Terms & Conditions

**Terms & Conditions** is the third main and currently ongoing chapter of Flesh Kernel.

## Synopsis

#### Fresh Corn

Fresh Corn [1] is a somewhat humorous segment which acts as cold open for Terms & Conditions. While meant to be a parody for the great part, it is actually canonical and integral part of the plot of the chapter. Wilt and Anaïs are replaced by wacky, cheerful human personas Bill and Anna, stars of a confusing mixture of '90s sitcom and contemporary relatable webcomic called "Fresh Corn", which is supposed to supersede Flesh Kernel (the comic) as an edgier and more easily digestible product. Even Glo makes an appearance on set as "Personified Allegory of Anxiety" covered in monochrome static. She appears to be scanning oozing holes. "Anxiety" informs "Anna" that she is being an "early bird" and alleges that Anna is "not real". In the meantime, neighbour "Gary" (Gnrth) stops by the house to ask for an egg. Slapstick ensues as the egg is actually cracked in Billy's face - but soon gives way to horror as Wilt's fear of suffocation is triggered. It's revealed that "Fresh Corn" was but Wilt's feverish nightmare induced by a drug bender, though Glo's presence in it remains mysterious.

Several key symbolic elements of FK make a presence in Fresh Corn. The episode is framed by the two Heptagrams; Billy's shirt has a Leviathan Cross, and the Black Figure and Headless Martian appear in portraits in the background.

#### Terms & Conditions (first act)

Wilt awakens with no recollection of recent events [2]. Pieceing together available data he comes to understand he's been spending the night in an Europium den having sex with a stranger and binging on drugs. Still in the den he stumbles upon Anaïs guarding a soundly-sleeping Glo [4]. Wilt learns that the three of them were performing some kind of task or procedure that he cannot remember anymore. An explanation is cut short after the den's owner (a corpulent Slime Person) confronts Wilt over unpaid debt. The altercation escalates and Wilt's Cranial Gland extends and kills the owner [5]. The other patrons panic, assuming Wilt is a Grey or somewhat related. Wilt and Anaïs thus decide to escape, carrying still asleep Glo, quickly before the authorities are alerted, which they are anyway almost immediately.

Sneaking out of the establishment, they are intercepted by two policemen. They soon recognise Wilt as an infamous wanted criminal with a significant reward; one of them kills his partner to secure the entire sum for himself. Wilt makes use of the distraction to separate from Anaïs and Glo and run [7].

He manages to escape the policeman by jumping over a barrier which however leads to a very high drop - it's revealed the den is located in one of the highest points in Ur. Doomed to die, he's saved by Gnrth, who manages to break his fall by possessing a nearby couple driving a saucer. He makes his way through the ground level labyrinth of the city, while Gnrth harrasses and tortures him psychologically.

Gnrth shortly disappears as soon as Wilt recognises and confronts Mystery Girl, who has been tailing him. She reveals knowledge of Wilt's real name (Fergus) and advises him not to cross her. As soon as Wilt disengages Mystery Girl, Gnrth returns and resumes taunting and humiliating Wilt.

Gnrth's objective appears to be to confuse and frustrate Wilt as much as possible and prevent him from being able to reconstruct the events of the night and the way home. Wilt is unable to remember much except the sentence "the dark is nothing to be afraid of", which he cannot contextualise anyway, but he's able to find Glo's apartment thanks to a strange "tethering" feel onto his stomach. Nevertheless, Gnrth's suggestion that he use his influence and authority to take advantage sexually of Anaïs, a minor, angers Wilt to the point that - blinded by Gnrth's perceptual tampering - he ends up stabbing his own arm.

Defeated and exhausted, Wilt begs Anaïs (which he mistakenly calls "Anna") to let him into the house. He discovers that what he felt "tethered" to was none other than Glo herself, which is still happily snoozing and now safe after Anaïs has gently carried her home.

#### Dark Ocean

The next segment tells the story of Xladislax Novaq̌, an alien scholar who, after a macabre epiphany about hidden connections produced by the sight of an eviscerated animal, began a systematic study of "subnatural" phenomena and discovered a sort of shared subconscious or underlying universal substrate which he calls the Dark Ocean. He presumes the Dark Ocean is difficult to navigate, but he finds that Greys are structurally designed to do so. It is revealed that "the dark is nothing to be afraid of" is his own quote, and that this segment is nothing but excerpts from Xladislax's book. He correctly posits that his death by execution by hand of the Reticulans is imminent.

It turns out that the book is just what Glo was reading earlier that same night in her room. Thus, the rest of the chapter is shifted back in time and dedicated to explaining the events that led to the opening in Fresh Corn.

### Terms & Conditions (second act)

Glo's reading is interrupted by Wilt and Anaïs suddenly entering her room. Wilt pushes Anaïs to reenact to Glo a monologue in which she recounts the "entire history of the world", in the broken form she was taught in school.
The segment of Anaïs' version of the history of planet Earth is guest-illustrated by Nyamo. In the confused, semi-religious narrative, Earth was originally populated by the Damorran, who had a supposedly biblical relationship with the Greys. The Greys create Humans from monkeys as punishment for the irreverence of the Damorran. Overlapping the creation of humans with fall from grace is part of the Grey tactic to incite racism against humans in the Damorran. A barely recognisable version of the story of Jesus is also presented, in the form of a "Prophetess Jeetus" created by the Greys which is subsequently "double-crossed".

Shocked at Anaïs' display of ignorance and Wilt's disregard, Glo takes it upon herself to correct the narrative and present a more realistic version of the facts. This segment is guest-illustrated by mermelada. Earth was indeed originally inhabited by humans, who were somewhat technologically advanced and possessed the means for long distance communications. The transmissions attract the Greys who place a Fathership (Fathership Alpha) in low-Earth orbit as far back as the 1930s. Sometime in the 21st century, Grey mind control induces world leaders into nuclear self-destruction of the human civilisation. Glo also implies that Greys subsequently established their colonial rule and imported alien species as slaves. The current year of 2345 is alluded to be separated from this invasion by roughly three centuries, in which Reticulan influence has corrupted storiographic records and manipulated culture.

She also explains that the Reticulan Alistair MacDerrick, the Governor of Earth and owner of the largest harem in the fathership, is very likely Wilt's father.

Wilt barges into present his own version of the "history of the world", which is of course an entirely self-centered fragmentary and unreliable autobiography. This segment is guest-illustrated by BenO, and appears to only map out a fraction of Wilt's adventures in space as a young(er) man. Wilt has apparently worked as a cabin boy on a ship whose name he misremembers as Arcturia, and disliked the captain. Subsequently, Wilt took control of the ship (and the captain's daughter), which led to a crash on a planet he can't name correctly, where he entered a drug cartel through a certain "Pedro". He lived on the cartel's "crack ship" working as an accountant for food and cigarettes. He then was imprisoned on Corniphax Beta. He also is aware of having been transfered at some point to a Grey jail, where he is shown to have been tortured by waterboarding, and that Mystery Girl was present as an observer. In dialogue, he is not able or not willing to recall this experience.

While Glo is inspired by his nonsensical and aimless narrative to insult Wilt's general approach to life and existence, she has a sudden epiphany as she realises that his coyness regarding the "legal matter" mentioned in Slow Food is incompatible with his own personality - he is fearless, as in structurally incapable of fear. Therefore, he must be bound to non-disclosure by stronger (cosmic-legal) forces. This brings her to understand exactly what his problem is and how to handle it. It's necessary for her to get hold of Xenodone, a psychedelic drug. After some back and forth, Wilt admits he can procure her the Xenodone at a certain venue which turns out to simply be the Europium den where the episode began.

### Terms & Conditions (third act)

The three travel to the drug den by subway and acquire the drug from a man named Vlip (which was previously seen smoking in the episode beginning). Glo prepares the two by ordering Anaïs to watch over her while she's intoxicated, and Wilt to remain close during the procedure. Finally, Glo takes the Xenodone pill. The onset is extremely fast and she soon perceives herself to be sliding away very fast to some distant place.

She slams at full speed through a multilayered membrane of branes of existence, across which she takes on multiple forms (including a younger version of herself). She then resurfaces inside of a canoe made of water, over a sea made of wooden boards, in the scorching sun. It's implied she's made her way into the dark ocean. She loses her shoes and makes her way through the creaking sea of wood. She comes upon a thick jungle and adventures inside.

Glo arrives at a sort of security check for passage into a deeper level, guarded by two White Creatures. They scan her and ask her for her name and reason of her visit into the DO. However, just as Xladislax has warned, the DO's influence on her mind has already made her forget essential information including her intentions for even diving or her own identity. However, she is rescued by the arrival of the demon Sootpuff, who happens to be entering the same doorway. Sootpuff (who appears to know her) vouches for Glo and helps her remember enough to be allowed passage.

Navigating further into the Dark Ocean with Sootpuff, Glo comes to understand that they have already entered Wilt's mind, which was her intended destination. Sootpuff explains that he is only tied to the latter by a work obligation. In the meantime, Glo observes that her image is deteriorating, a symptom of prolonged permanence in the DO. They spot Goat Wilt conversing with the Black Figure as he tries to recover an item he left there; Glo mistakes him for Wilt and runs for him through a corn field, but loses him. As she re-emerges, she's transformed into her "personified anxiety" form that she had in Fresh Corn.

Turns out she has stumbled onto the set of Fresh Corn itself [30], which is revealed to be a recurrent dream of Wilt and simultaneously being shot like a tv production. The stage manager is a three-headed creature combining three important siblings for the future of FK (Eurytlamenope, Jean-Pierre, and Francis). Anna and Cancrizans can be spotted conversing. Sootpuff advises Glo to not get distracted by these stimuli and to focus on finding a "doorway". Wilt is present as Billy, so that Glo can tell that up in the real world Wilt *has* indeed wandered around and somehow gotten asleep. The doorway is the oozing holes as they appeared in the original Fresh Corn, and she and Sootpuff jump into one.

The two traverse a strange passage 31 through which they appear to shed their outer, recent layers and to revert to a simpler, younger self. They meet again with the Black Figure, taking the form of a starry sky. A wound on the Figure's belly opens into a portal very similar to that in Road Trip, and the two fall in. On the other side of this passage 32, Glo is now reverted into a child and Sootpuff into a plushie. Young Glo explores a house at night following two voices that appear to be having an argument. It turns out that this is Glo's old house and this is a reconstruction of her parents Marvin and Lotte fighting. While the display is initially distressing, she is able to understand that it is actually a farce.

Behind the trick is Gnrth, who has completely infected Wilt's mind core 33. Glo explains that she is protected under Cosmic Law from Gnrth as the legal representative of Wilt, with which he has signed a "Cosmic Contract". She also requests to examine said contract.

*-- COMIC IS ONGOING, UPDATES SOON! --*