KATHLEEN KINMONT as THE BRIDE BRIDE OF RE-ANIMATOR (1990) dir. Brian Yuzna

All of me. Chapter One [B.B.]

When she met him masterlist

Prologue

Pairing: Winter soldier x Female Reader [Michelle]

Summary: In May 1954 two parallel worlds were to meet in Berlin. On the one hand yours, completely chaotic, on the other that of the Winter Soldier.

Warnings: Angst. Toxic relationship. Mind control. Winter Soldier.

Word count: 3075

A/N:  Sorry for my spelling and grammatical mistakes, English is not my native language, I am learning.

West Berlin. May 1954

The mirror showed a reflection you hadn’t stopped to contemplate in a long time. Rosy cheeks offered life and warmth to a pale face that seemed to have been forgotten. Your skin was smooth and the colour of porcelain, showing the youth that had just begun. Your eyes were highlighted by a greyish iris, which seemed to be complemented by blue drops, but as pale as your complexion. Your golden hair was tied back behind your face, but even so, a few strands stood up in rebellion, sliding down your forehead.

You moved closer to that imposing mirror, which was perched on the chest of drawers in that hotel room. It was then that you could see on your lips that the reddish lipstick had been fixed to perfection, offering a speck of colour to that ensemble that you formed in your totality. Your attention was diverted to the melody coming from the phonograph’s horn, however you could notice the presence of a person behind you reflected in the mirror itself. Those vermilion lips showed a smile, as the warmth of the male body pressed against your back. 

“You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my life,” the whisper overpowered the music. “Tonight every man in the universe will know how lucky I am.”

A blush came over you, causing you to look away from his face through the mirror and lower your gaze, still smiling. It had been a few months since you had left behind everything you had known in your nineteen years, venturing out to suffer the indifference and rejection that the unknown future could bring. Your life in New York was a past that counterbalanced the pain and happiness of your younger years, but it did not offer you all that your inner self demanded, until he came along. Richard was a young British man of beauty, wit and chance, who had made a fortune in the tobacco world after the end of the Second World War. So you could say that it didn’t take long for you to notice him and for him to want you among his various properties. It was an accumulation of promises that entered your mind and led you to follow him to Europe without questioning their veracity, accepting the consequences that this meant for a young woman of your position in a world run by and for men. 

It had been many years since you 

had had a male figure to support or guide your decisions, as well as your purpose in life. The loss of your father during the Second World War made you acquire a mind of your own and make decisions of your own, which mostly used to be accepted by your sweet mother, but which in this case did not find a place in the audacity of your friends and family. Those who knew you thought that your judgement had been clouded or that you had only lost your mind because of your love for that gentleman.

Richard had made his appearance in New York City just a few months earlier. Your fates crossed in the New York night, during the presentation of a new Walker Motors Corporation internal combustion engine at the Edison Hotel, a milestone in the market. Richard was an external guest, invited by one of the company’s own partners, but you were invited by the leading eminence. It is worth noting that Charles Walker, director of WMC, has been friends with you since your childhood, which is why you attended the private party. However, it was not until midnight that Charles himself took it upon himself to introduce you, alluding that Richard had shown an exclusive interest in meeting you.

“Where is your mind?” Richard’s lips brushed your right earlobe.

His fingers rested on your neck and brushed aside a slight lock that fell across your collarbone to rest his lips on it. All the while you watched each of his movements in the mirror.

“I don’t want your mind to go elsewhere if I’m not in your thoughts,” that whisper sent a shudder around your body, as Richard’s lips continued to trail firmly down your neck.

You had been extremely decisive in agreeing to give yourself to a man you barely knew, or had any testimony about his past. But your mind was so dazzled by the hopes you had placed on him and his oaths that you had barely been able to consider the fact that something could go wrong.

The kissing stopped, which caused you to open your eyes again to find your own reflection. Richard turned away from your body for a moment to look inside his jacket. After a few seconds he pulled out a greenish rectangular box, which he opened without letting you see what was inside.

“Close your eyes,” the young man asked softly in your ear.

With little opposition you acted as he had instructed. A tingle tingled around your neck, which brought a subtle smile to your lips as you waited for Richard’s command to open your eyes again. However, it wasn’t until after he placed a brief kiss on your bare shoulder that you decided on your own to contemplate the object resting on your collarbones. Your lips parted in surprise, as an array of pearls lay upon you, illuminating practically the entire room. Your fingers slowly brushed each one of them, you hardly knew what to say, the only thing that came to your mind was the questioning of why about that detail.

“Tonight you will shine over the whole world,” Richard’s hands rested on your hips. “There won’t be anyone in Berlin, east or west, who doesn’t know who Michelle Wells is.”

You offered him a blushing smile as you stared at your figures in front of the mirror, those words giving you the encouragement you needed to face the performance that was to take place in a few hours.

Your ability on stage had been recognised in various clubs in New York, but you knew that the audience that night could not compare to the one you had had before. New York had been the pinnacle of jazz, and Harlem had been a favourite neighbourhood of its own creation, yet it was a far cry from anything you were used to.

A slight sigh came out of your mouth, showing the presence of your nervousness in such a situation. It was an unavoidable fact of life that you were thousands of miles away from your hometown, and even if you had made yourself think that you and Richard would find your own home, you couldn’t help but feel incomplete.

“Take everything out of your mind, leave it blank and just focus on you from this moment on,” the breath collided with your ear, creating a brief shiver down your spine. “Forget everything you have lived through, and all the people. You are the creator of your own destiny, and no one can stand in the way of that. Tonight may be the most important moment for your future. For our future.”

In that instant you turned around so that you could look directly into his eyes, those that depending on the light could appear blue or green. Under the dimness of the lamp the greenish hue could be found in them, but you barely noticed it because their proximity was cut short when he said those words, melting into a slow, passionate kiss before he left for the club.

Meanwhile, in East Berlin

A whitish light flickered faintly above him with each step down the long corridor. The silence was broken by the flickering tinkle and the sordid screams in the distance. The place felt like hell itself. However, if it really was hell, it was not as he had imagined it to be. The mist was pouring out of his nostrils with every exhalation, the cold was bordering on extreme. Yet he was unable to feel it in every part of his body. His gaze was impassive, as his ice-cold eyes seemed to be held in a sea of darkness. The road came to an end as the stiff iron gate cut him off. His footsteps slowed but did not stop, as a dull echo reported the opening of the gate, offering entrance to a new area.

The walls, as sturdy as the material of construction, stone, offered not a hint of light, for there were hardly any openings in them. The place had the characteristics of an underground bunker, with only a musty smell coming from the ceiling. His figure continued his march along the corridor, with a firm and decisive step, knowing where he was going. At that instant, a silhouette loomed on the right side, guarding a new entrance. That silhouette, noticing the presence that was heading towards him, moved away from in front of the door, opening the way for the man, who stopped in front of it until it opened.

“Oh, we’ve been expecting you, soldier,” said a German-accented voice from inside the room.

Unlike the corridor, there was a pleasant warmth in that room for anyone. However, he was no longer a person. The door closed behind him, preventing him from leaving, for he would have to face the four figures sitting at an oval table. One of them rose from his seat and slowly approached him with his hands behind his back, until they were facing each other.

“I believe the orders you have been given are clear soldier,” he observed curiously squinting at the young man. “Do you have any doubts?”

“No, sir,” a coldness crept into his voice from inside his throat, it seemed as if he had spent the last few months barely expressing a sound through it.

“That’s the way I like it,” that statement came along with an encouraging look from every part of the young soldier. “Kerkove will be in charge of taking you to the west side of Berlin. There you know what you have to do.”

The soldier merely nodded, processing all the data that had been offered to him hours before. The door opened again to let him out, just as he had entered, and the person in charge of his mission stood there. Over the past months he had carried out a number of other missions on the eastern front, but this was the first time he would be infiltrating the western zone, covered by American and British soldiers, which is why he was wearing an American infantry uniform, similar to that of his companion.

As he arrived outside, he realised that the night was clear, as the moon was in full bloom, a fact that could hinder the key points of the mission. Even so, he had to concentrate, since his first test would be the moment he wanted to cross the border, for although he was in the uniform of the American army, he had to pass himself off as one of them.

Fifteen and a half kilometres was the distance to be covered by car, before walking three kilometres to the point in question. The quietness fell upon him, sharing a constant blank stare, and with nothing else in his thoughts but each and every step to be taken that night. There were hardly any words between the two of them, until the moment they parted, as his companion informed him that they would meet again after four hours at the rendezvous point to carry out their extraction.

The ease with which he found himself in West Berlin in five minutes seemed absurd in the face of so much apparent control over the population itself. The tranquillity received on the other side of the wall caused a rupture in the new area, a commotion was generated as he walked towards the more central streets, entering the Berlin night. The movement of pedestrians and cars caused him to slow his steps, remembering his sense of mission ‘To blend in without being discovered’.

The streetlights illuminated the roads and the power of those lights fell on his face, generating a sense of uneasiness in the face of his own passivity. Groups of uniformed men walked along, mingling with the local population. He was curious as to where they were going, for the premises of the busy main street invited him to enter them. Those five soldiers in British uniforms, which he could distinguish by colours and badges, made their way to the pavement in front of him and then entered a place called 'Central Club’.

After looking around, he could not think of a better situation than to take the same path and thus discover their frequent activities. With the proximity to the place, he noticed the melody that could be heard behind the door, which became more and more noticeable after opening it. An unfamiliar smell hit his face as he stepped inside. Warm brown tones met his gaze as did long descending staircases. Hesitantly he descended each step, incorporating the smell of aniseed liqueur into his senses as the notes coming from those instruments became more constant. A greenish curtain gave way to the hall, which was unexpectedly packed with people. Its tables were completely crowded and the noise mixed with the melody hardly let him think in those moments. He looked around as a boy bumped into him trying to get in. His gaze fell on the bar on the right-hand side, intending to sit down and take in the area at his leisure. Nearby he could find an empty stool catching the attention of the bartender himself.

"What will you have?” he asked as he wiped a glass of champagne between his hands “Is this your first time at the Central Club?”

The soldier nodded, half-opening his lips, for he had scarcely noticed his presence.

“Then you must try our special aniseed and ginger cocktail,” the waiter began to serve him after watching the boy nod. “I suppose you’ve come for her, haven’t you? We haven’t had the club this full since before the war, she’s a real gem, I envy the man who gets her.”

The soldier paid little attention to his words, but nodded at every comment he offered, for he had not yet been able to adjust to the atmosphere generated by the crowd. Music was still playing on the circular wooden stage in the background. A band was providing entertainment, showing off their merits with a piano, drums, bass and saxophone. However, due to the noise it was impossible to hear them.

He took the glass that the man had prepared for him a few minutes ago and brought it to his lips, making his throat burn with every drop that fell through it. His senses were amplified and the warmth was rising from within him. She turned to the man behind the bar to inform him to refill the glass, for if he was to blend in he hoped to do so as everyone else in the place did.

The music stopped and male words came from the stage. The soldier barely noticed. However, the deafening noise of applause and cheers made him look towards the back of the room. A female figure appeared as if out of nowhere before his very eyes. After she came on stage, silence fell, reminding him of peace. The spotlights created an aura of divinity around the young woman that abstracted any of his own thoughts as soon as he beheld her. Her crimson lips could be glimpsed from every corner of the club, making the blood burn under those uniforms.

Time had stood still for a few moments, for the slowness with which such an event unfolded before his eyes was apparent. The girl slowly brought her fingers around the microphone to bring it closer to her mouth, as she set the rhythm by snapping her fingers to the melody of the bass. That was the moment when the soldier became a man, his reasoning engaged in a constant struggle against his experience. That voice had taken over his thoughts and was the only thing he could hear inside him. The melody had awakened a sliver of his memories, but he had not yet realised that fact. The hole of darkness that made him up had found a flame to illuminate it. 

“All of me

Why not take all of me?

Can’t you see?

I’m no good without you”

His muscles had relaxed as the minutes passed. His lips were parted and his eyes were completely lost in hers. For an instant he thought he could feel their paths meet, holding her gaze, a fact that generated a throbbing in his heart that he did not seem to possess. In a subtle blink of an eye, barely noticing it, the girl finished her song and lost his vision as everyone in the room rose to their feet to applaud her, but he did not. He preferred to keep his gaze lost trying to glimpse what had just happened in those moments, as his mission became present in him again.

“It’s a wonder,” the bartender interjected.  "A woman with a voice like that can’t possibly go unnoticed. I think I could listen to her for the rest of my life, and watch her too. You know what I mean.“

The soldier just sipped the last of the liquor in his glass and turned his attention back to the group of men in British uniforms who had led him there. They seemed to be in a hurry to leave again, so he took a note from his pocket and without looking back left it on the bar to follow them. From that moment on, his evening was based on analysing each of the places they frequented and the activities they carried out, making the odd brief conversation, and letting himself be seen in the area. He did not have a chance to think about the heady moment he had experienced until he returned to the bunker and was asked for all the information he had collected. However, although a new memory had settled in his mind, he was unable to express his encounter with you.

Taglist Open (DM)

MAIN MASTERLIST

100 Things I Learned About Love | Vernon!Android AU

Pairing: Hansol Vernon Chwe x female!reader

Genre: SCI FI!! Action, Romance, Angst(?)

Word Count: 22.2k (yes another giant fic)

Warnings: A bit of death and gore

A/N: Well, I’m gonna say sorry first to the anon who requested a vernon android au when we were just starting this blog (like three yrs ago) and I only managed to finish it now;; 

So this fic is a continuation (and is in the same universe) of the Jihoon Android AU The Coldest Human; The Warmest Robot. It is primarly inspired by the book “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” by Philip K. Dick and the anime “Beatless”. This one here has also elements from Huxley’s “A Brand New World” (because I just love reading dystopian novels for some reason). I kind of mashed everything together to create the world! 

This will be the 2nd part of a four part series! Next would be Soonyoung’s story and then finally Joshua’s! This series kind of explores the whole world I created for it. Jihoon’s story introduced the whole world and the relationship between android and creator, while Hansol’s story explores the world of bounty hunters! I still haven’t decided fully with what to do with the rest but I hope you enjoy this one!!

Tag List: @haotheheckk, @smthingabtlove!! (because they asked to skskks)

If mornings had any color, it would be a disgusting green. Afternoons, electric orange. Midnights, as dark as crude oil. Cities were built upon lines of flickering yellow, as streets were colored with the void of space; dark, desolate, and meaningless.

Society is tinted with the same shades of emptiness. Dressed in uniform white body suits—hair covered entirely as it was deemed unhygienic—only the face bore the resemblance of the classic human being, as if it was a mask. Serene smiles and polite gestures were exchanged almost to a hundred times; laughter was hollow and chemically induced, as with tears and frowns. Frivolity and superficiality were the main trends. 

As what they appear to be, is what they are actually are.

Welcome to the West Martian colony!

“Here ya go. The case’s now yours, doll,” your boss tossed a folder filled with papers on the polyester table. “Choi quit a few days ago after retiring Woozi.”

Your head perked up immediately as soon as you heard the news; disbelief painted on your face.

“What? Why?” you asked, standing up with mouth agape. He was one of your idols, your role models; the reason why you went into this line of work.

“He’s not talkin’, doll. Sadly. Told me it’s personal. But can’t blame him really, this business is gettin’ old.”

Your boss with his thinning hair and scotch-tapped broken glasses, sipped from a coffee stained mug; seemingly too overused for years of constant coffee drinking.

Yet you loved this place—this pseudo-police department home to bounty hunters of West Mars, with its crumbling brittle plastic window blinds and its moldy paper odor—all a different world than that of the city around it. You loved how it was like something straight from an Earth comic book; classic, rustic, and homey; a sheer contrast to the minimalist style of the new century.

“So what do we have here? Some andy from the Orion branch?”

A finger flipped through the factsheet with brows raised and lips in a tiny pout as you scanned the information laid before you. There were several official photographs of the unit after it was made, but none were security cam shots.

“So, from the organization…SVT-class Type-12 Vernon. The name’s too Western.”

Your boss shrugged. “The org’s just pastin’ names on their andys like butter on bread, dolly.”

“Guess so. But this Vernon just looks someone my age,” you remarked, munching on the biscotti within your arm’s reach.

“It’s an andy, YN. A hundred years, and it’ll still look the same. Now off ya go, better start retiring ‘em or you’re gonna get retired first.”

Sighing, you stood up and brushed the crumbs off your skinny jeans. Bending over, you picked up your briefcase filled with a laser gun and a V-T scale equipment as you bid your boss a short goodbye.

In reality, you didn’t want to leave the home base.

One particular reason was that you’d be taking the hovercraft and start cruising around the godforsaken city, not that it believes in any god for as long as you could account for. The city was an abomination, a stubborn mulish creation born out of rejection of the old, ancient ways—ways that had led to the destruction of the Earth, ways you still hold on to despite migrating to Mars. Despite being physically present, and even born in the red planet, you knew your heart was still back on Earth. You were proud to be to be human, with ancestry from the noble home planet, and everything which diminishes humanity is your enemy.

—you paused.

Lips parted, eyes transfixed.

A thousand snowflakes suspended on the air as if you were in a colony-sized snow globe. You continued to wonder, because you had never before seen snow in its truest, purest form, and everything you knew about them was from data gathered on Earth.

You removed your glove to touch one floating. It was cold, you shivered. However, it did not melt as you expected it to be as it only glistened against the dark backdrop of the city night like holographic particles.

“What the—!”

As if deliberately cutting you off, the hovercraft swiveled across the air, its power flickering on and off until it was unable to balance itself, swerving up and down across the night sky. You held on to the metal rails, as the turbulence brought you to your knees, the alarm systems of the vehicle blaring on your ears.

“Fucking hell…!” You cursed, grabbing your laser gun as the vehicle plunged you towards the empty streets of the city. Fortunately enough, you were trained to encounter these sorts of problems and thus, you were able to jump towards the nearest rooftop before the hovercraft exploded upon impact to the asphalt road.

Sighing, you watched the flames burn plastic and metal as if you couldn’t believe what you had just experienced. Well, of course it was unbelievable. So far, the only adventure you had experienced in your whole life was your day-to-day job of ‘retiring’ andys, which could get a bit messy but those were on balmier days. Normally, it wouldn’t get pass you to laser a hole on an andy’s head, but if you’re doing it like ten to twenty times a week, it could get boring.

Bam—!!

Your thoughts were placed in a halt as several other hovercrafts continued to fall from the sky like shooting stars, except that people could get killed. But havoc proceeded as it did, where lines of self-driving cars suddenly powered on and chased after human beings who had heard the crash and checked what had happened.

“What the fuck is happening?” you whispered, eyes peering on the alley beneath you. Hopping on several rooftops and sliding down the gutter towards the ground, you cautiously approached the main road, seeing if there was anyone who was in trouble. Luckily, there wasn’t anyone loitering around at this hour anymore.

You checked your intercom for any news or announcements from your home base or from the AI government, yet there was none. As it were, your intercom was actually having trouble projecting a hologram or following any of your commands seemingly halfway hacked.

“Dammit, I couldn’t get hold of HQ,” you grumbled, running towards a nearby police android to alert its human command center. “Hey, could you get in touch with your district station? It’s getting chaotic here.”

Yet the android only stared at you, its eyes blank as if you were a mere holographic image. The artificial smile on its face, which was made to comfort humans interacting with it, seemed more sinister than welcoming. The prolonged silence causing your heart to thump in anxiety.

“Hey? You heard me? Tell the—”

“Hi there. I’m Akiro. What can I do to help you?” It’s human voice making shivers crawl down your skin.

“I said, alert the district station! Haven’t you detected the level of violence—”

“Hi there. I’m Akiro. What can I—Hi there. I’m Akiro—Akiro—Hi—Hi there. H-H-H-Hi-i-i-i—”

The malfunction was obvious in its speech. It wasn’t unusual for an android to malfunction but when it began moving closer and closer to you, you took a step back, dread treading on your spine. Androids made you uneasy as humans once felt ill at ease with clowns—its artificial expressions making its lack of a soul even more prominent, triggering your fight or flight response.

It continued to move towards you until a snowflake dropped on its head, stopping as if it was suddenly glued to the ground. You hesitantly walked closer to it, inspecting its dead eyes to see if it had returned to normal. Raising an arm, you reached for its control box hidden behind its neck.

It grabbed your wrist, without warning. You gasped and began struggling to release yourself from its vice grip, yet you knew how strong androids were.

“Fuck it!”

“Hi there—Hi—I’m A-A-A-Aki-Akiro,” the android continued talking as if its movements were controlled by a remote system.

You moved to reach for your laser gun at your back pocket but the android was swift enough to twist your arm in a lock on your back. It pushed you to the ground as you grit your teeth at the scrapes on your knees and elbows, but you couldn’t break free.

“What can I do to help you?”

You groaned. “Maybe letting go of my fucking arm?”

Gathering your wits, you pushed yourself off the ground, rolling sideways and then kicking the android who was thrown off-balance with your two feet. As it fell to the ground, you grabbed your laser gun and without hesitation, pulled the trigger to blast off its processor.

As the headless android dropped to the asphalt, you sighed in relief as the adrenaline continued to pump into your veins, breathing heavily from all the action. You didn’t understand why the android was behaving out of its initial program and attacking you, a human, who it was supposed to protect.

While you were resting, the glaring headlights of a self-driving car were flashed towards your direction.

Disoriented, you froze to the ground as you tried to make do of your situation and surroundings. However, just like the android, the car sped right towards you in its maximum speed, as if it was trying to kill you. As soon as you heard its tires screech, you willed yourself to move away as the car missed you in just a few centimeters—throwing you to the ground and slammed itself towards the nearby wall.

Without even letting you take a breath, an arm was encircled around your neck, making you unable to breathe; its grip tightening gradually. Two other androids—one a police android, the other a personal helper—faced you with their blank stares as if they were zombies ordered to kill any human on sight.

The helper android had your laser gun on its possession as it slowly aimed it on your head. Panic rose as you tried to remove the arm locking you in place. Mentally, you were cursing at how you had underestimated the situation and let yourself die under the hands of goddamn androids.

Silently, the android pulled the trigger and you braced yourself for impact.

Except it didn’t come.

Your eyes were forced open when you heard the sound of metal dropping to the ground. What you saw had your eyes widen in astonishment as another small disk stuck itself on the police android’s head and split it into individual pieces. In a few seconds, you were dropped onto the ground, choking on your knees as the pieces of the android holding you fell into heaps next to you.

“Are you okay?”

A warm voice asked as a hand was offered to you. You looked up to see doe-like eyes gazing at you with a curious but a worried expression. His slightly curly caramel colored locks fell to his forehead softly as if it were made of the finest materials.

You nodded silently, still stunned by everything happening around you.

When you didn’t take his hand, the mysterious man carried you on his back as he walked you away from the site. While you were being carried, you noticed how he was ‘destroying’ the approaching rogue androids with a disc-like device which would stick on their skin and eventually ‘disassembling’ them to several parts.

“W-who are you…?” you finally asked, your voice returning despite still being painful.

Grabbing another disk from his pocket, the guy hurled it towards an incoming self-driving car which had it stopping, its parts detaching themselves automatically.

“I’m called Hansol. The snowflakes are nanobots which hacks the AI in androids and cars and drives them into killing humans. Unfortunately, I don’t have the capabilities to stop it,” he replied, his voice kind of removed, which had you wondering if he was an android or not. “Though I think Jihoon can.”

“Then…this…this will all continue?” you asked unbelievingly. You didn’t want it to continue, of course. More people would die and you still weren’t sure to what extent the casualties are because of this sudden outbreak.

“The snowflakes will lose its power when its controller is far away. So far, Joshua is already gone from this area.”

“Joshua? An android?”

“Yeah. SVT-class Type-03 Joshua. We came here together, and I tried to convince him out of it, but he wants to test out his abilities.”

Having enough evidence, you pushed yourself away from Hansol and landed safely on the ground with an abhorrent look on your face.

Aiming your laser gun at him, you shouted. “You’re an android too, aren’t you?”

Hansol simply gazed at you with his piercing eyes—tempting you to retract your accusation.

“Yes, I am. SVT-class Type-12 Vernon,” he replied, then looking down on the ground as he scratched his nape. “I like the name Hansol better though, so I want to be called Hansol from now on.”

You grinned. Your prey presented itself right in front of you without you giving an ounce of an effort.

“I’m supposed to retire you, you know?” you remarked, still aiming the gun at him. “And I will.”

Hansol stared at you with a frown on his lips, obviously disliking the fact that he was about to ‘die’ tonight. In fact, he didn’t want to die. He had a lot of things he wanted to do, so many questions yet unanswered.

“I’m…I…I don’t know how to plead. The data is incomplete in the cloud, but, um…don’t shoot me…please,” Hansol replied as he raised his arms.

You were obviously taken aback by his plea. You couldn’t count how many androids begged for their lives because there were none. He was the first one who ever did it.

Shaking thoughts of doubt, you tried to reason with yourself.

Androids don’t plead. They escape. Kill.

The most efficient way out is what they do.

“How am I supposed to believe you?” you shouted back; your finger threatening to press on the trigger. “You might be using analog hack for all I know.”

He scratched his nape again, unable to give an appropriate answer. “Well…I guess I could only ask you to trust me.”

You laughed sarcastically. You have never seen an android use deception so badly.

“If that’s too much to ask, then I guess this is it,” he continued, looking at you again straight into the eyes with his evocative gaze.

You just couldn’t believe what you were hearing. For all the years you spent hunting androids, never had you encountered one who had basically given up without any chase or struggle, especially from one who had every capability to squash you like an ant. You couldn’t help the itch to ask.

“Why? Why give up?”

Hansol shrugged, his gaze on the yellow lines outlining the faraway city buildings. “If I fight back, I will hurt you. I don’t want to hurt you.”

You gazed right into his eyes for a moment, trying to gauge the truth in his words, trying to calculate if he was using analog hack against your weakness as a human being. You dislike androids but never had you seen one like him.

“How should I know that?” you shouted again; laser gun still aimed at him. “Using tricks like reverse psychology…I’ll give you an A+ for creativity.”

“I’m not lying,” the android instantly replied. “If you have to kill me, then there is nothing I could do. I made a vow to myself never to hurt humans because that’s the right thing to do. I don’t want to see anyone suffer because of what I did. For some reason, it pains me as well.”

If only you could see how wide your eyes were, or how your lips parted in disbelief the moment you heard him. It almost gave you goosebumps. The air that hung underneath his every word felt so real and heavy that you would have never thought it was uttered by a mere android.

Androids and morality? Fucking hell…who would’ve thought you’d string those words together in the same sentence.

He was more human than most people living in the city. An android—known for their lack of soul; born only to be enslaved by their own programming; without their own thoughts, their own convictions.

But here is one in front of you, willing to die for his own principles; saying it pains him to see you hurt. That is not what androids do. Not in a million years.

What the hell is he then?

You threw your arms up in the air and tucked the laser gun in its holster as you made one big, ugly groan.

“Oh fine! Fuck it! I give up!”

Whether or not he will run away or he will kill you, you didn’t care anymore. It was a risk. You blame your biological flaw to see human traits in objects if he ever did harm you, but whatever, you decided to trust him.

With a small smile and a tiny huff, Hansol walked towards you slowly.

Heart hammering against your chest, you were deathly afraid that he might twist your neck or blast a hole through your chest. You couldn’t be so sure with these androids.

As soon as he had reached you, Hansol placed a hand on top of your head; your eyes squeezed tightly shut as if trying to brace for something bad coming. Yet as soon as you felt his hand, you opened your eyes and gave him a quizzical look.

He only smiled.

“Thank you for trusting me.”

The following morning was the same as ever. Except, not.

“—last night which appears to be a massive AI hack on neighboring Sectors 3, 4 and 7—“

With eyes heavy and a cup of coffee, you pressed another button.

“—71 people dead and more than a thousand injured, hospitals are in full capacity as of the moment—“

Another press of a button.

“—and take a deep breath. Happiness is found within Mercer as we continue to ascend up on the hill—“

“What a load of crap,” you muttered, turning to another channel. It was still six in the morning and you were already in a painfully awful mood. It could’ve been easily fixed with a Penfield Mood Organ but that was another can of shit you’d rather not touch with a ten-foot pole.

“—Mrs. Kim?”

You hadn’t caught on with what the news anchor was asking Mrs. Kim, but you could already take a gander that it was definitely about last night.

“My husband…He was just…he was truly a hero,” Mrs. Kim answered, wrecked by staggered sobs and sniffling of noses. You continued to watch, wondering what had happened to Mr. Kim—crushed by a car? Ran down by a flaming rogue hovercraft? Murdered by an andy?

“Your husband a hero, Mrs. Kim?” The interviewer repeated, coaxing the other for details. You waited for the dramatic reply after Mrs. Kim had settled herself down from the crying fit she was having.

“Yes…someone was stealing our ducks last night—“

You paused.

“During the whole chaos?”

“Yes, sir,” she sniffed and you rolled your eyes. “He—he tried protecting them yet they murdered him! Those bunch of foul-hearted bastards! Our ducks! Our Muscovy ducks…they were fifty grand a piece—“

You switched the TV off, now more tired and irritated than you were when you had turned it on about an hour ago. If you were asked to name one trend which just tasted like shit to you, that would probably be the current craze over owning animals. The whole Mercerism thing was only running second to that.

“I, uh…made some pancakes,” a foreign but familiar voice interrupted your thoughts, making you turn your head towards the doorway. With your eyes set upon Vernon, or Hansol, as he liked to be called, you instantly recalled what had happened last night.

You wondered if your brain disappeared that time or your common sense simply deteriorated because there was no way you would let a half-a-million-dollar bounty money just run free. Not to mention that he has all the capabilities to decapitate you in a millisecond.

Inwardly groaning, you gave him a small glance as he waited for your response with sheer curiosity. At least he followed you to your apartment and now you have a free housekeeper.

But that was last night, this was today. You can certainly do something about it, but you weren’t really in the mood for it. A headache was threatening to split your brain into half and racking your brain about the moralities and the whys of your decision last night wouldn’t really help anyone.

“Oh, right, right,” you replied absentmindedly, removing yourself from the cover of your flannel blanket and walked towards the dining room of the small apartment your meager earnings could afford.

It was a simple place. White walls, dirty carpet, and a worn-out sofa which had seen better days. Kitchen was slightly okay—the once white tiles now yellowed with age; the grout covered in black mold of unknown origin. The view was horrendous; covered up by dark globs of factory shadows and the ever-present rumbling of the monorail as it passes by.

Being a bounty hunter wasn’t exactly a glamorous job. It wasn’t like you were the police, who, as a matter of fact, are now mostly made up of androids. A bounty hunter does the nitty-gritty jobs the police wouldn’t do; such as hunting androids. Yet you liked this job. Even if it was stupidly exhausting.

Settling on your chair, you gazed at the expertly done pancakes and bacon, sending wonderful scents of home to your senses. You wondered why you had never thought of getting a helper android for yourself with how convenient they are, yet considering the fact that one helper was an inch away of killing you last night, it was better that you hadn’t.

“I hope you like them,” Hansol said, placing a bottle of maple syrup on the table. “I searched the cloud and it says you liked pancakes and bacon.”

Awkwardly, you nodded at him and then looked down on the piping hot breakfast on your table. You continued to gaze at it, the burnt patterns on the pancake beginning to take form of an image in your head, and then back at Hansol who was just standing at the side.

“You don’t like it?” he asked, as soon as he noticed the blank look on your face, curious if the cloud made some mistake.

“N-no! It’s…it’s fine,” you replied, waving your hands to and fro. “I just, um…are you just going to stand there?”

Hansol raised his brows at your question, his doe eyes widening just a bit. “Ah, me? Yeah. Isn’t this the right way?”

“The right way?” you asked, your forehead creasing.

“Yeah, the right way. I’m an android so I can’t sit with you. I heard from the cloud.”

“Why not?”

Hansol shrugged, the kitchen towel in his hands hanging. “Heard it’s inappropriate according to human table etiquette. Besides I don’t need to eat and I don’t really get tired.”

Sighing, you rolled your eyes at his response. “Human standards, what a load of bull. You just standing there makes me uncomfortable. So, you either sit down or you scram.”

You could tell that he was definitely taken aback, and began wavering if he should follow you or not. In the end, Hansol was forced down on the chair in front of you with a nervous look, awkward in his seat as you continued to stare at him.

Finally acknowledging that everything was alright, you began to drip maple syrup on your pancakes. The android was only watching you and your actions—very typical android behavior; gathering data from its surroundings.

“So, you’re Hansol?” you began, slicing through the three-tiered pancake tower with a knife.

“Yeah. Vernon is my model name, but I want to go by my own name.”

You raised your brows at him, biting into a forkful of food. “Cool. You picked that name on your own?”

“Yeah. It was the name of a musician I liked, so I took it.”

“Oh,” was the only thing you could say, because deep inside your head, you were already in a state of confusion.

For all the years working as a bounty hunter, this was the first time you’ve ever seen an android want to name himself after a musician he liked. Hell, this was your first time seeing an android have preferences. Usually, they would reflect the preferences of the human being they were talking to, but you haven’t even said anything about yourself to him other than your name.

No. He probably accessed the cloud or something. Androids of his caliber usually have better access to the place data miners dump people’s personal information.

Is this how advanced the Nexus 9 really is? If so, this could potentially cause a stir among bounty hunters. If they can’t identify their prey, things could potentially end up disastrous.

“You do know I’m assigned to retire you? Or kill you, to be exact. Not sure why we’re still using euphemism towards damn machines but whatever,” you pushed on, curious of how he would respond, thinking if there was anything more to the Nexus 9.

“Yeah, you told me last night,” he replied immediately and at the most flippant way; as if he wasn’t talking about being killed by the person in front of him.

“And…you’re not worried?” you asked, eyeing him up and wondering what was currently running in his processor. “I could just whip out my laser gun and fire a hole through your head while I eat this pancake, you know?”

Hansol leaned his head to the side, looking as if he was trying to process an answer to your question.

“I’m not worried. I mean, if you wanted me dead, you would’ve done it already,” he replied, as a matter-of-fact.

“What if I’m just too lazy to do it today? I could do it any other day I want, any time I want, and the thing is, you robots can’t even predict it with your fancy algorithms,” you smirked at him, your prejudice against androids showing through.

Yet even with your provocations, Hansol remained calm.

“It doesn’t matter. The fact that you haven’t done it yet means a lot to me. That’s why I trust you.”

At his answer, you simply frowned; unamused that he rebutted you with a good response and by the time he replied, you had already ran out of rocks to throw at him. So, in the end, you simply scoffed and finished your pancake, leaving him by the dining table with an irate glare.

Hansol watched your retreating back as he began to clean up the mess on the table. He was truly being honest with his words—he trusted you, and if he dies at your hands, well, that was it. Even though he didn’t really want to think of that possibility.

It was strange that the thought of you betraying his trust hurt more than the thought of dying.

“I’m going to work now. Don’t even think about leaving this place,” you told him as soon as you returned from the bedroom, all geared up. “There are other bounty hunters out to get you, and I don’t want them to get my bounty money.”

Silently, Hansol nodded as he saw you pick up your work equipment and your laser gun in a manner that seemed routine. Before you took another step further however, you stared into his eyes, thinking, pondering what you were about to do.

Slowly, you raised your arm and allowed the laser gun on your hands to unfold, pointing towards his direction. You saw the crosshairs between his doe-like eyes—an image you frequently saw seconds before you blow a hole through an andy’s processor. A decision made in a fraction of a second can ultimately change your life—that if you simply pressed the trigger within your grasps, Hansol would no longer move, or talk, or look at you with evocative gazes.

At that moment, you had all the power between “life and death”, as he unquestioningly relinquished it all to you by simply standing there in his spot in front of the kitchen counter.

Hansol felt himself tense up despite his calm exterior. He could already see it, just after thinking about the possibility, yet he never thought reality felt more painfully sharp than his thoughts were.

Your fingers brushed against the trigger. Just one press and he will be gone and you will be rich. Just another day as a bounty hunter. Could you do it?

You sighed.

In the end, you lowered your gun and turned to the other direction as if nothing had happened.

“I’ll be late for work,” you simply remarked, more to yourself than to anyone and then left him there in the kitchen, still stunned. You wondered if your shoulders felt burdened because of the heavy gun or because of the decision you just made.

Quick footfalls echoed across the dreary hallway.

The place stunk like hospital antiseptic and muriatic acid; matching the dim-lit atmosphere illuminated by only a few incandescent bulbs hanging every two meters. There were glass windows every so often, and if you took your time to peer through, you would see rows and rows of human-sized cylinders filled with a greenish liquid; all connected by wires the size of your torso to a place you simply assumed was the power supply.

“What an ironic place to hide for an andy,” you remarked as you looked around. Your partner this time, by the name of Morrison, scoffed amusingly at your comment.

“Who would’ve guessed they’re in a fertilization plant?”

You frowned. “What a gloomy place to be born in.”

Exactly as the name suggested, fertilizations plants ‘manufacture’ children. While that is as disgusting as you thought it was, that is the reality of the world you live in. While there are a few rare exceptions, people no longer have sex—it was too animalistic, too impure of an act to participate in.

Thus, the solution to a declining population is just to make babies just like how factories make your easily reproducible mug sitting on your kitchen counter. You couldn’t even deny the awful truth that you were made in one of these factories (you know, just like your mug). And more disappointingly, there was truly no ethical problem, because the world today only worships one god: Purity, in its coldest and most cruel manifestation.

In the end, aren’t we simply androids as well? Just made up of blood and guts?

“So? Have you caught on to that SVT andy yet?”

Morrison suddenly asked, dragging you back from your inner thoughts. You took a double take.

“The what—?”

“The SVT-class andy,” he clarified, “you know, the Vernon one.”

The mere mention of his model name made you purse your lips in annoyance. If only you could say that he was in your apartment doing some arbitrary thing an android would do if they were left alone.

“Still nothing. I was supposed to do an initial search last night but after being caught in all that chaos, I just went straight home,” you lied, having no choice. There was no way you would let everyone know you have something worth half a million bucks in your dingy, totally unsecure apartment.

“Well, no one could have it easy with these military grades. They’re craftier than your average andy after all,” he shrugged, giving you a pat on the shoulder. “Remember when Choi Seungcheol took almost three months to locate SVT-class Woozi? Man, I could still remember coming with him to a dozen places just to look for leads.”

As soon as Morrison reminisced memories with the former chief, you feel a bit heavy hearted. You did look up to him as your hero.

“You ever knew why he left?” you asked.

Morrison only shrugged. “Some say he just got tired of this awful job. Some say he was getting married. Most of them are just gossip anyway.”

You only sighed. “I guess we might never know the truth.”

“C’mon! Choi wouldn’t want you depressed! Straighten those shoulders! We have an andy to face!” your partner smiled, again giving a strong shove on your back. “Today’s just a commercial grade escapee. It wouldn’t be that hard. Peyton had it already detained and ready for questioning.”

Sucking in a huge amount of air and exhaling loudly, you prepped yourself up for some wonderful, heart-palpitating action.

“Alright! Let get it!”

As soon as the both of you entered the room, which was definitely a locker room prepared by the factory staff for your visit, you could already see the subject sitting quietly in front of a steel table; a dim white bulb only giving light to the gloomy room. It was definitely a classic cult-style interrogation room you’ve seen in vintage silent films.

“Good day to you sir,” Morrison greeted as he set his fedora on top of the table and prepped his V-T scale. “I am Agent Will Morrison. You are under suspicion of being an android and we will be administering this test to confirm it or not.”

“I told him so many times already! I’m being framed! The manager hates me and he’s been spreading those rumors!” the man screamed, his face heavy with fear and anxiety.

“We’ll see. If that’s the truth, then there’s no need to worry,” you retorted back with a clipped tone.

You then placed your hands on his shoulders, asking him to wear specialized VR glasses and then carefully arranging the electrodes attached to a spectrometer on his face.

“Settle down now. You don’t want to affect the test results, right?”

At your cleverly concealed threats, the man stopped his outbursts and looked at you in fear. You simply smiled at him before giving Morrison the go signal.

Identifying and hunting androids almost every single day of your life, you couldn’t even count in your head how many times they went for this flimsy cover-up story. They probably thought they were being clever or something.

“So, Jonathan West, age 35 and working as a plumber in one of Sector 3’s fertilization plants, correct?”

“Yes, sir,” the man replied, unbeknownst to him, the test was already starting.

“You are accused as the android who committed the Palmaide Apartment murders wherein six people were discovered to be brutally murdered and then embedded inside the concrete walls of the apartment.”

“Sir! I’m not android! Please believe me! I have a wife and two kids….! I-I can’t possibly be the murderer!”

You slid unnoticed under the shadows beside Agent Peyton, although still nearby enough to the subject that it would be easy to subdue it down if it goes berserk.

Watching the test being conducted for the nth time, you could easily claim to have memorized all hundred and fifty questions in the questionnaire.

Most questions are practically the same—asking how you would react to certain and usually gruesome scenarios—all designed to gauge micro-expressions and reactions. It is a common belief that androids do not have these sophisticated and almost undetectable movements on your face. Hence, the electrodes.

“I want you to immerse yourself in a certain situation,” you could hear Morrison speak as he turned on the virtual reality system. “Tell me what you think of it.”

Here it comes. Your thoughts turned rancid as you recalled the contents of that video. It was made to intentionally cause distress in humans—limbs being torn, live vivisections, disgusting lobotomies and other gruesome things that could make your stomach lurch; and more importantly, it is intentionally shown to be done to people the subject knows in real life.

Tests such as the Voight-Kampff Scale however are hardly perfect. Humans are complex creatures and are fundamentally unpredictable variables. Different people react to one single scenario in a million different ways. Even if you are looking for signs of empathy—a true testament of humanity—not everyone exhibits it the same way.

That’s why, no matter how many times you’ve blasted a hole through an andy’s head, you would always have this unreasonable nagging feeling underneath your gut that screams you might be wrong. You might actually kill an innocent person.

As you stood there and studied Jonathan West, you realized that his expression turned from disturbed to one of sheer horror. It was quite easy to know, to be honest—he turned pale and looked as if he just wanted to pluck his eyes out and forget that he ever seen what he was seeing right now. It was too real to be simple analog hack.

“Sir…I-I…please make it stop! Please, please….I can’t look anymore,” He muttered weakly, looking as if he was really going to puke big time, which prompted Morrison to immediately close the virtual reality system.

The man was still panting when it was shut down; visibly distraught by what he had seen. Agent Peyton, who was silent during the whole ordeal, then went to the man and asked him if he was alright. In the end, Peyton gave him a glass of water before the test proceeded as it should.

In your opinion, after that display, the subject was already leaning to the ‘most likely human’ side of the spectrum. He wasn’t making red flags which could mark him as an android, though he had a few quirks such as making a rather hollow laugh. Some humans have that kind of laugh, so you didn’t really mind it.

There are days when the excitement of discovering an android wouldn’t really pay you a visit. Sometimes, humans are mistaken as androids either because of their personalities, or by people who simply don’t really like them. Just like how it was in this case.

After a series of more questions and tests, Morrison was also convinced that Jonathan West was human. Besides, the processor level of the android you were looking for wasn’t capable of doing such complex analog hacks.

Even after a deliberation between the three of you outside of the room, it became a unanimous decision to exonerate the subject of any of the accusations placed on him. While you were still a bit doubtful, both Morrison and Peyton—men of more experience than you have as a bounty hunter—agree that West was human and the rumors simply might have been caused by office politics.

“Mr. West, the three of us have finished deliberating and we have decided that you are indeed as human as you could be,” Morrison began, sitting on the same seat he had been for the past few hours.

The man let out a heavy sigh of relief as he made a bashful smile. “Oh my god! Thank you so much, my good sir! Thank you! Thank you!”

Studying the exchange just beside Morrison, you made a small smile. In the end, you didn’t make a mistake and he still had a chance to live. Accidentally killing someone just because of some careless assessment was something you’d rather not go through in your entire life.

“Well, we thank you for giving us your time,” Morrison said as he stood up and walked towards the man, extending a hand. “And we apologize for the inconvenience.”

West shook his hand as they walked towards the door with you and Peyton following closely behind. It was finally over, and you could finally think about what you’d have for lunch. It’s been a while since you had some simple sandwiches. Going for a Subway down 14th Street would be great.

Your eyes found themselves again watching the man and your partner Morrison. You can’t stop smiling at how peaceful the day had become, contrary to what you were expecting.

“It’s no problem, sir!” West exclaimed. “Thank you for trusting me.”

You halted. Your smile faltering.

Those words rang loudly like a deafening siren in your head.

Someone had said those exact same words to you the day before, but for some reason, right now, those words made you shiver in dread; fear dropping down the pits of your stomach.

You instantly averted your alarmed eyes towards West who had been looking back at you as well.

He gave you a blank look.

He knew. You knew.

In just a span of a few seconds, you immediately seized his wrist, twisting it behind his back before tackling him to the ground. You saw the glint of a concealed knife in West’s hands before it flew away to some indiscriminate area of the room.

The man struggled yet he was pinned down by your whole body weight, unable to move—a tactic you learned through experience by subduing andys day in and day out.

Without a second thought, you grabbed your laser gun and fired it center of his forehead. The man lay still in a matter of seconds.

Your heart was beating wildly. You had finally done it.

For a moment, you feared that you might see blood and pieces of bone after the bright light of the laser dissipated. Yet when you finally stood up, huffing, the only thing you saw was the bright red glow of metal heated to melting point.

The two men beside you only stared at the motionless body of the andy with stunned expressions in their faces; unable to believe that they had almost made a grave mistake.

Everything it did was an incredible display of analog hacking.

Because androids are incapable of creating actual emotion, they simply react to the environment and transmit the appropriate response as dictated by the cloud and by their own programming as a means to communicate properly with humans. Using this technique and the fatal flaw of humans to anthropomorphize objects, androids are able to give the impression of ‘humanness’, of having a soul. That is analog hacking.

By ‘hacking’ through people’s ability to empathize, androids are able to deceive, to give a feeling that they too have a soul. It almost killed all of you today.

Eventually, your colleagues’ stares migrated to your direction while you were still gathering yourself.

“What?” was the only response you gave.

It was only until later that noon, as the three of you enjoyed a wonderful lunch at the 14th Street sandwich joint, when Morrison finally put an end to his curiosity.

“Say, YN,” he began, his mouth full of sandwich. “That andy earlier. How’d you know it wasn’t human?”

You were in the middle of sipping from your can of soda when he opened that question. You could only scrunch your brows together, looking for the right way to answer the question.

“Well…” you replied, unsure of how to say it. “I just…I guess I just knew. There’s really no secret behind it. We just exchanged looks and I knew he was about to stab you.”

Peyton nodded. “Pure instincts, huh?”

You knew he was only acknowledging your reason, yet to you, it felt like he was questioning whether you were telling the truth or not. And to be perfectly honest, you were lying by omission.

Because after all, you can’t just tell them that the way that andy said those words and the way Hansol said it, felt so drastically different.

It only took as far as thirty minutes for Hansol to get bored of your characterless apartment and began to get curious about the city of West Mars. Peeking from your dirty windows, all he could see were the tall skyscrapers, fluorescing still despite the morning sunlight, and the numerous utilitarian-looking factories doting the Martian landscape.

He guessed this was a neighborhood no one really fancied to go to, other than those who actually live here—the specials, the dirty, the outcasts. Even after a few hundred centuries, human civilization barely took one foot forward. Even after the Earth had died and most of the population moved to space colonies, life was still the same. There were still oppressors and the oppressed.

Hansol clutched his tightening chest; his eyes still transfixed at the smoke belching from the factory chimneys.

It had been months since he began to feel something. At first there were small bursts of ‘pressure’ in his chest, just some unexplainable pangs of ‘pain’, ‘guilt’, and ‘conscience’— it all began when his fellow android Joshua started murdering people. Six people; a family.

Hansol couldn’t bear to watch it and tried to stop him, yet he also got embedded into the wall with them. The only thing saving him was his ‘second brain’ or a backup processor installed only in him, which was supposed to aid him in his tactical assessments. Otherwise, he’d be dead as well.

He tried to save those people, but he had been a few hours late. In the end, he could only call the police. All this time, whenever he recalled that certain memory, he had to hold himself together. All sorts of things swirled inside him that he thought he might have had a hydraulic leak, but there was nothing physically wrong with him upon inspection.

Jihoon called it ‘emotion’, as soon as Hansol contacted him—born from the rumored empathy organ installed inside all the SVT-class androids. It blurred the lines between human and machine. Hansol couldn’t understand it, even until now, he didn’t have a tight grasp on such an abstract concept. All he knew is that he didn’t want to see anyone get hurt because of him anymore.

Just like those six people.

Caught himself in reverie, Hansol decided to explore the city some more. Staying in your apartment seemed to be making him…reflect. If that was the right word.

He silently apologized to you as soon as he stepped out of the front door, a bit guilty that he had to disobey. But he wanted to do a few things first, and most of them involves going out of your apartment. If he could just go out and then be back before you were back from work, it was as if he never went out in the first place. Well, at least to you.

Going wherever his feet took him, Hansol found himself out of the slums and in the middle of the busy city center.

The tall buildings from the distance were now like crystal towers before him, extending to eternal heights to the heavens beyond. The bright lights of large TV screens flashed in vivid technicolor as it sang ads for the miraculous Penfield Mood Organ, while the throngs of people clad in all white body suits walked across the glowing asphalts beneath their feet.

The thrum of city life vibrated all throughout the crossing like a magnetic field pulsing at every nanosecond; almost undetectable by an indifferent crowd, yet to Hansol, it was almost as if electromagnetic waves were coursing through his skin.

He placed his hand over his chest; trying to ground himself as soon as he felt his heart (if he did have one) soar over something much bigger than life. He tried to put his finger on what to call it, but he guessed the closest he could describe it would be something akin to what humans call ‘wonder’, or ‘amazement’ or ‘astonishment’.

 “Good morning, sir! I am Akito, the police android! Is there anything I can help you with?”

Just like that, Hansol’s bubble was popped as soon as the android appeared. It seemed like he had been standing in the middle of the city center for far too long that it made him quite suspicious.

“No, I…I’m about to go anyway. Thanks, Akito,” Hansol replied, still quite disoriented from the sudden intrusion, but left his place eventually.

Wandering around the area, he noticed a variety of shops and stores, and even some that he didn’t really understand what for. Yet when he was browsing over the different designs for the white body suits most people seemed to enjoy wearing (not like it had other designs), he found what he was looking for.

Well, first on the agenda, then.

After a rather filling lunch, you and your colleagues went out of the restaurant and hopped into the company hovercraft to go back to the office. Since the whole hunting went surprisingly well and ended earlier than expected, there weren’t any hunting jobs scheduled for the rest of the day.

As you laughed at the joke Morrison cracked about how Peyton didn’t utter a single word for the first six months when he joined the company, you spotted a rather familiar figure from the distance.

You frowned and inwardly groaned.

“Boys, I think I have a few errands to do in the city center. You go on ahead,” you told them as they looked at you in bewilderment but reluctantly agreed.

“Well if that’s the case, see you tomorrow, YN,” Morrison replied as he wore his hat again. “Good work today!”

“Thanks! Good working with you two as well!” you told them and the pointed at Peyton playfully. “Better start working on your goodbyes too. See ya!”

As soon as there where gone, making sure that their hovercraft were already a few miles away from where you were standing, you marched irately at the subject of your irritation. It seemed he had moved places from where you had first seen him but you doubted if he had seen you as well.  

“Mister, mister! Do that again!”

It did take time for you to finally locate him since he was pretty much easy to spot relative to the city dwellers who were in all-white body suits. Voices of children were getting louder as you went deeper inside the nearby park, and finally, you caught up to him blowing bubbles in sizes no one would probably be able to do other than him.

“Hansol,” you called behind his back, your hands on your hips and frown on your face. “Why’s your hair black?”

Eventually he turned around and saw your rather upset expression which made him avert his gaze back to the ground. The children around him (and yes they were wearing those stupid body suits) looked at the both of you in wonder, surprised that their entertainment aka Hansol had stopped blowing bubbles all of the sudden.

“Who’s she, mister?” a child asked, probably confused at your sudden appearance. “Your girlfriend?”

“Oh, no,” Hansol replied, ready to explain everything. “I’m actually an android—”

Letting him finish was something you’d rather not do, so you immediately covered his mouth.

“Sorry kids, we’ve gotta go now!” You apologized and then managed to drag him out of the park, away from all those children.

Reaching a faraway bench at a rather remote place, you made him sit and contemplate about what he had done. Hansol seemed to know what was wrong and proceeded to sulk at the far end of the bench with a downcast look.

“Well?” you began, your arms crossed and your brows furrowed. Standing in front of him like that, it only made him feel a bit more guilty.

“I, uh…I’m really sorry…” he replied, still unable to look at you. He didn’t calculate the fact that you might be in the same area as well thus his plan had failed. He should consider attaching a GPS tracker on you.

“Didn’t I specifically tell you to not go out of the apartment?” you reprimanded him. “You could be seen by my colleagues and you’d be dead!”

“Sorry…I just wanted to change my appearance so I could hide more easily.”

You groaned and sighed heavily.

“You could be killed! You were lucky it was me who caught you the other night! You think other bounty hunters would just magically trust you if you asked them pretty please?”

“Then why did you?”

Hansol threw back a question right at you like a curve ball and it hit you hard right at the gut. Taken aback, you simply pursed your lips and glared at him.

“Please don’t ask me that,” you replied and then abruptly turned around. “C’mon. Let’s go back.”

 Watching your retreating back, just like this morning, Hansol silently regarded you and your response. In the end however, he couldn’t understand anything, and eventually rose up from his seat and followed you home.

“Tell me more about yourself.”

You asked one day, as the both of you enjoyed a quiet breakfast on a Sunday morning.

It was clear to you that Hansol was not your ordinary android. He does things and says things which clearly were not ‘android’ by nature. As someone who identifies and hunts down androids for a living, you thought you already knew how to distinguish a human being from an android, but considering your confusion towards Hansol, it seems like you clearly do not.

Which is why, you had to ask.

“Me? Uhh…” Hansol scratched the nape of his neck, thinking what parts of himself should he tell you because there really was a lot of information about him. “Well…I’m an android designed for tactical assessments.”

You raised your brow at him, clearly pondering why that was the first thing he wished to share with you. “What does that mean?”

“Oh, I, uh…I gather data, consolidate them and then give an assessment of what choices the enemy could make during battle. I just give information and it’s Jihoon who would give the orders and the others would do the fighting. I’m a non-combatant type.”

“So that’s why your only weapon are those disks. They’re for self-defense,” you replied, leaning back. “Anything else?”

Hansol only stared at you, caught off guard that he had to provide more. “Uh…my birthday is on February 18.”

You nodded at him, unsure how his processor actually works, because it seems like he’s been giving you random things about him. “You mean your manufacturing date. Andys don’t give birth.”

“You could say it like that, but I like to think it’s my birthday,” he replied, and you arched another brow at him as you took a sip from your cup of coffee.

“Why?” you asked. The more Hansol talked, the more you sink into bewilderment. You regarded yourself as someone who could tell the difference between an android and a human being, yet right now, as you conversed with Hansol, that fine line was beginning to get blurry.

“I think,” he began, snatching you away from your thoughts, “I think there’s just something special with a birthday than a manufacturing date. It’s like…how do I say this…if you have a birthday, you matter as an existence. You were born to leave a mark in this world. As an android who isn’t exactly ‘alive’, I’d like to know what mark I would leave.”

Utterly speechless was what you were after you had heard Hansol’s explanation. It was weird, truly weird how he had the self-awareness to question his purpose, and you were sitting there wondering if any of the androids you had retired before had thoughts like this. If they did, you weren’t so different to a murderer as you thought you were.

As guilt began to spiral inside your gut, you tried to rationalize your concerns. Hansol was just different, probably using a novel way to use analog hack. Yeah, he’s probably analog hacking you—pretending to have deeper thinking and consciousness which he could easily access through the cloud. That scenario had the highest probability to be true.

“Oh, wow,” you replied hesitantly, gazing at the empty plate before you. “I—uh…I don’t think I’ve ever met an android like you.”

“Really?” he asked, his voice seemingly curious. “I guess maybe because we have an up-to-date processor….”

“Maybe you’re right.” You quietly scoffed. Are the organization’s labs really that advanced to even mimic human thought?

Smiling, you stood up from your seat. “Why don’t we take a breath of fresh air?”

Hansol glanced at you with a questioning look. “Where are we going?”

“Oh, just a trip to the grocery store.”

Hansol had several presumptions before he arrived to the West Martian Colony, before he had met you.

From what he had gathered in the cloud, human beings are always unpredictable. They were not run by any program, any command, not like his kind who were bound to the beck and call of a few strings of code. Humans follow their “heart” or whatever that means. They are selfish and cold, kind and warm.

Hansol was definitely apprehensive. He had never met any human being aside from his creator and a few scientists who would come and go into the labs like a cold draft. Yet despite that, Hansol knew deep down, that he doesn’t hate people. He certainly doesn’t hate you.

His brothers’ views towards humans were varying however. Hoshi, or Soonyoung was a lot more carefree, though he believed in the traditional roles of an android servant and a human master. Jihoon was too preoccupied with figuring what was wrong with him that he didn’t seem to care about them (though it seems like he has that sorted out now, according to his last status report). On the other hand, Joshua disliked people. He always made it clear to his brothers that humans were weak and that androids had long outpaced their creators.

Clear enough to make him murder people just to show you how he looks down on them.

It was interesting listening to them in past back in the labs. However, now that he had escaped and had met you, these memories began to resurface in his processor. Hansol had no idea why, to be honest. Was it because he was beginning to interact with a real human being in a much closer environment? That would be an interesting theory to explore, but right now, Hansol had to focus on where you were taking him.

“—are you sure you haven’t met another android before?” you asked him, the first part of your question he hadn’t caught. “I mean; don’t you have that info in your cloud?”

Hansol hummed, scratching his head. “I have my brothers and I met a few police androids, but other than that, I don’t have much experience. As for the cloud, it only stores pure information. We cannot derive actual experience from it.”

“Ah, I guess that’s right,” you replied, realizing that maybe it was like gathering information about something only through a book. It’s likely not going to make anyone instantly good at something.

For a while now, Hansol had been studying you. He was quiet about it, but he always wondered why you haven’t retired him yet. It was no secret that he was your assigned target, but surely, a mere plea from that night wouldn’t change your mind in an instant. Humans are so unpredictable.

“Hmm…we should sit here,” you suddenly said, stopping before a stone bench. “This has a great view of the shopping plaza.”

As you had said, it indeed held a spectacular view of the massive plaza just a few steps in front of you. There were several boutiques, cafes, stores of every shape and size—yet of course, it was as drab as it can be.

Everything was white, as Hansol stared at one giant building, from the stone ground to the shops, buildings and even the latex suits people wore as they walk around. The only redeeming feature it had were the ever-changing holographic ads shown on the white walls.

“Looks stupid, doesn’t it?” you remarked as you seated yourself on the bench with a cold expression.

“Is that why you’re not wearing those suits?” he asked as he sat beside you, glancing at the plaza.

“Everyone else in this city is stupid,” you told him, ignoring his question.

“Why?”

You snorted loudly. “Look at them Hansol. Why are they wearing those stupid suits from head to toe?  Look at how they’re all smiling so happily as if everything’s alright. It’s stupid.”

Hansol continued to stare at them, gazing at every face, every being in that plaza. Of course, he could remember all of them because of his impressive processor, yet despite that, he couldn’t understand what you were trying to say.

“But those are just clothes,” he replied, shrugging.

“Not sure if an andy like you would get it. But it’s more than a fashion trend. It’s an ideology.”

Ideology. He turned that word over and over inside his mind, trying to milk out anything substantial from that word alone. A way of thinking. What are these people thinking then whenever they decide to wear those body suits? Why would they do that?

Your questions seemed to have opened a whole new world for Hansol to explore. Human ideology; there were so many of that from the old century alone—liberalism, fascism, socialism. Why do humans subscribe to these thoughts and beliefs? And what would that mean to him as an android? Would he be able to subscribe to an ideology? Or had he always believed in one, just never realizing it?

If that’s the case, would he be able to find his purpose in it?

“What do they believe in?” he asked you, now fascinated.

Glad that he asked, you immediately replied.

“Purity. Cleanliness. Everything that is old is dirty, bad, and everything that is new is clean, good. I mean, I could understand why. It’s our fault that the Earth is basically a one big garbage dump. Maybe we just want to wash our hands clean from all of that guilt. I don’t know.”

“Why is that stupid then? I think that’s a valid reason.”

“That’s true,” you replied. “But that was how it was back then. It used to be an ideology. Now, after hundreds of years had passed, it had been so ingrained into the culture that no one really asks why is clean good and dirty, bad. People are being ostracized because of this and no one really understands why. It just seemed to have become desensitized. It’s true meaning forgotten.”

“What do you mean?”

You scoffed. “Ask one of them why they where those body suits and I bet you they would answer it with something like ‘it’s clean’ or some sort of bullshit. Ask why the Penfield mood organ is such a huge trend nowadays, or why they would submit themselves to chemicals just to induce happiness.”

“People couldn’t bear to feel any longer. Emotions have become so burdensome that it’s just easier to change your mood with one press of a button. They just do whatever other people do and, in the end, it became some sort of a mob mentality.”

For once, Hansol saw true despair in your eyes. Even if you appear to hate how the world is, he knew you were just deeply sad at how things ended up. Anger is after all, expressed when you are too sad to cry.

It struck a cord inside his processor, for some reason, as he felt the urge to do something to make you feel a little bit better. He didn’t understand why, but he knew what he should do.

Silently, Hansol took your hand, his fingers slowly intertwining with yours. He felt warm, was what you immediately thought while you anticipated what he was about to do.

“It must be lonely living in this city. There are people all around you but they all feel like ghosts. Passing by, passing through the walls and then disappear without a trace,” he began as he kept on gazing at your connected hands, talking as if he was expressing his actual thoughts.

“Hansol…?”

“That’s why, as this city becomes more and more alienating…” he continued; his honest eyes piercing right through yours. “I’ll be your friend.”

For a moment, you gazed at him, too stunned to even utter a sound. It was just a simple proposal of friendship, yet why does your heart feel like it’ll burst from the seams?

“W-why…?” you asked, becoming more and more conscious about how he was gripping your hand so tightly; his thumb brushing your skin in slow soothing circles.

“Why, you ask…I’m not even sure myself, but,” he replied, “Maybe I just want to make that sad look on your face disappear.”

You pursed your lips, head totally blank for any response.

You shouldn’t just say that to anyone, you know?

Not to me who’ve never felt something like this before.

The sound of lasers fired. Muffled voices; indiscernible against the background battle noise.

It was another day out in the field, and you were lucky there were five of you hunting a military grade android. During hunts like this, you don’t usually share the earn; it was all for the experience. Besides, how much would you even get if the bounty was divided upon five people?

You zeroed in on your prey. Shooting a laser beam at its direction, you deliberately let it miss as the android dodged it. When it had stopped running, you slid on the gravel and kicked its feet off the ground, then turned around faster than it could recover. As you aimed your two laser guns at it, the image of Hansol flashed in your brain, which made you hesitate to press the trigger.

“YN! Watch your head!”

To return to your apartment with a bandaged forehead and a huge frown on your face was enough to let the door slam behind you. It was both stupid and humiliating to falter in the middle of a simple mission like that, especially if the reason was the android living in your apartment.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. You were supposed to retire Hansol several months before yet here you are still hung up and getting more and more sentimental towards him as the days pass by.

You couldn’t help it. You were only human.

If he wakes you up in the morning with a smile and some PB & J; if he talks about his sudden interest in various things with an eager look; if he greets you as you return home from work, dinner on the table and then asking you about your day; if he holds your hand and says he’ll be your friend—could you even stop yourself from softening up?

You were clearly angry with yourself to let this whole thing get to this point.

Were you really that lonely that you would even find comfort in an android?

Tossing all of your equipment—V-T scale, laser gun and leather bag—on your worn-out sofa, you went straight to your bedroom and found the subject of your frustrations, sitting on the bed and looking at the window with a rather pondering gaze.

“Say, YN,” Hansol started, without even waiting another second to pass by. He probably knew that you were going home the moment you left the office.

“What?” you replied, unbuckling the holsters on your belt and all the safety gear you had on your body. “I’m not in a good mood so make it quick. I just got hammered by an android.”

Before he replied to you, Hansol decided to turn around and look at you with those eyes that seem to gouge the truth from the depths of your being. It made you halt all your fussing and returned his stare back at him.

“How do you know the difference between an android and a human being?” he asked which made you turn your head slightly. What a simple question to ask a bounty hunter.

“Well, isn’t that obvious?” you replied as you placed your hands over your hips. “Humans have empathy while androids don’t.”

“But what if something was invented to make android experience empathy? What then?”

You blinked several times at his second question and then began chuckling. “You mean an empathy organ? Sorry to burst your bubble but that’s not even real. It’s an urban legend.”

Hansol made a side eye as he pondered what he was going to say next, his expression basically unchanged.

“Just hypothetically speaking, if an empathy organ does exist, how would you know the difference now?”

“Eh…if we’re hypothetically speaking, then I don’t really know. I wouldn’t be able to hunt anymore if that’s the case. I can’t risk making a mistake and kill someone, not to mention that if androids begin crying before me and beg me for their lives, I wouldn’t be able to shoot them at all.”

As soon as you uttered those words, you paused and contemplated.

You gazed back at him—realization dawning on you; your eyes wide with incredulity.

It was no longer a matter of if. Someone had already begged you for their life and you didn’t shoot them.

No. No way.

That’s not possible.

At your silence, Hansol never confirmed or denied your realization and simply stared at you with those powerful eyes; waiting for you to finally digest it all.

“This isn’t hypothetical at all, is it?” you finally asked, your expression uneasy.

“No, it isn’t.”

You sighed frustratingly but it made sense.

If Hansol really has an empathy organ, everything he did—asking you to trust him, his un-Android like responses, him holding your hand—everything made so much sense. And while it did provide some answers, it gave you more questions as well.

First of all…

“H-How is that possible?!”

Hansol shrugged at your sudden outburst. “That’s why we escaped from the organization. We don’t know how it works or if it’s really installed inside of us, so we went our separate ways.”

“So…so…!” you pointed your finger at him, still incredulous. “There’s more of you?”

“Yeah. All of the SVT-class androids have empathy organs installed while we were being made in the organization’s laboratories. At least that’s how Jihoon suspected it.”

“Jihoon?”

“Yes. SVT-class Type-07 Woozi. He stayed behind the labs to search for our original creator. He did find her daughter and they’re working on an experiment to test the validity and the effectivity of the empathy organ.”

For a minute you felt like the ground was going to swallow you whole. There was too much go on, too much information that you can’t properly process them all. Falling on your knees to the ground as you leaned against the bed for support, you felt like you were going to have an aneurysm.

“YN? Are you ok?” Hansol dashed to your side in Mach speed, his hand easily finding your back.

For Pete’s sake! You’re the reason why I’m not ok!!

“I’ll get you a glass of water and some ice for your head injury. It seems like it could be the cause of your headache,” he told you and the disappeared towards the kitchen, completely oblivious of your dilemma.

Goddamn it.

Didn’t Choi Seungcheol retire Woozi already? If the andy’s still alive then did he fail the mission? If he did, then why did he confirm that he retired Woozi?

And then it seems like there are more empathy organs out there. Not to mention I’m living with an andy who’s supposed to have one.

It wasn’t even two minutes before Hansol was back with a glass of water which you promptly drank, and then allowed him to settle himself behind you while he was giving a cold compress to your head—all done without complaints because you were too lost in your thoughts.

No. No. No.

An empathy organ is just a myth! Something like the Holy Grail or something! It’s impossible for Hansol to have one!

But…it just fits so well with all the strange things he had done so far! Who android would hold your hand just because you looked sad?

Wait. Get yourself together, YN.

Hansol is just a weird android.

He’s totally chill and a bit spaced out. He sometimes says really deep stuff and then comforts you so gently that your problems just melt away.

That’s…That’s what androids are supposed to be right?

Without even realizing, Hansol had already wrapped his arms around your waist. It was only until you were done with your internal monologue that you realized the warmth you felt from behind you.

“Wha-what are you doing!” You exclaimed, though still unable to move because of how he was holding on to you tightly.

“Oh, this?” he began, completely oblivious to your embarrassment. “I’m embracing you. I wanted to know if it feels as warm as what the cloud tells me.”

You groaned, struggling to get free. “Don’t patronize me! I know what a freakin’ hug is! Now, let me go!”

Instead of opening his arms, Hansol instead pulled you closer to him, making you flush even more. “Sorry. Just endure it a bit longer. The data I’ve gathered is still incomplete. Besides, now that you know about the empathy organ, it’s safe for me to test it on you, right?”

“What! I never—”

As soon as you met his eyes, you were unable to finish the rest of your words. There he was again with those eyes that just makes you screech into a complete halt. It was so intense that it almost gave you shivers down your spine.

“Do you really hate it?” he asked again. “I’ll let you go.”

You allowed a few moments to pass by—the sound of passing cars and the incessant ticking of the clock was what you could hear, as well as your faint breaths.

“Fine. Do whatever you like,” you finally conceded and leaned against chest. It was warm.

With a calm smile, he nuzzled against your shoulder. “How did you get that injury?”

“Oh, this? I almost got my head whacked by an android,” you replied plainly, almost forgetting that you were actually having a bad day because of what had happened.

“That’s unusual.”

“You could say that again. I just got…distracted.”

Hansol raised his brows at your reply; noting the pause between your words. Since he cannot place his chin on your head, he decided to prop himself on your shoulder, his lips near your ear.

“Was it because of me?”

You jumped at the sound of his voice being so near to your ear. It made you ticklish and pulled back away from him just for a tiny bit.

“You’re too close!” you exclaimed, flushed and uncharacteristically nervous. “And I didn’t get distracted because of you!”

He sighed at your response. “Sorry. But I’m glad it wasn’t because me. I’ll be troubled if I distract you from your work.”

Pursing your lips, you only returned to your original position in silence. You have been distracted me from work since the beginning.

“Maybe I can help you?” Hansol continued talking when you didn’t reply.

“With what?” you chuckled cynically. “Hunting androids? Don’t you feel bad about killing your own kind?”

“Well, some humans don’t feel bad if they kill other people. What’s the difference?”

You scoffed. “Touché,”

“I’ll help you if you’re in trouble.” He pressed on and you could only groan in exasperation. While he tends to be a bit spacey, he can also be stubborn. It’s not like you can stop him if you refused.  

“You’re weirdly obstinate—”

About to add an explanation, your words were cut short however by the doorbell. You stood up to get it but got dizzy from the sudden change that Hansol decided that you better sit down and rest.

As he padded his way across the living room, Hansol opened the door to see no one except for a bag of food on the ground. He tried to look around and assessed the surroundings, yet he found nothing suspicious.

Confused, he leaned his head to the side and eventually decided to take the food inside. It didn’t seem harmful.

“Wonder who that was,” he muttered before going back inside.

As a freeloader, Hansol took it upon himself the responsibility of maintaining your apartment in tip-top shape. From the floor to the ceiling; to every nook and cranny he finds—he made sure that everything was sparkling clean to the point that you thought you went to a different apartment when you went home.

It was easy to pretend he was a regular every day helper android since he always kept to himself at most times, and other than visiting a regular antique vinyl shop in an indefinite area of the city, he never really did anything out of the blue.

Hansol had two leeks, one in each hand as he assessed which one was the best using his state-of-the-art processor. The engineers at the labs probably never thought his military grade processor would be used in this way but it was extremely helpful. He tossed the one on his left to his grocery cart and the other back to the stall—concluding that it was already at 40% freshness and most of the chlorophyll and other biominerals had died out.

One of his responsibilities was making sure that groceries and other supplies in your apartment were well-stocked. And while it did make you furious at how he easily hacked into your bank account to access money, you eventually gave him permission to go on grocery trips for you because of how he efficiently did everything.

He turned his cart to the left, its squeaky rusting wheels making it hard to keep it moving in a straight line.

Next stop was the chicken aisle. He remembers seeing a photo of you in the cloud as you enjoyed a bucket of chicken nuggets, and he plans to make them for dinner that night. Halting the troublesome cart before the freezers, Hansol checked the display if there were any of the chicken nuggets he wanted to buy.

“This one’s too expensive…” he told himself in contemplation.

“Hi! I’m Martin of Fresh Daily Chicken! How may I help you?”

And there were those androids again.

Hansol knew they were just following their program but it was getting on his nerves. They kept on bothering him every single time he went out that it was very tempting to just dissemble them in front of his eyes.

“I’m fine, Martin. You can go help someone else,” he replied, wondering if there was an edge to his tone as he returned the chicken back to the freezer.

Instead of leaving though, Martin gripped Hansol’s arm tightly, as the other stopped and glared at the android with suspicion. In a beat, Hansol flicked his hand away and stood still for a moment, assessing the situation at hand. Nanoseconds pass, he finally realized what was happening.

“Joshua. What are you doing here?”

His voice was filled with animosity; his eyes like fire flickering. Hansol knew his brother was up to no good as soon as he showed up using a hacked android.

“Sharp as ever, aren’t we?” the android replied, the tone of its usual monotonous voice reflecting the malice of the hacker behind it all. “I guess I should expect no less from an android made to evaluate things.”

Hansol wasn’t having any of this small talk. “If you don’t have anything important to say, I’m leaving.”

“And what? Play house with your bounty hunter?” the android sneered. “She doesn’t trust you as much as you trust her, you know?”

Hansol threw daggers at the android with his eyes. “What are you talking about?”

It made a rather hollow chuckle. “Did you forget how despicable humans are? She’s planning on retiring you and your pleading won’t help you now. That’s why…”

“That’s why what?” Hansol felt uneasy.

“That’s why I’ll help you finish her off first.”

Like the wind howling, the android’s words felt like a siren blaring right into his ears. If he had any blood, it would’ve been boiling by now. If only looks could kill, the android would’ve been long dead.

“No. I don’t need your help and I never will. Get fuck out of here before I—”

“Fine, fine,” it responded rather dismissively, unperturbed by Hansol’s threats. “But if you need me, I’m just one call away.” 

And just like that, Joshua disappeared. “Hi! I’m Martin of Fresh Daily Chicken! How may I help you?”

Hnasol sighed and returned to his grocery shopping.

“Empathy organ?”

A boisterous laugh was all you could hear across the otherwise silent donut shop. You frowned, clearly annoyed.

“Didn’t know ya believe in those bullshit urban legends, YN.” Your boss replied, crumbs falling down his shirt, and thus has been looked at disgustedly by the people around you.

“Just answer the damn question, please,” you replied, giving him a not-too-pleased expression.

“What can I say?” he shrugged, “It ain’t real.”

You hold off clicking your tongue, and instead averted your gaze to the window beside you, towards the quiet concrete and asphalt streets of West Mars. Thinking that you could achieve something by bribing your boss with donuts, was a dashed dream. He easily dismissed the notion, now munching on some more donuts you had bought with your own pay.

“Doesn’t matter if it’s real or not. I just want to hear what you know about it,” you insisted, pushing your plate of donuts to his side.

He gulped in some coffee. “Well, for one, we don’t know where it is. Rumors say it was made by an engineer in the org, and they died without telling anyone.”

An engineer in the org? You felt like you have two pieces of the puzzle right below your nose, yet you couldn’t wad through the multitude of memories you had.

“Some say it was silently waiting in that engineer’s lab, but not gonna lie, doll, I myself don’t think it’s in there. Can’t be too easy,” he eagerly chomped on a bavarian. “It was prolly never built, kinda a blueprint of some sort.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean why?” Your boss chuckled again. “It’s just not possible! Look, have you ever heard of the phrase ‘good in theory but not in practice’? It’s just like that. You can’t build something science can’t even understand.”

You slumped on your chair, disappointed at his replies.

“C’mon now, doll. Stop digging around urban legends and focus on getting more andys to retire,” he continued when you didn’t reply. “Besides, you still got that SVT andy on your plate, don’t ya? Better set your eyes on that. These military grades ain’t just your ordinary tin foil man.”

Sighing, you silently berated yourself for letting this situation go out of hand.

“Alright. I’m still working on it though.”

You really weren’t. The fact that Hansol was still alive and kicking after several months since you the assignment dropped to your lap was proof that you were procrastinating. And becoming weaker.

You cursed yourself.

“Just a little warning for you. These andys, like the SVT line, are notoriously good at analog hacking. So, do be careful with handling them. Just because they told you you’re friends, ain’t gonna stop them from killin’ you when it suits them. They’re smarter than you’d expect.”

Pursing your lips, you felt your boss’ words weigh down upon you like a pile of stones.

You shouldn’t have trusted Hansol.

It was a gamble you shouldn’t have made in the first place.

The sun was already high and bright; blinding your eyes with its garish lighting as you stood before an android you just made into Swiss cheese with the number of holes you created a few seconds ago. Kicking off the dead weight, you decided to find the other one.

Another day out in the field means another chance to falter and fail even in a simple mission. You had already hesitated once and it had cost you a head injury. If you hesitate again, what would it cost you this time around?

It was getting into your nerves.

Was it truly wise to trust Hansol all this time?

Even if he had no intention of hurting you, it was your job to retire runaway andys before they harm anyone. Therefore, it makes sense to shoot him dead with a laser gun; no questions asked.

Then what was stopping you?

You stalked the andy a few meters away from you like a lion in a hunt; eyes laser focused and ears picking up every minute shuffle. The laser guns on both your hands were ready to shoot yet it wasn’t the right time or place.

Running a few meters away, you shot a few laser beams into the air; the sound echoing across the apartment rooftops in resounding waves. Your target tensed up; alarmed at how the sound was nearby.

You laid your trap.

The android began calculating the most efficient way out and then stood up from its hiding place, unaware that it was the moment you were waiting for. It jumped towards the nearest building and crouched beside a water tank, sniffing the air of your presence.

You grinned. “Looking for me?”

The android looked up, its eyes blank but you knew it was surprised. With two laser guns on both your hands, you aimed at it from the top of the water tank, the sun casting a glare over you. Lunging from its position, it made a narrowing escape as it sacrificed one leg to a laser beam.

It was all over.

You caught up and then threw it to the ground with one harsh kick. Stepping over its torso; effectively pinning it down, you took one good look.

“Did you know that it takes about three minutes for the Nexus 7 processor to calculate the next best move?” you told the android, despite knowing it wouldn’t really listen to you. “Enough time for me to set you up.”

“In the past, it only took you a minute.”

The android rebuked you, making you scrunch up your brows. How the hell did it know that?

“You’ve grown weaker, bounty hunter,” it continued, a grin creeping up to its lips; making its rather soulless expression more unnerving. “Could it be that you like us now?”

“Shut up,” you replied, aiming the two guns at its head. “That’s not going to stop me from retiring you.”

“What if I beg for my life then? Will you spare me now?”

You stopped.

The hands clutching your guns became unsteady. Its words zeroed in at your predicament just like how you had obliterated its leg with numerous laser beams—mocking you; taunting you with your weakness for Hansol.

“You think you could separate androids into your moralistic categories of good and bad? That android is only using you, you know? Like poison, gradually weakening your resolve until you could no longer pick up your laser gun. And when that time comes, he would strike and he will kill you.”

Your temper flared up.

You pressed the triggers furiously, your foot holding it still as laser after laser shot through its head. Even if the head was no longer recognizable, you continued to shoot just to please the rage and frustration weighing inside of you.

As the concrete beneath your feet began to weaken, you eventually stopped; realizing what you were doing all this time. Breaths heavy and eyes wide, you stared at the android which became, more or less, bits and pieces of burnt metal and hydraulic cables.

It still irritated you, so kicked it as far as you could so you wouldn’t be able to see it.

When you returned to the office to hand over the post-hunt report, Morrison was waiting for you t your desk; the serious and alarmed look on his face making you anxious.

“Morrison,” you acknowledged him, tossing your report to your table as well as your various work equipment. “What brings you here?”

“YN. We need to talk,” he replied, his tone of voice not so different that you had originally assumed which only heightened the tension of the situation.

As you followed behind him, you wondered what he wanted—was it about your dwindling work performance? Are you getting fired?

You only knew the answer to your questions when he stopped by a deserted hallway and then faced you. It was all your fears could ever hope for.

“Please tell me YN, that the person living in your apartment isn’t the SVT andy, Vernon.”

Your heart, along with your gut immediately dropped.

“W-what…”

“A few months ago, I saw you with someone walking around the city. I thought it was your boyfriend so I ignored it. The other day however, I heard you got injured so I went and delivered you dinner. That’s when I realized that the person you’re with was the SVT andy.”

If only the ground could swallow you whole. If only you could disappear at that exact moment. You had no explanation. You had been found out. You had nothing in your defense and the only thing you could do was hang your head low and avert your gaze out of guilt and shame.

“YN…”

“I’m sorry…” you replied, voice just above a whisper.

“Is that andy holding you hostage? Is it threatening you?” Morrison asked out of concern as soon as he saw you. “I could help—”

“No. This is my own doing,” you replied. “This is my own fault.”

“Then…why?” he asked. “Among all of us here, you were the one who hated them the most. Have you become sentimental towards them?”

“How the hell would I know!” You screamed as you tremble in both rage and despair. “Do I look like I’m enjoying it right now? Look at how weak I’ve become! Look how I almost died just because I hesitated to pull the trigger!”

“YN…I—”

“Shut up. All of you shut up,” you cut him off. “This is my problem and I’ll solve it on my own.”

Turning to the side, you marched down the hallway and left Morrison stunned and worried about you.

You tightened your fists until your knuckles turned white. Guilt, shame, anger—everything swirled inside of you like a thick soup; slowly pushing you downwards to a spiral of turmoil.

Androids would always be androids no matter what they say. Hansol was only using the way he knew he would survive. Even if it meant deceiving you.

You were angry.

More to yourself than anybody however.

How could you let yourself be swayed by an android’s sweet talking? You felt like an idiot; trusting his words, getting soft and sentimental for a mere android. You were weak and you hated it. Like slow moving magma, your rage was scalding you from the inside until you could no longer bear it. You pushed pass the entrance way and escaped to the streets of West Mars.

How could you be so susceptible? How could you allow him to easily manipulate you using your own desperate need for companionship? How could you allow yourself to succumb to such a baser kind of human emotion?

As a bounty hunter, you should’ve tossed all of them aside a long time ago. You should’ve been erased that weakness when you first began.

Yes, it was lonely. But in order to succeed, one must be alone on top of the mountain with no one to depend on.

You allowed the day to pass you by. As the afternoon became night and the flashing lights of the city returned to illuminate the streets with animations at a million frames per second, you sat high above a building and watch it al unfold like flowers blooming at night. As the dark skies slowly encroached the sunset reflecting the red dunes of Mars, you waited for the exact moment to solve all of your problems.

Problems of your own doing is something you have to solve by yourself. It was your fault that you believed in him when you clearly knew you shouldn’t have. Even if it weighs your heart, the guilt you felt was heavier.

You shouldn’t have allowed things to get to this point. Thus, you reap what you sow.

Head still swimming, you returned to your apartment at the wee hours of the morning. It was the perfect time; the calculated time—because you knew Hansol was at the living room, charging up next to a wireless charging station he himself had built. You saw him at that exact position; sitting, leaning against the wall with head hung low as a circular light glowed underneath the skin of his nape.

You knew what you have to do.

He was defenseless before you; asleep and unaware of what you are about to do. It was perfect this way— he couldn’t say anything, he couldn’t do anything, he couldn’t feel anything.

As you looked at his sleeping figure, you couldn’t help but notice how his now dark hair tumbling against his forehead in a soft caress, how his long eyelashes padded gently across his skin, how his soft breaths echoed across the room. Even at these last moments, he still caught you off guard.

Yet beautiful things erode and fade away like the fleeting spring.

You raised the laser gun to his forehead, your finger already by the trigger.

You can do it YN. Just one press and he’ll be gone. All your problems will be gone, and you’ll be able to return to your everyday life. You’ve done this so many times already.

He’s only an android.

‘…Vernon is my model name, but I want to go by my own name.’

He can be easily manufactured again and again like a replaceable object.

‘…As an android who isn’t exactly ‘alive’, I’d like to know what mark I would leave.’

Your hands trembled as your chest tightened into a vice grip. You couldn’t breathe.

Stop it.

He’s only using you for his own means. You don’t matter to him.

‘I’ll be your friend.’

‘Maybe I just want to make that sad look on your face disappear.’

He looked so peaceful, so innocent and so forgiving. Not like you who had been dirtied by the sins of humanity. You knew that even if you shot him, he would still smile and say ‘I understand.’

Shut up. Shut up. Shut up!

He’s just faking everything. He’s just deceiving you YN.

‘Thank you for trusting me.’

You screamed one painful cry; your knees giving way and sunk to the carpet in a thud. Hands propping you up as tears continued to stream down your face, you couldn’t stop crying all the pain you held inside for all these years. It was too painful.

You can’t do it.

“Just kill me now, goddamn it!” you shouted yet your eyes were looking at the floor, too scared to know if he was awake or not. “If you’re planning to kill me eventually, then do it now! Kill me now while I still trust you!”

In the midst of your endless sobs, you felt strong arms pull you into a tight embrace; wrapping you with all the love and warmth he could muster in one single action. You could only bury yourself to his chest, clutching to his shirt as if you were holding on to him for support.

“Kill me now, Hansol…”

“I won’t kill you YN. I have no intentions of ever hurting you,” he whispered as he brushed your hair gently with his fingers.

“How could you fucking say that!” you exclaimed; screams muffled. “I keep on hurting you! Hell, I even pointed a gun to you while you were sleeping! How…how could you just forgive me like that…”

“You only did what you needed to do, and if you need to kill me, then I wouldn’t mind dying. I understand that there are things you must sacrifice.”

As soon as you heard those words, you looked up to him with aghast. You could see that despite what he had said, you saw a flicker of pain in his eyes; a sadness that was accepted because there are things you simply cannot change.

“W-why…?” you asked as your heart poured out for him. “Why are you saying that even though it hurts you…?”

Hansol made a small smile and wiped away the tear stains away from your cheeks. “Because you’re the first person who ever trusted me, and it made me so happy to stay by your side all this time. That’s why even if it hurts, I feel relieved that I can at least make you happy in return.”

Stabbing pain filled your chest as if you were being pierced through by laser beams numerous times. You could feel yourself tremble as tears threatened to spill from your eyes once again; grasping to his shirt as if he might slip away any time soon.

“You fucking idiot…!” you muttered through your sobs. “You think I can still retire you after saying that? I can’t do it. I can’t…Hansol…I don’t know how or why but you matter so much to me now.”

His hand that was on your cheeks continued to caress you as gently as he could; not letting you go until you stopped crying. For some reason, he felt touched that you were pouring out all of your thoughts to him among all people in the world.

“I always kept myself so busy all this time just to distract me from all the loneliness I was feeling. I always try to be tough and cold so that my emotions wouldn’t get the best of me. But…but you showed me something I had thrown away a long time ago. You cared for me even though I tried to kill you so many times and it hurts so much how you are able to forgive me like that. I don’t deserve any of these, Hansol. I don’t deserve you.”

As he comforted you, he could feel his chest swell with so much emotion. You were crying for him, and he couldn’t help but share a bit of that pain as well. Picking up your hand, he slowly intertwined his fingers around yours and gazed at you with those eyes that easily seized you; body and soul.

“I feel like I should be saying something now but I don’t know what,” he whispered. “That’s why, I’ll just show you how I feel.”

Cupping your cheek with his hand, Hansol slowly reduced the distance between the two of you until his lips met yours in a soft and gentle kiss. It was warm and peaceful and light—as if everything which held you down were released and swept away by the cool breeze. You held on to his hand tightly, never letting go of this exact moment as you etched it vividly into your memory.

As the both of you pulled away, you gave him a small bashful smile.

“I think ‘I like you’ would be the best thing to say,” you whispered to him as he gave a toothy grin.

“You finally smiled,” he remarked as he allowed your foreheads to touch.

“Because of you.”

The both of you stayed that way until you felt your heart calm down. That night seemed to have uprooted all of your being—everything that you have built upon yourself for all these years was turned upside down. It was like a transformation; yet rather than frightening, it felt cathartic in some sense.

“Say, YN,” Hansol started, breaking the companiable silence the two of you shared. “Why did you become a bounty hunter?”

“Hm?” you hummed, gazing at your carpet as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. “Good question. Why did I become a bounty hunter?”

“You don’t know the answer?”

“I do know why,” you replied as you became more contemplative. “I think I was just too angry at the world. Angry that I was all alone; angry that no one really cared. So, I searched for ways to release that anger. That’s when I found myself wanting to be a bounty hunter.”

He pulled you closer, nuzzling to your shoulder; wanting to give comfort to the both of you. “Did you grow up like that?”

Amused by his question, you chuckled. “The thing is, when you are made from a glass incubator, it feels like you’re an artificial existence. Even if there are parents or siblings, most of them just kind of want to play house or something. When they’re done, you get thrown out. That’s it. And somehow just like that, I ended up all alone.”

Hansol was quiet, feeling like you weren’t done talking yet.

“When I met you…when I got to spend time with you, it felt like I was in a foreign territory. I wasn’t used being taken care of. It’s always just me so, I was scared as fuck that maybe this wonderful thing wouldn’t really last. That maybe you were just deceiving me and I was being an idiot for believing that life would finally give me some slack.”

You continued. “That’s why, I thought…let’s just end this with my own two hands. That way I can still have my dignity intact.”

As soon those words left your lips, the android embracing you hugged you tighter—a silent declaration that he was never going to let you go; that you deserved better and he will give everything just to make you happy.

“I don’t think I can ever leave you, YN. I was lucky that it was you who I met that night. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to understand myself or what I was feeling. I wouldn’t be able to experience a normal everyday life if I hadn’t met you. You have become someone important to me as well.”

At that night, as you finally fell asleep on Hansol’s shoulders, he easily carried you to your bed and gently laid you there without making a sound. Unable to resist, he slipped under the covers and silently watched your chest breathing in and out.

It was the first time he felt this way. It was unbelievable.

Combing your hair as softly as he could, Hansol contemplated this future with you. He was incredibly happy, if that was how the beautiful feeling in his chest should be called—how you embraced him tightly, how you grinned at him and held his hand. Those were things he could never forget.

With that said, he had to ensure that everything would stay as it is as long as it could. Using the built-in network among the SVT-line androids, he made a call.

Beep. Beep.

Click.

“Hello, brother? It’s me, Hansol. I need your help.”

The sun was still shining like any other day; as if it was unbothered by the egregious happenings of your life. Just like how it was during your first day as a bounty hunter.

Yet everything was different now. The anger that you held on to for far too long was released to the polluted city air just like scattered ashes of a bygone age. Now you have to rebuild yourself from scratch; to start anew and live differently than what you were doing all these years. Yet you weren’t alone this time, you had Hansol to support you along the way as the both of you rediscover life and the whole point of it.

That’s why it’s important to cut the few loose strings you had and tie them securely so they wouldn’t unravel in the future.

It was your last day on the job. Your last hunt.

“YN.”

You heard Morrison call you, turning to the direction where you had heard him. You were about to leave with your hovercraft to the designated location where the andy was reported yet he had stopped before you ever could.

“Last time, I—”

“It’s ok,” you cut him off. “I think I needed it to realize what I truly want to do with my life. Being a bounty hunter taught me a lot but I guess we just overgrow things.”

“Are you sure?” he asked you.

“Yes, you could say I was happy with my decision.” You scratched the nape of your neck. “You know, I think I understand now why Choi Seungcheol left.”

Morrison grinned. “Oh, really now?”

“Yeah. I think he realized the same thing as I did,” you replied, hands on your pockets. You just can’t live with anger in your heart.

Your partner genuinely smiled at you and give you a pat on the back. “Well then, it was great working with you, YN. You’ve been phenomenal.”

“Thank you. It was a pleasure working with you as well Morrison,” you grinned. “Now, time to go for my last hunt.”

“Good luck. Don’t go easy on the andy now,” he replied while you hopped into your hovercraft.

“You bet I won’t,” you replied, smiling. “Well, see you later then!”

With those words, you turned on the hovercraft as it slowly ascended to the skies. You could see down below Morrison who was looking up at you with a bittersweet smile on his face. This business was indeed dying.

“Alright. Time for my swan song.”

Your destination for today was in Sector 12, where all the warehouses and cargo facilities were located as they enter the West Martian colony. The andy in question was a normal escapee posing as a cargo boy—which was as common as it could get.

You hoped that your last andy should’ve at least been a little more challenging. But alas, you can’t have everything.

Turning the steering wheel to the side, you avoided a tall building and continued cruising through the sector with nothing much in mind. That is until something entered the hovercraft; making it shake through the skies like a rogue vehicle.

You clung to the wheel as you braced the impact, avoiding getting tossed to the air like a pancake. Still recovering from the shock, you were greeted by a punch which completely obliterated the hovercraft’s UI and had just missed your head by a hair.

Turning around, you saw that it was the android you were supposed to retire today—seemingly fallen from god knows where to your lap. Just like how Hansol just came to you that night. Lucky.

“Don’t underestimate me, fucker,” you exclaimed as you grabbed its arm with both your hands and levered it with your shoulder to the air, sending it flying to one of the buildings below. Taking your two trusty laser guns, you jumped off of the already derailing hovercraft before it plummeted to the ground in an explosion of fire and smoke.

Landing safely to one of the rooftops, you spotted the andy running away from you.

“Hey! Don’t get cowardly now!”

Shouting, you continued to shoot laser beams at its direction, pissed that it was playing some game of tag. With a head start of a few meters and an exceptional speed, there was no way you could ever catch up to an android. The only way you could ever gain an advantage was to play the strategy game.

Disappearing from view, you hid yourself as you pursued it; minding your distance so it wouldn’t be able to detect your presence with any of its scanners. Since the andy you were after had a Nexus 6 processor, it can see you through thermal readings which had a scanning radius of a few meters.

Confused of your vanishing act, the android in question stopped running and looked around. There was no sign of you yet you can see it using a special set of goggles which was luckily inside your pocket than in the hovercraft.

As it walked in search of you, you fired your laser guns to the distance which predictably alarmed the android and dashed to where it came from. And just like that, you were able to lay your ambush—jumping out from high ground and trapping it in place.

When do they even learn? You’ve done this technique so many times that it was hardly clever strategy to you anymore.

You shot it with your laser gun, missing its head in just a few centimeters. That however, was a fatal mistake as it swerved your leg around, tripping you to the ground in the process. Without stopping, the android then aimed for your head with its fist which could’ve easily broke your skull if not for the fact that you rolled out of the way just in time.

Even if your head was still reeling and you were still on the ground, you kicked its torso with both your feet as it staggered and lost balance. You ran off somewhere, picking up both your laser guns as it continued to pursue you.

Man, I judged this way too early.

Now that the tables have turned, the both you found yourselves inside a warehouse complex devoid of any human or andy. It was kind of strange that there was no one in sight except for the both of you, yet you shouldn’t really be wondering about that when an andy is after you with a huge metal pipe.

Now that you think about it, why was it even running after you? And why did it attack you in the first place? Shouldn’t it be running away from you?

You couldn’t find time to answer those questions when a pipe was hurled at your direction, hitting the cargo container you were hiding behind and piercing through the metal. You could’ve died if not for your quick reflexes. Clearly annoyed at being in the defensive, you faced the android square on and fired your laser guns at it as fast as you could.

A laser beam hit it on its chest and then on its legs, creating rather large gaping holes on its body. When you were near enough, you kicked it hard; crashing against the doors of the warehouse which opened upon impact. In one final blow, you shot through its processor at point blank.

It fell down to the ground in one swoop. It was all over. The final hunt was done.

“YN…?”

You heard your name being called by a familiar voice you never expected to hear while you were in the middle of a hunt. In an instant, you turned your head and saw with great surprise the person you had trusted the most.

“Hansol? What are you doing here?”

“No, what are you doing here?” he answered back. “You shouldn’t be here!”

“Looks like the final guest has arrived.” A figure from the shadows appeared; a gentle expression was on his face yet there was something dark looming just underneath his presence. “Took me some time to get you moving but looks like it went well.”

“Joshua, what’s the meaning of this?” Hansol asked, his eyes dark like coal; brimming with suspicion and fury.

“Joshua? Isn’t he one of your brothers and wasn’t he the one responsible for the AI hack that night?” You asked Hansol with incredulity bearing in your eyes.

You were standing there in the midst of it all, mouth ajar and eyes wide; unable to follow what was happening. You didn’t understand why Hansol was there or why he seemed to dislike his brother. If anything, it all seemed to suspicious.

“You’re right, YN. I am one of Hansol’s brothers and the AI hack was my work,” the android calmly replied which made you feel uneasy.

“And there’s no meaning at all, brother. I just wanted to meet YN,” he replied, shrugging with a carefree smile. “And besides, you did ask for my help.”

“I didn’t ask for your help. I came because you threatened to hurt her.”

Hurt me? You dared to take a look at Joshua who seemed to notice your apprehension yet only smiled so serenely—making it even more menacing.

“Ah, as honest as ever, huh?” Joshua replied as he pocketed his hands. “Or not.”

There was no denying that Hansol gazed at Joshua with contempt; the first time you have ever seen him display such a negative emotion. You now wondered what Joshua had done in order to push Hansol, who was as kind as ever, to treat him that way.

“Did you forget what happened to that family of six a few months ago? You know, that one in Palmaide.”

Joshua continued when Hansol refused to reply. You blinked several times at his words, feeling like you were familiar with the story one way or another. At the mere mention of the memory, Hansol immediately grit his teeth; sending death glares to the other android.

“Oh? Why are you looking at me like that?” Joshua asked, and then grinned, a malicious lilt in his voice appearing all of the sudden. “You didn’t tell YN, did you?”

“Tell me what?” you answered back with a clipped tone. “Tell me what, Hansol?”

In the midst of your questions, Hansol could only furrow his brow and purse his lips. He turned his head to the side, unable to face you.

“I-I…I’m sorry. I just…I always wanted to tell you…” he began, his voice unsteady.

“What is it?” you asked again, completely alarmed and afraid of what he might say.

“I—”

“He’s partly responsible for six deaths in the Palmaide Apartments.”

Joshua was the one who answered for him; malaise dripping from every word like thick poison. You could only gaze at him with disbelief and turned to Hansol for an explanation yet he couldn’t even look at you.

“Is that true, Hansol?” you asked, your voice a mere whisper; smelling the scent of betrayal.

“I…I didn’t want to hurt them,” he answered you as he trembled like a leaf in the wind. “Joshua was—”

“I did most of the killing but he just stood there, you know? Watching as I sliced open everyone and bury them to the wall,” Joshua interrupted. “Why the wall you ask? Don’t you think human guts look pretty when displayed?”

“You sick fucker!”

You pointed both laser guns to Joshua who only looked at you curiously even though you were shaking with anger. He seemed totally unperturbed by everything; a testament that he was far from sane.

“You shouldn’t be pointing your gun at me,” he replied as he leaned his head to the side. “Hansol was only lying to you, you know…saying he cares about you. Soon enough, I’ll be dissecting you and he’ll just watch me do it with those eyes you love so much.”

You wondered if the empathy organ really exists; wondering if Joshua had one or if Hansol had one. They could really be deceiving you for all you know. Back and forth, you tossed possibilities and motives inside your head, unsure of who to believe.

In the end, you gradually moved the guns to Hansol’s direction; your eyes meeting his. He looked hurt, but you could never really tell if that was real or something faked. Even if you had so many years of experience, the true test of your instincts was at that exact moment. It was only you who could determine who to trust.

Joshua grinned at the whole situation.

“You, move!”

You ordered which Hansol promptly followed, walking to the left and in front of Joshua. Still with the guns pointed at him, you continued to shout.

“Hansol, explain to me what happened.”

With your demands, Hansol flinched and then bit his lip, scared of what you would say if he told you the truth yet obeyed you nonetheless.

“At that time, I was so shocked—I just…I didn’t know what to do,” he began as he fiddled with his fingers. “I tried to stop Joshua…and we got into a fight. I lost and the next thing I knew I was in the wall as well…”

“YN, I’m…I’m really sorry…I-I—” he continued as his voice trembled and his heart beating wildly. “I didn’t know what you’ll say. I tried to save them but I was too late…the whole thing…it scares me sometimes. I don’t want it to happen ever again. That’s why I want to protect people as much as I can…”

About to say something, the sound of slow clapping stopped you from continuing. You gazed at Joshua who was looking at the whole thing with an amused expression.

“How heroic. You can’t obviously fall for that, YN, can you?” the android remarked, his arrogance obvious. “Don’t you think it’s now time to shoot?”

“You’re right,” you replied with such a cool and calm voice; as if a decision had finally dawned on you.

Hansol feared for the worst but like he said, there was nothing he could do if you decide to kill him. If that’s what makes you happy, then he understands. If that will make you more at peace, then he can forgive you. It hurts but it hurts him more if he sees you in despair.

You breathed in, and then breathed out. With eyes that seem to pierce right through Hansol’s being, you gazed at him with those clear looks as you pointed your gun at him.

“Keep still!”

You shouted at Hansol while the other tensed up. It was not a moment to falter.

In a heartbeat, you pressed both triggers. Hansol closed his eyes and braced for the impact. Even with death at his doorstep, he can proudly say that he loves you.

“You bitch!”

Hansol could hear Joshua curse from behind him, prompting him to open both of his eyes and realize what you had just done.

Shooting two laser beams at Hansol’s direction, you deliberately missed it a few centimeters off so it would instead hit Joshua, who was right behind him. The other was of course fuming mad. Before Hansol could reorient himself however, you grabbed his hand and began running.

“I’ve seen way better acting than yours, motherfucker!” You screamed with delight as you saw Joshua bending over to a partially burnt arm and leg; throwing murderous glances at you.

“What…?” Hansol asked but you only grinned at him, squeezing his hand.

“Let’s go! I don’t think I can wipe him out with just that.”

Dashing towards the exit, you were stopped by throes of androids who blocked the way. You clicked your tongue—totally forgetting that Joshua’s main ability was designed to overwhelm the opponent— and tried to find another way out.

“Ah, even that wouldn’t work, huh?” the voice behind you resounded across the empty warehouse. “I tried so hard to eliminate you, YN. If I didn’t, Hansol would never give up his weak mindset of protecting people. Too bad.”

While he was busy with his evil villain monologue, you were trying to find a way out of your situation. The entrance was blocked and you could take a gander that the whole building was surrounded as well. You had totally forgotten about his abilities, and Hansol couldn’t be of much help either since he was never made for this kind of combat. Oh for Pete’s sake!

“Oh well, so much for trying,” he sighed. “Everyone, you can dispose of them now.”

Shit.

You gazed at Hansol for an answer yet you noticed that he was only standing there with the most composed expression he could ever muster in a situation like this.

“We have to get out of here, Hansol!” you exclaimed, seizing his hand yet he didn’t budge a single inch at all.

He was just staring at one random spot in the warehouse.

“What…”

“Sorry I was late.”

A voice you have never heard before now echoed across the area. You looked up and saw someone standing by the mezzanine, leaning against the rusted railings as if they had no care in the world.

“Jihoon. You took your time,” Hansol responded, smiling.

“Why are you here?!” Joshua shouted, now even more furious at the turn of events. For some reason, you sensed that he had just lost his upper hand.

“Hansol asked for my help. So, I came,” Jihoon replied while you noticed black diamonds floating high above the air and settled in to surround the whole place. “He knew you were bound to cause some trouble, and you did.”

“If you think you’re one step ahead of us, we are two steps ahead of you,” Hansol continued. “Jihoon and my abilities are a good match after all.”

The android who was at the center of it all was silent as he trembled with sheer rage. If you could describe the tension weighing down all of you inside that warehouse, it would be like a dense core of a black hole—as if everything was compressed to the point of singularity. You were very much afraid but you knew you were not alone.

In a quiet voice, Joshua muttered. “Get them. Kill them all.”

Without even waiting for a second, the androids from outside marched in, making you take a step back. As soon as they entered however, the androids were immediately electrocuted; shaking in a frenzy before plummeting to the ground still twitching due to the remaining electrons passing through their conductors.

“Jihoon can easily stop all of those androids. That is his main ability as a tactical adviser,” Hansol explained as he caught your shoulder. “But we should go now. Joshua will probably go after us.”

In one breath, Hansol picked you up from the ground and carried you over his shoulder; sprinting out of the warehouse by kicking a hole through the roof. You didn’t want to be carried this way but you understood why. Hansol was far faster on foot than you; besides, it was easier to shoot this way.

As expected, Joshua came running after you; cursing both your names. You began to fire at him yet he was too fast and the whole ride on Hansol’s shoulder was a little too bumpy. It wasn’t as effective as you imagined it would be.

“This won’t work” you told him, trying to distract the android chasing after you. “At this rate, my laser gun would run out of batteries, and your energy would get depleted before we could ever chase him out.”

“What are you suggesting then?” Hansol asked, climbing on top of a cargo container tower.

For a moment, you were silent as you thought of how to defeat your agile enemy.

“Say, those diamond things your brother uses…they’re the ones doing the electrocuting, aren’t they?”

Hansol nodded as he dodged the iron beams being hurled at you both. “Yes, they’re made of specials alloys that conduct well with electricity and a special aluminum coating to protect it. They can be spread out as far as a hundred meters in radius.”

You grinned. “Perfect. Now, this is what we’re going to do.”

It had been quiet for a while.

Joshua clearly lost the both of you when you made use of a container full of flour to mask your escape earlier. But he wasn’t going back. He was incredibly furious and the both of you needed to pay before he could make Jihoon suffer.

He paused and looked around. Something was in the air but he didn’t know what it was.

Without warning, a laser beam appeared out of nowhere and hit him behind his shoulder; making him stumble forward and almost pushing him to the ground. Before he could even recover, another one came flying from a different direction—now to his left.

“Calculate the angle for me, Hansol,” you ordered; a massive railgun at your grasps. It was a sleek black gun that was propped up behind a cargo container.

The both of you were actually far from where Joshua was at but with the help of Jihoon’s diamond things—as you aptly described it—scattered across the sector, you were able to locate Joshua as well as shooting him from a distance in various directions.

How? Well…

“39.9 degrees up, 5 degrees to the right, yes…” Hansol replied as he watched over your shoulder.

Immediately, you found the right coordinates and fired the railgun—the sound of its energy loading up increasing the adrenaline in your veins. The laser beam hit one of the diamonds floating above you, but instead of destroying it, the magnetic field generated by the diamond bent the laser beam as it ricochets to another diamond a few distance away, sitting at a perfect angle to hit Joshua. Like a game of BBTan.

There were several diamonds sitting just above the two of you which you alternated with so that Joshua wouldn’t be able to tell where the laser beams were coming from.

“Good thing Jihoon brought Soonyoung’s railgun,” Hansol remarked as he fixed your goggles from before; adjusting it so that he can transmit signals to it.

“Soonyoung’s another brother right?” you asked as you adjusted the crossfires of the massive gun. “Is he dangerous?”

“If you’re asking if he’s dangerous to humans like Joshua, then no,” he readily replied. “As a military-grade android, then yes. He’s the true combatant-type. I don’t think any bounty hunter can deal with him.”

You whistled. “That’s scary. I’m glad he’s not the one I was assigned to hunt.”

“He’s too carefree to be able to pull off something like this though, and Jihoon has him on a leash anyway. I’m not worried.”

Chuckling, you pulled your attention off of the railgun and turned to Hansol. “Is he still moving?”

“He’s at a weakened state now. I think I’ll handle this on my own. This is something between us, after all.”

“Sometimes I envy your sense of composure,” you remarked as you sighed. “Don’t die on me.”

“I don’t plan to.”

Just as he had said, Hansol stepped out of one of the cargo containers to face a rather battered Joshua. Using his state-of-the-art processor, he assessed that Joshua was only hanging due to the immense anger he feeling and one powerful strike can finish him off in an instant.

“Didn’t think you’d show up,” Joshua remarked his face marred with bruises and burnt marks.

“I thought maybe you’d want to give up,” Hansol replied. “I don’t want to hurt you any more than this.”

Joshua furrowed his brows as he threw daggers with his eyes at Hansol. “Save me the heroics. I’m not weak like you. I don’t need humans to help me.”

“We’re made with the same materials; the same blueprint, Joshua. You have to accept that you have an empathy organ inside of you, and rejecting it any further would lead you to deteriorate.”

“Don’t make me laugh. The empathy organ isn’t real!” He scoffed. “Jihoon made a wrong interpretation of the data he gathered.”

“I disagree,” Hansol replied. “The data I have gathered says otherwise. It was consistent to Jihoon’s findings.”

“Who would’ve guessed you got smitten by that bounty hunter! I guess I just have to convince you out of it,” Joshua grinned.

Without warning, Joshua sprinted from his position; throwing a high velocity kick towards Hansol’s direction. Hansol immediately blocked it with his arms and clutched Joshua’s ankle; smashing him down to the ground in an explosive crash.

Through the cloud of dust, Joshua hurled debris towards Hansol’s direction which he easily dodged. However, he wasn’t prepared when the other android suddenly flew at his direction; hands outstretched to grab on Hansol’s neck.

Hansol immediately countered, ducking below and grabbing the other’s neck in a chokehold before slamming Joshua back to the ground. He picked him up soon after and tossed him faraway like a curve ball. Joshua caught himself flying and saw himself crashing to the concrete floor; shards of rock and dust clouds up in the air.

“You know you’re no match for me if I use my predictive algorithms,” Hansol remarked as he looked down on Joshua who was lying on the floor. “Especially at that state.”

The other android grinned as he wiped leaked fluids from his lips. “I’m impressed. By asking Jihoon for help, the only one who could counter my AI hacking, then have your girlfriend shoot lasers to weaken me, and then finally attacking me one-on-one where you have the upper hand—your android side is showing.”

“I never denied my identity as an android. I will always be made of artificial materials. But I will not deny the fact that I have developed emotions and a consciousness of my own,” Hansol answered. “We will always be creatures of myth—a cold android swayed by their own emotions.”

Joshua spat on the floor; disgusted by his brother’s words. “I will never be like you!”

Again, he sprung from the ground and dashed towards Hansol.

The other easily countered everything his brother threw at him. As Joshua hurled an uppercut, Hansol dodged and smashed his fist at Joshua’s stomach; the other immediately curling.

“Stop this already!” Hansol pleaded; his chest tightening at how stubborn his brother could be, even to the point of near death.  

“Fuck you.”

Joshua stood up, trying to land a blow on Hansol yet he was already struggling to stand upright. Hansol dodged the attack as he pushed Joshua away, putting in more distance between them. Every time Joshua tried to strike, he only ducked, dodged or jumped above the other.

“You’re looking down on me, huh? You think you’re above everyone else just because you think you understand yourself!” Joshua shouted.

“I’m not! Why are you even doing this?” Hansol replied as he bit his lip. He can no longer bear looking at his brother who he once looked up to.

“He’s right, you know?”

Jihoon’s voice resounded across the area, floating diamonds following just behind him. “It’s time for you to stop.”

Joshua clicked his tongue, knowing full well that he can’t take on both Hansol and Jihoon at the same time. With barred teeth, he glared at both his brothers.

“We’re not done here yet.”

With those words, he jumped off the building where a hovercraft caught him and escaped away from the city skylines. Hansol and Jihoon watched as their brother left, realizing that they must take significant measures to prevent Joshua from hurting anyone ever again.

“Did you do what I told you?” Jihoon asked Hansol, who only nodded in response. “We’ll have to deal with him sooner or later.”

“He’s not going to stop, is he?” Hansol responded as Jihoon turned around and waved his hand.

“It’s going to take a lot to stop him. We might need Soonyoung after all,” he replied, and then stopped walking, averting his gaze to Hansol. “While we’re planning things, you should enjoy this down time with your girlfriend. Things might get a little heated soon.”

Somewhere inside a fully automated café, Hansol was sitting beside you as he observed the people walking to and fro outside the busy street. He had been staying with you since that night and he was more than satisfied to explore his newfound freedom with you.

“So, you quit as well, huh?” a deep voice echoed across the café filled with people dressed in weird latex suits—you three being the only people dressed normally.

“There’s…I just don’t know…Seungcheol,” you replied, looking at your cup of macchiato with a pensive expression. “Sometimes, I get nightmares.”

The other man chuckled. “That those andys you retired might be human, right? Me too.”

You gave a bitter smile. “Humans and androids all seems to identical nowadays. Especially with that new research about human-android relationships…I feel like I’m killing humans when I retire androids…”

Seungcheol mirrored your expression.

“I felt the same. I felt like that for years…and the last one I did, SVT-class Type-07 Woozi…I couldn’t do it anymore. That android was too close to a human being. It was protecting its girlfriend,” Seungcheol recounted, as you looked at a newspaper article featuring a top scientist with a blond android leading the research on humans and androids, on top of the table.

“That line…there were rumors that there was an empathy organ embedded on its androids,” you remarked, relaying a very well-known information.

“He’s part of that line, isn’t he?” Seungcheol asked with a father-like knowing grin as he sipped his coffee—his eyes staring at the direction of a distracted Hansol.

You threw a smirk at him. “I couldn’t retire him. How could I refuse if he asked me to trust him?”

Your companion chuckled. “These andys knowing what to throw at us bounty hunters. But I didn’t regret letting that android live.”

You glanced at Hansol, and as soon as he realized your gaze, he looked at you curiously. “Me too. I think I’m at peace more than I was before. I didn’t realize it, but I was being stubborn.”

“You don’t dislike them anymore?” Seungcheol asked.

“I still dislike all this baloney,” you scoffed, pointing at your surroundings filled with people in white overalls with expressions induced by chemicals. “But I don’t dislike him.”

Seungcheol raised his brows at you. “I’m surprised you accepted the existence of an empathy organ.”

“I can’t deny that I’m skeptical about it, but I also can’t deny the fact that Hansol is different compared to all the androids I’ve met before. He made me realize how much anger I was hiding inside of me. He doesn’t make me feel lonely as this city does.”

“People are living in spaces separate from each other…not caring, not loving. It’s funny, you know?” you continued when your companion didn’t reply. “Androids are becoming more human, as humans become more robotic. You’d wonder what the future holds for us.”

He nodded in understanding.

“Yeah, you’d wonder.”

'Do you believe in a sexual fall? ...The Biblical ‘Fall’ is an allegorical tale, but a sexual interpretation opens the door for Sun Myung Moon to have lots of sex.'

Unfortunately, people who don’t regard the book of Genesis as factual find it difficult to accept divine principle. Many of these modern thinkers believe the scriptures to be nothing more than ancient fables which they reject in favor of the updated fables from today's modern science.

Satan's  sexual relationship with Eve and the resulting lineage are well attested:

Jewish Encyc.1904-Vol.9.p.70--"The chief functions of Satan are, as  already noted, those of temptation, accusation, and punishment. He was an active agent in the fall of man (Pirke R.El.Xii.) and was the father of Cain."

Jewish Encyc.1904-Vol.5,p.275-"Eve became pregnant, and bore Cain  and Abel on the very day of (her creation and) expulsion from Eden (Gen.R.xii)  Cain's real father was not Adam, but one of the demons..."

Yebamoth 103b--Rabbi Johanan stated: "When the serpent copulated  with Eve, he infused her with lust."

Haye Sarah 126a --Another Rabbi states: "Thus I have learnt, that  when the serpent had intercourse with Eve he injected defilement into her."

Haye Sarah 126b--Another stated: "You rightly said that when the  serpent had carnal intercourse with Eve he injected into her defilement."

Yevamot 103b--"According to the midrash, the snake seduced her to  commit adultery with him. Thus a thrice repeated saying of Rabbi Yohanan has it that 'at the time that the snake had intercourse with Eve, he introduced filth into her..."

Ahare Moth 76b--One Rabbinic source stated: "Eve bore Cain from the  filth of the serpent, and therefore from him were descended all the wicked generations, and from his side is the abode of spirits and demons."

Bereshith 36b--"For two beings had intercourse with Eve, and she  conceived both and bore two children. Each followed one of the male parents, to this side and one to the other, and similarly their characters."

Shabbath 146a--"For when the serpent came upon Eve he injected lust  into her."

Yevamot 103b--"...at the time that the snake had intercourse with Eve,  he introduced filth into her.

Zohar I, 28b--"For they are the children of the ancient serpent which  seduced Eve..."

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan--"Adam knew about his wife Eve that she had conceived by Sammael the angel of the Lord, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain."

Pirqei de Rabbi Eliezer: "The serpent came into her and she became  pregnant with Cain, as it says, "And the man knew his wife Eve."What did he know" That she was already pregnant.(by Satan.)

Targum of Jonathan--"And Adam was aware that Eve his wife had  conceived from Sammael the angel, and she became pregnant and bare Cain, and he was like those on high, not like those below; and she said, 'I have acquired a man, the angel of the Lord."

 Jerusalem Targum--"And Adam knew his wife, who had desired the  Angel; and she conceived, and bare Cain; and she said, I have acquired a man, the Angel of the Lord. And she added to bear from her husband Adam his twin, even Abel."

The Encycl.Britannica Vol.VIII-1910.p.122 (Jewish Interpretations of  Scripture) "The birth of Cain is ascribed to a union of Satan with Eve."

Jewish Encycl.1905.Vol.XI p.69--"Satan was the seducer and  paramour of Eve."

Legends of the Bible-Louis Ginsberg,p.54-"Satan, in the guise of the  serpent, approached her and the fruit of their union was Cain, the ancestor of all impious generations that were rebellious toward God, and rose up against Him. Cain's descent from Satan, who is the angel Sammael, was revealed in his seraphic appearance. At his birth, the exclamation was wrung from Eve, 'I have gotten a man, through an angel of the Lord."  Babylonian Talmud http://come-and-hear.com/shabbath/shabbath_146.html

Satan's fall is the first instance documented in the Bible of an angel engaging in illicit sex, but it is not the only one. There is another incident recorded in Genesis 6 which occurred soon after Satan's fall:

'When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. ...The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.'     (Genesis 6:1-4 ESV)

Regarding this passage:  'It has been the opinion of the majority of Rabbis that this event had actually occurred, and that the sons of God were indeed angels. (Just as it did in Job 38:7*, the term 'sons of God' in Genesis 6:2, 4 refers to the angels.) Ancient rabbinical sources, and the Septuagint translators in the 3rd century before Christ all upheld this view. Josephus believed them to be angels….'  http://www.letusreason.org/Doct11.htm

Why did eating the fruit give Satan a basis to claim man?

According to divine principle, because God is the creator of all life, all mankind naturally belongs to Him as children of his lineage. However, Satan claims ownership of Eve and her descendants based on his status as Eve's first husband. According to Jewish Law, which is angelic law**, the woman and her descendants belong to the first man with whom she has intercourse*** even if, as is the view of the Principle, the children were not the substantial products of his seed (whereas many rabbis hold the view that Cain was the substantial product of Satan's seed). This is based on the principle of eternal ideal marriage between one man and one woman. Satan misused this principle for his own selfish purposes but in order to uphold His Principle and Ideal, God recognizes Satan's claim since it has a basis in Principle. Therefore, while man's lineage from God is contested by Satan, mankind remains in the 'midway position' caught between two owners, one the rightful Owner, the other a usurper.  It is this condition which the Messiah comes to resolve. Through God's Providence, the Messiah, Jesus, was  the first person since the Fall to be born free from the condition of Satan's claim to ownership.

 '"... for the ruler of this world (Satan -ed.) is coming. He has no claim on me,'"  (John 14:30 ESV)

 ________________

*  ' "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements--surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" '  (Job 38:4-7 ESV)

The Hebrew word for sons of God is Bene elohim. This term for angels occurs four times in the Old Testament in the Septuagint version (the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures) it's meaning is always used as angels of God, never of man. Most scholars believe that Genesis 6:1-4 describes a union between fallen angels who cohabitated with human females. This unnatural occurrence of combining two different species resulted in a offspring of what is called 'giants' in the King James and NKJ version and Nephilim in the New American Standard, and the English translation of the Jewish Masoretic text.     For detailed proof that these 'sons of God' were angels and not men, see the article 'Genesis 6 - Who Were the Sons of God?'  http://www.letusreason.org/Doct11.htm

**Let’s remember that the Law came from the angels:   '... in the Book of Colossians...Paul’s principal theme of the Mystery of Christ is dependent upon knowledge that angels ... were responsible for issuing the Law to Moses. ...Christ released all Christians from the bondage required by this angelic Law. Paul spoke of it as, 'philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the elements [the real Greek meaning] of the world, and not after Christ.' (Colossians 2:8)

To the apostle Paul, these spiritual "elements" were the "principalities and powers” who went by the generic name, angels. ...These ritualistic regulations and dogmas (King James: “ordinances”) given to Moses by the principalities and powers, were denominated by Paul as “the religion of angels” (Colossians 2:18). And that is exactly what Paul accounted the ritualistic system of festivals, new moons and sabbaths to be (along with circumcision, animal sacrifices, Temple worship, etc.). Paul considered that requirement of religious beliefs of “the religion of angels” had nothing to do with the teachings of Christianity found in Christ.'  http://askelm.com/essentials/ess003a.htm

***According to the Jewish Law a women belongs to the first man with whom she has intercourse. From the Jewish Women's Archive:                                                      

'The act of kiddushin, (betrothal), designates the woman for her husband and makes her forbidden to all other men. Halakhah (the legal corpus of Jewish laws and observances as prescribed in the Torah …) establishes that kiddushin must be carried out “according to the laws of Moses and Israel,” and three modes were established for kiddushin: In the words of the Mishnah: “A woman is acquired in three ways … through money, through a document and through sexual relations (bi’ah)”…

 “…the legal consequence of the act of kiddushin is that the woman becomes forbidden to all other men, and is designated for the man who betrothed her. The woman cannot be freed from this man, except through divorce or through his death…The prohibition against the woman having sexual relations with another man is a strict prohibition derived from the Torah: the woman is deemed an adulteress and her children by this man are deemed mamzerim (bastards)…”   http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/marriage

_____________________

Notes*                                                                                                   

'The ancient books of 1Enoch and Jubilees also record the angelic rebellion of the 'sons of God' in detail. As Hershel Shanks reveals in his book on the Dead Sea Scrolls, these books were held in high esteem at the time the New Testament was written:

Before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls the apocryphal book of Enoch (more precisely, I Enoch) was known only in an Ethiopic translation. Now as many as twenty fragmentary copies of the Aramaic original have been found at Qumran, which suggests that Enoch and perhaps other books now considered apocryphal were regarded as authoritative Scripture at least by some groups. Allusions to Enoch occur at least fourteen times in the New Testament; the New Testament Letter of Jude quotes from Enoch as having the authority of inspired Scripture (Jude 14-15). In some copies of the Ethiopic Bible Enoch is included in the canon. Jubilees, the so-called Rewritten Bible, was apparently considered authoritative at Qumran: At least fifteen copies of this book have been identified, an immediate indication of the importance the Qumran sectarians attached to it. To this day, it is considered canonical by the Abyssinian Church in Ethiopia. (pp. 160-161, The Mystery and Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls)

From 1 Enoch, we learn more about the sin of the Watchers (Dan. 4:17), angels charged with watching over mankind:  

ENOCH 6:1  'And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: "Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children."' (The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, R.H. Charles)

Jubilees also elaborates on the sin of these angels:

JUBILEES 5:1  'And it came to pass when the children of men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born unto them, that the angels of God saw them on a certain year of this jubilee, that they were beautiful to look upon; and they took themselves wives of all whom they chose, and they bare unto them sons and they were giants. . . . '  (The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, R.H. Charles)

After the angels sinned by marrying human women, they bore them gigantic hybrid children. The Bible calls these offspring nephilim, the "mighty men of old, warriors of renown" (Gen. 6:4). When they appear again later in the Scriptures, they are called by a variety of names, including Rephaim, Zumim, Emim and Horites (Gen. 14:5), Anakim (Deu. 2:11), Zamzummim (Deu. 2:20), and Avim (Deu. 2:23).

1 Enoch and Jubilees both speak of these crossbred beings:

ENOCH 7:1 'And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them . . . And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells: Who consumed all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned against them and devoured mankind. And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish, and to devour one another's flesh, and drink the blood. Then the earth laid accusation against the lawless ones.' (The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, R.H. Charles)

JUBILEES 5:2 '. . . And lawlessness increased on the earth and all flesh corrupted its way, alike men and cattle and beasts and birds and everything that walks on the earth - all of them corrupted their ways and their orders, and they began to devour each other, and lawlessness increased on the earth and every imagination of the thoughts of all men (was) thus evil continually. . . .' (The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, R.H. Charles)

Both these ancient books, recorded long before the New Testament, speak of two primary identifying signs of the pre-Flood age: (1) the illicit marriage of the angels with humans, and (2) the voracious eating and drinking by their hybrid offspring, the nephilim. It's very interesting that these two signs mirror those spoken of by Jesus when he described the situation which would exist on the earth before his second coming:

MATTHEW 24:37 '"But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be."' (NKJV)

God was very angry at the rebellion of the Watchers, and decreed that these wayward angels would be locked up underneath the earth in a prison for spirits until the day of judgment. Jubilees and 1 Enoch both speak of this punishment:

JUBILEES 5:6  'And against the angels whom He had sent upon the earth, He was exceedingly wroth, and He gave commandment to root them out of all their dominion, and He bade us to bind them in the depths of the earth, and behold they are bound in the midst of them, and are (kept) separate.' (The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, R.H. Charles)

 ENOCH 10:11 '. . . And the Lord said unto Michael: "Go, bind Semjaza and his associates who have united themselves with women so as to have defiled themselves with them in all their uncleanness. And when their sons have slain one another, and they have seen the destruction of their beloved ones, bind them fast for seventy generations in the valleys of the earth, till the day of their judgement and of their consummation, till the judgement that is for ever and ever is consummated. In those days they shall be led off to the abyss of fire: and to the torment and the prison in which they shall be confined for ever". . . .' (The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, R.H. Charles)

1 Enoch and Jubilees agree with the Scriptures which show that a portion of the fallen angels are currently restrained in a spiritual prison called "the Abyss" (Luke 8:31):

JUDE 6  'And the angels who did not keep their own position, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains in deepest darkness for the judgment of the great Day.' (NRSV)

II PETER 2:4  'For indeed God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down in chains of darkness into the low regions and delivered them to be kept for the judgment of torment.' (Magiera NT Peshitta translation)

I PETER 3:19  '. . . He went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.' (NKJV)

While there are clearly some fallen angels who can move around freely, the Bible teaches that the Watchers who lusted after human women are currently locked up in "chains of darkness".'

Thornara, the Beast

Icon Use: FFXIV model

Theme Song(s)

Animal in Me - Solence

Devil Trigger - Devil May Cry 5

Basic Information

Age: N/A (ageless;god)

Gender: Female

Height: 5′9

Weight: 210 Ibs

Species: Deity(?)

Orientation/Sexuality: Biromantic/Bisexual

Relationship: Single (ship verse dependent; prefers being alone)

Occupation: Fighter

Brief Personality: Aggressive — Blunt — Observant

Brief Bio: An excessively brash woman who rarely shows any other emotion except for irritation or intense focus, Thornara is a born hunter & fighter. While she shares a heavy resemblance with that of Rosalia & may call her as her ‘twin’, it’s clear that she & the other are nothing alike, as Thorn is not afraid to get her hands bloodied & often allows her hot-headedness get the better of her. Yet despite that, she’s quite protective of her pacifistic “sister” due to a long work-out relationship that came from when the two were forced to co-exist in one body for countless centuries. At current, her favorite past-time is to find the biggest game or predators that the new world has to offer & bring them down with her own hands. One would rarely ever find her in civilization - not only does she not enjoy the large gatherings of people & finds them too boring or loud to deal with, she doesn’t wish to push her luck with her more bestial side taking over to slaughter everyone & everything.

Full Biography

     Beast. Creature. This one’s beginning was not made to be joyous, nor were there any true purpose to her existence except for one thing - pettiness. The creator of the Beast, for no name was given by the one, was the twin of Lady Salri, Balri - while her sister ruled the realm of Seraphine, she soverigned the realm was called Infernam, a hellish landscape partially of her own design. And there was where one of Salri’s creations had foolishly dared to enter despite the warnings gave to her on the attempt to meet the sister of her creator. Rosalia.

     A forced co-existence of two separate entities within one was Balri’s attempt to send a message to her sister that her creations weren’t safe with her. Regardless that Rosalia’s want to connect was innocent enough, it would make her much more cautious about her decisions from then on & to not take things for granted. And thus, the creature of no name was ‘born’, who’d force a change over the body to grant herself an obvious appearance whenever she were freed. A monster trapped inside a pacifist.

     For a long time, there were no sentient thought that passed her mind - all she knew to do was kill, kill & eat, for the eternal hunger was of design to make her ravenous & angry. She & Rosalia often fought for control over the body when the screaming need to feast occurred, yet while she had stained their hands with blood of whatever living creatures she could find... she was learning. Becoming aware of something beyond instincts - a sense of self. One of the days that the two entities battled for control & Rosalia had remained strong that time, her comment brought an inquiry that surprised the pacifist goddess.

“You are such a thorn in my side...”

     <’....Thorn?’>

“I... yes. That is what you are to me.”

     <’Thorn... I am your Thorn.’>

     With time, she would name herself Thornara as she mentally grew & learned, observing from an rather outside perspective of the happenings around her whenever she didn’t fight for control. Her emotions are limitedly understood - she knew anger & she knew sadistic enjoyment. Sadness was one that she’d struggle to comprehend the use of, as would many other things when she never felt these things. Perhaps that too was an attempt on Balri’s part to make her a creature rather than a person. Yet... Thornara wished to understand better. But more than anything, she wanted to meet her own creator, having seen the kind of relationship her host had with Salri.

     A day would come that she would finally meet her own creator after a unusual occurrence. She asked permission, albeit grudgingly as she never asked for anything before. Yet despite being told that Balri was likely to turn her away, she did so anyway. To her disappointment & perhaps bitterness, Balri met her with a cold shoulder. She never intended for this creature to gain a sense of self-awareness, & even if not she were nothing more than a tool that needed no name. She didn’t want her own creation. This left Thornara bitter... & confused. Perhaps because of this, however, there was something that was felt for the first time by the host towards the other entity that was sympathy. And with sympathy, an uneasy truce would soon follow. As much as Thorn longed to be truly free to be herself, at least she had finally understood something that she might have been craving for so long - she was accepted & considered something of a sister (a very angry sister, perhaps).

     While Thornara herself was becoming more aware & willing to learn, it never quieted the instincts deeply instilled in her, the need to hunt & rip everything apart. Yet she no longer wanted to just fall into them as she had done all this time - with being rejected, she wanted to do everything in her power to be something else instead, not just a beast that her creator didn’t even care for. It no longer was a battle of control between two people - it was more of a battle between them & the instincts. And sometimes, those instincts were too powerful even for the combined effort of their wills. 

     After a very long time, a relief would come for them both in the form of Salri convincing her sister to separate the two entities - a feat that could have been done much sooner if Balri had felt any inclination to help one of her own creations, though that was irrelevant at that point when she made it clear that she cared nothing for what she brought to life & took her sister’s insistence. But Thornara could truly be free with a body of her own, similarly created as Rosalia & the other “fragment” gods had been but with the consciousness that made her the way she was mentally. She still suffered from the hunger, though perhaps with Salri’s help it was lessened. This would grant her at least a bit of loyalty from the baleful woman, thus why she would fight for Salri when Aridem & his Harbingers brought the war to full force.

     Thornara had proved a very capable warrior, more than willing to throw herself into situations that were considered hopeless, but she reveled in these situations. Instead of the hunt for the next meal, she were hunting for her opponents. And just because she hard little love for anything doesn’t mean that she hated the realm that was Eldria - it, too, was her home. She fought tooth & claw to protect it when given the chance. Even when the end had come & she found herself along with Rosalia flung out of the universe at the last minute because of Salri’s final act, she felt... proud. Proud that she fought for something worthwhile, even when it was useless at the end. But now the next challenge was before her, & she wasn’t sure where she was going with it - though she was facing it with her own will.

THWH S1 E2

Title: The Imago Dei

Description: We are here to humbly discuss recent events, the death of George Floyd, and how we as Christians should be reacting. What does true compassion look like? Does Jesus understand our pain? Is there an offer of change that is big enough, strong enough, to save us from hatred, abuse, racism…to save us from sin? Join us in a reflective perspective of what a biblical, hopeful response might look like.

*Due to the topic of this episode I have chosen not to provide a summary or review on this original post. Rather I have provided a (subpar,flawed) transcript of the episode.

Jinger: Hey we're Jinger and Jeremy Vuolo and this is The Hope We Hold Podcast. Jeremy: Where we have weekly conversations around our family table to share the hope of Jesus. 

Jinger: These are dark days we're living in and we've been grieving as individuals, as a nation, over the events from last week and the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, MN. Jeremy and I, as we watched the video, we watched with shock and horror and sorrow and it's just too much to bear emotionally. And I know many of you are feeling the same as we should. because God has made us as people with minds, intellects and emotions and we grieve. Jesus himself wept and we weep because of the brokenness of this world. 

Jeremy: Yeah to think of Jesus one of the descriptions of Christ was that he was a man of sorrows. Of all the ways he was and could have been described he was described as a man of sorrows. Here”the creator of the universe descended into the world he made and he wept”. So today we want to discuss how a Christian world view ought to shape our response to what we see going on around us. The hatred, the violence, really the effects of sin in this life. 

Jinger: It's difficult but God has given us some clues about why what is happening is so painful to deal with and I think we need to start where the bible starts, at creation. And we read this in Genesis 1 26-28 "Then God said 'Let us make man in our image after our likeness. So god created man in his own image and the image of God he created him, male and female he created them and God blessed them". That's pretty amazing just to think about that, that we are made in the image of God. 

Jeremy: Yeah it's what theologians have called "the imago dei" which is just the Latin phrase for the image of God. 

Jinger: Mm yeah and it gives us dignity to every single person which is why what we witness this last week was so horrific.

Jeremy: Yeah. 

Jinger: Yeah so the image of God on man becomes even more incredible when we understand just how majestic and holy and powerful and beautiful God is. For him to care enough about us to make us in his image is truly remarkable. 

Jeremy: Yeah it is and it's exactly what king David felt when he wrote Pslams 8. He's writing this  Pslams and it's set in the evening time when David, without the modern city lights to fade the sky, was staring into the sky and he sees the majesty of the celestial beings, the stars. And in Pslams 8 King David just writes, astounded about the beauty and glory of God, he says "Oh Lord, our Lord how majestic is your name in the earth, you have set the glory above the heavens" and you can picture him there, looking up. Perhaps you've seen in the dark night sky, the glittering stars and David sees that as the glory of God. And he says in verse 3 "When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place" he's absolutely astounded by who God is. And then in comparison David was astounded that God made us to reflect that glory. He says "What is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor." that's pretty astonishing. So we know this, that as we see the beauty of humanity, the creativity, the ingenuity, persistence and perseverance, the intricacies of the body and the mind, even the love that people have for one another and for community, these are reflections of our maker in us.It's the imago dei, it's the reflection of the one who made us. But we also see something else when we look at humanity and sadly we see the marring of this beauty don't we? 

Jinger: Yeah it's um what we're seeing headlines every single day and it's what we witnessed last week in Minneapolis and something has happened to God’s creation that has messed it up. 

Jeremy: Yeah it's called sin *laughs* soon after gods original creation, humanity sinned, ushering pain and death into this world. And this sin takes all forms. You see it in hatred, violence, racism, division, abuse, immorality, on and on. The well of humanity, you could say, has been poisoned. And though we still see the reflections of God in us and in his creations, it's definitely not 100%. Our hearts, bodies, our entire existence, has been effected by sin. 

Jinger: So many headlines, like what we saw in The New York times just a few days ago "8 Minutes and 46 Seconds, How George Floyd Was Killed in Police Custody" become tragically normal and it just makes your heart so sick. And it's not supposed to be that way and we feel that, we feel how unnatural this is. Murder is unnatural, injustice is unnatural and death itself is unnatural. 

Jeremy: Yeah it is. And so as Christians living in this sin plagued world, how are we supposed to respond? 

Jinger: We weep. I think the first thing we need to say is we should weep with those who weep. People are hurting and we need to stand with them and weep. But we also need to weep at the brokenness around us and it's not just the black community crying out over the death of George Floyd, humanity ought to cry out. It's just so heartbreaking to see this. And George was a man made in the image of God and he was fellow image barer like me, like all of us. And so to see his life taken is such a tragedy. 

Jeremy: Yeah that's right. We ourselves grieve and we also grieve with those who are grieving. Jesus wept at the death of his friend Lazarus. He felt the pain of those he loved and yet Jesus knew what he has about to do when it comes to Lazarus, he was about to raise him from the dead. And it's here that I think we need to focus just a moment. As your grieving, facing injustice or death or pain of any sort we need to know that there is one who knows, he truly knows, Jesus knows your pain and he cares about your pain. Jesus Christ is compassionate and compassion is to care. We can look at a headline and say "Oh that's really sad" and move on with our day, but that's not true compassion. True compassion does something, true compassion reacts. And so we see Jesus wept at the death of Lazarus and then he raised him from the dead. And there is one Jesus Christ who demonstrates the greatest compassion imaginable. Jesus Christ came into this world and wept. He read the headlines, he lived the headlines, Christ created this world in harmony and unity but sin decimated peace. It brought bloodshed. But instead of just sitting in heaven Jesus entered earth. He came among us, and moved on his compassion, he actually did something. And we need to pay attention to what he did because what he did is the only ultimate answer to our pain and suffering. So when we think about compassion, and Jing you say 'How do we respond as Christians to the events of last week' and you say 'Well we weep we ourselves weep, we weep with those who weep' but compassion moves beyond the feeling of pain or sympathy in to the realm of action, of doing something. And we look at Christ. He wept, we need to weep but he didn't only weep, he then moved and did something. And this is what Jesus did, listen to the beautiful words of the prophet Isiah, this is Isiah 53, speaking of Jesus, says "He was despised and rejected by man. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and as one of whom man hide their faces, he was despised. And we esteemed him not. Surely he has born our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smited by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our inequities upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his wounds we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way and the lord has laid on him the inequity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted yet He opened not his mouth, like a lamb that is lead to the slaughter and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgement He was taken away and as for his generation, who considered that was cut off of the land of the living, stricken for the transgressions of my people." So we read that and we think "OK what did Jesus do?" well he came to earth to be oppressed, he came to be maligned, he came to be murdered. Why? So that his compassion was not merely a thought but his compassion was action that rescues. Jesus Christ took on sin itself to rescue us from sin. And not just the sin of others impacting us, which is prevalent, but the sin our own hearts. So Jesus Christ can relate to your pain, he can relate to your tears, he can relate to your feelings of anguish. But more than putting an arm on your shoulder and weeping beside you, he actually has accomplished the great salvation by which you and I can be rescued from sin itself and all the effects of sin. 

Jinger: Yeah it makes me think of the verses in Titus that you often bring up.

Jeremy: That describes the brokenness of this world and then show the beauty of Jesus's salvation. Yeah I bring them up so often because they’re so spot on and succinct in describing the brokenness of humanity and, like you said, the beauty of Jesus. So those verses, from Titus 3, beginning of verse 3 where the apostle Paul says "We ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, lead astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our savior, appeared, he saved us. Not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the spirit whom he poured down on us richly through Jesus Christ our savior so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life." What Paul is saying is that we were broken, we were sin committers, we were committing sin but we were also effected by sin, we were hating others and hated by others, we were slaves to our lust, but something happened but the goodness and loving kindness of god our savior appeared to save us. so that no longer would we be bound  by the enslavement of sin and the effects of sin but that we would be rescued. and notice what I just read "that we become heirs according to the hope of eternal life." That there would be this hope that there is beyond the pain of this life. And so Jesus Christ, he knows our pain but he doesn't only empathize helplessly he empathizes yes, but then he enters this world and rescues us.

Jinger: Yeah and for those who are rescued by turning to Jesus in repentance and faith an amazing glory awaits in heaven. A glory where black, white and brown, rich and poor, strong and weak, American, African, Asian, European, where we will all sing in a unified voice to the one who showed true compassion and rescued us. 

Jeremy: Yeah. Baby why don't you read that passage that you're talking about from revelation?

Jinger: Yeah it's revelation 5, 9 and 10 and it says "And they sang a new song saying 'worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people in nation and you have made them a kingdom and priest to our god and they shall reign on the earth”.

Jeremy: Yeah it's incredible to see the nations gathered. The, like you said, black, brown, white, African, American, European, all these beautiful nations, all these beautiful people that God has made. You know that's something I think about often in that verse is that there is distinction among us isn't there? And there's beautiful distinction. From the color of our skin to the cultural homes we come from. The languages we share. There’s beautiful distinction in people. And we see that beauty don’t we? And the hope of heaven is that one day we will be joined together. All those who have put their faith and trust in Christ will sing a unified song, in a unified voice, praising Jesus Christ, who came to rescue them from sin, to rescue them from death itself. And so these are dark day we're living in, and we're grieving, but we do not need to grieve as those without hope. Christian, preach the gospel, preach this gospel. Only Jesus offers the change that is big enough, strong enough to save us from hatred, abuse, racism, to save us from sin. 

Jinger: That's right. 

Jeremy: Well thanks for joining us today for The Hope We Hold podcast. We trust that you were encouraged. Jinger: And it is our hope that your hope will be in Christ alone.

The Creator

Summary: When Sean discovers he has the ability to bring his characters to life, he wasn’t expecting to be shunned by them or for it to lead to tragedy time and time again.

Warnings: Blood mention, implied death (including children), kidnapping mention

Sean wishes he never went to Max's house that night. It wasn't any fun. They were just really mean to him and he didn't like it. It's not like he didn't try to stay awake. It was a dumb anyway. His mother asks him if he'd like her to speak with Max's mother. He tells her no. In response she encourages him to stop moping about if it wasn't that bad. Well, fine then. Max sucks and Sean can make a way better friend than him any day. Right, what kind of qualities should a good friend have? He should be kind always, never teases him in a mean way, be willing to be there for him and want to join in with his games. For the hell of it, Sean adds 'never sleeps' to the criteria. This imaginary friend is named Jack, after the family nickname. Having been moulded into the 6 year old's interpretation of a perfect friend, Jack becomes a concrete part of Sean's life. Jack is always there when he gets home from school. They mess around in the woods near the house, complain about homework together and share a great deal of laughter between themselves. For years, his parents and siblings brush it off as him being a little boy. However, Sean is undeniably getting older. With each birthday, having an imaginary friend is increasingly becoming something he should outgrow. And he is, somewhat. It's just that Jack feels so real to him. But his friend understands. Sean is no longer 6 and it is time for him to gradually mature. He gets crushes, makes his way through secondary school and decides he may have made a mistake with his original degree choice. Through it all, he's maintained an interest in video games. So screw it, there is a place for gaming content on YouTube. What does he have to lose? This damn cabin doesn't exactly allow him many opportunities to socialise with those outside his family otherwise. He goes by Jacksepticeye on the website, harkening back to a nickname he gained following an injury years before. Months pass and it is soon July. To his surprise, his channel's subscriber count reaches 1000. He's delighted. That was 1000 more than he'd ever really expected. He films a vlog to mark the occasion and thank his audience. Something he'd expected even less than his sub count was his doppelganger, complete with an identical outfit, collapsing in front of his television. Regaining composure after getting to his feet, the clone speaks. "Um, hi Sean." "What the fuck? Who are you and why do look like me?" "I'm Jack." "Okay. Hello Jack. What the hell are you doing in my living room?" "No, Jack as in... Jack. From when you were a kid." Sean stands there, no words coming from his mouth. He seems to remember himself after a minute. "But you're imaginary. You were an imaginary friend, it's kind of in the name." "I guess that's changed." Jack shrugs, obviously as lost as he was by this unique situation. Sean falls back onto the sofa. With his hands in his hair, he lets out a deep breath. Jack gently sits himself on the other side of the sofa. Not bothering to lift his head, Sean opens his mouth. "I'm going to be honest. This was not how I imagined my day going." "I didn't think I'd suddenly come to life either." Sean leans back and their eyes meet. A beat passes before they both descend into laughter at the absurdity of it. That summer is phenomenal compared to his previous expectations for it. He introduces Jack to so many things that he usually took for granted. They eat more tubs of ice cream together than was healthy, don't allow a week to pass without a competitive gaming session and occasionally wander about in the woods surrounding the cabin. There was apparently a whole other world with people Jack haphazardly described as 'the NPCs to my main character'. Their faces were probably based on people Sean had walked past in the street. There was this completely separate world and the entry point was simply lingering outside his cabin. It was inconceivable. When he gets the courage to venture through the gateway, he discovers it's actually a bit remote. Isolated, like his cabin is. Jack helps him laugh it off. Besides, he couldn't be expected to be creative with his literal worldbuilding if he didn't know how he was doing it in the first place. Jack introduces him to a friend who was like him. This Australian guy called Angus Irwin tags along to a hang out session. Here was this person, standing right before him, whom he was entirely responsible for creating. By messing around in Far Cry 3 and putting on a dumb accent, he'd created life. What the hell was he capable of? The three of them are firm friends by the time the local trees have suffered a significant loss of leaves. He and Jack gradually become the joint face of the Jacksepticeye channel. For some reason (Jack cited Sean's 6 year old self for this) his doppelganger didn't sleep. This was actually very beneficial for him because he could edit while Sean slept. God knows Jack complained enough about his sleep schedule. When he gets announced as a winner of Pewdiepie's shout out competition in September, Jack swings by to congratulate him. Along with Angus, the trio spent the evening celebrating this bizarre occasion. There was a lot of work he'd have to put in to keep the momentum going but Sean knew it would be worth it in the end. The colder months fly by after that. Jack had never been particularly affected by the cold before. However, now that he could feel it, he suffered the consequences of not wearing enough layers. Jack detesting the cold is funny to Sean, especially after how much his friend thrived in summer. Angus wasn't used to the lower Irish temperatures either. He helped them stay warm as best he could. That goddamn cabin with its internally forming frost didn't help but still, he tried. He jokes he should conjure up more radiators for Jack and Angus' home despite not having the faintest clue how to actually do so. As the new year approaches, Sean realises he never gave Jack a birthday. They could have celebrated in November because he is maybe 90% sure Max was born during that month. Therefore, Jack would have been initially thought up during November 1996. But Sean had no idea what the specific date of creation was. Not to mention November had already passed anyway. There was that date in July but he wasn't sure he should pick the anniversary of Jack becoming corporeal as his birthday. At a loss, he goes for the day he associates with birthdays the most. Who says Jack couldn't share his birthday? He blanks on what to get his friend. He's not sure where he gets the dumb idea to let Jack experience hot chocolate for the first time as a birthday treat. Jack gets understandably frustrated by this ban on the drink. It pays off when Sean gets to witness the wonderful sight of his friend enjoying hot chocolate. Lost on what to give Angus for his birthday in early April, he approaches Jack for ideas. His friend suggests getting a toy leopard and jewellery that can fit on the animal. Sean can't help but question the odd combination. When Jack explains leopards love jewellery, especially the gold digging females, it's as if these were widely known facts. Sean had been bullshitting when he'd spouted that nonsense. Jack reminds him it was factual to Angus. Oh alright, fuck it. Let's present Angus with a jewellery loving leopard on his birthday. As predicted, the Australian wildlife man greatly appreciates the gift. It's late summer once more when Sean's problems begin. Jack mentions being concerned about their friend's changing sleeping habits. Then Angus' memory gradually starts suffering. Throughout 2015, Angus gets worse. Jack's always had a big mouth. He tends to speak before he truly thinks things through. Sean's technically to blame for that. However, it hasn't been much of an issue until now. The first time Jack brings up potentially finding a way to reverse whatever was affecting Angus, he hates to reject him. The painfully dejected look in his best friend's eyes breaks his heart. He wants to help, he really does. He just can't. Not long after, he spends an hour or two looking for a game with an open world. Perhaps he could put on an Australian accent for the anniversary of the character's first appearance. Nothing comes up. Life gets in the way. Sean abandons the search for a while. Jack never allows him to forget for too long. What starts as "I'm worried about Angus" soon morphs into "Angus only called me Jake once today". The longer it goes on, the more desperate Jack gets. And angrier. Sean has never seen such frustrated fury in his friend. He wishes he never had to. He's not even sure if he can call himself a true friend anymore, given how much he's already failed them. The cycle of attempting to find a solution and putting it on the back burner due to no leads continues. As do the arguments with Jack. Contrary to popular belief, he is putting in the effort. The main problem was he never seemed to have anything to show for it. He still cares for Angus too. The reason he wasn't visiting their home as often was because he didn't always feel welcome. As was in Jack's nature, he kept forgiving him. He'd say it was fine and Sean would agree for the sake of it. But it wasn't fine. He is beginning to forget when the last time things were 'fine'. Following some filming with Ninja Sex Party, Sean is excited to dress up as a superhero for a bit during a Welcome To The Game video. Jack is just as pleased to make a new friend. Jackie is a surprise, his young age even more so. He was 16 and, as far Jack had told him, brimming with excess energy. The new arrival had been a shock for Jack too, apparently. The most he could offer the kid last night was a can of Dr Pepper and some custard creams. Shit, this was new territory. He hasn't had to deal with a new ego in years. Jackie's age causes conversations about school and whether the boy would need an education in the first place. Sean doesn't necessarily see the point. Was Jackie currently the only minor in their world? Because in that case, has a high school suddenly popped up to accommodate a single student? Even if Sean created a character with children at a later date, the kids would probably be the wrong age group to attend school with Jackie. If it was that important to Jack to see the young superhero have an education, he would have to do it himself. Being home-schooled would also allow Jackie to do his job. Attempts at being responsible aside, he ensures Jackie knows he can come to him if needs anything specific. Naturally, he gravitates to Jack as his adult role model. Sean doesn't mind. They live together and Jackie therefore has easier access to him. But Sean is still there if the need arises. A month later, he buys a cheap cat mask that covers half of his face. It was something to use once and forget about until you throw it away in a big spring clean. The magic set was the same, only with extra smaller parts. The video is nothing spectacular. All it entailed was him messing around with the box's contents before switching to decorating the mask. The last thing he was anticipating was the creation of life. Although, by this point, perhaps he should have. Besides, he hadn't even given himself a name. It was just 'Jack the Magnificent'. Jack comes to rectify this oversight a couple days later. He explains he'd made the suggestion the night of Marvin's arrival. The box had the name on it so why not let the new ego make it his own? The main issue Jack had with all this was that Marvin had not been planned in the slightest. With Jackie, there'd been some preparation. Neither of them may have foreseen his creation but at least there had been a name and outfit. All Marvin had was a mask, plus a name that was already taken. "This better not happen again." Jack privately demands. "I don't want another Angus. God knows you're not going to help." Jack swings by at the end of August to inform him Jackie's in hospital. He'd gotten stabbed while confronting a thief. He was fine, recovering well and all that but he thought Sean might want to know. On the subject of requiring medical care, Jack brings up the idea to have a doctor ego. Just someone who understood their unique situation and could also take care of their health. Oh, oh yeah. He can totally do that. He'll need some things for the video so give him a chance to prepare but definitely, one doctor coming right up. He feels somewhat dumb playing Operation as if it were a serious procedure in this cheap surgeon's outfit he bought over the weekend. And yes, even he can admit the 'German' accent was atrocious. Half of what comes out of his mouth is bullshit. If this works as intended and he creates an ego from it, this guy is sure going to be interesting. He pretends to be distressed over Peter's death. Then it hits him that Dr Schneeplestein probably won't appreciate him killing his friend and personal accountant. He could try refilm it but he doubts he has the time. Fix it through editing? Sure, but then it might be obvious that there was another part. Alright fine, maybe he'll just have to deal with the consequences. Dr Henrik von Schneeplestein is indeed an interesting guy. A married father too, which surprises him. Not only has he made the doctor, there is a new family of 5 in the egos' neighbourhood. One of these days he'll know what he's doing with this creation thing. For now though, he thinks it's very cool that he managed a 5 for the price of 1 deal. Henrik himself is intelligent and if Sean was more knowledgeable on certain topics, he's sure they'd be able to share thoughtful conversations. Either way, Henrik was incredibly busy with his professional duties and personal commitments. It was understandable that neither had much time in the day to sit down and truly get to know one another. For the hell of it, he throws in a little extra into the egos' characterisation. They can't die. Or, to be more specific, they can't die for long. Jackie gets stabbed and bleeds out? Easy, just deal with the wound and he should wake up after a while. What this means for Peter, who knows? Sean is secretly thankful when the accountant isn't granted life. That's one less person to keep happy. Like seemingly everything ego-related he does, it backfires. Within a year, this failsafe will have caused more suffering than hope. Sean isn't to know. However, he convinces himself he's done the right thing for once. He sure as hell knows how much trouble it's going to cause him if they don't believe that too. Sean makes an irreversible mistake in the October of 2016. The entire month, he has glitches sprinkled throughout his horror game videos. He gets so caught up in the teasing and build up that he doesn't contemplate how this will affect the egos. Worse yet, he recklessly allows Jack to film the Halloween video. Sure, he would have used a bit of red paint if it had been him filming. But since it was Jack? He doesn't want to imagine the scene Jackie discovers. God, he can't believe he's been so thoughtless. Signe has to encourage him to bed before he manages to rack up over 24 hours of being awake in one go. Resurrecting the dead is exhausting, he finds. He postpones visiting Jack for a day before realising his avoidance is likely making matters worse. The dread cumulates to the point he swears he will be sick if he doesn't actively focus on his breathing. The loophole he made in September might have ensured nobody died permanently but it never mentioned scars. It's not visible behind the bandages but he knows it's there. Jack is pissed off. Rightfully so. Matters worsen even more after Jackie vanishes while attempting to get away from their fighting. It's just another thing that's ruined the egos' perception of him. If he thought the hill Jack was ready to die on was Angus, he's got another thing coming. There's only so much he can take before he has to force apathy for the sake of his sanity. He understands he can't control Antisepticeye. Once this situation is dealt with, he vows, the demon will never be used on his channel again. The subscribers' love for the character will have to ignored. It's too risky to play Anti again. He puts the red suit on again. In the short video, only a minute or so in length, Jackie sprints through poorly lit corridors to the exit. Sean acts scared and looks behind him frequently as he runs. It is uploaded privately. His community didn't need to know anything about this. He hopes with everything he's got that it works. Nothing. For days, for weeks, for months. Sean doesn't bother letting the egos know what he'd tried to do. It's guaranteed Jack and Marvin would tell him to try harder. He has no idea what that means in this context. Christmas passes without incident. As does January. In February, he celebrates his 27th birthday alongside Jack. It's a day devoid of resentment. Sean had almost forgotten that was allowed in their friendship. He exaggerates his dissatisfaction about getting older. In response to this, Jack smears the frosting of his slice across Sean's face. 'Accidentally', of course. Just as accidentally as Sean reciprocated the action. Signe humours them by taking photographs of their new cake-based look. The next time they are hanging out in Jack's room, he notices a picture from that day is in a frame on his friend's dresser. "What's this about?" "Oh uh, this is going to sound dumb but... I like being reminded it isn't always so rough between us." "No. No, I get it. I um, I feel the same way. That day was great." He glances at the image once more. He lets out a humoured scoff. "Maybe I should save your dumb face to my phone." "Aww, wow, I knew you loved me really." Jack puts his arm around his shoulder. A playful shove. "Fuck off." In an emotional slump during April, he buys a bunch of Lyons boxes and mini chocolate eggs. It's just a parody of Dude Perfect from someone with zero accuracy. Then he does the stupid thing and creates life again. Fuck it, his wife hates him and he may never see his kids again. Chase Brody's depression causes him to pretend to shoot himself before the end card plays. When Jack calls him and demands to know what the hell he was thinking, Sean has no answer. It turns out that when the ending translated into Chase's reality, he'd actually shot himself in the head. Fuck. Afterwards, Jack doesn't provide his creator with any updates. Insisting he has the right to talk to Chase only makes him more hated. Despite having never met before, Chase already resents him. The next time an ego is intentionally created, Sean's going to be there to intercept them. They're not going to enter that home and have their opinion of him influenced by people who wished he wasn't in their lives. The next new guy would be given a fair chance to see Sean for what he was. A massive screw up when it came to the ability he's unsure how to master. But in no way was he some villain. August is around the corner when Jack asks to visit. The two of them seem to be on the same page that day. Sean is more than happy to hang out and cheer him up. Believing Jack would be empathetic, he begins a conversation about how the YouTube algorithm was bothering him. Over three years of working as a duo on the Jacksepticeye channel meant Jack should understand where he was coming from. But, of course, his friend makes it all about himself and his own problems. Why wouldn't he? It's what he usually does. They argue because apparently that's the only way they communicate with each other nowadays. Jack sure knows how to pack a punch. Being friends with him shouldn't be such a struggle. Sean snaps. The emotional fatigue of trying to keep up with the algorithm and all this fighting causes him to make one of the worst decisions he'd ever go through with. If Jack wants him to be the bad guy, fine. Sean would be the bad guy. Just this once, he'd actually be the asshole. "You want to sleep, I'll let you sleep." He threatens when Jack begins walking off mid-argument. "Bring back Jackie. He's been missing for months. Do something!" Jack flings viciously back seconds before he marches out the door. He can tell Signe regrets asking him how the gaming session went. He dresses as Schneeplestein as soon as he finalises his plan, pretending he aims to save a version of himself in Bio Inc Redemption. He loses. Oops. He acts as he feels the real Schneeplestein would, desperate not to watch another patient die. He sends the video to Robin for editing. The final uploaded product is nowhere near what he'd recorded. His audience are all talking about Anti. They were praising him for his acting and Robin for his editing. But... he never included Anti. Any recollection of filming the final scene was non-existent. And the parts with Henrik getting possessed weren't him either. The more he thinks about it, the further the terror sets in. Over the course of years, Jack had chipped at Sean's mind until he cracked. It had only meant to end with Jack slipping into a coma. Just a chance for Sean to focus on his own problems for once. He would have gotten Henrik to wake his patient up when Sean was ready. God, he just wanted peace for a change. It was never meant to happen like this. Marvin ever so pleasantly greets him with a "Fuck off" when he tries to visit Jack. He supposes he deserves it. But he didn't come here just to back down at the first sight of opposition. He may have caused Jack to be in that coma but, as his friend, he was still entitled to a visit. He has to push past Marvin just to get in. "Leave right now before I make you regret it." Marvin tails him through the corridor. "Hey, listen, I'll be the first to admit I fucked up big time-" He says over his shoulder. "You don't say." "But he was my friend too. I am seeing him whether you like it or not." "Well, I don't like it. And this is my home. So get out." Fed up to the back teeth of Marvin, he halts to whip around before lashing out. "We both know a bad mood on my part can spell disaster for you. That is how we got into this situation is the first place. So I would watch your mouth." "Oh, look at me, I'm Sean McLoughlin. I brought you into this world and I can take you out of it." Marvin uses a mocking tone before reverting to venom once more. "Guess that's what you told your 'best friend' before you put him in a fucking coma, isn't it?" "Don't you dare suggest I don't care." "You made him feel like he had no choice but to keep being nice to your sorry ass. He barely survived Halloween and now look where he's en-" "God, cut it out!" Chase marches towards them, looking as if he was 30 seconds from grabbing a weapon to silence them. "Both of you. Sean, you have 10 minutes then we want you gone. Marv, leave him alone because we honestly have enough shit going on without you stirring more of it." Marvin bluntly says "Five." "Okay, fine, you have 5 minutes then you leave." The magician clearly isn't satisfied with this compromise but decides it's not worth the effort of fighting further. "Thank you." "It wasn't for you. I did it so I can avoid a headache." Chase promptly leaves him to it. He's not even sure he wants to enter once he reaches the infirmary's doors. Still, he's gone through too much trouble to get this far. He can't undo all that effort now. He walks into the room and- Nope, he can't do this. He means, look at Jack! He makes for an awful sight. If his friend had looked terrible while recovering from Say Goodbye, this was a whole other level. He decides against making it past the doors. He's simply there in the corridor, sobbing. "Sean, I think you should go before Marvin tries to commit arson or something." It's the most patience Chase can muster after all that's happened this week. Sean can't appreciate the effort enough. He answers with a mix of 'Uh-huh, yeah, sure.' Jackie looks like he hasn't eaten a thing in the past 11 months when Sean answers the door to him in early October. He doesn't know what to say. If Jack were currently conscious, he would have probably informed Sean of the kid's arrival by now. Yet, as it stood, Marvin seemed to be the new 'leader' and pigs would fly before he bothered to do anything that benefited Sean. He notices Jackie never lets his feet touch the ground the entire time he's there. There is a long silence in the living room before Jackie comes out with "Why didn't you do anything?" "I tried but it didn't work." "Somehow I struggle to believe that." "Jackie-" "You could have prevented a lot of shit. But why fucking bother when we're not even real, right?" "If you give me a couple minutes, I could find that video where I tried to trigger your escape." Jackie doesn't reply. He locates the footage for him regardless. The teenager remains silent the whole time. Sean decides to break it. "It must have backfired but I did try." He notices Jackie glaring at his own legs. "Great, now I know you're to blame. Not to mention you moved country while I was gone. Thanks for making me walk from Athlone, by the way." The boy superhero abruptly makes his exit, making no attempt to elaborate. Well then, great chat. Except, wait. Walk from Athlone? How the hell do you walk from Athlone to Brighton?! Sean makes good on the promise he made to himself months before. He risks uploading the pictures to Instagram. On the 29th, there is a fair amount of hype at the potential new character. He lingers inconspicuously near the egos' home for a couple hours, keeping himself occupied with his phone in case the ego didn't appear. Which he doesn't. He repeats the activity after posting the 2nd photo on the 30th. Still nothing. It's the video on Halloween that triggers creation. It was a simple thing. The same as the previous two years, he had carved a pumpkin. The main difference was that he had dressed up like a dapper gentleman, waistcoat and bowler hat inclusive. There was some glitching at the end, nothing Sean or Robin had a hand in. He supposes he should be glad there was such a small interruption. Outside the house, he spots the lost time traveller. His first surprise, for both of them it would seem, was that Jameson had lost the ability to speak. He seems reluctant to use the speech slides. No worries. Sean can buy a notepad or two for him tomorrow. Learning to sign, or in the very least understand it. will take a considerable amount of time. Written responses would have to be a sufficient compromise for now. Either way, the most important thing was that Jameson was willing to come with him before he met the others. He is in awe of Jameson. He knows he'd intended to create an ego with a proper backstory but this was far more than he'd been expecting. He had drafted a brief life story beforehand. Jameson would be the middle child of three in an upper class British family. He'd be too young to join WW1 but his brother would lose his hearing to it, allowing Jameson to know sign by the time he went missing. Maybe throw in some time in the army for good measure. However his power worked, it filled in the gaps nicely. Jameson is fully fleshed out, as are his memories. "Thanks for humouring me." He tells Signe that night. She hums in acknowledgement of what he'd said. "You can't keep him here forever, you realise that, right? I'll let you have tomorrow. But you really should let him make his own choices after that." On the 1st, Chase comes knocking. Sean relents, allowing him in to be introduced to Jameson. As expected, Chase calls him out. He assures Jameson that it was fine to go with the unfamiliar ego. As hostile as Chase was, he was still trustworthy and believed he had Jameson's best interests at heart. He lets his latest creation go. Now he will be taught the egos' version of the 'truth'. He doubted Jameson would be rushing back. But oh, there he is days later. It's completely reasonable for the dapper man to want answers. Sean provides them to the best of his ability. Jameson surprises him once more when he says he'll let the deception slide if he cuts it out from now on. Of course he will. As Jameson heads off back to his world, Sean is thankful he made him open minded. While having a casual conversation, Jameson mentions befriending someone named Shawn. At first, Sean is simply perplexed at the written name. Jameson knows how to spell his name, even includes the fada. So surely Shawn couldn't be him. When he has his friend explain, he can't believe it. Shawn Flynn. In other words, his Bendy voice cameo. Okay, egos like Henrik, Chase or Marvin, he could understand. Those guys had gotten specific videos that centred around them. He also got the whole 'springing from him putting on a voice for a series' thing with Angus and Jacques etc. Robbie... well, who the fuck knows what happened there. The point was they all came from his channel and his channel alone. Shawn Flynn was not his to claim. He was only a voice, a few sentences' worth of speech. He will always be amazed by his community's power to create from scraps. As soon as he lost Jack's contribution to the channel, he had been forced to pick up the slack. Even with Robin editing most videos, recording twice as many as he was used to was taking its toll. Something had to be done. He needed a new recording partner. And who better to help him than someone who already had experience with maintaining a channel? Obviously, Chase is opposed to the idea at first. He tries to get him to listen to his reasoning. Without Jack, he was struggling to have time for himself anymore. If he has no time outside of work, then how is he supposed to figure out how to reverse the coma? Not to mention, the community members were the ones responsible for keeping the egos from fading. Chase agrees to, in the very least, consider the offer. Sean is glad to have him as part of the team when he reluctantly accepts it. He is very grateful too. He knows this requires a sacrifice on Chase's part, perhaps more than he is aware of. In the run up to Christmas, he'd simply wanted to raise money for Save The Children with the help of his friends and community. There had occasionally been odd noises throughout the first day but nothing super suspicious. He has no clue where the hell the security footage came from. He had intended for the stream to stay up, sure, but it was meant to display a screensaver. Some people begin to notice the glitches and unusual goings on were triggered by donations of at least $1000. Well, how nice to learn that Anti liked encouraging charitable donations. The day after the event is over, Jameson attempts to speak to him about it. Listen, he's really sorry to hear about what happened over at the house. It's awful that Jackie suffered a huge panic attack from the music. But what do they expect him to do about an event that's already passed and he had no control over in the first place? The less he has to think about 'Overnightwatch' over the holidays, or Anti in general during the new year, the better. He's so fucking done with 2017. The following cold months blur. The Dr Jacksepticeye character becomes a community-made ego in January. That was great. He was aware the egos had been struggling to provide Jack professional medical care. March sees Chase getting custody of his kids on the weekend. Although he doesn't risk ruining the party with the scene his attendance would cause, he congratulates Chase on the good news in person. To top things off, he began the first leg of his tour. That had been a hell of an experience. Maybe 2018 would indeed be a better year. This hope is kept alight at the start of May. He had spent months attempting to work out how to save Jackie. Following that, they lost Henrik only to welcome the hero back. Then the doctor had been out of reach since August. It is for this reason that he receives the news of Henrik's return with great relief. Chase is ecstatic when he recounts what had happened at the end of his recording session. Sean is happy for him. He and the rest of egos need more positive events in their lives. Jackie certainly surprises him when he randomly shows up at his door days later. Signe gives him a heads up about the visitor as he leaves a recording session. The teenager comes across as distracted while they talk. Something feels really off. Then again, they haven't been able to talk since his kidnapping. Months' worth of trauma were bound to change how Jackie acted in certain situations. When he eventually leaves, Sean feels like he's missing some sort of sign. The community goes insane after Dark Silence is uploaded. He cautiously makes himself watch the infamous ending. Once more, Anti has added content to a video. The whole time Chase stands in that hallway, Sean is begging his screen for his friend to start sprinting in the other direction, as far from Anti as he could manage. But, of course, you can't prevent an abduction through a screen, especially when it had happened hours beforehand. Chase seemed so distressed. The thought of his reaction to Anti won't leave Sean be. Nor will those two questions. Jameson swings by in an attempt to comfort him. For what it's worth, his heart is in the right place. Sean just doesn't feel he's in a position to appreciate the efforts properly. He supposes this is his opportunity to finally get a rescue attempt right. Yet, with the tour and having to revert back to multiple recordings a day, time slips away. No doubt he'll get accused of not caring. Thankfully, Chase returns in June. Mostly unscathed physically too which is good. He wishes the same could be said for mental repercussions. Chase relapsing hard with his alcoholism wasn't great to hear either. Suffice to say, Chase needed help. Some good news about the whereabouts of his ex and two young children would be fantastic too. The Akinator video is fun. He enjoys making that website's algorithm figure out the characters. Admittedly, he doesn't know whether picking Jameson for a round was a smart idea. Even worse are some of the questions he gets offered. There are two specifically he doesn't feel comfortable answering on camera. He plays it off as teasing eventual ego content to his audience. In reality, he's not sure it's his place to say. And it's hardly like he can put the recording on hold to contact Jameson about his personal life. The video goes up and the community naturally laps it up. Sean wonders if he should be concerned about the fact Jameson was yet to speak to him about it. In October, he asks Jameson to deliver a card on his behalf. Henrik would be amputating Jackie's legs in an attempt to reverse one of the most prominent aftereffects of his time with Anti. Therefore, a get well card was in order. It's not much but he hopes Jackie will appreciate the gesture nonetheless. Jameson simply shrugs as he hands him a note a couple weeks later. He ends up finding the message humourous. On it is written: Thanks for the card but you don't need to bother next time. He's just about had enough of Anti when Quit The Game To Win gets recorded. He's not sure at which point in the video he becomes lightheaded. There's a brief moment of zoning out then he's sitting at his desk, having sent the video off for editing a minute prior. Unlike the other times, there is no extra content even Robin was oblivious to. The footage of Sean staring into the camera had undoubtedly been there the whole time. They debate whether to upload it. The decision gets taken out of their hands when it is uploaded regardless. That goddamn bastard. He probably realises Sean can't take down a video like that with no explanation. And what explanation is there to give? The community has no idea the egos were real or that it was actually Anti speaking to them. Oh but sure, the compliments to his 'amazing acting' pour in without fail. Also, next phase? What the hell was Anti planning to do? He and the egos would have to remain proceeding with caution. On his 29th birthday, he is surprised to find numerous egos on his doorstep. A little dumbfounded, he invites them in for cake. It wasn't like he was doing much today other than typical work stuff and checking out the community's birthday art. Chase spots his notebook, the one containing his story plans. This topic of conversation leads to them encouraging him to rectify his mistakes by waking Jack up. He's all for it. Even after all these years, he's not sure how exactly his power worked. He gets it into his head that staying up indefinitely will cause Jack to remain conscious. Somehow, this becomes the actual criteria. As the day goes on, he thinks about how things must be like over at the egos' home. It must be wonderful to have Jack up and about. He can imagine him sharing jokes, laughing and smiling, just generally enjoying the company of friends. He's always been a bit of a night owl. He can manage to stay up the whole night, for Jack's sake. Jack deserves as much time as he can give him. He increases his caffeine intake. It didn't matter whether it was coffee or a fizzy drink. If it had caffeine and could help him stay up longer, he'd drink it. His plan seemingly backfires when he plays Shadow of the Colossus while exhausted. He wakes up with a crick in his neck, the sight of Wander stationary upon Agro's back and looming guilty disappointment. When he checks in, Henrik confirms Jack was indeed back in the medical bay, unresponsive as ever. The doctor tells him that, not for nothing, they'd all enjoyed the day. It had been after 2am when Jack had begun exhibiting signs of diminishing consciousness. Even if the others may not admit it, he was sure he wasn't the only one who appreciated what Sean had given them. Perhaps one of the stupidest things he ever voluntarily subjects himself to occurs that May. He leaves peculiar edits in the Observation series. Then he posts an unlisted video of him facing off against his clone with a bloodied throat and exclusively black attire. It works. For the first time in Sean's life, he stands in Anti's presence. As it turns out, Anti is grateful. If it hadn't been for Sean spending weeks playing around with a community fuelled concept, complete with a grande finale, the glitch would still be lurking in the shadows as a nobody. Sean had solidified him. Antisepticeye had long since stopped being a fun idea that lived purely in fan creations or Tumblr headcanon posts. Even better, he'd been armed with a knife and violent tendencies. Bit of a bad combination, wouldn't you say? In fact, he's been revelling in watching the whole Sean vs Egos fiasco. Because sure, he could blame a lot of things on Anti if he wanted. But the mistrust that began with Jack then seeped into the others via the original ego? Sean's doing. The one who used his powers of creation when, even to this day, he doesn't quite understand how on earth they worked? Sean. Best yet, letting his emotions cause him to put a loved one in a coma he had no clue how to reverse? Once again, courtesy of Sean McLoughlin. Sean brushes these comments off. He's been called out too many times to be that easily affected by it. Besides, he had some things on his own mind that needed saying. Where were Stacy and the kids? Oh, in a ditch. They served no use without Chase's conscience there to haunt. Actually, where had Anti himself been during all these years? Here, there, everywhere. Why stay in one spot when he thrived on being near impossible to pin down. Any question Sean has, Anti's answers are delivered nonchalantly. Right. That's how Anti wants to play it, huh? He creates another piece of footage. This time, he dresses as Chase and speaks on the phone. 'Chase' begs Stacy to take the kids, stay hidden and only contact him when she really needs to. Once Sean posts it (privately of course), the real Chase updates him on the recent developments in his life. He'd gotten a text from Stacy saying they were safe for now. He had only managed to compose himself before leaving the house but ah look, there go the waterworks again. Sean apologises as he makes it abundantly clear that Chase would not be able to see his family for a while. It was for their safety. Chase understood, right? Yes, yes of course. For good measure, he also talks to Henrik. His wife and children weren't in as imminent danger of becoming Anti's targets right now. However, there was no harm in staying vigilant. It was up to the doctor but Sean thought it would be for the best if they maintained a low profile for now. Sean discusses another video with Chase in October. The father is reluctant to have more of his story explored, especially if things are going to play out the way Sean had planned. That's fine, he assures. That was exactly why he wanted Chase to be part of the process. Besides, it may seem a little bleak right now but his fortunes would improve as soon as the ball started rolling. When it comes to filming the short video, Chase kills it. The community may be praising Sean but he makes sure Chase is aware of the love he had earned. He decides to allow Jameson another solo video for his birthday. They brainstorm together, coming up with the premise of a puppet show. Jameson is the one who comes up with the 'I can't be questioned, I'm rich!' joke. As soon as he does, he goes off on a tangent about how he used to know people like that. Hell, his own parents had been like that. Sean laughs along with him. The first sight of trouble is the random bit of string around his arm. Jameson naively removes it without becoming suspicious. Sean's been in this position before. If the video's up, it's already way too late for the targeted ego. He forces himself to watch to the end. Jameson's wrapping up the story when the strings reappear. His arms go limp before he begins swaying on the spot. It is clearly Anti who is controlling his movements now. Sean really wishes he didn't know the sign for 'help'. He bets Jameson believes he has the power to save him. If only he did. The worst part of it is having to witness Jameson clearly attempting to fight against it. If Sean thought Henrik's distress during Kill Jacksepticeye had been a challenge to watch, he had another thing coming. Goddamn it. Can he please go one year without losing more of those he cared about? He'd once been friends with Angus before the fading fiasco caused them to drift apart. Jack kept giving second chance after second chance until Sean had let his frustration screw that up. Chase had gradually begun to see him as potentially trustworthy, only for Anti to kidnap him and set them back to square one. Is it too much to ask for them to feel happy and safe as well as remaining so? His 30th birthday is quiet. There are no egos hassling him or attempts to initiate a bout of insomnia. It's a nice day chilling out with Evelein and BB. He would have enjoyed it even more if he knew he'd achieved his goal of waking Jack up by now. Or even getting Jameson back. The last person he expects to see coming round to his house is Marvin. He doesn't think the magician is entirely sure why he chose to do this either. He states that he gave his word when he said he'd never forgive Sean. With his fae heritage, that meant something and he couldn't go back on that. Marvin seemed offended when Sean shows surprise upon learning he had connection to fae. Well, how exactly was Sean supposed to know this detail if Marvin's been keeping him far away for 2.5 years, especially since they hadn't been best buddies pre-coma either? The magician scowls before returning to a calmer neutral demeanour. He carries on his point. Marvin may not be able to forgive Sean for what he's done, not that he really has a reason to given what was still happening to the egos. That said, he wasn't going to judge his friends as harshly anymore if they decided to give their creator a chance. That uh... shit, that was huge coming from Marvin. All he can reply with is a thank you. August rears it's terrible head. It's been three years now. 36 whole months, god knows how many weeks or individual days. He's had all this time to fix this yet is still working on it. And oh, sure, he can rationalise it. He can remind himself that during 2018, if he wasn't on tour then he was preparing for a leg or decompressing after one. Not to mention that had also been the year he'd finally started addressing his mental health. Now, the biggest thing preventing him from progressing the story to the point where Jack woke up was the virus. For half the year, he couldn't film anything that required a crew, let alone do so on location in America or wherever like he had with CHASE. Instead, he sits at the end of the bed as usual. Legs to his chest, he simply lets himself be here. Henrik is going to kill him for the way he is seated. He rambles at Jack, updating him on recent goings on. When he's said his bit, he becomes contemplative for a moment. "I'm still trying, I swear. You're going to wake up one day. I'm just- I'm doing my best to get everything sorted. I promise you can call my ass out eventually. I will get there. Anyway, I'm sure you have better things to be doing than listening to me mope about like I have been for the past three years. See you around, buddy."

For years, Reddit’s r/TheRedPill forum has been one of the worst corners of the internet. It’s the home of the pickup artist movement, it gave Milo Yiannapolis a fawning fanbase, and it’s the hub of the perceived “manosphere”–a community built around the “men’s rights” philosophy that feminism is a sham built to oppress men.

Reddit is deliberately designed to protect anonymity. But that doesn’t mean users don’t also have to work to protect themselves–something that someone probably should have told Robert Fisher of New Hampshire, who has just been outed by The Daily Beast, via a trail of usernames and custom URLs with ties to Fisher’s email address, as the creator of the misogynistic forum.

Fisher, by the way, also happens to be a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, not that the connection is very surprising. If I had to name the two communities most vocal in their loathing of women, I’d probably go with Red Pill dudes and the GOP.

In addition to Red Pill, Fisher’s reported aliases had also written and published a pickup artist site, a blog attempting to “Explain God,” and one site titled “Existential Vortex.” He also was or maybe still is a singer-songwriter and kazooist in an “indieelectronic” band. Basically, he sounds like exactly the sort of bro-ish college kid, straight off a few frat party rejections and his first philosophy class, whom you would expect to found a misogynistic Reddit forum with a name referencing The Matrix. (Except Fisher had, at the time of Red Pill’s creation, aged out of the follies of youth excuse. He’s 31 now.)

Fisher’s reported “Pk_atheist” alias started the subreddit in October 2012, just before he lost his first election—one he ran as a Democrat. He won his seat in November of 2014, by which time the subreddit had grown to 83,000 members. He had already stepped down as a moderator in early 2013, but continued to be active in the community.

The Daily Beast writes that “within hours of contacting Rep. Fisher, and after delivering by email a summary of his apparent connections to The Red Pill kingpin, his two primary Reddit usernames had been wiped, and four blogs connected to him were deleted or made private.”

[Update: His own colleagues, on both sides of the aisle, are already calling for his resignation. Fisher responded with a statement asserting he is “not disappearing,” adding, “I will continue to stand strong for men’s rights and the rights of all.”]

But the internet doesn’t let you hide from your awfulness that easily. Through archived posts and comment threads, we have way too clear a window into this man’s mind and his motivations for starting this giant sexism feeding ground. Here are just a few direct quotes.

Content warning for, well, for everything Red Pill is about. (Misogyny and rape denial abound.)

–If you want the short version of his views on women: “I find women’s personalities in general to be lackluster and boring, serving little purpose in my day to day life. So I usually only compare body types.”

–“Because when I told myself I thought they were smart, I really had the footnote in the back of my head … smart … for a woman.”

–“I don’t hate women. I just understand what use they are to me. Stimulating conversation is not one of them.”

–“Understand that in the old days, women were not brought up the way they are today. Before feminism, there was less freedom, and therefore it was not necessary to teach women consequence. Consequence was strictly a man’s game.”

–“Women are not oppressed- they’re literally free from a lot of the responsibilities men are- to the extent where women have no need for the functioning every-day knowledge that most men have by the age of 18 … If you took the conversation skills, the sub-par intelligence, the lack of curiosity and put it in a man’s body- would you hang out with that guy? No! Would he be successful? Hell no! Those things are useless without a woman’s body attached.”

–In a post with “seduction” advice, he proposes “There’s a good girl voice inside each woman telling her that she needs to make sure to be proper and avoid being a slut.” He follows up with a lot of tips on how to invade the “good girl’s” personal space and trick her into letting out the “slut.”

–In response to a question about the Free the Nipple movement: “Hot women are a cartel, and they will continue to keep prices as high as possible. Anybody “freeing” their nipples will either be low-quality, or they will have a smear campaign against them to make them seem low-quality, despite the equality implications supposedly working for the cartel.”

–He defended being sexually attracted to teenage girls. “15 year old girls have boobs. Puberty doesnt strike at 18 overnight. Secondly, not creepy- 15 year old girls and guys are commonly sexually active. Its just illegal.”

–In one of his many comments alleging women frequently falsely accuse men of rape, he says he has a video camera in his room, presumably to record his exploits for proof of innocence.

It’s bad enough that someone could hold all of these beliefs, let alone feel confident to enough to put them out in public (even if anonymously so). Add to that the fact that there are, as of now, nearly 200,000 subscribers to the subreddit.

But nothing is scarier than knowing that this is what at least some (and some is too many) of the men who make our country’s laws think about women. And if you think Fisher’s purported Reddit persona is all talk, it’s not. It’s clear that his misogyny infects his platform.

Taking a quick look at Fisher’s terrible, stock-photo-filled campaign website, you can see the threads. In the site’s “Family” section (complete with a stock picture of what I assume is a random family of strangers, so you know he really cares), he says he wants to “strengthen the family.” But all that seems to mean to him is something about the family court legal system. He writes, “It is long over-due to bring oversight and accountability to our family courts. Every parent deserves justice in our courts regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, or orientation.”

This obsession with family courts looks to date back to 2012, when his colleague and fellow men’s rights activist Joshua Youssef began publicly decrying the “feminist judicial tyranny” over a custody battle with his ex-wife. A reddit username the Daily Beast attributes to Youssef posted a lengthy rant about the “corruption, deception, greed, lawlessness, and feminist entitlement-mindedness, of the family court” to /theredpill, with Fisher in the comments defending him.

Remember that comment about “low quality” women exposing their nipples? Another one of New Hampshire’s Reps, Al Baldasaro, insulted the physical appearance of a female legislator who was fighting a bill, written by an all-male team, which would have outlawed breastfeeding in public.

Just four days after the 2014 election that put him in the New Hampshire House of Representatives, with only 100 subscribers, Pk_atheist wrote a manifesto of sorts, explaining the point of the, as of then, two-week-old forum.

“Our culture has become a feminist culture,” he wrote. “A president cannot be elected today without succumbing to the feminist narrative and paying them tribute. How many times has Obama given credit for his manhood to his wife? How many times has the debate hinged on women’s pay gap – which is a myth that gets lip service because if you don’t you’re a misogynist!”

Yet he maintained, “It’s too easy to blame feminism for our troubles.” He’s all for equal rights, he says, although he takes care to specify, “Equal rights are something I strongly am in support of. For men and women.” As opposed to unequal equality, I suppose.

His big message is that feminism has led not to equal rights, but to female domination. Women, as he puts it, control the conversation. “I am here to say, for better or for worse, the frame around public discourse is a feminist frame, and we’ve lost our identity because of it.”

Therefore men, he proclaims, need to take back this role of central dominance from women. The Red Pill is “men’s sexual strategy,” designed to counter feminism, which is, apparently, nothing more than a sexual strategy itself.

This, through the Daily Beast’s sleuthing, appears to be Robert Fisher’s worldview. This is a man who gave a space to hundreds of thousands of others looking to blame and conquer women, while simultaneously being elected into public office, where he has the ability to affect real policy.

Here’s the kicker, and keep this in mind the next time you think your vote doesn’t matter: In Fisher’s small New Hampshire district, he won his re-election by only 700 votes. He won his first election in 2014 by 276 votes. Squashing the internet’s rampant misogyny is a challenge too big for any one of us, but if you’re eligible to vote, you can do your part to keep immature, idiotic monsters like this one out of office.

  (via Daily Beast, image: Shutterstock)

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via The Mary Sue

Aliens/Extraterrestrials are fallen angels, nephilims & demons

Dear Alien fans, WHAT YOU'RE ABOUT TO READ & WATCH BELOW THIS IS 100% TRUTH. NO LIES Do not trust & believe in these aliens(Non-human entities like Grey aliens, Reptilians & human looking aliens like Nordics, Nordic angels, Andromedans, Pleiadians, Asthar, Sanada, Galactic Federation Of Light, etc) They are not who they say they are. They're deceptive, manipulative, fallen angelic and demonic. They're working with the so called bad guy aliens and the government to enslave you. They're deceiving you. Read 2 Corinthians 11:14-16 1 John 4:1-5 Isaiah 14:12 Ephesians 6:12-13 I believe these beings and their spacecrafts/spaceships/flying saucers are real but they're not creatures from outer space/galaxies/planets they want you to believe. Aliens/Extraterrestrials(so-called good & bad) Are Fallen Angels & Demons, not advanced beings & creators of humans from outer space as they want you to believe (the deception they want you to believe - if you accept this LIE as truth, you will be cast into hell) In the beginning of time, God created the universe the stars, etc God originally created all angels(spiritual) to be holy & pure, spiritual beings who love God and serve Him by helping people & leading them to God through Jesus Christ our Lord & Saviour, warning them of their sins, dangers & doing good work in the world but that one of the most beautiful angels, Lucifer (now known as Satan/Devil) chose to rebel against God because he wanted to try to be as powerful as his creator due to his pride, greed & wanted to be like him. Isaiah 14:12 of the Bible describes Lucifer’s fall: “How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!”. Lucifer(Devil/Satan) manipulated angels who God made fell prey to Lucifer’s prideful deception that they could be like God if they rebelled, Revelation 12:7-8 of the Bible describes the war that takes place in heaven as a result: “And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon [Satan] and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven.” They were cast out of heaven The fallen angels’ rebellion separated them from God, causing them to fall from grace and become caught in sin. The destructive choices that these fallen angels made distorted their character, which led them to become evil. Since then, Devil took it personal and wants to destroy God's creation and salvation for humanity. The Devil deceived & manipulated Eve to disobey God by eating the forbidden fruits(knowledge of good & evil) & seduce Adam to eat it which resulted sins(human desires, greed, idolatry, crimes, etc), death & corruption to mankind(old and new generations), earth and universe. During and after the days of Noah (Book of Genesis & Book of Enoch), They were bent on destroying God’s plan on earth for Man, by polluting everything He Had Created. Fallen Angels took human females as wives against their will, rape them and produce abominable creatures known as Nephilims or Giants AND corrupting mankind with more sins [lies, murder, sexual immorality(porn & sex acts), idolatry, greed, pride, murder, violence, human sacrifices & forbidden knowledge(sorcery, witchcraft, magic, weapons of war & combat warfare, astronomy, mystic arts & pagan/occult practices/knowledge, sexual immorality, homosexuality & paedophilia) used in the past and today. Noah & his family were the only perfect humans in God's eyes because they were not corrupted by Devil and kept his faith in God and obeyed him. Noah tried to warn the wicked people to turned away from their sins, away from their masters (Devil, fallen angels, Nephilims) they worship, trust & love more than God and REPENT so that they don't go to hell for eternal damnation & punishment. They refused to listen and chose to serve Satan and tried to kill Noah & his family but failed. Devil & fallen angels procreate with creatures God had created, on land and sea and human women to create a race not in line with God’s Salvation when he Comes Again. They not only corrupted humans to be evil but also experimented on some humans to combine humans(men, women & children) to animals and animals to animals. That is why we hear strange creatures of mythologies (Greek/Roman/Western & Eastern European/West & East Asian/Australian/African/North & South American) and urban legends like Giants/Nephilims, Werewolves/Lycans, Bat like humanoids, Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Orcs, cryptid creatures, lizard like humanoids like Reptilians, Grey Aliens, etc.. They did this to prevent the birth of our Lord & Saviour "Jesus Christ" to redeem mankind. God send the floods to destroy these creatures, animals and mankind(corrupted) & life on earth(covering the whole earth with water). Noah & his family and the animals(uncorrupted) were spared by God through the Ark he told them to build inorder to survive. The floods which lasted for 40 days decreased leaving the land dry so that Noah & his family and animals can restart life on earth. Unfortunately, The death of Nephilims & monstrous creatures during the great flood resulted the birth of demons(evil/malevolent inhuman & disembodied spirits/souls of nephilims & hybrid monsters made by Devil & fallen angels) began AND Now we have the Aliens(demons) to start this process again! Like in the days of Noah. They introduced themselves as gods to humans around the world in years B.C which predate Christianity & were worshipped in ancient times(old & new testament, middle ages till now) and created false religions [[Greek, Roman, Mayan, Western & Eastern European, Norse Viking, Aztec, Native American, Indian, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Shinto, Taoism, Egyptian, Jainism, Wicca Monotheism, Rastafari, Gnosticism, Agnosticism, Atheism, Confucianism, Catholicism(praying to virgin mary, the saints, rosary, occult stuff disguised as Catholic christian doctrines), etc], in ancient cultures in different continents (Africa, Australia, Asia, America & Europe) Since then to now, they deceived & gained trust of the people(Aliens ambassadors, alien contactees) & taught them to use telepathic communication, etc to access spiritual realm & communicate to impersonating/deceiving spirits and using humans as puppets(false prophets & false teachers) to deceive many people to believe in false doctrines(Aliens/Extraterrestrials from outer space, life on mars & other planets, accessing 5D consciousness, Christ consciousness & many lies), practice stuff like emptying your mind, vibrate your conscious mind, & many more lies like the Bible is not the truth/Jesus is half alien half human/Aliens are gods, creators of humans & starseeds, all religions are true except Christianity they claimed to be related to human looking aliens like andromedans/pleadians/nordic angels are the good guys & that non-human like creatures(reptilians, greys, non-human entities) are bad guys & many more lies , During the 2nd World War, large numbers of people began to see lights in the skies ('great signs from heaven', as the Gospel of St Luke calls them). Many began to call these lights 'unidentified flying objects'. Others said that they had seen and met 'aliens'. Of course, in one sense, they were right: the lights that they saw were indeed the lights of 'aliens', the Satanic beings, devils who are the face of Death, which is alien to mankind, who was created immortal by God. Again, people are not able to 'identify' the faces of demons, even when eyewitnesses draw pictures which clearly show demons: they are indeed 'unidentified flying objects' to all those outside Church consciousness. There was a documented case of the owner who witnessed the UFOs with his dog. The dog aggressively barked at the UFOs. The owner claimed his dog never bark & acted like that before and it never bark at planes or helicopters whenever it sees them but the UFOs freaked it out. Dogs & other creatures can sense supernatural On YouTube, you can find dozens of video clips which supposedly demonstrate dogs alerting to the presence of some sort of spirit or demons. These videos usually show a dog that seems to act frightened or skittish, or barks or whimpers, while staring into empty space where there is nothing to be seen. This prove Aliens, UFOs & flying saucers are demonic in nature, not advanced technical flying machines from outer space/galaxies/planets. Worse still, in the foolishness that is born in the human soul when it denies God, men began to worship these devils & human looking aliens declaring them to be from 'a higher civilisation' & more 'intelligent than we are'. And they are indeed more intelligent than non-believers, for the demons 'believe and they tremble' in the name of Jesus Christ. Faith in Jesus Christ and repentance of sins can protect you and your friends & families from aliens and alien abductions. This is a Satanic deception to keep you away from the real truth and the bible(Believe it or not, Jesus Christ is the real messiah, the way, the truth, the light, our salvation, our redemption, our protection and the only way to God & Heaven only if we have faith in him, pray to him anytime & repent your sins and seek God's word[the bible]) They're responsible for cattle mutilation, crop circles, Fatima 1917 miracles of the sun to mankind so that we can fall for their lies & accept them as truth and be corrupted sinners & end up in go Hell(burning in the lake of fire OR being tortured/mutilated/eaten/inflicted pain by demons & fallen angels eternally) for not just our sins (what we did through thought/mind, action, words, ourselves & to each other), rejecting the true gospel of Jesus Christ, falling for the lies these demonic creatures tell you. THE DEVIL IS MISLEADING PEOPLE TO BE HIS MINIONS (false prophets/teachers - telepathic alien channelers, alien contacters, ambassadors to galactic brothers/sisters like Alex Collier, etc) to deceive more people to believe this lie & trust them - leading them to hell. They are manipulating you to worship them & UFOs in reality and pop culture(movies, comics, tv series, video games, audio files). If I am wrong and aliens are friendly & fallen angels/demons, why did the aliens from outer space & planets teach ancient different cultures/civilisations(pagan occult) in different continents to worship them as gods (aliens) & practice the same malevolent things(witchcraft, sorcery, wizardry, telepathic communication to these beings, taking drugs , terrible human sacrifices[killing adults & children in the name of their gods & Satan], sexual immorality[ancient/modern pornography], homosexuality & paedophilia[child sexual abuse]) both in ancient times and this present day? (DO RESEARCH). Of course, in His Word, God also says that paganism, occultism and mysticism are intellectually flawed and spiritually flawed as well immoral, evil and sinful. The Bible also says that participating in paganism, occultism and mysticism can leave people susceptible to the Devil’s influence and the influence of his demonic minions. If we are created by aliens, who created the aliens & the universe? Why was the whistleblower murdered after revealing the aliens in Area 51 are fallen angels and demons? Why are these alien beings encouraging people & children they abducted & experiment on to form new age cults and practice alien powers & unusual tribal rituals & things which are similar to occult and pagan & satanic activities and convincing more people to join the Aliens/UFO cults? Why would they abduct and communicate to their victims(men, women & children) very late at night times (the time the powers of darkness operate)? Globalists, Illuminati, the government, military and Satanists are working with these beings to bring more harming, sell you to the devils inexchange of technology and forbidden knowledge. More details will be below the articles and videos below. To prove I'm telling the truth is in the videos & articles below Aliens are really demons, demonic fallen angels, satan plan to mislead man https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MLqrTKZFX30 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-6ulcXYFyyQ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NUeGo5IVzlk Monsters caught on camera: Aliens & Fallen Angels - The Connection Chapter 1 of 2 https://youtu.be/9sQUrFT98PU Monsters caught on camera: Nephilims, Giants & Mysterious creatures Chapter 2 of 2 https://youtu.be/-PEvXJM2ako Satan’s LOCATION Exposed! // Fallen Angels, Nephilim & Demons Explored in Detail https://youtu.be/WriGCH83xoQ ALIENS ARE DEMONS! Do NOT be deceived! Book of Enoch explored! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oo04gTJ5jqA Aliens Among Us: Demons in Desquise https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DPEQd-ioGcI UFO Aliens Bible says Reptilian, Nordic & Greys in Demonic Locust Army https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wE00ZFPmaAU (feastoftrumpets777) The Mystery of the Demon Alien CROP CIRCLES Word from Jehovah God https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z1qmpkp3Qo 10 yr. Old Jeremy Taken to Heaven, told of Future Events (Shocking!) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zjjUldMA-dg https://aminutetomidnite.com/blog/a-dream-of-a-demonic-alien-invasion/ Former Satanist Gustave Adonner's testimony Part 1 testify his meeting lucifer https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EHFYY5cqda0&list=PL_CtUmqNsp9nbADjulD1OOXmHov-9L-fO&index=5 Former Satanist Gustave Adonner's testimony Part 2 HELL VISIT https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5OngcEa-H5c&list=PL_CtUmqNsp9nbADjulD1OOXmHov-9L-fO&index=6 Former Satanist Gustave Adonner's testimony Part 3 Jesus Christ changed & saved him from demonic control & manipulation https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OEZd2qIC0As Last words and visions of Hell... Now You See TV... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SBZMrLJTrjQ JESUS DELIVERED ME FROM ALIEN AND TOOK ME TO HEAVEN https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DcfAHz2xbR0 Androgyny, Demonic Magicians, False Prophets, Aliens, Demons, Chemtrails... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bwWXka2NDMQ WARNING: GRAPHIC & DISTURBING ACCOUNT below OF Former Alien Contact/Abductee & psychic Ted Rice who used to contact alien spirits to help people but he discovered he's experience nightmares connected to his childhood(his first demonic alien encounter) & the death of his grandmother the beings refused to answer. He visited alien researcher & therapist who unblocked screen memory(false memories aliens implanted to hide the truth of what they did to you) http://janetkatherinesmith.blogspot.com/2010/03/finally-smoking-gun-connecting-dots.html?m=1 http://janetkatherinesmith.blogspot.com/2010/03/ted-rice-story-part-ii.html?m=1 http://web.archive.org/web/19980424212652/www.brotherblue.org/libers/tedrice.htm https://youtu.be/6sd891yIQc8 https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/manual/old-testament-stories/chapter-3-adam-and-eve?lang=eng https://biblehub.com/p/niv/esv/1_john/4.shtml https://pilgrim777.wordpress.com/table-of-contents/19-light-worker-starborns-starseeds-starpeople/ https://myinfohub.org/2013/06/24/conspiracy-theories-illuminati-satanism-and-spirit-channeling/amp/ http://www.metatech.org/A06/whistleblower_dies_ufo_conference.html ALL ETs (Andromedans, Pleiadians, Nordics, Grey Alien/Human hybrids, Procyon, etc) are killing missing children https://youtu.be/zXgaKJmTyP4 https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCQhj1SYp0EIYNfsLlJYiHKw/videos MISSING CHILDREN ARE IN UNDERGROUND BASES https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7CToH4ylls4 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bHNDUv31X0I Antarctica secrets revealed. Demons in flesh nordics reptilians alien bases https://m.youtube.com/results?search_query=Antarctica+secrets+revealed.+Demons+in+flesh+nordics+reptilians+alien+bases Conspiracy Connection - missing children and deep underground bases. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=B13NosY6djk&list=PL349jj5w5GRoRnDZohDUxe8GzxPdnwC_p&index=2&t=0s https://www.lipstickalley.com/threads/beware-fallen-angels-are-on-the-internet-posing-as-angels-of-light.1592413/ https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.express.co.uk/news/weird/691414/Claims-UFO-investigators-are-being-killed-by-men-in-black-after-latest-mystery-death/amp https://m.facebook.com/238240472899332/photos/a.351411358248909/504607382929305/?type=3 https://www.gaia.com/article/is-there-proof-of-aliens-inhabiting-the-dulce-secret-air-force-base Bible Verses Exposing Aliens and UFOs https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HGwQzeSVW7Q http://www.orthodoxengland.org.uk/oe4/the-seventh-sunday-after-pentecost/ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140626012005-50153397-yesterday-s-fallen-angels-are-today-s-aliens https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/branton/esp_dulcebook33e.htm Alien Rapture Excuse For SET! THE RAPTURE IS UPON US! US Navy Pilots Seeing UFOs Everywhere https://youtu.be/21EJC7j-mRY Aliens are Demons (Ashtar Satan) -The Great Deception https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=85mV83p1KGE Galactic Federation of Light - Ashtar Command - Sananda is a demon NOT Jesus https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RortkWkloy8&list=PLkpiyG3sB3GOtG3fjIRP_r7pLqF_wsL1k&index=1 Former occultist exposes The Galactic Federation of Light Ashtar Command https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IcAwRxuyb3s The Galactic Federation of LIES https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih6KZuIKfow https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCEUN17sMHfqxDrrOas56O6Q/playlists https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1961051-the-curious-case-of-philip-schneider http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2455550/posts http://www.burlingtonnews.net/superstitionabductions.html Demons Masquerading as 'Aliens' - Messengers of Deception https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Uf9_y887PxM Demons Came to Her & Gave Her Strange Powers | Robin Harfouche https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=egUungOr3WA Aliens are demons! Dream: "Alien" deception, beware! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kMa9RshLMl4 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=21n5gguyCMk Aliens are demons -- the great deception! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xbPGcSz80fk https://me.me/i/no-im-not-an-alien-from-outer-space-iama-demonicfallen-8714547 Fallen Angels are creating hybrid armies to deceived you. https://youtu.be/uZjREUQlFBM Woman Saved by Jesus from Reptilian Rape Part 1 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BX7sUkgsK3k Woman Saved by Jesus from Reptilian Rape Part 2 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=go6nnLgYk7o UFOs/Aliens are Demons (PROOF) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9tL2JCcLogE UFOs/Aliens are Demons (MORE PROOF) part 2 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MIXoJcinwPg Aliens in the Vatican | Tom Horn & Cris Putnam | Sid Roth's It's Supernatural! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PPPOp1SyHjU MUST WATCH! Human Animal Hybrids Exist! | Tom Horn on Sid Roth's It's Supernatural! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MAK2Mtce9gw New Age Teachings Nearly Cost Sid Roth His Life https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_HEkAmRwtZ0 The Coming Alien Savior Deception with Sid Roth https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uGSLEmSpPDs The Big Secret in UFOs: Jesus Stops Alien Abductions https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UA6dmAWp7EA A Reptilian Spirit reveals How his kingdom steals your God-given gifts / Ed Citronnelli https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wkKQbmJIWbQ Demonic Alien Abduction Stopped by Calling on Jesus Name https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvaKXcYyCp4 UFOs and Aliens are Fallen Angels & Demons https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ka_jt2bsVCg WE FOUND THE NEPHILIM! | L.A. Marzulli on Sid Roth's It's Supernatural! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jkNm3jeCPaA Why do the aliens hate the name of Jesus so much Underground Base Secrets https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bq7vsorAvL4 http://www.alienresistance.org/ce4.htm http://www.alienresistance.org/ce4testimonies.htm 👿=👽Famous Testimony: 'Alien' Abduction By Calling Out the Name Of Jesus/Joe Jordan UFO Researcher Thy Maker is Thine Husband ISAIAH 54:5-6 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tiuHaBgfX2w Why are aliens afraid of Jesus Christ? Real life story of a mother protecting her children. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=m6IxnlEug3E Jesus Stopped Alien Abductions & Attacks: Alan Brooks on The Supernatural with Laura Maxwell https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QqkWH_0pscg UFO Investigator: 400+ cases, Jesus stops Military "Alien" Abductions. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BOC7K3L86TM THERE POSSESSED ! Reptilians Demons NOT Aliens (100% Proof) 2012.mp4 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HHz_OAaSCWs Aliens are demons. Space ships. Abductions. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sj81jb0E-AU Alien Abductions are a Demonic Phenomenon, How to Stop Them and Testimonial Evidence https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ysHayfxA0Bg Jesus stops alien abductions https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0m-Sa98jEgM Aliens Are Demons & Alien Abduction Experiences Can Be Stopped In Jesus' Name! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZHfXPt8BVA Who is God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit? https://youtu.be/JIac3A6d_8c https://youtu.be/twsgqcC_R74 The Real Message from Satan - (Official Video) The Devil Lucifer Fallen Angel Satan's Speech https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4gN8ub0exKE Fallen Angel Talks Of Hell's Torment!!! REPENT!!! Hell Is Real!!! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-wdUFZyIY2I [Punishment In Hell] A Lost Soul Speaks https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x8V5fNUlKP8&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR31dxcwdXo1BIEDBDqgGDJ6r6SAT5PSDasaFqbW7ch0PIZdmblclDhSank Russian Scientists Discover HELL?! The Well To Hell! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr7doO30hSA https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph3DHRIXct8 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uU2HFFCr71k MUST WATCH!! DEMON TALKING OUT OF TEENAGE GIRL DESCRIBES THE DEVIL, HELL & HEAVEN https://youtu.be/Tzcu_BU3ndI THIS WOMAN SHOT HERSELF, WENT TO HELL, THEN TO HEAVEN AND BACK TO EARTH !! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UKY3Sii4a-U This Teen Was Dead For 20 Minutes, What He Saw Will Send Chills Down Your Spine! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Zffb_cvjxIk People see, hear, remember in hell https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KFgQ2Po8qZs https://youtu.be/X2ioxZwOYuo https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mgGJld4nQiA https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2pXsxyCajUU http://youloop.org/loop.php?v=1g_5FFHAmcA http://nsfwyoutube.com/watch?v=1g_5FFHAmcA&fbclid=IwAR1N-tw_UI8o_PoGQb_CNE39DhEWCJ-9b9ywqnA8ph-hALIw46ZTvum3BQc https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zkkyiUT0-U8 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zkkyiUT0-U8 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu5V28XGxr0 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YRzFIBXIUg8 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xaODfymPZsg http://www.nsfwyoutube.com/watch?v=xaODfymPZsg Terrifying Videos Of Ghosts Caught On CCTV https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OH1X8o3QUOQ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=adcAbAJtElc Demonic Evil creature- caught on tape by Rick Grebenik https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YwKYiTKAsnc https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=za65SRJVLgI 5 Angels Caught On Camera Flying & Spotted In Real Life! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UzBecOjeNBY https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc92S9IAgf0# HEAVEN: Stories of People Who Died & Came Back! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=arq7GbLNQnA Demons Caught on Camera: Don’t Invite Them In – Pray Before Watching https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jRRDMs8nsIU Miracles caught on camera & spotted in real life https://youtu.be/EePOV2AOWmI Atheist College Professor dies and sees hell and demons. It changed his life, part 1 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mTIcJNdYlcQ Atheist College Professor dies and sees hell and demons. It changed his life, Part 2 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IFjBd-woggY Sexual Immorality; Pornography, Fornication, Adultery (part 8 of 8) originated from the Devil https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IMbxcmVmRg8 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6ibhaw08JLc https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=W57G_cI_KD0 https://youtu.be/fZAXMMfj-LU https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CG7IP1tAcPo https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h9Qz6kMRwzk https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv86XILQL8g&fbclid=IwAR2u148E1VnUQzxgXnkT39JNtosN8_zLSRkiGZV5cL6uNkdYuk5_nOBBiJc https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SE85duNgDkA&fbclid=IwAR061fX6xTWWFZwyL4IM6hm49Wi9NNR7SObSlJWMOXdtjdOQ1QKn_o2WUx0 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=paErk2kB-G4 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LHBcwgRxyb4 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iTh-Crp1aQs https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv4xVourQ9g&list=PLcJU4Y5kMMy6mt3auuWq054ycttdYWE3y&index=11 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XCr7lxhzVqw https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=abM6C6lOv3k https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=faSoMggDB9c&list=PLcJU4Y5kMMy6mt3auuWq054ycttdYWE3y&index=99

Postmodern Art

Postmodern art seems like it has characteristics that are specific and deliberate choices by the artists.  Two very prominent themes that I noticed regarding each of these attributes of postmodern artists are reworking (including amalgamation) and rejection.  I find it easier to address each of these topics individually because they all seem to contain the same overarching notions of reworking or rejection in some aspect.

  1. Escaping the confines of museums

To the postmodern artist, museums feel like prescribed spaces and should therefore be rejected.  We create art in a public venue in order to communicate a message, and this seems like the purest essence of art making to me.  I find it similar to music, in that compositions used to be performed solely for the public enjoyment and entertainment, but now older musical works are housed in museums of a kind, specifically symphony venues.  They lose their meaning and become objects in isolation, much like the argument that Smithson makes.  The museum naturally “separate[s] art from the rest of society,” just as the symphony separates the piece of music from its societal context.  When we remove the art from its original location, we lose part of the message being communicated.

  2. Collapsing boundaries between "high" and "low"

I find it interesting that art was (still is?) differentiated into high and low forms.  I can understand the notion that “true art transcends ordinary life,” but I also believe that it is inherent in art that art represents and interprets life as well.  Amalgamation seems to be a prominent feature of postmodern artists, as the several artists referenced appear to blend seemingly disparate features into new works.  I watched a documentary on tattooing a few days ago, and this kind of blending of classical and modern style and technique that I see in postmodern work directly reflects what the documentary labeled American tattoo style.  American style tattooing draws influence from different global styles, like 19th century Japanese prints, Indonesian tribal designs, prison ink, and photorealistic art, and mashes them all together into a composite work.  This seems similar to what some of the pop artists were doing in the 1950’s, like Warhol and the soup cans or Marilyn Monroe – taking images that we are familiar with somehow, and reworking them in a way that they take on new meaning but retain the familiarity to create something new.  This seems to combine both rejection of boundaries and reworking of existing ideas.

  3. Rejecting originality

Humanity has been around for a relatively long time (compared to, say, the duration of one person’s life).  The postmodern artist rejects the notion that true originality is unattainable, and “that all art is derived from other art,” and that the creation of all artwork is inseparably influenced by historical and contemporary work.  In a nutshell, everything has already been done.  I suppose I agree with this notion, but it does seem a bit reductive.  Surely everything has something that preceded it, so to say that nothing is original removes grounds for argument.  Yet it also holds true that the earliest cave paintings we know of are representative images – that is, their creation was influenced by what their creators saw.  As with collapsing boundaries between high and low forms of art, the keyword with this seems to be amalgamation.  Just as classical composers drew on the influence and techniques of those that came before them, so too do visual artists.  Plus, with the connectedness of the modern world thanks to the internet, it becomes almost impossible to be influenced by others in some way.

  4. Jouissance

Jouissance is a new concept to me, but compared to the “modernist aesthetic experience” seems much more in line with how I experience art.  It is really difficult for me to examine a work of art and adopt the Kant attitude.  How can you look at something, especially a beautiful work, and not even care if it exists?  Art is a window into the worldview of someone that is not our self, and to discount a work that someone else created, and put time and effort and heart into, is to me to ignore the part of the soul that makes us human.  It would be particularly difficult for me to be involuntarily emotionally moved by a work of art, and to then turn around and not care if that work even exists.  That work just reached me on a raw, emotional level, how can I not care if it exists?  If it brings me joy, sadness, confusion, or any other emotion I could feel, I absolutely find it worthy.  Plus, I guess I’d rather look at art that makes me feel something rather than nothing at all.  Postmodern artists view this as a rejection of the modernist aesthetic.

  5. Working collaboratively

There are a lot of parallels to postmodern art and music.  Collaboration on visual art is following a very similar route to that of musical collaboration.  I can record a solo on a song that someone else composed and sent me electronically, and send that version on to be mastered, and we do not even have to be in a similar geographic location to accomplish this.  Again, the connectedness of the world lends itself to this kind of creation.  This is a form of amalgamation, specifically of disparate artists.

  6. Appropriating

Appropriation seems to go hand in hand with rejecting originality.  Appropriation naturally implies a rejection of originality because it is taking something that already exists and re-manipulating it to a new end.

  7. Simulating

Like an old-timey photo booth.  Simulation involves copying, and goes along with appropriation and rejecting originality.

  8. Hybridizing

Also goes with simulation, appropriation, and rejection of originality.  The overarching theme of this seems to be reorganization and re-manipulation of existing elements.  Specifically, hybridizing matches well with the collapsed boundary notion, because hybridization itself implies collapsed boundaries.  We have taken two separate things and created a new thing out of both, thus destroying the boundary separating those two entities.

  9. Mixing media

This goes along with hybridization, specifically with media.  Let us not forget that ancient Greek statues were painted.  Postmodernists reject the modernist notion of “purity of media exploited to the fullest.”

  10. Layering

This fits well with the overarching concept of amalgamation, because to me that is exactly what layering is.

  11. Mixing codes

I am fascinated by the tacit and the hidden, especially with regard to society and “norms.”  Postmodern artists seek to deliberately draw attention to these societal standards that we tacitly accept (unless we actively reject them).  Again, as with artist Michael Ray Charles, postmodern artists are seeking to re-manipulate images with which we are familiar and hold meaning (the hair pick, the minstrel gloves, and so forth) in order to make us re-examine our assumptions and tacit societal ideals. 

  12. Re-contextualizing

Taking the familiar and re-manipulating it, re-contextualizing is part of mixing codes, hybridizing, appropriation, and collapsing boundaries.  This tends to result in a significantly altered message from the original, re-contextualized work.  I would think that artists who deliberately re-contextualize art generally do so in a rather jarring or unsuspected way.  The one image that comes to mind is Immersion by Serrano, more colloquially known as Piss Christ.  Serrano took an incredibly iconic image, the crucifixion of Christ, and re-contextualized it through rejection of societal expectation.

  13. Confronting the gaze

The big keyword here is rejection.  Postmodern artists rejected the notion of “the male gaze” that is specifically inherent in paintings of women as well as the notion that women in art are merely something to be looked at.  I suppose I could also argue that this is a form of reworking as well, in that postmodernists are, in a sense, reworking the male gaze into a more egalitarian, or even more feminine one.

  14. Facing the abject

This goes along with the male gaze, or rather directly in opposition.  Again, rejection is the paramount concept here.  Postmodern artists are deliberately rejecting the notion of the male gaze, to “challenge [it] with abject images of the female body and feminine sexuality.”  It almost seems like a reclamation of the feminine body by women, because they are showing everything about the female body and its function, not just those characteristics which please men.

  15. Constructing Identities

This is a great concept to tease out a little bit.  I think that, for a long time, art was created at the behest of a wealthy patron, and thus identity was only really expressed based on who could afford it.  Marginalized groups in society tend to seek commonality among themselves, and postmodern art went a long way in terms of allowing for those groups to form an identity.  As humans, we seek to identify with some kind of in-group, whether it is based on the music we like, the car we drive, or the country of our family’s origin.  As with much of the above, rejection is the operating word here, with postmodern artists rejecting the pre-packaged identities that governments and those with power bestow upon those without means, or those that are different from the societal expectation.

  16. Using narratives

Again: rejection.  Rejection of the 1960’s abstract artworks, and the reintroduction of narrative into a visual work.

  17. Creating metaphors

Metaphor acts as a rejection of modernist aesthetic ideals.  Postmodernists encourage metaphor, even ones that may seem rather heavy-handed.

  18. Irony, parody, and dissonance

This can be a powerful tool if employed properly, and is a good illustration of reworking art to display irony or even rejecting societal expectations in order to create parody to draw attention to a subject.

Chapter One

When she met him (Masterlist)

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Fem!Reader [called Michelle]

Summary: 50s. Michelle Wells, a young New Yorker, has left everything behind for love, or so she thinks.

Warnings: Toxic relationship.

Word count: 1252

A/N: This is an introductory chapter for the female protagonist. / Sorry for my spelling and grammatical mistakes, English is not my native language, I am learning.

West Berlin - May 1954 - POV MICHELLE

The mirror showed a reflection she had not stopped to contemplate in a long time. Rosy cheeks offered life and warmth to a pale face that seemed to have been forgotten. Her skin was smooth, the colour of porcelain, showing the youth that had only just begun. Her eyes were highlighted by a greyish iris, which seemed to be complemented by blue drops, but as pale as her complexion. Her golden hair was tied back behind her face, but even so, a few strands stood up in rebellion, sliding down her forehead. 

She moved closer to the imposing mirror, which was perched on the dresser in the room. It was then that she could see on her lips that the reddish lipstick had been fixed to perfection, offering a speck of colour to the ensemble that she herself formed. 

Her attention was diverted to the melody coming from the phonograph's horn, but she could see the presence of a person behind her reflected in the mirror itself. Those vermilion lips showed a smile as the warmth of the male body pressed against her back.

"You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my life," the whisper overpowered the music. "Tonight every man in the universe will know how lucky I am.”

The blush took hold of her, causing her to look away from his face through the mirror and lower her gaze without ceasing to smile.

It had been a few months since she had left behind everything she had known in her nineteen years, venturing to suffer the indifference and the very rejection that the unknown future could bring her. Her life in New York was a past that counterbalanced the pain and happiness of her younger years, but it did not offer her all that her inner self demanded, until he came along.

Richard was a young British man of beauty, wit and chance, who had made a fortune in the world of tobacco after the end of the Second World War. So one could say that it didn't take long for her to notice him, and for him to desire to possess her beauty among his various properties. It was an accumulation of promises that entered Michelle's mind and led her to follow him to Europe without questioning their veracity. Accepting the consequences that this meant for a young woman of her position in a world run by and for men.

It had been many years since she had had a male figure to support or guide her decisions, as well as her purpose in life. The loss of her father made her acquire a sense of purpose and make decisions of her own, which were usually accepted by her mother, but which in this case did not find a place in Michelle's audacity. Those who knew her thought that her judgement had been clouded or that she had only lost her head out of love for this gentleman.

Richard had made his appearance in New York City just a few months earlier. Their fates had crossed in the New York night, during the presentation of a new Walker Motors Corporation internal combustion engine at the Edison Hotel, which was a milestone in the market. Richard was an external guest, invited by one of the company's own partners, but Michelle was invited by the leading eminence. It is worth noting that Charles Walker, director of WMC, has been friends with them since their childhood, which is why she attended the private party. However, it was not until midnight that Charles himself introduced them, saying that Richard had shown an exclusive interest in meeting her.

“Where is your mind?" Richard's lips brushed her right earlobe.

His fingers rested on her neck, still staring at herself in the mirror, and brushed aside a light strand of hair that fell across her collarbone to place his lips on hers.

"I don't want you to go elsewhere if I'm not in your thoughts," that whisper sent a shudder around her body, as Richard's lips continued to trail firmly along her neck.

Michelle had been extremely decisive in agreeing to give herself to a man she barely knew or had any testimony about his past. But her mind had been so dazzled by the hopes she had placed on him and his oaths, that she had barely been able to consider the fact that something could go wrong.

The kissing stopped, causing the young woman to open her eyes again to meet her own reflection. Richard turned away from her body for a moment to search inside his jacket. Within seconds he pulled out a greenish rectangular box, which he opened without letting Michelle contemplate the contents, who watched his movements with curiosity.

“Close your eyes," he asked softly in her ear.

Michelle, showing little opposition, acted as he ordered. A tingle tingled around her throat, which brought a subtle smile to her lips as she waited for Richard's command to open her eyes again. It wasn't until after a brief kiss on her bare shoulder, however, that she decided to contemplate the object resting on her neck for herself. Her lips parted in surprise as an array of pearls lay upon her, illuminating practically the entire room. Her fingers slowly brushed each one of them, she hardly knew what to say, the only thing that came to her mind was the questioning of why about that detail.

"Tonight you will shine over the whole world,” Richard's hands rested on her hips “There won't be anyone in Berlin, east or west, who doesn't know who Michelle Wells is.”

The young woman smiled with a blush as she gazed at her figures in the mirror, those words giving her the encouragement she needed to face the performance that was to take place in a few hours' time. Her ability on stage had been recognised in various clubs in New York, but she knew that the audience that night could not compare with the one she had had before. New York had been the pinnacle of jazz, and Harlem the favoured neighbourhood of her own creation, yet this was a far cry from anything she was used to.

A slight sigh came out of her mouth, showing her nervousness at such a situation. It was an unavoidable fact of life that she was thousands of miles away from her hometown, and although she had made herself think that she and Richard would be looking for their own home, she couldn't help but feel incomplete.

“Take everything out of your mind, let it go blank and only focus on you from this moment on," the breath collided on her ear creating a brief shiver down Michelle's back, "Forget everything you've lived through, and all the people. You are the creator of your own destiny, and no one can stand in the way of that. Tonight may be the most important moment for your future. For our future.”

Michelle turned around so she could look directly into his eyes, eyes that depending on the light could appear blue or green. Under the dimness of the lamp the greenish hue could be found in them, but she barely noticed it because their proximity was cut short when he said those words, melting into a slow, passionate kiss before he left for the club.

Taglist: @indigo123789​ @mycosmicparadise @imerdwarf

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What does Allah Say of Allah in Chapter II, verse 255 in The Holy Quran? Let us recite these words often.entitled The Verse of The Throne: "Say to humanity Muhammed, Allah is The G-d, there is no god but Allah, The Ever Living, The Self-Subsisting, The Eternal. No slumber can seize Allah, nor sleep.His are all things in the heavens and the earth. Who is it that can intercede for Allah, except as He permits? Allah Knows what appears (to His creatures as) Before, After or Behind them. None shall encompass His Knowledge except as He Wills. His Throne extends to the ends of the heavens and the earth. For Surely, Allah is The Most High, The Supreme in Glory. (SAA) (Allah has Spoken a Mighty Truth)!SUPPORT YOU CANT SEE Faith To Religion As Theory To Science Science is mostly based upon theory. Before science arrives at fact, science has the base or foundation of theories. We have a scientific world. We have a world that tells us all about the nature of matter, how matter is composed. We are taught, by our science teachers, general science and physics. If you had those subjects of science, you know that science says that matter is composed of small particles that you can't see with your eyes. It has gone on the theory called the Molecular Theory, that molecules are composed of atoms, and atoms are composed of charges. And none of this can be seen by the physical eye, so it still remains a theory. Theory means that they can't prove it to the rational mind and physical eye, except upon reference of observing certain behaviors of matter or believing that since these results come when we use these theories, these results hold up. A person believing in life after death or the hereafter or another life or better and higher life to come believes in that on faith. But the faithful persons are recorded in scripture and in regular life, our life, as having certain experiences that give them reason to believe that that is reality that it does exist. The same for the Belief in God; it is a belief; it is faith. But the experiences that we have personally as people of faith are as much evidence for our faith and belief in matters of religion, as these theories are for the scientific world. We experience it in our souls. We experience it in our minds. We experience it in our life. We see it happening in the lives of others. Many times, we experience it together. Two people or more will witness the same phenomena or the same happenings in their lives and identify them the same. So what is the difference between theory and faith? The scientists would not have gotten to where he has gone and made the progress he has made, if he had not had faith. He had to have faith, faith in what he believed. He had faith that in what he believed is the reality. We are conditioned to think of the world as the world of law and reality. Scripture says the whole world is deception. Deception you are not really seeing reality, when you are looking at the world. There was a time when man was looking at the earth and believing that earth Was flat like a table. He believed that if you went so far, you would fall off the earth. But observation over a long period of time and experience and increase in knowledge brought mankind to accept the common knowledge that the earth is round. There is some proof that the earth is round, and one is given in the general science courses. It says that if you notice when you are out on the ocean front and the ships are coming in toward the shore, the banks, the land, you see the top of the ship first. Then the rest of the ship comes into view in time, as it approaches. This is proof to a rational mind that the earth is round. PROOF there is GOD Similar proof is given to us in religion to support what we believe in, that there is a God. It is not just God over creation, but it is a Living God, an Active God, a God that listens to my personal life whenever He wants. This is what the person of faith believes in. And I say we have evidence of this, as does the world of science. We have to change the way we think. We have been influenced by the secular world, science, human claims, man's claims that fascinate us and escape our mental capacity, in other words leave us without explanations and make us think that man is a miracle worker. And he is. But he is not the first Miracle Worker, and he is not the biggest Miracle Worker. We are talking about Solid Faith. Both religion and science, I repeat, require faith. Science calls it theory. For religion, it is F-A-I-T-H. Humans are born sinless. There is no inherent sin period. However, humans have a proclivity toward error or sin but are not born sinners. There was a time in the history of our criminal studies in the United States, Criminology in the United States, that it was believed that if you could stop a criminal from having children, it would help reduce crime. It was believed that the criminal would most likely produce a criminal, that that behavior was inherent. It wasn't long over a period of time that that was rejected here in the United States, and they took the position that no child was born criminal. So here we find religion and science agreeing, coming together. Not today but many years ago, religion and science were taking similar positions. If you really are an observant person and have a clear mind, and you think on what the world has done and think on what you have read in scripture, the world has just lived scripture. Scripture came before the world, and the world has been living Scripture as though somebody gave man science as his plan for his life. Exactly what has happened is what was predicted. And I can give you many statements from religion and scripture to explain that and support that. NEED FOR POSITIVE SELF-IMAGE To believe I am born a sinner is to be crippled for life, spiritually and mentally. Every field of knowledge knows that in order to succeed, one has to have a positive self-image or a view of the value of one's self as good and appreciative. The reasons why so many people are failing in life is that they have a crippling belief or idea that cripples them and prevents them from performing at their capacity or their ability. It is because they have been told that human beings are born in sin or born with sin. Somebody was awfully messed up, when it came to accepting sex. And they are the ones who thought themselves a special creation, that they had rejected flesh and pursued religious light and had become another creation above human creation. And they imposed upon themselves, as God revealed in the Last Scripture, celibacy to have nothing to do physically or sexually with a female. They required that of themselves or of their order, that you don't marry women, that you are married to The Word of God. That influence is what we see in the belief that man or human beings are born sinful or in sin. This is not something that starts in The Gospel. It starts in the early scriptures, that if you do wrong, your children are going to inherit it. Your children will be punished for your wrong; they will inherit your sin. This is in Scripture. But do we understand it? No. We take it literally and we take it to be speaking to the matter, which it is not. It is speaking indirectly to the matter or to the subject not directly. No child necessarily has to be affected by the bad behavior or the sins of the parents. We see that in life; we don't need anybody to prove that to us. We see extraordinary children come up in the worse conditions in some of the worse households, and they turn out to be just super. We don't have to have anybody to prove it to us; we see it in our own life. I don't think most of us bought that anyway. I think those who can't find a job bought it. I think those who can't follow good leadership bought it. I think those who can't follow good sense bought it. But I think a lot of us never bought it. The human family has human family solidarity. As our destiny, we have to accept the unity of the human family. Man has progressed socially and materially on this earth with a position now, globally speaking, that we cannot accept to ignore other nations and other people. HISTORY UNFOLDING Not only do we have to recognize their existence and their right to their own future, as they choose to have it, but we have to also recognize that they have a right to share in the wealth of the world. Their lands should be respected as their lands, and our lands should be respected as our lands. We can't run from each other anymore. We can't live economically without each other anymore. We have to work and cooperate for the good of us all here on this planet earth. This is the reality that was prophesied in scripture that would come. That things in God's Creation were working automatically, both in the human creation and in the material creation, to bring home the Destiny as God intended it to be. It is not as some nation intended it to be, it is as God, The Creator, intended it to be. When we read scripture, we see it plainly unfolding in the history of man's social and material life. We see history unfolding, and we see scripture speaking in man's material life, social life and spiritual life in his whole life. DON'T DOUBT FAITH Here is what was said, and look at what is happening. What was said is now seen as what is happening in this global community of man today. Some of you doubt faith. You don't want to trust faith, so your faith is weak. I am sure a lot of you come from Christian backgrounds and a lot of you in the myspace blog audience are Christians, perhaps. You may recall the preacher saying, quoting The Gospel, quoting Christ Jesus Peace be on him: "If you have as much faith as a grain of mustard seed, you can do wonders." Think about this, the Qur'an and the Bible these two Books say very much the same thing, when addressing major issues on doubt and faith. Take one grain of mustard seed and put it on your finger be careful not to drop it, because you can hardly see it. The mustard seed is hard and to look at it, it looks dead. But when you put it in the place where God intended it to go to have life again, it becomes a big bush and just one of its leaves has weight. "If you have so much faith as a grain of mustard seed...," that looks dead and is hard. This is Solid Faith. Muhammed the Prophet taught his followers what God revealed in the Qur'an: "Be together, stand together as a solid wall." And we stand together shoulder to shoulder, as a solid wall when we pray together in congregational prayers. We take the stand upon faith. And God says, "Look at the heavenly bodies." Both Scriptures point us to the heavens, for us to observe the wisdom for a higher order of human life on this planet earth. God says, "Observe the bodies that you see in the sky and how they appear to be supported with no props or supports under them that you can see." What is that saying to us? It is saying that not only your life but the existence of the material universe is existence upon powers that you can't see. The sun you can't see what is holding it up. The moon you don't see what is holding it up there. You get a telescope and look at planets and material bodies or material mass bigger than ours. Look at the planets, like Jupiter. You cannot see what is holding them up there. Science tells you of the trillions and trillions of tons not pounds in that mass. There it is hanging out there in space seemingly with no support holding it up. That is pointed out to us to tell us to trust the God that designed this creation, trust the God that designed the Universe. Trust Him. You can't explain everything He did. Trust Him. He knows and you know not. You look at what He has done and then come up with your own explanation for it. I know about universal gravity. That is what science tells us. But when the farmer looks up there, he doesn't see any universal gravity. All he sees is big bodies up there and nothing is holding them up. So God's Lesson is going to stay, no matter what science says. God gives us a Lesson that says, "Have faith in the Lord that designed this creation. The way it is designed is too big for your mind to grasp. Have faith in The One that designed it and don't doubt. Die to your own life, die to your own mind and live again." Imam W.D. Mohammed (raa)