"And this little beaten down office building is ZooCorp! They used to make carpets and high quality fabrics!"

Madam doesn't glance up from her typing at the front desk. "Welcome to ZooCorp. How can we help you?"

"We're looking to buy some cekeki meat for our lunch!" Lulove chimes.

Madam slowly raises her eyes to meet the owners of the resort. The question was not one she's been asked before. She cuts in with a harsh biting "From who?"

Lulove shrinks, realizing that somehow her way of asking must have been inappropriate. She looks to Raloud for assistance, and her partner sharply replies:

"Don't give her that kind of look! We've brought cekeki meat before! You cekekis eat each other, it's not that strange that someone might want to eat the animal form of your kind as well! Ray's my supplier. He's been offering the good stuff for the last two days! We ain't eating people. Damn!"

"Ray's been selling you cekeki meat?"

Raloud motions with her hands to show off how big the cekeki's she's been given. "Whole cekeki. Tail, head, and all! They don't move, they only make these tiny clicking noises."

Monsieur has been staring at Madam for the last minute, but has said nothing.

Madam's face twists into an uncomfortable expression. Her mouth is dry. Her mind races. She doesn't know where those cekekis are coming from. She doesn't have time to speak as Ray, hearing the commotion, trots in, dragging one of the cekekis Herr had been protecting from the office when he was in better shape. "You know, you should be texting me an hour or two BEFORE walking into the office. You're just going to text me a casual "walking in now, have a cekeki ready :)" like it's nothing? You know you're going to be paying extra for this, right?" Ray grumbles as he points his cig at the resort owner.

Raloud huffs. "Yeah, yeah! I'm sorry, geez." She gently grabs the cekeki, wrapping it in paper like any other slab of meat. It does not wiggle. It only clicks ever so slightly, muffled under its new cocoon.

She grins at her guests. "This shit is the best meal on this planet! Maybe it's cause I'm anomalous, but these things are ten times juicier and tender than sea cekekis. Lots of fat on them!"

With strange calm, almost practiced, he asks Ray as the Owners simply accept the carcass: "What was their name? What life did they live, to your knowledge? Surely you would know, handling them as such."

He adds, "Excuse me that I ask you sate my hunger twofold."

Madam doesn't wait for Ray to respond. She hisses- "Ray wouldn't know anything about them."

Ray takes a long drag of his cig.

"Shut it, bitch. Don't get fucking high and mighty with me now. You would have eaten them too if Herr didn't get in the way. Don't you lie." He rolls the cig between his fingers, his eyes darting to Apixus.

"Guy who likes to know his meals before he dines, aye? Me too. Her name was Brita. She worked on checking the fabrics for errors and finding out how the machine responded to certain items being shoved in it."

"Hard worker. Too hard. It was fucking annoying. I'd have to wait about two hours after work if I wanted to track her steps. No life outside of work. Sat in her house trying to pick up hobbies and never fucking able to do any of them. Suffering thing. No future but work. Would spend her money on hobbies that never gave her a shred of joy."

"Nearly ate her myself, but ole Herr, our now indisposed boss snapped her up to "save her." before I could."

"Enjoy the meat."

"It's a good piece. Not the best I got, but it's good. Come to me if you want to buy some more."

"I'd be more than happy to tell a man of class the story of every piece for sale."

"Thank you for humoring me, heheh, even if I do not wholly agree with how you seem to phrase things. I nonetheless appreciate that you remember it at all." He extends his arm out to shake in a familiar motion.

Ray shakes Apixus' hand. "Likewise. Always glad to meet another man who wants to know where his meat comes from."

"Wow...! You care so much about them! It must be nice knowing there's someone around keeping track of you! Everybody probably feels so safe around here!"

"Hmmp. Would be nice if my care was appreciated around here."

"If we're done here, we can get lunch served up. We'll have to eat at one of our bars, but I can assure you all of our barmen are fine cooks."

After the thick air... Pangs doesn't add anything. There's nothing to say. In pursuit of eating, they'd be going on their way. Offering a hand to Apixus, they'd leave.

Even when the visitors leave and the office slowly returned back to normal, Madam fumes there, licking her emotional wounds.

Ray excepted Madam to yell at him, and almost becomes insulted when she didn't. "You're not going to say anything?"

But it is Monsieur who answers. "You should not be selling those cekekis." Monsieur gently places a single hand on the desk-

-but the way Ray reels back, makes it feel like Monsieur pounded the desk with a closed fist. "W-What? But they're just sitting there, ain't doing nothing but gather dust!"

"If you took my shells away from me without asking. I would not be happy."

"You have not asked Herr if you could have them."

"Don't you think it's dumb he's keeping all this juicy energy to himself?"

"Maybe."

"You think my shells are dumb."

"That's different!"

"No it is not."

"Where else am I going to get cekeki meat to sell, huh? You think I'm selling these things for fun? Gotta make some more money you know. Gotta keep myself safe and cozy in uncertain times."

"Sell the cekeki bodies in my apartment. I do not want them in there."

"What do you mean there's a body in your apartment?"

"Bodies."

Ray is shocked into silence, and Madam can hardly believe him. "Monsieur, what happened?"

"Mother died yesterday."

"Or maybe the day before."

"I can't be sure." Monsieur willingly hops to the floor, walking by himself out of ZooCorp.

"It will be easier to explain the second body when you see it."

Madam peers around but there was no sign of Mere, nor this other body Monsieur spoke about. She hoped there was some sort of misunderstanding. She motioned her hand, trying to come up with a question, but all she could say was- "Are you ok?"

"....................I suppose I am."

Ray knows something is wrong. "Where. Did. Your. Mother. Go? You sure as hell didn't eat her."

"She was here this morning, with the other body. The Stranger came into my house. He started to scream at me. Point wildly. He accused me over and over of seeing my mother as trash."

"I tried to close my eyes and ignore it, but the sun was getting in through the window because Mere was not there to stop it."

"Is that your excuse? That'd you kill a poor man over a bit of sun in your eyes?"

Monsieur holds his hands out, as if to prepare to offer an excuse. "It doesn't make sense, but it is true."

"Funny. You're a funny man, Monsieur." The large invader takes a few steps towards the group. Madam holds on tightly to Monsieur, baring her fangs as a warning.

The cekeki snaps at Madam. "You hold a self accused murderer in your hands! You protect him more than you would do any victim, I'm sure!"

"But can I really judge you? I'm sure if someone I loved was accused, I'd defend them as well. I'd lie. I'd cheat. I'd do anything in this world to make sure they're not punished for what they've done."

"But that's because I'm a bad person, Madam. Are you?"

"Who are you?" Madam snaps.

"I HAD a name, and a life, but you all just saw me as a Stranger. Someone to ignore. A background element to your lives. You all hated me with every fiber of your little hearts. Talked about me behind closed doors, unaware that I was sitting just outside of them."

"Now you're in court. You're staring at a jury of your peers, and realizing-"

"I recommend you run. You run, and hope I never find you again. Disappear, because when I catch up to you two, my judgement will be clear. Bad people like you deserve punishment by bad people like me."

"But I have someone else. A person who caused all of this that I need to remove first. A person that SHOULD have been punished AGES ago!" The Judge glances at Ray, who has already sprinted to escape.

Ray knows the best place to run. Into the public's eye. While terrified, he keeps himself steady.
It's morning.
Broad daylight, not a cloud in the sky.
Once the public sees someone getting attacked, they'd save him. That's why he never hunted until the sun went down.

Ray yelped out for help. Many turned their head to Ray, and then saw the shadow of Judgement following him. Some would look horrified, but wouldn't make a move. Their lives weren't worth the danger of helping someone they didn't know. Ray was becoming lightheaded.

It was broad daylight and there were at least a 100 eyes that saw his cries, and not a single one jumped into help.

He even could swear he saw a co-worker or two grin at him being chased.

"This is what good people want, Ray! They want to see horrible people rip each other apart, and today is your day!"

Ray doesn't respond. He can't even feel his voice anymore. He could only think of one place to hide. Escaping to the port he climbs up Naut's ship using the rope, barely taking a second to look down at the Judge struggle against his large size.

Maybe Ray couldn't trust in the public to help him, but a pal could never deny him. He runs to Cazkade's workshop, opens up the hatch of a machine and breathlessly begs to his "pal." "Look pal, if anyone asks, I'm not fucking here. You got that?"

"Don't think it's a good idea to hide in the fuel tank. You're pretty oily."

"It's empty. I'll be fine as long as you don't rat me out, you got it?"

Caz sits there tools in hand as Ray shuts the door. The machine Ray had just entered was part of the machine Ray had given them before. Cazkade had be slowly piecing it together, part by part to add to his mech. This part was almost done. It just needed fuel.

The Judge breaks into the workshop, he spins his head around, teeth bared.

But he suddenly becomes somber as he looks towards Cazkade. "Apologizes, Krell. But have you seen a cekeki, small and oily? He has committed a few crimes and needs to be judged accordingly."

"Sorry. Heard something running around the ship, but it didn't come here."

"Sorry for interrupting you. I hope your project goes well." The Judge leaves, for he had no reason to believe Cazkade was a bad person.

And until this moment, Cazkade had no reason to believe they were either. There's a banging coming from the machine. A hissing from a part that isn't mechanical.

"H-hey pal.....haha---ha! Nice joke you pulled. When I get fucking out of here. I'm going to burn you alive. I'm going to make sure your skin is turned to god damn ashes before you die. I ain't ever going to fucking forget this."