LU 52 - Space 10

### A couple weeks prior...

I was relaxing in Koratai's house when she came into my room to discuss something relatively urgent. Apparently she made plans to go on a bit of a field trip. Now while that doesn't seem too extreme, she's kind of the queen of a whole kingdom. After some brainstorming, we agreed to let me take over while she left to do... whatever she wanted to go off and do. So, she took off and left me to rule her kingdom and that kid, Boulty, we took in recently. I was shocked, but Amathis and I agreed that this was a phenomenal opportunity to take advantage of. I immediately began to organize things around the kingdom, like outlaw Thornberry and form a proper army. This is gonna be fun.

### Present

While hanging out in the town, I bumped into the man I was craving to see: Thornberry. I struck up a conversation, and we caught up with each other like we were old friends reuniting; in a way, we kind of were. I explained my new status in the kingdom, he explained how he has been meeting new people (including my son(?)) and making the most of his situation. I made it clear to him that the only reason I turned on him was because of echo becoming too much of a danger to me, which he seemed to understand. After some more small talk, I heard some whispering from the top of a building I was standing under. I looked up, and an Elytrian was staring right at Thornberry with an eyeglass (Thornberry called him "sir", which was odd). I demanded him to come down, which he eventually did since he was introverted and stubborn about it. He explained to me that the two of them were in a "comedy club", which I quickly figured out was a cult for god knows what. Intrigued, I pried into this topic and convinced this guy to let me join the club. So, we ran off to go to the club place. On the way there, I pulled Thornberry aside and asked what that guy was on about. He briefly explained that the man was making him do manual labor and keeping him prisoner every night. I seemed shocked, since that was a new low for Thornberry. But I pressed on and followed the guy into this nether-looking cave. Thornberry took me down a stone corridor and into a small, white room. The guy, who I learned likes to be called scavenger, appeared above us behind some glass and explained that I was gonna be initiated; then he just kind of walked away into some room up there. I asked Thornberry what was happening, and apparently this initiation included sitting in this box all night for multiple nights. This situation reeked of my initiation into the shard, and I began to have a mini panic attack. I started to flip out and called scavenger back over.

He simply asked for my food (which I lied about), then handed me some rotten flesh. At this point I knew for certain that I was being kept prisoner for some sick reason, and began to plot how to get out. Thornberry and I brainstormed, and agreed to dig a hole out from under us. So, after scavenger came and delivered us bones and made me call him fucking sir then called me a good boy, Thornberry dug a tunnel and I followed. We booked it to the kingdom, where scavenger hopefully didn't follow us. He mentioned earlier that he didn't know of any kingdom, so hopefully we were in the clear. Anyways, I lead Thornberry to his house to collect his stuff, and in there I had him explain wtf just happened. He explained that scavenger had this messed up god complex, and wanted Thornberry to work for him daily and build him a damn temple (plus tortured him); this guy made what Thornberry did to Halthorr look like a goddamn playdate. He thanked me immensely for saving him, and said he owed me one . We talked some more as I led him out of the kingdom, and wished him well. He seemed a bit paranoid about running back into scavenger, but I honestly couldn't care less. He ran off, and I went over to Koratai's to relax. I thought about reporting scavenger to the police, but the last thing I need right now is more enemies and trouble for the kingdom, So, I left it be and took a nap since this has been quite the long day.