KEREU TAAKI
Kereu was waiting outside of the courtroom. The situation looked like it would result in a large fine or a short jail sentence before that notification appeared. It was the cause of a short intermission. Kereu was sitting in a hallway, fidgeting, waiting for this situation to be over. As he had to hand in his communicator when entering the courthouse, he could not do anything but wait, worry and watch. He felt not one iota different, but everyone of the suited folks looked as if they had been through the wringer. Some barely stood straight. Others looked as if they were drunk. Kereu noticed that the people in staff uniforms seemed mostly unaffected.
There was copious amounts of chatter. Many scary suggestions about what would happen from rich folks, who looked grey and haggard, some whispered jokes by the staff on their way to grab a glass of water during their breaks. The one person in a suit who looked like he had coped with the halved stats reasonably well, screamed into a communicator: “No, I do not know how this happened! No one should have had access to the governor! That thing should have run out of magic ages ago. And until a few minutes ago, it was completely inert! Yeah, if there was a road to the old Ishtaan dungeon, we have not found it. Walking? Not in that environment! The Sygias are more used to this planet, but not able to make a trip into the wilderness without tripping several red flags during preparation! The only way to get there is to fly…”
Kereu eavesdropped on the person, who seemed to have more information about this matter than anyone else.
“Send in drones to discover what is going on there! Are you daft‽ We cannot get there in person when there is a sanction ongoing! Or do you know anyone who currently doesn’t have seriously depressed stats and lost access to most of their skills‽ Yes, me too! I feel more like I did 50 levels ago and cannot wait to escape this shithole! Seriously, why did we even integrate this miserable planet where the wind speeds are high enough to be considered dangerous anywhere else‽ And where the highest temperatures of the year are still not on the level that you can leave the house without a scarf‽”
Kereu motioned to one of the guards and whispered: “This guy has their communicator in here when everyone has to hand theirs in!”
The guard shrugged: “The chief judge has its privileges.”
Kereu gasped. This guy was… in power? He sounded so bitter and angry that he didn’t even want him in charge of a restaurant, let alone Windrush.
He still remained quiet and inconspicuous to eavesdrop more and to find out more. This person seemed to be very used to not consider the existence of others as he was loud, obnoxious, walked into people, made them fall and continued to pace as if nothing happened. Kereu listened and felt angry: This person insulted Windrush, which was the home of the Sigya-ha-Sygia and of course also of Kereu. He had the urge to throw this person’s communicator, but didn’t do anything else but ball his hands to fists. He knew that a wrong action would get him into hot water. At the same time, his patience was approaching nadir. He tried not to pay attention to the annoying person who was pacing and shouting. That was until he heard a name that he recognised: Init Aniik. Of course, it was mispronounced in the way in which people not from the planet generally mispronounce it. This person never learned how to pronounce native names correctly despite being in a position of authority here. Kereu looked at the person defiantly and stated: “It’s pronounced Aniik, with a long vowel, not a middle-long vowel. Learn to at least pronounce the names of the folks in your area of responsibility!”
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“Ugh! Some idiot is trying to talk to me!... How? They are doing what‽ Mechanical flight‽ That’s insane! Get them down and get the governor back into the dungeon! Afterwards, you can do whatever you like with them! Unless they are pretty, then leave some ass for me!”
Kereu felt anger well up inside of him. Init had been a guide for the new world of Solidarity and even before helped him out occasionally with food. He prepared his healing skill. Changing anatomy can not only heal but also harm. He was aware of what to do and how to do so. He only needed an opportunity to do so and to make it look like an accident. He also got up and pretended to nervously pace, in the same way that this person did. He accidentally on purpose touched the pacing idiot who still shouted into his communicator, now about how he needed assistance to get into his office since the status based lock didn’t recognise him anymore after his status had been changed by the governor and he let the IT staff know his opinion about this. Kereu walked towards him and touched him. The man looked confused, his eyes defocused as he looked at his status and the most despicable part of his body, his mouth, was blissfully silent for a moment, before he started using it for breathing. Kereu smiled at the guy. He looked at his hand and then shouted at Kereu: “You animal! What did you do to me‽”
Kereu shouted back: “Windrush is waking up! The current era of decrement is only the first step! The era of Unlimited Potential is ending! Varikaan will be enforced! And you earthworms will learn the actual pronunciations of our names!”
The human swung at him and Kereu reacted by dodging behind him and kicking him into the side of his knee.
The man ran and Kereu gave chase. Moments later, the person ran into a random room, and before he could close the door, Kereu slid his left foot into it. He pushed the man into the room and once again used the pain on him. He screamed, his lowered stats made his handling of pain much worse. “Now, we can do it the painful way, which will be an utter delight with your reduced Resilience, or we can do it the easy way. Which one do you prefer?”
JAARU ANIIK
She saw the drones fly away and felt confused. The things had until moments ago chased her. She looked back at Init and Jiiti who barely held onto the contraption. “You chased them off?”
Init shook her head: “Nope! But I saw them being called back with my skills. I am not sure what happened there.”
“I am not wondering about this anymore… It happened. I am landing the thing here and then will probably never use the skills I got for flying this thing ever again.” Jaaru said.
A few moments later, Init quietly asked: “Can we go down near the courthouse? Kereu said that he needs us. He didn’t say why.”
Jaaru turned the contraption in a fast movement that made them hold on to the unholy contraption that she was piloting, or rather, keeping in the air with a mixture of anger and spite. It increased as she rushed the contraption and Sygian cargo off to the courthouse. She realised how the skill level increased again and while she still felt kinda miserable about the entire day, she smiled. Gaining skills felt great!