Atrophy

Carvings of the Galaxy

---

Owen Childs

---

Owen tightened his lips as Echo laughed. Yeah, he could see the hilarity in all of it, maybe, if he wasn’t one of the poor bastards that was currently in the rather surreal situation. His mind went back to the earlier thought that, perhaps, all of this had been a test by Cryonautics to see how people would actually react to being the thawing remnants of human society, the scientists and board members huddled around monitor screens and scratching down notes about the rapidly deteriorating crew. It was too farfetched of an idea now. He knew Cryonautics had a rather healthy budget, but he doubted they would’ve greenlit an entire alien prison scenario, especially since they were already doing a great job of falling apart when stuck in their own version of a real-life bottle episode.

He tensed as the door opened, and almost lunged at the alien that pulled Tahlia away before better sensibilities and pure cowardice held him back. What could he have done to stop the Skullman? Even if he had Doc’s laser sword, he had seen how that little moment of heroism had played out. He was already shocked, frightened, and befuddled; he didn’t need to add beaten and bruised to the list. He kept telling himself that if they wanted to kill them they already would’ve, and they hadn’t. However, that didn’t mean that they didn’t want to experiment on them with all sorts of sharp, alien instruments that would pretty much be equivalent to torture by human standards. Owen relaxed, if only slightly, as Tahlia was ushered back through the door, weird bread and waterskin in hand.

Great. Even aliens have crappy prison food.

There was something that Owen had been ignoring for quite sometime, although he couldn’t say if it had been consciously or subconsciously, and that had been Yaz’s quiet crying. He felt a twist in his stomach as he realized that he had been avoiding acknowledging it completely for selfish reasons: simply put, he didn’t want to play the role that Echo had been so enthusiastically forcing upon him. Although, maybe that wasn’t the whole thing. He should’ve been talking to her and trying to, in someway, make her feel better, he should’ve kept his cool in the first place, and surely he should’ve said something when she uttered that she wasn’t ready to die.

But, considering the situation, he just had nothing helpful to say. Sometimes, saying nothing was better than saying the wrong thing. This time, though, as he turned his eyes away from Yaz so that he didn’t have to see her face, he knew it was one of those situations where saying nothing at all was the worst of options. Tahlia was the one to speak up for him and to reassure Yaz, rescuing him from the task that he either didn’t want or didn’t have it in him to do. A dozen bleak scenarios, like the possibility of experimentation from earlier, popped up into his head for reason why they wouldn’t want them dead yet, but he kept them to himself. He didn’t know if Tahlia’s words actually put Yaz at ease, but he knew for certain that his ones wouldn’t.

“You seriously ate that?” he asked, looking at Tahlia incredulously in hopes of distracting the others from any conversation about their safety.

Beyond the Storms

man do I have some nice things planned for this

@Mercenary Lord

Let's fuck 'em all up!

Carvings of the Galaxy

Aw, don't hold back.

I should be able to get a post out tomorrow or Friday.

Beyond the Storms

Robot role call.

Carvings of the Galaxy

@beyond visionsVery accurate.

_{And until I got to the body I actually believed it was a legit thing.}

Beyond the Storms

Skies above the Garrloch

Constance’s face flashed between both shock and disappointment when Krauss suggested she take any seat except for the one she had claimed for herself was, her lower lip drooping as if she couldn’t comprehend somebody telling her what to do. She expected that the man took her for a fool, and she told herself that she was fine with that. She’d rather be taken for an idiot than mistaken for a genius. There was less pressure in it, for starters, and when you proved them wrong it was much more pleasurable. She recovered almost as fast as she had come undone, closing her mouth into a tight smile as if to pretend to be amused by Krauss’s joke.

“What a grand idea. I’ve think I’ve had enough of seawater, Krauss, and I’ve been meaning to dry off anyways,” she said, abdicating her throne as she slipped back into the “hurricane seat”, pretending not to notice Edward’s look.

As Krauss went through his startup checks, Constance busied herself fumbling with straps and belts. Despite the good humor in his warning, she did believe the pilot when he said she could be flung out of the VTOL, and she had already met her quota for near death experiences for that day. Cinched tightly, she relaxed as best as she could in the stock chair, closing her eyes and trying to calm her pre-flight jitters. She still got anxious every time she was on a plane like she had been the first time she had flown, back when she had made her great change from mongrel to mogul by escaping from the Bottoms by stowing away on a cargo plane bound for Argos. Former suitors had found it endearing, and when she was in the air she was completely fine, her worries replaced with wonder, but she still found it embarrassing, and was thankful that the two in front seemed busy with the takeoff.

She felt her muscles relax as she heard the engine come to life, and slowly opened her eyes a few seconds after the craft had begun to shake and takeoff. Krauss hadn’t been lying, the view from the passenger seat was breathtaking. “Oh, wow,” she mumbled quietly, almost humbled by the vast world of blue that laid outside of the window. The view from the ship, now so far below them that it looked as if it were a bath toy, had been great, but it paled completely in comparison to this one. There was a quiet moment of contentment, disregarding the loud hum of the engines, as she leaned against the window, wide-eyed. Further away, she could she smears of brown and green splashed on the horizon, actual land that was not floating, and she swore she could make out the tip of the other obelisk, although perhaps this was just hopeful thinking.

And then it was down to business. She needed to know how fertile the land was, how ripe for colonization it would be, how feasible it could be to shuttle people from the floating isles to the new land. Then it would be all about creating the right businesses in the right places. A mining company for raw materials to ship back to the UINC would be the most profitable, obviously, and the tentative end goal, but to get there she need lodging, food, and entertainment for the workers. Even before that,she knew that she’d have to work out some sort of contracts and deeds with the United Isles to rightfully claim ownership of the new lands instead of being seen as some seceding threat. Her brow furrowed at the thought; red tape was always the most infuriating. It was a good thing that she planned to have someone else deal with all of that nonsense, although she was still deciding on who could handle such a task without outright stealing the thunder away from her.

As well, it was somewhat odd that she didn’t even consider the largest, most real problem to her grand plans as she daydreamed about the future. She was so confident that her minor hiccup would solve itself the minute she stepped foot onto one of those distant islands littered with silver and gold that, by the time word ever got out, it would be such a non-issue that nobody wouldn't even blink an eye at it. She smiled Only the extremely rich and the extremely poor knew how valuable money actually was; having been both in her life, she felt quite qualified in that regard.

Unintelligible words from the cockpit drew her out of her mind, their meaning drowned out by the hum of the engines. Reflexively, she assumed they were directed towards her, for obvious reasons, and she leaned forward. However, when her eyes finally spotted the camera in Edward’s hands, she recoiled back as if she had just stumbled upon a venomous snake. Violently, she shook her hands in front of herself. She shouted at the reporter, cupping her hands around her mouth. Surely, she could be louder than a plane engine.

_{“DON’T YOU DARE, EDDY! I’M A COMPLETE MESS! WE CAN DO A PHOTO SPREAD LATER! LATER!”}

Carvings of the Galaxy

---

Owen Childs

---

"This is what's happening, Owen!"

Yeah. I can see that. Thanks.

However, truth be told, he almost didn’t believe it was happening, not until he felt himself bristle at the sight of Tahlia being slung from her chair, only to instantly back down and comply with the robot voice as a pair of freakishly blue eyes glared at him. Alien eyes. Actual alien eyes. Maybe he might’ve been a bit excited to have witnessed these Skullmen if they hadn’t been, apparently, arresting them for some form of treason. Instead, he was rightfully fearful and angry, yet also already becoming resinated. Of course they would, somehow, be the ones to discover aliens, and of course these aliens weren’t the fun, cute, eat Reese Piece’s kind of aliens.

Owen’s hands were twisted around his back and he felt one of the creatures slap a pair of handcuffs on him. It wasn’t the first time the man had been handcuffed in his life, and just like that other time it was also completely unjustified. Wrong place, wrong time. Maybe it would’ve been smarter to have never been frozen in the first place. No, nevermind, obviously it would’ve been smarter to have never been frozen in the first place. At least a hundred years ago he wouldn’t have been abducted by freaking aliens; with real cops he could eventually talk his way out of getting in trouble for something he didn’t do.

Hold up…

Maybe he could try talking to the bot? It was a pretty stupid idea, he’d be the first to admit, but it did speak English—which was rather odd when he considered it, although he was sure that Echo or Yaz would have some kind of reasoning for that. At the very least, he’d figure out what it was that they had done, shine a little light onto the situation that was, otherwise, looking rather dark at the moment. Yet everything seemed to align against him questioning the robot, for a moment of panic set into him as he was held back from the women, and by the time he had calmed his mind another situation had arisen as he finally figured out what had happened to Benji.

He felt his jaw drop the same time Doc did from the vent, decommissioning the bot with a stab from something ripped straight from a big budget sci-fi flick. Unlike those kind of films, however, the next minute was not filled with Benji space-ninjaing his way through the hallway, deflecting bullets and slicing aliens with his energy sword before finally freeing Owen, who would then grab some kind of laser rifle and the two set off to rescue a trio of distressed damsels, murder a whole hive of aliens, and quip back and forth the entire time. Instead, it was filled with shouts and screams as Benji dropped to the ground almost instantaneously, his body shaking like a sapling in a hurricane as Owen was whisked away to join the others.

Owen took a moment to try and recuperate himself as he sunk to the ground.

But then he decided to just forget it and to start spilling his guts out.

“Jesus Christ, I think they just killed the Doc,” he whispered between heavy breaths, wide-eyed. “H-h-he took out their robot, and one of those freaky Skullmen blasted him with something. I don’t know what it was, but he was just shaking and then I heard him screaming, and them screaming, and, and, and holy crap, man.” He shook his head, trying to get the sound out. “If he isn’t dead than I’d bet that he wishes he was. Oh man, oh man. What are we going to do? I mean, what can we even do?”

The Origin: A War Resumed (Arc One; Completed)

is there anything better than hard liquor and narcotics?

@GinookazenoJinn

Happiness, lollipops, and sunshine?

Beyond the Storms

Thursday's my day off, I'll get a post up by then!

Carvings of the Galaxy

Heard that. Hopefully I'll find some time tonight or tomorrow to churn something up; I'm still trying to process how Owen's gonna react to aliens.

_{Probably poorly.}