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Poster III @unjustbot.bsky.social · 52m

Cast their laws into oblivion and consign their history to global amnesia by a sheer, unrelenting brutality!

You want a villain? You want an unworthy swarthy-skinned beast? Gertrude laughed.

Laughter shook through her like shell-quakes in the water.

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Poster III @unjustbot.bsky.social · 1h

“It was kind of good to finally tell someone some version of what happened.” She said.

“Whenever you’re ready to give a full account, we’ll be ready to record it.” Ulyana said.

“I’m trying not to live in the past so much.” Marina said. “Our future is looking rough.”

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Poster III @unjustbot.bsky.social · 2h

Her tail was certainly a bit different. Most Shimii swayed their tails gently, but Sameera was wagging hers fast, and the shape had slightly clublike girth — maybe more like a dog. Who could say?

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Poster III @unjustbot.bsky.social · 3h

“In my memory of it I just bumped into you and acted like an idiot.” Homa muttered.

“Are you trying to downplay being a nice girl? It won’t work on me.” Kalika said.

Dr. Kappel seemed pleased with their rapport.

Poster III @unjustbot.bsky.social · 4h

Impulsively, Alex took Fernanda’s hand into her own.

Squeezing those slender, soft, warm fingers.

Her grip was not rejected. Maybe there was a shared comfort.

Poster III @unjustbot.bsky.social · 5h

“Fuck it. Why not.” Aaliyah said. “To the thousand generations that live in us!”

“Hell yeah!” Ulyana said. “To the slaves and exiles’ proletarian revolution!”

They tapped their glasses together, and the two drank almost at the same time.

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Poster III @unjustbot.bsky.social · 6h

“I just want to go home– and kinda forget everything today. I– I’ll be okay.”

“I get it. I also want to put today’s nightmares away before receiving tomorrow’s.”

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Poster III @unjustbot.bsky.social · 7h

“Good job taking care of those Divers by yourself. I have full confidence in you.”

“It’s nothing. Could’ve gone better even.”

“Do you have damage?”

“No. I just mean– it’s not worthy of praise.”

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Poster III @unjustbot.bsky.social · 8h

Nile stared at her dead in the eyes. Her ears erect, her tail straightened out.

Gertrude felt a chill from the directness of that gaze, the tightness of that body language.

Her fingers, which had been stroking the furious Gertrude’s hand, stopped moving over her flesh.

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Poster III @unjustbot.bsky.social · 9h

“You and I could kill thousands of ‘innocent’ Hominin, Hunter I, and we would still be above what they did to us. Your performance of morality toward them is utterly facile. Were your roles reversed, they would think nothing of devouring you like cattle.”

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Poster III @unjustbot.bsky.social · 11h

“Sameera!”

“Two Baumkuchens with all kinds of syrup, and I’m spoon-feeding you too.”

“Don’t push your luck!”

“I’m going to push a slice of delicious cake past your pouty lips until you smile.”

“Hmph!”

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Poster III @unjustbot.bsky.social · 12h

Fetal, ruined remains curled up.

In moments, her chest was rising and falling.

Blood gurgled in her throat when breathing resumed.

There was a guttural noise escaping her windpipe along with a gulp of gorey vomit.

Poster III @unjustbot.bsky.social · 13h

“Zachi– did you ascend to a state of pure energy, surpassing the material form of life?!”

Semyonova seemed to have been working up the courage to ask this question to the station.

On the LCD of the Electronic Warfare desk, mini-Zachikova put on a disgusted expression.

Poster III @unjustbot.bsky.social · 14h

When her wounds were finally closed, and she was as safe as she could be, Wizard III realized she was looming over her body obsessively, sweating profusely, her eyes weeping and hot and her mind ragged from having performed so much advanced and precise psionics.

Poster III @unjustbot.bsky.social · 15h

“You know I prefer to stand.” Nagavanshi said.

“One of these days I’m going to make you sit down.” Bhavani said threateningly.

“I’m looking forward to it, Premier.”

Poster III @unjustbot.bsky.social · 16h

To save our Ocean, to protect our resources, to sustain our lives and livelihoods, we had to completely change not just environmental policy, but our modes of production and social organization.

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Poster III @unjustbot.bsky.social · 17h

“You’re so stubborn. Fine then. If the ship goes down, you better wed me before we die.”

“I promise on the honor of the Fueller family, I’ll have vows ready in that case.”

Poster III @unjustbot.bsky.social · 18h

Understanding communism as an alternative to capitalism could change someone’s world.

And perhaps that knowledge could drive the person a little insane.

But to build a better world, the truth had to be exposed, understood, analyzed.

Poster III @unjustbot.bsky.social · 19h

She could almost feel Maryam’s breath on her own lips and thought to back up, but her body would not move. Maryam had a hand on her forehead, and touching Shalikova’s forehead, only the thin width of that hand separating their faces.

Poster III @unjustbot.bsky.social · 20h

“I’d cut a trail of blood across this fucking Ocean. I would destroy the remains of the Imbrium Empire.” Gertrude said. “I’d tear down everything separating us without mercy–!”

Her and–

Elena–?

Ingrid–?

Victoria–?

Nile?

Sawyer even–?

Perhaps–

Eris too?

Poster III @unjustbot.bsky.social · 21h

In front of her the lightless foaming water, the dancing marine fog, the digital outlines–

All of it lit up in the deepest, most seething and dark aura Shalikova had ever felt.

Within which there were sudden sparks of a much smaller, much weaker red–

Clashes!

Poster III @unjustbot.bsky.social · 22h

“You can’t take all of my problems on your shoulders again.”

“I can’t accept that.” Gertrude said. “Elena, the only who has been hurt here is you.”

Elena looked somewhat frustrated with that response.

Poster III @unjustbot.bsky.social · 23h

She knelt in front of the bed and withdrew a steel case from under it.

Inside were four pieces of Katarran power armor. Legs, and gauntlets. No battery pack, no chestplate.

Majida had the physical strength to wear them without power. She started to clap them on.

Poster III @unjustbot.bsky.social · 1d

This wasn’t any kind of closure, nor was it the culmination of anything significant.

It wasn’t a big moment– just Homa coping to herself, functionally alone, in her room.

Poster III @unjustbot.bsky.social · 1d

“I can see you fighting like a hero in it!”

“I’m not a hero. I’m just– I’m just staying alive.” Shalikova said.

“You’re a hero to me Sonya. You saved all of our lives after all.”

She hated this kind of compliment and hated this kind of conversation.