Welcome to Gaia! ::

The introduction of The Gator to Gee Dee

Notice: Due to the far reaching influence which the Gator posesses, I would like to gather information from as many parties as possible to create the stories that best reflect them, due to my current loss of memories regarding the early days and births/battles of the many Gators/anti-gators. While the project is meant as light hearted, I will be treating it as serious work of scripture as I write it, and would like it to be as close to the fact, or as far fetched as possible.

tl;dr, if you're involved with the Gators in anyway, or just want to be written in, feel free to get in touch with me so we can discuss how you relate to the saga.

Thanks for any help you can give me,
Unhinged Kin



Behold, the holy scripture of the Gator, creator of all life, doer of the impossible, the ever ravenous. He is in everything that ever was, is, and will be, and in time all things return to him. These lessons are to prepare you for his inevitable coming, to quell your fears and accept your fate as lunchmeat. For it is through the Gator that we shall all find oneness and peace with the universe.

Each chapter will be written as it was told to me, unedited save for descriptions which have been taken out for the sake of being compact and easy to read. Through time, they may work their way back in, but for now, only the necessary shall remain.

At the end of most chapters I will insert a small prayer, ponder them in your hearts and realize that we are on our way to something far greater.

May you reside in the Gator's stomach for eternity.

Chapters:
Introduction: Wherein you are already here
Preface: Wherein I encounter the mouth piece of the Gator
Chapter 1: Wherein existance is explained
Chapter 2: Wherein Junior explains the approaching end times
Chapter 3: Wherein the existance of the Symbiote is revealed
Chapter 4: Wherein the Gator takes an interest in the planet
Chapter 5: Wherein other players are revealed
Chapter 6: Wherein the Gator awakens
Chapter 7: Wherein the Gator finds his home
Chapter 8: Whereing there is an obligatory list
Chapter 9 Wherein Plot Makers Plot Against the Gator are Revealed and 'New Beginnings'
Chapter 10: Wherein the Gator Meets the Sea's Madmen
Chapter 11: Wherein the First Battle Cry is Coined, and an Example of the Gator's Cheese is Revealed
Chapter 12: Wherein the Gator Shows His Way With Women
Chapter 13: Wherein Devouring is Expanded Upon

Transition:
Part 1: Falling Out
Part 2: Falling In

Chapters shall continue to be forthcoming.

The scaled subordinate began his legend, "In the beginning was nothingness, nothing save the Universe and a frozen chunk of ice floating aimlessly through the vastness of nothing. At once, the Universe..."

Unable to stop myself, I interrupted. "Goon of Gator, what might I call you so that I don't begin reusing alliterations, or am stuck using amusing titles which don't really sound alike, I believe I'm running out of ideas."

Obviously irritated at being interrupted again, it's scales rose and a snarl, much like hurricane winds roaring through a tunnel, an eerie, disconcerting sound, rose forth. "I am one who serves the Gator, I need no name or title! However, should it make the lunchmeats better understand their place, you may call me Junior."

Junior's scales receded and began his story again. "The Universe decided to bring about existence, believing itself the only entity within itself. Thus it created a planet, supportive of life in all aspects, including an exceptionally warm core, allowing life to flourish. It was this planet that drew the ice to it, it wanted to share the joy of life. However, the ice was meant to hold something which never must have been, at least according to the Universe. Since it's inception, the ice had been there, and within it, our lord and master the Gator.

"Any life that sprung forth on the planet, the Gator devoured, and at that time he was not so different from your own people, but far more predatory and had a distinct advantage. Anything it is exposed to, the Gator adapts, grows stronger.

"The Universe perceived the Gator as a threat, and sought to destroy him. Even going so far as to ignite the planet, creating an explosive fireball, so massive and large that it could only burn for a few moments before it would extinguish, and return the concept of existence to nothingness.

"However, the Gator adapted to the heat. It's once pale skin darkened to almost a brown charred color, though the ears high on his head remained pristine, untouched. Few creatures survived the initial warming, but when the Gator devoured the ones which remained, he found them to be delicious, thus his favoring of cooked meats over raw.

"Even as the Universe proceeded to snuff out the existence of the planet star, causing it to collapse in on itself, the Gator let loose a vicious roar. The planet star collapsed without the Universe's consent, and the Gator began moving after the Universe, having no desire to be contained for another eternity.

"The Universe, fearing for itself, began pushing against the borders of nothingness. And the nothingness gave way to existence, and what remained of the first planet star attached itself to the Gator. Chasing the Universe for time unknowable, the Gator would shake loose fragments of the planet star, thus creating existence from itself.

"Even still, the Universe continues to run, pushing the boundaries of nothingness in an attempt to escape from the Gator. And while the Gator has called off the chase for the moment, he is growing ever stronger, ever smarter, and it is only a matter of time before he catches the first who sought to destroy him, the only being thus far who has escaped his wrath."

Awe washed over me as I realized the truth. All life is owed to the Gator, saving what remained of the first planet star and the cause of universal expansion. He is truly great indeed.

Glory to the Gator and may we find peace in the devourer's stomach.

Junior had gone silent for several moments, before tilting his head to the side, murderous eyes locked on mine. "You seem surprised that the Gator is more than just the great one himself."

I nodded dumbly, watching curiously. "I had assumed that with such power, he would live in solitude, but it appears he has a great many allies."

"Indeed," Junior chuckled. "Gators, once fully matured, often carry with them a symbiote, in their pocket."

"Wait, wait wait... I thought that the Gator was a celestial beast of unimaginable power. Why would he need a pocket? And what would he wear?"

Rolling his eyes, Junior scoffed and spat slightly. As I quickly sought to rub the acidic venom from my eyes, he continued. "For holding things, obviously. And this 'pocket' does not necessarily mean it in the literal sense. The Gator is all powerful, and can create pockets in existence, which is where his Symbiote lives. While it may appear that the Symbiote comes out of a pocket, it is in fact another world inside, built, shifted and changed at the whims of the Symbiote. In the realm of the pocket, she is Queen, and her domain stretches into forever."

The venom gone, and my eyesight only slightly more blurry, I smiled. "What an amazing creature. Please, tell me more of her."

"The Symbiote is not a creature, she is one of many companions to the Gator and is deserving of the respect of those who would join in oneness with him. As you know, the first planet star was destroyed by the Gator, who then forced the Universe into it's ever expanding state. However, there was one who escaped that planet, securing itself against the Gator's skin. There, it rested for many eons, until the Gator, having stopped long enough to indulge himself in a cleansing, knocked her loose.

"At one time, the Symbiote had been a small, delightful creature, constantly changing it's appearance, though most often recognized by her beak. During the destruction of the planet star however, her appearance had blackened to a charred color, her face covered with an unwashable layer of soot, two white eyes peering up at the great one. He could have easily devoured her, as he planned to do to many creatures on this tropical planet, yet he paused.

"It is through this that the Gator shows his mercy and grace, for he took the Symbiote in as his own, not out of obligation or pity, but for companionship, and created for her a world of her very own. Feeding her crumbs of his meals, the two enjoyed many happy times together and will for much longer to come, forgetful though she may be."

This is how the Gator's nature was made better known to me. While he is indeed a fearsome, ferocious, blood thirsty and battle hungry god, he is also compassionate and cares for those who do not have his divine powers.

May the Gator eat us fresh, well cooked and without preservatives, that we might nourish him and do our part to sate his unquenchable hunger. In Gator we feast, amen.

The temperature had dropped drastically on this, the first night Junior was sent to me, and I was shivering quite profoundly. Junior looked hard at me, and it was hard to tell if it was out of pity or a profound disgust that I was feeling the chill before him, reptilian scales and all. "Prophet of the Gator," he began, "I forget that you are simply lunchmeat, and lack the incredible abilities we Gators have. Thusly, I shall lay one last story down for you to record, and we shall claim we are done for the day."

"T-thank you Junior," I shivered out, bowing my head, the miniature Gator only lifting his clawed hand.

"Think nothing of it. The hunger tears at me again and I desire a more filling meal than the snack this evening." Clearing his throat, he began that night's final story.

"It was after this that the Gator, wise and powerful, decided to rest for only a short while. A great many things happened during the Gator's nap, including several instances of him rolling over in his sleep, which broke the single land mass into many and moved them to their present positions, the rapid cooling of the planet, due to his desire for 'milder' temperatures rather than tropical, and the instance of lunchmeats leaving the jungle for the first time. In truth, when the gator would awake, he would find numerous civilizations had sprung up during his nap, but that, and his reactions, are for another time.

"In fact, this is about two others who took an interest in the planet, one who was already here, and another, who came from far, far beyond this Universe.

"The first, is the Queen of Hares, and much like the peaceful race she watches over, she is slow to anger and great in forgiveness. Which is good as she has a habit of dressing her servants up in various outfits, then selling them to lunchmeats who find them 'cute'. She has served as their protector from ages past, and was around even before the arrival of the Gator, only recently taking her place among the fuzzy kind.

"Her dressing skills are notable, perhaps only matched by her knitting skills, great enough to challenge even the Gator, the one who knit the stars together into your constellations. With the arrival of the Gator, and the hares proclaiming her their leader, she began to think and plot of ways in which to save those who would call her Queen from the wrath of the Gator. However, their battle would end in a way which would be quite the opposite of what the Hare Queen believed.

"On the other side, we have the dimension 'hopping', Scapegoat."

"...There's a creature called 'Scapegoat'?"

"Indeed, flesh covered lunchbox, he was born under the star of Calamity while it was in the house of Ruin in his home Universe. As such, they cast him out, forcing him to forever wander the Universi in search of a place where he might be accepted. Of course, the dimension hopper shut down the moment he entered this one on his first jump, so that plan went kaput. Arriving on the planet many thousands of years later, he found that he could, in a sense, control the chaos around him. Or to be more precise, contain. However, it often leaked out, leading to disastrous consequences.

"Thus the lunchmeats named him 'Scapegoat', as all things, even when he wasn't around to cause them, were his fault. Despite this, the Scapegoat, with trouble always clinging to his coattails, continued on, sure that this planet would be the one which he could call home.

"All these things occurred while the Gator napped in silence, grabbing at any stray creature that walked to close and promptly devouring them. Such is how he maintained such a high metabolism over the millennia."

So this planet had become a staging point for some of the most catastrophic battles the Universe would ever see, between the Endtimes and the epic battles to come, it is no small wonder that the Gator remains. He enjoys watching us squirm after all.

Oh Gator, that you have made this planet your resting point, we give you thanks, and hope that our meager flesh will be able to pay the cost. Let us never forget that the Gator brings others with him, but the Gator will not give up what is his. As we all belong to the Gator, so we say, Feast Well.

The dream left me with a foul taste in my mouth, likely ash and cinders though my mouth did not burn as a spit the horrid substance out. However, I had become enlightened, and I sought to share this with others. Taking to the streets, I began proclaiming the Gator’s grand design, only to be met with sneers, jeers and eyes full of fear. Staggering home that night, a bloody and beaten mess, I crawled into bed, silently cursing the Gator for resigning me to such a life. As my eyes closed however, he saw fit to grace me with another vision.

After the destruction of the islands, the Gator wandered with his companions for hundreds of thousands of years. The passage of time meant nothing to the great beast, as did the eating of his spawn all those millions of years ago. Finding them good, he practiced restraint, allowing them to multiply before devouring them, always leaving just enough behind. He is known by many names throughout history, and all of them feared and respected, such as Ammit, the one who eats hearts and thereby souls. To all lunchmeats, he was the one who must be feared, yet there was always a something that drew followers to him. It was written off as morbid curiosity, but in truth, they felt the bond with the Gator growing stronger within them. When the Gator descended, they were among the first to die, but they did so willingly, offering their flesh to join with him again, as they had been in the beginning. Others quickly followed, until only a few remained. They would write it off later as plagues, to cover up the absolute terror that the Gator inflicted upon them.

And so his travels went, until a small costal city caught his eye. On the shores of the Aeem Sea, the city had sprung up, and the people were, at the least, quite amusing to the Gator. And so he made this city his home, devouring at his leisure, and even finding comrades, such as the Hare Queen and the Scapegoat, which he took full advantage of, often getting the other in trouble. In addition, there were others, such as the Ruiner of Economies and the Learned One before the changes came upon them.

However as time went on, the city on the Aeem Sea found itself swelling beyond it’s borders, bodies laying in the street at night, defecating where they pleased, constantly chattering up a storm, and some seeking to ruin the fragile peace that had been set up in the city. Night and day, they pushed and pushed, until at long last, the enforcers of the city appeared to disappear from sight. Thus did the Gator and others take matters into their own hands, doing whatever they could to stem the flow of people into the city, but even the Gator had trouble against the crashing waves of bodies. But then came a light, and I beheld a mighty fortress, built on the bones of fools and brilliant minds alike, the owner howling out the rules of the city from the ramparts, begging for the enforcers of the rules to return, and make his fortress their new home. But still they did not return.

His pleas did not fall upon deaf ears however. The Gator and others heard, and seeing it was good, came to him, the one known as Baku, not as servants but as those who would seek to restore balance and order to the area known as the Aeem Sea. In time, even with the fading of Baku from the foreground, others continued to shout his words, the Gator among them. It was in this way that the Gator began expanding his reach and power even further, but the images simply came too quickly for me to make entire sense of them. Many faces, many places, exile and disgrace.

I woke, eagerly awaiting the return of Junior, that I may ask him the many questions that had wormed their way into my mind. The world may reject the prophet of the great Gator, but I and others understand the futility of fighting him, and even welcome his coming, that we may join with him, and deliver the Universe to peace. May we be fresh for the Gator.

Most vicious Gator, may our actions and thoughts bring us closer to becoming like you, so we may properly nourish you when our time at last comes. May we have the strength of will and fortitude to take on all projectiles, including large rocks, that we may show others the folly of their ways.

Junior was none too pleased with my lack of recording the Great Gator's stories, and saw quite fit to return to me and tell me what a miserable little pile of goo I was. Being a lunchmeat, I naturally trembled in fear of the, slightly larger than before, Herald of the Gator. Acidic spittle flying from his mouth as he shouted continuously, teeth gnashing, meshing together so perfectly, a second set visible behind the first... quite intimidating truly. As he lowered his rather large skewer, he grinned maliciously.

"Since you are so intent on denying the will of the Gator, you will replace the following chapter with those who refused to accept him when they arrived, going even so far as to challenge him. And their fates."

Wordlessly, I moved away and began writing, the little hellion herald perching himself on my head. Quite uncomfort-


It was in the age of Baku's Fortress, the Gator had been among those who inhabited it for ages now. As time passed, he saw fit to reveal himself to them, those who would meet their eventual salvation at his ha- teeth. Knitting himself a cocoon he waited for five days, a natural progression into something far greater than he was now, a rarity to be certain, hated as he was by nearly all existence in the universe. And as the cocoon cracked and broke free, he was revealed in all of his evolved glory, distancing himself from the men and women around him.

It began with the Scapegoat. Believing himself amusing, which to many he was, he went forth and attempted to record the natural living environments of the Gator, likely to sell on eBay as a part of his, "Universe's Most Dangerous," series, which of course was doing quite well, but he was still getting blamed for it not doing 'well enough'. As he approached, the Gator knit, he knit and knit and knit. Believing himself safe, the Scapegoat began talking silently, explaining what was going on. And perhaps he may have gotten away, if not for the fact that he had a Christmas stocking shoved over his head. And shoulders. And down past his feet too. Lifting his prize, the Gator stormed off, but not before spitting a hail of retro-active micro-bacteria onto the camera man, making it as if both man and his equipment never existed.

At this time, the Gator was deemed a threat to Fortress Security, and a team of mighty, if slightly damaged in the headmeats, combatants were assembled. A fighting robot man lawyer from the future, a modern age mastermind, both villainous and heroic, and a nutbar hero who believed that he had the powers of one of the Enforcers of the Aeem Sea. The three of them banded together, and attempted to stop the Gator with everything they had. And were promptly squished like bugs underfoot, quite an achievement as this latest evolution left the Gator much smaller than his previous incarnations, but even more dangerous. Beating them off with his Scapegoat filled stocking, he proceeded to gnaw on them for the remainder of the month, washing it down with a Scapegoat Slushie.

In any other case, this would be the end of all three, the Scapegoat by his very nature is highly resistant to death, and prone to impromptu resurrections especially when he meets his demise in the most gruesome ways possible, but the Learned One approached the Gator, claiming that the mighty one could continue his sport with these single minded combatants due to a breakthrough in his research. It was thus that the cloning vats were created, opened, and put to grand use. This would eventually lead to the formation of the world's fastest growing commercial research facilities... Gator Corp.

As of today, there are an unknown number of clones running about, wreaking havoc, challenging the Gator at all opportunities, and promptly being devoured. As is the nature of the vats, some will naturally come out... less than optimal, and are promptly put to work as napkins, silverware, and filling any other gaps in the necessity of food serving, for the Gator, great, powerful and ancient, is quite refined, and will not devour sub-standard lunchmeats.

The Gator is vicious and powerful. Left to his own devices, he would still grow and change to fit the situation he was in. Like him, we must too shed our old ways of thinking, become one with the Gator, and not in the sense that we seek to fight him. For there is a special place in the Gator's stomach, a million years of digestion, and those that challenge him shall find themselves in this horrid place. May we find peace in giving ourselves to the Gator, and pity those who try and challenge their fates. Gator is.

In the time of the Fortress of Baku, there were a great many people who set forth into it, examined it, and made comments about it to anyone they could find, even long after Baku took his mighty guitar and flew off into the heavens for points unknown. While many entered, few stayed, and even fewer for extended periods of time. One of the first, and one who would eventually rise to the rank of Enforcer for the city of Aeem, was known as the Despising One. As her name suggests, she did not very much like anything or anyone, but specifically one shop keeper in the village who shall remain nameless. Which is not to say that the company she kept in the Fortress found much more favor with her; the chief among her distasteful list were the brother team of the Gator and the Joka. While the two insisted it was all in good fun, she continued to find reasons to get even more furious at them with each passing day. The slight teasing continued, until finally the Despising One had had enough, and with a monstrous intake of breath that might have put the Gator to shame, she let loose with a roaring cry of, “I hate you all!” while making an utterly depressed face caught somewhere between, irritation, disgust, and horror. Naturally, the Fortress was stunned into silence.

Then the Gator, wise and powerful as he is ancient, came forward, moved up to her. And those who were there were awed, as the possibility of an apology surfaced. What would the oldest creature in the Universe apologizing do to it? Would it collapse in on itself? Would the Universe stop running away and turn, coming back and demanding that it receive an apology as well? The garrisoned members waited with bated breath, as the Gator opened his mighty maw and said…

“Hi, I’m the new milkman. Do you want it in front or in back?”

Violence on the part of the Despising One occurred. But the Gator, being the Gator, felt no pain and simply enjoyed the show. If anything her soon constant cries of hatred, always accompanied by the exact same face that she made the very first time, continued to encourage the Gator to come up with cheesier and more depraved pick up lines, all while staying mildly dignified, not dropping below a certain level. It wasn’t long before the cry was adopted by the rest of the Fortress as an all purpose cry when something went horribly, terribly, or even only slightly, wrong. Which lead to even more hating on the part of the Despising One. And the Gator, he was most pleased.

In this instance we see that the Gator is all but unstoppable, eating, playing, or even poking fun, there are very few instances where the mighty Gator has ever been known to let up. Should you try and express your outright hatred for him, he shall become encouraged and seek to force you to make your ‘declaration of adoration’ again. And again. And again. And once more for good measure. Though, he often loses count, so it may be more than just a few times, such as in the case of the Despising One. In these instances, it might be better to serve yourself up to him.

With a pinch of lemon of course.

Mighty and powerful Gator, show us the way to enlightenment, with your inopportune and horrendously cheesy pick up lines, even to those that consistently express their outright hatred for you and others. May we find peace in the fact that once devoured we shall become one with you, and have access to disturbing amount of cheese. For in the name of the glorious Gator, we find everything, peace, knowledge of our future, and amusement.

In the intervening time between when my arm had been sacrificed, as I had begun to call it, and the return of Junior, the wound had long since gone through its semi-gangrenous stages, and was now a disconcerting black color, stray bits and pieces falling off from time to time. Of course, I didn’t feel a thing, the nerve endings having been shot, but this really serves no purpose other than to explain that it was some time before I wrote another entry into the great project.

Regardless, upon his return, Junior made it very clear that we would be doing quite a bit of work in preparation for what would come to be known as the Feast to the Gator.

“Prophet,” he says to me, perched on the top of my head, making sure to dig his talons into my scalp to show just how serious he was. “You are to write a great many things in the coming days, as they are when the Gator is most in tune with the Universe itself, and thereby you shall share a line of thought with him. The ideas may flood in, but you must write as much as you can, for such an occurrence is at least another year away.”

Feeling a slight sticky warmth running down the back of my neck, I hastily agreed, as I had no desire to die of blood loss from a series of head wounds that the police would never be able to make heads or tails of. In any case, the malicious minion detached himself from my head and plopped himself down comfortably on my left shoulder, commanding me to begin writing.

True to his words, the message of the Gator flowed through me, and his grand purpose made clearer. Since the beginning, I had questioned why it was that the Gator devoured, and was always given the a reply similar to, “It is necessary for all living things to survive off of other things, the Gator is no different, He simply eats on a much larger scale than anything else in existence.”

I had grown to accept this as truth, for it made perfect sense. Why shouldn’t we be devoured by the Gator? As lunchmeats we eat plants and animals that we are larger, stronger, or more intelligent than, so when we are faced with a similar situation as our prey, should we also not accept our role as nourishment? Still, lingering thoughts made their way into my mind, especially in the times when Junior was gone. What was it like to be devoured? Did the Gator, great and powerful, devour just the body, or had He grown to a point where the soul nourishes Him as well? What of those unlucky enough not to be granted a quick demise and forced to endure the chasm of the Gator’s stomach? As promised by His herald, the answers came to me, if I wanted them to or not.

My mind wandered, and I saw before me the great maw stretched wide, a few brave carrion birds picking slightly at the outer row of teeth, trying to knock loose any morsels that might have become caught between them, not daring to attempt on the much more frequently used second, third, fourth, fifth… et cetera, rows of flesh rending, bone snapping teeth. The Gator’s breath was surprisingly fresh; at least I believed so, as after the first breath I really couldn’t smell much of anything, chalking it up to excess radiation when I felt my skin begin to burn. Tossed into the gullet of the master who I had never seen, I fell for what seemed an age. Minutes, hours, days, time simply ceased to be when simply falling through nothingness, like a terrible dream where you know the bottom is coming, but regardless of how hard you strain your eyes you can’t see it coming until it’s right on top of you. Perhaps it is better that way, for when I hit the bottom of the Gator’s stomach, very much alive and in one piece still I might add, I was met with horrors which cannot be fully explained here.

I saw before me the ruins of entire villages and towns, as if they had been scooped up all at once and, judging from the somehow still fresh scent, jammed between two slices of bread with any number of condiments and devoured whole. I heard the wails of those who had yet to meet their end, and made my way towards the sounds, the few survivors huddled around large fires, scavenging what they could from the homes… and the dead. They welcomed me with bitter stares, as if somehow knowing that I would not be destined to live out my days with them. They did however offer me a thigh, which I graciously accepted and have to admit that I found rather tasty in a strange way when slightly burnt. Asking any number of questions, I rarely got the answers I sought until I asked why one of the younger members of the small band looked out so blankly, cheeks sunken, eyes half glazed.

They told me of the suffering that those who survive endure. The lucky ones are devoured quickly, their flesh rent and bones crushed into powder before they are swallowed, for they do not have to endure this punishment. Then there are those who survive the teeth but land in the stomach in droves, by the millions. They too are luckier than those that suffer the life in the Gator’s stomach, for they are quickly eaten away by the acidic nature of the Gator’s digestive juices and while they feel much more pain through this process, they indeed do die quickly, usually in a few days. But those who are ‘snacks’ are rarely so fortunate. Forced to live in the Gator’s stomach for time unknowable, by the time that the digestive juices do work their way up, the bodies of the devoured have adapted to the Gator’s body, and are all but unaffected by it. So they watch the newcomers scream and cry, and the remains of those well chewed become washed away into the Gator’s body, while they suffer. They told me of how time refuses to exist in the pit of the Gator, and though they may have grown older, they would not die until their spirits had long since been broken. The boy, they said, had been here for a very long time, and would soon be joining the lucky ones.

As the stories continued, they lamented upon how they had refused to accept the Gator as an actual being rather than a fantasy cooked up by another Prophet. Some of them burned him as a heretic; others stoned her as a witch and heathen. Any number of stories were passed along to me, and though it would take far too long to write each of them, I hold them close to me still. In retribution, the Gator had devoured those who would bring harm to the truth-sayers, ensuring a long and painful demise. They told me of the true believers who had met their end at the Gator’s teeth, and those who had accepted the Gator as fact having lived only so long as to be eaten in bulk and melted away with the stomach acids.

Time passed. I know not how long but it did, I felt myself age and grow old as I listened to them, I saw the boy and several others pass along at last, further fueling the Gator as they now truly believed in Him. I saw a great devouring, and felt the acidic juices burn my skin slightly, but still I survived. Had I not busied myself chronicling the pitiful stories of these damned souls and so sure that I would be removed to continue the great work, I too may have lost my mind and spirit, and become nothing more than sustenance for the Gator.

However, as all things are possible through the Gator, I awoke from my rest and found myself no longer in the Gator’s stomach, but in my own chair. Years of my life had been condensed into scant minutes, Junior still staring at me intently, though with a mix of hunger and interest this time, rather than simply the former. Observing the empty screen in front of me, I decided that it was well past time to begin writing. And now it is time to close this chapter.

Great Gator, while you offer us peace and guidance to those who find their way to you, or even simply recognize you as their eventual end, you are also terrible and cruel to those who refuse to admit your very existence. We would ask that you give us the guidance to sway these lost souls, so they may sooner find peace in their imminent demise. May we never find ourselves trapped in your stomach.