Section I: The Broadcast

A news broadcast declares the disappearance of The Queen Evalynne.

Section I: The Broadcast

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“This day be remembered in the

books of history forevermore.

The story of Ex-King Tyler Remiisan and

his role in the triumphant victory over

the grips of lawlessness 

and tyranny echoes its beginning here.

While we could start from his birth to Gabriel

And Victoria, such information 

about his past can be found

In Arano’s Grace.”

- From Requiemis Historica, by Biran Vocan

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Busy streets were quite the normal occurrence on Apolo, especially the planet’s northern hemisphere. Bakeries allowing the smells of their goods to propagate throughout the air, postal services lightly jogging to deliver letters and packages, and parks filled with the light talk of the week, all a small portion of the loud yet calm noises surrounding the planet. 

By far the busiest stores and commerce places were the Vision-Shacks and other technological stores. Every single one of these stores had large windows next to the front doors, showcasing the latest in vision-screen technology. 

Every vision-screen showcased something different, some playing the children’s programme, others playing the latest drama show. Some screens even play the latest talk show, where the host speaks with members of the government about anything. Very rarely do the vision-screens show the news programme, at least its dedicated channel. When the news is displayed, it takes precedence over all the other channels, and is usually for government reports related to that area or planet. So when the news takes over every screen on every planet under jurisdiction of the GreaterWealth, it should be no surprise that every single person stops to watch, including one particular character.

On the surface, he looks like a ‘younger’ fellow, about his mid-twenties, and judging by his neatly-kept white fur and hair, along with a mildly strong-shaped muzzle, he seems to follow a standard. It would explain his miraculously clean clothing, consisting of a mildly dark green long-sleeve polo, a somewhat thin grey vest with pockets all around, and dark tan khakis hiding his well-worn yet well-sturdy black working shoes. What it would not explain is his mismatching right eye. Unlike his left eye, which has a mildly dark blue iris, his right eye was a mild green, and much brighter in luminance. It also had a deep, quite visible scar through it.

Not that it bothered him. In fact he was more concerned about what was on the vision-screens in the shop windows, watching from the back of the crowd. 

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In a studio-like setting, a very finely-dressed woman quickly walked over from her traditional office desk to sit down in a rather comfortable seat, a script-pad tucked under her arm. When she got next to the camera crew, she placed the script-pad in front of the camera, and turned to the cameraman. “A scrolling speed of 10 and a half, please.” She commanded.

The cameraman understood her dictation, and adjusted the camera and attached script-pad settings accordingly. “We are set, ma’am. Live in thirty seconds!” 

The crew was frantically running around, adjusting all the lights, setting up cameras and mirroring the settings of the main camera. In the corner of one of the cubicles, one of the intern writers was panicking, hiding under their desk while holding a small Futoria tree in a pot. The tree was starting to whittle, a sign to the carer that something problematic is occurring back home.

“Twenty seconds!”

The back lights were turned on, to help the woman stand out, to let her almost manicured cream fur and muzzle shine, alongside her exaggerated hair, akin to poodles. The large vision-screen acting as a window was changed to display a forest treetop, the dark green leaves, outlined with a light-in-saturation green sky. The image was also lowered in brightness, to let the women stand out even more.

“Ten seconds!”

The frantic running and setting things up calmed down, deep breaths running around the room from each individual. The last deep breath before the red light of the main camera switched on was from the woman in the chair, hands on top of one another on her right knee, with her right leg crossed over top of her left leg. The main cameraman held up his hand, counting down his fingers as the “Breaking News” graphic was shown. When the hand went down to just one finger, the cameraman lowered it to point at the woman. It was her time.

“I extend my greetings to all citizens of The Collection of The GreaterWealth. I am Eris Vonera, and I come to you today with less than fortunate information we have been asked to relay to you all, interrupting all major programmes. It is with a heavy heart and great sadness we make public the disappearance of the Queen of Flana, her majesty the queen, Evalynne Fromana I.” The screen behind Eris changed to a picture of a much older woman, with a mixture of a mild brown and white fur, with black tips on her ears, and a mild dark blue set of eyes. Her clothes were like a tree, a green top blouse with a lighter brown dress skirt. Around her neck was a gold necklace with a small beetle-like symbol.

”She was last seen approximately eighteen hours ago leaving the Flana capitol building, alongside her assistants, who have gone missing alongside the queen. Their vehicle left the capitol to take an alternative route due to many road closures. Local authorities ask that if you have any information regarding where they might be to contact them as soon as possible. They fear that with the queen as old as she is, last week celebrating her two-hundred and seventy-sixth birthday, she might not return. At the moment, she is succeeded by the interim queen, princess, and second daughter, Prescilla Fromana I. We will continue to provide updates as we receive them. The Contributors thank you for your time to hear this message. If your programme was interrupted, we will now return to it, as regularly scheduled.”

And as quickly as it took over, the broadcast disappeared from the interrupted channels. It left almost everyone confused and concerned. Except for the young man. His face did not change emotion throughout the entire broadcast. In fact, after hearing the word "disappearance", he had already made up his mind about what to do. He started to walk towards Apolo’s capitol building, determined to learn more. Shortly after, his green eye lit up with thin lines of blue, as he received a call from a “Joseph Carnagee”. He pressed the side of his face next to the eye, and with no hesitation, spoke up. “I saw, I am walking over now.”

The caller responded back. “Please, Tyler, with haste. We do not know how long we have.”

“Will do.”

“Do you need transport?”

“Yes.”

“We will send a taxi. See you soon.” Tyler taps the side of his face again, ending the call.

Author's Note

There is a single illustration for reference to show what Tyler looks like in a pencil-sketch kind of way. Also if someone can assist me in knowing what genres exactly this story falls under, that would be appreciated.