It's been seven years now, since 'they' came.
They deemed those of us unaffected nobility, leaders. They contacted us, all the outcasts, everyone who was suffocated by how the world was back then.
We were called for negotiations, we were told to gather at their outposts, and surprisingly they didn't kill those of us who came.
I was the first to arrive at the outpost in Vienna, by pure coincidence it was right next to the venue where my favorite band was holding a show.
They welcomed me with open arms, this of course being purely metaphorical, as they don't have arms. They are tripedal creatures with one spine-like appendage growing from the top of their body, this "arm" splits into six smaller strands of bone and muscle that allow it to grab and manipulate with objects with an extremely high degree of precision.
Their "head", or at least their brain is located at the bottom of their tubular body, right above where the legs are connected. They have a single compound eye that wraps around their upper body.
They do have a mouth, it's this small hole front and centre on their body that's covered by skin and muscles that serve as a hopper when they eat, however it only serves dietary purposes. They instead converse telepathically and seemingly don't actually use language, that's just how we interpret the information they send us. Funnily enough, in order to hold a proper conversation with us they had to purposefully slow down how fast they 'speak' because some of us became overwhelmed by it and couldn't sort through all the information that fast.
I was seated in a waiting room and slowly more people came in. By the time we were called in for negotiations there were around 50 people gathered.
Two guards led us to their captain, it was wearing a purple cloth band with an intricate metallic design around it's lower body, for them it's like a business card, it has things like your job, name and rank written on it. But only those of higher status are required to wear it.
The negotiations concluded pretty much the same way in most of the outposts. Those of us who weren't affected by their mind control are free to do whatever we want as long as we don't disrupt their operations on Earth, meanwhile those affected won't be released. It's not like we had any other choice, their weapons and technology are far more advanced than our own. But hey, at least they agreed to use some of the affected to maintain and improve infrastructure and supply chains.
The outposts where humans disagreed were few, but from what I heard they killed the individuals that were insistent on resistance.
They call themselves Zh'geb, they apparently came to Earth to create a recreational planet, something like a high class resort. They didn't even know that there were sapient beings here until they arrived at our solar system and did a detailed scan of Earth.
Since all of our infrastructure is now managed by the Zh'geb we have lost the need for money, stores still function as they did, however now instead of paying we just register what we take. Our energy sources have improved drastically, the ecological state of the Earth is way better than before and we no longer have a housing crisis.
As for the entertainment industry it stagnated for a while, but eventually those of us with enthusiasm came together and started up television shows and broadcasts, making music, writing books and comics and creating tons of other things, since they weren't tied down with financial responsibilities anymore they could create whatever they dreamed of.
Now when it comes to me, I decided to live slowly, enjoy this freedom and never think back on the days before. Over these past years I've been all around the world, I even got to walk on the moon.
But all that is a story for another time, come let's enjoy living out own way...
andulkaphoto
snowghoul
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yousharknotpass