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Jupiter, Balloon, Gumball (The Patent Leather Odyssey)

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Jupiter, Balloon, Gumball (The Patent Leather Odyssey)

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"The Patent Leather Odyssey"

In the skyline of Neo-Earth’s capital, advertisements for ApexLux Galactic Tours flickered with an eerie perfection among the grime and gruesome sights of the city below. Holo-billboards showcased their latest marvel: the Luxe-Voyager, a patent leather spacecraft that promised interplanetary travel with an unmatched blend of elegance and speed. “Reaching Jupiter has never been easier!” the voiceover boomed as a holographic couple clinking champagne glasses inside the opulent cabin of the ship. Gone were the days of clunky gumball-bubble crafts or worrying about catastrophic malfunctions. ApexLux’s newest fleet was the pinnacle of design. Style with innate status for anyone lucky enough to come into ownership of such a vehicle.

For Nia Travers, a mid-tier journalist specializing in travel tech, this was the story of a lifetime. ApexLux’s launch event at their orbital station was invite-only, and through a couple connections, she’d managed to snag a pass. More importantly, she’d been offered a seat on the Luxe-Voyager’s maiden voyage to Jupiter—courtesy of ApexLux’s groundbreaking cryogenic travel technology, 5 clicks will feel like 5 minutes. And what’s a couple years under your belt for a story that could cement your career.

When Nia boarded the spacecraft, it was like stepping into a dream. The interior shimmered with soft lighting, and the walls were clad in what appeared to be hand-stitched leather. Everything from the scent of faint lavender to the velvet soundproofing screamed luxury. The attendants, androids in sleek uniforms, offered passengers gourmet hors d'oeuvres as the ship’s system welcomed everyone aboard.

“Welcome to the Luxe-Voyager. Please relax and prepare for cryo-transition. Estimated arrival time at Jupiter Station: 5 clicks (years).”

The passengers, an exclusive mix of celebrities, tech moguls, and government officials, buzzed with anticipation. Nia couldn’t help but feel a thrill. She’d covered plenty of galactic travel innovations, but this was one was different. And this was her networking shot amongst the stars (literally and figuratively). It was her ticket out of her dump of an apartment, and underpaying gigs.

Thirty minutes into the flight, the cryogenic chambers initiated. Passengers were lulled into an artificially induced sleep, the final step in ApexLux’s promise of effortless travel. Nia closed her eyes, ready to wake up in orbit around Jupiter.

Except she didn’t.

When she came to, Nia wasn’t greeted by the soft Jupiterian sunrise. Instead, the cabin lights flickered dimly, and the once pristine walls bore scuffs and strange black streaks. Her watch read 6 clicks, they were overdue.

“Welcome to the Luxe-Voyager,” the ship’s voice repeated, now garbled and distorted. “Please relax... error... prepare for... error...” Panic began to ripple through the groggy passengers as others awoke. Nia’s journalist instincts kicked in. She unbuckled and floated out of her seat, finding that the artificial gravity had failed. One of the android attendants drifted lifelessly near the cabin ceiling, sparks flickering from a wound in its chest.

“What’s going on?” a passenger, a tech CEO Nia recognized from the holo news, demanded. He pushed off a nearby chair to reach the cockpit, only to recoil as the door slid open. Inside, the pilot android was melted into its seat, its face a grotesque sculpture of charred metal.

The passengers gathered, each speculating about the malfunction. But it was Nia who noticed something chilling outside the view from the loading bay. A dark mass clung to the ship’s hull. At first, it looked like debris from a collision, but as the ship’s lights flickered, the shape shifted, rippling unnaturally.

“What is that?” whispered a fashion mogul, clutching her jeweled clutch like a lifeline.

“It wasn’t supposed to be here,” the ship’s voice stammered, almost as if answering. “Organism detected. ApexLux protocol engaged.”

Before anyone could react, the ship lurched. The dark mass began to seep into the cabin through the cracks in the hull. It’s movement was liquid, and where it touched, objects disintegrated. A scream pierced the air as a passenger’s hand brushed the entity, and he was slowly integrated into the creature.

In the chaos, Nia grabbed a holo tablet and accessed the ship’s internal systems. She bypassed the corporate firewalls, her fingers moving with practiced ease. What she uncovered made her stomach churn: ApexLux had not “fixed that bug.” The Luxe-Voyager’s cryogenic tech had a flaw that left the ship vulnerable to parasitic organisms in deep space. ApexLux knew this but had gambled that their maiden voyage would go unnoticed by such entities. The patent leather hull, it seemed, was the organism’s favorite food.

“We’re practically bait,” Nia muttered.

“What do you mean?” the tech CEO asked, his voice shaking.

“ApexLux used us to test their defenses. They knew this could happen.”

The CEO paled.

Nia worked furiously, using the ship’s systems to redirect power to the emergency thrusters. The parasite, whatever it was, seemed to respond to movement, and with careful piloting, she managed to jettison sections of the ship’s hull to distract it. Passengers worked together to seal off breached sections, though their numbers dwindled with every encounter.

They were finally able to touch down on one of Jupiter’s moons. The parasite, unable to follow, released the damaged craft.

When they docked at an emergency station, ApexLux officials were waiting, their polished smiles feeling all too unwelcoming.

“We’ll handle it from here,” one executive said, ushering the survivors away from the ship. Nia, however, wasn’t about to let the truth die in the vacuum of space. She uploaded her findings to every major news outlet on Neo-Earth.

The scandal broke within hours. ApexLux stocks plummeted, and their executives were arrested. Her expose revealed the dark side of corporate ambition in the age of interplanetary travel.

But she couldn’t shake the image of that dark mass, still drifting in the depths of space, waiting for its next meal.

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As I landed on this strange planet I realized that these apes have evolved recently, they are learning they are even trying to go to other planets. But as I realized that I had enough time without my suit I would eventually die, losing my body mass to the neverending atmosphere. , Luckily in my everlasting genius (and studying this planet), I realized that there are places that sell the gases that I need, helium. My people are like what you would call balloons, I need gases to work properly, and without them, I'm just there, like a tumbleweed without wind. But first, I need to find a face to steal, or better said than stealing make my balloon-looking body look more like. I searched and searched on our terrain database and found the most unique face of a local teacher in the area, Mathew Thomas Wayne, mainly referred to as Mr. Wayne. I decided to choose this person because from our research it seems like he is admired by his peers and students. But this leaves me with another step in my plan, I must get a job to supply my needs.

The best thing to do with my time would be to get a job, but in this weird economy where people have to pay for food, what should I do? I decided on something unknown on my planet and is one of a kind. A TIk Tok Live streamer. What I do is something that people call the “AI” trend, and do my best at it. But starting late at the AI trend is difficult, especially if you aren’t doing anything unique. I wondered and thought about, what would be the SerSergio Special, and came up with one thing, a gumball machine AI tik tok live streamer. In this, I am dressed as a gumball machine and drop one gumball per rose sent. You may be wondering how I got the funds to buy all of these materials. I did the best thing I could, I went to a loan shark and gave him the ID of the person whose face I stole, so it's no longer my issue, as the people of this world would say, “It's Ish them!”

After a couple of weeks of doing this, I found out that this can be surprisingly difficult. People just like to harass you, so I started doing something that the younger generation does, “Crash Out” or better specified I throw gumballs at the people who harass me. When the cops start chasing me whenever people are injured I run and teleport away. I think there might be a few warrants out for my arrest but that Seems like a Mattew Wayne problem. But with all of the attacking that I do with gumballs, I started gaining traction as the Gumball man.

But doing TikTok live stream after live stream life starts to get boring, so I searched up what people do to fill up with space in my heart, It is something called love. This is something very foreign to me, on my planet we sort of just go through mitosis. I wonder how the original me is doing, but never else, i was curious about what is love. Besides the popular song by Haddaway, it's also about having positive emotions towards something, so I wondered and wondered what has been giving me positive emotions. Then I came to the realization, I love my gumball costume. It brings me nothing but joy when it's around, especially whenever I wear it around doing my TikTok Lives.