a lot of money was put into getting prospectors to Southern Rhodesia. When this return didn’t eventuate, land was given to the settlers instead in hope their farming could become productive enough to cover the settlements continuing administrative costs. By 1986 they had distributed 16 million hectares, a sixth of Southern Rhodesia, and by 1917, this was up to 21.5 million hectares. However, this expanse of farming would cause friction of land rights and grazing rights with the two resident groups already living there. Cattle in the region expanded from about 60 000, owned mostly by the preexisting Ndebele and Shona peoples, to up to 2 million split evenly between both groups, leading to overgrazing and land competition.
The solution in the 1930s by the colonial government was a segregated land distribution method split into five parts, with the best 3/5 being reserved for white owners and the much more unusable remainder of the land being split amongst black land owners — despite them being greater in number than white people. White people had so much productive land they literally couldn’t farm it all, while the remaining Tribal Trust land was still being overfarmed, forcing black Rhodesians to seek work in cities and the colonial government to introduce forced destocking measures (sell or slaughter excess animals), as well as putting aside 7.2 million more acres for native farmers to purchase.
The 50s saw attempts at redistribution that ultimately failed and authority for this would then be vested the traditional tribal leaders.
The beginning of the 60s were an attempt to introduce a semblance of actual land parity, splitting the land 50/50 with whites and blacks — unfortunately this didn’t work very well because black people greatly outnumbered white people, and the fertile land was still just given to whites. Abuses of the system also saw white people legally shift their boundaries to claim black land resulting in evictions that would create Nationalist sympathies leading to the following war.
60s-70s was the Rhodesian Bush War between three groups, one of them being the colonial government, and resulting in Mugabe taking power. He was left juggling the land issue along with the cohesion of his new coalition. Farmer workers had fled to cities during the fighting and been organised into guarded settlements following state suppression of armed conflicts. More land was made available to purchase by people of any race, and then race-based ownership was abolished completely in 1979. Despite this, white farmers owned 73% of fertile land and contributed 80% of agricultural output.
Under a doctrine of willing buyer, willing seller for at least ten years, the US and the UK agreed to finance part of the redistribution costs, and Southern Rhodesia was recognised as finally-independent Zimbabwe. However, land inequality and erosion of black land due to forced overfarming continued, but white-owned commercial farms were reduced by about 20% by 1987, and progress was continued into the 90s. However corruption issues began to emerge with land and leases going to Mugabe’s family and political associates as well as other powerful people. Donor and investor states became concerned with who was benefitting, heightened when Mugabe took powers to supersede the courts. He held that land was a political matter only, not judicial.
British opinion in funding this programme would deteriorate, until the Short and the then-Labour government would deny their obligation to support the redistribution programme.

I should make it clear that we do not accept that Britain has a special responsibility to meet the costs of land purchase in Zimbabwe. We are a new government from diverse backgrounds without links to former colonial interests. My own origins are Irish and, as you know, we were colonised, not colonisers.

In June 1998, the Zimbabwe government published its "policy framework" on the Land Reform and Resettlement Programme Phase II (LRRP II), which envisaged the compulsory purchase over five years of 50,000 square kilometres from the 112,000 square kilometres owned by white commercial farmers, public corporations, churches, non-governmental organisations and multinational companies. Broken down, the 50,000 square kilometres meant that every year between 1998 and 2003, the government intended to purchase 10,000 square kilometres for redistribution.
In September 1998, the government called a donors conference in Harare on LRRP II to inform the donor community and involve them in the program: Forty-eight countries and international organisations attended and unanimously endorsed the land program, saying it was essential for poverty reduction, political stability and economic growth. They agreed that the inception phase, covering the first 24 months, should start immediately, particularly appreciating the political imperative and urgency of the proposal.
The Commercial Farmers Union freely offered to sell the government 15,000 square kilometres for redistribution, but landowners once again dragged their feet. In response to moves by the National Constitutional Assembly, a group of academics, trade unionists and other political activists, the government drafted a new constitution. The draft was discussed widely by the public in formal meetings and amended to include restrictions on presidential powers, limits to the presidential term of office, and an age limit of 70 for presidential candidates. This was not seen as a suitable outcome for the government, so the proposals were amended to replace those clauses with one to compulsorily acquire land for redistribution without compensation. The opposition mostly boycotted the drafting stage of the constitution claiming that this new version was to entrench Mugabe politically.
Guerrilla veterans of the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) and Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) began to emerge as a radical force in the land issue around this time. The guerrillas forcefully presented their position that white-owned land in Zimbabwe was rightfully theirs, on account of promises made to them during the Rhodesian Bush War. Calls for accelerated land reform were also echoed by an affluent urban class of black Zimbabweans who were interested in making inroads into commercial farming, with public assistance.
The government held a referendum on the new constitution on 12–13 February 2000, despite having a sufficiently large majority in parliament to pass any amendment it wished. Had it been approved, the new constitution would have empowered the government to acquire land compulsorily without compensation. Despite vast support in the media, the new constitution was defeated, 55% to 45%.
In response, a pro-Mugabe group marched on white owned farms, forcing them and their usually-black workers off their farms without compensation. In the subsequent years of land confiscation, several farm owners and more workers would be killed.
Some of this land ended up under the control of Mugabe and other politicians, however by 2011, 238,000 households had been apportioned from 10 million hectares of land, an improvement of 3.5 million over the 20 years up until 1998. In 2019, white Zimbabwean farmers accepted $17 million USD in compensation, and in 2020 the Zimbabwe government would commit to paying back a further 3.5 billion.
How does this relate to New Zealand?
Well let’s start with the obvious: land distribution issues do not go away because you want them to, nor will democracy protect you from it if you shit on the people you took the land from. Zimbabwe happened because landowners dragged their feet in every decade for a century, and a radicalised political faction springing from this injustice decided legal methods were not the way to go. By the time people were willing to come to the table to resolve it, they were a good fifty behind when they should have and it was too late.
Secondly, picking and choosing what you give back doesn’t work if you’re still just fucking over the tribes you’re giving stuff to to advantage yourself. If you say, give someone a couple of million dollars of value in exchange for the entire canterbury and otago regions, they may decide in 30 years time that wasn’t a very fair deal. And they’re probably right.
Thirdly, black people are not doing well right now in Zimbabwe and neither are white people. But the black people already weren’t doing well. You may look at Zimbabwe and say, well they’ve screwed over their own economy there. But they didn’t. They screwed over the white economy that too many of them already weren’t benefitting from. You see the stability a strong economy gives you and think that other people are benefitting too; Zimbabwe did get a lot out of their land in the 1900s due to colonial investment. But it didn’t benefit all people, and the failure to lift everyone in the rising tide sunk ALL the ships.
The Treaty idea of Partnership is the compromise. Giving back tiny bits of land and small change is the baby steps. Start taking us backwards and you’ll make Maori realise just how shortchanged they’ve been, and the natural result of that is not that they go away, it’s that they start demanding more.
But the level of disenfranchisement, of disrespect, of disempowerment does have to reach a much more egregious level than the situation we have here to result in widespread violence. Six months of Shane Jones does not a civil war make. It is a long, long process to get to a point where a country is that divided, and a lot of legitimate legal, political, and negotiating instruments have to fail. There is also a certain level of disinvestment people have to feel in the overall system to throw what they have away — there’s a reason socialist revolutions don’t come from peaceful, placated societies, even the ones educated enough to know there is something wrong. So therefore, progress must be made gradually through peace and cooperation, because unilateral force always has lasting negative consequences. Attempts to forge ahead with reform despite unhappiness of particular groups, even when legally decided will work out worse for everyone.
There are going to be a million opportunities to turn this ship around. This relationship is nowhere near beyond repair, even between this government and iwi. If Luxon had a spine, he would sit down with them and promise to reverse course, and probably send us all back to the polls as a result. He won’t. But I’m pretty confident he won’t win the next election either, whenever it is, and this country isn’t nearly so divided enough to split down the middle along race grounds, no matter what Seymour wants. But to unify, to meet in the middle, you have to stop considering what you think is fair and start hearing what the other group wants and why.
Otherwise we’re just letting corrupt politicians make land grabs while they cut us in half.

Finn Tresscoat, a 20-year-old with short dark brown hair, brown eyes, and a pale complexion, strolled down the sidewalk of his small town. He wore a light brown leather jacket over a black shirt, paired with black jeans and black-and-white sneakers.
As Finn ambled along, he glanced at the many shops lining the main road of the town's bustling center. He wasn't searching for anything in particular; he simply wanted to enjoy the rare day off from his job, one of the most perilous occupations in the United West (U.W.).
"Finn! Oh, Finn!"
Finn turned his head to the right and spotted Ms. Tori Elortor, or simply Ms. Tori as he called her. She was an older lady in her early fifties, though her youthful appearance often surprised the townsfolk. With long white hair cascading down her back, pale skin, and bright hazel eyes, she was a striking figure. Today, she wore a navy blue sundress over a pair of tight blue jeans and brown cowboy boots.
Ms. Tori, the local bakery owner, was considered quite attractive and often caught the eye of the younger men in town. Her curvaceous figure and active lifestyle, including regular yoga sessions in the park, only added to her allure. However, Finn saw her differently. Having known her since childhood and feeling like part of her family, he saw her as a maternal figure rather than anything else. He was also close to her son, Eric, feeling like an older brother to him.
Despite his demanding job, which kept him busy for nearly twenty-four-seven, Finn always tried to visit Ms. Tori and Eric whenever he could. Today was a rare opportunity for him to relax and reconnect.
"Ah, hi Ms. Tori! How are you today?" Finn greeted her with a warm smile.
Ms. Tori returned his smile. "I'm just fine, Finn. The real question is, how are you? I haven't seen you in months!" Her tone shifted to one of concern. "I was worried, and so was Eric. You do have quite a dangerous job for someone so young," she added.
What kind of dangerous job did Finn have, you might ask?
Well, Finn was a "Gaunt Hunter," a member of a specialized group tasked with safeguarding the small towns outside the major cities in the United West from creatures known as Gaunts.
These slim, humanoid creatures had leathery black skin, no eyes or nose, and wide mouths that drooled a strange dark green liquid. They had emerged after the cataclysmic "Decade of Winter."
The Gaunts varied in form and capability. Some were very muscular, while others had bat-like wings, allowing them to fly. They were also cunning, often creating weapons from scavenged materials and hunting in packs.
Disturbingly, these were just the common variants.
There were tales of Gaunts resembling animals and some that could even speak, though Finn himself had never encountered such anomalies.
Despite the ominous title of Gaunt Hunter, Finn's role wasn't as glamorous as one might imagine.
He wasn't a high-tech, gadget-wielding hero. Gaunt Hunters received training similar to regular police officers, focusing on the use of firearms. However, since firearms were not commonly traded or shipped to the smaller towns outside the major cities, Gaunt Hunters were also taught to wield swords, knives, and other melee weapons, as well as trained in close-range combat.
Finn had been trained to fire a pistol but also learned to fight with a machete, which was more practical for their needs than a traditional sword. On duty, he carried a standard-issue Glock-17 and a machete strapped to his side. He also wore the standard protective gear issued to United West Security Forces (UWSF) officers.
Returning to the conversation with Ms. Tori, Finn let out a lighthearted chuckle. "Dangerous for most of the veterans on the job, but I'm young and fit! Practically invincible!" he said with a grin.
Ms. Tori gave Finn an unimpressed look, raising an eyebrow. "Is that right?" she asked. "Then what's this I hear about a Gaunt nearly taking your head off just last week?"
Finn's face flushed with embarrassment as he recalled the incident. A Gaunt had caught him off guard and nearly decapitated him with a makeshift axe. "Okay... yeah, fair enough," he admitted, looking down.
Ms. Tori's expression softened, and she gave him a few light taps on the shoulder. "Oh, I'm not trying to make you feel bad, Finn, I'm just reminding you that your job is dangerous… You need to be careful," she said gently.
Finn looked up at her and nodded. "I know, and thank you for caring," he replied. Inwardly, he thought, 'It's not like anyone else does'
"Of course, I care, Finn," Ms. Tori said firmly. "Do you know how devastated I'd be if you got hurt or, heaven forbid, died? I'd be heartbroken,” she told him. “Eric would be even worse off, after all, who would play with him?"
Finn felt a wave of warmth at her words. Despite not wanting to worry Ms. Tori or Eric, it was comforting to know there were people who cared about him, and who wanted him to stay safe and come back home. "I guess you're right," he said with a soft smile. "I'll try to be more careful out there, I promise,”
Ms. Tori nodded, her smile lingering. "Good,” she said. “Now, how many days do you have off?" she asked.
"Not many," Finn replied with a sigh. "Just today,"
Ms. Tori's eyes widened in shock. "Only today? Why?" She asked.
Finn's expression turned serious. "Many of the other Gaunt Hunters are either dead, retiring, or switching to become cops... There are only ten of us left in the entire town,"
Ms. Tori's eyes widened in horror. Gaunt Hunters were the primary defense against the Gaunts. The law across the U.W. dictated that local law enforcement dealt with human issues, leaving Gaunt-related threats to the Hunters. The thought of their numbers dwindling was terrifying.
Each town was supposed to have a contingent of Gaunt Hunters, given that small towns were the primary targets for Gaunt attacks.
Major cities, in contrast, rarely had to deal with Gaunts.
The dense populations of these urban centers acted as a deterrent, scaring off most Gaunt packs. Even if a small group of Gaunts did manage to attack, the cities were equipped with heavy weaponry and advanced defenses, making Gaunt Hunters unnecessary there.
This starkly contrasted with the dire need for Gaunt Hunters in the smaller, more vulnerable towns.
Ideally, each small town would have around fifty Gaunt Hunters, a number intended to ensure adequate protection against the Gaunt threat. However, the reality was far grimmer. The inherent dangers and heavy responsibilities associated with the job dissuaded many from becoming Gaunt Hunters. The perilous nature of the work, combined with the constant threat of death, resulted in a severe shortage of recruits.
As a result, the numbers in many towns had dwindled alarmingly.
"Only ten?" she repeated her voice barely above a whisper. "That's... alarming… What happens if more Gaunts come?"
"We do our best," Finn said, trying to sound confident. "But it's tough… Every day, we’re stretched thinner,"
Ms. Tori took a deep breath, trying to process the gravity of the situation.
Finn felt a lump in his throat. "I promise, Ms. Tori. I'll do everything I can to stay safe," he said, trying to remind her if his promise mere moments ago.
Ms. Tori wanted to argue with Finn's comment, but deep down, she knew he was somewhat right. The town was struggling—trade had slowed to a trickle, and many residents had moved away. The constant threat of Gaunt attacks made living there increasingly untenable. Even Ms. Tori had considered leaving to ensure Eric’s safety and to give him a chance to grow up in a more stable environment where he could interact with other children and experience the broader world.
However, she couldn’t bring herself to leave.
Her late husband was buried in this town, and even though years had passed since his death, she felt tied to the place where he rested. She had loved this town deeply, and in a way, staying felt like keeping a part of him alive.
Seeing the conflict in her eyes, Finn decided to change the subject. "Hey, why don't I come over for dinner?" he suggested with a soft smile. "I'm sure Eric would be happy to see me after so long,”
Ms. Tori was pulled out of her thoughts by his offer. She smiled, grateful for his willingness to spend his rare day off with them. "That would be lovely, Finn," she said with a quick nod.
They walked together to Ms. Tori's home, a modest three-bedroom house with a large attic. Inside, they found Eric sitting in front of the TV, watching cartoons. Hearing Finn’s voice, Eric turned, his face lighting up with excitement. He jumped out of his seat and ran to give Finn a hug.
Eric was about 11 years old, with brown hair like his deceased father but hazel eyes like his mother. He was wearing a dark black and blue striped shirt, dark gray pants, and black slip-on shoes.
Finn hugged him back, smiling. "I've got some stories to tell over dinner," he said, which made Eric's eyes sparkle with anticipation.
He loved hearing about the world beyond their town, even if it was mostly filled with woods and the ruins of an old world.
Finn then followed Ms. Tori into the kitchen to help prepare dinner. He found what he could and handed the items to her, glad to be of assistance. Ms. Tori thanked him and asked if he could help chop vegetables, which he was more than happy to do.
As they worked side by side, Ms. Tori glanced at Finn, her expression a mix of gratitude and concern. "You know, Finn, this town means a lot to me,” she told him “It’s where I built my life with my husband, and it’s where I want Eric to grow up, despite everything,"
Finn nodded, understanding the deep attachment she had. "I get it, Ms. Tori. This place has a lot of memories, and as long as I'm here, I'll do my best to keep it safe for you and Eric,"
Ms. Tori smiled warmly. "I know you will, Finn... Thank you,”
Dinner was a warm, lively affair. Eric listened intently to Finn’s stories, hanging on every word. The laughter and conversation filled the small home, creating a moment of normalcy amidst the chaos of their world. For a brief time, the threats outside seemed distant, and they enjoyed the simple pleasure of being together.
After a few bites, Eric looked at Finn eagerly. "Can you tell me one of your stories, Finn?" he asked, his eyes bright with anticipation.
Finn nodded, swallowing a mouthful of food. "Well, a couple of days ago, I was out with two or three other Hunters, we had just finished fighting off a few Gaunts, once they were dealt with, we decided to explore the area since it was the site of an old abandoned amusement park,” he began. “Some of the rides were still standing, though most were broken and destroyed, it was interesting to see the tech they used to have back then," Finn recounted.
Eric's eyes widened with excitement. "Wow! That's awesome!" he exclaimed.
Finn grinned. "It was pretty cool, but it’s nothing compared to some of the parks I saw in Salton Lake City! Those places are amazing,"
Eric's eyes gleamed at the mention of the nearby city. "Man, I want to go there someday!" he said enthusiastically. "Maybe when I start my training to be a Gaunt Hunter," he added with a big smile.
Finn chuckled. "So, you want to be a Gaunt Hunter, huh?" he asked. "You think you’ve got what it takes?"
Eric nodded vigorously. "Uh-huh! I know I can be a Gaunt Hunter! I bet I can even be better than you!" he declared, pointing at Finn.
Finn raised an eyebrow, amused. "Oh really?" he said. "Who's to say I'm not the best of the best, huh?"
Eric gave him a smug smirk. "Because if you were the best Hunter, you'd have already gotten rid of all the Gaunts!" he said confidently.
Finn chuckled. "Well, you got me there," he admitted. "But hey, if you think you can be the best and get rid of all the Gaunts, then I say go for it, dude."
Eric chuckled and resumed eating, his enthusiasm undimmed. Ms. Tori watched the two with a fond smile, marveling at the brotherly bond between them. It warmed her heart to see how close they had become. She knew that Finn cherished this connection just as much as Eric did, especially since Finn had grown up without a family of his own, raised in the local orphanage.
She recalled those early days when a young Finn would walk into the bakery, clutching a few coins. His eyes would light up with wonder at the sight of the treats and goodies lining the shelves. Something about him had touched her heart, and she began offering him free treats for him and the other orphans whenever he visited. Her late husband had also taken a liking to Finn, treating him like the son they never had. When Finn decided to become a Gaunt Hunter, it was her husband who had helped him prepare for the rigorous training, getting him into shape and offering constant encouragement.
After her husband's death, it was Finn who helped her grieve and find the strength to carry on. She had felt terrible about leaning on him during such a hard time, knowing he had his own sadness to deal with, yet he remained steadfast and strong. He had been there for her and for Eric, helping the young boy understand their loss and navigate the difficult times that followed.
She was truly grateful to have Finn in her life.
Suddenly, Finn's phone vibrated insistently in his pocket. He quickly reached for it and saw a text message from work. He opened it, dreading what it might say.
[~Finn, we need you tonight. Jon and Gary quit out of the blue, so we need someone to fill in.~]
Finn sighed, frustration bubbling up inside him. 'Great, now we're down to eight Hunters,' he thought. 'And Jon and Gary were both my age and in better shape than the veterans at the station.'
Ms. Tori noticed the change in his expression and knew immediately what it meant. "Does duty call, Finn?" she asked gently.
Finn nodded, his expression weary. "Yeah, looks like Jon and Gary quit. They need me to cover tonight."
Ms. Tori sighed, placing a comforting hand on his arm. "I'm sorry, Finn. I know how much you were looking forward to some time off."
"It's alright," Finn said, forcing a smile. "I knew it was a long shot anyway. The town needs all the help it can get."
Eric looked up, concern etched on his young face. "Do you have to go, Finn?"
Finn ruffled the boy's hair affectionately. "Yeah, buddy. Duty calls. But I'll be back, and we’ll have more stories to share. I promise."
Ms. Tori gave him a supportive nod. "Just promise us you'll stay safe, Finn."
"I will," Finn assured her. He stood up, preparing to leave. "Thanks for dinner, Ms. Tori. It was great, as always."
As he left the warm, comforting atmosphere of Ms. Tori's home and headed out into the cold night, Finn felt a renewed sense of purpose. Despite the exhaustion and the ever-present danger, he knew he had to keep fighting. For the town, for Eric, and for the memory of the man who had helped him become who he was.
Once at the station, Finn entered and immediately spotted Dick Cortez, a veteran Gaunt Hunter who had been safeguarding the town for as long as Finn could remember. Dick, now in his 50s, had graying hair, deep-set wrinkles, and perpetually tired eyes. He was wearing the standard-issue armor that all Gaunt Hunters received, though each Hunter was allowed to customize their armor with different colors and modifications.
Dick's armor consisted of a high-collar black shirt beneath a modified, pure black chest plate that covered his upper abdomen, along with similarly-colored bracers. Both the chest plate and bracers were trimmed with white and featured matching shoulder pads. He also wore gloves with small metal plating on the fingers, dark navy jeans, black and white metal knee pads, and dark brown boots.
Dick noticed Finn and offered a small smile. "Heya, Finn," he greeted.
"Hey yourself, Dick," Finn replied with a nod.
"Sorry about having to bring you in on your day off," Dick said, his tone genuinely apologetic.
Finn walked over to his locker, where his armor and weapons were stored. He glanced at Dick and shrugged, giving a small smile. "It's alright, Dick. I understand why, and I'm not angry—well, not at you, but at those two," Finn said, referring to Jon and Gary.
Dick nodded in understanding. "Trust me, I'm disappointed in them too, but I can see why they left so suddenly," he said.
Finn nodded back, opening his locker to reveal his armor. His armor was similar to Dick's but differed in color and the clothing underneath. Finn wore his usual attire beneath the armor, which consisted of a dark brown chest plate trimmed with black, matching bracers, shoulder pads, knee pads, and gloves.
He took the armor out and quickly dressed, securing the pieces in place. He then grabbed his Glock and its holster, strapping it around his waist, and added his machete in its sheath. Once fully suited up, he turned to Dick with a raised brow. "Which side of town am I patrolling tonight?"
"Outer wall, west side," Dick stated, his voice firm.
Finn nodded, mentally preparing himself for the task ahead. The west side of the outer wall was notorious for Gaunt activity, a hotspot for their attacks. It was going to be a long night.
As he headed out, Dick called after him, "Stay sharp out there, Finn. We can't afford to lose any more good Hunters."
Finn turned back and gave a resolute nod. "I will, Dick. See you in the morning."
Once outside the city, Finn couldn't help but take in the grim sight of the outer wall. It was marred with deep scratches and chips from relentless Gaunt attacks, stained with the dark green goo that dripped from their slavering mouths, and speckled with bloodstains that would never fully wash away. The stark contrast between this battered exterior and the inner walls of the town was striking. Inside, the walls were adorned with chalk drawings from children and vibrant murals from the town's artists. These cheerful images served as a reminder of what he was protecting, and why he had chosen to become a Gaunt Hunter in the first place.
Reaching the west side of the wall, Finn began his patrol, moving back and forth to ensure no Gaunts were attempting to scale the barrier. For now, the night was quiet, and he hoped it would remain that way.
As he walked his beat, his thoughts drifted back to dinner with Eric and the boy's enthusiastic declaration about becoming a Gaunt Hunter. While part of him felt honored by Eric's admiration, another part was deeply troubled. The life of a Hunter was dangerous and filled with horrors that no one should have to witness, let alone a young boy like Eric.
Finn's mind flashed back to a particularly gruesome memory from a past patrol. He and another Hunter had been called to assist in repelling a large pack of Gaunts. They had rushed to the scene, only to find their comrades dead, slaughtered in horrific ways. One Hunter's skull had been cracked open, with Gaunts eating from it as if it were a bowl of grapes. Another Hunter, still alive, was being disemboweled and devoured. Finn could never forget the man's agonized expression as he watched his own entrails being torn apart and consumed. The sight had been so revolting that Finn had vomited on the spot, paralyzed by shock until his partner snapped him back to reality.
Then there were the stories he had heard from veterans like Dick. Dick once recounted an incident where a Hunter had been speared to death by multiple Gaunts. They hadn't even eaten him; they had just impaled him repeatedly, leaving his body to rot in the woods for days. Such tales highlighted the Gaunts' malevolence and complete lack of empathy.
Finn shuddered at the memories. He didn't want Eric to face such nightmares. The boy was full of life and potential, and Finn couldn't bear the thought of him enduring the same horrors he had.
Since that harrowing incident and the chilling story Dick had shared, Finn had sworn to himself that he wouldn't meet a similar fate. He vowed to go out fighting, to not end up like those other hunters. He couldn't bear the thought of becoming another victim, especially after what happened to his sister.
The sudden howl nearby jolted Finn out of his grim thoughts. The sound was close—too close. Instantly alert, he scanned his surroundings. Just then, something whizzed past his face, slicing his cheek. He turned to see a makeshift arrow embedded in the wall. Spinning back around, his heart sank as he saw ten Gaunts emerging from the tree line.
"Shit!" Finn cursed, his eyes widening in horror. This was a dire situation. He quickly drew his Glock and aimed at the advancing creatures. Before he could fire, a sharp pain seared through his left side. He glanced down to see a small dagger lodged in his torso.
'What the hell?' Finn thought, bewildered. 'Did one of the Gaunts throw this?'
"Sorry, but it's nothing personal," a strange voice echoed through the darkness.
Finn's gaze snapped forward, and he saw a figure emerging from the shadows. They wore a long black cloak that seemed to envelop them completely, giving the eerie impression that they were gliding across the ground rather than walking.
The figure approached him, their face obscured by the cloak's hood. "My, you are a handsome young man," they purred in a sultry tone. "Such a fucking shame that my babies must eat. We've been on the run, and they haven't had a chance to rest and eat until we saw you." They giggled, a chilling sound that sent shivers down Finn's spine.
Fear gripped Finn, but he managed to look up at the cloaked figure with a raised brow. "W-Who are you?" he stammered, his voice wavering.
The figure tilted their head slightly as if amused by his question. "Who am I?" they echoed. "I am their mother, their caretaker. I ensure they survive, even if it means feeding them humans like you." The figure leaned closer, and Finn could just make out a twisted smile beneath the hood.
Finn's mind raced. He needed to think of a way out, and fast. The Gaunts were closing in, and he was injured and at a severe disadvantage. Summoning his remaining strength, he clutched his Glock tighter and tried to steady his breath. He couldn't let this be the end.
The figure's giggle echoed eerily through the night, sending a shiver down Finn's spine. "Oh! Now I'm regretting stabbing you," they remarked with a twisted amusement. "It's not every day a handsome young man asks me my name, you know? Most prefer a no-name policy." Their tone was cryptic, and Finn couldn't shake the feeling of unease that settled in his gut. "While I would love to give you my name in far better circumstances, I'm afraid I don't have the time," they continued, their words dripping with urgency. "As I said, we're on the run from a rather unpleasant girl."
Finn's confusion only deepened. The figure's response didn't provide any clarity, leaving him even more perplexed. As the figure began to back away, Finn's eyes widened in shock as the Gaunts beside them moved in unison. ‘She can... control them!?’ he realized, disbelief washing over him.
"Go ahead, babies... EAT!" the figure commanded, her voice chillingly calm.
With a sickening lurch in his stomach, Finn watched as the Gaunts surged forward, their hunger palpable in the air. Determination surged within him, driving him to fight against the odds stacked against him. Ignoring the searing pain from his wound, he raised his gun and fired at the approaching Gaunts. Despite his efforts, only one was hit, and even then, it didn't slow down.
Finn gritted his teeth, preparing for the inevitable close-quarter battle with the monsters. "Come on!" he growled defiantly. "I'm right here!"
The Gaunts closed in, their predatory instincts driving them forward. Just as they leaped toward him, ready to strike, something unexpected occurred.
Thorny vines erupted from the ground, snaking around the Gaunts with incredible speed. Finn's eyes widened in astonishment as the vines ensnared the creatures, halting their advance. The vines twisted and contorted, slamming the Gaunts into the ground with brutal force, tearing at their flesh and rendering them helpless.
" Damn! How did that bitch already find us!?" the figure exclaimed, frustration evident in their voice.
Finn's gaze followed the figure's gaze as a new figure emerged from the shadows.
Her appearance was striking, to say the least. With a spiky red Mohawk and piercing red eyes devoid of any white, she exuded an aura of fierce determination. Smudged mascara framed her intense gaze, adding to her wild and untamed appearance. Her lips were painted black, a stark contrast to her fiery red hair and eyes. Clad in a black leather crop top vest that accentuated her slim, athletic frame, she exuded an air of defiance. Arm bands encircled her wrists and biceps, resembling the wraps worn by boxers, hinting at her combat prowess. Around her neck, she wore a large choker, adding to her rebellious demeanor. Her attire was completed by tight leather pants and high-heeled platform boots, giving her an imposing presence.
"Found you, ya freaking cunt!" she spat, her voice laced with venom.
The cloaked figure retreated, increasing the distance between them and the girl. "Ugh, don't you ever give up?" they retorted, their tone tinged with irritation.
The girl leveled a fierce glare at the figure. "After the shit you've done!? I ain't letting you go!" she declared, her voice dripping with disdain.
The figure let out a mocking giggle. "Is that so?" they taunted, gesturing toward Finn who lay wounded on the ground. "Not even to save his life?"
The girl's gaze shifted to Finn, her expression softening momentarily as she registered his injuries. Before she could react, a shrill howl pierced the air, drawing their attention back to the figure.
"What the hell did you do!?" the girl demanded, her voice trembling with rage.
"Oh, just called in a few friends over for dinner," the figure replied casually.
"You bitch!" the girl seethed.
With a swift motion, she thrust her hand forward, summoning a massive vine with thorns protruding from its surface. The vine lunged toward the figure, but they evaded the attack with agile grace, darting away through the forest.
"Have fun~!" they taunted, their laughter echoing through the trees as they disappeared into the darkness.
Driven by determination, the girl pursued the figure, her footsteps echoing through the forest. However, her path was suddenly obstructed as a horde of Gaunts emerged from the shadows, blocking her way with menacing snarls and bared teeth.
"Get out of my way!" the girl cried, her voice ringing with determination.
In an instant, a smaller thorned vine shot out of the ground with startling speed, piercing through the approaching Gaunts like a bullet. Lifted into the air by the force of the vine, the creatures were hurled aside, crashing into trees with bone-crushing force.
As more Gaunts emerged from the shadows behind her, four shots echoed through the air. Finn's aim was true, striking the advancing Gaunts and causing them to writhe in agony as they fell to the ground. The girl glanced back to see Finn's timely intervention, offering a silent nod of acknowledgment before focusing her attention back on the remaining threats. Summoning more vines, she ensnared the creatures, tearing them apart with ruthless efficiency.
Satisfied that the immediate danger had passed, the girl turned back towards Finn, who was now sitting against the wall, applying pressure to his wound.
Bending down beside him, the girl flashed a smile, revealing sharp triangular teeth reminiscent of a shark. "Nice shooting there, dude. Really saved my ass back there," she remarked.
Finn managed a weak chuckle. "I should be thanking you. If you hadn't shown up, I'd be Gaunt food," he admitted.
"Let's call it even, then, eh?" she suggested. "What's your name?" she inquired.
Finn met her gaze, taking a moment to catch his breath before responding. "Finn, Finn Tresscoat," he introduced himself. Curiosity burning in his eyes, he posed a question in return. "Who are you? No... What are you?" he asked, unable to shake off the mystery surrounding her.
The girl maintained her enigmatic smile, meeting his gaze with her striking red eyes. "The name's Rachel Rose," she revealed. "As for what I am, well... I can answer that once you're all patched up," she added cryptically.
Summoning another vine, Rachel gently lifted Finn to his feet, supporting him as they began to make their way back towards town. With each step, Finn's mind buzzed with questions, the mysteries surrounding Rachel and her abilities swirling in his thoughts. Who was the cloaked figure? How did they control the Gaunts? And most pressing of all, who—or what—was Rachel, and how was she able to command those vines with such ease?
As they walked back toward town, Finn couldn't help but feel the weight of exhaustion settle upon him, both physically and mentally. His thoughts swirled with questions about the events that had just transpired—about Rachel, the cloaked figure, and the unsettling abilities they both possessed. Yet, amidst the chaos of his mind, one pressing question emerged, demanding attention above all else.
'When the hell am I gonna get another day off? Because I can sure as hell use it right now...!' Finn thought to himself, his weariness palpable.
Rachel, walking beside him, seemed to sense his inner turmoil. Casting him a sidelong glance, she offered a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, Finn. You'll have your chance to rest soon," she assured him, her voice carrying a note of empathy.
Finn managed a weary smile in return, grateful for the reassurance. Despite the gravity of their situation, her words offered a glimmer of hope amidst the uncertainty that loomed over them…

First/Previous
Since I knew there was a time before, I’ve wanted it, but that was child’s hope; even as a boy I wanted a dream. I wanted some divine being to enter from heaven and tell us all how it should be, but that wasn’t something I could ever count on—of course. Is there a god? I think so. I’ve seen those things and if they exist, then surely there’s a maker on the other end of it—god made both the light and the dark if the word’s to be believed and all we can hope for is a glimpse of the former. Even for a second.
The streets were soaked with blood and so many artillery rounds were fired into the sky—many I witnessed missed Leviathan—that I forgot what silence was like (not to mention the screams and there was a lot of that).
In the scrambling, I found I was reentering deeper into Golgotha and that wasn’t good. There was the ever-present thought that Maron was around every corner; the man had haunted my thoughts for longer that he should have and every time it was like an overwhelming force. It was simple enough after all, he was a piece of the past, a piece I could theoretically reach out and touch and that was what kept me to him.
In the fray of bolting citizens, I pressed myself to the exterior of a wall—I’d neared the stairs which once led to my apartment—and I kept out of the way of those that mindlessly went; some of those which rushed from the onslaught were those afflicted with skitterbugs and many of them either hobbled on blackened legs or—and this was rare—comrades or family helped to carry those which could not carry themselves. It was a baffling sight. A man carried a woman like a child (her toes had fallen off and her legs were black to the knees) and though he strode on with her, his own boots were caked with a mixture of blood and earth. An older girl led a young boy from the whirlwind of dust which was kicked up in the square; the boy’s eyes were whited, and his hands were curled to his chest, discolored. People, whatever duality there is, cared. There was not a drop of the apathy I’d learned and encouraged in myself.
I chewed like a mad dog through my bindings, and it was of little use; I yanked at the cord which secured my hands together and received rope burn in return. “Bitch!” I cussed the thing, but the flames in the sky were so loud, the bangs and vibrations from the artillery consumed all so it was like yelling in a barrel. I swung my hands out in front of me, feeling useless and felt a sudden urge to try again. I bit into the cord and repetitively motioned my jaw against the pressure of the cord, like I was going to saw through it with my teeth. Ha! Another yank is what brought my left hand free, but not without tearing a triangle of skin away from my wrist.
The cord dropped to my feet, and I looked around; a woman brushed past me, nearly toppled over my foot and I caught her by the wrist before she went head-over. She violently thrust from my grasp and screamed something at me. Another bout of flames burst from Leviathan’s maw as it circle-dove overhead. The heatwave from the blast exploded across my face so that I recoiled from the sky itself till I was on the ground, and I pushed myself from the earth and ran half dog-like from my place there at the wall. Where? It was hard to say where when every person that touched-by seemed to send me in another direction; in the madness, it was impossible to tell my course.
With time and effort, I found my way to the opening where the hydro towers were, three pillars which rose above Golgotha’s skyline, each one a testament to human resilience—engineers laborers toiled untold hours under Lady’s father to construct them. The hydro towers exploded into rubble as Leviathan slammed into them. Rock rained down as cutting shards and destructive boulders. A man lay beside my feet where he'd been pinned by the onslaught—white concrete kept him there by his chest—he gasped for air and blood already formed around him. In a moment, I looked away at the dying man, his half-whited eyes bulging at me. Meat hung from the left side of another man’s face as he cradled his head in his hand and moved like he was stoned and sat among the stomping feet; he slumped into the spot he sat and did not move till others came by him in a hurry and he simply fell onto his side like a toy animal.
The screams were too much. I looked to the towers, the nubs which had broken away like bad teeth against the red sky, and whole people fell alongside the rubble, limbs and showers of blood and Leviathan latched atop the towers and rocked its massive body so that the structures slipped directly from their foundations and tumbled over like pins. I ran and again there was nothing but chaos, nothing but mind-numbing wilder thoughts—it was grim and there wasn’t a place for coherency; it was all snaps of images.
In the mess of bumbling limbs, I pushed through to the hall of Bosses and there were people there already, rushing the stairs; the ground shook and I assumed it must’ve been the towers. The things demolished all in their path, and briefly, I saw the ramshackle structures which normally stood in their shadows come slanting over and people leapt from those places too and landed poorly and there was a cacophony of tremors through the earth—it felt as though hell should open.
The steps at the base of the hall were flooded and it was a fight to climb them as legs came high up from ahead and swiped at those behind and I kept my hands ahead of me to block whatever foot may come my way.
Wall men stood ready with their rifles at the tops of those steps and fired their weapons indiscriminately into the crowd. Bodies, big and small, piled atop the steps after a brief bullet dance and it came that I wasn’t only climbing stairs, but corpses; the warmth of their flesh as I clawed ahead remained and blood fog hung in the air. That grouping of wall men, casually lined before the doors of the hall were overtaken and they disappeared, their rifles cackled and came alive with muzzle flashes and the animal hands of the horde brought them to ground.
Us, the horde, funneled through those front doors and for a moment, in the thick walls of the hall, the outside world audibly disappeared; the blood and dust remained, but it was quieter save the shuffling feet and cusses of passersby I was carried deeper.
Those that worked the underground went quickly and I followed, and those ignorant followed for the sake of survival and it was not long till we stumbled into the Boss’s lair. With room, people dispersed like water through the tunnels and found dark recesses to tend their wounds or mourn whatever was lost and the explosive open air had been fully replaced by the quiet black oppressive mumbles of people taking stock of all those that had died. And all those that would. Every few moments, the walls shook, and dust fell from the ceiling fixtures.
A few haggard folks moved to the doorway which led to the damp room which led to the kitchen, and they slammed the door shut and latched it and began to check adjacent rooms for things to barricade the way.
“Stop!” said a man in the dim flickering underground light—I was surprised to see the man was me, “Leave it open! Others might need help.” I retraced my steps to the small faction that’d gathered there at the doorway. “You can’t just let them die out there. Let them in.”
“Shut up!” a skinny girl with her hair pulled back on her malnourished skull spoke gruffly; she choked, coughed—dust clung to her clothes—she’d been near the collapse of the hydro towers if I guessed. “Step off, or I’ll—
“Or you’ll what?” I shouted.
The girl put up her fists, two lumpy stones, and in stupid response I closed the distance between us. With speed, her fist met my nose, and I stumbled back on my heel.
Without hesitation, I brought up my own hands and landed a blow to her stomach. She craned forward, gasped on repeat, and took a knee.
Blood wet my upper lip, and I wiped it away with my forearm.
“Move,” I said to the others by the door; there were two: a woman and a boy that was nearly a man.
The boy charged headstrongly, attempted a kick and I easily shoved his small frame against the tunnel wall; the hard metal sounded a meaty thud against his body and the woman launched unseen at me, raked her nails down the back of my neck, and tore at my collar. I kept a forearm to the boy’s throat and rocked his head with my free elbow. Once he wept and spit red, I let him go; the boy slid into a sit and I spun on the woman, shoving her away. My left leg began to give, and I used the wall over the boy’s head as support. I swung at her with a wild claw and my fingertips grazed her nose as she fell away to the opposite wall.
“Stop it!” I shouted.
She launched at me, and my leg gave out under her tackle, and I stumbled half-on the boy, my feet kicked helplessly at her, and the boy regained his composure and began to crawl towards me. We wrestled and then the girl I’d knocked in the gut rejoined the fray. I was done. They had me pinned and spat curses at me and took turns shoving my head into the floor.
“You’re going to get us killed,” shouted the woman, “Are you stupid?”
I grinded my teeth and tried to throw them off; I was overpowered and easily pressed down again.
The overhead lights flickered with another deep earthy vibration and the trio let go of me in an instant—I came up swinging my arms like crazy and as I went to kneel before propelling myself to stand, a hand rested on my shoulder. I spun on the hand and was met with the black mouth of a 9mm pistol—that froze me fast.
The owner of the weapon—a wall man by the look of her fatigues—motioned for me to stand and I did. Her eyes were far off and nervous and the metal shook in her outstretched hand. “Against the wall!” she barked at us; she was small-framed and youthful but full grown, and I could easily push her out of my way if not for the pistol. We went to the wall, and she moved to the door while keeping the gun drawn on us. She watched us and glanced at the door. “It’s latched! Who latched the door?” She asked.
No one spoke. The other three looked to their feet; I initially refused to rat, and snorted blood—my nose throbbed and by touch I could tell it swelled already.
“Well? Why’s it closed?” she asked the question more like a desperate child than a person with control. “C’mon!” The 9mm rolled limply on her wrist as she said the word, like she was attempting to draw the confession from us with the motion.
“There’s an attack. They’re killing everyone,” said the boy.
The girl and woman nodded.
“Who?” asked the wall man.
“Demons, muties,” said the boy, “Big stuff. Everyone’s dying.”
The ground shook as if to emphasize his point.
The wall man studied us for a moment, lingering last on me and for the longest and she took a long breath and let the sigh out dramatically slow. “I know you,” she motioned at me with the gun, “You’re that maniac. The one that tried to murder everyone.” Her eyes fell then returned and she put her weight on the door while maintaining the barrel of the gun eye-level in my direction.
“I ain’t gonna’ hurt anyone,” said. I briefly thought about smiling but decided that’d look worse.
“How do I know that?” she asked.
“Yeah,” said the boy, “He tried to kill us already!” His voice cracked with adolescence; the blood I’d spilled from his mouth coated the front of his holey shirt.
The trio nodded all together—everyone agreed that I was a maniac killer.
“They latched it,” I said, “Cowards.”
A thump came from the other side of the door which frightened the wall man and she leapt from the spot she’d leaned—it took several full seconds to realize her gun went off; there was a flash, and my ears rang. I stumbled from the knot of people and slunk a couple of feet from the space by the door. The girl—the one I gut-punched—collapsed to the floor while holding the right side of her face. The women crowded the girl, panicked, the boy sprinted past me and disappeared deeper into the underground, and the wall man stood there with a wretched blank expression. There was a long moment which hung in the air; I could not hear and then it came back, and it was the girl’s screams I heard first.
Upon stepping to them, I saw the prone girl had been shot just so—through the cheek. Her eyes rolled from likely spinal damage; whatever the angle, it seemed to have ripped through irreparable nerves and she bled a lot. There wasn’t any hope for that girl.
“Well,” I said to the wall man, “Finish it. No reason to make her suffer.”
The girl on the ground writhed unnaturally and caterwauled while the woman by her side attempted to calm her.
Greater became the sound of the belabored hands on the other side of the door; then a hollow-sounding gunshot came from the other side; were they shooting the door? Or each other? Another round—human screams.
The wall man shook her head. “I didn’t mean it. It was an accident.”
I tried to hold the wall man’s gaze, but she didn’t seem able.
With speed, I moved to the wall man, reached for the gun which dangled helpless by her side—her initial response was to flinch, pull the weapon from my reach; our eyes locked and I clenched my jaw. She could’ve killed me. There wouldn’t have been surprise from me if she had.
She let go of the gun and I nodded, and she nodded and the woman kneeling by the girl threw herself over her. “Please,” protested the woman, “Please don’t!”
With the aid of the pistol, I was given space, and nothing was said. I mentally prepared myself for the ringing which accompanied gunfire in small spaces, even tilted my head away with my free palm up and took aim and the girl jerked once then went still.
With the ringing going and sound returning, the drumming on the door returned, as well as the quiet weeps of the woman; she crawled to the wayside of the hall, pressed her back against the wall and rested her chin on her knees with her arms around her shins. She didn’t rock to or fro and hardly made any noise at all. But the small and quiet sobs remained faintly there.
First/Previous
Archive

First/Previous
“How’d you think that was going to go?” asked a voice from the other side of the door.
I lay on the bunk and stared at the ceiling; my head throbbed. The place where I’d been grazed stung whenever I touched my fingers to it. A bullet had—by whoever’s grace—scraped my scalp and traced a line from the far corner of my right eyebrow. It'd only been three days and it still caused pain. No doctors came and I was certain there would be infection—if not plain infection, then it could always be the worser: skitterbugs. I ached still. I had never fully recovered, not like how I should have.
The day of anger, as I’d begun to think of it in my mind, had caused no great ruckus beyond a few dead men. Two were Bosses, but who knew if they’d announce that as casually as they’d surely announce my execution. Perhaps they’d string me up alongside thieves. A good thief and a bad. What a riot; I deserved no thieves, of course.
What was I? Some great hero? Some idiot was more likely. I wanted misery to befall those that perpetrated it themselves and there I was, more miserable. Perhaps the wrath in my heart came from some mutation; the demon Mephisto resurrected me (so said the demon) and I’d begun to accept it. It was the reason for my poor state, surely, and the more I thought on it, the more I believed it was true; it felt true right down to my bones. The truth hurt or it was age and I rose from the cot I lay on; I’d been detained in a room beside the one I’d visited Andrew many months prior. They’d starved me, rattled the door to try and frighten me, and they’d wasted water on my head to keep me from good sleep.
I did not respond to the voice from the other side of the door and the object rattled in its frame and the voice came again, this time angrier, “Really? How did you think that was going to go? Crazy bastard! Thought you’d put the hurt on the Bosses? Thought you’d kill us at our worst? First, it’s that explosion. You have something to do with that? No! First, it was Harold’s daughter running off!” The voice on the other side of the door grew with mirth as it did with anger. “I’d seen you around town a bit. Thought the Bosses always liked you. Huh. Boss Harold mentioned you at his parties and said how you were a smart fella’, a good fella’, and there you killed him. Stone cold.” The man which spoke was a jailor that tortured me in those dreamlike days I spent locked in their prison, and he seemed personally affronted. “So first it’s the explosions; steam or dust rose out of cracks in the ground you know—some thought hell was rising up, but the Bosses put those thoughts to bed. God, what’s it with the likes of you? The explosions and now I’ve lost an eye and its because of the skitterbugs. You probably brought that on!” The voice muttered and then the door shook in its frame again, seemingly from a hard kick. I wished I could see the face of the man throwing his tantrum. “Can’t wait to see you hang.”
“So, I’ll hang?” I asked the door. There was a long silence, and I was uncertain if I’d pitched my voice enough for the man on the other side to hear me. I opened my mouth to ask, “So-
“You’ll hang.” The man on other side seemed to knock his knuckles against the surface of the door. “Or you’ll die here.”
“What’s Maron said?”
“Don’t you worry about him.”
“What’s he said?”
“Said you’d probably appreciate the punishment that we’d put on you. Said you’re a sick man. Said you like speaking with devils and people like you only find pleasure in such things.”
“So, I won’t hang?”
“Oh, you’ll hang, sir. You’ll hang if I need to do it myself with no one else. If not that, I’ll be sure to put you under one way or another. Accidents happen.” He chuckled. “Maybe you’d enjoy it, but it doesn’t matter. Whatever enjoyment you find in your tortures won’t compare to what ideas I have.”
A long silence followed, and I watched dust motes dance in the air; the place was stagnant and even a breath caused a shift in their glide. I closed my eyes and tried to remember a better time. I thought of Suzanne. I thought of Gemma. What a time to be alive. I thought of the movies, the books, the musical cartridges that sung of yesteryears. How unlucky I’d been, of course. Something had changed in me though and it was totally refreshing. Perhaps it was in realizing the evils of my brothers was that of a man and not some otherworldly force, or perhaps it was a push that came from years of terrible inconsistencies. All that living in the past and so it was. It didn’t matter—the past. I’d been so busy with it that I’d been in a constant state of unliving. I’d known that always, of course—something new had come.
“You dozing off in there?” asked the jailor.
“Nah.”
“Good. Stay awake or I’ll be forced to stay you awake.”
I’d been reborn with a rage, justified or otherwise, and it was felt all over. It was a wild compulsion. All that time and it had been me that was brought back.
The wound on my head throbbed and I prodded it with a finger and brought the finger away and examined the digit; it was dried well enough, and I did not smell infection nor were there any of the accompanying symptoms of a fever or hallucination. I was me, through and through. For now.
The door banged. I didn’t bother an answer and the door banged again.
“Who’s there?” I asked, surprising myself with the sarcasm.
“Why’d you do it?” asked the jailor.
“You wanna’ ask me about it now?”
“Tell me.” The voice on the other side of the door was serious entirely.
“Bah!” “Bah to you! Why’d you do it?”
“Is there a reason to explain myself? If you knew better the things I knew, would it get you to unlock that door and let me walk free? Would it change your mind even?”
The jailor caught a laugh before responding. “Can’t say it would.”
“So, what’s it that you want? You won’t understand me, and I don’t think I’ve got the energies of persuasion to try.”
“Try.”
“You like the Bosses?”
“They’re okay. Keep me in work anyway. Keep people safe.” I slumped forward onto my knees where I sat and placed my elbows on my knees and watched the crack at the base of the door on the other side of the prison cell. “What’s it matter if they keep you in work? Think they care about you anymore than what you represent?”
“Huh?”
“I mean, you keep riffraff down and they like you for it. I wonder if they know you. You ever get invited to the feasts they hold at the hall? You ever worry about your water rations? You ever wonder why it is that so few of the women or men invited to the hall return? Children too, now that I think of it. They’d call those captured criminals, I know. Those brothers—the sheriff is to blame too—they’re bastards. You know they are.”
“Is that so? What’s that make me? A bastard too?”
“By proxy maybe.” I dryly chuckled. “What’s it matter? What do you want outta’ me anyhow? Some gratification? Some confession—you’ve gotten that already, ain’tcha? Maybe a repentance? Why don’t you call one of those Bosses on down from their throne and have them here on the other side of the door so I can apologize? Or call Lady and I’ll get her to channel some message to the afterlife and I’ll plead for forgiveness. That what you want? Now I’m a bad man and I know it, but it ain’t for the reasons you believe. What you want is belief that there’s a man under the skin of the monster you’ve projected? No, I won’t shoo away your boogeyman for you. It can’t be done, not from me.”
“You talk big for someone in your predicament. I like how you talk so holier. Like you’re talking down on me. I just wanted to know what made you want to go on a mad-killing spree the way you did.”
“Mm.” I cupped my hands together; as it was, my left knee shot off with pain and I tried to massage it to little comfort and stretched it out straight from my body. “When violence keeps you bound, violence is necessary to free yourself. That’s all I’ll say about it. If you hang me, then hang me. Spill my guts out for the birds and put a sack over my head so you won’t be sick by my face.”
“You’re a mouthy pig.”
I listened to the jailor’s footfalls disappear down the hall and finally it was totally quiet and all I could hear was the throb on my head. Lucky or unlucky? No, it wasn’t luck. I’d been marked. I was the payment, and I knew the price. The demon had my soul. Whatever protection it afforded me, I intended on using.
The image of that room continued over in my mind, with the peasantry (that’s what I saw them as then) knelt in front of the Bosses and the wall men, with the intense blood-smell, with the surprise on Maron’s face. Billy’s face. There was still a part of me, however small, that wanted to plead with him to change his ways. That wasn’t the part that welled up in me then though. The piece of me that wanted to see him die was what took over. It hadn’t been Maron that fired his gun; he’d still been fighting with his holster. I’d only taken a step in through the door and a spray of gunfire from one of the wall men’s rifles exploded and I was sure I was dead because I fell, and my vision went white. They should’ve put me down then.
I didn’t come too fully until I had a few goons on me, hauling me upright roughly under my arms. Maron didn’t say anything at first and those wall men took over; they shouted that I was alive still and I felt a hot gun barrel against my cheek.
“Stop!” shouted Maron. The Boss Sheriff stepped forward with his stilted gait and looked me over thoroughly. The gun barrel fell from my cheek, but they held me still; it wasn’t like I planned on fighting. “You got uglier,” said Boss Maron, “Really ugly.” His left eye, afflicted by the skitterbug infestation, had gone dead white with only the faintest trace of an iris; it dribbled pus.
I held his stare to the point that my eyes watered—whether from anger or sorrow or both—and my muscles tightened like an animal threatening to pounce. It was a ridiculous display.
“Lock him up,” said Boss Maron.
So, I was locked up and those uncounted days I was mildly tortured: sleep deprivation, pummeling, and sometimes they spit on me. It could have been worse. I’d seen worse.
The cell was numbingly quiet, and I continued to massage my knee, continued in thinking about how investing so much thought with the past twisted any future of mine into a dismal satire.
I could not tell how long it had been without sunlight and the jailor returned (he was bulbous and fattened and old but very strong—it could be sensed in how he carried himself) pushed through the door this time with a tray of diced potatoes, steamed but cold, and a metal cup of water. He sat them on the floor, stared at the tray there with his one good left eye, and it was like I could read his mind as he looked at the food there. He could destroy it; he jerked from the tray without saying a word to me then disappeared behind the door he closed. The jailor remained there outside.
Pride swelled in me momentarily before I pushed whatever silliness that was and devoured the food and drank the clear water. If it was poison, so be it. If it was poison, then all the problems of the world would disperse.
Again, the jailor pushed in through the door and bent to remove the tray and I was struck by the immediate thought of strangling him. So, I tried and threw myself at the man.
My hands felt the scruff around his throat, and I pressed hard with my fingers on his Adams apple. He’d lurched forward to lift the tray and he immediately came up with force, throwing me off him; my nails raked his cheek as I scrambled for purchase. He took the metal tray in both of his hands and thwapped me across the head—it rang, and I was stunned while he lifted back his right hand in a swing. In the dizziness, I momentarily caught a glimpse of the holster on his left hip and reached out dumbly for the revolver there. A meaty smack could be heard, and I didn’t even feel it when his fist met my face the second time. My head rocked and I fought to look upright, and his hand came again, and I put up my own hand in return; it was pushed away, and he continued at me, muttering epithets he found useful.
Once he was heaving and spitting, he left me on the cot and directly before slamming the door, he mentioned something about violence and how if I liked violence so much that he’d show it to me.
I nursed myself to sitting right-up and though adrenaline kept the pain away, I felt my face bruising already. There was no way for me to inspect the welts his hands had left, but I could guess their places by touch and how they thrummed with my heart.
Two days passed, if I counted them by the visits from the jailor and then Maron made his appearance to me, and I was surprised to see him with a leather eye patch over his left eye; he seemed ill on his feet and the jailor, though the man was there, did not move to stop Maron from entering the room and relieving me of my prison. He and the jailor roped my hands together in front of my pelvis and I didn’t fight.
Boss Maron stank of infection and yellow oozed from beneath his eye patch and he kept his cowboy hat pulled snugly over both his ears and did not speak so jovially—there were no crude jokes at my expense. A warmth radiated off him. The Boss carried my shotgun with him but made no remark on it. He marched me from the prison, and I met daylight, and it burned my eyes while I stared up into the reddish sky. Dust scattered from the nearest portion of wall and caught on the wind till it was carried and disappeared overhead, and I briefly thought how nice it must be to fly.
Golgotha stirred as ever, and people spoke loudly and candidly as I passed them by. Words came my way from passing faces like, “You kissed the devil’s ass!” or, “You sure are a monster, look at you!” and Maron pushed me on with the gun at my back, and I wavered on my legs like I was without any control.
“Is it true?” asked Boss Maron, “Did you kiss the devil’s ass?” He tilted the shotgun casually on his shoulder and kept me ahead of himself. He was taking me to hang—and making a big deal out of it too. “I know how you like to speak to them. The demons. I know how you conspire with them. I told them all how you do. Now they know I was right.”
What a rotten town it was, and it smelled like it. The atrophied muscles and diseased infections of those fine folks emanated in the air, flies buzzed around my head, bloated and doubtlessly happy from whatever corpse they’d sprung from.
“Say somethin’,” said Maron.
“What do you want?” I asked, watching my footfalls, ignoring the screeches of those on the sidelines; he marched me through the runways, past the onlookers which saw me with faces of twisted hatred. The tension was palpable—I could feel the venom off the eyes of those that watched. Blood red eyes which judged carelessly.
“I want you to say it,” said Maron; I felt the nudge of the shotgun at my back again and I stumbled forward, caught myself, carried on, “I want you to admit it to me. You’re like a mutant, ain’tcha? No better than any other monster. I knew it all them years. I seen it.” We took an alley and cretins followed behind; wall men flanked Maron and on either side of the narrow stretch there were faces made even with the wall, pressed there like they were afraid to be involved.
“Whatever you say, brother.”
“Don’t,” hissed Maron, “Don’t even.”
“What?” I spat the word, “Afraid they’ll treat you differently if they all know how close we are?” I felt the gun barrel press against my back, and I yelped out the words, “Hey! He’s my brother! My baby brother!” The barrel jabbed me in the spine, and I spilled forward, catching myself on one of those nearby faces. It was an old woman. She shoved me from her, and I flailed across the ground after trying to catch myself with my bound hands. Dirt met my face and exploded around me. I laughed, blinking through the dust. I spit too. He couldn’t kill me. Whatever black magic there was in me—bequeathed by Mephisto—refused me death. Maron lifted me with the help of his wall men, pinching the coat around my throat with his fist. He shoved me on, and we continued.
“You smell that?” I asked Maron.
“Stop talkin’. You might not be a man, but you’ll die like one,” he said. The wall men around muttered, and we took the way to the front square; already there were looky-loos gathered, throngs of them not at all bashful to see the day’s line-up—it was just me. The platform was emptier and that was good (Frank, Paul, and Matt looked naked without their eldest brother). Those Bosses which remained looked drunk as they did for any other execution. It was a good day for it. Warm. The stink of the crowd was worse and as those gathered parted for my entourage, the warmth of them cloistered us like the blood of a wound.
Even through the vile aroma, the smell of rotted poultry rose like nothing else. “You don’t smell it then?”
The roar, a cacophony of the damned souls stolen, shook the ground and the air changed. A dragon—Leviathan.
Along the wall which old skeletal corpses hung against dried blood stains from hook-chains, men and women scattered the length of the parapets with their weapons. Gunfire came and one of those atop the wall shouted, “Artillery! Dragon! Big guns!”
There was fire in the sky and the creature circled overhead and its wings beat the wind like mad; those organic ropes that hung from its body took on horrid shapes with its movement in the high noon sunlight.
Screams filled the air as the square erupted into panic. I dove into the sickly crowd; among the loudness, the horses which were lined by the big door fought against their ties and bolted across the square. Arms and heads disappeared beneath those dashing hooves, and it was not long before people were trampling people and in a quick glance I saw the Boss platform came down in splinters as the horses rushes it. Blood slickened the feet of many as they rushed to the buildings adjacent the square—what a small protection that’d be against Leviathan. A wall man went stumbling over the wall’s ledge and his body met the ground beneath the hanging corpses and he didn’t get up.
In the wild fray, Maron fired the shotgun into the air, and I briefly thought of where the pellets might fall.
Finally, artillery fire came and put a hole in the creature. It wavered in the air, its head lurched downward like it might pierce the ground and it pulled its long neck back and blew flames across the buildings. The heat was immaculate. Rotted chicken filled my lungs.
“There’s more!” shouted a wall man above, “Running across the field.”
The crowd grew more enamored with escape; there’s no good way to say it—blood frothed around our heels as I was shoved through the avenues of elbows, rocking heads, plunging knees. I pushed on, shielding myself with my bound hands as well as I could. I kept my head as high, and felt scratches reach my throat—doubtlessly those which could not continue—nails and fists came from every direction. In the ephemeral madness, I too screamed and it did not stop until I spilled into an alleyway along the wall nearest the execution chains. I ran and tripped from the crowd, slid, and bit my tongue so thoroughly that my teeth clicked together though the tissue; my breath was knocked from me. My pants were wet from the viscera. Others too had found the opening and barreled past me. I went to my feet and panted thought the pain, through the twinge in my left knee. I took the walls for support and still, those which rushed past nearly knocked me from my feet.
Some poor child—a lean, bony-faced boy—fell in the rush and before I had a moment to reach out, he was gone. Whether he lived or not, I did not stop to know. The crunch of bones as more people spilled into the narrow stretch indicated the worst.
First/Previous
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Chapter 1: Hope’s 16th Birthday
As the rays of the sun hits her eyes Hope Moonshine wakes up excited, she was waiting for this day for all her life
She jumps out of her bed and rushes to her mom's room excited and she accidentally flung the door open too fast making a loud cranking noise waking her mother, Queen Matilda up
"Oops didn't mean to wake you up" hope said awkwardly"Honey I know you are excited for your birthday but you need to be patient the sun has just risen everyone is still asleep" Matilda said tiredly, "please go back to sleep darling you will have a long day today and you will need the energy, your party wont be begin till noon"
"Ok mom, sorry for waking you up" said Hope as she was trying to close the door slowly enough that it doesn't crank but it still did "Not an issue dear", said Matilda
As the door closed Matilda took a deep breath and closed her eyes her emblem on her right shoulder a pink diamond glowed she opened her eyes and she made a finger gun with her right hand pointing at the hinges and a shiny pink light zaps comes out of her index and zaps the hinges, the beam turns into a hand and it open the door and then closes without making a cranking noise, "I should have done that a long time ago" said Matilda
She removes the blankets from her bed to reveal she is already clothed for a serious occasion, as she goes towards the mirror she is wearing a long cyan dress that trails all the way to her feed her top being smartly tight with short shoulder sleeves, she puts on long white gloves and glances over her diamond ring she lets out a small sigh and frown and puts it on, she trances over the mirror for a few seconds before snapping out of it, and she looks over to a miniature painting of her an her daughter when she was 6 she picks it up and smiles "I know you are eager dear you won't have to wait for long"
After Matilda ready's herself she open her window and conjures a light bird of the palm of her hand, the bird flew off to Hope's room where it sees her lying in her bed on her stomach, the bird soon returns to Matilda's room and land on her palm her eyes glows for a moment and the bird fizzes into a yellow cloud, "Well it looks like she actually listened not very common of her to do so, it means I can continue to do my plan unobstructed" she said with a smile.
Matilda leaves her room and walk across the hallway to the main hall then she claps her hand twice, and snap her finger, suddenly a figure jumps into the window it spins 180° and a muscular women stands up, she has a scar on her left cheek and short brown hair, she wore knight armour that cuts of at her shoulder emblem that looks like a dark grey shield.
"At your service my queen", she said with a salute
Matilda is startled for a moment, but then composes herself, "Sally there is no need for you to enter that way you can just wait for me at the hall entrance", she said.
"I was scouting the perimeter we have to make sure this place is safe and to make sure no one can harm the princess at her important day, I was up all night with my team searching every corner of the upper ring for any danger and-" Sally was abruptly cut off by Matilda.
"It was not your fault Sally, there is no need for you to prove yourself to me" Matilda said remorsefully, "You tried your best so you must eventually forgive yourself it wasn't anyone fault, it truly came from nowhere"
Sally's serious expression break into expression of regret as she shamefully looks at the ground
"Now is not time to punish ourselves over who we failed to protect but to make sure my daughter has a great birthday" Matilda said with determination
Sally's expressions of regret turned to a smile, "Yes my Queen, me and the royal guards have spent last few weeks clearing a safe path from the upper ring to the more presentable areas of the lower ring that ends at the great barrier" Sally says with a salute.
"Well I trust your judgement, you are now dismissed" said Matilda
Sally goes down the stairs of the central hall towards the doors "I won't mess up again" Sally said with determination
"Oh Houston" Matilda said while turning her head left and right, "where is he when I need him",
"I am right here your majesty" Houston whispered from behind, Matilda was startled and was annoyed on how everyone seems to sneak up on her, "Sorry for spooking you" said Houston as he polished his monocle "We are well prepared to begin celebration soon" he said as his hand pointed towards the empty hall.
Matilda stared at him, he then clapped his hands and an army of servants entered the hall setting up the chairs and tables, followed up by waiters quickly setting food on the table, and then 6 waiters came together to slowly lift the large 4 layered birthday cake with a milk white colour with chocolate cream on top of each layer, with "happy birthday Hope" spelled with strawberry topping on the side of each layer, with the glowing yellow number "16" candle at the top.
"As I was saying my Queen" Houston started "We just need to wait for the guests to arrive, I will let you know when you can call your daughter" Houston stops from a moment "Do you want anything else your majesty or am I dismissed?" he asked.
"You are dismissed Houston" said Matilda
Matilda walks up to Hope's room and slowly opens the door to find her laying in her bed
"One thousand one hundred and forty-two" Hope counted to herself, she paused and took a deep sigh, and tried to continue but then paused scratching her head "Um One-".
she was interrupted by her mother saying "Thousand one hundred and forty-three", "Unable to sleep dear?" She said with a smile, Hope gasped and she had the biggest smile in her face, her mother was a bit startled and asked "what is it you are smiling at?".
Hope pointed at her, jumped from her bed and as she was taking heavy breathes pointing at her mother clothes, "You don't sleep in this" she takes a deep breath and exclaims "which means I have got to get ready" and she runs to her closet to pick up something to wear.
Matilda takes a glance down at her clothes and rolls her eyes "so much for a surprise"
"I am ready mom" Hope said ecstatically, she was wearing a beautiful turquoise dress which complemented her hair colour styled in two plates with with joined with a pink band and wearing her favourite golden necklace,
"That was quick" her mother commented
As they enter the main hall a bunch of guests are seated drinking beverages and helping themselves to freshly baked foods, "Attention everybody, I would like you to welcome the birthday girl" said Houston, everyone stopped what they were doing and turned their heads towards the princess.
She gets a bit nervous and let out an awkward "hey guys", she didn't recognize any of them but she had to pretend to know all of them while hoping they don't ask her if she knows them, they all continue to stare as she and her mother get seated.
Houston lets out a forced cough to break the awkward silence, he says "and now Princess that you have come here you may blow the candles", the table the cake was on was carried towards Hope and her mother seated on there high chair, Hope tries to mask her excitement as she takes a deep breath and gently blow the candles, which fire off the cake and make a small explosion spelling out "Happy Birthday Princess!", Hope's eyes lit with joy.
Trumpets play and two royal servants come into the hall holding a gold plated chest decorated with diamonds, the chest is slowly opened and a blinding bright light shined from inside it, "Go ahead dear" said Matilda as her eyes pointed to the chest.
Hope goes down towards the chest and slowly lowers her hand inside of it and grabs what inside, as she removes her hand from the chest it reveals her to be holding the magic wand, it had a purple handle with a sparkly cyan diamond at its back end and a translucent turquoise sphere at it top decorated with a white glowing shape which resembled the combination of a two star into two different planes inside, and topped off with a small yellow crown at the top
Hope's shoulder emblem a pink heart with a tiny crown on top of both curves starts glowing, she raises the top of the wand at eye level, "ooh what's this" she says as she tries to stick her finger inside it to touch the spinning star
"HOPE DONT" shouted her mother, as soon as hope touched it burnt her finger and she let out a painful screech and fires a yellow glowing beam fires from the wand at some guest who were quick enough to duck, it hits a glowing orange decorative plant crushing it against the wall,
"hehe this could have been worse", Hope said awkwardly, the wreckage catches fire...
"FIRE" yells Sally, the guards that were standing by the walls quickly moved and shoved away all nearby guest as Sally goes and faces the fire here shoulder emblem glows and she fires yellow beam at it from her hands she then she clenches her fist and the beam turns into water extinguishing the fire and a yellow cloud evaporates from it, she quickly turn over to Hope and rushes over to her "ARE YOU OKAY PRINCESS" she exclaimed worryingly.
"I am fine it's just my finger is a little -" before she finishes her sentence Sally picks her up and running with her in her arms and runs up to the door and out of the Palace.
Queen Matilda is left with the guests and lets out an awkward chuckle and says "so who wants some drinks?", "Please help yourself to the finest wines in the whole kingdom" she said as a servant reveals a bunch of wine bottles in gold coating, the guests all rushed to get a sip
"I am telling you I am fine it's just a little scratch its rude for me to leave suddenl-" Hope was interrupted by Sally kicking the door open.
"PA-" Sally yelled before being interrupted by a "SHHHH", she was shushed by a woman with a white robe that cut offs at the shoulder, and a hand crafted necklace made of cotton around her neck, she had red hair tied into a bun and a green plus sign as her shoulder emblem.
"Seriously Sally how many times do I have to tell you to be quiet in here" said healer Pam with frustration she lets out a sigh and asks, "So what seems to be the problem?" Sally pulls out Hope and holds her at arms length right Infront of her Hope lets out a "Hi".
Pam gasps "Oh my princess sorry I didn't know you were coming, are you hurt?"
"No not at all it's ju-" Hope was interrupted yet again it seems like although she is becoming a grownup no one seems to want to listen to her
"She burned herself quickly check up on her" commanded Sally as she lowered Hope to her feet, Pam glanced at her up and down
"Where was she hurt", asked her confused. Hope sheepishly pointed to her left index finger it was a bit red which could be easily seen as it contrasted with her smooth white skin, but it was also accompanied by a yellow 'liquid', Pam conjured a white napkin to clean the site of the injury and singled out the injured finger from Hope's hand and put her hand on it and made into a fist and then she took a deep breath and closed her eyes her shoulder mark started having a green glow for a few seconds and then it suddenly went dim, she opened her hand to find the finger fully healed like it was never even scratched.
"Oh wow t-thanks" said Hope with a smile.
"Oh it's nothing" said pam, she took out her napkin it had some yellow glowing spots of what looks like fluid except its it didn't soak in but floated around it, "I see you can use magic now, what was your first spell" Pam said with excitement.
"I-i just shot this out of the wand" she said as she pointed at liquid on the napkin that started evaporating considerably, she then lowered her voice and talked faster "and it hit a plant and set it on fire" she was saying as she looked at the floor, Pam laughed and Hope was starting to blush.
"Oh don't worry dear we all mess up at the start, when I first started I accidentally broke a boy's arm" Pam said with a laugh.
"Is he okay now?" Hope asked with curiosity
"Well when I was your age healing wasn't what it is today they just put his arm in a cast and said if he was lucky his arm would be usable in three years", "I never was interested in healing like my mom but I wanted to fix my mistake so I studied and practiced for months to focus my healing and one day it just clicked, I got back to him and I was able to heal his arm and this happiness a patient feels when they are treated makes this all worth it" she let out a calm sigh and continued "It was not an easy journey but in just 8 years I was able to reach my peak"
"Eight years?" Hope said in disbelief
"Don't worry your path is way longer than mine my peak is at least four levels lower than you" Pam said with a grin
"It isn't that huge difference right?" Hope inquired hoping her journey wont be in the double digits because that's a very long time
Pam laughed and then said "Oh it way larger than it looks, but don't worry royals don't have a peak at least not one that one knows off" she put her hand on Hope's shoulder "Don't let the long road overwhelm you as long as you are better than yesterday you will be a great princess"
Hope smiled at her and said, "Thanks a lot Pam"
"So is everything alright with her, she stuck her finger into the wand are you sure there wont be any complications" asked Sally
"She will be alright she might have lost her finger if she went deeper and then It will actually a challenge to fix, but this is what pain reflexes are for, it a blessing in disguise", replied Pam
Sally clapped her hands and said "Well we got to go now we cant keep the guests waiting thanks for your help Pam"
Hope looked over to her and said "You should come over it's my birthday you can go change the setting", "No dear being a Healer is big commitment what if someone is in need of assistance and I am not here but I appreciate the gesture, maybe I could arrange my schedule to be there next time, go enjoy yourself".
"Pam the amputee is ready for his second regeneration session" a voice called.
"The what?" exclaimed Hope.
"Oh it's a bit graphic you really don't want to see it, I got to go now send your mother my regards" replied Pam as she ran over to a patient
Sally and Hope went to the door and left.
"You know I was really fine, it was just a scratch" Hope said as she looked up to Sally, "It's kind of rude to just leave the guests hanging I could have just sucked it up-"
Hope tried to continue when Sally muttered under her breath "I won't forgive myself".
"What was that?" asked Hope.
"Nothing, it's just you can never be so sure and no one was stupid enough to stick there finger in the wand I was just making sure but since it wasn't serious we don't need to worry" Sally said with an anxious fake smile, Hope sensed there was something off about her tone but she didn't want to push Sally into an uncomfortable spot so she left it at that
Sally and Hope make it back to the palace and Matilda rushes to her daughter "Oh dear are you ok"
She said as she gave her girl a hug, Everyone was staring and Hope got a bit embarrassed "yeah Mom I am ok" Hope said, Matilda stood up and was about to say something before Hope pre-emptively said, "I know I know it was pretty stupid from me to to do what I did, I know the wand is not a toy and I promise I will be more careful with it" she said while avoiding eye contact
Matilda smiled and said "Well I appreciate that you understand that you messed up but that not what I wanted to say" Hope made eye contact and Matilda continued "As princess and future queen we will have you visit the LOWER RING" Matilda took her daughter's hand "Sure its not the safest or best place in the kingdom but a hermit ruler is a bad ruler"
Hope got extremely excited over this as she always wanted to see the rest of the kingdom the Lower ring, the Outer ring but she was always told no because Sally's word "It's way to dangerous, you are not ready, you aren't old enough" or her mother's word "Is there something there that you cant find at home?, The place isn't very hygienic" but how bad could it be it was still under the rule of the Moonshines. Life in the Upper ring and the palace get boring after a while, why would she wants to stay put there when there a whole world to explore?
"The escorts are waiting for us outside those who want to go with us are welcome to go" Said Matilda looking at the guests with a forced smile almost knowing the reaction. All of them tried to mask there faces of disgust as if Matilda just asked them to bathe in mud or even worse she said that the food at the legendary "façade haut de gamme" was just an overpriced scam. They didn't look very impressed, Matilda coughed and asked "Well?".
One couple went towards the exit and when they got to Matilda the man said "We are truly flattered by your invite my queen but I am afraid we have something important to do" the man paused and scratched his head trying to think of an excuse Hope looked over him and asked
"What's more important to than a trip to see the rest of kingdom its not like we can always get to do it" with an ecstatic smile the woman who was scratching her head stopped as if she got an idea she went over looked to Hope with a stupid fake smile and said
"Well sweetie we forgot to sign up our son for school and registration will be closing today" she turned over to her husband and elbowed him in ribs and asked "Isn't that right honey?"
The man nodded in agreement and they walked out and they led out an audible sigh and when they were just outside of earshot the man told his wife "Moonshines huh? You would think after what happened a decade ago they would get the memo" the woman looked back at the Queen then waved and looked back at her husband and said
"She is weak if this happened to me I will make sure those pigs wish they weren't born".
Following into there footsteps and sensing an opening other guests decided to excuse themselves outside and at this point Matilda stopped resisting she knew some wouldn't want to go but she didn't think that many would go and she looked defeated Hope turned to her and said "Well mom we don't need those nose in the airers it's there loss anyways"
A woman walked up to them "She is right you know in-law" that woman was Hope's paternal aunt Mary, she had short blonde hair and brown eyes wearing a yellow dress for the occasion "The only reason any off these arrogant buffoons came here is societal expectations much like basically everything here" she said while rolling her eyes "and they all dipped the second they had the chance, come on lets go"
As they walked past the doors Sally was standing just outside the door scanning the setting with her eyes, her eyes wandered and locked with Mary "You should relax Sally no need for you to be so tense" she said with a smile she then changed her tone suddenly and said with a frown and a in a low voice that Hope and Matilda couldn't hear "Me and Matilda can protect ourselves and we aren't relying on you and my niece was under my protection since she was six, all you need to do is drive the horses and look menacing" and then she put her hand on her shoulder and smiled and said with an audible voice "So you can feel a lot more at ease dear", Sally tried hid her feeling of guilt with a fake smile "Let's go" said Mary joyfully
Everyone got on the horse driven chariot, just a classical chariot nothing magical about it, it's a very ineffective method of transport but one of the most relaxing ones
"HEEEEEY WAIT FOR ME" yelled a girl from as she was she surfing a purple cloud wearing a long sleeved purple sweater and blue pants as she got closer she tried to slow down by tilting her body backwards but she lost control and started flying at high speeds towards Hope
"EM SLOW DOWN" shouted Hope.
"I CANT BRACE FOR IMPACT" they both closed there eyes with their arms covering there eyes but just before contact she was caught effortlessly by Sally one hand and her cloud in the other she crushed the cloud in her fist into yellow mist that faded away and put the girl on her feet she then crossed her arms and looked down and barked
"Miss Emberlynn Springfield you should know how dangerous using magic without experience is, and you can't just rely on something you can't even responsibly use to make up for your own lack of punctuality"
Ember looked taken aback but she didn't want to look stupid so she snapped back with "I didn't know Hope is celebrating her birthday early in the morning, birthdays are a night activity".
Sally who was crossing her arms now raised her eyebrow and simply replied with,"Lies you were told everyday for the last week not my fault you can't seem to be able to be punctual friend's birthday, do you simply not care?".
Ember now looked embarrassed and now was rolling her finger around her dyed purple hair "M-M-My rooster didn't wake me up" she said with a smile while shrugging her shoulder as if she is asking question and the question was 'will Sally let the lecture go'.
"This doesn't matter now anyways it's that Ems is here" interjected Hope with excitement as she put her arm around Ember's shoulder "We shouldn't be wasting time let's go" she said as she punched her hand up in the sky.
Matilda, Hope, Ember and Mary entered the Chariot while Sally rode one of the two horses moving it while the other was being moved by an over-armoured and visibly nervous man.
"Calm down Edmund its just a short trip by a defined path we will be in an out in an hour or two" commanded Sally looking at Edmund clearly getting tired of his lack of confidence.
"I am trying but its such a big deal, escorting not one not two but three royals into the lower ring, I am not sure if I can do this, If I mess up-- I am too young for the consequences" he said clearly on the edge of panic
Sally slapped her hands on his cheeks "Edmund calm down you can do this I know you can" she said, Edmund seemed to calm down a bit "The whole path is being heavily guarded you and me are the last line of an extremely deep wall of defences we are most likely just going to be there for company" she looked back at the cart and said "and besides it's not like the royals can't protect themselves, they are much stronger than us after all"
"That's what they said about fre-" Edmund mumbled before putting his hand on his mouth mid sentence, Sally expression changed to that of anger.
"What did you just say?" she barked.
Edmund realising his mess up and started shaking "Um- I was talking about ---- the nice weather we are having" he said trying to pretend that this wasn't the stupidest attempt at backtracking, before Sally was going to give him a piece of her mind Mary stuck her head out and said in annoyed tone
"Hey I am not getting any younger here", Sally and Edmund looked forwards and shook the horse reins and they got moving forward
As they got to the edges of the Upper ring they reached translucent yellow barrier "We are reaching the barrier you might feel a tickle" proclaimed Sally.
As the horse crossed the barrier the barrier walls phased through the cart and it phased through Mary and Matilda there shoulder emblems glowed a four pointed star and a diamond respectfully in a yellow hue when it got to Hope and Ember the cart got to a sudden halt and they were thrown forwards Hope fell on her mother while Ember face was slapped into the barrier which was at this point halfway through the cart.
Sally opened the door "Everyone ok" she took one look at Ember and let out an annoyed sigh she dragged her hand out of the cart and asked while trying to hide her frustration "Show me your emblem"
Ember scoffed and tried to tuck back her long sleeves but she couldn't get back enough and said while crossing her arms "I can't and I am not removing my shirt".
Sally wasn't having any of it and from tip of her index made a sharp grey magic beam, she flattened Ember's sleeve and made a small cut in her right shoulder showing a yellow star rotated slightly to the left, after the cut yellow gas evaporated from it "And this is why emblems aren't covered it's common knowledge Springfield" said Sally annoyed.
"My favourite shirt! This was very unnecessary" whined Ember and before she could say anything Sally went back to her horse leaving her alone she scoffed and went back to the cart and sat next to Hope crossing her arms.
"You okay there", asked Hope concerned.
"Yeah I am fine just another lecture", said ember looking at the windows
As Hope looked out the window the lower ring didn't seem so different from home, people dressed and walked smartly roads were clean but something was off she couldn't help but notice everyone wore long sleeves even though it was a summer and it's not proper etiquette and that's something else it was surprisingly hot, She took her head out through the windows "Hello stranger" she greeted a man walking nearby he took one solid look at her and looked towards her mother and Sally who was frowning and her hands free with her emblem glowing, he didn't say anything and turned back and proceeded to speed walk away in a few seconds he ditched the subtlety and ran away, Hope was pretty disappointed and got her head into the cart
"What did I do wrong?", Hope asked.
"Girl it's either because you were too friendly it felt fake" said Ember, Hope looked down "Or they were made to feel unwelcome by misses buzzkill in the driving seat" she remarked
A loud sound of crashing wooden boxes was heard and cart went to a halt
"What was that" commented Mary
"Something that isn't boring" Hope said with excitement before leaving the cart.
"Make sure all of them stay put in the cart I will be gone for a short while" said Sally to Edmund before running to the source of the sound Hope tried to follow her but was body blocked by Edmund with his arms crossed
"Sorry I can't let you go princess, Superior's orders", he glanced to the left of him to seeing Ember touching a fancy table Infront of a café just for it to poof into a yellow cloud,
"Ow splinters" she cried, the yellow cloud fizzled reveal a wooden table barely clinging to its shape with a bunch of makeshift wooden fixes that don't even match in colour
Edmund looked like he just saw a ghost and ran towards Ember who was now transforming outdoor expensive furniture into splinter traps
"Stop touching it" said Edmund before shooting out a grey magical hands towards her subduing her, "What's your deal" he scolded annoyed.
"No what's this place deal why is everything here so fake?" snapped Ember "You hearing this Hope this place is fa-" she then stopped and asked "Aye were is Hope?"
Edmund let her go and pulled on his hair "Oh no no no no no no no" he cried
"Is everything alright where is my daughter?" asked Matilda concerned, Edmund didn't know what to say but before he could make up an explanation Mary interjected
"Oh don't worry Mati she will be ok she is probably with Sally and besides she still has this necklace I gave her so I am sure she will be just fine" Mary said with her hand on Matilda's shoulder "and we can go have some tea and chit-chat while we wait I heard that Gilbert's tea shop has actually potable tea" she suggested Matilda sighed and decided to go with what Mary said and walked towards the shop. "What about me?" asked Ember, Edmund turned towards her with anger and barked "You are staying right here!".
"Sally where are you?" called Hope as she was walking she saw a little girl wearing a cute pink dress and smooth brown hair walking alone Infront of her, she approached her and asked
"Hey do you happen to see a tall lady around here?" she tapped on her shoulder to get her attention and suddenly a cloud of yellow gas evaporated out of her Hope and the little girl coughed and as the smoke cleared the little girl was wearing a poorly knit patchwork of randoms scraps of fabric and her hair was covered in dirt she had a brown circle on the side of her shoulder, Hope froze in shock "I- I am so sorry, it was an accident" she apologised "I can go get you a new dress or--" the girl just looked at Hope her eyes glanced her wand which was in her right hand as well as her royal emblem and then she started hyperventilating and burst into tears.
Hope got on to her knees and she gently put her hands on the girl's shoulder "Calm down calm down, it's alright, It's not your fault but mine"
"P-P-pwease do-don hu-hur meeee" the girl sobbed.
"What hurt you? no no no no" Hope explained trying to figure out from where the girl got the idea
Hope hugged the girl "Here calm down see I am friendly" she soothed, the girl seemed to calm down a bit and she started sniffing
She let her go and asked "So what's your name?"
"R-R-Rosie" replied Rosie.
"Ok Rosie I am so sorry for ruining your dress, do you remember were you got it from?" she asked
"Ms Bea had guys gib it to us" Rosie said
"Misses Bea huh" she wondered out loud "Well can you tell me were misses Bea is"
"Sowwy I can't tell you misses moonnnn" Rosie was saying before she looked she wanted to cry again
"Please don't cry" Hope pleaded "You don't need to tell me where you live just wait" Hope passed her wand to her left hand and put her now free hand to her pocket and pulled out a purple wallet and she pulled out a golden note with 50 written on it she passed the note to Rosie and said "Here give this to misses Bea and tell her I am so sorry for destroying your dress also" Rosie grabbed the note and stared at it, Hope pulled some wrapped candy she got from the party "Her have some candy too" the girl put her the note in her pocket and grabbed the wrapped candy she struggled with it a bit and she then passed it back
"Open it please" Rosie asked
"Oh you can't? it's quite simple here" Hope said she gently tapped the candy her emblem glowed for a moment and the wrapping fizzed out.
Rosie put the candy in her mouth and quickly chewed and swallowed it, she then gave Hope a hug, she let go after a moment "Thank you miss, Ms Bea says Moosines are scawy but aren't scawy"
"Scary why would we be scary" Hope asked in disbelief with a smile
Rosie looked around and said "I am sowwy I need to go" she turned back and ran away and took a turn and was just out of sight.
"You couldn't just stop causing trouble for one day? what did we pay you for?" Hope heard Sally barking.
The sound of Sally's voice came from an alleyway, as Hope entered the alley the clean white paint started fading into rotting maroon bricks and the smell became foul coming from the open dumpster "Ewwwww" Hope said as she lowered the lid to try and lessen the stench
"Hey you know it's rude to close the lid on someone trying to fetch themselves a meal" a bald man barked as he popped out like a jack in the box he had a white beard wearing over shoulder strapped brown pants with a black plastic bag for a shirt and a metal can of beans for a hat and his left eye with a grey iris spinning his shoulder emblem only consisted of a simple brown circle, Hope screamed and ran away "Oh beans was that a Moonshine?" the man asked himself "Well I probably should skip town" he said to himself with a goofy smile while snapping his fingers.
Hope stopped running and started panting "Now you are lucky I am not here in head bashing duty or I would have sent you to a one way trip to the Outer ring and the monsters there could deal with you" Hope heard Sally scolding, she walked to the end of the alleyway the place beyond it was extremely different people clothes were worn out in which the holes were covered up by half baked sewn rotting fabric the road didn't exist it was simply a dirt undefined path and walls were all made of rotting bricks same as that of the alley, windows were broken and the stench of garbage filled the air, Hope saw Sally tying up a bunch of muscular men with a magic rope.
Sally glanced over and saw Hope "Princess what are you doing here?" she asked with dismay the rope holding the gangsters vanished they got up and shook of the dust and looked up and saw Hope and they all ran away in terror "Moonshine here run awway". All of a sudden all the people went indoors and the windows were sealed shut with wood and hammered with nails and just like that the place looked like a ghost town.

Blaze 3: Demonic Arc 5: Immortal Sins⁷
Last time. FATHER made plans with the Anti-Sapiens. He wanted to gather the Anti-Sapiens in one spot. FATHER would force jim to create an invention for Jillian which would make her fight her the others. Team Blaze were trying to get the others together. Sidney's group fought Takei and questioned was he an Anti-Sapien. The Anti-Sapiens have finally made it to Togyu Manji. FATHER was shown with a new Anti-Sapien. What will happen now? FATHER" I'm glad that you are here." Rampage" Pleasure doing business with you." FATHER" We are nearly there." Rampage" I sense some good spirit energy. Let me make a quick stop." FATHER" Make it quick." Rampage challenges some people.
Rampage" Who is next?" Geo appears and says" I guess I am now." Rampage thinks" That spirit energy. He's one of the strong ones. I can see it in his eyes." Geo struggles to keep up with his strikes. Geo" He's strong. Too strong. He surpassed my hand to hand. He's not ordinary(thoughts)."fight over. They finally make it to the others. Rampage" So these are the other Anti-Sapiens." FATHER begins to laugh. FATHER" It's about damn time. We are finally one. We will make the world suffer. Feel our wrath." Everyone laughs as well. Team Blaze are shown. Corroshi" Eyashi. What brings you guys here?"
Eyashi" We have actually discovered something. We've got word that the Anti-Sapiens are joining up. I believe it is going to be here." Corroshi" Why do you think that?" Fasha" Togyu Manji is a very large area. They probably want to takeover here. And besides, there's a lot of incidents that occur here anyways." Corroshi" Nice response." Zushi" We needed to round up everyone and warn them. We need everyone here. We need your help." Corroshi" You can count on me." Sez" Hey Corroshi?" Corroshi turns around and says" Do I know you?" Sez" It's me Sez. From the tournament." Corroshi" Oh yeah. I remember you not. You are the one who tried to cheat." Sez" That's me." Corroshi" So why did you come back?"
Sez" I heard you moved and wanted to know if you let you join your team?" Corroshi" Well of course you can. Welcome aboard!" Sez" Aw thanks." Geo and the others aren't there yet. Now everyone is together. Rischardo" Since we're up against Anti-Sapiens, I want everybody to know this. If any of you see Anti-Sapiens named Ira and Danly Indies, there my kids and I'll deal with them. Ira has red hair and Danly has orange hair." Everyone is training with each other. Julmbo" Hey Fasha." Fasha" Yes." Julmbo" Let me see your blade." She does. Julmbo" I see. There is something I need to teach you. Reincarnation." Fasha" Reincarnation?" Julmbo" It's the ability to fix broken Extension Blades."
He breaks his blade. Julmbo" Reincarnation!" The blade has fixed itself. Fasha" Wow that's going to take some time." Julmbo" Nonsense. With your skills you'll master it in no time." He continues to train Fasha. MaXx, Haden, and Sid are lifting weights. MaXx and Haden get into an altercation. MaXx's eyes turn black. MaXx" I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!!" MaXx' Dark Seal interrupts. He raises his blade towards Haden. Eyashi uses his speed and gets in between(has his hands out separating them)them and says" Brothers shouldn't fight! MaXx don't let darkness consume you." He snaps out of it. MaXx" You're right." Thank you." His eyes return. Keira Saja goes towards Sid and says" I want to be just like you, Fasha, Phil, and the others."
Sid" What do you mean Keira?" Keira" I wish I had powers so I could protect you guys and fight alongside you. If CJ could have power behind I could. I wanted to know if you would train me?" Sid" Ah yeah. Sure. First I need you to hit my fists." She does. Sid" Good but harder. " Phil and Fasha laughs(good laughs). Keira continues to work on her strikes. Cumi name change. Was supposed to sound like cute. New name. Cuimi(kwee-me). Cuemi(q-me). Cuimi(c-oo-me). New name is Cuemi. Cuemi has a vision. Cuemi" Wait! There are these people and there are shredded. We have to save them." Corroshi" Where are they?" They are headed out.
People are on the ground, all cut up. Domay" Who could have done this." Ishani" I think I am going to be sick." She almost throws up. They hear a knife sound cutting together. They go check it out. There's a man standing on dead bodies with his back turn. He turns around and has knives in his hands. Geo" It's him!" He charges and attacks. Eyon" You know this guy?" Geo" This guy was challenging people and he beat me. Hand to hand combat. He is not ordinary. I knew it was slomething about the guy." Rampage" Right you are." He shows off his Anti-Sapien symbol on the left shoulder. Eyashi" He's an Anti-Sapien?" Rampage" Terrified yet? You will be." He strains(screams)his body and shoots off quills(porcupine) towards the others.
People are screaming watch out. Wiggy puts her hair on(wig). The wig has a mind of its own. The wig attaches itself to the scalp. Long hair. The wig can walk Haira(Wiggy) around. Resembles Dr. Octopus. His tentacles are like her hair. The wig is Saiivo. Wig" It's about time you are using me. You must be in a bad situation." Wiggy" I don't need you to be talking. Just shut it." Wig" Whatever you say." Phil hears something. He sees something gooey. He begins to smirk. Phil" Genesis. I guess you're back. Well come on out." Wiggy appears and says" Expecting someone." As Phil gets closer, her hair grabs him from below. Phil" She did that with hair. She's pretty crafty." Her hair becomes gooey and she attacks Phil. Phil" She is an Anti-Sapien." Wiggy" right you are.
As Phil attacks Wiggy, his body goes through her. Phil" What are you? Your hair has to be made with....." Wiggy" That's right. Saiivo." Phil" I knew it." Genesis appears from the ground. Genesis" I was getting a little bored fighting you and all so it's time for a switch. I'll fight you guys." He goes after Sid, Fasha, and Eyashi. He multiplies himself and says" This ought to do it." Bugs are in the area. Strider" It's him!" The other Anti-Sapiens have arrived. Draum sees Wiggy's uniform. Draum" Hey hair lady?" Eyashi" Really? Hair lady." Draum" Shut up will ya. That uniform. You're with the Hydro Corps. What ties do you have with them? I used to be a member." Wiggy" As if I'd tell you." Draum" Figures." Bugs come from his hands(cut off off hand). Rischardo turns around Tijiri and punches him.
Rischardo" Hey there. We never finished our fight." Tijiri" Right you are." They fight. Tijiri" By the way I'm Black Hawk or Tijiri Akaru." Rischardo" (big grin)And I'm Rischardo Inies. The Demonic King. Does that intimidate you?" Tijiri" Not in the least. This will be great." Rischardo" Do you know any Anti-Sapiens named, Ira and Danly Inies? They are my kids." Tijiri" Never heard of them before." Jillian" There are all of these evil duers. Hahaha. Enough for me. Prepare. You'll be parrish." Sid" This feels weird for us to fight." Fasha" Yes it does." Location: Outside Eyashi's house. Genesis clones himself. Genesis" Now there's plenty of me to go around." Julmbo" Hey Takei! Over here!" Massk" You better not disappoint me this time." Julmbo" I won't." Julmbo and Tinn vs Massk. This Time he has help.
Strider and Spike vs Buzz. Spike uses earth boulders and traps him however, he escapes. He appears him and attacks. Strider does some combo attacks but his body keeps becomes bugs. Buzz's hand(cut off) becomes made of bugs. He claps his hands together and and his bugs get bigger. Spike hits it but it hurts his hand. Spike" What's that thing made of! It nearly broke my hand." Buzz chuckles. Strider launches a fireball but it is not phase it. Strider" What kind of a bug is that?" It spits out something. The attack hard just like it's body. Buzz" I know you can do better than that. With the 2 of you, you can do it." Spike" Strider!" Strider" What do you want?" Spike" When we fought him last time, we were able to get the upper hand because we were together and had him frozen."
Strider" I know what you mean. Hey julmbo and Tinn! We need you guys help!" Julmbo" We're in the middle of a fight." Tinn" Well it does seem like it's important." Julmbo" Fine we on the way." Ending. Julmbo manages to freeze Buzz" Massk tries to stop it but Tinn hold him off. Strider delivers a fiery uppercut and he breaks. Strider" It's over." The others are happy. Suddenly, a sworn of bugs appears and Buzz has returned. Body made of bugs. Mouth has a burnt spot. Buzz" It's going to take a lot longer than that to put me down." Julmbo tries to freeze him again but he goes through it. Julmbo turns his attention to Massk. This time he seems impossible to take out. Ending. Buzz chokes both of them. Strider" There doesn't seem like a way out of this one." Massk takes a look around him. He begins to snap.
Massk" No. Not this place." Strider and Spike look at each other. He is not fighting. Spike" His body is visible again(no bugs). This is our chance." Strider" Right!" Spike uses earth materials and holds his arms. Strider" Goodbye Jakob!" He charges and punches him with a fiery fist. He hits him in his guts. He is dead officially. Wiggy" My brother is dead. Should have saw it coming. He always had issues." Phil" That guy is your brother?" Wiggy" Yes." Wig" You don't stand a chance kid." Phil" Who's that? " Wiggy" It's just my wig." Phil" Wig!" The wig forms a hand and waves. Wig" Hey there." Phil" Wow that's impressive." Wiggy shoots a dark attack on Phil. He eats it away. Wiggy" Impossible! He ate the attack!" Phil" I forgot to mention that I have a Saiivo as well." Wiggy" Preposterous! Another Saiivo user." Phil" That's right."
Wiggy's story with her brothers and her wig is shown. Many years ago. Haira(hair-ah) and Jakob always wanted a pet when they were little but didn't have enough money. Eventually they would get lucky to have enough money. The 1st pet was a dog. The dog would bite Jakob and he snapped the dogs neck. Jakob was always rough with toys. Jakob didn't know how to get along with others. Prefered to play by himself. When their brother was born, Jakob would hold him incorrectly. Wodu Akali. Their mother would correct him. One day he ended up strangling Wodu. Haira had to put an end to it. Their mother and father saw that Jakob was a threat. He needs to go. His parents are shown crawling away and begging for help. He tries to kill them and does. Jakob is then locked up in a special prison.
Jakob is a psychopath and manages to kill the guards(years lateadult). Bugs would appear from their corps. FATHER'S voice would be heard , telling him to touch the bugs. He does. Bugs begins to course through his veins. He'd then escapes. His powers then grew at a phenomenal rate. He would meet Heather who was the love of his life. What Jakob did not bring up, was that Heather had mental issues and was unstabled. Just like him. Regardless of her issues, he ignored it and treated her like a regular person. Perfect for each other. People had there eyes on her and wanted her dead. She was causing trouble. Heather was set up and killed. Burned at her home. Jakob goes in to save her but his mouth gut burned but. He didn't save her. Afterwards, he'd see another person who looked exactly like his Heather. Harper. While Jakob was locked up, Haira would get different pets. However they ran away.
FATHER's voice is heard. She is an Anti-Sapiens. She wanted to know if she is truly immortal. FATHER told her about what the Spirit World did. She jumped off a steep cliff. When she opened her eyes, she woke up in bed(when an immortal jumps off a cliff, they can't die/even the Royal Family or just the God and Goddess). She had survived. FATHER tells her about a pet that will be very useful to her. She sees hair but it begins to move. It took her awhile to catch it but finally does. It talks and is Saiivo. The wig explains the hair to her. The Wig crawls on her head and attaches itself to her scalp. From that day on, she can use the Wig to do what she wants. Just like a pet. Story over.
Phil" Wo. What a story." Wiggy's hair stretches and grab Phil with multiple hands(hair). Phil is being held up by the hair while Wiggy attacks. Wiggy uses hand signs. Multiple hair strings appears. Phil uses fireball but the Wig eats it. Wig" Um. Tasty!" Phil" She ate it!?" Phil uses earth style but the same thing happens. Phil" Eat this!" He uses Tinsibugadai. Wig detaches itself from Wiggy and jumps up. Wiggy was almost cut up. Wiggy" That was close!p
Arc Notes- Spirit Cuffs. Wind Slice Attack. Sid spit lightning attack works with fire (combine together) FATHER. Light Power heal chair. Rade plant lady. Geo likes to eat but Yolmmo eats more. Rade uses Genesis to get information without having to leave his spot. He tells to Eyashi Arc 6. Rade apple. Draum takes Hydro Corps with Justice Drivers. Keina Kiyoshi 7. Last time on opening Arc 6. Arc 7 lots of demons. Sez Unemori gadget style. Sakura Hurata Arc 5. Korin Kore. 11th grade. Soothsayer short witch attire. Go to school together. Gru boxing style. Sid, Phil and Fasha back to back. Nara Haseku. Frogg Kikio 4. How to do Fire Morph. Archer. Wind Swallow. Shadow Spea Sabitist Lemaru pike. Blaze rich. Call me Darkness. Tijiri Akaru. Ball shape. Anti-Sapien Hydro Corps. Reincarnation. Massk story. Talk about mask. Body weapon/ absorb/keep power. Absorb blades. Sid and Phil extend fists before the fight. Sidney lots of Anti-Sapiens appearing frequently. Jim dies but will be blame on Team Blaze. Lady Lightning puts Haden to sleep. To spark or not to spark. Jakob Akali. Draum stronger than the demons. Danly I am a demon. Ignoramus. Genesis. Anti-Sapiens need to be stopped. Sydney Fire Morph. Color of mist. Keira Umo 12th grade. Arrows shoot Tijiri. Mountain. Kill guards. Blade Eater. Draum he used a kikio. Geronimo. Sakura Justice Drivers. Anti-Sapien animal powers.
Sidney's group. Tiger(female)=Donta. Bear=Yoshatora(fat). Gorilla=Jasin(stuck in form/good archer).
Mind Controller- Dwells into the person's mind and uses their memories against them. Making the mind attack it's owner.
Team Earth: Corroshi Setse(all styles/fire fav)(master), Geo Kazy(Dragon style/Jeet Kune Do), Eyon Yoshi(Lightning/fire), Yolmmo Usay(wateice) Domay Usay(wind), Korr Yoshi, Kunesuke Atara(glasses/reads/black/lady's man), Su Lin(Eyon's girlfriend/Chinese/not black), Ishani Sharma(Indian skin/not black/turban/Yolmmo's)
Hydro Corps: Sodum Hydro(leader), Coracoona/Charzie Anderson(not black), Dornymious(door-nee-me-us)Ryeno or Rhyno(Rhino/not black/charges), Shune Tuche(to-shay/special suit and mask/great hunter)
Areas- Tohoku Japan(setting/West Japan), Togyu Manji(Sid's home), Conithio Town, Kurai (dark) Haitsu(heights), Renyu Haito, Shiawasena Michi(happy road), Hausada, Heteritoke Town, Kibakoru(near a bakery), Ryusoka (ree-u-so-kah)Tofa,(small town), Zuloko Ikiki(large area), Uketa(oo-kee-tah) Sada(near a graveyard area), Sushun(Soul Snatcher's headquarters), Osaka Japan(western Japan)(Team Earth's original home), Kanta Japan(eastern Japan), Burakkubēsu(means black base)/(Black Widow's hideout),
Greater Demons-Balaam and Dracula
Notes-Mirror asylum. Plache appears arc 6. Rade is a scientist. Wants Kikia to give up her organization. He uses a dark gass it turns people into demons. Erika, Keira Umo, Eyashi, Zushi, and others become demons put into a facility. Must find antidote. Rade has all the demons power Who died. Haden arm becomes demon like but hasn't turned yet. Kikia will stick him with a syringe. Demon form wears off. Arc 6. Haden and MaXx can't win. demon souls. Airball- can be small or large/chargeable. Eyashi- Wind of the Dragon Punch. Charge fist thpen strike the enemy/enemies. Late effect. Final blow will feel like a combination of all the punches in one. Maybe Phil. Dead Beat- idea demon/creature. Strider punches mountain/Gru move mountain. Camme punches Sid untie hair. Huff and puff(wind style).
Lightning Beam (Death Beam). Eyashi got 3 main bosses to like him. Absorb moves/spirt energy. Thunder Strike/plow. Rischardo Underworld fighting scene. Dragon Breath. Heat Vision. Hot as Hell move. Double jump. Liba Tezu. Kiko glasses. We're twins..cousins Fasha. That arm. You're a Soul Killer. You have the red flpower. It's you. Punch/ uppercut Thunder Rider. MaXx grabs it and throws it back. Saundra asks for Sid's name. She tells Ryu. He appears and sees Sid.
Charging fist Sid and Phil. Regular male student too many female characters. Genesis. Rade uses rings to cuff bodyl/Freak Ring Circus/Spirit Ring Cuff. Dragon Flare origin during Bosch's story. Burning Impalememet Sid. Surfing Ice Blade works with other elements. Sid used first with Reaper Sajettus then Fasha with Rudiaslaudia and Sakura used. 1st Lt Alex Mohoto. The Hydro Corps. Eyon vs Tairon was controlled. Fēng's blade Dragon Heart. Dark Matter. Haden purple lightning. When Danly dies, Rischardo will be shown/ Flashbacks shown/will say his son's name. Velencya bird. Corri Howbori. Sid lightning style against Blaze. Lightning Slash. Spirit energy. Rischardo trains Sid. Underwater. Keira says I want to be like you sid train her. Destruction/Destructional Saucer(disk) Domay. Hall of the Gods. Gods on left and Goddesses on right. Gods of Time. Rischardo warns his Greater Demons. Rischardo runs into them later Arc last straw. Camme can't fly. Lightning and wind Morph speed. Mandi glasses Blaze IV likes Spike in Blaze 3.
Ra-Ibo and Kungaru power greater than God of Spirit world and demonic king

So I was in 7th grade in 1997 when I got into Metallica. I'm a guitar player and built my chops trying to imitate James and Kirk, and bought every single album with my lunch money and loved pretty much every song.
I always had mixed feelings about Load and ReLoad, and those were the new stuff when I first got into Metallica. I took on this attitude that only posers who don't really like metal get into Load and ReLoad. Well I just listened to Load on my studio monitors and I must say it is really a blues rock masterpiece. I think their 70s rock roots really shine through on Load and as long as you're not expecting a headbang-fest, I think it's terrific. I only skip a few tracks, usually AINT MY BIATCHAAA and Mama Said. Also I think Kirk was at the top of his game with all the blues lead and slide guitar, etc. And I also must say that James really built a beautiful singing voice after the Black Album when he started studying with vocal teachers.
All in all, Metallica ruled the late 90s with a LOT of songs in regular radio rotation. Around 1998 they would have had all of these in regular radio rotation:
Enter Sandman, The Unforgiven, Nothing Else Matters, Until It Sleeps, Hero of the Day, Bleeding Me, Fuel, The Memory Remains, Better Than You, The Unforgiven II, Turn the Page, Die DIe My Darling, Whiskey In the Jar, plus the S&M songs that came soon after as well as the less-often played classics like Master of Puppets, Fade to Black, and One.
The fact that my favorite band had so many radio hits was reassuring that I made the right choice. 🤘😎🤘

Blaze 3: Demonic Arc 5: Immortal Sins⁶
Last time Buzz was shown destroying. He sees his past life right before him and snaps. He sees a familiar face. A woman who resembles Heather. Buzz wanted to marry her. What is her response? Yes or no? Find out right now. Harper" I...I do." Buzz" Excellent. My dear. We'll get married tomorrow. As soon as possible. For now it's time to get your dress." People arrive in the location and so do the Justice Drivers. Buzz quickly covers his mouth. Buzz" Hey we're getting married tomorrow." Everyone wishes them luck. Harper throws a fake smile on. Tinn" Congratulations you two(remembers him from earlier)." The Justice Drivers all wishes them luck.
While leaving, Draum looks back and sees the look on Harper's face. Harper begins to signal a look with her eyes. Draum" Something is not right here." Strider" What are you talking about?" Draum" That woman seemed like she didn't want to be there or with him. She gave me this look. A distress call." Julmbo" Maybe you're overthinking it." Draum" I know what I saw. That woman needs help." Julmbo" Alright. We'll follow the guy." Tinn" This is the guy I bumped into earlier." Strider'' He could be the the guy I fought." Spike" Could be. We won't know until we find out." The Justice Drivers are hiding and spying. Buzz is in the area. Draum uses his body for distraction. The Justice Drives get a hold of Harper. Buzz" Heather? They've taken her. HEATHER!!!"
Harper" Thank you guys. I don't know what I would have done without you." Julmbo" We're the Justice Drivers. Just doing our jobs." Tinn" What's your name?" Harper" It's Harper Sukinuu. That guy was a psycho." Harper talks about Buzz and gets to know the Justice Drivers. Spike" I see what you mean." Draum" Wait a minute?! You said that he'd do anything for Heather. I have an idea. We'll just have to use that for us then." Julmbo" That is really risky but we have to try it." Strider'' If this guy is an Anti-Sapien then that mask man should be too." Spike" Then that means they are most definitely together." A boy is shown(Conithio Town) taking without paying. Has a hood on. Boy" Yummy. That was good. Must find more." A Crow was flying around in the back.
Togyu Manji shown. Tijiri" Hey. Those are the guys from earlier. Let's show them." Takei" Your right." Jillian" I don't see any evil duers(she looks around)." Eyashi" We got company." Zushi" It's the mask guy with them." CJ" It's her. Lady Lightning." Jillian" Don't wear my name out." Sid" That's her?" Takei" What are you waiting for? Take em out milady." Jillian" I only fight evil duers(arms crossed)." Tijiri" I don't know what is up with this girl. Are you going to fight or what?" Jillian" No." Eyashi" I don't believe it. She is actually fighting it." Zushi" So it is true then." FATHER" Please(talking in a nice tone). We need you fight with us. Pretty please!" Jillian sticks her tongue out. FATHER" She stuck her tongue out at me(goofy tone). Why you!" Tijiri" Don't mind her FATHER. We don't need her."
Takei tries to attack CJ but Jillian stops him. Takei'' Why you!" Jillian" I won't let you hurt my friend." Tijiri" Friend?! She's lost it." Takei'' Keep talking like that!" Jillian" It's tme to fight the evil duers." Tijiri" You got to be kidding me. Anti-Sapien vs Anti-sapien." Takei battles Lady Lightning but not that long. They both leave. CJ" Thank you." Jillian" That's what superheros are for." Eyashi" How many more Anti-Sapiens are there?" Jillian" Just those two." Phil" I thought it be more?" Jillian" I did hear FATHER say there's another Anti-Sapien at Conithio Town." Fasha" Back at Conithio Town." Eyashi is calling the Justice Drivers again. Julmbo" You got an Anti-Sapien on your Side. No way. You're joking." He puts Jillian on the phone.
Jillian" There's an Anti-Sapien in your location. Be very careful." Julmbo" Wow you're real. We already ran into another Anti-Sapien. He used bugs. Do you recall a Anti-Sapien with bug power?" Jillian" No. I only know Takei and Tijiri." Julmbo" Who might they be?" Jillian" Takei is the masked one and Tijiri is the mohawk man." Julmbo" So you don't know each other. Can you put Eyashi back on the phone?" She does. Julmbo" This guy was a psychopath and needs to be put down. Well at least we only have to worry about three Anti-Sapien for now. But Jakob, the bug guy tried to force this woman to marry him. He kept calling her Heather. His past life kept interfering." Eyashi" Sounds like a complete weirdo." Julmbo" Like some people(says it funny/talking about Eyashi). That was lucky that Draum had a feeling. Now Harper can be safe. We need to take them out one by one."
Fasha talks about wanting Julmbo to teach her how to utilize the Extension Blade. Julmbo" Anytime when I'm not busy." Takei and Tijiri are together. Takei" Can you Believe the nerves on that girl." Tijiri" She is out of control. That's what she is." FATHER" We need her more than ever." Tijiri" She's made up her mind." FATHER" Mind You say? We need a creator. I know where to go." He goes to Jim's house. Takei and Tijiri aren't seen by Jim. Hiding. FATHER" Jim!" Jim" Who's there?" FATHER" It is I. FATHER. The creator of the Anti-Sapiens." Jim" What do you want with me? Trying to make me an Anti-Sapien?" FATHER" You are not needed for that but your daughter is already one." Jim" My Jillian?" FATHER" You see your daughter was acting up. She was trying to fight my children. And I don't like my children to fight each other. I'm trying to forgive her. She turned her back on us and is with the outsiders. I need her back. I need something from you."
Jim" What is it?" FATHER" I need you to finish that suit. How long are we talking about?" Jim" Several months." FATHER" We don't have that long! Can you make something that allows you to take an item from the finished timeline, and put it in the unfinished one?" Jim" I believe so! Yes." FATHER" Excellent! I used to be a creator myself. Back in my days.". Jim" I'll get to it then." FATHER" There's just one more thing I need. I need a brainwashing device. So in case she acts up. You can never be too." Jim" I can't. She is my little girl(adult). Screw you and you are just a conscience. You can't hurt me anyway!" FATHER" You're right. I cannot." Takei and Tijiri reveals themselves. FATHER" But they can. I'd get cracking if I were you. Time is the essence."
Conithio Town. Harper is all alone. Harper" Jakob. Where are you? I need your help. I've escaped from those bastards. I want to be with you now. I want to finish our marriage." Jakob appears and says" So here you are? And you've accepted your destination I see." Demons show up. Harper" I don't like the demons. Kill them Jakob." Jakob" Sure thing." He killed them all. Harper" How far are you willing to go for me?" Jakob" To the end of the Earth and back. Just for you Heather." Harper"' Would you cut your hand off?" Jakob does and says" I told you I'd do." He waves his ripped off hand. Jakob" All we have to do is get married and we'll be together forever." Harper" This is the man I need." Julmbo" All we have do is wait until wedding then we strike." Strider'' It's sad that we have to leave Harper with that freak show."
Next day/wedding. Jakob" You look stunning in that dress Heather." Wedding occurs. There are no people. Private wedding. The officiant" Do you, Heather, promise to be Jakob's friend? To comfort him and listen to him? To celebrate his successes and to support his struggles? To love him, respect him and tenderly care for him, through all the days of your life?" Harper" I do." The officiant" Jakob, do you take this woman to be your wife, to live together in (holy) matrimony, to love her, to honor her, to comfort her, and to keep her in sickness and in health, forsaking all others, for as long as you both shall live?" Jakob "I do." The officiant" I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may now kiss the bride." They kiss. Harper unwantedly. Jakob" Now we're together forever."
The Justice Drivers arrive late but not intended. They go for a sneak attack. Jakob" What did they come from?" Strider" Time to take you out, asshole!" Julmbo" You will pay for everything you've done!" The Justice Drivers battles him 5 on 1(+ Draum). Jakob" (he laughs)Don't think for one second I'm intimidated. I'm a god-damned Anti-Sapien for Pete's sake." Towards the end of the fight, Julmbo manages freeze Jakob. Strider is going to burn him up. However, an interruption occurs. Lights go out. When they return, he's being carried out by a weird crawly thing(large). Draum" What is that thing? One of his bugs?!" The crawly thing says" (female voice)Not by my watch." Spike" Damnit! We were so close!!" Tinn" All that work. For nothing."
Crawly thing is a woman. FATHER" That was a close one. We have to be more careful. Thanks for the save, Wiggy. Wiggy" Don't mention it." Jakob wakes up. Jakob" what are you doing here? Sister(older)." Wiggy" Saving your ass." FATHER" We're nearly there. It's time for a visit." Jakob" Where might that be?" FATHER" Togyu Manji. There are 3 more Anti-Sapiens there. We'll need to unite with them. Then the Anti-Sapiens will be invincible." Wiggy" Now that's a plan." Jakob has a nonchalant look on his face. Doesn't like to get help from his sister. Togyu Manji. Takei and Tijiri pay Jim a visit. FATHER" So how are we coming along?" Jim" I have finished the first device and went to the future to get the the super suit. Just a few touches on the last device." A few touches later. Jim" I'm complete." FATHER" Let me see" Jim starts to walk away.
FATHER" Wait! There's one more thing I need you to do specifically." Jim" And what is that?" FATHER" I need you to give it to her personally. Put the brainwashing device inside the super suit." Jim" I can't do that!! Are you mad?" FATHER" That is the point." Takei and Tijiri both stare at him evilly. Jim" Fine I'll do it(sad voice)." Tijiri" That's the spirit." FATHER" 2 more Anti-Sapiens are on their way. All we have to do is sit back and wait." Takei" I'm bored. Going to harass some people." Tijiri" Have fun." FATHER" Call your daughter over and tell her the suit is finished." He does. Jillian arrives with CJ. Jim" It seems you have company?" Jillian" This is CJ. We met a few days ago." CJ" Please to meet you." Jillian" She wanted to see the super suit in person." The super suit is easy to put on. It starts off small then expands. Laughter is heard. Tijiri appears.
Jillian" Back for more?" Tijiri" This time it's different. I feel bad for you. Attack!" Jillian strikes CJ. CJ" What was that for?" She tries to snap out of it but can't. CJ" Snap out of it!! It's me. CJ." Jillian" I don't know any CJ. You are an evil duer." CJ" She is not listening. Guess it's time to fight back." Tijiri" This is intriguing." CJ finally gets to fight Jillian. Jillian is going to finish off CJ(ending). A voice streams" LEAVE HER ALONE!! Sez Unemori arrives on the scene. He has a gadget blade. Sez" Get out of here!" CJ" I don't run from fights, kid." Sez" Fine then." Tijiri"' I guess that's my cue." He fights CJ while Sez battles Jillian. Tijiri rolls his body up and attack. Sez uses his gadget blade to scan his abilities. Sez" It seems you can absorb whatever you touch then distribute it to any body part." Tijiri" Right you are. It is sad that you came just to die." Jillian" Your opponent is me." Sez gets distracted. Jillian" Never take your eyes off the ball, evil duer."
Sez" I have you know, I am not a villain(talking like a hero). I am but a noble hero. A man of the faithful people. You are but a person who is for herself and not anyone else(still talking the same)." Jillian" Take That back(deep voice). Do my ears deceive me? Did I really just hear that? I want you to know that I can never be this fowl creature of a person, you call villain." They both continue to talk like heros. CJ and Tijiri both get distracted of it what they are saying. Tijiri" Will you 2 can it already!! All of your stupid super hero talk is giving me a damn headache!!" Sez" You just don't appreciate our work." He's about to keep talking but Tijiri punched him. Tijiri" Oh no you don't." Jillian is doing the same thing. Tijiri" No not you to! I'm kinda regretting her being on our side." FATHER" Oh you can bare her." Tijiri" I don't think so. Wait a minute, we're supposed to be fighting. You've got me distracted! Let's finish this up shall we!"
Ending. CJ and Sez are about to be finished. Fasha appears. Tijiri" I remember you. Your appearance doesn't matter." Eyashi and Team Blaze appears. Eyashi" Back for more. Wasn't expecting you to show up." Tijiri" I'm not ready to fight, so I'm going to skedaddle." They both leave. Zushi" Good thing we came in time. Didn't you say that he left last time(looking at Eyashi)?" Eyashi" What are they planning? They are clearly up to something. This happened again with the Justice Drivers. They are waiting for something but what?" Fasha" Why was Lady Lightning with Tijiri?" CJ" She just started to attack me." Phil" Whose this guy?" Sez is going to talk like a hero when CJ cuts him off. CJ" Oh no you don't!" Sez l" I wasn't going to do the talk! I'm Sez Unemori. I saw this girl in trouble so I helped her. I was here for someone. I heard they moved here. Do you know group called Team Earth."
Sid" Of course we do." Sez" Oh that's great." Eyashi" Welcome to Team Blaze. You'll be a great ally. I'll show you where they are." Sez" That's great." CJ" We still don't know what happened to Lady Lightning. Even on the other side, she still seemed in character." Jim is shown hiding and says" It was me. I did it(comes out of hiding). I didn't want to though(crying). I'm Jim Madame. That was my daughter. I was forced to do it." Eyashi" Who? Please tell us." Jim is shaking/looking nervous. Jim" I trust you. I'll tell you. It was FATHER." Everyone says FATHER. He was communicating with his mind. He had the the Anti-Sapiens with him. Forced me to make the super suit to lure her in. And the Brainwashing device was if she'd be rebellious. He mentioned wanting to get the Anti-Sapiens together." Eyashi" It all makes sense now. Now we have think about where are they going and we already know. Togyu Manji. We have to round up everyone. We'll go get Team Earth first."
FATHER calls his children their Anti-Sapien name, rather than their real name. Takei is shown terrorizing. Takei" Now this is fun. Scream all you want. It won't help you(laughs)." A woman appears. Takei" What are you doing to me(sarcastic tone)? She" I can't let you hurt any bystanders." Takei" Oh we'll see about that." She turns into a demon Beast. Tiger Demon. Takei" Wow. Did not expect to see that trick." Time passes. A male appears this time. Takei" Where'd he come from?" He becomes a demon as well. Demon Bear. Takei" Demon power? They must be from the same place?" Another one appears. He is an Animal Humanoid Gorilla. He is stuck in his form. Demon Gorilla.
Tijiri" The 3 of you still can't beat me." Sidney arrives. Takei" You still need more people to fight me." Sidney" It sure took you guys awhile to get to the area. You're going down." Takei" You know, I think I have a few more minutes. Let's do it." Sidney summons his weapon. The others join in. Takei" That's the spirit. Join in. The more the merrier." He launches his blades like an arrow but to a citizen. Gorilla says" Oh no , he's gonna kill em." Tiger catches it with her teeth but barely. Takei" My, that was close(sarcastic tone)." FATHER" It's tme Massk." He laughs. Takei" It's been fun but I have nothing to prove. I'll see you another time. Sayonara!" He's gone.
Bear(fat)" I'm glad that mask guy is gone. We would not have defeated him anyway." Tiger" Of course you'd say that. You have to stop acting like that. You need to grow some balls." Bear" I know you didn't!" Gorilla" Stop acting like children. Nevermind." Sidney" Wait. That's the mask guy Eyashi was talking about. The Justice Drivers ran into him. Is he an Anti-Sapien? If so, what is he doing here?" Tiger" Anti-Sapien? You don't think? Sidney" Let's go see then." Bear" Here we go. Let's go." Sidney's group. Tiger=Donta. Bear=Yoshatora. Gorilla=Jasin(Jason). Jasin is a good archer. Jakob and Wiggy have arrived in Togyu Manji. FATHER is with another Anti-Sapien. Black. Team Blaze is shown. What will happen with the Anti-Sapiens . Can they be stopped? Find out what will happen next time on Part ⁷. "To Be Continued"
Last time. FATHER made plans with the Anti-Sapiens. He wanted to gather the Anti-Sapiens in one spot. FATHER would force jim to create an invention for Jillian which would make her fight her the others. Team Blaze were trying to get the others together. Sidney's group fought Takei and questioned was he an Anti-Sapien. The Anti-Sapiens have finally made it to Togyu Manji. FATHER was shown with a new Anti-Sapien. What will happen now? FATHER" I'm glad that you are here." Rmpage" Pleasure doing business with you." FATHER" We are nearly there." Rampage" I sense some good spirit energy. Let me make a quick stop." FATHER" Make it quick." Rampage challenges some people.
Rampage" Who is next?" Geo appears and says" I guess I am now." Rampage thinks" That spirit energy. He's one of the strong ones. I can see it in his eyes." Geo struggles to keep up with his strikes. Geo" He's strong. Too strong. He surpassed my hand to hand. He's not ordinary(thoughts)."fight over. They finally make it to the others. Rampage" So these are the other Anti-Sapiens." FATHER begins to laugh. FATHER" It's about damn time. We are finally one. We will make the world suffer. Feel our wrath." Everyone laughs as well. Team Blaze are shown. Corroshi" Eyashi. What brings you guys here?"
Eyashi" We have actually discovered something. We've got word that the Anti-Sapiens are joining up. I believe it is going to be here." Corroshi" Why do you think that?" Fasha" Togyu Manji is a very large area. They probably want to takeover here. And besides, there's a lot of incidents that occur here anyways." Corroshi" Nice response." Zushi" We needed to round up everyone and warn them. We need everyone here. We need your help." Corroshi" You can count on me." Sez" Hey Corroshi?" Corroshi turns around says" Do I know you?" Sez" It's me Sez. From the tournament." Corroshi" Oh yeah. I remember you not. You are the one who tried to cheat." Sez" That's me." Corroshi" So why did you come back?"
Sez" I heard you moved wanted to know if you let you join your team?" Corroshi" Well of course you can. Welcome aboard!" Sez" Aw thanks." Geo and the others aren't there yet. Now everyone is together. Rischardo" Since we're up against Anti-Sapiens, I want everybody to know this. If any of you see Anti-Sapiens named Ira and Danly Indies, there my kids and I'll deal with them. Ira has red hair and Danly has orange hair." Everyone is training with each other. Julmbo" Hey Fasha." Fasha" Yes." Julmbo" Let me see your blade." She does. Julmbo" I see. There is something I need to teach you. Reincarnation." Fasha" Reincarnation?" Julmbo" It's the ability to fix broken Extension Blades."
He breaks his blade. Julmbo" Reincarnation!" The blade has fixed itself. Fasha" Wow that's going to take some time." Julmbo" Nonsense. With your skills you'll master it in no time." He continues to train Fasha. MaXx, Haden, and Sid are lifting weights. MaXx and Haden get into an altercation. MaXx's eyes turn black. MaXx" I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!!" MaXx' Dark Seal interrupts. He raises his blade towards Haden. Eyashi uses his speed and gets in between(has his hands out separating them)them and says" Brothers shouldn't fight! MaXx don't let them darkness consume you." He snaps out of it. MaXx" You're right." Thank you." His eyes return. Keira Saja goes towards Sid and says" I want to be just like you, Fasha, Phil, and the others."
Sid" What do you mean Keira?" Keira" I wish I had powers so I could protect you guys and fight alongside you. If CJ could have power behind I could. I wanted to know if you would train me?" Sid" Ah yeah. Sure. First I need you to hit my fists." She does. Sid" Good but harder. " Phil and Fasha laughs(good laughs). Keira continues to work on her strikes. Cumi name change. Was supposed to sound like cute. New name. Cuimi(kwee-me). Cuemi(q-me). Cuimi(c-oo-me). New name is Cuemi. Cuemi has a vision. Cuemi" Wait! There are these people and there are shredded. We have to save them." Corroshi" Where are they?" They are headed out.
People are on the ground, all cut up. Domay" Who could have done this." Ishani" I think I am going to be sick." She almost throws up. They hear a knife sound cutting together. They go check it out. There's a man standing on dead bodies with his back turn. He turns around and has knives in his hands. Geo" It's him!" He charges and attacks. Eyon" You know this guy?" Geo" This guy was challenging people and he beat me. Hand to hand combat. He is not ordinary. I knew it was slomething about the guy." Rampage" Right you are." He shows off his Anti-Sapien symbol on the left shoulder.
Arc Notes- Spirit Cuffs. Wind Slice Attack. Sid spit lightning attack works with fire (combine together) FATHER. Light Power heal chair. Rade plant lady. Geo likes to eat but Yolmmo eats more. Rade uses Genesis to get information without having to leave his spot. He tells to Eyashi Arc 6. Rade apple. Draum takes Hydro Corps with Justice Drivers. Keina Kiyoshi 7. Last time on opening Arc 6. Arc 7 lot demons. Sez Unemori gadget style. Sakura Hurata Arc 5. Korin Kore. 11th grade. Soothsayer short witch attire. Go to school together. Gru boxing style. Sid, Phil and Fasha back to back. Nara Haseku. Frogg Kikio 4. How to do Fire Morph. Archer. Wind Swallow. Shadow Spea Sabitist Lemaru pike. Blaze rich. Call me Darkness. Tijiri Akaru. Ball shape. Anti-Sapien Hydro Corps. Reincarnation. Massk story. Talk about mask. Body weapon/ absorb/keep power. Absorb blades. Sid and Phil extend fists before the fight. Sidney lots of Anti-Sapiens appearing frequently. Jim dies but will be blame on Team Blaze. Lady Lightning puts Haden to sleep. To spark or not to spark. Burnt mouth. HarpeHeather. Jakob Akali one hand. Buzz bugs covering body. Draum stronger than the demons. Danly I am a demon. Wiggy wig talk to her. Ignoramus. Genesis. Anti-Sapiens Cliff.
Sidney's group. Tiger=Donta. Bear=Yoshatora. Gorilla=Jasin
Mind Controller- Dwells into the person's mind and uses their memories against them. Making the mind attack it's owner.
Team Earth: Corroshi Setse(all styles/fire fav)(master), Geo Kazy(Dragon style/Jeet Kune Do), Eyon Yoshi(Lightning/fire), Yolmmo Usay(wateice) Domay Usay(wind), Korr Yoshi, Kunesuke Atara(glasses/reads/black/lady's man), Su Lin(Eyon's girlfriend/Chinese/not black), Ishani Sharma(Indian skin/not black/turban/Yolmmo's)
Hydro Corps: Sodum Hydro(leader), Coracoona/Charzie Anderson(not black), Dornymious(door-nee-me-us)Ryeno or Rhyno(Rhino/not black/charges), Shune Tuche(to-shay/special suit and mask/great hunter)
Areas- Tohoku Japan(setting/West Japan), Togyu Manji(Sid's home), Conithio Town, Kurai (dark) Haitsu(heights), Renyu Haito, Shiawasena Michi(happy road), Hausada, Heteritoke Town, Kibakoru(near a bakery), Ryusoka (ree-u-so-kah)Tofa,(small town), Zuloko Ikiki(large area), Uketa(oo-kee-tah) Sada(near a graveyard area), Sushun(Soul Snatcher's headquarters), Osaka Japan(western Japan)(Team Earth's original home), Kanta Japan(eastern Japan), Burakkubēsu(means black base)/(Black Widow's hideout),
Greater Demons-Balaam and Dracula
Notes-Mirror asylum. Plache appears arc 6. Rade is a scientist. Wants Kikia to give up her organization. He uses a dark gass it turns people into demons. Erika, Keira Umo, Eyashi, Zushi, and others become demons put into a facility. Must find antidote. Rade has all the demons power Who died. Haden arm becomes demon like but hasn't turned yet. Kikia will stick him with a syringe. Demon form wears off. Arc 6. Haden and MaXx can't win. demon souls. Airball- can be small or large/chargeable. Eyashi- Wind of the Dragon Punch. Charge fist then strike the enemy/enemies. Late effect. Final blow will feel like a combination of all the punches in one. Maybe Phil. Dead Beat- idea demon/creature. Strider punches mountain/Gru move mountain. Camme punches Sid.
Lightning Beam (Death Beam). Eyashi got 3 main bosses to like him. Absorb moves/spirt energy. Thunder Strike/plow. Rischardo Underworld fighting scene. Dragon Breath. Heat Vision. Hot as Hell move. Double jump. Liba Tezu. Kiko glasses. Anti-Sapiens jump off cliff and wake up. We're twins..cousins Fasha. That arm. You're a Soul Killer. You have the red flpower. It's you. Punch/ uppercut Thunder Rider. MaXx grabs it and throws it back. Saundra asks for Sid's name. She tells Ryu. He appears and sees Sid.
Charging fist Sid and Phil. Regular male student too many female characters. Genesis. Rade uses rings to cuff bodyl/Freak Ring Circus/Spirit Ring Cuff. Dragon Flare origin during Bosch's story. Burning Impalememet Sid. Surfing Ice Blade works with other elements. Sid used first with Reaper Sajettus then Fasha with Rudiaslaudia and Sakura used. 1st Lt Alex Mohoto. The Hydro Corps. Eyon vs Tairon was controlled. Fēng's blade Dragon Heart. Dark Matter. Haden purple lightning. When Danly dies, Rischardo will be shown/ Flashbacks shown/will say his son's name. Velencya bird. Corri Howbori. Sid lightning style against Blaze. Lightning Slash. Spirit energy. Rischardo trains Sid. Underwater. Keira says I want to be like you sid train her. Destruction/Destructional Saucer(disk) Domay. Hall of the Gods. Gods on left and Goddesses on right. Gods of Time. Rischardo warns his Greater Demons. Rischardo runs into them later Arc last straw. Camme can't fly. Lightning and wind Morph speed.
Ra-Ibo and Kungaru power greater than God of Spirit world and demonic king

Hello.

Dynamite, April 3rd, 2024

• AEW Tag Team Title Tournament Semi Finals: The Young Bucks Vs Orange Cassidy and Trent Beretta

As Trent Beretta lifts Matt Jackson for a Gotch Style Piledriver, Matt Jackson executes a double leg takedown before catapulting Trent into the exposed turnbuckle. Falling back, nearly unconscious, Trent Beretta finds himself falling over the body of Matt Jackson who rolls him up for a School Boy pin.
1.
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3.
The Young Bucks advance in the AEW Tag Team Tournament. The Best Friends are eliminated.
As The Young Bucks tease Trent's mother Sue on the outside, celebrating their victory, the mood inside the ring is much more grim. Chuck Taylor's head is buried in the corner on the opposite side of the ring, Orange Cassidy has rolled underneath the ropes and he looks disappointed. But out of the three best friends, the man who lost the match, Trent Beretta, looks the most devastated by the loss. Bent over, on his knees in the corner, Trent silently berates himself as tag team partner Orange Cassidy helps him to his feet. In a show of good faith, Chuck Taylor and Orange Cassidy walk to the turnbuckles opposite Trent and prepare to initiate their trademark group hug. A token of friendship that shows the AEW faithful that no matter what, all three men are best friends, and no loss could ever change that.
Trent Beretta retreats to his own corner and throws his arms in the air, ready to embrace his two best friends, when suddenly, he changes his mind and runs full speed at Orange Cassidy, blasting him with a running knee to the head...
They were best friends... until they weren't.

Dynamite at Daily's Place, April 24th, 2024

Orange Cassidy is nowhere to be seen in the last three weeks of AEW programming, however Chuck and Trent have numerous vignettes on Rampage with Chuckie T acting as a mediator for Trent, a sounding board to determine just what the hell happened after that fateful tag match on the 3rd. Trent can't seem to explain himself, but out of several conversations, we know the following.

• Trent was overcome with emotion by the loss.
• He wasn't thinking when he struck Orange Cassidy.
• He was ashamed he lost the match in front of his mother.
• And he is willing to talk things out with Orange Cassidy.

Promotional material for Dynamite at Daily's Place state "The Best Friends Will Hug It Out" as Chuck Taylor, Trent Beretta, and Orange Cassidy are all advertised. Trent and Chuck make their way out to the ring and Trent takes the microphone, reiterating what he has been saying for the last three weeks.
"I've come out here to apologize. I was so angry that I didn't just lose the match, but I lost control of myself. I don't know where my head was, but Orange Cassidy, I did not mean to hurt you. Now, if you would please, I would like to invite you out here so we can hug it out like best friends."
Orange Cassidy's music hits and Chuck Taylor wraps his arm around Trent Beretta's shoulders as "Jane" roars into it's crescendo...
... but Orange Cassidy is nowhere to be seen.
"....okay, I'm just gonna assume you missed your cue, buddy. So let's try this one more time... ladies and gentlemen, Daily's Place, please welcome Orange Cassidy."
"Jane" plays once more but yet again, no Orange Cassidy.
"Damnit, OC, I'm trying to be the bigger man and tell you I'm sorry. Now get your ass out here so I can apologize!"
"Jane" plays one more time.
No Orange Cassidy.
"Chuck, what the hell is this? I come out here in good faith as a favor to YOU. You promised that Orange Cassidy would be here, you promised that I could make this up. But HE can't even bother to show up?? What kind of friend is that?"
Trent slams down his microphone and sulks off to the corner to mild boos from the crowd as Chuck Taylor looks at the microphone at his feet. Trent slowly bends over, picks up the mic and says:
"Hey Trent, maybe Orange Cassidy would be a better friend if you weren't such a piece of...."
Chuck Taylor pauses and looks out at the crowd in Daily's Place before turning back to Trent Beretta.
"SHIT!"
The crowd erupts in cheers as Trent Beretta fumes at Chuck Taylor, then suddenly Trent pounces on Chuck as the two best friends have a catfight in the middle of the ring! Security storms the ring and separates the two, with an official Parking Lot Brawl set between Chuck and Trent at Rampage.

Rampage, April 27th, 2024

• Trent Beretta Vs Chuck Taylor, Parking Lot Brawl

I think everyone here is aware that this match took place in real life and Chuck Taylor has most likely retired. Because of that, I felt this match was important to include in this booking and I'd like to keep it exactly as it was with one small change.
At the end of the match, Trent Beretta smashes Chuck Taylor's ankle with a wrench and the referee determines Chuck Taylor can no longer continue. Trent Beretta's hand is raised as the victor and he begins to walk off as he notices a silhouette in the headlights of a beater. Trent Beretta walks to the driver's side window and looks in, finding Orange Cassidy inside, silently looking on with no trace of emotion.
"This is your fault... This is all your fault, OC. You made me do this."
Trent Beretta then walks away as Orange Cassidy continues to look on, no expression...
No expression.

Dynamite, May 1st, 2024

Don Callis is backstage with Will Ospreay talking about how much he hates subtlety and timing when Trent Beretta approaches him. Trent tells Don Callis that he has thought a lot about his career in the past week and that he is ready to entertain counsel. Trent asks Don Callis to give him a call and then walks off. Don Callis watches Trent walk away and then turns to Will Ospreay.

"Say... where the hell is Orange Cassidy?"

Over the next several weeks, we get a couple vignettes of Don Callis looking for Orange Cassidy in different places all around the world. Double or Nothing comes and goes and there is still no sign of the Citrus Supreme, until....

Dynamite May 29th, 2024

Don Callis looks up at a very normal looking house in Stewartsville, New Jersey.
"Well... this must be the place."
Don Callis knocks on the door and the door gently sways open, not even latched.
"Hello? Orange? Orange Cassidy?"
Don Callis walks inside and finds Orange Cassidy sitting on the couch in his living room.
"Oh my gosh, Orange Cassidy! I've been looking everywhere for you!"
"Hey."
"I hope I'm not interrupting, can I talk with you for a few minutes?"
"Sure."
Don Callis and Orange Cassidy sit at Orange Cassidy's kitchen table with a glass of orange juice in front of each of them.
"Thank you for agreeing to talk with me, Orange. I've been wondering, where the hell have you been?"
"Here."
".... we haven't seen you since Trent Beretta stabbed you in the back and kneed you in the face... Just.... How have you been feeling? What's going through your head?"
"Mmm... fine."
".... but what's going through your head?"
"Nothing."
"Listen, Orange, Trent Beretta crushed Chuck Taylor's ankle with a wrench. Chuck Taylor may never walk again, let alone wrestle... these men were your best friends for years. Surely, you must feel something."
Orange Cassidy takes a moment and takes off his sunglasses, looking Don Callis in the eye.
"No."
"No?"
The room is silent with only the ticking of the clock heard.
"What do you mean, Orange?"
Orange Cassidy sighs and puts his sunglasses back on.
"... I guess I never really cared about either of them."
The segment ends with Don Callis looking on in shock at Orange Cassidy's words.

Dynamite June 5th, 2024

Don Callis arrives at the building and he helps Orange Cassidy out of his car. The two make their way to the locker room when Callis is stopped by Will Ospreay.
"Oi, what the bloody hell is this, bruv?"
"William, I got him. I found Orange Cassidy!"
"Blimey, bruv, mate. Why did you bring this bruv, 'ere?"
"William, I'd like to introduce you to...."
Don Callis pulls out a big bouquet of balloons.
"THE NEWEST MEMBER OF THE DON CALLIS FAMILY!!!"
"Newest membah? Bruv, I think you've gone mental!"
"William, you don't understand. This man is a cold blooded killer! You saw what Trent did to Chuck in that parking lot brawl? Orange says he didn't feel a thing! This man is a mercenary, a slaughterer, dare I say it...."
Don Callis leans in close to Will Ospreay.
"... an ASSASSIN!"
"Bruv... you must be 'aving a laugh!"
"Oh, believe me, my friend, this man is no laughing matter! And you will see that when he steps in the ring with Serpentico, TONIGHT!"

• Orange Cassidy Vs Serpentico

Orange Cassidy comes out to Don Callis's theme and he has not removed his hands from his pockets. The bell rings and Serpentico charges in with a vicious spin kick that Orange Cassidy did not even attempt to dodge or block. Orange Cassidy falls to the mat and Serpentico, smelling blood in the water, goes up to the top rope for the Senton Bomb! Serpentico goes to leap off....
and his foot slips on the top rope.
Serpentico flies off the top rope and lands with a sickening crash as his body bounces off the top turnbuckle and onto the mat right next to Orange Cassidy. Orange Cassidy looks up and places his hand on Serpentico's chest.
1.
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3.
Orange Cassidy defeats Serpentico.
Angelico, the second half of the Spanish Announce Project, takes to the ring and cuts a bilingual promo.
"Mierda... MIERDA! Orange Cassidy, that decision was bogus and you know it! If you have any guts at all, you will agree to face me in a rematch RIGHT NOW!"
Orange Cassidy has not moved from his position on the mat but simply nods his head yes. Angelico mounts Orange Cassidy and pelts him with punches as the bell rings and this match is official. Angelico lets up and roars out to the crowd before turning his attention back to Orange Cassidy. Angelico lifts Orange Cassidy up for the Fall of the Angels into the corner, but as Angelico goes to run off, Orange Cassidy's foot gets stuck on the top rope of the opposite corner and this catches Angelico off balance. Angelico falls to the mat with the body of Orange Cassidy landing right on top of him.
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Orange Cassidy defeats Angelico.
After the match, Angelico and Serpentico pounce on Orange Cassidy who simply allows himself to be beat on until Kyle Fletcher and a returning Mark Davis of Aussie Open make the save. Aussie Open run off the Spanish Announce Project and hold Orange Cassidy's hands in the air to close the segment.

Dynamite June 12th, 2024

• Orange Cassidy and Aussie Open Vs Rush, Dralistico and Preston Vance

Aussie Open do most of the work and hit their finish on Preston Vance. Kyle Fletcher goes for the pin but Mark Davis stops him and asks him to tag in Orange Cassidy. Kyle Fletcher abides and allows Orange Cassidy to get the pin despite only tagging into the match once at the very end.

Dynamite June 26th, 2024

• Orange Cassidy Vs PAC in a qualifying round for the TNT Title Ladder Match at Forbidden Door

"Alright, Orange, you got him right where you want him. This is the man you beat for the International Title. Not the second time but the first time! You have this in the bag, Orange. Just follow the plan. Just remember the technique."
Orange Cassidy remains still as Don Callis is leaned over his shoulder whispering in his ear.
Orange Cassidy enters the ring to Don Callis's music and stands across the ring from PAC. The bell rings and PAC floors Orange Cassidy with a Superkick and a cover.
1.
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PAC defeats Orange Cassidy.
"Son of a bitch, you almost had him."
"That's it bruv, no more malarkey."
"William, please."
"This bruv couldn't lace my daisy roots."
"William, this man took you to the limit just two years ago at Forbidden Door."
"An' now he cannae make the card! I wouldn't bet a fiver on 'im, bruv. This is ovah, he's not fam, bruv, an' if I see him in the locky again I'll do 'im in, Adam and Eve it."
Will Ospreay leaves the locker room with a despondent Don Callis trying to console an unperturbed Orange Cassidy.

Forbidden Door 2024

Orange Cassidy isn't booked, but you know who is?

• Will Ospreay Vs Swerve Strickland for the AEW World Championship

Ospreay and Swerve have a very good, even match with neither man being able to one-up the other. Don Callis is losing his mind at ringside and nearly melts down as Swerve Strickland plants Will Ospreay with a top rope Superplex. Don Callis begins waving someone down the ramp as if begging for help and suddenly...
Orange Cassidy appears on the stage.
Orange Cassidy very leisurely walks down to ringside as Don Callis continues to wave him on, begging and pleading with Orange Cassidy to do something. By this point, both Ospreay and Swerve are on their feet and trading blows with Swerve getting the better of Ospreay, the first clear cut and decisive momentum shift of the match up. Will Ospreay is on his knees and Don Callis is begging Orange Cassidy to help him as Swerve Strickland is charging up for the House Call. Prince Nana rushes over and begins arguing with Don Callis about what he is doing. Orange Cassidy finally turns to face both men as Swerve runs to hit the ropes...
And Orange Cassidy leans his arm against the apron.
Swerve trips over Cassidy's outstretched arm and OC looks over his shoulder, almost as if to see what it was. Swerve faceplants in the ring and Ospreay springs into action, hooking Swerve in the Double Underhook, lifting him high, and planting him down with the Storm Breaker. Ospreay leaps up and goes to the corner as Swerve struggles to an upright position on his knees. Ospreay points at Orange Cassidy and gives a thumbs up, thumbs down before slicing Swerve's head off with a vicious Hidden Blade.
1.
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Will Ospreay defeats Swerve Strickland to become the new AEW World Champion.

Forbidden Door 2024 Media Scrum

Amidst many "bruvs," Will Ospreay admits that Orange Cassidy is the bangers and mash and states that he is now a full fledged member of the Don Callis Family. Orange Cassidy is seated next to Will Ospreay and takes one question from the media.
"Orange Cassidy, why did you cost Swerve Strickland the AEW World Championship tonight?"
Orange Cassidy ponders the question for a moment before he is interrupted by Don Callis.
"You don't have to answer that."
Orange Cassidy gently takes the mic and brings it to his lips.
"I guess I'm bad now."
Orange Cassidy very faintly raises his hand and gives a halfhearted thumbs down.

Dynamite, July 3rd, 2024

• Orange Cassidy Vs Penta El Zero M

Orange Cassidy is now dressed in black jeans and his Titantron says things such as "Boo me,""Fans suck," "I don't care," and "(about you)."
Penta dominates much of the match up with Orange Cassidy selling throughout and taking big bumps but consistently kicking out at 2. Penta goes for the Fear Factor but referee Aubrey Edwards is too close and she is kicked by Orange Cassidy's foot as Penta lifts him. Penta sets OC back down for a second and OC nails Penta with a low blow while Aubrey's vision is obscured. OC rolls Penta up with the Mouse Trap and scores a quick three count.
Orange Cassidy defeats Penta El Zero M

Dynamite, July 24th, 2024

• Orange Cassidy Vs Katsuyori Shibata

Orange Cassidy and Katsuyori Shibata start off by trading strikes very, very softly. OC boops Shibata's leg with a kick and Shibata returns the favor. Orange Cassidy pushes Shibata's chest and Shibata pushes OC back. Neither man is moved from their original standing position. The hits increase in frequency as OC rears back for the final blow which is a very, very soft kick to the dick. Shibata, uninjured, takes offense and begins lighting OC up for real with a series of hard strikes. OC is knocked down to a seated position and Shibata charges in for the PK but OC lays down then rolls Shibata up for a close two count. Shibata kicks out but rises to a not so soft poke to the eyes by Orange Cassidy who then locks in the Mouse Trap and gains the three count.
Orange Cassidy defeats Katsuyori Shibata.

Dynamite, August 14th, 2024

• Orange Cassidy Vs Daniel Garcia

Orange Cassidy and Daniel Garcia have a lackluster dance off that ends with Orange Cassidy rolling Daniel Garcia up while holding the tights for a three count.
Orange Cassidy defeats Daniel Garcia.
After this match, Orange Cassidy continues to halfheartedly dance in the ring when Swerve Strickland's music hits and Prince Nana appears on the stage. Nana and OC dance back and forth at each other until Swerve decks Orange Cassidy from behind with a House Call.
Swerve takes the mic and says if Orange Cassidy thinks he can take the world title away from Swerve with no repercussion, then OC is sorry mistaken. Swerve challenges Orange Cassidy to a Hardcore match at All In and tells Orange Cassidy that he WILL show up at Wembley because if he doesn't, Swerve knows where he lives thanks to Don Callis and he WILL drag OC to London if he has to.

All In 2024

• Swerve Strickland Vs Orange Cassidy in a Hardcore Match

Swerve Strickland does not need to drag Orange Cassidy to London as Orange Cassidy does make his entrance, but he comes with backup. Aussie Open flank Orange Cassidy on his way to the ring but Swerve meets them out on the ramp and drops Mark Davis with the House Call. Swerve then fights Kyle Fletcher up to the stage as Orange Cassidy continues to nonchalantly walk to the ring. Swerve fights Fletcher in the pit and sets him up on a table before driving him through the table with the Swerve Stomp. Swerve looks to the ring and Orange Cassidy is standing there with his hands in his pockets. Swerve storms the ring and looks under the ring, pulling out two bags of thumbtacks. Swerve enters the ring and tells Orange Cassidy, "Oh, you don't care? I'm boutta make you care," before dumping both bags onto the mat.
The ring is littered with thumbtacks as Swerve dares OC to hit him only to be blindsided by Konosuke Takeshita, who is making a return to AEW after participating in the G1 Climax. Takeshita hits a high knee that knocks Swerve out of the ring
Takeshita brings Swerve over to the Announcer's Desk and clears it off before lifting Swerve onto it. Takeshita draws Swerve up and lifts him for the Brainbuster but Swerve fights out of it and manages to drop Takeshita on the desk with a DDT. Meanwhile, in the ring, Don Callis has handed Orange Cassidy a broom and OC has begun sweeping the thumbtacks out of the ring and to the floor. Swerve sees this and comes into the ring, yanking the broomstick out of OC's hand and breaking it over his knee. Swerve circles OC with the broken broom handle and nearly stabs him but he is stopped by Don Callis who drops Swerve with a low blow. Callis leaves the ring and brings in a steel chair which he hands to Orange Cassidy. OC raises the chair above his head then opens it up, placing it on the mat and sitting in it. Don Callis looks to the heavens and produces a screwdriver from his pocket, ready to impale Swerve Strickland only for Prince Nana to clock Callis from behind with his weighted crown!
Nana rolls out of the ring and we are left with Swerve Strickland standing across from a seated Orange Cassidy. Swerve charges in only for OC to spring up, catch Swerve Strickland, and drop him on the chair with the Beach Break! OC goes into the cover:
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KICKOUT BY SWERVE!
Orange Cassidy looks only slightly disappointed as he slowly rolls out of the ring. OC rummages underneath the ring and produces a steel chain which he wraps around his fist. OC rolls back into the ring as Swerve is painfully trying to stand. OC measures Swerve and leaps in for the Orange Punch but Swerve ducks, catches OC, and drops him with the JML Driver! The crowd is on their feet as Swerve neglects the cover, crawls over to the now destroyed chair, and shoves it into Orange Cassidy's arms before hitting the ropes and delivering a chair-assisted House Call!
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Swerve Strickland defeats Orange Cassidy.

All In Aftermath

All in all, it was a bad night for the Don Callis Family.
Along with Orange Cassidy's loss to Swerve Strickland, AEW World and International Champion Will Ospreay fought Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada to a draw and failed to become a triple crown champion.
However, on the most personal note of all, Kyle Fletcher was injured by Swerve Strickland during the Hardcore match he interfered with.
Kyle Fletcher decided to fight through the injury for a title defense on Dynamite, but he was easy pickings for the new ROH Television champion....
Trent Beretta.
As Don Callis and Mark Davis tended to their fallen family member in the ring, Orange Cassidy looked to the stage at the man he once called friend, holding an heirloom that belongs to his family...
And he determined that something must be done.

All Out 2024

• Orange Cassidy Vs Trent Beretta for the ROH Television Championship

Trent Beretta uncharacteristically makes his way to the ring first for this match up against his former best friend, Orange Cassidy. In the same amount of time that Orange Cassidy has joined the Don Callis Family, Trent Beretta has been listlessly traveling from town to town, wrestling match after match, and he finally pounced on an injured Kyle Fletcher to make himself whole. Now, standing in front of the Chicago crowd, he waits to finally get his hands on the man he feels he should have buried long ago.
Don Callis's music hits, but there is no Orange Cassidy. Trent Beretta grabs the microphone.
"In case you blowhards in Chicago don't know, this is about to be an easy night. This man... hell, he's no man. This deadbeat you call a wrestler is too scared to face me. He doesn't care enough about you people to come out here. He doesn't care enough about this title to come out here, and he doesn't care enough about own best friend to come out here--"
"--there's no way this slacker is going to give you people what you want."

Star Citizen Fraud Trial
Scene 1: Courtroom Interior
[Camera pans across a packed courtroom. Reporters, spectators, and family members fill the seats. The judge, a stern man in his sixties, sits at the bench. Chris Roberts, unshaken and confident, stands at the defendant's table with his attorney. The prosecutor, a seasoned and intense man, stands to address the jury.]
Judge Order in the court. The trial of Chris Roberts versus the State of California is now in session.
Prosecutor Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, today we present a case of betrayal, deceit, and blatant fraud. Chris Roberts promised to deliver the groundbreaking game, Star Citizen. Instead, he siphoned off hundreds of millions of dollars, paying himself lavishly and purchasing a mansion, while delivering nothing but empty promises.
Defense Attorney Objection, Your Honor. The defense will show that Mr. Roberts has been tirelessly working on Star Citizen and any funds used were legitimate compensations for his role and efforts.
Judge Overruled. Continue, Mr. Thompson.
Prosecutor Thank you, Your Honor. [Turns to the jury] We will demonstrate how Mr. Roberts manipulated donor trust, using their money for personal gain while the promised game remains unfulfilled.
Scene 2: Testimonies
Witness 1: Donor I believed in Star Citizen. I invested $10,000, thinking it would revolutionize gaming. But year after year, there was nothing to show for it. Meanwhile, Roberts lived like a king.
Prosecutor Did you ever receive any significant updates or completed versions of the game?
Witness 1 No, just vague promises and more funding requests.
Scene 3: Cross-Examination
Defense Attorney Mr. Roberts, can you explain why Star Citizen is still not complete?
Chris Roberts Game development is complex. We've made incredible progress, but innovation takes time. The funds were necessary to sustain this revolutionary project.
Defense Attorney And the payments to yourself and the purchase of your mansion?
Chris Roberts I paid myself what was fair. My team and I work around the clock. The mansion? A necessary space for focus and inspiration.
Scene 4: Prosecution's Rebuttal
Prosecutor Mr. Roberts, how do you justify taking millions for yourself while delivering nothing of substance to your donors?
Chris Roberts The game is coming. Greatness cannot be rushed. We need more time and money.
Prosecutor And yet, there is still no finished product, no accountability. The donors deserve better than your empty promises and lavish lifestyle.
Scene 5: Closing Arguments
Prosecutor Chris Roberts has exploited the trust of thousands, living in luxury while his backers see nothing. He must be held accountable.
Defense Attorney Mr. Roberts is dedicated to his vision. He has not committed fraud but merely struggled with the immense task of delivering a groundbreaking game.
Judge The jury will now deliberate.
Scene 6: Verdict
[The jury foreman stands.]
Jury Foreman We find the defendant, Chris Roberts, guilty on all counts.
Scene 7: Sentencing
[Chris Roberts stands before the judge, defiant and unapologetic.]
Judge Mr. Roberts, your arrogance and lack of remorse are staggering. You have betrayed the trust of countless individuals. This court has no choice but to impose the maximum penalty. You are hereby sentenced to death.
Chris Roberts [Interrupting] The game will be finished! I just need more time and money!
Judge Enough! Take him away.
[Chris Roberts is led away in handcuffs, still proclaiming the impending release of Star Citizen. The camera zooms out, showing the stunned and saddened faces of the donors and spectators.]
Scene 8: Chris Roberts' Cell
[Camera shows Chris Roberts in his cell, pacing, frustrated. He sits at the small desk, staring at a photograph of his mansion. Suddenly, a resolution crosses his face. He finds a makeshift rope and chair. The camera cuts away as he makes his final preparations.]
Scene 9: Courtroom Interior
[The next morning, the judge and prosecutor are in the courtroom, discussing the case. An officer rushes in.]
Officer Your Honor, Prosecutor Thompson, Chris Roberts... he's hanged himself in his cell.
Judge [Shaking his head] Just like Admiral Tolwyn in Wing Commander IV. The man created heroes, but in the end, he became the villain. His corruption consumed him entirely.
Prosecutor A tragic end to a tragic story. Justice, in a way, has been served.
Judge Indeed. Let this be a lesson to all who would betray trust for personal gain. Court is adjourned.
[Fade to black.]

Star Citizen Fraud Trial
Scene 1: Courtroom Interior
[Camera pans across a packed courtroom. Reporters, spectators, and family members fill the seats. The judge, a stern man in his sixties, sits at the bench. Chris Roberts, unshaken and confident, stands at the defendant's table with his attorney. The prosecutor, a seasoned and intense man, stands to address the jury.]
Judge Order in the court. The trial of Chris Roberts versus the State of California is now in session.
Prosecutor Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, today we present a case of betrayal, deceit, and blatant fraud. Chris Roberts promised to deliver the groundbreaking game, Star Citizen. Instead, he siphoned off hundreds of millions of dollars, paying himself lavishly and purchasing a mansion, while delivering nothing but empty promises.
Defense Attorney Objection, Your Honor. The defense will show that Mr. Roberts has been tirelessly working on Star Citizen and any funds used were legitimate compensations for his role and efforts.
Judge Overruled. Continue, Mr. Thompson.
Prosecutor Thank you, Your Honor. [Turns to the jury] We will demonstrate how Mr. Roberts manipulated donor trust, using their money for personal gain while the promised game remains unfulfilled.
Scene 2: Testimonies
Witness 1: Donor I believed in Star Citizen. I invested $10,000, thinking it would revolutionize gaming. But year after year, there was nothing to show for it. Meanwhile, Roberts lived like a king.
Prosecutor Did you ever receive any significant updates or completed versions of the game?
Witness 1 No, just vague promises and more funding requests.
Scene 3: Cross-Examination
Defense Attorney Mr. Roberts, can you explain why Star Citizen is still not complete?
Chris Roberts Game development is complex. We've made incredible progress, but innovation takes time. The funds were necessary to sustain this revolutionary project.
Defense Attorney And the payments to yourself and the purchase of your mansion?
Chris Roberts I paid myself what was fair. My team and I work around the clock. The mansion? A necessary space for focus and inspiration.
Scene 4: Prosecution's Rebuttal
Prosecutor Mr. Roberts, how do you justify taking millions for yourself while delivering nothing of substance to your donors?
Chris Roberts The game is coming. Greatness cannot be rushed. We need more time and money.
Prosecutor And yet, there is still no finished product, no accountability. The donors deserve better than your empty promises and lavish lifestyle.
Scene 5: Closing Arguments
Prosecutor Chris Roberts has exploited the trust of thousands, living in luxury while his backers see nothing. He must be held accountable.
Defense Attorney Mr. Roberts is dedicated to his vision. He has not committed fraud but merely struggled with the immense task of delivering a groundbreaking game.
Judge The jury will now deliberate.
Scene 6: Verdict
[The jury foreman stands.]
Jury Foreman We find the defendant, Chris Roberts, guilty on all counts.
Scene 7: Sentencing
[Chris Roberts stands before the judge, defiant and unapologetic.]
Judge Mr. Roberts, your arrogance and lack of remorse are staggering. You have betrayed the trust of countless individuals. This court has no choice but to impose the maximum penalty. You are hereby sentenced to death.
Chris Roberts [Interrupting] The game will be finished! I just need more time and money!
Judge Enough! Take him away.
[Chris Roberts is led away in handcuffs, still proclaiming the impending release of Star Citizen. The camera zooms out, showing the stunned and saddened faces of the donors and spectators.]
Scene 8: Chris Roberts' Cell
[Camera shows Chris Roberts in his cell, pacing, frustrated. He sits at the small desk, staring at a photograph of his mansion. Suddenly, a resolution crosses his face. He finds a makeshift rope and chair. The camera cuts away as he makes his final preparations.]
Scene 9: Courtroom Interior
[The next morning, the judge and prosecutor are in the courtroom, discussing the case. An officer rushes in.]
Officer Your Honor, Prosecutor Thompson, Chris Roberts... he's hanged himself in his cell.
Judge [Shaking his head] Just like Admiral Tolwyn in Wing Commander IV. The man created heroes, but in the end, he became the villain. His corruption consumed him entirely.
Prosecutor A tragic end to a tragic story. Justice, in a way, has been served.
Judge Indeed. Let this be a lesson to all who would betray trust for personal gain. Court is adjourned.
[Fade to black.]

20 years old. I work in a grocery store over the summer between college semesters, from early May to late August. Been on T for about 9 or 10 months. Just got off a terrible shift. I love my job, actually, I like my coworkers and I like the process of running the cash register. Scan items, say the script, press the buttons, do the math, the change, the reciept. I even like chatting with all the folks that come through.
I can't handle the constant misgendering.
Now, for context. I have a mustache and a shitty little goatee. My face is angular and my eyebrows are naturally low and thick. Admittedly I've got huge breasts, but I've got binders, and I tie my apron at work hella loose so you can't see 'em. I wear a packer (bornwear stroker). The work uniform is a unisex black polo and jeans, and I usually wear regular fit costco jeans and a plain black belt to keep them up. Men's shoes, too, not that customers can really see those. Black leather bracelet on my wrist. The only thing I can possibly imagine is throwing them off is the purple hair (cut in one of those haircuts that transmascs and lesbians both tend to have? I'm told it's a very gender neutral cut, anyways) and the voice (low for a girl, high for a man). Maybe my mannerisms, but I act more masculine than your average "flamboyant" cis gay man at the very least.
Multiple times, I've had to genuinely argue with customers about my pronouns. As in they don't believe me, and I have to press the issue or let it go, and my skin crawls when I let it go. Other than that, it's just the constant correcting-- people assume I'm a girl, and they refer to me as such, and I want to puke, and then I correct them, and usually they apologize and I have to either say it's alright (a lie, it is not alright) or get flagged for poor customer service (customer is always right).
Some days, everybody who comes through my line is great and I don't get misgendered once. Days like today, I don't get correctly gendered even ONCE by a customer, only by coworkers, and even then, they don't do jack about the customers, usually because they're busy running their lines and not monitoring the language in my line, occasionally because there are coworkers of mine who have actively said anti-trans things to many queer members on staff, none aggressive enough to be punished by HR, and therefore they don't WANT to correct people about me.
How do you cope with stuff like this? I mean... I've been socially transitioned for 6 or 7 years, and sure I've got my dysphoric days, but I very rarely hate my body for being what it is. I actually like some of my "feminine" features, honestly. I managed to get myself from body neutrality to genuine body positivity, I hadn't CONVINCED myself I liked my body, but I DID like my body. I still do most of the time. But I get off of a bad shift and I just feel like I'd rather be in ANY OTHER PERSON'S body. I feel so uncomfortable in my own skin. I feel so resentful of every single part of me for not being outwardly manly enough. These aren't things I feel usually, even when I get misgendered in public when I'm off the clock. I get my fair share of "ma'am" and "ladies" (referring to me and my lovely cis girlfriend, who is the most beautiful and supportive woman in the world, she's the reason I'm on HRT, she bought me my packer, she started to get confused when cis men DIDN'T have breasts or top surgery scars, that's how supporting she is) when I'm out and about, and that I usually laugh off without even correcting the person, but this? This makes me desperate to figure out why I don't pass to these people. This makes me analyze every aspect of my person to figure out what I'm doing that isn't enough. But I shouldn't have to rearrange my entire life around making these idiots use the right pronouns the first time, because they shouldn't matter. What other people think of my gender shouldn't matter, but yet, here, it does. It makes me feel like I will never reach a point where people believe me when I say I am a man. I feel that I am a man, yes, that is never a question, but I feel like I will never, ever be seen for what I am, and that hurts me badly.
I'm not asking for passing tips (though I guess if you have anything service-industry related, specifically, that would also work), but more like... ways to deal. Is it possible to make yourself okay with it? Is there any good way of framing the situation to myself that makes me less generally miserable? Affirmations? Just... anything like that. I don't want to quit my job, but this is very severely impacting my ability to feel ok in my own body and I can feel it making my desire to even be seen in public decrease. I'm afraid I'm going to get turned into a shut-in at this rate, and I just really wish I could work somewhere away from the public eye but there's nowhere else for me to go. I need the money so I can eat during the semesters at college and pay off my loans before the interest swallows me whole. So, quitting isn't quite an option anyways. I don't know. I'm scared I guess, and I feel very young and unguided. I've got a lot of older folks in my life guiding me through a lot of other things, but no trans elders or even just trans men who are older than me/been out longer than me, and I just feel completely lost, like there's something I'm just completely missing, and this is the only place I could really think to check with some degree of anonymity.