The city of Mudna compared to most cities, and by extension the planet of Andromicus that had evolved enough to be considered a level 3 civilization, did not hold anything that was particularly remarkable or distinguished from other civilizations and planets that were secretly under the control of the Fetnas. Along the streets stood schools, merchant stales, restaurants, and bath houses typical of such cities. Separated into their own sections stood the housing districts where most of the citizens lived. As well Various inns for travelers scattered throughout the city. Right in the middle of the city lay the large capital building where the Monarch and high court of justice held its meetings for lawmaking and criminal trials.
Indeed, even the people and culture of the city did not deviant much from the average social customs including the worship of the believed deity of Dragna who, according to the priests of the city churches, created all the known universe and its many stars and galaxies. If one were to look deeply into the texts depicting the tales of Dragna, one would likely find a remarkable tale revolving around a whole host of minor gods who supposedly control everything from the two suns the planet orbited, to the seasons, to who sold the most goods as a merchant that year. However, the truth was that the alien race of the Fetnas secretly oversaw Mudna and the entire planet of Andromicus for that matter of fact having initially placed the first humans on the planet some thousands of years ago.
Of course, given the fact the average Fetna's lifespan was 10000 years and the average human's life span was about 75, the average human could spend their entire lives believing in Dragna and it would not affect their life experiences one bit. In fact the ones that deviated from this belief and instead believed in things such as alien lifeforms were the ones who were laughed at relentlessly and often times out casted socially from the rest of the city despite the fact that they were the ones that were closer to the truth of the on goings of the planet and universe.
One such individual who happened to live in the city of Mudna at the exact moment that Vega and Mira had arrived there went by the name of Hesper, a 30 year old curly red haired olive skinned woman who lived by herself. Her parents had died when she was young from disease forcing Hesper to live with the orphanage of the city.
There Hesper, started to take a liking to astronomy and the patterns of the sky and even pursued the field during her studies. The locals thought of her as a bit of a nutjob however trying to explain crazy theories she had about how a secret alien lizard people ran society causing her to not only be shunned while at the orphanage, but well into her adult life as well. Of course, despite her excellent knowledge of the subject of astronomy even going as far as creating her own maps and building telescopes during her free time at night, astronomy was not a subject that produced many copper coins so she had to take on the job of a general store clerk. By mere coincidence the name of that store happened to be Nova General.
It was just an average day like any other day for Hesper who had the day off from work. As she was walking home from picking up groceries at the local market she happened to spot two travelers who had strange forehead markings, clothes, and wristwatches.
"Holy…" She thought to herself "Never seen anyone like that before this might be interesting."
She thought about approaching them to ask some questions but thought better of it.
"If they're really lizard aliens they could be dangerous. Better stay cautious and see what their deal is."
Having no reservations in the matters of stalking in order to satisfy her curiosity and get closer to her truth of alien existences, Hesper spent the whole day following Mira and Vega around town. To her disappointment it seemed the two did nothing the whole time except fail to receive job offers and get laughed at for their getup and tattoos. It was almost sundown when the Hesper noticed the two enter Nova General.
"What are they… no way."
As Hesper peeked through the window of the store, she noticed the two talking to her manager, a tall muscular 60 year old man by the name Mr. Pavo. After several minutes, the two left with smiles on their faces. After seeing the ghost was clear, Hesper herself walked into the general store to talk to her boss.
"Boss did you see that? Those two wearing weird cloths just now. You think they're…
"They're hired is what they are." Mr Pavo replied.
"What!?!?!"
"What? I said we needed more staff the other day didn't I? So I hired the two of them."
"But boss what if they're…" Hesper whispered quietly.
"If they're aliens they're aliens, I could care less when they're willing to work for 5 copper pieces a day."
"5 Copper… is that even minimum wage?"
"It is now if they show up tomorrow." Mr. Pavo said laughing, "Anyways why are you even here, it's your day off."
"Oh well…" Hesper said remembering that she had been stalking Vega and Mira the whole day and quickly ran outside. Unfortunately for her the two had disappeared already.
"I'll confront them tomorrow then" Hesper thought to herself, "Then I'll prove to the city, no to the world, that Hesper is not a crazy lady. That her theories about aliens are absolutely correct!"
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"Alright get up! First day on the job!" Vega exclaimed rising up.
"Mira Mira! Wake up, come on, we gotta go," he said attempting to shake the sleeping girl next to him awake.
"5… 5 more minutes" Mira yawned.
"No the sun's up that means the manager should be expecting us in soon."
"Carry me then!"
"Mira do you want to starve? This is the literally the only job we could get."
"Just let me starve to death then," Mira yawned not moving a muscle from her spot
"Maybe I should have just left on my own…"Vega thought to himself. He let out a long sigh and picked Mira up tossing her on his back and began walking towards Nova General.
After about 10 minutes of walking, a sweaty Vega finally arrived at the store front with a sleepy Mira still piggybacked on him.
"Sorry we're late!" Vega said opening the door, "As you can see…"
He stopped mid-sentence however to notice a mysterious figure sitting at the counter of the store wearing a rob hood up to obstruct facial recognition.
"Take me to you leader."
"Wha… what?" Vega said taken aback.
"Don't play dumb, the lizard alien people, tell me about them."
A cold sweat dripped down Vega's neck.
"I uhhhh… I don't know what you're talking about."
"Yes you do, you're from outer space and I need you to…"
The robed figure was interrupted however as a loaf of bread came flying in knocking the figure off her seat.
"Shut the hell up Hesper," A voice from the shelves in the back of the room shouted. Mr. Pavo approached the trio.
"No one wants to hear your crazy conspiracies this early in the morning when we've got customers to take care of."
Arising from the ground was a red haired woman whose face had been uncovered.
"Oh really? Hoho, how do you explain these markings and clothes then?" She said grinning and pointing at Mira and Vega's tattoos.
"Thought you were clever weren't you lizard people? But you cannot escape your fate for the great Hesper…"
"I said shut up!" The manager yelled. It was loud enough that Mira woke up fully from her slumber and stood up.
"I'm… I'm awake what can I do for you sir!" Mira said saluting.
The manager sighed
"Welcome back to the shop Mr. and Mrs. Star, this is Hesper, she'll be the store clerk while you two manage customers, clean, and restock the shelves of the store."
"Don't trust them Mr. Pavo, they're clearly lizard alien people, just look at them. Not even trying to hide it with those forehead paintings and ridiculous clothes." Hesper said pointing two fingers at her eyes and then at Mira and Vega.
"Just ignore her," Mr Pavo sighed, "Although I will say she does have a point on the forehead paintings and clothing, are you guys from the countryside?"
"Yeah uhhhh… we sure are!" Mira said trying to force a smile, "This is just traditional cloths and forehead paintings from where we're from. Nothing suspicious here!"
"Oh really…" Hesper exclaimed. She pointed to the wristwatches they had on them, "then explain those things on your wrist!"
"What these? These are uhhhh jewelry! Yeah jewelry from our country, this just happens to be what it looks like." Vega said awkwardly.
"Yeah and what's that?" Hesper continued pointing to the tablet Vega held in his hand.
"Oh that's uhhh…. that's a hand mirror!" Vega shrieked.
"Suspicious…." Hesper said rubbing her chin.
"The only thing suspicious is your brain functionality," Mr. Pavo snapped, "Still I think she is right though, your cloths and forehead markings are a bit odd. But that's okay I noticed that yesterday and prepared ahead of time."
He walked out to one of the shelves in the back of the store and came back holding some items of clothing in his hands.
"Wear this!" he said tossing the clothing to Vega and Mira. They were two pairs of linen shirts and wool pants along with 2 bandanas.
"You can change in the backroom over there. After that I'll get you started on the job," He said.
Mira and Vega nodded as they began walking towards the back.
"Sir but…" Hesper started,
"You want one of them working as the clerk too Hesper?"
"No sir" Hesper said disgruntled.
"Good, hurry along now you two we've got customers coming in soon."
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"Where… where am I?"
Spica opened his eyes to find himself in a room he had never seen before. His memories were a bit fuzzy of the events that happened before he fell unconscious. He had just won a friendly Dokemon match with Irena when for some reason he suddenly fell unconscious. As he tried to get up from the surface he was laying on, he realized that his limbs were completely tied down not allowing any such movement to be possible.
"What… what are you doing?" Spica asked. The other person who was standing near him with a tablet in her hand was of course Irena who had returned to her usual deadpan expression.
"Sigh… don't worry about it Spica it will all be over soon," Irena said pressing a few buttons on the tablet.
"Babe if this is some sort of weird kink you have just know that I'm all for it!"
"What nooo…" Irena replied flustered. "Just ignore him, after today it won't even matter anyways."
"Okay… what's going on then,"
"It doesn't matter, you're about to have your memories wiped clean anyways."
"No way!" Spica replied, "Irena, are you… are you secretly an alien?"
"What? No but this place is controlled by them and…" Irena paused for a moment, "No no… just ignore him he won't remember this conversation anyway."
"Then in reality, we're all secretly humanoids who think we're humans but are actually just experiments run by the organization known as GIA where the real humans are?"
"No what? That doesn't even make sense."
"Can we play Mario Party later?"
"What? No… I mean sure sure whatever just open your eyes for a second while I..."
"Are you the real Irena!?!?!? Or is this just a simulation like The Matrix"
The two of them went back and forth for a while as Spica continuously posed ridiculous questions to Irena who answered in an annoyed tone every time. For some reason though as the conversation continued to flow, despite her annoyed tone, Irena couldn't help but start smirk a little bit. After a while in fact, just like when they were playing Dokemon, a faint smile appeared on her face.
"Spica, I can guarantee you I am not in fact a goddess who is about to reincarnate you into another world."
Irena let out a chuckle, then a giggle. Before she knew it, for some reason she had started to go into full blown laughter. Despite the odd situation that Spica was in all he did was spout out random fictional references to various media content that were available in the city of Polaris. It was so nonsensical to Irena that she couldn't help but be amused by him.
"Then, maybe, I'm the only real human that exists and you, Vega, and Mira are all just figments of my imagination!" Spica shrieked.
"I assure you I'm very much real" Irena replied back giving Spica a poke on the face.
"Vega and Mira huh…" Irena thought to herself, "If I perform this mind wipe it'll be like they never existed at all in Polaris. I'll be the only one to remember them and the memories we had the last month."
Her expression turned melancholy at the thought of the two.
"It'll be as if they were dead here in Polaris, even though in reality they are most likely still very much alive somewhere in the universe."
"Say Spica?"
"What is it secret head of GIA and the universe first lady Irena?"
"Spica I'm trying to be serious here,"
"Yeah and I'm seriously freaking out right now you know. Real talk what is this place? What the hell is going on. Are Vega and Mira really missing or…"
**Slap**
"Spica, calm down and listen to me"
"Yes Ma'am!"
"Okay…" Irena thought for a moment trying to choose her words carefully
"Would you risk death if it meant you had a chance to live free?"
"What I mean…" Spica pondered for a moment at the question, "What do you mean by free? Like free to not have to work and play video games whenever? I mean yeah sure that would be nice."
"No I mean, yeah that would be nice but that's not what I'm talking about."
"Then?"
"Like, I don't know, do you care about knowing the truths of the universe or whatever? Do you think it's necessary for people to understand it even if reality of it is horrifying."
"Do I look like Vega to you?" Spica cried, "I'm not a smart man I just base everything on video games, books, and TV shows! How should I know, can you tell me where the hell this is now?"
"Alright calm down," Irena said back, "Jeez what a coward why am I stuck with him"
She began raising her tablet to wipe Spica's memory but as she was about to press the button to do so, a thought suddenly ran through her head.
"What a coward… I should be saying that to myself."
Spica couldn't help but notice the bit of sadness in Irena's eyes.
"Sorry Irena but are you okay? I'm sure you have your reasons for doing this to me. And there's probably a lot you can't tell me but you know what?"
Spica gave her a small smile.
"I accept it."
"You accept it? What do you mean?"
"I mean I accept you," Spica said, "I accept you for all your flaws, all the secrets you keep and what not. Because… because you're special to me."
"Spica…"
"Yes Darling?"
"Spica…"
"Yes?"
"Spica that's literally a line from After School Writing Club I've played that game too."
The two stared at each other awkwardly.
"Crap… yeah like I said I only know the world of video games."
At that Irena couldn't help but burst into laughter again. Genuine laughter she had not felt in a while ever since the Fetnas took her to Polaris. In that moment the 10 year old Irena returned to her for a moment as she reconsidered briefly what she was doing. And just like the 10 year old Irena who never let anything get in the way of her curiosity, in that brief moment, she didn't think too hard about everything and made a snap decision to untie Spica.
Before Spica could say anything Irena quickly grabbed his hand and started sprinting out the door and into the hallway towards the exit.
"Irena… what are you."
"Shut up"
"Yes… Yes ma'am"
"I'll answer all your questions in a bit but for now we have to run somewhere."
"Okay still pretty vague here... where are we running to exactly?"
The two began to increase in pace until they reached the door that said "exit" on it. As she opened the door Irena looked at Spica with a smile and said the only appropriate words she could think of to say to him given the situation.
"Don't think too hard about it."
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The beginning of the first day of Vega and Mira's work at the Nova General went by without much issue. Mr. Pavo gave them a rundown of each of the isles of items in the store as well as assigning each of them tasks to do. Routinely Hesper would give them glaring stares as they were helping various customers with items, but she did not cause much trouble with the watchful eye of Mr. Pavo being present. Customers came and customers went and soon it was 12:30 and the 4 of them started their lunch break.
"Here," Mr. Pavo said handing Vega and Mira a loaf of bread each which the two happily accepted and started munching on as the both of them had not eaten a thing since coming to Andromicus. The 4 of them were seated around a table at the backroom of the general store.
"You'll need to bring your own lunch after today but since you don't have any money yet and it's your first day, I'll treat you."
"That is if they even need food," Hesper said gulping down some soup she had brought for herself.
"Hesper, what did I say earlier," Mr. Pavo sighed hitting Hesper on the back of the head. He then turned to Mira and Vega with an awkward smile.
"Well since you two will be working here from now on, why don't we do some more in depth introductions then. Where are you guys from to have clothes and markings like you do? I am a bit curious."
"Oh uhhhh… we're from…" Vega started. Unfortunately for him he had forgotten the name of the town Katavi that he had used previously to deceive the guards when they first arrived at the city.
"We're from…"
"Suspiciousssssss" Hesper whispered.
"We're from Fanador!" Mira exclaimed.
At the mention of the name, Vega had to do his best awkwardly nod and not facepalm. Fanador was a city from the game Lunescape the two of them played and in no way an actual place on Andromicus.
"Fanador? Don't think I've heard of that place, is it within Mudna boarders?"
"No it's uhhhhh… small village deep in the mountains!" Vega quickly added, "Yeah I wouldn't be surprised if you haven't heard of it. We all wear the same type of cloths we have on there!"
"Oh interesting" Mr. Pavo said, "I'm guessing you guys were both cleaners there hence the forehead paintings?"
"Yeah! It was tough that's why we left, to pursue a better life!" Vega said "Isn't that right Mira?"
"Yep totally right! Vega and I are like scouts exploring new land when we happened to stumble upon Mudna!"
"Where's it on the map?" Hesper asked.
"Sorry?"
"Your hometown Fanador…." Hesper continued squinting her eyes. She grabbed a folded piece of paper from out of her pocket and unfolded it revealing a hand drawn map of all the regions near Mudna.
"Oh uhhh… it's not on your map," Vega exclaimed, "It's further than what's on that map."
"This map covers 100 miles of land, you're telling me you came from a place further than that with absolutely nothing except a hand mirror on you and managed to make it all the way to Mudna?"
"We uhhh… hunted boar!" Mira exclaimed recalling the ways to obtain food in Age of Militia.
"Yeah okay… Mr. Pavo do you not see what's clearly suspicious now?" Hesper said glaring at the shop owner. "They're clearly aliens I tell you, probably came from the crop circles nearby or something"
"How many times do I have to tell you Hesper, those are just the remains of farmers that worked out there before deer started flocking the land."
"They're too neatly cut! It's suspicious I tell you! They lineup exactly with the Archer star formation…"
**Ding Dong Ding Dong**
The sound of a ringing bell clock from within the shop halted Hesper's rant.
"Well that sound means break time's over, back to work you three!" Mr. Pavo exclaimed, "And wherever you 2 are from, I welcome you to Mudna!"
The rest of the day proceeded without much commotion as well as customers came in and out of Nova General looking for various items. At one point Mira had leaned against the shelves of the store falling asleep but awoke when the pressure on the shelf caused a bag of rice to fall on her head. Soon the day had passed and it was around 6 o'clock when Mr. Pavo announced they were closing down shop for the day.
"Here, 5 copper coins for each of you," Mr. Pavo handing the two the specified amount.
"Now that the work shifts over," Hesper said as she walked extremely close to Vega and glared at him, "tell me the truth, where are you from?"
"Well uhhh…" Vega tried to stall and wait for Mr. Pavo to do something about Hesper as usual.
"Well anyways I'm off then see you all tomorrow!" Mr. Pavo said walking out the door instead leaving the 3 alone in the shop. "You can keep the clothes and bandanas as a gift!"
"Answer me!" Hesper repeated inching closer to Vega.
"He's not obligated to," Mira said annoyed, she grabbed Vega's hand and the two started heading for the exit.
"We're from Fanador, that's our story and we're sticking with it!" Mira exclaimed. Unfortunately now that the two were no longer under the watch of Mr. Pavo, Hesper did not give up on her questioning and followed right behind them.
"What should we do?" Mira whispered to Vega, "Should we run?"
"I don't know, it looks like we're going to have to deal with this chick every day anyways seeing as we work with her, maybe we should just ignore her and find a place to eat and sleep for the night. Even if she's following us we can just lock her out of our inn or something."
Mira nodded and the two quickly started walking shoulder to shoulder trying their best to dissuade the 3rd person from continuing to follow them.
"Wait wait…" Hesper cried, "Do you know how much inns cost in this city?"
"How much?" Vega asked.
"10 Copper pieces a night," Hesper replied.
"What?!?" Mira gasped, "That's outrageous, we only have 10 copper pieces total."
"Yeah sorry to tell you two this but Mr. Pavo's kind of a cheapskate" Hesper said.
"How much do you get paid a day?"
"30 Copper pieces."
"30!?!??" Vega and Mira said in unison.
"Yeah well, unlike you two who have strange paintings on your forehead and clearly don't know anything about the city, I'm well informed about everything here. Tell you what, how about I let you two stay at my place for the night and I'll even make dinner for you. In exchange you tell me the real truth about you two, I know Fanador isn't real place I've been everywhere within a 100 miles from here to star gaze and have met a good deal of travelers. And don't even try lying, I'm very good at detecting when people are telling the truth" Hesper scuffed.
"Uhhhh give us a moment to decide on that." Vega said pulling Mira to the side.
"Well… what do we do?" Vega whispered to her.
"I don't know, we have enough for an inn but how are we going to get food?" Mira whispered back. Both their stomachs started to growl at the mention of food as the two still had only eaten a loaf of bread since coming to the city.
"Yeah true, and even if we tell her how we got here, how's anyone going to believe her? This is supposed to be a feudal age civilization, they haven't invented electricity yet let alone believe in aliens technology or whatever."
"Well…." Hesper groaned impatiently, "I'll make lamb soup if you come."
"Alright you've got a deal" Vega finally replied. The hunger of Mira and Vega's stomachs had overwhelmed them.
"Good good… follow me then," Hesper said starting to walk. As the two began along the path to the living districts the 2 suns above their heads had begun to set as the stars began to come out again.
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Just as Vega and Mira had done before them, it was now Irena and Spica's turn to run out of Polaris and onto the platform leading to the Galaxy Train.
"Irena, what the hell is going on? What are those things in the sky?"
"Those are stars Spica."
"Well I'll be damned Vega was right."
"Oh he was more than right Spica, did you know Polaris was controlled by aliens the whole time?"
"Well I mean yeah, GIA is kind of a weird ominous entity, I'm not too surprised."
"Yeah and I worked for them too."
"What?!?!"
"Oh don't worry, I've decided I don't want to anymore!" Irena exclaimed joyously. The two were within reach of the Galaxy Train now.
"What? What the… what happened to Vega and Mira then?"
"Long story but we're going to have time for that soon."
"What the…" Spica stopped in his tracks for a second.
"Irena, are the aliens going to…"
"They'll kill you if they find out you were out here!" Irena laughed slightly maniacally, "you've got no choice but to follow me now Spica."
"Jeez… I didn't even save my last Dokemon files you know, now I have to deal with whatever the hell this is."
"This is the real universe Spica! The real universe right in front of you, now come on," Irena said grabbing Spica and taking off running again. The two quickly made it to the Galaxy Train and with one fell swoop jumped on board landing in the empty white room.
"Please select your destination on your tablet now"
The intercom of the Galaxy Train said.
"Okay Irena, I don't know where this is but can you at least start explaining some things in more detail now?
"Hold on hold on…"
Irena's tablet lit up as she viewed the options of where the Galaxy Train could take them.
1. Turbula
2. Andromicus
3. Nestbula
4. Doineberg
"Nestbula… Nestbula..." Irena whispered to herself. It had been 10 years since she was taken away from her home planet and forced to do combat training before entering Polaris as dog for the Fetnas.
"Irena?" Spica repeated. His words did not seem to reach Irena at all however as she was stuck in deep thought.
"You know what… never mind whatever I give up I'm just going to pretend this is Super Mario Galaxy or something."
"We had that in Nestbula too."
"What?"
"Super Mario Galaxy, I used to play from the planet where I was from called Nestbula."
"Wait what? I'm confused, so you are actually an alien?"
"No I'm a human." Irena replied.
"Right… but what's Nestbula then?"
"That's my home planet."
"Right but if that's your home planet, and I assume that's not where Polaris is, doesn't that mean you're an alien?"
"No Spica because the truth is humans are just livestock who were scattered around different planets by the Fetna race to create civilizations for them to colonize."
"Huh… alright then" Spica exclaimed, "Makes you think."
"Yeah, and one of those places was my home planet Nestbula where they also had Super Mario Galaxy. When I was young it was one of my favorite games growing up in fact. Well, after a while the Fetnas who kind of control all humans decided it was time for Nestbula to be conquered so they just kind of came and took it from us"
"Right… yeah,"
Spica didn't say anything after that but just sat down on the train and stared at the wall. He knew what the words Irena was saying to him meant but his brain had a hard time contemplating what the existential implications of the statements meant.
"Yeah I mean you did ask for me to tell the truth didn't you? Sorry to keep dropping these things on you all of a sudden. Well to you the truth you might have already known them. The Fetnas have the power to wipe people's memories after all. Well except mine, for some reason I have a mental condition preventing that."
"Is that what you were trying to do early?"
"Yep" Irena nodded.
"Right, okay then," Spica said as he continued to stare at a wall blankly.
"Yeah and also Vega and Mira ran away a couple days ago after I took them to that same interrogation room you were just in. I've wiped Vega's memory like 4 times now actually, he's always been real troublesome."
"Right right," Spica replied, "And you're saying I can't go back or else the Fetnas as you call them will just kill me?"
"Yep I am 100% sure they will!"
The two sat there in a silence for a bit just for a moment.
"Yeah so anyways let's go to Nestbula?" Irena finally said pressing the button for Nestbula.
"What? But didn't you say the Fetnas took that place over?"
"I don't care I want to see my home planet again"
"Right," Spica said continuing to stare blankly at the wall.
"Don't think too hard about it Spica! I'm sure it'll be okay!"
"Okay…"