Young Writers Society

Open Galaxy, YWS Storybooks

You awake one day in your home, on your planet, wherever that may be. For some reason, whether you've been thinking about it or not, the craving for galactic adventure rushes over you.
Leaping out of bed and skipping breakfast, you make your way for the stars as fast as you can. Once you're there, though, what will you do?
Will you pillage ruined ships?
Fight off pirates?
Enter galactic politics?
Or will you just hang around the local space station and gamble away your belongings?
Whatever strikes your fancy, you can do it. The galaxy is yours for the taking. All you have to do is figure out what it is you want.
Oh, and you'll have to watch out for E.V.I.L.
E.V.I.L. is a mysterious organization of baddies who're running around the galaxy kidnapping random people. People, they say, that have "great potential".
There doesn't appear to be any pattern to their kidnappings, so you never know when they might drop in on you in your fancy penthouse overlooking the five suns of the fiery planet Quinstella (or your dusty old hovel on the ancient Earthling moon).

Good luck, galactic adventurer. The galaxy awaits you.



RULES:
- Keep the rating PG to PG-13, mild swearing is allowed but keep it reasonable. Nothing you wouldn't say around grandma (unless you're very rude).

-Please keep the POV and word tense that you use in your first post throughout the SB (unless you absolutely have to use another, perhaps for a flashback).

- World/galaxy building is greatly encouraged in this SB. Go out there and make a planet covered in furry, rainbow-colored penguins if you want! Just keep the populations/contents of places appropriate.

- Please don't kill anyone's character or steal anyone's ship without their permission clearly stated in the DT (Discussion Topic).

- Yes, that means you can have your own ship. Just don't god-mode it with time travel, transformation, teleportation (hyper-drive is fine but don't overdo it, give it a cool down time), or anything else.

- Speaking of god-mode, your character can be anything so long as it's alive, can speak, and can move in some way, but do not god-mode your character. It's no fun for anyone and it's tedious to deal with.

- Keep all questions and non-SB posts in the DT (obviously).

- Only one character per person. If that character dies you can create a new one or take that chance to drop out of the SB.
If you wish to drop out of the SB premature to your character's death you can kill them off, ask someone to kill them off, or give them to a new participant of the SB.

Character's are not required to die at any point in the SB, they're just allowed to die. You don't have to kill your character.


One last thing...
Whenever you post in the SB, mark your post at the top with your character's name and location. For example:
This Dude, Some Planet

Code: Select all

[b]character name, [i]location[/i][/b]

Another last thing...
You can be a member of E.V.I.L. if you want, and hunt down other characters, but get their permission before capturing them. It's no fun having control of your character suddenly ripped from your hands.
Also, if you're captured by a user-controlled E.V.I.L. character, you can escape, but you have to ask their permission to succeed in your attempt.
It might sound a bit confusing, but if you give them permission to capture your character and then just escape right away, that ruins the fun too.
You can attempt an escape without permission, but unless you have permission, it's got to fail. (Hope this isn't confusing or annoying).


Basic Character Profile: Note: If you created a character prior to the addition of this basic profile sheet, you do not have to edit your character's profile.

Code: Select all

[b]Name:[/b]

[b]Age:[/b]

[b]Height:[/b]

[b]Appearance:[/b]

[b]Back story:[/b]

[b]Description of Home Planet:[/b]


Myrlin Ciefie Froggs, Planet Brym

I woke up, as I usually did, half of my body hanging out of my bed. It was a common occurrence in the mornings, nothing odd at all. Nonetheless, there was definitely something odd about this morning. For some reason my mind was racing with thoughts of adventure, stars, spaceships, and a dark red ‘E’ on a black circle background.
I had no idea what these thoughts were all about and dismissed them for the moment as there was something very important to deal with. Breakfast.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m going,” I mumbled to my growling stomach. “Just keep it down. Don’t want to wake up Mum.”
My stomach’s growling softened as if it understood me and I nodded contently. Now was for the hard part. Getting out of bed.
I grunted and groaned as I tried to sit up, but my body refused to be separated from the warmth of my blankets, the softness of my pillow.
Eventually, after much negotiation and settling on a deal that provided my body with extra “lazy time”, I was able to get out of bed.
I began to change my clothes, slowly and groggily, but suddenly the thoughts of adventure popped into my head again. Before I knew it I had yanked a fresh set of clothes on, crammed a bunch of things in a bag, and was halfway out the door.
“Myrlin? Is that you?” I heard Mum call from her room. I faltered in my step, holding the door ajar and letting a strange red fly in.
“Er… Yes?” I replied.
“Where are you going at this time?” she asked. I heard her bed creaking as she sat up, craning her neck to see outside the door.
“I’m not sure! I’m just going with it!” I answered, honestly, my leg itching to step outside. Then, suddenly my brain decided on where I was going.
“I’m going to explore the galaxy!”
And with that I hurried outside, the door swinging shut behind me, and sped off to town on my speedercycle.

Nepon Koob, Planet Ruorse

"I am not giving up on this," I said to myself, loudly. It was almost 4 am in the morning and here I was trying to master my new fighting skill called 'shell breaking'. I read about this new fighting skill from a book earlier today. I needed to learn this before I leave my planet, which was, in a few hours.
"You are still up, bro. Why?" My sister asked.
"I have to learn this new move before I leave today."
"You can't leave without me. I will..."
I interrupted, "No! You can't. You have stay here and take care of dad. Okay?"
"Alright, Nepo. As you say," She replied.
"And why are you up so early?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"You are making too much noise," She said, stretching herself.
"Oh, I am sorry. I didn't even realize that. Please go to bed now." I felt bad and was guilty of making noise, unintentionally.
That all went well. I was feeling a little sleepy but I was excited to go to a Planet Trohs. A couple of students came to our planet to learn some fighting skills from my dad. The became real good friends of mine and really wanted me to visit the place. I promised that I'd pay them a visit soon - and today is the day.
They told me a little bit about their planet but I didn't really care much apart from the fact that they have regular martial arts tournaments.
I packed my stuff and was all ready to leave.
"It's gonna be so much fun," I said to myself.
I left my house and got onto my spaceship and left for planet Trohs.

Samantha Sweets, Planet Cibus

The golden light of the morning sun and the sweet smell of the breeze coming in through the open window stirred me from my peaceful sleep, and I rolled over in the mint sheets to look out the window, smiling at the new day. From the room up on the third floor of the candy shop, I had a beautiful view of the rest of the town, and I stretched out and kicked off the sheets and strode over towards the closet. I hummed as I scanned the clothes, soon picking out a cute little dress of many colors swirling about that made it look like one of those giant lollipops. After quickly brushing my hair, I skipped out and down the stairs, my hair bouncing about as I moved.
Once down on the main floor, I saw that Reese was already hard at work sampling some of the morning candy and making sure that everything was ship shape. I went to work at my station, checking some of the machines and humming along to the songs of the birds that sat at the open windows. I grabbed a little handful of fruit and took it over, setting it on the windowsill for the birds to share.
Looking up and through the window, I watched all the people go about their normal activities, then looked inside to see everyone also doing the same thing as always. Sometimes, working on the same candies over and over again tended to get a little tiresome. Don’t get me wrong though, I have a great passion for the candy I make, and have learned so much from Reese ever since he agreed to mentor me in this business.
Though I did wonder sometimes if there was something else out there. My whole life had been spent on this planet, focused on all the food and goods that were made here, but never anywhere else. I thought about what could be elsewhere, even if there was some better ingredient out in the universe. It was true that our planet was known for its marvelous food, but perhaps there was something not from here that would make food even better.
It was then that I decided that I would leave. I loved my planet, but I wanted to explore, and find more of what other worlds had to offer. The very next day, I would take a ship and head out into space to begin my search.

Martha Tent, Vector Y Beta YARRA

Thunder shook the windows, sending me groaning at the storm for waking me up. I laid facing the window of the room, ignoring the alarm of my phone going off and the bickering of the news that I had left on, from the previous night. I sighed, rising from the bed and realized that half of the blankets were thrown off onto the bed. By the looks of things, I could have been running from something or just kicking which is a reason why I had hoped to never, ever get with anyone since they would yell at me for "kicking" them; you are in my way, you should sleep on the floor instead.

I got up, feeling the cold wood floor on my feet. I yawned while shivering, and groaned wanting to go back to bed enjoying the warmth of the blankets and the sound of the rain falling. But I didn't want to miss the cartoon, Jassie in Space which I had watched since I was little. I put my slippers on, shutting the racket of my alarm off and walking down the steps to the kitchen huffing about why my house was colder than usually.

I found my breakfast, placed neatly on a white mate with spoon and fork on both sides. I giggled at the cartoon, afraid of milk coming out of nose. Jassie was standing on a planet of Tew, with her companion Tiger the adventure bear (or at least I think he was a bear). They had discovered another planet, covered with big, yellow aliens with four big green eyes and Jassie and Tiger were trying to convince these big, yellow aliens about how their planet was perfect for them while the aliens huffed, ignoring these words.

I had always wanted to go in space, you see. More or less so, just to explore the regions and see the unknown life that would lurk the corner. And to this day, I still left Jassie in Space on when I left- for some reason- driving fast to a place that I would never forget.

Kyte Taboshi, Sadekia

I was up well before the sun, Numen, had risen on the north side of Sadekia. I was searching for anything interesting; politic storms, galactic battles, trade prices, etc. etc. I hadn't even eaten breakfast yet. Suddenly Arkae, my computer/ship (they are all run by one system, Ark) let out a soft ding to alert me.

"Hey Ark," I said aloud. "What's up?" Immediately, files started popping up everywhere on the screen.

"Kyte, a killer Gleaning is perfectly set up and about to occur!" Arkae replied. Although Ark was technically an "it", I had programmed it to sound like a human guy, and he has his own personality in my mind.

My eyes glittered as I scanned the row of tech in front of me. "A perfect set up for a Gleaning, you say?" I quickly skimmed an InstantNews article and grinned. A small battle between two wealthy merchants was about to take place near one of my traps. "You're right," I said, "this is gonna be perfect."

Leaving my bulkiest tech secure in my base here, I grabbed what I seemed to be most important, along with enough Genfood to last me for several days. Climbing aboard Arkae, I took the pilot's seat and spun it around once just for effect.

I gripped the Swivels and ignited the engine. With a gentle nudge upwards, I was in the air and headed towards what could be the hugest gain of my "career".

I sat back and smiled. "You ready to have some fun?" I asked Arkae.

"This is going to be radical," Ark replied.

"You said it, not me."

Andarr – Planet Spiralam

Ready for take off!

The Phantom emitted his signature high-pitched cry before swinging his sword. My shield barrier once again activated to block the blow.

“For an elite member of your kind,” I said, “you're not that tough. Are you sure this is your best?”

The armored skeleton's glowing aura circled around his sword as he charged his attack.
Perfect timing.
I quickly put away my blade and took my Sly Raptor gun before shooting the foe. Six bullets, one second of interval only, each of them hitting the exposed chest.
This time, I could easily identify a cry of pain. Rapidly switching weapons, I slashed the Phantom with my serrated blade, the Venom Fox. With a last scream, the purplish figure vanished, only leaving a pink orb floating behind.

“Panblade!” a masculine voice exclaimed in my helmet's communicator. “That's the Phantom Core we're lookin' for! Grab that stuff and send it back here!”

“Roger that!”

Weapons in hand, I directed myself towards an empty bush and activated my Teleporting Badge. A few seconds later, a blue light appeared around me and transported the valuable object back to Thricircle's HQ.

“Mission Complete! The reward has been transferred to your personal account.”

“Well it's about time!”
With this, I had finally enough to finish the repairs on my Zorreol. Eager to get back home, I fought my way out of the Graveyard Field, happy as could be.



“Reparations: complete. Zorreol is ready for take off!”

I took the time to gaze at it. The “A” shaped space fighter plane was directly inspired by Fox McCloud's very own Arwing in the planet Earth's Starfox game series, except that this one was fully operational and ready to fly anytime, and not just a fictional plane only accessible through the fabulous virtual lands of video games. The G-Diffusers, large blue structures atop the engines of the ship, seemed in perfect shape as well. With a confident smile on his face, I jumped inside of my Zorreol and selected the Galaxy Fantasy mission among those still available.

"Hey, Panblade!" The Operator said. "Careful with this mission, there are quite a few things you might not be ready for out there. Be sure to give us a call if you find something hard to deal with, eh?"

"Aye, Operator! I'll be careful. Panblade: out!"

Overjoyed, I activated my Automatic Astroport Pass and left the planet, eager to explore the vast galaxy with my ship. The adventure had only just begun!

Ink, Planet Spiralam

The library, oddly enough, was never quiet in the afternoon.

I did not mind that; it meant there were small children around. Small children have a tendency to leave things about. Edible things.

It was just after the children had left that I emerged from the shadows under the bookshelves. The smell of dead cells tickled at my senses, and I oozed through the carpet, trying very hard to pretend that my constant cloud of surrounding gases was too dispersed to be visible.

Not that it ever helped to pretend. As usual, someone caught sight of the white, misty gases that floated on top of me, and they made a very loud gasping noise before letting their jaw drop open so wide that I could have stuck a dictionary inside.

I have never understood gasping. It isn't like cells respirate any faster when creatures do that.

Nonetheless, I zipped across the carpet, black membranes stretching and pulling with as much force as I could muster, and disappeared under another bookshelf. Dealing with humanoids in fear of ghosts would be far too much to handle during my afternoon meal.

As I waited for the humanoid who saw me to calm down though, I wondered if it would be so bad if other species knew of my kind. It wasn't as if we were some unexpected novelty; scientists from many different life systems had already predicted the appearance of creatures in my likeness. I had read it in a scientific journal.

And wouldn't it be simply grand if I made my entrance by say... continuing my ghostly charade on a larger scale? It could be fun.

When the humanoid left, scratching its head, I slithered back into the open and made a note to do something daring when I next found the chance.

But first: dinner.

The scent of skin cells was always the most prominent. And it seemed to be a trait that many life systems had evolved independently, as I found that the rare human skin flakes I tasted were about the same as the Spiralamian ones.

Rippling along the floor, I slurped up whatever biomass my membrane touched. And I know I say slurped, but that is more of what it sounded like rather than what it looked like. To anyone else, I was a puddle of black sludge shifting around on the carpet.

I finished my circuit of the children's area rather slowly that day, and because of my unfortunate encounter with the gasping humanoid, ended up near the library's grand entrance.

The edge of the carpet, where the beeping sensors marked the border between in and out had always been the end of my territory. I was too exposed on the stone floor of the library lobby.

But not today.

There was no one in the lobby. No one at the front desk. No one at all. Anywhere.

If I possessed a mouth, I would have beamed. However, I had no need of a mouth. Instead, I let my ribosomes manufacture a little burst of joy before stretching out onto the stone floor.

I zigzagged between shadows, crossing the lobby slowly, but silently. A few library-goers interrupted my trek, but I managed to slip under the doors and slide onto the stone outside.

And though I hate to admit it, I was not prepared for the outside world. Vibrations shivered through my membrane from every direction, rustling through the air and shaking through the ground. My hearing had never been particularly excellent, but I found myself barraged by whirring engines and faint beeping.

Sending signals to my organelles to stop with the adrenaline already, I inched forwards. When no humanoids noticed my presence, I popped a sphere of plasma from my main body, giving that portion the nucleoid region, as well as my organelles for sight. If I was going to survive in the world of humanoids, I ought to start looking like one.

Then I cautiously raised up the sphere and twisted around. It was nice being a bit taller. Feeling a bit more daring, I raised up another, more ovalish piece of myself and gave it arms. Then I waved about, temporarily dispersing my gaseous covering.

Then I shook my head. It was no good, feeling so satisfied already. Hadn't I told myself I would do something to shock the universe? I didn't live in a septic tank; I knew how big the galaxy was. Little things like a head and arms were insignificant compared to ravaging the universe as a ghost.

Wary of feet, I crossed the stone area in front of the library, making my way towards the buildings on the other side. However, when I reached the edge, I was thwarted by a drop.

It was a huge drop. Many, many bookshelves high. Many libraries high, more likely. It would take ages to climb down, and even more ages to find some kind of mass havoc to wreak.

I thought about climbing for a moment and then promptly swiveled around and turned back to the library. This was a pointless game. A waste of whatever lifespan I might have.

And it was then that a sudden burst of air shoved me over the drop. Panicked, I condensed as tightly as possible, thoughts of how those ridiculously large humanoids avoided falling over in the wind racing through my mind. My gases were gone, stripped by the fall.

I splattered onto someone's windshield and immediately scrambled for a hold. I think I might have scared the driver because the ship lurched, and I toppled into the crack between the top hatch and the ship's body.

If I did not find a way inside the ship soon, I risked another wind and another splatter. And since I had lived peacefully in a library and a shipwreck before this, I had no idea how much impact I could survive.

My digestive enzymes told me that I should not eat my way into this ship.

I ignored them and slowly ate a hole into the pilot's hatch, making sure to leave the smallest possible space. Meanwhile, I told my ribosomes to start on a new project. Whatever poor creature owned this ship, they were going to want an explanation of why I was there. Sound seemed to be the most likely form of communication.

I managed to leak into the ship before I finalized the new vocal system. After a quick glance at the pilot, I sent a shiver of vibrations over the chords. They rumbled a bit, sounding like a dying duck mixed with a wheezing pug.

"Gah," I said. I still sounded like a dying duck, but at least I could form something. This process would require a great deal of trial and error.

"Pleh." I tried another sound. "Ick. Ink. Plink."

Too busy hacking up miscellaneous syllables, I didn't notice the pilot bring down his ship and land. Nor did I notice him twist around in his seat and stare.

"Foor-tihh-too-

"What are you, and what are you doing on my ship?"

The noise that burst from my mouth sounded like a cat-purr in autotune. It was not a sound I thought could come from nature. Suddenly aware that the pilot had seen me, I slid towards the wall I'd leaked through and tried to squirm out of the ship. It wasn't like I'd meant to come in anyways.

Before I reached my hole, I felt the nasty scratchy feeling of cloth on my cell membrane. And whatever the pilot's gloves were made of, I found it all too difficult to wriggle away. I barely made it out of the grip before the pilot grabbed me again and wretched me away from the wall.

I made the autotune purring noise again, and the pilot held me up to the light for examination.

"Fascinating," he muttered. "I've never seen anything like you. Not in the databases, or in pictures, or even in games. You can talk, right? That's what you were doing earlier?"

"Ta-alk can," I said. Gosh, whatever vocal system I'd designed for myself, it was far too cumbersome for this humanoid's language. It was also a wonder I could even understand him, given that all my listening had come from children's hour at the library.

For some odd reason, the pilot grinned and set me down on a ledge atop his dashboard. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.

"So? What are you then? Are you some kind of escaped lab experiment, or a mutation of something I might know?"

I thrummed my vocal chords, making a sound like a "hmm." Then I tilted my head and thought for a moment.

"I am myu-tay-si-on, yes. No lab. Am... phay-go-cyte fro-om Earth, but have other kinds of life eaten." I paused, remembering my reading. "That was the wrong word order."

The pilot chuckled. "New to the language, huh? Do you have a name, mutated Earthling?"

"A species name? Or a name like what humanoids call each other?"

"Just something to call you. You know, since we could be friends. I like the idea of befriending an unknown life form. Reminds me of some Earth stuff."

As I pondered the idea of a name, the pilot leaned back in his chair and stared out of the cockpit, a slight smile on his face.

I thought again. What would work as a name? Should I pick something space-y, like what was in stories from the library? What about something human, since I was a sentient life form who originated from that planet?

No. Those were too human, or too Spiralamian for me. I was the mutt of the universe, after all. It would be best to pick something similar. Something everyone had that still meant something to me.

Then it hit me. The first real word I'd said. If I had a mouth, I would have smiled.

"Ink," I said to the pilot. "You may call me Ink."

I didn't think someone who smiled so much could brighten, but the pilot's grin widened until I was sure his cheeks hurt. He held out a gloved hand, and I stared at it, unsure of its purpose.

"Well then, Ink. I'm Andarr. Welcome aboard my Zorreol."

Myrlin Froggs, McGalactic's Spaceburgers

“Another!” I ordered, slamming a large wad of Brymian dollars onto the countertop. The clerk behind the counter covered his face with three tentacles and shook his head.
“You really don’t get it, do you?” he said. “These burgers don’t cost that much. They aren’t even worth half of that.”
I stared at him, dazed, trying to string his words together into something I could understand. “Well, then… How many will this get me?” I asked, pushing the money across the counter. The clerk sighed and grabbed up the money. Flicking through it at light speed, he slapped it back down on the counter and replied. “Fifty-two. That’ll get you fifty-two burgers, and a Choco-lactic milkshake.”
“Give it to me, then!” I demanded, my speech slurred.
As the clerk went to prepare my order I looked around the establishment. I’d never been to McGalactic's before and I was starting to see why that was probably a good thing.
The place was chock-full of two-headed thugs, gaseous Purplians from the nearby planet Purple, and wide-eyed burger-addicts. Not the best crowd to be around.
I turned in my seat, returning my vision to its previous location. A large pile of crumpled burger wrappers and soda cups littered the countertop to my left. Fries and ketchup packets were strewn across the granite surface. Understandably, I was the only one at the bar.
Suddenly I felt someone lay their hand on my shoulder. “Is this seat taken?” a wheezy, crackling voice asked. I turned my head just far enough to see them in the corner of my eye. It was one of the gaseous Purplians.
“No, it’s not,” I sighed as I cleared away the fries in front of said seat.
One thing everyone in the galaxy should know is to never disagree with a gaseous Purplian. The solid ones are fine to disagree with, they’ll just get a little angry and eventually wander off to bake pies. But the gaseous ones will try to melt your face off with their acidic breath, and if that doesn’t work they’ll grab their posse and hunt you down to the ends of the galaxy. There’s no way to apologize to them once you’ve offended them. They won’t rest until your face is melted.

The Purplian “sat” in the seat beside me and grinned wickedly.
“So, you ever been to McGalactic’s?” it asked.
I shook my head. “No, first time.”
They nodded knowingly. “It’s understandable to want to try everything on the menu, but believe me, it’s imposs--” They suddenly seemed to notice the massive pile of burger wrappers.
“Excuse me but… Have you ever had a burger before?”
I shook my head. “Nope.”
The Purplian nodded again, this time less knowingly and more in an admiring fashion.
“Well-- uh -- try not to eat too many…” With that they quickly rose from their seat and floated off.
I sighed and rested my head on my crossed arms, staring into the soul of a ketchup packet until the McGalactic’s clerk returned.
“Alright buddy, here’s your burgers, but I was only able to make fifty-one. We’re all out of Artificia-meat ‘cause of your crazy orders. I’m gonna have to ask you to take this--” he hefted up a giant sack of burgers, passing it to me over the counter, “-- and go.”
I didn’t really want to go, but at the same time I didn’t feel like arguing. I took the bag and dragged it out the door, across the parking garage, and towards my small ship.
Halfway there I froze.

Between me and my ship sat a beautiful vehicle, absolutely perfect for exploring the galaxy. It was at least three times bigger than my rickety little ship and had a warp-drive, laser turrets, and long curvy wings. Granted, the color scheme of orange with purple trim was a bit offsetting, but the ship as a whole was incredible. I wished that I could describe it even better, but my knowledge of ships wasn’t the greatest.
I did know one thing about ships, though, and that was that I wanted this ship.
I wanted it more than I wanted my teeny tiny ship.
More than I wanted this giant sack of burgers (and the milkshake that the clerk had forgotten to give me).
I wanted it even more than I wanted to explore the gala--
Wait, no, that’s why I want it… I reminded myself. To explore the galaxy.
Letting the McGalactic’s take-out slip from my hands, I slowly approached the glorious new ship. My glorious new ship.
I reached a hand out to touch it.
Nearly there...
Just a little closer...
That’s when the alarm went off.

I spun around to see several gaseous Purplians come pouring into the parking garage, looking for the source of the alarm. They noticed me and charged. Panicking just slightly, I tossed myself upon the ship’s cargo doors and prayed for them to open.
“Come on, come on, come on!” I prompted, impatiently hitting the door with my palms. I wasn’t sure why people thought that made them open faster.
It clearly didn’t.
Finally, the doors flew open and I ran inside.
Sprinting up the single hallway of the ship, I leaped into the pilot’s seat and flipped the hyper-drive switch. A low hum started up and a bright blue glow filled the parking garage.
The hum grew steadily louder and I could hear the Purplians shouting at me from outside. I looked out the cockpit window at them, grinning with glee at my successful robbery. It took me a moment to realize that they weren’t yelling at me for trying to steal their ship. Instead they were jumping into the air and frantically bouncing their eyes between me and the back of the ship.
By the time that I’d made out what they were saying-- “You idiot! You can’t go into hyper-drive in a parking garage!” -- it was too late.

“Oh charcoals…” I muttered as I hastily buckled my seat belt and gripped the steering mechanism.
With that, and a loud revving sound, the ship tore through the parking garage wall and out into the galaxy, leaving me blinded by the bright stars streaking by.

Ka-ai sat against his bedroom wall on the floor, reading through old articles in magazines while sipping a cup of hot heris (heris – chocolate). As he kept reading, he noticed an article about an organization called E.V.I.L.

“Interesting…”

A knock was heard on his bedroom door. As the door opened, he noticed his father, who is CEO of the company called Beria. Beria is in charge of all bankrupt companies, meaning taking control over small companies to make profit, instead of making the small companies go completely bankrupt and eventually lose it. “Ka-ai.”

“Father.”

His father sat down on Ka-ai’s bed, staring down at him. “We need to talk.”

Ka-ai stopped reading, looking up at his father.

“It seems that you are going to be next to take over the company.”

“And why would I do that? Shouldn’t one of my OLDER brothers do it?” Ka-ai continued to sip his heris drink.

“Seems like your brothers are not up to the task.”

“Well, I am doing something.”

“What?”

Ka-ai stood up from the floor, grabbing a suitcase that was sitting beside his bed, placing it by his side. “I am going somewhere.”

His father’s brow raised as he glared at the suitcase, then sighed softly. “And where to?”

“Somewhere out there… I don’t know.”

His father stood, grabbing Ka-ai by the wrist, gripping it to the point where it made Ka-ai flinch.

“You’re not going anywhere. This company means a lot to this family, and it will not be ruined all because you want to be an adventurer!” His father’s eyes were filled with fire. He gripped Ka-ai’s hand tighter.

“You… You’re hurting me…”

Ka-ai tried to break free, but couldn’t. He didn’t really think his father would like this.

A knock suddenly broke the two apart. “Mr. Delre? A phone call is waiting for you in the lounge.” One of the servants spoke loudly. His father started to head out the bedroom. He stopped at the door and turned his head. “This isn’t over…” As soon as he left, Ka-ai stood, letting his tail wrap around his body gently. Ka-ai looked at the floor and sighed sadly. “Mother… Why did you have to go?”

Nepon Koob, Planet Trohs

"Woah! This is amazing," I said, excitedly, while looking at the skyscrapers of Planet Trohs. That sure was pretty nicely made but I still couldn't understand as to why they looked a little different. This place was really developed and I realized that a lot of people from many different planets come here for trades.
Ah, I just realized what was different! Every single building on this planet was green; not just painted green, it was entirely green, from the carpets to the lights, from paintings on the wall to the people. YES! Even the people!! Everyone was green. Now that did make me wonder if I made the right choice to come here.
I realized I was hungry. It was a rough trip anyway! I thought I might just find something to eat first before anything. I still needed to find a way to find those two guys who came to my planet to improve their fighting skills.
"Excuse me, sir! Can you please tell me a decent restaurant here?" I asked a total stranger walking past by me.
"Huts?" replied the man, who was just surprised. And yeah! He was green too.
"Well, I guess we don't speak the same language, do we?" I said, pretty much annoyed.
"Loh loh" said the man, laughed and went away.
I felt kind of insulted but I didn't care because the only thing I needed was some food, some really delicious food. I looked around to see if I could figure out a restaurant own my own.
"Hello there, gentleman." someone said, resting their hand on my shoulder.
"Hello, I guess." I was confused and surprised.
"How is everything on Planet Ruorse? And how is your dad?"
Ah! He knows my dad. He must be one of the good guys, I assumed quickly. "Everything's alright," I replied, with a big smile on my face.
"Good. The martial arts tournament is about to start in 3 hours time. Do you want to participate?"
"Yes, I sure am participating. That's one of the only reasons I came here." I said, excitedly.
"Well, let's g..."
"Wait! I think I need some food before I enter the tournament. I am a little hungry." I interrupted.
"Sure. Let's go to my house."
Well, that guy looked more like an old man, just like my dad, and wore a black coat and a hat. He wasn't green! I still could feel something different about this place and the way people were acting here. I didn't say a single word and we walked all the way in silence. It wasn't a long walk but I was tired yet excited about the tournament.
"Welcome, Nepo. This is my house. We can eat here and then go to the tournament for signing you up."
"Thank you, sir" I said coldly. There was something wrong. After my mother's death and after all my friends left to different places, nobody ever called me with that name. I wondered how he knew my name!
Well, all I cared about was food. I ate the food and got ready to leave when I heard someone crying.
"Is anyone up there?" I asked, suspiciously.
"No, no. I guess that noise was from the neighborhood," He said, shaking a little.
"You can't lie to me, dude. I am going up to check this out."
"This is my house. You can sneak around like this!" He said, firmly.
"I'll do whatever I want to. You can't stop me."
I dropped my bag and went upstairs. As soon as I was about to open the door when something hit me really hard, on the head, and I fell down.
I tried to turn behind to see who it was but everything was blur and shaking. I fell down on the floor, unconscious.

Martha Tent, Some Road in England

I just drove. I had no idea where I was going, just pasting roads and trees blurred. It was getting bored just seeing the same places go by, normally on a day like today. But somehow, my conscience told my feet to go somewhere and I had no control over where I was going but somehow, but chance, I felt like I was going towards a place of a familiar place.
I could feel people judging me, their heads shaking before turning back to what they had been preoccupied. I shifted in my seat, staring straight ahead at the sudden red light that had caused me to stop.
"For bloody hell," I grumbled under my breath, noticing an elder couple in front of me. The light has turned green yet the car hadn't moved, making a traffic jam at where I was sitting. I groaned, honking the horn repeatedly and hearing the cars behind me doing the same.
I look into the other lane, seeing no one was coming and known that it could be either A.) Death or B.) A ticket from Death. I gulped, deciding it was best option was C.) To go with what my gut said since my gut is never wrong. I drove out of the jam, driving over a divider and sighing when car horns started blaring and lights blinding me. I screamed, holding onto the steering wheel with both hands and trying to steer out of the way. Plus it was raining, making the headlights of the cars blend into one another while my car screeched on the road.

My car and I were screaming, dreading for near end. This car ride had turned into rollarcoaster of death as I steered out of the way. Most of the way, cars would honk then swerve into a divider or into grass while I had my eyebrows knitted trying to pay attention to the road. All of this because of some old people in my way. Nice job Martha, I thought to myself. It must be a Tuesday. I never understood the point of Tuesdays.
I finally found a clearing, to where my gut said it was safe and where I was "suppose" to go. I drove down a muddy trail, making my car shake from side to side and before I knew it, there was a pasture and an endless sky of black turning soon to a pink color. I parked my car, gazing at the rising sun; what a wired thing to think about. How does the sun even rise or fall? I thought maybe the gravity pulled it up then dropped from its pulling. But why didn't we rise or fall? Maybe it wasn't gravity.

I sighed, soon realizing that time was slipping and thought I should close my eyes for a minute. A minute feels like an hour or an eternity when you are sleeping, which is why I woke up with a knock on my window. I looked up sleeplessly,with drool on the corner of my mouth and an upcoming headache. The person was wired or rather constructed with nothing or maybe my vision had blurred but before I knew it, the radio was on and I was drifted away from my car or maybe it could have been a dream.
It was long before, my eyes were heavy and I began sleeping; dark was near and the music still continued to play.

Ottoman, Verdant Space Rock (Kastus Belt)

I, Ottoman Klopp, sat with my back to a tree, staring into existence. The stars shone brilliantly in space, twinkling red, blue, yellow, and filling the blackness with beautiful color. Clouds of gas and rock billowed outwards in space, wispy orange and cloudy red. They to were alight with new life, tiny specks of newborn light swirled into existence before my very eyes yet I could not see them. The light was far, far away, hidden in the illusion of empty space my old eyes could not penetrate, the darkness smothered my dimming power of sight.

I sighed and turned away. The world was blurred, fractured, and grey. Nothing I could do would change that. Standing, I strolled back to the house, listening to the crisp grass swish as I moved. Sliding open the holo-glass door, I stepped inside, swiping my hand across the glass, flipping to the news. Then I flopped into my chair, letting out a sigh of content. My knees ached, my arms, though retaining their muscle, swelled slightly with lock-joint, it was a relief to be unmoving.

I watched the talking heads talk, ignoring them, waiting for the real news and, as the sun set, the stories came out one at a time. They spoke of science, new understandings of the Expansion Theory, interesting but inconsequential. Then there were the politics. Senator so and so running for Chancellor in Karta, Majhan Kasanx battling against her opponent for a province in Goreon.

Then there was E.V.I.L. The anchor listed off a couple names of missing persons and talked to an expert in guerilla warfare to try and understand how E.V.I.L caught their victims. The study was, as always, inconclusive. The expert would talk about precedent guerilla behavior yet as the anchor would inquire more as to what E.V.I.L's pattern of operations were the expert began to squirm, tip-toeing around harder questions, perhaps unanswered questions, until their time ran out. Throughout the report, I felt my blood boiling. Not in rage but in anticipation. Others had tried to stop E.V.I.L, all had failed. Yet options still remained, so many options. Maybe I wouldn't stop them, maybe I would do something else, explore new parts of the universe, find a cure for Necroscoma, bring world peace.

The options were limitless. Smiling, I swiped off the holo-glass and climbed upstairs into bed. Tomorrow I would go. Tomorrow.

Martha Tent-Some Ship

Owh. Owh

When I woke up, I saw colors. Bright lights blinking, almost blindly, making my head spin and I was laying on on back staring at the ceiling. The lights danced on the ceiling and the ground and sounds beeped from somewhere in the thing. Where was I even at? I thought as I sat up, wiping my eyes and stretching. I looked around where I was at, the bright lights doing nothing by dancing on the walls and scorching in my eyes as I lifted a hand to my eye, automatically. I stood up, my legs giving out as I fell against a wall of whatever I was at. I would have guessed a ship of some sort but I had known, ships were outdated and not even real.
I moved my hands on the wall, trying not to stare into the bright blinking lights. I suddenly has a yawn come but left as I crawled on the floor, under a wall where the blinking lights has been coming from, as I came out from the under the wall I looked around. It was better than blinking lights but the room that I was at, needed something like lights. All I saw, was blobs of white in the room was at. I groaned trying to run my hands on the wall to find a switch but all there was smooth metal with bumps.

I gave up, sliding down the wall before seeing a window or rather an opening in the ship. I blinked my eyes twice before seeing stars, moons, and comets drifting in space as I got up, pressing my hands on the glass my mouth ajar.
"I'm in space," I muttered to myself as I moved my eyes to a planet, covered with blue like earth by with small yellow flacks, drifting aimlessly. It was a beautiful planet but when the ship has passed it, I could feel like pressure of it exploding from something- through the glass.
I stood back, sighing. I had no idea where I was at as the lights suddenly turned on which made me turn around, staring a person or rather an alien. It was weird looking and had small eyes, with 40 of them around its face. It smiled with smooth yellow teeth and raised a hand to their scaly purple forehead.

"Hello Martha Tent and welcome to my ship."

Grif SPEW Gryphon

Grif had always wondered what happened to YWS members who disappeared. However, when he had imagined it in his mind, he saw them going off to start families, work in real jobs, or perhaps get committed to an insane asylum somewhere.

As it turned out, the truth was much, much stranger. Grif was now completed covered in chains, surrounded by heavily armed men, and had no idea how they had gotten there.

"Okay," Grif said finally. "You got me. Will someone tell me what this is all about?"

"Oh no you don't," said their leader, letting loose a maniacal laugh. "You see, we know all about you. You're trying to get us to monologue about our dastardly plan, while you attempt to make an escape!"

"Well-" Grif started.

"It won't work!" the villain said, turning to look out the window at the stars beyond. "Nothing you can do will stop our E.V.I.L. plan to kidnap skilled persons from around the galaxy and using them to take over... the galaxy! For years, we've studied you and your stories, analyzed your fiction; there is nothing you can do that we haven't already-"

"-Anticipated?" Grif finished. There was a high pitch whine from behind the villain. He turned around and looked down the barrel of a very large Gauss rifle that Grif was holding. The chains were broken, the guards had been beaten or neutralized with goo.

The villain gulped.