"Where do I get a weapon....Where do I get a weapon that can kill that monster?" The Stranger mumbled to himself as he traveled the back alley of the resort.

He clamored up trashcans for tools and tested fallen tree branches, but he always found something to make him second guess himself. "This one is too heavy! This would snap in half and make me look like a fool! I have to kill him in just one shot. If I mess this up, I'm dead, and I'll be responsible for everyone Ray kills in the future!" He doesn't notice the person sneaking up behind him as he pulls more trash out.

He couldn't believe that he found him randomly in a alley. The thought of the cekeki wouldn't leave him alone since that fateful night, and now he can finally find out where he's ended up. He thought about turning around, but the very loud crushing sound that came from whatever trash he stepped on had other plans.

The Stranger jumps, throwing whatever trash he has to the floor. He tried to look presentable, to seem normal, but he just came off as more unhinged if anything. "O-Oh Joshua! Nice to see you in this delightful.....alleyway." The Stranger struggles to think of what to say.

"You.....you shouldn't be back here. Shouldn't be talking to a guy like me. You know, there's nothing but terrible people who come back here. Terrible people and the workers who take out the trash anyway. I'm sure they're fine guys really. What I'm trying to say is you should be scared of me. Never know what a guy like me could do, you know? Cekekis are always causing trouble!"

"Sorry for talking so much. I need to talk less. I need to shut up and just do what needs to be done!"

"Oh no, it's alright, you're already treating me much better than most...."

"In an unrelated question. You wouldn't know how to kill a man quickly, would you?"

"I'm not very sure, I've always tried to avoid killing people. If I had to say though, probably something better than a stick...maybe a real weapon..." Joshua thinks for a moment, he thinks back to that strange alien on the boat, "...some sort of gun?"

"A gun, of course! I need a gun!"

"Of course, understand, you shouldn't be answering such horrid questions like that. You can get yourself entangled in all sorts of horrible things by doing that! You don't know who I am!"

"That being said, you are just answering a question, that's not bad in itself. I just believe you should avoid chatting with bad people. Yes?.... You don't look too well Joshua, is there something wrong?"

The Stranger approaches Joshua but halts in his tracks. "Oh, no, don't answer that. You should find someone who actually cares to talk to. I have come to terms that I don't care about people. I just believe I care."

"I've been thinking about my actions recently. You know when we were at that beach, and that awful little child threatened you and your husband? I offered to help. To be bait."

"Truth is. I didn't care about you at all."

"This whole time, I was thinking about maybe you giving me a thank you? A piece of appreciation. If you do things for people for even the faintest recognition, are you a good person? I know I'm not."

"I thought about it really hard over the course of all this time. Ever since Pa got....killed! He was killed on that day and I did nothing! Maybe if there was a reward in it for me, I would have prevented it. I'll do anything for recognition, attention, this is very much true, Joshua! Your "friend" here has never cared about you one bit. Only about what you could give him!"

"Here I am, chatting with you right now, and see how I have twisted this conversation? Approached you to ask how you are doing, and now I am talking about myself."

"Now you can see I am bad person! This is why I never talked much before. Because I open my mouth and I talk too much, and it is then that people realize I am a monster. A true wolf in sheep's clothing, my friend."

"Once I stopped talking as much, then people couldn't tell I was bad, so I was able to fool myself for years on how good of a person I was, but now the truth, it's everywhere!"

The Stranger goes silent for a moment.

"Pa has a gun."

"Pa had a gun." He corrects.

"Thanks for listening to me. No need to speak, I know I've spoken over you. Enjoy the rest of your day. I'm off to do what needs to be done."

"A bad person can do bad things to a bad person. He will not be redeemed for doing it, but maybe he can get some ounce of satisfaction.....I'll be happier when Ray is dead. Everyone will." Stranger starts his way out of the alleyway.

"Hey, wai- ah..." Joshua had outstreched his arm to Stranger, but he lowered his arm as he watched him leave.

He, huffs and then walks after him, "you....I uh..."Joshua starts looking for the words he wants to say.

The Stranger turns around to look at Joshua. "Joshua....Are you a bad person?"

Joshua pauses, he stares right at him, everything else he wanted to say leaves him completely, "Everybody treats me like one. I've done nothing but cry, but and now I am a monster to everybody. I'm sorry."

The Stranger sighs. Memories of the conversation he had on that horrid ship flashes in his mind.

"It's a simple question, Joshua. A yes, or a no. Are you a bad person?"

"I am!!!I'll kill someone someday and I won't be able to stop it!" Joshua covers his face, "I'm sorry, you can leave."

The Stranger snaps at Joshua. Nearly biting him. "You're a liar! You haven't done a single bad thing yet!"

"Are you trying to sympathize with me? That's the kind of attitude that will MAKE YOU A BAD PERSON, JOSHUA!"

"If you know what's best for you. You'll stay away from bad people." The Stranger advances towards Joshua.

"And you'll fix that dirty, filthy, attitude you have before it gets you in trouble! Have a little less pity for a bad tempered stranger!" The Stranger shoots Joshua one last piercing look before leaving.

Herr sniffs the air as the door to his office is opened. He knows this scent. It's a safe one.

Herr has become accustomed to hiding under the desk. He knows if he doesn't, most of the people will kick him, hit him with whatever is in their hands just to keep him away. He doesn't know why, but for the first time since he was locked in here, the Stranger, his beloved Stranger had come back! He throws himself out from behind the desk. "Raaaasnarl!!!" (Pal, you're back! I was worried Ray got rid of you!)

The Stranger shudders at the creature that had replaced his father. The disgusting growling beast that nearly ate him before. ("Keep to your wits, Stranger. Keep to your wits. He's nothing but an animal now.") The Stranger holds a pipe he found in the trash. A defense against the monster in the office.

"Gnarf....hhhhh..." (Sorry, I'm drooling. It's hard to stop.) Herr tries to wipe the drool off his face to look more presentable.

The Stranger watches in horror as his Pa thrashes around the room, seemingly trying to peel off the device off his head. He wants to run. He wants to forget that this ever happened, but he needs that gun.

He looks around, making sure to avoid eye contact with the animal. "Oooh, where did Pa keep the gun?....."

"Rakekekeke...krkrk...!" (The gun is to the left safe. Uh......Left. Sorry it's...hard to point. Hope this makes sense....)

In a split second, that vermin in the room had screamed, approaching the Stranger while stomping one of its hands against the floor.

Herr thinks the situation over, moving closer and holding out a hand to the Stranger. "Kkkkeeerrrsss ra ra ra?" (What do you need a gun for anyway, buddy?)

The Stranger drops his pipe on the floor in fear as the grotesque hands of the creature touches his skin, grabbing at him. "I...I....S...Ssss...."

The pipe had rolled too far away. He was defenseless.

Herr carefully picks up the Stranger. "RAAA! Rrrraaaaa. Mmmr?" (Look, I know you're scared, but it's me! I'm not going to hurt you. See?)

The Stranger fights against the grip of the beast. He tries to call for help, but can't open his mouth. The gnashing teeth in front of him terrifies him to his core.

But as he stares into the face of the monster, a sudden calmness comes over him. He finally understands what's going on, and what he needs to do.

"GET-GET AWAY! BAD ANIMAL! LET ME GO YOU UGLY FILTHY MISERABLE BEAST!" The Stranger pushes against the creature as he screams.

Herr drops the Stranger and backs away. "Raaa....." (I'm only.....)

The Stranger snaps forward. "KEEP GOING! GO! BACK! NOW!"

Herr grabs his antennas and pulls them through his mouth as he backs away, slinking under the desk. "Mmrrr raam...." (...dirty because no one will clean me.....)

Stranger holds his ground, huffing until the beast retreats.

...and then he runs away, slamming the door behind him. He runs out of the ZooCorp building, tears welling in his eyes as he dodges concerned co-workers, until just outside of the building he slams into the legs of someone.

Cowboy looks down at the Stranger. "Are you ok?"

"DO I LOOK OK, YOU STUPID AUTOMATRON?!?! THE WORLD, NAY, THE UNIVERSE IS CONSPIRING AGAINST ME! My life...it only took a WEEK for my life to fall apart! My Pa is a monster, everyone hates me, my workplace is falling apart, there's a monster on the street who is going to kill me, and I couldn't even grab a STUPID GUN TO DEFEND MYSELF!"

The AI blinks blankly, as if he's not even listening to the cekeki for most of the rant, until he gets to that last point.

"Gun! You need a gun? Then this is your lucky day!"

"DID YOU HEAR A SINGLE WORD I SAID? THIS IS ONE OF THE WORSE DAYS OF-" Cowboy kneels down and dangles a gun in front of the Stranger's face.

"Do you need a gun? It's a simple question. A yes or no."

"I....." The Stranger panics, looking through his inventory. "Yes. I want it. I need it. I have to have it. Just...I...I don't have anything to pay you...ahh.." He pulls out some anomalous metal, the currency that ZooCorp pays its employees with. "It's not much but-"

Cowboy drops the gun and grabs the metal from the Stranger. "Looks good to me. Bye!"

"You...You don't even know what I'm going to use-"

Cowboy is already walking away. "Don't care!"

The Stranger starts to check the weapon the shawled robot gave him. He worried about being ripped off, that somehow the gun was faulty, or perhaps he would need to get some sort of bullets.

But, no, it was all there. Six bullets in the chamber, and the gun looked flawless, far better than his Pa's gun. But...did it work..? He's always been too scared to use a gun before....

"Hhhh....." The Stranger looks around, making sure he didn't shoot anyone. He races, looking for where the bullet might have gone. He doesn't see signs of the bullet, but also no one hurt. "Aaaah...Careful. Careful....." He fumbled with the gun, as if it could attack on its own.

"Only five bullets left......"

"YOU.....YOU GAVE HIM A GUN!?!"

"What the quest asked for, yep."

"You don't even know what the quest is about!"

"Yeah I don't really care either." Cowboy tilts his head in thought.

"You know, I thought to myself when we started this session. "Hmmmm you know, what would Cargo look like if that guy was a cekeki?""

"Why would you ever imagine that.......?"

"Cause I don't really care about whatever is going on in the game, but I do care about the people I play with, and I like to think about what they put in this game."

"No one just makes stuff that isn't attached to them. They're always making stuff that relates to them. You peel back enough layers and you can see bits and pieces of them in it. Sometimes, it's totally surface level."

"This is TYPICAL cop profiling, you know that, right?"

"Not a cop, but ok."

"Whatever! It's not like there's much of me in this! I made cekekis......back when..... The whole stupid incident never happened! You won't find You Know Who in this!"

"Yeah, but the other incident happened way before you made the cekekis right?"

"They're nothing alike. Nothing."

"You already mentioned yourself that Ray is based on something that happened before. That cekekis are all a metaphor."

"A metaphor for this horrible world!"

"Mmmm I think the whole "work can be life draining," metaphor is totally surface level. They'd be simpler characters if they were just that."

"How would you even know? You don't even read the story!"

"And if so, what do your actions mean here? Huuuuuuh? Kind of screwed up that you just gave that poor old Stranger a gun!"

"Nah. It wasn't."

"Stranger is fake."

"You're real."

"I don't need to read the story." Cowboy waves his hand in front of his face. "I'm more interested in the real story, you know?"

"Well you're not getting it anytime soon."

"I can wait."

"Like a cop staking out someones house until they finally throw the evidence out in the trash, you have nothing better to do but hover over me until I try to get rid of my guts."

"ONE DAY, EVERYONE IS GOING TO REALIZE YOU'RE THE TYPE OF FREAK WHOSE CATEGORIZING EVERYTHING SO YOU CAN CONNECT IT TO SOME GREATER THING. I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOUR END GOAL IS HERE! WHAT CRIME ARE YOU TRYING TO SOLVE?"

"Sounds more like you honestly. I got no foot in whatever race you think I'm in."

"I just like helping my friends work through things cause I have nothing better going on."

"I don't believe you."

"But do you trust me?"

"I guess...."

"Then that's all I need."