!!!!!

“I want your love, and I want your revenge, you and me could write a bad romance...”

Xentook felt as if his whole being was on fire. Rage. It had taken Xentook weeks to identify what it was he felt whenever he heard those words. No not words – lyrics, he reminded himself ragefully. So far this bit of knowledge had cost him three broken screens, two ghost warnings and one visit to the Guide Master herself. It was there Xentook learned the word ‘rage’ to describe the increase in core body temperature and pressure in his cranium that only seemed to occur when he heard that human woman’s voice screaming from his desk mate’s portal. No not screaming – singing, Xeentook sighed. He had learned that too. As if there was a difference between the two. Summoning the last of his senses he reached for what could only be described as a blue pill and swallowed gratefully. Immediately all tension and the temperature in his body decreased and he was once again in his rightful state. Relaxed, perceptive, focused. The humans had something similar to this though not as reliable. I believed they called it ‘weed plant’.

Pushing the horrible lyrics to the back of his mind and using the front of his mind to white noise what the back couldn't handle, he made another attempt to follow his task, or rather the life that he was tasked with through his own portal.

Here on Murdoch each grunt was obligated to tend to one human life which in turn became the burden or (in a one in a million chance, a -) gift to the grunter assigned. No one really knew why they were assigned to watch over the humans and it wasn’t in a grunt’s nature to question a system that seemed to exist solely to give a grunter purpose. It also wasn’t in a grunter’s nature to feel rage but with such close contact and the occasional discovery provided by those beings on Earth, weirder things had been known to happen amongst the grunts.

Xentook was briefly reminded of when A2X2 started spouting off ridiculous ideas about something called the democratic process with some of the younger grunters even starting to pay attention and getting so far as to question what else they could be doing with their time, at least until he was removed from his portal space never to be seen again...

Or when Beetra had decided that she no longer wanted to be referred to as a ‘she’ and would only be known as Beetro from then on. That shocking bit of display had caused quite a stir especially when it came to her requesting extra genitals (she also had disappeared but had come back with a bag full of blue pills, no recollection of Beetro and a new human life to watch).

But the worst in Xentook’s humble opinion was this human named Lady Gaga. The lyrics didn’t even make any sense yet his desk mate Peter (a playful nickname given to him by some of the older grunters) seemed to love this human. “Rah Rah Oo La La” He would sing along and clap his stupid gills, chirping and pirouetting. Some of the other grunters had taken to joining in, finding it funny to call themselves Gaga’s Little Monsters. It was disgusting.

Still it was Xeentook who was hauled in to face the Guide Master, not Peter, after his last unfortunate blow up of rage displayed towards his portal screen.

A grunter’s purpose was to focus, observe and report anything strange or out of the ordinary like a military explosion or the next disaster regarding the progressing global warming situation. They weren’t meant to enjoy, or get involved or fall in love or have pity. Those doings and emotions were for the humans and humans alone. And as the human population grew in the billions so did the grunts and it really was amazing to see how billions of storylines and events between each individual human life crisscrossed and connected with one another. They were !!!!! (a gruntian swear word) and it was plain for all the grunters on Murdoch to see and yet most humans lived each day like they had all the time in the world to waste.

A flash of green light

!!!!!. This just wasn't his day. Take your eyes off the portal screen for one second and this is what happens...