Location 059MV part 2

 I mentioned in another post that I might share snippets of the longer pieces from The Agency. Today's post is going to be an excerpt from "Location 059MV" since that one is quite long and one of my favorites that I've written. Enjoy your visit to Midnight Village. 

Location 059MV

Testimony 2001-07-06

Arch. Fuller: Statement of Blair Wells regarding his experience at Location 059MV, recorded direct from subject by Archivist Kris Fuller.

Wells: The Tunnel of Wishes is a boring ride, but I was bored and the lines for everything else were long since it was the Fourth of July so I decided to ride it. It would be good way to cool off and kill time while I waited for the lines to lighten up a bit. So I got in the boat with a family. I don’t know their names. It doesn’t matter, I guess. Everything was good. We went into the tunnel and listened to the animatronics with their stupid earworm “Small World” knockoff crap. The kid, he was about five, loved it.

            It was a normal, boring ride. I was sitting in the back, just waiting for the ride to be over. Then I started looking at the animatronics. I’d never paid much attention to them before. Really, I couldn’t believe they didn’t do better upkeep on them. The animatronics looked…weird. Creepy. Like, maybe it was just the lighting, but their skin looked gray and it looked like they had bags under their eyes, exhausted. Their eyes were also too wide. They all looked scared.

            Anyway, the ride ended and I got off. I noticed that the family with the kid that had been on the ride was kind of in a daze when they got off and wandered away from the ride. The kid wasn’t with them. I thought that was odd, but figured the kid was probably trying to hide on the boat to get another go around without having to get back in line. Whatever. Not my kid, not my problem.

            I went on a couple more rides, then decided to get a mooncake and call it a day. I got a mooncake, then went on the Tunnel of Wishes again to eat it and unwind. I ate my mooncake and went through the ride. While there, I noticed one animatronic that looked afraid, like they’d been crying, and an awful lot like the kid from earlier. That animatronic looked right at me and I swear it was the same kid. I swear it was looking at me and silently begging me to help. But then the ride was over and I went home.

            I saw the kid’s picture on the news later. He was missing and his parents were asking anyone with any information to come forward. They said the last time they saw him was when they were in line at Dragon Mountain, which is where they went after the Tunnel of Wishes. So, they were wrong about where they last saw him. I figured they thought that he was with them until then.

            The next day, I saw on the news that a body was found and the parents were grieving, thanking everyone for their support. The owner of the park paid for the funeral which I thought was kind of a nice thing. Anyway, that’s all there is to it. Some spooky animatronic that looked like the missing, now dead, kid.

Arch. Fuller: Statement ends. The owner of Location 059MV did indeed pay for the funeral and the accounts show that this family is receiving a stipend. The custodians have reported that they have seen the kid in question in the Tunnel of Wishes. It would seem he is part of the ride he loved so much.

Testimony 2002-12-29

Arch. Fuller: Statement of Bella Chapman regarding her experience in Location 059MV during Christmas of 2002, recorded direct from subject by Archivist Kris Fuller.

Chapman: It was supposed to be a fun vacation. Just me, my parents, and my little siblings. Besides, Midnight Village looks amazing when it’s decorated for Christmas. The lights, the snow, the lanterns in Lunafair. Midnight Village at Christmas was a family tradition. Used to it, it would be me and my parents—Christine and Jack, but then they had my little siblings—Jessica and Valerie—and I was a little bitter. This was our thing, and I didn’t like sharing this with two spoiled brats. It was awful, visiting there with them as babies. It got even worse as they got older. Constantly having to do things they wanted to do, not having my parents to ride with me on the things I wanted to go on. Couldn’t even get close to Terror Land anymore because of them.

            We were on our way over to the Tunnel of Wishes for the fifth time that day when I saw the figure. I’m used to seeing the bunny girls who hand out mooncakes. They aren’t very dressed up, just cute clothes and rabbit ears. I’m also used to seeing the dragon dancers sometimes. This person, who I saw at a distance, seemed to be wearing a suit like a mascot. Like an Easter Bunny suit. Even at a distance, I could tell something was really off about it. I think…it looked grimy, even from how far away we were. Then I lost sight of him when a crowd passed in front of us. My family didn’t see him, I don’t think, because my parents told me to keep up and the kids started whining that I was taking too long.

            When we got on the boat for the Tunnel of Wishes, I saw the figure again, but still not very close by. Throughout the ride, I was unnerved and jumpy. I can’t explain it, but there was something about him that made me uneasy. While we were on the ride, I saw one of the animatronics that looked like that kid that disappeared a year ago. I thought it was kinda nice that the park added an animatronic to the ride in honor of him.

            It was a boring ride, then we got off and started making our way to the carousel. I still felt uneasy, like I was being watched. We got to the Zodiac and my parents made me ride it with the kids. I couldn’t find a spot near them so I took the first open spot, a horse on the other side. They were on a pair of tigers. The carousel started up and I still felt uneasy. I looked around and I saw the guy in the bunny suit watching the kids as the carousel was in motion. Every time I came back around to see him, he looked closer. I knew that as soon as the ride stopped, I would need to rush over to the kids and keep them away from him. I didn’t want to risk him doing something to them and then my parents deciding that we couldn’t come to Midnight Village anymore. I wasn’t going to let them ruin my family tradition.

            The carousel stopped and I ran to where they should have been. There’s only two tigers and they had been right there when the ride was going. They couldn’t have gotten off, I would have seen them. But they weren’t there. I scanned the crowd and I didn’t see them or the bunny figure. I ran over to my parents and told them I couldn’t find Jessica and Valerie or the bunny man. They looked at each other and told me to calm down and stop making a scene. They told me quietly that Jessica and Valerie weren’t real, they were imaginary friends that I’ve had for years, and this was the first time they’ve heard me talk about a bunny man. I mean, that last bit is true because I’ve never seen that bunny figure before or since. Well, I saw him once more as we were leaving the park.

            I wouldn’t calm down so my parents decided we were leaving for the day. I threw a tantrum. I must have looked a little crazy to anyone who saw me. As we were leaving, I saw the bunny man again. His suit was dingy gray and splattered with blood. He was standing over there, covered in fresh blood, and holding Valerie’s hand. She was crying and covered in blood. That thing was waving at me and grinning. I tried to get my parents to look and they looked, but they just…they looked right at it, but didn’t see it. They told me there was nothing there. I looked at the thing and it just turned and started walking toward the Star Bridge, half-dragging Valerie. The crowd just kind of parted around him, like he was a lamp post or a trash can or something. Like he was just part of the scenery. I don’t even think they saw him.

            My parents are making me talk to a therapist. I keep telling my therapist that I had sisters. I even showed her the pictures on my phone of my sisters and I that I took that day at the park. Or at least, I tried to show her the pictures. When I opened up my gallery, the photos were all either gone or just showed me and my parents. I…I’m not crazy. I had two sisters, Valerie and Jessica, and they went to Midnight Village with me and my parents on Christmas and they vanished after they rode the carousel. We were stalked by someone wearing a dingy bunny suit and he took Valerie, probably killed Jessica. Please, I’m not crazy.

Arch. Fuller: Statement ends. Ms. Chapman’s parents have denied that they had any other children aside from Ms. Chapman; however, given the history of Location 059MV, it is very likely that they did in fact have two other children and do not recall this due to the nature of Location 059MV. So, Location 059MV is home to the executioner and the bunny man. Possibly also disembodied voices of children laughing, if Mr. Griffith’s statement in 1999 is to be believed. Are these entities all working together or just sharing the location? It is too soon to tell and we do not have enough information. Perhaps it might be prudent to have another interview with Mr. Shaw to see if he’s as useful as Superior Read suspects he’ll be.

Arch. Fuller: As of today, December thirty-first, Ms. Chapman has retracted her statement. At Superior Read’s discretion, her previous statement will remain in the box with the other statements from Location 059MV. It is for the best as the retraction of her statement came after the tuition to her private school was paid in full for the remainder of her time there and a savings account in her name was opened up with a substantial sum. Checking her parents’ accounts has also confirmed they received a rather hefty amount from an anonymous source.

Testimony 2003-04-09

Arch. Fuller: Statement of Naomi Parker who was witness to the death of Peter Stewart in Location 059MV, recorded direct from subject by Archivist Kris Fuller.

Parker: I thought it was just a part of the ride, something new they’d added. Anyway, I was riding through Punishment Manor in one of those little carts. I’d been on it before, yeah, but this was my first ride on it this year. It was all kind of the same, really. Standard haunted mansion routine. Floating books, waving curtains, eerie laughter and screams, rattling chains, howls, all that. We entered the outdoor graveyard portion and I saw the gallows. The executioner animatronic was there along with the animatronic victims and a new one—well, I guess that would be Peter Stewart, wouldn’t it. All were screaming and pleading, but Peter’s voice sounded more real than theirs. I thought Midnight Village had gotten a new animatronic and was testing it out. The executioner pulled the lever, the floor dropped out from below them, and they dropped. The other animatronics’ screams cut off, but Peter kept swinging, kicking his feet, gagging, and gasping. I thought it was just something new added to the ride.

            After the ride, I went to the ride operator to mention I was impressed with the quality of the newest animatronic. A mother was already there yelling at him about the animatronic because “it was so lifelike it’ll give my precious angels nightmares.” I told her that she shouldn’t even have kids that young on a ride like this. We started fighting and I didn’t really pay attention to the operator, but I suppose he called security and emergency stopped the ride. Next thing I know after she and I are separated, security goes in there, and one of the guards comes out to tell the operator to call the owner. Security escorted her and me away from the area because we were still fighting.

            I saw on the news later that the man had been identified as Peter Stewart and his death was ruled a suicide. But…he was pleading to be helped, to be freed, and the animatronic executioner pulled the lever anyway. I mean, I get it, it couldn’t be stopped when that’s what it was programed to do, but something seemed off about that. If it were a suicide, why did he plead like that? Okay, I suppose to make everyone think he was an animatronic, but he was also bruised like he’d been beaten first. It just seems strange to me.

Arch. Fuller: Statement ends. Superior Read has informed me that he will be arranging an interview with Luca Shaw again sometime this month that will hopefully shed more light on what occurred with Peter Stewart as well as what happened to the Chapman twins.

And that's the end of that excerpt. In my July 8th post, you'll have another excerpt from "Location 059MV" and get to see more of the strange and unusual events surrounding it. After all, the water park portion of the park hasn't even opened.

A Call for Questions

 So, the past couple of months have been a bit intense: A car accident and Myrrh's surgery in April, a septic tank issue that lasted nearly the entire month of May, and the sudden death of a beloved cousin in Myrrh's family in early June. Given the amount of events happening so close together, it's kind of reasonable why there won't be a long post today about writing project updates or world-building information.

Instead, this is a call to readers to ask questions in the comments that I will answer in my July 1st post. Any questions about The Agency, my writing projects, writing in general, commissions, or anything else I've mentioned in previous posts are welcome. Just comment below and I'll answer them to the best of my abilities. 

 Here is yet another entry from The Agency that I may post another part to. This one was inspired by a chapter from the role-playing series World of Darkness, specifically the book Mysterious Places. The premise of the location and some of the events that happen to people who visit this quarry are taken from there, but the majority of events and the fate those who meddle in the affairs of the quarry are entirely my own. 

Those who remember my post about my favorite characters from The Agency will remember that this entry is one that was listed. "Location 014Q" is the entry where Ewan Marsh is introduced. Ewan may not show up in this post about "Location 014Q" but he does make his appearance in this entry. 

"Location 014Q" also breaks tradition with the other entries. Like I said with "Location 059MV," I may add more to this one. The difference is, "Location 014Q" is planned to have one more entry to it, but I haven't written it yet as that final entry will be co-written with Myrrh. If there is a second post featuring "Location 014Q," it will feature that final entry.

Anyway, hold your breath and dive in to "Location 014Q." Hopefully, the quarry won't keep you. 

Location 014Q

Location Description & History

Location 014Q, a quarry on the outskirts of the small town of Sunby. Currently, it is fenced off with a sign warning against trespassing and claiming that the quarry is under ownership of a corporation known as Verdigris. Custodians of Location 014Q report that the trespassing signs are rather ineffective, especially with teenagers and particularly desperate adults. Despite efforts of custodians, it is still unclear whether Location 014Q is indeed a location or an entity living within in it. After an incident that led to the loss of Custodian Jess Herman, it has been decided that the custodians are no longer permitted to continue investigating this. Location 014Q is listed and categorized as a location until more information is provided by the location itself.

            Location 014Q was able to lure in prey from the surrounding town without much effort until the containment procedures were initiated. Even now, there is not much the custodians can do to prevent victims from wandering there should they be drawn there. The quarry has been there since at least 1910 when the town was founded, though it was initially just a water-filled hole in the ground that served as a local picnic spot in the summers. No one ventured into the water and even plants didn’t grow there. Even before then, there were rumors as the locals are willing to tell anyone who wanted to listen. The rumors were the usual warnings against swimming right after eating and stories of children who drowned, but they needn’t have bothered. No one swam in Location 014Q despite or perhaps because of the deep blue-green water.

            Before custodians took over Location 014Q, they learned a little about the area. Divers had ventured into the water, but grew sick around fifty to fifty-five feet under. No one dove further. The company who owned the area stopped production on it because it was deep enough to curtail advancement. That was when the true rumors of Location 014Q reached the custodians. According to the legends, bleeding into the waters results in a wish being granted. There have been several instances recorded, Testimonies 1990-02-13, 1995-08-09, and 2000-11-03, of people who have made wishes there and had them granted with mixed results. It was mentioned then that draining the waters would cause trouble for the town, though the custodians just assumed this was because they’d lose their local legend and picnic spot, and that no one particularly wanted a working quarry so close to town, which is understandable.

            Initially, custodians attempted to drain the waters. After incidents in the town resulting in ill luck and disaster for many citizens, this was stopped. Custodians then began trying to find out if Location 014Q was an entity or a location proper. Testimony 2016-03-04 details the results of their investigations. Location 014Q remains under the guardianship of custodians disguised as Verdigris employees and those caught trespassing are prosecuted or, in certain cases such as the one conveyed in Testimony 2019-05-17, brought into the employ of the Agency.

Testimony 2016-03-04

Arch. Spears: Statement of Custodian Tanner Guzman regarding Location 014Q and the events that led to the death of Custodian Jess Herman. Whenever you’re ready, Tanner.

Cust. Guzman: Right. Fuck. I just can’t believe that Jess is gone. It all started when we began draining Location 014Q to find out if there was an entity there or not. We didn’t realize that doing this would harm the town. We didn’t realize exactly how it would affect the town. If we had, we wouldn’t have started draining the water. Hell, who am I kidding? We still would have gone through with it, but we would’ve been better prepared. Anyway, we started draining Location 014Q. Several feet of water drained a day. Ballpark, I’d say six feet a day since we’re not working nonstop and also had outdated equipment. I mean, look, you’re using a cassette recorder.

Arch. Spears: Digital doesn’t work well, you know that.

Cust. Guzman: Anyway, we first noticed there were strange things going on when we visited Sunby for food. We didn’t notice anything immediately. No one ever does, do they? Everything’s always so normal until it’s not. We were grabbing a bite to eat at the diner and just enjoying the afternoon. Jess noticed him first. It was a local kid—Andy Clay, I think was his name—who drowned at the local pool a few months ago. We heard about it, of course. Everyone did. But there he was, skulking around the edge of the forest. Pallid, foam on his lips. He looked like he drowned, then just got up, still drowned and dead. We were on our way back to Location 014Q when we passed by the Davenport place. I swear to you, I saw Eden Davenport who killed himself a couple weeks ago standing in the window of that house. He couldn’t have been there, but I saw him. Even from the road I saw the bullet hole in his skull. I asked Jess and she said she saw him too. We stopped by and asked Louise Davenport about her son, mentioned we saw him in the window, and she said she was so grateful to the quarry, it brought her son back and she didn’t even have to bleed for it. She said that he was a little quiet and subdued, shy around visitors, but he was still recovering and would be back to his old self in no time, and she’d let him know we asked about him. We went back to Location 014Q, puzzled. That was against everything that had been established previously. Wishes require blood, that has been a constant rule. You want a wish granted, you have to shed blood into Location 014Q.

These weren’t the only odd occurrences, but they were the most noticeable. I mean, dead people show up suddenly, walking around again, you notice. But no one in town seemed concerned. I mean, Clay seemed intent on staying near the forest and out of sight, but here was Mrs. Davenport living with her formerly dead son who still had the damn bullet hole through his head and acting like it was the most normal thing ever. We were unnerved, but kept draining the quarry. We needed to know if there was something in the water doing these things, granting wishes.

Things...things got worse as the water dropped.

Andrea Lyons lost her hand in a garbage disposal and died of blood loss. Logan Gill hung himself out of the blue. Estrella Moon went to the hospital complaining of a pain in her side and the surgery revealed her favorite arrowhead in her side under a layer of muscle. Lost pets turned up, wild-eyed and feral. Their eyes were different, too. Blue-green instead of whatever they had been. They mostly stuck close to the outskirts, but we’d see them sometimes near Location 014Q. Paris Carr’s head just fucking exploded. Sloane Cunningham, a young man who went missing awhile back, returned, quiet and subdued. His eyes were different, but DNA testing proved he was Sloane Cunningham. His eyes went from dark brown to a blue-green color that still haunts me when I close my eyes. They looked like the fucking water.

Katherine Moore’s cat ended up dead and she blamed Rachel Shaw, her neighbor who never liked the cat. Shaw ended up suffering an allergic reaction that hospitalized her and everyone suspected Moore, even though Moore had no contact with her. Lily Lawrence spontaneously went bald and blamed it on Abby Barnes, a rival cheerleader, and threw a Molotov cocktail into her car at a stoplight. Tatum Galloway was an ex of Lawrence’s. He was bitter over their breakup. That’s not really important. What is important is the fact that Matthew Ross liked Tatum and wanted to be with him. Galloway and Ross ended up together for about a week before Galloway died. Choked on an apple. Paige Edwards, a girl who liked Ross, bragged about how Location 014Q didn’t like gays and that’s why it got rid of Galloway for her. Ross didn’t appreciate this and the cops found Ross sitting on the hood of his car, watching her body sway from the branch he hung her from.

We stopped draining Location 014Q. Slowly, the waters began rising again. But Location 014Q wasn’t done with us yet. It...it wanted to punish us for our attempts to understand it, to get answers it didn’t want us to have.

I don’t...I don’t know why Jess went to Location 014Q that night. It probably called her. I don’t know if it can do that or not. Probably can. It has to lure in victims somehow and stories of the wishes lure in some, but it likely calls to others. Those who won’t come to wish any other way. I woke up when I realized the room was colder than normal. The door was open and Jess was missing. I went outside and saw Jess down at the edge of the water. I walked over and saw the droplets of blood landing in the water, ripples spreading out and disturbing the calm surface. I heard her...I heard her wish. Do you know what she wished for? She wished to know about Location 014Q. She wished for answers. Heh. Even knowing what we know, she still wanted to know the truth.

God, it went so still that night after she spoke. Usually, it would take longer for Location 014Q to grant a wish, but like I said, it wanted to punish us. She looked over at me, eyes wide. She looked right at me as she stepped into the water. I went to the edge and reached for her, tried to get her back, but she kept walking. By the time the others came, she was up to her shoulders. Blue-green, darker under the night sky but still clearly blue-green. Like those damnable eyes Cunningham had and the others that returned. We were getting a boat when she went under. She didn’t drown. She just...slipped below the surface. Her head vanished, ripples from it making their way to the shore and then stopping. There was no noise, no splashing. There was nothing. She was just gone. We still took the boat out, but there was no trace. Nothing. We couldn’t dive. Divers grew ill past fifty or fifty-five feet so that was out. We knew that we wouldn’t find anything. We knew that Jess was gone. We knew that with as much certainty as we knew the rules of wishing. It was just a fact of Location 014Q.

Lorenzo (referring to Custodian Lorenzo Cardenas) asked me what happened and I told him that she wished to know the secrets of Location 014Q. Lorenzo asked if Jess told me anything. I told him that no, she’d had just enough time to realize that she had made a mistake before she walked into the water. She didn’t tell me anything, but she didn’t need to. I could feel the power in the air when she was taken. I felt the threat as fully as if I’d heard it spoken. “Stop your questions or I will claim another. Make a wish for knowledge and I’ll grant it. Be sure you want it before you ask.” I knew that Jess had gotten the answers we wanted and I knew that I didn’t want them anymore.

Arch. Spears: Statement ends. Custodian Guzman returned to work guarding Location 014Q. No further attempts were made to drain Location 014Q and no one again questioned whether it is the location itself that does this or an entity within the water. 

Well, since this is fairly long already, I'll just have to post Ewan's introduction and the final testimony of "Location 014Q" in another post at a later date. I hope you've enjoyed this excerpt as much as I enjoyed writing it. 

Science Fiction Idea: Cultures

 Today, I'm going to mention a little bit about world-building since that's the stage this project is still currently in and focus on the details surrounding the cultures of the alien races from my last post as well as the three main groups of humans: those on Earth, those on space habitats, and those as colonists on other planets. I'm not going to be sharing every minute detail about each culture, but I will share a little.

Amphayan

The culture of the Amphayans might best be described as laid-back. Their eight day week is divided in such a way that four days are considered weekend days which are for relaxation and the pursuit of hobbies rather than work and education. Obviously, some occupations are still working (such as medical) but much like on Earth, Amphayans in the medical field will switch off for their weekends where they still have a four day break, it's just not the traditional weekend days. 

The trees where the Amphayans make their homes also bear fruit, which gets incorporated into the six meals they have per day. The most substantial meals are lunch, dinner, and supper while breakfast, the mid-afternoon snack, and dessert are usually a lighter affair and the most likely to consist of fruit picked right from the branches of their homes. Amphayans are mostly vegetarian, but will eat meat though it doesn't make up the majority of their diet. 

Amphayans are a social race and spend much of their time interacting with others, whether that be other Amphayans, the dwindling population of Naem'i, or humans. As stated previously, the Naem'i are the former host species for the Amphayan larvae but due to a plague, the numbers have been dwindling and the Naem'i are in no condition to be viable hosts. This doesn't mean the Amphayans just write them off or ignore them, however. Amphayans are working on finding a cure, but it is taking awhile. They also still provide homes and care for the Naem'i because they don't just see them as hosts; they see them as family. 

Humans make decent hosts, as far as the Amphayans are concerned. Humans that agree to become hosts can expect to be given upstanding medical care and a new home. It needs to be noted that Amphayans consider it exceptionally wrong to force anyone to be a host and most Amphayans will ask for permission after explaining the pros and cons of being a host. Humans from the colonies or from a space habitat are less likely to agree, but humans from Earth are willing to volunteer, though require more medical care than the others at the offset to get them healthy enough for incubation. 

Of course, Amphayans don't just take humans from Earth to be hosts. Amphayans are well known in the universe for taking humans from Earth just to get them off the planet and provide them a better life than the one they've got. And, again, if the human says they don't want to be a host, they aren't forced into it and are still provided and cared for once on the Amphayan homeworld, especially if they're ill. 

When it comes to the young, Amphayans have an "it takes a village" mentality. A typical small Amphayan family unit is usually made up of the parent Amphayan, any siblings of the parent, at least one Naem'i, the human that acted as host, any family of that human that came with them, and any other Amphayan children that have gone through the larval phase. 

Amphayans have decent trading relations with humans on colonies and with Xethalians. They tolerate the Culicivorans because, while they recognize that the Culicivorans have no control over the fact that they evolved to feast on humans, they don't like it or the fact that Culicivorans will pay the Lunulata to kidnap humans from Earth for them to hunt. The Lunulata are about as close to an enemy as the Amphayans have and it isn't uncommon for a small group of Amphayans to sneak aboard a Lunulata slaver ship and steal any slaves the Lunulata have acquired. 

Culicivoran

Hailing from a tropical homeworld, the Culicivorans are best known for their diet. As mentioned previously, they feast on human blood after their regular prey was almost hunted to extinction. They are an honorable hunter race (very similar to the Yautja of Predator fame), though they don't hunt for trophies or glory. They hunt because they need blood and only human blood will suffice. They do have standards, though, and will not hunt anyone younger than twenty, anyone older than sixty, or anyone suffering from an illness. 

Where the Amphayans believe in raising the children in a large family group, the Culicivorans have a more hands off approach. Culicivoran young are mostly independent as soon as they hatch, though they will watch the adults to learn the finer points of hunting and creating nets from webbing. Once the young have gotten the hang of creating nets, they're allowed on hunts with the adults. In some cases the young ones are able to make their first kill right away, but others aren't as lucky and an adult will step in to assist just to guarantee that the young has a chance.

Despite this hands off approach to child-rearing, Culicivorans do form close-knit groups and will work together, especially during larger hunts or hunts where the humans decide to work together as well. These groups are primarily just formed for hunting and will disband after a successful hunt, then rejoin during the next one. They are also capable of working together to build and pilot spacecraft capable of traveling to other planets, though they prefer not to do this often.

Culicivorans have the best relationship with the Lunulata as the Lunulata are their primary source for humans, but the Culicivorans are perfectly capable of retrieving the humans from Earth themselves. They tolerate the Amphayans simply because the Amphayans leave them be, and the Culicivorans are quite content to be left to their own devices, allowed to hunt and live as they please. They haven't had any interactions with the Xethalians as they've no reason to visit that planet, for the most part, and their homeworld isn't on a normal trade route for the Xethalians. 

Lunulata

Ah, the Lunulata. Intelligent, war-like, and very, very squishy. Being as intelligent as they are, they've built amazing, underwater homes in the shallows of their ocean planet, weapons to aid in their conquering of the Cellthonians, and ships capable of traveling the universe. That said, they never bothered to invent armor since it seemed inconvenient to them due to the amount of time they spend in and under the water. That means that they're constantly leaving their extremely squishy bodies open to attacks, though the only ones really at risk of being injured seriously due to this oversight are the single males that act as slavers, traveling to Earth and stealing humans. 

Aside from the single males, the majority of the Lunulata are content to remain on their homeworld and work in fields such as technology, military advancements, fishing, and hydroponic food production. The Lunulata military, comprised of males and females, hasn't ventured off-planet yet to conquer another world since their war with the Cellthonians has concluded only in recent decades. That said, they are relying on the slavers to keep a look out on their journeys to Earth for any planet that meets their needs (mainly, be a planet of mostly water like their homeworld) so they can expand their reach. 

When it comes to children, the Lunulata have a unique approach. While the children are mostly able to survive on their own from birth, they are very small and unfamiliar with the world as well as Lunulata culture so the parents will educate the children about the dangers of the planet and their language. Lunulata often have several children at once (sometimes six or more), which is good as the Lunulata do believe strongly in survival of both the fittest and the smartest and, while they will spend a little time teaching their children about the dangers of their homeworld (which includes adult Lunulata who will cannibalize the offspring of others), they won't protect them from anything or provide them with food once they're past three months old. At that point, the children are on their own. 

Once a Lunulata has managed to survive into adulthood, they're mostly safe but still run the risk of being cannibalized should they show any kind of weakness, injury, or disease. In the case of single males on slaver ships, injuries happen often. In some cases, they will cannibalize the injured one, but in others, particularly in the case of a group that's been working together for several years, they may abandon the injured one with the Amphayans as they know that Amphayans, despite their hatred for the Lunulata, will not kill one, especially an injured one, and have better medical technology than the Lunulata. 

Lunulata don't have much of a relationship with anyone aside from the Culicivorans and Amphayans, and even that is only the single males. Not all the humans that the Lunulata abduct end up sold to the Culicivorans. Some are taken back to the Lunulata homeworld to work on the coast alongside the Cellthonians and others are sold in slave markets on other planets. That said, not all humans who come across Lunulata find themselves taken as slaves. The Lunulata will, on occasion, interact with humans from colonies or from some space habitats. It also isn't out of the realm of possibility for Lunulata to attend academies with students from other planets, but this is a rare occurrence. 

Xethalian

The race I've done the least amount of world-building for, the Xethalians' homeworld is one with a dense atmosphere and higher gravity than that of Earth. This makes it easier for the Xethalians to remain airborne for longer. Xethalians make their homes in cliffs, scraping away the softer stone of the cliff face with their four extremely sharp and powerful clawed feet. Xethalians are a social race and build their cities in and on cliff faces, much like their homes. While Xethalian homes are nondescript holes into the face of the cliff, cities will sometimes have machinery such as propeller-drill for breaking through the harder rock. The Xethalian spaceships can be found on top of the cliffs. 

Xethalians are social and enjoy traveling the universe, usually as traders or explorers. This is more common with females than males, but there are usually still a fair number of male Xethalians that become spacefaring. They have established trade routes that take them near the Amphayan homeworld, most colonies, several space habitats, and Earth, though they rarely stop at Earth due to the lack of trade goods and pollution. Xethalians will also pass near the Lunulata homeworld, but rarely stop there due to the Lunulata reputation and propensity for enslaving other races. Any trade happening with them takes place on a neutral third party planet. Xethalians, after Amphayans and humans, are the ones most likely to be found on spaceships with other races as they work well with others and are very social. They don't have any particular feelings one way or the other toward Culicivorans because, as a whole, neither group has interacted, though individuals have sometimes crossed paths.

When it comes to children, Xethalians are very hands-on. At least, the fathers are. The mothers leave soon after the eggs are laid, leaving the fathers to incubate the eggs then raise the chicks. This is very similar to cassowaries. The males will raise the chicks as single fathers, caring for and protecting them until they are old enough to survive on their own. The males teach the chicks how to fly when they're about seven years old, then continue to care for them until they are at least sixteen at which point they are considered adults and are able to strike out on their own now that their primary education is finished. Some chicks will remain at home with their fathers for a bit longer while they decide on a career and attempt to find a suitable space for their home. Some will even remain with their fathers once they have chicks of their own, relying on their fathers to show them what to do. Orphaned Xethalian chicks are usually adopted fairly quickly by males who haven't mated, males who weren't able to sire children, or males that just plain weren't interested in mating. 

Earth

A polluted, nearly depleted and devastated planet, Earth has become a scavenger world where everyone is doing what they can to survive. Farming, fishing, and hunting are the primary sources of food and income. Most of the humans that remain on Earth are those who couldn't afford to buy an apartment on a space habitat or weren't able to secure a position on a ship heading to a colony. Due to radiation and pollution, most humans are ill and in debt trying to afford medical care. Their best bets to get off-planet is if they join the military (which will have the added bonus of providing them with money they can send home to their families) or if they're captured by the Lunulata and then rescued by the Amphayans.

Avalon (space habitat)

One of several Stanford torus-style space habitats orbiting Earth, the Avalon is home to 140,000 humans and a varying number of synths (synthetic non-sentient humanoids) that perform the day-to-day maintenance, agriculture, waste removal, and other jobs onboard such as barista, waiter, chef, housekeeping, gardening. Humans onboard the Avalon do not work and spend much of their time lounging, reading, enjoying the parks and artificial lakes, working out, and spending their money on things such as the finest food, the latest fashions, the best medical care, trips to destination colonies, cybernetic enhancements or bio-modifications. Humans that were able to secure a spot on the Avalon are the richest of the rich. 

Zion (colony)

Zion is a relatively new human colony on the moon of a gas giant. It isn't the only colony on the moon; however, it is the only all-human settlement. Zion is mostly a mining community due to the amount of mineral resources available, but also plays host to researchers and farmers as well as families. It should be noted that Zion is one of the few colonies where it is a crime to be gay and non-traditional families aren't accepted. The atmosphere isn't breathable for humans without a breathing apparatus so they stay inside the colony except for when they're boarding a spaceship which will take them to another planet, which sometimes includes Earth as more people are always needed to fulfill the needs of the colony. At the moment, no terraforming can occur because of the other colonies on the planet, but there are discussions between the leaders of each colony regarding this.

So, there you have it: a little about each culture. Now, as I said before, these are just the races that have been worked on and named so far. There are going to be others because it's a big universe. Also, you'll note I mentioned academies that the Lunulata could attend with other races from other planets and the military being a viable option for humans hoping to get off Earth, but I didn't go into any detail about those. That's because those are the subjects for upcoming posts so keep your eyes peeled if you're interested in reading more of my ramblings about this science fiction setting.