The time has come.
After the intense actions Yamoto took in order to ensure everyone's safety, there was nothing else left to do but wait. When they were done evacuating, double checking and then triple checking that there was not a single living soul left behind, they closed off every entry into the city. Every highway was completely blocked by rows of military vehicles, some of which had reporters already flocking to in order to catch anything that would gain their channels more views and higher ratings. There were other ways into the city as well such as the harbor, the urban roads, dirt roads and hiking ways which were also off limits for the time being.
Perhaps they were being a little paranoid, but could you blame them? How would you deal with the unknown? How would you handle the event of a lifetime? Something that seemed impossible happening, approaching your world and everything you know? Aliens for fuck sake, aliens! If you thought that everything was under control, you'd be very wrong. Sure, they did everything they could to make sure no one would be harmed. But that's that, they did everything they could. There were some things that nobody could control or predict, such as what that spaceship could hold and its exact landing spot.
Anything was fair game at this point. In the last few hours animals had theorized what the craft could be; aliens were the most common one, then there were dinosaurs, robots, a doomsday weapon, a contagious virus that would spread across the world the moment it landed killing every carbon based life form and other crazy ideas.
Could you even begin to imagine the weight that befell their shoulders? The responsibility? The chaos? The lack of sleeping hours? I surely wouldn't. On the bright side, everything will come to a close soon. "Soon" being about half an hour.
Yes, half an hour. That was the time they had left before the spacecraft entered the exosphere. The clock was ticking, taking its sweet, sweet, well, time, moving the minute hand. But hey, half an hour was better than nothing at all. Even if there wasn't a thing left to be done but wait with baited breath for The Fall, as some have dubbed the ship's inevitable entry, they could rest for a short while.
Despite the world's… "complicated" relations, every nation, city, town, village and street were silent. Well, not totally silent, more like synchronized, in the sense that everybody did the same; they watched and waited. Animals that had high-end recording equipment were broadcasting the ship as it floated as slowly as it did, as if it were taunting them.
And of course the internet was having a field day with this. Animals were getting millions of views livestreaming the ship, it was the only discussed topic on every website, to say it was the new crazy would be an understatement. As the ship was approaching the world, the sun was rising upon the beautiful mountains of the island nation. The soon to fall craft symbolizing the end of an era, and the rising sun the start of a new one, that was one such discussed topic amongst many others.
And so they waited, patiently. The military was ready to dive into action at a moment's notice, the same elderly owl was watching the craft with his colleagues at the observatory, the president was sweating bullets in his office at the capital and the general was praying, ironic, and to what? Who knows. At this point, many have began questioning the theory that dinosaurs were their ancestors. Not entirely, some parts of it, holes that hadn't been stitched together. It's understandable, think about it this way; what if an atheist had a dream that seemed real, too real, and God revealed himself to them? They'd probably experience an existential crisis the next day while chugging all the coffee in their kitchen.
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Half an hour had passed and the Arrow finally touched the edge of the atmosphere. It was an incredible sight to see, but it was just the beginning.
After a couple of minutes it didn't seem like the Arrow changed its trajectory that much, but eventually changes became noticeable, and then extreme. At first, the craft began moving faster, accelerating as it went deeper into the exosphere. As it did that, the front of the ship began heating up more and more. Its clever design allowed it to negate some of the air's resistance that became tougher the further it fell, but could it survive the entry? Some hoped it did, some didn't.
If it did break apart, the story would've ended here and that'd be boring. So of course it didn't.
The animals recording the ship's increasingly faster descent were having trouble keeping up, they were already zoomed in as much as they could so all it took was one wrong move to lose sight of it. The government was ready, as much as they could be. Each soldier knew what part they played in the coming minutes, waiting for the signal to move in and begin the operation.
At that point, you could say the world truly was silent. No one said a thing on television and most households just watched, staring at the live broadcast as half the ship became a blinding white light. It didn't blind the viewers though, only the lenses of the cameras the recorders were using, burning a mark they'd be disappointed to find on their expensive equipment later.
Then, it all went away. The sky in the background turned from a navy blue to a lighter one. It was cooling off as it fell, but if you could somehow touch it at the time you'd get third degree burns on your hands. The image of it seemed so calm, peaceful, as if it were gliding through the air. But it wasn't, because as the camera moved with the craft, Aumori came into view in the distance, and the Arrow was heading towards the city without any indication of stopping.
It had a parachute intended to slow it down for a safe landing, but so much time had passed that the automated systems had degraded beyond repair. Its exterior shell might've stayed intact, but the interior was another story.
On a private radio channel, the general gave the order to begin the operation. It didn't have a name, but I suppose you could call it a "Hit and Run" sort of deal. The plan was simple; when the Arrow touches ground and stopped, they'll take very heedful steps to see if the visitors were friendly or not. If they didn't respond, they'd move to the secong plan which was to take the liberty of entering the ship by brute force.
As the spaceship continued its uncontrollable flight towards the city, the military followed in suit at full speed; trucks full of soldiers, tanks, helicopters and news choppers too. Of course, they kept a safe distance away from it, but they had to act as quickly as possible.
And here's where the big surprise comes in. As the Arrow approached the empty skyscrapers, it casted a massive shadow over the city, not only because of the sun's magnifying effect, but also because it was the size of half a soccer field length wise. Its width was as long as ten public buses and its height two floors tall. It not only took off guard those who had the privilege of seeing it pass above them, but caused a moment of panic too. And to make things worse, the Arrow was heading straight into one of the tallest office buildings in the city. The moment the first driver of one of the vehicles noticed that, he quickly informed the command center of what was about to happen before drifting back around as many followed in his actions. They had enough time to escape, escape what you ask?
BOOM!
That. The Arrow, its name becoming incredibly sardonic, pierced through the office building like an arrow, causing a massive explosion in the floors it went through. It came out on the other side unscathed, not even a scratch. In contrast, the building began to topple, and at the tipping point all the floors above the one that was penetrated fell, crashing down into the streets below like the shells of a bomber. When everyone saw that happen thanks to the news crew piloting one of the choppers, those who had resisted leaving the city understood why everyone had to be evacuated. Imagine being down there at that time, a death wish and a half.
The spacecraft was getting closer and closer to the ground, its true size becoming much more apparent and terrifying. It passed many houses and stores, a train station above ground, a police station, a flowershop, a baseball court and at last; a park.
The Arrow violenlty crashed into the ground, launching rocks, dirt and trees as it devastated the majestic landscape until it reached a shallow lake, ceasing its movement and partially dipping into said lake. The Arrow had hit its target, leaving a trail of destruction behind it, but nothing too bad. Honestly, the damage could've been far greater, so at least something was finally going their way.
Within a few moments vehicles surrounded the park's entrances, some driving towards the crash site as the cloud dust caused by the debrees settled, revealing to the troops exiting their respective weaponized automobiles just how massive the ship truly was. They began surrounding the site, setting up barricades as well as using the vehicles for cover, tanks had their cannons aimed at the ship, attack choppers ready to fire their explosive payload. Every soldier's sights were aimed at the spacecraft, and when everybody were in position, everything came to a stop. Only the gust of the wind brushed through the lines of animals, sweating their heads off as they expected the aliens to get out and attack them. Everyone was waiting for something, anything, to happen. However, the ship didn't do a thing. It just layed there like a dead animal.
Some time passed, and nothing changed. Everybody on site were still in their positions, solely focused on the spaceship. Since progress was not being made and the ship showed no signs of aggression, which could've been a trick, the command center back in the secret facility ordered Team Alpha to go in.
Team Alpha was a hastily put together team of scientists who also had experience in combat. They weren't your stereotypical, weak nerds, they could fire a gun with precision and knew how to execute an order. They weren't as trained as the marines, but they were the ones fit for what was to come next.
Out of a special truck came Team Alpha, they were a group of seven animals; a wolf who was the bravest out of them, an alligator and a rhino who were the muscle of the group, a mongoose who had the most experience in combat, a sheep who knew how to negotiate in hostage situations and a panther who was a former sniper in the army. The smallest of them being one and a half meters tall and the biggest just above two meters.
Despite the team being composed of both carnivores and herbivores, it made no difference to any of them. They were professionals, as everyone should inspire to be. They wore a yellow hazmat suit according to their size and assets, no, not those assets, silly. Horns, ears, tails, stuff like that. Each of them also had a bodycam to record everything they saw, a weapon of choice hanging from their hip for their own safety, or at least give the illusion of control over the situation.
Once they all left the truck, they began approaching the Arrow. They were nervous, scared, they were going into the history books after all. Hell, every animal here would probably have their name remembered.
The rhino was carrying an advanced cutting tool; a saw reinforced with a diamond coating at the end of each blade. If the material the ship was made out of could withstand the durability of a diamond, it'd be pretty awkward to say the least. As they got closer to the towering ship, excitement began rising in some of them. You could say this was a reverse-moon landing and they were the astronauts, it was exhilarating to be so close to the ship. When they were within touching range of the ship, the sheep ran her hand over the reflective metal in fascination.
They scouted around the ship to see if they could find some way into it, and fortunately enough, they did. On the broadside they'd first come close to they noticed a thin, almost invisible cutout for a wide entrance.
"Command, we found a way. Starting breech," the rhino communicated through a radio device in his ear. They all had a set connected to the same channel, maintaining constant contact with each other.
The rhino activated the saw, bringing it into life as the circular blade spun faster and faster, visibly becoming a plate, one that could cut through layers of steel. Then, he slowly brought the saw to the outline on the metal, praying for something, anything, that the saw wouldn't break.
The moment the blades touched the metal, sparks flew in all directions. He used the saw for a few seconds before stopping to see if it worked, and it did. Adrenaline began pumping through the team's veins once they noticed that, some choosing to turn off the safety mechanism of their weapon.
The rhino resumed cutting into the outline without a word. The viewers at home couldn't see much from the news helicopter above, but the sparks were very much visible. No one could wait to see what would happen next, and they hadn't even got to the best part, or worst, depending on how you see it.
It took the rhino fifteen or so minutes to finish cutting into the frame of the entrance. Once he was done, he turned off the tool and hung it on his utility belt, turning to the alligator with a nod.
"Alright, let's do this."
Both of them grabbed at the two sides of the weakened cutout, the rest of the team backed away to a safe distance, their weapons trained on the door.
"Ready?" The rhino asked, gripping at the metal.
"On three," the alligator responded.
"One… two… three!"
They pulled as hard as they could, creating a dent in the sturdy metal, gradually deforming it until-
Ting!
It completely broke off, landing a meter away from the shorter members of the team. They expected something by now, something to happen. If there were indeed aliens inside, they would've definitely noticed someone breaking into their ship. However, nothing happened yet again.
And most disturbing was the sheer darkness of it, there was nothing but blackness inside the ship, no light source, nothing. As if it were abandoned, but it couldn't have been, there was the flag embedded at the back proving that. It belonged to someone, whoever they might be. Perhaps they were hiding? Waiting to ambush them once they went in. Whether or not that was the case, they had to go in.
The team regrouped in front of the now available entry point, everyone's guns were locked and loaded. Some of them were scared, that was no lie. It was now or never. And so they went in, speaking their possibly last words to each other.
One by one they infiltrated the ship, turning on their night vision along with their bodycams. Some of them could see better in the dark naturally, but the technologically enhanced goggles were still better. The darkness deceived them of the true depth of the craft, they were inside a corridor, big enough to fit a giraffe and a hippo. One side led to the tip of the ship, the other to its backside.
"We go together, no splitting up. I saw enough horror movies in my life to know that," the wolf joked, getting a few snorts and chuckles from the team.
"I agree, let's move to the cockpit," the mongoose said, adjusting his grip on his automatic pistol.
They began advancing into the craft, the officials watching their cams were in total awe. History was being made, anything could happen, this was it, they made it inside, they were still alive! There was no way to convey the sheer weight of the situation, the whole world was watching, what they could see that is, but still.
As they kept going further into the never ending darkness, they felt dread rise within them. Maybe it was nothing, or a gut feeling, but they didn't let that stop them. Eventually, they saw the corridor's end become a large, empty area; it was the flight deck.
"We're here," the sheep whispered into the comms, shaking as she held her semi-automatic pistol.
"Hello? Is anyone here?" the wolf asked, receiving a smack to the head from the alligator.
"Shut it, we don't know what could be here-"
Motion detected, reactivating manual control systems, a voice announced, it was male and had an unnatural tone to it, as if it were artificially programmed.
"W-who's there?! Show yourself!" The alligator shouted, scanning his surroundings for the unknown threat.
Not a moment later the lights suddenly turned on, momentarily flashing them. The instant they couldn't see a thing they turned off their night vision, but didn't dare shoot. They couldn't afford to damage anything of value on the ship, unless they were under attack, which they weren't, yet. Hopefully, it wouldn't have to come to that.
When everyone's eyes adjusted to the lights shining from the ceiling above, the fluorescent lamps a part of the ceiling itself, they were flabbergasted. The control room was amazing; there were no windows to see out of, originally they thought that maybe it was some sort of one-way mirror thing, but it wasn't. At the front of the cockpit was a wide board full of buttons, levers, switches, circuits and many more gadgets that had some function. What caught their immediate attention were the three chairs facing the control board. Two were empty, but the one at the left had someone sitting in it, the top of a helmet sticking above the chair.
This was it, this was the first contact with the unknown lifeform sitting in the chair, just sitting there, doing absolutely nothing. They had no words, they didn't know what to say, where to even begin. The mongoose whispered as quietly as he could to the other animals watching their bodycams to make sure they were seeing everything, and they were indeed.
"Hello? We come in peace," the wolf said, attempting to break the ice between them and the alien resting in the chair. The tension in the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife.
"Really? "Come in peace"? After we forced our way into their ship?" The mongoose gave a sassy remark, possibly to lighten up the situation in his own way.
"Now's not the fucking time," the rhino said, his eyes focused solely on the ambiguous figure. Strangely, it hadn't said anything else so far. Was this actually an ambush? If so, they were beyond fucked. The team were in the alien's territory, and there was no turning back now.
Suddenly, the same male voice came back to life.
System analysis complete: Warning. Warning. Warning. Systems in critical state, attempting repair.
By now, the team had guessed that the voice didn't belong to the being inside the spacesuit. It had to be an AI of some sort, maybe an autopilot? While that was happening, the wolf began approaching the alien with careful steps, alerting the rest to his volunteered approach.
"What are you doing?!" The rhino said, sweating bullets the closer the wolf got to the alien.
"Come back here, we don't know what it could do!" The panther growled in anger, and fear.
The wolf didn't listen, he came to a stop about two meter away from the alien. Even more worrying was the fact that it still hadn't moved in the slightest, not a flinch. From where the wolf stood, he could see the same stary design that was on the ship's flank, although this one was slightly faded.
Automatic repair failed, please c-c-contact your crew's engine-e-e-e-er as soon as p-possib-ble, the voice returned with a stutter, its program glitching.
Second-d-d system analysi-is-is-is complete. Repor-pot-porting Status.
Manual contro-rols: DAMAGED
Lighting: OK
Thrusters: O-O-OK
Wings: OK
Gyroscope-ope-ope-ope: DAMAGED
Solar-ar-ar Panels: DAMAG-MAG-MAGED
Pa-pa-parachute: DAMAGED-D-D-D
The message bugged again, turning into static gibberish. It was quite loud too, and annoying. But as quickly as it came, it went away, returning back to the same monotone voice.
Exist Ra-a-a-a-a-amps: DAMAGED
Landing-ing Gear: DA-DA-DAMAGED
Oxygen Sup-sup-sup-supply: EM-EM-EMERGENCY MODE AC-AC-AC-ACTIVE. REQUES-QUES-QUES-QUESTING IMMEDIATE RE-RE-RESUPPLY.
Then, the voice repeated the line over and over again until it shut down in a lowering pitch, ending in a static gurgle and a click.
"...What. The fuck," the mongoose said, his face stuck in a weird expression.
They all had their own confused reactions, trying to figure out together what the hell they just heard. They now knew the ship was in a bad shape, most likely due to crashing full force into the ground. But why? The alien was in control of the ship, did they choose to not interfere? If so, why?
The wolf decided enough was enough, he wasn't going to continue just standing there while the alien was so close. Once he had built enough courage to take the last few steps towards the mysterious being, he spun the chair around so it faced the rest of the team too. When he did that, the entire room went silent. The alien had the straps of the chair securely holding them in place, obviously. However, what was even weirder was the dust covering the helmet, they couldn't see inside it. So, the wolf already being high on adrenaline made the choice to wipe away some of the dust with his gloved hand.
He gently placed his hand on the helmet's side, wiping away most of the dust with a smooth, horizontal swipe. However, what was inside the suit was no alien.
It was a skeleton, the bones of whoever that was in the past. The jaw had fallen off, the head staring off to the side where the wolf was standing, the lifeless eyes sockets burned into the wolf's memory.
"O-oh god," the wolf mumbled, stumbling away from the corpse, tripping himself onto the ground. The sheep was silently crying, horrified from the sight. The deer was easily holding in his lunch in his stomach but still turned away to regain his cool. The mongoose lowered his weapon, dumbly staring at the empty suit, taking in what he was seeing with his very own eyes. The panther was experiencing a series of flashbacks of the tours he did during his service. The rhino and alligator handled this better than the others, but it still very much unsettled them.
The signs were there, it was too odd for an individual, even an extraterrestrial one, to just sit there and do nothing. Nothing could've prepared them for this, what they had believed to be the most likely outcome was the furthest from the truth. To say they were disappointed wouldn't even begin to describe how they felt, each dealing with the situation in their own way. And the worst part? It only raised more questions, ones they weren't sure they wished to find answers to.
The rhino was the one to first contact the command center, "Come in. Do… Do you copy?"
"...Yes. Please… fuck, this… examine the body, what kind of skeleton is it?"
The wolf regained his composure by the time the rhino used his ear piece, being the closest one to the suit he went back to it. Despite knowing it couldn't hurt him, he was still hesitant in moving towards it again. So what if he was a carnivore? It didn't make anything easier, he had seen bones of animals in horror movies and shows, but the real thing was different. He was grateful that at least it didn't smell, that could really set off a carnivore if they were caught off guard.
The wolf wiped away the rest of the dust on the helmet, examining the skull of the dead being.
"It's… it seems to be a… primate?" The wolf said, unsure if he was seeing right. It had the characteristics of a primate, yes, but it was some unsusal features.
The skull itself was somewhat round like a sphere, the face was flat and the teeth were small. Unlike some carnivore's teeth, they didn't make him feel threatened. At the front of the upper jaw were carnivorous teeth, fairly harmless compared to bigger predators, and at the back were those of a herbivore. A little lower and between the eyes were two holes, most likely where the nose was. The bulk of the skull had multiple cracks running across it, hinting at each of its segments.
"That's impossible," the rhino said, his gun lowered at his side as he went to see for himself what the wolf had described.
"It's a fucking primate! How the fuck is that possible?!" The operator shouted at someone on the other side, the other members of the team finally out of their own shock as they also went to see the skeleton for themselves.
"What are the chances?" The deer said, looking at every bump and crack in the skull.
"None. Unless…" the sheep froze, the pieces falling into place one by one.
"What? Unless what?" The mongoose said with pleading eyes behind his protective mask.
"...What if… What if it's not… an alien?" Everyone's attention was placed on the sheep, putting her in the invisible spotlight, "W-what if it's from… Earth?"
"No… no fucking way," the panther said, his eyes widening as he tried to make sense of what she was implying.
"How?!" The alligator screamed, heavy breaths partially clouding the inbuilt face cover.
"I-I don't know?! B-but just think about it. How likely is it that… this creature, this animal… just so happened to resemble a primate?" She was right, it was too perfect a coincidence to be just a coincidence. There was logic behind her theory, but in order to prove a theory you must provide evidence. Then there were the questions; Why were they in space? How come they, as in the world, never noticed the UFO until recently? What was this ship? What was its purpose? And most uncanny, how did they die? There was too much to answer and too little information, but that wouldn't last forever.
"There's also the backside…" the deer realized, turning to the way they had arrived from. They hadn't fully explored the ship, so that meant that they could find more clues, clues? Ha. So this turned from a first contact mission into an investigation, what a day.
They raised the weapons up again, returning to formation before backtracking into the hallway. The command center back in the facility was going absolutely bonkers over the footage they'd received. An unknown primate, never seen before piloting the spaceship that fell from the sky. Well, they were piloting it, since they were dead. And by how clean the skeleton was of flesh, skin and even clothes, they must've passed away a very long time ago.
As Team Alpha went back down the now lit up corridor, they stopped where they'd cut their way into the craft for a moment before resuming their advance. On their steady walk to the back of the ship, they passed more doors splitting off the halway they were in, but kept going further. Soon others would come to assist them in discovering all the secrets the Arrow held within its metallic maze.
After a short while, they finally reached the end. One by one, their mouthes opened agape at the sight in front of them.
It was a hanger bay, but its cargo was most unexpected; hundreds of pods neatly packed close to each other, enough to meddle with and move around each of them. They were slick in design; a silver encasing and a see-through material on the top where their users could be seen laying inside sleeping. All the pods were slightly inclined backwards so the users would be in a more comfortable position when they were put into stasis. It was artistic in a way, every chamber holding a soul within, a special story of a special life.
Such a shame that those voices would never be heard again, because they were dead.
The pods were deactivated, each holding a individual skeleton. They were roughly in the same resting position; their arms at their sides, bodies straight and head looking forward, the lower shape of their skulls resembling a smile. Despite the lights above, it didn't eliminate the darkness of death. If they thought the pilot was a scare, then this was a horror house. It was borderline traumatic to some, standing inside what was practically a graveyard with the fanciest caskets in existence. This not only made things worse, but raised many, many more questions. Questions that would never be answered because there was no one to answer, they were gone.
Even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be able to put into words the tsunami of emotions that swept the team. It was too much, so they just stood there, staring into the hanger, and so did the ones watching their live feed. Then, if things couldn't get any darker, that voice returned.
Checking-ing sta-at-atus… processing… proces-ces-ces-cessing… processing co-complete. Two hundred-ed-ed and fifty mem-mem-mem-members.
Two hun-un-undred and-d-d-d forty nine: Deceas-ceas-ceas-ceased.
Everyone, even the carnivores, began shedding tears at what the report said with an uncaring, unsympathetic undertone. Two hundred and forty nine dead. The thing that was supposed to save them, to preserve them, was their tomb. In the big scale of things, a couple hundred doesn't sound like much, but when you see it with your own eyes, only then you can truly understand just how big that number is.
Although, if you do a little math and subtract the second number from the first one you'll get one.
One: Alive.
Alive. There was one still alive.
When they heard the end of the announcement, they were instantly brought back to reality. There was one, just one. But they were alive, whatever they were.
The panther, having the best eyesight, scanned the entire hanger until he noticed that far in the back, a dim, green light bled from the bottom of a lone pod, mixing into the red ones around it to form an orange hue.
"THERE!" He pointed to the one still functioning, hope rising within them. Swallowed by the mountains of death, a small valley of light lingered, begging to be freed from its constricting prison. And they saw it, they saw the light.
They ran to the pod, exhausting themselves. The command center was going wild, shouting, screaming, things were breaking and animals were cheering. In the midst of the emotional pain, something good happened at last.
Once they reached the cryogenic chamber, they surrounded it, inspecting it from every side. Unlike the rest of the pods, it was extremely cold. When they tried to clean the transparent material in order to see inside, they were slightly disappointed that it was full of fog. But it didn't matter now, they had a clear objective; extract the chamber. How? They'd figure it out. More would arrive to assist them and the rest of the ship would be cleared, everything would work out eventually and things would return to normal.
However, the same can't be said about the one inside the chamber. When they awake from their eternal sleep, they'll have a lot to do.
Author's Note:
Here's the third chapter so far. Writing in third person wasn't easy for me, but I pulled through.
Random user45: Love the premise. Wondering if any characters from Cherryton Academy will show up. Can't wait to see the next one keep up the good work! :D
I'm glad you like the story so far. I'll try to make the next chapter longer since I'll finally return to using first person. I always appreciate feedback on my works, so thank you.
Ali: Hey, the first chapter really sparked my interest. Love the premise. Is this fic about animals meeting and reacting to humans? I really like first contact fics in general and I don't think I have read a Beastars fic that handles the introduction of humans in such a way. Great chapter!
I'm glad you enjoyed it too. The next chapter will give some insight on what happened to them, so I won't spoil anything. I saw no one else do something like this yet, so I decided to write one myself. I also have other stories I'm working on from time to time so don't expect frequent updates.
Ali: Good work writing the build-up, setting up the world so readers get a better feel of the atmosphere on the planet. It's more imersive. Makes me really curious. Can't wait for the next chapter to see what happens.
Again, I really appreciate your feedback. Reviews are what encourage me to keep improving and writing, I also try to go over and double check my grammar. I'm not a native english speaker, so my vocabulary isn't as rich as others'. Still, I like writing, and I'll keep doing so when I want to. As my profile says, this is a hobby of mine after all.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Stay safe and hydrated.
-FacelessUser