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1. Verónica Falcata dies and we see Azulians
This is the city of Esperanza, which its inhabitants consider to be one of a kind for three specific reasons.
The first reason is that it was never actually meant to be a city at all.
In its origins, at the peak of the Democratic period of the Afroeurasian Union, it was erected in the Southwest corner of Spain as a colossal scientific station, where scholars of every major could freely collaborate and investigate on improving the lives of all mankind, while the rest of the world watched TV and completely ignored their existence.
Uncaring about anything that didn't directly affect their personal incomes, politicians quickly forgot about these scientists altogether and left them to fend for themselves.
Unsurprisingly, the station soon flourished into experimental, self-sufficient socioeconomic models. The lives of its inhabitants became more comfortable and fulfilling than anywhere else in the world, and eventually they declared their home an independent city-state.
This is Verónica Falcata.
She is an oddly colored Iberian lynx and her personality is marked by pointless rebelliousness and merciless misandry. These traits were caused by having been brought up in a society that she found flagrantly sexist, a flaw that is beautifully illustrated by the fact that most online dictionaries don't know what misandry means.
Her favorite color is salmon, her favorite fruits are cherimoyas and she has been walking under the scorching sun of the barren desert of former Spain for days, guided only by her untamed tenacity and most primal survival instincts.
Also she's dead.
However, she isn't definitely, irreparably dead. Her limbs are necrotized, most of her internal organs are rotting and her brain is just starting to completely shut down for good. But there could still be hope for her if someone happened to find her in time, so that she could be taken to the otherwise pretty nearby city to receive adequate medical help.
Someone like this guy.
This fellow here hasn't arrived just in the nick of time by pure serendipity, but because he happens to be part of the Outsider Retrieval and Guidance Corps, a valuable and efficient team of professionals which constantly oversees the immediate surroundings of Esperanza, in order to helpfully assist any foreigner newcomer who so may require.
His name is Bob, his favorite color is blue and, since his contributions to this story end at valiantly saving miss Falcata's life, no further development on his personal data is necessary.
The second reason why the city of Esperanza is considered to be one of a kind by its inhabitants, is that Esperanza was the first place on Earth to establish diplomatic relationships with extraterrestrial forms of life. The first race to contact humanity was, of course, the Azulians.
These are Azulians.
When they first arrived on Earth, humanity immediately panicked, wondering what the government had screwed up so hard that they needed to come up with freaking aliens to divert people's attention. Surprisingly, Azulians were completely legitimate, which made it quite awkward that the media was mocking them by naming them something as stupid as Azulians. Fortunately, they found the nickname cute and gladly adopted it as official.
The uncanny anatomical similarities between humans and Azulians that so much baffled Earthling scientists were soon proved to be just an illusion. Being pentadimensional beings, Azulians can simply realign their bodies in order to look least disconcerting to whichever species they are contacting. They are also really pleasant creatures. They aren't just kind and likeable, they also look cute, sound melodious, feel extremely soft, smell nice and, according to particularly adventurous researchers, also taste delicious.
The reason why Azulians contacted Earth once it was safe enough was their ancestral mission to create a universal scientific community, in which all intelligent species could share their knowledge and technology, whenever compatible. In a matter of months, all human science was renewed. Everything we formerly knew about Physics, Chemistry, Astronomy and Biology was wrong or misinterpreted, as we had merely studied a three-dimensional projection of a much simpler unseen reality.
One of the greatest Azulian contributions to human science was the fact that life itself holds no mystical meaning, but is a perfectly explainable physical reaction, which can be parameterized and processed as raw energy. This procedure is so clean and efficient that its waste fertilizes crops and improves people's health.
Misbegotten Kittens © Dr Javi