<img class="cover" alt="Big Eater title image" src="img/BEtitle1.jpg">(align:"=><=")+(text-size:1.6)[BIG EATER]
<div class="foot">> [[Prologue]] </div>Paulo Gabriel Tavares Ferraz (Sifu Paul) -Big Eater
Aditi Sunku - ???
Author - DarthContusionBoxing is a great and terrible sport. Many people were well aware of both of these properties, but among the most aware was a man named Paulo Gabriel Tavares Ferraz. Mr. Ferraz was, at 26, the greatest lightweight boxer in the entire world. That's how it felt to him at the time, anyway, and not many folks would have argued against that premise and won.
Mr. Ferraz's large and well documented family tree was well populated by afficionados of fighting sports. It was in his blood that he would see some amount of success in the ring. That was the expectation, that was the great weight upon Mr. Ferraz's shoulders. It was, at the time, a great weight that he carried well. A great weight that he barely felt. Well, he felt it a little bit. Most of his kin were not exactly lightweights, but there wasn't really a lot of shame in being a lightweight. Only a little bit.
A few days later, at 27, Mr. Ferraz would never again claim to be or feel like the greatest lightweight boxer in the world. A few days later, Mr. Ferraz would stop being able to see or feel with the right side of his face.
<div class="foot">
[[Main Title]] <> [[Chapter 1 Title]]
</div>Years passed since that fateful match. Who knows how many. Mr. Ferraz would have had to cross reference the year on his ID with the year on the calendar just to be able to tell you his age. His influence in the culture had long since waned, and so had he. He woke up tired every day. He ate small breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. His small salary plus food stamps allowed him to get by, at least.
No longer able to draw audiences, his distance from the other members of his prestigious bloodline grew longer and longer, and his shadow grew thinner. He wondered if some day the mop he wielded as a custodian would be as heavy to him as the big dumbbells sitting unlifted under his bed.
At some point he'd gotten quite good at Tai Chi, and had a side gig assisting a local instructor giving lessons to children as "Sifu Paul" at a rundown dance studio in one of the less rough corners of town. People were more willing to allow children to exist there. Paulo loved those kids.
It didn't feel like honest work. It felt like a lie he was repeating to these children, this stuff about tranquility and inner peace. And qi. Qi was such horseshit. Unlike ghosts. Ghosts were as real as God himself. That's how it felt to him, anyway. He knew that feelings could be deceiving, like, the feeling that you're going to keep winning forever.
<div class="foot">
[[Chapter 1 Title]] <> [[Chapter 1 Pt II]]
</div>It's easy to doubt the existence of ghosts if you can't see them, but Sifu Paul could see them pretty well, for a layman! He could even hear them! They didn't make much sense though.
The only "ghost" that seemed to make sense to him, if you could call Him that, was Jesus Christ Himself. That's right, Jesus was always there for Paulo whenever he needed Him. He was kind of a strange Jesus, always suggesting that Paulo eat more or indulge his temper.
"You should eat more, Paulo. Always eat more. To invigorate the soul and face what is yet to come." Thank you, Lord Jesus! Prudent and relevant advice! "THE BREAD IS MY BODY, PAULO!"
THANK you, Jesus.
Paulo did not eat more bread despite his Lord's advice.
His form had grown lanky and thin from years of under-eating and general malaise. The malaise didn't keep him from donning a crucifix necklace every morning or running a comb through his curly, thinning hair. It did keep him from shaving every day though. Stubble was a common sight on his face.
<div class="foot">
[[Chapter 1 Pt I]]<> [[Chapter 1 Pt III]]
</div>The place Paulo lived and worked in would eventually come to be known as "Kaiju Alley, USA." It was a shitty mid-sized former factory town in the southern United States whose primary sources of employment large chain superstores. In a perfect world, it would be an untouched desert eco-system, but in the real world some idiot in the 1800s managed to dig up enough precious metal deposits to cause people to settle there. Rent was cheap. It was a great place to settle into irrelevance.
The people were frequently insanely religious, something Paulo liked to think he had in common with them. This was a lie he told himself so that he could function in their world without being paralyzed by fear. Numerous head injuries may or may not have resulted in a below-average processing speed on Paulo's part, but that didn't make him (or his Lord) stupid: no way was he telling his pastor that he was seeing visions of Jesus.
"You should keep it to yourself that I am watching over you personally," Jesus advised him. Thank you, Jesus!
<div class="foot">
[[Chapter 1 Pt II]] <> [[Chapter 1 Pt IV]]
</div>So, as we were saying, even though it would eventually be Kaiju Alley, it wasn't, not quite yet. Sure there were a few Kaiju incidents here and there in the vicinity, but nothing out of proportion with the rest of the continental United States. In fact this specific town hadn't seen a single incident. The prediction of such incidents was still a young science, so no one really saw the warning signs quite yet, and the US KNF (Kaiju Neutralization Force) was slow to mobilize in such a sparsely populated part of the country, relatively, whereas big population centers in, say, Texas, which were seeing an incident every month at this point, may as well have been under martial law.
These things didn't really weigh on Paulo's mind any more than it weighed on anyone else's, but it's worth bringing up the historical context for what was about to happen. Which is to say, something without a whole lot of precedent at the time.
<div class="foot">
[[Chapter 1 Pt III]] <> [[Chapter 1 Pt V]]
</div>Anyway, back to the subject of ghosts: Paulo usually could tell the difference between a ghost and a living person, in his estimation, and it came to him intuitively. This meant he would have a very hard time telling you what the difference was, just that he knew it. Maybe the result of some form of ESP, you might wonder.
Jesus was different from ghosts though, Jesus may as well have been there in the flesh, according to every sense of, well, sense that Paulo could bring to bear on Him. Whatever name or label you or I would give to this... Jesus, He most likely wasn't the result of hallucination or delusion. I know that overlaps with macro-space do funny things to the human brain, but just do me a favor and keep that in mind. Ghosts couldn't be interacted with: they just went about their business. Jesus could.
<div class="foot">
[[Chapter 1 Pt IV]] <> [[Chapter 1 Pt VI]]
</div>This fixation on Jesus leads us to this one kid, right? This one kid that showed up to Tai Chi class unprompted and uninvited. This 15 year old satanist looking motherfucker. Long black hair, uncommonly pale skin which may or may not have resulted from a layer of makeup, inverted crucifix necklace, black shirt black pants... his name was Daniel and he was so perfectly evil looking, so utterly offensive to Paulo's abnormally obsessive Christian sensibilities, Paulo could only offer a short prayer for deliverance every time Daniel entered his field of vision.
Sifu Steve wasn't about to raise a stink over it because, well, he did show up with 40 bucks to pay for lessons, and that's good enough for Steve. Besides there were, what? Ten kids? On average? That's not exactly an oil well in terms of recurring value.
Daniel was extremely polite and receptive to everything said in class, he even asked questions. They were all questions directed at Paulo. As a result, Paulo was a little more visibly non-plussed than Steve was.
What was worse, what was //way// worse, was that this kid was absolutely fixated on Paulo. Just 100% dialed in on him. There was only one thing that could possibly be worse than that: Jesus wanted him to speak with the kid.
"Oh Lord of Heaven and Earth, let this cup pass from my lips!" Paulo silently and desperately prayed.
"No!" Jesus replied cheerfully. The wind outside the studio howled triumphantly and ominously as if in agreement. Paulo did not howl. Paulo grimaced. He did not want to interact with a visibly Satanic element even at his Lord's request. Perhaps his own feelings had nothing to do with duty, though...
"Hrngh..." was his only response as he turned towards the lad.
<div class="foot">
[[Chapter 1 Pt V]] <> [[Chapter 1 Pt VII]]
</div>(align:"=><=")+(box:"X=")[Chapter 1: Musings on Sifu Paul]
(Eventually there will be an illustration here)
<div class="foot">
[[Prologue]] <> [[Chapter 1 Pt I]]
</div><img class="conv left" alt="portrait"><img class="conv right" alt="portrait"><div class="conintro">Conversation: Preaching to Sodom</div><div class="cnvrs">"Umm... Hello. Welcome to Tiger Kung Fu. You can call me Sifu Paul," Paulo began awkwardly.
Daniel's dark, heavy-lidded eyes stared directly through Paulo's face, and Paulo winced. He felt like the underside of a rug that hasn't been lifted in a decade.
"I'm Daniel," Daniel said, snatching Sifu Paul's hand, which was //not// outstretched, and shaking it firmly. Daniel's voice had the slightly high pitched twang of ongoing puberty. His grip was firm, but Paulo could tell it wasn't exactly strong. Paulo pulled free quite easily. "I used to watch your fights on TV, when I was little."
"O-oh... Um. Sorry," Paulo replied. He wasn't sure whether he should play dumb or not. He was already being perceived, and much more intensely than he liked, so there probably wasn't much point, right? "I don't do that anymore. I just do Tai Chi. Would you like to hear about Jesus?"
"No."
"Mm okay." Well he had tried. He awkwardly and abruptly about-faced.
"I get why you quit boxing, but why did you disappear like this?" Daniel asked the back of Paulo's head.
Paulo tensed up.
"Ummmm well how about we work on some Tai Chi basics? Do you have any martial arts experience?" Paulo asked, stumbling over his feet as he turned back around.
"No."
"Mm okay." Well, he had tried. "Ummm I guess... in my opinion, the two most important principles of Tai Chi are breath management and weight distribution."
"Okay."
Okay was progress, maybe? It wasn't clear where progress was going, though.
</div>
<div class="foot">
[[Chapter 1 Pt VI]] <> [[Chapter 1 Pt VIII]]
</div>(align:"=><=")+(box:"X=")[Chapter 2: Kaiju Manifestation]
(Eventually there will be an illustration here)
<div class="foot">
[[Chapter 1 Pt VIII]] <> [[Chapter 2 Pt I]]
</div>This shitty little town wasn't really known for earthquakes, tornados, or any other extreme weather conditions other than the occasional fire, so all things considered shelters and evacuation strategies were... a little bit relaxed. The studio Tiger Kung Fu held lessons in was one floor, mostly empty, and insulated with what one would like to think was not asbestos, so it was even more relaxed yet. It technically had a back door, but that mostly remained locked. Why wouldn't you just use the front door?
Well, you certainly wouldn't do that if there were 13-foot-tall-feral-monster sounds coming from that direction.
Sifu Steve was scrambling to remember where the key to the back was, but panic makes a brain slow. Sifu Paul... well. Paulo was bleeding lightly but noticeably from placing himself between the flying glass and the kids. Jesus insisted that he protect Daniel. Daniel was the most important thing right now. There was no way to overstate this.
Paulo was really not feeling it right now. Not really feeling anything, if he was being honest. Except glass. There was a lot of glass to feel. Like way more than there should be, ideally.
"I've got a little too much going on to do that right now, Jesus," Paulo explained.
"What?" one of the kids responded, a little shell-shocked and ears ringing a bit but no serious injuries. That kid wasn't Daniel though, Jesus reminded him. That kid doesn't matter.
"Hrngggggggggghhh..." Paulo elaborated. He gingerly pulled himself to his feet. Glancing outside, his eyes grew wide with horror.
"What are you doing out there? Are you insane?" Paulo shouted out the broken window at Daniel, who was currently out there and quite possibly insane.
<div class="foot">
[[Chapter 2 Title]] <> [[Chapter 2 Pt II]]
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[[Title ->Main Title]]
[[Contents]]
[[Cast]]
[[Prologue]]
[[Chapter 1 ->Chapter 1 Title]]
[[Chapter 2 ->Chapter 2 Title]]
]
(set: $anchor to "top")(print: "<script>document.getElementById('" + $anchor + "').scrollIntoView()</script>")"Idunno. Just kinda felt like it," Daniel explained, with baggy, Satanic attire fluttering photogenically in the Kaiju-born maelstrom. It was an explanation delivered with the matter of factness and adolescent irritation usually reserved for things that make some kind of sense, and, for a split second, perhaps in part due to head injury, it *did* seem to make sense to Paulo. But only for a second.
"Get... get back here!" Paulo called kind of lamely.
There was no response. Daniel turned away. He was looking towards the epicenter of the swirling dust and howling winds. He wasn't looking at it though, he was looking through it. It was like he could see the thing at its center, and the truth of seeing it drew him to it like a moth to a 40 watt outdoor lightbulb.
To Paulo's horror, Daniel started walking -no limp, no lurch, no wobbling, not even hesitation- away from the studio and into the winds.
<div class="foot">
[[Chapter 2 Pt I]] <> [[Chapter 2 Pt III]]
</div><img class="conv left" alt="portrait"><img class="conv right" alt="portrait"><div class="conintro">Conversation: Template</div><div class="cnvrs">kl;jfkls;da jflak;jakfld;js akflj;nsdk;lf njvak;ln vkl;n lj la;jkl;j
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kjl;asjklfdjdkls;aqiopuer iowmvzv.zz nmjz.vn jiopunwqi pmjzmjsxmklpf jbno0p[qa
kl;ajsk;lfdjkdlsazpu nxipviopnuopzun vpoivopnubpiob
</div>An unwilling spirit, it seems, earns more splinters from the yolk of fate. This was not the end. He had his mission from God. He would get where he was going, and he would begin his journey this very evening.
The glass on the studio's doors and windows shattered suddenly and collapsed as if an almighty thunderbolt had struck just outside, and with a sound to match. Perhaps Paulo's great fish had arrived to swallow him and ferry him away. Or perhaps it was simply the Behemoth here to usher in the end. There are many poetic descriptions of this event.
We call it "Kaiju manifestation."
<div class="foot">
[[Chapter 1 Pt VII]] <>[[Chapter 2 Title]]
</div>It was Sifu Steve's voice which shook Paulo free of the shock and the brain fog.
"I got the key to the back! Everyone grab on to someone and get moving!" Sifu Steve shouted. "Paul! Anyone hurt? Hey, YOU'RE hurt!"
Steve Garcia, a muscular former steel worker with an almost unnoticeable limp, dipped his head beneath Paulo's arm and lifted to bear of some his weight.
"Okay, anybody else?" he demanded, looking around frantically.
Thankfully, the larger and healthier children, invigorated by Steve's leadership, were helping their peers up and making tracks towards the back door. Paulo, mule-like in his stubbornness, shook himself free of Steve's aid.
"That new kid is out there," Paulo explained quietly.
The blood drained from Steve's face so fast it might have made a smaller man faint.
"...Stick with the kids," Steve whispered. "I'll get him."
Paulo shoved him back.
<div class="foot">
[[Chapter 2 Pt II]] <> [[Chapter 2 Pt IV]]
</div><img class="conv left" alt="portrait"><img class="conv right" alt="portrait"><div class="conintro">Conversation: Good as dead...</div><div class="cnvrs">"I'm going," Paulo insisted.
"You are not. Fucking. Going!" Steve hissed.
"Yes, I am."
"You are NOT," Steve insisted. The gruff gentleness with which he usually spoke did not at all cover the bafflement and fear in his words. "This is my responsibility as the lead instructor! If the worst happens, I won't be able to look any of these kids or their parents in the eye! It's my price to pay."
"That kid is here because of me. You put my full name on our facebook page, right?" Paulo asked.
Steve opened and closed his mouth a few times. He knew he wasn't supposed to have done that. That was their agreement. He had figured Paulo wasn't online enough to notice.
"Pay me back by taking it off," Paulo continued. "I'm going. Don't argue with me anymore. There's no time."
"...if you don't make it back, I'm gonna fucking kill you. You got it? You're good as dead, Paul!" Steve grumbled, turning his back on Paulo.
"Let's get out of here kids!" Steve hollered, gathering the kids and his mighty blade forged from okay-grade steel and expertly balanced: Pickle Slicer. "Everyone hold hands! We're heading for Rusty's Chow Dump! Keep your phones in your pockets until we get there!"
Paulo took a deep breath, and gingerly stepped out the studio's shattered glass front.
</div>
<div class="foot">
[[Chapter 2 Pt III]] <> [[Chapter 2 Pt V]]
</div>It was a straight shot.
Maybe you've seen an image before from storm chasers or something on the news of what the fallout of a manifestation phenomenon looks like: swirling dust so thick you can't see in front of you more than a foot.
"Daniel! Daniel get back here!" Paulo called, more timidly than he would have liked to call.
A military Humvee will vanish into those winds like a drop of blood into the rapids. Before anyone knew anything about fighting Kaiju, they didn't come back out. Even now, it was a toss up.
"Daniel! Please!" Paulo called again. Dusty grit caked itself onto his increasingly sweaty brow. He didn't wear glasses, so he had to peek out from his fingers to see, if only a little.
Specialists would have thick goggles. Infrared sights and night vision didn't do any good. Every foot of visibility was worth a brick of gold.
Paulo pulled his shirt up over his nose. It wasn't a *good* filter, and it smelled faintly of cleaning chemicals, but at least it was something. He walked a few feet forward.
He saw Jesus in the storm, in the distance, in a place he shouldn't have been able to see. Jesus was waving him forward. Paulo bowed his head down and ran, blind except for faith.
<div class="foot">
[[Chapter 2 Pt IV]] <> [[Chapter 2 Pt VI]]
</div>Table of Contents
(text-size:.8)[ [[Chapter 1 ->Chapter 1 Title]] ] (text-size: .6)[
* [[Chapter 1 Pt I]]
* [[Chapter 1 Pt II]]
* [[Chapter 1 Pt III]]
* [[Chapter 1 Pt IV]]
* [[Chapter 1 Pt V]]
* [[Chapter 1 Pt VI]]
* [[Chapter 1 Pt VII]]] (text-size:.8)[ [[Chapter 2 ->Chapter 2 Title]] ](text-size:.6)[
* [[Chapter 2 Pt I]]
* [[Chapter 2 Pt II]]
* [[Chapter 2 Pt III]]
* [[Chapter 2 Pt IV]]
* [[Chapter 2 Pt V]]
* [[Chapter 2 Pt VI]]
* [[Chapter 2 Pt VII]]]Jesus always seemed so close, but so far away... now was no different. Paulo knew exactly where Jesus was leading him, but not where Jesus was. It was a strange sensation, to those of us looking on from the outside. To Paulo, it was simple intuition.
We have more complex scientific words now to describe what the interaction between these entities, but they don't actually mean anything different.
The wind and flying grit tore at Paulo's arms, freeing blood and sweat from skin in immeasurable bits at a time as he barrelled forward towards the Jesus in his mind's eye, calling to Daniel every step of the way.
Finally he reached the eye of the storm. The epicenter. Daniel. The kaiju. Everything was here. Everything at once.
<div class="foot">
[[Chapter 2 Pt V]] <> [[Chapter 2 Pt VII]]
</div>"Daniel!" Paulo called out one more time, sick of repeating the name with no response.
Yes, Daniel was there.
There was a pothole ridden crossroads, a small, tin statue in honor of some general whose glories no one had bothered to document in service of a cause historians might argue about, if it was notable enough to earn scrutiny. A family member of the general with no heirs and too much money had erected it after a sizeable monetary donation to multiple members of the city council, also entirely unrecorded and papered over. You have to leave something behind when you're rich, even if it's something stupid.
"Hm," Daniel replied, looking away, seemingly entranced by the being squatting in the crossroads.
A kaiju; a horrible pachyderm-like thing in this case, with pale yellow tusks protruding from its face. These big boys ran an average of 14 feet tall and this one seemed to fit the bill, and it was wide enough to splash into multiple intersecting ZIP codes with no effort too. It had a vacant look in its beady (proportionately) little eyes, but did return Daniel's stare.
Kaiju like to play fast and loose with the separation of their body segments, and the pachyderm's head and torso bled together into a single unit, with eyes on either side, thick and wrinkled eyelids with massive caterpiller eyebrows perched above them, threatening to swallow the eyes whole.
<div class="foot">
[[Chapter 2 Pt VI]] <> [[Chapter 2 Pt VIII]]
</div>