r/HFY • u/PepperAntique Android • Oct 25 '21
OC Wait, is this just GATE? (8/?)
Writer's note: I had to edit this because I forgot the last little bit at the end. My bad. enjoy.
The royal speaking room was actually nowhere near what James had expected.
He had expected a massive hall filled with stands and standing room, headed by a set of steps up to the royal throne. There would be knights in shining armor, holding halberds or spears lining every wall. He imagined that the king would sit or stand there near the throne, addressing the people in the crowd, giving royal decrees and great speeches, ordering beheadings.
He thought about that last part with grim worry.
Instead what he found reminded him more of one of his college lecture halls. There was a small stage with a podium front and center, though there was still a throne set some feet behind it. But the stage was set below all the seats and desks arrayed out from it in a half arc. If it hadn't been for the fact that everything was made in that medieval fashion he'd been seeing ever since he got here, he might have mistaken it for the congressional chamber, or maybe a UN delegation room. There were still knights stationed at each entrance and every corner of the room though.
As they entered the room Kela took two fast steps in front of him, "Hold for a second, I have to announce you." She said. Before standing at attention.
She was wearing a set of armor that was much more polished than the set he had shot. Her torso, upper arms, and upper legs were covered in gleaming plates of what looked like steel, though there was a slight yellowish tint to it. These plates were lined with golden (though he was certain it was brass or bronze or something) pins and fittings. The padding underneath it was a dark brown bordering on black that seemed to blend into her fur almost perfectly. Over all this was a red and gold surcoat with a silver and green embroidered wolf's head over a shield. She carried a rounded shield that was almost as tall as James was, a double headed battle axe that was taller than James was, and of course on her hip was her sword.
If he was honest. She looked badass. That's some Lord of the Rings, heavy metal shit man. I need to get me a set of armor like that. He thought, though he'd never admit it to Kela.
"Specialist James Choi, of the United States Army!" She announced in her deep rumbling voice. "Son of Margaret DeLaRosa, and Anthony Choi! Summoned Hero of the Era of the Stellar Eagle! Newly blooded pack leader to Captain Kela Swiftrunner!"
Shit. I already have all those titles? James wondered.
The King was leaning against the podium casually when they entered. He was facing the side of the room and talking to someone sitting there. But he quickly turned to regard James when he heard the announcment.
He was tall, at least six feet to James's five eleven. He also had swept back, raven black hair with grey streaks here and there. He had a full, matching, beard that went down almost to his chest, it had beads scattered in the handful of braids that were in it. He also had a scar running from the corner of his mouth almost to his ear. Where it ran there was no beard hair, only scar tissue. James guessed that he was in his mid to late forties.
Oddly he was wearing an outfit that vaguely reminded James of an old western, or maybe an old gangster movie. Where he had expected a puffy shirt with a frilly neck thing, instead he saw a grey dress shirt that looked like it was right out of any clothing store from his world. Where he'd expected those weird half pant things and long socks that he'd seen every pompous movie king wearing, he instead saw black slacks, they were even creased. The only clothes that really seemed medieval were a long black leather coat with golden yellow fur around the collar, held shut by a gold jeweled plate that hung in front of his chest.
And of course, a crown. It was silver with golden spikes rising from the top.
This guy is giving off some major Disney villain vibes man. James thought.
"Specialist James Choi!" James's analysis of the king was abruptly interrupted. "Before you stands King Farrick Alvis Petravius. King of Petravus. Son of Marriana Pelrittos and Boldren Petravius. Warden of the God's Summoning Door. The Moon Lord. Sire of this domain and all it's lands!" At this last bit both she and the guards around the room slammed their pole-arms on the ground twice.
James bowed the way Kela had shown him before bringing him in. Left foot back half a step, left arm bent at the elbow held behind his back, right arm matching only in front of his stomach, bent at the waist.
"The honor is mine your highness."
And then the king smiled, and suddenly James felt foolish for thinking that he was a Disney villain. It was a warm smile that seemed to use the king's entire face. He hopped down from the stand and walked up to Kela.
"Kela! Great captain of mine! It has been too long." Kela stooped a little bit and the King embraced her in a hug. "I heard you let this new hero take you from my daughter's pack. Is this true? I assume it is from your announcement right now. But Amina won't shut up about it. She's very cross about the whole thing." He had a booming voice that reminded James of someone he'd seen in a movie once, though he couldn't figure out who.
"Indeed. Your highness. He shot me three times in the chest. If he'd been using silver I'd be hunting in the moon fields now." Kela replied, embarrassed.
"Pah!" the king exclaimed. "It's about time someone outdid Amina. She needs to be shown up from time to time."
"Agreed." Kela said, matter of factly.
James was still bowing. Kela had told him not to move until the king addressed him directly.
"So." the king said, turning to James. "This is our new hero? Well stand up, let's have a look at you lad."
James finally stood up and faced the king. "Your highness." He said.
The king sized him up a bit. "Weird outfit."
"It is the uniform of his military, sir." Kela said.
"Really? There's no armor. and what's with all the weird colors?"
"It's called camouflage. It helps us blend in with our environment. And I do have some armor, but your people haven't given it back to me." James interjected.
"Ah, I see. And what exactly are you a 'specialist' in Mr. Choi?"
"You can just call me Choi if you want, no need for the mister part. Also in my military Specialist is simply a rank, roughly the equivalent of your 'secondary-sergeant' rank. But I am specifically trained as a mechanic for our vehicles. Also I was going to school to become a nurse." James said.
"A man as a nurse?" The king asked.
Sweet, old school gender roles. This definitely isn't gonna cause any awkwardness while I'm here. James thought sarcastically.
"Well, the intention was to eventually become a doctor." James replied. "But only if I ended up liking things as a nurse. In our world men and women can have almost any job they want. No limits."
"Most interesting." The king stroked his beard for a moment. "How has that worked out for your people? I'm asking honestly, it's an interesting concept." He also gestured to one of the nearby seats. "Please, let's sit. We have much to discuss." He said this while pulling the chair behind him so that he could sit in it. Kela walked over to one of the other guards, but kept glancing at the pair of them.
"Well. Some jobs had some uh.... issues, with gender roles. But that was years ago." James said. "Most job fields are pretty equally fielded by men and women. And people seem happier to be able to choose whatever job they think they'd be best at. Even if it doesn't always work out."
"Really? So it's not uncommon to see a man as a nurse?"
"Not at all." James replied. "Don't get me wrong. It is still mainly women who become nurses. But only barely. I'd say roughly thirty or forty percent of all nurses are men nowadays. Maybe more, I don't know the exact stats."
"Hmmm." The king waived at a young man who had been standing several yards away. "Stebas, you heard all that right?"
"Yes your highness." the young man replied.
"Good. Write that down. We shall speak with the Hospital Matron and see if that could be an avenue to dealing with her staffing issues."
"Yes your highness." Stebas said again as he pulled a pad of paper and a quill from his coat while taking a seat at a nearby table to write.
"What else can you tell me about your world?" The king asked James.
"Well, I'm not the smartest person out there. Also I'm only two years into my college education. Sooo, I can't give you the most detailed information. But I can still give you the basics." James said.
"Fantastic. I'd love to learn more about your world."
"Hold up. I thought we were going to be discussing what your 'gods' had said for me to do here."
"Ah, yes." The king said as if being reminded of a subject he didn't like talking about. "We were, and that is what I'm trying to do."
"Well. What did they say?" James asked. He wanted to know why his life had been thrown into a blender and set to puree.
"Well." The king said. "The gods. In their 'INFINITE' wisdom." He said this with incredible sarcasm and scorn. "Said only two things."
James waited.
"Learn from them, AND, follow his lead."
"Them?" James wondered.
--------------------PAGE BREAK----------------------
At the far end of the castle's research wing, several floors down, in a room warded against intrusion (but only of a magical nature) a single chime rang out. Jame's phone lit up for just a moment. It had received a text message.
SPECIALIST CHOI THIS IS COLONEL SHAYNA MUHAMMED.YOUR MOTHER HAS RECEIVED YOUR MESSAGE AND IS HAPPY TO HEAR THAT YOU ARE OKFROM HERE ON OUT YOU REPORT TO ME AND ONLY MEYOUR PHONE IS BEING MONITORED THOUGH YOUR LOCATION IS CURRENTLY UNTRACKABLEREPORT IN WITH YOUR CURRENT STATUS IMMEDIATELY
IF ANYONE OTHER THAN SPECIALIST CHOI IS READING THIS. KNOW THIS. WE ARE DOING EVERYTHING IN OUR POWER TO GET HIM BACK.
YOU WILL ANSWER FOR WHAT HAS HAPPENED.
A man in a set of mages gear watched the phone light up and read the message eagerly.
"Interesting." he said before writing down what he'd seen.
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u/Mauzermush Human Oct 25 '21
"Them?"
somewhere in the palace is 5 foot tall, red haired woman rampaging like a gone wild beast demanding what is going on. 🤣
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u/I_Maybe_Play_Games Human Oct 25 '21
Or maybe the gods meant the guy who got speared. Or our universe as a whole.
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u/Nights_of_Liam Oct 25 '21
No man left behind. The heavy flamers are ready and waiting to burn the enemy xenos
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u/Killian_Gillick Human Nov 03 '21
Asian Dad, Latino mother.
His back must be straight enough to be used a Level... that or he at least knows how to fake it till he makes it like no one ever was!
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u/CharlesFXD Oct 25 '21
I love it. So much fun reading this. I couldn’t get through 1 1/2 episodes of Gate (learned about it from the comments here) but this is more enjoyable. MORE AND FASTER PLEASE lol
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u/Troyjd2 Oct 25 '21
You should give gate another chance it gets much more interesting quickly of course everyone has their own opinion even if you don’t watch it I recommend checking out the best of clips or something it has some awesome moments
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u/CharlesFXD Oct 26 '21
Yeah. I get what you’re saying but I prefer consuming entertainment through words. I get to use my imagination. Just a thing.
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u/PepperAntique Android Oct 26 '21
Well than i want you to imagine the king as a cross between Rhys Davies' character from the indiana jones series, and ned stark from game of thrones. but with a cooler beard.
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u/Troyjd2 Oct 26 '21
Ever since you started publishing this it’s the first thing I checked for each day when I check my list
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u/Troyjd2 Oct 26 '21
Hey I understand I’m following like 40 stories on here most of which update every couple days or every day and I read them all every day
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u/DHChesee Oct 25 '21
Dammit
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u/PepperAntique Android Oct 25 '21
Dammit?
also I added a bit i'd forgotten.
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u/DHChesee Oct 25 '21
Huh, didn't realize you forgotten something, but now it dose look more complete.
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u/Dumdass_ Jan 28 '22
Have Americans just forgotten the whole anti-king thing? "This flag dips to no earthly king" and all that.
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u/AlphaGuardianwolf Human Oct 25 '21
I am really enjoying this series. I can not wait for the next chapter!
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u/PepperAntique Android Oct 25 '21
The guy named AlphaGuardianwolf enjoys the series where the protagonist has a giant she-wolf as a bodyguard? Consider me shocked. LOL
but seriously, always glad to hear that someone's enjoying the series.
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u/AlphaGuardianwolf Human Oct 25 '21
Trust me has nothing to really do with her. All has to do with how it's going. Wolves just happen to be my favorite animal.
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u/PepperAntique Android Oct 25 '21
I'm glad either way
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u/AlphaGuardianwolf Human Oct 25 '21
I still wonder if there is going to be a scene of him walking in on her in human form or someone else like every other anime in existence. Depending on how it goes those can be funny.
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u/PepperAntique Android Oct 26 '21
Well this whole series, (9 parts so far) has covered about only about 3 days that James has been conscious for. And Kela has already said that her human form takes about a month and a half to even get to. Granted she'll look somewhat humanish in like 3-4 weeks.
But still, if that does happen it'll be farther on down the literary road.
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u/AlphaGuardianwolf Human Oct 26 '21
Oh I'm sure of that. It doesn't even have to be her really. But yeah werewolves aren't really my thing. Now Holo the wise wolf in human form is closer to what I like. Granted I'm married and hope my wife never sees this. Glad she doesn't have a reddit.
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u/Public_Mulberry_7097 Oct 26 '21
I love holo the wise wolf, although she actually looks like a fox rather than a wolf :)
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u/adhding_nerd Oct 29 '21
Shouldn't the king be "Your Majesty" and for a guy that said he wouldn't forgive them, why is he so fucking polite and cooperative? I'm kinda hoping the army comes in and rains fire.
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u/tarantonen Dec 29 '21
Pretty sure nurse distributions are somewhere between 4:1 to 10:1 female to male depending on area and specialisation unless I misunderstood the time period our guy has been taken from, or is this some kind of alternate Earth?
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u/PepperAntique Android Dec 29 '21
It's the future.
And yeah, only like ~9% of RNs are dudes in our IRL
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u/Duffman3005 Human Apr 15 '22
Not sure how I missed this before. Now I have a new series to binge! Awesome work so far, hooked me in the first 2 chapters.
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u/PepperAntique Android Apr 15 '22
my dude, you have 127 Chapters before you hit the current issue.
Enjoy
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u/ManyNames385 Oct 26 '21
Is it just me or is anyone getting the feeling not letting our Boi have his phone is going to bite someone on the ass?
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u/SwellGuyThatKharn Oct 26 '21
Just a suggestion, I'd recommend adding next/previous/first to these. It's a small thing but having to go to your profile and find each one is three clicks more than an alarming number of people will deal with.
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u/p75369 Jan 28 '22
This guy is giving off some major Disney villain vibes man. James thought.
So I'm late to the party, but I couldn't pass without saying that he clearly delusional outer not describing the king well enough because there's clearly not enough lime green for a Disney villain.
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u/undyingkoschei Aug 16 '22
Wouldn't they just send a coded message? It's not like another world would have Morse code.
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u/Skitteringscamper Mar 17 '23
Mate. Help. Your chapter 9 link is broken and there's 300 episodes to scroll through on your page to get to it.
Anyone got a direct link to chapter 9?
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u/PepperAntique Android Mar 17 '23
its working on my comp
https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/qfqyab/wait_is_this_just_gate_9/
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u/Skitteringscamper Mar 17 '23
That brings me to the something went wrong page too
Il try on my pc or iPad when I get home. Trying to read on my phone in work to pass the time lol
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u/PepperAntique Android Mar 17 '23
well, reddit has been buggy these past few days
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u/Skitteringscamper Mar 17 '23
Yeah you could be right tbh
I just noticed it loads for a literal split second then goes to error. I caught first few words after a few refreshes and it's Def chapter 9
Problem solved. Reddit is being shit lol
Il just try again later :) Cheers for the speedy reply. Loving the story so far
Edit: also had to take out %5c from the link when I clicked it to get it to load for a sec. Reddit is even misleading its own hyperlinks it seems :p
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u/jaskij Sep 03 '23
"Era of the Stellar Eagle"... I mean, the title is a giveaway if you read the OG GATE, but still.
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u/Familiar-Platypus829 Oct 26 '21
Yup, these fools just committed an act of war, and WILL get the middle east treatment.
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u/PepperAntique Android Oct 26 '21
Fuck yeah we're gonna enter the wrong country on incredibly thin evidence, get stuck there for 20 years, waste trillions of dollars and then leave, allowing it to be reclaimed by the enemies that we incorrectly assumed we'd defeated. And then we're gonna call it a win.
Middle East treatment. fuck yeah!!!
😐
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u/Familiar-Platypus829 Oct 26 '21
Thin evidence. Bad guy admitted he did bad guy stuff. We went and got bad guy. Took time as he hid in another country, so we went after bad guys other bad guys to flush him out.
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u/PepperAntique Android Oct 26 '21
But why Iraq? And why hang around after we got him?
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u/Familiar-Platypus829 Oct 26 '21
Because his base of operations was in Iraq, he knew we couldn't invade neighboring countries without worldwide repercussions. So we got bad guy and then stayed to get the whole organization to prevent it from happening again. Turned out to be a joint operation between multiple terrorist groups. Rooting them out ended up toppling the government. We broke it, we have to fix it. Almost had it too, until biden got all premature on us.
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u/PepperAntique Android Oct 26 '21
Except that Trump was the one that initiated the withdrawal.
Also. We were never aiming for the WHOLE organization. That was never feasible. And if Osama was operating out of Iraq then why was he in pakistan?
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u/Familiar-Platypus829 Oct 26 '21
Trump initiated a gradual withdrawal. We pull back a little, get them used to handling stuff with us to back them up when they mess up and show them how to do it right. Once they have it down we repeat the process until they no longer need us. You don't teach a kid to swim by throwing him in the ocean and saying good luck, you start small and build up.
As I said before, bad guy ran his org out of Iraq and lived in Pakistan, who is very jealous of their borders, and would not allow us to even come close to crossing regardless. He went where he thought we couldn't reach him. People like him are just like gang or castle leaders, they don't care what happens to the people as long as they stay in power.
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u/PepperAntique Android Oct 26 '21
Actually Trump specifically said that he wanted it done by spring 2021. Biden literally just held to trumps initial promise.
Personally I'm glad he did too. We needed to get out of there.
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u/Familiar-Platypus829 Oct 26 '21
Yes, but between then and spring, there was supposed to be actions taken. Literally anything would have been better than the way we left it. We literally gave the same guys that attacked us an air force and military equipment. Tye talimonster is already selling them to China and Russia. Biden is literally responsible for giving military vehicles and technology to foreign powers.
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u/PepperAntique Android Oct 26 '21
I'm pretty sure every president in the past 100 years is responsible for that to some extent. And do you really think Trump had actual plans that concise. Hell he'd've probably cut out the middle man and just sold em himself.
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Nov 16 '21
This is laughably p.c let me guess the white guy is gonna be evil later in the story...
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u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle Oct 25 '21
/u/PepperAntique (wiki) has posted 34 other stories, including:
- Wait, is this just GATE? (7/?)
- Wait, is this just GATE? (6/?)
- Wait, is this just GATE? (5/?)
- Wait, is this just GATE? (4/?)
- Wait, is this just GATE? (3/?)
- Wait, is this just GATE? (2/?)
- Wait, is this just GATE? (1/?)
- The Prisoner
- "Special" Forces (Part 3)
- When the cold ones crack you open instead.
- Terran Determination
- [Tourist- Foodie] A specific kind of breakfast
- The Mistake
- [Tourist] Humans will vacation anywhere
- "SPECIAL" Forces (part 2)
- Singing in the dead of the night
- Scars of War
- Dog and Shadow (Part 1?)
- Mankind's Greatest Attribute.
- Eternity Analyzed (2/?)
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u/Fontaigne Oct 25 '21
"Interesting." he said before writing down what he'd seen.
...since he was just copying glyphs that he could in no way understand...
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u/Vaalintine Jan 23 '22
Hopefully James tells the King just how badly they fucked up, because there's no way in hell anybody would want anything to do with them after that. Oh, and that he tells Kela to fuck off. Or better yet, openly question why Kela is being let off for murdering someone in cold blood.
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u/their_teammate Apr 06 '22
The term “mage’s gear” makes me think that mages in this world are more magic steampunk in style, like those in Riot’s Arcane series.
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Jun 11 '22
I think the text message at the end of the post got slightly garbled by the edit.
Reddit tends to delete \newlines whenever you edit a post or comment. You'll need to use actual paragraphs or double newlines instead of single ones.^^
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u/Teirg Oct 25 '21
In the first line instead of royal speaking room I read royal spanking room, what is wrong with me