Coiled - An XCOM Romance in City-31

by SphericalMan

Jason, a survivor of the Liberation War, living in City-31, is following his boring daily routine of work-sleep. But everything changes when he spots a viper in the mostly-human sector of Angler's Point and decides to invite her out on a date. [Story In Progress]

14. Double Trouble

Author's Notes:

Thank you very much for your kind words and feedback on the story. I very much enjoy reading your thoughts and comments; they also give me lots of energy to keep writing - something that had not been as easy at times due to stress, etc.

Please keep it coming and, again, if you would like a place to discuss the Coiled characters, plot and give me suggestions, feel free to join this discord server, which also features other viper fan fictions. Because links are not allowed here and get deleted immediately, you'll have to put the following invite code on Discord to join the server: YEDmmNqvHG

Or, you can try this full link but you'll have to remove the * and spaces: www.* discord.* gg / YEDmmNqvHG

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The following week was a rather busy, almost depressing one. With Kelyassa going back to work – even though she hadn't officially fully recovered yet, so there were no dangerous assignments in store for her – and Jason having his hands absolutely full at the clinic, the couple had barely seen each other for days on end. With the human working long hours into the night and the viper spending a lot more time at the agency, there was barely enough time to say 'hi' to each other. Sometimes, even that was impossible, as the other one was already fast asleep when one of them came home.

Wednesday was no different, unfortunately. As soon as the medic had woken up, he could immediately see his girlfriend was absent; leaving for her work early had become a regular thing and the human was sure she was trying to make up for lost time. Even if he had tried to persuade her more, the serpent would still attempt to be tough – at least for the job she did. And, in a way, she probably had to be.

Yawning and stretching, he could feel his behind protesting from seating for long hours at the clinic office. "Have to get up and walk around more," he muttered to himself, rubbing his chin and getting up. Not having the snake there was sad, yet he also felt happy she had gotten better by then, her health being very important for him. But it just wasn't the same doing all the morning chores without hearing the soft slither, seeing the glistening scales or enjoying her gentle touch. For as feisty, agile and lethal the reptile was, she had developed a rather soft side for him; perhaps she had always needed something like it.

Taking a quick shower, Jason reminisced about their times together, including when they were 'saving water', making him sigh in a happy fashion. Grabbing his usual synth-meat sandwich and putting on some fresh clothes, he decided to leave early and take a short detour along the river before heading to work. The fresh air would do him good and seeing the amateur fishermen get their catch would be fun. Perhaps he should take Kelyassa fishing at some point? Would she even like that? There was only one way to find out, he thought, and the repercussions for being unsuccessful were practically none.

Opening the doors of his apartment, he walked out into the hallway and headed for the elevator. Unfortunately for him, another set of doors had opened – the flat of the two resistance fighters that had caught the couple loving up to each other just last weekend. "Oh, uh... Hi," he greeted the man giving him a look of disapproval. Here we go, Jason thought, knowing full well what was coming. He didn't want any of it, nor did he want an argument, but being stuck here before the arrival of the lift meant he was at the mercy of scathing words of xenophobes that would never accept aliens mixing with human society.

"How can you live with yourself?" came the rather expected question of the older man.

Sighing, Jason slowly moved to the other wall and pressed the button, hoping the elevator was going to be quick. That was wishful thinking, however, as the block was rather lively this early in the morning – lots of people were going to work or coming back from it. With the old building's single lift, the traffic was rather high. "I just do," he replied without trying to sound one way or another. Remembering the attack in the alley, the medic had little aim at making this into a big argument, even if he didn't quite believe the two ex-resistance fighters would actually want to hurt him physically.

"You were in the resistance, weren't you? I remember you telling us about it when you moved here," the old human continued.

"Yeah, I was."

"And your parents were brutally murdered by the aliens," the other speaker recalled, trying to inflame the situation.

But Jason was not taking the bait, he was going to play this calm. Pressing the elevator button a few more times, he had decided to avoid eye contact: "Yes, they were."

"And yet you consort with them. Even get into..." The resistance fighter paused, his voice trailing off into utter disgust. "Relationships with them. What would your parents have said if they could see you now?"

Gritting his teeth, the medic was telling himself to stay calm. But something snapped inside him – the fact that this man was basically spitting on his girlfriend simply rubbed him the wrong way. Turning around, he had changed his mind; he was going to confront these delusions: "I think they would be happy. Because I'm happy. And I can't understand why people still wish to wage war."

The ex-fighter, however, didn't appear to be fazed by this. In fact, he took a few steps closer and lowered his voice a little: "I'll tell you why. Because these things are a ticking time bomb. The terrorist attacks? Mostly aliens. The attacks on humans? Mostly aliens. The threat to our society? To the survival of humanity as a species? The aliens. You think they really consider themselves a part of us? All of a sudden?"

"I don't think they really have a choice," Jason tried to reason. "Who knows for how many generations they've been nothing but slaves for the elders? They don't have their own cultures any more. I don't see why they couldn't integrate into society... They already did."

Raising his eyebrows, the battle-hardened human was not convinced: "Oh, yeah? Is that why they're creating enclaves? Attacking people? Complaining about how they're not being treated right all the time, while preparing more sinister plans?"

"Wow... You're paranoid," the medic said, unable to keep his mouth shut. What he was hearing simply sounded like complete tripe.

Pointing a threatening finger at him, the fighter warned: "You just watch your mouth. I didn't fight in the war to have sympathizers like you screw it all up."

"You know, this place is a human enclave as well. And look how me and Kelyassa are getting constantly harassed, through no fault of our own."

"When you give them names, that's when it gets more difficult to... defeat them," the ex-resistance member said, clearly pausing in the middle of the sentence to choose more careful wording.

Deciding to ignore the thinly-veiled insult, the medic was beginning to get sick of the interrogation: "Your wife has a name, right?"

"What?"

"She has a name. Does that also make it more difficult to... defeat her?"

This time around, the ex-fighter's eyes darkened, his look transforming into something different altogether, as if there was going to be blood. "The fuck did you just say?"

Even though he was starting to regret poking the lion's nest, Jason didn't see another way out apart from serving the man his own medicine: "I just repeated what you've said. So, how does that make it different?"

Taking another couple steps towards the medic, the old man was now almost uncomfortably close, the smell of alcohol wafting from his breath: "Two different things altogether," he grunted in a low tone of his voice. "You think you're being cute..." Once again, the man paused, an expression of utter disgust forming on his face. "Kissing and fondling that snake. It's not even human, you degenerate."

A quiet ding preceded the sliding open of the elevator's doors, thankfully announcing the end of this ridiculous charade. Moving back into the lift, Jason thought he was in the clear, but the other person had a different idea – he joined him in there.

"And what's more," the ex-fighter continued in a very accusative tone, "by humanizing them, all you're doing is undoing the years of terror we, the real resistance fighters, had to endure. You're spitting on all the deaths of all the people who made it possible for your sorry ass to enjoy the freedom of having our own planet again."

"What I don't understand is why you and people like you can't get their heads wrapped around the fact that Earth was occupied by the ethereals and their mindless troops. The sentient aliens we have living in the city are like you and me," Jason pointed out, again trying to reason with the increasingly angry man. And, in this small space, he wasn't about to try and make the guy even more emotional.

"And while you're busy getting whatever diseases those things spread through their mouths and other orifices," the fighter stated in almost a whisper, causing Jason to visibly grimace, "just remember how your parents were killed by one of them."

It was the medic's turn to have his face darken. Looking the old man straight in the eyes, he uttered an angry 'fuck you' through his teeth.

"Uh-huh," the ex-resistance nodded, as if satisfied. "That's more an attitude I would've expected from someone that wasn't born a city couch." The 'city couch' and 'city boy' terms had become derogatory expressions used by people who had fought in the war to refer to the population who had survived in Advent cities. Of course, they, too, had faced great danger due to the secret alien projects, but if they were not selected for the experiments, they lived relatively peaceful and cushy lives compared to those outside in the wilderness.

"You people keep saying how disgusting I am for being with an alien. But that alien seems to be far more human than any of you. And actually cares for me. Unlike all of you who would just want to see the world burn all over again," Jason said with his parting words as the elevator doors had again opened on the first floor.

The old man, surprisingly, did not follow, but stayed in the lift, apparently having had gotten in with the sole intention of giving the medic a verbal telling off.

As the doors closed in an agonizingly slow fashion, Jason was finally left in peace, giving him a few moments of much-needed respite to close his eyes and take a deep breath. "Fucking bullshit," he muttered to himself, trying to relieve the anger and pressure he was feeling. With his day now practically ruined, the human got out and began his journey towards the clinic where he worked at. But since he had decided to leave early, there was a bit of spare time to make that short detour he was thinking about – and it would have done him good, even more so now than originally thought. This path took him along the river, his eyes resting for a minute or two on the slow-moving liquid that practically powered the entire city, not to mention fed a good quarter of it with fish. It also allowed great access to the ocean where even more and bigger catch was waiting.

There were some early birds trying to get a free meal, swinging their fishing rods into the water, each having a slightly different technique and bait. Some swore by live worms, which were being caught at farms, then canned to be sold in shops. Others still simply attached pieces of bread to the hooks and hoped for the best. It looked like everyone had some luck at some point; while the invasion having decimated humanity as well as some flora and fauna, fish were one of the few that flourished, having free reign without huge fleets of fishing ships reducing their numbers. The invasive alien specimens also meant that new predators were now in play, of course, but the ecosystem had adapted to these unforeseen changes, as it always does.

A small smile tried to creep onto the medic's face as he remembered his first time fishing in the wild, a kid of only twelve, finding a stream and fashioning primitive fishing rods to aid them. They had caught nothing, of course, and were later yelled at by the elders for going out of the 'safe zone' but, at the end of the day, they had great fun. Which is what he couldn't have said for this particular day and the old man. In fact, with all the hate he and Kelyassa had been receiving, his mind was subconsciously slowly drifting towards disliking ex-resistance members, despite himself being one. This was what he got as thanks for saving all those lives in the war. Being spat on and insulted for showing humanity towards aliens.

Sighing, he couldn't spend an eternity there; the clinic was waiting. But before heading to work, the human wanted to check if his old friend, Mag, was around. The sectoid was usually not present at the river side before noon, preparing his food cart for sales later in the day, but perhaps today was different. Walking towards the usual spot, Jason found it funny how his friends had consisted of more aliens than actual humans. Perhaps that was telling of his own preferences or maybe it was a combination of that plus people's reactions?

Either way, when he arrived at Mag's spot, the sectoid was nowhere to be seen. An expected, albeit slightly disappointing outcome, meaning there was nothing left to do but to head towards the clinic.

There were just as many patients waiting on the benches in Camp Exo as the week before; in fact, it looked like their numbers had swelled over the weekend, placing the small building's staff under even more strain. The lines were long and varied – full of all kinds of the city's denizens of all shapes and sizes – with everyone waiting patiently for their turn in the many offices. Depending on their preliminary assessments by the nurses, they were then directed to either a doctor or – in case of Jason – a 'medic'. The latter were obviously accepting the less severe cases and things which were more readily apparent or easy to diagnose. If, for some reason, that first office was unable to effectively designate what was wrong with the patient, they were then forwarded on to an actual doctor, much to the displeasure of the ill, because it meant their stay at the clinic was destined to last much longer, but it was the only way City 31 could cope with such a discrepancy in numbers between people requiring medical attention and licensed, trained physicians.

Jason was rarely forced to address his clientele onward, much to his own ego's delight, but it did happen occasionally. Whether these low numbers were due to the nurses only giving him the easy cases or not, he had never investigated, and did not particularly care. Doing his job well was what was important to the medic.

Kale, the young human receptionist had greeted him, giving the rundown on what sort of people were expected to visit the office delegated to the ex-resistance practitioner. There was a fair bit of work in store for him and little time to waste if he wanted to get home at a reasonable hour; which was practically in the middle of the night. Thanking the ever-energetic assistant, he was stopped by a proposition: "Hey, uh... Mr. Jason?"

"Hm?" was his acknowledgment, his eyes barely moving from the tablet computer on which he was going through some patient details before accepting the first in the queue.

"I and a few others are thinking of having a night out together this weekend. To relieve some of the stress and unwind from the work we have. We're gonna go to the Globe bar and were wondering if you'd like to come and join us," he suggested, almost nervously so.

Jason knew Kale was a very energetic guy, always trying to please everyone and keep polite – and that was a good thing, of course – but the way the young human looked up to the medic felt wrong. There were so many successful doctors, surgeons and the like about, it was a shame the receptionist did not aim higher with people he almost idolized. Sometimes it made the medic chuckle to think that he, of all citizens, was the one that was inspiring the busy assistant. "Uh, maybe," he answered, unsure of whether Kelyassa would have time or not. In truth, the male would rather had spent time with his girlfriend, considering they had little space for each other these weeks.

"Oh... Oh, okay," Kale answered, visibly disappointed.

This prompted Jason to give him some reassurance: "I'll try, all right? I'm not sure if my girlfriend will be able to attend or not. But I'll try."

"Oh! How is she? Is she better now?" the receptionist inquired, genuinely appearing interested.

"Better," the medic nodded, "much better."

"Ever since you've had to take time off to take care of her, we've been wondering about her. You've never told us much. Is she ex-resistance too, like you?"

This made Jason laugh for a moment. Oh, little did they know. "No, not exactly," he replied wryly.

"Oh, all right. Born in the city?" the young man continued to inquire. With Kale, his questioning was always very friendly, very inquisitive in nature and never felt like an interrogation. He was simply naturally curious and as energetic as a power plant. The staff often joked if City 31 required more power, they could have put the assistant in a reactor and be done with it.

"Sorry, Kale. I really have to start on this shift," Jason smiled and added: "But I will try making it to that meet."

"Sorry! So sorry! I didn't mean to keep you," the receptionist apologized a hundred times.

"No problem. I'll let you know if I need anything," the medic finished, heading to his office to get the first patient.

He wasn't wrong when he thought the day would be another long one. Having finished work with the last patient late in the evening, the human was exhausted. Standing up from his chair and stretching, he rubbed his face, trying to alleviate the pain in his facial muscles from having to smile and speak so often throughout the many hours of the shift. Stepping outside, the clinic did not go to sleep; instead, the night shift was beginning and the flow of patients appeared to be just as big as before, if not even more so, considering a lot of people only sought out a consultation for their problems after they got off their jobs.

Thanking some of the staff that were around, Jason wished them good night and made his way back home, hoping to see his girlfriend waiting for him. And she was, indeed, except that the viper had already been asleep when he arrived at the apartment. Deciding not to turn on the light in the one-room flat in fear of waking her up from a well-deserved rest, the human tip-toed to take some of his clothes off before washing himself and getting to bed himself. Seeing the serpent he loved coiled up on his bed was rather comforting; he found it especially cute and heartwarming how she had clearly left half of the space empty for him, despite being physically much bigger.

The next morning, the medic was lucky enough to catch the snake before she headed out to work, waking and getting up to the sound of her rummaging through the refrigerator in the kitchen. Walking over to the doorway which separated the former from the living room, he stopped there with a smile: "Good morning. Looking good as ever," he said, complimenting her appearance.

She returned a pleased-looking expression: "Good morning. I was just looking for something to eat. No more meat?"

His mouth had opened to say something, that there was still plenty and that she simply wasn't looking hard enough, but then remembered this was not actually the case. "Shit, I forgot about buying more," the medic admitted, slapping his forehead. "I was so busy with work, I failed to notice we didn't have any more." He had usually kept at least some synth-meat in the fridge for himself, but after Kelyassa had begun living with him, the human still hadn't gotten used to the rather high calorific intake of raw stuff she needed daily.

"Don't worry about it," she said, closing the doors to the cooler. "I can buy something on the way to work. Speaking of which, I'll need to be going."

"Crap, I'm... Damn, I'm sorry. I'll buy some on the way back tonight," he apologized again, offering to get some supplies later.

"You don't have to. I'll do it today."

"Hey, uh," Jason added, turning around to follow her towards the entrance to the apartment. "Just be careful, all right?"

"I will be."

"No, I mean it," he said, his gaze going down to the floor before returning to his girlfriend.

Tilting her head, she wondered what this was about: "Something wrong?"

"Nah, just..." Brushing off the concerns with a wave of his hand, the medic decided to elaborate anyway: "Yesterday I was pretty much ambushed by the neighbor. That hardcore resistance couple I've told you about? Remember?"

"I do," the viper replied in a much more professional, ready-for-action kind of tone. "What happened?"

"Not much. They're obviously not happy about our... Relationship. Guy followed me into the elevator just to give me an earful. I might not have been too kind with my choice of words, either but..." He paused, sighing. "It didn't feel right. I doubt those two are capable of doing harm to us but... They way he was talking concerns me. That's why I'm saying... Just be careful. And maybe we should do what you've suggested and go live at your place. Still Angler's Point but at least it's out of this human enclave here."

She appeared to pause for just a moment, staring into his eyes, before speaking up and pointing at the doors: "It's those people we've seen on the weekend, right?"

A little bit of panic crept into the medic's eyes; he lifted his hands as if trying to stop her from doing something stupid: "Uh, wait. Please don't go looking for trouble. I think the best thing to do right now would just be to ignore them."

"All right," she agreed, strangely quickly and without arguments.

"All right?" he repeated suspiciously, glancing at her sideways.

"Yes. I have to go," the snake said, flicking her tongue at his exposed cheek, then giving him a short kiss.

"Ok, have a good one," the human wished her all the best and closed the doors behind her. There were no traces of the poison in this mouth this time, albeit it had been a rather quick little peck. Still, ever since that talk at the bar, Kelyassa had been a little more careful and timid with the loving. Perhaps ever so slightly disappointing but one thing was clear – the medic hadn't felt anything strange again in his mouth, unless the prehensile tongue with enough strength to pull a grown muton from far away counted, of course.

The rest of the week was, thankfully, rather uneventful, although also dreary. The queues at the clinic seemed never-ending and, while Jason did often enjoy his work, the conveyor-belt-like torrent of patients day in and day out was beginning to take its toll. Pathetic, he thought, considering he had had a good few weeks free of work when he was taking care of the serpent back home.

The good news was that there were no more altercations between him and the neighbors, nor any other people out on the streets, but that might have partly been due to both of them simply going to work and then straight back, leaving little time for either to be in contact with anyone else.

As the weekend approached, Jason was getting more and more anxious, looking forward to seeing and especially being with his reptile girlfriend again, at least for longer than merely saying 'good morning' and 'good night'. Every day, he had begun staring at the clock, hoping it would turn faster; the rotation of the Earth was one of the few things the ethereals had left in peace. Alas, time took its own leisurely course and paid little attention to his hopes of teleporting straight into Saturday.

Yet, despite all the hardships and impatience, the day had finally come when both of them could sleep in, relax and actually spend some time together. Opening his eyes to see the serpent lying next to him was a great feeling, immediately making him beam with happiness, despite not even fully waking up. She had already done so, it seemed, as the snake was busy tapping on her own wrist-chip, even though he couldn't quite see what. "Morning," he said groggily, finding a part of her to rest his hand against and caress.

"Oh, hi. You're awake," she stated the obvious, still paying attention to the holographic display.

"Yeah. And I feel like I've built the entire city myself," he admitted, stretching and yawning loudly.

"You'll feel better. Two days are free now, yes?"

"That's right. You, uh... You're not feeling tired?" the medic inquired in a rather careful fashion, almost as if he were afraid of her saying no and making him look silly.

"No."

And there it was; he felt silly. "Oh... Uh... All right. Good," was his slightly uncomfortable reply. Were he an actual resistance fighter in the war, perhaps his stamina and general shape would have been better. But seeing how she was the biological killing machine and he was a mere mortal, this was perhaps to be expected. "Hey, uh... I didn't have time to ask you yet."

"Hm?" She was still busy with whatever she was doing on the wrist-chip.

"Some of my colleagues were asking me... Well, us out today. This evening. They wanted to go for a few drinks and uh..." His voice trailed off, trying to gauge her approval level of the suggestion.

"Sure," the snake acknowledged.

"That easy, huh? All right, awesome. You'll get to meet some of the people I work with," he explained, telling her the place called 'The Globe' was not that far from the clinic he worked at.

"Go out with them often?" the reptile inquired, her attention split between him and the hologram.

Jason bit his lower lip, realizing just how boring his life had been before he had met the alien next to him: "Uhhh, no. Not really. Always felt like I needed some time alone after a long week. Was still getting my bearings in the city and..." With his voice trailing off, Jason felt silly for admitting just how lonely he might have been before all of this and how much he was, in fact, neglecting his colleagues in his free time.

"Okay," was her short reply, never alluding to any sort of judgment from her side.

Staying quiet for a few seconds, the medic narrowed his eyes slightly, wondering what was so interesting on that wrist-chip of hers. Of course, it could have been work-related, so he would have felt even stupider, but he was rather curious: "So... Anything interesting on the intranet?"

Instead of answering him, she responded with a question of her own: "Are you free tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow? Err, yeah. Yeah, I am."

"Good," the viper said, again giving him one of her common short replies.

"Planning something?" the human asked, attempting to guess what she had in store for him.

"Maybe," the reptile responded, again in a rather cryptic fashion. Finally, she shut off the holographic display on the computer and offered the medic a smile. "How has your work week been?"

Exhaling – although it wasn't really an unhappy or tired one –, he shrugged and offered a smile of his own in return: "It was busy. Very busy. If they keep sending more patients our way, I think they'll soon have to build another clinic on top of our own."

"But this should be remedied when the new hospital is complete, yes?"

"Uh-huh. It will be. But they're making this big, modern thing. It's taking a while, even with plenty of mutons at the construction site. Not to mention they have to make all of those high-tech medical monitors and other equipment. Difficult to procure materials for, apparently. So, yeah. It's probably going to go on for a while longer."

"And they can't bring in more doctors?" she asked, tilting her head – a small gesture of her he came to really love, for it was cute beyond measure, especially with the viper's large hood.

"No. The city doesn't have enough doctors as is. The ones that were working at that hospital have been assigned for schools at the moment. Mayor had decided they were better off teaching young generations than helping out. And I have to say I agree."

"Despite the workload?"

"Yeah," he nodded immediately, "it's an investment into the future. We have to make sure there's enough qualified doctors – real doctors – to take care of the population when the current ones get too old. Of course, some are saying they should restart the gene clinics but... I don't know. They're apparently pretty dangerous and were used for nasty stuff in the occupation times." Jason paused, looking over at his girlfriend splayed across the bed and the rest of her on the floor. "Have you ever been in one of those?"

"No," she answered. "Malfunctions and damage were repaired in special automated vats."

"Sorry, didn't mean to bring back memories," the medic apologized, trying to quickly change the subject as to not elicit old horrors for her. He knew full well how much they seemed to haunt her by now. Her, a tough, lethal viper alien, being kept awake by the terrors embedded in her consciousness. It was a wonder she had been able to function as normal... "Would you like to take a walk along the river? It's a nice day outside."

"I can't take a walk, Jason," the reptile said, looking at him.

"Ah, right," he chuckled. "Would you like to take a slither with me? Or slide? I don't know how else to say it," the medic admitted, laughing at the end and throwing his hands in the air.

"That would be nice," she agreed, getting up from the bed and immediately heading for the pack in the corner, which contained her clothes.

Deciding to stay in a relatively horizontal position a little while longer, the male asked: "You think we're being unfair by leaving one apartment just empty?"

"You want me to move out?" the snake asked while putting on a new, orange pullover.

"What? No, no! I just thought someone else could use one of them. There's a lot of people coming to City 31 and not having enough space," he explained.

"I don't know. I got my apartment delegated to me and they know I'm living here for the time being," she said, buttoning up the dull-red skirt. These were made especially easy for vipers to put on; instead of having to guide their entire lower bodies through it like a hoop, the skirts simply buttoned up along the entire height, so they could be put on like a belt.

"For... the time being?" the medic repeated, confused.

"Yes, until you throw me out," she pointed out with a grin, slithering over to him and offering him a helping hand to get off of the bed.

Taking her offer, the human was relieved to hear that: "Ah, right. I don't think there will be any throwing out."

As soon as Jason was upright, his girlfriend wasted no time, wrapping her hands around him and getting a kiss for herself.

Slightly surprised, he was happy to receive – and give – the affection. Putting his own hands around her, the softness of the pullover was a contrast to her semi-hard scales. Even so, being passionately kissed by the serpent was a pleasant experience, her layer of plating around the mouth somewhat more pliable than the rest. And then there was the ability to open her mouth much wider than he could his, not to mention the extremely agile tongue. In the end, it all coalesced into a far stranger adventure that he would have had being with a human. But he loved it all, in part just because it was so different. "You know," Jason said, smiling at his girlfriend when they moved apart slightly, "if we could just get all the snakes in this city to kiss the hardliners, there would be no problem any more. They'd see all the advantages of having you on this planet."

"Maybe if you continue walking down dark alleys at night you'll have a chance to tell them," she joked, although the jest had a slightly ominous undertone.

"Yeeeahh," he nodded, completely unconvinced. "That or you'll be looking for a new guy to date." Narrowing his eyes, as if thinking intensely for a moment, the human added: "Yeah, probably that last one."

"Any weird feelings?" she inquired all of a sudden, changing the topic.

"Weird feelings?" he asked, a little slow at realizing what the serpent had meant.

"Yes. In your mouth. Or in your throat."

"Ohhh, that! Nope," Jason shook his head happily, still in the embrace of the snake – and vice versa. "Everything's fine." This seemed to appreciably calm the reptile; at least until he added: "The only weird feeling I have is why this is happening to me. I must be the luckiest human on the planet."

A chuckle from the viper was quick to follow that remark: "I don't know. Maybe it's because of your good nature. And now you're getting rewarded for it. Right now, in fact." She followed up with another kiss. "How am I doing? I've been careful."

"Oh, you've been doing great. I haven't felt any adverse effects ever since. In fact," he said, pulling her body closer to press against his own, "it's been very, very enjoyable."

"Really? You'll have to tell me all about it, then," she replied, her voice trailing off into a sensual whisper and leaning in for a few more passionate shows of affection.

It was like nirvana to him, to be in her embrace, to hold her tightly, to feel like he was wanted and make her feel wanted. It just felt... right. It allowed Jason to forget all about the xenophobes, the war, the difficulties of the future ahead, and instead let himself be immersed in her love. "I love you, you're the best," he whispered into her ear slit when they hugged again.

"I love you, too, Jason," she responded, covering his head with her large hood.

Being so close to her scales allowed him to get a better idea of what their smell reminded him of. "You know dandelions?" he inquired, still in each other's embrace.

She pulled back gently to look at him: "Dandelions? Some faction in City 31?"

He had to laugh at her relative innocence: "No, no. Not a faction. They're flowers growing in the wild."

"Ohh, flowers." The serpent seemed rather excited about that.

"You remind me of them. Crushed dandelions with a hint of sweetness."

"I remind you of that? That's very specific," she pointed out.

"Well, your smell reminds me of that," the human explained sheepishly.

"Ah. Can't say I was ever told about it like that."

"Yeah, well... Just forget about it," he chuckled nervously, shaking his head. "You ready for that walk? I'm just going to have a change of clothes, take a bathroom break and I'll be right out."

"All right, I'll be here. Waiting," she said with mock impatience, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Uh-huh, you can just... Uhhh... Busy yourself with getting breakfast," the medic suggested, walking over to the doors leading to the small bathroom. "And I'll take a synth-meat stick!" he added in almost a yell, just before closing the doors.

It didn't take long for both of them to make it out of the apartment, into the elevator and down to the street level. This time, thankfully, without meeting yet more disapproval from random citizens or neighbors. In contrast to the weekend before, the day was rather nice and pleasant, even though the temperatures had been somewhat lower, forcing the human to wear warmer clothing.

And that was something he was curious about as well: "Tell me something. You've said you don't care about cold or heat that much. So... Why the pullover? I mean, I think it's really cute but..."

She gave him a sideways glance and grinned: "You've just answered your own question."

"What?" Jason chuckled, unable to keep his beaming smile back. "You're doing that because of me?"

"Mostly," the serpent replied with a slightly naughty undertone. "But it is comfortable as well."

Shaking his head, he had to wonder why he had been so lucky to be with her. "You're just amazing, you know that?"

"Yes, I know," she retorted, gazing at the river they were heading towards.

Laughing, the medic figured he had walked into that one himself: "All right. I suppose you do." A gentle squeeze of her scaled hand was him giving her a quick reminder of just how much the snake meant to him.

With all the recent rain, City 31's river had grown from a lazy stream propelling along slow fishing boats and tourist craft, to being an angry, murky torrent of water, threatening to take with it anyone foolish enough wishing to swim at this point in time. Swimming was generally not something many citizens did in the channel, partly because of the common traffic in all directions as well as the relative unknown pollution that might be present there; Advent cared little for keeping the environment safe and clean, often dumping copious amounts of strange chemicals and byproducts from their factories straight into bodies of water. The aerobic exercise was thus mostly confined to the several public pools that had been erected after the war, providing everyone with clean, healthy fun.

"Look at that," Jason spoke up as they got near the river's side, "that's quite a lot of water."

"It is," she replied. "How did you manage at the camp when there was a lot of rain?"

"Oh, at the camp?" he repeated after her, surprised she would be curious about it. Shrugging, the human had to dig deeper into his memory: "It was fun when I was a kid. Something different happened; lots of rain, lots of mud, people scurrying about to plug holes in makeshift roofs... We played in the puddles, got yelled at by the adults..." His voice trailed off, a small smile on his face. "When I got older, rain was both a good and a bad thing."

"How so?" she asked, slithering right to the rocks forming the banks of the river.

Sitting down with his girlfriend to gaze out at the ships in the water, he explained: "Well, it was great because it was usually a source of fresh water. Even though, later on, we've learned the hard way Advent begun spraying some sort of a chemical into the air, causing rain to become acidic and harmful to health, even to our skin. It was also a good cover for us when it was really pouring. All that water falling down muffled the camp's noises somewhat, so we could be louder, up to a point. On the other hand, water got everywhere. Holes in roofs were bad because it could mean entire stocks would suddenly get ruined, whether that was food or medicine or whatever. Paths turned into soft mud, making walking there impossible at times. It also got really cold some years..."

"You don't have to worry about the cold any more," the serpent pointed out, sneakily getting the tip of her tail to coil up loosely around one of his ankles.

"Oh, absolutely. And I wouldn't have it any other way," Jason said, offering her a warm smile while putting his hand on he lower body; she was spread out over the rocks, having no need to coil up with so much space available. The wind had picked up at that point, but not so much that it had become an annoyance. The breeze was nice, especially because the medic had an excuse to cozy up to his girlfriend – as if he needed a reason. "So, uhh... Are you going to tell me about what you have planned tomorrow?"

"Yes."

Waiting a few seconds for a reply which never came, the male spoke up again: "Okay? So... What is it?"

"I didn't say I would tell you what it is right now, Jason," she pointed out with a grin. "I will tell you when we are there."

"Ahh, so you want to play it that way, huh? All right. I get it," he replied, pretending to be hurt.

"You'll like it," the reptile reassured him.

"I'm guessing I will. Everything else we've done so far I enjoyed," the medic concurred, happy to be spending some quality time with his favorite serpent again. The busy week had drained him and being able to simply relax here by the river was like a balsam for him.

"Hey, look," the medic said, his attention being stolen by the large fishing trawler heading out towards the gates of the city. These behemoths – relative to the rest of the surviving fleet in City 31, of course – were the backbone of the fishing industry, undertaking a rather dangerous journey, following the river which ended in an estuary. The ocean offered a practically limitless supply of food, limited only by the fishermen's ability to catch and store it. After the alien occupation, the oceans' creature population had rebounded; human maritime activity was reduced to practically zero, allowing even previously almost-extinct species to repopulate. This then, coupled with the invasive alien specimens, was one of the very few positives of Earth's downfall. With the food production so important and the trawlers' journey so wrought with potential danger – from stray chryssalids to other alien wildlife – they even had a small complement of armed soldiers escorting them on board.

"Big ship," she commented idly, following the meandering craft with her eyes. The former was being followed by a flock of birds of some sort, all waiting to get their chance at an easy meal, accompanied by a cacophony of their squeaks and calls.

"You ever think what it's like out there? On the ocean?"

"No," the viper replied, then added: "But I wouldn't mind finding it out with you."

Jason smiled, wondering how nice it would have been to actually go out there with his girlfriend, enjoy the serenity of the ocean and see more of the planet that neither of them ever had the chance of. But then, suddenly, he realized something in horror: "Wait a second!" Throwing his fearful gaze at the serpent, the human brought up the snake from a week ago: "Remember the taxi driver?"

"That crazy woman who yelled at us?" she asked with the equivalence of a raised eyebrow.

"No, no. That snake, that cobra! Remember her?"

"Yeeeess?" the reptile acknowledge, an inkling of an idea of where this was going.

Slapping his forehead, his eyes wide and staring out into the distance, he announced his realization: "We forgot to warn her about the poison!"

The viper failed to say anything about that, but there was real concern showing on her face.

Looking back at his girlfriend, Jason shook his head and started tapping on his wrist-chip: "We have to warn her! But... How the ethereal do I find her number?"

Without a reasonable solution, Kelyassa remained silent, glancing down at the rocks beneath them as if this had been her fault somehow.

"Wait a second, what if I..." He bit his lip, trying to think of a solution. "What if I call the taxi company and ask them for that particular driver again? That could work, right?"

"I think so," she replied, unsure of how those things worked exactly.

"I'll try it," the human continued, tapping on the appropriate commands to actually call the company directly.

It took a little bit before anyone responded but, finally, someone spoke through the computer: "Yes?"

"Uh, hi. Jason here. I'm looking for a particular taxi driver."

The voice on the other side sounded like that of a hybrid; and not a very excited one, either. Sighing, the employee explained: "If you need a taxi, you have to go through our intranet site and order one."

"No, no. You don't understand. I'm looking for a specific driver from about a week ago that drove us from Angler's Point to Downtown."

"Is this a complaint?" the voice inquired, just as bored as before. Obviously this was but a job to them, nothing more.

"It's not a complaint. But it's important I speak to the driver," Jason insisted.

"I'm sorry, but if this isn't a complaint, you'll have to go through our intranet s—"

The hybrid was interrupted by a now-impatient medic, who just wanted the number, nothing else: "Can you just please give me her number? It's very important."

"Sorry, sir," was the usual reply. "We are not allowed to give our employee wrist-chip numbers away."

"Oh, for... It's a matter of life and death, do you understand?" Jason attempted to reason with the bored hybrid. "All right, I don't want the number. Can you please just look up my chip number and the first taxi I got one week ago?"

The other side failed to reply with anything more than just a long sigh for a few moments. "Give me a few."

"All right," the medic said, frustrated but glad they were finally getting somewhere. Giving the viper next to him a quick smile – which she returned – he directed his attention back at the call.

"Angler's Point to Downtown. Two occupants," the voice said slowly, very much unmoved by the situation.

"Yes, yes! That's the one. Can you please send that exact taxi over to my location?"

"Very well, sir. I'll send it to you," the hybrid finished, his voice as steadily bored as a rock.

"All right, good. Thank you!" Jason acknowledged, finishing the call. He looked over at Kelyassa with a deep, cathartic exhale. "I think we might be in the clear."

"Good," she nodded, gently squeezing his hand.

"I just..." He paused, bringing his hands up to rub his face, as if he hadn't slept in days. "I can't believe they don't tell you about this. Surely they must know how dangerous that poison is and how easy it is to escape..."

Gazing back at the river and its many boats, the serpent spoke up: "The city doesn't always take care of its alien population that well."

"Yeah, but..." His voice trailing off, the human wasn't sure what to say. She was right; despite City 31 being touted as the best chance the new, mixed civilization had to start anew, there were many problems, many tensions and, at the end of the day, humans were often given preferential service or status in many things. "Things like this... This should have never been left out. Why don't they tell every viper about this? You know, in the detention center?"

"I don't know," she answered truthfully. "There were many programs at the center. Evaluations as well. They never mentioned our poison as far as I can remember."

"That's just ridiculous. There must have been some kind of a mistake. We can't be the only few human viper couples out there," he complained, trying to get to the bottom of this mystery. He turned to face Kelyassa this time, still quite distraught: "I mean, they're playing with lives here. And not just those of the humans. Their partners are probably sent back to the detention centers, just like that viper said. And who knows when, if ever, they can get out again? That's just... Not fair."

"We'll warn them," she tried consoling and calming him "Then I'll see what I can find about it at the agency."

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea. I don't know how much pull you have with them sending out a general alert about it, but I'll be sure to try and warn every viper that comes into our clinic."

"Are there a lot of aliens going to your place?" she inquired, tilting her head.

"No, not really. Now more than ever, of course, but it's generally a place humans usually go to," Jason explained. "I think it's just because of this stupid enclave of ex-resistance members in Angler's Point. And Camp Exo is the closest clinic. I'm sure they'll build more later on but... That's all there is for now."

They both decided to stay right where they were and continue enjoying their day at the river, despite the guilt they both felt about not having warned that cobra. But they would make sure to remedy that as soon as the taxi arrived at their location. For some reason, however, it was taking a long time for the car to arrive and Jason was beginning to think that hybrid must had just ignored his pleas instead of actually sending that particular driver to them. Surely not?

"It's taking a while," the human complained.

"She'll get here," the reptile reassured him, deciding to lighten the mood a little as well. "I didn't know you were so interested in her. I thought we had a good thing going."

"What?" Looking at his girlfriend with a surprised, almost shocked, expression, he shook his head and chuckled: "No, never. I'm with you. You're the best. That's it." With that profession of his love for her, the medic hugged the snake and didn't let go until a few seconds later when his wrist-chip made a sound. Quickly glancing at the holographic display, it said their ride was waiting for them. "Oh, crap. Where is it?" he asked rhetorically, looking around. The immediate area by the river did not exactly have a vehicle road running right next to it, so he had to look a little further towards and past the buildings on the shore front. "Wait, I think I see it. There! That techy-looking thing," he said, pointing a finger at the modern car, remembering its sleek looks and bright interior.

Both of them got up and began heading towards the waiting vehicle, with neither of them able to know whether the driver would be the same person or not. All they could do was hope. As they approached the taxi, the doors swung open by themselves – just like a week ago.

And, to both of their relief, a green-scaled cobra greeted them from inside. "Hey, welcome! Where can I—waaait a second! It's you two! How've you been?" the serpent inquired, suddenly perking up with even more happiness as she realized who her customers were.

"Hey," Jason said with a sigh of relief, sitting into the back of the vehicle and having his girlfriend follow suit. "We've, uhhh... Been busy. But we're really glad we could get in touch with you again."

"Yeah? I'm really glad to see you two, as well!" the driver almost exclaimed in her excitement. "What a coincidence we get to see each other again," she added, laughing.

"Well, uhhh..." Jason nervously scratched his chin, unsure of how to broach the subject, even though it seemed everything was fine with the cobra, given her enthusiasm and cheerfulness. "Not exactly a coincidence. I sort of twisted their arm at the taxi company and asked for you specifically."

This seemed to surprise the reptile in the front very much: "Me? Specifically?"

"Yeah, we..." Biting his lip, the human gazed over at his beautiful girlfriend, gave her a smile, then directed his attention back at the driver. "We learned of something pretty important about... You know... About a human and viper being in a relationship together."

"All right? I'm listening," the cobra answered rather enthusiastically, almost as if expecting a gift of some sort.

"It's like this... Err... When, uhh..." Jason really wasn't sure how to put his thoughts into words. Would it be too embarrassing? Would it be awkward? It really shouldn't have mattered, considering the importance.

Before he could get a coherent sentence out, however, Kelyassa butted in: "When you kiss, minuscule amounts of poison can seep out into their mouths. Looks like it can be lethal quite easily." The words simply flew out of her mouth, having no problem speaking of the subject matter, unlike the human next to her.

"Ah, yeah. You're talking about the three-step rule, right?" the cobra assumed, much to the confusion of the two passengers.

Both Jason and Kelyassa turned their heads to look at each other with a bewildered expression, then gazed back at the driver in front. "Three-step rule?" the human asked carefully, almost as if afraid of the coming answer.

"Yeah!" the cobra explained energetically. "Let me remember," she said, glancing up at the roof lining of the electric car. "The brochure said... Think, kiss, control. Yeah, that's the one."

"Wh... What brochure?" the medic asked, still confused about what manner of thing could possibly have been talking about this.

"Oh, the one we were given in detention, just after approval to be released. Was full of all kinds of information on how to live your life in the city. One of them spoke of relationships and the dangers of the poison," the cobra said, happily laying out all the information.

Once again, a moment of silence had descended upon the interior of the taxi as Jason slowly turned his head to look at his girlfriend: "Did... Do you remember getting a brochure like that?"

After a second or two, Kelyassa nodded, as if her thoughts were continents away: "Yes," she answered quietly, still staring into the distance before giving her boyfriend a look of shock and guilt: "I threw it away."

"Okay, but... You didn't read it?" he continued with his questioning.

"No. I thought it was silly and... I was sick of all the evaluations and schooling of what to do, what not to do." Her voice trailed off, realizing the grave mistake she had made.

"Huh. Shame. That brochure has a lot of good information. Helped me when I got here," the cobra added, this time in a somewhat calmer tone of voice, seeing how the mood in the taxi had been slightly soured. "Was this why you wanted to warn me? Wait, did something bad happen to you?" the reptile asked, looking over at the human on the back seat.

He wanted to say something, tell her about what had transpired in the bar, but then thought twice about that. Gazing over at the snake right next to him, the medic almost felt guilty for starting this conversation, even though neither of them could have known that the cobra was already knowledgeable about the dangers. If Kelyassa wanted to speak of this, he would let her do it.

"I almost killed him," she explained in his stead, eyes still focused on something far beyond the confines of the car. "Didn't know there'd be more poison seeping out. He almost choked because of the effects."

"Ooh, ouch," the driver reacted, grimacing at the thought. "I would've thought you had been released before they started making those warnings in the brochures but... Hey!" She immediately lightened up again. "He's still alive, right? Nothing to it."

"Yeah," Jason concurred, now concerned about his girlfriend's state of mind. It seemed like she hadn't taken the realization of the mistake very well. "Yeah! I'm still alive," he repeated after the cobra, trying to sound more upbeat. "Hey, this is great news," the human continued, getting a hold of Kelyassa's hand. "It looks like we raised the alarm for nothing. The city is doing things about it."

"Yes... It is," she replied quietly, almost absent-mindedly.

"Aww, cheer up," the cobra weighed in, "there's far worse outcomes with this whole poison thing than what you two went through. And I'm thankful you went to such lengths just to try and warn me! Name's Tesslith, by the way."

"Oh, uhh... Jason," he said, surprised the driver gave her name like that. "And this is..." He paused, glancing at the viper who was still deep in thoughts. "This is Kelyassa."

"Aren't you two just cute together. Hey, lighten up, Kelyassa. You didn't kill him. Could've been a lot worse."

"Yes, exactly," the viper next to the medic finally spoke up. "It could have been worse. Because of my ignorance and stupidity."

"Look, no one's going to blame you for that," Jason tried to reassure her.

"Exactly. I remember my days at the detention center. So many new things to learn, so many tests and questions, so many evaluations. I was getting tired of it as well, but... Hey! It's for our own good as much as everyone else's. Gives you a good idea of how to start a proper life, you know?" the cobra recalled.

It was as if the viper had not truly been listening to the encouragement she had been receiving. Instead, the serpent turned to face the human, seemingly forgetting – or, rather, not caring – about anyone else in the car. "I'm sorry, Jason. I failed you."

Both the medic and the driver uttered a 'what?' almost in unison. "No, no, no, you didn't," he denied, shaking his head and scooting closer to her, taking the snake's hands into his own. "You didn't know. So what if you threw the brochure away? I mean, I threw stuff away when I moved to City 31. And I'm sure there was probably something important in there as well. Heck, maybe I had a choice between living in Angler's Point or Renova Heights and all I had to do was say that, according to the leaflet but..." He chuckled, shrugging in a what-can-you-do fashion.

Tesslith appeared to be enjoying the two lovers' actions very much – but not in a nasty way where she liked seeing them suffer; no, it was a case of thinking they were cute. "Aww, you two are just perfect for each other."

With Kelyassa still reluctant to cheer up, the human glanced and motioned over at the cobra in front, then moved his attention right back to his girlfriend: "See? She thinks its not a big deal. She's not judging you for this small mistake. And neither am I. So... I'm not dead and I'm not mad. Is there anything more important in this situation?"

The reptile next to him gazed up slowly, her red eyes fleeting from one of his facial feature to the next until, finally, settling on his own two eyeballs: "I guess." Her voice was quiet, almost timid, and very much unlike the feisty viper he knew.

Jason was about to speak up when the cobra interrupted them: "You see? He doesn't feel a grudge, you'll be fine!" When she realized this was perhaps not the best time to speak out of turn, the driver apologized with a 'whoops, sorry'.

"She's right, though, you know?" the medic said, still trying to get Kelyassa to forget about this. "There's no point in beating yourself up over it. I know how much you want to... Well, be yourself," he said, without referring to her rather personal problems in front of Tesslith. "But, really, it's been an experience and we've all come out of it unscathed. That's just a good memory to tell the others about."

Nodding slowly, the viper had finally given up resisting and agreed with a quiet 'all right'.

"There you go!" the cobra exclaimed, clapping her scaled hands. "Now, how about you two go and celebrate this? Where do you want to go? Free of charge!"

The human laughed at the kind offer: "No, no, we can't do that. We've already wasted a lot of your time."

"Sure you can, just let me know where and we'll be off."

Then Jason had an idea; what if they were to invite her to the night out with his clinic colleagues? "Hey, are you free tonight?"

"Me? I am, yes," the driver replied in surprise.

"Well," the medic said, glancing over at his girlfriend to gauge whether she might be against the idea. When there was no negative reaction, he continued: "How about you bring your human tonight to The Globe bar? We're going there with some of my colleagues from work. You could join!"

"Oh, Gabe? Yeah, we could do that!" she answered, immediately picking up her enthusiasm again.

"Gabe, is it? Awesome. Let me see when exactly this takes place," Jason said, tapping on his wrist-chip to see if they had sent him an exact time the party will take place. "Ah, there it is. Eighteen. That sounds good? The Globe bar at eighteen?"

"Sounds like a plan! We can swap stories, we can share experiences, ohhh, it's going to be fun! And get some nice drinks as well," the cobra imagined in excitement.

"Sounds good, Kelyassa?" the medic inquired with a smile, gazing over at his girlfriend who had slowly been getting back to her normal self again.

"Yes. Sounds good," she repeated after him, her voice not quite having returned to its normal strength.

"Nice. That's settled, then," the human said, glancing over at the cobra in front. "Do you mind taking us to the market?"

"In Angler's Point?"

"Yeah, that's the one," he nodded.

"Right away!" Tesslith acknowledged happily, taking the wheel, getting them off the side street and onto the main road.

The way to the market wasn't that far, although City 31's traffic meant any sort of journey with a vehicle took longer than expected. Why so many people still chose to ride instead of walk? Because it was an event, because of bad weather or simply because some of them could work while being driven to their destination. And then there was also the reason if one was to head to another part of the city, like from Riverside to Renova Heights – the distance was just too high to do that on foot in any sensible amount of time.

On the way, the cobra was just as excited as before, telling them about her day and about the variety of characters she had met in her year of driving a taxi. There was pretty much the plethora of them – humans, hybrids, sectoids, mutons and vipers. And a lot of them were at least somewhat chatty, giving in to Tesslith's unyielding energy.

As their ride came to a stop at the market, the garrulous alien turned sideways to look at her two passengers: "Here we are. Market in Angler's Point. See you both at eighteen tonight?"

"That's the plan," Jason said, thanking the cobra and exiting the vehicle after Kelyassa did so.

"Well, that went a lot better than I was hoping. For some reason, I thought there was this big gap in educating everyone about the dangers and... It just felt weird, you know? A huge oversight and I couldn't understand how it happened. Now we know it's taken care of and we don't have to yell it out for the entire population," the human joked, finding his girlfriend's hand to take into his own.

"Yeah," she answered quietly, looking out at the bustling market.

"Are you still upset about it?" the medic inquired carefully, looking up at her hooded head.

"It should never have happened. An oversight, a critical mistake, it was-"

"Let me stop you. It was a mistake, Kelyassa. Nothing more. A simple mistake. You know how many mistakes I did in the past? How many everyone made?" He paused, looking at her expression and reaction. "Do you know how many people died because of my mistakes back in the times of the resistance?"

"That was different. You were under stress, having to save lives quickly. It was war," she argued, shaking her head.

"What I'm trying to say is, we all make mistakes. Yours was an honest one. How could you have known they would push even more stuff on you via big brochures when they've already filled your minds with so many things at the detention center? You think I – a mere medic that isn't even a real doctor – was always on point with my diagnoses? You think I didn't make mistakes when I was hungry, cold, hurt, upset or whatever? It's the same here. They put too much pressure on you and left out some really important things, only to print them out on pieces of paper not everyone might have read," he reasoned.

She shrugged, somewhat concurring with his statements: "I was a bit sick of the training by then. Every day, we were being taught about something. How to rent, how to buy things, what is money, how to operate a wrist-chip, how to speak to strangers... And there were constant evaluations, trying to judge whether we were... socially inept or not."

"What did they ask on those evaluations?" the medic asked, wondering how such a questioning would even function.

"A lot of them didn't involve questions. We were under constant surveillance and that was part of the evaluation," the serpent explained as they both made their way into the market full of people browsing the various wares on sale. "There were also occasional tests where we were put into a room alone or in groups, then made to perform different tasks."

"That sounds... Weird," Jason replied, raising an eyebrow. "Tasks like what?"

"Different ones," she avoid answering.

"Okay? Like... what?"

Pausing, Kelyassa finally answered, but it looked like she might have been embarrassed about it: "You'll laugh if I tell you."

"Why would I laugh? Were you made to pretend you were in a shop buying things and the shopkeeper was a sentient chryssalid with a top hat?"

This elicited a chuckle from the reptile, much to the human's delight. "Almost. You were only half-right. No chryssalid with a top hat. But one of the tests did involve us playing roles. One was a shopkeeper, several were buying and so on."

"What were you?"

"I was buying an old book."

"Did you get a good deal?" he grinned.

"I have no idea. We didn't fully grasp the concept of money back then. Or, rather, we did, but had no reference as to what was a good price and what wasn't. I just remember how stupid I felt," she explained.

"How so? I think that would've been fun."

"Maybe. But what wasn't fun was the large reinforced gate on one of the walls beyond which a bunch of people were watching us, speaking about us."

"Speaking about you?" he inquired, raising an eyebrow again. "Like, for evaluation?"

"In a way," she confirmed. "Sometimes there were science-looking humans typing things on their computers. Whatever you did, they typed. Sometimes they spoke about you like you were just an object. I was called an 'it' on many occasions." There wasn't any particular tone to her voice, like anger or contempt, but it was obvious the viper did not enjoy those memories of hers. "Other times, they brought in old resistance soldiers for consulting," Kelyassa continued, putting extra emphasis on the last word.

"Consulting? From soldiers? About what?"

"Curiosity, I think. This was mostly in the beginning months. Some came there to gawk. Maybe they'd never seen a viper, a muton or a sectoid up close before. The strangest thing was being spoken about as if I wasn't there, or as if I couldn't hear them. Others clearly came there to gloat; I don't think they ever thought us being let out ever again was a possibility. They were particularly happy to throw various insults our way."

"Huh... And you didn't say anything back?" he wondered, trying to imagine how it must have felt being a lab rat like that; perfectly capable of understanding what the men and women beyond the gates were speaking of you yet still being treated as a test subject.

"Very rarely. And even then nothing really bad. It didn't matter those soldiers were there just to satisfy their own curiosities or thirst for revenge. We were still being observed and documented. If I were to become aggressive – even verbally – I'm sure I'd have stayed there for much longer." She paused, looking down on the floor, as if slightly embarrassed: "Didn't help I had my nuzzle all the time, either."

Sighing, Jason shook his head in disbelief: "I know the war left scars on both sides, but... I would've hoped our people wouldn't take that opportunity to torture you further. If they lost their family to Advent, I can sort of understand their motivation and hatred, especially if this was at the beginning. But then again, they must have known you were all sentient by then."

"I doubt some of them really accepted that. In their eyes, we were monsters. And they were right," the serpent said, surprising the human.

"Why? Because you were mind controlled and made to kill? That would've meant anyone was a monster."

She stopped slithering at that point and turned to face her boyfriend. "I don't blame them for holding a vendetta against us at the time. The wounds were fresh, the bodies real. I don't even mind all the insults I had to listen to without any real recourse. But what I will not forget is us having been treated as monsters on more than one occasion. There were some humans beyond the gates there who understood our predicament in the war and approached us carefully but with respect. The others... Not so much."

"Yeah," the medic conceded in a disappointed voice, "that sounds like humanity, all right."

"I didn't mean to go on a tirade," she half-apologized.

"That's all right. I didn't think it was one. Like I've said before, you've got all the right to be upset about that. We might have been enemies before Liberation Day, but that's only because you were unwilling slaves, not by choice."

"So... Are we buying something?"

Looking around the market, there were all kinds of races selling a variety of things in their carts or little hole-in-the-wall shops. It was where Jason had bought that old painting for his girlfriend a while ago and it was where he thought there was more interesting things to be had. "We might. I thought it'd be nice to get ourselves something to wear when we go to the bar in the evening."

"But we are wearing things," the reptile pointed out the obvious.

Chuckling, the medic nodded and explained: "Yes, we are. But I thought we could go and buy something a little different to wear out tonight. You know – something special we both like?"

"All right, I can work with that," she replied, beginning to scan around for something that would catch her eye.

Angler's Point market was not a unique occurrence in City 31; in fact, there were many like it in the different parts and sectors of the capital-state. Official shops, nice restaurants and other such proper establishments in buildings were very much present through the concrete jungle but for each of them, there were at least four different street carts selling something. If one had enough time to browse, they could buy practically anything they required, from clothing and electronics to pre-war mementos or getting their old tools repaired. Humans, hybrids and aliens alike had been flocking to making money this way and the city did not outlaw it. How could it, for the street profession brought in much-needed revenue for the burgeoning population.

The area they were in had seemingly a little bit of everything. On their left were carts selling shoes for humans, then a cart frying up some sort of meat, another one offering wooden carvings of animals, another still selling home remedies and the next one preparing drinks from the hydroponically-grown fruit. And that was but a taster of what was in store, for there were many, many more of these street carts, all with their owner – or employee – chatting with customers, bargaining or shouting at potential buyers to come see their wares. Despite them having left their sector, which was home to a majority human population, they were still the dominant sight here. Perhaps it was the time of the day but the medic and his viper stood out a little, even though seeing an alien in City 31 was nothing special. They were several streets away from where the hard-liners lived but Jason still sometimes felt uneasy, now that he was involved in a relationship with someone he cared for very much.

"Look over there," he said, pointing towards one of the carts with a bunch of clothing for sale.

"You want me to wear a... watermelon on my head?" she joked, meaning the food wagon right next to it selling the aforementioned beautifully ripened fruit.

"You know what I mean," the human replied in a laugh. "Come on, let's go check it out, see if they have anything worthwhile."

Walking to the cart, it was difficult to see where its borders were, as it was so heavily laden with various articles of clothing, the thing was practically made out of it. Red, yellow, purple, black, the spectrum of colors available was complete, as was the style in which these pieces were made in. Dresses, t-shirts, hoodies, jackets and so on, all woven out of synthetic material – sheep, wool and cotton were not something City 31 had acquired and produced yet. Nevertheless, the clothing industry, like many others, was in full swing, having to create and provide both protective as well as regular garments to millions.

"Hey, you. Wanna buy some nice shirts? Pants? Dresses?" was the raspy welcome of a middle-aged gentleman in charge of the cart. Even before they could answer him, the man was already grabbing various apparel in order to lay it flat over the rest and showcase it. "I've got this nice red shirt, perfect for this time of the year. Warm but not too warm, you know?" he explained without looking at his potential customers, twiddling the fabric of the vest between his fingers, as if to try and get Jason to feel the quality.

"Yeah, hmmm, I don't know," the medic replied, glancing around what was on offer.

"I've got these real nice pants here. What color you want? Blue? I've got blue, I've got green, I've got brown, got black, got gray," the man continued incessantly, solidifying his own stereotype.

"Do you have anything viper-sized?" Kelyassa interjected, trying to find something larger within the mess of clothes.

The human seller looked her up and down once, then just said: "Nah, got nothin' for you." A somewhat dismissive tone soured the experience even more, even if it was simply the truth – there wasn't a single piece there big enough for her, nor a muton. A sectoid could have perhaps gotten away with wearing some of the pieces on display.

"All right, let's go," Jason decided to cut their visit to this particular cart short, taking his girlfriend's hand and heading off.

The man behind them was still trying to sell him something, but it all went in one ear and out the other. The medic wasn't about to give business to someone who couldn't even show them some basic respect, even less so if he was a xenophobe. It was a rather rude awakening to how the aliens – and those who appeared to be either with or for them – were being treated on many occasions. He was perfectly aware of the location they had been living in; it wasn't the perfect place to give his viper a kiss, let's put it that way. But the amount of prejudice and hate they had been receiving in the past weeks had been going up. Whether that was merely an unlucky coincidence or a trend, he had no idea. What the human did know was that he was getting tired of it and was considering more and more about moving to a different part of the metropolis.

"That was nice," the serpent commented sarcastically, not giving the rude seller a second glance.

"Just... Forget about it," Jason huffed angrily, shaking his head. "Hey, look. Maybe they're more friendly there," he suggested, motioning towards a big cart on the other side of the 'lane' – the various mobile shops were set up in lines at this large empty square of the market, forming lanes in which people walked and browsed the products. The one the medic had been pointing at was another clothes seller, but this one appeared a little more organized and, even at a glance, one could spot the large muton-sized shirts on offer.

"This looks more promising," Kelyassa said, her eyes taking in all the colors on offer, looking for something suitable for her stature.

"Hi there. Lookin' to buy some shirts? Pants? Skirts? What're ya lookin' for?" The seller was an older human this time around, with a black beard almost as big as his face covered in burn scars. Using a cane to walk – he was missing a leg –, he looked like he could've been around since before the actual invasion.

"Yeah, we're both looking to get something err... special?"

"Ohoho, special, huh?" the man replied with an almost-toothless grin.

"Wait... Not that kind of special," Jason corrected him. "We're going out to a bar tonight and thought we could dress a bit different."

"Ahh, yeah, yeah. Makes sense," the old man replied, coughing, then gazing at both of them to judge what sizes they would require. Turning around, he began rifling through the orderly piles of clothing on sale. Once again, there were a myriad of colors on offer, some with prints, some without, and of all sorts of shapes.

While the medic was trying to spot something that caught his fancy, the snake spoke up, addressing the cart owner: "Those are some mighty scars you have. Resistance?"

It was a word Jason was hoping not to hear that day, considering it appeared to always bring some bad blood with it. And he certainly wasn't expecting his girlfriend to poke the hornet's nest.

But the old human turned to face her and gave her the biggest, most toothless smile either of them had ever seen. With a hacking cough, preceded by a laugh, he enthusiastically explained: "Yeah. This?" Pointing towards his badly-burnt looking face, the skin on it as if half-melted, the man said: "Buddy nearby got spat at by one of ya." Motioning to the viper in front of him, the merchant chuckled and added: "Fortunately – or unfortunately, however ya look at it – I was far enough away to escape the worst o' it. Only got the very edge o' the cloud. Still almost burnt half my face off and uh... Could never breathe normal since." He quieted down, as if revealing a secret: "That stuff did somethin' terrible to my lungs." Putting his weight on the good leg and whacking the stump where the other one used to be, the trader continued: "Lost this one to a nice MEC that decided to shoot at me. Missed, kinda." Again, another set of laughs and coughing ensued before he returned to flipping through the shirts.

"Wow, you must've been alive before the invasion," Jason said, taking the proverbial bait – if there was one. The old man didn't seem to be all full of anger.

"Oh, aye. I was. And what a world we lost. Damn elders. But what can ya do. What's done is done. Gotta survive somehow. You a city boy? You don't look like it," he replied, glancing momentarily at the medic.

"Nah. Born in a camp, moved here just years ago."

"Oh, yeah? Which camp?" came the question with an interested tone of voice.

"Camp Hillside. A couple of days' walk from here, I guess."

"No kidding, that's nice, kid. That's nice," the man's voice trailed off as he pulled out a fancy-looking gray shirt with barely-visible vertical stripes. "Ya can try this one. It's using one of 'em fancy synth mats, make it feel like you're wearin' silk. All nice an' smooth."

"Wearing what?" Jason asked, confused.

"Ahh, never ya mind. It'll feel nice, try it. As for you," the seller added, turning his head towards the viper for a moment before diving into a different pile of clothing. "I think I've got just the thing."

While the medic was trying on the 'fancy' shirt, the reptile was handed a plastic wrap, which contained a red dress of some sort. The little print on the wrapping depicted a viper, meaning this was definitely her size, or at least an approximation of.

"If'n yer goin' out, might as well dress nice, right? Unless yer willin' to pay a premium at the fancy pants stores," the seller finished, waiting for their decision.

Kelyassa took the offered packaged dress and gave it a look-over. The red fabric seemed to be a throwback to the old days – like a lot of the things in City 31 were –, with a velvety property to it and specks of glitter demanding attention. "I like it. I just don't know if it'll fit," she said, shrugging and offering the product back.

"Go ahead, rip into 'er. Try it," the merchant offered, surprising his customer. If it was packaged, it kept the dirt and dust out. Were the interested party to decide against buying it later, the old man would have been left with clothing out of its cover. And while that might not have seemed like a huge deal, it was important for the street sellers to at least try and keep up some sort of appearance of quality.

"You don't have to tell me twice," the serpent replied, easily tearing the transparent plastic with her black claws. Despite her eagerness, however, she was careful not to damage the actual piece of clothing inside. As the latter was taken out of its protective shell and unfurled, the true size and shape became apparent – it was a long, elegant-looking attire perfect for a night out with good company. Yes, this was the market and yes, the items on sale were not quite what one could get in the more expensive shops around the city, but, unlike in the times before the invasion, these cheaper alternatives were not so far in quality from the designer's clothes. "Hmm, I like this," she continued, pressing the frock against her.

"Yeah, wow," Jason commented, forgetting about himself and rather devoting the attention to his girlfriend. Imagining her in the dress was quite exciting, if a little bit naughty.

"If ye like it, ye can try it in the back," the old man explained, loosely throwing one of his thumbs backwards towards his cart. It appeared there was a makeshift changing room in between the mountain of clothing.

"All right," the reptile nodded, heading over towards the back of the street shop.

"Ya two together?" came the blunt question.

"Hm? Oh. Yeah. We are," Jason replied, looking up from his dark shirt that had been picked out for him.

"And?"

Narrowing his eyes slightly, this time he gazed over at the elderly merchant, trying to gauge what sort of a response he had been expecting. It didn't look like he held a grudge against aliens, despite his disfigurement, but this was certainly an odd line of inquiries. "And what?"

"How is it?" the old man asked.

"How is... being with a viper?" the medic tried to piece the puzzle together slowly, while getting little help.

"Yeah. I mean, they ain't got no legs for one."

"Oh, uhh..." He chuckled nervously, a little embarrassed with the whole conversation. Plus, he didn't exactly want to be talking about Kelyassa behind her back. Not that the human would say bad things about her, but it might had reminded her of the days in detention. "I can't really complain," Jason answered truthfully. "In fact, I love it. They're different. And beautiful. And she's just an amazing person."

Slowly nodding, there was a certain glitter in the merchant's eyes – one hazier than the other; probably the effect of the poison. "Ah, if I were younger..."

"Seriously?" the medic inquired incredulously.

"What? Ya think just because one almost killed me, I ain't ever been interested in 'em?"

"Well, uhhh..." Scratching his head, Jason glanced down at his still-packaged shirt. "I just figured you wouldn't look at them too kindly with those scars."

"Ya know," the man began explaining, as if starting an epic story of some sort, "there's probably an alien out there, walkin' in City 31 with scars that I inflicted 'pon him. It's war, kid. War goes both ways. It's those bleedin' elders we should all hate, not each other."

"I can fully agree with that," he replied, relieved to hear some words of reason for once.

Before the human could say anything else, Kelyassa returned to them, turning to the merchant: "I'll take it."

"Ah, ye like it?" the merchant inquired with an almost knowing tone of voice, as if he had predicted the outcome beforehand.

"I do," Kelyassa said with a small smile, giving her boyfriend a teasing, sideways glance.

"Awww, man. I didn't get to see it," the medic complained.

"You will," she responded with another tease.

"How about ya, then? Gettin' the shirt?" the cart owner asked expectantly.

"Uh, yeah. I think," Jason said, his mind not all there.

"Best ya try it on," the elderly gentleman suggested.

And the medic followed the advice; buying clothes just by looking at them was not a smart move. And he knew. One of his first times actually buying clothing was when he had been new in the city. Not knowing he could have tested out the apparel first, the human bought a few articles which, as he later found out, did not fit. This particular shirt, however, was great. Despite his ragged appearance, the scars and the poor eyesight, the old man seemed to know what he was doing, hitting bullseye the very first time for both of them.

"He's lucky," the seller commented as Kelyassa awaited the return of her boyfriend.

"Oh?"

"Aye. To have someone like ya, to trust and to have fun with... It takes a lot in this city. He paused but did give the snake any time to respond before continuing: "And yer lucky as well. Ye've got him. Seems like he's completely enamored with ya."

She just had to smile at this analysis of their relationship. Little did they know they would get couple counseling when buying clothes at a street cart. "What about you, old-timer?"

A series of laughs and deep coughs escaped the human. He leaned on his cane and stared into the distance with a smile: "I'm too old, too ugly and too tired to be doin' any o' this any more. Naw. My time's comin' to an end. So's the old world's." Trying to somewhat straighten his stance, the man balanced on his one leg and pointed the stick at the viper: "The new times' are yours. And his."

"You might want to get all of that looked at," she suggested in a sudden change of subject. "There's cybernetic options available at the hospitals."

"Uh-huh. Thanks for that. Most I ever got was a splint and a bandage. Waste o' resources otherwise."

"You believe treating you would be a waste of resources?" the reptile inquired.

"Ya don't think so, snake? Look at me, I'm a wreck. On the way out. Better spent yer time, tools an' credits on the young. Ya gotta rebuild this world, ya do."

"Not many would say that today," she admitted, showing slight admiration for the human's apparent sacrifices.

"Hey, this shirt's great. I think I'm gonna take it," Jason interrupted, returning with his apparel that had been chosen so well for him.

"All right, ya need some pants with that?"

"No, I... Think I'm good, thanks."

As the old man brought his wrist-chip up to tap in the requested amount of credits, the medic was about to pay for the whole thing but was stopped by the serpent, who turned her own holo computer on. "I'm paying for the lot," she said, tapping on the device and transferring the money.

"All right, all set," the merchant nodded, looking back to the two: "Good luck, ya two."

"Thanks, and you too," Jason replied, taking the viper's hand and heading on. "Nice guy, huh? For a moment there, I really thought he was going to go on a tirade against aliens or something," he said after they passed a few more carts.

"Interesting, too. Rarely have I met a human with a relatively selfless outlook on things."

"Selfless?"

"Yes, while you were trying your shirt on, he told me how his time was past and how he didn't get his body fixed up because the younger generations need the resources."

"That's... Weird," the medic analyzed slowly. "I mean, fixing his face, I don't know about that. Lungs, maybe. But his leg could be easily fixed with some prosthetics or even cybernetics."

"That's what I told him. But he didn't want any of it."

"Oh, well. Nobody's going to press him into doing it. His choice. If he's happy this way, more power to him." Jason said, his attention being diverted to a hybrid yelling how her burgers were the best and juiciest in the city. The place did smell good, but the couple had to pace themselves for the inevitable snacks at the bar.

"Hungry?" she asked, seeing his immediate interest in the food being prepared.

"That I am, but I think we better save that hunger for tonight."

"You want to go without sustenance all the way until evening? You do know a 'bar' means it's going to be mostly drinks, right? Or does that term have a different meaning now?"

"Well," he replied with a grin, "when you put it that way. How about we get just something from one of the carts here? So we don't starve?"

"I'm good with that," she agreed.

"What are you in the mood for?" the medic inquired, looking up to his snake girl; she was a bit taller than him – and pretty much any human – when in her normal stance. And the serpent was only going to grow larger as she got older. Many a resistance member could remember the terror of seeing a ginormous snake killing their comrades in arms, sending chills down their spines.

"Right now? I'm in the mood for you," the reptile answered, nudging him with her hips. "But otherwise I will have whatever you are having."

"Oh, really?" he said in an intrigued tone of voice. "Why don't we get some food, then go rest back home before the night out?"

"Lead the way," she agreed, scanning the food sellers.

While the area of the market they were in mostly comprised of little mobile shops trading in clothing, toys, tools, memorabilia and the like, and the main concentration of food stalls was much further on, there were still some options right at their location. That burger joint with the hybrid looked quite promising, in fact.

Stepping closer to the place, they were greeted by a rather lovely aroma of frying meat and vegetables on a large, flat grill, along with a group of hungry citizens waiting their turn in line. "I don't know about you but this smells delicious. I haven't had a burger in a while. Apparently they were quite popular before the whole invasion thing," Jason commented, salivating at the sights of what appeared to be patties of real meat – synth-meat didn't include much fat.

"Clearly why Advent advertised their food as burgers," the snake added, her reptilian eyes also focused on the food being prepared.

A busy couple of hybrids was running back and forth their large food cart, chopping, slicing, flipping, frying and building the burgers they were selling, unable to keep up with the demand, so they attempted to move as fast as possible. Considering there wasn't much space up there in the tiny kitchen, the two were switching locations as if well choreographed in advance, never really getting in each other's way.

"Yeah, I've heard some really bad rumors about that," Jason said, shuddering at the thought of having to eat the Advent-sanctioned and prepared fast food, which, as rumored by many, was unused meat of the killed human population.

"Hey, I'm going to take that," Kelyassa said, pointing one of her long fingers at the banner above the cart, which doubled as a menu of available types, toppings and drinks. Her choice was a burger called 'To Max Hybrid', which included two patties and all of their available condiments as well as vegetables.

"That one? Going all the way, huh? Then I'll only have to accept the challenge and get the same thing," the medic warned her, puffing his chest out.

"Yeah?" she said, intrigued, giving him the equivalent of raised eyebrows. "Are you challenging me to a duel?"

"Errrr... Yes?" he answered in slight confusion, not realizing what he was setting himself up for.

"All right. Let's do this. The one who can eat their burger fastest wins. What's my prize going to be?" the snake asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Wait, what? No, no, no, that's not fair," the medic laughed, wagging an accusative finger at her. "One, you can eat this in one go, so you automatically win and two..." Pausing, he had to think of what number two actually was. "And two, you're already proclaiming yourself a winner."

"So? Are you afraid of the challenge?" she teased, still set on taking him on in this game.

Puckering his lips, the human shook his head: "Me? Never. I'll take the challenge. And I'll beat you, too!"

"Uh-huh," she gave him a vote of confidence, moving forward as the queue in front of them was getting shorter.

Soon, it was their turn to select their desired meals. As they had agreed beforehand, the couple ordered two of the signature burgers, stuffed with the goodness of everything the little condiment and sliced vegetable containers had to offer. With the customer base so numerous and hungry, the meat patty train had never truly stopped, allowing them to get their food within a very short time from the actual order.

Wrapped, fresh burgers in hand, they moved away from the crowd and found some free tables and benches, which were put up for people to rest at or – in their case – eat. Placing their meals onto the metal surface, the serpent began staring at her boyfriend.

His eyes darted from her to the burgers and then back again a few times before the human spoke up, a smile on his face: "What?"

"Nothing. I was wondering what I get for winning this competition," she asked slyly.

"Ahhh. Well... If you win, I will..." The medic paused, thinking of what would be a good prize but also fun. Glancing around, as if wanting privacy, he leaned forward and lowered his voice: "I'll give you a nice massage back home." Reclining back again, Jason added: "But only if you manage to win."

"Hmm, not a bad proposition," she agreed.

"What about me? What do I get if I win. Which I most likely will."

"I will show you back at your apartment," the viper said, keeping her end secret, but giving him a clue as the tip of her tail found his ankle and wrapped around it tightly for a second.

"Oh, shit. Now I'll have to win," the human said, finding himself in a conundrum. Of course, either of the wins would essentially bring them both to the same conclusion, but it was a fun game to play. Unwrapping the burger suddenly presented the true scope of the challenge – it looked a little bit bigger than when it was still on the grill and, later, when it was being wrapped up. Now sitting in front of him in all of its glory, the cheeseburger was positively bursting with all of its add-ons and sauces. The smell was delightful and made him salivate even more so than before, pushing him to grab and devour it. Taking the meal into his hands, the medic looked up at the snake: "You're not ready? Haven't even unwrapped your burger! Pulling out of the challenge so soon, huh? I've told you I would-"

He was interrupted by the rather confident-looking serpent, who simply said: "I am giving you a head start. You'll need it. And you will still lose."

Nodding, with an expression of mocked hurt on his face, he retorted: "Ok, fine. You think you're so clever, miss viper. But you might end up eating those horrible words. Just watch me." And with that threat done, Jason bit into his giant meal. Just like the smell, the taste of the freshly grilled real meat with all of those vegetables was rather divine. He had always been a fan of the street food in City-31, mostly because it was fast, relatively cheap and often reminded him of the days in the resistance camp, when they were preparing food in makeshift kitchens. "Oh, man," he said, his mouth rather full of the big bite he had taken, "this is so good. You're missing out, you know."

"Just giving you time to accept your inevitable defeat," she teased him, supporting her head with one of her hands. And so it was. Jason had been rather brave in tackling the huge burger by himself, the serpent waiting patiently, watching him. And when his victory seemed all but inevitable, with a few last bites remaining, his girlfriend finally unwrapped the meal on the table, then proceeded to open up her mouth wide, accommodating the entire sandwich in one go.

"Awww, come on!" the medic protested with a sad expression on his face, trying to finish the last bite. "That's not fair. I knew you'd do this. That's against the rules!"

"Uh-huh. What rules?" Kelyassa inquired, her meal having disappeared as soon as she had closed her jaws again.

"Well... The, uh... Jason's burger eating competition rules. That's what," he joked, still chewing the remaining morsels.

The snake held off saying anything more until her boyfriend had finished his burger completely. Then, opening her right hand, the snake revealed a small piece of bread she had torn from the bun in secret and said in mocked surprise: "Oh, no! I haven't finished all of mine yet. I believe that means you win, Jason."

Raising his eyebrows and failing to hide his surprise, the human leaned forward, eyes darting around the table, trying to figure out what had just happened. Smirking and shaking his head, he spoke up: "I see what you did there. You're naughty, you know that?"

Her reply simply consisted of a slight tightening of her tail's grip on his ankle. And a big grin.

"You know, you can still get that massage," he offered, crumpling the piece of waxed paper that had served as the wrapping.

"I'm counting on that," she replied in another tease.

At a nearby table, two hybrids were cackling to each other, clearly reacting to the obviously apparently less-than-private conversation of the two cross-species lovers. Their own meals had taken a backstage role as they desperately tried to catch any sort of juicy details, eavesdropping on the neighboring seats.

This elicited a rather quick response from the viper, who turned her head towards the two – a male and female, probably also a couple – and hissed: "You got something to say?"

Instead of talking back, the young half-human half-aliens quieted down and went back to their food.

"Hey, hey!" Jason whispered, slightly alarmed, glancing around to see if anyone else had taken notice. "Why are you getting so upset? They didn't mean anything."

Gazing back at the medic, Kelyassa answered: "If they want to make fun of us, they can do that to my face."

He remembered her concerns at work, how she felt she had not been taken seriously and how everyone seemed to judge her for her actions, but this was just a little bit too paranoid. "They're just young adults, like us. Living life, enjoying it. I don't think they were making fun of us to be rude. They're probably having fun with the playful banter just as much as we do."

"Maybe," the serpent conceded slowly, her eyes trailing down to the table.

"Besides," he added, "just think about it. They don't have a lovely viper to come home to. I do. And you... Well, you don't have to go back to an annoying boyfriend."

"But I thought you were annoying," she teased, her mood lightening up quite quickly again.

"All right, fine. You win," he chuckled, leaning forward and lowering his voice again. "Maybe you should... You know? Apologize to the two over there?"

"Apologize?" she repeated in a tone that almost suggested shock and disgust.

"Yeah," he confirmed, giving her a nod. "Apologize. We might not even know them but that really wasn't a way to treat them, was it? Besides, just think of all the crap we've been going through these past few weeks and how sick we got of people being xenophobic."

"They weren't xenophobic, they were condescending," the snake argued.

"So what? Even if they were, is there really any point in getting involved with them? If they were laughing at us and trying to insult us, don't you think the best offense would be to just ignore them? Not give them the satisfaction?" he continued in a low tone of his voice.

"But you just said to apologize," she pointed out, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Yeah, I know," the medic confirmed quickly, trying to explain this concept to her without getting too wrapped up in complicating things. "But it's something I've learned when I was a kid. That is, one of the adults at the camp taught me so. If the other kids are making fun of you, ignore them. The moment you get angry or react to it in any way, they've already won. Because you're giving them confirmation their games work." He leaned back on the bench and slightly tilted his head at his girlfriend: "But if you ignore them, you completely disarm them. No more ammunition for their silly shenanigans."

Sighing, the reptile processed his words for a few moments before replying: "Maybe you have a point."

"Of course I do. You know I wouldn't be telling you this if I didn't truly believe in it. So..." His voice trailed off, waiting for her to do whatever she would do.

"And you want me to apologize to them for just telling them to speak to my face?" she continued, insisting on a thorough explanation.

"Yes," Jason nodded enthusiastically, putting his hands on the table and loosely pointing a finger at her. "Not only will you feel good but they will respect you for doing it."

A few more seconds passed as the viper mulled over her decision. Then, without warning, she got off the seat and slithered over to the neighboring table. "Sorry about that behavior. I snapped too quickly," Kelyassa attempted to atone, albeit not in a particularly remorseful timbre.

"Oh, that's fine. We didn't mean to cause trouble," the female hybrid replied, agreed by the male who was nodding.

With that, the snake came back to Jason and, without sitting back down, asked him if he was ready to go.

"I am," he confirmed, standing up, picking up their trash, putting the said crumpled papers into a nearby bin and followed her through the rest of the market. When they were far enough away from the grill cart, the medic leaned in to her and whispered: "You know, I'm proud of you for doing that. Takes guts."

"I suppose you were right," she finally agreed, shrugging. "I chose the confrontation too early. Should have waited."

"Waited for what?"

"To see if they would escalate, of course," the reptile said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, but," the human objected, "you can't approach everything in life with a militaristic attitude."

"It wasn't militaristic. I would just have waited, bided my time, collected more information and then made a decision."

"Uh-huh, yeah. Well, that sounds pretty military-style to me," Jason chuckled.

"Why do you care about some random people on the street, all of a sudden?" she inquired, her voice betraying a tinge of annoyance.

And the medic knew full well the ability of the viper to become very fierce, especially when speaking of her decisions. Whatever it was, she was very touchy about the subject; most likely as a result of trying to take initiative at her work. And perhaps, at times, she would get overly ambitious or direct. "It's not about them. Well, it is but it's more about you. We all live in this city together. We have to learn how to live with each other, next to each other. Y'know? And snapping at someone like that could easily lead to problems. Or even ramifications. What if they had reported you?"

"Reported me for talking to them?" the serpent inquired sarcastically.

"No, but if this kept going... I don't know, maybe you'd lose your temper. Yell at them. Hit them."

"Don't be silly, Jason. I wouldn't hit them. I know what punishment aliens who attack or assault random civilians get," she explained, waving his concerns off with her hand.

"Maybe. But if they had made you truly mad? You remember how you yelled at me a month or so ago?" he brought up.

Kelyassa didn't respond, instead remaining quiet.

"Look," Jason spoke up again, stopping in his tracks and taking her hands into his own in order to also look at her. "I'm not trying to tell you what you might have done wrong or control you but... Like I've said before, I don't want you being punished or even sent back to detention because of some silly thing. I want you to stay here, in the city, with me. And if that means I have to be the water for your fire, then I'll happily be that."

"Water for my fire, huh?"

"Yeah, exactly," he replied, nodding, unsure of where she was going with that.

"Good luck with that. You're adding to my fire," Kelyassa finished, confusing the medic until she flicked her tongue at his cheek.

"Ahh, all right, good," Jason replied with a relief, rubbing his cheek. "For a moment there, I was afraid you meant something else."

"I guess you're right about being calmer," she admitted, looking away. It was obviously rather difficult for her to speak about it, much more so to concur her personality sometimes left little patience to be had.

"I just want the best for you, that's all," the medic said truthfully, walking forward while holding her scaled hand. "And I know, I'm no expert. But... Just... Y'know," he trailed off, unsure of what else to say that would sound smart.

Smiling, his girlfriend glanced approvingly at him, then continued slithering past the market carts. They had both had their meals and had bought items of clothing for the get-together in the evening. Both had spent a bit more time in the market, taking in all the products which were on sale, getting particularly interested in the merchant selling old-world children's toys. It wasn't so much that they were hoping to buy any, the couple were rather amazed at seeing a rather preserved slice of a bygone era here – and in such good order as well! Indeed, a few of the toys were still wrapped in transparent albeit yellowed plastic.

In the end, though, they had both decided they really did not wish to have their apartments full of memorabilia, however significant or interesting it might have been. That was something for the museums, not for their little cramped flats. The way back to Jason's block was a nice stroll, since there was little reason for them to call another taxi and the weather was rather favorable. It would've given them enough time to get home, relax and get ready for the party.

And so it was. Kelyassa was rather secretive about her new dress while Jason was happy to try his newly acquired shirt on and showcase it in the apartment. He knew she would have to do the same sooner, rather than later. There was no place to really change on the way to or at the actual bar. So, the human waited with bated breath, trying to imagine what his love would look like for the evening; it would obviously take his breath away, one way or another, he knew that much. But exactly what it would be like, he didn't know, apart from the fact that it was red in color.

As promised, he had given the serpent a nice massage – knowing little beforehand if she would actually enjoy something like that. The art of relaxing one's muscles by kneading the flesh was something that had been passed along to him as a kid, being tutored by Gerhart. The old doctor was not just a very skilled physician but had fairly broad knowledge of many other things. In a way, being in charge of the people's health in resistance camps practically demanded him to have a wide range of knowledge useful in the profession, something that might not have been necessarily expected of such specialists before the war.

Fortunately, it appeared as if Jason's girlfriend appreciated the attention he had given her; perhaps the higher percentage of muscle in their bodies was the culprit or maybe she had just feigned her enjoyment. The medic did ask her to be truthful a while ago, preferring to suffer through disapproval than fabricated endorsement, so he doubted she had gone back on that promise.

The prize for his efforts – and his 'win' at the eating contest – the human had received the promised mystery reward. And what a reward it had been. The reptile had presented him with a private dance, smooth, fluid and alluring all at the same time. Kelyassa knew how crazy he was for her, so she took extra steps to make it all even more enticing and prolong the tease. During the performance, the medic was not allowed to move from his couch and could merely watch the endless waves of motion that the snake had created. It was as if she had been a long leaf in a gentle breeze, all of her moves so natural, so continuously effortless and captivating as well as seductive. Various pieces of clothing were gradually removed, discarded on the carpeted floor without much care – Jason's eyes and focus were on the winding viper in front of him. While there was no dancing pole in his apartment, the serpent did very well even without it, sometimes seemingly defying gravity with how she bent and easily convoluted. Because of the snake's ability to make her body flow around herself, she had made it a common theme to keep moving in a circle, with her head sometimes disappearing into the scaly coils, leaving but a mesmerizing show of light pinks and whites running in the same direction but at slightly different speeds. At one point, her hood, and then the rest, appeared again, lifting higher and higher, all the while keeping her eyes squarely centered on the human's, never breaking the contact. This lasted until the reptile rose to her full imposing height, except that the rest of her clothing had fully vanished while it had been obscured just seconds ago. Slowly but surely, her frame's movement came to a stop, her arms lazily outstretching to her sides, followed by the viper's hands loosely opening; a finishing move that had signified the completion of the show. A knowing smile was present on the female's face, waiting for the torrent of the human's comments, even though she knew fully what they would entail.

Blinking and running a hand through his black hair, Jason felt as if the temperature had been turned up a fair bit in the apartment. There was no denying it – he had fallen for her completely, both physically as well as personality-wise. "That was... That was..." He lacked the words to truly describe the magnificence of what he had been privileged to experience. Shaking his head, the human attempted to recompose himself and say something coherent. "It was the best thing I've ever seen," he said, being completely truthful. Even the sight of City-31 had not filled him with as much awe and joy as this little show did, albeit the two were close. Standing up, he chose to walk closer to his girlfriend, who had quickly moved the part of her body in front of her towards the back, so it wasn't in the way. Running his eyes up and down the scaled temple of hers, he wanted to run his hands over the curves, feel the smoothness and coarseness at the same time, listen to her slow heart-beat and press his lips against her own. And that was exactly what he did just moments later, much to the approval of his girlfriend, who received the attention gladly. Intertwined, they fell back on the couch with a thud; falling might have been a strong word, for the serpent had made sure to lower them both more gently, taking special care that her lover was not below her or being crushed by her considerable weight. Dating a viper had its many advantages and perks, but also some apparent and less apparent dangers, such as the poison or the fact that they were, at the end, rather large and heavy aliens which could easily break something of the human's were they to simply let gravity do its thing.

And despite her great body strength, the viper could be very gentle, as Jason found out the very first time they had decided to spend the night together. How such large, muscular coils could exert such tender and precise forces on him was beyond him, but one thing was clear – the feisty Kelyassa was a true tender soul when under the sheets with him.

As always, they had decided to stay in each other's embrace to cuddle after the deed, spending almost an hour of loving up to one another until it was indeed approaching the time to get ready for the big night out.

"Hey, gorgeous," Jason said, his hands around the viper, "I'm sorry to say but we'll have to get ready to go. Or they'll never forgive me at work. And we've invited the other couple there, so..."

"Yeah, yeah. I know. You're just trying to get rid of me," she joked, flicking her tongue at him.

"If I had tried to do that, I'd start spouting anti-alien slogans or something," the medic chuckled, then quickly reconsidered his choice of humor. Perhaps not the best time to use it, considering all the xenophobes and hardliners they had met in the recent past.

"Just try it," the serpent replied in a mock threat, uncoiling from the couch. Once again, she was in full, unobstructed view for the human to enjoy. Which he, of course, did with glee, letting her slither away towards the bathroom. When she disappeared behind the doors, the human decided he'd have to get up as well, lest he held both of them back and made them late. And that certainly would not have looked good on either, but especially him because of his coworkers. Hopping over towards where his girlfriend had gone, he felt silly walking around naked, but it was only until he could get to the shower and join her in a quick refreshment before they would head out.

And despite having just consumed their love a little while ago, they could hardly keep their hands to each other. Although, at some point, Jason had to, unfortunately, break up the game again: "You know, we really, really need to start getting ready. I could do this all day but..."

"Yes, I know," she replied with a tinge of disappointment in her voice. But she, too, understood both of them had to get going.

Wiping themselves dry, the human was quickly sent out of the bathroom where the viper would change – another small tease just before he could see her in the new dress. Jason, on the other hand, headed back to the living room and tore into the plastic wrapping of the shirt he had bought at the market. Laying it out on the still very warm couch, he then fetched some other pieces of apparel as well – the medic could hardly go out naked from the waist down, after all. It wasn't long until he had been fully clothed and eagerly awaiting the new look of the serpent.

And she didn't disappoint. When the doors to the only other room in the apartment than the kitchen had opened, Jason's eyes widened in anticipation. What came out was even more magnificent than he could have imagined – Kelyassa, dressed in a sparkling red dress that was a little longer than her regular skirts and held up by two wider straps over her shoulders. It was just the right size as well, lightly clinging to her body and accentuating her figure and curves but not so much that it would appear constricting. The bodice had a generous low cut, leaving only some parts left to imagination; what it did do was accentuate her ample bosom.

Stretching his arms out towards her, the medic's only words coming out of his mouth were: "Wow! How... I..."

"You like?" the snake asked with a slightly naughty smile, her voice rather alluring.

"Like? I love it! You look absolutely stunning!" he almost exclaimed in his confirmation. Stepping closer, the human couldn't help himself but take all of her beauty in one more time, his gaze sliding up and down her body, the red dress a sparkling contrast to the pale pink and white scales. Biting his lip, Jason found the snake as irresistible as ever, but every new surprise like this put even more oil on the fire. Grabbing her hips, he gave her a big kiss.

"Now, now," she reminded him with a grin, "we have to go, remember?"

"Yes, I know. I know," he answered, nodding his head in slight disappointment. Time flew when they were having fun and this entire day was a blast. And they still had the party to go to. Reluctantly, the human let his girlfriend go. With both of them putting their wrist-chips on, the two lovers joined hands and headed outside. When Jason was about to order them a taxi, he noticed a message had been received a little while ago. "Oh, shoot, didn't see this one," he mentioned, tapping on the holographic display. It was a text from Tesslith, apologizing about not being able to pick the couple up to bring them to the bar because she'd be busy working right up until then. In fact, the cobra warned she and her boyfriend might be a little bit late due to that. Completely understandable; work in City-31 was plenty and, usually, required overtime, lest the entire service sector crumbles under the demand.

"What is it," the serpent inquired, glancing down at the human.

"Oh, nothing. Just our new cobra friend saying they'll probably be late to the party. Did you know they wanted to pick us up and drive us there? That's nice," he explained, tapping a quick reply on his display before ordering their ride. They could have walked there, considering the bar was close to Camp Exo, but their little activities had put them somewhat behind schedule.

"That is nice of them," the viper agreed. "That cobra is very excitable. I wonder how that happened."

"How what happened? How she got so excitable?" he asked in confusion.

"Yes. How our personalities evolved over the years. Did they evolve after disconnection or did they do so before? Are our personalities only a result of being shaped by the society in City-31? Or was there a lot of influence in the detention centers?"

"Huh... You got me there. I've no idea how that happens," the human admitted, having little insight to provide on the subject. "I guess we're all different, humans and aliens."

"We are."

Their taxi took only minutes to arrive, since there was one available very close to them. This time it was an older vehicle again but, fortunately, a driver that did not get involved in politics and comments on somebody else's relationship. The sectoid dropped them off right in front of The Globe, a bar that sported a glowing, rotating sphere of Earth above its entrance, along with a lit-up cocktail glass. The title of the establishment, slowly fading in and out, was bathing the street in a shade of blue and advertising its services to those passing by. Music could be heard emanating and beating from within.

"This is it," Jason motioned towards the double doors of the building. As the payment of the ride was automatic, he thanked the driver, then made his way outside, waiting to be joined by the serpent. And she did so just as quickly as always, practically sliding out of the car as if it was the easiest, most natural thing ever. "Ready to meet my colleagues?" he inquired with a smile, taking her hand once again.

"Question is, are they ready for me?" she retorted with a grin.

"They'll love you," Jason replied, although he wasn't entirely sure of that. His colleagues were all humans – a byproduct of the place being named after a famous resistance camp, which attracted members of the aforementioned movement, not to mention the medic was pretty much lost at the time of arrival in the city. He never noticed any strong anti-alien sentiments in the clinic but one could never be too sure...

Entering The Globe was an experience in itself; as the doors swung open automatically, they revealed a long, dark corridor dimly lit by purples and blues. The walls were black, accompanied by a photograph of the Earth and the moon from different angles – all most likely actual historical pictures recovered from who knows where. Or they could have been computer generated graphics, who knew.

"This is different," the serpent commented, looking at all the strange lighting and photos. "Is this Earth?"

"I think so. I mean..." He paused, trying to recall whether he had seen something like this on TV or in a book. "Yeah, I think it is." It was at that point Jason had noticed just how nicely all the different lights were reflecting off of his girlfriend's clothing. "That dress looks great on you," he complimented.

"Thanks. You look good," she replied, flipping the compliments on him.

Laughing, the human led them towards the next set of double doors, which allowed them to enter the bar proper. Even before they did so, the thumping music from the inside reverberated through the walls and into the corridor, the high frequencies lost to the obstacles, leaving a deep, muffled version of the original. Going through the gates revealed The Globe in all of its glory. A large, circular bar was the centerpiece of the huge room. Above it, an even larger version of the Earth that was adorning the hallway hovered there – of course, it didn't hover, but was rather suspended on thin, metal lines that were almost impossible to see in the colorful, moody lighting. There were stools right at the bar, on which many humans and some hybrid patrons were already sitting. The rest was tables with chairs, which were equally as busy. Customers were enjoying a variety of drinks, talking, laughing and generally having a good time. The blaring music was perfect for those that wished to indulge in dancing on the floor situated near the bar. Looking up, the ceiling of this place was high – very high. One had to wonder what sort of purpose it had served before the war. A warehouse, perhaps?

Looking around, Jason was trying to see if he could spot his colleagues. They should've been there already, most likely waiting for him to join. And then he spotted them, sitting at a large table, all five of them – two women and three men, one of which was Kale, the excitable receptionist. "There they are," he said, trying to discreetly motioning towards them with a nod of his head, happy to introduce his girlfriend to them but, at the same time, also afraid of their reactions. With his heart now racing, the medic led the serpent over to his friends, trying to put a nice smile on his face. Clearing his throat, he spoke up when they were closer: "Hey, everyone!"

The heads at the table had turned towards the couple, expressions ranging from excitement – Kale, of course – to slight shock, when their gazes ping ponged between Jason and the reptile. "You made it, great!" was the voice of the clinic's receptionist, quickly followed by the question: "Is this... your new girlfriend?"

"New?" the snake repeated in an almost accusative tone of voice, throwing her gaze at her boyfriend.

"Oh, err, uhh... I didn't have one before," he laughed nervously. "But, uhh.. Kelyassa, this is Kale, our receptionist. Over there is Matthew, one of the janitors, Samantha, she's a doctor, Isaac, a doctor as well, Robert, a computer engineer who takes care of the devices we use, aaaand..." the medic called out their names in order they were sitting, but could not quite recall the last one immediately, since she was a recent arrival at Camp Exo.

"Lydia," the young human spoke up with a smile.

"Ah, yes! Lydia, sorry. I'm bad with names. She's one of the new supervisors. And, uhh... Everyone? This is my girlfriend, Kelyassa," he added, putting a gentle hand on the small of the serpent's back, trying to appear calm and happy. Secretly, though, he was sweating.

Now that everyone's greeting was out of the way, the couple sat down on the free seats and made themselves comfortable. With the table full of humans, the viper was by far the biggest there, almost towering over the rest, even in her 'sitting' position.

A bit of an awkward silence seemed to have ensued until the young man, Kale, spoke up, breaking the ice: "Kelyassa, we've heard very little of you from Jason, just that he was seeing someone. We've been placing bets, trying to figure out whether you'll be ex-resistance or not."

His remarks were swiftly reprimanded by the older gentleman: "Come on, Kale. That's not really appropriate."

"Oh, so sorry, Isaac." Judging by the doctor's glance, everything was immediately clear to the receptionist, who turned towards the viper and apologized to her as well.

"Not really sure how I could be ex-resistance. I don't think there were any aliens that had ever broken free of the mind control. If they did, they were dead," she explained, shrugging and flicking her forked tongue.

"We didn't think you'd be a snake, that's for sure," Matthew said, picking up his glass and taking a drink of whatever liquid was inside there. "But hey, I don't care."

"Mhm, what did you think I'd be, then?" the reptile asked, deciding to take the bait.

"A normal person. A human," Lydia butted in.

This time, both Isaac and Robert stepped in, although the former was faster to speak up: "Are we really going to be pecking each other's eyes out right now? For what? This is supposed to be a nice little get-together. Personally, I'm happy for Jason and Kelyassa." He leaned back on the chair and added: "It's good people are getting along in these after-war times."

"Exactly," Robert joined in afterwards, "I'm a bit ashamed now, to be completely honest. What if you were coming here to introduce your better half and we immediately started making weird comments? I don't think you'd be very accepting of that."

Samantha appeared to stay quiet throughout the conversation. The empty slot was thus taken up by Lydia: "Fact of the matter is, you're ex-resistance. I'm ex-resistance, my parents were in the resistance. I'd have thought you would've stayed with your own."

Kelyassa turned to the medic this time and, in an overly sarcastic tone, said: "Nice colleagues you have."

Before Jason could reply, Isaac, the voice of reason, seemed to have had enough of the charade: "No, no, that's quite enough." He loosely raised a hand, motioning for the others to stop with the interrogation: "This is wholly inappropriate and has no place in our society today." It was clear his intended audience was mostly the clinic supervisor. "If you wish to express your displeasure at the situation, I can only suggest heading to the mayor's office and filing an official complaint. But what I can not and will not stand for is harassment of this sort, especially when it comes to one of our own colleagues, a friend."

"I just thought we worked at Camp Exo, not Camp Alien," Lydia insisted, giving everyone a dismissive shrug before returning to her drink.

The standoff was broken by a human waitress, who came to take orders from the two new arrivals. Truth be told, Jason didn't feel much like drinking. In fact, he had an urge to just get up and leave; go somewhere with his girlfriend and actually have fun. But, in hopes of smoothing the situation out, he got himself some non-alcoholic beverage, not really paying full attention to the menu.

The viper, on the other hand, ignored the offer of a drink, and instead glared at the clinic's supervisor: "And I thought I was the poisonous one."

"Uhh, I'll come back a little later," the servant said awkwardly, still taking the medic's order, then heading away with a brisk pace.

"Have you just insulted me?" Lydia demanded to know, leaning forward.

"What do you think? Or don't you think at all?" the serpent hissed.

"Can we just... You know? Settle down and enjoy a drink?" Jason intervened, trying to cool everyone off.

He was joined by Robert: "That's right. I don't see why you all have to be so horrible about this."

It looked like the slighted woman was about to say something else when a familiar voice sounded off close to the table: "Ohhh, found you! What a party you've got going here!" As everyone's gaze moved to see where the greeting was coming from, a green-scaled cobra and another middle-aged human came into view. "Hi, hi! I'm Tesslith, this is Gabe," she continued, automatically sitting down by pulling a couple of spare chairs towards the table. The snake was dressed in a combination of a green skirt and a dark green blouse; the outfit didn't scream fancy but it was certainly cute and befitted her color scheme. Her boyfriend, on the other hand, seemed to be dressed for a high-level company meeting, wearing an elegant suit that most likely costed a pretty credit.

Lydia was less than amused: "Oh, good. It's more ethereal pets."

Slamming a hand on the table, Kelyassa was having none of it: "Nobody is going to call us pets!"

"That's quite enough," Isaac protested, giving a stare of sheer disapproval towards Lydia.

She, in turn, stood up: "I thought this was going to be a nice get-together with my new colleagues. Working at a place called Exo, I was under the impression there'd be more... humans around. But this is just turning into a farce." With that, she turned around and headed towards the exit.

The cobra was now looking rather guilty: "Did... I say something wrong?"

"No, no," Robert assured her, waving a dismissive hand, "that Lydia seems to have something up her rear. New at the clinic. Never thought we'd have xenophobes working in a medical place."

A loud 'hmpf' came from Matthew.

"You too?" Kelyassa asked accusatively, sending another glare towards the human.

Rubbing his chin, the janitor didn't seem to be overly fond of the entire situation. "I'm not gonna say I'm the biggest fan of aliens. Lost my sister and mother to them. But..." Shrugging and taking a sip of his drink, he leaned back in his chair: "I guess that's the past."

Jason turned around to look at the cobra and her boyfriend: "I'm so sorry for this. I didn't think we'd be getting into an argument here. These are my..." He paused, trying to figure out whether to continue or not. "My colleagues from work." Continuing to introduce them to the new snake, the waitress had returned in the mean time, taking more orders, before departing again.

"I would like to apologize on behalf of our ignorant colleague," Isaac said, nodding towards the two aliens. "This was certainly not the kind of behavior we should be seeing anywhere, much less in a clinic." He paused, then lowered his voice: "And considering she's supposed to be a supervisor, this is truly unacceptable. I will be filing a complaint about this."

"We don't really want to get anyone into trouble," Jason said, shaking his head.

"You really wanna get Lydia fired just for hating aliens?" Matthew spoke up, his voice sounding as if he was disinterested in the conversation.

"Just for hating aliens? Is that not enough?" Robert inquired rhetorically. "We're supposed to be a clinic. A place where people of all kinds, shapes and species come to seek aid. We can't have that woman's sort of mentality at the place. Where would we be?" Where would that get us in the future?"

"I don't know. I think it's stupid. She should be allowed to say what she wants. We won the war, not them," Matthew continued matter-of-factly.

"Matthew," Isaac intervened, taking on an almost paternal tone, "I have known you for almost four years now. You have been, for the most part, a rather agreeable gentleman. Never before have I seen you say strange, hurtful things like these. What happened?"

Shrugging again, the man responded, although it was clear he showed respect for the doctor: "I signed up to work at Exo because I thought it'd be helping the human community in the city. We've been killed, thrown around, enslaved and impoverished. I just want to do my part to make life easier."

"But by attacking anything and anyone alien, you're not helping," Isaac replied.

"They can do their own thing, I want to help my own kind."

"This is going great," Jason muttered, glancing at Kelyassa and hoping she wasn't going to blow her top again. Her beauty and that sparkling dress were the only two things still keeping his spirits at least above the water line.

"And by helping the aliens, we are helping humanity," the doctor argued his point. "The world has changed. We are no longer a homogenous society of humans. The ethereals made sure of that. And whether you like it or not, we now live together and will have to do so in the future should we wish to avoid more unnecessary wars and bloodshed. That is all there is to it. We need to stop thinking only of ourselves and live as a community."

Giving him a small shrug, Matthew reluctantly agreed: "I guess."

"I'm obviously a little biased," Gabe spoke up for the first time, his voice deeper than one would attribute to the middle-aged man, "but finding love like this made me realize just how similar we all are." The cobra sitting next to him immediately perked up, almost rubbing against him affectionately as he explained his experience.

"Well, sure you are. But it's easy for you to say. You probably never lost anyone in the war. Grew up in the city?" Matthew inquired.

"No," Gabe replied. "I was the leader of the Night Hawks."

"The Night Hawks?" Robert interjected, widening his eyes.

"Yes," the ex-resistance man confirmed.

The Night Hawks were a rather successful and famous group of resistance situated close to City-31. Over the years of the occupation, they had been responsible for a number of attacks on Advent supply convoys, severely straining the transport of liquefied human remains from the capital towards factories. Their blowing up of the aliens' railway was considered a major victory as it halted the relocation of thousands of surviving humans to the death trap that the city once was. In fact, word had spread so far on the resistance network that even XCOM took notice and, later in the war, employed the Night Hawks' skills and knowledge of the area to great effect. Advent did not stand idle, however. Towards the end of the occupation, a task force was sent with the mission to eradicate the hidden headquarters and kill everyone within. They succeeded.

"I thought your entire place was wiped out," the computer engineer wondered, putting his arms on the table and leaning slightly forward.

"It was. I've lost many people that day. My children included." Moving his gaze towards the janitor, he added: "So, yes. I know what it means to fight for our own."

Jason was a little baffled – middle-aged and he had been the leader of a famous resistance group? The man must have had some really good genes, because he was probably much older than was apparent. Or perhaps he was a genius kid.

After that, Matthew had decided not to push the subject any longer and the group could finally order some drinks in peace, even if the atmosphere had been strained by the initial encounter.

Samantha, the female doctor, who had been quiet this entire time, lifted her glass and toasted: "To our future, then."

"To our future," was the echo of the others, apart from the janitor, who only raised his drink.

After everyone had had their share of the beverages they had ordered, Isaac smiled and spoke up, addressing the medic: "I remember you coming to the clinic back then. You seemed lost, just like we all did. But in all the years, I've never seen you this happy." He turned towards the pale-pink serpent and nodded at her: "Seems like you're having a good effect on him."

"When we're not being insulted, yes," she replied.

"Yes. Unfortunate. Something that the entire society will need to work at. I can understand a certain amount of xenophobia, especially with the large amounts of ex-resistance members in the city. But what I will not tolerate is such behavior from the clinic staff."

"You're not a supervisor, you can't make these decisions," Matthew argued.

"Ah, but you forget I'm a senior member," Isaac pointed out with a knowing smile. "The administration has always heeded my advice so far."

With the janitor slumping back in his chair, unable to come up with a good response, Kale, who had been almost in a fetal position during this entire argument, had finally worked up the courage to speak again: "Um... So... What do you do, mister Gabe and miss Tesslith?"

"No need for formalities," the man replied, leaving his reptile girlfriend to do the talking.

She seemed rather excited by the proposition: "Oh! I drive a taxi around the city and see so many different things, speak to so many different people, it's quite exciting! As for Gabe, he's running a company. It's a big cannery in Riverside. Very tasty fish."

"How did you go from the leader of Night Hawks to running a cannery?" Matthew asked, with a tone that implied some slight schadenfreude.

But the ex-resistance fighter did not seem fazed in the least: "Oh, quite simple. In the war, I fought for people's lives. After that, I am now fighting to keep people fed. Both seemed interchangeable.

"And just how did you survive when your entire group got slaughtered," the janitor continued prodding, trying to find some sort of fault in the person's history.

"An unfortunate set of circumstances. Unbeknownst to us, Advent had successfully infiltrated our camp's communications. They knew exactly where we were and what we were doing. So, they set up a trap. We became aware of a high-value target about half a day's travel from the camp. It almost sounded too good to be true – which it was. Unfortunately, while we were ambushed, our camp got destroyed. They were ill-prepared for the attack and most of our veterans were in my group. We managed to retreat and escape, the camp did not." Sighing, the ex-leader took another swig of his alcoholic drink.

His cobra girlfriend was quick to pat him on gently on the back: "But you did all you could. And you still rescued most of the people in your task group."

"I did. But I wish I could've done more," he said, pausing, then throwing his gaze at Matthew. "Which is why it pisses me off when people like you and that woman I forgot the name of keep going on about 'us' and 'them'. It's neither any more. It's just all of us."

"Indeed," Isaac concurred. "And the only way to improve society now is to teach our children the right things as well as educate survivors of the war. There are still many people out in the wilderness across the globe. It's going to take a monumental effort to bring them back into the fold."

"What about the changed?" the cobra inquired, joining the conversation again.

"The... changed?" Robert asked, confused.

"You mean the lost?" Gabe corrected her.

"Yes, the lost," she confirmed, nodding.

"That's going to be yet another big present the ethereals had left for us. And it's going to be a headache," he explained.

"The lost? Are they actually real? I've heard stories of them, but they always seemed just that. Stories," Kale asked, too young to really know the truth.

"Oh, yes. They're real," the cannery owner confirmed. "Scores upon scores of people who had hid in the crumbling cities after the war were... changed by those pods that had dropped onto the planet at the start of the invasion. They're now mindless, ravenous creatures that only know to kill."

Swallowing, the young receptionist seemed a little distraught by that: "I had always thought it was just tales of the war. Stories. That's... Scary."

"Yes, the work we have is truly cut out for us. There's a lot of it and no end of problems," Isaac added to the discussion. "This is why it's so important we start working together, not against each other."

Buoyed by the fact that people did not accuse him of starting the argument, Kale put forward another question: "Uh, miss Kelyassa?"

"Yeah?" she replied, flicking her tongue.

"What do you do, then? For a living, I mean."

Pausing, as if to think of what to answer on the subject, she simply said: "Reclamation."

"Damn, you're in Reclamation?" Gabe inquired with an approving grin.

"What's that? What's Reclamation?" his cobra girlfriend quickly echoed.

The others, apart from Jason, were equally confused.

"It's a subgroup of XCOM. They deal with terrorist threats and are collecting dangerous weapons and tools around the city," the ex-leader explained.

"That's right," Kelyassa confirmed. "You know a fair bit."

"Yeah, I was in contact with XCOM all the way until the end. Now? I'm a civilian, pretty much," he answered, shrugging.

"So you do pretty dangerous work," Robert inquired, curious about the profession.

"It can be, sometimes. But we're well trained," the viper replied, taking a drink of her sparkling beverage.

"That's why I was gone from work for an extended period. She got... Her... Squad?" Jason begun explaining, but was trying to find the right word, so he threw his girlfriend a questioning look.

"Squad is fine," she nodded.

"Her squad got into quite some trouble. She got injured. Severely. And I wanted to take care of her at home."

"Is it like the 31PD, then? Are you part of the police?" Matthew spoke up with a veiled interest, although it was clear he was simply looking for an opportunity to voice his displeasure at having an alien in a position of authority.

"No, we're not part of the police force," the viper replied simply, choosing not to furnish him with any more details.

"So, Jason, uh... How did you two... How did you meet?" Kale inquired, curious about these unorthodox relationships.

The medic had been hoping all this time that this particular question would never surface. Now that it did, he wasn't entirely sure how to answer it. Not wishing to lie, but also not wanting to come out as a strange creep, he vaguely described how they both met at the river's bank. And, just like it had truly happened, the human explained seeing her for the first time and then working up the courage to invite her out on a date when she did approach him.

"He was staring at me," Kelyassa suddenly interjected with a grin, catching her boyfriend completely by surprise.

"I, uhh... Well..." Grimacing and trying to keep a smile on his face, Jason was almost blushing at this point. "Sort of... Yeah..."

"Yes, you were. That's why I stepped over to shout at you," she added.

"Ohhh, love at first sight," the cobra said, almost clapping her hands in the excitement.

Matthew in the back did not care much for the romance story, sighing and drinking his beverage until it was empty. Then, when there was a lull in conversation, he suggested: "Are we gonna be just talking of wooing snakes all night or are we actually, y'know, gonna have some fun? Like darts? Bowling? Something like that?"

"I thought this was quite nice, a get-together, exchanging stories," Isaac said idly, not willing to waste time arguing.

Exhaling more loudly this time, the janitor smacked his glass down on the table with a thud and got ready to stand: "All right. I better get back to work, then. Been nice. Thanks for the drink." And with that, he left, leaving the table of now eight people.

After a short pause, Jason leaned back on his chair and glanced around, sighing: "Well, that was something. I'm sorry if this has all caused a stir..."

"No, no reason to be sorry," Isaac replied, shaking his head. "I will have a talk with them back at the clinic on Monday, mark my words."

"What do you mean – sorry?" Kelyassa spoke up, shooting a slightly annoyed look at the medic. "Are you going to start making excuses because of those xenophobes? That you maybe shouldn't have brought me here?"

"What? No, no. That's not what I meant. Sorry, look... I just meant to say I didn't want to screw things up, all right?" It felt like whatever he would have said at that point would have been wrong. A dead end.

"I believe he's just trying to make sure everyone would have fun tonight," the cobra intervened, "and I guess he feels personally responsible somehow."

"Yes, that's right," Jason quickly nodded, happy to have the supporting words of Tesslith.

"Don't bother yourself with it," Robert added, "they were just cranky. Must've woken up on the wrong side of the bed. I don't remember Matthew being like this before. As for Lydia... She's new, but her behavior really doesn't suit the clinic."

"Maybe he was reading those pamphlets?" the normally-quiet Samatha suggested. Everyone directed their attention to her and wondered what she went on about. "Yeah, he lives close to me. Our streets have had these papers put up in various places. Some sort of group of humanity, building a better future and so on. I didn't think much of it but I did notice they disappeared only a day later. Could be some sort of extremist group, perhaps?"

"It is," the viper in the red dress spoke up before anyone could put their theories forward.

"It... is? How do you know?" Kale asked, his voice almost trembling. Extremist groups were pretty much a synonym for terrorists in City-31, for they were the ones that were usually responsible for bombings, killings and so on.

"You forget where she works," Gabe pointed out.

"Oh, of course. The police!" he almost exclaimed incorrectly.

"Not the police," the serpent corrected him. "Either way, stay away from that group. They're dangerous."

"You really think he could've fallen for a group like that?" Kale inquired with great concern on his face, his question directed at Samantha.

"I don't know. I'm just guessing," the snake replied, shrugging.

"Whatever it is," the ex-resistance leader began, "it's a job for the PD and Reclamation, not us here at the table."

"This city will need to pull together if we are to survive," Isaac commented solemnly. "But until then," the human added, changing his tone to a lighter one, "how about we stop talking shop and politics and enjoy the rest of the evening?"

"Yes, please," Jason said, relieved to put those subjects behind them.

"Oohh, I like fun! It was one of the first things I tried when getting out of detention," the cobra announced excitedly. Her boyfriend only chuckled in response, apparently knowing where this was going.

"You tried... fun? What did you try?" Robert asked in confusion as to how one could simply 'try' fun.

"I headed straight for a movie theater and watched a movie. They gave us some initial credits upon release, so I could afford that," the green reptile explained.

"A movie theater? Huh... They didn't give you any entertainment in detention?" the engineer continued with his questions.

"They did. Some. There were also lessons on how to have fun. But it was nothing compared to what's available here in the city. I've read and heard about these things in prison but obviously couldn't try them out."

"Did you like it?" Kale butted in, also curious.

"Oh, I loved it! The atmosphere, the sounds, the big screen... It all felt out of this world!"

"What did you watch?" Jason asked, wondering what movie could have been so dramatic to had provided so much entertainment.

"It was the middle of the day, so they were showing some sort of an old documentary on forests," Tesslith said. "It showed the pre-war areas which were full of trees, animals and the like. Fascinating!"

"Huh... Interesting, sure. But not exactly the 'fun' I thought you were going for," the medic replied.

For that remark, he was quickly nudged by his girlfriend: "Hey, those documentaries are far more intriguing than you'd think. Not only do you get a glimpse of the planet before the invasion but you get to see and learn about many things."

"You too?" the cobra almost exclaimed in barely contained excitement.

"No. I've only seen one on the TV one day. But I can't say I would fault you for seeing it."

"I've bought a whole collection of digitally stored documentaries for her. She's insatiable," Gabe admitted, giving his serpent a grin, in response to which she was happy to press herself gently against him.

"You haven't bought me a collection," Kelyassa teased, grinning at her boyfriend.

It was as if all of the eyes at the table had focused on him, awaiting his answer, his excuses for not having done what the serpent had said. "Oh... Uh... I... You never said you wanted a collection," he wriggled in his seat.

The rest of the people threw their gaze at the sweating human, unsure of whether to intervene or not. At the end, everyone stayed quiet.

"I'm just joking, Jason," the pale viper finally said, laughing and putting her hands on his shoulders for a reassuring moment.

"You better watch out. She's going to think of other things to catch you out on, now," Gabe warned his fellow snake connoisseur with a grin. "Believe me, I know."

"Yes, he does!" was the excited confirmation of the cobra. She turned towards Kelyassa to add some more advice: "And he'll love giving you things! Just keep nagging. Or hiss at him."

"Oh, I do," the serpent confirmed with a chuckle, "but he likes the hissing."

The medic, now sweating and blushing, was trying to run a hand through his hair in a rather nervous fashion, giving a timid but affirmative 'yeah' to what she had said, all the while attempting to keep his gaze away from the others.

"Gabe also enjoys that," the taxi driver revealed, never once thinking about whether this was a taboo subject or not. "You should do it more often," she suggested to the viper, grinning back at her own boyfriend. "I think that was one of the reasons you fell for me so badly."

Raising an eyebrow and tilting his head, Jason was confused and decided to inquire: "Wait, I thought you said you two started because of a free taxi ride and then a dinner?"

This very quickly elicited a warning, albeit discreet, jab from Kelyassa, who was worried he might have been divulging information the cobra could have given them by mistake – or because she had thought it would never see the light of day again.

However, Tesslith was completely happy to explain, in her usual, chirpy manner: "Yes, of course. But you know me... Well, maybe you don't, but I was very bubbly at dinner. Hissing was something someone once told me was cute. So I did it. And..." She gave a smile to Gabe and added: "He loved it."

The ex-leader, while completely enjoying the conversation, leaned forward on the table and clapped his hands together: "All right. This girl talk is all fine and nice but I'm sure not everyone here wants to be listening to all of that. Is anyone hungry? I'm buying."

Of course, everyone was rather polite and thanked him for the offer but ultimately declined it. Everyone but Kale – who blurted out that he had been starving the entire afternoon because he had thought the original plan was to also eat something here – and Tesslith, who promptly confirmed her state of hunger.

Relieved to be out of the taboo zone, Jason suggested he actually wouldn't mind a bite to eat, either, glancing at the pale viper to see a confirmation on her face as well.

Leaning in close to the medic's ear, Kelyassa whispered: "Hey, he's probably rich. And he's buying. Why not?" Far from her to be taking advantages like that, but if the man was offering, who would refuse some free, friendly snacks?

Soon, even Robert and Samantha had joined in the agreement, while Isaac explained he would probably just have a taster and that's that. Getting the attention of one of the waiters, the ex-resistance leader ordered some grilled sandwiches and nut snacks – the latter had been a staple of City-31 almost since the beginning; the trees and bushes required were already grown in hydroponics in the Advent era, so continuing those practices was the natural course of action. When the food did arrive, it was a rather interesting spectacle at the table, with the humans eating their meals bite by bite and the two snakes doing their own thing – gulping down big pieces of the sandwich. They had probably decided to pace themselves because of the company, not because they couldn't just stuff the entire things down their gullets.

Jason was particularly fond of the imitation cheese in his food – a reminder of what sort of tastes had been available before the war and what the industry was attempting to bring back again. The nuts were a treat as well, fresh and crunchy with lots of flavor, washed down with the beverage of choice.

It was a very welcome change of atmosphere, now that the two unexpected xenophobes had removed themselves from their company. At the same time, it pained the medic to think that even his own colleagues – acquaintances or even friends, for that matter – were disapproving of his relationship. But, in the end, that was the general situation in City-31. On the surface, society worked, people were doing business, shopping, having fun. Yet scratch that thin cover and you would find great concerns on both sides of the argument. Beyond that were the unhappy individuals and groups who were willing to fight for what they believed was right. And even further down the hole were the extremists, who would stop at nothing to achieve their goals and illusions, whatever they might have been. Yes, there was a long way to go to achieve a truly stable reboot of the civilization. But it was still disheartening to be practically stabbed in the back by those the human would consider on his side, or, at the very least, they should have known better.

The group had enjoyed a bit more of the banter before Isaac and Samantha bid them their farewells – both had to get back to the clinic the next day due to the number of patients.

"Awfully sorry, but I will have to leave for now. The clinic has been seeing a huge influx of new patients due to a rebuilding of a nearby hospital," the old doctor explained, mainly speaking for the cobra and her boyfriend, since they would not necessarily be privy to such information.

This left the table occupied by the two couples as well as Kale, the receptionist, and Robert, who was tapping on his wrist-chip.

"Tell me... Kale, right?" Gabe spoke up, leaning back on his chair.

"Yes, that's right," the young man confirmed, focusing his attention on the speaker, as if he was to be answering some very important questions.

"Were you born here in the city or outside?" the man asked, already expecting the answer to be the former.

"Oh, here. My parents lived in City-31 when Advent ruled," he explained quickly.

Nodding, the ex-leader confirmed he had such a suspicion: "I thought so."

"How did you know?" the young receptionist inquired in surprise.

"I met all kinds of people in my life. In the war and after. There's little differences in mannerisms and the like. I can tell when somebody had grown up in the city or not. Of course, that's all changing now, when the first new city-born generations are growing up."

"I understand," Kale replied, obviously showing great respect for the head of the Night Hawks.

"We boring you, Robert?" Jason spoke up, seeing the engineer still tapping on his wrist-chip.

"Hm? Oh, err... It's just work stuff. Network at the clinic seems to be down. I'm trying to remotely fix it," he explained without moving his stare from the holographic display, then, after a moment, the engineer glanced up at the group and added a 'sorry'.

"No problem, I don't know where I'd be if the network was down at work," the medic chuckled, then quickly corrected himself: "Or if Kale wasn't there." To which the young man perked up with a smile, always happy to help and eager to receive a compliment about his good work.

It was during this small conversation that the cobra had unwound from her chair and slithered over to the viper and begun whispering something in her ear slit. Even though Jason was sitting right next to his girlfriend, he couldn't really discern what the two snakes were talking about. A snicker every now and then and a grin on Kelyassa had to mean it was something funny. Or perhaps they were saying silly, mean things about the humans at the table. Whichever it was, the medic wasn't about to go intruding upon their little game. He was sure the serpent would tell him about it all later, anyway. But his curiosity didn't let go, as per usual, and, although he didn't wish to eavesdrop, the proximity of the two and the fact that they had, after a few garbled sentences, continued to whisper a little more loudly, it was beginning to be impossible not to catch a few words here and there. The cobra seemed to be speaking of things like 'wrap around him' and something about using her tongue?

Once again, he began blushing, which was stupid, as he didn't even know if they were talking about him or if his ears were deceiving him or not. His chain of thoughts was interrupted by Kelyassa chuckling again, accompanied by a surprised 'ohhh'. It looked like the two reptiles were having a good time. The medic's suspicions were completely confirmed, however, when the two snakes briefly directed their attention – and gazes – towards him, then giggled.

"All right, what's so funny now?" he inquired while trying to fight back a smile himself.

"Oh, nothing. We're just exchanging... cooking recipes," Kelyassa said with a grin.

"Uh-huh, suuure you are." He was glad at that point the rest of the table had been engaged in some different conversation and not paying attention to him. Jason really wasn't the most socialized individual and, as a result, he was also fairly self-conscious and shy. This was all very new to him, being here with his alien girlfriend even more so.

"Really sorry but it looks like I'm not getting a night off this time," Robert suddenly spoke up, giving his wrist-chip a few final taps with a finger. "Gotta get back and sort this out." Standing up, he apologized again and thanked everyone for a fun evening out.

"You do what you gotta do," Jason said, giving the engineer a friendly wave, "and we'll see you next week. Thanks." With that, the table was now left with just the two couples and Kale. The medic felt compelled to speak to the ex-leader. "Listen, uh... Gabe?"

"Yeah?"

With the two snakes still in some sort of giggling, snickering mode of whisper, the conversation entailed but the two men. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry. For all of this."

"What do you mean? The few little lost souls at the beginning?"

"Yeah, I guess you could say that. I thought it'd be a nice night out, so we had decided to invite you as well. But we wouldn't have if we knew about... well..." He glanced at the young receptionist for a moment, trying to choose his words carefully. "That some of our colleagues seemed less inclined to be receptive to aliens." It wasn't that he was worried Kale would be spilling what was said here at the table, but he didn't wish to appear inconsiderate, either, even if Matthew and Lydia were.

"Ah, think nothing of it," Gabe said with a wave of his hand. "I've heard all of it. And worse." Leaning over the table slightly so his face was illuminated better by the overhead lights, he added: "When you've been a leader of a resistance group – and a fairly known one at that – you're idolized in some sense. And those doing the idolizing have a very rigid idea about you. So, when they see you in the arms of a viper... You can imagine the rest."

"I can guess that didn't go down too well with your... err... followers," the medic surmised.

"It didn't. Got a lot of dirty looks, a lot of words of disappointment, some death threats, that sort of thing," the ex-resistance member said matter-of-factly, as if it was a thing that happened every day to the average person.

"Death threats?" Jason repeated, leaning over the table as well, as if to get a better look at the man's face. "And that... that doesn't concern you?"

"Not particularly," Gabe shrugged, making himself comfortable on his chair again. "Most of those are screams of disillusion, of a realization that the world isn't going to be all flowers and honey for them again. Only a minority of those people will actually do crime because of it. And a minority of that minority will try to have their threats have meaning. And, like I've always said, if it's my time to go, then it's my time to go. Can't do much about it. If it'll make those lost causes happier and feel more fulfilled, then there's nothing else we can do about them anyway. No amount of persuasion will make them change their minds. That's how the world is today."

"We humans have it lucky, I guess," Kale joined in. "I mean, I'm not in a relationship but we're not marginalized. I can only imagine it being more difficult for the aliens."

"You're wrong there, youngling," the ex-fighter corrected him. "Everyone in this city suffers as a result of people hating each other's guts. Humans are no better in this respect. If we don't stop the rot, no one is going to be heading home and building a brighter future."

"I wish more people would see that," Jason lamented, sighing. Glancing over at the two serpents, they were still deep in some sort of secret conversation, still having fun, still snickering as if everything around them was hilarious in some way or another.

"That always happens," Gabe chuckled, seeing the medic's interest just exactly what was going on between the snakes. "The little cobra of mine is quite the talker. Gets excited about everything. And when it's time to meet another viper, well... Especially if it's one that's dating a human, words just flow. And ideas."

"Ideas? Ideas for what?" Jason inquired, raising an eyebrow.

The ex-leader seemed to chew his lower lip for a moment, glancing at Kale before looking back at the medic, then said: "Let me just put it this way. You won't be bored later."

"All... right?" he replied in confusion before remembering the few words he did manage to catch between the reptiles. "Oh... Ohhh! I see," Jason added, blushing yet again. The fact that he was dating an alien, humanoid snake was something that had made him slightly conscious of where they both went in hopes of avoiding any altercations with angry people. But that his rather private parts of his life were now perhaps being laid plain to another person was somewhat embarrassing. He wasn't going to object, of course; he trusted Kelyassa.

"What? I don't understand," Kale spoke up, trying to figure out what was going on.

"Oh, it's nothing, kid," Gabe assured him with a smile. "Maybe you'll understand if you get yourself a viper."

"I've... never thought about that," he admitted, blinking.

"You're still young. You've got plenty of time. And it's going to be up to you all to get this city – and society – where it needs to be and go."

At that point, both of the serpents had finished their little girl-on-girl talk, with the cobra getting back to her seat."So! What did I miss?" Tesslith asked, chirpy as ever.

"You should have been here for the conversation, now shouldn't you have? You'll just have to imagine all the secrets we've talked about here at the table," Gabe teased her, giving Jason a wink. "And I'm sure you and your new friend over there have had plenty to chat about in secret."

"We were just exchanging tips. And ideas," she admitted without regret.

"So... What was that all about?" Jason asked, leaning closer to his girlfriend, the curiosity once again getting the better of him.

"I might tell you later. Maybe," the viper teased him, flicking her tongue towards him in a fashion that meant she was playful.

Whatever the conversation between the two snakes must had entailed, it was good. And the human didn't mind one bit; in fact, he was happy to see her socialize like this, imagining she didn't get much of a chance to do so in her time in City-31. "I'll count on that, then," he whispered back, returning his attention to the table.

Kale was rather smitten with the tales and wise thoughts of the old resistance leader, seeing no end to the plethora of information he could absorb. Having been born in the free city and never having to deal with actual war or true oppression, the young receptionist had a reasonably innocent lookout on things, spending his time wishing to become good at his job and having fun with friends. Very seldom did his free time include learning much about the war. While that period of human – and now alien – history was an important one, there had been a scant few years since the occupation, meaning the population was hungry for relaxation, entertainment and generally frowned upon recalling the horror of those days of the ethereals. In time that would change, of course, but for now, the citizens wished to forget, not evoke the gory details. For the newer generations, though, this was somewhat of a double-edged sword. They wished to know history – and were encouraged to learn about it – yet talking of the war with their siblings was like a rookie soldier explaining his experience to other rookies; one needed a veteran. And while there were some present in the city with a loose mouth, many had chosen to keep their memories – and the accompanying post traumatic stress disorders – bottled up. At least for the time being.

"And you still lived a normal life with all of that happening?" the young man continued questioning his much older acquaintance.

"We had to. I wouldn't call it normal per se, not by today's standards and certainly not by the standards of the old-world. But we're survivors. We had to live with what we had." He leaned forward, as if to give an important lesson: "Remember this – even in war, even in the face of immense adversity, if we don't keep our humanity, if we don't keep at least a modicum of honor, of compassion and last, but not least, a piece of our former lives, we're lost." Shaking his head and going back to his previous, relaxed position, Gabe gave one final piece of experience: "I have seen many a good man lose their minds when they could not find their purpose any more. When all hope was lost, all they had left was their daily routine. And when that was taken away by some event, be it an assault or worse, that was the point when these men were reduced to either a quivering mess of a being, helpless and useless, or changed into unrecognizable psychopaths, who would charge into battle without a second thought or strategy, only to get gunned down immediately and, worse, expose our hiding spots." Pausing – perhaps for effect – the old man added: "I hope you will never have to experience any of that and I sincerely hope you'll never have to heed my advice here, but... Remember it. Just in case."

"I will, thank you," Kale accepted the given words of wisdom happily, as if starved for real information of someone who had gone through hell and back.

"You should consider yourself lucky there," Jason commented on the young man's privilege to hear the guidance and life lessons. "When we were young, all we had was the camp. And wilderness. A mistake did not land you with nasty looks or lost credits – it was usually death. Advent was everywhere. And I'm happy now that they've reconsidered their allegiance," he said with a smile, gently pulling the serpent closer to him.

"There was no allegiance," Kelyassa corrected him. "The chips in our cortex made sure we served the ethereals. And only them."

"That's true. They didn't have a choice," the medic agreed. "And that's why I find it ridiculous there are so many people out there angry at them. I suppose I can understand anger but you can no more accuse the aliens of being traitors than you can a weapon. They were just tools to the elders before. They couldn't resist, even if they wanted to."

"Believe me, many of us wanted to. At least if I'm any sign of it," the snake explained, nodding. "For the first years of my conscience, I tried and I tried. I waited for certain situations, certain triggers and tried then. When that didn't work, I was beginning to hope for combat, hope to get injured, to feel the pain that might somehow break the damned connection."

"Did it work?" Kale inquired, sitting at the edge of his seat.

"No, of course not. I've later – after the war – heard of instances where psionics or fire were used to disperse Advent troops. And they didn't disperse because of commands, it seems it was a genuine control break. A very temporary disconnection when pain exceeded certain thresholds and induced a panic in the brain. But even so, those aliens gained nothing except torment and wounds. The chips made sure to re-establish control immediately afterwards."

"How did they, uhh... Do you still have that chip?" the young receptionist asked cautiously. It seemed like a sensitive subject and he didn't wish to broach any private issues.

Shaking her head, Kelyassa was happy to respond: "It's gone. That was the first thing every captive alien had to go through. It was the first real choice we got – surgery or death."

"Death?" Kale repeated after her, a little shocked.

"Yes, death," she confirmed. "The risk of another controlled uprising was too great, the fear too high. They gave every alien a simple choice. Either get the chip removed and return to detention or be executed. XCOM wasn't fooling around."

Even her boyfriend didn't know this small but important detail of every aliens' past. It made sense, of course, but it was enough to send a shiver down his spine.

"Ohh, I remember that time in detention," Tesslith spoke up, her tone as excited as ever, despite the rather somber subject: "I almost got sent to the back of the queue because I wanted to be operated on quickly, so I could see the city." She chuckled, adding: "Little did I know there would be plenty of tests and programs afterwards. But they were fun as well."

"You find everything fun, babe," Gabe said, grinning.

"I didn't find detention all that fun," Kelyassa admitted, her voice a stark contrast to the eternally amused one of the cobra. "Hated the muzzle," the serpent added quietly, in an almost hissing-like fashion.

"Muzzle?" Kale practically exclaimed in surprise, then quickly put his hands on his mouth, eyes wide as embarrassment set in.

"You don't think they'd let them just sit in the cells with all that poison ready to be spat at anyone, did you?" Gabe explained bluntly.

"Wait... They can spit it?" the young man inquired, even more baffled than before.

"I'm surprised you don't know," the pale-white snake said, flicking her forked tongue.

"No, I heard about the poison but nothing about spitting," he admitted. "They had to muzzle you for that?"

"What do you think, kid?" the ex-leader responded, shrugging. "Would you want to have these biological killing machines slithering about, ready to kill anything without even putting their hands on it?" he continued, placing his arm around the cobra.

"But..." Kale paused, his gaze jumping between the cobra and the viper, "isn't that very-"

His sentence was finished by Kelyassa: "Demeaning? Disappointing? Being treated like another item? If you thought those things, then you thought right."

The table became wrought in more silence again with the young receptionist visibly feeling awkward, as if he was the cause of all of this.

"You know they didn't really have a choice. Some of those boys toting rifles were barely twenty in those detention centers. They were terrified," Gabe intervened, explaining the other side of the story. "Besides, just imagine what would've happened with viper reputation if people died as a result of the poison there. Would've further tarnished the reputation of the entire species, especially at that time when every human saw only death in an alien."

The medic was half-expecting Kelyassa to get defensive, perhaps even aggressive, but she took it all very calmly, even agreeing with the ex-resistance man.

"I know. I'm not saying it wasn't required, just that it made us feel like animals."

Kale nodded, seemingly understanding both sides, then proceeded with another question aimed at his much older and more experienced acquaintance across the table.

In the mean time Jason, smacking his lips, leaned in to his girlfriend and whispered into her ear slit: "You make me feel like an animal, rawr."

Her reptilian eyes found his own and offered him a big, suggestive grin.

"...and they were just like you. Young men that were hoping for a better world. They were ecstatic when the war had ended, but many of them held barely contained hatred for the aliens, for many lost family in the years of the occupation," Gabe described to the young man thirsty for historic information.

"But didn't people know the aliens were slaves to the elders?" the receptionist kept digging.

"Some did, some didn't, others didn't care," the man explained. "You have to remember these people had just realized that the war had finally ended. That Earth was saved. Free from the elders. So, all of their energy, their emotions were focused on revenge. And because the ethereals were not to be found, that revenge was then directed towards the remaining aliens. The detention centers," he added, "were as much for the protection of those outside as it was for the incarcerated.

"Certainly didn't feel like it," the pale-pink viper reflected, the heads of the table turning towards her. "I'm sure the resistance had people coming in and taking it out on the captives."

Shaking his head Gabe denied the accusation: "I haven't been directly involved with the centers but I'm told they were run pretty tight. I don't think anything like that happened."

"Yeah? But it did. At least in Detention Center 17," she objected.

"They were probably just rumors. I had connections in XCOM. Everything ran by the books."

"Then those books were wrong. Because the well-being of aliens was not high on the priority level sometimes," she expounded.

"Where did you hear this?" the old man inquired, leaning on the table to get a better look at her.

"Doesn't matter," the serpent deflected, leaning back on her chair.

"Is it a... touchy subject?" Kale asked carefully, as if afraid of getting bit.

"Like I said. It doesn't matter," she finished, unwilling to answer the question.

"You don't need to answer that," the cobra intervened. "We should get another round of drinks instead!"

"Oh, n-no, not for me, thanks," the young clinic receptionist refused, "I'll have to get going, anyway. It's getting late and my mom-"

"Your mom?" Tesslith repeated, widening her eyes. "How old are you?"

"Umm... Nineteen this year," he admitted, a little embarrassed.

"Nothing wrong with that," Gabe came in to the rescue, "many families live together in small apartments. You take what you can get these days. Once the situation with housing improves, it'll be easier. But until then..."

"I uhh.. Never actually asked. Where do you live, Kale?" Jason inquired, himself curious this time around.

"Highland Square. Mom and pop run a shop there and we live just above it," the young man described, detailing how the establishment sells all kinds of things people can trade in for – a kind of pawn shop.

"I'll have to remember that the next time I need something," the medic replied. "Just a shame it's quite far away from my home."

"Oh, if you need anything, let me know and I can bring it to the clinic," Kale offered.

"Thanks. I'll remember that."

There were a few more minutes of small talk until the youngest person at the table did decide it really was time to leave. After that, only the two somewhat unusual pairs were left. Two humans and two snakes.

"I have to say, it's been a pleasure," Jason spoke up, thanking the other couple for coming. "And, again, sorry about the whole thing in the beginning."

"Nonsense," Gabe brushed the concerns off. "They don't know what they're talking about. Let's just hope they learn how the world works and change their opinion soon."

"That'd be great. But until then," the human replied, standing up followed shortly by Kelyassa, "we'll be heading off. Thanks again for being so level-headed."

"Not at all," the ex-fighter responded, standing up to shake both of their hands.

Tesslith slithered over to her kin to whisper something else into her ear before suggesting they drive them home.

"Uhh... Why not? If it's not too much of a bother," the medic said, nodding happily. This would have saved them a little bit of credits as well as time. They weren't really far from his apartment but walking home at night was not his idea of fun at that particular moment, mostly due to that area of Angler's Point being somewhat human-centric. And, at the end of the day, even if the alley encounter had been done and dusted with, the memories remained; Jason would have preferred to avoid getting beat up and his bones broken, but even more than that, he'd have preferred not to involve his girlfriend in any more trouble than he already had. She absolutely had the best intentions for him in mind, but the feisty serpent was sometimes just a little bit too aggressive for the liking of 31PD.

"That'd be great," Kelyassa agreed, leading everyone out the doors and through the long corridor to the outside. Fresh air hit their faces, a remedy that would have sobered up any tipsy customers rather quickly. The traffic, both vehicular as well as pedestrian, was as heavy as ever, presenting little difference between the street and the packed bar.

"Our car's just over there at a parking garage," Gabe mentioned, pointing over at a perpendicular street. Garages were the logical way of storing hundreds of thousands of cars, trucks and other modes of transportation in a city that was limited in its width and length by its walls, and had to house ever increasing amounts of population, buildings and infrastructure. There simply was no real space for that many cars, so walking and public transportation was quite popular. It also meant parking garages were situated practically everywhere and were often much taller than they were wide.

Making their way to the location where their personal vehicle doubling as a taxi was parked, the group was soon driving towards where Jason pointed them to – his apartment. Despite thick traffic, they arrived reasonably quickly and even found a spot to stop on the side of the street.

"Thanks very much again, we should do this more often," the medic suggest as he was getting out of the car.

"We definitely should," the cobra said excitedly, looking as if she was ready to go right back for another round of drinking, chatting and having fun. "Maybe you two should come to our place at some point," the snake suggested, for which the other couple affirmed their interest.

"Have a good one. And watch yourselves," Gabe said through the open window before the fancy, white vehicle drove off.

"Didn't think we'd find someone this nice just by ordering a ride," Jason chuckled, taking his girlfriend's hand.

"They are very nice. I enjoyed the night out. Did you?"

"Yeah. I did. Apart from... Y'know... The beginning," he admitted.

Shrugging, the serpent didn't seem overly concerned about it: "Who cares about them. You heard the old doctor. He'd be making sure they get what they deserve."

"Yeah," the medic replied with a rather unsure tone of voice. He certainly didn't like him or Kelyassa getting verbally abused like that, but he'd feel guilty if the two people would lose their jobs or positions just because of them. Of course, at the end of the day, they would do so because of themselves.

"Are you ready for tomorrow?" the viper inquired with a light grin as they ascended the short flight of stairs to the apartment block entrance.

"Ready for what?" he inquired quizzically.

"A little bit of fun. And it'll be good for you," she answered, ever cryptic.

"If you say so," the human replied, chuckling slightly nervously. He trusted her and her surprised had so far proven to be interesting and entertaining, even though the activities were definitely not what he would had thought of himself.

Taking the elevator up to the floor of his small flat, they made their way into the apartment without any altercations with the locals. At this point, Jason was on edge, almost expecting a person pointing at them, yelling at them or accusing him of being a 'traitor' at some point. There was nothing in the world that would have scared him away from being with his love, but the reality of the xenophobia and hate for the aliens was dawning on him much more now; City 31 might have been the best hope humanity – and aliens – had of achieving a stable, prosperous future, but there were still many, many things to correct and change until then.

"Tesslith told me some of the things she had tried with Gabe," Kelyassa spoke up all of a sudden.

"Wh... What?"

"There's no point in me talking about it. I'll have to show it to you," she said quietly, moving towards him in an alluring fashion, her clawed hands opening to offer an embrace. A passionate kiss was next, followed soon by other, more strenuous activities.