After nearly six years, Earthbound witnessed a Great Gathering.

Nearly the entire population living on the spacecraft — more than a thousand men, women and children — had assembled in the Third Ring. In their day-to-day life, the Third Ring was mostly a place of recreation, filled with parks and theatres and all sorts of fun places, but it was also the place for community meetings. And each time Earthbound made its descent on a planet, there would always be a meeting of all people on board, save a few officials and guards at their posts. Many had taken to calling them the Great Gatherings.

In her short life of fifteen years, Maya had witnessed only two of them before. This was her third Gathering. But it was also the one. This was the landing that Earthbound had been made for. Their ancestors had dreamed of this when they had first set out from their home planet, Ausra. And, after a journey lasting more than a century, they were finally here.

There was a low murmur amongst the gathered people. Maya was away from the thick of the crowd, standing near the Second Ring residents instead, but she could still sense the excitement in everyone. The big screens scattered across the Ring had flickered to life. They showed the face of one of Pa's colleagues. Maya's father was a high-class researcher working in the Information Analysis department, so she was familiar with most of the officials.

The speech started. At each Great Gathering, officials would explain relevant information about the place they were going to land on, and then they would state the rules and safety instructions. This time, though, it was more sentimental. "We, residents of Earthbound, have been a close family for nearly a hundred-and-fifty years," the man was saying. "Through thick and thin, we have all contributed to life here..."

Usually, Maya would hang onto every word they said, but she couldn't concentrate now. They were going to reach Earth. Within a few hours, she would set foot on the soil of that planet, breathe the air and see the planet in all its glory. To be fair, a large portion of the land would be covered in huge modern cities now, but even those were said to be exquisite. And the natural beauty — everyone talked about it.

Suddenly, a pair of hands grabbed Maya's shoulders. She wasn't startled in the least. It was only Rory, and Rory was always sneaking up on her like his. Sneaking, that was his favourite thing to do.

"Boo?" He leaned over her shoulder and looked at her. "Where are you lost, sweetheart?"

Maya shook her head. "Just thinking."

"About Earth?"

She nodded. It had been the only thing on her mind for weeks. "When did you get here?"

"Just now." His deep blue eyes scanned the crowd. A satisfied smirk appeared on his lips.

Oh no. "What are you thinking about?"

"Nothing," he said nonchalantly. Too nonchalantly. He paused and listened to the officials' speech. The man was still talking about how meaningful this long journey had been, with all the sentimental statements you would expect on a day like this. Rory took his hands off her shoulders. "Where's your mother?"

"Over there." Maya's mother was a petite woman with large, brown eyes and a ready smile. She was standing with her friends from their neighbourhood, talking with them. Her father was in the First Ring. He had a part in the speech this time.

Rory's smirk grew wider. He was definitely planning something. For a minute or two he didn't say anything, just stood and pretended to pay attention to the wide screens. But he was fiddling with his thumbs, and that meant that his mind couldn't be further away.

He finally cleared his throat. "I was wondering..."

Maya's answer was automatic. "No."

"What? I didn't even say anything yet!"

"I know what you're going to say."

Rory looked hurt, but Maya knew that was only to win her over. She had known him for more than a decade after all. "Why do you wanna stay here anyway?"

"They haven't shared the details yet."

He rolled his eyes. "As if you need them." Maya knew what was coming next: flattery. "Maya, you've read all the books on Earth we've got; even these officials can't know more stuff than you. Your father's a scientist, you're a nerd, and your best friend"—he grinned—"is the captain's son."

She wasn't impressed. "Not today, Rory."

"Oh, come on. Don't you wanna see it?"

"We will in a few hours."

Rory ignored her and continued. "Most of the guards are here at the gathering anyway. Security's so lax that—"

"Rory."

Exasperated, he ran his fingers through his hair. His ash-blond locks were, as always, messy: he liked them that way. It was the exact opposite of Maya's hair — just like the rest of their features.

Where Rory was tall, with a slender body and a lean build, Maya was a short, non-athletic girl who would rather spend her time in a library than playing and running around. Rory had fair skin, blue eyes and that rich ashy hair, with a smattering of freckles on his nose. He was quick to smile and quick to anger. Maya, on the other hand, was dark-skinned, with brown eyes and black hair worn in two neat braids. She looked very much like her mother — one of the only features she had inherited from her father was a need to wear spectacles. That, and her quiet and cautious attitude. Even their ages were apart: Rory was nineteen now, Maya barely fifteen.

They were best friends anyway.

"Fine, if you won't come, I'll go alone," Rory said finally. He didn't leave though. He scuffed the ground, waited, looked at Maya and then turned away when she caught him. He pretended to be lost in the speech again — now an introduction of Earth and its features — and then cleared his throat.

Maya focused on the words resounding from the speakers. All that they said, she already knew. When, about three months ago, she and Rory had sneaked into a researcher's chambers in the First Ring, they had found some papers scattered on the desk. Maya had read through them and concluded that they might reach Earth soon — finally! — and Rory's cry of delight had almost gotten them caught. Since that day, Maya had been reading up everything she could find about Earth. The library in the Third Ring was full of books and encyclopaedias on the planet, and so she had had no shortage of content to read. By the time the official announcement came around, she was already well-versed with lots of information about their final destination.

Rory cleared his throat again and cast a hopeful glance towards her. Maybe it won't be so bad to miss the speech after all. She had to admit, it was not exactly interesting. Details of the expected weather were being talked about. Maya glanced at Rory. "Why're you still here? Won't you go?"

He ignored her question. "Are they seriously going to waste time on a weather report? That's the most boring thing ever."

"It's not a weather report. They'll get to other things soon. And it's not boring either, if you would just listen," Maya added, half lying.

But something in her voice must have given her thought away, because Rory gave a sly smile. "Oh, but how can I see the beautiful, glorious Earth," he said dramatically, "without sharing the sight with you? With my bestest friend ever, my companion for so many years, my—"

Maya had to smile. "Bestest isn't a word."

He grinned. "Well, you get the meaning. You're better than best. Will you come now?"

Maya finally gave in. "Alright, alright! You win. As usual." She cast a glance around; no one was paying them the slightest attention. "Let's go." She felt a pang of regret as she realised that she would be missing her father's part in the speech. Actually, she had heard it already at home, while he was practising and rewriting and practicing again. Her father was a proper perfectionist. Still, his actual performance... For a moment, she hesitated again, but the speech was moving much too slowly. It would be a long time before her father got his chance to speak. Maya made up her mind. All the best, Pa, she wished him silently, and nodded to Rory.

Taking one last glance at her mother, Maya quietly slipped out of her sight. They weaved their way through the crowd. Everyone was engrossed in the speech or their own discussions, so nobody noticed them.

Soon enough, they were inside the Seventh Ring. The place was closed to the general public and had lots of guards, but Rory had gotten in there several times with this charm and connections. In the days preceding a landing, the Ring was supposed to be guarded even more heavily — and it was — but Rory and Maya had been there so many times the guards simply waved them in.

As soon as the gates closed behind them, Rory made a beeline for the observatories, pulling Maya along so fast she couldn't even see their surroundings. That was okay. She could visualise everything in her mind's eye — rooms filled with equipment and computers, telescopes under thick glassy domes, machines even she couldn't place a name on. The Seventh Ring was the Observation Ring, from where information was collected about their surroundings in space.

The observatories contained the telescopes. The whole ceiling was made of some transparent material, clear as air but tough enough to prevent harmful radiation from coming in. Rory went over to one of the close-range telescopes. He was practically bouncing with excitement.

"Ready?"

Maya shrugged. Inside, she was bubbling with excitement. She was going to get her first glimpse of the actual Earth; not in books or pictures or on a screen, but the real thing.

All the telescopes were automated, constantly changing their position with the movement of the object they tracked, so there was no need to adjust anything. Rory took a deep breath and grinned at Maya. She nodded. Together, they looked into the eyepiece of their respective telescopes.

A whole world opened in front of her.

Dotted all around with various tiny objects was the planet they had longed for. The sunlight illuminated it brightly, giving them a clear view. The objects glinted in the light of the sun. It looked like a gem-studded halo around the planet: almost as if, like its neighbour Saturn, Earth had rings.

Even apart from that, the planet looked different from the pictures she had seen so often. The famous blue-green colour seemed to have faded. The wisps of white around the planet were lesser than before. There were large patches of a dull yellow colour all over the landmasses. Was it just her imagination? Had she expected too much? She couldn't help but think that Earth seemed less attractive than she had heard all her life. Compared to the highly coloured image in her head, the real Earth seemed hidden behind a veil of smoke and dust.

No, it is pretty, she told herself, but all she could think of was Fae, the planet of crystals and rainbows and floating islands. When Maya had seen it, at nine years old, she had thought it must be the most beautiful place in the entire universe. Her father had given her one of his rare smiles when she told him so. "Wait till you see Earth, Maya," he had said.

Looking at it now, she felt a pang of disappointment. The information we have must be outdated, she thought. The atmosphere has changed in all these centuries. Then again, surely her books couldn't have been wrong about everything. Books seldom were. The real riches of Earth would just show themselves when they landed.

•     •     •

Earthbound finished its century-long journey a day later, landing in an open space while thunderous cheering and clapping filled the spacecraft. Everybody was excited to see the beauty of their ancestors' home with their own eyes. Grand celebrations were planned, but first everyone would explore the planet.

After waiting for something for your entire life, you are bound to have some expectations about it. This was no different for the residents of Earthbound. Maya expected to land in a field of waist-high green grass waving in a cool breeze, colourful flowers dotting the landscape, and fluffy white clouds in a bright blue sky. Quite a reasonable expectation; this was nowhere near the most scenic places on the planet. She had read of waterfalls shimmering with rainbows; vast, vibrant underwater forests; endless dunes of golden sand stretching on and on, and more — innumerable landscapes she had dreamed of visiting.

Rory was mostly excited to see the wildlife there. He talked for hours about "those big striped felines – you know, the sibers!" ("No, Rory, it's the tigers.") and "the ones that have a giant finger in place of a nose" ("By the stars, it's a trunk, not a finger! And they're called elephants.") and "fishes which are not really fishes but look fishy" ("Wait, you're confusing me. Is it... porpoises? Sails? No, that's not it...")

Both of them had been disappointed in the telescope view yesterday, but that could be misleading. What could they expect to see from thousands of miles away anyway?

Whatever feelings of disappointment they had had vanished in the intervening hours. They were hopeful and excited once more. Rory finally fell silent as they began the preparations for getting off the craft, putting on a protection suit and gathering near the ramps.

The researchers got off first. Any time now. Maya felt underprepared after all this time. When the all-clear signal arrived, the general public was allowed to get off the craft. The crowd moved with a nervous excitement. Maya and Rory grabbed each other's hands and started down the ramp. Being from the First Ring, they were almost at the front of the crowd.

They set foot on Earth.

It was hot. That was the first thing Maya thought while taking her first steps on the surface. She could feel the heat even through her suit. It was an unfamiliar feeling, after having lived nearly all her life in perfect conditions. Rory's hand tightened around hers as they looked around.

The land was the colour of rust. All the flora they saw around them was low shrubbery. Had they landed in an arid zone? The sky was blue, but it was such a fierce blue that it hurt to look at it for too long. There were no clouds, and the sun beat down upon their heads. It must be some kind of dry area. Why would we land here then?

There were a handful of trees, if you could call them that. They were far from the green chlorophyll-based species she had expected to see. The two of them approached the closest one. Gnarly and misshapen, it hardly reached their waists. "What the hell is this?" Rory's voice sounded through her inbuilt speaker.

"I don't know. It looks like some kind of tree."

He looked at her strangely. "Aren't trees supposed to be... y'know, green and tall?" This one was neither, resembling a rock formation instead.

"It must have evolved in such a long time," Maya mused. The evolution hadn't made it beautiful in any way though. Maya had the sudden realization that if trees had changed, so could other life forms. No tigers for Rory perhaps...

They continued wandering around. No one was allowed out of sight of the spacecraft, except the researchers, who had gone off to explore the surrounding areas. Maya's father was amongst them. She was worried for him, but it was his job.

So Maya and Rory contented themselves poking around whatever they could find. The shrubbery was brown and brittle. The ground was dusty and dry. It was, frankly, quite boring. The heat didn't make it any easier. The dullness of the scenery seemed to leach the excitement out of everyone.

Eventually they went inside, unable to bear the temperature any longer. The planned celebrations took place. Parties were rare on the spacecraft, so they were always a source of fun. This, though, was the biggest party that had ever taken place here. It cheered up everyone immensely and went on until sunset, when everyone went outside once more.

Nobody on the spaceship had ever seen a sunset before. There was no cycle of day and night in open space. In this, at least, Earth lived up to their expectations. The sky turned from that brilliant blue to orange, then red. In silence, a thousand people watched the beautiful spectacle of the sun dipping below the horizon. The air was cooler then. With many others, Maya and Rory stayed out till night. They saw the darkness creeping over everything, turning the red glow into a deep purplish hue. Before they realized it, it was too dark to see properly.

Once night fell, there was nothing to see. Not even the eternal stars were visible, nor the single moon that the planet possessed. Everyone went back in for the night.

After that, there was nothing special to do. Maya and Rory explored the entire perimeter of Earthbound, but it all looked the same: barren land with dry shrubbery. One day they thought they saw a dark shape in the sky, but it was too far away to make out. They couldn't even venture farther until the researchers returned with more data. Much to their chagrin, the next few days passed uneventfully. Maya had never expected that Earth would be boring, of all things. Even if they had landed in one of the dry areas, where were all the life forms? The planet felt deserted.

Moreover, the conditions on the surface were strange. It was much hotter than their estimates. The nights were much colder.

As the days wore on, their mood worsened. Maya felt cheated. Like she had been promised a jewel, but all she received was a shiny pebble. Unlike her, who retreated alone silently, Rory was in a foul mood, swearing and cursing at everything. They didn't even go out much anymore.

The boredom was shattered when the researchers returned eight days later. They brought back not only data, but something far more valuable — some natives of the planet.

They were taken to the Third Ring, where a big group of Earthbound residents slowly gathered to look at them. As soon as they heard of what was happening, Maya and Rory rushed there too. They slipped through the crowd and were soon standing at the front, getting a good view.

The natives of Earth were covered from head to toe in protective gear. It did not look anything like the sleek suits on their spaceship. In comparison to the pristine white gear that the Earthbound-researchers sported, the natives' suits were dull and dirty, and obviously quite worn out. The team from the spacecraft had taken off their protective helmets, and Maya saw her father. He looked alright, if a little tired. Maya felt relieved.

Keeping his eyes on the newcomers, Rory leaned closer to her. "They are humans, right?"

"Yes. Humans from a different— sorry, the original planet." A tingle ran up her spine at the thought. She hadn't expected an encounter with the local humans so soon. Perhaps they could explain the absence of wildlife and the strange temperatures. When and why did the need for protective suits arise for them? She had never read about those being in use. Maybe it was some sort of natural catastrophe...

Rory's response jerked her out of her trance. "They look pathetic," he said quietly. She looked at him, surprised. Seeing her expression, he frowned. "Just look at them, Maya."

They were a ragged bunch, these natives. Small in stature, and not much bigger than children. The tallest among them was barely Maya's height, but it was clear from their actions that all of them were adults. They seemed nervous, and slowly shuffled to the centre of the plaza. Even the way they walked was different, somewhat bent and wary and slow.

"Something must have happened." 

"So what? These are our ancestors?" His voice was getting louder. 

"Ancestors? That doesn't make any sense." 

"What are they then?"

"Technically we're around the same generation, give or take a few. Unless time passes differently on our planet or on the spaceship. That is a factor you cannot ignore. We had common ancestors, so they aren't our ancestors—"

Rory turned to her with a scowl. "Why do you have to be such an insufferable know-it-all?"

What? She couldn't believe he'd say it in that tone. Maya opened her mouth to say so, but stopped. She didn't want to argue with him, not now, not in front of everyone they had ever known. So she swallowed her words, determined to ignore him. Surprisingly, he stopped talking too. 

Around them, the crowd was murmuring. One of the natives cleared his throat and took off his helmet. He had a gaunt face, pits under his eyes, and an unhealthy yellowish tinge on his skin. Rory made a disgusted sound.

The man started to say something, but immediately realised that nobody could understand his language. One of his companions snapped at him. The crowd was tense. The natives were even more so, shuffling in their spots uneasily. Aren't they happy to see us?

The researchers took out a device. Maya faintly recognized it as a Translator. It had several languages built into it. The device was mostly useless aboard, as only one language was spoken, but they were essential during landings.

They turned out to be lucky. Whatever language the native man was speaking, some version of it was available on the Translator. He spoke haltingly, while the rest of his people looked on, tense and silent. Except him, all the humans present there seemed to be holding their breaths. The robotic voice of the Translator conveyed his words to everyone.

He began by saying that — by requesting that — nobody would judge him and his group by his words. All the things he was going to speak of had been carried out not by him, but by his forefathers' forefathers. "I'm not saying we would have made everything right if we had been in their place, but..."

Behind him, the one who had snapped earlier impatiently said something. The Translator caught her voice too. "Just say it. It won't get any better with a sweet introduction."

And so the man cleared his throat again and told them the story of Earth's destruction.

It was not a single night's work. Nothing so tremendous could ever be done so soon. It was the collective effects of years, decades, centuries of work: of taking from Earth but never giving anything back.

He spoke of pollution — so many kinds. Air, water, land; everything was made dirty by them. The more he spoke, the more disgust rippled through the crowd. How could they do this to the sacred Earth? How could they do this to their home? The man's eyes turned pleading, and when he faltered, his angry companion stepped up.

"We were developing ourselves. We didn't do it for fun." She glared at everyone. Some natives murmured something in a disagreeing tone. Ignoring them, the short woman narrated how humans had cut down entire forests, and not done a single thing to replenish them. Did they not care about the wildlife? Even Maya felt her anger rising. Deforestation and climate change. Poaching and extinction. How many more atrocities had they committed?

On and on the words came. Ozone holes, letting in harmful space radiation. Skies raining acid. Forests, both on land and under water, slowly shrinking and dying out, taking a huge portion of flora and fauna with them. The crowd was getting angry now. The officials had to pause the speech and request everyone to listen, claiming it to be "valuable information".

It was not valuable information. It was an infuriating, horrifying story of how humans conquered Earth, turned it into their slave. They wouldn't stop there — they tried to claim their moon, and the other planets in their solar system.

Without warning, Rory shouted, "I wonder how we have eyes, if our ancestors were so blind!" He probably would have said more, but Maya grabbed his arm. He fell back for the moment, rage darkening his face. His voice was loud enough to carry to the Translator. The woman's eyes narrowed.

"They weren't blind. They saw the signs." She shrugged. "But they ignored them. It's not our fault."

"They lived on Earth! They were supposed to take care of it!" Rory yelled back. This time the crowd exploded with him.

"Whose fault is it, then, ours?"

"You destroyed the planet, fools!"

"How could you have been so greedy?"

Maya didn't say anything. Her mind was racing. How in the world had she never known this information? Nothing so serious was ever mentioned in her books.

Before she could come to a conclusion, the officials got the situation under control. "We request everyone to give our guests a chance to speak." The voice blared over the shouts. Grumbling and muttering, the crowd fell quiet.

The natives were shaken, but the woman seemed to have gotten angrier. "It's not like they did nothing at all. Some of them did take action. There was genuine concern in many. But with a population of billions, most of whom were either ignorant of the problems or didn't give a damn, it wasn't working well.

"Later, laws were made, treaties were signed. Through the internet and social media, more and more people began to become aware. It seemed that maybe Earth could be saved after all.

"Only it wasn't, because what action they took was too little, too late." Now there was a strange smile on her face. "A collective effort by all the countries could have changed the outcome. Instead, wars raged despite all the existing problems. There were nuclear wars too!" She let out a crazy laugh that went on and on.

Even after all this, they dared to wage wars against their own species! Maya didn't know what to think. I thought we were the most intelligent species here. She supposed she was wrong about that too, now. Everything she knew was being turned upside down.

The native finally recovered. "That is why they started looking for other planets to settle on. Not to satisfy their curiosity, but instead to follow their desire for survival. They needed to escape Earth, the hell that they had created." Maya's mood sank further. Oh, great, my knowledge of this is incorrect as well, she thought glumly. The story she knew had set up humans as daring explorers who had found Ausra by chance and decided to settle on it.

The woman continued. "Those who were rich got to live. They flew away to other planets and set up a new world there. Others were not so lucky." Clearly, her ancestors were one of the unlucky ones. "All the destruction they had unleashed on Earth seemed to be coming back tenfold. Hah! What did they expect? Natural catastrophes became more common. Fertility rates decreased, sicknesses increased. Happy now?" She addressed Rory directly, looking at him. "They got their punishment. Everything was going wrong. The human population had once boomed long centuries ago after some Revolution shit. Just as fast, it was dropping. It was the same with a bunch of other creatures on Earth."

She handed the Translator to the man who had spoken earlier. At this point, he was sobbing quietly. His voice broke when he spoke. "When we saw this spaceship land, we thought it was the end. A-aliens... we thought you were aliens, come to take over Earth. It has always been one of humanity's fears." He wiped his tears. "We gave up. If you really were aliens, you'd be coming to a broken world, facing no resistance. There is nothing left to protect. I'm sorry. We're all sorry."

Then the natives begged the Earthbound residents to take them in. They would do whatever was asked of them, in return for some good food and a clean place to sleep in. Anything to get out of their current living conditions. They looked so desperate that the pity Maya felt almost drowned out her anger on them and the generations before them. The sad little group was led away into the First Ring for further questioning. Rory was right. They were pathetic.

The crowd dispersed too. Nobody spoke much. The mood was sombre and angry at once. Maya was lost in her thoughts.

If only, if only, if only. There were so many things they could have done — or not done — to preserve their planet. Why hadn't their ancestors thought of the coming generation? How could they leave this desolate place for them? It was all so unfair, especially to the other life forms on Earth.

There was no use pondering now. The glory of Earth was no more. Life would move on as it always did, but it would take millennia for the planet to reach that level of biodiversity again. And the species that were gone would be gone forever.

Maya hardly noticed when she had started walking. She had almost entered the Second Ring when Rory caught up to her. "Wait," he panted. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you."

She shrugged. "It's fine." He still looked worried, so she gave him a small smile. "Really. It's okay. You were mad. We all were."

His blue eyes widened in mock disbelief. "Did you just smile? For me?"

Maya rolled her eyes. Rory grinned. Just like that, their argument was over. They never lasted long.

They walked back to their chambers in silence. They reached Maya's room first. As she was about to open the door, Rory spoke: "Do you think we would have done the same? Let Earth be destroyed?"

The thought had been nagging at Maya's mind too. "Who knows, Rory," she replied. Suddenly she was so tired. More than a century of journeying, all for nothing. "Maybe. Probably."

He thought that over for a minute. "You know what the saddest thing is?"

"What?"

"That they had time. Even a few actions could have saved the planet, perhaps." 

A picture formed in Maya's mind. An ice cube in a very cold room. The temperature increased, little by little, and still the ice remained perfect, with not so much as a bead of water on it. Until the temperature hit its melting point. Until the heat was just a shade too much.

"You're right, Rory."

•     •     •

One tree planted cannot make a difference. Or can it? Nurtured enough, if it grows to be great, it can support an abundance of creatures. Living for long enough, it can drop its own seeds, create more trees, help in bringing just a little more water vapour into the air, perhaps even leading to rain.

It is said that if you pour water, drop by drop, you will eventually get an ocean. Each action counts. Who knows what effect they will have? Everything in this world is interlinked. 

Everything we do has some consequences. Throwing a polythene bag into the dustbin instead of the street may be just the thing to prevent a seagull from swallowing it someday. It might end up in a landfill too, adding to the pollution of the soil, despite your careful way of disposal — but it would be wrong not to try. 

Try to do something good, and hope that it works. That is the only thing we can do to solve our problems: of Earth, as well as life in general. 

•     •     •

Author's Note

Ack, on just the third story, and I'm already behind schedule. 

I had to rearrange and add many things towards the end, as well as edit everything I'd already written . (That's not why it took so long, by the way. I'll be frank, I just avoided doing this for days, then ended up writing it in one sitting.) During all this editing, the story got a little too long to be considered "short". So, I've split it into two parts. 

Waaaait, I just checked how long a short story can be, and apparently it can go up to 10000 words. And mine is only 5000+.

;-;

Oh gods. 

*takes 15 more minutes to copy-and-paste this into the other part and to painstakingly put in all of those italics again*

😫 😫 😫

Done, done, I'm not touching this story anymore! I'll just keep this tale of stupidity in here as a warning to everyone who reads it. See, not knowing just this one simple fact to so much frustration and time wastage for me. Do your research well.

Anyway, here begins my actual author's note, I guess.

I like the characters in this story. (No, Maya is not a self-insert. Totally not. How could you even think that?!) I might write about them more, specifically their shenanigans on Earthbound. They've had a lot of adventures, I can tell you that. 😉

 But, obviously, the ending is too preachy. I'm not even counting the end where I literally speak to readers directly, I mean the Earthlings' speech. It was much worse before, believe me. At least now I've broken it up with some tension and turned it into dialogue. Earlier, the entire last part of this story was pure exposition, since the moment landed right up to the end of that speech. Just imagine reading so much narration (which is already annoying, with how thickly I'm laying it on). Other than that, the pacing is too slow and the story just drags on and on. That's everything I've noticed. What did I miss?

Well. Congratulations if you read this far: a huge, pointless author's note on top of a huge, slow paced story (whose message was obvious within the first few minutes). There's still something I wanted to say though. I'd written this in the story itself, but it was completely unrelated to everything, so I had to cut it out. But I think it's something people need to hear.

As I was saying at the end, all our actions have consequences. You know, butterfly effects? We can cause something huge without even meaning to. This also applies in the way we interact with people.

Say you compliment someone, even a stranger. Perhaps those few words are the only nice things they have heard in a week. Perhaps it helps them get through another tough day. You can never know what they are going through.

And what if you make fun of someone? It may seem like just a joke to you, but it might be the last straw needed to crush their mood. Not everyone can take things in a good way. Or maybe they have been doing it for so long that they are tired of being optimistic, and actually need something good to happen.

Obviously it's not necessarily this way all the time. These are more like the extremes. Most likely, the compliment would cheer up someone for a few hours and the mocking would make them feel down for a while. But what if? What if your actions fall in that small percentage where they can cause bigger effects than you'd have thought? 

My point is, be mindful of what you do. I'm not going to elaborate further because I'm sure you understand by now, and this entire chapter has been going on for way too long anyway. It's probably the longest thing I've posted all together. If you want to discuss this though, go ahead and comment, I'll make sure to reply.

Many thanks for reading, especially since today's content was so long. (Was it long? It's longer than what I post usually , but I've read stuff with far more words. I don't know how much you all read each day though.)

I'll now stop talking. See you next week! Votes and comm—

*my voice is cut off as someone grabs my mouth and screams "JUST STOP SPEAKING ALREADY, WE GET IT!"*