Clouded History

Nero and his friend debate what Earth must have been like as they enjoy their day off.....

Clouded History

“Okay, okay,” officer Dixon motioned his furred hands, watching Nero take a pull from a joint. “You’re telling me there was more than one kind of human?”

Nero handed the joint to the guard, who was already rather toasted, wagging his tail as it was his turn. Dixon’s tail-wagging continued, even after a healthy cloud of smoke escaped his snout of a mouth. The off-duty guard handed the joint back to Nero, the two of them standing outside of “Lupa’s Lovehouse.” It was a nice little getaway from the city. The speakeasy was outside of any legal jurisdiction, being located along the road that connected Bayside (or Transvollia, officially) to Yeto-Ben, being a halfway point for any travelers looking for anything they might need. Being a speakeasy, there wasn’t much off limits.

“There still are, technically,” Nero mentioned, watching one of the staff of Lupa’s Lovehouse patrolling nearby. They offered a wave, with both Nero and Dixon waving back. This conversation continued as they worked down through their joint, purchased at the bar, delving into the history of the Old World of Earth.

“Was this, like, before or after The Great Shift?”

“Before and after,” Nero chuckled to his friend. “You baked already?”

“Nah,” the officer scoffed, stumbling a little as he tried to lean against the siding of the building they smoked in front of. “Earth history is just confusing.”

“Fair enough,” Nero shrugged, puffing and passing to his friend. There was a moment of stoned silence between them, as the clouds overhead moseyed through the sky. Nero swore he saw something flying through a cloud; it was either a monster or a ship. Either way, it seemed to have no interest with Lupa’s Lovehouse.

“So like….” Dixon the dog-folk drifted off into thought, eyes bloodshot from the cannabis having seeped deep into his system. A giggle slipped. “I forgot what I was saying….”

Nero giggled too.

“It’s all good, dude….” he blinked, forgetting what the hell they were talking about.

More silence came, as Nero couldn’t help but look back to the sky. Being the middle of the day, the sky was a normal blue hue. Like the Old World, allegedly. Nero spotted a cloud that looked slightly purple. Although he wasn’t sure if it was a breathing creature or not, he was almost certain clouds from the Old World didn’t look that way.

“Are you an Old Worlder?” Dixon questioned, Nero’s guard buddy coughing as he took one of the last hits of the joint. Nero puffed on what was left of the roach before putting in out on the heel of his boot, slipping what was left of the joint into his coat pocket.

“Nah,” Nero said with smoke fuming out from his throat. He coughed a little. “Born and raised on Itsa.”

“So, like, are Old Worlder’s real?”

“I think so….” Nero mentioned, rubbing his eye. “I don’t see why they’d lie about it….”

“But it doesn’t make sense….” Dixon added, scratching behind his ear a little. “How could they come from Earth if Earth doesn’t exist anymore?”

“Maybe time isn’t the issue?” Nero speculated. “I dunno how it works….”

“But how could there be more types of human?” Dixon added, for a moment his curious mind keeping his thoughts sober. “You’re all…..”

“What?” Nero questioned, chuckling a little as he bit the filter of a cigarette he fished out of his wool coat.

“Well…. You know…. Like….” Dixon pointed at his own fur, then to Nero’s skin.

“For your information, I do have hair on my arms, see?”

Nero compared his arm beside the thick, brown fur of his dog-folk friend. The human started pointing at the arm hair he had, with Dixon having to squint.

“I think I see it?”

“Oh, what do you know!” Nero scoffed, laughing as he pulled his arm away. “I’m the pale type. One of them, anyway. The kind that are not great at growing arm hair apparently.

“So….” the wheels in Dixon’s mind turned, trying to work past the THC for understanding. “There’s more than one type of pale human?”

“A couple types, I think….” Nero blinked, eyes completely bloodshot as he giggled to himself. “I once talked to someone who knew an Old Worlder personally. Or so they claim.”

“No way!” Dixon exclaimed, tail wagging.

“Way!” Nero laughed. “And he told me that Earth used to have, like, super cities, but named them countries.”

“Whoa…..” Dixon awed.

“Right?!” Nero said. “And apparently one of them was called….”

Nero paused. What the hell was it called again?

“Sweebin,” Nero said with a sudden snap of his fingers. “Yeah! I think one of the countries was called Sweebin, or something. It was covered in a lot of snow, I think. A lot of pale humans came from there. Then there was a super city, but it was called a “content” or something like that. Afka, I think it was called. Depending on where you lived in Afka, your skin would be different.”

“So you guys are like chameleons or chameleon-folk?”

“What?” Nero scoffed. “No, not like that. Depending on what genes you had. Just like our world.”

“Oh, that’s cool!” Dixon commented, his tail wagging again as the two of them stood outside in the afternoon sun, with the patrols outside of Lupa’s Lovehouse continuing. A few guests arrived, on foot it seemed, hurrying along the dirt road and making their way up the path that lead to the large wooden building that was Lupa’s Lovehouse. “So you guys weren’t completely strange.”

“Nah, from what I hear, we were,” Nero commented. Then he frowned. “And violent. And very racist at times. From what I’ve been told, we had a lot of good, but also a lot of bad on Earth.”

At this, Dixon frowned too, tail no longer wagging.

“How could denizens of the same race be racist to one another?”

“Because we saw each other as different, not just one race.”

“That doesn’t make any sense….” Dixon commented, watching as Nero’s eyes trailed off towards the horizon. From their view, they weren’t far from the coast, with Nero watching the sea motion back and forth. “How could that be? Humans are humans, regardless of the type. A fire elemental and a water elemental are still just elementals. So how could humans disregard such a commonality between themselves….?”

Nero pulled his head back, not prepared for the elevated poetry that Dixon dropped without hesitation. And yet, Nero didn’t have a good answer.

“I’m…. not really sure….” Nero said, glancing to his friend. “I guess the shape of our eyes and the color of our skin mattered a lot back then.”

Again, silence took its turn. But Dixon had one last question to ask.

“So…. What would your type of human be called, then?” Dixon questioned.

“Well….” Nero looked down at his skin. “I think us pale ones were called ‘Cacasins”

“Whoa….” Dixon said with wide, bloodshot eyes. “That’s, like, so badass.”

“Yeah,” Nero spoke a high smile. “I guess it’s kinda cool.”

The two friends of different cultures and races continued to let the day burn away as they purchased yet another joint from the bar inside, debating on whether or not the term “German Shepard” was more than just a type of Old World feral dog.

Four joints deep, they decided that a “German Shepard” was the name of a feral dog from the Earth country “Germy”, suspecting that they were used as war dogs of a people too afraid of getting their hands dirty, hence the name of their country. Although there was some debate on whether or not “Urika” was a country or not, the two denizens of Itsa enjoyed their day off.

Author's Note

This story is loosely weaved with the others in this "book" project. If you're curious to know more about Nero, Bayside, and the strange world it takes place in, check out the other stories. Each sequential chapter weaves together a larger tale, though each story can be read on their own independently. Read "An Introduction" within this book for more details.

Reviews

[living lavender]

really enjoyed the light-heartedness of this one. it was a good breather.
but gets the reader asking so many questions about the past and old Earth.

also. i love how you brought Dixon back. i enjoyed his chemistry with Nero.
there in pursuit banter and bickering was the best. :)
{excited for the next chapter. as always.}

[Kane Hagwood]

I'm glad my intended effect worked :D I wanted something a little more "breezy" and easy, letting the reader just enjoy the company of the characters, and question "the heck are they talking about?!"

And I planned on having Dixon be a character who showed up earlier, but it wasn't in the cards. But the banter and the assumptions they had just really tied things together for me. A simple, unassuming chapter with some goofiness and serious questions answered by a couple of stoned goobers.

Thank you for the review, Lav!

[FGFRANKLIN]

Pretty cool read, I like this sort of sci-fi dystopian stuff. I used to read a lot of it along with horror which I don't read much of anymore. My favorite off-world reads were probably the Gaea trilogy by John Varley. Keep up the great writing. F.

[Kane Hagwood]

Thank you for the review! This story is categorized as a "Chapter" on the site, being one of many stories in the Nero series I've been piecing together. This is one of the shorter stories, and I'm happy with how it turned out. Thanks for stopping by, F.