Strange Sci-fi Tales - Specimen V639

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            Begin Recording: This is Dr. Bastion Maximillion from the Unified Republic’s Advanced Science Society, Biology Division. Specimen No. V639 was brought to me tonight, August 22nd, 2278, at 9:36 pm. It is my understanding that the administrator went to great lengths to acquire this specimen. Therefore, I request in advance that any rumors of the specimen’s origin and characteristics be dismissed so this research may be approached with a clear and open mind.

            At first glance, the specimen appears to be an emaciated adult man of uncertain age, most likely 40s, roughly seven feet and 2 inches in height. This generalization holds up until one inspects the head, hands, or feet. Their fingers are significantly longer than average and end in long, malformed nails that resemble claws. The feet end in similar protrusions but are more within the average lengths expected based on the subject’s height. The head can be most charitably described as a gnarled and twisted facsimile of the human face. Its pointed fangs, jagged snout, and snarling features resemble the generic concept of a beast more than anything human. Most striking are the specimen’s bright yellow eyes, which seem to lack a pupil.

            Despite its sickly appearance, Specimen V639 still shows signs of life, albeit faintly. While the skin is cold to the touch and the specimen does not draw visible breaths, the body still writhes under its restraints. I have taken the liberty of muzzling the mouth to prevent the repetition of a reported accident that occurred shortly after its capture. An unknowing Peace Keeper captain drew too closely to the restrained specimen and suffered several deep bites in the jugular. Unfortunately, the captain quickly expired on the spot and was promptly cleansed in case his corpse harbored an unknown infection.

            Specimen V639 was first detected in the woods of Eurasia in early July of last year through scattered reports of slaughtered livestock and a handful of missing person reports. Local Peace Enforcers struggled to contain the specimen, forcing them to call for reinforcements. Through a concentrated tracking effort, Peace Keeper unit Haven12 corralled and trapped the creature with dummy livestock and a XX GigaVolt Power Fence. Not counting the captain who was slain later, the capture of V639 cost the lives of seven Peace Keeper officers, well above the acceptable loss threshold of three for such cases. This is despite the fact that preliminary reports assured that the specimen was clearly starved and weakened from its encounters with local Peace Enforcement.

            As a result of this harrowing containment, it cost the administrator a non-insignificant amount of grant money, numerous favors, and at least 300 influence credits to acquire V639 for study. Therefore, this experiment shall be conducted with the highest level of care and precision. It is a rare opportunity for us to vivisect a “creature of the night,” as it were. Several of our investors are highly interested in its ability to avoid appearance in reflections, especially cameras and video. While I am uncertain if we’ll be able to reverse engineer such a property from only a single specimen, I must personally admit I am very eager to attempt it.

            Diverting Power: Laser scalpel and Plasma saw. End Recording: Begin Procedure:    

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Always follow proper procedures when handling valuable resources.

Author's Note: Today's post was supposed to be another Maid in Fantasy Chapter, but I wasn't happy with it yet. Hopefully, it'll be good to go next week.

Until next time, Read, Comment and Enjoy.

Maid in Fantasy - What She Was

Story Hub: [link]
(Note: This story takes place immediately after Chapter 23)

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            “Lady Ze,” Serena broke the silence. They’d been soaking in the bath for over ten minutes now, but since Ze stepped in while still in her full armor, few words had been shared between them. The large bath was more than big enough for ten or more people, which made it all the more awkward since it had fallen quiet. “You mentioned how you’ve been protecting the Royal family ever since you met Queen Celene. If you don’t mind me asking, what was Her Majesty like back then?” The noble paused for a moment as she listened to the question. Serena didn’t know why, but she could sense a smile forming on Ze’s lips.

            “Well, firstly, she wasn’t the Queen back then. She was still the Princess,” Ze chuckled. “And if I had to describe her, I’d say she was similar to Irene. Always rushing headlong into trouble, seldom sitting still, and being quite the energetic soul. It made a certain someone want to pull her hair out.”

            ‘I can take a guess as to who,’ Serena thought. ‘Still, it’s hard to imagine that someone so ethereal like the Queen could ever be like Irene, it’s not like…Wait, they both do that disappearing act thing, and I bet the Queen could ignore the laws of physics like Irene can so…’

            “But she also had the biggest heart out of anyone,” Ze continued, “she’s never allowed a good person to come to harm if she could help it. She’s always put others above herself. And she was wonderful with children, especially the less fortunate ones.”

            “Less fortunate? She was helping worker’s kids?” Serena was confused.

            “No, I mean…” Ze stopped. “I apologize. You’re too young to know what I’m talking about. Let’s just say the kingdom wasn’t always so wealthy or peaceful. And sickness, we’ve gotten so much better at dealing with diseases. Thank Lady Herme for her tireless work.”

            “I see?” Serena was even more bewildered. ‘How bad were things back then? I’ve read about wars and sickness in history books before. We haven’t had a war in my lifetime (at least, I don’t think so). And the worst I’ve ever gotten sick was a cold, but weren’t there diseases they couldn’t cure?’

            “Apologies, I’ve only made you more confused,” Ze shook her head. “Don’t worry. Lady Aré will likely educate you on our past wars while she mentors you. She has plenty of firsthand experience.”

            “I gathered that,” Serena commented as she recalled the noble’s bedroom.

            “It’s been so long since those days,” Ze muttered wistfully. “So much has changed, and so much hasn’t.”

            ‘It’s Aré and Aphros, isn’t it?’ Serena guessed.

            “The joy of reflection, to know how far you have come,” Ze waxed poetically. “Now, if you don’t mind me asking, Serena. What was your past like?”

            “Mine?” Serena was taken aback. “Nothing special, I was just a normal girl, honestly.”

            “I’m sure you have your stories,” Ze chuckled.

            “Well, there’s always Penelo,” Serena admitted. The maid and the noble continued their chatter, and the warm waters soaked away all the stress and anxieties of the day.

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Times of relaxation and rest are also times of reflection. Thinking back to what brought you to this point can make you appreciate where you are all the more, while also uncovering fondness for days past.

Until next time, Read, Comment and Enjoy.

Maid in Fantasy - Facts of the World II

Story Hub: [link]

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The Architect of Nonsense:

            The Royal Palace is the primary setting of Maid in Fantasy and the home of most of the characters. It’s a massive structure the size of a small city that towers over the rest of New Celene and acts as the seat of government for the kingdom. Its layout makes no logical sense, but that’s by design.

            If one were to try and map out all the halls and passageways within its walls, you’d be there for quite a while, bordering on forever. As a magical place at the heart of a magical kingdom, on a hotbed of pure magic, the palace is far from ordinary and is not bound by conventional logic. It is best to think of the area inside its walls as a “flexible space” and that despite already being a massive structure, the interiors are, in fact, bigger on the inside.

            That’s how you can have an auditorium that descends so low it should intersect with the basement storehouses, yet it doesn’t. That’s what allows the basement to be a maze of endless halls that loop back in on themselves yet seem to go on forever. That’s how they can fit enough rooms for the royal family, the high nobles, the entire extended Diane family, and most of the Regas family, plus enough soldiers and guards to secure the place, in addition to all the infrastructure to accommodate that number of people (bathrooms, kitchens, dining halls, baths, and laundry, etc.) and still have room for a half dozen grand halls, auditoriums, a garden and tennis courts.

            Of course, the palace being as massive as it is, navigating it isn’t as easy as walking from point A to B. There are multiple hovercraft shuttles to move residents between all the major buildings. The workers, however, have the special privilege of accessing the “flexible space” between the walls of the palace (as seen in Chapter V). They’re basically a series of magical passages that act like an elevator, zipping the workers to where they need to be almost instantly. While a convenient tool, it’s only meant to shuttle a handful of people at a time, no more than your average elevator. Thus, they can’t use it to summon a large number of guards to wherever they need them to be.

            Besides the obvious residents like the royal family, the Diane family, and the Regas, most high nobles have permanent rooms in the palace. Lady Aphros and Lady Aré’s rooms have already been depicted in the story, but Lady Ze and Lady Herme also reside in the palace. Lady Aphros basically lives at the palace year-round. However, she has personal homes and summer cottages she retires to on occasion. Lady Aré is a more frequent traveler and lives in various homes worldwide, depending on her current duty, and only stays at the palace about half the year overall (but not consecutively). Thanks to her duties, Lady Ze is also in the palace year-round, barring the occasional matter that draws her away for a few weeks every year. Lady Herme spends the least time in the palace and finds herself all over the kingdom with an irregular schedule.

            There is more to say about the palace, namely its exact layout, history, and other facts, but that will be saved for another time.

 

Penelo’s Guide to the High Noble Bathrooms:

            A journal recovered from Ms. Penelo Gataki’s bedroom, detailing her experiences with the bathrooms of the high noble she passed through on her quest to clean every toilet in the palace.

 

Lady Herme: Very clean, orderly. Everything is in neat, organized piles and rows. The towels are organized by size and color. The bathroom is marble-themed, with an extra-large bathtub complete with a bookrack? (Looked like a bookrack, with all the books on it and stuff.)

The toilet was already clean, I kind of felt bad touching it, like I’d made it dirtier than it was before.

 

Lady Ze: Very simple, open-air eastern-style bathroom. Lots of wood in the design. I think the rugs were made of bamboo. The toilet was also made of bamboo. Had a built-in exercise room, complete with dumbbells (I think they’re broken, the sides said they were 100 kilograms each, but they didn’t feel that heavy…Oh, is that why they’re labeled light exercise?).

 

Lady Aphros: Really big and glitzy, covered in topaz jewels. Even the toilet was made of gold! Also, everything is seashell-themed: the bathtub is a giant seashell, and the toilet has a seashell cover, top, and handle (and the toilet paper is seashell printed). All the soap is really foamy, even the spare cleaner under the sink made things foam (the sink is also shaped like a seashell, with seashell knobs). The bathtub was more bubbles and foam than water, I think.

 

Lady Aré: I haven’t figured out how to get in there yet. Lady Aré always yells at me when I try to get in with silly stuff like “How did you get into my closet?” “Why are you coming in through my window?” and “You destroyed my ceiling!” It’s not my fault her front door keeps moving, and it’s easier to get into her room in other ways.

 

Queen Celene: The Queen says I’m not allowed to talk about her bathroom, no matter how fluffy it may be.

 

Princess Atlanta: Don’t know it very well, she kept throwing things at me while I was trying to clean it. It’s really pink, though.

 

Princess Irene: It’s like if pink and a pinker pink had a baby. Also, rabbit-themed everything. (I want to know where they got a rabbit head shaped bathtub, it looks fun!)

 

Princess ??? (what’s the Second Princess’s name again?): Actually, I haven’t found her room yet…does she have a room? She goes somewhere every night, right?

 

Lord something or other: Apparently, I wasn’t supposed to be in there because it’s a “crime scene” or something. He has really nice soap, though…

 

???: I don’t know whose bathroom this was, but it has more seashells than Aphros’s room, oh, and seahorses and dragon designs, too! Lots of mirrors, I think my reflection was looking at me funny.

 

???: It’s like being on a cloud!

 

General something or other: Will return, I can’t clean a toilet that’s on the ceiling...yet. 

Why is the room all upside down anyway?

 

???: Why does the bathroom have six clocks and three eerily real-looking skulls?

 

???: The toilet burned my hand. Why is there a model train in the bathroom?

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90% of the reason I wrote this was for the Penelo's journal section. The palace's architecture is important too, but I just had so much fun writing things from Penelo's perspective.

Until next time, Read, Comment and Enjoy.