Captain Naut's ship comes back into port as the sun sets. Him, his crew, and two guests step down its steps. "Hope the Honey Moon was nice!"

"It's a shame the company that planned this trip for you couldn't send a single representative to meet you, but I understand they're in a bit of a mess right now."

"Perhaps I could bring you two lovebirds to a bar. That'd be quite exciting, a fine way to round out the night!"

The Stranger sat quietly on a box. He had a clipboard out, for getting a review for the plans Zoo Corp had setup. He couldn't imagine the reviews would be pretty, after all, the whole Honey Moon had to be rushed after the...

...incident. The Stranger sighed and considered just not saying anything, not doing anything, that's all he was good at after all.

"Oh yeah that sounds nice! I don't really drink but I'm sure it'll still be fun!"

Joshua stares at the Stranger, trying to decide what to say to him. He decides that he will say nothing for now.

"Oh, hell yeah brother, okay!" He replied to Naut, seeming chuffed from the trip as a whole.

The Stranger couldn't believe that Joshua looked his way and didn't say anything. Was something wrong with him? Did something change? Could Joshua tell that he had become Bad?

The Stranger thinks of all the Bad People he knows. They're all obvious.

He tries to put on a smile on so he could walk up to Joshua and show him how Good of a Person he was. But he could feel like. How forced his smile was. So this is how Bad People feel?

His smile dies down, and he grabs his clipboard. He doesn't try to cover up how Bad he is. He slumps to the ground, trotting with his belly dragging across the floor. "Zoo Corp is happy to see you return from your trip safely. Can you rate our service?" He states, holding the clipboard out.

"You people didn't show up to the trip."

"Not that I can blame ye....."

"We apologize for our Bad service, but we understand if we cannot be forgiven. Bad service is unforgivable."

"Well I thought it was nice! It didn't really matter if anyone else came on I just really enjoyed the experience of being on the sea! I'll rate it the highest it can go!"

"Also, it's good to see you again...hello!"

The Stranger writes down the review. "You're too kind towards Bad service. You should be careful about such an outlook. Someone will abuse that one day." He taps his clipboard.

"It's more like the lad is rating the trip, instead of anything your company offered!"

The Stranger places the clipboard in his inventory. "Well the review is finished. Not as if it'll help."

"Doomed. We're doomed."

"It's not like your old man is dead."

"He basically is! Stop trying to make me feel better!" The small cekeki hisses.

"Pa isn't in there anymore!"

"Ah..." Joshua looks at Stranger and then at Naut, "Did something happen? You don't have to tell me of course, I feel responsible for it being dug up in the first place..."

"Ah, well I'm not in the business of talking about this sort of thing...." Thankfully, Naut wouldn't have to. The Stranger yelled out his woes.

"I misjudged the people at my work! I thought at least most of them were good people, and they all conspired to do everything in their power to hurt the nicest person I knew!"

"I asked that Monster, I asked him, are you a Good Person, or a Bad Person, and he lied to me! I saw him talking to Ray, and Ray is the worst person I know! Then Madam, Madam told me she had fights with Pa before, but I thought with her nice smile, she had to be a Good Person.....Bad people can't fake their smiles very well, but she can!"

"And then there's me, who knew something was wrong, knew Pa should have never gotten between those two awful people, and now, now he's dead!"

"He's not dead, per say."

"He's worse than dead, then!"

"I walked up to him this morning, an he opened his mouth and m-moved towards me! Like he was going to eat me!"

"It would be BETTER if Pa was DEAD than a MONSTER!"

Joshua was bewildered at how Stranger was acting and about the series of events he described, there was that part of him that just wanted to tell Stranger it probably wasn't his fault, that these things happen. It works most of the time at the call center, but there was that feeling that it wont this time.

So he quietly and softly asks another question, "Who was your dad..?"

"You don't even know him?! It doesn't matter! It doesn't matter who my Pa is. He's DEAD!"

"Telling you who he WAS, isn't worth it! You would just suffer the same fate of realizing he's NOTHING now."

"He was the carpet salesmen, you may have met him once or twice. He was...well, as far as I know, still is, the Zookeeper."

"Oh, I did! He was so sweet, he cared for those cekekis who couldn't talk anymore."

"SHUT UP!" Stranger snaps at Joshua.

"Don't remind me of....of...the person who is gone! He...."

"He was...was the only person who took care of the cekekis who couldn't talk anymore." The Stranger wipes tears forming in his eyes. "And now who is going to take care of him now that he can't talk anymore?"

"No one. Because there isn't a single other cekeki out there who can care like he did. Understand the feelings of our departed.....but still "living" co-workers. He's not even a toy like them...He's huge....he doesn't click at anomalies like they do. He only snarls and...moves....weirdly when you try to approach him."

The Stranger points to Captain Naut. "This is YOUR FAULT!"

"What is my fault?! It's YOUR co-workers who attacked my friend! I only saved his bloody life!"

"You shouldn't have done that."

"You should have let him die with dignity! He was drunk! He was happy! Now YOU made him suffer!"

Joshua stared out, "I understand Stranger, becoming a monster when you're really supposed to die. It's horrible."

"I'm sure someone out there can care for your Pa, maybe you. You feel like he's dead, but I'm sure you still love him."

"I still love him?"

"Could you love someone who snaps at you every time you peek into their room? Could you? Someone who everyone is scared of?"

"Go ahead! Tell me what YOU would do in MY POSITION! A small, cekeki, looking down the MOUTH of your good ole Pa who is 20 times your size!"

"Tell me YOU would love YOUR Pa all the same!" The Stranger screams.

"I would, I had a human friend before. I still loved her even when I watched her destroy everyone and everything in her path. It wasn't her fault, sometimes horrible things happen to people and it makes them do things they never wanted to. If she stayed a monster, I would of still loved her, I would of tried my best to keep her and everyone else safe."

"I'm not you though, I'm very sorry to assume you would do the same."

"You....loved your friend even as she destroyed everyone and everything in her path?"

The Stranger jumps off the crate, turning away from the group. "If Pa started to kill people....."

"I'd have to kill him! It is what is RIGHT!"

"You did a hack job on Pa! You said his emotions and memory wouldn't be affected!" Stranger barks at Naut, his tail thumping angrily on the floor.

"It shouldn't have! A bit of motor control issues, a hard time talking, but nothing else should have been affected! I told you one cannot be 100% sure about these things! The surgery had to be done then and there. Issues can arise!"

"You should have never given me hope. Pa is going to rot in his office if no one kills him."

Joshua stares at nothing for a while more. It's true, he never did stop her, and every day it kills him to think about it. What will happen to those poor cekekis if he gets to them? He'll eat them all, "I-I can do it, to make up for letting all of this happen and upsetting you so much. If you want me to of course."

".........................."

"Ye a human! Could your mind even take a fight without going mad yourself?"

"I want to say yes. But is it Bad to say yes? To agree to kill Pa. I want to be Good, and...killing Pa would be Good, right?"

"Good or Bad, what does it matter, Lad? It's all Bad above the sea!"

"It's...all bad above the sea?"

"Think about it, lad! Would this have happened if cekekis weren't forced to work as if they were dirt below the feet of others? Society is a rotten thing. Barely any good people, and those who are good, are mauled to death by those who are bad!"

"Good people do good things for good people. Bad people do bad things to anyone they can get their hands on."

"You wouldn't have to suffer, if you just realized you could just be a bad person! A good person cannot be bad to a bad person...."

"Good people do good things to good people....
Bad people do bad things to bad people....."

"Be your own judge, lad! You want something to happen? You want GOOD people to be protected? Then be the baddest of them all!"

"Be my own judge....."

"Pa would be here, if someone just killed those terrible people before!"

"Like....Like Ray! He always talked about how he hoped something would happen to Ray, but he was too good of a person to do anything...."

"....when he could have crushed Ray between his jaws at any time. Stopped all the terrible things Ray did...if only he was a Bad Person."

"Someone needs to be a bad person."

"And that person is going to be me. I will be the person who judges." Stranger begins to wander away, into the night.

"And how do you think a small thing like you will manage this?"

"Ray's quite small."

"I'm told he catches people by surprise."

"Oh hohoho! If I'm going to be a bad person, I might as well learn from the best!" The Stranger grinds the stem of the sickly wheat in his mouth. "All gloves are off, fine chaps!" The Stranger sings.

"Don't worry. As long as you stay good people, you won't have to worry about a single thing! I only have one type of person I'm going to go for!"

"Horrible, nasty, disgusting people who should have been disposed of ages ago." The Stranger lowers his head as he leaves the docks.

"Good to see more people for the cause! I'm tired of good people getting trampled."

"I realized myself that being a good person, asking politely for people to stop being horrible to the innocent animals of this world wasn't getting me anywhere."

"But you start blasting folks apart?"

"That's when everyone wants to listen. Got to be a bad person to get what you want from bad people."

"We still going to the bar, land legs, or has this killed your thirst?"

Cassius was never particularly good at deescalating situations like these, whenever he or anyone else was upset he would just leave... So he was just standing there the whole time, silent. Afraid he might ruin the moment further. A part of him wanted to ask when they were going to the pub. Or if they could go back to sea. He missed the seabirds... He sat there in his mind until Naut merrily asked what to do then. "The bar, uh, yeah. The bar! A drink would be better now than ever. I think. Okay."

"I shouldn't drink, especially not now... sorry." Joshua doesn't look at Naut when he says this, he doesn't seem to be looking at anything at all.

"Looks like you two love birds can't agree. I think I'll leave you to it then."

"Less rounds for ole Captain Naut to pay for! Hahahahahaha!!!"