Hi, my beautiful sweet babies! It's Naza again! I have here a re-imagining of The Things We Will Never Know. My old passion project, I couldn't get rid of it, so I decided to re-write it as a different story. Follows the same structure tho. Nevertherthenoneless, let it commence!
Disclaimer: I don't own shxttt.
For the first time in a very long time, the Venomian sky was blue.

With a new appreciation for it, Alicia angled her viewfinder towards it, capturing Lylat's lens flare, clicking the shutter. She looked at the touchscreen, zooming in on the image to further examine it. Everything she'd done over the past few years seemed impossible, bringing an entire world together from its own rubble. A feat that made her feel so small, yet as though she could accomplish anything. Thoroughly putting life and all things in perspective.

Alicia wondered how this all happened. She knew, but the answer was unremarkable:

Science.

Nature.

Time.

Alicia was on Venom five years ago. Five years to the day since she stood in the same spot, looking towards the sky, beholding a completely different view, seeing a completely different color. The air was so fresh now, it seemed to literally have its own pleasant smell. She breathed, letting her ribs expand, letting the light of the mother star penetrate her hair, imbue her pores, and drench her skin. She smiled and whispered to herself:

"...Welcome back, Alicia."

Alicia wanted to start again at this very spot. A valley, once known for its scorching temperatures, inhospitable to life. A carpet of grass, if patchy and dry, was beginning to form. Impossible to observe from her vantage point five years ago: mountains, plateaus, flats. Hues of brown, tan, orange, red, contrasting the bright blue of the sky…

…She had pored over her catalog of social media posts, sifting through numerous makeup tutorials, hilariously spirited rants, pointless ramblings while she cooked or applied makeup, and insightful advice to anyone who would listen. More importantly, she zoomed in on every selfie she took with Vermille and his friends, the images on her photostream she captured during that time: Lylat in the middle of the day, but still dark out due to the haze of fumes and pollution in the air; nights where it was so cold, you could throw boiling water into the air and it would immediately evaporate. For years though, she scanned those images of Vermille and his crew, as if their numerous smiling faces, looking like weathered superheroes, if the expanses, the clouds, the halogen-lit nights would reveal new secrets and give new information. She replayed recorded videos of them trying her banana-nut cupcakes for the first time, when they taught her to play billiards. Alicia revisited old email correspondences, read over old notes and letters, re-lived conversations like soundtracks in her head.

Alicia cherished every fact, every detail, and wanted everyone to see everything she saw, because she knew one thing - everyone wants to be seen.

She returned to Venom for answers, for a deeper meaning of life, and maybe herself.

Will is a strong force of nature. It is unspeakable, bewildering, amazing, confusing, devastating, uplifting. Everyone is trying to figure themselves and each other out.

To figure it all out, Alicia returned.

On the day Alicia's life changed, Alicia received a call from her career advisor.

Her phone started vibrating in her pocket a quarter before twelve one morning. She was working at an internet digital media company as a production manager and host for a science and entertainment segment. Her office was one room with eleven other colleagues in it, their desks clustered close, a few glass-walled meeting rooms flanking one side. She had been there about a year, her first job in almost ten years. She'd created a semblance of a responsible adult life since her divorce and emotional breakthroughs, caring diligently for Kiersey and Maxwell, waking earlier, going out less, eating healthier. She entered office events and birthdays in her Gaggle calendar which was stacked with aubergine- and mandarine-colored tabs. She established an ink cartridge subscription for the office, obtained a gym membership, bought a "Soccer Mom" crossover after a couple of paychecks to own the image of a working single mother. She tried to minimize the quantity of exclamation points written in formal and professional emails.

Alicia ate lunch at her desk: tuna salad with butter crackers, melon chunks, and a bottle of water with electrolytes added for taste. She scrolled through her photo stream, smiling at her family, her children captured and entombed in amateur shots on her phone. Kiersey took more after Derek; she has a tawny coat like him, and a look of quiet disdain when angry, as well as a need for popcorn at the movies. But opposed to his soft brown eyes, she had her crystal blue. Maxwell looked more like Alicia, though with a more caramel complexion to his fur and hair, and we figured the green eyes were a throwback from a long-departed ancestor. But he did have his dad's no-nonsense attitude and his need to simplify things into easy terms.

Her phone began vibrating in her hands, contact ID: Jessica.

"Hello?" Alicia answered.

Alicia listened as her career advisor excitedly rambled off her spiel almost unable to hold back her glee. Alicia could not help but to match the smile she heard in Jessica's voice. When she got to the heart of her story, Alicia nearly jumped out of her seat.

"What? No way!"

Alicia, three months before being hired at QlickBait, had applied to be on a team of scientists who would be sent to study and terraform Venom's biosphere. Because he fought in The War, her ex-husband was less than thrilled at the idea, preferring to "let the ene rot on that toxic rock." This was the first time she's heard anything since applying for the position.

And the first call she got concerning an update of the application status, she learns that she was hand-selected by General Cornelius Pepper himself, out of thousands of possible candidates.

"...When do I leave?" she asked. Then her jaw dropped. "A week?!"

Jessica explained that the selection process was behind schedule, officials and HR were out sick due to surgery, something to that effect. Nonetheless, she was excited.

A few months before getting hired at QlikBait, Alicia sat in the office of Ms. Jessica Allenger, a career advisor hired to help Ms. Cimmaron re-enter the workforce.

They explored her curriculum vitae: none to speak of other than an extensive list of degrees ranging from geology to psychology. Being a stay-at-home wife and mother with school-aged children allotted plenty of free time, so she decided to screw around and go to an online university.

"...General Pepper is enlisting a team to travel to Venom for a terraformation project," Jessica explained. "A couple of the positions needing to be filled involved photography and videography."

"And?" Alicia said, certain she was talking to the wrong client.

"Aaand… You should apply for it."

Alicia screwed her features, confused. "Why?"

"Why not?" Jessica shrugged.

Alicia felt like she had a very good reason for that. She figured that since she was out of work for so long, this whole Venom terraforming thing, while interesting and ambitious, seemed a little too ambitious and out of reach. She found it even harder to think that General Pepper out of all people would be interested in hiring some goofy online internet starlet with a few fancy degrees, just because. It was easier to make things more sensible that way, to avoid any disappointment. Aim low, set your expectations accordingly.

But Jessica would not hear of such bollocks.

"You never know if you don't try," she said. "You should try."

Alicia left the office that day convinced that she would send a polite but discouraging email in a few days. But Jessica got Alicia thinking - as good career advisors do - and thinking. And eventually began jotting down drafts to a resume. She went into the back of her closet and opened a plastic storage bin of her educational achievements and mementos from her schooling career. She also looked to her online media presence and photo streams for inspiration. She asked herself, Can I really do this? Did I really do that? Feelings became thoughts, thoughts became ideas, ideas became drive. Once she started to feel confidence, windows that she thought were shut were flung open. She may not know the exact words to describe it, but she knew it in her heart.

She'd written, deleted, written, and deleted numerous resumes, cover letters, collected references and letters of recommendation from colleagues, friends, family members, high school teachers and university professors. Each draft getting closer and closer to perfection but not quite.

Until one day, she got fed up with herself, cleaned up her best draft, and sent the email.

Would she be good enough?

Thanks for reading, guys! More to come!