Name: Baugulf Baugulf

What is love? What are the basic requisites for love? How long do you need to know someone before you love them? How many quality interactions do you need to have with them before you fall deeply in love?

What if you’ve never met them? What if you’ve never even seen them? What if you’ve only heard their voice once, in the most inspiring of galactic broadcasts triumphing the great advancements for society in the name of a beautiful future for all? Could you still love them then?

Baugulf Baugulf had never loved anyone else before, so he had nothing to compare to what he came to feel towards the speaker of the collective, Iseult Renaud. However, if he had shared the deep emotions, affection, and attachment he felt towards her with any of his friends or family, they would have certainly said he was in love. But he never shared his feelings with anyone, and he didn’t have any friends or family.

Baugulf Baugulf was one of The Unknown. A secret group whose leaders were shrouded in mystery. Only rumors were known about them. Many claimed that they could guarantee the death of nearly anyone in the galaxy for astronomically high prices. Others spoke of horror stories of babies being kidnapped at birth and trained as weapons. Baugulf Baugulf knew not of these rumors. All he knew was a life of training, and the occasional mission, which provided him the rare opportunity to meet others before he killed them.

On his last job, while segmenting the body of a very interesting bear he’d just met into smaller, more easily disposable pieces, he heard that broadcast. To him, it was seemingly sent from Cupid himself, though, to most galactic citizens, it was a regular interlude in the news, with the well-known speaker of the collective sharing another patriotic message of prosperity and so on. Baugulf Baugulf had never heard someone speak this way, though it was also true that he had only heard someone speaking mere dozens of times in his life.

He’d certainly never heard someone speaking about dedicating themselves to a better future for everyone, including him. Whoever it was on the other side of this broadcast cared for him deeply, and he would dedicate the rest of his life to her. At that moment of choice, he dropped his tools and a limb, abandoning his job on the spot.

It took him a few weeks to figure out who that voice was and then a few weeks more to get himself to Laruta. When he arrived and realized that the love of his life had been murdered only days earlier, he flew into a rage. He was furious at having lost her and equally furious that the culprit had ended his life with her, giving him no chance for vengeance.

He was ready to return to The Unknown when his love’s replacement found him, recognizing his garb and realizing where he came from. The new speaker, upon realizing this, brought him under her wing and ensured him that while one of the culprits was dead, there were others out there also responsible, and she would guide his vengeance to them.