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Enza stood- well, not really stood, moreso slouched- in the lineup with her fellow trainees. Routine checkups were never fun for her, because every single time it always ended with her getting chewed out for being “lazy,” being embarrassed in front of her peers, or both. Usually both. She knew how it went, her instructor would go down the line, testing each of them on their psychic abilities, and then they’d get to her. She would do what she did each time, try to explain that she doesn’t have psychic abilities, before being promptly ignored and forced to do more exercises she couldn’t complete. This was a routine at this point, it happened on every checkup day, without fail. She knew she was out of her element, she knew she was stupid, she knew she was broken, she just wished everyone else would get the memo and leave her alone about it. As her instructor approached her, they gave her the typical stink eye.
“Enza, please show me your best Flash β- no, just a Flash ɑ will do.”
“I’ve told you, I don’t have any psychic abilities. I don’t work like you guys do.”
Her instructor brought their claws to their forehead, as if to ward off a headache. “I’m not asking much of you here, it’s the bare minimum.”
“If I could make this any less painless I would have done it by now. Listen, I can show you my best haymaker, if that’s any consolation.” Enza grumbled, cracking her knuckles. Her instructor glanced at her with a lost expression, and there was a deafening silence that followed. “You know… like a punch.”
“Oh please,” Her instructor scoffed dismissively. “We don’t fight like that here.”
The gieeg swallowed her ever boiling anger, and tried to respond calmly. “It’s a perfectly usable form of fighting, I don’t get what your issue is with it.” Some of her fellow trainees were now staring at the scene, and the sound of quiet, indistinct gossip could be heard.
“It’s slow, inefficient, and predictable. I don’t get your obsession with it, personally. Why put up all this resistance just to favor an archaic, human-like style of combat?” Her instructor looked down on her, and she could feel the judgement just by the look in their eyes.
Enza felt her claws clench into fists. After a brief moment of hesitation and consideration, she caved to her anger and took a swing at the instructor, dealing a swift punch to the gut. They crumpled to the ground, coughing and heaving as chaos broke out amongst the other trainees. Predictable my ass, you clearly couldn’t see it coming. She was quickly apprehended by the starmen guards, and though she tried to break free of their restraint, she soon lost feeling of her limbs as they administered Paralysis ɑ to the delinquent. Soon she struggled to keep consciousness, and before she knew it she was out.
When Enza came to once more, she found herself locked in her quarters, completely darkened. That’s one way to get out of extra training. Sitting up, she reached up to scratch her ears, but found her arms to be bound to each other. A pair of arcane devices were locked to both of her wrists, and she couldn't wrestle herself free from them. Chained up, like some dangerous animal. Her heart sunk as she leaned to her side, resting her head on the cold, metal wall. It felt like too much effort to hold herself up. How much more degrading can you get? She exhaled heavily, letting her eyelids shut. Good lord, her body ached. She’d forgotten just how bad the aftereffects of paralysis were, those starmen must’ve gone all out. Rest. She wanted- no, needed- rest.
Enza awoke barely an hour later to the bright, harsh luminescence of her overhead light switching on. She didn’t even feel like putting in the effort to ask who had entered, no less raise her head or open her eyes. “Get up. You’re going home.” Nevermind, that’s worth the effort. She forced herself up, her wrists still bound together, and groggily walked with the starman to the escape pods.
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As they arrived at her caretaker’s home, Enza knew she was really gonna get chewed out this time. The starman pushed the alert button, and only moments later the metallic door opened with a hiss. “Hello ma’am, your participant in the PSI Boot Camp Initiative assaulted an instructor after months of resistance and difficulty, and as such we decided that it would be best to return her to you, her guardian.” The gieeg standing in the doorway tried to hide her concern and frustration, but the trembling hands didn’t help much with that.
“Oh! Thank you for bringing her home, safe and sound. I can take it from here.” She said, pulling Enza in by her wrist and closing the door without another word.
“What is your issue…?!” Enza’s caretaker mumbled, forcing her to sit at the central table. “You assaulted an instructor?!”
“They deserved it!!”
“That is NOT a good reason! Good lord Enza, why can’t you just follow orders…”
“Because I literally can’t!! I don’t have psychic potential, I’m broken!”
“Enza, I was a high ranking officer in Lord Giygas’ army. I struggled just like you, but I put in that extra effort to learn and improve, I worked my ass off to get to where I was. And in the end, I gave up the living I had made for myself to take care of you. I want you to be able to… fight for a good cause…”
“No you don’t, you want me to “carry on your legacy,” you want a-... a trophy to be proud of, something to be able to brag about.” Enza growled, sinking down into her seat. “I’m not you. I’m not like you.”
Enza’s caretaker went silent for a moment.
“...Get out.”
“What?”
“Get out of my house. I have no obligation to keep you.”
Enza could feel her heart pounding in her chest, and she shot up out of her seat. She wanted to break everything her caretaker owned. She wanted to fold her out with a punch to the gut like she had with the instructor. She wanted to scream, she didn’t care if she formed words or not, she just wanted to show her vitriol in any tangible way she could. But she didn’t. She stormed to the metallic locking door, took her claws to the part in the center where the closing shutters met, and pried them apart with all the force her pent up anger provided her. She could hear gears click and pop unnaturally, likely shredding the mechanism that held the door closed. Once she completely destroyed the locking mechanism and got the door open far enough, she slipped through the opening and ran as far as she could.
Feeling her throat begin to close up, Enza slowed down to catch her breath. She felt sick. Her stomach turned, partially from the running, and partially from the thought that she no longer had a home. She wheezed as she collapsed to her knees in the blue, saturn grass, certain she was going to throw up, but nothing ever came. She hadn’t eaten in… at least a day. After getting a hold of herself, she fell over onto her side, still panting heavily.
The fur around her eyes felt damp. She wasn’t crying. She wouldn't cry. She would rather die than let anyone see her like this. Her vision clouded with tears, and she bit her bottom lip in a vain, pointless attempt to hold them back. Pathetic huffs and coughs escaped her mouth as the waterworks poured, and soon she fully gave in.
“Hey,” A strange, bubbly voice spoke up. “Didja get like, hurt or something? Whatcha doing on the ground?”
Well, things just went from bad to worse. The most embarrassing thing possible just happened, someone caught Enza crying. She didn’t even bother to move or stop, she just continued to sob. Maybe they’d see how pathetic and sad she was and just give up.
“Oh… H-hey, don’t cry, um, sorry if it was something I said!” The grass next to Enza crunched, and soon she felt a soft, fleshy appendage touch her shoulder. She wouldn’t dare make eye contact with whoever this was, but she at least had the curiosity to look at what touched her. A blue- no, green- no… teal(?) tentacle was resting on her fuzzy shoulder, and was attached to what looked to be a mook. A common sight on Saturn, and a creature that was hard to avoid eye contact with. “I’m always terrible with words, sometimes I just say things and don’t even realize it… I didn’t accidentally call you something mean, did I? oh, I hope not…”
The mook seemed to not be hostile. Or bothered by her sobbing. Or bothered by her at all, really. Enza hoped she’d just go away, but she never did. Maybe it’d be okay to say something. She wiped away her tears, and composed herself. “N…Nah, you didn’t say anythin’, um… Bad…”
The mook perked up. “Oh, oh! That’s good! I’m relieved.” she then looked at Enza’s body, inspecting it thoroughly, before her eyes landed on a certain spot. “Oh gosh, uh, your wrists…”
Enza raised an eyebrow, and turned her attention to her wrists. Her fur had been matted down by the restraining devices, and the skin beneath was rubbed raw, a concerning, dark color. Now that she noticed it, they stung like hell too… She clenched her teeth, and in a strange way, the pain grounded her. She worked up the motivation to sit up, and look the mook in her eye. God, she probably looked pathetic right now, but she appreciated the mook’s company so much that she didn’t really care. “I’ll be alright, I’m tough.” She muttered, still staring at the raw skin.
“Hey, if you need it, I’ve got LifeUp. I can’t use it very well, but… you know, it might help!” The mook offered, and Enza’s heart sank as she thought about PSI again.
“At least you can use it at all.” Enza grumbled, looking away. “I don’t need it, really.”
“Ah, if you insist.” The mook seemed a little disappointed, and a harsh silence followed. “Oh, look at me, talking all this time without a proper introduction… I’m Machi, I’ve lived here all my life. How about you?”
“I’m Enza. I’m a freak of nature, a gieeg who can’t use PSI.” Enza let her emotions get the better of her as she introduced herself, but in her defense, it was all she could think about.
“Woah, a real life gieeg… I’ve never met one before! Geez, that’s so cool!” Machi exclaimed, her already wide eye widening even more.
“I mean, I can’t even do the thing my species is most well known for…”
“Nah I get it, I’ve never been very proficient with PSI either. I flunked all my training, I’m a dropout, heh…”
“Huh, really? Me too, technically…”
“So, if you don’t mind me asking… how’d you end up here? Don’t most gieegs tend to live on those huge motherships?”
“Eeeeh, there’s more planetbound ones than you’d think. I um, don’t really wanna talk about it though.”
“Do… You have a place to stay?”
“Well… Not anymore…” Enza admitted, shifting her eyes back to the cobalt blue grass.
“If you need it, you can stay back at my place! Y’see, I recently found a second hyberpod for a REALLY good price, but I don’t really have a use for it, besides switching it up some nights. You can totally rest in it if you want!”
What a nutjob this mook was, inviting a stranger into her home, allowing her to stay as long as she wants, even giving her her own place to rest. No one back home would have ever done something like that. She did really need a place to stay, though…
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“Sorry for the long walk. I’m a country girl, I kinda live out in the middle of nowhere.” Machi laughed, looking down at the gieeg. Enza was certainly used to being shorter than everyone, she was abnormally short for someone of her species, but Machi was on another level. It was as if someone took a mook and stretched them out like taffy, she towered above any average gieeg in height.
“It’s all good, I don’t really mind. Maybe some country air will do me some good.”
“See, that’s the spirit! I like you, Enza. You get me.”
As Enza entered the cylindrical home typical of most habitants of Saturn, (besides the few gieegs, who felt the need to create their own, “better” homes) she took in her new home, for the time being. It was small, but that was expected. No overhead lights, instead the whole room was lit by a single, dim, warm-light lamp. A Saturn-tech computer sat on the floor, two Hyberpods were crammed up against the back wall, (one evidently worse for wear than the other) and a dust covered bass guitar sat nearby. There was also a second floor, indicated by the ladder that was affixed to the back wall. “It ain’t much, but… make yourself at home, I suppose! Oh, and if you ever want any snacks or anything, my food stockpile is upstairs.” Machi explained, before casually sitting down at her computer setup and picking up where she had last left off. Enza’s quarters back at the PSI Boot Camp Initiative were definitely more feature rich, yet Machi’s abode emanated a distinct, lived in atmosphere that made it feel so much more inviting. No harsh, fluorescent lights, no cold metal floors, no blaring messages over the intercom… For the first time in months, Enza felt her shoulders… relax. As she took her first steps forwards, her attention was immediately drawn to the floor.
“...carpet? That’s unique…”
“Oh yeah! I don’t have a desk or a chair, and I know a guy from Jupiter who specializes in flooring. My old metal flooring was really uncomfortable to sit on, so he offered to replace it with carpet! The guy’s great at his job, I don’t know how those Fobbies do it.”
A Fobby who specializes in flooring? Now I’ve heard it all…
Enza took a seat on the surprisingly comfortable carpet, and the exhaustion really set in. She tipped over, landing on her side and closing her eyes. The dim lighting helped so much in letting her finally get some good rest… Maybe things won’t be so bad after all.