Bren entered his apartment - a crappy cheap place in the crappy cheap part of town. He closed his door and, with a reluctant sigh, he closed it again. And again. And once more. He finally gave up and locked it, reminding himself to fix it up later when he has the time.
He took off his shoes, hung his jacket and threw his backpack across the tiny hall right onto his chair.
After a quick stop at the bathroom, Bren entered his room. He looked around, drummed on his thighs in a quick succession and yelled. He had heard once that it was good to yell sometimes. It was starting to become a routine at this point.
Feeling refreshed, he opened his mini-fridge, grabbing a bowl of strawberries he had been saving and sat at his desk. He examined the otter reflecting off the black screen of the computer. His hair was a mess. His eyes stared back at him with little interest. He tried to smile, but didn't really feel like it. He sighed, popped a strawberry in his mouth and turned his computer on.
Bren leaned back, listening to the hum of his machine and looked up at the ceiling, gazing at the once white and now yellowish ceiling. His eyes drifted slowly onto his bed, where his sheets stood piled up from the morning. Thought of fixing up his bed crossed his mind, but as quickly expelled.
He turned back to his monitor, a few chat apps, store apps and an anti-virus program clogged up his ram as they loaded.
BugEater Quickscan finished
Computer secure

Gamedom is online


Bren toyed with his mouse a bit, trying to shake off the left over residue of lag and got to work, engaging his VPN. He opened up his remote virtual machine.
Critter Crawler 3.5
now loading
Shpreker chat is active

The new desktop only had four icons - My Machine, Shpreker, a folder labeled "Stuff" and a program called "Swampland".
After turning on the virtual machine's own secondary VPN he entered Swampland, a browser originally designed to allow the user to certain remote parts of the true underweb freely and without the fear of being tracked, now bineg used to connect with a less dubious but somehow more divergent network.
After going through a few sites and links, he finally found what he had been looking for. A simple image and message board, with the words "Minsan" displayed proudly in red on a pink background and "General General" written underneath. He scrolled through the message board, only glimpsing at most of the threads, trying to find something interesting.

>hawks aren't real guys. Its just government propaganda
Why are these threads still around? Why are /con/ posters leaking into /gg/ again?

>be me
>meet cute girl online
>we chat for a few days
>we have common interests
>continue to chat
>things are getting serious
>share our goals and dreams
>I fall in love
>one day we're talking about sex
>she mentions that she's into shorter guys
>diamonds.exe
>this is it boys
>tell her my height
>blocked
>mfw
When does it stop hurting guys?



Any of you faggots watch any shows from the Eastern block? I just got a decent VPN and I wanna torrent something good. Any suggestions?



Alright guys I fucked up big time.
>be me
>work as a commission artist on hentai site
>ain't really proud of it but the pay is decent
>don't need to find a real job
>madwagie.png
>all the while going to uni
>the grade in a class is decided by a report
>work my ass off for three months
>finish report last night
>zip it up with all my charts and graphs and bibliography
>half dead from sleepdeprivation and dehydration
>send zip to professor
>wake up this morning
>realize I accidentally sent him a zip with one hundred commissions I've been working on of fetish art
>feet
>futa solo
>futa on female
>futa on male
>interscale
>piss
>shit
>piss and shit
>all of the above at once
What should I do bros? Should I send another email with the right stuff or should I just kill myself and be done with it?



>neet for three years
>decide to find work
>manage to get a nine to five job at office
>shits tight
>months go by and I get disillusioned
>fall into depression
>quit job and be neet again
>somehow ended up on the carrot farm
>work is hard, but pays well
>aint so bad actually
>body gets toned
>build self-confidence
>enjoy job
>meet a girl
>start chatting
>shes into me
>we hook up
>fast forward a year
>we are getting married
Holy shit guys! I thought the whole reject modernity thing was just a meme. But there's something to it. Anyone else have a similar experience?




Bren continued scrolling through the message board. Most post were like that - people just talking about their experiences and life. That was after all the nature of the "General General". He would sometimes venture into other boards when he felt like it, but this was his main stay. It had a bit of a calming effect, reading about these folks lives and small problems. It helped him feel a bit at ease, assuming a role of benevolent observation: sometimes he even felt a slight bit of kindship, knowing that these others had their hurdles a little like himself, feeling lost this time around and were just trying to make sense of it all.
He moused over the "[Start a New Thread]" button, thinking if he should make a post. He didn't really have anything to say. But most others here certainly didn't have anything really important to sa. He clicked the button.

Hey guys. Long time lurker here. I've been

He deleted the message.


>be me
>go to a crappy job
>don't really feel like it's going anywhere


He deleted the message again. This was frustrating.

Gaven: You here?

The chat message from the emulated Shpreker popped up with a root to a fifth tone ascent. Bren's ears perked up. A weary smile puffed into existence on his face.

Bren: yup
Gaven: Wanna talk?

Bren looked back and around quickly. Gaven wouldn't mind the mess, he was sure, but he quickly leaned and scooted to rearranged a few telltale things out of view, incongruities that Gaven would probably notice.
Bren: Sure


An annoying melody started playing as Gaven called. In a flash, Bren fixed his hair, adjusted his shirt and raised his back. He took a deep breath and clicked the answer button.
On the screen appeared the murky image of a red fox adjusting his camera.
"Hey." Bren said waving.
"Hi." Gaven answered.
Gaven laid back in his chair and Bren could barely see the room behind him. It looked like a bigger mess than his own.
"So...what's up?" Bren began, trying to pass off as nonchalant.
"Oh...nothing much...just...stuff..."
"Stuff?" Bren raised an eyebrow.
"Stuff." Gaven repeated, his eyes drifting around the room.
The otter crossed his hands, a sly smirk spreading on his face.
"Do you want to share these..."stuff"...with me?"
"...maybe..."
"I'm listening."
Gaven huffed and leaned forward, unzipping his sweatshirt and resting his arms on the desk.
"I don't know...it's just...it's been tough. Things are kinda shit here, you know? Job doesn't pay well and I gotta live paycheck to paycheck. Can't really move to the big city, since I don't have the money to afford a place there. Ain't got not friends there either so I don't got anyplace to crash, you know?"
"I get it." Bren nodded his head.
"Yeah..." Gaven slumped back. "I've been trying to do some community service, you know? To help me get...I don't know..." Gaven took a moment, trying to find the words for it. "I guess I'm looking for a purpose. Everything's kinda shit. Money's tight. Things are looking crap with the border situation here. Don't know how's it going on your end. And yeah..."
"Yeah..." Bren nodded once again, reaching to pop a strawberry in his mouth before catching himself.
"Yeah...the whole community service thing. That's...well it doesn't really make feel any better. But, you know, fake it till you make it, right?"
"Hey...we all have our ways."
"Yes! Exactly!" Gaven shifted about in his chair. "I guess it works for some...but I ain't feeling it, you know? I mean, I ain't no monster, I want people to feel good...but I don't feel good helping out people, you know? Fuck...That sounds evil."
"No, no...it's like..." Bren waved his hand. "...like...to help others...first you gotta help yourself. Like...if you don't feel okay, how can you expect others to feel okay around you?"
"Yeah, yeah..." Gaven nodded off. "Fuck...you get me, dude. You get me..."
"What can I say? I try!" Bren shrugged, being almost sure that what he said didn't really make much sense.
"Yeah...you know, I'll be going to a concert tonight. There's like this...folk fest...not really a fest, the entire thing is at a bar...but there are gonna be like five bands I think..."
"Didn't really take you for a folk guy." Bren chuckled, feeling sure that the folk over there was pretty similar, like a lot of other things he'd seen linked on the board.
"Well it's not your standard folk, you know? It's like...freak folk and...folk punk...crazy stuff, you know. I'm kinda into that."
"Sounds like its gonna be fun."
"Oh, yeah! Hey, after the concert, I'll send you a review of the bands!" Gaven chuckled.
"I'd like that."
"Anyway...enough of me moping. What's up with you?"
"Pff! Same old, same old." Bren leaned back in his chair. "Job sucks, town sucks, apartment sucks. But I'm holding on."
"That's good to hear. Gotta keep on walking, you know?"
"Yeah...I'll be meeting my cousin soon, so I gotta get ready..."
"Oh, it's cool. I gotta get going. Community work and all that. So...yeah...see ya later, I guess."
"Yeah. See ya..."
The called ended. Bren stood in front of the screen, gently tapping his desk. Poor Gaven. Can't really find his place. Maybe Bren could help him out in some way.
He chuckled, remembering the words he had just told Gaven. To help others, first you have to help yourself.

#
Gaven let out a long and heavy sigh. He clapped his hands and got up from his chair, maneuvering around the clutter of his room. He thought he should do something about it. Tomorrow maybe. Tomorrow always seemed like a good option to fix the place up. After a clean up and good scrub he just might fix up the paint job of the apartment, of course, after he got rid of the mold, both in his room and the bathroom. After that he might fix the sink and check the fusion box so black outs wouldn't happen as often. And after all that he would fix the small things - change the lock on the bathroom door, get new hinges for the wardrobe. Even maybe patch up the broken window.
It would be nice, he thought. Then he recalled his complete lack of tools, help, and other resources, and quickly gave up on the idea. The same way he did yesterday. And the day before. He grumbled under his breath, put on his jacket and left.
He walked through the main street, which was surprisingly empty, most people probably deterred by the clouds in the sky. The usual places were still open - the fast food joints had people inside, munching down on whatever junk was being sold; the employees at the clothes shops stood outside, gossiping and having a smoke and the owner of the local deli could be seen reading a newspaper behind his desk.
Even at the busiest time, not much did happen in this town. It was a slog. Always was, always had been. And Gaven hated it. Each time he retraced the steps he took in his life, he couldn't really figure out he had ended up here. And for so long. It was a mystery to him. The problem was that he didn't have the slightest clue how to get out. Saving up money meant living in destitute and there was no one to borrow it from either. Making it worse was that so many around him in this town were in exactly the same spot, seemingly more ever month.
He continued walking on the main road until he finally reached the community garden, a farm in a couple empty lots between buildings, owned by a non-profit organization, setting a goal of reducing hunger and helping out the down-trodden find a new lease on life. A month ago, Gaven thought this had been exactly what he needed. Now it was like a second job. Even worse so, since there was no pay involved. Still, he put up a stiff upper lip, entered the main building, changed into his working clothes in the changing room and stepped onto the farm.
The soil was soft, still wet from the morning shift's watering. He walked amongst his fellow volunteers, all of whom were enthusiastically chatting while doing the busy work. He walked underneath the shades of the strawberry plants, trying to find one that had not been occupied.
"Mother FUCK!"
His search, however, was cut short, when a volunteer fell right in front of him. Gaven raised an eyebrow.
"Are you alright?" he asked as he offered his hand to the rabbit on the ground.
"Could be better." She said, grabbing his hand. "Slipped off that strawberry, while I was cutting it."
Gaven looked up. The handsaw was still stuck on the stem of the fruit.
"The work should be done in pairs at the least."
"Yeah, well...my partner just happened not to show up today." The rabbit rubbed her buttocks, still sore from the fall.
"I'm guessing you'll be needing a hand then." Gaven said with a smile.
"Only if you are offering." The girl replied with the same smile.
"I am."
"Tania." She offered up her hand.
"Vane."
"Nice to meet you."
"Likewise. So, how do you want to do this?"
Tania looked up at the enormous strawberry and she scratched her nose in contemplation.
"You can hold the ladder still while I saw the stem. The ladder gets a bit wobbly, especially when the soil is still wet."
Gaven nodded and followed suit.
"So..." Tania began as she climbed up the ladder. "...what brings you to the community garden, Vane?"
"You know, the usual. Looking for a sense of purpose, trying to give back to the community which gave to me so much. Nothing special, you know?"
"Oh, I know." Tania let out a dry laugh as she continued to aggressively saw the strawberry. "Most of us have that in mind here. Give something back, find some meaning. A few lucky bastards are only doing it for their CVs, for one reason or another, but to each their own."
"To each their own..." Gaven repeated under his nose.
"Keep the ladder steady there." Tania said, without stopping.
"Oh! Sorry." The fox murmured. "I just have...some stuff on my mind, you know?" He was pretty sure he'd been holding it perfectly steady though, even when distracted; honestly it seemed ot have a mostly good footing even without him holding it.
"You can share. Makes the work go by faster."
"It's nothing much. Just...existential and everyday issues."
"My two favorite types." The rabbit said, sweat sticking her fur together.
"I mean...like...how do you start a better life, if you don't have the opportunity to start a better life, you know?"
"Simple. Make the opportunity happen."
Gaven scoffed.
"That's easy to say, isn't it."
"It is. And it's easy to say "go and saw that strawberry down". But it's hard to do. But we do it, none the less."
Gaven's eye twitched.
"It's one thing when you're talking about strawberries. It's a whole other thing when you want to get your life in order."
"Sure is." She continued to saw, the stem almost sliced. "But the basic idea stands. Find out what's missing and figure out how to fill that void. Break the problem down into smaller, manageable pieces and start from there."
"Huh..."
"I read a book once..."
"Only once?" Gaven snickered.
"...and a few other times. But a read a book once, by this weird guy. Basically, he said...that one has to learn the science and art of causing change in conformity with will and possibility."
"...what?"
"Basically, learn what's got to be done and do it, even if sometimes we don't like what it is or it's hard."
The stem broke and the strawberry fell into a wagen.
"There we go..." Tania said, wiping her brow. "You wanna help me carry it back?"
Gaven looked at the strawberry. The red fruit, almost half his height and so wide as to probably be a tad heavier than him was held by something so tiny as a stem. There was a metaphor in there, he thought. If only he knew how to see metaphors, he added.
"Sure thing...hey...you into freak folk?"

#
"Hey, Bren! Over here!" Sandri waved to her cousin.
It took a moment for the otter to notice Sandri amidst the crowded café. Without much hesitation he maneuvered between the tables and reached her, to which she stood up and hugged him tightly.
"How you've been?" she asked as she let him go and sat down.
"You know, same old same old." He said meekly, trying to regain his composure from the bear-hug.
"Good day. What can I get you two." The waiter, a Labrador a few years older than Bren, managed to creep up on the pair.
"One coffee. With milk." Sandri said enthusiastically.
"Um...same for me. Oh, and a coke." Bren added after a moment's hesitation.
"Coming right up." The waiter said and quickly left the table.
Bren leaned back in the wicker chair and observed his surroundings. He didn't really expect a café to be so full of people at this time of day and even at this time of year. He turned his head towards his cousin - an otter, almost as tall as him, with a fit, muscular build.
She slowly leaned in forward over the glass table, with a dopey smile on her face.
"Yes?" Bren asked.
"Don't you "yes" me! How have you been? I haven't seen you in such a long time."
"It's only been a few months..."
"A few months is a long time. Tell me. What's been going on with you?"
"Ah..."
Bren scratched his neck, unsure of what to say.
"Well...I'm kind of in the middle of rethinking my life..."
"Why?" Sandri furrowed her brow. "Did something happen?"
"No, no...quite the opposite in fact. Nothing much happens. I'm in a bit of a rut. Everyday's been kind of the same. Trying to crawl out of the hole, you know?"
"Rough times, eh?"
"I wouldn't say rough...more like...uninteresting times."
"Mmm..." Sandri nodded, trying to feint understanding.
Bren quickly noticed this and tried changing the subject.
"So, what's up with you? How's army life been treating you?"
Her ears instantly perked up.
"Well...it's been fine. Kind of a hassle really. Duties all around. A bit more paperwork this time around since...I got promoted to sergeant." A series of eyebrow raises motioned Bren to believe that was a big deal.
"Oh, wow...that's...that's great! I guess the coffee is on you this time around?"
They both shared a chuckle as the waiter came and served their drinks.
"It's fine." She said. "I've got a few free days and then I'm gonna be shipped off to do public land patrolling soon enough."
"Wow...sounds...interesting!" Bren tried to sound as excited as he could for his cousin's job.
"Kind of boring really. Nothing much happens most of the time out there. But, hey, I'd prefer nothing happening for six months than being in the middle of an active battlefield."
"Oh, I'm sure of that."
"Speaking of...well...nothing in particular regarding the subject." Sandri took out her phone. "I've been checking up on the group. The..." she tried to remember the name and she finally looked at it "Observation session."
"Oh, you're enjoying it?"
"Oh, yeah! Definitely!"
Sandri turned scanned through her phone.
"These guys...they...they are quite something, aren't they?"
Bren chuckled and drank from his coffee.
"Indeed they are."
"I mean look at this!" Sandri turned her phone towards her cousin, showing an image from the board. "An entire group for this one harvest!"
She again turned her phone back and continued sliding through.
"I mean I guess logically I kind of knew it must something be like that over there from what I'd seen from TV of how they are over here but..." she trailed off, looking at more images, with occasional
"Well... even if it's pretty hard for them, we all have to get our food somehow ." Bren said in between sips from his coke. "One way or another...."
She eyed her cousin for a moment, to which he simply shrugged and changed the subject.
"You still aren't in the study group."
"The what?"
Bren cocked an eyebrow.
"They study group. The other one I sent you."
"Oh. Ohh...That...I didn't really check it out that much."
"You aren't in it."
"I'm not in it, no." she said, shrugging innocently.
Bren sighted. He took out his phone and invited her to the chat group. This time, he made sure that she had accepted the invitation.

Bren: Hey guys. This is my cousin I was talking to you about.
Corry: hey
Terri: sup
Lynn: Hey hey!
Liss: Salutations.
Sandri: Hey, everyone! Pleasure to meet you all!
Corry: how u finding the under-life so far?
Sandri: It's fun! =D

Sandri: I just can't get enough of these guys! They're so cute!
Lynn: I'm the same way, it's so fun to watch! But it'd be even better to get a closer look at those guys... and give them a closer look at these: fp16.jpg
Sandri: Maybe but that seems a bit bold... ;^_^
Corry: dont mind her. she thinks about that kind of thing WAY too much, bit of a freak Really
Lynn: Ugh! I'm not a freak! >=(

Lynn: You take that back.
Corry: nah
Corry: u a freak and you kno it. I blame all those shows and movies.
Lynn: You liar, you an everyone else here think the same things; you loved that stuff just as much as I did.
Terri: relax guys
Terri: youre gonna scaer the new girl away.
Lynn: He started it!
Terri: and you reacted. you konw how he is. so stop reacting the way he wants you to
Lynn: =/
Liss: Please, all of you, take your prescribed dose of cooling pellets and relax. You really are going to frighten her away. And then what?
Sandri: Um...cooling pellets?
Corry: chill pills.
Sandri: Ah. I see.
Liss: Are you enjoying our little study group? Don't lie. We know it's a mess.
Sandri: Nah.
Sandri: Seems fun! =D
Liss: Indeed...
Sandri: So...how you guys end up studying this?
Corry: it was a uni project
Corry: we studied together in a zoology course and wanted to do a
Corry: small
Corry: project
Corry: eh? =D
Sandri: XD
Liss: Indeed.

Liss: At first it was simple. Record the behavioral patters of our...distant cousins. But with time, the project fell apart, since we couldn't really find anything all that interesting to actually write up.
Terri: that's the jist of it
Terri: *gist
Terri: still...we kept up the project open...cuz its fun =D
Sandri: It sure is! =D
Sandri: I really like seeing things from their point of view, you know?
Terri: abslolutely.
Liss: Simmer down. They are still our subjects. We shouldn't mess with them or else the experiment will be ruined.
Terri: ther isnt much of an expeirment really
Lynn: I would continue the experiment with one of those "subjects". Or two... or ten...
Corry: fr
Corry: eak
Lynn: You are insufferable! >=[]
Terri: ffs

At that point Sandri turned off the chat and she looked at Bren with a coy smile.
"Are they always like this?"
"More or less."
"What's with that girl? Lynn? She seems really excitable."
"Eh..." Bren waved his hand from side to side. "She's just a bit eager, and she's not wrong you know even if most of us have a bit more chill about it."
"And Liss?"
"She just likes the cold, detached scientist archetype."
Sandri looked at her phone.
"You've got weird friends." She said with a laugh.
"Don't we all?"
"Yeah...I guess...oh! Speaking of which..." Sandri drank her coffee in one gulp. "I gotta get going. Military stuff. I'll see you at least once before I'm sent out, okay?"
"Oh...yeah...sure! No problem."
Bren got up and hugged his cousin goodbye. She threw a few bucks on the table.
"My treat. For the promotion." She said, winking at Bren and ran off.
At the corner across the street, a panther waved and Sandri and she was immediately jumped, her movement restricted by the otter's hug.
"How you've been, Garnet?" Sandri finally asked as she let her go.
"Fine. It take it it's the same for you?"
"Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Say, did you remember to mark you stuff?"
"I'm not doing that."
"Come on! You're gonna lose your stuff!"
"I know it's traditional but it's just too unhygienic for my taste."
Sandri rolled her eyes and motioned to get going.

#
After a long day at school, Tabitha finally got back to the foster home and threw herself on the couch. With much effort, the tigress managed to muster up the strength to grab the remote control and turn her television on.

"Fernando! You are alive?! We all thought that you died during the hawk attack!"
"That's what my brother wanted you to think, Maria. He organized the incident to look as if it was all an unfortunate accident, so he will inherit the modeling agency. But he didn't count on my skills as a beast tamer. I made friends with the hawks and they accepted me as their own. For the past five years, I have been flying free..."

Tabitha changed the channel

"This is Johnny Smokes, coming at you with the best offer you can find! Since the fire in my exotic pet emporium broke out, due to some faulty wiring on behalf of my mysterious rival, 'Johnny Smoke's Exotic Pet Emporium' is rebranding itself as a pet cremation agency. The best cremations this side of the equator and that's a provable fact. As a note, I am selling off all my cages! All these beautifully designed, deluxe, hand crafted cages can be yours for the low-low price of 9, 99. And with each cage bought, you get a coupon for a free pet cremation! You have to be completely schized out of your mind to miss up on these offers! But, wait! There's more! For every..."

Tabitha huffed and changed the channel once more.
"Cheese. It's good. Buy now."

She furrowed her brow. The ads from this side of the border had been progressively getting weirder with the years.

"I'm sorry. Wrong answer. A twenty-nine letter word for deeming something valueless is 'Floccinaucinihilipilification"

"When we die, do you think we live-on, papa?"
"No. The whole of your reality is your physical life. What is there to live on, if there is no life, son?"
"Buying a litterbox for your little pet can be a troublesome task. Fortunately, we are here to help you out."

"You know what they call a royal with cheese in Verwano?"
"They don't call it a royal with cheese? "
"They ain't never had the monarchy system there. They don't even know what royal even is."

"And now...a complete dramatic reading of 'Adventures in the world of shadows; or the ballads of the knight of dust' by Brinshah"

"Do you like chocolate?"

"I...am your brother!"

"The low fi hip-hop channel presents: Juvenile matriarchs."

"We are sorry to interrupt your usual viewing of 'Moth Prince'. The government bureau of decency has deemed the show having inappropriate messages, ideas and ideals in the context of the times we are living. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please stay tuned for a special viewing of the historical war classic 'Slaying titans"

Tabitha sighed. That was the 'Moth Prince was the only thing she wanted to watch really. She didn't know why they wanted to censor it, she didn't understand the government's random decisions on imported Eastern Block shows sometimes, but it seemed to be getting worse. Everything the past few months had simply been EB reruns (even the ads!), terrible local knock-offs, or propaganda pieces.
With a heavy sigh, the girl got up and went out, intending to do some outdoor exercises. She had recently gotten herself hooked on free-running and light acrobatics, and she found she had a knack for it. It was a shame that her town mostly favored boring symmetric architecture, but there were some nice places she could try out some of her new tricks downtown. She could even drop her form at the coffee-shop for next month's school wilderness trip. Still...it was a shame about 'Moth Prince'.

  #                    

Kaz finished pulling out this set of vines and stopped. He wiped his brow and stared off in the distance past the border of his farm onto the public land he also was responsible for pruning back. There was a lot of land to cover in just the few days a month he could afford to be away from his main fields. He looked at his scanner, sent out this month with the latest batch of forms to fill in for the local office. He was coming to appreciate this new gadget despite himself, had a great display and showed things really clearly. Of course right now it clearly showed the heart of the vines was behind the border, beyond where he could safely get at it. The muscular but fatigued horse clicked his tongue and sat on the grassy land; he wasn't quite as young as he used to be. The extra cash was nice, but the government didn't pay him enough for him to do this and do all the dammed paperwork.
The government didn't really pay anybody enough for anything, really. That's how the government was after all. Barely enough for the job, add a bunch of reports on top. He sighed; at least when he did fill in all the blanks like they wanted they were easy enough to deal with.
Kaz looked at the sky. It was a nice afternoon. Clear. And the wind was just gentle enough. He could have been putting a new scarecrow about now, or maybe fixing up his car. A nice, cold beer would have been nice. But drinking wasn't allowed during government work. It didn't really matter to him, he'd do his job either way, but he had been assured that it didn't work like that.
Kaz's gaze drifted toward s the border. Was there really a point in all this? Tanglethorn had been growing around these parts since before his grand-pappy. You couldn't get rid of it. It always grew back. Well...it used to. The one thing the government did right by Kaz was giving him the scanner. Made getting rid of the tanglethorn much easier. Striking at the heart is what he called it. If his grand-pappy had been here today, he'd be amazed at what technology could do, at least before he got super paranoid about it.
Grand-pappy never really technology, honestly, although it allowed him to do a bunch of traveling that he otherwise wouldn't have been able to do. He used to tell little Kaz stories of the exotic lands and mystical stories. He told him that one day, when he grew up, he could visit those lands.
His entire life Kaz hadn't left the country. He kept his traveling to a minimum. He didn't really inherit his grand-pappy's wanderlust. Only his farm, and maybe a bit of a taste for trying new things that some of his neighbors were completely uninterested in.
This was entirely pointless, every time Kaz would come back to find the tangelthorn grown back as thick as ever. He lit up a cigarette, even though the doctor had advised him to quit them a few months back. Grand-pappy used to say, better to die young and happy than old and miserable. He was a life-long smoker and drinker. He died at eighty-seven. Got his by a lightning bolt during a clear sky.
Kaz took a few more puffs. Was there any way for him to get maybe stretch a bit and get more at the heart of the problem? As he pondered this, his scanner went off. His eyes narrowed, he picked the device up, looking over what it was showing him. He laughed suddenly, realizing that for once the government had made his life easier after all, quite a bit easier. He even took a moment to fill out a few extra lines on his report to show his appreciation.
Clicking his tongue, he grabbed his butterfly net, which he brought each time he came this way even though he almost never got to use it, and cheerfully got back to work, cigarette still in mouth.