Bronsen and Cassy:

Cassy opened her eyes and found she was lying on the ground, looking up at an angle. The majestic arc of the Ringworld was visible, climbing up and over. Green forests, sunlight sparkling off lakes and oceans, patches of clouds: vast swaths of country lined up, receding into the distance and curving up and behind the sun high over her head...

“So pretty,” she said.

"Argh! Drayden stabbed me!”

She sat up. "Bloody hell, what, ah, I've been reincarnated, like, again?"

Ding! You sure have!

She turned her head from side to side. And found Bronsen. Who was also sitting up and looking around groggily. They stared at each other for a looooong moment, then looked around again.

"Nope, the other two aren't here," said Bronsen.

A few moments more reflection.

"My, my. Alice is going to be somewhat disturbed, isn't she?" said Cassy with a big smile.

"Oh yes, she is," said Bronsen, returning the smile.

Cassy ran her hands through her long, straight, red hair. Then she looked around, this time at the local area. Trees, bushes, a small forest behind them that was climbing up a local hill, and a seashore in front of them.

"So, where are we this time? And, do we have to fight off vicious predators, or what?" she said.

Fortunately, it appeared not.

"At least we are wearing decent Felixian-type clothes," said Bronsen.

They stood up. And held hands.

"Say, what happened after I died?" said Cassy.

An hour later, having filled each other in with their little stories, and lots of hugs, they took stock of their situation.

"Makes sense, I guess. Our libidos are switched off, just like the last time around," said Cassy.

"Fine, that's fine. We need to work out what's happening around us first," said Bronsen.

"I wonder how much time has passed since we died?" said Bronsen.

They checked their System-supplied calendars.

"Oh, half a year. So everybody at our new Manifestoria home has settled down since the attempted invasion," said Cassy.

"You are assuming that the slavers lost?" said Bronsen.

"We don't know, do we? We'll have to get back there and find out. "

"So, how do we get back there?"

They decided to go exploring. But first, Bronsen noticed something.

“Hey, look, our locked points have gone down again! This time a few thousand points.”

“So it has. Does that mean the System-san used them to grant more abilities?” said Cassy.

System-san didn’t say anything.

“Sigh. Anyway, that is a good indication that Eleanor and friends are still free; otherwise, they wouldn’t be granted anything,” said Bronsen.

They returned to more immediate concerns. Since the way to their right looked easier to travel, that is where they went. Ten minutes later, they crested a small hill and saw a lumber yard on the shoreline. And on the beach, propped on the sand by some logs, was a large sailing ship.

There were also a whole lot of grey-collar slaves milling around.

“Well, you know, it is just as well I didn’t go charging off over the horizon,” said Bronsen.

“I shall be sure to tell Alice that,” said Cassy.

“So, lots of grey-collar slaves. Maybe about fifty. What now? And, where are the coloured collar slaves?” said Bronsen.

Cassy materialised her sword and pointed it forward. It was shaking slightly.

“Ah, Cassy, this mob isn’t charging at us, so maybe it’s OK?”

"Oh shit. Do we have to kill more of them?" said Cassy.

“I, err, don’t know.”

Cassy dismissed her sword, and they held hands.

The two stood there, with the breeze causing Cassy's hair to flutter around and grains of sand to drift over their feet.

Neither of them had the slightest idea about what to do.

They examined the scene.

"There's a bit more than fifty slaves. Interesting, there are only about ten women; the rest are men," said Bronsen.

"Even more interesting, the women look as if they are all over thirty; there ain't any younger ones. While the men range in all ages," said Cassy.

A few minutes of silence.

"OK, if they charge us, we run off. Otherwise, we take it as it comes. How's that for a plan?" said Bronsen.

A sniff of disdain from Cassy. "It's not a particularly complicated one, is it?"

Fortunately, they didn't have to wait for long. A woman, dressed in ragged and mismatched clothes, scrambled out from a patch of trees and bushes and jogged towards them. But she didn't see them as she was looking back. Two more slaves appeared, both men and both dressed even worse than the woman, came into view.

"Hey, that woman looks almost like Eleanor!" said Cassy.

She did. She had approximately the same two-tone colouring (dark yellow and an orangey brown), brown hair, and similar facial features. She was even the same rough age (about mid-thirties).

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"Yeah, she does. But she looks half-starved, definitely underweight," said Bronsen.

The unknown woman had stopped and was now facing the two men. Tail up and flicking side to side, she raised her fists and shouted at them.

"No, I don't want to be sexed by you two shits! And with no Reds to order me, I don't have to!"

Cassy's ears and tails flicked up. She growled and gripped Bronsen's hand like a vice.

"Let's ensure they will attack her first before fighting them?" said Bronsen.

Cassy glared at him, then forced herself to relax. "OK."

The men, who, just like the woman, hadn't seen the two Misfits either, shuffled closer to the woman.

"Lie down. Like the Red ordered you to do." said one man.

The woman pointed to the other man. "He's been demoted to grey because he was such a worthless shit, so he can no longer order me!"

"You are a woman. You are meant to do this. Shut up and follow orders!" said the other man.

"Get lost! I no longer have to do anything you say!" said the woman.

After some more 'robust' but highly repetitive arguments, the men - gave up and returned to where they had come. Muttering all the while about feral slaves and how she was supposed to be submissive and obedient.

Bronsen and Cassy exchanged glances.

"That was surprisingly non-violent. Also, those men weren't all that sophisticated in their conversation, were they?" he said.

"Yeah. But still, it's pretty disgusting."

"Of course. But this is the slaver society; we already know that."

Cassy expressed her opinion by crinkling her nose up and pointing her ears away from him. Meanwhile, the woman lashed her tail from side to side and muttered a few words herself. She then turned back to their direction and walked a few steps before looking up and seeing them.

Unknown Woman:

I don't recognise these two. Where did they come from?

Wait, they don't have slave collars!

She felt a vague compulsion to immediately notify some ranking slave and help put collars onto them, except that her collar didn't seem to be compelling her to do anything!

It's so strange that the collar does not make me do anything. But what do I do, then?

Two monotones. That's rare. And is that man handsome?

After a moment's reflection, she decided that he wasn't.

She stood there, waiting for something to happen.

Cassy:

How about I speak first? It will probably spook the lady less than a strange man talking to her.

Now, how did it go... That's right, a slave society with any coloured-collar slaves can never lapse into everybody having inactive collars since that can only happen to grey-coloured slaves. Furthermore, any coloured-collar slave can immediately cancel that inactive state by touching the inactive collar. So the first thing to do is to ask if there are any coloureds around.

"Hi there! We're just popping in for a visit."

The unknown woman kept on looking blank.

"Well, I'm Cassy, and my friend is Bronsen."

"Ah, I'm Frannie," she said.

I suppose slaves don't have much practice at idle conversation.

"Are there any red or other coloured collar slaves around?"

"No? The two Blues demoted all the Reds to Grey, then had a fight and killed each other."

Blues killing each other seems to be a common theme around here.

"I see. So, how long ago was all of this?"

"Oh, about two weeks."

"And, what did you all do."

"Well, initially, we all kept on following orders, but something weird happened after a week, and we no longer felt the need to do as we were told."

"In other words, your collars became inactive. That always happens if a grey-collared slave receives no orders for seven days."

"It does? I didn't know that."

Ah, of course, that fact wouldn't be advertised widely. And, anyway, it's not as if the grey-collared slaves are told anything anyway.

"So, what is everyone doing now?"

"Well, some kept doing their jobs, and others started to waste time and do nothing. It's getting quite chaotic now that the Blues are no longer coordinating things."

Bronsen must have felt left out in this exchange, as he now said: "What were you all doing in the first place?"

The woman regarded him with some concern: "You're not going to try to sex me, are you?"

"No, definitely not!" said Cassy and Bronsen at precisely the same time.

"And if he did, I would beat him up!" added Cassy.

Bronsen rolled his eyes.

"Ah, if we can get back to the topic..." said Bronsen.

"Oh, we were sailing to another island that produces marmalade, but a giant shark attacked us by biting a big hole in the ship, so we had to harbour here. The Blues were trying to repair the ship, but they were too ignorant to know how to, and it ended up like this," said Frannie.

"So, we're on an island?"

"That's what the Blues said."

There was a lull in the conversation. Cassy desperately cast around for another topic and eventually said: "Those two men, they, err, didn't speak all that eloquently, did they?"

I'm trying not to say that they are stupid; I don't want to be insulting the natives here, do I?

"Yeah, that's because they're stupid. They've been slaves all their lives; they were brought up on a baby farm. Mostly, they turn out dumb. The only ones that don't are those allowed to be raised by their mothers."

Just like Evereena. And those two men were stupid.

"So you were brought up by your mother until your teenage years?" said Cassy.

Frannie:

Somewhat less than two decades ago. Years and years since she had been forcibly ripped from her loving parents, from their comfortable home, from the hug of her first boyfriend, and enslaved. All of those years. Once the slave collar was activated, she never had a chance to mourn for her lost life. A constant, relentless stream of orders filled her entire existence with their compulsions. Day in and day out, continuously, for almost twenty years.

She had never had a chance to mourn.

And now, for some reason, the collar was inactive. She could remember her original life, what she had lost. For the first time, she could cry for the teenage Frannie, who was lost and gone forever.

She collapsed to her knees, tears streaming from her eyes.

Bronsen:

Did we cause that - no, of course not.

I don't remember Esther or Evereena acting like this, but maybe they were so exhausted from their ordeal that they couldn't?

Maybe their emotional anguish was spread out throughout their recovery.

He looked at Cassy, standing there, watching Frannie, obviously bereft of ideas.

"Cassy, perhaps kneel next to her and pat her back; I'll step back a bit."

She did. She patted Frannie's back with her hand and with her tail. And Frannie wrapped her tail around Cassy.

I still haven't gotten used to how cute those tails can be... Bronsen, pay attention! Don't get distracted.

Frannie calmed down, and she gave some of her history.

"No, I wasn't brought up by just my mother. I was brought up by my whole family in a town. And then the slavers came through and obliterated everything. They destroyed the entire society. We were kept in the same place, but the Blues and occasional Green didn't try all that hard to keep things going, and within a short few years, the entire town had collapsed. They were so inept; we almost starved despite being surrounded by plenty of fertile farming area."

"Ah, well, sorry to hear that," said Cassy.

After some silence, Frannie asked: "Where do you come from? And how have you escaped being collared, even though you are in the middle of the slaver nation?"

"That's, err, a long story. Maybe we can get to it at some later stage. We need to work out what to do right now." said Cassy.

Yeah, like, work out where the other two are and how to get to them.

Ding! One hundred have been points used: you can now find out in what direction the other Misfits are and how far away they are.

Another cheat ability. And, let's see, Cassy is where?

A direction appeared in his mind's eye. It was pointing to the side and saying '2 metres'.

Cool. Now, where are Drayden and Alice?

Another direction appeared. It pointed straight out to the sea and said 'about 485 kilometres'.

He looked straight ahead. It was in the direction of the ring.

485 km is too close to see clearly, but if I look further, that region could be the monster territory that Alice and I started from. So the patch of land just before it must be Manifestoria! And this sea is the Jaserra Ocean that must go all the way to it! So, the others are in the same direction as Manifestoria.

He noticed Cassy must have gotten the same information; she was also looking ahead and up.

"Say, Frannie, is there anybody else on this island?" said Bronsen.

She shook her head from side to side. And also the tip of her tail. "No, not as far as I know. Otherwise, the Blues would have tried to get their help."

He looked at Cassy.

"So," said Cassy, "Our friends are in that direction."

She pointed.

"And we have a boat with a hole in its side. Hmm."

"And we have a labour force of 50 inactive slaves who currently don't have anything else to do..." said Bronsen.

"And, if they don't do something, considering this appears to be a deserted island, they will soon run out of food and starve..." said Cassy.

Cassy and Bronsen nodded at each other.

"Right, we're going to be taking over the leadership of you lot, and we are going to fix the boat and sail to our friends," said Bronsen.

"We are?" said Frannie.