The writer gives life to a story, the reader keeps it alive.
After escaping from Floating Asylum Ship One, before its capture, Helga Ritter is deeply upset about the loss of her life’s work. As compensation, and under instruction from Lord Anderson, Helga delights in the transmutation of the remaining haernyara into Haernyarn, vampire-like creatures, loyal to Amanojuko masters. Retreating to one of the haernyara strongholds in Murmansk, she attempts to recover from her defeat.
Guild Master Anum Anzeti, along with Guild Masters Heyem Merek, Octavia Vijay and the rest of the Guild, watch as the captured Floating Asylum ship is transported to a holding cell on the outskirts of the Hungarian Kinjoutouchi, a heavily guarded Kyo-ashita city on Martial Earth. Octavia Vijay seethes, as Heyem Merek indulges in her victory.
Five hours have passed, and the last of the asylum victims have been taken to the Cloning hospital on Civil earth, to be assessed and given citizen status on the new world. Future Alexand watches with Katherine as Floating Asylum ship One is dematerialised to a quarantine area on Martial earth, where the Guild Masters, and her twin sister, Heyem will no doubt perform a full autopsy on it and on the experiments in Helga Ritter’s laboratory. (Happy New Year!)
After releasing the asylum prisoners from their cells, Alexand went looking for Katherine, and found her tending to Helga Ritter’s victims.
Helga Ritter was not on the lower deck when Alexand chased her footsteps. But Alexand knew Helga would escape, because the Amanojuko Lady had always escaped, and would forever in an endless cycle escape from this ship, on this day. She could not change this, no matter how much she wanted to.(Unbound Boxes Limping Gods is back after a break. Thank you to everyone for your support. The writer gives life to a story, the reader keeps it alive.)
Lord Ichitumbu Jalhavi fought his way onto the highest deck of the ship, to where he can see only a few haernyara left in the sky around the vessel. He attempts to use his anti-gravity device to join them but right beside him, fighting what is left of the mutated haernyarn, is a very angry looking blond man, who seems to recognise him, despite Ichitumbu having no idea who he is. (Unbound Boxes will return on Wednesday 6th November 2024)
After watching President Allerton distributing a Bad Thing Box to those amongst the Knights of Amanojuko who had not yet launched this experiment onto their populations, Lord Anderson materialised into the conference, joined his knights to a roar of praise. It was his intention to share his blood with them, and make them Amanojuko, as a reward for unleashing the Bad Thing Boxes on their countries.
Helga Ritter, outsmarted by three versions of Xan Medani, having escaped her laboratory, ran towards the bowels of the asylum, towards the Guard Tower, and the last remaining sanctuary, in the hope that she could hold onto her control of the ship.
Future Alexand, along with three versions of her grandfather, Xan, have battled through hordes of rabid haernyarn, ex socialites, scientists, and guards, corrupted by Lord Anderson’s promise of immortality.
Lord Anderson has planted bugs all over Floating Asylum Ship One, and listens in complete resignation, from the safety of his castle in Moscow, as Helga’s ship is being taken over by the enemy.
Future Alexand, tormented by memories of her torture in a different life, battles her way towards the Guard Tower, alongside three versions of her grandfather, Xan Medani, to emancipate the captive inmates onboard Floating Asylum Ship One. (For Nana.)
After being knocked to the deck, by a rabid haernyarn, Edith MehXian struggles to fight for her humanity.
As a furious Alexand stormed down into the lower decks, she is confronted by another warrior, a woman dressed in full battle gear.
After being apprehended by Haernyarn, clad in death proof armour, Xan, Xan and Xan are frog marched, at the command of Helga Ritter, into a gruesome laboratory, filled with horrors. Helga Ritter is unaware of the chromosome switch, and that she has captured three versions of the same person.
Retreating from the top deck, Helga Ritter rushes towards her laboratory, to secure the DNA samples of the cloned Merek twins. Her entire project has been compromised by the arrival of aggressive biological weapons, bearing resemblance to the original weapon, Xan Medani. (Unbound Boxes will return on Wednesday 6th December, as the writer has broken. Please catch up on back stories here. Thank you for your support.)
Helga Ritter retreated from Gianti Dincrind’s laboratory, furiously intent on combatting the Amanojuko enemy. Unable to control this trigger, she feels sudden rage, something an Amanojuko Lady rarely experiences. She knows exactly how to cauterise this pain. (For new readers, please note, Helga Ritter’s views do not reflect my own. When fighting monsters, it is essential to understand the mind of our enemy in any world, reality, or fiction. LGBTQI+ and disability rights are human rights and a high proportion of the protagonists in Unbound Boxes belong to or are allies of these communities.) Featured song is “The Lavender Song,” (Das Lila Lied) written by Mischa Spoliansky and Kurt Schwabach in 1920.
Gianti Dincrind has co developed a more resistant strain of the haernyarn virus, to administer into subjects onboard Asylum Ship One. She has been ordered to test these newly turned haernyarn on the biological weapons technology inside the cloned bodies of the Merek twins. (The Coast of Laguna, Mexico, 3992)
Each month, Filius Anderson walks along his wall, with a chosen sleeper agent. He has picked Ye-shin, the agent who attempted to capture Heyem Merek, and failed abysmally.
Helga Ritter stands alone in the cloning laboratory, onboard her Floating Asylum ship. She had ordered three agents to capture Heyem Merek, so that she could conduct more intense experiments into the bioweapon’s technology in the Merek twin’s DNA.
Anya watches the angry Alexand Merek stomp away, leaving her in the company of her old friend and saviour, Inajda Rekaya. (This is for you, Dad.)
Anya wakes up in her parents’ bed, with her hands tied up, and two women sitting, arguing with each other about her (in a dead language, Russian.)
Anya’s memories have been triggered by her return to Moscow. She has been awarded two hours leave, by Helga Ritter, for presenting the American president with the Bad Thing Box. Fully aware that there is a tracking device in her wrist, she is compelled to visit her parent’s old home, to return to a place full of good memories.
Inajda and Alexand, in the guise of two Amanojuko candidates, watch from the Auditorium as the vice president of Mongolia is offered eternal life by Lady Helga Ritter.
Helga Ritter returns to the Floating Asylum to give news to Lord Anderson about the death of Eric Mehmed.
Filius Anderson has placed a bug into Colonel Merek’s mechanical index finger and has been monitoring her conversations. He is pleasantly surprised to learn that her prodigal mother, Inajda Rekaya has re appeared, and is in fact an undercover enemy agent.
Heyem has stopped going out at night and rarely socialises. She has thrown herself into her work, and every night, after her lectures have finished, she studies the list of Amanojuko agents given to her by Alexand. Helga Ritter is the only one on the list she has recognised, but she is becoming increasingly paranoid and suspects practically everyone.
Helga Ritter is introduced to Sister Ancille, who was present at the time of Eric Mehmed’s death. (Stay safe everyone. Keep inside if you can. This story is dedicated to all the key workers across the world, who are in the front line.)
Helga Ritter travelled to Kolkata, to the convent Eric Mehmed was reported to have died, to gather further information about who killed him. She knocks on the convent door, of the order of Handmaids of Mary, feeling an overwhelming repulsion.
Helga Ritter has conducted various tests on the body of Eric Mehmed, Alexand and Heyem Merek’s father, and has found something else.
Alexand brought Heyem back to her apartment in Hong Kong, along with a doctored writer, in case Helga Ritter returned. Heyem sits alone, watching herself in her bedside mirror, unable to feel safe in her own home. She has bolted her door and hasn’t been outside since Alex left.
Two of the three agents returned to the Floating Asylum ship, scraping Eric Mehmed’s coffin across the deck, as it was too heavy for them to carry. Helga Ritter had two more agents help them place it on a slab in her laboratory.
Helga had crept out of bed, and extracted a blood sample from Heyem. With a horrible feeling inside her, she retreated back to her Floating Asylum and to her laboratory to test whether Heyem, like Alexand, has a hereditary immunity to ageing.
Helga Ritter, disguised as a Swedish tourist called Elsa, and a former one night stand of Heyem’s, waits as the last of Heyem’s students leaves the lecture theatre.
Gianti Dincrind transports herself back to the Floating Asylum Ship, where she presents the sample of Alexand Merek’s blood to Helga Ritter.
Gianti Dincrind has travelled to Hong Kong University, to locate and monitor Colonel Merek, so that she can take a blood sample back to the Floating asylum ship for Helga Ritter to analyse.
Gianti Dincrind left the group of surviving inmates in darkness overnight, and returned in the morning to continue the experiment.
Helga Ritter is developing new biological weapons, on board the Floating Asylum ship. She receives a distress call from Lord Anderson.
Filius Anderson and Helga Ritter are conducting a social experiment into Juba Apfvarzian’s reaction to being observed.
Juba Apfvarzian moves around Mogadishu, to escape from some very suspicious people, who seem to be observing him from a distance. He has spent a few good months at peace, without feeling followed, has even met a girl, called Lucy, and they are living together. He performs street magic to make money. They’re happy, and everything is going well with his life, until he gets that feeling of being watched again.
Lord Anderson takes Lady Ritter to see how far his Floating Asylum project has advanced (whilst she was absent, conducting Project Ghost Ship.)
The Amanojuko are growing a fleet of asylum ships, floating laboratories, designed to conduct experiments on humans, in safety. Lord Anderson materialises on board one of these vessels, accompanied by his prodigy, Helga Ritter. She already has a laboratory on board, but he plans to reward her for rescuing him, by giving her a floating asylum of her very own.
After his release from Alexand Merek’s writer, Lord Anderson returned to the Amanojuko capital city, The Highest Ranks of Separation, to re-evaluate his agenda. He walks the art gallery, studying great works of art, which have been procured from the wealthy elites desperate to buy immortality. (Featured paintings are by John Martin: The Great Day of His Wrath 1851-53 and The Last Judgement 1853)
Jarad ran away from Helga Ritter, towards the last room in the hotel, and stepped inside the wardrobe, in an attempt to hide from the approaching Amanojuko. She has been pacing up and down the room, attempting to figure out where he is.
Helga Ritter materialises inside the bedroom, and walks towards a sleeping Alexand Merek.
Helga Ritter travelled to the capital of Yunnan, Kunming, to the Provincial Records Office, where she hopes to find where Alexand Merek was born.
Helga Ritter materialises in the East of Yunnan, where most of the habitable villages are. She has a great task ahead of her, but her writer will aid in locating the elusive Lieutenant Colonel Merek, and more importantly save Lord Anderson from whatever diabolical fate has currently been forced upon him.
Helga Ritter has been listening to Heyem’s thoughts for the past couple of hours.
Helga Ritter sits in a lesbian bar drinking wine with Heyem Merek, in an attempt to extract information from her, regarding the whereabouts of Lord Anderson.
Heyem has been very depressed since she got back home to Hong Kong. She has received no news about Alex, and is deeply worried about her sister. She has not heard from Inajda, and Alex hasn’t returned to her military base. Heyem has continued with her life, but has grown more despondent. She has taken to drinking, to attempt to suppress her emotions. After her lecture is over, she heads out into the city, to a bar, to get drunk and perhaps pick up a woman.
Helga Ritter has spent the past two weeks searching the world for any trace of Lord Anderson. She has visited many places, starting in India, reading the minds of humans, who are close to Alexand Merek. Family and friends and army colleagues, even Field Marshal Abouna Panak had no though in his head about the whereabouts of Lord Anderson. Helga isn’t giving up. She has learnt that Heyem Merek is back teaching at Hong Kong University, and so dressed in cognito, Helga creeps into one of Heyem’s lectures, and sits quietly at the back of the room.
Helga Ritter has orchestrated the rescue of Amanojuko lords and ladies, from the ruins of the city. She has rounded up guards from all over the Russian peninsula, to aid her. But the most important Amanojuko is missing.
Helga Ritter, second in charge after Lord Anderson, watches from a distance, as the Amanojuko factory crumbles. A trail of survivors emerges, but they are mostly socialites. A few Amanojuko have not been buried, including the ringmaster and the pianist. She walks towards them, has to override Lord Anderson’s plans, as she senses he is gone. (Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this journey over the past seven years. The writer gives life to a story, but the reader keeps it alive.)
Alexand waits in hiding, for the Amanojuko scientists to leave the laboratory.
Alex follows the Amanojuko scientists into their laboratory, hoping she will discover the cure inside.
Lord Filius Anderson and Lady Helga Ritter have been following Juba Apfvarzian, taking blood samples, tracking his health. He is still completely free of the project ghost ship strain.
Doctor Ajeeta Kotahri is shown around the Amanojuko fortress, by Helga Ritter.
Ajeeta Kothari is lead out of the human storage chamber into an anti chamber.
Ajeeta Kothari uses her writer to travel to her husband’s house. She sits beside her son’s bed, staring at his semi lifeless body, imagining him well again.
Helga Ritter and her team of scientists have been given a new batch of test subjects to inject with ‘Plague,’ (In an attempt to spread panic and paranoia throughout the world. In preparation for the Amanojuko takeover) Juba Apfvarzian is amongst the test subjects who have been injected, but something is not quite right about him, and Helga Ritter is unsettled. CLICK HERE for next chronological story.
It took Alexand’s division just under a month to reach Australia by boat. She has been there for a week and has been administering the plague victims with their own supply of injections, as part of a trial to see how much longer Katherine’s serum adds to the lifespan of this control group. Attempting to perform her duty, Alex has found it difficult imagining Katherine at home, getting sicker. CLICK HERE for next chronological story.
Helga Ritter has been working secretly on project ‘Ghost ship’ in mid Russia, in a level deep below the earth. (Project Ghost Ship is the name for the catalyst, which is causing Katherine’s cells to break down) Thousands of human specimens from all over the world have been collected for experimentation, and brought to this complex unconscious, either to be infected with the catalyst or to be sent to one of the many Floating Asylum ships, (depending on how disposable or unwittingly useful these resistance members are.) Some of the ‘experiments’ are ordinary members of the public, chosen at random to instil fear of ‘plague’ in the general population, but others have been picked for deliberate elimination as they pose a threat to Project Amanojuko Immortalis. (CLICK HERE for next chronological story.)
Alex and Inajda have left the scientists to their work, (to catch up on a lot of lost mother and daughter time.) Meanwhile Katherine and Anesidor discuss the Amanojuko virus. (The Amanojuko mentioned are Ichitumbu Jalhavi and Helga Ritter.) (If you have missed this series and would like to start reading from the very beginning of this story, please visit Issue 110: Farokh Merek Part 3) CLICK HERE for next chronological story.
After analysing samples of her own blood and that of Helga Ritter’s, Katherine attempts to translate her findings to an expectant Alex, Anesidor and Inajda. CLICK HERE for next chronological story.
On board the Floating Asylum, Helga Ritter reports back to her superior, Lord Filius Anderson. CLICK HERE for next chronological story.
Katherine treats Alex for injuries suffered during a failed attempt to find out the identity of Helga Ritter. CLICK HERE for next chronological story.
Whilst attempting to find records leading to the identity of the woman who infected Katherine with ‘plague’, Alexand has been ambushed. CLICK HERE for next chronological story.
Katherine had already analysed the hair attempting to find out something about the identity of her attacker. (See issue 118: You’re In The Army Now Part 8) After arguing about keeping the information from her, Alex insisted she helped locate the mysterious attacker and demanded Katherine provide her with every scrap of evidence she has, which could lead to an identity. Fearing the task too dangerous, but unable to dissuade Alexand from her new quest to save her life, Katherine left Alex with her findings, warning her not to do anything without consulting her first. CLICK HERE for next chronological story.
Alexand returns after having tried to reason with Georges De Somme but is still determined to find the identity of the woman who infected Katherine. It’s ten at night and she sits in the bar with Katherine. (Happy New Year everyone!) CLICK HERE for next chronological story.
Katherine fell asleep as she and Alex sat together talking and watching the ocean. A few hours pass and she wakes, finding Alex running towards her. CLICK HERE for next chronological story.
Katherine finally relented to Alexand’s charm. (See Love In A Box Part 1) The morning after, Alex is asleep, and Katherine lies, wondering about their future. Note: Katherine was injected with a virus, by Helga Ritter, to silence her (See Amanojuko Part 3) after discovering a government induced plague, was genetically engineered and that some members of the establishment are attempting to live forever. As a result of being injected with “plague” Katherine is dying. CLICK HERE for next chronological story.
After injecting herself with the blood of Ichitumbu Jalhavi, (see Amanojuko Part 4) Helga Ritter stands on her balcony onboard The Floating Asylum, contemplating her own meaning. She is now an immortal and it feels so good. Next to her is fellow scientist, and Amanojuko Lord, Professor Filius Anderson. (Whom Alexand later calls, Dr. Grim) CLICK HERE for next chronological story.
