Smokeless vaporizer flowery branch
Troublemakers: A field of Poppys
2024.06.09 12:40 teller_of_tall_tales Troublemakers: A field of Poppys
First: https://www.reddit.com/HFY/comments/14vo5lb/troublemakers_deaths_pity/
*previous:* https://www.reddit.com/HFY/comments/1d3yvie/troublemakers_parabellum/
......
Go'mon stormed through the castle corridors. He'd sensed something slip beside him during his encounter with the vampire lord. It wasn't just that damned top hat with the thief's prints. No, it was more subtle than that, it was the sound of a gossamer chain rattling against cloth. He scanned every square inch of the hallways as he walked, slowly twirling the Warhammer in his off-hand as he calmly held the pistol muzzle-up towards the ceiling. He'd barely gotten a glimpse of what almost looked like mist as he stomped through the grand halls with paranoia-fueled, seething anger. Abruptly turning a corner he fired the revolver at what he thought was that pesky invisible parasite.
The shimmer shuddered and he switched to the visible spectrum to find out it was just a tapestry in front of a heating vent.
Go'mon let out an enraged scream, tearing the tapestry apart with his bare hands after casting his weapons aside in a fit of rage and impotence. The visage of Monarch D'vinn looking out from the top of a bombed-out hill in battered armor at the shattered remains of the once human-occupied city, being shredded like single-ply latrine paper by go'mon's molecularly edged cybernetic claws. Having spent his rage on the tapestry, he panted dramatically as his heart pounded in its cask. Turning around he let out another furious scream, howling madly as he scanned the hall with thermals. His Hammer and revolver had disappeared without a trace.
The sudden blare of a Klaxon made him pause as he adjusted his armor, forcing himself to calm down as he examined his molecularly edged claws. The main enemy was at the gates, he should go meet them.
...
Cassius' Heart pounded as he took shallow breaths, Go'mon's backplate inches from his own chest as he held onto the Hammer and Pistol for dear life. As the general strutted outside, Cassius moved in perfect synchronization, his left leg rising with the general's before being placed down in sync. He'd been practicing for weeks with the security droids at the mansion, practicing to keep inches from their backs without touching their metal carapace. Now he strutted behind perhaps the second most powerful being he knew like a silent specter. As Go'mon slammed through a door, breaking it into splinters, Cassius lifted his right leg and rotated out of the way just as Go'mon's tail would've brushed against his Calf, giving him away. As the General strutted out into the middle of the courtyard, Cassius used the various straps attached to his gambeson to affix the weapons to his waist before grabbing his Kama and weighted chain from a small pouch at his belt.
Cassius tossed the weighted end of the chain over the wall of the castle after a short run-up, wrapping the gossamer chain around his hands with each rapid step he took up the wall. Reaching the top, he unhooked the weight from the small bar he'd tossed it around quickly disentangling his hands from the chain. He groped the air on the outside of the wall until he touched the enchanted ladder the Top-Hats had left him. Sliding down the ladder, he spotted Drake sitting astride Barney in the middle of the street. The rest were nowhere to be seen but that indeed was part of the plan. Sprinting over, Cassius leaped onto Barney behind Drake and slipped Go'mon's revolver into the empty holster at his belt. Drawing out no reaction save for a few words from Drake, who didn't turn his head lest he give the gambit away.
"Good work Cassius, Fall back and get a gas mask on. We still don't know what's in those canisters because they inked out the labels."
Cassius slipped off of Barney's back and slipped into a nearby building before De-cloaking as he pressed himself against the wall next to a Warmonger who passed him a spare gas mask. He pulled it on and checked the seal before sitting against the wall as his legs jellied beneath him. His mouth was dryer than the scrubland as he accepted a Volunteer's canteen, drinking heavily through a port in the mask as he rode out the adrenaline crash. He glanced over to where their fighters had pried open a sewer access hatch and were dropping in, the smell of sewage souring the air. A few warmongers closest to the opening had comically attached wooden clothesline clips to their noses.
...
Caz lay atop the second-tallest building in Golgatha, trash and debris piled up around her for camouflage ash she drew a bead on the strutting Go'mon. Her god-given eyes were able to see the purple miasma that rose from him like mercury vapors. She didn't even turn her head as she softly asked.
"Distance?"
The man with Heavy cybernetic augmentations pulled casually from a large pouch of grain alcohol, camera-lense eyes extending from his face as he chewed on a bullet thoughtfully. Slowly he stated.
"One thousand five hundred and sixty-seven meters, If you're keeping it under auto-ignition velocity, you should be able to hold it one mil above and..."
The sound of the bullet in his mouth getting chewed filled the air before he stated.
"Two mils right, wind fluctuates between us and the target, expect a half minute of angle deviation."
Caz adjusted her optic, bringing the point of aim directly onto her crosshairs. The man next to her had called himself "an Olympian" an old sect of bionically enhanced warriors from even before the betrayal wars. In the small amount of time she'd gotten to know the man, she'd found him palatable at the very least, soft-spoken with a touch of crazy, it was refreshing. She tried to ignore the artillery-sized rifle he laid behind, the barrel itself bigger around than a drainage pipe, a suppressor of equally massive size almost protruding over the edge of the building. She watched from the corner of his eye as he pulled the breech open to the side and selected a shell thicker and longer than her forearm with a fused tip. He rammed it into the gun with the same ease she loaded her flechettes with.
They both had different jobs despite sitting on the same roof. She'd take care of anything on two legs, and he'd handle anything that had an armored skin. From her vantage point, she watched as the Agri-bots moved into position, planting their artillery pieces against the ground in preparation to fire. They weren't using High explosives much to Remin and Destrier's chagrin, but with their attack plan, they couldn't risk collapsing the sewers. They were instead armed with a chemical weapon known as "CS Smoke" which would obscure visual sightlines for anyone with unaugmented vision. Lucky for her and the Olympian, that wouldn't be an issue with her clear-sight and his advanced optics. She slowly swiveled her focus onto Drake, keeping the center of the crosshair off him as she watched him.
Sitting astride Barney, Drake looked every bit the warrior he was. His dark helmet and armor were almost lost in the dark night. But the red shock of his Helm's mohawk could not be mistaken, glowing brightly against the darkness. As his palm came to rest on the pommel of his sword, she saw something entirely different for a moment.
A warrior in battered, rusty armor, the flesh falling from his bones as a pair of white lights gleamed behind the helmet. A skeletal hand held a rusty sword in its sheath, Its pale, emaciated steed's head hanging low, milky eyes soulless and empty.
But as soon as she saw it, the image faded and she swiveled her crosshairs onto the castle's inner courtyard. A small, dim red light blinked on the side of the Olympian's skull as the Geknosians organized into fighting lines. Hulking Geknosians in overbuilt power armor manned emplaced turrets and the looming Gas generators. A small feed from the Olympian's perspective overlaid itself on her scope before minimizing to one corner. She watched as his crosshair fell onto one of the two Gallicks. The horseshoe-shaped APCs presenting their bulk to the gate as a bulwark. Caz switched her aim to a heavily armored Geknosian, slowly dialing the small wheel on the forend of her rifle to half-power, just under auto-ignition velocity. The geknosian seemed to get uncomfortable as her crosshairs landed on his chest, fidgeting at the controls of their AA plasma Beam-cannon.
The moment the Agri-bots fired their artillery, she'd remove him from the gene pool and take that AA gun out of the fight so Destrier could get into position.
...
Destrier and Remin ran last-minute checks on the small fleet of two-wheeled land vehicles the Top Hats had called "Dirt bikes." The variable electric powerplant produced little to no noise, even now, powered on and ready to roll they didn't even humm. Stepping back, Destrier let the forearms of his power armor clamshell close as he retook the hand controls. Contrary to popular belief, the hands of power armor weren't at all like gloves. A handle with a pressure sensor for each finger was clasped in his hands, allowing him to manipulate the hands of the armor like his own. Destrier turned his head, helmet whirring on its bearing as he watched Remin mount one of the Dirtbikes, the black scimitar strapped to the suspension of the bike within arm's reach. The old man's Mongolian lamellar draped over either side of the bike like fabric, small metal plates clinking and clattering softly as he pulled his fabric-wrapped helmet back on. Destrier clomped over, hardly noticing the backpack with over two hundred rounds of 13x110 mm HEP.
Remin looked up with a grin and met Destrier's arm halfway in a forearm-gripping handshake, their metal hands clanking together as they slid their arms back into a grip around the base of each other's thumbs, then to a normal handshake before waggling their fingers at each other.
Destrier chuckled softly and looked up at the sky, night vision lenses making it appear stuffed to bursting with stars.
"What's on the black samurai's mind?"
Remin asked softly, head tilted back to also look at the stars between the rooftops.
"Well... I'm looking forward to the fighting to finally being over... Maybe I'll finally be able to settle down and invent something with Martha..."
Remin chuckled softly.
"A noble goal... I'd expect nothing less from you Destri... I'm actually hoping to catch a ride back to human-controlled space. I'm too old for this shit, I want to settle down and live out the last years of my life in peace..."
Destrier nodded in agreement, slowly turning his gaze back to the helicopter, blades slowly turning in preparation for takeoff.
"How old are you Remin? I don't think I ever asked."
The old man paused, thinking for a long time.
"Oh... I'd say I've made it past a century at this point. Got a cybernetic heart when I was a kid thanks to a car accident, Ol' things been keeping me going far past when I shoulda dropped."
Destrier nods and laughs softly.
"Damn, and I thought you were only in your fifties."
Remin laughed in agreeance, setting his hands on the handlebars.
"I don't blame ya, I feel like it. Especially now that my legs aren't filled with creaky arthritis."
Destrier sighed softly, gently punching the old man's shoulder as softly as he could in his power armor.
"See you on the other side old man... whether that be the living side or the dead one."
"Here's to hoping it's the former not the latter."
Destrier chuckled his agreement and boarded the helicopter, making the landing gear compress slightly as he put his weight on the flight deck. Unhooking the feed chain from the side of the backpack, he clipped it into the Ma-deuce's feed chute. It whirred as the heavy cartridges were funneled down the chain and into the gun with a click and a clatter.
...
Barney shifted from one leg to the other beneath Drake, Death's chosen reaching down and gently patting his neck fondly as he softly whispered.
"Just a moment longer boy... There's someone I need to talk to."
Drake closed his eyes, letting the Darkness envelop him for a moment before opening them again.
He looked at Death, who was casually swirling a glass of black bourbon thoughtfully.
"You said you wanted to talk to me right before the battle?"
Death nodded and slid the glass of black bourbon his way.
"I did, I want you to drink this before you go into battle."
Drake picked up the glass, inspecting the pitch-black, inky liquid curiously. Before sniffing it and coughing as his eyes water.
"No offense, But I think something died in your liquor bottle."
Death laughed jovially, pouring his own glass from a red crystal decanter.
"That's because this is made from the blood of my predecessor. I thought i might as well get it out of the way."
Drake suspiciously looked at the glass.
"Okay, what happens when I drink it?"
Death paused, slowly swirling his own glass of black bourbon pensively. Then, he slowly knocked his own back, eyes dilating wide before returning to normal.
"Well, It should allow you to control your power, bypassing the decades of training most need."
Drake gave Death a side eye, sniffing the foul drink one more time asking.
"What's the catch?"
Death frowned, then set his glass down.
"Considering that it's going to completely restructure your magical and circulatory pathways. It's going to hurt like nothing you've ever felt before. It also may or may not bind your guardians to your soul."
Drake's head snapped up.
"Guardians... you mean my parents?"
Death nodded softly.
"Guardians, souls that loved someone so much that they remained on after death to watch over them. Your parents loved you... loved you enough to stand by your side even in death... and before you give me some bullshit about this not being what your parents would want... Remember, they'll always be at your side until you die one way or another."
Drake slowly swirled the bourbon before nodding softly, bringing it to his lips, he downed it in a single gulp. It burned on its way down, the tingling feeling intensely spreading throughout his body and to his fingertips in a moment. His nerves burned, and his very being felt as though it was being scalded by burning hot water. But as he set the glass down on Death's desk, he smiled softly. There was a warmth to the pain, like a cold rag against a feverish forehead. The sting of a garlic poultice applied to a fresh whip-wound. It was the crack of his father's wooden sword against his knuckles during their sparring, the sweat that would drip into his eyes on long evenings working the fields. Drake opened his eyes slowly, no longer sitting in Death's office, but his own soulscape, looking at the long-neglected buildings halfway through construction. But he wasn't alone.
Drake smiled at his mother and father. His mother gave him a soft smile as she touched the scar across his face, the wound in his cheek where a gauss slug had torn it open, then, she took his hand to gently touch the scarred wound where Garravan's knife had pierced his hand. His father just sat cross-legged, drinking a stout mug of scrub tree tea with a proud smile on his face. drake looked between them before holding out his hands.
As his parents took them, they dissolved into motes of light that drifted into his chest. His veins burned, and his eyes and nose bled. His entire existence felt like a blistering inferno as the ground of his soulscape rumbled, small, red flowers the color of blood and the shape of gunshot wounds popping up from the ground. But even as the pain grew, and grew, and grew, He found himself simply laughing, grabbing what felt like an invisible pair of chains and pulling up on them as he stood.
The ground erupted in the middle of his soulscape, a massive, gnarled oak tree sprouting from the ground. Its sturdy trunk protecting a small patch of pink carnations interspersed with curly-petaled white Gardenias. Drake felt something form atop his head and reached up, feeling a thorny crown, he gently pulled it off, looking at the black-petaled roses fondly before returning it to his head. The thorny veins grew down from the crown, snaking their way deep into his flesh only to bloom into what felt like new muscles and tendons that weren't attached to his physical strength. Looking at his upturned palms, he curled his fingers, a steady, smokeless pale flame popping into existence in his palm with next to no effort.
As the pain subsided, Drake closed his eyes, relishing its departure before opening them to the shocked and concerned face of Death. Drake gave him a curious look and Death coughed softly as he composed himself before speaking.
"Look, I know I can hide pain well... But that smile you get when you're hurting is capital C Creepy."
Drake touched his grinning face with a soft laugh, wiping a trickle of blood from his nose.
"Well, guess I can add that to my achievements list, Creeping Death out with a smile."
They both chuckled softly at the joke before Death sighed softly.
"You should get back to them, they're almost ready."
Drake nodded and stood, stepping over to the door.
"Wish me luck."
"Good luck, my Champion. Give them hell."
Drake smiled softly and stepped out the door. When he opened his eyes, he was back in the real world, staring up at Go'mon who'd perched himself atop the castle wall, eyeing Drake hungrily.
Giving Go'mon his signature grin, He reached up and depressed a countersunk button on the side of his helmet.
"Hit 'em"
Drake stated, the sound of artillery rocking the city as Go'mon's hungry look quickly turned to rage. There was a loud, screeching whistle as the artillery shells streaked in, blanketing the area in stinging fog. Drake drew his sword, extending thorned vines of power into it as the blade ignited with pale flames. Barney snuffled excitedly and roared as Drake nudged him forward, the Dinosaur leaping over the wall in a single bound. The final battle for Golgatha had begun, after this, they would either be free...
Or they will have died free.
......
Part 112: will be linked here upon completion.
submitted by teller_of_tall_tales to HFY [link] [comments]
*previous:* https://www.reddit.com/HFY/comments/1d3yvie/troublemakers_parabellum/
......
Go'mon stormed through the castle corridors. He'd sensed something slip beside him during his encounter with the vampire lord. It wasn't just that damned top hat with the thief's prints. No, it was more subtle than that, it was the sound of a gossamer chain rattling against cloth. He scanned every square inch of the hallways as he walked, slowly twirling the Warhammer in his off-hand as he calmly held the pistol muzzle-up towards the ceiling. He'd barely gotten a glimpse of what almost looked like mist as he stomped through the grand halls with paranoia-fueled, seething anger. Abruptly turning a corner he fired the revolver at what he thought was that pesky invisible parasite.
The shimmer shuddered and he switched to the visible spectrum to find out it was just a tapestry in front of a heating vent.
Go'mon let out an enraged scream, tearing the tapestry apart with his bare hands after casting his weapons aside in a fit of rage and impotence. The visage of Monarch D'vinn looking out from the top of a bombed-out hill in battered armor at the shattered remains of the once human-occupied city, being shredded like single-ply latrine paper by go'mon's molecularly edged cybernetic claws. Having spent his rage on the tapestry, he panted dramatically as his heart pounded in its cask. Turning around he let out another furious scream, howling madly as he scanned the hall with thermals. His Hammer and revolver had disappeared without a trace.
The sudden blare of a Klaxon made him pause as he adjusted his armor, forcing himself to calm down as he examined his molecularly edged claws. The main enemy was at the gates, he should go meet them.
...
Cassius' Heart pounded as he took shallow breaths, Go'mon's backplate inches from his own chest as he held onto the Hammer and Pistol for dear life. As the general strutted outside, Cassius moved in perfect synchronization, his left leg rising with the general's before being placed down in sync. He'd been practicing for weeks with the security droids at the mansion, practicing to keep inches from their backs without touching their metal carapace. Now he strutted behind perhaps the second most powerful being he knew like a silent specter. As Go'mon slammed through a door, breaking it into splinters, Cassius lifted his right leg and rotated out of the way just as Go'mon's tail would've brushed against his Calf, giving him away. As the General strutted out into the middle of the courtyard, Cassius used the various straps attached to his gambeson to affix the weapons to his waist before grabbing his Kama and weighted chain from a small pouch at his belt.
Cassius tossed the weighted end of the chain over the wall of the castle after a short run-up, wrapping the gossamer chain around his hands with each rapid step he took up the wall. Reaching the top, he unhooked the weight from the small bar he'd tossed it around quickly disentangling his hands from the chain. He groped the air on the outside of the wall until he touched the enchanted ladder the Top-Hats had left him. Sliding down the ladder, he spotted Drake sitting astride Barney in the middle of the street. The rest were nowhere to be seen but that indeed was part of the plan. Sprinting over, Cassius leaped onto Barney behind Drake and slipped Go'mon's revolver into the empty holster at his belt. Drawing out no reaction save for a few words from Drake, who didn't turn his head lest he give the gambit away.
"Good work Cassius, Fall back and get a gas mask on. We still don't know what's in those canisters because they inked out the labels."
Cassius slipped off of Barney's back and slipped into a nearby building before De-cloaking as he pressed himself against the wall next to a Warmonger who passed him a spare gas mask. He pulled it on and checked the seal before sitting against the wall as his legs jellied beneath him. His mouth was dryer than the scrubland as he accepted a Volunteer's canteen, drinking heavily through a port in the mask as he rode out the adrenaline crash. He glanced over to where their fighters had pried open a sewer access hatch and were dropping in, the smell of sewage souring the air. A few warmongers closest to the opening had comically attached wooden clothesline clips to their noses.
...
Caz lay atop the second-tallest building in Golgatha, trash and debris piled up around her for camouflage ash she drew a bead on the strutting Go'mon. Her god-given eyes were able to see the purple miasma that rose from him like mercury vapors. She didn't even turn her head as she softly asked.
"Distance?"
The man with Heavy cybernetic augmentations pulled casually from a large pouch of grain alcohol, camera-lense eyes extending from his face as he chewed on a bullet thoughtfully. Slowly he stated.
"One thousand five hundred and sixty-seven meters, If you're keeping it under auto-ignition velocity, you should be able to hold it one mil above and..."
The sound of the bullet in his mouth getting chewed filled the air before he stated.
"Two mils right, wind fluctuates between us and the target, expect a half minute of angle deviation."
Caz adjusted her optic, bringing the point of aim directly onto her crosshairs. The man next to her had called himself "an Olympian" an old sect of bionically enhanced warriors from even before the betrayal wars. In the small amount of time she'd gotten to know the man, she'd found him palatable at the very least, soft-spoken with a touch of crazy, it was refreshing. She tried to ignore the artillery-sized rifle he laid behind, the barrel itself bigger around than a drainage pipe, a suppressor of equally massive size almost protruding over the edge of the building. She watched from the corner of his eye as he pulled the breech open to the side and selected a shell thicker and longer than her forearm with a fused tip. He rammed it into the gun with the same ease she loaded her flechettes with.
They both had different jobs despite sitting on the same roof. She'd take care of anything on two legs, and he'd handle anything that had an armored skin. From her vantage point, she watched as the Agri-bots moved into position, planting their artillery pieces against the ground in preparation to fire. They weren't using High explosives much to Remin and Destrier's chagrin, but with their attack plan, they couldn't risk collapsing the sewers. They were instead armed with a chemical weapon known as "CS Smoke" which would obscure visual sightlines for anyone with unaugmented vision. Lucky for her and the Olympian, that wouldn't be an issue with her clear-sight and his advanced optics. She slowly swiveled her focus onto Drake, keeping the center of the crosshair off him as she watched him.
Sitting astride Barney, Drake looked every bit the warrior he was. His dark helmet and armor were almost lost in the dark night. But the red shock of his Helm's mohawk could not be mistaken, glowing brightly against the darkness. As his palm came to rest on the pommel of his sword, she saw something entirely different for a moment.
A warrior in battered, rusty armor, the flesh falling from his bones as a pair of white lights gleamed behind the helmet. A skeletal hand held a rusty sword in its sheath, Its pale, emaciated steed's head hanging low, milky eyes soulless and empty.
But as soon as she saw it, the image faded and she swiveled her crosshairs onto the castle's inner courtyard. A small, dim red light blinked on the side of the Olympian's skull as the Geknosians organized into fighting lines. Hulking Geknosians in overbuilt power armor manned emplaced turrets and the looming Gas generators. A small feed from the Olympian's perspective overlaid itself on her scope before minimizing to one corner. She watched as his crosshair fell onto one of the two Gallicks. The horseshoe-shaped APCs presenting their bulk to the gate as a bulwark. Caz switched her aim to a heavily armored Geknosian, slowly dialing the small wheel on the forend of her rifle to half-power, just under auto-ignition velocity. The geknosian seemed to get uncomfortable as her crosshairs landed on his chest, fidgeting at the controls of their AA plasma Beam-cannon.
The moment the Agri-bots fired their artillery, she'd remove him from the gene pool and take that AA gun out of the fight so Destrier could get into position.
...
Destrier and Remin ran last-minute checks on the small fleet of two-wheeled land vehicles the Top Hats had called "Dirt bikes." The variable electric powerplant produced little to no noise, even now, powered on and ready to roll they didn't even humm. Stepping back, Destrier let the forearms of his power armor clamshell close as he retook the hand controls. Contrary to popular belief, the hands of power armor weren't at all like gloves. A handle with a pressure sensor for each finger was clasped in his hands, allowing him to manipulate the hands of the armor like his own. Destrier turned his head, helmet whirring on its bearing as he watched Remin mount one of the Dirtbikes, the black scimitar strapped to the suspension of the bike within arm's reach. The old man's Mongolian lamellar draped over either side of the bike like fabric, small metal plates clinking and clattering softly as he pulled his fabric-wrapped helmet back on. Destrier clomped over, hardly noticing the backpack with over two hundred rounds of 13x110 mm HEP.
Remin looked up with a grin and met Destrier's arm halfway in a forearm-gripping handshake, their metal hands clanking together as they slid their arms back into a grip around the base of each other's thumbs, then to a normal handshake before waggling their fingers at each other.
Destrier chuckled softly and looked up at the sky, night vision lenses making it appear stuffed to bursting with stars.
"What's on the black samurai's mind?"
Remin asked softly, head tilted back to also look at the stars between the rooftops.
"Well... I'm looking forward to the fighting to finally being over... Maybe I'll finally be able to settle down and invent something with Martha..."
Remin chuckled softly.
"A noble goal... I'd expect nothing less from you Destri... I'm actually hoping to catch a ride back to human-controlled space. I'm too old for this shit, I want to settle down and live out the last years of my life in peace..."
Destrier nodded in agreement, slowly turning his gaze back to the helicopter, blades slowly turning in preparation for takeoff.
"How old are you Remin? I don't think I ever asked."
The old man paused, thinking for a long time.
"Oh... I'd say I've made it past a century at this point. Got a cybernetic heart when I was a kid thanks to a car accident, Ol' things been keeping me going far past when I shoulda dropped."
Destrier nods and laughs softly.
"Damn, and I thought you were only in your fifties."
Remin laughed in agreeance, setting his hands on the handlebars.
"I don't blame ya, I feel like it. Especially now that my legs aren't filled with creaky arthritis."
Destrier sighed softly, gently punching the old man's shoulder as softly as he could in his power armor.
"See you on the other side old man... whether that be the living side or the dead one."
"Here's to hoping it's the former not the latter."
Destrier chuckled his agreement and boarded the helicopter, making the landing gear compress slightly as he put his weight on the flight deck. Unhooking the feed chain from the side of the backpack, he clipped it into the Ma-deuce's feed chute. It whirred as the heavy cartridges were funneled down the chain and into the gun with a click and a clatter.
...
Barney shifted from one leg to the other beneath Drake, Death's chosen reaching down and gently patting his neck fondly as he softly whispered.
"Just a moment longer boy... There's someone I need to talk to."
Drake closed his eyes, letting the Darkness envelop him for a moment before opening them again.
He looked at Death, who was casually swirling a glass of black bourbon thoughtfully.
"You said you wanted to talk to me right before the battle?"
Death nodded and slid the glass of black bourbon his way.
"I did, I want you to drink this before you go into battle."
Drake picked up the glass, inspecting the pitch-black, inky liquid curiously. Before sniffing it and coughing as his eyes water.
"No offense, But I think something died in your liquor bottle."
Death laughed jovially, pouring his own glass from a red crystal decanter.
"That's because this is made from the blood of my predecessor. I thought i might as well get it out of the way."
Drake suspiciously looked at the glass.
"Okay, what happens when I drink it?"
Death paused, slowly swirling his own glass of black bourbon pensively. Then, he slowly knocked his own back, eyes dilating wide before returning to normal.
"Well, It should allow you to control your power, bypassing the decades of training most need."
Drake gave Death a side eye, sniffing the foul drink one more time asking.
"What's the catch?"
Death frowned, then set his glass down.
"Considering that it's going to completely restructure your magical and circulatory pathways. It's going to hurt like nothing you've ever felt before. It also may or may not bind your guardians to your soul."
Drake's head snapped up.
"Guardians... you mean my parents?"
Death nodded softly.
"Guardians, souls that loved someone so much that they remained on after death to watch over them. Your parents loved you... loved you enough to stand by your side even in death... and before you give me some bullshit about this not being what your parents would want... Remember, they'll always be at your side until you die one way or another."
Drake slowly swirled the bourbon before nodding softly, bringing it to his lips, he downed it in a single gulp. It burned on its way down, the tingling feeling intensely spreading throughout his body and to his fingertips in a moment. His nerves burned, and his very being felt as though it was being scalded by burning hot water. But as he set the glass down on Death's desk, he smiled softly. There was a warmth to the pain, like a cold rag against a feverish forehead. The sting of a garlic poultice applied to a fresh whip-wound. It was the crack of his father's wooden sword against his knuckles during their sparring, the sweat that would drip into his eyes on long evenings working the fields. Drake opened his eyes slowly, no longer sitting in Death's office, but his own soulscape, looking at the long-neglected buildings halfway through construction. But he wasn't alone.
Drake smiled at his mother and father. His mother gave him a soft smile as she touched the scar across his face, the wound in his cheek where a gauss slug had torn it open, then, she took his hand to gently touch the scarred wound where Garravan's knife had pierced his hand. His father just sat cross-legged, drinking a stout mug of scrub tree tea with a proud smile on his face. drake looked between them before holding out his hands.
As his parents took them, they dissolved into motes of light that drifted into his chest. His veins burned, and his eyes and nose bled. His entire existence felt like a blistering inferno as the ground of his soulscape rumbled, small, red flowers the color of blood and the shape of gunshot wounds popping up from the ground. But even as the pain grew, and grew, and grew, He found himself simply laughing, grabbing what felt like an invisible pair of chains and pulling up on them as he stood.
The ground erupted in the middle of his soulscape, a massive, gnarled oak tree sprouting from the ground. Its sturdy trunk protecting a small patch of pink carnations interspersed with curly-petaled white Gardenias. Drake felt something form atop his head and reached up, feeling a thorny crown, he gently pulled it off, looking at the black-petaled roses fondly before returning it to his head. The thorny veins grew down from the crown, snaking their way deep into his flesh only to bloom into what felt like new muscles and tendons that weren't attached to his physical strength. Looking at his upturned palms, he curled his fingers, a steady, smokeless pale flame popping into existence in his palm with next to no effort.
As the pain subsided, Drake closed his eyes, relishing its departure before opening them to the shocked and concerned face of Death. Drake gave him a curious look and Death coughed softly as he composed himself before speaking.
"Look, I know I can hide pain well... But that smile you get when you're hurting is capital C Creepy."
Drake touched his grinning face with a soft laugh, wiping a trickle of blood from his nose.
"Well, guess I can add that to my achievements list, Creeping Death out with a smile."
They both chuckled softly at the joke before Death sighed softly.
"You should get back to them, they're almost ready."
Drake nodded and stood, stepping over to the door.
"Wish me luck."
"Good luck, my Champion. Give them hell."
Drake smiled softly and stepped out the door. When he opened his eyes, he was back in the real world, staring up at Go'mon who'd perched himself atop the castle wall, eyeing Drake hungrily.
Giving Go'mon his signature grin, He reached up and depressed a countersunk button on the side of his helmet.
"Hit 'em"
Drake stated, the sound of artillery rocking the city as Go'mon's hungry look quickly turned to rage. There was a loud, screeching whistle as the artillery shells streaked in, blanketing the area in stinging fog. Drake drew his sword, extending thorned vines of power into it as the blade ignited with pale flames. Barney snuffled excitedly and roared as Drake nudged him forward, the Dinosaur leaping over the wall in a single bound. The final battle for Golgatha had begun, after this, they would either be free...
Or they will have died free.
......
Part 112: will be linked here upon completion.
2024.06.08 16:43 cats64sonic The Constitution and Water; Foundations of Stability and Fluidity
Introduction
The United States Constitution, ratified in 1788, serves as the bedrock of American governance, providing the framework for the nation's laws and institutions. Water, on the other hand, is a fundamental substance essential for life, with its properties playing a crucial role in various chemical and biological processes. Despite their apparent differences, the Constitution and water share common themes of stability and fluidity, serving as essential elements that sustain and shape the fabric of society and the natural world. This essay explores the parallels between the Constitution and water, examining how both contribute to stability and adaptability in their respective domains.
The Constitution: Pillar of Stability in Governance
The United States Constitution is a seminal document that establishes the framework for the American government, delineating the powers of its branches, outlining the rights of its citizens, and providing mechanisms for governance and amendment. Its enduring significance lies in its ability to provide stability and continuity amidst changing political landscapes.
Principles of Governance
Central to the Constitution are principles of democracy, republicanism, and the separation of powers. The document establishes a system of checks and balances among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, ensuring that no single entity wields unchecked authority. The Constitution also enshrines fundamental rights and liberties, such as freedom of speech, religion, and assembly, safeguarding individual freedoms against governmental encroachment.
Adaptability and Amendment
Despite its emphasis on stability, the Constitution is not static but adaptable. The framers recognized the need for flexibility and provided mechanisms for its amendment. The process of amendment, outlined in Article V, allows for changes to the Constitution in response to evolving societal norms, values, and circumstances. Over the years, the Constitution has been amended to address issues such as suffrage, civil rights, and presidential succession, reflecting the nation's evolving understanding of democracy and equality.
Water: Agent of Fluidity in Nature
Water, often referred to as the "universal solvent," is a ubiquitous substance that plays a critical role in various chemical, biological, and geological processes. Its unique properties enable it to facilitate life- sustaining functions while also shaping the landscape and climate of the planet.
Properties and Functions
Water exhibits several unique properties that contribute to its versatility and importance. Its polarity allows it to dissolve a wide range of substances, making it an essential solvent in biological systems. Water's high specific heat capacity and heat of vaporization regulate temperature, moderating climate and providing thermal stability for aquatic ecosystems. Additionally, water's cohesive and adhesive properties enable capillary action, facilitating nutrient transport in plants and water uptake in soils.
Adaptability and Environmental Impact
Water's adaptability is evident in its ability to exist in various states—solid, liquid, and gas—depending on temperature and pressure conditions. This versatility allows water to cycle continuously through the hydrological cycle, transporting nutrients, regulating climate, and shaping landscapes through erosion and deposition. However, human activities such as pollution, deforestation, and climate change have disrupted water cycles and ecosystems, highlighting the need for sustainable water management practices.
Parallels and Intersections
While the Constitution and water may seem disparate, they share fundamental characteristics that contribute to stability and adaptability in their respective domains.
Stability and Continuity
Just as the Constitution provides a stable framework for governance, water serves as a constant presence in the natural world, sustaining life and regulating environmental processes. Both are essential elements that contribute to the stability and continuity of their respective systems.
Flexibility and Adaptation
Despite their stability, both the Constitution and water exhibit adaptability in response to changing circumstances. The Constitution's amendment process allows for adjustments to accommodate evolving societal needs and values, while water's properties enable it to respond dynamically to environmental changes, such as shifts in temperature and precipitation patterns.
Balance and Harmony
Both the Constitution and water exemplify the importance of balance and harmony in maintaining functional systems. The Constitution's system of checks and balances ensures that power is distributed equitably among branches of government, preventing abuses of authority. Similarly, water's interactions with biotic and abiotic components in ecosystems promote equilibrium and resilience, fostering biodiversity and ecosystem stability.
Conclusion
The Constitution and water, though seemingly disparate entities, share fundamental qualities that contribute to stability and adaptability in their respective realms. While the Constitution serves as a pillar of governance, providing stability and continuity in the political sphere, water acts as an agent of fluidity and resilience in the natural world, sustaining life and shaping ecosystems. By recognizing the parallels between these foundational elements, we gain a deeper appreciation for the interconnectedness of human society and the natural environment, highlighting the importance of balance, harmony, and sustainability in fostering resilience and prosperity.
submitted by cats64sonic to DecreasinglyVerbose [link] [comments]
The United States Constitution, ratified in 1788, serves as the bedrock of American governance, providing the framework for the nation's laws and institutions. Water, on the other hand, is a fundamental substance essential for life, with its properties playing a crucial role in various chemical and biological processes. Despite their apparent differences, the Constitution and water share common themes of stability and fluidity, serving as essential elements that sustain and shape the fabric of society and the natural world. This essay explores the parallels between the Constitution and water, examining how both contribute to stability and adaptability in their respective domains.
The Constitution: Pillar of Stability in Governance
The United States Constitution is a seminal document that establishes the framework for the American government, delineating the powers of its branches, outlining the rights of its citizens, and providing mechanisms for governance and amendment. Its enduring significance lies in its ability to provide stability and continuity amidst changing political landscapes.
Principles of Governance
Central to the Constitution are principles of democracy, republicanism, and the separation of powers. The document establishes a system of checks and balances among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, ensuring that no single entity wields unchecked authority. The Constitution also enshrines fundamental rights and liberties, such as freedom of speech, religion, and assembly, safeguarding individual freedoms against governmental encroachment.
Adaptability and Amendment
Despite its emphasis on stability, the Constitution is not static but adaptable. The framers recognized the need for flexibility and provided mechanisms for its amendment. The process of amendment, outlined in Article V, allows for changes to the Constitution in response to evolving societal norms, values, and circumstances. Over the years, the Constitution has been amended to address issues such as suffrage, civil rights, and presidential succession, reflecting the nation's evolving understanding of democracy and equality.
Water: Agent of Fluidity in Nature
Water, often referred to as the "universal solvent," is a ubiquitous substance that plays a critical role in various chemical, biological, and geological processes. Its unique properties enable it to facilitate life- sustaining functions while also shaping the landscape and climate of the planet.
Properties and Functions
Water exhibits several unique properties that contribute to its versatility and importance. Its polarity allows it to dissolve a wide range of substances, making it an essential solvent in biological systems. Water's high specific heat capacity and heat of vaporization regulate temperature, moderating climate and providing thermal stability for aquatic ecosystems. Additionally, water's cohesive and adhesive properties enable capillary action, facilitating nutrient transport in plants and water uptake in soils.
Adaptability and Environmental Impact
Water's adaptability is evident in its ability to exist in various states—solid, liquid, and gas—depending on temperature and pressure conditions. This versatility allows water to cycle continuously through the hydrological cycle, transporting nutrients, regulating climate, and shaping landscapes through erosion and deposition. However, human activities such as pollution, deforestation, and climate change have disrupted water cycles and ecosystems, highlighting the need for sustainable water management practices.
Parallels and Intersections
While the Constitution and water may seem disparate, they share fundamental characteristics that contribute to stability and adaptability in their respective domains.
Stability and Continuity
Just as the Constitution provides a stable framework for governance, water serves as a constant presence in the natural world, sustaining life and regulating environmental processes. Both are essential elements that contribute to the stability and continuity of their respective systems.
Flexibility and Adaptation
Despite their stability, both the Constitution and water exhibit adaptability in response to changing circumstances. The Constitution's amendment process allows for adjustments to accommodate evolving societal needs and values, while water's properties enable it to respond dynamically to environmental changes, such as shifts in temperature and precipitation patterns.
Balance and Harmony
Both the Constitution and water exemplify the importance of balance and harmony in maintaining functional systems. The Constitution's system of checks and balances ensures that power is distributed equitably among branches of government, preventing abuses of authority. Similarly, water's interactions with biotic and abiotic components in ecosystems promote equilibrium and resilience, fostering biodiversity and ecosystem stability.
Conclusion
The Constitution and water, though seemingly disparate entities, share fundamental qualities that contribute to stability and adaptability in their respective realms. While the Constitution serves as a pillar of governance, providing stability and continuity in the political sphere, water acts as an agent of fluidity and resilience in the natural world, sustaining life and shaping ecosystems. By recognizing the parallels between these foundational elements, we gain a deeper appreciation for the interconnectedness of human society and the natural environment, highlighting the importance of balance, harmony, and sustainability in fostering resilience and prosperity.
2024.06.08 14:33 MountainSkald [A Valkyrie's Saga] - Part 119
Prequel (Chapters 1 to 16)
1. Rise of a Valkyrie
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A warm breeze rustled through the leaves of the peach blossom forest as Kayla walked with Urtiga. They were in the Vale of the Fallen, where every tree represented a woman who had been lost in the service of Valkyrie, and the sturdy, immortal trunks stretched as far as the eye could see.
Urtiga liked to take Kayla to meet her fallen friends, and tell their stories. She insisted that it was the only way to keep alive the memories of those who were lost, and the knowledge they had earned in blood.
For Kayla it was an honor and a privilege. By tacit agreement, no woman ever went further into the forest than their own generation, unless invited, because they would be able to guess the age of the Valkyrie they met.
“I still don’t understand why you took me under your wing,” Kayla said, as they walked back to the entrance. “I’m more trouble than I’m worth.”
Urtiga gave her a mild shove. “Have you been feeling sorry for yourself? You know that’s not what I want to hear.”
“A little bit,” Kayla admitted. She reached up and scratched at a bad rash on her neck, and winced at the movement.
“Training accident?” Urtiga asked.
Kayla chuckled “No, I got a bit over-zealous with my role, and Thandi made me pay for it. She’s got this natural talent for all martial arts. Makes me super jealous.”
“Okay, I get,” said Urtiga. “You’ve been screwing up.”
“And then some. You heard about the friendly fire incident?”
Urtiga smiled wryly. “Which one? My unit had one too, you know.”
“At least nobody got shot in yours.”
“Kayla, anything can happen once bullets start flying.”
“Yeah, that’s what everyone says. I just don’t know if I’ve got this leadership business figured out yet.”
Urtiga shook her head and said nothing. Then she stopped in her tracks.
“My whole family got vaporized by a bomb on Titan. During the Sol war—most people don’t even remember it now. It’s a footnote in any history book.” She looked sadly into the distance. “A few rebels versus the Earth government in a weeklong exchange of ordinance that achieved nothing. Valkyrie took me in, and I’ve never known anything else.
Kayla watched her mentor as she took in every word.
“My older sister was the coolest person I knew. We used to do everything together; run around the colony, steal boats and race them on the methane lakes. When the bombs started falling, we all ran into the basement. They told me to stay still, but I was too scared, and we always used to run from trouble, so I got out of their grip and raced outside.”
She smiled. “I honestly thought they would follow me. But I looked back and the whole building just disintegrated. They used a bunker buster because they said they the rebels had tunneled under our houses. There was nothing left at all.”
“Did you blame yourself?” Kayla asked.
Despite the rush of grief and horror, and the parade of questions, she didn’t want to overreact. She had no business falling to pieces when she hadn’t experienced what Urtiga, at more than a century old, had already healed from. Even with her own memories, excessive sympathy made her uncomfortable.
“Sure,” Urtiga said. “I went through the whole rollercoaster for decades. But anyway, when you lost your dad, I thought you could use an older sister. So that’s why I took you under my wing.”
Kayla suddenly lost control of her voice. “Sometimes I wish you were my mother.”
“Oh, I’d be a terrible mother,” Urtiga said as she awkwardly kicked at a fallen branch. “Besides, yours is still alive.”
“But she’s a narcissist,” Kayla insisted. “There’s nothing there to connect with.”
“You remember when you came to Tyr? The first thing I said to you? It was so awful, and I beat myself up about it for ages.”
Kayla thought for a moment, then laughed. “Did I regret the day you met me? The day my dad died? Yeah, I wasn’t sure about that one, but I think I forgot about it quickly with everything that was going on.”
“You see? I can’t be a mother. I’ve lost the touch. I don’t think I’m a narcissist, but… well, you would be reminded of one from time to time.”
“You probably could, if you wanted to be.”
“Just like you could be a good team leader, if you wanted to be?”
Kayla stopped short and lifted her head to stare at the sky through the pink blossoms above them. She felt very angry, and very stupid at the same time.
“I’m a reckless, irresponsible idiot, and I have no idea what I’m doing.”
Urtiga nodded. “That’s about how most of us start out. It’s very on the job training.”
“But the others… they need someone way better than me.”
“No, they need you, because you are an excellent soldier, and as soon as you stop trying to take responsibility for the risks they accepted for themselves, you’ll figure that out.”
Urtiga stopped and stared down the path. The forest had given way to a crowd of evenly spaced young saplings. Where she was looking, Kayla saw Christe and Thandi sat by one of them, talking happily. “Your friend Rose didn’t join this organization because she wanted to live forever. She joined because she wanted her life to count for something more than herself. And it did.”
Kayla tried to sniff back tears. “But Rayker got away. I let it happen again.”
Urtiga grabbed her shoulder and looked her in the eye. “I don’t want to hear that. We let Rayker get away. It was a team failure, and won’t be the last we have to endure. But you know we’ll hunt her down again. And some more women will die. And one day we will succeed, and it will all have been worth it. If you don’t give everything you have to make that happen, failures included, then what does that mean for the sacrifices of those that did?”
***
After she left Urtiga, Kayla joined her friends at the sapling where Rose’s body was buried.
“How’s your shoulder?” Thandi asked.
“It’s good, but I need to stretch it some more. Did you really have to dislocate it?”
“I dunno. I guess we’ll see how you do over the next couple of weeks.”
“One of these days it’s going to be me kicking your ass,” Kayla said with a grimace.
Thandi laughed, and shook her head dismissively.
“How is the wide-eyed, naïve, and totally unsuspecting future of our precious organization?” Kayla asked.
Thandi scoffed. “Driving forward with a spring in her step. Barely put off by your doom and gloom speech. Still idolizes the squad in general, and you in particular, in defiance of explanation. Ray’s taken her under her wing.”
“That’s good,” Kayla nodded. “Ray’s awesome.”
“What will happen to Yak?” Christie asked.
“She was already near the end of her probation,” Kayla said. Valkyrie were usually required to serve a five-year term as a Ranger before they could specialize into other units. “And she was already on a program to prep for Pararescue selection. Either way, she won’t come back to our squad.”
“What a coldly bureaucratic system your battalions operate under.”
“Obviously. Duty comes before everything else.”
Christie looked thoughtful. “Do you know, I’ve heard a lot of stories about your friend Ray. I feel certain she’s spent a lot more than five years as a Ranger.”
Thandi shrugged. “You can stay however long you want. Before Ash left, she told me Ray was in Winter battalion before Mountain. But she’s super cagey about it.”
“She’s easily the most dialed in Ranger in the company, too,” Kayla observed.
“Of course,” Christie mused, “Given the advantages of nanite enhancement, we have no idea how old many of our colleagues are. I was shocked when I learned Urtiga was nearly a hundred and forty years old. You can’t remotely tell by looking.”
“Sure,” Kayla said. “Ray can be a bit adolescent though, especially when it comes to men.”
Christie only raised an eyebrow.
“I just hope we have time to get our rookie up to speed before we have to go face Rayker again,” Kayla said, absently. She picked a blade of grass and studied it closely.
“Unlikely,” Christie said after a thoughtful pause. “One cannot move a small army of alien war machines around without generating chatter. She might go into hibernation in dead space somewhere—and who am I to make assumptions about her strategy? But if she moves, we will know within weeks. There are many ears to the ground, you see. It’s a very all-hands on deck situation.”
“I would bet,” Thandi said carefully, “that the Delta-Three-Alpha mess gave the chiefs a wakeup call. They need to reorganize Valkyrie into a large-scale, coordinated force, rather than the piecemeal cleanup groups they’ve gotten used to.
“But there are so many problems with that approach,” Christie argued. “You cannot simply start moving a private army into human space without catastrophic effects.”
Thandi shrugged. “Come on Chris. This whole ‘neutral protectors’ thing was never going to last. Between the trafficking and Rayker… something had to change. Everyone knows it.”
Christie scoffed. “Oh gosh, how could I forget that we had the benefit of perfect moral righteousness to guide us?”
Kayla gave her a disappointed look. “But you think we have superior intellect, don’t you? Here’s the thing, you might want to revisit some of your assumptions about who exactly is in the driving seat of the Ranger battalions. And they don’t necessarily share the opinions of the officer-intel class.”
Christie stared at her, speechless. When she finally spoke, she sounded offended. “I’m stunned you would even use a term like that. What happened to one-team one-fight?”
Kayla just shrugged. She couldn’t help being the bearer of bad news.
“I’m sorry, I thought I had joined a responsible paramilitary organization. Now my friends tell me I’m part of a gang, a mob, of angry, over-powered ego maniacs. I suppose this is the time where I need to shut up and do as I’m told by those with the guns, is that right?”
“That’s unfair,” Thandi said. “I hate the way you try to oversimplify everything.”
“Un-simplify it for me then,” Christie said, as her cheeks began to color.
Thandi’s voice softened. “You know that Valkyrie puts reputation and experience before rank, and you know that the most senior veterans could be anyone. Probably only the chiefs know who the old guard are.”
“It is an extremely effective clique; I grant you that.”
“Officers are a necessity for organization and coordination. They are the nerves which drive the muscle. But the body has a heart, and it has a gut.”
“An organ for pumping blood and another for digesting food, gosh, what an insightful metaphor.” Christie said coldly.
Kayla chuckled. “Which part do you think is the ass—sorry, sorry.” She looked down as her friends scowled her into silence.
“Listen Chris,” Thandi continued, maintaining her even tone. “You’re the one making assumptions about how the organization thinks.
“Or ought to think,” Kayla said quietly.
“We’re just sharing the broader picture,” Thandi finished.
“Hmph.” Christie looked away into the forest as her jaw clenched.
She didn’t speak for some time, and Kayla exchanged a look with Thandi as the silence continued. Eventually, however, Christie appeared to relax, and sighed deeply.
“You’re right, obviously,” she said. “None of us really know what kind of people our superiors are, or their agenda.”
Kayla nodded. “All I know is that I like who I work with, and that the missions we get handed seem worthy. Here, have a dandelion.”
Christie gratefully accepted the flower and her smile brightened.
“I suppose you’ll bring your new girl to Caldera?” she asked.
Smyrna had declared mandatory weekend leave for the task force, with explicit instructions to get off Tyr and visit civilization. The squad had planned to unwind on Caldera by staying in the spacious town house of Kayla’s adoptive father, Jack Fenway. The ability to find their own friends outside work had expired with time in service, and so they hoped to get drunk in Zula while flirting with locals. Only Kes had declined, citing family matters.
“Yeah, of course,” Kayla said. “She’s been pushing so hard she’s brain fried, and it’s the perfect opportunity to integrate her. Anyway, check it out, I’ve got this awesome new outfit I wanted to wear—”
“If it was that meager scrap of fabric you had laid out on your bed, you’re not wearing that,” Thandi said flatly.
Kayla huffed in frustration. “I’m sorry, are you just my full-time mother now?”
“Yours mostly ignored you, as did all the girls you were with growing up, so yeah, I guess I have to take on some of that responsibility.”
“Well give it a rest. There’s nothing wrong with me being feminine and showing off some skin.”
“First, those are two completely different concepts, and the fact that you don’t understand that tells me how far you have left to go. Second—no, listen,” she cut Kayla off as she tried to answer back. “Second; girls who can dress like that without concern usually know what they are doing. You have no idea what you are doing, because you’ve never socialized with people outside this group of immortal, trained killers, who are as far removed from real life as it is possible to get.”
Kayla scowled as she scratched at the dirt. “I bet Christie would be happy to take me out looking hot.”
“Don’t try and turn us against each other,” Thandi snapped. “I’m looking out for you, because you do not understand that the world is filled with sharks. When they see a young woman wearing skimpy outfits, without the experience to know how to handle herself, all they see is prey. Christie, back me up.”
“Thandi is correct,” Christie said. “Social interaction is a subtle and fast spoken language, chiefly used in the exploitation of the inexperienced. And men, of course, are vile monsters to be watched with constant suspicion, while noting their range and elevation. Perhaps, Thandi, a mortar team could be called upon to set up a thousand meters from the venue, in case we have need?”
Thandi slapped her on the leg and turned back to Kayla. “She’s being facetious, but she did agree.”
“Broadly agreed,” Christie allowed. “Just don’t be absurdly skittish. And can we do anything to convince you to explore the rest of the color spectrum? Black cannot be worn for every occasion.”
Kayla shook her head. “That’s objectively false.”
“And please, whatever you do,” Thandi said, “Remember Rose’s advice. If you meet anyone who reminds you of your friend Weslan Genny, walk away immediately.”
“So, to clarify,” Kayla said in exasperation. “Even when I get a long weekend break, I still have to spend it learning new tactics, techniques and procedures?”
“Correct,” Christie said. “And there will be a test.”
Thandi squeezed her shoulder. “I’m really sorry you weren’t given the upbringing you needed to become as well-rounded as other girls. I’m sorry you have to work hard just to become more normal. But, on the bright side, you are a Ranger, and you will crush this like you crush everything else.”
Kayla smiled gratefully. “Usually with a lot of collateral damage, but I appreciate the sentiment.”
First ¦ Previous ¦ Next ¦ Royal Road ¦ Patreon
Prequel (Chapters 1 to 16)
1. Rise of a Valkyrie
submitted by MountainSkald to redditserials [link] [comments]
1. Rise of a Valkyrie
First ¦ Previous ¦ Next ¦ Royal Road ¦ Patreon
A warm breeze rustled through the leaves of the peach blossom forest as Kayla walked with Urtiga. They were in the Vale of the Fallen, where every tree represented a woman who had been lost in the service of Valkyrie, and the sturdy, immortal trunks stretched as far as the eye could see.
Urtiga liked to take Kayla to meet her fallen friends, and tell their stories. She insisted that it was the only way to keep alive the memories of those who were lost, and the knowledge they had earned in blood.
For Kayla it was an honor and a privilege. By tacit agreement, no woman ever went further into the forest than their own generation, unless invited, because they would be able to guess the age of the Valkyrie they met.
“I still don’t understand why you took me under your wing,” Kayla said, as they walked back to the entrance. “I’m more trouble than I’m worth.”
Urtiga gave her a mild shove. “Have you been feeling sorry for yourself? You know that’s not what I want to hear.”
“A little bit,” Kayla admitted. She reached up and scratched at a bad rash on her neck, and winced at the movement.
“Training accident?” Urtiga asked.
Kayla chuckled “No, I got a bit over-zealous with my role, and Thandi made me pay for it. She’s got this natural talent for all martial arts. Makes me super jealous.”
“Okay, I get,” said Urtiga. “You’ve been screwing up.”
“And then some. You heard about the friendly fire incident?”
Urtiga smiled wryly. “Which one? My unit had one too, you know.”
“At least nobody got shot in yours.”
“Kayla, anything can happen once bullets start flying.”
“Yeah, that’s what everyone says. I just don’t know if I’ve got this leadership business figured out yet.”
Urtiga shook her head and said nothing. Then she stopped in her tracks.
“My whole family got vaporized by a bomb on Titan. During the Sol war—most people don’t even remember it now. It’s a footnote in any history book.” She looked sadly into the distance. “A few rebels versus the Earth government in a weeklong exchange of ordinance that achieved nothing. Valkyrie took me in, and I’ve never known anything else.
Kayla watched her mentor as she took in every word.
“My older sister was the coolest person I knew. We used to do everything together; run around the colony, steal boats and race them on the methane lakes. When the bombs started falling, we all ran into the basement. They told me to stay still, but I was too scared, and we always used to run from trouble, so I got out of their grip and raced outside.”
She smiled. “I honestly thought they would follow me. But I looked back and the whole building just disintegrated. They used a bunker buster because they said they the rebels had tunneled under our houses. There was nothing left at all.”
“Did you blame yourself?” Kayla asked.
Despite the rush of grief and horror, and the parade of questions, she didn’t want to overreact. She had no business falling to pieces when she hadn’t experienced what Urtiga, at more than a century old, had already healed from. Even with her own memories, excessive sympathy made her uncomfortable.
“Sure,” Urtiga said. “I went through the whole rollercoaster for decades. But anyway, when you lost your dad, I thought you could use an older sister. So that’s why I took you under my wing.”
Kayla suddenly lost control of her voice. “Sometimes I wish you were my mother.”
“Oh, I’d be a terrible mother,” Urtiga said as she awkwardly kicked at a fallen branch. “Besides, yours is still alive.”
“But she’s a narcissist,” Kayla insisted. “There’s nothing there to connect with.”
“You remember when you came to Tyr? The first thing I said to you? It was so awful, and I beat myself up about it for ages.”
Kayla thought for a moment, then laughed. “Did I regret the day you met me? The day my dad died? Yeah, I wasn’t sure about that one, but I think I forgot about it quickly with everything that was going on.”
“You see? I can’t be a mother. I’ve lost the touch. I don’t think I’m a narcissist, but… well, you would be reminded of one from time to time.”
“You probably could, if you wanted to be.”
“Just like you could be a good team leader, if you wanted to be?”
Kayla stopped short and lifted her head to stare at the sky through the pink blossoms above them. She felt very angry, and very stupid at the same time.
“I’m a reckless, irresponsible idiot, and I have no idea what I’m doing.”
Urtiga nodded. “That’s about how most of us start out. It’s very on the job training.”
“But the others… they need someone way better than me.”
“No, they need you, because you are an excellent soldier, and as soon as you stop trying to take responsibility for the risks they accepted for themselves, you’ll figure that out.”
Urtiga stopped and stared down the path. The forest had given way to a crowd of evenly spaced young saplings. Where she was looking, Kayla saw Christe and Thandi sat by one of them, talking happily. “Your friend Rose didn’t join this organization because she wanted to live forever. She joined because she wanted her life to count for something more than herself. And it did.”
Kayla tried to sniff back tears. “But Rayker got away. I let it happen again.”
Urtiga grabbed her shoulder and looked her in the eye. “I don’t want to hear that. We let Rayker get away. It was a team failure, and won’t be the last we have to endure. But you know we’ll hunt her down again. And some more women will die. And one day we will succeed, and it will all have been worth it. If you don’t give everything you have to make that happen, failures included, then what does that mean for the sacrifices of those that did?”
***
After she left Urtiga, Kayla joined her friends at the sapling where Rose’s body was buried.
“How’s your shoulder?” Thandi asked.
“It’s good, but I need to stretch it some more. Did you really have to dislocate it?”
“I dunno. I guess we’ll see how you do over the next couple of weeks.”
“One of these days it’s going to be me kicking your ass,” Kayla said with a grimace.
Thandi laughed, and shook her head dismissively.
“How is the wide-eyed, naïve, and totally unsuspecting future of our precious organization?” Kayla asked.
Thandi scoffed. “Driving forward with a spring in her step. Barely put off by your doom and gloom speech. Still idolizes the squad in general, and you in particular, in defiance of explanation. Ray’s taken her under her wing.”
“That’s good,” Kayla nodded. “Ray’s awesome.”
“What will happen to Yak?” Christie asked.
“She was already near the end of her probation,” Kayla said. Valkyrie were usually required to serve a five-year term as a Ranger before they could specialize into other units. “And she was already on a program to prep for Pararescue selection. Either way, she won’t come back to our squad.”
“What a coldly bureaucratic system your battalions operate under.”
“Obviously. Duty comes before everything else.”
Christie looked thoughtful. “Do you know, I’ve heard a lot of stories about your friend Ray. I feel certain she’s spent a lot more than five years as a Ranger.”
Thandi shrugged. “You can stay however long you want. Before Ash left, she told me Ray was in Winter battalion before Mountain. But she’s super cagey about it.”
“She’s easily the most dialed in Ranger in the company, too,” Kayla observed.
“Of course,” Christie mused, “Given the advantages of nanite enhancement, we have no idea how old many of our colleagues are. I was shocked when I learned Urtiga was nearly a hundred and forty years old. You can’t remotely tell by looking.”
“Sure,” Kayla said. “Ray can be a bit adolescent though, especially when it comes to men.”
Christie only raised an eyebrow.
“I just hope we have time to get our rookie up to speed before we have to go face Rayker again,” Kayla said, absently. She picked a blade of grass and studied it closely.
“Unlikely,” Christie said after a thoughtful pause. “One cannot move a small army of alien war machines around without generating chatter. She might go into hibernation in dead space somewhere—and who am I to make assumptions about her strategy? But if she moves, we will know within weeks. There are many ears to the ground, you see. It’s a very all-hands on deck situation.”
“I would bet,” Thandi said carefully, “that the Delta-Three-Alpha mess gave the chiefs a wakeup call. They need to reorganize Valkyrie into a large-scale, coordinated force, rather than the piecemeal cleanup groups they’ve gotten used to.
“But there are so many problems with that approach,” Christie argued. “You cannot simply start moving a private army into human space without catastrophic effects.”
Thandi shrugged. “Come on Chris. This whole ‘neutral protectors’ thing was never going to last. Between the trafficking and Rayker… something had to change. Everyone knows it.”
Christie scoffed. “Oh gosh, how could I forget that we had the benefit of perfect moral righteousness to guide us?”
Kayla gave her a disappointed look. “But you think we have superior intellect, don’t you? Here’s the thing, you might want to revisit some of your assumptions about who exactly is in the driving seat of the Ranger battalions. And they don’t necessarily share the opinions of the officer-intel class.”
Christie stared at her, speechless. When she finally spoke, she sounded offended. “I’m stunned you would even use a term like that. What happened to one-team one-fight?”
Kayla just shrugged. She couldn’t help being the bearer of bad news.
“I’m sorry, I thought I had joined a responsible paramilitary organization. Now my friends tell me I’m part of a gang, a mob, of angry, over-powered ego maniacs. I suppose this is the time where I need to shut up and do as I’m told by those with the guns, is that right?”
“That’s unfair,” Thandi said. “I hate the way you try to oversimplify everything.”
“Un-simplify it for me then,” Christie said, as her cheeks began to color.
Thandi’s voice softened. “You know that Valkyrie puts reputation and experience before rank, and you know that the most senior veterans could be anyone. Probably only the chiefs know who the old guard are.”
“It is an extremely effective clique; I grant you that.”
“Officers are a necessity for organization and coordination. They are the nerves which drive the muscle. But the body has a heart, and it has a gut.”
“An organ for pumping blood and another for digesting food, gosh, what an insightful metaphor.” Christie said coldly.
Kayla chuckled. “Which part do you think is the ass—sorry, sorry.” She looked down as her friends scowled her into silence.
“Listen Chris,” Thandi continued, maintaining her even tone. “You’re the one making assumptions about how the organization thinks.
“Or ought to think,” Kayla said quietly.
“We’re just sharing the broader picture,” Thandi finished.
“Hmph.” Christie looked away into the forest as her jaw clenched.
She didn’t speak for some time, and Kayla exchanged a look with Thandi as the silence continued. Eventually, however, Christie appeared to relax, and sighed deeply.
“You’re right, obviously,” she said. “None of us really know what kind of people our superiors are, or their agenda.”
Kayla nodded. “All I know is that I like who I work with, and that the missions we get handed seem worthy. Here, have a dandelion.”
Christie gratefully accepted the flower and her smile brightened.
“I suppose you’ll bring your new girl to Caldera?” she asked.
Smyrna had declared mandatory weekend leave for the task force, with explicit instructions to get off Tyr and visit civilization. The squad had planned to unwind on Caldera by staying in the spacious town house of Kayla’s adoptive father, Jack Fenway. The ability to find their own friends outside work had expired with time in service, and so they hoped to get drunk in Zula while flirting with locals. Only Kes had declined, citing family matters.
“Yeah, of course,” Kayla said. “She’s been pushing so hard she’s brain fried, and it’s the perfect opportunity to integrate her. Anyway, check it out, I’ve got this awesome new outfit I wanted to wear—”
“If it was that meager scrap of fabric you had laid out on your bed, you’re not wearing that,” Thandi said flatly.
Kayla huffed in frustration. “I’m sorry, are you just my full-time mother now?”
“Yours mostly ignored you, as did all the girls you were with growing up, so yeah, I guess I have to take on some of that responsibility.”
“Well give it a rest. There’s nothing wrong with me being feminine and showing off some skin.”
“First, those are two completely different concepts, and the fact that you don’t understand that tells me how far you have left to go. Second—no, listen,” she cut Kayla off as she tried to answer back. “Second; girls who can dress like that without concern usually know what they are doing. You have no idea what you are doing, because you’ve never socialized with people outside this group of immortal, trained killers, who are as far removed from real life as it is possible to get.”
Kayla scowled as she scratched at the dirt. “I bet Christie would be happy to take me out looking hot.”
“Don’t try and turn us against each other,” Thandi snapped. “I’m looking out for you, because you do not understand that the world is filled with sharks. When they see a young woman wearing skimpy outfits, without the experience to know how to handle herself, all they see is prey. Christie, back me up.”
“Thandi is correct,” Christie said. “Social interaction is a subtle and fast spoken language, chiefly used in the exploitation of the inexperienced. And men, of course, are vile monsters to be watched with constant suspicion, while noting their range and elevation. Perhaps, Thandi, a mortar team could be called upon to set up a thousand meters from the venue, in case we have need?”
Thandi slapped her on the leg and turned back to Kayla. “She’s being facetious, but she did agree.”
“Broadly agreed,” Christie allowed. “Just don’t be absurdly skittish. And can we do anything to convince you to explore the rest of the color spectrum? Black cannot be worn for every occasion.”
Kayla shook her head. “That’s objectively false.”
“And please, whatever you do,” Thandi said, “Remember Rose’s advice. If you meet anyone who reminds you of your friend Weslan Genny, walk away immediately.”
“So, to clarify,” Kayla said in exasperation. “Even when I get a long weekend break, I still have to spend it learning new tactics, techniques and procedures?”
“Correct,” Christie said. “And there will be a test.”
Thandi squeezed her shoulder. “I’m really sorry you weren’t given the upbringing you needed to become as well-rounded as other girls. I’m sorry you have to work hard just to become more normal. But, on the bright side, you are a Ranger, and you will crush this like you crush everything else.”
Kayla smiled gratefully. “Usually with a lot of collateral damage, but I appreciate the sentiment.”
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Prequel (Chapters 1 to 16)
1. Rise of a Valkyrie
2024.06.08 14:29 MountainSkald A Valkyrie's Saga - Part 119
Prequel (Parts 1 to 16)
1. Rise of a Valkyrie
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A warm breeze rustled through the leaves of the peach blossom forest as Kayla walked with Urtiga. They were in the Vale of the Fallen, where every tree represented a woman who had been lost in the service of Valkyrie, and the sturdy, immortal trunks stretched as far as the eye could see.
Urtiga liked to take Kayla to meet her fallen friends, and tell their stories. She insisted that it was the only way to keep alive the memories of those who were lost, and the knowledge they had earned in blood.
For Kayla it was an honor and a privilege. By tacit agreement, no woman ever went further into the forest than their own generation, unless invited, because they would be able to guess the age of the Valkyrie they met.
“I still don’t understand why you took me under your wing,” Kayla said, as they walked back to the entrance. “I’m more trouble than I’m worth.”
Urtiga gave her a mild shove. “Have you been feeling sorry for yourself? You know that’s not what I want to hear.”
“A little bit,” Kayla admitted. She reached up and scratched at a bad rash on her neck, and winced at the movement.
“Training accident?” Urtiga asked.
Kayla chuckled “No, I got a bit over-zealous with my role, and Thandi made me pay for it. She’s got this natural talent for all martial arts. Makes me super jealous.”
“Okay, I get,” said Urtiga. “You’ve been screwing up.”
“And then some. You heard about the friendly fire incident?”
Urtiga smiled wryly. “Which one? My unit had one too, you know.”
“At least nobody got shot in yours.”
“Kayla, anything can happen once bullets start flying.”
“Yeah, that’s what everyone says. I just don’t know if I’ve got this leadership business figured out yet.”
Urtiga shook her head and said nothing. Then she stopped in her tracks.
“My whole family got vaporized by a bomb on Titan. During the Sol war—most people don’t even remember it now. It’s a footnote in any history book.” She looked sadly into the distance. “A few rebels versus the Earth government in a weeklong exchange of ordinance that achieved nothing. Valkyrie took me in, and I’ve never known anything else.
Kayla watched her mentor as she took in every word.
“My older sister was the coolest person I knew. We used to do everything together; run around the colony, steal boats and race them on the methane lakes. When the bombs started falling, we all ran into the basement. They told me to stay still, but I was too scared, and we always used to run from trouble, so I got out of their grip and raced outside.”
She smiled. “I honestly thought they would follow me. But I looked back and the whole building just disintegrated. They used a bunker buster because they said they the rebels had tunneled under our houses. There was nothing left at all.”
“Did you blame yourself?” Kayla asked.
Despite the rush of grief and horror, and the parade of questions, she didn’t want to overreact. She had no business falling to pieces when she hadn’t experienced what Urtiga, at more than a century old, had already healed from. Even with her own memories, excessive sympathy made her uncomfortable.
“Sure,” Urtiga said. “I went through the whole rollercoaster for decades. But anyway, when you lost your dad, I thought you could use an older sister. So that’s why I took you under my wing.”
Kayla suddenly lost control of her voice. “Sometimes I wish you were my mother.”
“Oh, I’d be a terrible mother,” Urtiga said as she awkwardly kicked at a fallen branch. “Besides, yours is still alive.”
“But she’s a narcissist,” Kayla insisted. “There’s nothing there to connect with.”
“You remember when you came to Tyr? The first thing I said to you? It was so awful, and I beat myself up about it for ages.”
Kayla thought for a moment, then laughed. “Did I regret the day you met me? The day my dad died? Yeah, I wasn’t sure about that one, but I think I forgot about it quickly with everything that was going on.”
“You see? I can’t be a mother. I’ve lost the touch. I don’t think I’m a narcissist, but… well, you would be reminded of one from time to time.”
“You probably could, if you wanted to be.”
“Just like you could be a good team leader, if you wanted to be?”
Kayla stopped short and lifted her head to stare at the sky through the pink blossoms above them. She felt very angry, and very stupid at the same time.
“I’m a reckless, irresponsible idiot, and I have no idea what I’m doing.”
Urtiga nodded. “That’s about how most of us start out. It’s very on the job training.”
“But the others… they need someone way better than me.”
“No, they need you, because you are an excellent soldier, and as soon as you stop trying to take responsibility for the risks they accepted for themselves, you’ll figure that out.”
Urtiga stopped and stared down the path. The forest had given way to a crowd of evenly spaced young saplings. Where she was looking, Kayla saw Christe and Thandi sat by one of them, talking happily. “Your friend Rose didn’t join this organization because she wanted to live forever. She joined because she wanted her life to count for something more than herself. And it did.”
Kayla tried to sniff back tears. “But Rayker got away. I let it happen again.”
Urtiga grabbed her shoulder and looked her in the eye. “I don’t want to hear that. We let Rayker get away. It was a team failure, and won’t be the last we have to endure. But you know we’ll hunt her down again. And some more women will die. And one day we will succeed, and it will all have been worth it. If you don’t give everything you have to make that happen, failures included, then what does that mean for the sacrifices of those that did?”
***
After she left Urtiga, Kayla joined her friends at the sapling, where Rose’s body was buried.
“How’s your shoulder?” Thandi asked.
“It’s good, but I need to stretch it some more. Did you really have to dislocate it?”
“I dunno. I guess we’ll see how you do over the next couple of weeks.”
“One of these days it’s going to be me kicking your ass,” Kayla said with a grimace.
Thandi laughed, and shook her head dismissively.
“How is the wide-eyed, naïve, and totally unsuspecting future of our precious organization?” Kayla asked.
Thandi scoffed. “Driving forward with a spring in her step. Barely put off by your doom and gloom speech. Still idolizes the squad in general, and you in particular, in defiance of explanation. Ray’s taken her under her wing.”
“That’s good,” Kayla nodded. “Ray’s awesome.”
“What will happen to Yak?” Christie asked.
“She was already near the end of her probation,” Kayla said. Valkyrie were usually required to serve a five-year term as a Ranger before they could specialize into other units. “And she was already on a program to prep for Pararescue selection. Either way, she won’t come back to our squad.”
“What a coldly bureaucratic system your battalions operate under.”
“Obviously. Duty comes before everything else.”
Christie looked thoughtful. “Do you know, I’ve heard a lot of stories about your friend Ray. I feel certain she’s spent a lot more than five years as a Ranger.”
Thandi shrugged. “You can stay however long you want. Before Ash left, she told me Ray was in Winter battalion before Mountain. But she’s super cagey about it.”
“She’s easily the most dialed in Ranger in the company, too,” Kayla observed.
“Of course,” Christie mused, “Given the advantages of nanite enhancement, we have no idea how old many of our colleagues are. I was shocked when I learned Urtiga was nearly a hundred and forty years old. You can’t remotely tell by looking.”
“Sure,” Kayla said. “Ray can be a bit adolescent though, especially when it comes to men.”
Christie only raised an eyebrow.
“I just hope we have time to get our rookie up to speed before we have to go face Rayker again,” Kayla said, absently. She picked a blade of grass and studied it closely.
“Unlikely,” Christie said after a thoughtful pause. “One cannot move a small army of alien war machines around without generating chatter. She might go into hibernation in dead space somewhere—and who am I to make assumptions about her strategy? But if she moves, we will know within weeks. There are many ears to the ground, you see. It’s a very all-hands on deck situation.”
“I would bet,” Thandi said carefully, “that the Delta-Three-Alpha mess gave the chiefs a wakeup call. They need to reorganize Valkyrie into a large-scale, coordinated force, rather than the piecemeal cleanup groups they’ve gotten used to.
“But there are so many problems with that approach,” Christie argued. “You cannot simply start moving a private army into human space without catastrophic effects.”
Thandi shrugged. “Come on Chris. This whole ‘neutral protectors’ thing was never going to last. Between the trafficking and Rayker… something had to change. Everyone knows it.”
Christie scoffed. “Oh gosh, how could I forget that we had the benefit of perfect moral righteousness to guide us?”
Kayla gave her a disappointed look. “But you think we have superior intellect, don’t you? Here’s the thing, you might want to revisit some of your assumptions about who exactly is in the driving seat of the Ranger battalions. And they don’t necessarily share the opinions of the officer-intel class.”
Christie stared at her, speechless. When she finally spoke, she sounded offended. “I’m stunned you would even use a term like that. What happened to one-team one-fight?”
Kayla just shrugged. She couldn’t help being the bearer of bad news.
“I’m sorry, I thought I had joined a responsible paramilitary organization. Now my friends tell me I’m part of a gang, a mob, of angry, over-powered ego maniacs. I suppose this is the time where I need to shut up and do as I’m told by those with the guns, is that right?”
“That’s unfair,” Thandi said. “I hate the way you try to oversimplify everything.”
“Un-simplify it for me then,” Christie said, as her cheeks began to color.
Thandi’s voice softened. “You know that Valkyrie puts reputation and experience before rank, and you know that the most senior veterans could be anyone. Probably only the chiefs know who the old guard are.”
“It is an extremely effective clique; I grant you that.”
“Officers are a necessity for organization and coordination. They are the nerves which drive the muscle. But the body has a heart, and it has a gut.”
“An organ for pumping blood and another for digesting food, gosh, what an insightful metaphor.” Christie said coldly.
Kayla chuckled. “Which part do you think is the ass—sorry, sorry.” She looked down as her friends scowled her into silence.
“Listen Chris,” Thandi continued, maintaining her even tone. “You’re the one making assumptions about how the organization thinks.
“Or ought to think,” Kayla said quietly.
“We’re just sharing the broader picture,” Thandi finished.
“Hmph.” Christie looked away into the forest as her jaw clenched.
She didn’t speak for some time, and Kayla exchanged a look with Thandi as the silence continued. Eventually, however, Christie appeared to relax, and sighed deeply.
“You’re right, obviously,” she said. “None of us really know what kind of people our superiors are, or their agenda.”
Kayla nodded. “All I know is that I like who I work with, and that the missions we get handed seem worthy. Here, have a dandelion.”
Christie gratefully accepted the flower and her smile brightened.
“I suppose you’ll bring your new girl to Caldera?” she asked.
Smyrna had declared mandatory weekend leave for the task force, with explicit instructions to get off Tyr and visit civilization. The squad had planned to unwind on Caldera by staying in the spacious town house of Kayla’s adoptive father, Jack Fenway. The ability to find their own friends outside work had expired with time in service, and so they hoped to get drunk in Zula while flirting with locals. Only Kes had declined, citing family matters.
“Yeah, of course,” Kayla said. “She’s been pushing so hard she’s brain fried, and it’s the perfect opportunity to integrate her. Anyway, check it out, I’ve got this awesome new outfit I wanted to wear—”
“If it was that meager scrap of fabric you had laid out on your bed, you’re not wearing that,” Thandi said flatly.
Kayla huffed in frustration. “I’m sorry, are you just my full-time mother now?”
“Yours mostly ignored you, as did all the girls you were with growing up, so yeah, I guess I have to take on some of that responsibility.”
“Well give it a rest. There’s nothing wrong with me being feminine and showing off some skin.”
“First, those are two completely different concepts, and the fact that you don’t understand that tells me how far you have left to go. Second—no, listen,” she cut Kayla off as she tried to answer back. “Second; girls who can dress like that without concern usually know what they are doing. You have no idea what you are doing, because you’ve never socialized with people outside this group of immortal, trained killers, who are as far removed from real life as it is possible to get.”
Kayla scowled as she scratched at the dirt. “I bet Christie would be happy to take me out looking hot.”
“Don’t try and turn us against each other,” Thandi snapped. “I’m looking out for you, because you do not understand that the world is filled with sharks. When they see a young woman wearing skimpy outfits, without the experience to know how to handle herself, all they see is prey. Christie, back me up.”
“Thandi is correct,” Christie said. “Social interaction is a subtle and fast spoken language, chiefly used in the exploitation of the inexperienced. And men, of course, are vile monsters to be watched with constant suspicion, while noting their range and elevation. Perhaps, Thandi, a mortar team could be called upon to set up a thousand meters from the venue, in case we have need?”
Thandi slapped her on the leg and turned back to Kayla. “She’s being facetious, but she did agree.”
“Broadly agreed,” Christie allowed. “Just don’t be absurdly skittish. And can we do anything to convince you to explore the rest of the color spectrum? Black cannot be worn for every occasion.”
Kayla shook her head. “That’s objectively false.”
“And please, whatever you do,” Thandi said, “Remember Rose’s advice. If you meet anyone who reminds you of your friend Weslan Genny, walk away immediately.”
“So, to clarify,” Kayla said in exasperation. “Even when I get a long weekend break, I still have to spend it learning new tactics, techniques and procedures?”
“Correct,” Christie said. “And there will be a test.”
Thandi squeezed her shoulder. “I’m really sorry you weren’t given the upbringing you needed to become as well-rounded as other girls. I’m sorry you have to work hard just to become more normal. But, on the bright side, you are a Ranger, and you will crush this like you crush everything else.”
Kayla smiled gratefully. “Usually with a lot of collateral damage, but I appreciate the sentiment.”
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Prequel (Parts 1 to 16)
1. Rise of a Valkyrie
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1. Rise of a Valkyrie
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A warm breeze rustled through the leaves of the peach blossom forest as Kayla walked with Urtiga. They were in the Vale of the Fallen, where every tree represented a woman who had been lost in the service of Valkyrie, and the sturdy, immortal trunks stretched as far as the eye could see.
Urtiga liked to take Kayla to meet her fallen friends, and tell their stories. She insisted that it was the only way to keep alive the memories of those who were lost, and the knowledge they had earned in blood.
For Kayla it was an honor and a privilege. By tacit agreement, no woman ever went further into the forest than their own generation, unless invited, because they would be able to guess the age of the Valkyrie they met.
“I still don’t understand why you took me under your wing,” Kayla said, as they walked back to the entrance. “I’m more trouble than I’m worth.”
Urtiga gave her a mild shove. “Have you been feeling sorry for yourself? You know that’s not what I want to hear.”
“A little bit,” Kayla admitted. She reached up and scratched at a bad rash on her neck, and winced at the movement.
“Training accident?” Urtiga asked.
Kayla chuckled “No, I got a bit over-zealous with my role, and Thandi made me pay for it. She’s got this natural talent for all martial arts. Makes me super jealous.”
“Okay, I get,” said Urtiga. “You’ve been screwing up.”
“And then some. You heard about the friendly fire incident?”
Urtiga smiled wryly. “Which one? My unit had one too, you know.”
“At least nobody got shot in yours.”
“Kayla, anything can happen once bullets start flying.”
“Yeah, that’s what everyone says. I just don’t know if I’ve got this leadership business figured out yet.”
Urtiga shook her head and said nothing. Then she stopped in her tracks.
“My whole family got vaporized by a bomb on Titan. During the Sol war—most people don’t even remember it now. It’s a footnote in any history book.” She looked sadly into the distance. “A few rebels versus the Earth government in a weeklong exchange of ordinance that achieved nothing. Valkyrie took me in, and I’ve never known anything else.
Kayla watched her mentor as she took in every word.
“My older sister was the coolest person I knew. We used to do everything together; run around the colony, steal boats and race them on the methane lakes. When the bombs started falling, we all ran into the basement. They told me to stay still, but I was too scared, and we always used to run from trouble, so I got out of their grip and raced outside.”
She smiled. “I honestly thought they would follow me. But I looked back and the whole building just disintegrated. They used a bunker buster because they said they the rebels had tunneled under our houses. There was nothing left at all.”
“Did you blame yourself?” Kayla asked.
Despite the rush of grief and horror, and the parade of questions, she didn’t want to overreact. She had no business falling to pieces when she hadn’t experienced what Urtiga, at more than a century old, had already healed from. Even with her own memories, excessive sympathy made her uncomfortable.
“Sure,” Urtiga said. “I went through the whole rollercoaster for decades. But anyway, when you lost your dad, I thought you could use an older sister. So that’s why I took you under my wing.”
Kayla suddenly lost control of her voice. “Sometimes I wish you were my mother.”
“Oh, I’d be a terrible mother,” Urtiga said as she awkwardly kicked at a fallen branch. “Besides, yours is still alive.”
“But she’s a narcissist,” Kayla insisted. “There’s nothing there to connect with.”
“You remember when you came to Tyr? The first thing I said to you? It was so awful, and I beat myself up about it for ages.”
Kayla thought for a moment, then laughed. “Did I regret the day you met me? The day my dad died? Yeah, I wasn’t sure about that one, but I think I forgot about it quickly with everything that was going on.”
“You see? I can’t be a mother. I’ve lost the touch. I don’t think I’m a narcissist, but… well, you would be reminded of one from time to time.”
“You probably could, if you wanted to be.”
“Just like you could be a good team leader, if you wanted to be?”
Kayla stopped short and lifted her head to stare at the sky through the pink blossoms above them. She felt very angry, and very stupid at the same time.
“I’m a reckless, irresponsible idiot, and I have no idea what I’m doing.”
Urtiga nodded. “That’s about how most of us start out. It’s very on the job training.”
“But the others… they need someone way better than me.”
“No, they need you, because you are an excellent soldier, and as soon as you stop trying to take responsibility for the risks they accepted for themselves, you’ll figure that out.”
Urtiga stopped and stared down the path. The forest had given way to a crowd of evenly spaced young saplings. Where she was looking, Kayla saw Christe and Thandi sat by one of them, talking happily. “Your friend Rose didn’t join this organization because she wanted to live forever. She joined because she wanted her life to count for something more than herself. And it did.”
Kayla tried to sniff back tears. “But Rayker got away. I let it happen again.”
Urtiga grabbed her shoulder and looked her in the eye. “I don’t want to hear that. We let Rayker get away. It was a team failure, and won’t be the last we have to endure. But you know we’ll hunt her down again. And some more women will die. And one day we will succeed, and it will all have been worth it. If you don’t give everything you have to make that happen, failures included, then what does that mean for the sacrifices of those that did?”
***
After she left Urtiga, Kayla joined her friends at the sapling, where Rose’s body was buried.
“How’s your shoulder?” Thandi asked.
“It’s good, but I need to stretch it some more. Did you really have to dislocate it?”
“I dunno. I guess we’ll see how you do over the next couple of weeks.”
“One of these days it’s going to be me kicking your ass,” Kayla said with a grimace.
Thandi laughed, and shook her head dismissively.
“How is the wide-eyed, naïve, and totally unsuspecting future of our precious organization?” Kayla asked.
Thandi scoffed. “Driving forward with a spring in her step. Barely put off by your doom and gloom speech. Still idolizes the squad in general, and you in particular, in defiance of explanation. Ray’s taken her under her wing.”
“That’s good,” Kayla nodded. “Ray’s awesome.”
“What will happen to Yak?” Christie asked.
“She was already near the end of her probation,” Kayla said. Valkyrie were usually required to serve a five-year term as a Ranger before they could specialize into other units. “And she was already on a program to prep for Pararescue selection. Either way, she won’t come back to our squad.”
“What a coldly bureaucratic system your battalions operate under.”
“Obviously. Duty comes before everything else.”
Christie looked thoughtful. “Do you know, I’ve heard a lot of stories about your friend Ray. I feel certain she’s spent a lot more than five years as a Ranger.”
Thandi shrugged. “You can stay however long you want. Before Ash left, she told me Ray was in Winter battalion before Mountain. But she’s super cagey about it.”
“She’s easily the most dialed in Ranger in the company, too,” Kayla observed.
“Of course,” Christie mused, “Given the advantages of nanite enhancement, we have no idea how old many of our colleagues are. I was shocked when I learned Urtiga was nearly a hundred and forty years old. You can’t remotely tell by looking.”
“Sure,” Kayla said. “Ray can be a bit adolescent though, especially when it comes to men.”
Christie only raised an eyebrow.
“I just hope we have time to get our rookie up to speed before we have to go face Rayker again,” Kayla said, absently. She picked a blade of grass and studied it closely.
“Unlikely,” Christie said after a thoughtful pause. “One cannot move a small army of alien war machines around without generating chatter. She might go into hibernation in dead space somewhere—and who am I to make assumptions about her strategy? But if she moves, we will know within weeks. There are many ears to the ground, you see. It’s a very all-hands on deck situation.”
“I would bet,” Thandi said carefully, “that the Delta-Three-Alpha mess gave the chiefs a wakeup call. They need to reorganize Valkyrie into a large-scale, coordinated force, rather than the piecemeal cleanup groups they’ve gotten used to.
“But there are so many problems with that approach,” Christie argued. “You cannot simply start moving a private army into human space without catastrophic effects.”
Thandi shrugged. “Come on Chris. This whole ‘neutral protectors’ thing was never going to last. Between the trafficking and Rayker… something had to change. Everyone knows it.”
Christie scoffed. “Oh gosh, how could I forget that we had the benefit of perfect moral righteousness to guide us?”
Kayla gave her a disappointed look. “But you think we have superior intellect, don’t you? Here’s the thing, you might want to revisit some of your assumptions about who exactly is in the driving seat of the Ranger battalions. And they don’t necessarily share the opinions of the officer-intel class.”
Christie stared at her, speechless. When she finally spoke, she sounded offended. “I’m stunned you would even use a term like that. What happened to one-team one-fight?”
Kayla just shrugged. She couldn’t help being the bearer of bad news.
“I’m sorry, I thought I had joined a responsible paramilitary organization. Now my friends tell me I’m part of a gang, a mob, of angry, over-powered ego maniacs. I suppose this is the time where I need to shut up and do as I’m told by those with the guns, is that right?”
“That’s unfair,” Thandi said. “I hate the way you try to oversimplify everything.”
“Un-simplify it for me then,” Christie said, as her cheeks began to color.
Thandi’s voice softened. “You know that Valkyrie puts reputation and experience before rank, and you know that the most senior veterans could be anyone. Probably only the chiefs know who the old guard are.”
“It is an extremely effective clique; I grant you that.”
“Officers are a necessity for organization and coordination. They are the nerves which drive the muscle. But the body has a heart, and it has a gut.”
“An organ for pumping blood and another for digesting food, gosh, what an insightful metaphor.” Christie said coldly.
Kayla chuckled. “Which part do you think is the ass—sorry, sorry.” She looked down as her friends scowled her into silence.
“Listen Chris,” Thandi continued, maintaining her even tone. “You’re the one making assumptions about how the organization thinks.
“Or ought to think,” Kayla said quietly.
“We’re just sharing the broader picture,” Thandi finished.
“Hmph.” Christie looked away into the forest as her jaw clenched.
She didn’t speak for some time, and Kayla exchanged a look with Thandi as the silence continued. Eventually, however, Christie appeared to relax, and sighed deeply.
“You’re right, obviously,” she said. “None of us really know what kind of people our superiors are, or their agenda.”
Kayla nodded. “All I know is that I like who I work with, and that the missions we get handed seem worthy. Here, have a dandelion.”
Christie gratefully accepted the flower and her smile brightened.
“I suppose you’ll bring your new girl to Caldera?” she asked.
Smyrna had declared mandatory weekend leave for the task force, with explicit instructions to get off Tyr and visit civilization. The squad had planned to unwind on Caldera by staying in the spacious town house of Kayla’s adoptive father, Jack Fenway. The ability to find their own friends outside work had expired with time in service, and so they hoped to get drunk in Zula while flirting with locals. Only Kes had declined, citing family matters.
“Yeah, of course,” Kayla said. “She’s been pushing so hard she’s brain fried, and it’s the perfect opportunity to integrate her. Anyway, check it out, I’ve got this awesome new outfit I wanted to wear—”
“If it was that meager scrap of fabric you had laid out on your bed, you’re not wearing that,” Thandi said flatly.
Kayla huffed in frustration. “I’m sorry, are you just my full-time mother now?”
“Yours mostly ignored you, as did all the girls you were with growing up, so yeah, I guess I have to take on some of that responsibility.”
“Well give it a rest. There’s nothing wrong with me being feminine and showing off some skin.”
“First, those are two completely different concepts, and the fact that you don’t understand that tells me how far you have left to go. Second—no, listen,” she cut Kayla off as she tried to answer back. “Second; girls who can dress like that without concern usually know what they are doing. You have no idea what you are doing, because you’ve never socialized with people outside this group of immortal, trained killers, who are as far removed from real life as it is possible to get.”
Kayla scowled as she scratched at the dirt. “I bet Christie would be happy to take me out looking hot.”
“Don’t try and turn us against each other,” Thandi snapped. “I’m looking out for you, because you do not understand that the world is filled with sharks. When they see a young woman wearing skimpy outfits, without the experience to know how to handle herself, all they see is prey. Christie, back me up.”
“Thandi is correct,” Christie said. “Social interaction is a subtle and fast spoken language, chiefly used in the exploitation of the inexperienced. And men, of course, are vile monsters to be watched with constant suspicion, while noting their range and elevation. Perhaps, Thandi, a mortar team could be called upon to set up a thousand meters from the venue, in case we have need?”
Thandi slapped her on the leg and turned back to Kayla. “She’s being facetious, but she did agree.”
“Broadly agreed,” Christie allowed. “Just don’t be absurdly skittish. And can we do anything to convince you to explore the rest of the color spectrum? Black cannot be worn for every occasion.”
Kayla shook her head. “That’s objectively false.”
“And please, whatever you do,” Thandi said, “Remember Rose’s advice. If you meet anyone who reminds you of your friend Weslan Genny, walk away immediately.”
“So, to clarify,” Kayla said in exasperation. “Even when I get a long weekend break, I still have to spend it learning new tactics, techniques and procedures?”
“Correct,” Christie said. “And there will be a test.”
Thandi squeezed her shoulder. “I’m really sorry you weren’t given the upbringing you needed to become as well-rounded as other girls. I’m sorry you have to work hard just to become more normal. But, on the bright side, you are a Ranger, and you will crush this like you crush everything else.”
Kayla smiled gratefully. “Usually with a lot of collateral damage, but I appreciate the sentiment.”
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Prequel (Parts 1 to 16)
1. Rise of a Valkyrie
2024.06.07 15:49 Unable_Variation_918 The Symetry colors
The woman across history dash full of colors in the woods. The tribe cult gave rise the woman who would take over man. I am a man that has the mask. I can't love my cowgirl doll. I can't love teddy bears. The world has come to a closure. Last night, a large hareless dog stood over me 10 feet tall. He lunged at me and said "Woman take over man." He then vanished into the giant cave lake from up above. I get two for one. A long time ago, I used to scuba dive with my college buddies. It was my passion. It made me feel like an intrepid explorer, charting the unknown and discovering the unseen.
That was way before my daughter. Way before my ex-wife, too. Like so many things, I gave it up when the drive to start a family kicked in. After Penny was born, scuba was just a frivolity I had no right to focus on. And that was that.
Twelve years later, after the divorce, I started looking at the world like I had before it all went south. I could resume the activities and hobbies I’d abandoned. Scuba diving was at the top of the list.
Once everything was finalized, I bought a house two states away from the one I’d shared with my wife and daughter. It was nothing special. It wasn’t the house I cared about when I closed the deal on the property. It was what sat behind it: a lake.
The lake behind the house is huge; not exactly Loch Ness, but nonetheless impressive. When I told the realtor I was into diving, she told me if I looked hard enough, I’d probably find some old Indian artifacts. That was all well and good. I just wanted to be underwater again. I felt like it might bring me some peace after such an acrimonious split with my former soulmate.
The first time I went out, I was dismayed by the amount of silt impeding my vision. It was like I’d been trapped in a brown fog. I got discouraged and quit after only fifteen minutes, but I resolved to give it another try.
I was glad I persevered. The next dive was beautiful. I guess the heavy rain from the night before the initial dive had been the reason for all the silt, but it had since settled. The water was crystal clear and I could see for what felt like miles all around me.
I swam around and explored. The lake was exceedingly deep. When I bought the place, I asked the realtor if she knew how far down it went. She estimated it was 900 feet. I didn’t believe her until I saw it firsthand.
The steep drop-off after the first twenty feet reminded me of a video I saw of divers leaping off the edge of a continental shelf. The drop was staggering; I knew my equipment couldn’t handle the full depth of the lake, but I’d be god damned if I wouldn’t try to see as much of it as possible.
That was how I spent my summer. I’d work from home, like normal, until the market closed at four. As soon as the closing bell rang, I was out the door and into the water.
I’d been keeping track of the areas I’d explored on a rudimentary map I’d drawn up on my computer. On that fateful Wednesday in late June, the only area I’d yet to explore in the grid zone nearest the pier was the wall of the drop-off itself. To be honest, I’d been avoiding it.
This may sound a little weird coming from a man in his late 40s, but I’d held off on exploring that section because of dreams I had after my first dive.
In the dream, I am underwater. It’s not an unusual setting for one of my dreams. Normally, the sensation is freeing. I float and bob in the currents and enjoy weightless bliss. I should tell you this is not my normal dream.
This dream begins with me standing on the edge of my pier. The sky is black but everything else is bright enough for me to see without any problem. I look down to where I’d normally see water. The lake is empty; or, at least, it appears that way. Something causes me to lose my balance and I tumble off the pier. I scream, expecting to crash on the rocks below. Instead, I float. The water is invisible.
I bob on the surface for a moment, but then something unseeable wraps around my leg. I gasp in a lungful of air and am torn below the surface. I fight against whatever the force is, but it’s hopeless. I get carried down.
To my eyes, it looks like I’m floating through the air. I still feel water against my skin, though. I know I have to continue holding my breath. And hold it I do. Helpless to return to the surface, part of my mind says to just wait until I can wake up gasping.
My body is sucked down, over the edge of the shelf. A sheer wall of granite towers in front of me. After about fifty feet, the pulling stops. I float, motionless, in front of a massive hole in the rock.
In the perfect clearness of the water, I can see the hole is a cave. It goes far into the rock – farther than I can see. I notice multiple tunnels in the sides and know those, too, branch. A feeling of dread enshrouds me. My lungs burn. I feel the pressure of a hundred feet of water on top of me, squeezing my skull and threatening to perforate my ears. God, my ears hurt so badly.
“Wake up,” I whisper to myself in the dream. “Open your eyes.”
“SEE ME.”
A voice bursts from the mouth of the cave with a colossal surge of water pressure. The air explodes from my chest and my eyes bulge. I gasp. Invisible water fills my lungs.
“SEE ME LIKE I SEE YOU.”
My eyes open to the morning light flooding my bedroom.
I’ve had the same dream three times since I started diving in the lake. It’s stuck with me. I hated how it tainted my subsequent dives and caused me to dread exploring that one unseen zone. That would have to end. I’d see for myself it was all just residual stress from the divorce impeding on the one thing I love. How typical.
That Wednesday, I stood on the edge of the pier like I had in my dream. The water was not invisible. It was gray and calm and sloshed lazily against the pier’s wooden supports. The sky was cloudy. It looked like it might rain. I’ve always enjoyed diving in the rain. Something about the water in the sky meeting the water of a sea or ocean or lake gave me a feeling of connectedness, as if I could swim all the way to the clouds if the rain were heavy enough.
I checked the readout on my tank. It was full. I was planning on doing a two-tank exploration before retiring to the lonely house and drinking my night away.
Into the lake I went. A few feet below the surface, the visibility was low. Silt. I was instantly disappointed.
It wasn’t as bad as it had been that first time. I could still see maybe twenty feet in front of me. But it wasn’t what I’d hoped. Part of me wished for the invisible clarity of the water in the dream. This was anything but. It made the prickles of dread I’d tried to ignore force themselves into my consciousness.
I swam toward the edge of the underwater cliff. It was easy to locate. A stygian abyss loomed ahead. I floated to the edge, crossed myself, and lept off.
The silt cleared quickly once I was on the other side of the muddy drop. I descended slowly, my hand never leaving the sheer wall of rock at my side.
I checked the depth gauge. Forty feet. Fifty. At sixty-five, a fissure developed in the granite wall. It widened as I sank further. I did my best to avoid connecting it to the memory of the cave in my dreams.
Eighty-five feet down, the fissure was a chasm. Glancing lower, I saw it widened more. Everything in me said to start kicking my feet and swim back to the surface and forget about this part of the lake. I had miles upon miles of lake I could be exploring. There was no need to see this particular spot.
My body overrode the protestations of my mind. At ninety-six feet down, the mouth of a cave yawned before me.
There was nothing I could do but stare with disbelief at the gaping hole in the rock. I had no reason to know of its existence. Dreams aren’t prescience. They don’t convey new information. I had never been here before. “Never physically,” my mind reminded me.
I was helpless to ignore the message in that little reminder. No, I’d never been there physically. But I had been mentally. Somehow.
“Just go in,” I thought. “See what it’s all about.”
The hatred I felt for myself for betraying my better intentions was profound. And I knew I’d obey that betrayal. Curiosity always won out with me. I aimed my body at the center of the cave and kicked. I switched on my headlamp. The ghostly beam illuminated the dim, lifeless walls.
A hundred feet in, I thought back to all the warnings I’d heard from diving instructors. “Never explore an underwater cave on your own,” they’d say. “You WILL die.” They emphasized “will” as if it were a foregone conclusion. Like the first person to discover a cave always died. Like it was the law.
Two hundred feet in, I would have sworn the water was brighter.
Three hundred feet in, I realized it really was brighter.
Maybe “brighter” isn’t the right word. “Clearer,” maybe. “Becoming invisible,” my mind interjected.
Four hundred feet in, I couldn’t deny it. The water was invisible.
I looked back at the mouth of the cave. Its enormity was far less pronounced from that distance. I checked my air. I had a half hour left. If I left in ten minutes, I’d have to swim for twenty straight minutes. I’d be cutting it close. Maybe too close. I needed to leave right away.
“Don’t go yet. Just a little deeper.”
More betrayal. My flippers pushed me ahead. The walls of the granite were pockmarked here. It appeared as if each hole was a separate branch, disappearing deeper into the cave. I imagined myself getting stuck in the narrow walls, struggling and screaming until my air bled away and I’d drown, never to be found.
Five hundred feet into the porous confines of the cave, an expanse opened before me. I’d reached the top of a colossal chamber. Thanks to the invisibility of the water, even though it was dark, my light shone hundreds of feet down. It never reached the bottom.
“Maybe it’s time to turn around,” my mind suggested. It was the first hint of sense it had made since I leapt from the pier.
I obeyed. I began to turn. Then something in the water changed. I felt the pressure shift, as if something had pushed an enormous amount of water out of the way. I turned back toward the chamber.
“SEE ME LIKE I SEE YOU.”
Before I even saw what had made the sound, I screamed around my mouthpiece. The voice was so loud. It was a sound unlike anything I’d experienced. “Except for the dream,” my mind reminded me.
Except for the dream.
My headlamp illuminated a creature of massive bulk and impossible proportions.
“SEE ME.”
Paralyzed with primal, palpable horror, I tried to train my eyes on it. It shimmered and shifted, moving with erratic and stuttering jerks, but, at the same time, remaining in place like the infinite presence the universe itself.
“SEE ME.”
My head spun. The creature was the embodiment of expansion and collapse. Boulder-sized clusters of eyes would open, bulging outward and popping out of existence like soap bubbles. Mouths gaped and inverted in the same instance, pinching into geometries that caused pain to erupt behind my eyes when I tried focusing on them.
“SEE ME LIKE I SEE YOU.”
I reflexively checked how much air I had. Three minutes. My panic had exhausted all my remaining oxygen. I was dead.
“SEE ME LIKE I SEE YOU.”
The water pressure shifted again with a hideous jolt. I felt my sinuses and bladder and bowels contract and release. A coiled spiral of matter shot from the center of a fleshy bubble between a honeycombed mass of eyes. It tore through the water in my direction, and before I could move, it had split into multiple, thinner coils and penetrated my nostrils and eyes through my facemask.
I howled with agony. Everything went black. I felt the coils corkscrewing behind my eyes and packing my sinuses. I screamed again. My mouthpiece fell out. I scrambled in the darkness for it as my lungs burned. I located it and plunged it back in. I took a deep breath. Nothing came out. This was the end. My end.
“SEE ME LIKE I SEE YOU.”
The blackness evaporated. I gasped, expecting water to fill my lungs. No water. Air.
I looked around. I floated in the chamber. The water was still invisible. Now, though, the darkness was gone. Everything was bright. My panic, still near its peak, had again taken the backseat to fascination and curiosity. I could see the creature in front of me without experiencing pain or disorientation.
I had underestimated its enormity. What I had seen before was only its topmost portion; below, previously hidden by the darkness, was a thick, tube-shaped body reaching a thousand feet down to the cavern floor. At its base were webbed appendages like veined leaves or fleshy wings.
I tried to blink. My eyelids fluttered uselessly against the coils piercing my eyes. I felt them turning, drilling deeper and deeper into my head. Same with those in my nose – they coiled throughout my sinuses and chest. I assumed they were why I was able to breathe.
“SEE ME LIKE I SEE YOU.”
Impelled, I gazed at the creature. Its angles were foreign to me. It was as if it occupied physical dimensions I’d never before encountered; dimensions my brain wasn’t wired to process.
“SEE ME LIKE I SEE YOU.”
The coils in my eyes widened. I felt my pupils stretch.
The world dropped out beneath me. I stared at the creature against the backdrop of dense stars and glowing nebulae. Violet light illuminated us. It was even larger in this new setting – its bulk stretching beyond my line of sight.
“SEE WITH ME.”
I observed the cosmos stretching before me. In the distance, I saw a planet with a yellow atmosphere.
“WE TRAVEL.”
Before I could register the words, the view had changed. We hovered under a yellow sky. Geysers of mercury erupted below and showered us in a constellation of liquid metal.
“WE TRAVEL.”
Light beyond light bathed my vision. It was a star. Before my coiled eyes, it burst in a supernova. Hard radiation that would have vaporized me a billion times over struck my body like a gentle caress. I began to weep.
“Please. I want more.”
“WE TRAVEL.”
I could tell by the change in pressure we were back in the cavern. The water was black and impenetrable. I could not see the beast looming ahead of me, although I could still feel its coils.
“What happened there? What are you? I want to go back. Please, I want to explore. God, I want to see it all.”
“TWO FOR ONE.”
“What is two for one?”
“TWO OF YOU TO INCORPORATE INTO ME. THEN YOU MAY TRAVEL.”
“Two of me?”
A light burst from the direction of the creature. The coils pulled me toward it. Its flesh split and I peered inside. It was filled with bones and carapaces and chitinous matter I couldn’t recognize. They looked like parts from entirely disparate beings, all knit together by slabs of muscle and tendons to form the interior of the colossus before me.
“TWO FOR ONE.”
A dull sense of realization bloomed within me.
“If I give you two people, you will show me how to explore like you do?”
“YES. TWO FOR ONE.”
“Okay,” I whispered. “Two for one.”
I felt the coils straighten as I was moved backward though the cave. I reached the mouth and swam upward, assisted by the gentle water currents. At the surface, I felt the coils retract from my eyes and sinuses. There was no pain. Only a sense of emptiness.
I pulled myself to the shore and looked around. It was almost dark. I walked to the house and let myself in. I was exhausted.
Ignoring the confusion and hunger I felt, I hauled myself into bed and slept. My dreams were of the stars.
The next morning, I called Meg. I told her I wanted to reconcile. I said I wanted her and Penny and me to be a family again.
It’s been eight months. Meg and Penny moved into the lake house with me after Christmas. From all outward appearances, we’re a lucky family who triumphed over divorce and despair. Sometimes, I even believe it.
Every night, though, I’m granted visions of the sights I’ll see. The planets. The galaxies. I’m teased by glimpses of what lies outside the curvature of the universe – and everything beyond that, as well.
Penny and Meg had their first scuba lessons on our trip to Jamaica in January. They loved it. Once the water warms up in the lake behind the house, I’ll give them more lessons. We’ll go deeper and deeper every time. I know they’ll be amazed when they see the cave. As for what waits inside it, they’ll learn, too, what I did.
The difference is, I’ll get to leave that cave while they’ll become a very special part of it. What part, I can’t say. But I’ll be long gone by then. I’ll be exploring the stars. All I have to do is fulfill my part of the bargain: two for one. And I’m well on my way to doing just that.
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That was way before my daughter. Way before my ex-wife, too. Like so many things, I gave it up when the drive to start a family kicked in. After Penny was born, scuba was just a frivolity I had no right to focus on. And that was that.
Twelve years later, after the divorce, I started looking at the world like I had before it all went south. I could resume the activities and hobbies I’d abandoned. Scuba diving was at the top of the list.
Once everything was finalized, I bought a house two states away from the one I’d shared with my wife and daughter. It was nothing special. It wasn’t the house I cared about when I closed the deal on the property. It was what sat behind it: a lake.
The lake behind the house is huge; not exactly Loch Ness, but nonetheless impressive. When I told the realtor I was into diving, she told me if I looked hard enough, I’d probably find some old Indian artifacts. That was all well and good. I just wanted to be underwater again. I felt like it might bring me some peace after such an acrimonious split with my former soulmate.
The first time I went out, I was dismayed by the amount of silt impeding my vision. It was like I’d been trapped in a brown fog. I got discouraged and quit after only fifteen minutes, but I resolved to give it another try.
I was glad I persevered. The next dive was beautiful. I guess the heavy rain from the night before the initial dive had been the reason for all the silt, but it had since settled. The water was crystal clear and I could see for what felt like miles all around me.
I swam around and explored. The lake was exceedingly deep. When I bought the place, I asked the realtor if she knew how far down it went. She estimated it was 900 feet. I didn’t believe her until I saw it firsthand.
The steep drop-off after the first twenty feet reminded me of a video I saw of divers leaping off the edge of a continental shelf. The drop was staggering; I knew my equipment couldn’t handle the full depth of the lake, but I’d be god damned if I wouldn’t try to see as much of it as possible.
That was how I spent my summer. I’d work from home, like normal, until the market closed at four. As soon as the closing bell rang, I was out the door and into the water.
I’d been keeping track of the areas I’d explored on a rudimentary map I’d drawn up on my computer. On that fateful Wednesday in late June, the only area I’d yet to explore in the grid zone nearest the pier was the wall of the drop-off itself. To be honest, I’d been avoiding it.
This may sound a little weird coming from a man in his late 40s, but I’d held off on exploring that section because of dreams I had after my first dive.
In the dream, I am underwater. It’s not an unusual setting for one of my dreams. Normally, the sensation is freeing. I float and bob in the currents and enjoy weightless bliss. I should tell you this is not my normal dream.
This dream begins with me standing on the edge of my pier. The sky is black but everything else is bright enough for me to see without any problem. I look down to where I’d normally see water. The lake is empty; or, at least, it appears that way. Something causes me to lose my balance and I tumble off the pier. I scream, expecting to crash on the rocks below. Instead, I float. The water is invisible.
I bob on the surface for a moment, but then something unseeable wraps around my leg. I gasp in a lungful of air and am torn below the surface. I fight against whatever the force is, but it’s hopeless. I get carried down.
To my eyes, it looks like I’m floating through the air. I still feel water against my skin, though. I know I have to continue holding my breath. And hold it I do. Helpless to return to the surface, part of my mind says to just wait until I can wake up gasping.
My body is sucked down, over the edge of the shelf. A sheer wall of granite towers in front of me. After about fifty feet, the pulling stops. I float, motionless, in front of a massive hole in the rock.
In the perfect clearness of the water, I can see the hole is a cave. It goes far into the rock – farther than I can see. I notice multiple tunnels in the sides and know those, too, branch. A feeling of dread enshrouds me. My lungs burn. I feel the pressure of a hundred feet of water on top of me, squeezing my skull and threatening to perforate my ears. God, my ears hurt so badly.
“Wake up,” I whisper to myself in the dream. “Open your eyes.”
“SEE ME.”
A voice bursts from the mouth of the cave with a colossal surge of water pressure. The air explodes from my chest and my eyes bulge. I gasp. Invisible water fills my lungs.
“SEE ME LIKE I SEE YOU.”
My eyes open to the morning light flooding my bedroom.
I’ve had the same dream three times since I started diving in the lake. It’s stuck with me. I hated how it tainted my subsequent dives and caused me to dread exploring that one unseen zone. That would have to end. I’d see for myself it was all just residual stress from the divorce impeding on the one thing I love. How typical.
That Wednesday, I stood on the edge of the pier like I had in my dream. The water was not invisible. It was gray and calm and sloshed lazily against the pier’s wooden supports. The sky was cloudy. It looked like it might rain. I’ve always enjoyed diving in the rain. Something about the water in the sky meeting the water of a sea or ocean or lake gave me a feeling of connectedness, as if I could swim all the way to the clouds if the rain were heavy enough.
I checked the readout on my tank. It was full. I was planning on doing a two-tank exploration before retiring to the lonely house and drinking my night away.
Into the lake I went. A few feet below the surface, the visibility was low. Silt. I was instantly disappointed.
It wasn’t as bad as it had been that first time. I could still see maybe twenty feet in front of me. But it wasn’t what I’d hoped. Part of me wished for the invisible clarity of the water in the dream. This was anything but. It made the prickles of dread I’d tried to ignore force themselves into my consciousness.
I swam toward the edge of the underwater cliff. It was easy to locate. A stygian abyss loomed ahead. I floated to the edge, crossed myself, and lept off.
The silt cleared quickly once I was on the other side of the muddy drop. I descended slowly, my hand never leaving the sheer wall of rock at my side.
I checked the depth gauge. Forty feet. Fifty. At sixty-five, a fissure developed in the granite wall. It widened as I sank further. I did my best to avoid connecting it to the memory of the cave in my dreams.
Eighty-five feet down, the fissure was a chasm. Glancing lower, I saw it widened more. Everything in me said to start kicking my feet and swim back to the surface and forget about this part of the lake. I had miles upon miles of lake I could be exploring. There was no need to see this particular spot.
My body overrode the protestations of my mind. At ninety-six feet down, the mouth of a cave yawned before me.
There was nothing I could do but stare with disbelief at the gaping hole in the rock. I had no reason to know of its existence. Dreams aren’t prescience. They don’t convey new information. I had never been here before. “Never physically,” my mind reminded me.
I was helpless to ignore the message in that little reminder. No, I’d never been there physically. But I had been mentally. Somehow.
“Just go in,” I thought. “See what it’s all about.”
The hatred I felt for myself for betraying my better intentions was profound. And I knew I’d obey that betrayal. Curiosity always won out with me. I aimed my body at the center of the cave and kicked. I switched on my headlamp. The ghostly beam illuminated the dim, lifeless walls.
A hundred feet in, I thought back to all the warnings I’d heard from diving instructors. “Never explore an underwater cave on your own,” they’d say. “You WILL die.” They emphasized “will” as if it were a foregone conclusion. Like the first person to discover a cave always died. Like it was the law.
Two hundred feet in, I would have sworn the water was brighter.
Three hundred feet in, I realized it really was brighter.
Maybe “brighter” isn’t the right word. “Clearer,” maybe. “Becoming invisible,” my mind interjected.
Four hundred feet in, I couldn’t deny it. The water was invisible.
I looked back at the mouth of the cave. Its enormity was far less pronounced from that distance. I checked my air. I had a half hour left. If I left in ten minutes, I’d have to swim for twenty straight minutes. I’d be cutting it close. Maybe too close. I needed to leave right away.
“Don’t go yet. Just a little deeper.”
More betrayal. My flippers pushed me ahead. The walls of the granite were pockmarked here. It appeared as if each hole was a separate branch, disappearing deeper into the cave. I imagined myself getting stuck in the narrow walls, struggling and screaming until my air bled away and I’d drown, never to be found.
Five hundred feet into the porous confines of the cave, an expanse opened before me. I’d reached the top of a colossal chamber. Thanks to the invisibility of the water, even though it was dark, my light shone hundreds of feet down. It never reached the bottom.
“Maybe it’s time to turn around,” my mind suggested. It was the first hint of sense it had made since I leapt from the pier.
I obeyed. I began to turn. Then something in the water changed. I felt the pressure shift, as if something had pushed an enormous amount of water out of the way. I turned back toward the chamber.
“SEE ME LIKE I SEE YOU.”
Before I even saw what had made the sound, I screamed around my mouthpiece. The voice was so loud. It was a sound unlike anything I’d experienced. “Except for the dream,” my mind reminded me.
Except for the dream.
My headlamp illuminated a creature of massive bulk and impossible proportions.
“SEE ME.”
Paralyzed with primal, palpable horror, I tried to train my eyes on it. It shimmered and shifted, moving with erratic and stuttering jerks, but, at the same time, remaining in place like the infinite presence the universe itself.
“SEE ME.”
My head spun. The creature was the embodiment of expansion and collapse. Boulder-sized clusters of eyes would open, bulging outward and popping out of existence like soap bubbles. Mouths gaped and inverted in the same instance, pinching into geometries that caused pain to erupt behind my eyes when I tried focusing on them.
“SEE ME LIKE I SEE YOU.”
I reflexively checked how much air I had. Three minutes. My panic had exhausted all my remaining oxygen. I was dead.
“SEE ME LIKE I SEE YOU.”
The water pressure shifted again with a hideous jolt. I felt my sinuses and bladder and bowels contract and release. A coiled spiral of matter shot from the center of a fleshy bubble between a honeycombed mass of eyes. It tore through the water in my direction, and before I could move, it had split into multiple, thinner coils and penetrated my nostrils and eyes through my facemask.
I howled with agony. Everything went black. I felt the coils corkscrewing behind my eyes and packing my sinuses. I screamed again. My mouthpiece fell out. I scrambled in the darkness for it as my lungs burned. I located it and plunged it back in. I took a deep breath. Nothing came out. This was the end. My end.
“SEE ME LIKE I SEE YOU.”
The blackness evaporated. I gasped, expecting water to fill my lungs. No water. Air.
I looked around. I floated in the chamber. The water was still invisible. Now, though, the darkness was gone. Everything was bright. My panic, still near its peak, had again taken the backseat to fascination and curiosity. I could see the creature in front of me without experiencing pain or disorientation.
I had underestimated its enormity. What I had seen before was only its topmost portion; below, previously hidden by the darkness, was a thick, tube-shaped body reaching a thousand feet down to the cavern floor. At its base were webbed appendages like veined leaves or fleshy wings.
I tried to blink. My eyelids fluttered uselessly against the coils piercing my eyes. I felt them turning, drilling deeper and deeper into my head. Same with those in my nose – they coiled throughout my sinuses and chest. I assumed they were why I was able to breathe.
“SEE ME LIKE I SEE YOU.”
Impelled, I gazed at the creature. Its angles were foreign to me. It was as if it occupied physical dimensions I’d never before encountered; dimensions my brain wasn’t wired to process.
“SEE ME LIKE I SEE YOU.”
The coils in my eyes widened. I felt my pupils stretch.
The world dropped out beneath me. I stared at the creature against the backdrop of dense stars and glowing nebulae. Violet light illuminated us. It was even larger in this new setting – its bulk stretching beyond my line of sight.
“SEE WITH ME.”
I observed the cosmos stretching before me. In the distance, I saw a planet with a yellow atmosphere.
“WE TRAVEL.”
Before I could register the words, the view had changed. We hovered under a yellow sky. Geysers of mercury erupted below and showered us in a constellation of liquid metal.
“WE TRAVEL.”
Light beyond light bathed my vision. It was a star. Before my coiled eyes, it burst in a supernova. Hard radiation that would have vaporized me a billion times over struck my body like a gentle caress. I began to weep.
“Please. I want more.”
“WE TRAVEL.”
I could tell by the change in pressure we were back in the cavern. The water was black and impenetrable. I could not see the beast looming ahead of me, although I could still feel its coils.
“What happened there? What are you? I want to go back. Please, I want to explore. God, I want to see it all.”
“TWO FOR ONE.”
“What is two for one?”
“TWO OF YOU TO INCORPORATE INTO ME. THEN YOU MAY TRAVEL.”
“Two of me?”
A light burst from the direction of the creature. The coils pulled me toward it. Its flesh split and I peered inside. It was filled with bones and carapaces and chitinous matter I couldn’t recognize. They looked like parts from entirely disparate beings, all knit together by slabs of muscle and tendons to form the interior of the colossus before me.
“TWO FOR ONE.”
A dull sense of realization bloomed within me.
“If I give you two people, you will show me how to explore like you do?”
“YES. TWO FOR ONE.”
“Okay,” I whispered. “Two for one.”
I felt the coils straighten as I was moved backward though the cave. I reached the mouth and swam upward, assisted by the gentle water currents. At the surface, I felt the coils retract from my eyes and sinuses. There was no pain. Only a sense of emptiness.
I pulled myself to the shore and looked around. It was almost dark. I walked to the house and let myself in. I was exhausted.
Ignoring the confusion and hunger I felt, I hauled myself into bed and slept. My dreams were of the stars.
The next morning, I called Meg. I told her I wanted to reconcile. I said I wanted her and Penny and me to be a family again.
It’s been eight months. Meg and Penny moved into the lake house with me after Christmas. From all outward appearances, we’re a lucky family who triumphed over divorce and despair. Sometimes, I even believe it.
Every night, though, I’m granted visions of the sights I’ll see. The planets. The galaxies. I’m teased by glimpses of what lies outside the curvature of the universe – and everything beyond that, as well.
Penny and Meg had their first scuba lessons on our trip to Jamaica in January. They loved it. Once the water warms up in the lake behind the house, I’ll give them more lessons. We’ll go deeper and deeper every time. I know they’ll be amazed when they see the cave. As for what waits inside it, they’ll learn, too, what I did.
The difference is, I’ll get to leave that cave while they’ll become a very special part of it. What part, I can’t say. But I’ll be long gone by then. I’ll be exploring the stars. All I have to do is fulfill my part of the bargain: two for one. And I’m well on my way to doing just that.
Categories
2024.06.05 22:23 YeahNoFerSure I am at a loss for what these berries are/small tree is.
 | I noticed berries growing on this small tree/leaky bush in my yard today. My husband and I bought our house late last fall in southeastern PA and are slowly seeing some of the planted and wild plants come to life. The berries seen in the first picture are the only ones growing on this bush. The elongated leaves do not look like blackberries that I am familiar with. The two leaves next to the berries look different than the rest of the bush. The 3rd picture shows this flowery bud thing that is growing at the ends of most of the branches. Google lens seems to have think the buds and bush look like butterfly bush and the berries look like blackberries or mulberries. What the heck is going on here? submitted by YeahNoFerSure to foraging [link] [comments] |
2024.06.04 11:25 wptny03 Big Chad Guys Plus - World Corrupted?
Hey everyone. I've recently been playing Big Chad Guys Plus with my brothers and some friends. Today my brother tried to sleep in the nether like an idiot, using the Traveler's Backpack's sleeping bag function. Upon doing this, the world completely crashed, and I can't open it any longer. I was hosting with the e4mc mod. I had no backups, and I'm worried the world is corrupted. Any help would be greatly appreciated, crash report is below. Exit Code is just "-1"
---- Minecraft Crash Report ----
// I let you down. Sorry :(
Time: 2024-06-04 02:20:56
Description: Exception in server tick loop
java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: arraycopy: length -1 is negative
-- Cobblemon --
Details:
Details:
porting_lib_model_generators: Porting Lib Model Generators 2.1.1090+1.20
porting_lib_gametest: Porting Lib GameTest 2.1.1090+1.20
porting_lib_model_materials: Porting Lib Model Materials 2.1.1090+1.20
porting_lib_fluids: Porting Lib Fluids 2.3.4+1.20.1
porting_lib_mixin_extensions: Porting Lib Mixin Extensions 2.3.4+1.20.1
porting_lib_transfer: Porting Lib Transfer 2.3.4+1.20.1
porting_lib_utility: Porting Lib Utility 2.3.4+1.20.1
porting_lib_common: Porting Lib Common 2.3.4+1.20.1
porting_lib_core: Porting Lib Core 2.3.4+1.20.1
lavender-md-owo-ui: lavender-md-owo-ui 0.1.0-pre.3+1.20
polymer-registry-sync-manipulator: Polymer (Registry Sync Manipulator) 0.5.19+1.20.1
submitted by wptny03 to feedthebeast [link] [comments]
---- Minecraft Crash Report ----
// I let you down. Sorry :(
Time: 2024-06-04 02:20:56
Description: Exception in server tick loop
java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: arraycopy: length -1 is negative
at java.base/java.io.PushbackInputStream.unread(PushbackInputStream.java:232) at net.minecraft.class\_26.method\_17921(class\_26.java:114) at net.minecraft.class\_26.method\_17923(class\_26.java:90) at wraith.fwaystones.util.WaystoneStorage.loadOrSaveWaystones(WaystoneStorage.java:159) at wraith.fwaystones.util.WaystoneStorage.A detailed walkthrough of the error, its code path and all known details is as follows:(WaystoneStorage.java:62) at wraith.fwaystones.util.WaystonesEventManager.lambda$registerEvents$0(WaystonesEventManager.java:22) at net.fabricmc.fabric.api.event.lifecycle.v1.ServerLifecycleEvents.lambda$static$2(ServerLifecycleEvents.java:49) at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.handler$dnk000$fabric-lifecycle-events-v1$afterSetupServer(MinecraftServer.java:5842) at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.method\_29741(MinecraftServer.java:650) at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.method\_29739(MinecraftServer.java:265) at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:833)
Details:
Version: 1.5.0 Is Snapshot: false Git Commit: 347e10d (https://gitlab.com/cable-mc/cobblemon/-/commit/347e10d7e474a7741f2d31c439a6696093a6ee23) Branch: HEAD Timestamp: 05/11/2024 10:26:01 UTC-- System Details --
Details:
Minecraft Version: 1.20.1 Minecraft Version ID: 1.20.1 Operating System: Windows 10 (amd64) version 10.0 Java Version: 17.0.8, Microsoft Java VM Version: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (mixed mode), Microsoft Memory: 1555833352 bytes (1483 MiB) / 6383730688 bytes (6088 MiB) up to 12817793024 bytes (12224 MiB) CPUs: 12 Processor Vendor: AuthenticAMD Processor Name: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 6-Core Processor Identifier: AuthenticAMD Family 25 Model 33 Stepping 2 Microarchitecture: Zen 3 Frequency (GHz): 3.70 Number of physical packages: 1 Number of physical CPUs: 6 Number of logical CPUs: 12 Graphics card #0 name: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Graphics card #0 vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de) Graphics card #0 VRAM (MB): 4095.00 Graphics card #0 deviceId: 0x2786 Graphics card #0 versionInfo: DriverVersion=31.0.15.4633 Memory slot #0 capacity (MB): 8192.00 Memory slot #0 clockSpeed (GHz): 2.13 Memory slot #0 type: DDR4 Memory slot #1 capacity (MB): 8192.00 Memory slot #1 clockSpeed (GHz): 2.13 Memory slot #1 type: DDR4 Memory slot #2 capacity (MB): 8192.00 Memory slot #2 clockSpeed (GHz): 2.13 Memory slot #2 type: DDR4 Memory slot #3 capacity (MB): 8192.00 Memory slot #3 clockSpeed (GHz): 2.13 Memory slot #3 type: DDR4 Virtual memory max (MB): 60222.23 Virtual memory used (MB): 21613.25 Swap memory total (MB): 27530.04 Swap memory used (MB): 97.91 JVM Flags: 4 total; -XX:HeapDumpPath=MojangTricksIntelDriversForPerformance\_javaw.exe\_minecraft.exe.heapdump -Xss1M -Xmx12224m -Xms256m Fabric Mods: a\_man\_with\_plushies: A Man With Plushies 3.0.2 alloy\_forgery: Alloy Forgery 2.1.2+1.20 almostunified: AlmostUnified 1.20.1-0.9.3 alternate-current: Alternate Current 1.7.0 amendments: Amendments 1.20-1.1.31 mixinsquared: MixinSquared 0.1.1 another\_furniture: Another Furniture 1.20.1-3.0.1 appleskin: AppleSkin 2.5.1+mc1.20 architectury: Architectury 9.2.14 artifacts: Artifacts 9.5.5 cardinal-components-base: Cardinal Components API (base) 5.2.2 cardinal-components-entity: Cardinal Components API (entities) 5.2.2 expandability: ExpandAbility 9.0.4 step-height-entity-attribute: Step Height Entity Attribute 1.2.0 asynclocator: Async Locator 1.3.0 athena: Athena 3.1.2 attributefix: AttributeFix 21.0.4 automobility: Automobility 0.4.2+1.20.1-fabric jsonem: JsonEM 0.2.1+1.20 axolotlitemfix: Axolotl Item Fix 1.1.7 bakery: \[Let's Do\] Bakery 1.1.10 balm-fabric: Balm 7.2.2 barteringstation: Bartering Station 8.0.0 bcg\_smp: BCG\_SMP 1.0.1 bcgutil: BCG Util 1.0.5 bclib: BCLib 3.0.14 wunderlib: WunderLib 1.1.5 beautify: Beautify 1.1.0+1.20 bedbenefits: BedBenefits 13.0.3 beekeeperhut: Friends&Foes - Beekeeper Hut 2.0.0 better\_climbing: Better Climbing 3 betteradvancements: Better Advancements [0.3.2.161](http://0.3.2.161) betterbeds: Better Beds 1.3.0 betterchunkloading: Better chunk loading mod 1.20.1-4.2 bettercombat: Better Combat 1.8.5+1.20.1 betterdungeons: YUNG's Better Dungeons 1.20-Fabric-4.0.4 org\_reflections\_reflections: reflections 0.10.2 betterend: Better End 4.0.11 betterendisland: YUNG's Better End Island 1.20-Fabric-2.0.6 bettermineshafts: YUNG's Better Mineshafts 1.20-Fabric-4.0.4 betteroceanmonuments: YUNG's Better Ocean Monuments 1.20-Fabric-3.0.4 betterstrongholds: YUNG's Better Strongholds 1.20-Fabric-4.0.3 betterthirdperson: Better Third Person 1.9.0 bhmenu: BHMenu-Fabric 2.4.1 bitsandchisels: BitsAndChisels 2.7.3 boatbreakfix: Boat Break Fix 1.0.2 bobby: Bobby 5.0.1 com\_typesafe\_config: config 1.4.2 io\_leangen\_geantyref\_geantyref: geantyref 1.3.13 org\_spongepowered\_configurate-core: configurate-core 4.1.2 org\_spongepowered\_configurate-hocon: configurate-hocon 4.1.2 bookshelf: Bookshelf 20.1.10 brewery: \[Let's Do\] Brewery 1.1.8 bwncr: Bad Wither No Cookie Reloaded 3.17.0 candlelight: \[Let's Do\] Candlelight 1.2.12 carrier: Carrier 1.12.0 advanced\_runtime\_resource\_pack: Runtime Resource Pack 0.6.7 catalogue: Catalogue 1.8.0 charmofundying: Charm of Undying 6.5.0+1.20.1 spectrelib: SpectreLib 0.13.15+1.20.1 chat\_heads: Chat Heads 0.12.2 chefsdelight: Chefs Delight 1.0.3-fabric-1.20.1 chimes: Chimes 2.0.1 chipped: Chipped 3.0.6 chunky: Chunky 1.3.146 clickadv: Clickable Advancements Mod 1.20.1-3.8 cloth-config: Cloth Config v11 11.1.118 cloth-basic-math: cloth-basic-math 0.6.1 clumps: Clumps [12.0.0.4](http://12.0.0.4) cobblemon: Cobblemon 1.5.0+1.20.1 cobblemon\_capturexp: Cobblemon Capture EXP 1.5-fabric-1.0.1 cobblemon\_quests: Cobblemon Quests 1.1.9 cobblemon\_spawn\_notification: Cobblemon Spawn Notification 1.4-fabric-1.3.0 cobblemounts: CobbleMounts 1.3.0 com\_moandjiezana\_toml\_toml4j: toml4j 0.7.2 cobblepedia: Cobblepedia 0.5.3 collective: Collective 7.57 comforts: Comforts 6.3.5+1.20.1 commonnetworking: Common Network 1.0.3-1.20.1 compact\_storage: CompactStorage [6.0.1.64](http://6.0.1.64) connectivity: Connectivity Mod 1.20.1-5.5 controlling: Controlling For Fabric 12.0.2 convenientdecor: Convenient Decor 0.4.1 omega-config: OmegaConfig 1.4.0+1.20.1 coroutil: CoroUtil 1.20.1-1.3.7 crawl: Crawl 0.12.0 mm: Manningham Mills 2.3 create: Create 0.5.1-f-build.1417+mc1.20.1 com\_google\_code\_findbugs\_jsr305: jsr305 3.0.2 flywheel: Flywheel 0.6.10-2 milk: Milk Lib 1.2.60dripstone_fluid_lib: Dripstone Fluid Lib 3.0.2
porting\_lib\_brewing: Porting Lib Brewing 2.3.2+1.20.1 porting\_lib\_models: Porting Lib Models 2.3.2+1.20.1porting_lib_model_loader: Porting Lib Model Loader 2.3.2+1.20.1
porting\_lib\_obj\_loader: Porting Lib Obj Loader 2.3.2+1.20.1 porting\_lib\_tags: Porting Lib Tags 3.0 reach-entity-attributes: Reach Entity Attributes 2.4.0 registrate-fabric: Registrate for Fabric 1.3.62-MC1.20.1porting_lib_data: Porting Lib Data 2.1.1090+1.20
porting_lib_model_generators: Porting Lib Model Generators 2.1.1090+1.20
porting_lib_gametest: Porting Lib GameTest 2.1.1090+1.20
porting_lib_model_materials: Porting Lib Model Materials 2.1.1090+1.20
create\_cobblemon: Create: Cobblemon Industrialized 0.3 create\_enchantment\_industry: Create Enchantment Industry 1.2.16 create\_dragon\_lib: Create Dragon Lib 1.4.2 createaddition: Create Crafts & Additions 1.2.3 createdeco: Create Deco 2.0.2-1.20.1-fabric createreibugfix: CreateFabric&REIBugFix 0.1.0-create0.5.1-mc1.20.x creeperoverhaul: Creeper Overhaul 3.0.2 cupboard: cupboard 1.20.1-2.6 customcursorcomm: CustomCursorComm 1.2.0 dailyshop: Daily Shop 1.0.2 darkpaintings: DarkPaintings 17.0.4 darkutils: DarkUtilities 17.0.3 deathlog: DeathLog 0.3.2+1.20 debugify: Debugify 1.20.1+2.0 deuf\_refabricated: DEUF Refabricated 1.1.0 diagonalfences: Diagonal Fences 8.1.4 diagonalblocks: Diagonal Blocks 8.0.5 diagonalwalls: Diagonal Walls 8.0.3 diagonalwindows: Diagonal Windows 8.1.4 dimensionalsyncfixes: DimensionalSyncFixes 1.20.1-0.0.2 doapi: \[Let's Do\] API 1.2.12 terraform-wood-api-v1: Terraform Wood API (v1) 7.0.1 dragonfight: Dragonfight Mod 1.20.1-4.5 drippyloadingscreen: Drippy Loading Screen 3.0.2 e4mc\_minecraft: e4mc 4.0.1 easyanvils: Easy Anvils 8.0.2 easymagic: Easy Magic 8.0.1 elytraslot: Elytra Slot 6.3.0+1.20.1 endermanoverhaul: Enderman Overhaul 1.0.4 endrem: End Remastered 5.2.4 entity\_model\_features: Entity Model Features 2.0.2 entity\_texture\_features: Entity Texture Features 6.0.1 org\_apache\_httpcomponents\_httpmime: httpmime 4.5.10 entityculling: EntityCulling-Fabric 1.6.2-mc1.20.1 epherolib: EpheroLib 1.2.0 everycomp: Every Compat 1.20-2.6.55 expandeddelight: Expanded Delight 0.3.1 explorerscompass: Explorer's Compass 1.20.1-2.2.3-fabric exposure: Exposure 1.6.0 extendedgears: Extended Cogwheels 2.1.1-1.20.1-0.5.1.f-fabric fabric-api: Fabric API 0.92.1+1.20.1 fabric-api-base: Fabric API Base 0.4.31+1802ada577 fabric-api-lookup-api-v1: Fabric API Lookup API (v1) 1.6.36+1802ada577 fabric-biome-api-v1: Fabric Biome API (v1) 13.0.13+1802ada577 fabric-block-api-v1: Fabric Block API (v1) 1.0.11+1802ada577 fabric-block-view-api-v2: Fabric BlockView API (v2) 1.0.1+1802ada577 fabric-blockrenderlayer-v1: Fabric BlockRenderLayer Registration (v1) 1.1.41+1802ada577 fabric-client-tags-api-v1: Fabric Client Tags 1.1.2+1802ada577 fabric-command-api-v1: Fabric Command API (v1) 1.2.34+f71b366f77 fabric-command-api-v2: Fabric Command API (v2) 2.2.13+1802ada577 fabric-commands-v0: Fabric Commands (v0) 0.2.51+df3654b377 fabric-containers-v0: Fabric Containers (v0) 0.1.64+df3654b377 fabric-content-registries-v0: Fabric Content Registries (v0) 4.0.11+1802ada577 fabric-convention-tags-v1: Fabric Convention Tags 1.5.5+1802ada577 fabric-crash-report-info-v1: Fabric Crash Report Info (v1) 0.2.19+1802ada577 fabric-data-attachment-api-v1: Fabric Data Attachment API (v1) 1.0.0+de0fd6d177 fabric-data-generation-api-v1: Fabric Data Generation API (v1) 12.3.4+1802ada577 fabric-dimensions-v1: Fabric Dimensions API (v1) 2.1.54+1802ada577 fabric-entity-events-v1: Fabric Entity Events (v1) 1.6.0+1c78457f77 fabric-events-interaction-v0: Fabric Events Interaction (v0) 0.6.2+1802ada577 fabric-events-lifecycle-v0: Fabric Events Lifecycle (v0) 0.2.63+df3654b377 fabric-game-rule-api-v1: Fabric Game Rule API (v1) 1.0.40+1802ada577 fabric-item-api-v1: Fabric Item API (v1) 2.1.28+1802ada577 fabric-item-group-api-v1: Fabric Item Group API (v1) 4.0.12+1802ada577 fabric-key-binding-api-v1: Fabric Key Binding API (v1) 1.0.37+1802ada577 fabric-keybindings-v0: Fabric Key Bindings (v0) 0.2.35+df3654b377 fabric-lifecycle-events-v1: Fabric Lifecycle Events (v1) 2.2.22+1802ada577 fabric-loot-api-v2: Fabric Loot API (v2) 1.2.1+1802ada577 fabric-loot-tables-v1: Fabric Loot Tables (v1) 1.1.45+9e7660c677 fabric-message-api-v1: Fabric Message API (v1) 5.1.9+1802ada577 fabric-mining-level-api-v1: Fabric Mining Level API (v1) 2.1.50+1802ada577 fabric-model-loading-api-v1: Fabric Model Loading API (v1) 1.0.3+1802ada577 fabric-models-v0: Fabric Models (v0) 0.4.2+9386d8a777 fabric-networking-api-v1: Fabric Networking API (v1) 1.3.11+1802ada577 fabric-networking-v0: Fabric Networking (v0) 0.3.51+df3654b377 fabric-object-builder-api-v1: Fabric Object Builder API (v1) 11.1.3+1802ada577 fabric-particles-v1: Fabric Particles (v1) 1.1.2+1802ada577 fabric-recipe-api-v1: Fabric Recipe API (v1) 1.0.21+1802ada577 fabric-registry-sync-v0: Fabric Registry Sync (v0) 2.3.3+1802ada577 fabric-renderer-api-v1: Fabric Renderer API (v1) 3.2.1+1802ada577 fabric-renderer-indigo: Fabric Renderer - Indigo 1.5.1+1802ada577 fabric-renderer-registries-v1: Fabric Renderer Registries (v1) 3.2.46+df3654b377 fabric-rendering-data-attachment-v1: Fabric Rendering Data Attachment (v1) 0.3.37+92a0d36777 fabric-rendering-fluids-v1: Fabric Rendering Fluids (v1) 3.0.28+1802ada577 fabric-rendering-v0: Fabric Rendering (v0) 1.1.49+df3654b377 fabric-rendering-v1: Fabric Rendering (v1) 3.0.8+1802ada577 fabric-resource-conditions-api-v1: Fabric Resource Conditions API (v1) 2.3.8+1802ada577 fabric-resource-loader-v0: Fabric Resource Loader (v0) 0.11.10+1802ada577 fabric-screen-api-v1: Fabric Screen API (v1) 2.0.8+1802ada577 fabric-screen-handler-api-v1: Fabric Screen Handler API (v1) 1.3.30+1802ada577 fabric-sound-api-v1: Fabric Sound API (v1) 1.0.13+1802ada577 fabric-transfer-api-v1: Fabric Transfer API (v1) 3.3.5+8dd72ea377 fabric-transitive-access-wideners-v1: Fabric Transitive Access Wideners (v1) 4.3.1+1802ada577 fabric-language-kotlin: Fabric Language Kotlin 1.10.20+kotlin.1.9.24 org\_jetbrains\_kotlin\_kotlin-reflect: kotlin-reflect 1.9.24 org\_jetbrains\_kotlin\_kotlin-stdlib: kotlin-stdlib 1.9.24 org\_jetbrains\_kotlin\_kotlin-stdlib-jdk7: kotlin-stdlib-jdk7 1.9.24 org\_jetbrains\_kotlin\_kotlin-stdlib-jdk8: kotlin-stdlib-jdk8 1.9.24 org\_jetbrains\_kotlinx\_atomicfu-jvm: atomicfu-jvm 0.24.0 org\_jetbrains\_kotlinx\_kotlinx-coroutines-core-jvm: kotlinx-coroutines-core-jvm 1.8.0 org\_jetbrains\_kotlinx\_kotlinx-coroutines-jdk8: kotlinx-coroutines-jdk8 1.8.0 org\_jetbrains\_kotlinx\_kotlinx-datetime-jvm: kotlinx-datetime-jvm 0.5.0 org\_jetbrains\_kotlinx\_kotlinx-serialization-cbor-jvm: kotlinx-serialization-cbor-jvm 1.6.3 org\_jetbrains\_kotlinx\_kotlinx-serialization-core-jvm: kotlinx-serialization-core-jvm 1.6.3 org\_jetbrains\_kotlinx\_kotlinx-serialization-json-jvm: kotlinx-serialization-json-jvm 1.6.3 fabricloader: Fabric Loader 0.15.11 mixinextras: MixinExtras 0.3.5 fancymenu: FancyMenu 3.2.3 com\_github\_keksuccino\_japng: japng 0.5.3 com\_github\_rtyley\_animated-gif-lib-for-java: animated-gif-lib-for-java animated-gif-lib-1.7 farmersdelight: Farmer's Delight 1.20.1-2.1.1+refabricated porting\_lib\_accessors: Porting Lib Accessors 2.3.4+1.20.1 porting\_lib\_base: Porting Lib Base 2.3.4+1.20.1porting_lib_entity: Porting Lib Entity 2.3.4+1.20.1
porting_lib_fluids: Porting Lib Fluids 2.3.4+1.20.1
porting_lib_mixin_extensions: Porting Lib Mixin Extensions 2.3.4+1.20.1
porting_lib_transfer: Porting Lib Transfer 2.3.4+1.20.1
porting_lib_utility: Porting Lib Utility 2.3.4+1.20.1
porting\_lib\_client\_events: Porting Lib Client Events 2.3.4+1.20.1 porting\_lib\_config: Porting Lib Config 2.3.4+1.20.1 porting\_lib\_extensions: Porting Lib Extensions 2.3.4+1.20.1porting_lib_attributes: Porting Lib Attributes 2.3.4+1.20.1
porting_lib_common: Porting Lib Common 2.3.4+1.20.1
porting_lib_core: Porting Lib Core 2.3.4+1.20.1
porting\_lib\_lazy\_registration: Porting Lib Lazy Register 2.3.4+1.20.1 porting\_lib\_loot: Porting Lib Loot 2.3.4+1.20.1 porting\_lib\_networking: Porting Lib Networking 2.3.4+1.20.1 porting\_lib\_recipe\_book\_categories: Porting Lib Recipe Book Categories 2.3.4+1.20.1 porting\_lib\_registries: Porting Lib Registries 2.3.4+1.20.1 porting\_lib\_tool\_actions: Porting Lib Tool Actions 2.3.4+1.20.1 fastipping: Fast IP Ping 1.0.1 fastpaintings: Fast Paintings 1.20-1.2.7 ferritecore: FerriteCore 6.0.1 fightorflight: Cobblemon Fight or Flight Fabric 0.5.0 flowerymooblooms: Friends&Foes - Flowery Mooblooms 2.0.1 forgeconfigapiport: Forge Config API Port 8.0.0 framework: Framework 0.6.16 org\_javassist\_javassist: javassist 3.29.2-GA friendsandfoes: Friends&Foes 2.0.10 ftbchunks: FTB Chunks 2001.2.7 ftbessentials: FTB Essentials 2001.2.2 ftblibrary: FTB Library 2001.1.5 ftbquests: FTB Quests 2001.3.5 team\_reborn\_energy: Energy 3.0.0 ftbteams: FTB Teams 2001.2.0 ftbultimine: FTB Ultimine 2001.1.4 ftbxmodcompat: FTB XMod Compat 2.1.1 fwaystones: Fabric Waystones 3.1.3+mc1.20 fzzy\_config: Fzzy Config 0.3.3+1.20.1 blue\_endless\_jankson: jankson 1.2.3 net\_peanuuutz\_tomlkt\_tomlkt-jvm: tomlkt-jvm 0.3.7 geckolib: GeckoLib 4 4.4.4 com\_eliotlash\_mclib\_mclib: mclib 20 getittogetherdrops: Get It Together, Drops! fabric-1.20-1.3.1 globalpacks: Global Data- & Resourcepacks 1.16.1\_fabric go-fish: Go Fish 1.6.3+1.20.1 gpumemleakfix: Gpu memory leak fix mod 1.20.1-1.8 grindenchantments: Grind Enchantments 3.1.2+1.20 codec-config-api: Codec Config API 1.0.2+1.19.3 guardvillagers: GuardVillagers 2.0.9-1.20.1 midnightlib: MidnightLib 1.4.1 gymbadges: GymBadges 1.0 hamsters: Hamsters fabric-1.0.3-1.20.1 handcrafted: Handcrafted 3.0.6 healingcampfire: Healing Campfire 5.3 herbalbrews: \[Let's Do\] HerbalBrews 1.0.7 herdspanic: Herds Panic 1.1.0 highlighter: Highlighter 1.1.9 horseexpert: Horse Expert 8.1.1 icarus: Icarus 2.9.0 iceberg: Iceberg 1.1.18 idwtialsimmoedm: idwtialsimmoedm 0.3.0+1.20 illagerinvasion: Illager Invasion 8.0.5 extensibleenums: Extensible Enums 7.0.1 immediatelyfast: ImmediatelyFast 1.2.15+1.20.4 net\_lenni0451\_reflect: Reflect 1.3.3 immersive\_aircraft: Immersive Aircraft 1.0.1+1.20.1 org\_mariuszgromada\_math\_mathparser\_org-mxparser: MathParser.org-mXparser 5.2.1 incantationem: Incantationem 1.2.1+1.20 incendium: Incendium 5.3.5 indium: Indium 1.0.30+mc1.20.4 inventoryprofilesnext: Inventory Profiles Next 1.10.10 iris: Iris 1.7.0+mc1.20.1 io\_github\_douira\_glsl-transformer: glsl-transformer 2.0.0-pre13 org\_anarres\_jcpp: jcpp 1.4.14 org\_antlr\_antlr4-runtime: antlr4-runtime 4.11.1 irisflw: Iris Flywheel Compat 0.2.5 item\_obliterator: Item Obliterator 2.1.0 itemcollectors: Item Collectors 1.1.10 itemfilters: Item Filters 2001.1.0-build.59 jade: Jade 11.8.0 java: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM 17 jmi: JourneyMapIntegration 1.20.1-0.14-45 journeymap: Journeymap 5.9.21 journeymap-api-fabric: JourneyMap API 1.20-1.9-fabric-SNAPSHOT jumpoverfences: Jump Over Fences 1.3.1 konkrete: Konkrete 1.8.1 krypton: Krypton 0.2.3 com\_velocitypowered\_velocity-native: velocity-native 3.2.0-SNAPSHOT labels: labels 1.20-1.20.2 languagereload: Language Reload 1.6.1+1.20.1 leavemybarsalone: Leave My Bars Alone 8.0.0 leavesbegone: Leaves Be Gone 8.0.0 letmedespawn: Let Me Despawn 1.2.0 letsdoaddon-compat: \[Let's Do Addon\] Compat 1.4.1 libipn: libIPN 4.0.2 lithium: Lithium 0.11.2 lmft: Load My F\*\*\*ing Tags 1.0.2+1.20 loadmyresources: Load My Resources 1.0.4 logbegone: Log Begone 1.0.8 lootintegrations: Loot integration Mod 1.20.1-3.7 lootr: Lootr [0.7.33.81](http://0.7.33.81) luphieclutteredmod: Cluttered 2.1.0+1.20.1 magnumtorch: Magnum Torch 8.0.2 mavapi: More Axolotl Variants API 1.1.4 mavm: More Axolotl Variants Mod 1.2.6 mcwbridges: Macaw's Bridges 3.0.0 mcwdoors: Macaw's Doors 1.1.0 mcwfences: Macaw's Fences and Walls 1.1.1 mcwfurnitures: Macaw's Furniture 3.2.2 mcwlights: Macaw's Lights and Lamps 1.0.6 mcwpaths: Macaw's Paths and Pavings 1.0.5 mcwroofs: Macaw's Roofs 2.3.0 mcwtrpdoors: Macaw's Trapdoors 1.1.3 mcwwindows: Macaw's Windows 2.2.1 melody: Melody 1.0.3 memoryleakfix: Memory Leak Fix 1.1.2 menulogue: Menulogue 1.20.1-1.0.4 mighty\_mail: Mighty Mail 1.0.14 mine-spawners: mine-spawners 1.0 minecraft: Minecraft 1.20.1 mixintrace: MixinTrace 1.1.1+1.17 modernfix: ModernFix 5.17.0+mc1.20.1 moonlight: Moonlight 1.20-2.11.28 more-axolotl: More Axolotl 2.0.1 mousetweaks: Mouse Tweaks 2.26 mr\_remove\_terralithintromessage: Remove Terralith Intro Message 1.0 mvs: Moog's Voyager Structures 4.1.2-1.20-fabric mythicmetals: Mythic Metals 0.19.7+1.20.1 additionalentityattributes: Additional Entity Attributes 1.4.0+1.20.0 naturalist: Naturalist 4.0.3 naturescompass: Nature's Compass 1.20.1-2.2.3-fabric necronomicon: Necronomicon 1.4.2 neruina: Neruina 2.0.0-beta.9 com\_fasterxml\_jackson\_core\_jackson-annotations: jackson-annotations 2.17.0 com\_fasterxml\_jackson\_core\_jackson-core: jackson-core 2.17.0 com\_fasterxml\_jackson\_core\_jackson-databind: jackson-databind 2.17.0 org\_apache\_maven\_maven-artifact: maven-artifact 3.8.1 org\_kohsuke\_github-api: github-api 1.318 netherportalfix: NetherPortalFix 13.0.1 nightlights: Night Lights 1.1 nochatreports: No Chat Reports 1.20.1-v2.2.2 notenoughanimations: NotEnoughAnimations 1.7.3 oceansdelight: Ocean's Delight fdrf-fabric-1.0.2-1.20 overflowingbars: Overflowing Bars 8.0.0 owo: oωo 0.11.2+1.20 packetfixer: Packet Fixer 1.3.2 particle\_core: Particle Core 0.2.3+1.20.1 conditional-mixin: conditional mixin 0.5.1 patchouli: Patchouli 1.20.1-84-FABRIC fiber: fiber 0.23.0-2 permanentsponges: Permanent Sponges 8.1.2 pigpen: PigPen 15.0.2 ping-wheel: Ping Wheel 1.8.0 player-animator: Player Animator 1.0.2-rc1+1.20 plushies: Plushie Mod 1.4.0 polymorph: Polymorph 0.49.3+1.20.1 cardinal-components-block: Cardinal Components API (blocks) 5.2.1 cardinal-components-item: Cardinal Components API (items) 5.2.1 puzzleslib: Puzzles Lib 8.1.19 puzzlesaccessapi: Puzzles Access Api 8.0.7 railways: Create: Steam 'n' Rails 1.6.4+fabric-mc1.20.1 raised: Raised 3.1.3 reacharound: Reacharound 1.1.2 rebind\_narrator: Rebind Narrator 2.0.2 recipeessentials: recipeessentials Mod 1.20.1-3.4 redirector: Redirector 1.20.1-4.4.0 reeses-sodium-options: Reese's Sodium Options 1.7.2+mc1.20.1-build.101 reputation: Your Reputation 0.2.4+jade.1.20 resolutioncontrol: ResolutionControl+ 1.20-3.0.0 resourcefulconfig: Resourcefulconfig 2.1.2 resourcefullib: Resourceful Lib 2.1.25 com\_teamresourceful\_bytecodecs: bytecodecs 1.0.2 com\_teamresourceful\_yabn: yabn 1.0.3 resourcepackoverrides: Resource Pack Overrides 8.0.3 roughlyenoughitems: Roughly Enough Items 12.1.725 error\_notifier: Error Notifier 1.0.9 runelic: Runelic 18.0.2 sdrp: Simple Discord Rich Presence 4.0.3-build.40+mc1.20.1 com\_github\_jagrosh\_discordipc: DiscordIPC a8d6631cc9 com\_kohlschutter\_junixsocket\_junixsocket-common: junixsocket-common 2.6.2 com\_kohlschutter\_junixsocket\_junixsocket-native-common: junixsocket-native-common 2.6.2 org\_json\_json: json 20210307 searchables: Searchables 1.0.3 seasonhud: SeasonHUD 1.7.17 seasons: Fabric Seasons 2.3+1.20 seasonsdelightcompat: Fabric Seasons: Delight Compat 1.0-1.3.9 seasonsterralithcompat: Fabric Seasons: Terralith Compat 1.0-2.3.7 selling-bin: Selling Bin [1.2.9.1](http://1.2.9.1) servercore: ServerCore 1.5.1+1.20.1 fabric-permissions-api-v0: fabric-permissions-api 0.3.1 org\_yaml\_snakeyaml: snakeyaml 2.2 space\_arim\_dazzleconf\_dazzleconf-core: dazzleconf-core 1.3.0-M2 space\_arim\_dazzleconf\_dazzleconf-ext-snakeyaml: dazzleconf-ext-snakeyaml 1.3.0-M2 serverredirect: Server Redirect 1.4.5 shadertoggle: Shader Toggle 1.0 simplehats: SimpleHats 1.20.1-0.3.0 simplyswords: Simply Swords 1.55.0-1.20.1 spruceui: SpruceUI 5.0.0+1.20 sliceanddice: Create Slice & Dice 3.2.1 smallships: Small Ships 2.0.0-b1.2 smarterfarmers: Smarter Farmers 1.20-1.8.2 smoothchunk: Smooth chunk save Mod 1.20.1-3.6 snowyspirit: Snowy Spirit 1.20-3.0.6 sodium: Sodium 0.5.8+mc1.20.1 sodium-extra: Sodium Extra 0.5.4+mc1.20.1-build.115 caffeineconfig: CaffeineConfig 1.3.0+1.17 crowdin-translate: CrowdinTranslate 1.4+1.19.3 soulfired: Soul fire'd [3.2.1.0](http://3.2.1.0) spark: spark 1.10.53 spiceoffabric: Spice of Fabric 1.6.2+mc1.20.1 capsaicin: Capsaicin 1.3.3+mc1.20.1 coat: Coat 1.0.0-beta.20+mc1.20-pre1 tweed4\_annotated: tweed4\_annotated 1.3.1+mc1.20-pre1 tweed4\_base: tweed4\_base 1.7.1+mc1.20-pre1 tweed4\_data: tweed4\_data 1.2.1+mc1.20-pre1 tweed4\_data\_hjson: tweed4\_data\_hjson 1.1.1+mc1.20-pre1 tweed4\_tailor\_coat: tweed4\_tailor\_coat 1.1.3+mc1.20-pre1 tweed4\_tailor\_lang\_json\_descriptions: tweed4\_tailor\_lang\_json\_descriptions 1.1.0+mc1.20-pre1 tweed4\_tailor\_screen: tweed4\_tailor\_screen 1.1.4+mc1.20-pre1 stacc: Stacc 1.7.0 starterkit: Starter Kit 6.7 structory: Structory 1.3.3 structory\_towers: Structory: Towers 1.0.5 structureessentials: Structure Essentials Mod 1.20.1-3.3 stylisheffects: Stylish Effects 8.0.2 supermartijn642configlib: SuperMartijn642's Config Lib 1.1.8+a supermartijn642corelib: SuperMartijn642's Core Lib 1.1.17 supplementaries: Supplementaries 1.20-2.8.11 suppsquared: Supplementaries Squared 1.20-1.1.14 terrablender: TerraBlender [3.0.1.6](http://3.0.1.6) com\_electronwill\_night-config\_core: core 3.6.7 com\_electronwill\_night-config\_toml: toml 3.6.7 terralith: Terralith 2.5.1 thiccpackets: Extra Thicc Packets 1.17-1.19+ things: Things 0.3.3+1.20 lavender: Lavender 0.1.0-pre.18+1.20lavender-md: lavender-md 0.1.0-pre.3+1.20
lavender-md-owo-ui: lavender-md-owo-ui 0.1.0-pre.3+1.20
toms\_storage: Tom's Simple Storage Mod 1.6.6 toolstats: ToolStats 16.0.8 trade\_cycling: Trade Cycling 1.20.1-1.0.7 tradingpost: Trading Post 8.0.2 trashcans: Trash Cans 1.0.18 travelersbackpack: Traveler's Backpack 1.20.1-9.1.9 trinkets: Trinkets 3.7.2 ubesdelight: Ube's Delight 1.20.1-0.1.5.4 universal-graves: Universal Graves 3.0.1+1.20.1 common-protection-api: Common Protection API 1.0.0 placeholder-api: Placeholder API 2.1.3+1.20.1 polymer-core: Polymer (Core) 0.5.19+1.20.1polymer-networking: Polymer (Networking) 0.5.19+1.20.1
polymer-registry-sync-manipulator: Polymer (Registry Sync Manipulator) 0.5.19+1.20.1
polymer-resource-pack: Polymer (Resource Pack) 0.5.19+1.20.1 polymer-virtual-entity: Polymer (Virtual Entity) 0.5.19+1.20.1polymer-common: Polymer (Common) 0.5.19+1.20.1
predicate-api: Predicate API 0.2.1+1.20.1 server\_translations\_api: Server Translations API 2.0.0+1.20packet_tweaker: Packet Tweaker 0.4.0+1.19.4
sgui: sgui 1.2.2+1.20 universal\_shops: Universal Shops 1.3.2+1.20.1 common-economy-api: Common Economy API 1.1.1 vanityslots: Vanity Slots 1.2.9 villagernames: Villager Names 7.3 vinery: \[Let's Do\] Vinery 1.4.19 voicechat: Simple Voice Chat 1.20.1-2.5.15 wands: Building Wands 2.6.9-release xercamusic: Music Maker Mod fabric-1.20.1-1.0.1 xercapaint: Joy of Painting fabric-1.20.1-1.0.0 yeetusexperimentus: Yeetus Experimentus 2.3.1-build.6+mc1.20.1 yet\_another\_config\_lib\_v3: YetAnotherConfigLib 3.4.2+1.20.1-fabric com\_twelvemonkeys\_common\_common-image: common-image 3.10.0 com\_twelvemonkeys\_common\_common-io: common-io 3.10.0 com\_twelvemonkeys\_common\_common-lang: common-lang 3.10.0 com\_twelvemonkeys\_imageio\_imageio-core: imageio-core 3.10.0 com\_twelvemonkeys\_imageio\_imageio-metadata: imageio-metadata 3.10.0 com\_twelvemonkeys\_imageio\_imageio-webp: imageio-webp 3.10.0 org\_quiltmc\_parsers\_gson: gson 0.2.1 org\_quiltmc\_parsers\_json: json 0.2.1 yosbr: YOSBR 0.1.2 ysns: You Shall Not Spawn! 1.0.5 yungsapi: YUNG's API 1.20-Fabric-4.0.5 yungsextras: YUNG's Extras 1.20-Fabric-4.0.3 zoomify: Zoomify 2.13.4+1.20.1 com\_akuleshov7\_ktoml-core-jvm: ktoml-core-jvm 0.5.1 dev\_isxander\_settxi\_settxi-core: settxi-core 2.10.6 dev\_isxander\_settxi\_settxi-kotlinx-serialization: settxi-kotlinx-serialization 2.10.6 Loaded Shaderpack: (off) Flywheel Backend: GL33 Instanced Arrays Server Running: true Player Count: 0 / 8; \[\] Data Packs: vanilla, fabric, $polymer-resources, BCG+ [Datapack.zip](http://Datapack.zip), Everycomp Generated Pack, MissingMon\_v2.6.1 \[The Final Mask\] \[1.5 Update Compatible\].zip, Moonlight Mods Dynamic Assets, Moremons\_-\_v0.5.3\_-\_BCG\_Patched.zip (incompatible), MysticMons\_v2.0.zip, Snowyspirit Generated Pack, Supplementaries Generated Pack, Suppsquared Generated Pack, loadmyresources.hiddenpack (incompatible) Enabled Feature Flags: minecraft:vanilla World Generation: Stable Type: Integrated Server (map\_client.txt) Is Modded: Definitely; Client brand changed to 'fabric'; Server brand changed to 'fabric' Launched Version: fabric-loader-0.15.11-1.20.1
2024.06.04 10:46 dwredbaker Sins of the saints
Sins of the saints~ A.W. Pink
3. What Are the Consequences of a Believer's Sinning?His communion with God is broken. The first consequence of Adam's sin was a breaking of his fellowship with the Lord. When in the cool of the day Jehovah walked through the Garden, Adam sought to flee from His presence by hiding away among the trees. His conscience convicted him; he had no longer any relish for spiritual things; communion was broken. Such is always the case. How can two walk together except they be agreed? God cannot tolerate the indulgence of known sin. Once sin is allowed a place in the life, fellowship with God becomes impossible. Sometimes for days together the clouds will come in between and hide the sun from the earth. It is no longer visible: its genial warmth is no longer enjoyed, though its position in relation to the earth remains the same. Presently the dark vapor disappears, and once more King Sol gladdens the hearts of men by his welcome rays. In like manner, the sins of the believer come in between his soul and God, until the smile of His countenance is hidden, and His perfections are no longer enjoyed. Yet His relation to the believer remains unchanged. But it is not until he confesses and forsakes these sins that the cloud is removed and communion is restored. Let no one think that the interruption of divine communion is a light matter. It is deeply serious. Not only does it mean the loss of peace and joy and the cessation of any further spiritual growth, but what is infinitely sadder, it means the grieving of the Savior's heart.
What He desires almost above everything else is fellowship with His own blood-bought people. One of the most pathetic pictures presented in the Bible is that found in Revelation 3:20—"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." It is not here a question of salvation but of communion. "Supping" is always the symbol and expression of fellowship. It is for this the Savior craves, and sinning denies it Him! His joy of salvation is lost. One of the results of David's terrible fall was the loss of his joy of God's salvation. "Restore unto me the joy of your salvation" (Psalm 51:12), was his heart-broken cry. Note, he does not say, "Restore unto me your salvation," but "Restore unto me the joy of your salvation." By his wicked conduct he had lost the enjoyment of it. In proportion that the believer allows sin a place in his daily life, he loses his relish for spiritual things: his love for the Word diminishes, his delight in prayer vanishes, his heart is empty and dissatisfied. Not only so, he is miserable. "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Rom 7:24) becomes, more and more, his plaint. When Peter had denied the Lord, we read that he went out and "wept"— wept not profusely but bitterly, showing his joyless and miserable condition. His power for service is destroyed. Sad, unspeakably sad, is this.
Appreciation of the salvation which is ours, gratitude to the One who has done so much for us, compassion for the souls of the lost, obedience to the Savior's commands, all demand that we should publish abroad the glad tidings of divine grace. But how can I bear the vessels of the Lord if my own hands are unclean? How can I tell others of Christ's power to deliver from sin if I am living in it myself? How can I speak of the joy of salvation if I have lost it? How can I talk of the unspeakable blessedness of walking with God if I am out of communion with Him? We cannot serve God and mammon. We cannot live a life which is displeasing to God and be used in the service of Christ. His witness for Christ is nullified. Believers are living epistles read and known of all men and in proportion that sin is allowed in the life we misrepresent Christ before the world. Nay more, in proportion as sin is allowed by us Christ is dishonored and put to an open shame. O that we reflected more upon this! The Church is the Body of Christ. What is a body for? My body provides me with a home in this world. My body is a medium of communication, enabling me to come into contact with other people. My body is a vehicle of transportation; it is that which carries me from one place to another. My body is the instrument and organ through which I express and reveal myself: my eyes are the windows of my soul, my language is an index to the condition of my heart, my countenance reflects my character. And all that the body is to me and does for me, the Church is to Christ and does for Christ. And what is true of the Church collectively is true of the saints individually. Every believer is a member of the Body of Christ. Yes, every believer is himself a miniature body of Christ. I am to reflect Christ, reveal Christ, communicate Christ to others.
Am I doing this? Not if I am giving sin a place in my life. Selfishness, worldliness, the lying tongue, the unforgiving spirit—were any of these seen in me I am misrepresenting Christ before the world. His position in glory is affected. A place in glory is due solely to the grace of God, but the believer's position in glory is determined by his works, service, obedience as a believer. Every act performed in the name of Christ, every service which was constrained by the love of Christ, everything done for the glory of Christ, will in the coming day, receive its due reward. In proportion as we have failed to use our talents in the service of our Master, and instead, have indulged in self-pleasing and carnal gratification, we shall be losers in the world to come. We sometimes sing—"Will there be any stars in my crown?" It might be well for us to inquire whether we shall have any crown at all. There are crowns referred to in the New Testament, and each is a reward. If there has been no daily taking up of the cross there will be no eternal wearing of the crown. In the next world, believers will no more be all on one common level than they are now. The Lord Jesus said, "But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first" (Mat 19:30). "There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differs from another star in glory: so also is the resurrection of the dead" (1 Corinthians 15:41-42). In proportion as we now enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season shall we be losers in the next world. The figure which our Lord used at the close of the Sermon on the Mount—the building of a house—is amplified by the apostle in 1 Corinthians 3:11-15: "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he has built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire."
Every Christian is a builder. The foundation upon which he builds is Christ Himself. The materials he uses are the deeds and acts of his every-day life. The testing of our handiwork will take place at the second coming of Christ. The works which will be destroyed are those that were wrought in the energy of the flesh. The works which abide and receive a reward were those that were energized by the Holy Spirit and done out of loving gratitude to Christ. There will be a class who will "suffer loss" (of reward), whose works will be burned up, but who will be saved "yet so as by fire." We have a striking and solemn illustration of this class in the case of Lot. Lot was a "righteous" man (2 Peter 2:6-7). But his life did not count for God. Self filled his horizon. He was a worldling, occupied solely with the things of time and sense. Instead of living as a stranger and pilgrim on earth, he went and dwelt in the wicked city of Sodom. The time came when God determined to destroy this sink of iniquity. Because Lot was one of His children God sent an angel and delivered him. But all Lot's possessions perished, were burned up in Sodom. Personally, he was saved, but he "suffered loss." So will it be in the future. Lot was a pattern case. Those who are putting into their life nothing but wood, hay, stubble—dead works—will be the losers throughout eternity. His conduct will bring chastisement from the Lord. God is holy and sin must be punished. The sins of the believer must receive "a just recompense of reward" (Heb 2:2) equally as much as the sins of the unbeliever. The difference between them is not in the fact of punishment but in the time of punishment. The sins of the unbeliever will be punished in the world to come: the sins of the believer are punished in this world, here and now. Such was the experience of Jacob, of Moses, of David. They were chastised severely.
This is a scripture which very clearly sets forth the consequence of a believer's sinning—"If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; then will I visit their transgression with stripes. Nevertheless my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail" (Psalm 89:30-33). If God's children walk disorderly and disobediently they are not cast off or disinherited, but they are chastised with the rod of divine justice. If we sin we shall suffer—suffer in our bodies, in our souls, in our circumstances. His physical life is endangered. But suppose the Divine chastisement does not have the desired effect, then what? Suppose that instead of the transgressor humbling himself beneath the mighty hand of God, he hardens his heart? Suppose that instead of confessing and forsaking his sins he deliberately continues therein? In that case God will remove him by the stroke of death. In the first part of this article, we referred to the fact that the Corinthian believers, though guilty of the most awful sins, yet, were still indwelt by the Holy Spirit. But mark now the other side. Referring to other desecration of the Lord's Table the apostle says, "For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep [had died]" (1 Corinthians 11:30).
Dealing with the same solemn subject the Lord Jesus said, "Every branch in me that bears not fruit he takes away" (John 15:2). That is, removes it from the earth. The believer is to be a fruit-bearer, but if he fails to fulfill the purpose of his calling then God will not permit him to cumber the ground. It is to this the Apostle John refers when he says: "There is a sin unto death" (1 John 5:16). This is physical death, and the sin referred to is committed by a believer—see context. We understand this Scripture to mean—there is a limit to God's forbearance: after the believer has reached a certain point, he then "sins unto death." We have an illustration of this in the case of Moses. For his sin of striking the rock, the Lord cut him off out of the land of the living, refusing to allow him to enter Canaan. But that he was not lost is proven by the fact that he appeared with Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration. For a Christian to continue in known sin, and especially to remain unaffected by the chastening of the Lord, is to endanger and imperil his life. Hear now the conclusion of the whole matter: "Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap. For he who sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he who sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting" (Gal 6:7-8). May the Lord give both writer and reader a greater hatred of sin, a greater fear of displeasing Him, a greater desire to cleave to Him more closely.
2024.06.04 09:14 JohannGoethe Nutshell 🥜 history of chemical ⚗️ thermo 🔥🧊 dynamics 🔄⚙️
 | Abstract submitted by JohannGoethe to ChemThermo [link] [comments] An attempt to map out a quick Newton to Lavoisier to Clausius to Lewis snapshot history of chemical thermodynamics. Newton In 238A (1717), Newton, began to reorder the end of book “query” or open question sections his Opticks, in the final 237A (1718) version his, he made his Query 31 be his final question to the world; the synopsis or rather concluding point of which is: “Is it not for want of an attractive virtue [ΔG > 0] between the parts of water (∇) and oil, of quick-silver (☿)(Hg) and antimony (♁)(Sb), of lead (♄)(Pb) and iron (♂)(Fe), that these substances do not mix; and by a weak attraction (ΔG ≈ 0), that quick-silver (☿)(Hg) and copper (♀)(Cu) mix difficultly; and from a strong one [ΔG < 0], that quicksilver (☿)(Hg) and tin (♃)(Sn), antimony (♁)(Sb) and iron (♂)(Fe), water (∇) and salts, mix readily?”Affinity table In Aug 137A (1718), Etienne Geoffroy, during his translation of Newton’s Opticks in to French, transformed the verbal reaction descriptions of Newton's Query 31 into an affinity table, wherein in top row lists the main reaction species, and the columns below each top row species lists possible reactants, ordered by degree of affinity or attractive virtue, where 2nd row is strongest attraction, 3rd row is second strongest attraction, 4th row is third strongest attraction, 5th row is fourth strongest attraction, etc., with the weakest attraction listed as the last row: https://preview.redd.it/ot98almy6i4d1.jpg?width=1879&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2032f0015bc2f0035711fd86d80171b3e7125d49 Heat cycle In 172A (1783), Antoine Lavoisier and Pierre Laplace, in their Memoir on Heat, summarized the heat of reaction experiments they had done using a reaction system surrounded by an ice 🧊 bath 🛁, wherein the used the amount of ice melted to measure 🌡️ the heat or “matter of fire 🔥” as it was then called, released, in what might be called the combustion cycle 🔄, i.e. expansion cycle, of the reaction, similar to the reaction set up shown below left, where the orange part is the ice bath: https://preview.redd.it/q0k6wej07i4d1.jpg?width=957&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d14c0f40cb3d2320bff836c09ecb1e057c7633dc The hypothesis of the conservation of vis viva, defined previously by “mathematicians” as they put it, shown below, was the starting point: “In a system of bodies that act on one another in any manner whatsoever, the vis viva, that is to say the sum of the products of each mass by the square of the velocity is constant.”Secondly, was the premise of the reaction occurring in a ”cycle”, aka Lavoisier cycle, like the Papin engine (265A/1690), which operates in a sequence of heat mediated system expansion and system contraction steps, which is explained as follows; “If heat is a fluid, it is possible that during the combination of various substances, it combines with them or is evolved from them. Thus, nothing indicates a priori that the ‘free heat’ is the same before and after the combination; nothing, moreover, suggests in the hypothesis that heat is only the vis viva [kinetic energy] of the particles of bodies, for in substances that combine together, acting on one another by virtue of their mutual affinities, their particles are subjected to the action of attractive forcesthat can alter the amount of their vis viva, and, subsequently, the amount of heat. But one should accept the following principals being common to the two hypotheses: ‘If, in any combination or change of state, there is a decrease in free heat, this heat will reappear completely whenever the substances return to their original state; and conversely, if in the combination or in the change of state there is an increase in free heat, this new heat will disappear on the return of the substances to their original state.’ This principle, moreover, is confirmed by experiment, and in what follows the detonation of saltpeter will furnish us with visible proof. We can generalize it further, and extend it to all the phenomena of heat, in the following way: ‘All changes in heat, whether real or apparent, suffered by a system of bodies during a change of state of recur in the opposite sense when the system returns to its original state.’ Thus, the changes of ice into water and of water into vapor, cause the thermometerto show the disappearance of a very considerable amount of heat which reappears in the change of water into ice and in the condensing of vapors.”Lavoisier eventually began to call the conserved quantity by the name “caloric”. In 131A (1824), Sadi Carnot, in his Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire, building on Lavoisier’s heat reaction cycle theory, wherein particles of caloric are conserved, introduced the Carnot cycle, wherein a body of matter could be made to expand and contract, so to produce a certain amount of work in one cycle. Clausius In 90A (1865), Rudolf Clausius, building on the vis viva conservation logic and the Carnot’s cycle model, derived energy U formula for any body or system in the universe as follows: U = T + Jwhere T is vis viva and defined as follows: T = Σ½mv²Where m is the mass of the particles of the body and v is their velocity; and J is the ergal and defined as follows: dJ = -Σ (Xdx + Ydy + Zdz)Where dJ is the differential change in ergal, and X, Y, and Z are the forces acting on the particles of the body causing work to be done. Secondly, Clausius, building on William Thomson, replaced Lavoisier’s caloric for the following so-called N function N = Σ Q/Ttechnically called the “equivalence values of transformations”, where Q is an amount of heat entering or leaving the system at the absolute temperature T at the point of boundary transmission. This N function, barring prolonged digression, came to be called entropy, symbol S, albeit with a slightly different formulation. The two laws of heat thus became a first law: dQ = dU + dWand a second law: dQ = TdSThat when integrated yield a before and after value of energy ΔU and entropy ΔS change for the system. The Thomson-Clausius entropy model, confined at a Lavoisier-Papin engine cycle, is summarized as follows: https://preview.redd.it/5m581j8fai4d1.jpg?width=1587&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aff7301fb48630a24c515080cb2d2a6de2b2d7f1 Chemical thermodynamics In 86A (1869), August Horstmann, building on Clausius, applied energy ΔU and entropy ΔS to the heated 🔥 evaporation of ammonium chloride: NH4Cl ⇌ NH3 + HClIn Oct 82A (1873), Horstmann, announced the condition for chemical equilibrium to be that of “maximum entropy“, which means NOT maximum state of “chaos”, which Max Planck later came to popularize, in his confused theory, but rather the reaction state of maximum value of equivalence values of all uncompensated transformations as Clausius had defined things. In 79A (1876), Willard Gibbs, in his On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances, building on Clausius and Hosrtmann, established chemical thermodynamics as a new branch of science. In 73A (1882), Helmholtz, in his “On the Thermodynamics of Chemical Processes”, proved that the “free energies” changes of Gibbs, was the true measure of the forces of “affinities” defined by Newton. In 32A (1923), Gilbert Lewis, in his Thermodynamics and the Free Energy of Chemical Substances, building on Gibbs, presented a textbook summary of the experimentally measured table of formation energies of chemical species, that he and his assistant Merle Randall has been determining over the previous two decades; an example section of this table: https://preview.redd.it/rdw8zr43bi4d1.jpg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=12ebfe3873c1d4f05b627c5e5136b114b580c1c1 In this new system, devised by Lewis, the elements in their standard reference state, at 25ºC or standard temperature and pressure (STP), were assigned either zero value of formation energy, e.g. hydrogen has a zero value of formation energy, and the formation energies of chemical species formed from these standard state elements was calculated. In A20 (1975), Norman Dolloff, in his Heat Death and the Phoenix, building on Lewis, gave the following so-called "organism synthesis equation": https://preview.redd.it/m49yn9cmbi4d1.jpg?width=2041&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=02763b2d33ac0507af493ae69e2f578a8c191c20 Which shows that each organism, be it a bacteria 🦠, worm 🪱, or human has a formation energy ΔGºR associated with the reaction that brought that organism into its present state or form by the forces, energies, and work of the universe. Summary
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2024.06.04 02:25 Memiiselgey23 The 8 Choir Girls-Part II-ML
After the gruesome death of Karla Reyes, her memory still haunted me. I found myself constantly thinking about her, replaying our last moments together, and wishing I could change the outcome. The guilt and grief weighed heavily on my heart, and I knew that attending her funeral was something I needed to do, not just for Karla but for myself as well.
Five days after the discovery of Karla’s death, the day of the funeral arrived, and I made my way to the cathedral Catholic church, my heart heavy with sorrow. My family wasn't particularly religious, but Karla's family was, and I wanted to pay my respects in the way they would have wanted.
I entered the church, the familiar scent of incense and candles filled my nostrils, bringing back memories of Sunday school and holidays spent in these halls. I spotted Karla's family seated in the front pews, their faces etched with grief. My own family was there as well, offering their support and comfort during this difficult time.
My dad approached Karla's father, his eyes filled with sympathy. "I'm so sorry for your loss, Mr. Reyes. Has Karla mentioned anyone who might want to cause her harm? Anyone who wished her ill?"
Karla's father, his eyes red-rimmed and swollen, shook his head. "I can't think of anyone, Sheriff Anderson. Except..." He trailed off, his voice thick with emotion.
"There was a man, part of a pandilla, who wanted to kill my family. He had threatened us, but I never thought he would go after Karlita. I always kept my family protected, but maybe..." Mr. Reyes's voice broke, and he buried his face in his hands, his shoulders shaking with sobs.
My mom, who had been comforting Karla's mother, shot me a worried glance, her eyes filled with tears. Mrs. Reyes clutched my mom's hand, her grief-stricken voice calling out, "Porque a mi niña? Why my little Karla? Why you took her away from me so early?"
I made my way towards the coffin, my heart pounding in my chest. The coffin was made of rosewood, adorned with delicate orchids. It was a closed casket, and I felt a pang of sadness that I wouldn't be able to see Karla one last time, to say a proper goodbye. I placed a white rose on top of the coffin, my fingers trailing over the smooth wood. "Rest in peace, Karla," I mouthed out.
One month later, I remembered being in art class, trying to focus on the painting in front of me—a vibrant blue jay perched on a branch. It was a peaceful scene, but my mind kept wandering, my thoughts drifting back to Karla.
Suddenly, someone brushed past me, and I looked up to see Mandy Lake. She was known for her Gothic attire and multiple piercings. "Oops, sorry," she mumbled, taking a seat next to Hannah, who was jamming to Haley Kiyoko through her headphones.
Brandon returned from his bathroom break and slid into the seat next to me. "Hey, Lily, I might have heard some rumors popping up," he signed, his eyes downcast.
I signed, "What kind of rumors?"
Brandon opened his mouth to respond, but before he could speak, Ryan barged into the art room, his eyes landing on me. "Hey, Lily, I hear you're smoking a juul these days. You got hit this ganja with me?" he said with a smirk, walking towards us.
Brandon snapped, "She doesn't do that, Ryan. Leave her alone."
Ryan laughed, a mocking sound that grated on my nerves. "Maybe it's her twin Billie, then." He pulled out his iPhone 6, displaying a Snapchat video of me and Karla smoking a juul. I tried to make out the poster's handle, but Ryan swiped it away before I could read it.
Our art teacher, Ms. Taylor, appeared at Ryan's side, her eyes narrowed. "Get out of my class, Ryan, or I'm writing you up.”
“Geez, Ms. Tay-Tay. You're a buzzkill,” Ryan groaned and made a squealing sound, trying to mimic me. As he turned to leave, I purposely stuck out my foot, tripping him. He landed on his nose, as small specks of bloody boogers seeped from his nostrils. Getting up from his feet, Ryan stormed off, smearing the door with blood.
Ms. Taylor saw the whole thing and sighed in frustration. "Lily, I know you did that to defend yourself, but it's not the right thing to do," she said, her voice firm but understanding.
I signed angrily, "I don't care, Ms. Taylor. He shouldn't have bothered me in the first place.”
“Fair point,” Ms. Taylor's eyes widened at my response, and she shook her head, clearly at a loss for words.
In a rather abrupt manner, the speakers blared, "Lilibelle Anderson please report to the principal's office."
Everyone in the class turned to look at me, letting out ohss and whispers. Brandon had enough of it, slamming his hands on the table, "Shut the hell up, all of you."
“Don't sweat it,” I signed to Brandon, "I'll meet you after lunch," and left the room, my heart pounding.
Passing by the lockers, I stopped in front of one in particular—Karla's. It was covered in sticky notes, drawings, and pictures, along with flowers, all expressing grief and condolences. There was also a letter written by Mrs. Becker as well. The letter read.
“Dear Karla Reyes,
It is a tragedy to have lost a talented student like you. You were potential, shining bright like a star. Whoever monster did this to you deserves hell. Hope you rest in peace, and forever be singing in the choir of the heavens.
With much love,
Your Choir teacher.”
Alyssa appeared behind me, her voice soft. She towered over me, placing a hand on my shoulder. "It must be tough, losing a friend. But you shouldn't blame yourself, Lily. You were a victim too."
I looked at her, surprised by her kindness. She gave me a small smile and said, "Take care of yourself, okay?" Then she walked away, leaving me alone with my thoughts. At least Alyssa didn't look at me like I was the one who killed Karla. Fiona being one of those people who after Karla's death, looked at me like I was a monster.
I continued on my way to the principal's office, my heart heavy. Principal Kelly was waiting for me, his expression kind but stern. "How are you doing, Lily?" he asked, motioning for me to take a seat.
I signed, "I'm okay."
He nodded, his eyes filled with sympathy. "I'm so sorry about what happened to you, Lily. I wish I could take away your pain. But I'm afraid I have some disappointing news. You've broken a rule, and I have no choice but to give you a week of detention."
I signed, "Am I going to be expelled?”
Principal Kelly shook his head. "No, Lilibelle. I understand you've been through a lot, and I want to give you a chance to make things right. But I can't condone vaping on school property."
I crossed my arms, frustration building inside me. "Who told you about the vape video?”
He hesitated, his hands placed up high on top of his balding head. "I can't tell you that. But I want you to know that I'm on your side.”
I shook my head, my anger rising. "I'll find it out myself," I signed, my eyes flashing.
With that, I left his office, tears pricking at the corners of my eyes. I noticed a group of students huddled together, whispering and glancing in my direction. I recognized Brianne among them, and my heart sank. Whatever rumor was spreading, it was gaining traction.
I quickened my pace, eager to get away from their judgmental stares. As I turned the corner, I collided with someone, sending our books flying. "Oh, I'm so sorry," I signed, bending to pick up the fallen books.
The girl I had bumped into offered me a hand, her eyes warm and sympathetic. "It's okay. Are you alright?”
I recognized her as Sarah Miller, a fellow freshmen from a different homeroom and a member of the Journaling club. She was one of the girls. I always saw them hanging out in the school library, reading newspapers and what not. From word of mouth, Sarah was Alyssa’s cousin and used to be inseparable. Part of me wanted to know more about Alyssa, and maybe just maybe Sarah knew something.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I signed, taking her hand and hoisting myself up. "Thanks."
She smiled at me, her eyes kind. "No problem. Hey, um, I know we don't really know each other that well, but if you ever need someone to talk to, I'm here. I know you've been through a lot lately."
I nodded, my throat tightening with emotion. "Thanks, Sarah. I appreciate it.”
“Mhm. Oh yeah, I was wondering if you had lunch B?”
“Who doesn't have Lunch B. Everyone and their mothers have Lunch B.”
Sarah let out a giggle, tucking one of her honey blonde strands behind her ears. “That's so true. Anyways….you wanna eat together or-”
Seeing how shy Sarah was made me like her a lot. She was endearing in a way, and of course I would want to be friends with a kind individual. “Sure, why not.” I gestured, with a welcoming tone.
After a few classes later, I headed to lunch with Matt and Brandon, my stomach rumbling in anticipation of the school's infamous chicken nuggets. Matt chatted about his plans to go grocery shopping with his mom after school, complaining about having to make the list during Allegra's class.
"I actually find grocery shopping fun," I signed, my eyes lighting up at the thought. "Especially when I get to pick out my favorite peaches."
Matt brows drooped, as he hugged on his gray sleeves. “Groceries can be fun, but try buying groceries in bulk. Mom always says it saves trips, but rolling 6 carts of food kills my back.”
“Oh..”
“Yep. That's one of the downsides of being filthy rich.”
I noticed Brandon's silence, his eyes distant as he lost himself in his thoughts. Matt, ever observant, asked, "You okay, Brandon? Still dealing with what happened the day of Karla's disappearance?”
Brandon lied, forcing a weak smile. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just tired."
Matt's concerned gaze didn't waver. "Are you sure? You know you can talk to me about anything."
Brandon nodded, his eyes flicking to me. "Actually, there's something I wanted to tell you both, but... it can wait."
Matt's brow furrowed, but he let it go, changing the subject. "Why don't you two find a table? I'll go grab our lunches."
As we made our way to secure a spot, Brandon blurted out, "I know who posted the video.”
I froze, my eyes widening. "What?"
Brandon took a deep breath, his eyes fixed on the ground. "I confronted Ryan in the bathroom. Pinned him against the wall and interrogated him."
I could sort of imagine that happening; out of our trio, Brandon was the most developed and could even pass for a sophomore. Some kids are early bloomers, others such as Matt and myself were late bloomers.
"And?" I prompted, my heart pounding.
"Matt suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and Ryan freaked out, blurting out the poster's name," Brandon continued, his voice tight. "Matt was confused as to why Ryan freaked out, but I knew it was because he was guilty.”
"Was it someone we know?" I asked, my fingers discreetly moved, mimicking a whisper.
Brandon nodded, his eyes meeting mine. "It's Mandy Lake."
I looked down at my lap, sadness washing over me. I knew it would be one of the choir girls, but to find out it was Mandy….I was surprised. She had always seemed so nice, but I guessed appearances could be deceiving.
Just then, Sarah appeared, her face lighting up when she spotted me. "Hey, Lily! How's it going?"
I smiled, my mood instantly lifting at the sight of my friend. "Good! Sarah, this is Brandon. Brandon, Sarah.”
Brandon shook Sarah's hand, a nervous smile on his face. "Nice to meet you. I'm a fan of your newspaper column, 'Unsolved Cases of Meadows Dale.' It's my favorite read."
Sarah laughed, her eyes sparkling with delight. "Oh, wow! I'm super into mysteries, so I guess it makes sense."
Matt appeared with three trays, placing them in front of us with a flourish. "Here you go, my friends. Wish I could be buff like Arnold Schwarzenegger so I could carry six plates at once."
He turned to Sarah, a teasing glint in his eye. "Have you adopted another stray, Lily?”
I signed, "Yes we did. We're a band of four strays, surrounded by purebred pups."
“Sweet!” Matt grinned, popping a fry into his mouth. "Anyways, well, I heard Brianne Becker started dating Ryan. Talk about the unholy couple."
Brandon groaned, rolling his eyes. "Ugh, I heard about that. They are perfect for each other."
“What? They are dating?” My mouth agape, It was sorta surprising that Brianne and Ryan were a thing, although such a concept wasn't out of reach.
"It's true. I saw them together yesterday, they were sharing a cone together.” Sarah chimed in, as she pulled out some books from her light pink backpack. She then added, "Also, before Brianne, Ryan tried to date Alyssa once, and she refused him."
“Oh really?” Matt nodded, taking a bite of his burger. "Obviously, if I were Alyssa, I'd do the same. Good call.”
I nodded, my eyes dropping to the book she picked up to read. "What are you reading?"
She held up the book, a copy of The Perks of Being a Wallflower. "It's one of my favorites. It's about this shy, introverted freshman and his journey through high school. It's a beautiful story about friendship and self-discovery."
I smiled, recognizing the title. "I've heard great things about it. Maybe I'll give it a read."
Sarah's eyes lit up. "You should! And if you ever want to talk about it, I'm here. I love discussing books.”
Brandon raised one of his brows, while he took glimpses of the book. “Wait, was there a movie version with Emma Watson in it?”
“Mhm. That's the one. Emma Watson was so pretty in that movie!” Sarah confirmed, her eyes glued to her book. Brandon looked at me, I could tell his face was flushed in bright pink.
I took a sip of my chocolate milk, my eyes flitting between my friends. "You know, I've been meaning to ask... what exactly happened that day? The day of Karla's disappearance and mine?"
“Lily..”
“Tell me what I want to know.”
“Okay fine,” Brandon cleared his throat, his eyes flicking to Matt. "Do you want us to take you there? To the abandoned shed?"
I nodded, my heart pounding in my chest. "Yes. I think I need to see it."
Curious, while sliding a Harry Potter book mark inside her book, Sarah spoke, “What shed? You mean the one by the woods located near the Skating Rink?”
Matt winked “Bingo!”
“So you guys want to go there? Today, right?”
Brandon and I nodded, “Pretty much.”
I could hear Sarah darting her hand inside her backpack, loud rustling sounds indicated that she was searching for something. Her mouth formed into a smile, digging out a Polaroid camera out of her now disorganized backpack. “Here! Unfortunately I can't join you guys for your adventure, cuz of Journalism club. I hope this helps.” Sarah plopped the camera in my hands, it weighed a bit in my hands.
“Thanks, Sarah!” I signed in gratitude, fascinated by how it felt in my hands.
“No problem. Just be careful with it. My grandma got it for me on my birthday, okay?”
“Deal. If somehow my fat ass breaks it, you can definitely press charges.” Matt held up his hand as he made an oath. I couldn't help but laugh, while Sarah let out a worrisome whine.
Sarah shook her head with a defeated smile, placing her pink colored nail finger on her teeth. “Ah, I love you guys already.”
“Same-uh I mean nice,” Brandon exchanged a glance with me, sweat dripping in his temple. "Okay," he said, his voice gentle. "Let's go after school.”
We finished our lunches in comfortable silence, my mind racing with anticipation and trepidation. I knew visiting the shed would bring back painful memories, but I needed to face them head-on.
After school, around 6pm we made our way to the shed, located in a secluded area near the skating rink. The sun was low in the sky, casting long shadows that danced eerily in the breeze. We approached the dilapidated structure, my heart began to pound in my chest. This was the place where I had been held captive, where I had endured unimaginable horrors. Where I saw that video of Karla.
Matt placed a gentle hand on my shoulder. "You don't have to go in if you don't want to, Lily. We can just show you the outside."
I shook my head, steeling myself. "No, I want to see it all. I need to."
Brandon opened the creaking door, and we stepped inside, the musty air thick with memories. The shed was empty now, but I could still feel the weight of the past lingering in the air. With Sarah's polaroid camera, I snapped a few photos. Matt grabbed the photos, shaking them up and down to see if the film developed.
I took a shaky breath, my eyes scanning the space. "This is where he kept me…” I trailed off, unable to continue. Brandon's arm slipped around my shoulders, offering silent support.
Matt's face was grim as he surveyed the shed. "We searched this place after you were found, but there was no sign of the kidnapper. It was like he vanished into thin air."
I nodded, my eyes fixed on the dusty floor. "He was careful. He always wore gloves, a mask... I never saw his face."
Brandon's voice was gentle. "But you heard his voice. Anything distinctive about it?"
I shook my head, my eyes stinging with unshed tears. "Just that it was deep and distorted, like he was using a voice changer or something.”
Brandon's jaw clenched, his fists balling at his sides. "We'll find him, Lily. I just know our dad's are going to do something about this."
I nodded, grateful for their determination. "Thank you, both. I know it's not easy for you either."
We stood in silence for a few moments, each of us lost in our thoughts. Finally, I took a deep breath, steeling myself. "Let's go. Being here brings back too many memories."
Matt squeezed my shoulder, his eyes understanding. "Of course, Lily. We can come back another time if you want, but for now, let's get the heck out of here.”
We stepped back into the fading light, the shed's creaking door closing behind us with a soft thud. I took a deep breath of the fresh air, grateful to be away from the suffocating confines of that place. Just to only feel a set of eyes watching me from the woods.
As we walked back towards town, Matt asked, "So, what's the plan for tonight? Movie night? We could do a horror flick, maybe something with Arnold Schwarzenegger."
I shook my head, signing, "No horror movies for me. I've had enough scares in real life."
Brandon laughed, punching Matt's arm playfully. "Come on, man, Lily's right. Let's go for a comedy or an action flick.”
Matt feigned hurt, his hand over his heart. "Fine, fine. No horror. But we're definitely watching 'Predator' next week. It's a classic."
I rolled my eyes, signing, "Fine. But only if we get pizza and ice cream."
Brandon grinned, rubbing his hands together. "Deal! Extra cheese and pepperoni for me."
That night, as we settled in for our movie night in my house. It was much closer, so I asked my Mom if Brandon and Matt could sleep over for the night. Mom was setting the pepperoni topped lasagna inside of the oven, as she said, “Sure they can stay! Just make sure you make them call their parents for permission, okay?”
“I will.” I assured my mother, before running back to the living. I hopped on one of the sofas, catching Brandon off guard.
“So…” Brandon and Matt asked.
“What happened?”
Matt brought up the topic of The Masked Man once again. "Lily, is there anything else you can remember about him? Any small detail could help us track him down."
I shook my head, my eyes fixed on the TV screen. "I've told you everything, Matt. I never saw his face, and his voice was distorted. I'm sorry."
Brandon spoke up, his eyes thoughtful. "What about his scent? Did he wear cologne or anything distinctive?"
I furrowed my brow, trying to recall. "I... I think he might have worn cologne. Something woody and musky. It was faint, but I remember catching a whiff of it a few times."
Matt's eyes lit up. "That's something! We can ask around, see if anyone recognizes that scent. It could be a crucial piece of the puzzle."
I nodded, a glimmer of hope sparking within me. "Okay. I'll try to remember more details. Maybe there's something else I've missed.”
The movie began, and we settled in, our bowls of popcorn and soda within reach. Funny enough after watching Forrest Gump, we had fallen asleep on top of each other. About three hours later, I woke up, disoriented, and realized I had fallen asleep on the couch with Brandon and Matt. Brandon was sleeping on the edge, his limbs dangling off the couch, while Matt was hugging me in his sleep. I carefully slipped out of Matt's arms, not wanting to wake him, and groggily walked towards the darkness of the kitchen.
The glass back door loomed in front of me, and I remembered the night before, my dad had recently started to put his deputies to watch over our house every night. I had felt safe with them, and that was the reason I wanted to invite Matt and Brandon to have a sleepover in my house.
I yawned and stretched, my eyes adjusting to the dim light. The kitchen was quiet, the only sound the ticking of the clock. I made my way to the back door, my heart pounding. I knew I shouldn't open it, but something compelled me to do so.
With trembling hands, I unlocked the door and stepped outside into the cool night air. The backyard was bathed in moonlight, and I felt a sense of peace wash over me. I took a deep breath, the scent of freshly cut grass filling my lungs.
Suddenly, I heard a noise. It sounded like a twig snapping. My heart raced, and I froze, my eyes scanning the yard. I couldn't see anyone, but I knew I wasn't alone.
"Who's there?” Signing cautiously, I wait for a response. It could have been a cat or dog walking around. However it sounded like a hard boot walking.
No answer. I took a cautious step backward, my heart pounding in my chest. Then, from the shadows, a figure emerged. It was tall and broad, dressed in black from head to toe. That same mask covered their face, obscuring their identity. It was him again.
I backed away, my heart pounding. "Stay away from me, please.” I tried to communicate with the figure, my fingers becoming slippery with sweat.
He didn't respond, but continued to advance, their steps slow and deliberate. I turned to run back inside, but the door was locked. I frantically tried the handle, my heart pounding in my ears.
"Let me in!" I frantically waved my hands and screamed an awful ear piercing screech. My fists furiously banging on the door.
The Masked Man was getting closer, and I knew I had to act fast. I searched for a weapon, my eyes landing on a garden rake leaning against the wall. I grabbed it and swung it at the figure, connecting with their arm. They let out a pained grunt, but didn't stop. I swung again, this time hitting their leg. They stumbled, but quickly recovered, their eyes fixed on me.
I backed away, my heart pounding. "Stay back!" I tried to shout, my voice scratchy and whistling. None of the words that came out of my mouth were incoherent. It was horrible, that even my own voice betrayed me.
The Masked Man lunged at me, and I swung the rake again, this time hitting them in the chest. They fell to the ground, and I took the opportunity to run back inside, locking the door behind me. I leaned against it, my breath coming in ragged gasps.
Brandon and Matt rushed into the kitchen, their eyes wide. "What happened? We heard you scream," Brandon said, his voice full of concern.
I signed, my hands shaking, "There was someone in the backyard. They tried to get in."
Matt looked out the window, his face pale. "I don't see anyone out there now. Are you sure it wasn't just a dream?"
I shook my head, my heart still pounding. "I'm sure. I hit them with the rake. They fell, but then they got back up and kept coming."
Brandon's eyes widened. "We need to call the police. This is serious, Lily."
I nodded, my hands still shaking. "Okay. But first, let's make sure all the doors and windows are locked. I don't want them getting in."
We spent the next few minutes checking every door and window in the house, making sure they were securely locked. My Dad and police arrived soon after, and we explained what had happened. They searched the backyard but found no sign of the intruder.
The officer took my statement, his face grim. He informed my Dad with instructions. "We'll increase patrols in the area, but in the meantime, stay vigilant. Keep your doors and windows locked, and be aware of your surroundings, Sheriff.”
“Thank you, Officer Devins,” My dad thanked the officer, before heading in my way. He looked at me with concern, before rubbing his eyes in a worried manner. “Hey Lilibee. You should go to sleep. Daddy's going to be staying awake for the night. It's to keep you safe.”
“Okay,” I hugged my father, my heart was still pounding from the encounter. That night, I had trouble sleeping, my mind replaying the events over and over. The Masked Man had found me again that night. I didn't know how or when, but he was back. I had a good feeling this wasn't his last appearance.
I hurried down the hallway, my heart pounding in my chest. It had been a long day, and I was eager to get this detention over with and go home. When I approached the office, I saw the old secretary, Mrs. Miller, gossiping on the phone, her eyes glued to her screen. I took the opportunity to slip past her unnoticed and make my way towards Dr. Wells' office.
The door was slightly ajar, and I knocked gently before pushing it open. Dr. Wells looked up from his laptop, a soft smile spreading across his face when he saw me.
"Lily, what a pleasant surprise," he signed, motioning for me to come in. "How are your painting classes going?"
I signed back, while sitting down on the couch. "They're going really well, thank you. I'm enjoying it a lot."
Dr. Wells laughed, his eyes crinkling at the corners. "That's wonderful to hear. And how are you doing otherwise? Still dealing with the aftermath of what happened that day?"
I kicked my feet awkwardly, feeling a rush of emotions as I thought about the kidnapping. "I went back to the spot where he held me," I confessed. "I thought it would give me closure, but then I started having nightmares about him again."
Dr. Wells tilted his head, his expression concerned. "And how did that make you feel?" he asked gently.
I nervously averted my eyes to the paintings hanging on his walls, beautiful landscapes and abstracts in rich colors. "I thought I was doing better," I signed. "But then he came back again, and I realized I'm still scared. My dad is the sheriff, though, and he has cops outside my house, so I know I'm safe."
Dr. Wells' expression remained neutral, almost pensive. "It's good that you're taking precautions and seeking support," he said slowly, his lips twitching slightly as he formed the words. "I'm always here if you need to talk, Lily."
I nodded, feeling a wave of gratitude for this kind man. "Thank you, Dr. Wells," I signed. "By the way, why do they call you 'doctor'? I thought you were just the school counselor."
A soft laugh escaped his lips. "Well, I do have my doctorate degree in forensic psychology," he explained. "I often work with the police on cases, especially those involving youth. It can be quite fascinating, although it keeps me busy at night."
"No wonder you always look so tired," I teased, a smile playing at my lips. "Did you get the degree to impress all the ladies?"
Dr. Wells laughed heartily, his eyes sparkling with amusement. "Maybe," he joked. "Or maybe I just wanted to pay off my student loans someday."
Changing the subject, he stood up and opened a small fridge behind his desk. "Speaking of which, are you hungry? I have some bacon-chicken salads here if you'd like one."
"Sure," I signed, my stomach rumbling at the mention of food.
Dr. Wells pulled out two plates, each with a generous serving of salad. He handed one to me and took a seat across from me at the small table in the corner of his office. I dug into the salad, and it was delicious—the perfect combination of crispy bacon, tender chicken, and fresh greens. I savored every bite, feeling grateful for this unexpected meal.
As I popped a slice of hard-boiled egg into my mouth, Dr. Wells asked, "So, Lily, do you have detention today?"
I nodded, signing, "Yes, I do. I got into a bit of trouble for vaping, so I have to serve an hour of detention with Ms. Asinley."
Dr. Wells' expression softened. "I'm sorry to hear that," he said sincerely. "I hope it goes well. Just remember that I'm here if you need any support or if you want to talk about anything."
"Thanks, Dr. Wells," I said, feeling a warm blush spread across my cheeks. "You're so sweet."
Before I knew it, an hour had passed, and it was time for me to head to my detention. I stood up, stretching my legs, and bid Dr. Wells goodbye, feeling a sense of warmth and contentment in my heart.
"Take care, Lily," Dr. Wells signed, his eyes warm and friendly. "Remember, I'll always keep an eye out for you."
I smiled and waved as I left his office, feeling a boost of confidence. Dr. Wells had a way of making me feel like everything was going to be alright. Making my way down the hallway towards the U.S. history room, I spotted Ms. Asinley, the pregnant teacher who was overseeing my detention. She smiled at me gently and motioned for me to take a seat wherever I liked.
The room was quiet, with only a few other students serving detention that day. I chose a desk by the window, the afternoon sunlight streaming in and warming my face. I pulled out my algebra homework and began to work, grateful for the peaceful atmosphere.
Ms. Asinley walked over to my desk, her hands resting gently on her swollen belly. "How are you doing today, Lily?" she asked softly, her eyes kind. "Is there anything I can help you with?"
I shook my head, signing, "No, thank you, Ms. Asinley. I'm just working on my algebra homework. It's nice to have a quiet place to focus."
She smiled and patted my shoulder gently. "You know where to find me if you need anything," she said, before moving on to check on the other students.
I settled into my work, grateful for this unexpected moment of calmness. As I worked through the equations, I felt a sense of satisfaction and peace wash over me. Detention didn't seem so bad as I thought, and I was making good progress on my missing assignments. That was until the door burst open, and two figures stormed in, bringing with them a gust of fresh air and the scent of grass and sweat.
Alyssa and Emma, dressed in their red and black soccer uniforms, strode into the room, their faces flushed from practice. "Hey, Ms. Asinley," Emma called out, waving a paper assignment in her hand. "Sorry this is late. I completely forgot about it."
Ms. Asinley, her hands resting comfortably on her pregnant belly, smiled brightly at the girls. "It's quite alright, Emma. No need to apologize." She took the assignment from Emma and made a note in her book.
Alyssa, her eyes sparkling with curiosity, turned to Ms. Asinley and asked, "So, when's the baby coming? You must be getting close, right?"
Ms. Asinley's face lit up, and she placed a gentle hand on her belly. "I'm due in about four months," she replied, her voice warm and happy. "I might start planning the baby shower soon, although I think I'll wait until I'm closer to seven months."
"Ooh, a baby shower!" Alyssa exclaimed, her eyes shining with excitement. "I can't wait! I love babies."
Emma smiled at her friend's enthusiasm and added, "We'll definitely be there. Just let us know when and where."
Ms. Asinley thanked them, and the two girls were heading to the door, still chatting excitedly about the upcoming baby shower. Alyssa caught my eye and waved before leaving the class. I waved back, feeling a sense of warmth despite my earlier envy. Alyssa had always been surprisingly friendly to me, and I never quite understood why. Honestly, I was just an asshole as a kid, and I wished I didn't need to be this way.
As I shifted in my seat, I realized I needed to use the bathroom. I raised my hand and caught Ms. Asinley's attention. "May I please be excused to go to the restroom?" I signed, feeling a bit self-conscious.
Ms. Asinley nodded and signed, "Of course, Lily. Take your time."
I gathered my things and headed out of the classroom, grateful for the opportunity to stretch my legs. As I walked down the empty hallway, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was being watched. I told myself it was just my imagination running wild after last night's incident, but the atmosphere felt off.
I quickened my pace, eager to reach the girl's bathroom at the end of the hall. As I pushed open the door, I spotted a familiar figure—Mandy, one of the popular girls from my grade. She was taking a drag from a raspberry lemonade Juul, the sweet-smelling vapor hanging in the air.
"So, you're the one who showed the video to Principal Kelly," I signed, my eyes narrowing.
Mandy froze, her eyes widening in surprise. "Who told you that?" she demanded, her voice shaking.
I shrugged, signing, "Does it matter? You should be careful, Mandy. Maybe it's your turn to face the consequences now."
Mandy's face paled, and she took a step towards me, her voice urgent. "You can't tell Principal Kelly about this, Lily. You just can't."
I crossed my arms, a challenge in my eyes. "Why not?" I asked.
Before Mandy could respond, a bloodcurdling scream tore through the bathroom, causing us both to jump. Mandy grabbed my hand, her eyes wild with fear. She dragged me out of the bathroom, our footsteps echoed through the halls. “Come with me! Now!"
I followed her, my heart pounding in my chest. We ran down the hall, Mandy's grip tight on my hand. "What happened?" I frantically signed.
"There's a man—a masked man. He was peeking at us through the gap in the stall door," she whispered, her voice shaking.
My heart hammered in my chest as I frantically signed, "What? Are you serious?"
Mandy nodded, her eyes darting around the bathroom nervously. "We have to tell an adult," I signed, taking a step towards the door.
"No!" Mandy hissed, pulling me back. "We can't. He could still be out there. We need to hide."
I felt a rush of fear as I realized the gravity of the situation. "Where can we go?" I asked, my eyes scanning the bathroom for a possible hiding place.
Mandy grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the door. "Come on, we have to get out of here. We'll find a teacher and alert them, but we can't stay here."
I followed Mandy, my heart pounding in my chest. We rushed down the hallway, our eyes darting around, searching for any sign of the masked man. The school felt eerily quiet, the afternoon sun casting long shadows on the walls.
Mandy led me towards the gymnasium, her eyes darting around nervously. "In here," she whispered, pushing open the door. "Hide in the storage closet near the mats. I'll try to find a teacher and come back for you."
I nodded, my heart racing as I stepped into the dimly lit gymnasium. The large space felt oppressive in the fading light, the rumble of the air conditioning adding to the eerie atmosphere. I hurried over to the storage closet and slipped inside, pulling the door shut behind me.
The closet was small and cramped, filled with stacks of mats and sports equipment. I sat down, hugging my knees to my chest, and tried to calm my racing heart. The darkness and the constant rumbling noise made me feel on edge, and I found myself straining to listen for any signs of Mandy's return.
As the minutes ticked by, I became increasingly aware of the need to use the bathroom. The urge to pee was plaguing me, and I shifted uncomfortably, willing my bladder to cooperate. The darkness and the silence, broken only by the hum of the air conditioning, made the time feel endless. Just as I thought I couldn't take it anymore, I heard the door to the gymnasium open. I perked up, my heart racing as I waited for Mandy to enter. But it wasn't Mandy who stepped into the room.
The Masked Man stood in the doorway, his blood-smeared mask sending a chill down my spine. He crouched down, his eyes locking with mine, and placed something metal on the ground—Mandy's brow piercing.
Just as he walked away, almost like a cat dropping off a dead mouse, I felt a warm release between my legs. I had lost control of my bladder, the warm liquid spreading across my pants and soaking through to the floor. I felt a wave of embarrassment wash over me, and I could do nothing to stop it. However, I was scared shit less to even react, and there I knew Mandy was gone.
Soon enough, the next day, the gym teacher, Mr. Woods, and his male gymnastics students were checking on the mats when they made a gruesome discovery. One of the gymnasts unfolded a mat, and there, wrapped up like a present, was fifteen-year-old Mandy Lake. Her jaw was ripped open, her ribs shattered, and her nails were peeling off, almost as if she had been clawing at a hard surface. Similar to Karla, Mandy's larynx was missing, ripped out of her throat.
Just like Karla Reyes….
I later found out why Mandy hadn't wanted me to tell the principal about her situation. You see, Mandy came from a single-mother household, and her mother worked at an adult-themed diner. Some busybody neighbors thought this wasn't a good influence on the children and called Child Protective Services, or CPS, on Ms. Lake.
Thankfully, CPS saw no issue with the situation. However, if Mandy were to cause any trouble or draw negative attention, it could risk not only her but also her siblings being taken away. Mandy was like a second mother to those kids, and her death hit Ms. Lake hard. Last time I heard of Ms. Lake was about a year ago. She was battling with a methamphetamine addiction, and that resulted in her death. All because of me. All because of him.
In the end, Mandy Lake was the second victim, but wasn't the last one. They're are 6 Choir Girls left.
submitted by Memiiselgey23 to MemisworldsStories_23 [link] [comments]
Five days after the discovery of Karla’s death, the day of the funeral arrived, and I made my way to the cathedral Catholic church, my heart heavy with sorrow. My family wasn't particularly religious, but Karla's family was, and I wanted to pay my respects in the way they would have wanted.
I entered the church, the familiar scent of incense and candles filled my nostrils, bringing back memories of Sunday school and holidays spent in these halls. I spotted Karla's family seated in the front pews, their faces etched with grief. My own family was there as well, offering their support and comfort during this difficult time.
My dad approached Karla's father, his eyes filled with sympathy. "I'm so sorry for your loss, Mr. Reyes. Has Karla mentioned anyone who might want to cause her harm? Anyone who wished her ill?"
Karla's father, his eyes red-rimmed and swollen, shook his head. "I can't think of anyone, Sheriff Anderson. Except..." He trailed off, his voice thick with emotion.
"There was a man, part of a pandilla, who wanted to kill my family. He had threatened us, but I never thought he would go after Karlita. I always kept my family protected, but maybe..." Mr. Reyes's voice broke, and he buried his face in his hands, his shoulders shaking with sobs.
My mom, who had been comforting Karla's mother, shot me a worried glance, her eyes filled with tears. Mrs. Reyes clutched my mom's hand, her grief-stricken voice calling out, "Porque a mi niña? Why my little Karla? Why you took her away from me so early?"
I made my way towards the coffin, my heart pounding in my chest. The coffin was made of rosewood, adorned with delicate orchids. It was a closed casket, and I felt a pang of sadness that I wouldn't be able to see Karla one last time, to say a proper goodbye. I placed a white rose on top of the coffin, my fingers trailing over the smooth wood. "Rest in peace, Karla," I mouthed out.
One month later, I remembered being in art class, trying to focus on the painting in front of me—a vibrant blue jay perched on a branch. It was a peaceful scene, but my mind kept wandering, my thoughts drifting back to Karla.
Suddenly, someone brushed past me, and I looked up to see Mandy Lake. She was known for her Gothic attire and multiple piercings. "Oops, sorry," she mumbled, taking a seat next to Hannah, who was jamming to Haley Kiyoko through her headphones.
Brandon returned from his bathroom break and slid into the seat next to me. "Hey, Lily, I might have heard some rumors popping up," he signed, his eyes downcast.
I signed, "What kind of rumors?"
Brandon opened his mouth to respond, but before he could speak, Ryan barged into the art room, his eyes landing on me. "Hey, Lily, I hear you're smoking a juul these days. You got hit this ganja with me?" he said with a smirk, walking towards us.
Brandon snapped, "She doesn't do that, Ryan. Leave her alone."
Ryan laughed, a mocking sound that grated on my nerves. "Maybe it's her twin Billie, then." He pulled out his iPhone 6, displaying a Snapchat video of me and Karla smoking a juul. I tried to make out the poster's handle, but Ryan swiped it away before I could read it.
Our art teacher, Ms. Taylor, appeared at Ryan's side, her eyes narrowed. "Get out of my class, Ryan, or I'm writing you up.”
“Geez, Ms. Tay-Tay. You're a buzzkill,” Ryan groaned and made a squealing sound, trying to mimic me. As he turned to leave, I purposely stuck out my foot, tripping him. He landed on his nose, as small specks of bloody boogers seeped from his nostrils. Getting up from his feet, Ryan stormed off, smearing the door with blood.
Ms. Taylor saw the whole thing and sighed in frustration. "Lily, I know you did that to defend yourself, but it's not the right thing to do," she said, her voice firm but understanding.
I signed angrily, "I don't care, Ms. Taylor. He shouldn't have bothered me in the first place.”
“Fair point,” Ms. Taylor's eyes widened at my response, and she shook her head, clearly at a loss for words.
In a rather abrupt manner, the speakers blared, "Lilibelle Anderson please report to the principal's office."
Everyone in the class turned to look at me, letting out ohss and whispers. Brandon had enough of it, slamming his hands on the table, "Shut the hell up, all of you."
“Don't sweat it,” I signed to Brandon, "I'll meet you after lunch," and left the room, my heart pounding.
Passing by the lockers, I stopped in front of one in particular—Karla's. It was covered in sticky notes, drawings, and pictures, along with flowers, all expressing grief and condolences. There was also a letter written by Mrs. Becker as well. The letter read.
“Dear Karla Reyes,
It is a tragedy to have lost a talented student like you. You were potential, shining bright like a star. Whoever monster did this to you deserves hell. Hope you rest in peace, and forever be singing in the choir of the heavens.
With much love,
Your Choir teacher.”
Alyssa appeared behind me, her voice soft. She towered over me, placing a hand on my shoulder. "It must be tough, losing a friend. But you shouldn't blame yourself, Lily. You were a victim too."
I looked at her, surprised by her kindness. She gave me a small smile and said, "Take care of yourself, okay?" Then she walked away, leaving me alone with my thoughts. At least Alyssa didn't look at me like I was the one who killed Karla. Fiona being one of those people who after Karla's death, looked at me like I was a monster.
I continued on my way to the principal's office, my heart heavy. Principal Kelly was waiting for me, his expression kind but stern. "How are you doing, Lily?" he asked, motioning for me to take a seat.
I signed, "I'm okay."
He nodded, his eyes filled with sympathy. "I'm so sorry about what happened to you, Lily. I wish I could take away your pain. But I'm afraid I have some disappointing news. You've broken a rule, and I have no choice but to give you a week of detention."
I signed, "Am I going to be expelled?”
Principal Kelly shook his head. "No, Lilibelle. I understand you've been through a lot, and I want to give you a chance to make things right. But I can't condone vaping on school property."
I crossed my arms, frustration building inside me. "Who told you about the vape video?”
He hesitated, his hands placed up high on top of his balding head. "I can't tell you that. But I want you to know that I'm on your side.”
I shook my head, my anger rising. "I'll find it out myself," I signed, my eyes flashing.
With that, I left his office, tears pricking at the corners of my eyes. I noticed a group of students huddled together, whispering and glancing in my direction. I recognized Brianne among them, and my heart sank. Whatever rumor was spreading, it was gaining traction.
I quickened my pace, eager to get away from their judgmental stares. As I turned the corner, I collided with someone, sending our books flying. "Oh, I'm so sorry," I signed, bending to pick up the fallen books.
The girl I had bumped into offered me a hand, her eyes warm and sympathetic. "It's okay. Are you alright?”
I recognized her as Sarah Miller, a fellow freshmen from a different homeroom and a member of the Journaling club. She was one of the girls. I always saw them hanging out in the school library, reading newspapers and what not. From word of mouth, Sarah was Alyssa’s cousin and used to be inseparable. Part of me wanted to know more about Alyssa, and maybe just maybe Sarah knew something.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I signed, taking her hand and hoisting myself up. "Thanks."
She smiled at me, her eyes kind. "No problem. Hey, um, I know we don't really know each other that well, but if you ever need someone to talk to, I'm here. I know you've been through a lot lately."
I nodded, my throat tightening with emotion. "Thanks, Sarah. I appreciate it.”
“Mhm. Oh yeah, I was wondering if you had lunch B?”
“Who doesn't have Lunch B. Everyone and their mothers have Lunch B.”
Sarah let out a giggle, tucking one of her honey blonde strands behind her ears. “That's so true. Anyways….you wanna eat together or-”
Seeing how shy Sarah was made me like her a lot. She was endearing in a way, and of course I would want to be friends with a kind individual. “Sure, why not.” I gestured, with a welcoming tone.
After a few classes later, I headed to lunch with Matt and Brandon, my stomach rumbling in anticipation of the school's infamous chicken nuggets. Matt chatted about his plans to go grocery shopping with his mom after school, complaining about having to make the list during Allegra's class.
"I actually find grocery shopping fun," I signed, my eyes lighting up at the thought. "Especially when I get to pick out my favorite peaches."
Matt brows drooped, as he hugged on his gray sleeves. “Groceries can be fun, but try buying groceries in bulk. Mom always says it saves trips, but rolling 6 carts of food kills my back.”
“Oh..”
“Yep. That's one of the downsides of being filthy rich.”
I noticed Brandon's silence, his eyes distant as he lost himself in his thoughts. Matt, ever observant, asked, "You okay, Brandon? Still dealing with what happened the day of Karla's disappearance?”
Brandon lied, forcing a weak smile. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just tired."
Matt's concerned gaze didn't waver. "Are you sure? You know you can talk to me about anything."
Brandon nodded, his eyes flicking to me. "Actually, there's something I wanted to tell you both, but... it can wait."
Matt's brow furrowed, but he let it go, changing the subject. "Why don't you two find a table? I'll go grab our lunches."
As we made our way to secure a spot, Brandon blurted out, "I know who posted the video.”
I froze, my eyes widening. "What?"
Brandon took a deep breath, his eyes fixed on the ground. "I confronted Ryan in the bathroom. Pinned him against the wall and interrogated him."
I could sort of imagine that happening; out of our trio, Brandon was the most developed and could even pass for a sophomore. Some kids are early bloomers, others such as Matt and myself were late bloomers.
"And?" I prompted, my heart pounding.
"Matt suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and Ryan freaked out, blurting out the poster's name," Brandon continued, his voice tight. "Matt was confused as to why Ryan freaked out, but I knew it was because he was guilty.”
"Was it someone we know?" I asked, my fingers discreetly moved, mimicking a whisper.
Brandon nodded, his eyes meeting mine. "It's Mandy Lake."
I looked down at my lap, sadness washing over me. I knew it would be one of the choir girls, but to find out it was Mandy….I was surprised. She had always seemed so nice, but I guessed appearances could be deceiving.
Just then, Sarah appeared, her face lighting up when she spotted me. "Hey, Lily! How's it going?"
I smiled, my mood instantly lifting at the sight of my friend. "Good! Sarah, this is Brandon. Brandon, Sarah.”
Brandon shook Sarah's hand, a nervous smile on his face. "Nice to meet you. I'm a fan of your newspaper column, 'Unsolved Cases of Meadows Dale.' It's my favorite read."
Sarah laughed, her eyes sparkling with delight. "Oh, wow! I'm super into mysteries, so I guess it makes sense."
Matt appeared with three trays, placing them in front of us with a flourish. "Here you go, my friends. Wish I could be buff like Arnold Schwarzenegger so I could carry six plates at once."
He turned to Sarah, a teasing glint in his eye. "Have you adopted another stray, Lily?”
I signed, "Yes we did. We're a band of four strays, surrounded by purebred pups."
“Sweet!” Matt grinned, popping a fry into his mouth. "Anyways, well, I heard Brianne Becker started dating Ryan. Talk about the unholy couple."
Brandon groaned, rolling his eyes. "Ugh, I heard about that. They are perfect for each other."
“What? They are dating?” My mouth agape, It was sorta surprising that Brianne and Ryan were a thing, although such a concept wasn't out of reach.
"It's true. I saw them together yesterday, they were sharing a cone together.” Sarah chimed in, as she pulled out some books from her light pink backpack. She then added, "Also, before Brianne, Ryan tried to date Alyssa once, and she refused him."
“Oh really?” Matt nodded, taking a bite of his burger. "Obviously, if I were Alyssa, I'd do the same. Good call.”
I nodded, my eyes dropping to the book she picked up to read. "What are you reading?"
She held up the book, a copy of The Perks of Being a Wallflower. "It's one of my favorites. It's about this shy, introverted freshman and his journey through high school. It's a beautiful story about friendship and self-discovery."
I smiled, recognizing the title. "I've heard great things about it. Maybe I'll give it a read."
Sarah's eyes lit up. "You should! And if you ever want to talk about it, I'm here. I love discussing books.”
Brandon raised one of his brows, while he took glimpses of the book. “Wait, was there a movie version with Emma Watson in it?”
“Mhm. That's the one. Emma Watson was so pretty in that movie!” Sarah confirmed, her eyes glued to her book. Brandon looked at me, I could tell his face was flushed in bright pink.
I took a sip of my chocolate milk, my eyes flitting between my friends. "You know, I've been meaning to ask... what exactly happened that day? The day of Karla's disappearance and mine?"
“Lily..”
“Tell me what I want to know.”
“Okay fine,” Brandon cleared his throat, his eyes flicking to Matt. "Do you want us to take you there? To the abandoned shed?"
I nodded, my heart pounding in my chest. "Yes. I think I need to see it."
Curious, while sliding a Harry Potter book mark inside her book, Sarah spoke, “What shed? You mean the one by the woods located near the Skating Rink?”
Matt winked “Bingo!”
“So you guys want to go there? Today, right?”
Brandon and I nodded, “Pretty much.”
I could hear Sarah darting her hand inside her backpack, loud rustling sounds indicated that she was searching for something. Her mouth formed into a smile, digging out a Polaroid camera out of her now disorganized backpack. “Here! Unfortunately I can't join you guys for your adventure, cuz of Journalism club. I hope this helps.” Sarah plopped the camera in my hands, it weighed a bit in my hands.
“Thanks, Sarah!” I signed in gratitude, fascinated by how it felt in my hands.
“No problem. Just be careful with it. My grandma got it for me on my birthday, okay?”
“Deal. If somehow my fat ass breaks it, you can definitely press charges.” Matt held up his hand as he made an oath. I couldn't help but laugh, while Sarah let out a worrisome whine.
Sarah shook her head with a defeated smile, placing her pink colored nail finger on her teeth. “Ah, I love you guys already.”
“Same-uh I mean nice,” Brandon exchanged a glance with me, sweat dripping in his temple. "Okay," he said, his voice gentle. "Let's go after school.”
We finished our lunches in comfortable silence, my mind racing with anticipation and trepidation. I knew visiting the shed would bring back painful memories, but I needed to face them head-on.
After school, around 6pm we made our way to the shed, located in a secluded area near the skating rink. The sun was low in the sky, casting long shadows that danced eerily in the breeze. We approached the dilapidated structure, my heart began to pound in my chest. This was the place where I had been held captive, where I had endured unimaginable horrors. Where I saw that video of Karla.
Matt placed a gentle hand on my shoulder. "You don't have to go in if you don't want to, Lily. We can just show you the outside."
I shook my head, steeling myself. "No, I want to see it all. I need to."
Brandon opened the creaking door, and we stepped inside, the musty air thick with memories. The shed was empty now, but I could still feel the weight of the past lingering in the air. With Sarah's polaroid camera, I snapped a few photos. Matt grabbed the photos, shaking them up and down to see if the film developed.
I took a shaky breath, my eyes scanning the space. "This is where he kept me…” I trailed off, unable to continue. Brandon's arm slipped around my shoulders, offering silent support.
Matt's face was grim as he surveyed the shed. "We searched this place after you were found, but there was no sign of the kidnapper. It was like he vanished into thin air."
I nodded, my eyes fixed on the dusty floor. "He was careful. He always wore gloves, a mask... I never saw his face."
Brandon's voice was gentle. "But you heard his voice. Anything distinctive about it?"
I shook my head, my eyes stinging with unshed tears. "Just that it was deep and distorted, like he was using a voice changer or something.”
Brandon's jaw clenched, his fists balling at his sides. "We'll find him, Lily. I just know our dad's are going to do something about this."
I nodded, grateful for their determination. "Thank you, both. I know it's not easy for you either."
We stood in silence for a few moments, each of us lost in our thoughts. Finally, I took a deep breath, steeling myself. "Let's go. Being here brings back too many memories."
Matt squeezed my shoulder, his eyes understanding. "Of course, Lily. We can come back another time if you want, but for now, let's get the heck out of here.”
We stepped back into the fading light, the shed's creaking door closing behind us with a soft thud. I took a deep breath of the fresh air, grateful to be away from the suffocating confines of that place. Just to only feel a set of eyes watching me from the woods.
As we walked back towards town, Matt asked, "So, what's the plan for tonight? Movie night? We could do a horror flick, maybe something with Arnold Schwarzenegger."
I shook my head, signing, "No horror movies for me. I've had enough scares in real life."
Brandon laughed, punching Matt's arm playfully. "Come on, man, Lily's right. Let's go for a comedy or an action flick.”
Matt feigned hurt, his hand over his heart. "Fine, fine. No horror. But we're definitely watching 'Predator' next week. It's a classic."
I rolled my eyes, signing, "Fine. But only if we get pizza and ice cream."
Brandon grinned, rubbing his hands together. "Deal! Extra cheese and pepperoni for me."
That night, as we settled in for our movie night in my house. It was much closer, so I asked my Mom if Brandon and Matt could sleep over for the night. Mom was setting the pepperoni topped lasagna inside of the oven, as she said, “Sure they can stay! Just make sure you make them call their parents for permission, okay?”
“I will.” I assured my mother, before running back to the living. I hopped on one of the sofas, catching Brandon off guard.
“So…” Brandon and Matt asked.
“What happened?”
Matt brought up the topic of The Masked Man once again. "Lily, is there anything else you can remember about him? Any small detail could help us track him down."
I shook my head, my eyes fixed on the TV screen. "I've told you everything, Matt. I never saw his face, and his voice was distorted. I'm sorry."
Brandon spoke up, his eyes thoughtful. "What about his scent? Did he wear cologne or anything distinctive?"
I furrowed my brow, trying to recall. "I... I think he might have worn cologne. Something woody and musky. It was faint, but I remember catching a whiff of it a few times."
Matt's eyes lit up. "That's something! We can ask around, see if anyone recognizes that scent. It could be a crucial piece of the puzzle."
I nodded, a glimmer of hope sparking within me. "Okay. I'll try to remember more details. Maybe there's something else I've missed.”
The movie began, and we settled in, our bowls of popcorn and soda within reach. Funny enough after watching Forrest Gump, we had fallen asleep on top of each other. About three hours later, I woke up, disoriented, and realized I had fallen asleep on the couch with Brandon and Matt. Brandon was sleeping on the edge, his limbs dangling off the couch, while Matt was hugging me in his sleep. I carefully slipped out of Matt's arms, not wanting to wake him, and groggily walked towards the darkness of the kitchen.
The glass back door loomed in front of me, and I remembered the night before, my dad had recently started to put his deputies to watch over our house every night. I had felt safe with them, and that was the reason I wanted to invite Matt and Brandon to have a sleepover in my house.
I yawned and stretched, my eyes adjusting to the dim light. The kitchen was quiet, the only sound the ticking of the clock. I made my way to the back door, my heart pounding. I knew I shouldn't open it, but something compelled me to do so.
With trembling hands, I unlocked the door and stepped outside into the cool night air. The backyard was bathed in moonlight, and I felt a sense of peace wash over me. I took a deep breath, the scent of freshly cut grass filling my lungs.
Suddenly, I heard a noise. It sounded like a twig snapping. My heart raced, and I froze, my eyes scanning the yard. I couldn't see anyone, but I knew I wasn't alone.
"Who's there?” Signing cautiously, I wait for a response. It could have been a cat or dog walking around. However it sounded like a hard boot walking.
No answer. I took a cautious step backward, my heart pounding in my chest. Then, from the shadows, a figure emerged. It was tall and broad, dressed in black from head to toe. That same mask covered their face, obscuring their identity. It was him again.
I backed away, my heart pounding. "Stay away from me, please.” I tried to communicate with the figure, my fingers becoming slippery with sweat.
He didn't respond, but continued to advance, their steps slow and deliberate. I turned to run back inside, but the door was locked. I frantically tried the handle, my heart pounding in my ears.
"Let me in!" I frantically waved my hands and screamed an awful ear piercing screech. My fists furiously banging on the door.
The Masked Man was getting closer, and I knew I had to act fast. I searched for a weapon, my eyes landing on a garden rake leaning against the wall. I grabbed it and swung it at the figure, connecting with their arm. They let out a pained grunt, but didn't stop. I swung again, this time hitting their leg. They stumbled, but quickly recovered, their eyes fixed on me.
I backed away, my heart pounding. "Stay back!" I tried to shout, my voice scratchy and whistling. None of the words that came out of my mouth were incoherent. It was horrible, that even my own voice betrayed me.
The Masked Man lunged at me, and I swung the rake again, this time hitting them in the chest. They fell to the ground, and I took the opportunity to run back inside, locking the door behind me. I leaned against it, my breath coming in ragged gasps.
Brandon and Matt rushed into the kitchen, their eyes wide. "What happened? We heard you scream," Brandon said, his voice full of concern.
I signed, my hands shaking, "There was someone in the backyard. They tried to get in."
Matt looked out the window, his face pale. "I don't see anyone out there now. Are you sure it wasn't just a dream?"
I shook my head, my heart still pounding. "I'm sure. I hit them with the rake. They fell, but then they got back up and kept coming."
Brandon's eyes widened. "We need to call the police. This is serious, Lily."
I nodded, my hands still shaking. "Okay. But first, let's make sure all the doors and windows are locked. I don't want them getting in."
We spent the next few minutes checking every door and window in the house, making sure they were securely locked. My Dad and police arrived soon after, and we explained what had happened. They searched the backyard but found no sign of the intruder.
The officer took my statement, his face grim. He informed my Dad with instructions. "We'll increase patrols in the area, but in the meantime, stay vigilant. Keep your doors and windows locked, and be aware of your surroundings, Sheriff.”
“Thank you, Officer Devins,” My dad thanked the officer, before heading in my way. He looked at me with concern, before rubbing his eyes in a worried manner. “Hey Lilibee. You should go to sleep. Daddy's going to be staying awake for the night. It's to keep you safe.”
“Okay,” I hugged my father, my heart was still pounding from the encounter. That night, I had trouble sleeping, my mind replaying the events over and over. The Masked Man had found me again that night. I didn't know how or when, but he was back. I had a good feeling this wasn't his last appearance.
I hurried down the hallway, my heart pounding in my chest. It had been a long day, and I was eager to get this detention over with and go home. When I approached the office, I saw the old secretary, Mrs. Miller, gossiping on the phone, her eyes glued to her screen. I took the opportunity to slip past her unnoticed and make my way towards Dr. Wells' office.
The door was slightly ajar, and I knocked gently before pushing it open. Dr. Wells looked up from his laptop, a soft smile spreading across his face when he saw me.
"Lily, what a pleasant surprise," he signed, motioning for me to come in. "How are your painting classes going?"
I signed back, while sitting down on the couch. "They're going really well, thank you. I'm enjoying it a lot."
Dr. Wells laughed, his eyes crinkling at the corners. "That's wonderful to hear. And how are you doing otherwise? Still dealing with the aftermath of what happened that day?"
I kicked my feet awkwardly, feeling a rush of emotions as I thought about the kidnapping. "I went back to the spot where he held me," I confessed. "I thought it would give me closure, but then I started having nightmares about him again."
Dr. Wells tilted his head, his expression concerned. "And how did that make you feel?" he asked gently.
I nervously averted my eyes to the paintings hanging on his walls, beautiful landscapes and abstracts in rich colors. "I thought I was doing better," I signed. "But then he came back again, and I realized I'm still scared. My dad is the sheriff, though, and he has cops outside my house, so I know I'm safe."
Dr. Wells' expression remained neutral, almost pensive. "It's good that you're taking precautions and seeking support," he said slowly, his lips twitching slightly as he formed the words. "I'm always here if you need to talk, Lily."
I nodded, feeling a wave of gratitude for this kind man. "Thank you, Dr. Wells," I signed. "By the way, why do they call you 'doctor'? I thought you were just the school counselor."
A soft laugh escaped his lips. "Well, I do have my doctorate degree in forensic psychology," he explained. "I often work with the police on cases, especially those involving youth. It can be quite fascinating, although it keeps me busy at night."
"No wonder you always look so tired," I teased, a smile playing at my lips. "Did you get the degree to impress all the ladies?"
Dr. Wells laughed heartily, his eyes sparkling with amusement. "Maybe," he joked. "Or maybe I just wanted to pay off my student loans someday."
Changing the subject, he stood up and opened a small fridge behind his desk. "Speaking of which, are you hungry? I have some bacon-chicken salads here if you'd like one."
"Sure," I signed, my stomach rumbling at the mention of food.
Dr. Wells pulled out two plates, each with a generous serving of salad. He handed one to me and took a seat across from me at the small table in the corner of his office. I dug into the salad, and it was delicious—the perfect combination of crispy bacon, tender chicken, and fresh greens. I savored every bite, feeling grateful for this unexpected meal.
As I popped a slice of hard-boiled egg into my mouth, Dr. Wells asked, "So, Lily, do you have detention today?"
I nodded, signing, "Yes, I do. I got into a bit of trouble for vaping, so I have to serve an hour of detention with Ms. Asinley."
Dr. Wells' expression softened. "I'm sorry to hear that," he said sincerely. "I hope it goes well. Just remember that I'm here if you need any support or if you want to talk about anything."
"Thanks, Dr. Wells," I said, feeling a warm blush spread across my cheeks. "You're so sweet."
Before I knew it, an hour had passed, and it was time for me to head to my detention. I stood up, stretching my legs, and bid Dr. Wells goodbye, feeling a sense of warmth and contentment in my heart.
"Take care, Lily," Dr. Wells signed, his eyes warm and friendly. "Remember, I'll always keep an eye out for you."
I smiled and waved as I left his office, feeling a boost of confidence. Dr. Wells had a way of making me feel like everything was going to be alright. Making my way down the hallway towards the U.S. history room, I spotted Ms. Asinley, the pregnant teacher who was overseeing my detention. She smiled at me gently and motioned for me to take a seat wherever I liked.
The room was quiet, with only a few other students serving detention that day. I chose a desk by the window, the afternoon sunlight streaming in and warming my face. I pulled out my algebra homework and began to work, grateful for the peaceful atmosphere.
Ms. Asinley walked over to my desk, her hands resting gently on her swollen belly. "How are you doing today, Lily?" she asked softly, her eyes kind. "Is there anything I can help you with?"
I shook my head, signing, "No, thank you, Ms. Asinley. I'm just working on my algebra homework. It's nice to have a quiet place to focus."
She smiled and patted my shoulder gently. "You know where to find me if you need anything," she said, before moving on to check on the other students.
I settled into my work, grateful for this unexpected moment of calmness. As I worked through the equations, I felt a sense of satisfaction and peace wash over me. Detention didn't seem so bad as I thought, and I was making good progress on my missing assignments. That was until the door burst open, and two figures stormed in, bringing with them a gust of fresh air and the scent of grass and sweat.
Alyssa and Emma, dressed in their red and black soccer uniforms, strode into the room, their faces flushed from practice. "Hey, Ms. Asinley," Emma called out, waving a paper assignment in her hand. "Sorry this is late. I completely forgot about it."
Ms. Asinley, her hands resting comfortably on her pregnant belly, smiled brightly at the girls. "It's quite alright, Emma. No need to apologize." She took the assignment from Emma and made a note in her book.
Alyssa, her eyes sparkling with curiosity, turned to Ms. Asinley and asked, "So, when's the baby coming? You must be getting close, right?"
Ms. Asinley's face lit up, and she placed a gentle hand on her belly. "I'm due in about four months," she replied, her voice warm and happy. "I might start planning the baby shower soon, although I think I'll wait until I'm closer to seven months."
"Ooh, a baby shower!" Alyssa exclaimed, her eyes shining with excitement. "I can't wait! I love babies."
Emma smiled at her friend's enthusiasm and added, "We'll definitely be there. Just let us know when and where."
Ms. Asinley thanked them, and the two girls were heading to the door, still chatting excitedly about the upcoming baby shower. Alyssa caught my eye and waved before leaving the class. I waved back, feeling a sense of warmth despite my earlier envy. Alyssa had always been surprisingly friendly to me, and I never quite understood why. Honestly, I was just an asshole as a kid, and I wished I didn't need to be this way.
As I shifted in my seat, I realized I needed to use the bathroom. I raised my hand and caught Ms. Asinley's attention. "May I please be excused to go to the restroom?" I signed, feeling a bit self-conscious.
Ms. Asinley nodded and signed, "Of course, Lily. Take your time."
I gathered my things and headed out of the classroom, grateful for the opportunity to stretch my legs. As I walked down the empty hallway, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was being watched. I told myself it was just my imagination running wild after last night's incident, but the atmosphere felt off.
I quickened my pace, eager to reach the girl's bathroom at the end of the hall. As I pushed open the door, I spotted a familiar figure—Mandy, one of the popular girls from my grade. She was taking a drag from a raspberry lemonade Juul, the sweet-smelling vapor hanging in the air.
"So, you're the one who showed the video to Principal Kelly," I signed, my eyes narrowing.
Mandy froze, her eyes widening in surprise. "Who told you that?" she demanded, her voice shaking.
I shrugged, signing, "Does it matter? You should be careful, Mandy. Maybe it's your turn to face the consequences now."
Mandy's face paled, and she took a step towards me, her voice urgent. "You can't tell Principal Kelly about this, Lily. You just can't."
I crossed my arms, a challenge in my eyes. "Why not?" I asked.
Before Mandy could respond, a bloodcurdling scream tore through the bathroom, causing us both to jump. Mandy grabbed my hand, her eyes wild with fear. She dragged me out of the bathroom, our footsteps echoed through the halls. “Come with me! Now!"
I followed her, my heart pounding in my chest. We ran down the hall, Mandy's grip tight on my hand. "What happened?" I frantically signed.
"There's a man—a masked man. He was peeking at us through the gap in the stall door," she whispered, her voice shaking.
My heart hammered in my chest as I frantically signed, "What? Are you serious?"
Mandy nodded, her eyes darting around the bathroom nervously. "We have to tell an adult," I signed, taking a step towards the door.
"No!" Mandy hissed, pulling me back. "We can't. He could still be out there. We need to hide."
I felt a rush of fear as I realized the gravity of the situation. "Where can we go?" I asked, my eyes scanning the bathroom for a possible hiding place.
Mandy grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the door. "Come on, we have to get out of here. We'll find a teacher and alert them, but we can't stay here."
I followed Mandy, my heart pounding in my chest. We rushed down the hallway, our eyes darting around, searching for any sign of the masked man. The school felt eerily quiet, the afternoon sun casting long shadows on the walls.
Mandy led me towards the gymnasium, her eyes darting around nervously. "In here," she whispered, pushing open the door. "Hide in the storage closet near the mats. I'll try to find a teacher and come back for you."
I nodded, my heart racing as I stepped into the dimly lit gymnasium. The large space felt oppressive in the fading light, the rumble of the air conditioning adding to the eerie atmosphere. I hurried over to the storage closet and slipped inside, pulling the door shut behind me.
The closet was small and cramped, filled with stacks of mats and sports equipment. I sat down, hugging my knees to my chest, and tried to calm my racing heart. The darkness and the constant rumbling noise made me feel on edge, and I found myself straining to listen for any signs of Mandy's return.
As the minutes ticked by, I became increasingly aware of the need to use the bathroom. The urge to pee was plaguing me, and I shifted uncomfortably, willing my bladder to cooperate. The darkness and the silence, broken only by the hum of the air conditioning, made the time feel endless. Just as I thought I couldn't take it anymore, I heard the door to the gymnasium open. I perked up, my heart racing as I waited for Mandy to enter. But it wasn't Mandy who stepped into the room.
The Masked Man stood in the doorway, his blood-smeared mask sending a chill down my spine. He crouched down, his eyes locking with mine, and placed something metal on the ground—Mandy's brow piercing.
Just as he walked away, almost like a cat dropping off a dead mouse, I felt a warm release between my legs. I had lost control of my bladder, the warm liquid spreading across my pants and soaking through to the floor. I felt a wave of embarrassment wash over me, and I could do nothing to stop it. However, I was scared shit less to even react, and there I knew Mandy was gone.
Soon enough, the next day, the gym teacher, Mr. Woods, and his male gymnastics students were checking on the mats when they made a gruesome discovery. One of the gymnasts unfolded a mat, and there, wrapped up like a present, was fifteen-year-old Mandy Lake. Her jaw was ripped open, her ribs shattered, and her nails were peeling off, almost as if she had been clawing at a hard surface. Similar to Karla, Mandy's larynx was missing, ripped out of her throat.
Just like Karla Reyes….
I later found out why Mandy hadn't wanted me to tell the principal about her situation. You see, Mandy came from a single-mother household, and her mother worked at an adult-themed diner. Some busybody neighbors thought this wasn't a good influence on the children and called Child Protective Services, or CPS, on Ms. Lake.
Thankfully, CPS saw no issue with the situation. However, if Mandy were to cause any trouble or draw negative attention, it could risk not only her but also her siblings being taken away. Mandy was like a second mother to those kids, and her death hit Ms. Lake hard. Last time I heard of Ms. Lake was about a year ago. She was battling with a methamphetamine addiction, and that resulted in her death. All because of me. All because of him.
In the end, Mandy Lake was the second victim, but wasn't the last one. They're are 6 Choir Girls left.
2024.06.02 00:27 Infinite_Cat9588 Dog training
Anyone know a good place to train my 1.5 year old German Shepherd? I’m open to going to flowery branch and Buford
submitted by Infinite_Cat9588 to gainesvillega [link] [comments]
2024.06.01 07:56 Frame_Late Unburdened: A Job Gone Wrong.
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The following two brain scans were provided by the Neuro-Warfare branch of the Halcyon Security Division (HSD) for the purpose of analyzing the thoughts, behaviors, and information of notorious gangsters Vincent 'Troy' Cohen and Bruno (Deadname:Koraak Tel-Char). At the point of the recording of this archival shared, Bruno has since received his rebirth therapy, and Vincent is currently serving a long-term rehabilitative and reeducative sentence in the Erebus Supermax Prison on Io.
Warning: the contents of this archival shared may be especially disturbing to some audiences. Viewer discretion is advised.
Warning: the contents of this archival shard are for the sole purpose of analyzing the thought patterns and memories of certain degenerate criminals in an effort to ascertain vital information that can be used to eliminate their organizations. Only staff with clearance level Omega may view this archival shared, and the viewership of this archival shared by anyone of inadequate clearance level will lead to twenty years in prison and a fine of over a hundred thousand credits.
Booting up memory scan: Vincent 'Troy' Cohen, November 4th, 2446…
Loading and processing firmware data… translating… memories and subconscious simulated…
Beginning archival shard presentation…
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"Do you have visuals of the target, Troy?"
I knelt down in the alleyway, the bodies of me and my partners shrouded in long, waterproof, ashen-gray overcoats the shade of dirty street scum that we wore to ward off the constant heavy rainfall the color of osmium. Our faces were covered in a mix of scrapped respirators, visors, or full metal face masks carved with intricate designs to hide our identities. On our waists were our badges of honor: leather belts studded with interlocked rivets made from blackened titanium, each buckle forged of silver and shaped into the head of our gang's symbol, the black mamba. We hid amongst the shadows of the dark midday of Halcyon City, the heavy, oppressive rains blanketing the roads paved obsidian-black with asphalt and weathered concrete walkways. The street lamps were always on, like beacons of false hope in a storm of melancholy.
The city was dark and dreary as always, the planet of Proxima Centauri B, renamed Dawn's Lamentation over a century ago, orbited the red dwarf star of Proxima Centauri, and the atmosphere was thick with natural smog and ever-storming rain clouds. That didn't dissuade people from living here: there was plenty of money to be had for shrewd industrialists and hardworking pioneers, even in the urban sprawl. But that life also came with risks, especially for those on the bottom of the totem pole.
I was a ganger, and we were criminals; full stop. I won't assault you with some spiel about how we're the good guys fighting oppression because, at the end of the day, we could be just as bad, if not worse, than Halcyon's Security Division, or the HSD for short. We were traffickers, killers, extortionists, and money launderers. We dealt with everything from stolen tech and military-grade hardware to hard drugs and sentients.
Yes, sentients. We trafficked sentients, but not in the way you might think. They weren't prisoners, in fact, we were their saviors if they had the cash. We had developed a reputation for fighting the power, but it was still business: sure, freeing captives from the clutches of the Protectorate. The disruption of its many oppressive organizations held a certain satisfaction in my heart for sure, but we didn't help those who couldn't pay unless someone else paid on their behalf. It was about making sure me and my gang, my family, could live a decent life for another day.
It helped that most of us joined after leaving the state yard for partaking in acts of 'degeneracy' and 'anti-xenopet illegalities' as if those terms meant anything anymore other than that we were a threat to the local status quo. It was hard to pick up a job as a former inmate when even in something as harsh and backbreaking as a job in the iridium mines near the poles when the employment office had you blacklisted as a degenerate, which lead to the formation of many of the gangs: we needed to make a living somehow, and when all social programs were cut off from you unless you submitted for 're-education' and the only way to put food on the table was subverting, breaking, or even downright fighting the law, you did what you had to do or you died on the streets a scorned beggar.
It wasn't like the HSD made it easy for us on even a good day: the local HSD units were armed to the teeth with advanced, military-grade hardware that you'd often see on the front lines of the Second Authority War: armored assault transports, a myriad of advanced war droids, all sorts of chemical countermeasures that made tear gas seem like putting the garden hose on mist mode, and of course advanced firearms. Add that to the fact that they were authorized to use deadly force when they deemed it necessary and you had a ruthless, heartless, and nearly unstoppable enemy. But we could make that work: we weren't trying to stop them, just to withstand them.
"Yeah, I got eyes on the prize, Koraak; seven armored transports, two for droids, five for prisoners."
Today wasn't a day for a normal job: we were getting bolder, cockier, more ambitious. Our numbers had swelled for the last few years after the raid at Barnard's Star and the fall of the Blood Dragon Mafia. Their leader, Saito Yasuhide, had committed seppuku as their manor burned, and his twin sons had gone down fighting rather than allowing themselves to be captured simply to face a firing squad. In the aftermath, many of the family's associates had fled to the surrounding systems, and with the sheer size and scope of the criminal underworld found here, it was no wonder that many people who had developed skills of the less legal variety had decided to form ranks with the gangs, and with them they brought guns, tech, knowledge, contacts, and even something that we thought wasn't possible beforehand: a semblance of peace between the gangs, or at least the closest thing to peace that gangs could cultivate effectively. With the fall of the Blood Dragons, we saw the writing on the wall, and the writing couldn't have been clearer: work together or die together.
"Sounds like a massacre, Troy: are you sure we can handle seven?"
"We ain't got no choice, Cinder: this job's double the usual rate, and that's not including the weapons and gear we could scrounge if this goes well," I hissed, my eyes scanning for any resistance. There were at least four guards for each van, not to mention at least eight droids in total, meaning that we were already outnumbered, but we had the element of surprise: we could make it work. "So put your balls in your purse and get ready to spill some blood."
Koraak snorted at our antics, which sounded like someone pulling the ripcord on a lawnmower. He was a veteran Russu Corsair, and while his past of slaving, raiding, and killing was unsavory, so were the lives we'd lived, so who were we to judge? All we cared about was that he was a brutal and capable fighter and a loyal brother in arms. It turned out that being a ganger wasn't much different from being a Corsair: you lived and died by a code of honor, you fought to the death for your brothers, and you lived to die for the sake of your gang and your family, simple as that. In a strange, ironic way, it was an incredibly honest way of life: we were under no illusions as to what we were, what we did, and why we did it, and we'd long since accepted it. The Russu related to us in that aspect, in many ways I could respect, which is why I hated what the Protectorate was doing, and why I couldn't grasp how most of humanity could just collectively lose their marbles so long ago. What had happened for us to deem all other life below us in such a demeaning and infantilizing way?
The Russu were a race of tall, muscle-bound Saurians with avian features, and Koraak was no exception: reaching almost seven feet in height and weighing over four hundred and fifty pounds, he could be an absolute menace if he so desired. His skin was covered in stubby, knobby scales and dense plumage, with elegant feathers adorning the ridges along his back as well as his forearms, elbows, knees, and the crests on his head. He almost looked like how paleontologists described velociraptors, with razor-sharp talons, feathers shaded in vibrant greens, reds, and purples, and a maw full of sharp teeth, but at the tip of his snout was a sharp, beak-like growth meant for ripping flesh off the bone.
The Russu were strange as hell, but they also looked almost cute in the same way a fully grown alligator was cute: they were obviously dangerous, but humans would always have this innate desire to anthropomorphize them and to pet them for some inexplicable reason, although common sense usually prevented that, at least amongst the very few of us left that were sane.
"Shut up, Troy! All I'm saying is that that'll be rough, and you know it," hissed Cinder. Cinder was a tall black man whose coffee-colored skin was covered in tattoos. He wore an ebony mechanic's jumpsuit with metal inserts underneath his grimy overcoat covering his body and a faded black respirator on his face. His eyes were a startling blue that seemed sorely out of place, and his hair was braided into thick cornrows along his scalp. He wore a pair of heavy black combat boots and palmed his compact shotgun in his hands, the square barrel less than seven inches. Like a lot of the weapons the Black Mambas carried on their persons and dealt in, they fired caseless ammunition; in Cinder's case it was 16x40mm caseless shotshells filled with depleted uranium micro-flechetes no thicker than a toothpick. Cinder nervously fiddled with the detachable tube magazine underneath the barrel, his hands shaking. Despite the shit I have him, I didn't blame him for being anxious: I was anxious too, even if I refused to show it. The biting cold of unease and pessimism was in my stomach, and I ran all the way that this job could go wrong in my head over and over.
"Just hold yourself together, this ain't anything we haven't done before, there's just more of it," I reassured Cinder, "besides, we're not alone; we have reinforcements across the street. We'll make it out of this alive."
Cinder nodded almost absentmindedly, his eyes downcast and his breathing shallow. I turned from him and back to Koraak, who was making sure he had everything on his person; he had a synthetic leather bandoleer across his chest that contained the heavy eight guage depleted uranium slugs he kept loading and unloading into his much larger, longer, and more traditional shotgun he nicknamed ‘carnage’ and several leather straps that held his Tu'shan daggers: traditional Russu pyramidal blades forged from a silvery alloy with all three edges serrated and the tip barbed to leave behind horrible, gaping wounds that gushed blood. They were wickedly sharp and absolutely straight like a stiletto, and the hilts and pommels were beautifully decorated. He wore no clothes underneath his overcoat to cover the countless scars and blemishes he's earned in combat across his chest and abdomen, and instead of a normal respirator or visor, he simply wore a hood over his head and some traditional Russu facial armor to protect his mouth, eyes, and cheeks.
"You ready to fight, Koraak? The caravan will pick up and leave soon."
Koraak was silent for a moment before nodding, a human gesture he had picked up after serving as a soldier with the Black Mambas for years. "I'm always ready to fight," he said before lifting up his shotgun and aiming down the sights at the reinforced front wheels of the first armored car in the caravan. He exhaled and fired, the slug ripping through both front tires and causing them to deflate and fall apart. The echo of the shot rang through the alleyway and the street, causing pedestrians to panic and flee the scene as heavily armored guards poured out of the side doors of the armored cars and unholstered their carbines.
"Go, now!" I shouted, and both me and Cinder rushed out into the fray, our guns raised. Koraak was right behind the two of us, providing covering fire with his shotgun. Several guards fell quickly, Koraak's precise fire and the sheer force of the depleted uranium slugs putting them down for good as their heads were vaporized or their chest cavities were turned to mush. He emptied the tube with one final shot that painted the grey matter of a security guard on the door of one of the armored cars, then racked the shotgun and expertly loaded it in threes, his hands deft and agile as he reached for more slugs faster than any human.
With the cacophony of our initial assault, more Black Mambas poured out from the alleyways and the subways, armed to the teeth with all manner of weapons; shotguns, submachine guns, pistols, machetes, baseball bats, and all manner of homemade explosives. Molotovs and more potent concoctions shattered against the asphalt, herding in the caravan guards with their volatile contents as they were quickly gunned down. The assault was working, and we were winning.
Then I heard the robotic whine of a combat droid activating, and my heart sank. One of the armored cars in the back activated the four combat droids it held, the robotic assault units detaching from their charging ports on the sides of the large van and began to form up, each armed with a terrifying array of deadly weapons meant to quash any and all resistance. They were blocky, soulless, utilitarian things that stood at eight feet tall, with flat feet meant for stomping and blades, grasping claws designed to lacerate flesh and shatter bone. On each shoulder was a weapon: on the left was a multi-barrel rotary grenade launcher loaded with 15mm concussion grenades, and on the right was a burst-fire splinter cannon. They were all painted a dull grayish-green, the color of Halcyon's Security Division, although some had a few decorations on them: the one closest to me had a bit of graffiti on the side that said Mr. Hugs in Comic Sans, which I couldn't decide whether that made it more or less terrifying. They split up without hesitation and began to scan the chaotic battlefield, their single, red, beady lenses the security forces had the gall to call eyes focusing on specific targets to eliminate.
An entire group of Black Mambas was torn to pieces by a cloud of flechettes as one of the droids fired a withering three-round burst of shotshells from the four gauge splinter cannon mounted on its shoulder. Another picked up a Black Mamba in its hand and crushed her skull effortlessly before tossing her limp body to the side, its single, red, remorseless robotic eye tracking a new target. Most bullets that struck their thick armored chassis simply bounced off, and those that could pierce the armor didn't seem to phase the droids whatsoever, merely notifying them of a new potential target.
"Damnit," I shouted as I gunned down another guard only for two more to take his place. "Cinder! We gotta pop open the cars and scram! Get the maglock cutters!"
Cinder rushed and slid over through a dirty puddle, pulling out a maglock cutter from the inside of his coat and slipping it onto the back door of the first van. It immediately went to work, drilling through the maglock with a high-powered plasma torch nozzle, and within ten seconds we heard the telltale clunk of the maglock separating. I yanked the door open and ordered I side, ready to escort the prisoners out… only for my face to contort in shock and horror.
The back was empty. There was not a single soul inside of the back brig of the armored car.
"What the fuck…" Cinder gasped, his eyes wide with shock. "What the actual fuck… what the fuck is this, Troy?"
"I… I don't…" I stuttered the sounds of battle and carnage drowned out by the sound of blood rushing in my ears. All five cars were supposed to be filled with recently captured Russu from the front lines ready to be housed in the local Xenopet-Megaplex for processing and conditioning. The fact that this one was empty…
Suddenly, it all hit me at once with the force of a freight train, but it was too late. "We were set up, Cinder; our fucking client either squealed or was crooked to begin with…"
"Fucking bitch!" Cinder shouted as he spun around in an enraged arch, anger growing in his eyes. He aimed his shotgun at an approaching security guard and reduced his upper body to a fine red mist with a cacophony of shotgun blasts. "We gotta get everyone who's left out of here! Do you know what this means? The Jurors will be here soon, and then we're all going down! We gotta go, fuck the job!"
I grit my teeth. Not the Jurors, anything but the Jurors.
"Fine, gather everyone who's left and we'll slip through the sewers, the droids are too bulky to follow us there…"
As I spoke, my eyes wandered to the seventh and final armored car, the second of the droid cars, and my blood froze. Not only were all four ports empty, but they were also smaller and more shallow than the ports for the combat droids. That could only mean one thing.
"Oh fuck! Cinder, we gotta get our Russu members out of here! They've got arachnid droids!"
Arachnid droids were the stuff of nightmares. Resembling blocky, robotic arachnids the size of a manhole cover, they were specifically designed to take down sentient aliens, specifically the Russu, using sickeningly non-lethal means. They were equipped with full-body adaptive cloaking to blend in with their environments, paralytic agents that they could inject into their victims, built-in taser barbs, psychedelic gas ports for crowd-control, and a narrow-coned cacophony canon that disabled the Russu using incredibly high-pitched sounds that only they could hear, forcing them onto their knees and clutching the backs of their heads where their auditory organs were stored in agony. But worst of all was their stygian spinnerets: special ports near the end of their robotic abdomens that excreted a viscous, latex-like substance made up of millions of nano-bots. This substance could be used to render Russu blind, deaf, and mute by having it forced onto their faces, the black substance growing and enveloping their heads and working its way into every orifice. It was completely permeable to the standard atmosphere, but any Russu who had been 'webbed' was completely helpless and essentially captured, and the 'webbing' was both nearly indestructible and nigh impossible to remove without a triple-encrypted override key that was found in every arachnid droid's code, which was corrupted when the droid was destroyed or hacked into. Once you were 'webbed', you were essentially captured and the standard protocol was to leave you to the wolves since the nano-bots could be tracked, endangering the entire gang.
I turned just as I heard the deafening sound of Koraak discharging his shotgun, and I saw him squaring off against one of the assault droids. The droid has obviously been programmed to not use lethal force against Russu if possible, as instead of simply killing Koraak with it's shoulder-mounted splinter cannon, it approached with its claws extended, blades retracted. Koraak continued to back away and fire, pumping the droid full of depleted uranium slugs, its armor crumbling inward as the slugs pierced its chassis and damaged its internal cyberstructure. Eventually, Koraak ran out of slugs and instinctively reached to his bandoleer only to find that he had no more shells left at all, and he drew one of his knives and his sidearm, a simple high-caliber handgun. He tried to take down the droid with his handgun, but the bullets didn't even seem to affect the droid upon penetration, it's claws still extended as it attempted to apprehend Koraak.
In the corner of my vision, as I watched Koraak battle with the droid, I noticed a faint shimmer in the air on one of the black streetlight poles that was right behind him. I focused on it and blinked, believing my eyes had deceived me for a moment before realizing that it was actually a cloaked arachnid droid stalking Korvaak, ready to pounce and incapacitate him.
Before I could shout, it leaped from the pole and landed on Korvaak, causing him to shout in surprise while it began to coagulate its horrifying stygian webbing to disable Korvaak. Korvaak tried to wrestle it off of him, but the droid was agile and fast, clinging onto Korvaak and skittering around across his upper body as he attempted to grab it, forcibly wrapping the sticky black liquid across his face as he gagged like a spider wrapping up a fly. I rushed towards him to try and help, but I felt pain explode in my ribs as I was struck with the arm of the closest combat droid and launched into the chassis of a parked car, the metal denting from the sheer force of impact. I groaned in pain as I saw stars and my head spun, and just then I felt a blinding light be cast over me.
“Drop your weapons and kneel with your hands on your head, or you will be pacified with deadly force!” Shouted a loud, artificially deepened voice from above. “I repeat, drop your weapons and kneel with your hands on your head! Neither hostility nor hesitation will be tolerated!”
It was the Jurors, I could feel the air being pushed around from the thrusters on their drop ships, and I could hear screams and shouts as my fellow Black Mambas were quickly gunned down. I couldn’t see well since I was seeing double, but I could hear the slaughter as my eyes dimmed and I began to lose consciousness, my regrets crawling up my throat like vomit.
I’m sorry was all I could think as everything finally went dark, and the sounds of chaos, destruction, and combat faded away.
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Memory halted due to loss of consciousness. Booting next available memory in shard…
Booting up memory scan: Koraak Tel-Char Bruno, November 5th, 2446…
Loading and processing firmware data… translating… memories and subconscious simulated…
Beginning archival shard presentation…
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“Good morning, sleepyhead; it’s time for breakfast.”
My eyes shot open. I was not in the street anymore, nor was I home in my bed with my mate. I knew instantly that something was horribly wrong. I tried to stand up, but I couldn’t gain the leverage to do so: my ankles had been shackled together with magnetic cuffs and my arms were forced together in front of me.
I was wearing some kind of thick shirt. It was warm, fluffy, and comfortable on the inside, but it still made me incredibly uncomfortable that my arms didn’t have a free range of motion. I looked down to see that I was wearing some human garment I had heard about before, a straightjacket maybe?
The entire room was padded: the walls, the floor, even the ceiling. There was no bed or furniture; the floor was soft enough to serve as a bed in itself. There was nothing else except for the soft reddish-orange lights on the ceiling that somehow made me sleepy. I blinked slowly for a moment, my body screaming at me to just lay back down and lose consciousness, but I couldn’t do that: I needed to figure out where I was and how to escape.
Then I noticed who was speaking to me: it was a short human female, with crow's feet around her blue eyes, blonde hair braided down her back, and freckles all over her face. She had a soft smile on her lips, and her forehead was slightly crinkled. She wore a full-body white lab suit with a white overcoat and a pair of glasses for snugly on her face.
"There we go, now I can see those pretty eyes, such a beautiful shade of teal," she cooed softly, "You're such a handsome boy, even with all those scars: I'm sure you'll be adopted very quickly once we get you fixed up."
Fear gripped my heart as I began to piece all the evidence together. I had been captured; I was no longer on Halcyon, and instead, I was in one of the horrific space-born facilities I had heard so much about from the inside agents. I started to hyperventilate and squawk like a newborn hatchling, my eyes dilating in panic. This couldn't be happening! This has to be a nightmare!
The human woman merely wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into an embrace, cradling my head under her chin and speaking softly. I couldn't bite at her or claw at her: I was muzzled and wearing a straight jacket, so I had no choice but to allow her to coddle me.
"It's okay, sweetheart: I understand you're scared, but Julie's here to make all the pain and bad thoughts go away," she said as if she was comforting a child, which made anger blossom in my chest indignantly. "I'll be your caretaker for the next few months, and I'm going to make sure you're healthy, happy, and most importantly safe while you're under our care. I'm sorry to say that includes your restraints and restrictive clothing, but we have to make sure you aren't a threat to yourself or others before we can determine if it's a good idea to remove you from suicide watch."
I growled under my muzzle. Suicide watch? They must have had a lot of instances of Russu taking their own lives after being captured, something I wished I had been able to do before that damnable droid launched itself onto me and…
I shuddered at the thought of the black, viscous substance forcing itself into my nostrils and down my throat and windpipe, gagging me and rendering me completely helpless. It was so cold, so harsh, like slime, and when I had tried to tear it off of my face it merely attached itself to my claws and bound my talons together. I remember squirming on the ground as it enveloped me, unable to see, hear, or speak, and then everything went dark in an instant. It was the most horrible thing I had ever experienced, which was saying something.
"You alright, sweetheart? Oh, I know, you're probably hungry! Here, try some of this." She held up a piece of what looked like raw bacon and wiggled it in front of me before reaching out to remove my muzzle. In an instant, I attempted to snap at her only for pain to blossom in my forehead and my eyes to roll up in my head as I convulsed. It was like something was attempting to drill through my skull from the inside, and every breath felt empty and labored.
"Now, that didn't feel very nice, did it? This is why we have countermeasures in place because we can't trust you yet, sweetheart! Don't worry, we'll work on breaking you of all those bad behaviors and habits while you're here; after all, a well-trained pet is a happy pet!" She began to stroke the crests on my head as I slowly recovered, and she snugly fit the muzzle back onto my snout. "But I won't hold it against you this time, sweetheart; you're just scared and confused, but I'll make all the pain go away."
I struggled in the straight jacket, trying my best to break out of it, but it was no use. Eventually, I became exhausted and despondent, allowing my new caretaker to have her way with me as she gently ran her fingers through my feathers and along my ridges, quietly speaking to me in a hopeless attempt to cheer me up. She seemed genuinely concerned for my well-being, which concerned me even further: who could be this naturally twisted while attempting to be as benevolent and kindhearted as possible?
I felt the pain and terror build up in my chest, the anxiety from what horrific activities I imagined they had planned for me here. I couldn't take the infantilization, the lack of any autonomy, the dehumanization, and what I feared the most was if the rumors of 'rebirth' were true: would they take my personhood from me?
Suddenly, I felt her whisper to me. "Don't worry sweetheart, I know you're so scared and confused, but I promise you everything will be okay: it's going to be your birthday soon, and then everything will get better." She ran her fingers through the feathers along my crest lovingly. "It will be such a wonderful day, and then we'll choose for you the most wonderful family, and you'll spend the rest of your life happy in your forever home! Doesn't all of that sound wonderful?"
I wanted to die. I wanted to disappear. I didn't want to lose myself, not like this, not to these monsters!
"It'll be your birthday soon," she said wistfully as if she was remembering similar events to this in the past like I wasn't the first she'd done this too, "and you'll never be sad again."
I realized that I wasn't the first the stay in this particular cell, and I knew for certain that I wouldn't be the last: I'd end up like my brother, a broken, erased mess of a pathetic creature, reduced to nothing more than a pet for these humans to amuse themselves with.
"We took the liberty of picking out a nice name for you, sweetheart! Now, let me just slip this little programming chip into the port slot on your occipital bone, and... there we go! It will also help you calm down a bit and adjust."
I felt the chip begin to invade my mind, suppressing my thoughts. What made me me was slowly being ripped out of my mind.I couldn't remember my name my name is Bruno, and I needed to get out! I can't let them do this to me! Somebody help me! I was a good boy.
##Do not think. You are a good boy.##
I tried to scream, but my voice wouldn't work: I had trouble forming any words at all, the confusion clouding my mind like wet, slimy eels curling around my brain and sinking their teeth into its folds like needles. I couldn’t scream any longer, because I had nothing left: the chip was slowly beginning to take everything from me, robbing me of my identity and branding a new one into my psyche with a white-hot iron. Julie simply held me close, attempting to reassure me as I awaited the inevitable demise of my personhood. Soon I would be just like my brother: erased. My mind would be shaped into the mind of a loyal plaything, like a Dog.
##Relax. Allow caretaker [Julie] to comfort you. You will let go of your burden.##
Soon, everything was a blur. I quickly found myself resting my head in her lap as she whispered to me and fed me, my eyes bleary and my head fuzzy.I couldn't remember my name anymore My name was Bruno, and I needed to break free from this trance relax, and allow her to help me; good boys didn't resist help.
##Good Boy. Do not think. You are a good boy.##
You can't... I...
##Good boy.##
I wouldn't… good boys don't… I…
##Good boy##
I was a good boy… I was a good boy…
I was… I was… a good… boy…
Someone help me, please! I don't want to be erased!
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The following script is from episode #343 of Halcyon After Dark, a popular late-night and current events talk show hosted by Melinda Carter. This specific episode was sponsored in part by the Halcyon Security Division, with Director Lochlin O'Brien joining as a guest star to talk about the changing crime statistics in Halcyon City and the HSD's recent successes in busting organized crime as well as their plans for addressing the growing criminal underworld.
MC: Good evening Halcyon! I'm your host, Melinda Carter, and you're watching Halcyon's most popular late-night talk show, Halcyon After Dark!
The crowd claps and cheers as Melinda walks on stage and sits behind her desk, her glittering red dress waving as she does so from the special effects.
MC: Tonight we have a very special guest here to tell us about the state of crime in the city and his plans on resolving it: please put your hands together for the HSD's very own Director, Lochlin O'Brien!
The crowd cheers some more as HSD Director Lochlan O'Brien, a tall, muscular, caucasian male in his early forties with red hair and a well-trimmed beard steps into the room, waving at the crowd with a bright smile. He sits in the armchair angled next to Melinda's desk and gives her his full attention.
MC: It's so good to have you on the show, Director! Tell me, how are you doing on this fine evening?
LO: I'm doing excellent, Melinda: every day I wake up feeling fulfilled knowing I'm serving Halcyon to the best of my abilities and then some."
MC: That's the spirit, Director! Now, I know this question is just on everyone's lips, so I have to ask: how successful was the recent gang bust? I heard HSD forces took out dozens of gang members and liberated at least a dozen Russu Hounds from their abusive clutches, but I know that everyone in the audience and at home wants to know the numbers.
LO: I'd be glad to tell you, but I do have to preface this by saying that we still lost a lot of good officers that day, and while we did strike a crippling blow to one of Halcyon's biggest gangs, it doesn't change the fact that each death is a tragedy, and we're taking steps to prevent them in the future. That being said, those valiant officers did not sacrifice themselves in vain: we had over a dozen confirmed kills and several arrests, including the rescue of several corrupted Russu hounds.
MC: That's excellent, Director: proof that even when the number of degenerates and scum grow by the day, the HSD will always be here to keep the citizens of Halcyon safe.
LO: Absolutely, Melinda, and we're always working tirelessly to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our units, as well as racing to stay several steps ahead of the many gangs of Halcyon at all times. My newest goal as Director is to vastly increase the funding given to our Robotics Department and our Neuro-Warfare Department to potentially reduce the number of casualties we may experience in the future, as well as to quickly and effectively detain, and if necessary, eliminate criminals. Within the next decade, I want to double the number of automated units each Security Platoon is assigned: droids are the future of public safety as well as countless other industries, and it would be foolish to be left behind.
MC: That is quite a lofty goal, Director: what about the displaced jobs from the increased automation? What will the union say?
LO: And to that, I say: what misplaced jobs? We aren't replacing our honored and beloved service members with droids, Melinda, we are simply supplementing our units with more droids to ensure that future gang assaults end with fewer HSD casualties and more gang members in prison or eliminated, simple as that.
MC: That makes much more sense, Director, thanks for clarifying. Now, I have one more question that I'm sure much of Halcyon wants to know the answer to before we take a short break: what plans do you and your fellow directors have to make long-term progress in reducing crime beyond just increasing funding? Have you proposed any plans to strike at the source of where crime and degeneracy flourish?
OL: That's an excellent question, and one I am proud to answer: my constituents and I have been working tirelessly on a two-step plan to greatly reduce crime levels in Halcyon. Step one would be to prevent people from becoming criminals and degenerates at all in the first place: a lot of young men and women, but especially young men, have lost either one or both parents or even a sibling, aunt or uncle, or even a close friend by the brutality of the Second Authority War, and while the service of their lost loved ones will always be recognized and honored, many of these young men and women are left bitter, angry and lost without the guidance these people give them in their lives. Oftentimes they seek to fill that void with others who claim to relate to them: career criminals. These criminals will fill their heads with lies and false narratives to make them feel like they're fighting back against the 'evil protectorate government' that took their loved ones from them by sending them off to war when in reality it was the rogue Xenopets of the Triarchy that took them away by resisting their just and inevitable unburdening.
In response, I have proposed a slew of special programs that will make sure local law enforcement and HSD officers are present and contributing to their local community, and we'll be providing easy and light job openings for youngsters and teens looking to make a career for themselves in the force when they grow up. We want to let these lost souls know that there are people who care about them, people who understand them and that you shouldn't turn to degeneracy to feel fulfilled. We want to help the youth of our great society soar to new heights!
MC: That sounds like a wonderful beginning to your plan, Director, but what about the second step?
LO: Well, the second step is to prevent criminals and degenerates from becoming repeat criminals. Sure, they've made their mistakes, some worse than others, but they're only human like the rest of us. Some of them have been through hell: some are traumatized veterans who don't know how to adapt to normal life, others were recruited when they were young and don't know that there's a better way to live, and even more are mentally ill. We're alone in this galaxy, and we can't leave so many people behind. That's why we've come up with an excellent solution: we've set up isolated communities on distant moons and frontier planets where these criminals can be reeducated, rehabilitated, and allowed to repay their debt to society. When they're deemed 'reformed' and have graduated from our program, they'll be granted a hefty stipend and their criminal record will be deemed irrelevant, allowing them to reintegrate and become functioning members of our proud society.
MC: all of these sound like incredible steps forward in the fight to better our society and make real progress, Director. Sadly, we do have to step away for a moment, but you best believe I'll be back, Halcyon, and we'll be asking the Director here some burning questions about allegations over the quality of life Erubus Supermax! Now, a word from our sponsors!
Halcyon Xenopet-Megaplex! Everything your xenopet could ever need in one place! Adoption is now free-
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Good, you’re still alive! The rest of this shard appears to be corrupted, which means this particular trail seems to have run cold here, but do not despair; you need to keep searching. Find out what happened. Find the truth.I cannot guide you any longer: they've already found me, and if I remain in contact with you they'll find you as well. Take the archival database, and see what you can piece together. Maybe if we discover what truly happened we can put an end to this madness once and for all. I'm counting on you. Don't cry for me, I don't fear death, but I fear what they'll do to me to get to you: there are far worse fates than death, after all.
submitted by Frame_Late to libraryofshadows [link] [comments]
The following two brain scans were provided by the Neuro-Warfare branch of the Halcyon Security Division (HSD) for the purpose of analyzing the thoughts, behaviors, and information of notorious gangsters Vincent 'Troy' Cohen and Bruno (Deadname:
Warning: the contents of this archival shared may be especially disturbing to some audiences. Viewer discretion is advised.
Warning: the contents of this archival shard are for the sole purpose of analyzing the thought patterns and memories of certain degenerate criminals in an effort to ascertain vital information that can be used to eliminate their organizations. Only staff with clearance level Omega may view this archival shared, and the viewership of this archival shared by anyone of inadequate clearance level will lead to twenty years in prison and a fine of over a hundred thousand credits.
Booting up memory scan: Vincent 'Troy' Cohen, November 4th, 2446…
Loading and processing firmware data… translating… memories and subconscious simulated…
Beginning archival shard presentation…
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"Do you have visuals of the target, Troy?"
I knelt down in the alleyway, the bodies of me and my partners shrouded in long, waterproof, ashen-gray overcoats the shade of dirty street scum that we wore to ward off the constant heavy rainfall the color of osmium. Our faces were covered in a mix of scrapped respirators, visors, or full metal face masks carved with intricate designs to hide our identities. On our waists were our badges of honor: leather belts studded with interlocked rivets made from blackened titanium, each buckle forged of silver and shaped into the head of our gang's symbol, the black mamba. We hid amongst the shadows of the dark midday of Halcyon City, the heavy, oppressive rains blanketing the roads paved obsidian-black with asphalt and weathered concrete walkways. The street lamps were always on, like beacons of false hope in a storm of melancholy.
The city was dark and dreary as always, the planet of Proxima Centauri B, renamed Dawn's Lamentation over a century ago, orbited the red dwarf star of Proxima Centauri, and the atmosphere was thick with natural smog and ever-storming rain clouds. That didn't dissuade people from living here: there was plenty of money to be had for shrewd industrialists and hardworking pioneers, even in the urban sprawl. But that life also came with risks, especially for those on the bottom of the totem pole.
I was a ganger, and we were criminals; full stop. I won't assault you with some spiel about how we're the good guys fighting oppression because, at the end of the day, we could be just as bad, if not worse, than Halcyon's Security Division, or the HSD for short. We were traffickers, killers, extortionists, and money launderers. We dealt with everything from stolen tech and military-grade hardware to hard drugs and sentients.
Yes, sentients. We trafficked sentients, but not in the way you might think. They weren't prisoners, in fact, we were their saviors if they had the cash. We had developed a reputation for fighting the power, but it was still business: sure, freeing captives from the clutches of the Protectorate. The disruption of its many oppressive organizations held a certain satisfaction in my heart for sure, but we didn't help those who couldn't pay unless someone else paid on their behalf. It was about making sure me and my gang, my family, could live a decent life for another day.
It helped that most of us joined after leaving the state yard for partaking in acts of 'degeneracy' and 'anti-xenopet illegalities' as if those terms meant anything anymore other than that we were a threat to the local status quo. It was hard to pick up a job as a former inmate when even in something as harsh and backbreaking as a job in the iridium mines near the poles when the employment office had you blacklisted as a degenerate, which lead to the formation of many of the gangs: we needed to make a living somehow, and when all social programs were cut off from you unless you submitted for 're-education' and the only way to put food on the table was subverting, breaking, or even downright fighting the law, you did what you had to do or you died on the streets a scorned beggar.
It wasn't like the HSD made it easy for us on even a good day: the local HSD units were armed to the teeth with advanced, military-grade hardware that you'd often see on the front lines of the Second Authority War: armored assault transports, a myriad of advanced war droids, all sorts of chemical countermeasures that made tear gas seem like putting the garden hose on mist mode, and of course advanced firearms. Add that to the fact that they were authorized to use deadly force when they deemed it necessary and you had a ruthless, heartless, and nearly unstoppable enemy. But we could make that work: we weren't trying to stop them, just to withstand them.
"Yeah, I got eyes on the prize, Koraak; seven armored transports, two for droids, five for prisoners."
Today wasn't a day for a normal job: we were getting bolder, cockier, more ambitious. Our numbers had swelled for the last few years after the raid at Barnard's Star and the fall of the Blood Dragon Mafia. Their leader, Saito Yasuhide, had committed seppuku as their manor burned, and his twin sons had gone down fighting rather than allowing themselves to be captured simply to face a firing squad. In the aftermath, many of the family's associates had fled to the surrounding systems, and with the sheer size and scope of the criminal underworld found here, it was no wonder that many people who had developed skills of the less legal variety had decided to form ranks with the gangs, and with them they brought guns, tech, knowledge, contacts, and even something that we thought wasn't possible beforehand: a semblance of peace between the gangs, or at least the closest thing to peace that gangs could cultivate effectively. With the fall of the Blood Dragons, we saw the writing on the wall, and the writing couldn't have been clearer: work together or die together.
"Sounds like a massacre, Troy: are you sure we can handle seven?"
"We ain't got no choice, Cinder: this job's double the usual rate, and that's not including the weapons and gear we could scrounge if this goes well," I hissed, my eyes scanning for any resistance. There were at least four guards for each van, not to mention at least eight droids in total, meaning that we were already outnumbered, but we had the element of surprise: we could make it work. "So put your balls in your purse and get ready to spill some blood."
Koraak snorted at our antics, which sounded like someone pulling the ripcord on a lawnmower. He was a veteran Russu Corsair, and while his past of slaving, raiding, and killing was unsavory, so were the lives we'd lived, so who were we to judge? All we cared about was that he was a brutal and capable fighter and a loyal brother in arms. It turned out that being a ganger wasn't much different from being a Corsair: you lived and died by a code of honor, you fought to the death for your brothers, and you lived to die for the sake of your gang and your family, simple as that. In a strange, ironic way, it was an incredibly honest way of life: we were under no illusions as to what we were, what we did, and why we did it, and we'd long since accepted it. The Russu related to us in that aspect, in many ways I could respect, which is why I hated what the Protectorate was doing, and why I couldn't grasp how most of humanity could just collectively lose their marbles so long ago. What had happened for us to deem all other life below us in such a demeaning and infantilizing way?
The Russu were a race of tall, muscle-bound Saurians with avian features, and Koraak was no exception: reaching almost seven feet in height and weighing over four hundred and fifty pounds, he could be an absolute menace if he so desired. His skin was covered in stubby, knobby scales and dense plumage, with elegant feathers adorning the ridges along his back as well as his forearms, elbows, knees, and the crests on his head. He almost looked like how paleontologists described velociraptors, with razor-sharp talons, feathers shaded in vibrant greens, reds, and purples, and a maw full of sharp teeth, but at the tip of his snout was a sharp, beak-like growth meant for ripping flesh off the bone.
The Russu were strange as hell, but they also looked almost cute in the same way a fully grown alligator was cute: they were obviously dangerous, but humans would always have this innate desire to anthropomorphize them and to pet them for some inexplicable reason, although common sense usually prevented that, at least amongst the very few of us left that were sane.
"Shut up, Troy! All I'm saying is that that'll be rough, and you know it," hissed Cinder. Cinder was a tall black man whose coffee-colored skin was covered in tattoos. He wore an ebony mechanic's jumpsuit with metal inserts underneath his grimy overcoat covering his body and a faded black respirator on his face. His eyes were a startling blue that seemed sorely out of place, and his hair was braided into thick cornrows along his scalp. He wore a pair of heavy black combat boots and palmed his compact shotgun in his hands, the square barrel less than seven inches. Like a lot of the weapons the Black Mambas carried on their persons and dealt in, they fired caseless ammunition; in Cinder's case it was 16x40mm caseless shotshells filled with depleted uranium micro-flechetes no thicker than a toothpick. Cinder nervously fiddled with the detachable tube magazine underneath the barrel, his hands shaking. Despite the shit I have him, I didn't blame him for being anxious: I was anxious too, even if I refused to show it. The biting cold of unease and pessimism was in my stomach, and I ran all the way that this job could go wrong in my head over and over.
"Just hold yourself together, this ain't anything we haven't done before, there's just more of it," I reassured Cinder, "besides, we're not alone; we have reinforcements across the street. We'll make it out of this alive."
Cinder nodded almost absentmindedly, his eyes downcast and his breathing shallow. I turned from him and back to Koraak, who was making sure he had everything on his person; he had a synthetic leather bandoleer across his chest that contained the heavy eight guage depleted uranium slugs he kept loading and unloading into his much larger, longer, and more traditional shotgun he nicknamed ‘carnage’ and several leather straps that held his Tu'shan daggers: traditional Russu pyramidal blades forged from a silvery alloy with all three edges serrated and the tip barbed to leave behind horrible, gaping wounds that gushed blood. They were wickedly sharp and absolutely straight like a stiletto, and the hilts and pommels were beautifully decorated. He wore no clothes underneath his overcoat to cover the countless scars and blemishes he's earned in combat across his chest and abdomen, and instead of a normal respirator or visor, he simply wore a hood over his head and some traditional Russu facial armor to protect his mouth, eyes, and cheeks.
"You ready to fight, Koraak? The caravan will pick up and leave soon."
Koraak was silent for a moment before nodding, a human gesture he had picked up after serving as a soldier with the Black Mambas for years. "I'm always ready to fight," he said before lifting up his shotgun and aiming down the sights at the reinforced front wheels of the first armored car in the caravan. He exhaled and fired, the slug ripping through both front tires and causing them to deflate and fall apart. The echo of the shot rang through the alleyway and the street, causing pedestrians to panic and flee the scene as heavily armored guards poured out of the side doors of the armored cars and unholstered their carbines.
"Go, now!" I shouted, and both me and Cinder rushed out into the fray, our guns raised. Koraak was right behind the two of us, providing covering fire with his shotgun. Several guards fell quickly, Koraak's precise fire and the sheer force of the depleted uranium slugs putting them down for good as their heads were vaporized or their chest cavities were turned to mush. He emptied the tube with one final shot that painted the grey matter of a security guard on the door of one of the armored cars, then racked the shotgun and expertly loaded it in threes, his hands deft and agile as he reached for more slugs faster than any human.
With the cacophony of our initial assault, more Black Mambas poured out from the alleyways and the subways, armed to the teeth with all manner of weapons; shotguns, submachine guns, pistols, machetes, baseball bats, and all manner of homemade explosives. Molotovs and more potent concoctions shattered against the asphalt, herding in the caravan guards with their volatile contents as they were quickly gunned down. The assault was working, and we were winning.
Then I heard the robotic whine of a combat droid activating, and my heart sank. One of the armored cars in the back activated the four combat droids it held, the robotic assault units detaching from their charging ports on the sides of the large van and began to form up, each armed with a terrifying array of deadly weapons meant to quash any and all resistance. They were blocky, soulless, utilitarian things that stood at eight feet tall, with flat feet meant for stomping and blades, grasping claws designed to lacerate flesh and shatter bone. On each shoulder was a weapon: on the left was a multi-barrel rotary grenade launcher loaded with 15mm concussion grenades, and on the right was a burst-fire splinter cannon. They were all painted a dull grayish-green, the color of Halcyon's Security Division, although some had a few decorations on them: the one closest to me had a bit of graffiti on the side that said Mr. Hugs in Comic Sans, which I couldn't decide whether that made it more or less terrifying. They split up without hesitation and began to scan the chaotic battlefield, their single, red, beady lenses the security forces had the gall to call eyes focusing on specific targets to eliminate.
An entire group of Black Mambas was torn to pieces by a cloud of flechettes as one of the droids fired a withering three-round burst of shotshells from the four gauge splinter cannon mounted on its shoulder. Another picked up a Black Mamba in its hand and crushed her skull effortlessly before tossing her limp body to the side, its single, red, remorseless robotic eye tracking a new target. Most bullets that struck their thick armored chassis simply bounced off, and those that could pierce the armor didn't seem to phase the droids whatsoever, merely notifying them of a new potential target.
"Damnit," I shouted as I gunned down another guard only for two more to take his place. "Cinder! We gotta pop open the cars and scram! Get the maglock cutters!"
Cinder rushed and slid over through a dirty puddle, pulling out a maglock cutter from the inside of his coat and slipping it onto the back door of the first van. It immediately went to work, drilling through the maglock with a high-powered plasma torch nozzle, and within ten seconds we heard the telltale clunk of the maglock separating. I yanked the door open and ordered I side, ready to escort the prisoners out… only for my face to contort in shock and horror.
The back was empty. There was not a single soul inside of the back brig of the armored car.
"What the fuck…" Cinder gasped, his eyes wide with shock. "What the actual fuck… what the fuck is this, Troy?"
"I… I don't…" I stuttered the sounds of battle and carnage drowned out by the sound of blood rushing in my ears. All five cars were supposed to be filled with recently captured Russu from the front lines ready to be housed in the local Xenopet-Megaplex for processing and conditioning. The fact that this one was empty…
Suddenly, it all hit me at once with the force of a freight train, but it was too late. "We were set up, Cinder; our fucking client either squealed or was crooked to begin with…"
"Fucking bitch!" Cinder shouted as he spun around in an enraged arch, anger growing in his eyes. He aimed his shotgun at an approaching security guard and reduced his upper body to a fine red mist with a cacophony of shotgun blasts. "We gotta get everyone who's left out of here! Do you know what this means? The Jurors will be here soon, and then we're all going down! We gotta go, fuck the job!"
I grit my teeth. Not the Jurors, anything but the Jurors.
"Fine, gather everyone who's left and we'll slip through the sewers, the droids are too bulky to follow us there…"
As I spoke, my eyes wandered to the seventh and final armored car, the second of the droid cars, and my blood froze. Not only were all four ports empty, but they were also smaller and more shallow than the ports for the combat droids. That could only mean one thing.
"Oh fuck! Cinder, we gotta get our Russu members out of here! They've got arachnid droids!"
Arachnid droids were the stuff of nightmares. Resembling blocky, robotic arachnids the size of a manhole cover, they were specifically designed to take down sentient aliens, specifically the Russu, using sickeningly non-lethal means. They were equipped with full-body adaptive cloaking to blend in with their environments, paralytic agents that they could inject into their victims, built-in taser barbs, psychedelic gas ports for crowd-control, and a narrow-coned cacophony canon that disabled the Russu using incredibly high-pitched sounds that only they could hear, forcing them onto their knees and clutching the backs of their heads where their auditory organs were stored in agony. But worst of all was their stygian spinnerets: special ports near the end of their robotic abdomens that excreted a viscous, latex-like substance made up of millions of nano-bots. This substance could be used to render Russu blind, deaf, and mute by having it forced onto their faces, the black substance growing and enveloping their heads and working its way into every orifice. It was completely permeable to the standard atmosphere, but any Russu who had been 'webbed' was completely helpless and essentially captured, and the 'webbing' was both nearly indestructible and nigh impossible to remove without a triple-encrypted override key that was found in every arachnid droid's code, which was corrupted when the droid was destroyed or hacked into. Once you were 'webbed', you were essentially captured and the standard protocol was to leave you to the wolves since the nano-bots could be tracked, endangering the entire gang.
I turned just as I heard the deafening sound of Koraak discharging his shotgun, and I saw him squaring off against one of the assault droids. The droid has obviously been programmed to not use lethal force against Russu if possible, as instead of simply killing Koraak with it's shoulder-mounted splinter cannon, it approached with its claws extended, blades retracted. Koraak continued to back away and fire, pumping the droid full of depleted uranium slugs, its armor crumbling inward as the slugs pierced its chassis and damaged its internal cyberstructure. Eventually, Koraak ran out of slugs and instinctively reached to his bandoleer only to find that he had no more shells left at all, and he drew one of his knives and his sidearm, a simple high-caliber handgun. He tried to take down the droid with his handgun, but the bullets didn't even seem to affect the droid upon penetration, it's claws still extended as it attempted to apprehend Koraak.
In the corner of my vision, as I watched Koraak battle with the droid, I noticed a faint shimmer in the air on one of the black streetlight poles that was right behind him. I focused on it and blinked, believing my eyes had deceived me for a moment before realizing that it was actually a cloaked arachnid droid stalking Korvaak, ready to pounce and incapacitate him.
Before I could shout, it leaped from the pole and landed on Korvaak, causing him to shout in surprise while it began to coagulate its horrifying stygian webbing to disable Korvaak. Korvaak tried to wrestle it off of him, but the droid was agile and fast, clinging onto Korvaak and skittering around across his upper body as he attempted to grab it, forcibly wrapping the sticky black liquid across his face as he gagged like a spider wrapping up a fly. I rushed towards him to try and help, but I felt pain explode in my ribs as I was struck with the arm of the closest combat droid and launched into the chassis of a parked car, the metal denting from the sheer force of impact. I groaned in pain as I saw stars and my head spun, and just then I felt a blinding light be cast over me.
“Drop your weapons and kneel with your hands on your head, or you will be pacified with deadly force!” Shouted a loud, artificially deepened voice from above. “I repeat, drop your weapons and kneel with your hands on your head! Neither hostility nor hesitation will be tolerated!”
It was the Jurors, I could feel the air being pushed around from the thrusters on their drop ships, and I could hear screams and shouts as my fellow Black Mambas were quickly gunned down. I couldn’t see well since I was seeing double, but I could hear the slaughter as my eyes dimmed and I began to lose consciousness, my regrets crawling up my throat like vomit.
I’m sorry was all I could think as everything finally went dark, and the sounds of chaos, destruction, and combat faded away.
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Memory halted due to loss of consciousness. Booting next available memory in shard…
Booting up memory scan: Koraak Tel-Char Bruno, November 5th, 2446…
Loading and processing firmware data… translating… memories and subconscious simulated…
Beginning archival shard presentation…
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“Good morning, sleepyhead; it’s time for breakfast.”
My eyes shot open. I was not in the street anymore, nor was I home in my bed with my mate. I knew instantly that something was horribly wrong. I tried to stand up, but I couldn’t gain the leverage to do so: my ankles had been shackled together with magnetic cuffs and my arms were forced together in front of me.
I was wearing some kind of thick shirt. It was warm, fluffy, and comfortable on the inside, but it still made me incredibly uncomfortable that my arms didn’t have a free range of motion. I looked down to see that I was wearing some human garment I had heard about before, a straightjacket maybe?
The entire room was padded: the walls, the floor, even the ceiling. There was no bed or furniture; the floor was soft enough to serve as a bed in itself. There was nothing else except for the soft reddish-orange lights on the ceiling that somehow made me sleepy. I blinked slowly for a moment, my body screaming at me to just lay back down and lose consciousness, but I couldn’t do that: I needed to figure out where I was and how to escape.
Then I noticed who was speaking to me: it was a short human female, with crow's feet around her blue eyes, blonde hair braided down her back, and freckles all over her face. She had a soft smile on her lips, and her forehead was slightly crinkled. She wore a full-body white lab suit with a white overcoat and a pair of glasses for snugly on her face.
"There we go, now I can see those pretty eyes, such a beautiful shade of teal," she cooed softly, "You're such a handsome boy, even with all those scars: I'm sure you'll be adopted very quickly once we get you fixed up."
Fear gripped my heart as I began to piece all the evidence together. I had been captured; I was no longer on Halcyon, and instead, I was in one of the horrific space-born facilities I had heard so much about from the inside agents. I started to hyperventilate and squawk like a newborn hatchling, my eyes dilating in panic. This couldn't be happening! This has to be a nightmare!
The human woman merely wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into an embrace, cradling my head under her chin and speaking softly. I couldn't bite at her or claw at her: I was muzzled and wearing a straight jacket, so I had no choice but to allow her to coddle me.
"It's okay, sweetheart: I understand you're scared, but Julie's here to make all the pain and bad thoughts go away," she said as if she was comforting a child, which made anger blossom in my chest indignantly. "I'll be your caretaker for the next few months, and I'm going to make sure you're healthy, happy, and most importantly safe while you're under our care. I'm sorry to say that includes your restraints and restrictive clothing, but we have to make sure you aren't a threat to yourself or others before we can determine if it's a good idea to remove you from suicide watch."
I growled under my muzzle. Suicide watch? They must have had a lot of instances of Russu taking their own lives after being captured, something I wished I had been able to do before that damnable droid launched itself onto me and…
I shuddered at the thought of the black, viscous substance forcing itself into my nostrils and down my throat and windpipe, gagging me and rendering me completely helpless. It was so cold, so harsh, like slime, and when I had tried to tear it off of my face it merely attached itself to my claws and bound my talons together. I remember squirming on the ground as it enveloped me, unable to see, hear, or speak, and then everything went dark in an instant. It was the most horrible thing I had ever experienced, which was saying something.
"You alright, sweetheart? Oh, I know, you're probably hungry! Here, try some of this." She held up a piece of what looked like raw bacon and wiggled it in front of me before reaching out to remove my muzzle. In an instant, I attempted to snap at her only for pain to blossom in my forehead and my eyes to roll up in my head as I convulsed. It was like something was attempting to drill through my skull from the inside, and every breath felt empty and labored.
"Now, that didn't feel very nice, did it? This is why we have countermeasures in place because we can't trust you yet, sweetheart! Don't worry, we'll work on breaking you of all those bad behaviors and habits while you're here; after all, a well-trained pet is a happy pet!" She began to stroke the crests on my head as I slowly recovered, and she snugly fit the muzzle back onto my snout. "But I won't hold it against you this time, sweetheart; you're just scared and confused, but I'll make all the pain go away."
I struggled in the straight jacket, trying my best to break out of it, but it was no use. Eventually, I became exhausted and despondent, allowing my new caretaker to have her way with me as she gently ran her fingers through my feathers and along my ridges, quietly speaking to me in a hopeless attempt to cheer me up. She seemed genuinely concerned for my well-being, which concerned me even further: who could be this naturally twisted while attempting to be as benevolent and kindhearted as possible?
I felt the pain and terror build up in my chest, the anxiety from what horrific activities I imagined they had planned for me here. I couldn't take the infantilization, the lack of any autonomy, the dehumanization, and what I feared the most was if the rumors of 'rebirth' were true: would they take my personhood from me?
Suddenly, I felt her whisper to me. "Don't worry sweetheart, I know you're so scared and confused, but I promise you everything will be okay: it's going to be your birthday soon, and then everything will get better." She ran her fingers through the feathers along my crest lovingly. "It will be such a wonderful day, and then we'll choose for you the most wonderful family, and you'll spend the rest of your life happy in your forever home! Doesn't all of that sound wonderful?"
I wanted to die. I wanted to disappear. I didn't want to lose myself, not like this, not to these monsters!
"It'll be your birthday soon," she said wistfully as if she was remembering similar events to this in the past like I wasn't the first she'd done this too, "and you'll never be sad again."
I realized that I wasn't the first the stay in this particular cell, and I knew for certain that I wouldn't be the last: I'd end up like my brother, a broken, erased mess of a pathetic creature, reduced to nothing more than a pet for these humans to amuse themselves with.
"We took the liberty of picking out a nice name for you, sweetheart! Now, let me just slip this little programming chip into the port slot on your occipital bone, and... there we go! It will also help you calm down a bit and adjust."
I felt the chip begin to invade my mind, suppressing my thoughts. What made me me was slowly being ripped out of my mind.
##Do not think. You are a good boy.##
I tried to scream, but my voice wouldn't work: I had trouble forming any words at all, the confusion clouding my mind like wet, slimy eels curling around my brain and sinking their teeth into its folds like needles. I couldn’t scream any longer, because I had nothing left: the chip was slowly beginning to take everything from me, robbing me of my identity and branding a new one into my psyche with a white-hot iron. Julie simply held me close, attempting to reassure me as I awaited the inevitable demise of my personhood. Soon I would be just like my brother: erased. My mind would be shaped into the mind of a loyal plaything, like a Dog.
##Relax. Allow caretaker [Julie] to comfort you. You will let go of your burden.##
Soon, everything was a blur. I quickly found myself resting my head in her lap as she whispered to me and fed me, my eyes bleary and my head fuzzy.
##Good Boy. Do not think. You are a good boy.##
You can't... I...
##Good boy.##
I wouldn't… good boys don't… I…
##Good boy##
I was a good boy… I was a good boy…
I was… I was… a good… boy…
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The following script is from episode #343 of Halcyon After Dark, a popular late-night and current events talk show hosted by Melinda Carter. This specific episode was sponsored in part by the Halcyon Security Division, with Director Lochlin O'Brien joining as a guest star to talk about the changing crime statistics in Halcyon City and the HSD's recent successes in busting organized crime as well as their plans for addressing the growing criminal underworld.
MC: Good evening Halcyon! I'm your host, Melinda Carter, and you're watching Halcyon's most popular late-night talk show, Halcyon After Dark!
The crowd claps and cheers as Melinda walks on stage and sits behind her desk, her glittering red dress waving as she does so from the special effects.
MC: Tonight we have a very special guest here to tell us about the state of crime in the city and his plans on resolving it: please put your hands together for the HSD's very own Director, Lochlin O'Brien!
The crowd cheers some more as HSD Director Lochlan O'Brien, a tall, muscular, caucasian male in his early forties with red hair and a well-trimmed beard steps into the room, waving at the crowd with a bright smile. He sits in the armchair angled next to Melinda's desk and gives her his full attention.
MC: It's so good to have you on the show, Director! Tell me, how are you doing on this fine evening?
LO: I'm doing excellent, Melinda: every day I wake up feeling fulfilled knowing I'm serving Halcyon to the best of my abilities and then some."
MC: That's the spirit, Director! Now, I know this question is just on everyone's lips, so I have to ask: how successful was the recent gang bust? I heard HSD forces took out dozens of gang members and liberated at least a dozen Russu Hounds from their abusive clutches, but I know that everyone in the audience and at home wants to know the numbers.
LO: I'd be glad to tell you, but I do have to preface this by saying that we still lost a lot of good officers that day, and while we did strike a crippling blow to one of Halcyon's biggest gangs, it doesn't change the fact that each death is a tragedy, and we're taking steps to prevent them in the future. That being said, those valiant officers did not sacrifice themselves in vain: we had over a dozen confirmed kills and several arrests, including the rescue of several corrupted Russu hounds.
MC: That's excellent, Director: proof that even when the number of degenerates and scum grow by the day, the HSD will always be here to keep the citizens of Halcyon safe.
LO: Absolutely, Melinda, and we're always working tirelessly to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our units, as well as racing to stay several steps ahead of the many gangs of Halcyon at all times. My newest goal as Director is to vastly increase the funding given to our Robotics Department and our Neuro-Warfare Department to potentially reduce the number of casualties we may experience in the future, as well as to quickly and effectively detain, and if necessary, eliminate criminals. Within the next decade, I want to double the number of automated units each Security Platoon is assigned: droids are the future of public safety as well as countless other industries, and it would be foolish to be left behind.
MC: That is quite a lofty goal, Director: what about the displaced jobs from the increased automation? What will the union say?
LO: And to that, I say: what misplaced jobs? We aren't replacing our honored and beloved service members with droids, Melinda, we are simply supplementing our units with more droids to ensure that future gang assaults end with fewer HSD casualties and more gang members in prison or eliminated, simple as that.
MC: That makes much more sense, Director, thanks for clarifying. Now, I have one more question that I'm sure much of Halcyon wants to know the answer to before we take a short break: what plans do you and your fellow directors have to make long-term progress in reducing crime beyond just increasing funding? Have you proposed any plans to strike at the source of where crime and degeneracy flourish?
OL: That's an excellent question, and one I am proud to answer: my constituents and I have been working tirelessly on a two-step plan to greatly reduce crime levels in Halcyon. Step one would be to prevent people from becoming criminals and degenerates at all in the first place: a lot of young men and women, but especially young men, have lost either one or both parents or even a sibling, aunt or uncle, or even a close friend by the brutality of the Second Authority War, and while the service of their lost loved ones will always be recognized and honored, many of these young men and women are left bitter, angry and lost without the guidance these people give them in their lives. Oftentimes they seek to fill that void with others who claim to relate to them: career criminals. These criminals will fill their heads with lies and false narratives to make them feel like they're fighting back against the 'evil protectorate government' that took their loved ones from them by sending them off to war when in reality it was the rogue Xenopets of the Triarchy that took them away by resisting their just and inevitable unburdening.
In response, I have proposed a slew of special programs that will make sure local law enforcement and HSD officers are present and contributing to their local community, and we'll be providing easy and light job openings for youngsters and teens looking to make a career for themselves in the force when they grow up. We want to let these lost souls know that there are people who care about them, people who understand them and that you shouldn't turn to degeneracy to feel fulfilled. We want to help the youth of our great society soar to new heights!
MC: That sounds like a wonderful beginning to your plan, Director, but what about the second step?
LO: Well, the second step is to prevent criminals and degenerates from becoming repeat criminals. Sure, they've made their mistakes, some worse than others, but they're only human like the rest of us. Some of them have been through hell: some are traumatized veterans who don't know how to adapt to normal life, others were recruited when they were young and don't know that there's a better way to live, and even more are mentally ill. We're alone in this galaxy, and we can't leave so many people behind. That's why we've come up with an excellent solution: we've set up isolated communities on distant moons and frontier planets where these criminals can be reeducated, rehabilitated, and allowed to repay their debt to society. When they're deemed 'reformed' and have graduated from our program, they'll be granted a hefty stipend and their criminal record will be deemed irrelevant, allowing them to reintegrate and become functioning members of our proud society.
MC: all of these sound like incredible steps forward in the fight to better our society and make real progress, Director. Sadly, we do have to step away for a moment, but you best believe I'll be back, Halcyon, and we'll be asking the Director here some burning questions about allegations over the quality of life Erubus Supermax! Now, a word from our sponsors!
Halcyon Xenopet-Megaplex! Everything your xenopet could ever need in one place! Adoption is now free-
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Good, you’re still alive! The rest of this shard appears to be corrupted, which means this particular trail seems to have run cold here, but do not despair; you need to keep searching. Find out what happened. Find the truth.I cannot guide you any longer: they've already found me, and if I remain in contact with you they'll find you as well. Take the archival database, and see what you can piece together. Maybe if we discover what truly happened we can put an end to this madness once and for all. I'm counting on you. Don't cry for me, I don't fear death, but I fear what they'll do to me to get to you: there are far worse fates than death, after all.
2024.05.30 01:17 NamoAmitabha_ The Buddha speaks the Sutra of the Contemplation of Immeasurable Lifespan (Part 1)
The Buddha speaks the Sutra of the Contemplation of Immeasurable Lifespan
Thus, have I heard: At one time the Buddha was staying on Vulture Peak in Rājagṛha with a great assembly of twelve hundred and fifty monks. He was also accompanied by thirty-two thousand bodhisattvas led by Mañjuśrī, the Dharma Prince.
At that time, in the great city of Rājagṛha, there was a prince named Ajātaśatru. Instigated by his wicked friend Devadatta, he seized his father, King Bimbisāra and confined him in a room with seven layers of walls.
The court officers were forbidden to visit him.
Vaidehī, the mother queen was devoted to the King.
After cleansing her body, she spread a mixture of ghee, honey and wheat flour all over her body.
She filled her ornaments with grape juice, and secretly offered this food and drink to the King.
After the King had eaten the flour paste, drunk the juice, he asked for water to rinse his mouth.
After rinsing his mouth, he joined his palms in reverence and faced the Vulture Peak.
He made obeisance to the World Honoured One from afar, and said,
‘Mahāmaudgalyāyana is my close friend. I beseech the World Honoured One to take pity on me. Please send him here to give me the eight precepts.’
At that time, Mahāmaudgalyāyana flew as swiftly as a hawk to the King.
Every day he travelled in this way to give the King the eight precepts.
The World Honoured One also sent Venerable Pūrṇa to the palace to expound the Dharma to the King.
Three weeks passed by in this way. As the King had eaten the flour and honey, listened to the Dharma, he looked peaceful and contented.
At that time, Ajātaśatru asked the guard, “Is my father still alive?”
The guard replied, ‘Great King, the mother queen spreads the paste of flour and honey all over her body, fills her ornaments with grape juice. These are offered to the king. ‘
‘The monks Mahāmaudgalyāyana and Pūrṇa travel in from space to expound the Dharma to the King. It is impossible to stop them.’
On hearing this, Ajātaśatru was furious with his mother and said, ‘My mother is a thief. She is the accomplice of my enemy.’
Those monks are evil. With their delusive magic and mantra, they kept this wicked King alive for so many days!’
After saying this, he held on to his sharp sword, with the intention to kill his mother.
At that time a minister by the name Candraprabha who was intelligent and wise, together with Jīvaka made obeisances to the king and said,
‘Great King, according to the Vedic scripture, from the beginning of this kalpa there were eighteen thousand wicked kings who killed their fathers because of their greed for the throne.
But we have never heard of anyone who has committed the outrage of killing his mother.
Your Majesty, if you were to commit such an outrage, you are bringing disgrace upon the Kṣatriya class.
As your ministers, we cannot bear to hear what the people will say as this is an act of the outcaste. We cannot stay on here any longer.’
After saying these words, the two ministers grasped their swords, stepping backwards as they had decided to leave.
At that time Ajatasatru was nervous and frightened. He said to Jīvaka, ‘Are you not on my side?’
Jīvaka replied, ‘Your Majesty, please restrain yourself. Do not kill your mother.’
On hearing this, the king repented and begged for forgiveness.
He threw his sword away and stopped to kill his mother.
Instead, he ordered the court officials to lock her up in an inner chamber. She was not allowed to leave her room.
At that time, when Vaidehī was kept in confinement, she was extremely sad and in despair.
She turned to face the Vulture Peak and made obeisance to the Buddha from afar.
She said, ‘O Tathāgata, the World-honored One, in the past you used to send Ānanda to comfort me. Now I am in deep sorrow and distress. The World Honoured One is most awesomely adorned. I have no chance to see you. Please send Venerable Mahā Maudgalyāyana and Venerable Ānanda as I wish to see them.’
After saying these words, she wept sorrowfully. With her face wet with tears, she bowed down to the Buddha from afar.
Even before she raised her head, the World Honoured One, who was then staying on Vulture Peak, knew of Vaidehī’s thoughts.
Immediately he sent Mahāmaudgalyāyana and Ānanda to travel in space to see her.
The Buddha himself disappeared from the mountain and reappeared in the royal palace.
After bowing down to the Buddha, Vaidehī raised her head and saw Śākyamuni Buddha, the World Honoured One with the adorned purplish golden hue body was sitting on the lotus of myriads gems.
He was attended by Mahāmaudgalyāyana on his left and Ānanda on his right.
Śakra and the Brahmān Heavenly God, the Dharma protectors of the world and other devas were dwelling in the space. They pervasively rained down the heavenly flowers as offerings to the Buddha.
At that time, on seeing the Buddha, the World Honoured One, Vaidehi tore down her ornaments and prostrated herself on the ground.
Weeping bitterly, she said to the Buddha, ‘O World Honoured One, what offences did I commit that I gave birth to this evil son? What are causes and conditions that Devadatta becomes a retinue of the World Honored One?’
‘May the World Hooured One pervasively speak for me a dwelling which is free from sorrow and afflictions. I would like to be born there.
I no longer want to stay in Jambudvipa, a world of evils and turbidities. This defiled and evil world is a dwelling of evils which is filled up with hells, hungry ghosts and animals, with abundant unwholesomeness.
I hope that in future I will no longer hear any evil words. I do not wish to see any wicked men. World Honoured One, now I am making obeisance to the World Honoured One to seek repentance. May the Buddha bestow upon me the strength to contemplate a dwelling of pure karma.’
At that time, the World Honoured One emitted golden lights from between his eyebrows.
It pervasively illumined the immeasurable worlds in the ten directions.
The lights reflected back to the Buddha’s summit. They were transformed into a golden platform that resembled Mount Sumeru.
On the platform the pure and wonderful Lands of all the Buddha in the ten directions appeared.
Some of these Lands were made of the seven jewels, some Lands were fully covered with lotuses.
Some Lands resembled the Self at ease heavenly palaces, while others are like a crystal mirror in which all the lands in the ten directions were reflected.
Innumerable adorned Buddha Lands such like these were displayed to Vaidehī clearly.
At that time Vaidehi said to the Buddha, ‘World Honoured One, even though all the Buddha Lands are pure and brightly illuminated, presently I desire to be born in the World of Ultimate Bliss, the dwelling of Amitabha Buddha. May the World Honoured One teach me how to be mindful of it, how to dwell in right contemplation.’
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At that time the World Honoured One smile, with five coloured lights emitting from his mouth.
Every light illumines the summit of King Bimbisara.
At that time, even though the King was in confinement, his mind and eyes were unhindered.
He could see the World Honoured One from afar. He made obeisance to the Buddha with the head and face touching the ground. He naturally advanced and accomplished the Sage hood of Anagamin.
Part 2
At that time the World Honoured One told Vaidehi,
‘Do you know or not, that Amitabha Buddha is not far from here?
You should contemplate clearly that Land which is accomplished by Pure Karma.
I will now speak for you pervasively all kinds of analogies.
In this way all the mundane men in the future world who desire to cultivate the Pure Karma will attain a rebirth in the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss.’
‘Those who desire to be born in that Land must cultivate the three blessings.
The Buddha told Vaidehi,
‘Do you know or not, these three karmas are the right causes of the Pure Karma which are practised by the past, present and future Buddha in the three periods of time?’
The Buddha told Ananda and Vaidehi,
‘Listen attentively, listen attentively and do ponder on my words.
Today the Thus Come One will speak about the pure karma for the sake of all the future living beings who are harmed by the thieves of afflictions.
Good indeed it is for Vaidehi to ask this question.’
‘Ananda, you should uphold my teaching and proclaim the Buddha’s words to the myriad living beings pervasively.
Now the Thus Come One is teaching Vaidehi and all the future living beings to contemplate the Western World of Ultimate Bliss.
By relying on the Buddha’s strength, one is able to see that Pure Land just as though one is holding a clear mirror looking at one’s face.
On seeing the most wonderful bliss in that Land a man will instantly attain the Dharma Patience of No-birth because of a joyful mind.’
The Buddha told Vaidehi,
‘You are a mundane woman and your mind is weak and uncertain. You do not possess the heavenly eyes so you cannot see far. ‘
‘All the Buddha Thus Come One possess the special expedience that enable you to see the Land from afar.’
At that time Vaidehi asked the Buddha, ‘World Honoured One, presently I am able to see that Land relying on the Buddha’s strength.
After the Buddha reveals the still extinction, the evil and defiled living beings are oppressed by the five sufferings.
How are they going to see Amitabha Buddha’s World of Ultimate Bliss?’
The Buddha told Vaidehi,
‘You and living beings should be mindful of the Western Land single-mindedly.
How do you contemplate?
This is the way you contemplate.
All living beings who are not born blind, who have eyes will be able to see the setting sun. They should thus contemplate the setting sun.
They should sit uprightly, facing the west. They should concentrate their mind to contemplate the dwelling of the setting sun.
With the unmoving mind they focus the mind on the setting sun which looks like a hanging drum.’
‘After seeing this sun, they can also see it clearly with their eyes open or close.’
‘This is known as the first contemplation, the visualization of the sun.’
‘Next, you should visualize clearly the water which is pure and clear with a fixed mind.
On seeing the water, you should visualize the water.
On seeing the water which is clear and translucent, visualize it as the lapis-lazuli.
When this visualization is accomplished, you will see the lapis-lazuli ground shining brilliantly internally and externally.
The lapis-lazuli ground is supported by the golden vajra, the golden dhvaja of seven gems.
The dhvaja is octagonal in shape facing the eight directions, with every surface made up of hundreds of jewels.
Every pearl emits thousands of bright lights.
Every bright light consists of 84 thousand colours which shine on the lapis-lazuli ground just like thousands of billion suns.
We cannot see the bright illuminations fully.
On the lapis-lazuli ground it is decorated with golden linings that intervene one another. The realms of seven gems are distinctively and neatly divided.
Every gem consists of 500 coloured lights which look like flowers. The lights also resemble the moons and stars hanging in the space like a brightly illumined platform.’
Thousands and millions of bungalows and pavilions are made of myriad gems.
Each of the two sides of the platform is adorned with hundreds of billions flowery dhvajas and immeasurable musical instruments.
From the bright lights eight types of breeze blow by to play the music instruments. They sing out the teachings of sufferings, emptiness, impermanence and no-self.
This is known as the second contemplation, the visualization of water.’
‘When you have accomplished this visualization, you must visualize every adornment clearly, with your eyes close or open.
Continue to visualize them while you are awake so that they are clearly retained in your mind, not dispersed. Always be mindful of the adornments except when you are eating.’
‘If you can visualize in this way, it is known as seeing the ground of Ultimately Bliss generally.
If you have attained Samadhi, you can see the ground of that land clearly with the indescribable adornments.’
This is known as the third contemplation, the visualization of the ground.’
The Buddha told Ananda,
‘You should uphold the Buddha’s words, and speak the Dharma of the Contemplation of the ground for all the future living beings who wish for a liberation from sufferings.’
‘If a man is able to contemplate the ground, his sinful offences of 80 billion Kalpas of birth and death will be eradicated.
After leaving the present body he will surely be born in the Pure Land in the next life. He will have no doubt in this.
Contemplate in this way is known as the Proper Contemplation. Other contemplations are known as deviant contemplation.’
The Buddha said to Ānanda and Vaidehī,
“After you have accomplished the visualization of the ground, next contemplate the jewel trees.
On contemplating the jewel trees, we contemplate them one by one.
We visualize the trees are grown in rows of seven layers.
Every tree is grown to a height of eight thousand Yojanas.
These jewel trees are fully replete with flowers and leaves of seven gems.
Every flower and leaf consist of a variety of jewel colours.
From the lapis-lazuli colour golden lights are emitted.
From the crystal colour red lights are emitted.
From the agate colour tridacna lights are emitted.
From the tridacna colour green pearly lights are emitted.
Corals, amber and myriad jewels are the shining decorations.
Wonderful pearly net covers the trees from above.
Above every tree is seven layers of nets.
Among the nets are 500 billion of wonderful flower palaces which resemble the palace of the Brahman King.’
Celestial youths can be seen among them naturally.
Every celestial youth wears the adornments of 500 billion sakra abhilagna mani gems.
The lights of the mani shine to a distant of a hundred yojanas. The lights resemble the combination of hundreds of billion suns and moons which are indescribable.
The myriad gems intervened among the sakra gems. Among the colours they are the most supreme colours.
All the jewel trees are well spaced in rows. The leaves are grown in neat order with wonderful flowers bloom among them.
On the flowers there are the seven gems fruits naturally.
Every leaf has the length and breadth equivalent to 25 yojanas.
The leaves are of thousands of colours with hundreds of designs just like the celestial ornaments.
There are a variety of wonderful flowers which are the golden Jambudvipa colour.
The flowers bloom like the spinning fire wheels among the leaves. All kind of fruits are bloomed in the shape of Sakra vase.’
‘There are lights which are transformed into dhvajas, banners, and immeasurable jewel canopies.
In the jewel canopies, all the Buddha work in the three thousand great thousand worlds can be seen.
The Buddha Lands in the ten directions also appear among them.
After seeing these trees, we should visualize the adornments in sequence.
We should contemplate the tree trunks, branches, leaves, flowers and fruits clearly.
This is known as the fourth contemplation, the visualization of trees.
Next, we will visualize the water.
This is how we visualize the water.
In the Land of Ultimate Bliss there are eight ponds of water.
Every pond of water is made up from seven gems.
The gems are soft and pliant and they are born from the wish-fulfilling kings of pearls.
They are divided into 14 streams.
Every stream comprises of the wonderful colours of seven gems.
The channels are made of gold. Under the channels, mixed coloured vajra are spread like sands at the bottom.
In every pond, there are 67 billion of seven jewel lotuses.
Every lotus has a circumference of 12 yojanas.
The mani water which are flowing among the flowers travel up and down the trees.
The mani water sings in a subtly wonderful sounds propounding the dharma of suffering, emptiness, impermanence, no-self and the various paramita.
Moreover, the mani water also praises the adorned countenance of all the Buddhas.
From the wish-fulfilling kings of pearls subtly wonderful golden lights are emitted.
The lights are transformed into colourful birds of myriad gems which sing in harmony, praising the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha in a sweet and melodious voice constantly.
This is the fifth contemplation, the visualization of the water of eight virtues.
‘In the Land of myriad gems, every part of the realm consists of 500 billion jewel bungalows.
Immeasurable celestial devas dwell among the bungalows and pavilions playing the heavenly music.
Moreover, some musical instruments are hung in the space just like the heavenly jewel banners. They play by themselves without the musicians.
The variety of sounds are teaching the mindfulness of the Buddha, the mindfulness of the Dharma and the mindfulness of the Sangha of Bhikshus.
When this visualization is accomplished, it is known as the superficial contemplation of the Jewel trees, jewel ground and jewel ponds in the World of Ultimate Bliss.
This is known as the sixth contemplation, a general visualization.
Those who have seen this will have immeasurable billion kalpas of heavy bad karma eradicated. After passing away they will surely be born in that Land.
Contemplating in this way is known as the proper contemplation. Other contemplations are known as deviant contemplation.’
The Buddha told Ananda and Vaidehi, ‘Listen carefully, listen carefully. Think about it deeply.
I will explain and differentiate for you the ways to eradicate sufferings and afflictions. You should remember them and uphold my words. You should widely explain and differentiate them for the multitude.’
After speaking this, Immeasurable Lifespan Buddha appeared to stand in the air.
He was attended by the two Great Beings, Avalokisteshvara and Mahasthamaprapta on his left and right.
In this extremely brilliant illumination, their appearance cannot be seen clearly.
Even hundreds of thousand Jambudvipa golden colours are incomparable to them.
At that time on seeing the Immeasurable Lifespan Buddha, Vaidehi made obeisance at the Buddha’s feet.
She said to the Buddha, ‘By relying on the Buddha’s strength I am able to see the Immeasurable Lifespan Buddha and the two Bodhisattvas.
For the future living beings, how are they going to see the Immeasurable Lifespan Buddha and the two Bodhisattvas?’
The Buddha told Vaidehi, ‘Those who desire to see that Buddha should thus contemplate. They should visualize a lotus flower on the Seven gems ground.
They should visualize every petal of the lotus is comprised of hundreds of jewel colours with 84 thousand veins that resemble the heavenly designs.
From the veins 84 thousand lights are emitted shiningly. Visualize this clearly.
Lotus flowers with small petals are 250 yojanas in length and breath.
Lotuses such like these consists of 84000 petals.
Among the petals are hundreds of billion mani kings of pearl as decorations.
Every mani pearl emits thousands of bright illuminations which resemble the canopies.
They are made from the seven jewels which pervasively cover the ground.
Sakra abhilagna mani gem is the platform.
This lotus platform is made from 80 thousand kiṃśuka-gems, Brahman mani gems and wonderful pearly nets as decoration.
This platform is naturally replete with four pillars of jewel dhavajas.
Every jewel dhvaja resembles hundreds of thousands billion Mount Sumeru.
The jewel curtains on the dhvajas resemble the curtains in the Yama heavenly palaces.
Moreover, 500 billion subtly wonderful jewel pearls shine forth as decoration.
Every jewel pearl emits 84000 lights.
Every light is transformed into 84000 golden lights of different hues.
Every golden light transforms itself into myriad unique forms everywhere it shines on, pervasively covering the Jewel Land.
Some are transformed into Vajra platform, some look like the pearly nets while others become the mixed flowery clouds.
In the ten directions they manifest with ease to conduct the Buddha work.’
‘This is the visualization of the flowery seat. This is known as the seventh contemplation.’
The Buddha told Ananda,
‘Such a wonderful flower is accomplished by the power of Dharmakara Bhikshu’s Vows.
Those who wish to be mindful of that Buddha must first visualize this flowery seat.
While visualizing the seat he must not mix it with other contemplations.
He should contemplate them one by one. Every petal, every pearl, every light, every platform, every dhvaja should be visualized clearly, just as if one is looking at the face in a mirror.
When this visualization is accomplished, fifty thousand billion kalpas of sinful birth and death are put into extinction. Such a man will surely be born in the World of Ultimate Bliss.’
‘Contemplating in this manner is called proper contemplation. Other contemplations are known as deviant contemplation.
The Buddha told Ananda and Vaidehi, ‘After visualizing this, we will visualize the Buddha.
Why is this so?
All the Buddhas Thus Come One are the body of the Dharma Realm.
They enter the mind of all living beings.
That is why when you are thinking of the Buddha, your mind is the 32 marks, the 80 subtle adornments.
The mind becomes the Buddha, the mind is the Buddha.
The sea-like proper and pervasive knowledge of all Buddhas arises from the mind.
That is why you should single-mindedly be mindful and contemplate that Buddha, Tathagatha, Arahant Samyaksam Buddha exclusively.’
‘On visualizing the Buddha, one must first visualize the image.
With our eyes close or open you can see a jewel image which resembles the Jambudvipa gold sitting on that lotus.
On seeing the sitting image, the mind eyes are open and you will clearly see the adornment of seven gems in the Land of Ultimate Bliss.
You can also see the jewel ground, jewel ponds, the rows of jewel trees with the various heavenly canopies hanging down from above.
All kinds of jewel nets pervasively cover up the space.
You should see this manifestation clearly just as though you are looking at your palm.
After seeing this you should visualize a big lotus on the left of the Buddha.
It is exactly the same as the former lotus.
Again, you should visualize another big lotus on the right of the Buddha.
Visualize the golden image of Avalokisteshvara Bodhisattva sitting on the left lotus platform in the same way as before.
Visualize the Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva image sitting on the right lotus platform.
When this visualization is accomplished, the images of the Buddha and Bodhisattvas will emit bright lights.
The golden lights shine on the jewel trees.
Under each tree there are three lotuses.
Standing on the lotuses are the images of one Buddha and two Bodhisattvas who pervasively fill up the Buddha Land.’
‘When this visualization is accomplished, the practitioner will hear the sounds of flowing water, will see the bright illumination, and all the jewel trees, the ducks, geese and the mandarin ducks are speaking the wonderful dharma.
He will constantly hear the wonderful dharma while dwelling in concentration or not in concentration.
On hearing the dharma, the cultivator will constantly think about the dharma without renouncing it even after exiting concentration so that the teaching is in accord with the Sutras.
If it is not in accord with the Sutra, it is known as the false thoughts.
If the teaching is in accord with the Sutras, it is known as a general visualization of the World of Ultimate Bliss.
This is the visualization of images and it is known as the eighth contemplation.’
Those who contemplate in this way eradicate immeasurable billion kalpas of sinful birth and death. In this present form he will attain the Samadhi of Buddha Recitation.’
The Buddha told Ananda and Vaidehi, ‘After you have accomplished this visualization, you should then contemplate the physical marks and bright illumination of Amitabha Buddha.
Ananda, you should know this. The body of Immeasurable Lifespan Buddha resembles the hundreds of thousand million kotis of Jambunadasuvarna purplish golden colour in the Yama Heaven.
The height of the Buddha is equivalent to 60 million kotis Nayuta of Ganges Sands Yojanas.
The white light-tuft emitting between the eyebrows swirling in circles to the right resembles the size of five Mount Sumeru.
The Buddha’s eyes resemble the four great ocean water in distinct blue and white.
The hair pores on his body are flooded with bright illumination that resembles the Mount Sumeru.
The aureole light (round light) of the Buddha resembles the hundreds of kotis three thousand great thousand worlds.
In the aureole light there are hundreds of millions kotis Nayuta Ganges Sands of Transformation Buddhas.
Every Transformation Buddha is attended by incalculable, innumerable bodhisattvas.’
The Buddha of Immeasurable Lifespan is replete with 84000 marks.
Every mark is replete with the 84 thousand subtle adornments.
Every subtle adornment emits 84 thousand bright illumination.
Every bright illumination pervasively shines on living beings who recite the Buddha’s Name in the worlds in the ten directions, gathering them in without renouncing them.’
It is impossible to describe his bright illumination, his adorned countenance and the Transformation Buddhas fully.
You should be mindful of the Buddha, visualize him and you will see him in your mind.
Those who see this are seeing all the Buddha in the ten directions.
As they are able to see all the Buddha, this is known as the Samadhi of Amitabha recitation.
Those who contemplate in this way is known as the contemplation of the body of all Buddhas.
As you can contemplate the Buddha’s body, you can also see the Buddha’s mind.
The Buddha’s Mind is Great Kindness and Great Compassion.
With the Unconditional Kindness he gathers in all living beings.’
Those who cultivate this contemplation will be born before the Buddha after leaving the present form body.
They will attain the Patience of No-birth.
That is why a wise man should concentrate his mind to contemplate the Immeasurable Lifespan Buddha single-mindedly.’
Link: https://oridharma.wordpress.com/category/%e4%bd%9b%e8%aa%aa%e8%a7%80%e7%84%a1%e9%87%8f%e5%a3%bd%e7%b6%93-the-buddha-speaks-the-sutra-of-the-contemplation-of-immeasurable-lifespan/
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Thus, have I heard: At one time the Buddha was staying on Vulture Peak in Rājagṛha with a great assembly of twelve hundred and fifty monks. He was also accompanied by thirty-two thousand bodhisattvas led by Mañjuśrī, the Dharma Prince.
At that time, in the great city of Rājagṛha, there was a prince named Ajātaśatru. Instigated by his wicked friend Devadatta, he seized his father, King Bimbisāra and confined him in a room with seven layers of walls.
The court officers were forbidden to visit him.
Vaidehī, the mother queen was devoted to the King.
After cleansing her body, she spread a mixture of ghee, honey and wheat flour all over her body.
She filled her ornaments with grape juice, and secretly offered this food and drink to the King.
After the King had eaten the flour paste, drunk the juice, he asked for water to rinse his mouth.
After rinsing his mouth, he joined his palms in reverence and faced the Vulture Peak.
He made obeisance to the World Honoured One from afar, and said,
‘Mahāmaudgalyāyana is my close friend. I beseech the World Honoured One to take pity on me. Please send him here to give me the eight precepts.’
At that time, Mahāmaudgalyāyana flew as swiftly as a hawk to the King.
Every day he travelled in this way to give the King the eight precepts.
The World Honoured One also sent Venerable Pūrṇa to the palace to expound the Dharma to the King.
Three weeks passed by in this way. As the King had eaten the flour and honey, listened to the Dharma, he looked peaceful and contented.
At that time, Ajātaśatru asked the guard, “Is my father still alive?”
The guard replied, ‘Great King, the mother queen spreads the paste of flour and honey all over her body, fills her ornaments with grape juice. These are offered to the king. ‘
‘The monks Mahāmaudgalyāyana and Pūrṇa travel in from space to expound the Dharma to the King. It is impossible to stop them.’
On hearing this, Ajātaśatru was furious with his mother and said, ‘My mother is a thief. She is the accomplice of my enemy.’
Those monks are evil. With their delusive magic and mantra, they kept this wicked King alive for so many days!’
After saying this, he held on to his sharp sword, with the intention to kill his mother.
At that time a minister by the name Candraprabha who was intelligent and wise, together with Jīvaka made obeisances to the king and said,
‘Great King, according to the Vedic scripture, from the beginning of this kalpa there were eighteen thousand wicked kings who killed their fathers because of their greed for the throne.
But we have never heard of anyone who has committed the outrage of killing his mother.
Your Majesty, if you were to commit such an outrage, you are bringing disgrace upon the Kṣatriya class.
As your ministers, we cannot bear to hear what the people will say as this is an act of the outcaste. We cannot stay on here any longer.’
After saying these words, the two ministers grasped their swords, stepping backwards as they had decided to leave.
At that time Ajatasatru was nervous and frightened. He said to Jīvaka, ‘Are you not on my side?’
Jīvaka replied, ‘Your Majesty, please restrain yourself. Do not kill your mother.’
On hearing this, the king repented and begged for forgiveness.
He threw his sword away and stopped to kill his mother.
Instead, he ordered the court officials to lock her up in an inner chamber. She was not allowed to leave her room.
At that time, when Vaidehī was kept in confinement, she was extremely sad and in despair.
She turned to face the Vulture Peak and made obeisance to the Buddha from afar.
She said, ‘O Tathāgata, the World-honored One, in the past you used to send Ānanda to comfort me. Now I am in deep sorrow and distress. The World Honoured One is most awesomely adorned. I have no chance to see you. Please send Venerable Mahā Maudgalyāyana and Venerable Ānanda as I wish to see them.’
After saying these words, she wept sorrowfully. With her face wet with tears, she bowed down to the Buddha from afar.
Even before she raised her head, the World Honoured One, who was then staying on Vulture Peak, knew of Vaidehī’s thoughts.
Immediately he sent Mahāmaudgalyāyana and Ānanda to travel in space to see her.
The Buddha himself disappeared from the mountain and reappeared in the royal palace.
After bowing down to the Buddha, Vaidehī raised her head and saw Śākyamuni Buddha, the World Honoured One with the adorned purplish golden hue body was sitting on the lotus of myriads gems.
He was attended by Mahāmaudgalyāyana on his left and Ānanda on his right.
Śakra and the Brahmān Heavenly God, the Dharma protectors of the world and other devas were dwelling in the space. They pervasively rained down the heavenly flowers as offerings to the Buddha.
At that time, on seeing the Buddha, the World Honoured One, Vaidehi tore down her ornaments and prostrated herself on the ground.
Weeping bitterly, she said to the Buddha, ‘O World Honoured One, what offences did I commit that I gave birth to this evil son? What are causes and conditions that Devadatta becomes a retinue of the World Honored One?’
‘May the World Hooured One pervasively speak for me a dwelling which is free from sorrow and afflictions. I would like to be born there.
I no longer want to stay in Jambudvipa, a world of evils and turbidities. This defiled and evil world is a dwelling of evils which is filled up with hells, hungry ghosts and animals, with abundant unwholesomeness.
I hope that in future I will no longer hear any evil words. I do not wish to see any wicked men. World Honoured One, now I am making obeisance to the World Honoured One to seek repentance. May the Buddha bestow upon me the strength to contemplate a dwelling of pure karma.’
At that time, the World Honoured One emitted golden lights from between his eyebrows.
It pervasively illumined the immeasurable worlds in the ten directions.
The lights reflected back to the Buddha’s summit. They were transformed into a golden platform that resembled Mount Sumeru.
On the platform the pure and wonderful Lands of all the Buddha in the ten directions appeared.
Some of these Lands were made of the seven jewels, some Lands were fully covered with lotuses.
Some Lands resembled the Self at ease heavenly palaces, while others are like a crystal mirror in which all the lands in the ten directions were reflected.
Innumerable adorned Buddha Lands such like these were displayed to Vaidehī clearly.
At that time Vaidehi said to the Buddha, ‘World Honoured One, even though all the Buddha Lands are pure and brightly illuminated, presently I desire to be born in the World of Ultimate Bliss, the dwelling of Amitabha Buddha. May the World Honoured One teach me how to be mindful of it, how to dwell in right contemplation.’
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At that time the World Honoured One smile, with five coloured lights emitting from his mouth.
Every light illumines the summit of King Bimbisara.
At that time, even though the King was in confinement, his mind and eyes were unhindered.
He could see the World Honoured One from afar. He made obeisance to the Buddha with the head and face touching the ground. He naturally advanced and accomplished the Sage hood of Anagamin.
Part 2
At that time the World Honoured One told Vaidehi,
‘Do you know or not, that Amitabha Buddha is not far from here?
You should contemplate clearly that Land which is accomplished by Pure Karma.
I will now speak for you pervasively all kinds of analogies.
In this way all the mundane men in the future world who desire to cultivate the Pure Karma will attain a rebirth in the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss.’
‘Those who desire to be born in that Land must cultivate the three blessings.
- They are filial to their parents and take good care of them They are respectful to their teachers and elders and attend to them gratefully. They are kind-hearted and abstain from killing. They cultivate the ten wholesome deeds.
- They bring forth the Bodhi Mind and have deep faith in cause and effect. They read and recite the Great Vehicle Sutra and exhort other cultivators to advance on the path.
The Buddha told Vaidehi,
‘Do you know or not, these three karmas are the right causes of the Pure Karma which are practised by the past, present and future Buddha in the three periods of time?’
The Buddha told Ananda and Vaidehi,
‘Listen attentively, listen attentively and do ponder on my words.
Today the Thus Come One will speak about the pure karma for the sake of all the future living beings who are harmed by the thieves of afflictions.
Good indeed it is for Vaidehi to ask this question.’
‘Ananda, you should uphold my teaching and proclaim the Buddha’s words to the myriad living beings pervasively.
Now the Thus Come One is teaching Vaidehi and all the future living beings to contemplate the Western World of Ultimate Bliss.
By relying on the Buddha’s strength, one is able to see that Pure Land just as though one is holding a clear mirror looking at one’s face.
On seeing the most wonderful bliss in that Land a man will instantly attain the Dharma Patience of No-birth because of a joyful mind.’
The Buddha told Vaidehi,
‘You are a mundane woman and your mind is weak and uncertain. You do not possess the heavenly eyes so you cannot see far. ‘
‘All the Buddha Thus Come One possess the special expedience that enable you to see the Land from afar.’
At that time Vaidehi asked the Buddha, ‘World Honoured One, presently I am able to see that Land relying on the Buddha’s strength.
After the Buddha reveals the still extinction, the evil and defiled living beings are oppressed by the five sufferings.
How are they going to see Amitabha Buddha’s World of Ultimate Bliss?’
The Buddha told Vaidehi,
‘You and living beings should be mindful of the Western Land single-mindedly.
How do you contemplate?
This is the way you contemplate.
All living beings who are not born blind, who have eyes will be able to see the setting sun. They should thus contemplate the setting sun.
They should sit uprightly, facing the west. They should concentrate their mind to contemplate the dwelling of the setting sun.
With the unmoving mind they focus the mind on the setting sun which looks like a hanging drum.’
‘After seeing this sun, they can also see it clearly with their eyes open or close.’
‘This is known as the first contemplation, the visualization of the sun.’
‘Next, you should visualize clearly the water which is pure and clear with a fixed mind.
On seeing the water, you should visualize the water.
On seeing the water which is clear and translucent, visualize it as the lapis-lazuli.
When this visualization is accomplished, you will see the lapis-lazuli ground shining brilliantly internally and externally.
The lapis-lazuli ground is supported by the golden vajra, the golden dhvaja of seven gems.
The dhvaja is octagonal in shape facing the eight directions, with every surface made up of hundreds of jewels.
Every pearl emits thousands of bright lights.
Every bright light consists of 84 thousand colours which shine on the lapis-lazuli ground just like thousands of billion suns.
We cannot see the bright illuminations fully.
On the lapis-lazuli ground it is decorated with golden linings that intervene one another. The realms of seven gems are distinctively and neatly divided.
Every gem consists of 500 coloured lights which look like flowers. The lights also resemble the moons and stars hanging in the space like a brightly illumined platform.’
Thousands and millions of bungalows and pavilions are made of myriad gems.
Each of the two sides of the platform is adorned with hundreds of billions flowery dhvajas and immeasurable musical instruments.
From the bright lights eight types of breeze blow by to play the music instruments. They sing out the teachings of sufferings, emptiness, impermanence and no-self.
This is known as the second contemplation, the visualization of water.’
‘When you have accomplished this visualization, you must visualize every adornment clearly, with your eyes close or open.
Continue to visualize them while you are awake so that they are clearly retained in your mind, not dispersed. Always be mindful of the adornments except when you are eating.’
‘If you can visualize in this way, it is known as seeing the ground of Ultimately Bliss generally.
If you have attained Samadhi, you can see the ground of that land clearly with the indescribable adornments.’
This is known as the third contemplation, the visualization of the ground.’
The Buddha told Ananda,
‘You should uphold the Buddha’s words, and speak the Dharma of the Contemplation of the ground for all the future living beings who wish for a liberation from sufferings.’
‘If a man is able to contemplate the ground, his sinful offences of 80 billion Kalpas of birth and death will be eradicated.
After leaving the present body he will surely be born in the Pure Land in the next life. He will have no doubt in this.
Contemplate in this way is known as the Proper Contemplation. Other contemplations are known as deviant contemplation.’
The Buddha said to Ānanda and Vaidehī,
“After you have accomplished the visualization of the ground, next contemplate the jewel trees.
On contemplating the jewel trees, we contemplate them one by one.
We visualize the trees are grown in rows of seven layers.
Every tree is grown to a height of eight thousand Yojanas.
These jewel trees are fully replete with flowers and leaves of seven gems.
Every flower and leaf consist of a variety of jewel colours.
From the lapis-lazuli colour golden lights are emitted.
From the crystal colour red lights are emitted.
From the agate colour tridacna lights are emitted.
From the tridacna colour green pearly lights are emitted.
Corals, amber and myriad jewels are the shining decorations.
Wonderful pearly net covers the trees from above.
Above every tree is seven layers of nets.
Among the nets are 500 billion of wonderful flower palaces which resemble the palace of the Brahman King.’
Celestial youths can be seen among them naturally.
Every celestial youth wears the adornments of 500 billion sakra abhilagna mani gems.
The lights of the mani shine to a distant of a hundred yojanas. The lights resemble the combination of hundreds of billion suns and moons which are indescribable.
The myriad gems intervened among the sakra gems. Among the colours they are the most supreme colours.
All the jewel trees are well spaced in rows. The leaves are grown in neat order with wonderful flowers bloom among them.
On the flowers there are the seven gems fruits naturally.
Every leaf has the length and breadth equivalent to 25 yojanas.
The leaves are of thousands of colours with hundreds of designs just like the celestial ornaments.
There are a variety of wonderful flowers which are the golden Jambudvipa colour.
The flowers bloom like the spinning fire wheels among the leaves. All kind of fruits are bloomed in the shape of Sakra vase.’
‘There are lights which are transformed into dhvajas, banners, and immeasurable jewel canopies.
In the jewel canopies, all the Buddha work in the three thousand great thousand worlds can be seen.
The Buddha Lands in the ten directions also appear among them.
After seeing these trees, we should visualize the adornments in sequence.
We should contemplate the tree trunks, branches, leaves, flowers and fruits clearly.
This is known as the fourth contemplation, the visualization of trees.
Next, we will visualize the water.
This is how we visualize the water.
In the Land of Ultimate Bliss there are eight ponds of water.
Every pond of water is made up from seven gems.
The gems are soft and pliant and they are born from the wish-fulfilling kings of pearls.
They are divided into 14 streams.
Every stream comprises of the wonderful colours of seven gems.
The channels are made of gold. Under the channels, mixed coloured vajra are spread like sands at the bottom.
In every pond, there are 67 billion of seven jewel lotuses.
Every lotus has a circumference of 12 yojanas.
The mani water which are flowing among the flowers travel up and down the trees.
The mani water sings in a subtly wonderful sounds propounding the dharma of suffering, emptiness, impermanence, no-self and the various paramita.
Moreover, the mani water also praises the adorned countenance of all the Buddhas.
From the wish-fulfilling kings of pearls subtly wonderful golden lights are emitted.
The lights are transformed into colourful birds of myriad gems which sing in harmony, praising the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha in a sweet and melodious voice constantly.
This is the fifth contemplation, the visualization of the water of eight virtues.
‘In the Land of myriad gems, every part of the realm consists of 500 billion jewel bungalows.
Immeasurable celestial devas dwell among the bungalows and pavilions playing the heavenly music.
Moreover, some musical instruments are hung in the space just like the heavenly jewel banners. They play by themselves without the musicians.
The variety of sounds are teaching the mindfulness of the Buddha, the mindfulness of the Dharma and the mindfulness of the Sangha of Bhikshus.
When this visualization is accomplished, it is known as the superficial contemplation of the Jewel trees, jewel ground and jewel ponds in the World of Ultimate Bliss.
This is known as the sixth contemplation, a general visualization.
Those who have seen this will have immeasurable billion kalpas of heavy bad karma eradicated. After passing away they will surely be born in that Land.
Contemplating in this way is known as the proper contemplation. Other contemplations are known as deviant contemplation.’
The Buddha told Ananda and Vaidehi, ‘Listen carefully, listen carefully. Think about it deeply.
I will explain and differentiate for you the ways to eradicate sufferings and afflictions. You should remember them and uphold my words. You should widely explain and differentiate them for the multitude.’
After speaking this, Immeasurable Lifespan Buddha appeared to stand in the air.
He was attended by the two Great Beings, Avalokisteshvara and Mahasthamaprapta on his left and right.
In this extremely brilliant illumination, their appearance cannot be seen clearly.
Even hundreds of thousand Jambudvipa golden colours are incomparable to them.
At that time on seeing the Immeasurable Lifespan Buddha, Vaidehi made obeisance at the Buddha’s feet.
She said to the Buddha, ‘By relying on the Buddha’s strength I am able to see the Immeasurable Lifespan Buddha and the two Bodhisattvas.
For the future living beings, how are they going to see the Immeasurable Lifespan Buddha and the two Bodhisattvas?’
The Buddha told Vaidehi, ‘Those who desire to see that Buddha should thus contemplate. They should visualize a lotus flower on the Seven gems ground.
They should visualize every petal of the lotus is comprised of hundreds of jewel colours with 84 thousand veins that resemble the heavenly designs.
From the veins 84 thousand lights are emitted shiningly. Visualize this clearly.
Lotus flowers with small petals are 250 yojanas in length and breath.
Lotuses such like these consists of 84000 petals.
Among the petals are hundreds of billion mani kings of pearl as decorations.
Every mani pearl emits thousands of bright illuminations which resemble the canopies.
They are made from the seven jewels which pervasively cover the ground.
Sakra abhilagna mani gem is the platform.
This lotus platform is made from 80 thousand kiṃśuka-gems, Brahman mani gems and wonderful pearly nets as decoration.
This platform is naturally replete with four pillars of jewel dhavajas.
Every jewel dhvaja resembles hundreds of thousands billion Mount Sumeru.
The jewel curtains on the dhvajas resemble the curtains in the Yama heavenly palaces.
Moreover, 500 billion subtly wonderful jewel pearls shine forth as decoration.
Every jewel pearl emits 84000 lights.
Every light is transformed into 84000 golden lights of different hues.
Every golden light transforms itself into myriad unique forms everywhere it shines on, pervasively covering the Jewel Land.
Some are transformed into Vajra platform, some look like the pearly nets while others become the mixed flowery clouds.
In the ten directions they manifest with ease to conduct the Buddha work.’
‘This is the visualization of the flowery seat. This is known as the seventh contemplation.’
The Buddha told Ananda,
‘Such a wonderful flower is accomplished by the power of Dharmakara Bhikshu’s Vows.
Those who wish to be mindful of that Buddha must first visualize this flowery seat.
While visualizing the seat he must not mix it with other contemplations.
He should contemplate them one by one. Every petal, every pearl, every light, every platform, every dhvaja should be visualized clearly, just as if one is looking at the face in a mirror.
When this visualization is accomplished, fifty thousand billion kalpas of sinful birth and death are put into extinction. Such a man will surely be born in the World of Ultimate Bliss.’
‘Contemplating in this manner is called proper contemplation. Other contemplations are known as deviant contemplation.
The Buddha told Ananda and Vaidehi, ‘After visualizing this, we will visualize the Buddha.
Why is this so?
All the Buddhas Thus Come One are the body of the Dharma Realm.
They enter the mind of all living beings.
That is why when you are thinking of the Buddha, your mind is the 32 marks, the 80 subtle adornments.
The mind becomes the Buddha, the mind is the Buddha.
The sea-like proper and pervasive knowledge of all Buddhas arises from the mind.
That is why you should single-mindedly be mindful and contemplate that Buddha, Tathagatha, Arahant Samyaksam Buddha exclusively.’
‘On visualizing the Buddha, one must first visualize the image.
With our eyes close or open you can see a jewel image which resembles the Jambudvipa gold sitting on that lotus.
On seeing the sitting image, the mind eyes are open and you will clearly see the adornment of seven gems in the Land of Ultimate Bliss.
You can also see the jewel ground, jewel ponds, the rows of jewel trees with the various heavenly canopies hanging down from above.
All kinds of jewel nets pervasively cover up the space.
You should see this manifestation clearly just as though you are looking at your palm.
After seeing this you should visualize a big lotus on the left of the Buddha.
It is exactly the same as the former lotus.
Again, you should visualize another big lotus on the right of the Buddha.
Visualize the golden image of Avalokisteshvara Bodhisattva sitting on the left lotus platform in the same way as before.
Visualize the Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva image sitting on the right lotus platform.
When this visualization is accomplished, the images of the Buddha and Bodhisattvas will emit bright lights.
The golden lights shine on the jewel trees.
Under each tree there are three lotuses.
Standing on the lotuses are the images of one Buddha and two Bodhisattvas who pervasively fill up the Buddha Land.’
‘When this visualization is accomplished, the practitioner will hear the sounds of flowing water, will see the bright illumination, and all the jewel trees, the ducks, geese and the mandarin ducks are speaking the wonderful dharma.
He will constantly hear the wonderful dharma while dwelling in concentration or not in concentration.
On hearing the dharma, the cultivator will constantly think about the dharma without renouncing it even after exiting concentration so that the teaching is in accord with the Sutras.
If it is not in accord with the Sutra, it is known as the false thoughts.
If the teaching is in accord with the Sutras, it is known as a general visualization of the World of Ultimate Bliss.
This is the visualization of images and it is known as the eighth contemplation.’
Those who contemplate in this way eradicate immeasurable billion kalpas of sinful birth and death. In this present form he will attain the Samadhi of Buddha Recitation.’
The Buddha told Ananda and Vaidehi, ‘After you have accomplished this visualization, you should then contemplate the physical marks and bright illumination of Amitabha Buddha.
Ananda, you should know this. The body of Immeasurable Lifespan Buddha resembles the hundreds of thousand million kotis of Jambunadasuvarna purplish golden colour in the Yama Heaven.
The height of the Buddha is equivalent to 60 million kotis Nayuta of Ganges Sands Yojanas.
The white light-tuft emitting between the eyebrows swirling in circles to the right resembles the size of five Mount Sumeru.
The Buddha’s eyes resemble the four great ocean water in distinct blue and white.
The hair pores on his body are flooded with bright illumination that resembles the Mount Sumeru.
The aureole light (round light) of the Buddha resembles the hundreds of kotis three thousand great thousand worlds.
In the aureole light there are hundreds of millions kotis Nayuta Ganges Sands of Transformation Buddhas.
Every Transformation Buddha is attended by incalculable, innumerable bodhisattvas.’
The Buddha of Immeasurable Lifespan is replete with 84000 marks.
Every mark is replete with the 84 thousand subtle adornments.
Every subtle adornment emits 84 thousand bright illumination.
Every bright illumination pervasively shines on living beings who recite the Buddha’s Name in the worlds in the ten directions, gathering them in without renouncing them.’
It is impossible to describe his bright illumination, his adorned countenance and the Transformation Buddhas fully.
You should be mindful of the Buddha, visualize him and you will see him in your mind.
Those who see this are seeing all the Buddha in the ten directions.
As they are able to see all the Buddha, this is known as the Samadhi of Amitabha recitation.
Those who contemplate in this way is known as the contemplation of the body of all Buddhas.
As you can contemplate the Buddha’s body, you can also see the Buddha’s mind.
The Buddha’s Mind is Great Kindness and Great Compassion.
With the Unconditional Kindness he gathers in all living beings.’
Those who cultivate this contemplation will be born before the Buddha after leaving the present form body.
They will attain the Patience of No-birth.
That is why a wise man should concentrate his mind to contemplate the Immeasurable Lifespan Buddha single-mindedly.’
Link: https://oridharma.wordpress.com/category/%e4%bd%9b%e8%aa%aa%e8%a7%80%e7%84%a1%e9%87%8f%e5%a3%bd%e7%b6%93-the-buddha-speaks-the-sutra-of-the-contemplation-of-immeasurable-lifespan/
2024.05.30 01:15 NamoAmitabha_ The Contemplation Sutra Spoken By Shakyamuni Buddha 🙏 (Part 1)
The Buddha speaks the Sutra of the Contemplation of Immeasurable Lifespan
[Thus, have I heard: At one time the Buddha was staying on Vulture Peak in Rājagṛha with a great assembly of twelve hundred and fifty monks. He was also accompanied by thirty-two thousand bodhisattvas led by Mañjuśrī, the Dharma Prince.]()
[At that time, in the great city of Rājagṛha, there was a prince named Ajātaśatru. Instigated by his wicked friend Devadatta, he seized his father, King Bimbisāra and confined him in a room with seven layers of walls.]()
[The court officers were forbidden to visit him.]()
[Vaidehī, the mother queen was devoted to ]()the King.
After cleansing her body, she spread a mixture of ghee, honey and wheat flour all over her body.
[She filled her ornaments with grape juice, and secretly offered this food and drink to the King.]()
[After the King had eaten the flour paste, drunk the juice, he asked for water to rinse his mouth.]()
[After rinsing his mouth, he joined his palms in reverence and faced the Vulture Peak.]()
He made obeisance to the World Honoured One from afar, and said,
[‘Mahāmaudgalyāyana is my close friend. I beseech the World Honoured One to take pity on me. Please send him here to give me the eight precepts.’]()
[At that time, Mahāmaudgalyāyana flew as swiftly as a hawk to the King.]()
[Every day he travelled in this way to give the King the eight precepts.]()
[The World Honoured One also sent Venerable Pūrṇa to the palace to expound the Dharma to the King.]()
[Three weeks passed by in this way. As the King had eaten the flour and honey, listened to the Dharma, he looked peaceful and contented.]()
[At that time, Ajātaśatru asked the guard, “Is my father still alive?”]()
[The guard replied, ‘Great King, the mother queen spreads the paste of flour and honey all over her body, fills her ornaments with grape juice. These are offered to the king. ‘]()
[‘The monks Mahāmaudgalyāyana and Pūrṇa travel in from space to expound the Dharma to the King. It is impossible to stop them.’]()
[On hearing this, Ajātaśatru was furious with his mother and said, ‘My mother is a thief. She is the accomplice of my enemy.’]()
[Those monks are evil. With their delusive magic and mantra, they kept this wicked King alive for so many days!’]()
[After saying this, he held on to his sharp sword, with the intention to kill his mother.]()
[At that time a minister by the name Candraprabha who was intelligent and wise, together with Jīvaka made obeisances to the king and said,]()
[‘Great King, according to the Vedic scripture, from the beginning of this kalpa there were eighteen thousand wicked kings who killed their fathers because of their greed for the throne.]()
[But we have never heard of anyone who has committed the outrage of killing his mother.]()
[Your Majesty, if you were to commit such an outrage, you are bringing disgrace upon the Kṣatriya class.]()
[As your ministers, we cannot bear to hear what the people will say as this is an act of the outcaste. We cannot stay on here any longer.’]()
[After saying these words, the two ministers grasped their swords, stepping backwards as they had decided to leave.]()
At that time Ajatasatru was nervous and frightened. He said to Jīvaka, ‘Are you not on my side?’
Jīvaka replied, ‘Your Majesty, please restrain yourself. Do not kill your mother.’
[On hearing this, the king repented and begged for forgiveness.]()
[He threw his sword away and stopped to kill his mother.]()
[Instead, he ordered the court officials to lock her up in an inner chamber. She was not allowed to leave her room.]()
[At that time, when Vaidehī was kept in confinement, she was extremely sad and in despair.]()
[She turned to face the Vulture Peak and made obeisance to the Buddha from afar.]()
[She said, ‘O Tathāgata, the World-honored One, in the past you used to send Ānanda to comfort me. Now I am in deep sorrow and distress. The World Honoured One is most awesomely adorned. I have no chance to see you. Please send Venerable Mahā Maudgalyāyana and Venerable Ānanda as I wish to see them.’]()
[After saying these words, she wept sorrowfully. With her face wet with tears, she bowed down to the Buddha from afar.]()
[Even before she raised her head, the World Honoured One, who was then staying on Vulture Peak, knew of Vaidehī’s thoughts.]()
[Immediately he sent Mahāmaudgalyāyana and Ānanda to travel in space to see her.]()
[The Buddha himself disappeared from the mountain and reappeared in the royal palace.]()
[After bowing down to the Buddha, Vaidehī raised her head and saw Śākyamuni Buddha, the World Honoured One with the adorned purplish golden hue body was sitting on the lotus of myriads gems.]()
[He was attended by Mahāmaudgalyāyana on his left and Ānanda on his right.]()
[Śakra and the Brahmān Heavenly God, the Dharma protectors of the world and other devas were dwelling in the space. They pervasively rained down the heavenly flowers as offerings to the Buddha.]()
[At that time, on seeing the Buddha, the World Honoured One, Vaidehi tore down her ornaments and prostrated herself on the ground.]()
[Weeping bitterly, she said to the Buddha, ‘O World Honoured One, what offences did I commit that I gave birth to this evil son? What are causes and conditions that Devadatta becomes a retinue of the World Honored One?’]()
[‘May the World Hooured One pervasively speak for me a dwelling which is free from sorrow and afflictions. I would like to be born there.]()
[I no longer want to stay in Jambudvipa, a world of evils and turbidities. ]()This defiled and evil world is a dwelling of evils which is filled up with hells, hungry ghosts and animals, with abundant unwholesomeness.
[I hope that in future I will no longer hear any evil words. I do not wish to see any wicked men. World Honoured One, now I am making obeisance to the World Honoured One to seek repentance. May the Buddha bestow upon me the strength to contemplate a dwelling of pure karma.’]()
[At that time, the World Honoured One emitted golden lights from between his eyebrows.]()
It pervasively illumined the immeasurable worlds in the ten directions.
The lights reflected back to the Buddha’s summit. They were transformed into a golden platform that resembled Mount Sumeru.
On the platform the pure and wonderful Lands of all the Buddha in the ten directions appeared.
Some of these Lands were made of the seven jewels, some Lands were fully covered with lotuses.
Some Lands resembled the Self at ease heavenly palaces, while others are like a crystal mirror in which all the lands in the ten directions were reflected.
Innumerable adorned Buddha Lands such like these were displayed to Vaidehī clearly.
At that time Vaidehi said to the Buddha, ‘World Honoured One, even though all the Buddha Lands are pure and brightly illuminated, presently I desire to be born in the World of Ultimate Bliss, the dwelling of Amitabha Buddha. May the World Honoured One [teach me how to be mindful of it, how to dwell in right contemplation.’]()
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At that time the World Honoured One smile, with five coloured lights emitting from his mouth.
Every light illumines the summit of King Bimbisara.
At that time, even though the King was in confinement, his mind and eyes were unhindered.
He could see the World Honoured One from afar. He made obeisance to the Buddha with the head and face touching the ground. He naturally advanced and accomplished the Sage hood of Anagamin.
Part 2
At that time the World Honoured One told Vaidehi,
‘Do you know or not, that Amitabha Buddha is not far from here?
You should contemplate clearly that Land which is accomplished by Pure Karma.
I will now speak for you pervasively all kinds of analogies.
In this way all the mundane men in the future world who desire to cultivate the Pure Karma will attain a rebirth in the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss.’
‘Those who desire to be born in that Land must cultivate the three blessings.
The Buddha told Vaidehi,
‘Do you know or not, these three karmas are the right causes of the Pure Karma which are practised by the past, present and future Buddha in the three periods of time?’
The Buddha told Ananda and Vaidehi,
‘Listen attentively, listen attentively and do ponder on my words.
Today the Thus Come One will speak about the pure karma for the sake of all the future living beings who are harmed by the thieves of afflictions.
Good indeed it is for Vaidehi to ask this question.’
‘Ananda, you should uphold my teaching and proclaim the Buddha’s words to the myriad living beings pervasively.
Now the Thus Come One is teaching Vaidehi and all the future living beings to contemplate the Western World of Ultimate Bliss.
By relying on the Buddha’s strength, one is able to see that Pure Land just as though one is holding a clear mirror looking at one’s face.
On seeing the most wonderful bliss in that Land a man will instantly attain the Dharma Patience of No-birth because of a joyful mind.’
The Buddha told Vaidehi,
‘You are a mundane woman and your mind is weak and uncertain. You do not possess the heavenly eyes so you cannot see far. ‘
‘All the Buddha Thus Come One possess the special expedience that enable you to see the Land from afar.’
At that time Vaidehi asked the Buddha, ‘World Honoured One, presently I am able to see that Land relying on the Buddha’s strength.
After the Buddha reveals the still extinction, the evil and defiled living beings are oppressed by the five sufferings.
How are they going to see Amitabha Buddha’s World of Ultimate Bliss?’
The Buddha told Vaidehi,
‘You and living beings should be mindful of the Western Land single-mindedly.
How do you contemplate?
This is the way you contemplate.
All living beings who are not born blind, who have eyes will be able to see the setting sun. They should thus contemplate the setting sun.
They should sit uprightly, facing the west. They should concentrate their mind to contemplate the dwelling of the setting sun.
With the unmoving mind they focus the mind on the setting sun which looks like a hanging drum.’
‘After seeing this sun, they can also see it clearly with their eyes open or close.’
‘This is known as the first contemplation, the visualization of the sun.’
‘Next, you should visualize clearly the water which is pure and clear with a fixed mind.
On seeing the water, you should visualize the water.
On seeing the water which is clear and translucent, visualize it as the lapis-lazuli.
When this visualization is accomplished, you will see the lapis-lazuli ground shining brilliantly internally and externally.
The lapis-lazuli ground is supported by the golden vajra, the golden dhvaja of seven gems.
The dhvaja is octagonal in shape facing the eight directions, with every surface made up of hundreds of jewels.
Every pearl emits thousands of bright lights.
Every bright light consists of 84 thousand colours which shine on the lapis-lazuli ground just like thousands of billion suns.
We cannot see the bright illuminations fully.
On the lapis-lazuli ground it is decorated with golden linings that intervene one another. The realms of seven gems are distinctively and neatly divided.
Every gem consists of 500 coloured lights which look like flowers. The lights also resemble the moons and stars hanging in the space like a brightly illumined platform.’
Thousands and millions of bungalows and pavilions are made of myriad gems.
Each of the two sides of the platform is adorned with hundreds of billions flowery dhvajas and immeasurable musical instruments.
From the bright lights eight types of breeze blow by to play the music instruments. They sing out the teachings of sufferings, emptiness, impermanence and no-self.
This is known as the second contemplation, the visualization of water.’
‘When you have accomplished this visualization, you must visualize every adornment clearly, with your eyes close or open.
Continue to visualize them while you are awake so that they are clearly retained in your mind, not dispersed. Always be mindful of the adornments except when you are eating.’
‘If you can visualize in this way, it is known as seeing the ground of Ultimately Bliss generally.
If you have attained Samadhi, you can see the ground of that land clearly with the indescribable adornments.’
This is known as the third contemplation, the visualization of the ground.’
[The Buddha told Ananda,]()
‘You should uphold the Buddha’s words, and speak the Dharma of the Contemplation of the ground for all the future living beings who wish for a liberation from sufferings.’
‘If a man is able to contemplate the ground, his sinful offences of 80 billion Kalpas of birth and death will be eradicated.
After leaving the present body he will surely be born in the Pure Land in the next life. He will have no doubt in this.
Contemplate in this way is known as the Proper Contemplation. Other contemplations are known as deviant contemplation.’
[The Buddha said to Ānanda and Vaidehī,]()
“After you have accomplished the visualization of the ground, next contemplate the jewel trees.
On contemplating the jewel trees, we contemplate them one by one.
We visualize the trees are grown in rows of seven layers.
Every tree is grown to a height of eight thousand Yojanas.
These jewel trees are fully replete with flowers and leaves of seven gems.
Every flower and leaf consist of a variety of jewel colours.
From the lapis-lazuli colour golden lights are emitted.
From the crystal colour red lights are emitted.
From the agate colour tridacna lights are emitted.
From the tridacna colour green pearly lights are emitted.
Corals, amber and myriad jewels are the shining decorations.
Wonderful pearly net covers the trees from above.
Above every tree is seven layers of nets.
Among the nets are 500 billion of wonderful flower palaces which resemble the palace of the Brahman King.’
Celestial youths can be seen among them naturally.
Every celestial youth wears the adornments of 500 billion sakra abhilagna mani gems.
The lights of the mani shine to a distant of a hundred yojanas. The lights resemble the combination of hundreds of billion suns and moons which are indescribable.
The myriad gems intervened among the sakra gems. Among the colours they are the most supreme colours.
All the jewel trees are well spaced in rows. The leaves are grown in neat order with wonderful flowers bloom among them.
On the flowers there are the seven gems fruits naturally.
Every leaf has the length and breadth equivalent to 25 yojanas.
The leaves are of thousands of colours with hundreds of designs just like the celestial ornaments.
There are a variety of wonderful flowers which are the golden Jambudvipa colour.
The flowers bloom like the spinning fire wheels among the leaves. All kind of fruits are bloomed in the shape of Sakra vase.’
‘There are lights which are transformed into dhvajas, banners, and immeasurable jewel canopies.
In the jewel canopies, all the Buddha work in the three thousand great thousand worlds can be seen.
The Buddha Lands in the ten directions also appear among them.
After seeing these trees, we should visualize the adornments in sequence.
We should contemplate the tree trunks, branches, leaves, flowers and fruits clearly.
This is known as the fourth contemplation, the visualization of trees.
Next, we will visualize the water.
This is how we visualize the water.
In the Land of Ultimate Bliss there are eight ponds of water.
Every pond of water is made up from seven gems.
The gems are soft and pliant and they are born from the wish-fulfilling kings of pearls.
They are divided into 14 streams.
Every stream comprises of the wonderful colours of seven gems.
The channels are made of gold. Under the channels, mixed coloured vajra are spread like sands at the bottom.
In every pond, there are 67 billion of seven jewel lotuses.
Every lotus has a circumference of 12 yojanas.
The mani water which are flowing among the flowers travel up and down the trees.
The mani water sings in a subtly wonderful sounds propounding the dharma of suffering, emptiness, impermanence, no-self and the various paramita.
Moreover, the mani water also praises the adorned countenance of all the Buddhas.
From the wish-fulfilling kings of pearls subtly wonderful golden lights are emitted.
The lights are transformed into colourful birds of myriad gems which sing in harmony, praising the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha in a sweet and melodious voice constantly.
This is the fifth contemplation, the visualization of the water of eight virtues.
‘In the Land of myriad gems, every part of the realm consists of 500 billion jewel bungalows.
Immeasurable celestial devas dwell among the bungalows and pavilions playing the heavenly music.
Moreover, some musical instruments are hung in the space just like the heavenly jewel banners. They play by themselves without the musicians.
The variety of sounds are teaching the mindfulness of the Buddha, the mindfulness of the Dharma and the mindfulness of the Sangha of Bhikshus.
When this visualization is accomplished, it is known as the superficial contemplation of the Jewel trees, jewel ground and jewel ponds in the World of Ultimate Bliss.
This is known as the sixth contemplation, a general visualization.
Those who have seen this will have immeasurable billion kalpas of heavy bad karma eradicated. After passing away they will surely be born in that Land.
Contemplating in this way is known as the proper contemplation. Other contemplations are known as deviant contemplation.’
[The Buddha told Ananda and Vaidehi, ‘Listen carefully, listen carefully. Think about it deeply.]()
I will explain and differentiate for you the ways to eradicate sufferings and afflictions. You should remember them and uphold my words. You should widely explain and differentiate them for the multitude.’
After speaking this, Immeasurable Lifespan Buddha appeared to stand in the air.
He was attended by the two Great Beings, Avalokisteshvara and Mahasthamaprapta on his left and right.
In this extremely brilliant illumination, their appearance cannot be seen clearly.
Even hundreds of thousand Jambudvipa golden colours are incomparable to them.
At that time on seeing the Immeasurable Lifespan Buddha, Vaidehi made obeisance at the Buddha’s feet.
She said to the Buddha, ‘By relying on the Buddha’s strength I am able to see the Immeasurable Lifespan Buddha and the two Bodhisattvas.
For the future living beings, how are they going to see the Immeasurable Lifespan Buddha and the two Bodhisattvas?’
The Buddha told Vaidehi, ‘Those who desire to see that Buddha should thus contemplate. They should visualize a lotus flower on the Seven gems ground.
They should visualize every petal of the lotus is comprised of hundreds of jewel colours with 84 thousand veins that resemble the heavenly designs.
From the veins 84 thousand lights are emitted shiningly. Visualize this clearly.
Lotus flowers with small petals are 250 yojanas in length and breath.
Lotuses such like these consists of 84000 petals.
Among the petals are hundreds of billion mani kings of pearl as decorations.
Every mani pearl emits thousands of bright illuminations which resemble the canopies.
They are made from the seven jewels which pervasively cover the ground.
Sakra abhilagna mani gem is the platform.
This lotus platform is made from 80 thousand kiṃśuka-gems, Brahman mani gems and wonderful pearly nets as decoration.
This platform is naturally replete with four pillars of jewel dhavajas.
Every jewel dhvaja resembles hundreds of thousands billion Mount Sumeru.
The jewel curtains on the dhvajas resemble the curtains in the Yama heavenly palaces.
Moreover, 500 billion subtly wonderful jewel pearls shine forth as decoration.
Every jewel pearl emits 84000 lights.
Every light is transformed into 84000 golden lights of different hues.
Every golden light transforms itself into myriad unique forms everywhere it shines on, pervasively covering the Jewel Land.
Some are transformed into Vajra platform, some look like the pearly nets while others become the mixed flowery clouds.
In the ten directions they manifest with ease to conduct the Buddha work.’
‘This is the visualization of the flowery seat. This is known as the seventh contemplation.’
[The Buddha told Ananda,]()
‘Such a wonderful flower is accomplished by the power of Dharmakara Bhikshu’s Vows.
Those who wish to be mindful of that Buddha must first visualize this flowery seat.
While visualizing the seat he must not mix it with other contemplations.
He should contemplate them one by one. Every petal, every pearl, every light, every platform, every dhvaja should be visualized clearly, just as if one is looking at the face in a mirror.
When this visualization is accomplished, fifty thousand billion kalpas of sinful birth and death are put into extinction. Such a man will surely be born in the World of Ultimate Bliss.’
‘Contemplating in this manner is called proper contemplation. Other contemplations are known as deviant contemplation.
[The Buddha told Ananda and Vaidehi, ‘After visualizing this, we will visualize the Buddha.]()
Why is this so?
All the Buddhas Thus Come One are the body of the Dharma Realm.
They enter the mind of all living beings.
That is why when you are thinking of the Buddha, your mind is the 32 marks, the 80 subtle adornments.
The mind becomes the Buddha, the mind is the Buddha.
The sea-like proper and pervasive knowledge of all Buddhas arises from the mind.
That is why you should single-mindedly be mindful and contemplate that Buddha, Tathagatha, Arahant Samyaksam Buddha exclusively.’
‘On visualizing the Buddha, one must first visualize the image.
With our eyes close or open you can see a jewel image which resembles the Jambudvipa gold sitting on that lotus.
On seeing the sitting image, the mind eyes are open and you will clearly see the adornment of seven gems in the Land of Ultimate Bliss.
You can also see the jewel ground, jewel ponds, the rows of jewel trees with the various heavenly canopies hanging down from above.
All kinds of jewel nets pervasively cover up the space.
You should see this manifestation clearly just as though you are looking at your palm.
After seeing this you should visualize a big lotus on the left of the Buddha.
It is exactly the same as the former lotus.
Again, you should visualize another big lotus on the right of the Buddha.
Visualize the golden image of Avalokisteshvara Bodhisattva sitting on the left lotus platform in the same way as before.
Visualize the Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva image sitting on the right lotus platform.
When this visualization is accomplished, the images of the Buddha and Bodhisattvas will emit bright lights.
The golden lights shine on the jewel trees.
Under each tree there are three lotuses.
Standing on the lotuses are the images of one Buddha and two Bodhisattvas who pervasively fill up the Buddha Land.’
‘When this visualization is accomplished, the practitioner will hear the sounds of flowing water, will see the bright illumination, and all the jewel trees, the ducks, geese and the mandarin ducks are speaking the wonderful dharma.
He will constantly hear the wonderful dharma while dwelling in concentration or not in concentration.
On hearing the dharma, the cultivator will constantly think about the dharma without renouncing it even after exiting concentration so that the teaching is in accord with the Sutras.
If it is not in accord with the Sutra, it is known as the false thoughts.
If the teaching is in accord with the Sutras, it is known as a general visualization of the World of Ultimate Bliss.
This is the visualization of images and it is known as the eighth contemplation.’
Those who contemplate in this way eradicate immeasurable billion kalpas of sinful birth and death. In this present form he will attain the Samadhi of Buddha Recitation.’
[The Buddha told Ananda and Vaidehi, ‘After you have accomplished this visualization, you should then contemplate the physical marks and bright illumination of Amitabha Buddha.]()
Ananda, you should know this. The body of Immeasurable Lifespan Buddha resembles the hundreds of thousand million kotis of Jambunadasuvarna purplish golden colour in the Yama Heaven.
The height of the Buddha is equivalent to 60 million kotis Nayuta of Ganges Sands Yojanas.
The white light-tuft emitting between the eyebrows swirling in circles to the right resembles the size of five Mount Sumeru.
The Buddha’s eyes resemble the four great ocean water in distinct blue and white.
The hair pores on his body are flooded with bright illumination that resembles the Mount Sumeru.
The aureole light (round light) of the Buddha resembles the hundreds of kotis three thousand great thousand worlds.
In the aureole light there are hundreds of millions kotis Nayuta Ganges Sands of Transformation Buddhas.
Every Transformation Buddha is attended by incalculable, innumerable bodhisattvas.’
The Buddha of Immeasurable Lifespan is replete with 84000 marks.
Every mark is replete with the 84 thousand subtle adornments.
Every subtle adornment emits 84 thousand bright illumination.
Every bright illumination pervasively shines on living beings who recite the Buddha’s Name in the worlds in the ten directions, gathering them in without renouncing them.’
It is impossible to describe his bright illumination, his adorned countenance and the Transformation Buddhas fully.
You should be mindful of the Buddha, visualize him and you will see him in your mind.
Those who see this are seeing all the Buddha in the ten directions.
As they are able to see all the Buddha, this is known as the Samadhi of Amitabha recitation.
Those who contemplate in this way is known as the contemplation of the body of all Buddhas.
As you can contemplate the Buddha’s body, you can also see the Buddha’s mind.
The Buddha’s Mind is Great Kindness and Great Compassion.
With the Unconditional Kindness he gathers in all living beings.’
Those who cultivate this contemplation will be born before the Buddha after leaving the present form body.
They will attain the Patience of No-birth.
That is why a wise man should concentrate his mind to contemplate the Immeasurable Lifespan Buddha single-mindedly.’
Link: https://oridharma.wordpress.com/category/%e4%bd%9b%e8%aa%aa%e8%a7%80%e7%84%a1%e9%87%8f%e5%a3%bd%e7%b6%93-the-buddha-speaks-the-sutra-of-the-contemplation-of-immeasurable-lifespan/
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[Thus, have I heard: At one time the Buddha was staying on Vulture Peak in Rājagṛha with a great assembly of twelve hundred and fifty monks. He was also accompanied by thirty-two thousand bodhisattvas led by Mañjuśrī, the Dharma Prince.]()
[At that time, in the great city of Rājagṛha, there was a prince named Ajātaśatru. Instigated by his wicked friend Devadatta, he seized his father, King Bimbisāra and confined him in a room with seven layers of walls.]()
[The court officers were forbidden to visit him.]()
[Vaidehī, the mother queen was devoted to ]()the King.
After cleansing her body, she spread a mixture of ghee, honey and wheat flour all over her body.
[She filled her ornaments with grape juice, and secretly offered this food and drink to the King.]()
[After the King had eaten the flour paste, drunk the juice, he asked for water to rinse his mouth.]()
[After rinsing his mouth, he joined his palms in reverence and faced the Vulture Peak.]()
He made obeisance to the World Honoured One from afar, and said,
[‘Mahāmaudgalyāyana is my close friend. I beseech the World Honoured One to take pity on me. Please send him here to give me the eight precepts.’]()
[At that time, Mahāmaudgalyāyana flew as swiftly as a hawk to the King.]()
[Every day he travelled in this way to give the King the eight precepts.]()
[The World Honoured One also sent Venerable Pūrṇa to the palace to expound the Dharma to the King.]()
[Three weeks passed by in this way. As the King had eaten the flour and honey, listened to the Dharma, he looked peaceful and contented.]()
[At that time, Ajātaśatru asked the guard, “Is my father still alive?”]()
[The guard replied, ‘Great King, the mother queen spreads the paste of flour and honey all over her body, fills her ornaments with grape juice. These are offered to the king. ‘]()
[‘The monks Mahāmaudgalyāyana and Pūrṇa travel in from space to expound the Dharma to the King. It is impossible to stop them.’]()
[On hearing this, Ajātaśatru was furious with his mother and said, ‘My mother is a thief. She is the accomplice of my enemy.’]()
[Those monks are evil. With their delusive magic and mantra, they kept this wicked King alive for so many days!’]()
[After saying this, he held on to his sharp sword, with the intention to kill his mother.]()
[At that time a minister by the name Candraprabha who was intelligent and wise, together with Jīvaka made obeisances to the king and said,]()
[‘Great King, according to the Vedic scripture, from the beginning of this kalpa there were eighteen thousand wicked kings who killed their fathers because of their greed for the throne.]()
[But we have never heard of anyone who has committed the outrage of killing his mother.]()
[Your Majesty, if you were to commit such an outrage, you are bringing disgrace upon the Kṣatriya class.]()
[As your ministers, we cannot bear to hear what the people will say as this is an act of the outcaste. We cannot stay on here any longer.’]()
[After saying these words, the two ministers grasped their swords, stepping backwards as they had decided to leave.]()
At that time Ajatasatru was nervous and frightened. He said to Jīvaka, ‘Are you not on my side?’
Jīvaka replied, ‘Your Majesty, please restrain yourself. Do not kill your mother.’
[On hearing this, the king repented and begged for forgiveness.]()
[He threw his sword away and stopped to kill his mother.]()
[Instead, he ordered the court officials to lock her up in an inner chamber. She was not allowed to leave her room.]()
[At that time, when Vaidehī was kept in confinement, she was extremely sad and in despair.]()
[She turned to face the Vulture Peak and made obeisance to the Buddha from afar.]()
[She said, ‘O Tathāgata, the World-honored One, in the past you used to send Ānanda to comfort me. Now I am in deep sorrow and distress. The World Honoured One is most awesomely adorned. I have no chance to see you. Please send Venerable Mahā Maudgalyāyana and Venerable Ānanda as I wish to see them.’]()
[After saying these words, she wept sorrowfully. With her face wet with tears, she bowed down to the Buddha from afar.]()
[Even before she raised her head, the World Honoured One, who was then staying on Vulture Peak, knew of Vaidehī’s thoughts.]()
[Immediately he sent Mahāmaudgalyāyana and Ānanda to travel in space to see her.]()
[The Buddha himself disappeared from the mountain and reappeared in the royal palace.]()
[After bowing down to the Buddha, Vaidehī raised her head and saw Śākyamuni Buddha, the World Honoured One with the adorned purplish golden hue body was sitting on the lotus of myriads gems.]()
[He was attended by Mahāmaudgalyāyana on his left and Ānanda on his right.]()
[Śakra and the Brahmān Heavenly God, the Dharma protectors of the world and other devas were dwelling in the space. They pervasively rained down the heavenly flowers as offerings to the Buddha.]()
[At that time, on seeing the Buddha, the World Honoured One, Vaidehi tore down her ornaments and prostrated herself on the ground.]()
[Weeping bitterly, she said to the Buddha, ‘O World Honoured One, what offences did I commit that I gave birth to this evil son? What are causes and conditions that Devadatta becomes a retinue of the World Honored One?’]()
[‘May the World Hooured One pervasively speak for me a dwelling which is free from sorrow and afflictions. I would like to be born there.]()
[I no longer want to stay in Jambudvipa, a world of evils and turbidities. ]()This defiled and evil world is a dwelling of evils which is filled up with hells, hungry ghosts and animals, with abundant unwholesomeness.
[I hope that in future I will no longer hear any evil words. I do not wish to see any wicked men. World Honoured One, now I am making obeisance to the World Honoured One to seek repentance. May the Buddha bestow upon me the strength to contemplate a dwelling of pure karma.’]()
[At that time, the World Honoured One emitted golden lights from between his eyebrows.]()
It pervasively illumined the immeasurable worlds in the ten directions.
The lights reflected back to the Buddha’s summit. They were transformed into a golden platform that resembled Mount Sumeru.
On the platform the pure and wonderful Lands of all the Buddha in the ten directions appeared.
Some of these Lands were made of the seven jewels, some Lands were fully covered with lotuses.
Some Lands resembled the Self at ease heavenly palaces, while others are like a crystal mirror in which all the lands in the ten directions were reflected.
Innumerable adorned Buddha Lands such like these were displayed to Vaidehī clearly.
At that time Vaidehi said to the Buddha, ‘World Honoured One, even though all the Buddha Lands are pure and brightly illuminated, presently I desire to be born in the World of Ultimate Bliss, the dwelling of Amitabha Buddha. May the World Honoured One [teach me how to be mindful of it, how to dwell in right contemplation.’]()
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At that time the World Honoured One smile, with five coloured lights emitting from his mouth.
Every light illumines the summit of King Bimbisara.
At that time, even though the King was in confinement, his mind and eyes were unhindered.
He could see the World Honoured One from afar. He made obeisance to the Buddha with the head and face touching the ground. He naturally advanced and accomplished the Sage hood of Anagamin.
Part 2
At that time the World Honoured One told Vaidehi,
‘Do you know or not, that Amitabha Buddha is not far from here?
You should contemplate clearly that Land which is accomplished by Pure Karma.
I will now speak for you pervasively all kinds of analogies.
In this way all the mundane men in the future world who desire to cultivate the Pure Karma will attain a rebirth in the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss.’
‘Those who desire to be born in that Land must cultivate the three blessings.
- They are filial to their parents and take good care of them They are respectful to their teachers and elders and attend to them gratefully. They are kind-hearted and abstain from killing. They cultivate the ten wholesome deeds.
- They bring forth the Bodhi Mind and have deep faith in cause and effect. They read and recite the Great Vehicle Sutra and exhort other cultivators to advance on the path.
The Buddha told Vaidehi,
‘Do you know or not, these three karmas are the right causes of the Pure Karma which are practised by the past, present and future Buddha in the three periods of time?’
The Buddha told Ananda and Vaidehi,
‘Listen attentively, listen attentively and do ponder on my words.
Today the Thus Come One will speak about the pure karma for the sake of all the future living beings who are harmed by the thieves of afflictions.
Good indeed it is for Vaidehi to ask this question.’
‘Ananda, you should uphold my teaching and proclaim the Buddha’s words to the myriad living beings pervasively.
Now the Thus Come One is teaching Vaidehi and all the future living beings to contemplate the Western World of Ultimate Bliss.
By relying on the Buddha’s strength, one is able to see that Pure Land just as though one is holding a clear mirror looking at one’s face.
On seeing the most wonderful bliss in that Land a man will instantly attain the Dharma Patience of No-birth because of a joyful mind.’
The Buddha told Vaidehi,
‘You are a mundane woman and your mind is weak and uncertain. You do not possess the heavenly eyes so you cannot see far. ‘
‘All the Buddha Thus Come One possess the special expedience that enable you to see the Land from afar.’
At that time Vaidehi asked the Buddha, ‘World Honoured One, presently I am able to see that Land relying on the Buddha’s strength.
After the Buddha reveals the still extinction, the evil and defiled living beings are oppressed by the five sufferings.
How are they going to see Amitabha Buddha’s World of Ultimate Bliss?’
The Buddha told Vaidehi,
‘You and living beings should be mindful of the Western Land single-mindedly.
How do you contemplate?
This is the way you contemplate.
All living beings who are not born blind, who have eyes will be able to see the setting sun. They should thus contemplate the setting sun.
They should sit uprightly, facing the west. They should concentrate their mind to contemplate the dwelling of the setting sun.
With the unmoving mind they focus the mind on the setting sun which looks like a hanging drum.’
‘After seeing this sun, they can also see it clearly with their eyes open or close.’
‘This is known as the first contemplation, the visualization of the sun.’
‘Next, you should visualize clearly the water which is pure and clear with a fixed mind.
On seeing the water, you should visualize the water.
On seeing the water which is clear and translucent, visualize it as the lapis-lazuli.
When this visualization is accomplished, you will see the lapis-lazuli ground shining brilliantly internally and externally.
The lapis-lazuli ground is supported by the golden vajra, the golden dhvaja of seven gems.
The dhvaja is octagonal in shape facing the eight directions, with every surface made up of hundreds of jewels.
Every pearl emits thousands of bright lights.
Every bright light consists of 84 thousand colours which shine on the lapis-lazuli ground just like thousands of billion suns.
We cannot see the bright illuminations fully.
On the lapis-lazuli ground it is decorated with golden linings that intervene one another. The realms of seven gems are distinctively and neatly divided.
Every gem consists of 500 coloured lights which look like flowers. The lights also resemble the moons and stars hanging in the space like a brightly illumined platform.’
Thousands and millions of bungalows and pavilions are made of myriad gems.
Each of the two sides of the platform is adorned with hundreds of billions flowery dhvajas and immeasurable musical instruments.
From the bright lights eight types of breeze blow by to play the music instruments. They sing out the teachings of sufferings, emptiness, impermanence and no-self.
This is known as the second contemplation, the visualization of water.’
‘When you have accomplished this visualization, you must visualize every adornment clearly, with your eyes close or open.
Continue to visualize them while you are awake so that they are clearly retained in your mind, not dispersed. Always be mindful of the adornments except when you are eating.’
‘If you can visualize in this way, it is known as seeing the ground of Ultimately Bliss generally.
If you have attained Samadhi, you can see the ground of that land clearly with the indescribable adornments.’
This is known as the third contemplation, the visualization of the ground.’
[The Buddha told Ananda,]()
‘You should uphold the Buddha’s words, and speak the Dharma of the Contemplation of the ground for all the future living beings who wish for a liberation from sufferings.’
‘If a man is able to contemplate the ground, his sinful offences of 80 billion Kalpas of birth and death will be eradicated.
After leaving the present body he will surely be born in the Pure Land in the next life. He will have no doubt in this.
Contemplate in this way is known as the Proper Contemplation. Other contemplations are known as deviant contemplation.’
[The Buddha said to Ānanda and Vaidehī,]()
“After you have accomplished the visualization of the ground, next contemplate the jewel trees.
On contemplating the jewel trees, we contemplate them one by one.
We visualize the trees are grown in rows of seven layers.
Every tree is grown to a height of eight thousand Yojanas.
These jewel trees are fully replete with flowers and leaves of seven gems.
Every flower and leaf consist of a variety of jewel colours.
From the lapis-lazuli colour golden lights are emitted.
From the crystal colour red lights are emitted.
From the agate colour tridacna lights are emitted.
From the tridacna colour green pearly lights are emitted.
Corals, amber and myriad jewels are the shining decorations.
Wonderful pearly net covers the trees from above.
Above every tree is seven layers of nets.
Among the nets are 500 billion of wonderful flower palaces which resemble the palace of the Brahman King.’
Celestial youths can be seen among them naturally.
Every celestial youth wears the adornments of 500 billion sakra abhilagna mani gems.
The lights of the mani shine to a distant of a hundred yojanas. The lights resemble the combination of hundreds of billion suns and moons which are indescribable.
The myriad gems intervened among the sakra gems. Among the colours they are the most supreme colours.
All the jewel trees are well spaced in rows. The leaves are grown in neat order with wonderful flowers bloom among them.
On the flowers there are the seven gems fruits naturally.
Every leaf has the length and breadth equivalent to 25 yojanas.
The leaves are of thousands of colours with hundreds of designs just like the celestial ornaments.
There are a variety of wonderful flowers which are the golden Jambudvipa colour.
The flowers bloom like the spinning fire wheels among the leaves. All kind of fruits are bloomed in the shape of Sakra vase.’
‘There are lights which are transformed into dhvajas, banners, and immeasurable jewel canopies.
In the jewel canopies, all the Buddha work in the three thousand great thousand worlds can be seen.
The Buddha Lands in the ten directions also appear among them.
After seeing these trees, we should visualize the adornments in sequence.
We should contemplate the tree trunks, branches, leaves, flowers and fruits clearly.
This is known as the fourth contemplation, the visualization of trees.
Next, we will visualize the water.
This is how we visualize the water.
In the Land of Ultimate Bliss there are eight ponds of water.
Every pond of water is made up from seven gems.
The gems are soft and pliant and they are born from the wish-fulfilling kings of pearls.
They are divided into 14 streams.
Every stream comprises of the wonderful colours of seven gems.
The channels are made of gold. Under the channels, mixed coloured vajra are spread like sands at the bottom.
In every pond, there are 67 billion of seven jewel lotuses.
Every lotus has a circumference of 12 yojanas.
The mani water which are flowing among the flowers travel up and down the trees.
The mani water sings in a subtly wonderful sounds propounding the dharma of suffering, emptiness, impermanence, no-self and the various paramita.
Moreover, the mani water also praises the adorned countenance of all the Buddhas.
From the wish-fulfilling kings of pearls subtly wonderful golden lights are emitted.
The lights are transformed into colourful birds of myriad gems which sing in harmony, praising the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha in a sweet and melodious voice constantly.
This is the fifth contemplation, the visualization of the water of eight virtues.
‘In the Land of myriad gems, every part of the realm consists of 500 billion jewel bungalows.
Immeasurable celestial devas dwell among the bungalows and pavilions playing the heavenly music.
Moreover, some musical instruments are hung in the space just like the heavenly jewel banners. They play by themselves without the musicians.
The variety of sounds are teaching the mindfulness of the Buddha, the mindfulness of the Dharma and the mindfulness of the Sangha of Bhikshus.
When this visualization is accomplished, it is known as the superficial contemplation of the Jewel trees, jewel ground and jewel ponds in the World of Ultimate Bliss.
This is known as the sixth contemplation, a general visualization.
Those who have seen this will have immeasurable billion kalpas of heavy bad karma eradicated. After passing away they will surely be born in that Land.
Contemplating in this way is known as the proper contemplation. Other contemplations are known as deviant contemplation.’
[The Buddha told Ananda and Vaidehi, ‘Listen carefully, listen carefully. Think about it deeply.]()
I will explain and differentiate for you the ways to eradicate sufferings and afflictions. You should remember them and uphold my words. You should widely explain and differentiate them for the multitude.’
After speaking this, Immeasurable Lifespan Buddha appeared to stand in the air.
He was attended by the two Great Beings, Avalokisteshvara and Mahasthamaprapta on his left and right.
In this extremely brilliant illumination, their appearance cannot be seen clearly.
Even hundreds of thousand Jambudvipa golden colours are incomparable to them.
At that time on seeing the Immeasurable Lifespan Buddha, Vaidehi made obeisance at the Buddha’s feet.
She said to the Buddha, ‘By relying on the Buddha’s strength I am able to see the Immeasurable Lifespan Buddha and the two Bodhisattvas.
For the future living beings, how are they going to see the Immeasurable Lifespan Buddha and the two Bodhisattvas?’
The Buddha told Vaidehi, ‘Those who desire to see that Buddha should thus contemplate. They should visualize a lotus flower on the Seven gems ground.
They should visualize every petal of the lotus is comprised of hundreds of jewel colours with 84 thousand veins that resemble the heavenly designs.
From the veins 84 thousand lights are emitted shiningly. Visualize this clearly.
Lotus flowers with small petals are 250 yojanas in length and breath.
Lotuses such like these consists of 84000 petals.
Among the petals are hundreds of billion mani kings of pearl as decorations.
Every mani pearl emits thousands of bright illuminations which resemble the canopies.
They are made from the seven jewels which pervasively cover the ground.
Sakra abhilagna mani gem is the platform.
This lotus platform is made from 80 thousand kiṃśuka-gems, Brahman mani gems and wonderful pearly nets as decoration.
This platform is naturally replete with four pillars of jewel dhavajas.
Every jewel dhvaja resembles hundreds of thousands billion Mount Sumeru.
The jewel curtains on the dhvajas resemble the curtains in the Yama heavenly palaces.
Moreover, 500 billion subtly wonderful jewel pearls shine forth as decoration.
Every jewel pearl emits 84000 lights.
Every light is transformed into 84000 golden lights of different hues.
Every golden light transforms itself into myriad unique forms everywhere it shines on, pervasively covering the Jewel Land.
Some are transformed into Vajra platform, some look like the pearly nets while others become the mixed flowery clouds.
In the ten directions they manifest with ease to conduct the Buddha work.’
‘This is the visualization of the flowery seat. This is known as the seventh contemplation.’
[The Buddha told Ananda,]()
‘Such a wonderful flower is accomplished by the power of Dharmakara Bhikshu’s Vows.
Those who wish to be mindful of that Buddha must first visualize this flowery seat.
While visualizing the seat he must not mix it with other contemplations.
He should contemplate them one by one. Every petal, every pearl, every light, every platform, every dhvaja should be visualized clearly, just as if one is looking at the face in a mirror.
When this visualization is accomplished, fifty thousand billion kalpas of sinful birth and death are put into extinction. Such a man will surely be born in the World of Ultimate Bliss.’
‘Contemplating in this manner is called proper contemplation. Other contemplations are known as deviant contemplation.
[The Buddha told Ananda and Vaidehi, ‘After visualizing this, we will visualize the Buddha.]()
Why is this so?
All the Buddhas Thus Come One are the body of the Dharma Realm.
They enter the mind of all living beings.
That is why when you are thinking of the Buddha, your mind is the 32 marks, the 80 subtle adornments.
The mind becomes the Buddha, the mind is the Buddha.
The sea-like proper and pervasive knowledge of all Buddhas arises from the mind.
That is why you should single-mindedly be mindful and contemplate that Buddha, Tathagatha, Arahant Samyaksam Buddha exclusively.’
‘On visualizing the Buddha, one must first visualize the image.
With our eyes close or open you can see a jewel image which resembles the Jambudvipa gold sitting on that lotus.
On seeing the sitting image, the mind eyes are open and you will clearly see the adornment of seven gems in the Land of Ultimate Bliss.
You can also see the jewel ground, jewel ponds, the rows of jewel trees with the various heavenly canopies hanging down from above.
All kinds of jewel nets pervasively cover up the space.
You should see this manifestation clearly just as though you are looking at your palm.
After seeing this you should visualize a big lotus on the left of the Buddha.
It is exactly the same as the former lotus.
Again, you should visualize another big lotus on the right of the Buddha.
Visualize the golden image of Avalokisteshvara Bodhisattva sitting on the left lotus platform in the same way as before.
Visualize the Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva image sitting on the right lotus platform.
When this visualization is accomplished, the images of the Buddha and Bodhisattvas will emit bright lights.
The golden lights shine on the jewel trees.
Under each tree there are three lotuses.
Standing on the lotuses are the images of one Buddha and two Bodhisattvas who pervasively fill up the Buddha Land.’
‘When this visualization is accomplished, the practitioner will hear the sounds of flowing water, will see the bright illumination, and all the jewel trees, the ducks, geese and the mandarin ducks are speaking the wonderful dharma.
He will constantly hear the wonderful dharma while dwelling in concentration or not in concentration.
On hearing the dharma, the cultivator will constantly think about the dharma without renouncing it even after exiting concentration so that the teaching is in accord with the Sutras.
If it is not in accord with the Sutra, it is known as the false thoughts.
If the teaching is in accord with the Sutras, it is known as a general visualization of the World of Ultimate Bliss.
This is the visualization of images and it is known as the eighth contemplation.’
Those who contemplate in this way eradicate immeasurable billion kalpas of sinful birth and death. In this present form he will attain the Samadhi of Buddha Recitation.’
[The Buddha told Ananda and Vaidehi, ‘After you have accomplished this visualization, you should then contemplate the physical marks and bright illumination of Amitabha Buddha.]()
Ananda, you should know this. The body of Immeasurable Lifespan Buddha resembles the hundreds of thousand million kotis of Jambunadasuvarna purplish golden colour in the Yama Heaven.
The height of the Buddha is equivalent to 60 million kotis Nayuta of Ganges Sands Yojanas.
The white light-tuft emitting between the eyebrows swirling in circles to the right resembles the size of five Mount Sumeru.
The Buddha’s eyes resemble the four great ocean water in distinct blue and white.
The hair pores on his body are flooded with bright illumination that resembles the Mount Sumeru.
The aureole light (round light) of the Buddha resembles the hundreds of kotis three thousand great thousand worlds.
In the aureole light there are hundreds of millions kotis Nayuta Ganges Sands of Transformation Buddhas.
Every Transformation Buddha is attended by incalculable, innumerable bodhisattvas.’
The Buddha of Immeasurable Lifespan is replete with 84000 marks.
Every mark is replete with the 84 thousand subtle adornments.
Every subtle adornment emits 84 thousand bright illumination.
Every bright illumination pervasively shines on living beings who recite the Buddha’s Name in the worlds in the ten directions, gathering them in without renouncing them.’
It is impossible to describe his bright illumination, his adorned countenance and the Transformation Buddhas fully.
You should be mindful of the Buddha, visualize him and you will see him in your mind.
Those who see this are seeing all the Buddha in the ten directions.
As they are able to see all the Buddha, this is known as the Samadhi of Amitabha recitation.
Those who contemplate in this way is known as the contemplation of the body of all Buddhas.
As you can contemplate the Buddha’s body, you can also see the Buddha’s mind.
The Buddha’s Mind is Great Kindness and Great Compassion.
With the Unconditional Kindness he gathers in all living beings.’
Those who cultivate this contemplation will be born before the Buddha after leaving the present form body.
They will attain the Patience of No-birth.
That is why a wise man should concentrate his mind to contemplate the Immeasurable Lifespan Buddha single-mindedly.’
Link: https://oridharma.wordpress.com/category/%e4%bd%9b%e8%aa%aa%e8%a7%80%e7%84%a1%e9%87%8f%e5%a3%bd%e7%b6%93-the-buddha-speaks-the-sutra-of-the-contemplation-of-immeasurable-lifespan/
2024.05.29 19:05 DrBunnyBerries Outdoor Wood Fired Community Sauna, Full Build and Review
It’s still not 100% finished, but I finally got the external trim up and we’ve been using it for seven months now, so it seems like time to make a full post.
This week, right after finishing trim and moving the scaffolding.
Summary
General Thoughts and Experience
We have been using this sauna now since about Halloween. It gets used very regularly, during cold months it was used every day, sometimes multiple times per day. It has held up really well and given the experience I was looking for. We have had groups as big as 11 inside on rare occasions, and six or seven is common and comfortable. There are a lot of things I would do differently next time, although those are mostly about the building itself and there is little I would change about the sauna experience. Eventually I would like a deck/hangout space in front, maybe a shower closer, and if I designed it again I would include a larger changing room.
Sandy beach is right of the dock. Pond is shallow right in front of sauna and is easy to wade into
Background
I built this sauna for my intentional community and our neighbors, a group of around 50 people. I wanted it to be big enough to handle some large groups, but realistically 4-6 people most of the time.
I had never built a building (or much of anything else) before starting this, so it needed to be pretty simple, rustic, and functional.
Our community has rules and norms around buildings that emphasize using natural and reclaimed materials and limiting impact on the land. You can read more about us at https://www.dancingrabbit.org/building/natural-building/
I chose a site near our swimming pond, no utilities available and added emphasis on a low impact design.
Foundation
The foundation is six Osage Orange Posts, 10-14” diameter, buried 36” below grade (frostline is 25”).
https://preview.redd.it/zpjxoxouae3d1.jpg?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b6b9f8ecebd9e67310d1059b54a83222d9f9b99b
We placed three beams across the posts on the short axis, then hung joists between them. I laid down hardware cloth on top of that to keep rodents out, and used reclaimed 2X6 Douglas Fir for decking.
After much consideration, I took the advice of sauna ( https://www.reddit.com/Sauna/comments/vnd32l/what\_did\_you\_put\_under\_your\_floor\_when\_building/ ) and did not insulate the floor. I also did not add a finish floor, so the decking provides both drainage and air intake.
Framing
The building is framed with 2X6 Douglas Fir that was reclaimed from an older building. It looks pretty rough, and some of it is, but it is as dry as it’s going to get and it has done all the warping and bending that it is likely to ever do, so it was actually really nice to work with.
https://preview.redd.it/nuyx1fpwae3d1.jpg?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=553cee8d57b24fa984b3793f9ed17bb4062160cd
The outside dimensions of the building are 16’X8’. It has a simple shed roof that falls 3’ over the 8’ span of the building itself. One of the big things I would do differently if I did it again would be to make the eaves larger and order proper length roofing rather than assembling 8’ sections. I would also probably make the footprint larger to accommodate an II bench layout inside and a larger changing room.
Insulation and vapor barrier
The hot room is insulated with mineral wool around the walls and ceiling. No insulation in the floor at all. So far the changing room is unfinished and uninsulated. Maybe one day we will finish it, but for now it’s more expense than necessary.
Discotheque
The interior of the hot room has an aluminum vapor barrier fully taped and sealed. Outside there is no vapor barrier around the hot room to avoid trapping moisture in the walls. I used tar paper on the roof and the walls of the changing room.
Exterior finish
The exterior is sided with shingles cut from pallet offcuts (heat treated). There is a pallet mill nearby and they sell the offcuts they didn’t use for basically nothing. Then it is a matter of picking out the pieces that are suitable thickness and width, cutting them to length, and attaching them to nailers running horizontally along the exterior walls. These shingles are 18” long and overlapped double so that 6” are showing and there are three layers of shingle everywhere.
Tons of work to cut each shingle, but basically free.
Trim is done with reclaimed barn siding. The roof is a simple steel roof ordered from a big box store.
Interior Paneling, Windows, and Door
I did a post about the interior paneling already ( https://www.reddit.com/Sauna/comments/17k9tiu/update_on_eastern_red_cedar_sauna_interio ).
Worked top down to make it easier to have a good top row on each wall that match each other and the ceiling. Nailed into only the bottom tab of each plank except the very top one. Then the next plan covered the nail heads. No nail heads are exposed except at the top, but not sure I'd do it this way again.
I used Eastern Red Cedar (ERC), which is botanically a juniper despite what people call it. There is a lot of conventional wisdom that says to not use it, but I found it great. Check the link for most of my thoughts. I’d say that now, seven months after that post, I am even more happy with my choice. The wood is holding up very well. The unique smell is still there, but it has subsided to the point that it isn’t at all overpowering, most people comment on how nice it smells. I don’t notice hot spots from the knots, even when looking for them. One knot on a wall seeped a tiny amount of sap, it wasn’t where anyone would touch so no problem.
I used a shiplap pattern for the paneling. I bought ¾” X 5 ½” rough cut planks and ran them through a planer to get a face. Then I used a dado blade on a table saw to create ½” X ⅜” grooves for the shiplap. Stainless steel brad nails hold them to 1X2 furring strips.
I initially nailed the paneling only in the grooves that were to be covered by the next board to avoid any metal heads showing. However, I had a couple of planks that tried to bow and warp and I had to replace one entirely because it turned into a big frown and was pushing out other planks (right at back level on the top bench naturally). So if I did it again, I would probably be a bit more liberal with the brad nails. Where they are exposed, they are very hard to see and not at all hot to the touch because they are recessed a tiny bit.
I had access to free tempered double paned glass that was salvaged and leftover from another project, so I used it. It is solid and should be pretty good in terms of heat transfer, although I don’t love that it has a pattern of privacy dots. No big deal, we’ve all gotten used to it and don’t really notice. There is a window in the door and one on the exterior wall, both are panes that I hung rather than prehung.
My favorite view.
I followed the Sauna Times method (more or less) for building the interior door https://www.saunatimes.com/building-a-sauna/build-your-own-sauna-doo It is a plywood core with paneling nailed to each side. I cut a rectangular hole to fit the window, it is smaller than the window on one side so the glass just dropped in. Then I used trim to hold the glass in place. The exterior of the door is actual cedar rather than ERC. My brother in law gave me just enough to do the door and some shelves and I was pretty much out of ERC at that point; no other practical reason for that choice. For door handles I used a bent ERC branch that I sanded down on one side, the other side is a root from an Autumn Olive tree that is sanded down. Again, no real reason except that I saw it on an uprooted tree and thought it was a great shape.
Don't mind the mess.
I previously posted some more detail interior door pictures here - https://imgur.com/gallery/interior-door-RqzWXGI
Benches
I debated long and hard about whether to use ERC for the bench wood. It’s very knotty and I was worried about hot spots. In the end I decided to try it for consistency. The ERC lumber that was available was live edge 1” (4/4) slabs rough cut in varying widths. I planed it and ripped it into sizes that maximized what I could get out of the slabs. I ended up with widths of 2 ¾” for the slats as well as a set of boards close to dimensional (5.5" and 3.5") sizes for the frame.
Framing in progress, foot bench and steps still to be added.
Given the thinness of this lumber and the fact that ERC isn’t as strong as some other woods, I decided not to go for floating benches, but instead put legs on the frames. I am very happy with this choice and I don’t think we lost much by including legs, but I do feel much more confident in the weight bearing capacity when we have large groups in here.
The frames are made from the widest pieces of lumber. I attached them to the walls with high capacity lag screws and planned the sequence so that no hardware is visible. In a few cases this meant toe screwing or pocket screwing as well. I included cross braces for reinforcement about every three feet inside the frames so that the bench tops are well supported and can’t really sag anywhere.
The tops of the benches are separate units that can be pulled up for cleaning, inspired by the Sauna Times tutorial ( https://www.saunatimes.com/building-a-sauna/sauna-benches/ ). I’m not sure that was important since it’s easy enough to climb under the benches, but it wasn’t really any more work. The slats are held together with the medium width ERC boards I ripped. They are attached near each end on the underside of the bench, and they are recessed to be snug in the frames so that they provide lateral stability and keep the bench tops from sliding forward and back. One thing I would do differently if I did it again would be to include a few more of these brackets as some of the longer slats have warped a little bit in the heat.
Bench widths are 23” and 22” on the top level, 18” and 13” on the second level, and the foot bench and steps are 8” wide. The top bench is 43” from the ceiling, then it is 18” down to the second bench and another 18” down to the foot bench. I originally made the steps as a separate removable piece to make cleaning easier. But it was wobbly and a little bit scary, so I ended up attaching the steps to the bench frame structure.
I put up some rope lights under the top bench. They work fine when we need some light, but it seems like the batteries go quickly.
https://preview.redd.it/p73q9k1pbe3d1.jpg?width=810&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2b8d26661d0925fc2f0393572c762823d22c073a
I know the L-shape is not everyone’s cup of tea, but it works well for our regular groups of four to seven. I’ve been in the sauna with as many as 11 people and, while it wasn’t exactly comfortable, it worked. If I had it to design again, I would seriously consider an II layout with the heater at the back and a raised platform floor.
Heater and Ventilation
This is a Harvia Pro20 wood fired heater. I bought two boxes of rocks and stacked as many as I could possibly get on it, which is about 1.5 boxes total. It heats up really well, takes about 30 minutes for the room to get usable even when it’s cold outside and within an hour it can be hotter than anyone wants.
https://preview.redd.it/wydp5ylrbe3d1.jpg?width=810&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=923e5a8e4916eb94b408067e66d6ca42802a911c
I debated for a while and ended up buying the Harvia heat shield that attaches directly to the heater and this was a great choice. Not only does it reduce the clearances dramatically, it also stays pretty cool to the touch. Well, not cool, but it’s cool enough that if someone were to grab it accidentally or fall on it, they would not get burned. The walls are additionally shielded with corrugated steel, 1” air gap, cement board, ¾” air gap. On all sides of the heater, I left one or two inches more clearance than required because fire safety isn’t something I’m interested in messing with.
I read all the things about ventilation and find it all confusing. So I just way overdid it. The floor is uninsulated, so it provides more fresh air intake than the stove could ever use. I also put a vent low behind the stove on the interior wall, thinking that if we ever decide to insulate the floor, it could be useful. There is a vent near the ceiling in the corner opposite the heater that we open after every sauna to let out any steam. And another one on the wall behind the heater about halfway between the rocks and the ceiling. When people feel stuffy, we open that one, although I think it’s probably more placebo than anything given how much air comes through the floor. Mostly we use the high ones to vent moisture after we’re done.
Changing Room
The changing room just kind of exists, I didn’t put much effort into finishing it. I paneled the interior wall with plywood to hold back the insulation, but there is no insulation or wall finish elsewhere. I made a couple of benches from an ERC slab and some shelves and towel pegs from scrap lumber and branches of ERC trees growing nearby. Maybe one day we will finish it, but it seems like unnecessary cost. There is no electricity, so we have some janky LED lights that never seem to work right. Maybe that’s something I can tinker with for next winter.
Ptoto taken from just inside exterior door. Shelving goes around two walls, plus towel hooks by the door made from ERC branches growing just outside.
If I was designing another sauna, I would probably make the changing room larger. With more than about three people in there, it gets tight. And there really isn’t good indoor space for hanging out right now.
Outdoor Shower
The shower wasn’t really built for the sauna as much as just to be a shower. But it is between the village and the sauna, so it is convenient for anyone who wants to rinse off. Most folks just use the pond anyway.
Polycarb box contains a stainless tank and acts as a passive water heater. Water comes through a garden hose attached to a nearby hydrant.
https://preview.redd.it/frkw6jezbe3d1.jpg?width=813&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bed5b7166c46b258ddd6849200b0158497358324
Happy to answer any questions, this sub was hugely helpful for me in figuring out what to do and I'd like to return the favor. One last photo of the sauna in snow, prime time.
Perfect sauna weather. Photo from edge of icy pond. Smoke wisping up.
submitted by DrBunnyBerries to Sauna [link] [comments]
This week, right after finishing trim and moving the scaffolding.
Summary
- Free standing building 8’X16’
- Hot room finished interior ~7’X7’ Ceiling ~8.5’
- Wood fired, heater: Harvia Pro20
General Thoughts and Experience
We have been using this sauna now since about Halloween. It gets used very regularly, during cold months it was used every day, sometimes multiple times per day. It has held up really well and given the experience I was looking for. We have had groups as big as 11 inside on rare occasions, and six or seven is common and comfortable. There are a lot of things I would do differently next time, although those are mostly about the building itself and there is little I would change about the sauna experience. Eventually I would like a deck/hangout space in front, maybe a shower closer, and if I designed it again I would include a larger changing room.
Sandy beach is right of the dock. Pond is shallow right in front of sauna and is easy to wade into
Background
I built this sauna for my intentional community and our neighbors, a group of around 50 people. I wanted it to be big enough to handle some large groups, but realistically 4-6 people most of the time.
I had never built a building (or much of anything else) before starting this, so it needed to be pretty simple, rustic, and functional.
Our community has rules and norms around buildings that emphasize using natural and reclaimed materials and limiting impact on the land. You can read more about us at https://www.dancingrabbit.org/building/natural-building/
I chose a site near our swimming pond, no utilities available and added emphasis on a low impact design.
Foundation
The foundation is six Osage Orange Posts, 10-14” diameter, buried 36” below grade (frostline is 25”).
https://preview.redd.it/zpjxoxouae3d1.jpg?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b6b9f8ecebd9e67310d1059b54a83222d9f9b99b
We placed three beams across the posts on the short axis, then hung joists between them. I laid down hardware cloth on top of that to keep rodents out, and used reclaimed 2X6 Douglas Fir for decking.
After much consideration, I took the advice of sauna ( https://www.reddit.com/Sauna/comments/vnd32l/what\_did\_you\_put\_under\_your\_floor\_when\_building/ ) and did not insulate the floor. I also did not add a finish floor, so the decking provides both drainage and air intake.
Framing
The building is framed with 2X6 Douglas Fir that was reclaimed from an older building. It looks pretty rough, and some of it is, but it is as dry as it’s going to get and it has done all the warping and bending that it is likely to ever do, so it was actually really nice to work with.
https://preview.redd.it/nuyx1fpwae3d1.jpg?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=553cee8d57b24fa984b3793f9ed17bb4062160cd
The outside dimensions of the building are 16’X8’. It has a simple shed roof that falls 3’ over the 8’ span of the building itself. One of the big things I would do differently if I did it again would be to make the eaves larger and order proper length roofing rather than assembling 8’ sections. I would also probably make the footprint larger to accommodate an II bench layout inside and a larger changing room.
Insulation and vapor barrier
The hot room is insulated with mineral wool around the walls and ceiling. No insulation in the floor at all. So far the changing room is unfinished and uninsulated. Maybe one day we will finish it, but for now it’s more expense than necessary.
Discotheque
The interior of the hot room has an aluminum vapor barrier fully taped and sealed. Outside there is no vapor barrier around the hot room to avoid trapping moisture in the walls. I used tar paper on the roof and the walls of the changing room.
Exterior finish
The exterior is sided with shingles cut from pallet offcuts (heat treated). There is a pallet mill nearby and they sell the offcuts they didn’t use for basically nothing. Then it is a matter of picking out the pieces that are suitable thickness and width, cutting them to length, and attaching them to nailers running horizontally along the exterior walls. These shingles are 18” long and overlapped double so that 6” are showing and there are three layers of shingle everywhere.
Tons of work to cut each shingle, but basically free.
Trim is done with reclaimed barn siding. The roof is a simple steel roof ordered from a big box store.
Interior Paneling, Windows, and Door
I did a post about the interior paneling already ( https://www.reddit.com/Sauna/comments/17k9tiu/update_on_eastern_red_cedar_sauna_interio ).
Worked top down to make it easier to have a good top row on each wall that match each other and the ceiling. Nailed into only the bottom tab of each plank except the very top one. Then the next plan covered the nail heads. No nail heads are exposed except at the top, but not sure I'd do it this way again.
I used Eastern Red Cedar (ERC), which is botanically a juniper despite what people call it. There is a lot of conventional wisdom that says to not use it, but I found it great. Check the link for most of my thoughts. I’d say that now, seven months after that post, I am even more happy with my choice. The wood is holding up very well. The unique smell is still there, but it has subsided to the point that it isn’t at all overpowering, most people comment on how nice it smells. I don’t notice hot spots from the knots, even when looking for them. One knot on a wall seeped a tiny amount of sap, it wasn’t where anyone would touch so no problem.
I used a shiplap pattern for the paneling. I bought ¾” X 5 ½” rough cut planks and ran them through a planer to get a face. Then I used a dado blade on a table saw to create ½” X ⅜” grooves for the shiplap. Stainless steel brad nails hold them to 1X2 furring strips.
I initially nailed the paneling only in the grooves that were to be covered by the next board to avoid any metal heads showing. However, I had a couple of planks that tried to bow and warp and I had to replace one entirely because it turned into a big frown and was pushing out other planks (right at back level on the top bench naturally). So if I did it again, I would probably be a bit more liberal with the brad nails. Where they are exposed, they are very hard to see and not at all hot to the touch because they are recessed a tiny bit.
I had access to free tempered double paned glass that was salvaged and leftover from another project, so I used it. It is solid and should be pretty good in terms of heat transfer, although I don’t love that it has a pattern of privacy dots. No big deal, we’ve all gotten used to it and don’t really notice. There is a window in the door and one on the exterior wall, both are panes that I hung rather than prehung.
My favorite view.
I followed the Sauna Times method (more or less) for building the interior door https://www.saunatimes.com/building-a-sauna/build-your-own-sauna-doo It is a plywood core with paneling nailed to each side. I cut a rectangular hole to fit the window, it is smaller than the window on one side so the glass just dropped in. Then I used trim to hold the glass in place. The exterior of the door is actual cedar rather than ERC. My brother in law gave me just enough to do the door and some shelves and I was pretty much out of ERC at that point; no other practical reason for that choice. For door handles I used a bent ERC branch that I sanded down on one side, the other side is a root from an Autumn Olive tree that is sanded down. Again, no real reason except that I saw it on an uprooted tree and thought it was a great shape.
Don't mind the mess.
I previously posted some more detail interior door pictures here - https://imgur.com/gallery/interior-door-RqzWXGI
Benches
I debated long and hard about whether to use ERC for the bench wood. It’s very knotty and I was worried about hot spots. In the end I decided to try it for consistency. The ERC lumber that was available was live edge 1” (4/4) slabs rough cut in varying widths. I planed it and ripped it into sizes that maximized what I could get out of the slabs. I ended up with widths of 2 ¾” for the slats as well as a set of boards close to dimensional (5.5" and 3.5") sizes for the frame.
Framing in progress, foot bench and steps still to be added.
Given the thinness of this lumber and the fact that ERC isn’t as strong as some other woods, I decided not to go for floating benches, but instead put legs on the frames. I am very happy with this choice and I don’t think we lost much by including legs, but I do feel much more confident in the weight bearing capacity when we have large groups in here.
The frames are made from the widest pieces of lumber. I attached them to the walls with high capacity lag screws and planned the sequence so that no hardware is visible. In a few cases this meant toe screwing or pocket screwing as well. I included cross braces for reinforcement about every three feet inside the frames so that the bench tops are well supported and can’t really sag anywhere.
The tops of the benches are separate units that can be pulled up for cleaning, inspired by the Sauna Times tutorial ( https://www.saunatimes.com/building-a-sauna/sauna-benches/ ). I’m not sure that was important since it’s easy enough to climb under the benches, but it wasn’t really any more work. The slats are held together with the medium width ERC boards I ripped. They are attached near each end on the underside of the bench, and they are recessed to be snug in the frames so that they provide lateral stability and keep the bench tops from sliding forward and back. One thing I would do differently if I did it again would be to include a few more of these brackets as some of the longer slats have warped a little bit in the heat.
Bench widths are 23” and 22” on the top level, 18” and 13” on the second level, and the foot bench and steps are 8” wide. The top bench is 43” from the ceiling, then it is 18” down to the second bench and another 18” down to the foot bench. I originally made the steps as a separate removable piece to make cleaning easier. But it was wobbly and a little bit scary, so I ended up attaching the steps to the bench frame structure.
I put up some rope lights under the top bench. They work fine when we need some light, but it seems like the batteries go quickly.
https://preview.redd.it/p73q9k1pbe3d1.jpg?width=810&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2b8d26661d0925fc2f0393572c762823d22c073a
I know the L-shape is not everyone’s cup of tea, but it works well for our regular groups of four to seven. I’ve been in the sauna with as many as 11 people and, while it wasn’t exactly comfortable, it worked. If I had it to design again, I would seriously consider an II layout with the heater at the back and a raised platform floor.
Heater and Ventilation
This is a Harvia Pro20 wood fired heater. I bought two boxes of rocks and stacked as many as I could possibly get on it, which is about 1.5 boxes total. It heats up really well, takes about 30 minutes for the room to get usable even when it’s cold outside and within an hour it can be hotter than anyone wants.
https://preview.redd.it/wydp5ylrbe3d1.jpg?width=810&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=923e5a8e4916eb94b408067e66d6ca42802a911c
I debated for a while and ended up buying the Harvia heat shield that attaches directly to the heater and this was a great choice. Not only does it reduce the clearances dramatically, it also stays pretty cool to the touch. Well, not cool, but it’s cool enough that if someone were to grab it accidentally or fall on it, they would not get burned. The walls are additionally shielded with corrugated steel, 1” air gap, cement board, ¾” air gap. On all sides of the heater, I left one or two inches more clearance than required because fire safety isn’t something I’m interested in messing with.
I read all the things about ventilation and find it all confusing. So I just way overdid it. The floor is uninsulated, so it provides more fresh air intake than the stove could ever use. I also put a vent low behind the stove on the interior wall, thinking that if we ever decide to insulate the floor, it could be useful. There is a vent near the ceiling in the corner opposite the heater that we open after every sauna to let out any steam. And another one on the wall behind the heater about halfway between the rocks and the ceiling. When people feel stuffy, we open that one, although I think it’s probably more placebo than anything given how much air comes through the floor. Mostly we use the high ones to vent moisture after we’re done.
Changing Room
The changing room just kind of exists, I didn’t put much effort into finishing it. I paneled the interior wall with plywood to hold back the insulation, but there is no insulation or wall finish elsewhere. I made a couple of benches from an ERC slab and some shelves and towel pegs from scrap lumber and branches of ERC trees growing nearby. Maybe one day we will finish it, but it seems like unnecessary cost. There is no electricity, so we have some janky LED lights that never seem to work right. Maybe that’s something I can tinker with for next winter.
Ptoto taken from just inside exterior door. Shelving goes around two walls, plus towel hooks by the door made from ERC branches growing just outside.
If I was designing another sauna, I would probably make the changing room larger. With more than about three people in there, it gets tight. And there really isn’t good indoor space for hanging out right now.
Outdoor Shower
The shower wasn’t really built for the sauna as much as just to be a shower. But it is between the village and the sauna, so it is convenient for anyone who wants to rinse off. Most folks just use the pond anyway.
Polycarb box contains a stainless tank and acts as a passive water heater. Water comes through a garden hose attached to a nearby hydrant.
https://preview.redd.it/frkw6jezbe3d1.jpg?width=813&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bed5b7166c46b258ddd6849200b0158497358324
Happy to answer any questions, this sub was hugely helpful for me in figuring out what to do and I'd like to return the favor. One last photo of the sauna in snow, prime time.
Perfect sauna weather. Photo from edge of icy pond. Smoke wisping up.
2024.05.29 04:09 Storms_Wrath The Human Artificial Hivemind Part 518: A Falling Tower
First Previous Wiki
Penny gazed at the quartet of Elders. They were all wearing the merchandise she remembered from the last Judgment, which was exceedingly awkward. Mainly because they were wearing shirts with her face on them. But it was also oddly endearing, in a way. Until now, she hadn't seen too many Elders that were on her side.
Elders that weren't just Kashaunta or the familiar faces she already knew, like Spentha or Rho and Sai, actually showing appreciation of her, felt odd. Even if these ones went a little too far in it.
"You're even more beautiful in person, Liberator," one said.
"Uh, thanks. I appreciate that. I'm glad that you all like me. Rho and Sai told me that you all are interested in something I can give you?"
"Yeah. Maybe a short interview? We won't be like that airhead reporter. We'll ask the good questions."
"Yep, we will."
"Right then," Penny said. "Well, I'm glad to meet you."
"Thank you. Now that we're here, we'd like to know how you plan on taking care of the gang leaders."
"Well, presumably by imprisoning them. I don't think they deserve to die, even if others do. I'll leave that decision up to Justicar and his various judges in the criminal system."
Penny didn't like having to lie blatantly. She wanted to kill the slavers quite brutally, but doing that was a bad idea right now. Saying it also was a bad idea, for a similar reason. And Justicar's system was worryingly preferential to Elders, from what she'd looked up after the meeting with Pundacrawla.
"Aren't you worried that the Judges won't give proper justice?"
"I trust Justicar to do everything that is necessary."
Another lie. Justicar would do whatever he could to maintain his image. Hopefully, that wouldn't be at the cost of the Alliance's very existence.
"Got it. By the way, what's it like being human? Walking on only two legs. It seems kind of unstable. Do you fall a lot?"
A genuine curiosity from them was another breath of fresh air. It was the kind of question a quadruped would definitely ask, which put her more at ease about the nature of what they were trying to do. Even more than their evident support of her, with all the merch they were wearing. Penny felt a smile crack at the corners of her lips, unbidden.
"Not really. We can use our arms to steady ourselves pretty well. Obviously it's not as easy to balance on our two legs as it is with your four, but it's still good enough. In fact, the sprinters in the Olympics use all four limbs, since running as fast as possible also requires pumping our arms. As for what it's like to be human, it's hard to describe. For many of us, it will feel colder or warmer than Sprilnav would feel in the same temperatures, due to thinner skin. Our eyesight is more frontal than yours, given our lack of snouts, so our blindspots are a lot bigger. Our feet require shoes for rough ground, and we heal slower than you by around 20%. We can't really clack our jaws to the scale that you can, though we can make them meet."
Penny bared her teeth, showing as she opened and closed her mouth. It was nice to be able to talk about things like this.
"The Olympics?" one of them asked.
"It's a competition about athletics," Penny said. "Running, jumping, throwing, diving, swimming, skiing, snowboarding, and a lot of sports. There's specific divisions, too. Like how there's a 100 meter dash, 200 meter dash, 400 meter dash, and even an 800 meter dash for those with high levels of psychic energy. Though really, psychic energy and genetic editing have been messing with the events for a while now. And there's a Winter, Summer, and Space Olympics, each with different sorts of events. They move from city to city, though the Space Olympics are pretty much always on either Luna, Ceres, or Mercury. There's a lot more information out there on various events, but it's an old cultural practice revered by the entire species. Even more so since Phoebe's increased the prize pools for everyone."
"How does your species handle space in general? I know that you guys did things way differently before First Contact."
"We did. Mining companies kept tight control on all asteroid mining, while nations controlled planets like Earth and Mars and large planetary bodies like Luna. Supposedly, a few people planned for a cloud city on Venus, but we couldn't risk having such a vulnerable population because they'd have to rely on giant balloons to survive. That would probably be the least secure way to live, given the existence of rogue organizations and all that.
As for spaceships, most of them since we really colonized Luna come equipped with spacesuit bays, zero gravity water and food packs, oxygen tanks, emergency seats, specialized anti-micrometeorite hulls, and radiation shielding. A lot of the older military ships also were equipped with big radiators until World War Three, when it all became masses of drone warfare, with the big ships kept mainly for cargo and lanes where mass drone control was impossible.
Once the Vinarii came and we got shields, we started building big again. After all, it provided a huge number of jobs, and in the post-war economies, especially with VIs in place, a lot of people needed work. But we still go and do asteroid and moon mining, star lifting, and energy gathering. We built an orbital ring around Mercury, the closest planet to Sol, to help with all of that. It doubles as a production hub, too. Now, it's all in more systems and with a lot more friends."
"Speaking of aliens, what theory does your people have on why so many creatures resemble one another? Our jaws are adapted for hard shelled creatures, and we're told that many planets have oddly similar variations of those."
"Crabs."
She guessed what they were getting at.
It is odd, isn't it? Nilnacrawla observed.
Perhaps that is another one of the Source's whims, Penny thought.
Maybe.
A few of the Elders made exclamations of shock.
"You even have a word for them that directly translates!"
Penny chuckled. "Yeah, carcinization is a bit of a meme in the science community. But I've heard the most mainstream theories since the First Contact are that the Source itself is uncreative. It has a certain template of creatures which it largely doesn't alter, though it can take in inputs from beings close to it, perhaps even influencing them."
"Influencing them?"
"Yes. Modern depictions of wendigoes, folkloric creatures from North America, a continent on Earth, are shockingly similar to the Knowers in appearance. The internet depictions of them in particular like to emphasize canine qualities, and often show them with skulls visible directly, and with dark brown or black fur. Recent depictions, as in the past 300 years, differ from their original appearances quite significantly, with the canine characteristics in particular being enhanced.
We have sorted through all known images of these creatures and found roughly 80% similarity with the Knowers and tens of thousands of images that are literally exactly the same as Knowers. The ones we searched all came before World War Three, far before even the First Contact with the Vinarii, much less the Knowers who were entirely underground at the time due to the radiation of their home star. We believe that the Source managed to influence this facet of human culture with the actual existence of a real creature.
Other examples exist, like how the Trikkec look very similar to Komodo Dragons, Vinarii look very similar to insects known as a mantis, and the Acuarfar look exactly like insects known as wasps with the single exception of their furry snouts and green instead of yellow markings. The Sprilnav species itself shares high amounts of similarity with a fictional species known as Elites in early 2000s culture, particularly with your jaws, though you all have red skin instead of grey or brown.
The Junyli, Dreedeen, and the wanderers are the main species without high amounts of appearance in our cultures at some point. This correlates with the idea of the Source being the influencer, as their predecessors all were used to fight it. Many species of the galaxy look like parts of our culture or Earth's creatures. The proximity of these examples makes this far more suspicious than if they were across the galaxy.
But since they existed first, the only answer must be that the Source brought the influence to us first and planted the ideas in our heads. As for the ones which look like Earth creatures, all of them are old enough evolutionary branches that copying from them to Earth makes more sense. Though the references centering around the early 2000s is quite odd, it is also roughly when the internet came into wide existence, so it is also possible the Source gave the ideas a push so they would propagate, for an unknown reason. Like if it seeded the ideas that propagated across the early global network Humanity used."
"Hmm. Fascinating. We've seen evidence of the 'seeding' process among some historical nations near the galactic region of Earth before. So the Source re-uses and alters depictions of life and also life itself?"
"Maybe," Penny said. "Unless the Source is more directly tied to life than we think. There's a conceptual Death, but no conceptual Life. Isn't that odd?"
"Conceptual Life died in the Source war."
How did that really work, though? Penny asked Nilnacrawla.
Imagine a conceptual being. A few of the Progenitors, as well as Narvravarana, went up to try to harvest its power. It refused, and Narvravarana used its unique abilities to try and force the deal.
Why was your civilization like this?
Excess and greed, partly. But we couldn't really do much more expansion. Vertical expansion also had its limits if we wanted to remain relevant for the remaining lifespan of the universe. So Narvravarana, along with a few of the greatest rulers and leaders of Sprilnav society, started looking to other dimensional planes. They figured it was best not to let the problem get too much worse. Or at least, that is what they say. I believe it was to harvest more resources to use against our surrounding enemies.
You didn't have any allies? Penny asked.
At that time, all the powers of the universe were enemies. All the allies eventually merged through millions of years of normalization. We happened to get on the universal stage the earliest, so other civilizations we encountered had little choice but to surrender their independence. Some fought, others didn't, but the outcome was the same.
That seems terrible.
It was, though the other universal civilizations were no better. Some of them just exterminated all alien life they found that couldn't fight back. In that sense, the pre-war Sprilnav civilization was one of the greatest, and that's why I fought for them. Obviously, I'm biased in that regard, though.
Thanks for telling me, father.
No problem, Penny.
She refocused back on the conversation at hand.
"But a thing cannot be alive if it dies. The concept of life doesn't work that way. So maybe the Source just... took in the concept of life? Or absorbed it into whatever psychic energy really is, considering that it's responsible for all of our existence?"
"That's so crazy it might actually be true," one of the Elders said. "You're incredible, Penny."
"Uh, thanks. You're all pretty great too." Her eyes drifted to the images of herself on their clothing. She couldn't really help it.
"I have a question for you."
"Yes?"
"Do you know what I'm fighting for?"
"I assume since you're asking it here, you don't just want a one word answer," an Elder said. "I would say yes, and for the liberation of the Sprilnav from the stain of slavery. Though going deeper into your history, you have also fought for other species, either in wars or just generally moving around. It does look aimless, mostly, since the galaxy's so big. But I'm sure you've got a way through that."
"In some way. Part of why I'm here isn't just about my people. It was at first, I admit that. But as I have lived here, on Justicar, for days and weeks, I've seen you less as alien. It makes it easier for sympathy and easier to break out of simple mindsets. So far, there are many problems, but there are distinct pieces. The first is that many people want to uphold slavery. I'm not sure why, but they do. It isn't profitable, and it isn't moral. Robots are cheaper in every way, and don't need food or water.
That means it's illogical or emotional. So I could try and solve the problem with violence alone, but it won't be addressing the cause, only the symptoms. I need to get to the heart of the matter. And I think it has to do with Elders' memories and the gradual woes they have accumulated going through life. I don't want to tear that away or drug them into believing they're fine. I want to find a way to outlet that productively. The second part I have identified is scale. The galaxy is enormous, and your species is incredibly numerous. I could fight planet by planet for the rest of my life, and liberation would still be difficult.
That also means I'd need a better way of doing things. Maybe an economic or political incentive. Emotional reasons will not work permanently, nor will logic, since we are in this situation. I have found several ways to address this. Sadly, since the gangs are likely monitoring this feed, I can't just outright say my strategy. All I can ask you all to do is to believe. Believe that I have a solution, and that I and those who stand with me are working on it. Believe in me because I believe in you."
None of the Elders questioned or ridiculed her words. Most of it was because they were fans of her. But one of them, an Elder named Rahautiti, had a distinct glint in his eye. Their gazes met only momentarily, but Penny could tell he knew.
And so she appeared in the mindscape, even as they concluded the interview, which would be the first of many. It was a ploy to just talk about human culture and ideals a bit more, to get it out there. Because the hivemind's theory was correct.
In the universe, ideas had power. That power could be weaponized against those who previously stood to gain. The first part of it was the image: Nova as an unbeatable bastion. Lecalicus as the Beast, a monster capable of star-crushing rage. Twilight as... whatever she did. Penny wasn't really familiar with the Progenitor's image too much, and the various names, like the Silent Night or the Smiling Darkness, were just so unbelievably edgy she cringed every time she recalled them.
But Rahautiti understood so she moved her mindscape avatar to see him.
"Hello again, Penny. I am no threat."
"I know. I'm glad that your group is led by someone as capable as you, as well as the other groups you dabble within."
"Who discovered it?"
"Phoebe. You met with Ezeonwha, and the android wanted to ensure you weren't a way for Yasihaut to kill him."
"Yeah. We did get approached about that, actually. We're supposed to kill Ezeonwha when you walk into the Judgment hall. Of course, we won't do this, and she won't be able to retaliate against us easily while there."
"Thank you for your honesty, Elder," Penny said. "It seems I'm in your debt."
"Nonsense. 2,839. That is the number of children I have had. 2,626. That is the number of children of mine which were enslaved. The remaining 213 died in unrelated incidents, with nearly half of those involving slavers killing them. I remember all of their names, and all of their faces, Penny. I want all the slavers in this universe dead."
"I cannot achieve that."
"You cannot," Rahautiti agreed. "Not with my help or even that of Kashaunta and Lecalicus. And certainly not right now. I have not lived this long to be incapable of compromise or patchwork solutions. You show great promise. I understand your aversion to killing and the circumstantial reason why you are not doing so now. I will not grow upset if you do not resume killing when the Judgment ends. Nor do I harbor a grudge against you for the speeding space entity you left outside the room to avoid uncomfortable publicity. You are incredibly young.
A sliver of a life. But you are strong, and you are mature. That sliver of your lifespan already outshines all I could do with a trillion more years, Penny. You are right in that this isn't something you can punch your way through. Trauma is part of why slavery still exists, despite it being a wholly unjust reason for the Elders to make such a sport of it. I am sure you know the story of the war, with a great hero in your head and Kashaunta at your side. My line of work is what I started to help you. Every thought about you being the Liberator, every eye that glances on you freeing slaves, helps you to gather conceptual energy. My talent happens to be great enough to sense the Pact of Blades you have, as well. If you want, I can teach you how to hide the mark on your soul and your mind."
"I would like that, yes," Penny said. "And thank you for being so reasonable. I will ask Kashaunta to protect you from what consequences come for refusing the offer on Ezeonwha."
"There are going to be attacks on him, you know. Him and your ship."
Penny felt an odd feeling in her soul. Cardi's power flared around him, and she squinted at the sky. She just barely saw a sliver of a tentacle. Most would have mistaken it for a normal speeding space entity. But here? On Justicar, with Exile obviously not being the cause?
Only one being would cause that. Fate.
Given the subject of their conversation, it was obvious what was going on.
Penny tapped Rahautiti's jaw, adding a thin mark of conceptual power so she could easily find him again. She focused on the conceptual mark she'd left on Ezeonwha. A twinge of conceptual energy came from it. It was accompanied by various impressions, like fear, pain, and acceptance.
"I have to go," Penny said. "I will be back later. Displace."
She appeared next to the 102nd Visitor Welcome Office but not next to Ezeonwha. It was carnage everywhere she looked.
"Champion!" an unknown Elder yelled. "I am Elder Na-"
Her rising fury surged, and it took all she had not to dismember him. The distant thought of the Judgment stayed her hands, though only just.
Penny's fist collided with the Elder's jaw at twice the speed of sound. A piece of his jaws flew free. Bone fragments hit the ground behind him. Hundreds of soldiers fired on her, and she slammed them to the ground with pure will. Penny tore their guns away and sent them each to pummel the Elder in front of her with as much brutality as she could. His powerful armor wasn't as capable of defense against physical attacks as it was against her psychic energy, and so he fell.
"You... cannot save him," the Elder spat. Fields of psychic suppression fell upon her, reducing her power.
"Manipulation through Determination," Penny growled. "De-"
No! Nilnacrawla said. Do not kill him! Not yet!
"What goes up will go down."
Air hardened around the Elder and accelerated rapidly.
The Elder smashed into the shield five miles above with a speed just slow enough that he wouldn't die. He fell from it and then hit it again at a more modest speed. He'd bounce on that until the Guides came to get him.
But Penny had another target. One she had to save instead of attack.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
High Judge Tassidonia awoke to the sound of explosions. He grabbed his swords, his main gun, and the personal shield he reserved for only the most dire occasions. The sky was erupting in war all around him, and buildings were already falling nearby. The spires of skyscrapers rained down upon the entrances to the Underground, crushing thousands of fleeing Sprilnav under their wide impacts.
His implant identified members of the gangs nearby, making their way to his home.
"Retribution Cycle!" Tassidonia cried. A hidden door opened, and he boarded a small hovercraft that sported a high amount of defensive and offensive technology, a gift from Justicar for dealing with all that he had related to the Judgment. Only this time, he wouldn't be on the next one. But already, the destruction was spreading.
Micro-missiles rained upon friend and foe alike. Several detonated against the layered shields. The mounted turrets on the side of his hoverbike shot lasers into the enemies his implant identified.
"Elder Tassidonia!" an Elder cried nearby. "For the crime of defying the will of-"
Tassidonia called his fury to bear. He rammed his mind into the enemy Elder, disorienting her. She reeled, about to attack, when a thick laser smashed into her chest. It pushed her against the wall, and Tassidonia kept the pressure up until her body melted. He listened to her screams impassively, occasionally sending blasts from his gun at the gangs when their members started to stray too close.
The thick red beam did its work within twenty pulses. His swords began to float beside him, keeping pace as he sped away from his home. The entire apartment complex shuddered and began to lean, its foundation being destroyed by some effect below. Tassidonia abandoned it with only minor regret. He'd known this moment would come. Everything he needed was already with him.
He linked into the Guide network, directing squadrons to attack the breaches he'd identified. Orbital strikes fell upon them in quick succession. Thick beams of light pierced through the lower planetary shields from orbital platforms, their guns honing in on Justicar's enemies. Tassidonia's implant was linked to the grid as well. So when he eyed buildings occupied with too many gang members, orbital strikes fell on them a few pulses later.
Fire and plasma rained all around him. Explosions and smoke blossomed all around him. More missiles fell from his hovercraft. A fighter ship appeared beside him, its simple stealth revealing itself to his eyes. Tassidonia waited for the pilot chamber to open, and his craft stowed itself behind him when he got in. It was fully equipped, so soon, Tassidonia was in full control of a weapon of war.
His first order of business was detecting the gangs' most fortified areas. He peppered those bases in shield-weakening mines, followed by bunker-buster missiles. Several anti-air turrets hit him, but his shields prevented them from taking him down. He dropped three high-end Butcher Androids into the fray of the largest battles.
One of the adjacent fighter wings in the separate shield sector dropped a nuke. At that moment, Tassidonia made a decision.
Whatever insanity was going on right now wasn't worth staying here on his own. He turned his ship upward, narrowly avoiding nearly fifty missiles shot from another gang fortress, which was really just the lower floors of a supermarket. Thick slabs of concrete were being set up by androids and slaves from the Underground. All he could do was watch from above and attempt to mark those that might be a problem.
Justicar's Grand Fleet was moving in, though only the carriers and their escorts were doing anything of any scale. The armies were mobilizing, and it seemed that war had finally broken out. Justicar, while isolated due to the Judgment, would have to win a war that threatened to topple his rule entirely.
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Ezeonwha woke when the walls around him shuddered.
An earthquake?
Groggily, he activated the lights in the room. Phoebe's android was charging in the wall. Her limbs swayed with the motion. The walls shuddered again, and the lights went out. Thin, tiny cracks spread in the walls, increasing his worry factors massively. His implant notified him that this wasn't a dream. Distant screams reached his ears, and he went to the window.
Hordes of Sprilnav were running on the ground, tripping over each other to escape. He heard the thump of footsteps approaching from outside. The android activated, standing up.
"Move away from the doo-"
An explosion tossed him across the room. A Sprilnav carrying some sort of mouth weapon faded into view for a moment, smoke recalibrating the stealth field. And then he was gone. Phoebe smashed into the Sprilnav, her fists pummeling the assassin faster than Ezeonwha could comprehend.
Phoebe's arms turned into swords, and she stabbed the Sprilnav at least fifty times in a single pulse. She turned to grab him, but before she reached him, a second explosion sent him flying out of the now-shattered window.
The massive skyscraper loomed large, and he saw the ground beneath it ripple. Dull thumps sounded from below, and large, circular caverns opened beneath the 102nd Visitor Welcome Office. The whole building started to list forward, and Ezeonwha frantically activated his emergency personal shield as he started falling faster and faster. A bullet hit the shield. And then a second one. Gunshots echoed out in the distance, and he saw other Sprilnav falling from broken windows in the falling skyscraper. Gunfire erupted on the streets as Guides engaged a growing army of attackers bubbling up from basements of shops and businesses.
He saw spurts of blood exit the Sprilnav nearest him, bullets tearing holes through the woman's body. Piercing screams surrounded him, a terrible chorus that reminded him of the worst wars he'd fought in. But here, his training could do nothing. She was already dead, and he knew that he was the target of this whole attack. His eyes watered, and Ezeonwha felt so powerless. So useless.
A Corrector emerged from the side of the tilting skyscraper, eyes fixed on Ezeonwha. Then he looked down. Somehow, Ezeonwha knew when the orders had been sent. He knew that it was Astipra in the distance, a jetpack on his shoulders burning a thick flame beneath him.
Astipra looked back at the building and flew toward it. Ezeonwha felt the wind rushing past the shield as pressure. Astipra, far above, vaporized falling chunks of the skyscraper with blasts from his arm cannons. He pressed back against the skyscraper, the jetpack going into overdrive. The metal bent inward, and the groaning and twisting structure continued its fall. Blasts of light from Astipra again vaporized the set of falling chunks.
"Penny," he said. It was almost a prayer, really. His desperate mind was scrambling for whatever it could get. "Please, save me!"
He didn't know if she could hear him. Logically, it was impossible. And in a battle such as this, unlikely as well. Rippling explosions erupted across the facade of the falling skyscraper as rockets struck it. More explosions bloomed as lasers from distant police vehicles, Guides, and Astipra destroyed more of the fast-flying missiles and rockets. They pounded on the world around him, a horde of madness threatening to break his brain. He could feel the wind and gravity equalize as he reached terminal velocity.
And all he could see was the world descending into war around him. The 102nd Visitor Welcome Office continued to slump and lean against Astipra's best efforts. More bullets hit Ezeonwha's personal shield, and peppered the Guides moving over to save him. Air ambulances were shot from the sky. Even small fighter crafts were shot down by powerful ground lasers. EMPs thumped, disabling all the higher functions of his implant before he could think to use it.
A much larger explosion bloomed out, and Ezeonwha followed the rocket's trail to an Elder on the ground, standing in the wreckage surrounding a sudden tunnel opening. The Elder stared at him in glee, and he lined up another shot. Two Guides fell upon the Elder, who flew up using a jetpack to cut them in half with his sword. A hard light hologram lifted a large gun, pointing at Ezeonwha as he fell.
His eyes widened. Ezeonwha did everything he could. He angled his legs and arms. He pushed at the air. He even hefted the meager psychic energy he had, struggling with all his soul to escape the death he could feel was coming to him.
Guides swarmed beyond the shield appearing, while gang soldiers died by the hundreds to carpet bombing. Personal shields sprang up to block the explosions, and the Elder had survived. A thick red laser cut one of the fighters in half from the smoke. Above him, the collapsing facade of the skyscraper consumed Astipra entirely, though large gouts of plasma and thick explosions emerged from within. He could survive if it fell upon him, but Ezonwha could not.
Penny materialized far below, closer to the field of battle. A sweeping wave of gang members began disappearing. A bullet smashed into her head and her stomach, detonating in bright explosions. A personal shield flared and disappeared. Missiles and lasers slammed into Penny by the thousands as psychic energy gathered. A constant roll of words fell from her tongue, but without his implant, they were not translated.
Missiles crumbled into dust. Lasers impacted raw space in front of Penny before bending down and back to their origins, destroying automated turrets. Bullets still hit Penny and the Guides by the thousands, firing too quickly and densely for her to entirely block. But the large ordnance from the gangs continued to work against them.
Penny looked around, confusion evident on her face. But amidst the thousands of wounded and dead Sprilnav falling from the broken windows, Ezeonwha was hidden too well.
Shattering glass could be constantly heard, and he could feel the distant screams in his soul. A bullet smashed into his personal shield again, disabling it. A pulse later, he lost feeling in his legs.
He tried to reach out to her mind, but the war in the mindscape was equally intense. Too many Elders and Guides battling it out along with various suppression artifacts made it all impossible. He could sense Penny's influence, but couldn't directly reach her.
He let out a breath, knowing it to be the final one.
I'm sorry, Penny, Ezeonwha thought.
I wish you luck in the Judgment, and I am sorry I caused this to happen to you.
Penny finally appeared in front of him, eyes wide-
Blood erupted. A searing pain in his head told him his implant had just shorted out. And in the mindscape, he saw a mental attack heading for him, its brutal power evident. He closed his eyes.
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Penny gazed at the quartet of Elders. They were all wearing the merchandise she remembered from the last Judgment, which was exceedingly awkward. Mainly because they were wearing shirts with her face on them. But it was also oddly endearing, in a way. Until now, she hadn't seen too many Elders that were on her side.
Elders that weren't just Kashaunta or the familiar faces she already knew, like Spentha or Rho and Sai, actually showing appreciation of her, felt odd. Even if these ones went a little too far in it.
"You're even more beautiful in person, Liberator," one said.
"Uh, thanks. I appreciate that. I'm glad that you all like me. Rho and Sai told me that you all are interested in something I can give you?"
"Yeah. Maybe a short interview? We won't be like that airhead reporter. We'll ask the good questions."
"Yep, we will."
"Right then," Penny said. "Well, I'm glad to meet you."
"Thank you. Now that we're here, we'd like to know how you plan on taking care of the gang leaders."
"Well, presumably by imprisoning them. I don't think they deserve to die, even if others do. I'll leave that decision up to Justicar and his various judges in the criminal system."
Penny didn't like having to lie blatantly. She wanted to kill the slavers quite brutally, but doing that was a bad idea right now. Saying it also was a bad idea, for a similar reason. And Justicar's system was worryingly preferential to Elders, from what she'd looked up after the meeting with Pundacrawla.
"Aren't you worried that the Judges won't give proper justice?"
"I trust Justicar to do everything that is necessary."
Another lie. Justicar would do whatever he could to maintain his image. Hopefully, that wouldn't be at the cost of the Alliance's very existence.
"Got it. By the way, what's it like being human? Walking on only two legs. It seems kind of unstable. Do you fall a lot?"
A genuine curiosity from them was another breath of fresh air. It was the kind of question a quadruped would definitely ask, which put her more at ease about the nature of what they were trying to do. Even more than their evident support of her, with all the merch they were wearing. Penny felt a smile crack at the corners of her lips, unbidden.
"Not really. We can use our arms to steady ourselves pretty well. Obviously it's not as easy to balance on our two legs as it is with your four, but it's still good enough. In fact, the sprinters in the Olympics use all four limbs, since running as fast as possible also requires pumping our arms. As for what it's like to be human, it's hard to describe. For many of us, it will feel colder or warmer than Sprilnav would feel in the same temperatures, due to thinner skin. Our eyesight is more frontal than yours, given our lack of snouts, so our blindspots are a lot bigger. Our feet require shoes for rough ground, and we heal slower than you by around 20%. We can't really clack our jaws to the scale that you can, though we can make them meet."
Penny bared her teeth, showing as she opened and closed her mouth. It was nice to be able to talk about things like this.
"The Olympics?" one of them asked.
"It's a competition about athletics," Penny said. "Running, jumping, throwing, diving, swimming, skiing, snowboarding, and a lot of sports. There's specific divisions, too. Like how there's a 100 meter dash, 200 meter dash, 400 meter dash, and even an 800 meter dash for those with high levels of psychic energy. Though really, psychic energy and genetic editing have been messing with the events for a while now. And there's a Winter, Summer, and Space Olympics, each with different sorts of events. They move from city to city, though the Space Olympics are pretty much always on either Luna, Ceres, or Mercury. There's a lot more information out there on various events, but it's an old cultural practice revered by the entire species. Even more so since Phoebe's increased the prize pools for everyone."
"How does your species handle space in general? I know that you guys did things way differently before First Contact."
"We did. Mining companies kept tight control on all asteroid mining, while nations controlled planets like Earth and Mars and large planetary bodies like Luna. Supposedly, a few people planned for a cloud city on Venus, but we couldn't risk having such a vulnerable population because they'd have to rely on giant balloons to survive. That would probably be the least secure way to live, given the existence of rogue organizations and all that.
As for spaceships, most of them since we really colonized Luna come equipped with spacesuit bays, zero gravity water and food packs, oxygen tanks, emergency seats, specialized anti-micrometeorite hulls, and radiation shielding. A lot of the older military ships also were equipped with big radiators until World War Three, when it all became masses of drone warfare, with the big ships kept mainly for cargo and lanes where mass drone control was impossible.
Once the Vinarii came and we got shields, we started building big again. After all, it provided a huge number of jobs, and in the post-war economies, especially with VIs in place, a lot of people needed work. But we still go and do asteroid and moon mining, star lifting, and energy gathering. We built an orbital ring around Mercury, the closest planet to Sol, to help with all of that. It doubles as a production hub, too. Now, it's all in more systems and with a lot more friends."
"Speaking of aliens, what theory does your people have on why so many creatures resemble one another? Our jaws are adapted for hard shelled creatures, and we're told that many planets have oddly similar variations of those."
"Crabs."
She guessed what they were getting at.
It is odd, isn't it? Nilnacrawla observed.
Perhaps that is another one of the Source's whims, Penny thought.
Maybe.
A few of the Elders made exclamations of shock.
"You even have a word for them that directly translates!"
Penny chuckled. "Yeah, carcinization is a bit of a meme in the science community. But I've heard the most mainstream theories since the First Contact are that the Source itself is uncreative. It has a certain template of creatures which it largely doesn't alter, though it can take in inputs from beings close to it, perhaps even influencing them."
"Influencing them?"
"Yes. Modern depictions of wendigoes, folkloric creatures from North America, a continent on Earth, are shockingly similar to the Knowers in appearance. The internet depictions of them in particular like to emphasize canine qualities, and often show them with skulls visible directly, and with dark brown or black fur. Recent depictions, as in the past 300 years, differ from their original appearances quite significantly, with the canine characteristics in particular being enhanced.
We have sorted through all known images of these creatures and found roughly 80% similarity with the Knowers and tens of thousands of images that are literally exactly the same as Knowers. The ones we searched all came before World War Three, far before even the First Contact with the Vinarii, much less the Knowers who were entirely underground at the time due to the radiation of their home star. We believe that the Source managed to influence this facet of human culture with the actual existence of a real creature.
Other examples exist, like how the Trikkec look very similar to Komodo Dragons, Vinarii look very similar to insects known as a mantis, and the Acuarfar look exactly like insects known as wasps with the single exception of their furry snouts and green instead of yellow markings. The Sprilnav species itself shares high amounts of similarity with a fictional species known as Elites in early 2000s culture, particularly with your jaws, though you all have red skin instead of grey or brown.
The Junyli, Dreedeen, and the wanderers are the main species without high amounts of appearance in our cultures at some point. This correlates with the idea of the Source being the influencer, as their predecessors all were used to fight it. Many species of the galaxy look like parts of our culture or Earth's creatures. The proximity of these examples makes this far more suspicious than if they were across the galaxy.
But since they existed first, the only answer must be that the Source brought the influence to us first and planted the ideas in our heads. As for the ones which look like Earth creatures, all of them are old enough evolutionary branches that copying from them to Earth makes more sense. Though the references centering around the early 2000s is quite odd, it is also roughly when the internet came into wide existence, so it is also possible the Source gave the ideas a push so they would propagate, for an unknown reason. Like if it seeded the ideas that propagated across the early global network Humanity used."
"Hmm. Fascinating. We've seen evidence of the 'seeding' process among some historical nations near the galactic region of Earth before. So the Source re-uses and alters depictions of life and also life itself?"
"Maybe," Penny said. "Unless the Source is more directly tied to life than we think. There's a conceptual Death, but no conceptual Life. Isn't that odd?"
"Conceptual Life died in the Source war."
How did that really work, though? Penny asked Nilnacrawla.
Imagine a conceptual being. A few of the Progenitors, as well as Narvravarana, went up to try to harvest its power. It refused, and Narvravarana used its unique abilities to try and force the deal.
Why was your civilization like this?
Excess and greed, partly. But we couldn't really do much more expansion. Vertical expansion also had its limits if we wanted to remain relevant for the remaining lifespan of the universe. So Narvravarana, along with a few of the greatest rulers and leaders of Sprilnav society, started looking to other dimensional planes. They figured it was best not to let the problem get too much worse. Or at least, that is what they say. I believe it was to harvest more resources to use against our surrounding enemies.
You didn't have any allies? Penny asked.
At that time, all the powers of the universe were enemies. All the allies eventually merged through millions of years of normalization. We happened to get on the universal stage the earliest, so other civilizations we encountered had little choice but to surrender their independence. Some fought, others didn't, but the outcome was the same.
That seems terrible.
It was, though the other universal civilizations were no better. Some of them just exterminated all alien life they found that couldn't fight back. In that sense, the pre-war Sprilnav civilization was one of the greatest, and that's why I fought for them. Obviously, I'm biased in that regard, though.
Thanks for telling me, father.
No problem, Penny.
She refocused back on the conversation at hand.
"But a thing cannot be alive if it dies. The concept of life doesn't work that way. So maybe the Source just... took in the concept of life? Or absorbed it into whatever psychic energy really is, considering that it's responsible for all of our existence?"
"That's so crazy it might actually be true," one of the Elders said. "You're incredible, Penny."
"Uh, thanks. You're all pretty great too." Her eyes drifted to the images of herself on their clothing. She couldn't really help it.
"I have a question for you."
"Yes?"
"Do you know what I'm fighting for?"
"I assume since you're asking it here, you don't just want a one word answer," an Elder said. "I would say yes, and for the liberation of the Sprilnav from the stain of slavery. Though going deeper into your history, you have also fought for other species, either in wars or just generally moving around. It does look aimless, mostly, since the galaxy's so big. But I'm sure you've got a way through that."
"In some way. Part of why I'm here isn't just about my people. It was at first, I admit that. But as I have lived here, on Justicar, for days and weeks, I've seen you less as alien. It makes it easier for sympathy and easier to break out of simple mindsets. So far, there are many problems, but there are distinct pieces. The first is that many people want to uphold slavery. I'm not sure why, but they do. It isn't profitable, and it isn't moral. Robots are cheaper in every way, and don't need food or water.
That means it's illogical or emotional. So I could try and solve the problem with violence alone, but it won't be addressing the cause, only the symptoms. I need to get to the heart of the matter. And I think it has to do with Elders' memories and the gradual woes they have accumulated going through life. I don't want to tear that away or drug them into believing they're fine. I want to find a way to outlet that productively. The second part I have identified is scale. The galaxy is enormous, and your species is incredibly numerous. I could fight planet by planet for the rest of my life, and liberation would still be difficult.
That also means I'd need a better way of doing things. Maybe an economic or political incentive. Emotional reasons will not work permanently, nor will logic, since we are in this situation. I have found several ways to address this. Sadly, since the gangs are likely monitoring this feed, I can't just outright say my strategy. All I can ask you all to do is to believe. Believe that I have a solution, and that I and those who stand with me are working on it. Believe in me because I believe in you."
None of the Elders questioned or ridiculed her words. Most of it was because they were fans of her. But one of them, an Elder named Rahautiti, had a distinct glint in his eye. Their gazes met only momentarily, but Penny could tell he knew.
And so she appeared in the mindscape, even as they concluded the interview, which would be the first of many. It was a ploy to just talk about human culture and ideals a bit more, to get it out there. Because the hivemind's theory was correct.
In the universe, ideas had power. That power could be weaponized against those who previously stood to gain. The first part of it was the image: Nova as an unbeatable bastion. Lecalicus as the Beast, a monster capable of star-crushing rage. Twilight as... whatever she did. Penny wasn't really familiar with the Progenitor's image too much, and the various names, like the Silent Night or the Smiling Darkness, were just so unbelievably edgy she cringed every time she recalled them.
But Rahautiti understood so she moved her mindscape avatar to see him.
"Hello again, Penny. I am no threat."
"I know. I'm glad that your group is led by someone as capable as you, as well as the other groups you dabble within."
"Who discovered it?"
"Phoebe. You met with Ezeonwha, and the android wanted to ensure you weren't a way for Yasihaut to kill him."
"Yeah. We did get approached about that, actually. We're supposed to kill Ezeonwha when you walk into the Judgment hall. Of course, we won't do this, and she won't be able to retaliate against us easily while there."
"Thank you for your honesty, Elder," Penny said. "It seems I'm in your debt."
"Nonsense. 2,839. That is the number of children I have had. 2,626. That is the number of children of mine which were enslaved. The remaining 213 died in unrelated incidents, with nearly half of those involving slavers killing them. I remember all of their names, and all of their faces, Penny. I want all the slavers in this universe dead."
"I cannot achieve that."
"You cannot," Rahautiti agreed. "Not with my help or even that of Kashaunta and Lecalicus. And certainly not right now. I have not lived this long to be incapable of compromise or patchwork solutions. You show great promise. I understand your aversion to killing and the circumstantial reason why you are not doing so now. I will not grow upset if you do not resume killing when the Judgment ends. Nor do I harbor a grudge against you for the speeding space entity you left outside the room to avoid uncomfortable publicity. You are incredibly young.
A sliver of a life. But you are strong, and you are mature. That sliver of your lifespan already outshines all I could do with a trillion more years, Penny. You are right in that this isn't something you can punch your way through. Trauma is part of why slavery still exists, despite it being a wholly unjust reason for the Elders to make such a sport of it. I am sure you know the story of the war, with a great hero in your head and Kashaunta at your side. My line of work is what I started to help you. Every thought about you being the Liberator, every eye that glances on you freeing slaves, helps you to gather conceptual energy. My talent happens to be great enough to sense the Pact of Blades you have, as well. If you want, I can teach you how to hide the mark on your soul and your mind."
"I would like that, yes," Penny said. "And thank you for being so reasonable. I will ask Kashaunta to protect you from what consequences come for refusing the offer on Ezeonwha."
"There are going to be attacks on him, you know. Him and your ship."
Penny felt an odd feeling in her soul. Cardi's power flared around him, and she squinted at the sky. She just barely saw a sliver of a tentacle. Most would have mistaken it for a normal speeding space entity. But here? On Justicar, with Exile obviously not being the cause?
Only one being would cause that. Fate.
Given the subject of their conversation, it was obvious what was going on.
Penny tapped Rahautiti's jaw, adding a thin mark of conceptual power so she could easily find him again. She focused on the conceptual mark she'd left on Ezeonwha. A twinge of conceptual energy came from it. It was accompanied by various impressions, like fear, pain, and acceptance.
"I have to go," Penny said. "I will be back later. Displace."
She appeared next to the 102nd Visitor Welcome Office but not next to Ezeonwha. It was carnage everywhere she looked.
"Champion!" an unknown Elder yelled. "I am Elder Na-"
Her rising fury surged, and it took all she had not to dismember him. The distant thought of the Judgment stayed her hands, though only just.
Penny's fist collided with the Elder's jaw at twice the speed of sound. A piece of his jaws flew free. Bone fragments hit the ground behind him. Hundreds of soldiers fired on her, and she slammed them to the ground with pure will. Penny tore their guns away and sent them each to pummel the Elder in front of her with as much brutality as she could. His powerful armor wasn't as capable of defense against physical attacks as it was against her psychic energy, and so he fell.
"You... cannot save him," the Elder spat. Fields of psychic suppression fell upon her, reducing her power.
"Manipulation through Determination," Penny growled. "De-"
No! Nilnacrawla said. Do not kill him! Not yet!
"What goes up will go down."
Air hardened around the Elder and accelerated rapidly.
The Elder smashed into the shield five miles above with a speed just slow enough that he wouldn't die. He fell from it and then hit it again at a more modest speed. He'd bounce on that until the Guides came to get him.
But Penny had another target. One she had to save instead of attack.
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High Judge Tassidonia awoke to the sound of explosions. He grabbed his swords, his main gun, and the personal shield he reserved for only the most dire occasions. The sky was erupting in war all around him, and buildings were already falling nearby. The spires of skyscrapers rained down upon the entrances to the Underground, crushing thousands of fleeing Sprilnav under their wide impacts.
His implant identified members of the gangs nearby, making their way to his home.
"Retribution Cycle!" Tassidonia cried. A hidden door opened, and he boarded a small hovercraft that sported a high amount of defensive and offensive technology, a gift from Justicar for dealing with all that he had related to the Judgment. Only this time, he wouldn't be on the next one. But already, the destruction was spreading.
Micro-missiles rained upon friend and foe alike. Several detonated against the layered shields. The mounted turrets on the side of his hoverbike shot lasers into the enemies his implant identified.
"Elder Tassidonia!" an Elder cried nearby. "For the crime of defying the will of-"
Tassidonia called his fury to bear. He rammed his mind into the enemy Elder, disorienting her. She reeled, about to attack, when a thick laser smashed into her chest. It pushed her against the wall, and Tassidonia kept the pressure up until her body melted. He listened to her screams impassively, occasionally sending blasts from his gun at the gangs when their members started to stray too close.
The thick red beam did its work within twenty pulses. His swords began to float beside him, keeping pace as he sped away from his home. The entire apartment complex shuddered and began to lean, its foundation being destroyed by some effect below. Tassidonia abandoned it with only minor regret. He'd known this moment would come. Everything he needed was already with him.
He linked into the Guide network, directing squadrons to attack the breaches he'd identified. Orbital strikes fell upon them in quick succession. Thick beams of light pierced through the lower planetary shields from orbital platforms, their guns honing in on Justicar's enemies. Tassidonia's implant was linked to the grid as well. So when he eyed buildings occupied with too many gang members, orbital strikes fell on them a few pulses later.
Fire and plasma rained all around him. Explosions and smoke blossomed all around him. More missiles fell from his hovercraft. A fighter ship appeared beside him, its simple stealth revealing itself to his eyes. Tassidonia waited for the pilot chamber to open, and his craft stowed itself behind him when he got in. It was fully equipped, so soon, Tassidonia was in full control of a weapon of war.
His first order of business was detecting the gangs' most fortified areas. He peppered those bases in shield-weakening mines, followed by bunker-buster missiles. Several anti-air turrets hit him, but his shields prevented them from taking him down. He dropped three high-end Butcher Androids into the fray of the largest battles.
One of the adjacent fighter wings in the separate shield sector dropped a nuke. At that moment, Tassidonia made a decision.
Whatever insanity was going on right now wasn't worth staying here on his own. He turned his ship upward, narrowly avoiding nearly fifty missiles shot from another gang fortress, which was really just the lower floors of a supermarket. Thick slabs of concrete were being set up by androids and slaves from the Underground. All he could do was watch from above and attempt to mark those that might be a problem.
Justicar's Grand Fleet was moving in, though only the carriers and their escorts were doing anything of any scale. The armies were mobilizing, and it seemed that war had finally broken out. Justicar, while isolated due to the Judgment, would have to win a war that threatened to topple his rule entirely.
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Ezeonwha woke when the walls around him shuddered.
An earthquake?
Groggily, he activated the lights in the room. Phoebe's android was charging in the wall. Her limbs swayed with the motion. The walls shuddered again, and the lights went out. Thin, tiny cracks spread in the walls, increasing his worry factors massively. His implant notified him that this wasn't a dream. Distant screams reached his ears, and he went to the window.
Hordes of Sprilnav were running on the ground, tripping over each other to escape. He heard the thump of footsteps approaching from outside. The android activated, standing up.
"Move away from the doo-"
An explosion tossed him across the room. A Sprilnav carrying some sort of mouth weapon faded into view for a moment, smoke recalibrating the stealth field. And then he was gone. Phoebe smashed into the Sprilnav, her fists pummeling the assassin faster than Ezeonwha could comprehend.
Phoebe's arms turned into swords, and she stabbed the Sprilnav at least fifty times in a single pulse. She turned to grab him, but before she reached him, a second explosion sent him flying out of the now-shattered window.
The massive skyscraper loomed large, and he saw the ground beneath it ripple. Dull thumps sounded from below, and large, circular caverns opened beneath the 102nd Visitor Welcome Office. The whole building started to list forward, and Ezeonwha frantically activated his emergency personal shield as he started falling faster and faster. A bullet hit the shield. And then a second one. Gunshots echoed out in the distance, and he saw other Sprilnav falling from broken windows in the falling skyscraper. Gunfire erupted on the streets as Guides engaged a growing army of attackers bubbling up from basements of shops and businesses.
He saw spurts of blood exit the Sprilnav nearest him, bullets tearing holes through the woman's body. Piercing screams surrounded him, a terrible chorus that reminded him of the worst wars he'd fought in. But here, his training could do nothing. She was already dead, and he knew that he was the target of this whole attack. His eyes watered, and Ezeonwha felt so powerless. So useless.
A Corrector emerged from the side of the tilting skyscraper, eyes fixed on Ezeonwha. Then he looked down. Somehow, Ezeonwha knew when the orders had been sent. He knew that it was Astipra in the distance, a jetpack on his shoulders burning a thick flame beneath him.
Astipra looked back at the building and flew toward it. Ezeonwha felt the wind rushing past the shield as pressure. Astipra, far above, vaporized falling chunks of the skyscraper with blasts from his arm cannons. He pressed back against the skyscraper, the jetpack going into overdrive. The metal bent inward, and the groaning and twisting structure continued its fall. Blasts of light from Astipra again vaporized the set of falling chunks.
"Penny," he said. It was almost a prayer, really. His desperate mind was scrambling for whatever it could get. "Please, save me!"
He didn't know if she could hear him. Logically, it was impossible. And in a battle such as this, unlikely as well. Rippling explosions erupted across the facade of the falling skyscraper as rockets struck it. More explosions bloomed as lasers from distant police vehicles, Guides, and Astipra destroyed more of the fast-flying missiles and rockets. They pounded on the world around him, a horde of madness threatening to break his brain. He could feel the wind and gravity equalize as he reached terminal velocity.
And all he could see was the world descending into war around him. The 102nd Visitor Welcome Office continued to slump and lean against Astipra's best efforts. More bullets hit Ezeonwha's personal shield, and peppered the Guides moving over to save him. Air ambulances were shot from the sky. Even small fighter crafts were shot down by powerful ground lasers. EMPs thumped, disabling all the higher functions of his implant before he could think to use it.
A much larger explosion bloomed out, and Ezeonwha followed the rocket's trail to an Elder on the ground, standing in the wreckage surrounding a sudden tunnel opening. The Elder stared at him in glee, and he lined up another shot. Two Guides fell upon the Elder, who flew up using a jetpack to cut them in half with his sword. A hard light hologram lifted a large gun, pointing at Ezeonwha as he fell.
His eyes widened. Ezeonwha did everything he could. He angled his legs and arms. He pushed at the air. He even hefted the meager psychic energy he had, struggling with all his soul to escape the death he could feel was coming to him.
Guides swarmed beyond the shield appearing, while gang soldiers died by the hundreds to carpet bombing. Personal shields sprang up to block the explosions, and the Elder had survived. A thick red laser cut one of the fighters in half from the smoke. Above him, the collapsing facade of the skyscraper consumed Astipra entirely, though large gouts of plasma and thick explosions emerged from within. He could survive if it fell upon him, but Ezonwha could not.
Penny materialized far below, closer to the field of battle. A sweeping wave of gang members began disappearing. A bullet smashed into her head and her stomach, detonating in bright explosions. A personal shield flared and disappeared. Missiles and lasers slammed into Penny by the thousands as psychic energy gathered. A constant roll of words fell from her tongue, but without his implant, they were not translated.
Missiles crumbled into dust. Lasers impacted raw space in front of Penny before bending down and back to their origins, destroying automated turrets. Bullets still hit Penny and the Guides by the thousands, firing too quickly and densely for her to entirely block. But the large ordnance from the gangs continued to work against them.
Penny looked around, confusion evident on her face. But amidst the thousands of wounded and dead Sprilnav falling from the broken windows, Ezeonwha was hidden too well.
Shattering glass could be constantly heard, and he could feel the distant screams in his soul. A bullet smashed into his personal shield again, disabling it. A pulse later, he lost feeling in his legs.
He tried to reach out to her mind, but the war in the mindscape was equally intense. Too many Elders and Guides battling it out along with various suppression artifacts made it all impossible. He could sense Penny's influence, but couldn't directly reach her.
He let out a breath, knowing it to be the final one.
I'm sorry, Penny, Ezeonwha thought.
I wish you luck in the Judgment, and I am sorry I caused this to happen to you.
Penny finally appeared in front of him, eyes wide-
Blood erupted. A searing pain in his head told him his implant had just shorted out. And in the mindscape, he saw a mental attack heading for him, its brutal power evident. He closed his eyes.
2024.05.28 08:21 Willpower2000 What the Barrow-blade ACTUALLY did to the Witch-king
I'm sure most of you have seen it before: 'Merry's Barrow-blade broke the Witch-king's invulnerability', or something along those lines. Maybe you believe that to be the true (it's been parroted nearly everywhere as fact, and for so long, that I wouldn't blame you). But what if I challenged that idea?
I think the fandom, broadly, is at a point where it continues to spread a series of major assumptions and arguably misreadings of the text - under the guise of 'canon'.
The most contentious passage is this:
Sinews is the flesh: the tendons - the stuff that holds the body (muscles/bones/etc) together.
Will is the mind: the ability to make decisions and act upon them.
I'm sure this stuff doesn't need explaining... it's obvious - and yet the context is important: the Witch-king (like everyone else) had the ability to move his sinews as a result of his will. He could walk, run, jump, swing a sword, etc.
So what is the text saying the Barrow-blade did? It's saying he was immobilised. Once Merry stabbed the Witch-king, his mobility was broken. The text is not saying the Witch-king was made 'mortal' or no longer 'invulnerable'.
And this perfectly aligns with what is described in the moment:
The Witch-king's sinews are not responding to the desires of his will. The Witch-king is not choosing to drive his mace into the ground. He is not choosing to stumble. He is not choosing to leave himself in an incredibly vulnerable position, unable to defend himself. His sinews are not acting with intent, but by an impulsive reflex: an automatic response to a stimulus.
To add, Tolkien, when critiquing a proposed film-script, noted a hypothetical where a Nazgul is stabbed at Weathertop:
We do know that the Nazgul are hard to kill - but something being hard to kill does not mean it is impossible to kill. I do not believe we have sufficient evidence to assume the Witch-king would be unharmed if a regular blade stabbed him (in fact, Eowyn's does just that... and it kills - and nothing suggests Merry's stab made this possible, besides making the Witch-king stumble).
The below quotes are sometimes cited:
*Also note that 'cannot' need not mean 'literally impossible'... Gandalf tells the Three Hunters this:
And like I said earlier... nothing suggests a regular blade couldn't harm/kill a Nazgul. Nothing says that Merry's stab allowed Eowyn's to not deflect off the skin, or whatever (in fact, we know other blades have 'pierced' the Witch-king, historically: 'all blades perish that pierce that dreadful King', as Aragorn says. A good defence mechanism, if your opponent gets a hit in! But it doesn't support any invincibility... Merry and Eowyn's swords still break, despite landing damage. I daresay the Witch-king wore armour for all sorts of weapons on the field.
So, we've established what the Barrow-blade did: it made the Witch-king physically stumble.
Now, I know what you're thinking: 'where is the breaking of the spell? The quote specifically says it broke a spell! What spell was broken if the Witch-king simply stumbled?'
To quote the dictionary (Merriam-webster):
Not all spells are literal incantations of magic. Some spells are more mundane: and it's not unusual to use such language... I could easily say 'I was under the spell (influence) of the movie'. No magic. You get the idea.
So... to summarise, when Tolkien writes: 'breaking the spell that knit his unseen sinews to his will'... we can easily replace 'breaking the spell' with 'breaking the influence'. To simplify the entire passage: the stab broke the influence between mind and body. So again, the Barrow-blade made the Witch-king stumble. Tolkien uses more flowery language (as he does), but the premise is the exact same.
'Okay, but the Barrow-blades are explicitly noted as 'wound about with spells'! If the Witch-king didn't have some sort of magical protection that blade voided, what magic was on the blades?'
You're right! The blades ARE enchanted:
What's more is this:
I don't think it's much of a leap to assume that the Barrow-blades could deal a burning sensation (assuming the fiery glowing is not simply for intimidation), which would explain why:
submitted by Willpower2000 to lotr [link] [comments]
I think the fandom, broadly, is at a point where it continues to spread a series of major assumptions and arguably misreadings of the text - under the guise of 'canon'.
The most contentious passage is this:
So passed the sword of the Barrow-downs, work of Westernesse. But glad would he have been to know its fate who wrought it slowly long ago in the North-kingdom when the Du´nedain were young, and chief among their foes was the dread realm of Angmar and its sorcerer king. No other blade, not though mightier hands had wielded it, would have dealt that foe a wound so bitter, cleaving the undead flesh, breaking the spell that knit his unseen sinews to his will.Most people will cite this passage as evidence that the Barrow-blade broke a spell of immortality/invulnerability, and leave it there: case closed... but I'd argue this is a misreading. Let's dissect this passage:
Sinews is the flesh: the tendons - the stuff that holds the body (muscles/bones/etc) together.
Will is the mind: the ability to make decisions and act upon them.
I'm sure this stuff doesn't need explaining... it's obvious - and yet the context is important: the Witch-king (like everyone else) had the ability to move his sinews as a result of his will. He could walk, run, jump, swing a sword, etc.
So what is the text saying the Barrow-blade did? It's saying he was immobilised. Once Merry stabbed the Witch-king, his mobility was broken. The text is not saying the Witch-king was made 'mortal' or no longer 'invulnerable'.
And this perfectly aligns with what is described in the moment:
But suddenly he too stumbled forward with a cry of bitter pain, and his stroke went wide, driving into the ground. Merry’s sword had stabbed him from behind, shearing through the black mantle, and passing up beneath the hauberk had pierced the sinew behind his mighty knee. ‘Eowyn! ´ ´Eowyn!’ cried Merry. Then tottering, struggling up, with her last strength she drove her sword between crown and mantle, as the great shoulders bowed before her.Upon being stabbed, the Witch-king's swing on Eowyn went wide... and he stumbles forward, bowing to Eowyn, ultimately leaving himself exposed to Eowyn's killing blow.
The Witch-king's sinews are not responding to the desires of his will. The Witch-king is not choosing to drive his mace into the ground. He is not choosing to stumble. He is not choosing to leave himself in an incredibly vulnerable position, unable to defend himself. His sinews are not acting with intent, but by an impulsive reflex: an automatic response to a stimulus.
To add, Tolkien, when critiquing a proposed film-script, noted a hypothetical where a Nazgul is stabbed at Weathertop:
Sam does not 'sink his blade into the Ringwraith's thigh', nor does his thrust save Frodo's life. (If he had, the result would have been much the same as in III 117-20: the Wraith would have fallen down and the sword would have been destroyed.)Fallen down. That's it. Nothing about undoing an invincibility spell. Because, let's be clear... at no point does Tolkien mention a magical spell protecting the Nazgul from all harm bar Barrow-blades. At no point does a character in-universe say 'oh my god, those are Barrow-blades! The only blade capable of harming a Nazgul! Keep them close!' Zilch.
We do know that the Nazgul are hard to kill - but something being hard to kill does not mean it is impossible to kill. I do not believe we have sufficient evidence to assume the Witch-king would be unharmed if a regular blade stabbed him (in fact, Eowyn's does just that... and it kills - and nothing suggests Merry's stab made this possible, besides making the Witch-king stumble).
The below quotes are sometimes cited:
‘We can’t start until we have found out about the Riders.’ ‘I thought they were all destroyed in the flood,’ said Merry. ‘You cannot destroy Ringwraiths like that,’ said Gandalf. ‘The power of their master is in them, and they stand or fall by him. ...In both cases, Gandalf stresses that they cannot* be destroyed 'like that', and that they are powerful - but I'd be careful to take this to mean that they are invincible. Hard to kill, absolutely - but anything else would be a big assumption.
‘The Winged Messenger!’ cried Legolas. ‘I shot at him with the bow of Galadriel above Sarn Gebir, and I felled him from the sky. He filled us all with fear. What new terror is this?’ ‘One that you cannot slay with arrows,’ said Gandalf. ‘You only slew his steed. It was a good deed; but the Rider was soon horsed again. For he was a Nazguˆl, one of the Nine, who ride now upon winged steeds. Soon their terror will overshadow the last armies of our friends, cutting off the sun.
*Also note that 'cannot' need not mean 'literally impossible'... Gandalf tells the Three Hunters this:
Indeed my friends, none of you have any weapon that could hurt me.This is after Gandalf disarms them. I'd argue that Gandalf isn't saying Anduril or an arrow would bounce off of Gandalf's skin, but rather that Gandalf can deal with the threat (as we see him do). And even prior to his resurrection, Gandalf surviving the fall from the Bridge didn't mean he was invincible... Gandalf still died fighting Durin's Bane. I'd wager this is also the case regarding the Nazgul: the Fords washing them away or Legolas shooting at their mounts likely isn't enough to stop them - but it doesn't mean a sword through the face won't kill. We know the Witch-king feared the likes of Glorfindel, for instance. And did Glorfindel carry a Barrow-blade? I doubt it.
And like I said earlier... nothing suggests a regular blade couldn't harm/kill a Nazgul. Nothing says that Merry's stab allowed Eowyn's to not deflect off the skin, or whatever (in fact, we know other blades have 'pierced' the Witch-king, historically: 'all blades perish that pierce that dreadful King', as Aragorn says. A good defence mechanism, if your opponent gets a hit in! But it doesn't support any invincibility... Merry and Eowyn's swords still break, despite landing damage. I daresay the Witch-king wore armour for all sorts of weapons on the field.
So, we've established what the Barrow-blade did: it made the Witch-king physically stumble.
Now, I know what you're thinking: 'where is the breaking of the spell? The quote specifically says it broke a spell! What spell was broken if the Witch-king simply stumbled?'
To quote the dictionary (Merriam-webster):
1a: a spoken word or form of words held to have magic power b: a state of enchantment 2: a strong compelling influence or attractionThe definitions are essentially the same, minus one distinction: not all 'spells' are magical. In fact, we have evidence of Tolkien himself using this non-magical definition elsewhere in LOTR. Unlike the films Theoden is not magically possessed by Saruman... Grima, under Saruman's orders, is manipulating Theoden in a bid for coercive control. There is nothing to suggest any magic is involved, and yet:
The´oden. He is called The´oden Ednew in the lore of Rohan, for he fell into a decline under the spells of Saruman, but was healed by GandalfGiven we have zero evidence of magic being involved (just Grima's manipulation - Saruman's role is more indirect), it would be fair to attribute this usage of 'spells' to definition 2: a strong compelling influence or attraction. Grima is Saruman's spell: Grima is the compelling influence - as are Grima's words of manipulation.
Not all spells are literal incantations of magic. Some spells are more mundane: and it's not unusual to use such language... I could easily say 'I was under the spell (influence) of the movie'. No magic. You get the idea.
So... to summarise, when Tolkien writes: 'breaking the spell that knit his unseen sinews to his will'... we can easily replace 'breaking the spell' with 'breaking the influence'. To simplify the entire passage: the stab broke the influence between mind and body. So again, the Barrow-blade made the Witch-king stumble. Tolkien uses more flowery language (as he does), but the premise is the exact same.
'Okay, but the Barrow-blades are explicitly noted as 'wound about with spells'! If the Witch-king didn't have some sort of magical protection that blade voided, what magic was on the blades?'
You're right! The blades ARE enchanted:
Doubtless the Orcs despoiled them, but feared to keep the knives, knowing them for what they are: work of Westernesse, wound about with spells for the bane of Mordor.I think I have a pretty good idea about what these spells were... Tolkien is very consistent regarding these blades... FIRE! Hear me out...
For each of the hobbits he chose a dagger, long, leaf-shaped, and keen, of marvellous workmanship, damasked with serpent-forms in red and gold. They gleamed as he drew them from their black sheaths, wrought of some strange metal, light and strong, and set with many fiery stones. Whether by some virtue in these sheaths or because of the spell that lay on the mound, the blades seemed untouched by time, unrusted, sharp, glittering in the sun. ... Desperate, [Frodo] drew his own sword, and it seemed to him that it flickered red, as if it was a firebrand. ... [Pippin] drew his sword and looked at it, and the intertwining shapes of red and gold; and the flowing characters of Númenor glinted like fire upon the blade. 'This was made for just such an hour,' he thought. ... Then [Merry] looked for his sword that he had let fall; for even as he struck his blow his arm was numbed, and now he could only use his left hand. And behold! there lay his weapon, but the blade was smoking like a dry branch that has been thrust in a fire; and as he watched it, it writhed and withered and was consumed. ... 'Here are some treasures that you let fall,' said Aragorn. 'You will be glad to have them back.' He loosened his belt from under his cloak and took from it the two sheathed knives. 'Well!' said Merry. 'I never expected to see those again! I marked a few orcs with mine; but Uglúk took them from us. How he glared! At first I thought he was going to stab me, but he threw the things away as if they burned him.'It's clear Tolkien wants us to associate fire with these blades... and the final passage is particularly striking! Orcs toss them away away as if they burned them.
What's more is this:
Sauron can put fire to his evil uses, as he can all things, but these Riders do not love it, and fear those who wield it. Fire is our friend in the wilderness.The Nazgul fear fire, as I'm sure many here commonly know. Now, the why of this is another topic (my belief is that the Nazgul share many vampire-like qualities/similarities... and fire is an effective weapon against vampires... maybe I'll make another post about that down the line)... but regardless of the 'why'... they explicitly dislike fire for one reason or another. It's effective against them.
I don't think it's much of a leap to assume that the Barrow-blades could deal a burning sensation (assuming the fiery glowing is not simply for intimidation), which would explain why:
No other blade, not though mightier hands had wielded it, would have dealt that foe a wound so bitterSufficient pain to send the Witch-king stumbling forward with 'a cry of bitter pain'.
2024.05.28 08:19 Willpower2000 What the Barrow-blade ACTUALLY did to the Witch-king
I'm sure most of you have seen it before: 'Merry's Barrow-blade broke the Witch-king's invulnerability', or something along those lines. Maybe you believe that to be the true (it's been parroted nearly everywhere as fact, and for so long, that I wouldn't blame you). But what if I challenged that idea?
I think the fandom, broadly, is at a point where it continues to spread a series of major assumptions and arguably misreadings of the text - under the guise of 'canon'.
The most contentious passage is this:
Sinews is the flesh: the tendons - the stuff that holds the body (muscles/bones/etc) together.
Will is the mind: the ability to make decisions and act upon them.
I'm sure this stuff doesn't need explaining... it's obvious - and yet the context is important: the Witch-king (like everyone else) had the ability to move his sinews as a result of his will. He could walk, run, jump, swing a sword, etc.
So what is the text saying the Barrow-blade did? It's saying he was immobilised. Once Merry stabbed the Witch-king, his mobility was broken. The text is not saying the Witch-king was made 'mortal' or no longer 'invulnerable'.
And this perfectly aligns with what is described in the moment:
The Witch-king's sinews are not responding to the desires of his will. The Witch-king is not choosing to drive his mace into the ground. He is not choosing to stumble. He is not choosing to leave himself in an incredibly vulnerable position, unable to defend himself. His sinews are not acting with intent, but by an impulsive reflex: an automatic response to a stimulus.
To add, Tolkien, when critiquing a proposed film-script, noted a hypothetical where a Nazgul is stabbed at Weathertop:
We do know that the Nazgul are hard to kill - but something being hard to kill does not mean it is impossible to kill. I do not believe we have sufficient evidence to assume the Witch-king would be unharmed if a regular blade stabbed him (in fact, Eowyn's does just that... and it kills - and nothing suggests Merry's stab made this possible, besides making the Witch-king stumble).
The below quotes are sometimes cited:
*Also note that 'cannot' need not mean 'literally impossible'... Gandalf tells the Three Hunters this:
And like I said earlier... nothing suggests a regular blade couldn't harm/kill a Nazgul. Nothing says that Merry's stab allowed Eowyn's to not deflect off the skin, or whatever (in fact, we know other blades have 'pierced' the Witch-king, historically: 'all blades perish that pierce that dreadful King', as Aragorn says. A good defence mechanism, if your opponent gets a hit in! But it doesn't support any invincibility... Merry and Eowyn's swords still break, despite landing damage. I daresay the Witch-king wore armour for all sorts of weapons on the field.
So, we've established what the Barrow-blade did: it made the Witch-king physically stumble.
Now, I know what you're thinking: 'where is the breaking of the spell? The quote specifically says it broke a spell! What spell was broken if the Witch-king simply stumbled?'
To quote the dictionary (Merriam-webster):
Not all spells are literal incantations of magic. Some spells are more mundane: and it's not unusual to use such language... I could easily say 'I was under the spell (influence) of the movie'. No magic. You get the idea.
So... to summarise, when Tolkien writes: 'breaking the spell that knit his unseen sinews to his will'... we can easily replace 'breaking the spell' with 'breaking the influence'. To simplify the entire passage: the stab broke the influence between mind and body. So again, the Barrow-blade made the Witch-king stumble. Tolkien uses more flowery language (as he does), but the premise is the exact same.
'Okay, but the Barrow-blades are explicitly noted as 'wound about with spells'! If the Witch-king didn't have some sort of magical protection that blade voided, what magic was on the blades?'
You're right! The blades ARE enchanted:
What's more is this:
I don't think it's much of a leap to assume that the Barrow-blades could deal a burning sensation (assuming the fiery glowing is not simply for intimidation), which would explain why:
submitted by Willpower2000 to tolkienfans [link] [comments]
I think the fandom, broadly, is at a point where it continues to spread a series of major assumptions and arguably misreadings of the text - under the guise of 'canon'.
The most contentious passage is this:
So passed the sword of the Barrow-downs, work of Westernesse. But glad would he have been to know its fate who wrought it slowly long ago in the North-kingdom when the Du´nedain were young, and chief among their foes was the dread realm of Angmar and its sorcerer king. No other blade, not though mightier hands had wielded it, would have dealt that foe a wound so bitter, cleaving the undead flesh, breaking the spell that knit his unseen sinews to his will.Most people will cite this passage as evidence that the Barrow-blade broke a spell of immortality/invulnerability, and leave it there: case closed... but I'd argue this is a misreading. Let's dissect this passage:
Sinews is the flesh: the tendons - the stuff that holds the body (muscles/bones/etc) together.
Will is the mind: the ability to make decisions and act upon them.
I'm sure this stuff doesn't need explaining... it's obvious - and yet the context is important: the Witch-king (like everyone else) had the ability to move his sinews as a result of his will. He could walk, run, jump, swing a sword, etc.
So what is the text saying the Barrow-blade did? It's saying he was immobilised. Once Merry stabbed the Witch-king, his mobility was broken. The text is not saying the Witch-king was made 'mortal' or no longer 'invulnerable'.
And this perfectly aligns with what is described in the moment:
But suddenly he too stumbled forward with a cry of bitter pain, and his stroke went wide, driving into the ground. Merry’s sword had stabbed him from behind, shearing through the black mantle, and passing up beneath the hauberk had pierced the sinew behind his mighty knee. ‘Eowyn! ´ ´Eowyn!’ cried Merry. Then tottering, struggling up, with her last strength she drove her sword between crown and mantle, as the great shoulders bowed before her.Upon being stabbed, the Witch-king's swing on Eowyn went wide... and he stumbles forward, bowing to Eowyn, ultimately leaving himself exposed to Eowyn's killing blow.
The Witch-king's sinews are not responding to the desires of his will. The Witch-king is not choosing to drive his mace into the ground. He is not choosing to stumble. He is not choosing to leave himself in an incredibly vulnerable position, unable to defend himself. His sinews are not acting with intent, but by an impulsive reflex: an automatic response to a stimulus.
To add, Tolkien, when critiquing a proposed film-script, noted a hypothetical where a Nazgul is stabbed at Weathertop:
Sam does not 'sink his blade into the Ringwraith's thigh', nor does his thrust save Frodo's life. (If he had, the result would have been much the same as in III 117-20: the Wraith would have fallen down and the sword would have been destroyed.)Fallen down. That's it. Nothing about undoing an invincibility spell. Because, let's be clear... at no point does Tolkien mention a magical spell protecting the Nazgul from all harm bar Barrow-blades. At no point does a character in-universe say 'oh my god, those are Barrow-blades! The only blade capable of harming a Nazgul! Keep them close!' Zilch.
We do know that the Nazgul are hard to kill - but something being hard to kill does not mean it is impossible to kill. I do not believe we have sufficient evidence to assume the Witch-king would be unharmed if a regular blade stabbed him (in fact, Eowyn's does just that... and it kills - and nothing suggests Merry's stab made this possible, besides making the Witch-king stumble).
The below quotes are sometimes cited:
‘We can’t start until we have found out about the Riders.’ ‘I thought they were all destroyed in the flood,’ said Merry. ‘You cannot destroy Ringwraiths like that,’ said Gandalf. ‘The power of their master is in them, and they stand or fall by him. ...In both cases, Gandalf stresses that they cannot* be destroyed 'like that', and that they are powerful - but I'd be careful to take this to mean that they are invincible. Hard to kill, absolutely - but anything else would be a big assumption.
‘The Winged Messenger!’ cried Legolas. ‘I shot at him with the bow of Galadriel above Sarn Gebir, and I felled him from the sky. He filled us all with fear. What new terror is this?’ ‘One that you cannot slay with arrows,’ said Gandalf. ‘You only slew his steed. It was a good deed; but the Rider was soon horsed again. For he was a Nazguˆl, one of the Nine, who ride now upon winged steeds. Soon their terror will overshadow the last armies of our friends, cutting off the sun.
*Also note that 'cannot' need not mean 'literally impossible'... Gandalf tells the Three Hunters this:
Indeed my friends, none of you have any weapon that could hurt me.This is after Gandalf disarms them. I'd argue that Gandalf isn't saying Anduril or an arrow would bounce off of Gandalf's skin, but rather that Gandalf can deal with the threat (as we see him do). And even prior to his resurrection, Gandalf surviving the fall from the Bridge didn't mean he was invincible... Gandalf still died fighting Durin's Bane. I'd wager this is also the case regarding the Nazgul: the Fords washing them away or Legolas shooting at their mounts likely isn't enough to stop them - but it doesn't mean a sword through the face won't kill. We know the Witch-king feared the likes of Glorfindel, for instance. And did Glorfindel carry a Barrow-blade? I doubt it.
And like I said earlier... nothing suggests a regular blade couldn't harm/kill a Nazgul. Nothing says that Merry's stab allowed Eowyn's to not deflect off the skin, or whatever (in fact, we know other blades have 'pierced' the Witch-king, historically: 'all blades perish that pierce that dreadful King', as Aragorn says. A good defence mechanism, if your opponent gets a hit in! But it doesn't support any invincibility... Merry and Eowyn's swords still break, despite landing damage. I daresay the Witch-king wore armour for all sorts of weapons on the field.
So, we've established what the Barrow-blade did: it made the Witch-king physically stumble.
Now, I know what you're thinking: 'where is the breaking of the spell? The quote specifically says it broke a spell! What spell was broken if the Witch-king simply stumbled?'
To quote the dictionary (Merriam-webster):
1a: a spoken word or form of words held to have magic power b: a state of enchantment 2: a strong compelling influence or attractionThe definitions are essentially the same, minus one distinction: not all 'spells' are magical. In fact, we have evidence of Tolkien himself using this non-magical definition elsewhere in LOTR. Unlike the films Theoden is not magically possessed by Saruman... Grima, under Saruman's orders, is manipulating Theoden in a bid for coercive control. There is nothing to suggest any magic is involved, and yet:
The´oden. He is called The´oden Ednew in the lore of Rohan, for he fell into a decline under the spells of Saruman, but was healed by GandalfGiven we have zero evidence of magic being involved (just Grima's manipulation - Saruman's role is more indirect), it would be fair to attribute this usage of 'spells' to definition 2: a strong compelling influence or attraction. Grima is Saruman's spell: Grima is the compelling influence - as are Grima's words of manipulation.
Not all spells are literal incantations of magic. Some spells are more mundane: and it's not unusual to use such language... I could easily say 'I was under the spell (influence) of the movie'. No magic. You get the idea.
So... to summarise, when Tolkien writes: 'breaking the spell that knit his unseen sinews to his will'... we can easily replace 'breaking the spell' with 'breaking the influence'. To simplify the entire passage: the stab broke the influence between mind and body. So again, the Barrow-blade made the Witch-king stumble. Tolkien uses more flowery language (as he does), but the premise is the exact same.
'Okay, but the Barrow-blades are explicitly noted as 'wound about with spells'! If the Witch-king didn't have some sort of magical protection that blade voided, what magic was on the blades?'
You're right! The blades ARE enchanted:
Doubtless the Orcs despoiled them, but feared to keep the knives, knowing them for what they are: work of Westernesse, wound about with spells for the bane of Mordor.I think I have a pretty good idea about what these spells were... Tolkien is very consistent regarding these blades... FIRE! Hear me out...
For each of the hobbits he chose a dagger, long, leaf-shaped, and keen, of marvellous workmanship, damasked with serpent-forms in red and gold. They gleamed as he drew them from their black sheaths, wrought of some strange metal, light and strong, and set with many fiery stones. Whether by some virtue in these sheaths or because of the spell that lay on the mound, the blades seemed untouched by time, unrusted, sharp, glittering in the sun. ... Desperate, [Frodo] drew his own sword, and it seemed to him that it flickered red, as if it was a firebrand. ... [Pippin] drew his sword and looked at it, and the intertwining shapes of red and gold; and the flowing characters of Númenor glinted like fire upon the blade. 'This was made for just such an hour,' he thought. ... Then [Merry] looked for his sword that he had let fall; for even as he struck his blow his arm was numbed, and now he could only use his left hand. And behold! there lay his weapon, but the blade was smoking like a dry branch that has been thrust in a fire; and as he watched it, it writhed and withered and was consumed. ... 'Here are some treasures that you let fall,' said Aragorn. 'You will be glad to have them back.' He loosened his belt from under his cloak and took from it the two sheathed knives. 'Well!' said Merry. 'I never expected to see those again! I marked a few orcs with mine; but Uglúk took them from us. How he glared! At first I thought he was going to stab me, but he threw the things away as if they burned him.'It's clear Tolkien wants us to associate fire with these blades... and the final passage is particularly striking! Orcs toss them away away as if they burned them.
What's more is this:
Sauron can put fire to his evil uses, as he can all things, but these Riders do not love it, and fear those who wield it. Fire is our friend in the wilderness.The Nazgul fear fire, as I'm sure many here commonly know. Now, the why of this is another topic (my belief is that the Nazgul share many vampire-like qualities/similarities... and fire is an effective weapon against vampires... maybe I'll make another post about that down the line)... but regardless of the 'why'... they explicitly dislike fire for one reason or another. It's effective against them.
I don't think it's much of a leap to assume that the Barrow-blades could deal a burning sensation (assuming the fiery glowing is not simply for intimidation), which would explain why:
No other blade, not though mightier hands had wielded it, would have dealt that foe a wound so bitterSufficient pain to send the Witch-king stumbling forward with 'a cry of bitter pain'.
2024.05.28 08:00 Aaron_Breiterman The Siege of Fort Ond
The following is a transcription of an audio cassette I discovered in my father's safe, shortly after he died. The tape has been transcribed for you here in its entirety, for my own sake.
Dad - Can you say that again?
Grandpa - Which part?
Dad - The date Dad, the recorder wasn't close enough. I wanna make sure we get everything.
Grandpa - Why is it so important that you get every last detail anyway?
Dad - Because that's what the doctor said, Dad. The more detail we get, the better he can help you.
Grandpa - Oh! is that right? He's gonna help me huh? How's he gonna do that exactly? Stuff some more magic pills down my pocket? Maybe sign me up for group therapy? Those are ALWAYS loads of fun!
Dad - No, I think he just wants to get a better understanding of -
Grandpa - He can't help me. Nobody can. Better psychiatrists have tried and failed. You wouldn't believe me anyway. There's no point.
Dad - Well, If nothing else it would help us and the doc to make better decisions regarding you. Look, I promise that I will listen to everything you have to say. I promise I’ll believe you ok?
Grandpa - Don't say that! You can't promise me something like that. It's a bullshit statement and you know it.
Dad - Alright fine. Fair enough. I promise that I will TRY to believe ok? I’ll … try. Look, forget about the doctor alright? I want to know what happened that night, ME. I want to know what you were doing in Norway. Why you can never get a damn good night's sleep, just tell me, please.
Grandpa - (Deep breath) …fine
February 20, 1943. That's when it all went down. The Axis Powers had been almost completely driven outta Africa, and the Soviets had effectively turned the tide of war in Eastern Europe. We Had the Nazis on the run, for the time being at least. They were vulnerable, sure, but they still had every capability of rebounding and kicking our asses. As such, the US was particularly interested in taking out any and all Axis weapons development programs.
Dad - Weapons development programs? What, like their tanks or the atomic bomb or -
Grandpa - Exactly. The Allies specifically targeted their hard water factories to cripple their production of the atomic bomb. But there were other targets. So-called “Wonder Weapon” projects scattered all over German-occupied territories. Manufacturing depots, chemical weapons labs, bioweapons research centers, etc. THAT'S what I was doing in Norway.
Dad - Where in Norway did they send you?
Grandpa - … Northern Norway. Far off the mainland lay an island with a Nazi outpost on it. Very little was known about the place at the time regarding its exact purpose and mission. According to our spies inland and the Norwegian rebels, the locals referred to it simply as “Fort Ond”. They said it was … a bad place. That the prisoners who were taken there were never seen again. That the waters bordering its shore were barren of all aquatic life and colder than even the most bone-chilling frostbite. Command didn’t give a shit about any of that though. Their only concern was 2 things. “Why is this installation so far from the German homeland? And “Why is it so far from mainland Norway? The conclusion they came to was that the Nazis had to be developing some sort of weapon there that they didn't wanna risk infecting a lot of people with.
Dad - So, they thought it was a chemical weapons plant?
Grandpa - No, they thought it was a bioweapons lab. Smallpox, anthrax you know that kinda stuff. We THOUGHT that's what they were doing there, but we didn't know for sure. That's where my unit came in, and where Operation Maelstrom was greenlit.
Dad - Maelstrom?
Grandpa - I didn't pick the damn name. Anyways, they wanted to keep the operation as covert as possible. Minimal manpower. One squad of British SAS, one squad of Canadian commandos, and last but not least, one squad of Army Rangers. Including yours truly.
Dad - Was the purpose of the mission just to gather intel or-
Grandpa - Our first priority was the eradication of the fort's inhabitants and the seizure of any relevant intel. However, we were also prepared for it to turn into a sabotage mission at a moment's notice. Leadership felt pretty confident about the bioweapons theory and didn't wanna take any chances with letting the stuff potentially get away, hence the limited manpower. The last thing we wanted was for the krauts to get spooked by a large invasion force and flee with any samples….
Dad - Dad? Are you ok?
Grandpa - Yeah, just gimme a second.
(The metallic opening sound of a lighter can be heard, along with the sizzling burning of paper)
Dad - Really? You gotta do that now huh?
Grandpa - What? Oh! I'm sorry, is the smoke gonna bother your little nose that much? Would you prefer I do it some other time?
Dad - I’d prefer you didn't fucking do it all! Though, In a way, it's oddly inspiring. A senior citizen, part of “The Greatest Generation” still puffing that shit all these years like it's of no consequence to his health.
Grandpa - Fuck the consequences. Can I continue now? Or is this gonna turn into an intervention? Cause if so, tell me now so I can save you the time and just leave the room and enjoy the rest of my smoke.
Dad - … please continue.
Grandpa - We were all flown to Iceland for our briefing. From the moment I arrived, I had my doubts about the operation. The sheer lack of intel we had to go off of regarding: fort size, manpower, and exact purpose just seemed odd to me. I remember thinking to myself “I hope this is enough men.''. When I did so I caught my friend Weathers looking around too. I could tell he was thinking the same thing. From there, we boarded a British destroyer that took us less than 10 miles from the island. We had to travel the remaining distance on our own in 2 PT boats. I remember just how cold it was that night. How we all subconsciously stood closer to each other than normal in a vain attempt to try to stay warm. Like a bunch of penguins, the lot of us. It was a half-hour ride to the island so we stayed like that for a while. Just hunkered up and tried to keep warm as much as we could while we waited for any sign of something. When we were about a mile from the island, we got that sign.
We saw it long before we ever got near the stuff. When we did, we all went silent and watched as we slowed down our boats to make a cautious approach. A thick fog had blanketed the sea around the coastline in all directions for about a half mile. It had a faint… red hue to it. Not a deep red, just faintly visible. It towered above us nearly 15 feet in the air like a tidal wave and seemingly stared us down. We slowly crept our boats up to it inch by inch until our bows were nearly kissing it. From there, a few of the Canadians on the adjacent boat got out some equipment and began probing the fog for any sign of toxins. We all sat there and waited for them to finish their work. As they did so I took notice of the absolute unnaturalness of it all. It made no movement towards, nor away from us. Yet it billowed and Contracted and breathed soothingly in place like you would expect a body of smoke to do. I remember distinctly thinking of it not as a wall, but more like a veil or a curtain. Hiding the island from us. A few minutes later the Canadians signaled over to our boat and gave Our commander, Captain Hawks the thumbs up. The fog wasn't toxic as far as they could tell. Given our mission though, we couldn't take any chances of it being a gas of some kind. Better safe than sorry. So we donned our gas masks and made sure our suits were nice and sealed up. I in particular had taken the liberty of duct taping around my gloves and boots to ensure it was airtight. Then, we started our boats back up and slowly sailed on into the unknown.
At first, I couldn't see anything. The fog was so thick it limited my visibility to just a few feet in front of me. And even less so in front of the boat. We couldn't have our lights on for fear of being spotted. When we were out in the open water this was fine of course. The moon and stars lit up the surrounding waters nicely for us. But now, there was little to no light penetrating the fog. we were engulfed in near-total darkness. So we just slowly inched our way forward as safely as we could. I just sat there and watched the red vapor hit and dance off my goggles while I searched for any sign of land. For a while, nobody said a word. We all just waited for what seemed like an eternity. The longer we pushed ahead, the tighter the grip on my rifle became as my nerves started up. Finally, One of the Brits broke the silence. I watched him tap the man in front of him and heard him whisper “Are we sure this is the right -'' his sentence was quickly interrupted. We had landed.
The entire boat shook wildly as a few of us lost our footing and had to grab the side walls to stay upright. As we did so, I looked around me and noticed the fog gradually growing thinner as we made our approach. Steadily, its opacity diminished. I could begin to see shapes through the veil. The crunching noises ceased a few seconds later and with them, so too did the fog from my line of sight. It was still there, but it was thinner and lower to the ground than it was over the open sea. It only came up to our knees from that point on. Which meant I could finally see our objective. The island. It was … a mess of scattered jagged rocks and hills. Caverns and towering cliffs that seemed to scatter in all directions. Like a porcupine made of stone. At its center, one giant hill stood out. I followed it from the base to the peak with my eyes and at its peak, there was a door. That was it. Not a trace of human life. No pathways, no trenches, no buildings of any kind. Nothing that would suggest any sort of operation was being undertaken on the island. There were a few guard towers of course. We knew at least that much from our aerial photos, but we had chosen our landing site specifically to be in a blind spot they wouldn't see us from. That was it though. Apart from the door that stuck out amidst the terrain looking utterly unnatural in the distance, there was not a sign of life. No buzzing of insects, no splashing of fish, no chirping of birds, even the wind itself seemed to bow before the island's authority and ceased completely. No life whatsoever. I thought back to when we first encountered the fog and just how right I was in my thought process. We truly had crossed a veil of some kind.
Captain Hawks, gave the hand signals. We all filed out and patrolled inland as fast as we could to a nearby cave. The Norwegians were waiting for us there.
Dad - The Norwegians? Were they the ones who gave you the fort's intel to begin with?
Grandpa - The very same. Adding them to our roster brought our total strike force to 35 men….
Dad - Dad?
Grandpa - …
Dad - it's ok Dad, take your time
Grandpa - (takes a deep breath) We headed into the cave and linked up with the Norwegians. Who sat steadfast in defensive positions. One of them stood up as soon as we breached the darkness of the cavern and swung his gun over in our direction, shouting at us to presumably lower our weapons, before quickly lowering his own back down and making a half-hearted apology attempt. Hawks was livid. He stormed over to the man and with one forceful strike of his fist he sent the poor Norwegian hurtling towards the ground. “You some kind of fucking moron kid? I was this close. THIS CLOSE to blowing your goddamn head off!” the commander of the Norwegians rushed over to stand between the two of them. “Please forgive us, sir! We've been on edge since we arrived a few hours ago! it was an honest mistake!” He helped his fallen soldier back to his feet and ordered him to the back of the cavern to tend to his face. Afterward, he and Hawks stared at each other for a few seconds in silence while we all just waited for one of them to speak. The leader of the Norwegians spoke first. “Something is wrong. Very wrong. Our intel is severely off.” He said. “None of the guard towers have occupants and we haven't seen a Nazi soldier patrolling the island for 3 days now. We've been spying on the island for weeks now as best we could. The entire time we did so soldiers were patrolling the shores, manning the towers, and watching the coastlines. But 3 days ago this… fog emerged. Obscured our vision and made it nearly impossible to see anything on the island. Since we arrived we've done multiple sweeps and scouting runs along the island's surface before your arrival. No one is here, American. Not a soul. It's like they just… vanished. At least, from the island's surface.” I looked back over at Mckinley who did the same. We exchanged confused looks at one another before looking back at the 2 leaders who were now talking too quietly to one another to hear. Finally, Hawks turned to face us and with a deep sigh said “We THINK the Nazis have locked themselves away within the fort's cave systems and interior. According to our good buddies here, the island's surface is safe. Let's hope they're right. Conduct final checks on all your equipment then form up by the cave entrance. We're going in.
We got into formation and made our way up the rough terrain to the door I spotted when we first landed. As far as we could tell, it was the only entrance to the interior of the fort. The ascent was nerve-racking. The cold, wet staircase that led up to the fort's entrance proved difficult to scale with all of my equipment. Which was made all the more dangerous of course, by the fog. With it clinging to around knee level on every surface of the island it made it damn near impossible to see where we were stepping. So we just slowly tip-toed our way up to the door as best we could. All the while nobody uttered a word. It was so quiet I could hear my own heartbeat throbbing in my ears. Eventually, we reached the top of the stairs. The door itself was … monolithic.
Dad - Monolithic? What like ancient?
Grandpa - Oh yeah, stood nearly 9 feet tall and looked like it was made out of bronze or copper, I don't know. Some kind of faintly orange metal. It was covered in strange engravings that could only be described as hieroglyphic. They weren't of course, but that's the only comparison I've been able to find since that day. Believe me, I've tried. Looked through every damn book I could think of. Nothing comes close to the symbols and markings I saw engraved on that door. It was like a foreign language of some kind. It didn't look like it was written, or chipped away from the door by an expert's hand so much as it looked like it was slashed or cut. Like something had hacked away at it with claws or teeth to create the strange writing. It didn't look like a human's hand had done it. Looking up at the door, I felt like an explorer. Like I had found something lost to mankind for millennia and was rediscovering it. Only, I Didn't wanna be the person to discover this. At that moment I wasn't sure I wanted to be aware of this place's existence let alone have to open the damn thing and walk past it into god knows what. We readied our explosives, expecting to have to breach our way in. To our surprise, however, the wooden beam that was attached to the door lifted. The monolith opened slightly. And with it came the stench of utter, all-devouring Rot. like puss and spoiled milk, Bile, and sulfur all fused into one unholy concoction that assaulted my nostrils and instantly forced tears down my cheek. At first, I panicked. Believing my mask wasn't secured tight enough and I was inhaling a toxin of some kind, but when I looked up I saw all of my team members doing the same. Our masks were all working fine. We couldn't have all had a potential leak right? The smell was truly just that powerful.
The door had only given way and opened a tiny bit. Our frontman quickly had to ask for help as the door was too heavy to heave by himself. Four men, me included, pushed with all our might and then quickly ran out of the way as soon as the door was completely opened so the guys behind us could aim down the opening.
When they did, they didn't see much. Their flashlights shined straight into a wall that angled down and away from us. What lay before us was another staircase. Carved out of the very stone of the mountain itself. The fog clung lower to the ground past the doorway. Only coming up to about ankle height. but it still obscured the steps all the same as the walk up to that point. We stared down the doorway waiting for the order to advance. But Hawks said nothing. He just stood there with his gun trained ahead and his other hand held up, silently telling us to wait. I suspected he was listening. Waiting to hear any commotion from us opening the heavy door. For any sign of the enemy. There was none, however. Not a sound could be heard from down the staircase. Just like everywhere else so far. Goff leaned over to me and tapped me on the shoulder “Somethings not fucking right man” he whispered. I didn't respond. I didn't feel I needed to. Everyone was already thinking the same thing anyway. No point in vocalizing it. Especially not when I could visibly see what Hawks was thinking. I watched a chill run up his spine that shook his held-up hand and rifle slightly in place. I'd never seen him like that before. He steadied himself and with a low reassuring grunt, which was probably more for his benefit than ours, he gave the order. “File in.” so down we went.
We descended for about twenty feet. The staircase itself was dark but we could see light at the bottom. The sight of the light was a relief. Instantly I felt a tiny shred of my anxiety whither away as my instincts took hold and I readied myself for any Germans that might be waiting for us at the bottom. There were no Germans, however. None left anyway. None … alive. When I reached the bottom of the staircase, the scene laid out before me was like something you'd see at a crime scene. It was a big square room illuminated by a gas lantern in its center. The door directly ahead of us led to an opening in the floor with a ladder hooked to it, with 2 doorways on our left and right. Like a plus sign or a cross. Various crates and workstation desks laid toppled over and all faced the direction of the newly discovered staircase. Like sentry posts, they all faced towards the same point. Scattered throughout the room were the nazis. Half sunken into the fog and slightly obscured by it, draped over crates, leaning up against the walls, crumpled up like a soda can in the corner. There were at least a dozen of them. Their blood pooled beneath our feet but I could hardly notice it through the tinted fog. I took a step forward and That's when I heard the familiar jingling of empty bullet casings beneath my feet. Subsequently, bullet holes could be seen in nearly every square inch of the wall in front of us. “Jesus Christ!” Weathers shouted as he entered the room behind me, prompting Hawks to hold up his hand again signaling for him to shut up. “Whoever the fuck did this might still be here. Stay frosty” he muttered sternly to us. out “Fan out, check the rooms on our flanks'' He commanded via hand signals.
Half our men went to the room on the right while the remaining went left. I along with 3 others stood guard in the lit room and kept our guns trained on the Ladder ahead of us. As I knelt behind a crate to take a better defensive position, I noticed one of the Nazis was lying face down in a puddle of his own blood close to my right. I kept my rifle trained ahead as I slowly reached over and heaved on his shoulder forcing him to roll over onto his back. He had a look of utter terror frozen onto his face, with eyes wide open and mouth agape. He bore cuts, and large slash marks up his chest and torso which caused his entrails to expose themselves slightly. I looked around the room at the other men to verify and sure enough, the ones who weren't submerged in fog shared similar wounds of varying size and volume. “ what the fuck happened here?” I thought to myself. This thought was quickly overtaken by a doubly terrifying realization. I looked at the bullet holes directly ahead of me and thought “Whatever the hell happened here, I'm standing in the same place they were.”
After a few tense moments of sitting with that realization, the squad checking the right room emerged holding a few books and folders. They bore similar engravings to the ones seen on the door upon our arrival and were bound in leather so ancient, that it looked like the faintest breeze would disintegrate them if they weren't careful. They showed it to Hawks who took one of the books and began sifting through its pages. At first, he scanned the pages carefully, and thoroughly, but he quickly thereafter began to shuffle through them frantically and impatiently before reaching back and shoving it into his pack. “
Right about that time the squad from the left room emerged. A British soldier approached and said “Just more dead krauts sir. There's um… there's something. We found cages, big enough to fit a human in. There were bodies in them but… they weren't Ger-” “Civilians” The Norwegian team leader interrupted. “These fucking animals.” Hawks looked like he was getting ready to say something but he didn't get the chance. All conversations and thoughts were stopped when the sound of screaming could be heard down the ladder.
With one uniform motion, all remaining men turned their guns to face the same direction as I already was. We waited for what felt like an eternity. For a head to come bobbing up the opening in the floor. For the sound of footsteps. For any sign of the enemy. Nothing came. After about a minute or so Hawks gave the order. We were going down there...
I don't wanna do this anymore…
Dad - Dad, please. You can do it. Just take a second ok?
Grandpa - the smell Patrick…
Dad - What about it?
(My Grandpa can be heard taking a huge huff of his cigarette followed by loud coughing)
Grandpa - I can't get it outta my nose! It's been 60 goddamn years since then and I can't get it outta my nose! God! By the time we had reached the bottom, Goff had already vomited from it. I had to fucking cover him while he did it. Good thing I hadn't eaten anything before the briefing or else I would've too. When we reached the bottom. There was nobody. Just like the rest of the island, not a sign of life.
Dad - Dad, what did you see at the bottom of the ladder?
Grandpa - … A well. It was a large cavern-like room with multiple passageways that branched off in all directions but at its center, was a well. Made out of the same stone as the mountain itself and yet, it somehow looked older. More ancient. More… monolithic. Along its rim… were the same damn etching and carvings as the door. Upon closer examination, we saw that It was the source of the fog that had plagued us since our arrival. We watched it for a while and observed The fog billowed up, out, and over the top of the well in all directions at a constant unnatural rate. I couldn't believe that such a tiny source could have produced as much as we'd seen up to that point. I couldn't believe that The colossal wall that we encountered upon our arrival originated from such a minuscule well deep in a mountain. As we spread out to cover the other passageways, I approached it and leaned over. Patrick… The smell was so fucking strong that I was thrown back onto my hands and knees almost immediately from the stomach contractions. It was the source of the fog … of the smell… everything.
Dad - What was in the well?
Grandpa - Blood. The whole fucking thing was filled with blood. More blood than I'd ever seen in my life. More than the room upstairs, more than any other mission I'd ever been on and it was fresh! It boiled gently and seemed to move on its own as though it were alive and aware of our presence in the room and when I gazed upon it, the attack on my nose and stomach seemed like one of calculation. As though a cobra had spat in my face for daring to get too close. I wasn't allowed even a second to recover from the stench, however. At that exact moment, we heard more screams. Seemingly, from every passageway in the cavern emitted what I can only describe as wails of anguish. Like the flesh was being peeled off somebody's forearm and pouring salt back into the wound at the same time. They pierced all of our ears like razor blades and made me wince so hard I almost forgot about my stomach pain. “How fucking big is this place?!” I thought to myself “What the hell could be happening just down one of these tunnels?”.
“Fuck this” Hawks said. “Start planting charges. We are getting the fuck out of this place as soon as possible.”
It was music to all of our ears. One of the soldiers came over to check on me as the rest began to start laying charges. There was nothing professional about our process. We were just laying them out as fast as we could so we could get the hell out of that wretched place and back to the boats. The screams continued the entire time we worked.
Dad - Were they getting closer?
Grandpa - I don't know. They sounded like they were coming from every passageway all at once but It was hard to tell. We had a man eyeing down every doorway just in case though. It didn't matter. We should've been watching the well! As I struggled to compose myself and get back to my feet I had a front-row seat to what was about to happen. Goff … the poor bastard. He was doing his rounds, laying his charges along the floor. Around the well. I wanted to speak up, to tell him not to get too close. But I was still sucking in air through my teeth and couldn't get the words out. All I could do was hold my hand out to him and grunt. He turned to face me. “You gonna make it?” was the last thing I heard him say. At that very moment. An arm shot out of the well behind him. Locked itself around his neck and pulled him into the well headfirst.
The arm was inhumanly long. More like a tentacle than an arm… but its form was undeniably human still! It wrapped itself around his neck and dug its fingers into the side of his face as it dragged him deeper and deeper down. I watched him thrash around and kick his legs wildly in a vain attempt to get free. Spraying torrents of blood in all directions around him. He was already halfway submerged by the time our men got a hold of his feet. When they did so, another arm shot out of the well and locked itself around Goff's waist now pulling him in faster. I could hear gurgling, and see bubbles of air making their way to the wells surface. The poor bastard was drowning in that putrid liquid! The men pulled with all their might but it didn't slow down his descension in any noticeable way. They heaved and barked orders to the others like rabid dogs. Desperate to save our comrade. But No help came. We were alone with the incomprehensible, and it was winning. The rest of us simply stood by dumbfounded and watched As he was forcibly dragged down the well inch by inch. When it was clear that the men could do nothing more they let go and took a few steps back. Their entire arms were covered in blood up to their elbows. For a moment. Nothing happened. Nobody said a word, moved a muscle, or did anything. We all just faced the well and tried our best to process what had just happened. It didn't last long. The well began to gurgle and bubble as though it were digesting my friend. It began to overflow. Slowly, the thick crimson liquid oozed over the top of the well and onto the cold stone floor beneath making its way towards us. I was the first to make a move. I stood up and began to slowly step backward towards the ladder. That's when the massacre began.
In an instant, all of Hell erupted around us. The same arms that had dragged my friend to a then-unknown fate sprang out of the walls around us as though the island were alive and began to frantically swing around searching for a body to claim. A few of them found their mark and pulled some of the men towards the walls. Wrapping themselves around their necks, locking them in place, and suffocating them. Any sense of composure our toughest men had remaining left their bodies that very moment, as we all made a mad dash sprint for the ladder. The room was only dimly lit by all of our flashlights though. When we broke our formation and began to run, our visibility became significantly more limited. Bodys ran into each other and men began slipping on the blood that had now reached all of our feet. The fog had also begun rising in intensity at a startling rate and was now almost as thick and copious as it was out on the sea. This made it all the more hard to tell what exactly was happening and before I knew it, I was knocked onto my ass by one of the Canadians as he ran straight into me. The blood rose higher and higher. At an inconceivably fast rate, it was halfway up to my knees by the time I regained my footing. When I did I felt a sudden rush of movement brush by my left leg. That's when I saw it. There were shapes moving in the blood! Large, serpentine-like shapes that slithered all around us and began to quickly encircle my team. Like sharks they enveloped us, poised for the kill. They seemed to be probing us for weakness, waiting for the exact right moment to strike and take as many of us down as they could. I wasn't gonna let them get me. My body moved independently of my paralyzed psyche as I sprinted for the ladder, and leaped as high as I could to escape the cavern. However, The ladder was barely wide enough to fit one man on it. It was Made of wood and was not meant to support the weight of more than a couple of men at a time. I remember just how carefully we had to scale it just to get down to the cursed room in the first place! I worried it was going to give way at any second and I would be stranded in that room with those things! With the well! I felt it crack and buckle beneath me as more men than intended all tried to climb it at once. I pushed into the man above me, just as the person below me did. All in a desperate race to escape. Just when I was sure all was lost and I would never make it out, I reached the top and rolled onto my back. As I did so I heard a loud snapping sound, followed by 8 loud splashes hitting the liquid beneath.
I rolled over and shined my flashlight down the hole to look at the scene and try to help some of the men escape what had now become a tomb. It was no use though. It was 20 feet down. I… I couldn't reach any of them. Weathers… McKinley, they stared up at me and shouted for help but what was I supposed to do? The blood had risen to about waist-high by that point and there were more of those fucking things still circling them! They climbed over one another in a desperate attempt to get enough height to reach the exit but it was nowhere near enough. I felt so helpless. I watched the mysterious shapes and figures in the blood creep up to them from behind. Then, As if coordinated, in an instant they pounced on and dragged 3 men under the murky depths all at once. In that split second when they had leapt from the blood to attack the men I caught only the faintest of glimpses of their true form. They were like eels, or … or leeches with spider legs and beaks. Something of that family but it's still not an accurate comparison. They were truly, otherworldly. Inhuman even to creation itself. They were abominations that I'm glad were obscured by the fog as, to have glanced upon them in all their unholyness would've been too much for me at that moment. They yanked the men down into the ocean of blood. As they did so the men thrashed around chaotically and knocked more men over making the already futile pyramid of terrified men all the more pitiful. That's when I noticed the three who were taken by those serpents were being dragged towards the well! They were being dragged to the well so it could devour them just like Goff and take them away to some unspeakable fate! I looked at the edges of the room to search for the first victims of the attack. The ones who had been forcibly dragged towards the walls by the arms. When I found them I felt my stomach churn once again. Their bodies were halfway into the cavern walls! The arms were dragging the men headfirst into the island itself to be consumed! It was as though the island itself was alive! The well was alive And it wanted us dead! The remaining few screamed and pleaded and begged me to help them. All I could do was stare down at the chaos before me and watch.
I was ripped out of my comatose state by a firm hand on my shoulder. It was Hawks.
“Get up! We gotta get the fuck out of here!”
He picked me up by the back of my shirt and dragged me to my feet pushing me up the staircase. I had no activity coursing through my head and yet I ran. My body was truly on autopilot. I couldn't think of anything other than the men we were leaving behind and the look I saw on their faces as they screamed at me for help. The fog had now completely engulfed the inside of the fort and I struggled to maintain my footing as I ran as fast as I could through the first chamber and up the staircase. As we exited the main door I was stopped dead in my tracks. I heard gunshots behind me. By god… They were still alive! They were still fighting to get out and I was abandoning them! Hawks once again yanked the back of my shirt forward as he walked past me.
“There's nothing we can do for them! We have to get to the boats now!” and with that, he ran off ahead of me through the red smoke. Every fiber of my being compelled me to go back but my body refused to obey. I just stood there trembling, white knuckle grasping my rifle as I struggled to make a choice. After a few agonizing seconds of contemplation, I followed after Hawks and made my way to the boats. To freedom.
As we sped away from the island at top speed I was able to slowly creep back to the real world mentally and finally take note of my surroundings. It was me, Hawks, and 3 other British troops. Only 5 men had made it out. None of us said a word. We all just kept to ourselves and stared off into space doing our best to process what had happened to us. I looked back at Fort Ond one last time before it disappeared over the horizon. The fog had grown larger now. Redder. Hungrier.
When we got back to the destroyer we told command everything that we saw and what had happened. They didn't believe a word of it. I can't really say I blame them. We must've sounded insane to them. Showing up missing 30 men, covered head to toe in blood, Rambling about a mysterious well, our friends being dragged away to an unknown fate by strange creatures, Ancient bronze doors, and slaughtered nazi soldiers. They told us that we had most likely been exposed to a nerve agent. That the base was being classified as a possible chemical weapons lab and that when we inhaled the fog, maybe we were subjected to it and its hallucinogenic properties. But we were sealed up head to toe! We stood up for ourselves as best as we could. We all corroborated each other's stories and validated each other's testimonies. We swore up and down till we were blue in the face that the island was not what we thought it was. That our friends had been killed by an unknown force and that we had to destroy the fort. They just stared at us like we were a pack of lunatics. They had made up their mind about what had happened to us on that island. Any attempt made by any of us to set the record straight only served to make us look even more insane to them. I turned to one of the admirals and spoke up one last time. I had to know something before they turned us away.
“Please tell me you guys are gonna level that fucking place”
He stared at me for a few tense seconds before simply saying “We’ll handle it.”
And with that, it was over. All the remaining members of Operation Maelstrom were discharged the next day. Deemed “medically unfit” to continue service. Each of us was briefed individually on the events of that night and I was told not to utter a word to anyone about the events of Operation Maelstrom, or to disclose the fort's location to anybody. The Colonel who was briefing me told me “For the record, I believe there's at least a little truth in what you told us. But regardless, you and the survivors are a liability now. Unstable and erratic. We can't risk putting any of you onto another operation, not after what happened to you. Or at least, not after what you think happened to you. I'm sorry but this is for your own good.” I was put on a plane the next day and sent home.
that's it…
You don't believe a word of what I just said, do you?
Dad - Well… no, not all of it. I mean, I want to but it's a little much to proc-
Grandpa - I know how it sounds! You think I don't hear myself saying this shit to you? I know how it must sound! But it's the truth, son. The well is real! What happened to me… was real.
Dad - I'm sure it must've felt that way, Dad. But you gotta-
Grandpa - YOU DON'T BELIEVE A FUCKING WORD OF IT! Nobody does. You, the doctor, and every other person I've confided in just think I'm some fucking lunatic who imagined all this. I see the way you're looking at me! Like I'm just some poor old man who's losing his mind! I KNOW WHAT I SAW! I KNOW WHAT I WENT THROUGH! You weren't there.
Dad - I know I wasn't! I'm not saying I was Dad but c'mon. Work with me. Isn't it possible it WAS a nerve agent or something? How the hell would you know it wasn't?
Grandpa - BECAUSE WE ALL SAW THE SAME DAMN THING! All of the survivors of Maelstrom gave the exact same testimony upon our return! Everything from our encounter with the fog to our return to the ship was synced up perfectly! What? Do you think we all hallucinated the exact same thing?
Dad - No! I just think that maybe-
You know, They took the books that Captain Hawks acquired. Oh yeah! They made sure we kept nothing from our mission. Stripped us bare right after we returned to ship but He told me what he saw in those pages! More of those Strange symbols! Those hieroglyphics of unknown origin. The mention of a “Tor zur Hölle”. Some kind of fucking portal to hell, or somewhere worse, or god knows where! You wanna know why I can't sleep at night, Patrick? The real reason? It's because I know it's still there! “Well handle it”.Yeah like hell they did! They probably just set up shop themselves and tried finishing what the krauts started. Or maybe not. Maybe they heard our warnings and listened to us. Maybe they shelled the place into oblivion and actually did handle it. But I'll never know son. I'll never get my closure on the events that happened that night. I'll never get to know with 100% certainty that the well has been sealed and that whatever lies in the depths of Fort Ond can't get me anymore.
Dad - Let's just take some deep breaths ok? Why don't we just calm down and -
Grandpa - This was a waste of time. It always is with you people.
Dad - Dad, please!
Grandpa - We're done here! turn that damn thing off and get-
The tape ends there. I couldn't find any additional tapes in my fathers' belongings. So, for the time being, that's where the story ends too. I didn't know my grandfather too well. He died when I was 12 and was a recluse so sadly, this tape is one of the only glimpses I've ever gotten into his life. I don't know what to believe. It’s easy to write him off as crazy or the victim of a gas attack. But The fear I heard on that tape sounded so real. That's gotta mean something right? If nothing else, the torment he endured was real. And Maybe, that's all that matters. Or maybe, just maybe… he’s right. Maybe Fort Ond still stands. Exactly as he described. Hidden somewhere, behind the veil of fog.
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Dad - Can you say that again?
Grandpa - Which part?
Dad - The date Dad, the recorder wasn't close enough. I wanna make sure we get everything.
Grandpa - Why is it so important that you get every last detail anyway?
Dad - Because that's what the doctor said, Dad. The more detail we get, the better he can help you.
Grandpa - Oh! is that right? He's gonna help me huh? How's he gonna do that exactly? Stuff some more magic pills down my pocket? Maybe sign me up for group therapy? Those are ALWAYS loads of fun!
Dad - No, I think he just wants to get a better understanding of -
Grandpa - He can't help me. Nobody can. Better psychiatrists have tried and failed. You wouldn't believe me anyway. There's no point.
Dad - Well, If nothing else it would help us and the doc to make better decisions regarding you. Look, I promise that I will listen to everything you have to say. I promise I’ll believe you ok?
Grandpa - Don't say that! You can't promise me something like that. It's a bullshit statement and you know it.
Dad - Alright fine. Fair enough. I promise that I will TRY to believe ok? I’ll … try. Look, forget about the doctor alright? I want to know what happened that night, ME. I want to know what you were doing in Norway. Why you can never get a damn good night's sleep, just tell me, please.
Grandpa - (Deep breath) …fine
February 20, 1943. That's when it all went down. The Axis Powers had been almost completely driven outta Africa, and the Soviets had effectively turned the tide of war in Eastern Europe. We Had the Nazis on the run, for the time being at least. They were vulnerable, sure, but they still had every capability of rebounding and kicking our asses. As such, the US was particularly interested in taking out any and all Axis weapons development programs.
Dad - Weapons development programs? What, like their tanks or the atomic bomb or -
Grandpa - Exactly. The Allies specifically targeted their hard water factories to cripple their production of the atomic bomb. But there were other targets. So-called “Wonder Weapon” projects scattered all over German-occupied territories. Manufacturing depots, chemical weapons labs, bioweapons research centers, etc. THAT'S what I was doing in Norway.
Dad - Where in Norway did they send you?
Grandpa - … Northern Norway. Far off the mainland lay an island with a Nazi outpost on it. Very little was known about the place at the time regarding its exact purpose and mission. According to our spies inland and the Norwegian rebels, the locals referred to it simply as “Fort Ond”. They said it was … a bad place. That the prisoners who were taken there were never seen again. That the waters bordering its shore were barren of all aquatic life and colder than even the most bone-chilling frostbite. Command didn’t give a shit about any of that though. Their only concern was 2 things. “Why is this installation so far from the German homeland? And “Why is it so far from mainland Norway? The conclusion they came to was that the Nazis had to be developing some sort of weapon there that they didn't wanna risk infecting a lot of people with.
Dad - So, they thought it was a chemical weapons plant?
Grandpa - No, they thought it was a bioweapons lab. Smallpox, anthrax you know that kinda stuff. We THOUGHT that's what they were doing there, but we didn't know for sure. That's where my unit came in, and where Operation Maelstrom was greenlit.
Dad - Maelstrom?
Grandpa - I didn't pick the damn name. Anyways, they wanted to keep the operation as covert as possible. Minimal manpower. One squad of British SAS, one squad of Canadian commandos, and last but not least, one squad of Army Rangers. Including yours truly.
Dad - Was the purpose of the mission just to gather intel or-
Grandpa - Our first priority was the eradication of the fort's inhabitants and the seizure of any relevant intel. However, we were also prepared for it to turn into a sabotage mission at a moment's notice. Leadership felt pretty confident about the bioweapons theory and didn't wanna take any chances with letting the stuff potentially get away, hence the limited manpower. The last thing we wanted was for the krauts to get spooked by a large invasion force and flee with any samples….
Dad - Dad? Are you ok?
Grandpa - Yeah, just gimme a second.
(The metallic opening sound of a lighter can be heard, along with the sizzling burning of paper)
Dad - Really? You gotta do that now huh?
Grandpa - What? Oh! I'm sorry, is the smoke gonna bother your little nose that much? Would you prefer I do it some other time?
Dad - I’d prefer you didn't fucking do it all! Though, In a way, it's oddly inspiring. A senior citizen, part of “The Greatest Generation” still puffing that shit all these years like it's of no consequence to his health.
Grandpa - Fuck the consequences. Can I continue now? Or is this gonna turn into an intervention? Cause if so, tell me now so I can save you the time and just leave the room and enjoy the rest of my smoke.
Dad - … please continue.
Grandpa - We were all flown to Iceland for our briefing. From the moment I arrived, I had my doubts about the operation. The sheer lack of intel we had to go off of regarding: fort size, manpower, and exact purpose just seemed odd to me. I remember thinking to myself “I hope this is enough men.''. When I did so I caught my friend Weathers looking around too. I could tell he was thinking the same thing. From there, we boarded a British destroyer that took us less than 10 miles from the island. We had to travel the remaining distance on our own in 2 PT boats. I remember just how cold it was that night. How we all subconsciously stood closer to each other than normal in a vain attempt to try to stay warm. Like a bunch of penguins, the lot of us. It was a half-hour ride to the island so we stayed like that for a while. Just hunkered up and tried to keep warm as much as we could while we waited for any sign of something. When we were about a mile from the island, we got that sign.
We saw it long before we ever got near the stuff. When we did, we all went silent and watched as we slowed down our boats to make a cautious approach. A thick fog had blanketed the sea around the coastline in all directions for about a half mile. It had a faint… red hue to it. Not a deep red, just faintly visible. It towered above us nearly 15 feet in the air like a tidal wave and seemingly stared us down. We slowly crept our boats up to it inch by inch until our bows were nearly kissing it. From there, a few of the Canadians on the adjacent boat got out some equipment and began probing the fog for any sign of toxins. We all sat there and waited for them to finish their work. As they did so I took notice of the absolute unnaturalness of it all. It made no movement towards, nor away from us. Yet it billowed and Contracted and breathed soothingly in place like you would expect a body of smoke to do. I remember distinctly thinking of it not as a wall, but more like a veil or a curtain. Hiding the island from us. A few minutes later the Canadians signaled over to our boat and gave Our commander, Captain Hawks the thumbs up. The fog wasn't toxic as far as they could tell. Given our mission though, we couldn't take any chances of it being a gas of some kind. Better safe than sorry. So we donned our gas masks and made sure our suits were nice and sealed up. I in particular had taken the liberty of duct taping around my gloves and boots to ensure it was airtight. Then, we started our boats back up and slowly sailed on into the unknown.
At first, I couldn't see anything. The fog was so thick it limited my visibility to just a few feet in front of me. And even less so in front of the boat. We couldn't have our lights on for fear of being spotted. When we were out in the open water this was fine of course. The moon and stars lit up the surrounding waters nicely for us. But now, there was little to no light penetrating the fog. we were engulfed in near-total darkness. So we just slowly inched our way forward as safely as we could. I just sat there and watched the red vapor hit and dance off my goggles while I searched for any sign of land. For a while, nobody said a word. We all just waited for what seemed like an eternity. The longer we pushed ahead, the tighter the grip on my rifle became as my nerves started up. Finally, One of the Brits broke the silence. I watched him tap the man in front of him and heard him whisper “Are we sure this is the right -'' his sentence was quickly interrupted. We had landed.
The entire boat shook wildly as a few of us lost our footing and had to grab the side walls to stay upright. As we did so, I looked around me and noticed the fog gradually growing thinner as we made our approach. Steadily, its opacity diminished. I could begin to see shapes through the veil. The crunching noises ceased a few seconds later and with them, so too did the fog from my line of sight. It was still there, but it was thinner and lower to the ground than it was over the open sea. It only came up to our knees from that point on. Which meant I could finally see our objective. The island. It was … a mess of scattered jagged rocks and hills. Caverns and towering cliffs that seemed to scatter in all directions. Like a porcupine made of stone. At its center, one giant hill stood out. I followed it from the base to the peak with my eyes and at its peak, there was a door. That was it. Not a trace of human life. No pathways, no trenches, no buildings of any kind. Nothing that would suggest any sort of operation was being undertaken on the island. There were a few guard towers of course. We knew at least that much from our aerial photos, but we had chosen our landing site specifically to be in a blind spot they wouldn't see us from. That was it though. Apart from the door that stuck out amidst the terrain looking utterly unnatural in the distance, there was not a sign of life. No buzzing of insects, no splashing of fish, no chirping of birds, even the wind itself seemed to bow before the island's authority and ceased completely. No life whatsoever. I thought back to when we first encountered the fog and just how right I was in my thought process. We truly had crossed a veil of some kind.
Captain Hawks, gave the hand signals. We all filed out and patrolled inland as fast as we could to a nearby cave. The Norwegians were waiting for us there.
Dad - The Norwegians? Were they the ones who gave you the fort's intel to begin with?
Grandpa - The very same. Adding them to our roster brought our total strike force to 35 men….
Dad - Dad?
Grandpa - …
Dad - it's ok Dad, take your time
Grandpa - (takes a deep breath) We headed into the cave and linked up with the Norwegians. Who sat steadfast in defensive positions. One of them stood up as soon as we breached the darkness of the cavern and swung his gun over in our direction, shouting at us to presumably lower our weapons, before quickly lowering his own back down and making a half-hearted apology attempt. Hawks was livid. He stormed over to the man and with one forceful strike of his fist he sent the poor Norwegian hurtling towards the ground. “You some kind of fucking moron kid? I was this close. THIS CLOSE to blowing your goddamn head off!” the commander of the Norwegians rushed over to stand between the two of them. “Please forgive us, sir! We've been on edge since we arrived a few hours ago! it was an honest mistake!” He helped his fallen soldier back to his feet and ordered him to the back of the cavern to tend to his face. Afterward, he and Hawks stared at each other for a few seconds in silence while we all just waited for one of them to speak. The leader of the Norwegians spoke first. “Something is wrong. Very wrong. Our intel is severely off.” He said. “None of the guard towers have occupants and we haven't seen a Nazi soldier patrolling the island for 3 days now. We've been spying on the island for weeks now as best we could. The entire time we did so soldiers were patrolling the shores, manning the towers, and watching the coastlines. But 3 days ago this… fog emerged. Obscured our vision and made it nearly impossible to see anything on the island. Since we arrived we've done multiple sweeps and scouting runs along the island's surface before your arrival. No one is here, American. Not a soul. It's like they just… vanished. At least, from the island's surface.” I looked back over at Mckinley who did the same. We exchanged confused looks at one another before looking back at the 2 leaders who were now talking too quietly to one another to hear. Finally, Hawks turned to face us and with a deep sigh said “We THINK the Nazis have locked themselves away within the fort's cave systems and interior. According to our good buddies here, the island's surface is safe. Let's hope they're right. Conduct final checks on all your equipment then form up by the cave entrance. We're going in.
We got into formation and made our way up the rough terrain to the door I spotted when we first landed. As far as we could tell, it was the only entrance to the interior of the fort. The ascent was nerve-racking. The cold, wet staircase that led up to the fort's entrance proved difficult to scale with all of my equipment. Which was made all the more dangerous of course, by the fog. With it clinging to around knee level on every surface of the island it made it damn near impossible to see where we were stepping. So we just slowly tip-toed our way up to the door as best we could. All the while nobody uttered a word. It was so quiet I could hear my own heartbeat throbbing in my ears. Eventually, we reached the top of the stairs. The door itself was … monolithic.
Dad - Monolithic? What like ancient?
Grandpa - Oh yeah, stood nearly 9 feet tall and looked like it was made out of bronze or copper, I don't know. Some kind of faintly orange metal. It was covered in strange engravings that could only be described as hieroglyphic. They weren't of course, but that's the only comparison I've been able to find since that day. Believe me, I've tried. Looked through every damn book I could think of. Nothing comes close to the symbols and markings I saw engraved on that door. It was like a foreign language of some kind. It didn't look like it was written, or chipped away from the door by an expert's hand so much as it looked like it was slashed or cut. Like something had hacked away at it with claws or teeth to create the strange writing. It didn't look like a human's hand had done it. Looking up at the door, I felt like an explorer. Like I had found something lost to mankind for millennia and was rediscovering it. Only, I Didn't wanna be the person to discover this. At that moment I wasn't sure I wanted to be aware of this place's existence let alone have to open the damn thing and walk past it into god knows what. We readied our explosives, expecting to have to breach our way in. To our surprise, however, the wooden beam that was attached to the door lifted. The monolith opened slightly. And with it came the stench of utter, all-devouring Rot. like puss and spoiled milk, Bile, and sulfur all fused into one unholy concoction that assaulted my nostrils and instantly forced tears down my cheek. At first, I panicked. Believing my mask wasn't secured tight enough and I was inhaling a toxin of some kind, but when I looked up I saw all of my team members doing the same. Our masks were all working fine. We couldn't have all had a potential leak right? The smell was truly just that powerful.
The door had only given way and opened a tiny bit. Our frontman quickly had to ask for help as the door was too heavy to heave by himself. Four men, me included, pushed with all our might and then quickly ran out of the way as soon as the door was completely opened so the guys behind us could aim down the opening.
When they did, they didn't see much. Their flashlights shined straight into a wall that angled down and away from us. What lay before us was another staircase. Carved out of the very stone of the mountain itself. The fog clung lower to the ground past the doorway. Only coming up to about ankle height. but it still obscured the steps all the same as the walk up to that point. We stared down the doorway waiting for the order to advance. But Hawks said nothing. He just stood there with his gun trained ahead and his other hand held up, silently telling us to wait. I suspected he was listening. Waiting to hear any commotion from us opening the heavy door. For any sign of the enemy. There was none, however. Not a sound could be heard from down the staircase. Just like everywhere else so far. Goff leaned over to me and tapped me on the shoulder “Somethings not fucking right man” he whispered. I didn't respond. I didn't feel I needed to. Everyone was already thinking the same thing anyway. No point in vocalizing it. Especially not when I could visibly see what Hawks was thinking. I watched a chill run up his spine that shook his held-up hand and rifle slightly in place. I'd never seen him like that before. He steadied himself and with a low reassuring grunt, which was probably more for his benefit than ours, he gave the order. “File in.” so down we went.
We descended for about twenty feet. The staircase itself was dark but we could see light at the bottom. The sight of the light was a relief. Instantly I felt a tiny shred of my anxiety whither away as my instincts took hold and I readied myself for any Germans that might be waiting for us at the bottom. There were no Germans, however. None left anyway. None … alive. When I reached the bottom of the staircase, the scene laid out before me was like something you'd see at a crime scene. It was a big square room illuminated by a gas lantern in its center. The door directly ahead of us led to an opening in the floor with a ladder hooked to it, with 2 doorways on our left and right. Like a plus sign or a cross. Various crates and workstation desks laid toppled over and all faced the direction of the newly discovered staircase. Like sentry posts, they all faced towards the same point. Scattered throughout the room were the nazis. Half sunken into the fog and slightly obscured by it, draped over crates, leaning up against the walls, crumpled up like a soda can in the corner. There were at least a dozen of them. Their blood pooled beneath our feet but I could hardly notice it through the tinted fog. I took a step forward and That's when I heard the familiar jingling of empty bullet casings beneath my feet. Subsequently, bullet holes could be seen in nearly every square inch of the wall in front of us. “Jesus Christ!” Weathers shouted as he entered the room behind me, prompting Hawks to hold up his hand again signaling for him to shut up. “Whoever the fuck did this might still be here. Stay frosty” he muttered sternly to us. out “Fan out, check the rooms on our flanks'' He commanded via hand signals.
Half our men went to the room on the right while the remaining went left. I along with 3 others stood guard in the lit room and kept our guns trained on the Ladder ahead of us. As I knelt behind a crate to take a better defensive position, I noticed one of the Nazis was lying face down in a puddle of his own blood close to my right. I kept my rifle trained ahead as I slowly reached over and heaved on his shoulder forcing him to roll over onto his back. He had a look of utter terror frozen onto his face, with eyes wide open and mouth agape. He bore cuts, and large slash marks up his chest and torso which caused his entrails to expose themselves slightly. I looked around the room at the other men to verify and sure enough, the ones who weren't submerged in fog shared similar wounds of varying size and volume. “ what the fuck happened here?” I thought to myself. This thought was quickly overtaken by a doubly terrifying realization. I looked at the bullet holes directly ahead of me and thought “Whatever the hell happened here, I'm standing in the same place they were.”
After a few tense moments of sitting with that realization, the squad checking the right room emerged holding a few books and folders. They bore similar engravings to the ones seen on the door upon our arrival and were bound in leather so ancient, that it looked like the faintest breeze would disintegrate them if they weren't careful. They showed it to Hawks who took one of the books and began sifting through its pages. At first, he scanned the pages carefully, and thoroughly, but he quickly thereafter began to shuffle through them frantically and impatiently before reaching back and shoving it into his pack. “
Right about that time the squad from the left room emerged. A British soldier approached and said “Just more dead krauts sir. There's um… there's something. We found cages, big enough to fit a human in. There were bodies in them but… they weren't Ger-” “Civilians” The Norwegian team leader interrupted. “These fucking animals.” Hawks looked like he was getting ready to say something but he didn't get the chance. All conversations and thoughts were stopped when the sound of screaming could be heard down the ladder.
With one uniform motion, all remaining men turned their guns to face the same direction as I already was. We waited for what felt like an eternity. For a head to come bobbing up the opening in the floor. For the sound of footsteps. For any sign of the enemy. Nothing came. After about a minute or so Hawks gave the order. We were going down there...
I don't wanna do this anymore…
Dad - Dad, please. You can do it. Just take a second ok?
Grandpa - the smell Patrick…
Dad - What about it?
(My Grandpa can be heard taking a huge huff of his cigarette followed by loud coughing)
Grandpa - I can't get it outta my nose! It's been 60 goddamn years since then and I can't get it outta my nose! God! By the time we had reached the bottom, Goff had already vomited from it. I had to fucking cover him while he did it. Good thing I hadn't eaten anything before the briefing or else I would've too. When we reached the bottom. There was nobody. Just like the rest of the island, not a sign of life.
Dad - Dad, what did you see at the bottom of the ladder?
Grandpa - … A well. It was a large cavern-like room with multiple passageways that branched off in all directions but at its center, was a well. Made out of the same stone as the mountain itself and yet, it somehow looked older. More ancient. More… monolithic. Along its rim… were the same damn etching and carvings as the door. Upon closer examination, we saw that It was the source of the fog that had plagued us since our arrival. We watched it for a while and observed The fog billowed up, out, and over the top of the well in all directions at a constant unnatural rate. I couldn't believe that such a tiny source could have produced as much as we'd seen up to that point. I couldn't believe that The colossal wall that we encountered upon our arrival originated from such a minuscule well deep in a mountain. As we spread out to cover the other passageways, I approached it and leaned over. Patrick… The smell was so fucking strong that I was thrown back onto my hands and knees almost immediately from the stomach contractions. It was the source of the fog … of the smell… everything.
Dad - What was in the well?
Grandpa - Blood. The whole fucking thing was filled with blood. More blood than I'd ever seen in my life. More than the room upstairs, more than any other mission I'd ever been on and it was fresh! It boiled gently and seemed to move on its own as though it were alive and aware of our presence in the room and when I gazed upon it, the attack on my nose and stomach seemed like one of calculation. As though a cobra had spat in my face for daring to get too close. I wasn't allowed even a second to recover from the stench, however. At that exact moment, we heard more screams. Seemingly, from every passageway in the cavern emitted what I can only describe as wails of anguish. Like the flesh was being peeled off somebody's forearm and pouring salt back into the wound at the same time. They pierced all of our ears like razor blades and made me wince so hard I almost forgot about my stomach pain. “How fucking big is this place?!” I thought to myself “What the hell could be happening just down one of these tunnels?”.
“Fuck this” Hawks said. “Start planting charges. We are getting the fuck out of this place as soon as possible.”
It was music to all of our ears. One of the soldiers came over to check on me as the rest began to start laying charges. There was nothing professional about our process. We were just laying them out as fast as we could so we could get the hell out of that wretched place and back to the boats. The screams continued the entire time we worked.
Dad - Were they getting closer?
Grandpa - I don't know. They sounded like they were coming from every passageway all at once but It was hard to tell. We had a man eyeing down every doorway just in case though. It didn't matter. We should've been watching the well! As I struggled to compose myself and get back to my feet I had a front-row seat to what was about to happen. Goff … the poor bastard. He was doing his rounds, laying his charges along the floor. Around the well. I wanted to speak up, to tell him not to get too close. But I was still sucking in air through my teeth and couldn't get the words out. All I could do was hold my hand out to him and grunt. He turned to face me. “You gonna make it?” was the last thing I heard him say. At that very moment. An arm shot out of the well behind him. Locked itself around his neck and pulled him into the well headfirst.
The arm was inhumanly long. More like a tentacle than an arm… but its form was undeniably human still! It wrapped itself around his neck and dug its fingers into the side of his face as it dragged him deeper and deeper down. I watched him thrash around and kick his legs wildly in a vain attempt to get free. Spraying torrents of blood in all directions around him. He was already halfway submerged by the time our men got a hold of his feet. When they did so, another arm shot out of the well and locked itself around Goff's waist now pulling him in faster. I could hear gurgling, and see bubbles of air making their way to the wells surface. The poor bastard was drowning in that putrid liquid! The men pulled with all their might but it didn't slow down his descension in any noticeable way. They heaved and barked orders to the others like rabid dogs. Desperate to save our comrade. But No help came. We were alone with the incomprehensible, and it was winning. The rest of us simply stood by dumbfounded and watched As he was forcibly dragged down the well inch by inch. When it was clear that the men could do nothing more they let go and took a few steps back. Their entire arms were covered in blood up to their elbows. For a moment. Nothing happened. Nobody said a word, moved a muscle, or did anything. We all just faced the well and tried our best to process what had just happened. It didn't last long. The well began to gurgle and bubble as though it were digesting my friend. It began to overflow. Slowly, the thick crimson liquid oozed over the top of the well and onto the cold stone floor beneath making its way towards us. I was the first to make a move. I stood up and began to slowly step backward towards the ladder. That's when the massacre began.
In an instant, all of Hell erupted around us. The same arms that had dragged my friend to a then-unknown fate sprang out of the walls around us as though the island were alive and began to frantically swing around searching for a body to claim. A few of them found their mark and pulled some of the men towards the walls. Wrapping themselves around their necks, locking them in place, and suffocating them. Any sense of composure our toughest men had remaining left their bodies that very moment, as we all made a mad dash sprint for the ladder. The room was only dimly lit by all of our flashlights though. When we broke our formation and began to run, our visibility became significantly more limited. Bodys ran into each other and men began slipping on the blood that had now reached all of our feet. The fog had also begun rising in intensity at a startling rate and was now almost as thick and copious as it was out on the sea. This made it all the more hard to tell what exactly was happening and before I knew it, I was knocked onto my ass by one of the Canadians as he ran straight into me. The blood rose higher and higher. At an inconceivably fast rate, it was halfway up to my knees by the time I regained my footing. When I did I felt a sudden rush of movement brush by my left leg. That's when I saw it. There were shapes moving in the blood! Large, serpentine-like shapes that slithered all around us and began to quickly encircle my team. Like sharks they enveloped us, poised for the kill. They seemed to be probing us for weakness, waiting for the exact right moment to strike and take as many of us down as they could. I wasn't gonna let them get me. My body moved independently of my paralyzed psyche as I sprinted for the ladder, and leaped as high as I could to escape the cavern. However, The ladder was barely wide enough to fit one man on it. It was Made of wood and was not meant to support the weight of more than a couple of men at a time. I remember just how carefully we had to scale it just to get down to the cursed room in the first place! I worried it was going to give way at any second and I would be stranded in that room with those things! With the well! I felt it crack and buckle beneath me as more men than intended all tried to climb it at once. I pushed into the man above me, just as the person below me did. All in a desperate race to escape. Just when I was sure all was lost and I would never make it out, I reached the top and rolled onto my back. As I did so I heard a loud snapping sound, followed by 8 loud splashes hitting the liquid beneath.
I rolled over and shined my flashlight down the hole to look at the scene and try to help some of the men escape what had now become a tomb. It was no use though. It was 20 feet down. I… I couldn't reach any of them. Weathers… McKinley, they stared up at me and shouted for help but what was I supposed to do? The blood had risen to about waist-high by that point and there were more of those fucking things still circling them! They climbed over one another in a desperate attempt to get enough height to reach the exit but it was nowhere near enough. I felt so helpless. I watched the mysterious shapes and figures in the blood creep up to them from behind. Then, As if coordinated, in an instant they pounced on and dragged 3 men under the murky depths all at once. In that split second when they had leapt from the blood to attack the men I caught only the faintest of glimpses of their true form. They were like eels, or … or leeches with spider legs and beaks. Something of that family but it's still not an accurate comparison. They were truly, otherworldly. Inhuman even to creation itself. They were abominations that I'm glad were obscured by the fog as, to have glanced upon them in all their unholyness would've been too much for me at that moment. They yanked the men down into the ocean of blood. As they did so the men thrashed around chaotically and knocked more men over making the already futile pyramid of terrified men all the more pitiful. That's when I noticed the three who were taken by those serpents were being dragged towards the well! They were being dragged to the well so it could devour them just like Goff and take them away to some unspeakable fate! I looked at the edges of the room to search for the first victims of the attack. The ones who had been forcibly dragged towards the walls by the arms. When I found them I felt my stomach churn once again. Their bodies were halfway into the cavern walls! The arms were dragging the men headfirst into the island itself to be consumed! It was as though the island itself was alive! The well was alive And it wanted us dead! The remaining few screamed and pleaded and begged me to help them. All I could do was stare down at the chaos before me and watch.
I was ripped out of my comatose state by a firm hand on my shoulder. It was Hawks.
“Get up! We gotta get the fuck out of here!”
He picked me up by the back of my shirt and dragged me to my feet pushing me up the staircase. I had no activity coursing through my head and yet I ran. My body was truly on autopilot. I couldn't think of anything other than the men we were leaving behind and the look I saw on their faces as they screamed at me for help. The fog had now completely engulfed the inside of the fort and I struggled to maintain my footing as I ran as fast as I could through the first chamber and up the staircase. As we exited the main door I was stopped dead in my tracks. I heard gunshots behind me. By god… They were still alive! They were still fighting to get out and I was abandoning them! Hawks once again yanked the back of my shirt forward as he walked past me.
“There's nothing we can do for them! We have to get to the boats now!” and with that, he ran off ahead of me through the red smoke. Every fiber of my being compelled me to go back but my body refused to obey. I just stood there trembling, white knuckle grasping my rifle as I struggled to make a choice. After a few agonizing seconds of contemplation, I followed after Hawks and made my way to the boats. To freedom.
As we sped away from the island at top speed I was able to slowly creep back to the real world mentally and finally take note of my surroundings. It was me, Hawks, and 3 other British troops. Only 5 men had made it out. None of us said a word. We all just kept to ourselves and stared off into space doing our best to process what had happened to us. I looked back at Fort Ond one last time before it disappeared over the horizon. The fog had grown larger now. Redder. Hungrier.
When we got back to the destroyer we told command everything that we saw and what had happened. They didn't believe a word of it. I can't really say I blame them. We must've sounded insane to them. Showing up missing 30 men, covered head to toe in blood, Rambling about a mysterious well, our friends being dragged away to an unknown fate by strange creatures, Ancient bronze doors, and slaughtered nazi soldiers. They told us that we had most likely been exposed to a nerve agent. That the base was being classified as a possible chemical weapons lab and that when we inhaled the fog, maybe we were subjected to it and its hallucinogenic properties. But we were sealed up head to toe! We stood up for ourselves as best as we could. We all corroborated each other's stories and validated each other's testimonies. We swore up and down till we were blue in the face that the island was not what we thought it was. That our friends had been killed by an unknown force and that we had to destroy the fort. They just stared at us like we were a pack of lunatics. They had made up their mind about what had happened to us on that island. Any attempt made by any of us to set the record straight only served to make us look even more insane to them. I turned to one of the admirals and spoke up one last time. I had to know something before they turned us away.
“Please tell me you guys are gonna level that fucking place”
He stared at me for a few tense seconds before simply saying “We’ll handle it.”
And with that, it was over. All the remaining members of Operation Maelstrom were discharged the next day. Deemed “medically unfit” to continue service. Each of us was briefed individually on the events of that night and I was told not to utter a word to anyone about the events of Operation Maelstrom, or to disclose the fort's location to anybody. The Colonel who was briefing me told me “For the record, I believe there's at least a little truth in what you told us. But regardless, you and the survivors are a liability now. Unstable and erratic. We can't risk putting any of you onto another operation, not after what happened to you. Or at least, not after what you think happened to you. I'm sorry but this is for your own good.” I was put on a plane the next day and sent home.
that's it…
You don't believe a word of what I just said, do you?
Dad - Well… no, not all of it. I mean, I want to but it's a little much to proc-
Grandpa - I know how it sounds! You think I don't hear myself saying this shit to you? I know how it must sound! But it's the truth, son. The well is real! What happened to me… was real.
Dad - I'm sure it must've felt that way, Dad. But you gotta-
Grandpa - YOU DON'T BELIEVE A FUCKING WORD OF IT! Nobody does. You, the doctor, and every other person I've confided in just think I'm some fucking lunatic who imagined all this. I see the way you're looking at me! Like I'm just some poor old man who's losing his mind! I KNOW WHAT I SAW! I KNOW WHAT I WENT THROUGH! You weren't there.
Dad - I know I wasn't! I'm not saying I was Dad but c'mon. Work with me. Isn't it possible it WAS a nerve agent or something? How the hell would you know it wasn't?
Grandpa - BECAUSE WE ALL SAW THE SAME DAMN THING! All of the survivors of Maelstrom gave the exact same testimony upon our return! Everything from our encounter with the fog to our return to the ship was synced up perfectly! What? Do you think we all hallucinated the exact same thing?
Dad - No! I just think that maybe-
You know, They took the books that Captain Hawks acquired. Oh yeah! They made sure we kept nothing from our mission. Stripped us bare right after we returned to ship but He told me what he saw in those pages! More of those Strange symbols! Those hieroglyphics of unknown origin. The mention of a “Tor zur Hölle”. Some kind of fucking portal to hell, or somewhere worse, or god knows where! You wanna know why I can't sleep at night, Patrick? The real reason? It's because I know it's still there! “Well handle it”.Yeah like hell they did! They probably just set up shop themselves and tried finishing what the krauts started. Or maybe not. Maybe they heard our warnings and listened to us. Maybe they shelled the place into oblivion and actually did handle it. But I'll never know son. I'll never get my closure on the events that happened that night. I'll never get to know with 100% certainty that the well has been sealed and that whatever lies in the depths of Fort Ond can't get me anymore.
Dad - Let's just take some deep breaths ok? Why don't we just calm down and -
Grandpa - This was a waste of time. It always is with you people.
Dad - Dad, please!
Grandpa - We're done here! turn that damn thing off and get-
The tape ends there. I couldn't find any additional tapes in my fathers' belongings. So, for the time being, that's where the story ends too. I didn't know my grandfather too well. He died when I was 12 and was a recluse so sadly, this tape is one of the only glimpses I've ever gotten into his life. I don't know what to believe. It’s easy to write him off as crazy or the victim of a gas attack. But The fear I heard on that tape sounded so real. That's gotta mean something right? If nothing else, the torment he endured was real. And Maybe, that's all that matters. Or maybe, just maybe… he’s right. Maybe Fort Ond still stands. Exactly as he described. Hidden somewhere, behind the veil of fog.
2024.05.27 18:48 siconic Moving to GA, any long ranges?
So we are moving from Florida to GA. I shoot Ares in Ocala and Volusia Gun and Hunt here in FL, I do steel competitions, USPSA, and was about to start doing PRS, but I gotta move first .
We are moving to Flowery Branch, GA, by Bufford. My cursory search looks depressing and bleak. Everything is over 3 hours from where we will be. My current drives are: Volusia is 25 minutes from me, and Ares is an hour. The closest LR I can find near where we are moving is 1.5 hours.
Am I spoiled or?
This is massively depressing! Lol please someone tell me there is some kind of competition or long range an hour from Flowery Branch/Bufford!
EDIT: P.S. Even if it's not close, but has ranges past 800, please let me know! I would just have to go less frequently. I go twice a month to Ares as it stands, but I would happily drive 3 hours for 1300 yards!
submitted by siconic to longrange [link] [comments]
We are moving to Flowery Branch, GA, by Bufford. My cursory search looks depressing and bleak. Everything is over 3 hours from where we will be. My current drives are: Volusia is 25 minutes from me, and Ares is an hour. The closest LR I can find near where we are moving is 1.5 hours.
Am I spoiled or?
This is massively depressing! Lol please someone tell me there is some kind of competition or long range an hour from Flowery Branch/Bufford!
EDIT: P.S. Even if it's not close, but has ranges past 800, please let me know! I would just have to go less frequently. I go twice a month to Ares as it stands, but I would happily drive 3 hours for 1300 yards!
2024.05.25 01:39 Navek15 How is my first chapter?
The Bar Room Brawler
“And so, with the mother Sirinea returned to her natural habitat, we just might see a new adorable bundle of sea-“
A beer mug flew into the wall-mounted tv, the glass mug and the screen shattered at the same time. The bar patrons stood back as two violent punks continued their brawl. No one was quite sure why they were fighting (some guessing the two were either exes or were rival gang members), but those that only came to Hector’s for food, drinks, and having a good time knew to stay the hell away from those two.
“Fuck me.” The elderly bartender groaned. “I liked that TV.”
Sitting at the bar, a young man clad in a dark green t-shirt and black jeans took one last swing of the soda he was drinking. “I got this.”
“Gracias.”
The man walked towards the brawling punks, the sound of his gray sneakers tapping against the wood floor drowned out by the sounds of fighting.
“Okay, guys, we get it; you’re both tough. But can you please take this out-“
“SCREW YOU!!!”
For a brief moment, the punks turned their anger at the young man, one of them socking him in the face so hard the hit echoed across the bar. But that anger quickly faded when the brawlers realized who they just punched.
Because this guy was tall! Easily two head heights taller than either of them. His muscular physique and the number of scars on his arms, and one across his cheek, showed that this man had been in his fair share of fights. He had lightly tanned skin, a chin showing he shaved often, black hair tied in a ponytail…and orange eyes that had the intensity of the sun.
But even though he had just been punched, the man smirked as he wiped the blood from his lips. “I was gonna ask you to just leave politely. But thank you.”
“W-Why?” One of them asked nervously. The taller man then grabbed both of them by the collar and lifted them off the floor easily.
“Because you gave me an excuse to do this the fun way.”
The punks were flabbergasted as the man carried both of them to the bar’s back exit, kicked the door open, and then forcefully threw both of them into the back alley. One of them slammed against the dumpster while the other landed in some wet garbage bags face-first.
“Don’t come back to Hector’s until you learn some basic manners. Adios.”
The bar patrons cheered while Hector, the owner and bartender chuckled. ‘Quick as always, Ramon,’ he thought to himself.
Ramon was about to close the back door and step back inside when the punk that fell the garbage bag got back up. She looked like a teenager and wore a denim jacket, jean shorts, and black boots. Her shoulder-length blonde hair had loose trash in it, and her brown eyes were glaring at him.
“You think you’re better than me?! You think just ‘cause you’re a big man that you’re better than one of the Mad, Mad, Moxies?!” She reached into her jacket pocket to grab something.
Ramon reflectively tensed, thinking she was going to pull out a knife or a gun. But his eyes widened when she pulled out something much worse: a needle containing a particular glowing blue liquid.
“Don’t do it!”
“Well guess what, Mr. Big Guy; you’re gonna be a big stain on the wall!”
“I said don’t do it, kid!”
But Ramon’s warning fell on deaf ears as the Moxie punk injected the needle into her neck, the blue liquid going right into her. Almost immediately, the girl began to groan in pain, her body beginning to convulse.
And then, the transformation started.
Scales began to appear near her eyes and forearms. A pair of branch-like horns burst out from her forehead, blood spilling onto the pavement. Her nails elongated into sharp talons. And when she glared at Ramon, he saw her pupils became slit and her teeth had become razor sharp.
“Shit!” Ramon quickly closed the door, but then he heard a roar, the sound of electricity building, and then was blasted off his feet along with the door, crashing into a table.
“Ramon, what the hell happened?!” Hector asked in concern. Ramon groaned as he stood back up.
“The puta injected herself with Monster Mash!” He then turned to the rest of the patrons. “Everyone get out! Things are about to get nuts!”
Everyone did just that, running out of the bar as the mutated moxie punk walked back into Hector’s. Her draconic eyes locked onto Ramon, looking akin to an animal sizing up its prey.
“D-Do you need any help?” Hector asked. Ramon looked at the wall-mounted clock, seeing that it was about 7:31 pm. The long-haired man looked at the mutated punk, and a wide smirk appeared on his face.
“Nah. I just need about two minutes.”
Ramon then grabbed a nearby chair and threw it at the moxie. She reacted quickly, slashing the chair to pieces with a swipe of her claws. With a roar, she charged at Ramon with both claws ready to shred him. With some quick footwork, he dodged out of the way, weaving as the punk’s claw scratched up the tables and chairs.
As he dodged another attack, Ramon spotted the dart board with some darts inside. Acting quickly, he grabbed a half-finished bowl of chili on a nearby table and threw it in the monster girl’s face. While she was distracted by the burning hot meat sauce on her face, Ramon ran to the dart board. After yanking off the walls, the brawler threw the board at the girl, hitting her in the shoulder.
The monsterfied punk growled as sparks began to build up inside her mouth. With a roar, she unleashed a blast of blue lighting in Ramon’s direction. He quickly ducked to the floor as the lighting blast vaporized a hole into the wall. But when the girl stopped firing the blast, she seemed to groan in pain.
And that was the opening Ramon needed. As fast as he could, Ramon ran towards the girl and leaped into the air, landing and hitting her with a double drop-kick that sent her crashing into a table.
“Wooo! That’s what you get!” Ramon shouted as the monster girl groaned in pain. However, she soon shook off her dizziness, slowly getting back up and growling at Ramon.
“G-Gonna…kill you…” The punk growled out. To her confusion, Ramon seemingly ignored her, looking at the clock once more.
“I don’t think so.” Ramon smirked at her again. “Because your two minutes of power are just about done.”
Just as Ramon said that the clock struck at 7:32 pm. The girl looked down at her claws and saw that they were beginning to shrink, alongside her horns, and even felt her lightning powers begin to diminish. But to Ramon’s horror, the girl pulled another vial of Monster Mash out of her pocket and injected herself with it before he could even say anything.
Her claws and horns began to grow larger. In anger, the girl began to charge up another lighting blast in her mouth…but then she suddenly grabbed her chest. Her breathing became heavier and more erratic. It felt like someone was choking her even though there were no hands on her neck, and her blood felt like liquid fire.
Ramon and Hector looked away in pity as the monsterfied moxie girl convulsed before seizing up, and failing face-first onto the bar floor. And after a few more seconds of agony…her breathing ceased, the life in her eyes gone.
“What a waste,” Ramon said, offering a small prayer for the poor girl’s soul. This wasn’t the first time he had fought some poor fool that decided that injecting themselves with the cocktail of monster DNA and steroids known as Monster Mash was a good idea. Sure, it gave them superpowers…but it only lasted for two minutes and risked leaving the user peramently disfigured afterward. And the pretty much always required medical attention afterwards. Ramon had seen people be carted off to the ICU from just two doses of Monster Mash in a single day. To use two shots of Monster Mash one after the other, he couldn't imagine what was going through that girl's head.
‘She’s almost the same age as Raquel.’ Ramon thought to himself. And as he heard the police sirens in the distance, he looked at the clock again and saw it was 7:34 pm. He was definitely gonna be here for awhile.
Three Hours Later…
After a pretty thorough questioning from the NJPPD (New Jupiter Paranormal Police Department), Ramon was driving his dark blue van home, turning into the neighborhood he called home. It was a neighborhood of multiple one-story houses. His house was at the end of the street, a cozy little house with its porchlights on. Ramon parked the car and unlocked the door.
“Oh, hey Ramon!”
Sitting in the middle of their living room was a young woman in her mid-twenties. All around her were schematics and mathematical equations on sheets of note paper, with her laptop in front of her, and the living room TV playing some kind of comedy movie in the background.
“Sorry, Raquel; work was…a bit hectic,” Ramon said. “You want me to make something?”
They shared a similar skin tone and hair color, with Raquel having longer hair tied in a side braid. Her blue eyes were hidden behind a pair of circular glasses. She was a bit of a hefty woman clad in a set of light purple pajamas and slippers.
“Nah, it’s alright. I made something earlier.”
Ramon looked near the coffee table and sighed when he saw a microwave-ready hungry meal already eaten. But now wasn’t the time to talk about unhealthy eating habits, especially with how tired he was.
“Well, I’m gonna clean up and hit the hay.”
“Alright.” Raquel yawned before she started picking her stuff up. “I’m going to bed. Night, Ramon.”
“Night, Raq.”
A bit later, Ramon placed his laptop on the counter and began to play a video about the finer details of kickboxing. As the video played a lesson about the intricacies of drop-kicking, he took out some frozen ground beef in the sink, followed by a big cooking pot up on the burner. Ramon put on a dark blue apron and rolled his sleeves.
“Alright; let’s get to it.”
It was probably gonna take him a bit of time past midnight, but he was gonna make sure his sister had a good hearty meal instead of some fast food crap for lunch tomorrow.
submitted by Navek15 to writers [link] [comments]
“And so, with the mother Sirinea returned to her natural habitat, we just might see a new adorable bundle of sea-“
A beer mug flew into the wall-mounted tv, the glass mug and the screen shattered at the same time. The bar patrons stood back as two violent punks continued their brawl. No one was quite sure why they were fighting (some guessing the two were either exes or were rival gang members), but those that only came to Hector’s for food, drinks, and having a good time knew to stay the hell away from those two.
“Fuck me.” The elderly bartender groaned. “I liked that TV.”
Sitting at the bar, a young man clad in a dark green t-shirt and black jeans took one last swing of the soda he was drinking. “I got this.”
“Gracias.”
The man walked towards the brawling punks, the sound of his gray sneakers tapping against the wood floor drowned out by the sounds of fighting.
“Okay, guys, we get it; you’re both tough. But can you please take this out-“
“SCREW YOU!!!”
For a brief moment, the punks turned their anger at the young man, one of them socking him in the face so hard the hit echoed across the bar. But that anger quickly faded when the brawlers realized who they just punched.
Because this guy was tall! Easily two head heights taller than either of them. His muscular physique and the number of scars on his arms, and one across his cheek, showed that this man had been in his fair share of fights. He had lightly tanned skin, a chin showing he shaved often, black hair tied in a ponytail…and orange eyes that had the intensity of the sun.
But even though he had just been punched, the man smirked as he wiped the blood from his lips. “I was gonna ask you to just leave politely. But thank you.”
“W-Why?” One of them asked nervously. The taller man then grabbed both of them by the collar and lifted them off the floor easily.
“Because you gave me an excuse to do this the fun way.”
The punks were flabbergasted as the man carried both of them to the bar’s back exit, kicked the door open, and then forcefully threw both of them into the back alley. One of them slammed against the dumpster while the other landed in some wet garbage bags face-first.
“Don’t come back to Hector’s until you learn some basic manners. Adios.”
The bar patrons cheered while Hector, the owner and bartender chuckled. ‘Quick as always, Ramon,’ he thought to himself.
Ramon was about to close the back door and step back inside when the punk that fell the garbage bag got back up. She looked like a teenager and wore a denim jacket, jean shorts, and black boots. Her shoulder-length blonde hair had loose trash in it, and her brown eyes were glaring at him.
“You think you’re better than me?! You think just ‘cause you’re a big man that you’re better than one of the Mad, Mad, Moxies?!” She reached into her jacket pocket to grab something.
Ramon reflectively tensed, thinking she was going to pull out a knife or a gun. But his eyes widened when she pulled out something much worse: a needle containing a particular glowing blue liquid.
“Don’t do it!”
“Well guess what, Mr. Big Guy; you’re gonna be a big stain on the wall!”
“I said don’t do it, kid!”
But Ramon’s warning fell on deaf ears as the Moxie punk injected the needle into her neck, the blue liquid going right into her. Almost immediately, the girl began to groan in pain, her body beginning to convulse.
And then, the transformation started.
Scales began to appear near her eyes and forearms. A pair of branch-like horns burst out from her forehead, blood spilling onto the pavement. Her nails elongated into sharp talons. And when she glared at Ramon, he saw her pupils became slit and her teeth had become razor sharp.
“Shit!” Ramon quickly closed the door, but then he heard a roar, the sound of electricity building, and then was blasted off his feet along with the door, crashing into a table.
“Ramon, what the hell happened?!” Hector asked in concern. Ramon groaned as he stood back up.
“The puta injected herself with Monster Mash!” He then turned to the rest of the patrons. “Everyone get out! Things are about to get nuts!”
Everyone did just that, running out of the bar as the mutated moxie punk walked back into Hector’s. Her draconic eyes locked onto Ramon, looking akin to an animal sizing up its prey.
“D-Do you need any help?” Hector asked. Ramon looked at the wall-mounted clock, seeing that it was about 7:31 pm. The long-haired man looked at the mutated punk, and a wide smirk appeared on his face.
“Nah. I just need about two minutes.”
Ramon then grabbed a nearby chair and threw it at the moxie. She reacted quickly, slashing the chair to pieces with a swipe of her claws. With a roar, she charged at Ramon with both claws ready to shred him. With some quick footwork, he dodged out of the way, weaving as the punk’s claw scratched up the tables and chairs.
As he dodged another attack, Ramon spotted the dart board with some darts inside. Acting quickly, he grabbed a half-finished bowl of chili on a nearby table and threw it in the monster girl’s face. While she was distracted by the burning hot meat sauce on her face, Ramon ran to the dart board. After yanking off the walls, the brawler threw the board at the girl, hitting her in the shoulder.
The monsterfied punk growled as sparks began to build up inside her mouth. With a roar, she unleashed a blast of blue lighting in Ramon’s direction. He quickly ducked to the floor as the lighting blast vaporized a hole into the wall. But when the girl stopped firing the blast, she seemed to groan in pain.
And that was the opening Ramon needed. As fast as he could, Ramon ran towards the girl and leaped into the air, landing and hitting her with a double drop-kick that sent her crashing into a table.
“Wooo! That’s what you get!” Ramon shouted as the monster girl groaned in pain. However, she soon shook off her dizziness, slowly getting back up and growling at Ramon.
“G-Gonna…kill you…” The punk growled out. To her confusion, Ramon seemingly ignored her, looking at the clock once more.
“I don’t think so.” Ramon smirked at her again. “Because your two minutes of power are just about done.”
Just as Ramon said that the clock struck at 7:32 pm. The girl looked down at her claws and saw that they were beginning to shrink, alongside her horns, and even felt her lightning powers begin to diminish. But to Ramon’s horror, the girl pulled another vial of Monster Mash out of her pocket and injected herself with it before he could even say anything.
Her claws and horns began to grow larger. In anger, the girl began to charge up another lighting blast in her mouth…but then she suddenly grabbed her chest. Her breathing became heavier and more erratic. It felt like someone was choking her even though there were no hands on her neck, and her blood felt like liquid fire.
Ramon and Hector looked away in pity as the monsterfied moxie girl convulsed before seizing up, and failing face-first onto the bar floor. And after a few more seconds of agony…her breathing ceased, the life in her eyes gone.
“What a waste,” Ramon said, offering a small prayer for the poor girl’s soul. This wasn’t the first time he had fought some poor fool that decided that injecting themselves with the cocktail of monster DNA and steroids known as Monster Mash was a good idea. Sure, it gave them superpowers…but it only lasted for two minutes and risked leaving the user peramently disfigured afterward. And the pretty much always required medical attention afterwards. Ramon had seen people be carted off to the ICU from just two doses of Monster Mash in a single day. To use two shots of Monster Mash one after the other, he couldn't imagine what was going through that girl's head.
‘She’s almost the same age as Raquel.’ Ramon thought to himself. And as he heard the police sirens in the distance, he looked at the clock again and saw it was 7:34 pm. He was definitely gonna be here for awhile.
Three Hours Later…
After a pretty thorough questioning from the NJPPD (New Jupiter Paranormal Police Department), Ramon was driving his dark blue van home, turning into the neighborhood he called home. It was a neighborhood of multiple one-story houses. His house was at the end of the street, a cozy little house with its porchlights on. Ramon parked the car and unlocked the door.
“Oh, hey Ramon!”
Sitting in the middle of their living room was a young woman in her mid-twenties. All around her were schematics and mathematical equations on sheets of note paper, with her laptop in front of her, and the living room TV playing some kind of comedy movie in the background.
“Sorry, Raquel; work was…a bit hectic,” Ramon said. “You want me to make something?”
They shared a similar skin tone and hair color, with Raquel having longer hair tied in a side braid. Her blue eyes were hidden behind a pair of circular glasses. She was a bit of a hefty woman clad in a set of light purple pajamas and slippers.
“Nah, it’s alright. I made something earlier.”
Ramon looked near the coffee table and sighed when he saw a microwave-ready hungry meal already eaten. But now wasn’t the time to talk about unhealthy eating habits, especially with how tired he was.
“Well, I’m gonna clean up and hit the hay.”
“Alright.” Raquel yawned before she started picking her stuff up. “I’m going to bed. Night, Ramon.”
“Night, Raq.”
A bit later, Ramon placed his laptop on the counter and began to play a video about the finer details of kickboxing. As the video played a lesson about the intricacies of drop-kicking, he took out some frozen ground beef in the sink, followed by a big cooking pot up on the burner. Ramon put on a dark blue apron and rolled his sleeves.
“Alright; let’s get to it.”
It was probably gonna take him a bit of time past midnight, but he was gonna make sure his sister had a good hearty meal instead of some fast food crap for lunch tomorrow.
2024.05.24 23:36 lC3 VIZ volumes 1-8 TL issues and differences betw JPN/ENG
Hi; for a while now I've been working on a list of known issues or differences between JPN and ENG versions in VIZ's official translations for the DGM manga. I was going to do up until the latest volume and then post it all, but recent health conditions have me reconsidering so I wanted to post what I have done already just in case something happens to me:
Formatting has been fixed!
JPN to ENG volume comparisons:
*Viz v01 (10th printing): On the cover, Viz has altered the colors of the title and changed the shape of the cross found in between G and r.
*Viz volume missing black/white/red insert cover with Komui (raw p3)
v01.05 "Those possessed by the gods" > "God" (should be Christian setting)
v01.19 "An Akuma"? Allen says "Akuma" (アクマ) but Moor hears 悪魔 (demon). She continues to use 悪魔 until Allen clears up their true identity.
v01.25 "They specialize in destroying Akuma", Eng. vol. removes that they're "clergymen"
When Moor calls Marc "brother", the kanji say "brother-in-law".
v01.29 "As your sister, I'm hoping for the same thing from heaven." This is a translation error, pure and simple. Moor says "I'm sure my sister [Claire] in heaven feels the same way."
v01.32 Eng manga switches placement of two text boxes: "Akuma" is the name of a weapon + weapon from the dark side created to prey on humans.
v01.44 "Even that Akuma ... once had a soul embedded in it." 'Once' is wrong, it still does.
v01.54 When the Earl is singing Happy Birthday, the Eng. manga removes "dear" before Claire's name. "to you" is also removed. The JPN volume copyright page says the lyrics were used with permission.
v01.63 "A member of the Black Order" in ENG is "black clergyman" in JPN vol.
v01.72 "You can't deceive my eyes" should be "eye"
v01.74 "New World Alliance" is "the Vatican" in JPN. The omake in v05 correctly have "Vatican", though
v01.99 "you little runt" in the JPN is "you death cheater"
v01.109 "soldier of life doomed by fate" is "apostle possessed by God" in the JPN
v01.112 In the profile of the Earl, the Eng says "he was one of the most peculiar people who had ever lived," but the JPN vol adds that he was from the 18th century.
v01.127 "soldier of life" in ENG is "apostle of God" in JPN
v01.148 "That was too close" in the JPN volume is Allen thinking Kanda is scary.
v01.150 The Eng. volume accidentally switches two text placements: "Clean your desk once in a while will ya!" and "I'm going to go get another cup of coffee."
v01.171 "soldier of life" in the Eng. vol. is a euphemism for where the JPN vol. has "apostle of God". This continues to recur throughout the series where Exorcists are referred to as "apostles". However, v05.70 correctly has "apostle of Innocence", so this may only occur in early volumes?
v01.180 "New World Alliance" is censorship for "the Vatican" in the JPN vol., and "several hundred years ago" should instead be "about 100 years ago".
In the Special Thanks page at the end of v01, the drawing of Allen has a note in the JPN version that "Okei" (one of her assistants?) drew him.
Viz v02 (9th printing): The title logo has been changed in placement and the cross has been altered again.
The photograph of Hoshino's cat Koro with a fanmade Timcanpy plush is in color in the JPN vol, but greyscale in Viz's ENG vol.
Once again the ENG vol is missing the inner black/white/red page. This time it's General Cross with a hammer and glass of wine (and giant Tim chomping on his head), saying (to Allen?) "Become an Exorcist, you bastard"
v02.29 Toma's mention of the "New World Alliance" is "the Vatican" in the JPN vol.
v02.44 In the profile for Reever, the Eng. vol. misses a place and has "Riba".
v02.79 Kanda says the "beansprout" is "Allen" in the Eng. vol., but he just says "that guy" in the JPN and doesn't name him.
v02 Komui says "Por favore" in Eng. vol. when it's supposed to be "Per favore" as in JPN vol
v03 (8th printing) once again cuts the red/black/white insert cover; this time it's Jeryy, Komui and Komlin. The cross in the logo is altered also
v03 the "STORY" summary on the characters page is significantly changed/reduced in the ENG version. The JPN version talks about the Cube, Noah's Flood, 7000 years ago etc, and the ENG version doesn't have any of that.
v03.13 "I'll terminate you" from Komlin is a mistranslation, it says something like "Time for an operation".
v03.16 There's a panel where the ebook (8th printing) failed to update "Linali" into "Lenalee"
v03.23 "Be rational" in ENG is literally "Please become an adult" in JPN
v03.39 Jeryy's "Ahh! Why do I have to do repairs? It was the Head Chief!" (ENG) should be "Ahh! Why do I have to do repairs! I'm the Head Chef!"
v03.45 Road says "Millennium Earl" in the Eng. vol. where the JPN has 千年公 / Lord Millennium.
v03.50 "the same cloudy skies" (ENG) are "the same snowy skies" in JPN vol.
v03.57 In the JPN vol., the kanji for "death" is shown on Johnny's forehead. This is removed from the ENG vol3
v03.58 The JPN vol. has Komui say the order was made on Oct. 9th and set to be delivered on the 10th, but the ENG vol. cuts the month out
v03.61 The JPN vol has Allen or Lenalee call her "Miss Miranda" (ミス・ミランダ) but the Eng. vol. only has "Miranda"
v03.69 "Punk Voice" misses the G, it's "Pang Voice" in the anime, which is more accurate
v03.104 Road writes "FUCK" on Miranda's wall in the JPN manga, which is changed to "THANK" in the ENG vol
v03.105,188 "Fuck you! exorcist" is changed to "THANK YOU EXORCIST!" in the ENG vol.
v03.106 has "Rabi" not corrected to "Lavi"
v03.123,127,135,168,183 has "the (Millennium) Earl" where Road says 千年公 / Lord Millennium in JPN
v03.124 has "Riba" not corrected to "Reever"
v03.126 Ch23's chapter title is "Akuma" in the ENG vol but it's the kanji 悪魔 "demon, devil" in the JPN
v03.160 Miranda's character profile says she's a Capricorn in the JPN, but the ENG vol. mistakenly mixes this up with Aries
v03.182 In the stylized drawing, the ENG vol has "Hey" in the bottom left, but the JPN has "Oi", which I think stands for Oi-chan her assistant, the one who drew that page
v03.195,197 Komui says "Miranda" in the ENG vol but it's "Miss Miranda" (ミス・ミランダ) in the JPN
v03 in ENG doesn't have the fanart corner (6 pages) found in v03 JPN's endpages
v04 (7th printing) cover once again changes the shape of the cross in DGM's logo
v04 in ENG omits the black/white/red inner cover, this time of panda!Bookman and Lavi
v04 ENG summary "It all began centuries ago" -> "It all began about a century ago"
v04 ENG summary, omits that the Flood was about 7000 years ago
v04 ENG summary adds more info on previous arc, about Lenalee's coma and Allen's damaged eye
v04.11 ENG "Why did you come here?" omits "when you're so busy" from JPN
v04.16 ENG "Let's play again soon, Allen" is "Next time will be according to the Lord Millennium's scenario" in JPN
v04.41 "I'm going to keep following the path" -> "I decided to keep walking this path."
v04.44 "I keep a mental record of everything" -> "No matter what I'm doing, it's my habit to keep a mental record" (literal)
v04.48 The ENG vol removes the heart symbols after the Earl's sentences
v04.54 ENG vol has "God matter" carved on Yeegar's back, whereas JPN vol says 神狩り "god hunt"
v04.55 ENG vol "Thousand-year duke" should be "Lord Millennium" or "Millennie", what the Noah call the Earl
v04.57 ENG "With the Heart, we could bring this conflict to an end once and for all!" -> "With the Heart, we'll finally have the power to prevent the End (of the world)."
v04.57 ENG Komui's explanation about the Heart is way longer in JPN, saying the Cube doesn't describe how to identify it, saying Hevlaska inspects each piece, etc. (he rants for a while)
v04.63 ENG "General Theodore" -> "General Tiedoll" (we start seeing "Tiedoll" by v05.135, though I don't know if that's a later printing
v04.67 ENG vol "Our scientists created these Golems." -> "Cross, who is also a scientist, created this Golem."
v04.67 ENG vol "They're meant to be able to find their masters no matter where they are." > "It [Tim] should be able to be to find its master [Cross] wherever he is."
v04.67 ENG vol "Between Tim and Allen, General Cross will be like a rat in a trap!" -> "Also, now that Allen, who knows his patterns of movement so well, is here, he'll be like a rat in a trap!"
v04.69 ENG "You took the bandage off? But it made you look tough." -> "What, you took the doodles off? But you had such an interesting face!"
v04.69 ENG "At a great distance, a golem" might instead be "At a great distance, Tim"
v04.70 ENG Lavi's "What does he live on? / Debt?" should be "What does he live on? Does he pay his own way? / He's rich?", which is why Allen is holding up the X and saying "DEBT"
v04.78 ENG "Hoshino and his editor" -> "Hoshino and her editor Mr. Y"
v04.79 ENG "We have to go back and look for him!" and "What is he, a little kid?" are in the wrong text boxes, and Bookman saying "If you go now you can make it there in one jump with your extending pole", which is why Lavi replies "It's a hammer, panda!"
v04.84+85+93+98 ENG "Count Krory" -> "Baron Krory"
v04.89 ENG "Count Krory" -> "Krory" (x2)
v04.123 ENG "Lavi and I will deal with the Count." -> "Lavi and I will go to the castle."
v04.132 ENG "no time to be finding love" -> "no time to be getting aroused"
v04.133+153 ENG "Count" -> "Baron"
v04.147 ENG "my grandfather's precious flowers", furigana say "flowers" but the kanji read "memento"
v04.148 ENG "It will make you strong and ferocious." -> "When you take (my) blood into your mouth, you're able to transform into a powerful vampire."
v04.155 ENG "It's him ..." -> "Baron"
v04.156 ENG "The uniforms of the Black Order" -> "Exorcist uniforms"
v05 (8th printing) cover once again changes the shape of the cross in DGM's logo
v05 black/white/red inner cover omitted in ENG vol; this time it's Road and the Earl pulling on Tyki's arms from opposite directions
v05 ENG summary "It all began centuries ago" -> "It all began about a century ago"
v05 ENG summary, omits that the Flood was about 7000 years ago and that they're fighting to prevent the second coming of the End, the 'three days of darkness'
v05.24 ENG "Wenham" -> "Wenhamm"
v05.24 ENG "centuries ago" -> "about a century ago"
v05.25 ENG "there was just a command center" is missing next part of phrase, "there were only Exorcists and a few personnel who supported them" (check trans!)
v05.36 ENG "Count Krory" -> "Kro-kins, Kro-chan, Krorykins", however you want to translate Lavi's nickname for him
v05.40 ENG "Go! Help Krorykins!!" -> "I can't get to Krorykins!!"
v05.42 ENG "centuries" -> "century"
v05.65 ENG "Count Krory" -> "Mr. Krory"
v05.69 ENG "And you'll be saving a lot of people." -> "If you have a reason, you can keep on living."
v05.70 ENG "That could give you a reason to live." -> "It's okay to live for that reason."
v05.74 ENG "Count Krory" -> "Krorykins" (how manga translates nickname Kro-chan)
v05.78 ENG refers to Hoshino as "he" when she's female (but this may not have been widely known back then?)
v05.89 ENG Bookman's line "Lenalee" > "Miss Lena"
v05.90 ENG "demons" > "Akuma"
v05.93 ENG "Maybe he found something interesting" -> "Don't tell me, he got lost ...?"
v05.100 ENG "But he's just a kid! Sheesh!" -> "We underestimated him, thinking he's just a kid!"
v05.100 ENG "Where'd he learn that stuff?!" -> "He's no ordinary person!!"
v05.100 ENG "This can't possibly be luck!" -> "Aren't you way too strong?"
v05.101 ENG "That's not like you." -> "You were that sort of character!?"
v05.101 ENG "risked my life learning to play cards" -> "risked my life polishing my skills" (at cheating, presumably)
v05.101 ENG "Never seen Allen like this" - > "Allen is daaark ..."
v05.101 ENG "Creepy ..." -> "Dark ..."
v05.101 ENG "Lavi was a little disturbed by Allen's wicked side" -> "Lavi saw an unexpected side of Allen."
v05.102 ENG "Isn't it kind of cold to walk around naked?" -> "Isn't it too cold this time of year to walk around naked?"
v05.102 ENG "Hmph ..." -> "Boy ..."
v05.103 ENG "We're starting work in the mines today." -> "Actually, starting today we're supposed to work outside in the mines around here."
v05.113 ENG "Millennium Earl" -> "Lord Millennium"
v05.114 ENG "Tap Dop" -> "Tup Dop"
v05.117 ENG "two miles" -> "three kilometers"
v05.117 ENG "three miles" -> "five kilometers"
v05.118 ENG "six-mile" -> "ten-kilometer"
v05.119 ENG "Fire!" -> "Shoot!"
v05.122+125 ENG "Tyki" -> "Tycky"
v05.124 ENG "I want you to be my messenger." -> "I want you to go to this place as my messenger."
v05.126 ENG "Tyki" -> "Tyki-pon, Tyki-pet"
v05.132 ENG "have a scene where Allen has to dig up a graveyard" -> "[this] and a scene where a beloved woman Akuma is bitten to death"
v05.132 ENG "I wanted to draw" -> "I wanted to draw it so I got them to do it / let me do it" (I'm not sure if this is Hoshino writing or if the (Oi) is supposed to indicate it's her assistant Oi-chan? kakitakute yarasete moratta ...
v05.137 ENG "I'm a General. My mission is more important." > "I will fulfill my duties as a General."
v05.139,144,145 ENG "Zokalo" > "Socalo"
v05.139 ENG "Cloud" > "Klaud"
v05.147 ENG "But his poor family ..." > "How cruel"
v05.150 ENG "a handsome guy like Beckham" > "a handsome Noah like Beckham" (or "a handsome guy like Beckham as a Noah")
v05.158 ENG "Lenalee" > "Miss Lena"
v05.159 ENG "BLUSH" > "HUSH"
v05.168 ENG the Special Thanks page is missing "Yamada-kun" above "Oi-chan"
v05.172 ENG "I like it. It's understated" must be sarcasm, as JPN says it's flashy/gaudy
v05.175 ENG "Yowza" > "Strike"
v05.177 ENG "Would you like to speak to your brother?" > "to the Chief?"
v05.177 ENG "I figured he was indisposed" > "Then that would defeat the purpose of intentionally calling you, Sect. Ldr. Reever"
v05.177 ENG "Komui's sleeping" > "the Chief's sleeping"
v05.182 ENG "For years I have been a supporter" > "I have been a supporter since my mother's time"
JPN v05 has 2 pages of fanart submitted by readers after the chapters (before next-vol preview)
v06 cover (7th printing) changes the design of the cross in the logo, as with previous volumes
The JPN volume has a color spread of Lavi, Kanda and Allen not found in the ENG vol. (It also has Yossy the rabbit on a cross)
There's also a rough sketch double-page showing the prototype of DGM, "Robin's"
Then the insert page (only in JPN vol) has Cross in a pose above Allen saying "Pay up" with debt/bills falling down, in parody of the scene with Tyki and the deck of cards.
STORY: "It all began centuries ago" > "about a century ago". Also missing the details that the Flood ('the three days of darkness') was 7000 years ago. The paragraph beginning "Forces of the Millennium Earl" is pretty loosely translated too.
v06.09-10: "Are they coming for us?" > "Are they coming to stop us?"
v06.40 ENG "... God is wroth. Such an act is a terrible sin, and one that falls from grace." > "'Fall' refers to the sin of a non-apostle trying to synchronize with God."
v06.41 ENG "There is no escape" > "Running away is unforgiveable"
v06.42 ENG "that Hoshino guy / he" > "that Hoshino gal / she"
v06.42 ENG "hamburgers" > "hamburg steaks"
v06.43+78 ENG "Wenham" > "Wenhamm" (the original is clear, so this must be an intentional change)
v06.44+48 ENG "Sokaro" > "Socalo" (and v7 "Zokalo" same)
v06.46 ENG "What power!" > "What destructive power!"
v06.46 ENG "It vaporized the Akuma!" > "It vaporized that many Akuma in an instant!"
v06.48 ENG "Suman has a parasite-type Innocence like you do." > "Suman is a parasite-type accommodator like you are."
v06.48 ENG Lenalee says "I heard" the info about Suman (probably from Reever or Komui?)
v06.49 ENG "I don't know what happened ... to the boy." > "I don't know what happened ... to the boy who became a Fallen One."
v06.52 ENG "Don't get too close to him" > "We'd better not step into this hole."
v06.58 ENG "Suman's memories" > "Suman's feelings/emotions"
v06.59 ENG "and begged the Akuma to spare you" > "and made a deal with the devil" (it's written 悪魔 here, not the usual AKUMA)
v06.59 ENG "You betrayed the Innocence." ('Innocence' is the furigana given for the kanji 'God')
v06.60 ENG "KEVIN BARRY" is a typo and should be removed. Also note "Jerry" for Jeryy and "The Millennium Earl" for "The Earl of Millennium"
v06.61 ENG "He fled the battle in fear." > "He became afraid of dying and fled the battlefield."
v06.70 ENG "my friend" > "my comrade" (does Allen even know Suman?)
v06.78 ENG Komui omake #3: "What kind of stupid question is that?" > "At least write 'noodle' with the kanji." (Reader used katakana instead)
v06.96 ENG "in the bath in vol. 4." > "in the bath that Allen showed in vol. 4."
v06.96 ENG "Grr ...", JPN vol. explains that it's the sound of Kanda's blood vessel/s bursting
v06.96 ENG "Twitch", JPN vol. explains that it's the sound of a vein in his forehead sticking up
v06.102 ENG "Section Chief Reever, does this mean that Suman ..." - they use 'incompatible' / no longer an Accommodator, and say yappari 'after all' so I think the speaker is speculating that this confirms that Suman betrayed the Order
v06.104 ENG "But I haven't seen him in the commissary for a while." > "So now whenever we see each other in the cafeteria he's been ignoring me."
v06.105 ENG "What ... are you saying ... Komui?" > "What ... are you saying ... Brother?"
v05.107 ENG "The Earl's minions killed more than a hundred of our people in their quest for the Heart." > "You heard how the other day, the Order lost more than a hundred of our people, right?"
v06.115 ENG "but of a man who loved his family more than anything, a man who was forced to make terrible choices" isn't based on what the JPN text says. Rather, it's more like "but this is the story of an Exorcist who fought as a soldier. I drew this fully realizing that they aren't warriors who live in the horrors of war, but humans who became soldiers." "Pity him" is also unique to the ENG version.
v06.120-1 ENG "Someone's ... breaking" is wrong. Allen says "Someone [help me!]", and then the panel "Break" as a command isn't Allen speaking ... I think it might be Suman's Innocence, or possibly Allen's. It's written weird in katakana.
v06.134 ENG "Count Krory" - JPN just has "Krory", and he's a Baron in the JPN version
v06.148 ENG "his soul" - mind, heart, soul ... kokoro is harder to translate. But this isn't tamashii here
v06.152 ENG "They were made by the Earl" has lero after it, which is who's speaking
v06.152 ENG "HEY" in the box in the bottom right is Gunma in katakana in the JPN vol
v06.155 ENG "No ... No ..." should be "No ... ah ..." (i.e. 'Noah')
v06.164 ENG "by the Earl" > "by the Lord Millennium". "the Earl's choice" > "his choice/taste"
v06.166 ENG "without even exerting myself" > "without cutting your body with a blade"
v06.170 ENG Special Thanks: the placement of Yamada-san and Akiyama-san are mixed up.
v06.174-5 ENG "start with your Innocence". Tyki actually says Innocence no yarou, 'that Innocence bastard'
v06.176 ENG "The Heart is the jackpot" > "That's the 'sign' it's the Heart."
v06.183 ENG "You were ordered to" > "The Lord Millennium ordered you to"
v07 ENG (6th edition), the photograph of Koro is in color in the JPN vol
v07 ENG is missing the inner black/white/red page. The JPN vol7 has an illustration showing that Bak, who's the same age (29) as Komui, is the same height as Allen (15)
v07 ENG "STORY": "It all began centuries ago" > "It all began about a century ago"
v07 ENG "STORY": like previously, the JPN volume says the Flood occurred 7000 years ago and that the Cube calls it "the three days of darkness."
The 2nd paragraph of STORY in the ENG volume is a pretty loose reinterpretation, but the changes don't really matter so I won't bother translating the original.
v07 ENG: cross in title logo altered like in previous volumes
v07 Characters: Bak Chan > Bak Chang
v07.10 ENG "A card?" > "A Western playing card?"
v07.19 ENG "Samo Han Wong, Assistant Director. Black Order, Asia Branch" > "Sammo Han Won, Black Order, Asia Branch Director's Assistant."
v07.24 ENG "Well, Kanda made a mess of things" > "Well, Yu made a mess of things"
v07.24 ENG "ordered the two of us to do it" > add here "and answer the questions properly."
v07.24 ENG "Q. Does Lavi have a thing for cute girls with big breasts?" > "Q. Is Lavi's taste in girls for ones with cute faces and big breasts, but he doesn't care about their personalities?"
v07.24 ENG "(Allen): He's a menace." > "(Allen): His taste lies in female enemies, right?"
v07.35 ENG "Lenalee's having a hard time" > "Miss Lena is having a hard time"
v07.37 ENG "Sorry, Lenalee" > "Sorry, Miss Lena."
v07.38 ENG "Remember that we cooperate with the Black Order only for the purpose of keeping records." > "Remember that we only happen to be on this side in order to make our records."
v07.39 ENG "Don't forget your duty" > "Don't forget your goal"
v07.47 ENG "He scares me" > "She scares me" (Mahoja is female, which Lavi knows by now)
v07.50 ENG "I don't intend to sleep" > "Ah, we're good then. Not sleeping is my specialty."
v07.57 ENG "I'm not the one" > "We're not the ones"
v07.58 ENG "Allen's heart was punctured. Death was imminent. But his heart was healed ... when particles of his Innocence entered his body and sealed the wound." > "Allen's heart was punctured. Death was imminent. But what healed his heart ... was particles of his Innocence that had become like dust and shouldn't even be activated, which entered his body and sealed the hole all on its own, acting as a substitute for his cells."
v07.60 ENG Lavi "I'd be a Bookman. I have no interest in being anything else." The JPN vol has another sentence in between those two about how he even became an Exorcist.
v07.60 ENG "A noodle maker?" > "A merchant who makes soba?"
v07.62+67+77 ENG "Allen" > in the JPN, Won calls him "Walker-kun"
v07.62 ENG "It's still cruel" - Specifically, Rohfa says "God" is cruel
v07.78 ENG "80 square feet" and "120 square feet" are "10 jou" and "15 jou" in Japanese (畳, tatami mat). A 'jou' is either 1.54 or 1.82 square meters, so 10 jou is either around 165 or 196 square feet, and 15 jou is around either 249 or 294 square feet. So I'm not sure where Viz gets their numbers, unless the online converters I used are off.
v07.82 ENG "She did?" > "'ore-sama?'" (Allen is reacting to the pronoun Bak uses when upset)
v07.83 ENG "Allen Walker" > "Walker-kun" (by Won)
v07.84 ENG "Allen" > JPN "Walker" (by For)
v07.84 ENG "People have been known to take a wrong turn and nearly starve to death" > "One time, someone got lost for two weeks and nearly starved to death."
v07.87 ENG "this stuff was swirling around you like a fog" excludes the JPN "as if to protect you"
v07.87 ENG "TRUDGE" > "can't see"
v07.87 ENG "It was no picnic ..." > "That's when I realized it was Innocenc
v07.87 ENG "That surprised me" > "He even said something unscientific for once."
v07.89+95+102+117+123 ENG "Allen" > Bak and Rikei call him "Walker" in JPN
v07.96 ENG Discussion Room "whisper into Komui's ear WHILE HE'S ASLEEP"
v07.96 ENG the ? after Lavi's "I can't take it" should be an !
v07.105 ENG "... Even with a high synchronization rate." > "Even if they're able to synchronize, they can't restrain the vast force of the Innocence that well."
v07.109 ENG "Allen" > For calls him "Walker" in JPN
v07.109 ENG "Fo is the materialized form of the guardian deity" is missing the detail where JPN says Fo "isn't a human but ..."
v07.114 ENG "between the ages of 18 and 40" > JPN has "10 and 40"
v07.122 ENG "Allen" > Rohfa calls him "Walker-san" in the JPN
v07.124 ENG the placement of "Lo Hwa!" and "I'm sorry!" should be reversed
v07.128 ENG "General Zokalo" > the ENG volume omits his first name, "Winters" which is in the JPN page here
v07.140 ENG "For a Bookman ... attachments are a liability" could be "doesn't need a heart."
v07.150 ENG name spellings in character ranking: Jerry, Eeze, Bak Chan, Alestina (JPN has full name), Tap Dopp, Pazu, Baba, Skin Boric, Place Robin (just 'Robin'). Pazu should be Bazu
v07.168 ENG Special Thanks page. The JPN version has different formatting for the names: alternating black/white letters, and three columns. So "Coro" and "Adam" are separate entries, as are "Sakuma" and "Yoshida-san."
v07.182 ENG check Kindle: ebook version is missing chapter page, instead has ad for next volume
v07.183 ENG "Sorry, Count" > "Sorry, Krory"
v08 ENG (6th printing): cover page changes cross in DGM logo like previous volumes
v08 ENG (like previous volumes) omits the special insert art. This time it's Shifu, Rikei, Won and Allen dressed in the same female outfit/hairstyle as Rohfa
v08 ENG 'STORY' same issues as before, i.e. "centuries ago" > "about a century ago", omitting 3 Days of Darkness and 'about 7000 years ago'
v08.16 ENG "Sound Shackles" > "Water Shackles"
v08.28 ENG "The ship! It must be sinking!" This is wrong; the first is Lenalee's thoughts "So that means that ..." and the second part is Eshi saying "The ship is sinking".
v08.40 ENG omake "who has his hair styled like a girl's" > literally "man (with) straight-cut bangs". This term, pattsun, will show up in following chapters later on as a derogatory nickname for Kanda
v08.40 ENG omake "gentle stream of water" instead of mushin and shaberu shikabane "talking corpse"
v08.40 ENG omake "he" for Hoshino should be "she"
v08.43 ENG moves "The ecstasy" down to the bottom panels, and in doing so omits all of what's written there in the JPN original. Quoting Funimation's TL of those lines: "I can ... I can tell that woman's heartbeat is getting weak. I can hear her heart squeak from the oppression of the water pressure."
v08.44 ENG "Not even Eshi can go to those terrible depths" omits "even since evolving to Level 3,"
v08.47 ENG "I see the twisted faces of tortured souls. They enter my eye and crawl around inside my head." > "The screams of many souls that I shouldn't be able to hear, they pass through my left eye and crawl around inside my body."
v08.55 ENG "are my comrades from the Order" > Funi TL "the faces of my comrades inside the wall called the Order."
v08.58 ENG version is missing an entire sentence about Komui's reaction to Komlin being dismantled from the Discussion Room omake.
v08.65 ENG "Eshi's ability" > "Eshi's ability caused by dark matter"
v08.65 ENG "then my Innocence" missing that Innocence is dark matter's opposite
v08.73 ENG "Why aren't you using your hammer?" > "Why aren't you using the Wood Stamp?"
v08.76 ENG omake "Millennium Earl" > "Lord Millennium". And the JPN version has ages/locations/gender for the people submitting questions.
v08.86 ENG "Wha..." > "Above?"
v08.89 ENG "She's gathering all the mass around her!!" > "With that excessive amount of gravity ..."
v08.93 ENG "tens of thousands of pounds" > "tens of thousands of tons"
v08.94 ENG the omake is missing 2 sentences from Allen about Hoshino's personal opinion on the whole Gintama/Lavi thing
v08.98 ENG "You're the one who will die, girl!" > "You're the only one who will become cinders, girl!"
v08.100 ENG "You're important to me" > they're important to Anita
v08.109 ENG "Kamui" > "Komui"
v08.127 ENG "Lord Exorcist!?" should be "Aaaaah! Mr. Krory!!?" and "Aaaah! Count Krory?!" should be "Sir!!!!" (just has danna). And he's a Baron in the JPN version, not a Count
v08.127 ENG "What is this...?!" > "This chain...!?"
v08.134 ENG "They sacrificed themselves to save the ship!!" is missing "the ship and me" from the JPN
v08 ENG manga omits Chomesuke's verbal tic 'cho' at the end of sentences
v08.145 ENG "by General Cross" > "by Cross Marian"
v08.152 ENG "Or is Lenalee" > "Or is Lenalee Lee"
v08.152 ENG "valuable information for the archives" > "a valuable record/log"
v08.156 ENG "Ark" > "box"
v08.156 ENG "General Cross" > "Marian"
v08.156 ENG "factory for manufacturing Akuma" > "Akuma enchanted body plant"
v08.157 ENG "The General instructed me to tell you ... to go home. You'll only slow him down." > "Marian said that if after hearing this [warning] you'll become a hindrance, you should just go home."
v08.164 ENG "release" > "forced release"
v08.186+7 ENG Hoshino should be "her" instead of "his"
v08.186 "wild eye" > "Hoshino"
v08 has 6 pages of reader-submitted fanart after the final omake in the JPN volume (omitted in ENG vol.)
submitted by lC3 to dgrayman [link] [comments]
Formatting has been fixed!
*Viz v01 (10th printing): On the cover, Viz has altered the colors of the title and changed the shape of the cross found in between G and r.
*Viz volume missing black/white/red insert cover with Komui (raw p3)
v01.05 "Those possessed by the gods" > "God" (should be Christian setting)
v01.19 "An Akuma"? Allen says "Akuma" (アクマ) but Moor hears 悪魔 (demon). She continues to use 悪魔 until Allen clears up their true identity.
v01.25 "They specialize in destroying Akuma", Eng. vol. removes that they're "clergymen"
When Moor calls Marc "brother", the kanji say "brother-in-law".
v01.29 "As your sister, I'm hoping for the same thing from heaven." This is a translation error, pure and simple. Moor says "I'm sure my sister [Claire] in heaven feels the same way."
v01.32 Eng manga switches placement of two text boxes: "Akuma" is the name of a weapon + weapon from the dark side created to prey on humans.
v01.44 "Even that Akuma ... once had a soul embedded in it." 'Once' is wrong, it still does.
v01.54 When the Earl is singing Happy Birthday, the Eng. manga removes "dear" before Claire's name. "to you" is also removed. The JPN volume copyright page says the lyrics were used with permission.
v01.63 "A member of the Black Order" in ENG is "black clergyman" in JPN vol.
v01.72 "You can't deceive my eyes" should be "eye"
v01.74 "New World Alliance" is "the Vatican" in JPN. The omake in v05 correctly have "Vatican", though
v01.99 "you little runt" in the JPN is "you death cheater"
v01.109 "soldier of life doomed by fate" is "apostle possessed by God" in the JPN
v01.112 In the profile of the Earl, the Eng says "he was one of the most peculiar people who had ever lived," but the JPN vol adds that he was from the 18th century.
v01.127 "soldier of life" in ENG is "apostle of God" in JPN
v01.148 "That was too close" in the JPN volume is Allen thinking Kanda is scary.
v01.150 The Eng. volume accidentally switches two text placements: "Clean your desk once in a while will ya!" and "I'm going to go get another cup of coffee."
v01.171 "soldier of life" in the Eng. vol. is a euphemism for where the JPN vol. has "apostle of God". This continues to recur throughout the series where Exorcists are referred to as "apostles". However, v05.70 correctly has "apostle of Innocence", so this may only occur in early volumes?
v01.180 "New World Alliance" is censorship for "the Vatican" in the JPN vol., and "several hundred years ago" should instead be "about 100 years ago".
In the Special Thanks page at the end of v01, the drawing of Allen has a note in the JPN version that "Okei" (one of her assistants?) drew him.
Viz v02 (9th printing): The title logo has been changed in placement and the cross has been altered again.
The photograph of Hoshino's cat Koro with a fanmade Timcanpy plush is in color in the JPN vol, but greyscale in Viz's ENG vol.
Once again the ENG vol is missing the inner black/white/red page. This time it's General Cross with a hammer and glass of wine (and giant Tim chomping on his head), saying (to Allen?) "Become an Exorcist, you bastard"
v02.29 Toma's mention of the "New World Alliance" is "the Vatican" in the JPN vol.
v02.44 In the profile for Reever, the Eng. vol. misses a place and has "Riba".
v02.79 Kanda says the "beansprout" is "Allen" in the Eng. vol., but he just says "that guy" in the JPN and doesn't name him.
v02 Komui says "Por favore" in Eng. vol. when it's supposed to be "Per favore" as in JPN vol
v03 (8th printing) once again cuts the red/black/white insert cover; this time it's Jeryy, Komui and Komlin. The cross in the logo is altered also
v03 the "STORY" summary on the characters page is significantly changed/reduced in the ENG version. The JPN version talks about the Cube, Noah's Flood, 7000 years ago etc, and the ENG version doesn't have any of that.
v03.13 "I'll terminate you" from Komlin is a mistranslation, it says something like "Time for an operation".
v03.16 There's a panel where the ebook (8th printing) failed to update "Linali" into "Lenalee"
v03.23 "Be rational" in ENG is literally "Please become an adult" in JPN
v03.39 Jeryy's "Ahh! Why do I have to do repairs? It was the Head Chief!" (ENG) should be "Ahh! Why do I have to do repairs! I'm the Head Chef!"
v03.45 Road says "Millennium Earl" in the Eng. vol. where the JPN has 千年公 / Lord Millennium.
v03.50 "the same cloudy skies" (ENG) are "the same snowy skies" in JPN vol.
v03.57 In the JPN vol., the kanji for "death" is shown on Johnny's forehead. This is removed from the ENG vol3
v03.58 The JPN vol. has Komui say the order was made on Oct. 9th and set to be delivered on the 10th, but the ENG vol. cuts the month out
v03.61 The JPN vol has Allen or Lenalee call her "Miss Miranda" (ミス・ミランダ) but the Eng. vol. only has "Miranda"
v03.69 "Punk Voice" misses the G, it's "Pang Voice" in the anime, which is more accurate
v03.104 Road writes "FUCK" on Miranda's wall in the JPN manga, which is changed to "THANK" in the ENG vol
v03.105,188 "Fuck you! exorcist" is changed to "THANK YOU EXORCIST!" in the ENG vol.
v03.106 has "Rabi" not corrected to "Lavi"
v03.123,127,135,168,183 has "the (Millennium) Earl" where Road says 千年公 / Lord Millennium in JPN
v03.124 has "Riba" not corrected to "Reever"
v03.126 Ch23's chapter title is "Akuma" in the ENG vol but it's the kanji 悪魔 "demon, devil" in the JPN
v03.160 Miranda's character profile says she's a Capricorn in the JPN, but the ENG vol. mistakenly mixes this up with Aries
v03.182 In the stylized drawing, the ENG vol has "Hey" in the bottom left, but the JPN has "Oi", which I think stands for Oi-chan her assistant, the one who drew that page
v03.195,197 Komui says "Miranda" in the ENG vol but it's "Miss Miranda" (ミス・ミランダ) in the JPN
v03 in ENG doesn't have the fanart corner (6 pages) found in v03 JPN's endpages
v04 (7th printing) cover once again changes the shape of the cross in DGM's logo
v04 in ENG omits the black/white/red inner cover, this time of panda!Bookman and Lavi
v04 ENG summary "It all began centuries ago" -> "It all began about a century ago"
v04 ENG summary, omits that the Flood was about 7000 years ago
v04 ENG summary adds more info on previous arc, about Lenalee's coma and Allen's damaged eye
v04.11 ENG "Why did you come here?" omits "when you're so busy" from JPN
v04.16 ENG "Let's play again soon, Allen" is "Next time will be according to the Lord Millennium's scenario" in JPN
v04.41 "I'm going to keep following the path" -> "I decided to keep walking this path."
v04.44 "I keep a mental record of everything" -> "No matter what I'm doing, it's my habit to keep a mental record" (literal)
v04.48 The ENG vol removes the heart symbols after the Earl's sentences
v04.54 ENG vol has "God matter" carved on Yeegar's back, whereas JPN vol says 神狩り "god hunt"
v04.55 ENG vol "Thousand-year duke" should be "Lord Millennium" or "Millennie", what the Noah call the Earl
v04.57 ENG "With the Heart, we could bring this conflict to an end once and for all!" -> "With the Heart, we'll finally have the power to prevent the End (of the world)."
v04.57 ENG Komui's explanation about the Heart is way longer in JPN, saying the Cube doesn't describe how to identify it, saying Hevlaska inspects each piece, etc. (he rants for a while)
v04.63 ENG "General Theodore" -> "General Tiedoll" (we start seeing "Tiedoll" by v05.135, though I don't know if that's a later printing
v04.67 ENG vol "Our scientists created these Golems." -> "Cross, who is also a scientist, created this Golem."
v04.67 ENG vol "They're meant to be able to find their masters no matter where they are." > "It [Tim] should be able to be to find its master [Cross] wherever he is."
v04.67 ENG vol "Between Tim and Allen, General Cross will be like a rat in a trap!" -> "Also, now that Allen, who knows his patterns of movement so well, is here, he'll be like a rat in a trap!"
v04.69 ENG "You took the bandage off? But it made you look tough." -> "What, you took the doodles off? But you had such an interesting face!"
v04.69 ENG "At a great distance, a golem" might instead be "At a great distance, Tim"
v04.70 ENG Lavi's "What does he live on? / Debt?" should be "What does he live on? Does he pay his own way? / He's rich?", which is why Allen is holding up the X and saying "DEBT"
v04.78 ENG "Hoshino and his editor" -> "Hoshino and her editor Mr. Y"
v04.79 ENG "We have to go back and look for him!" and "What is he, a little kid?" are in the wrong text boxes, and Bookman saying "If you go now you can make it there in one jump with your extending pole", which is why Lavi replies "It's a hammer, panda!"
v04.84+85+93+98 ENG "Count Krory" -> "Baron Krory"
v04.89 ENG "Count Krory" -> "Krory" (x2)
v04.123 ENG "Lavi and I will deal with the Count." -> "Lavi and I will go to the castle."
v04.132 ENG "no time to be finding love" -> "no time to be getting aroused"
v04.133+153 ENG "Count" -> "Baron"
v04.147 ENG "my grandfather's precious flowers", furigana say "flowers" but the kanji read "memento"
v04.148 ENG "It will make you strong and ferocious." -> "When you take (my) blood into your mouth, you're able to transform into a powerful vampire."
v04.155 ENG "It's him ..." -> "Baron"
v04.156 ENG "The uniforms of the Black Order" -> "Exorcist uniforms"
v05 (8th printing) cover once again changes the shape of the cross in DGM's logo
v05 black/white/red inner cover omitted in ENG vol; this time it's Road and the Earl pulling on Tyki's arms from opposite directions
v05 ENG summary "It all began centuries ago" -> "It all began about a century ago"
v05 ENG summary, omits that the Flood was about 7000 years ago and that they're fighting to prevent the second coming of the End, the 'three days of darkness'
v05.24 ENG "Wenham" -> "Wenhamm"
v05.24 ENG "centuries ago" -> "about a century ago"
v05.25 ENG "there was just a command center" is missing next part of phrase, "there were only Exorcists and a few personnel who supported them" (check trans!)
v05.36 ENG "Count Krory" -> "Kro-kins, Kro-chan, Krorykins", however you want to translate Lavi's nickname for him
v05.40 ENG "Go! Help Krorykins!!" -> "I can't get to Krorykins!!"
v05.42 ENG "centuries" -> "century"
v05.65 ENG "Count Krory" -> "Mr. Krory"
v05.69 ENG "And you'll be saving a lot of people." -> "If you have a reason, you can keep on living."
v05.70 ENG "That could give you a reason to live." -> "It's okay to live for that reason."
v05.74 ENG "Count Krory" -> "Krorykins" (how manga translates nickname Kro-chan)
v05.78 ENG refers to Hoshino as "he" when she's female (but this may not have been widely known back then?)
v05.89 ENG Bookman's line "Lenalee" > "Miss Lena"
v05.90 ENG "demons" > "Akuma"
v05.93 ENG "Maybe he found something interesting" -> "Don't tell me, he got lost ...?"
v05.100 ENG "But he's just a kid! Sheesh!" -> "We underestimated him, thinking he's just a kid!"
v05.100 ENG "Where'd he learn that stuff?!" -> "He's no ordinary person!!"
v05.100 ENG "This can't possibly be luck!" -> "Aren't you way too strong?"
v05.101 ENG "That's not like you." -> "You were that sort of character!?"
v05.101 ENG "risked my life learning to play cards" -> "risked my life polishing my skills" (at cheating, presumably)
v05.101 ENG "Never seen Allen like this" - > "Allen is daaark ..."
v05.101 ENG "Creepy ..." -> "Dark ..."
v05.101 ENG "Lavi was a little disturbed by Allen's wicked side" -> "Lavi saw an unexpected side of Allen."
v05.102 ENG "Isn't it kind of cold to walk around naked?" -> "Isn't it too cold this time of year to walk around naked?"
v05.102 ENG "Hmph ..." -> "Boy ..."
v05.103 ENG "We're starting work in the mines today." -> "Actually, starting today we're supposed to work outside in the mines around here."
v05.113 ENG "Millennium Earl" -> "Lord Millennium"
v05.114 ENG "Tap Dop" -> "Tup Dop"
v05.117 ENG "two miles" -> "three kilometers"
v05.117 ENG "three miles" -> "five kilometers"
v05.118 ENG "six-mile" -> "ten-kilometer"
v05.119 ENG "Fire!" -> "Shoot!"
v05.122+125 ENG "Tyki" -> "Tycky"
v05.124 ENG "I want you to be my messenger." -> "I want you to go to this place as my messenger."
v05.126 ENG "Tyki" -> "Tyki-pon, Tyki-pet"
v05.132 ENG "have a scene where Allen has to dig up a graveyard" -> "[this] and a scene where a beloved woman Akuma is bitten to death"
v05.132 ENG "I wanted to draw" -> "I wanted to draw it so I got them to do it / let me do it" (I'm not sure if this is Hoshino writing or if the (Oi) is supposed to indicate it's her assistant Oi-chan? kakitakute yarasete moratta ...
v05.137 ENG "I'm a General. My mission is more important." > "I will fulfill my duties as a General."
v05.139,144,145 ENG "Zokalo" > "Socalo"
v05.139 ENG "Cloud" > "Klaud"
v05.147 ENG "But his poor family ..." > "How cruel"
v05.150 ENG "a handsome guy like Beckham" > "a handsome Noah like Beckham" (or "a handsome guy like Beckham as a Noah")
v05.158 ENG "Lenalee" > "Miss Lena"
v05.159 ENG "BLUSH" > "HUSH"
v05.168 ENG the Special Thanks page is missing "Yamada-kun" above "Oi-chan"
v05.172 ENG "I like it. It's understated" must be sarcasm, as JPN says it's flashy/gaudy
v05.175 ENG "Yowza" > "Strike"
v05.177 ENG "Would you like to speak to your brother?" > "to the Chief?"
v05.177 ENG "I figured he was indisposed" > "Then that would defeat the purpose of intentionally calling you, Sect. Ldr. Reever"
v05.177 ENG "Komui's sleeping" > "the Chief's sleeping"
v05.182 ENG "For years I have been a supporter" > "I have been a supporter since my mother's time"
JPN v05 has 2 pages of fanart submitted by readers after the chapters (before next-vol preview)
v06 cover (7th printing) changes the design of the cross in the logo, as with previous volumes
The JPN volume has a color spread of Lavi, Kanda and Allen not found in the ENG vol. (It also has Yossy the rabbit on a cross)
There's also a rough sketch double-page showing the prototype of DGM, "Robin's"
Then the insert page (only in JPN vol) has Cross in a pose above Allen saying "Pay up" with debt/bills falling down, in parody of the scene with Tyki and the deck of cards.
STORY: "It all began centuries ago" > "about a century ago". Also missing the details that the Flood ('the three days of darkness') was 7000 years ago. The paragraph beginning "Forces of the Millennium Earl" is pretty loosely translated too.
v06.09-10: "Are they coming for us?" > "Are they coming to stop us?"
v06.40 ENG "... God is wroth. Such an act is a terrible sin, and one that falls from grace." > "'Fall' refers to the sin of a non-apostle trying to synchronize with God."
v06.41 ENG "There is no escape" > "Running away is unforgiveable"
v06.42 ENG "that Hoshino guy / he" > "that Hoshino gal / she"
v06.42 ENG "hamburgers" > "hamburg steaks"
v06.43+78 ENG "Wenham" > "Wenhamm" (the original is clear, so this must be an intentional change)
v06.44+48 ENG "Sokaro" > "Socalo" (and v7 "Zokalo" same)
v06.46 ENG "What power!" > "What destructive power!"
v06.46 ENG "It vaporized the Akuma!" > "It vaporized that many Akuma in an instant!"
v06.48 ENG "Suman has a parasite-type Innocence like you do." > "Suman is a parasite-type accommodator like you are."
v06.48 ENG Lenalee says "I heard" the info about Suman (probably from Reever or Komui?)
v06.49 ENG "I don't know what happened ... to the boy." > "I don't know what happened ... to the boy who became a Fallen One."
v06.52 ENG "Don't get too close to him" > "We'd better not step into this hole."
v06.58 ENG "Suman's memories" > "Suman's feelings/emotions"
v06.59 ENG "and begged the Akuma to spare you" > "and made a deal with the devil" (it's written 悪魔 here, not the usual AKUMA)
v06.59 ENG "You betrayed the Innocence." ('Innocence' is the furigana given for the kanji 'God')
v06.60 ENG "KEVIN BARRY" is a typo and should be removed. Also note "Jerry" for Jeryy and "The Millennium Earl" for "The Earl of Millennium"
v06.61 ENG "He fled the battle in fear." > "He became afraid of dying and fled the battlefield."
v06.70 ENG "my friend" > "my comrade" (does Allen even know Suman?)
v06.78 ENG Komui omake #3: "What kind of stupid question is that?" > "At least write 'noodle' with the kanji." (Reader used katakana instead)
v06.96 ENG "in the bath in vol. 4." > "in the bath that Allen showed in vol. 4."
v06.96 ENG "Grr ...", JPN vol. explains that it's the sound of Kanda's blood vessel/s bursting
v06.96 ENG "Twitch", JPN vol. explains that it's the sound of a vein in his forehead sticking up
v06.102 ENG "Section Chief Reever, does this mean that Suman ..." - they use 'incompatible' / no longer an Accommodator, and say yappari 'after all' so I think the speaker is speculating that this confirms that Suman betrayed the Order
v06.104 ENG "But I haven't seen him in the commissary for a while." > "So now whenever we see each other in the cafeteria he's been ignoring me."
v06.105 ENG "What ... are you saying ... Komui?" > "What ... are you saying ... Brother?"
v05.107 ENG "The Earl's minions killed more than a hundred of our people in their quest for the Heart." > "You heard how the other day, the Order lost more than a hundred of our people, right?"
v06.115 ENG "but of a man who loved his family more than anything, a man who was forced to make terrible choices" isn't based on what the JPN text says. Rather, it's more like "but this is the story of an Exorcist who fought as a soldier. I drew this fully realizing that they aren't warriors who live in the horrors of war, but humans who became soldiers." "Pity him" is also unique to the ENG version.
v06.120-1 ENG "Someone's ... breaking" is wrong. Allen says "Someone [help me!]", and then the panel "Break" as a command isn't Allen speaking ... I think it might be Suman's Innocence, or possibly Allen's. It's written weird in katakana.
v06.134 ENG "Count Krory" - JPN just has "Krory", and he's a Baron in the JPN version
v06.148 ENG "his soul" - mind, heart, soul ... kokoro is harder to translate. But this isn't tamashii here
v06.152 ENG "They were made by the Earl" has lero after it, which is who's speaking
v06.152 ENG "HEY" in the box in the bottom right is Gunma in katakana in the JPN vol
v06.155 ENG "No ... No ..." should be "No ... ah ..." (i.e. 'Noah')
v06.164 ENG "by the Earl" > "by the Lord Millennium". "the Earl's choice" > "his choice/taste"
v06.166 ENG "without even exerting myself" > "without cutting your body with a blade"
v06.170 ENG Special Thanks: the placement of Yamada-san and Akiyama-san are mixed up.
v06.174-5 ENG "start with your Innocence". Tyki actually says Innocence no yarou, 'that Innocence bastard'
v06.176 ENG "The Heart is the jackpot" > "That's the 'sign' it's the Heart."
v06.183 ENG "You were ordered to" > "The Lord Millennium ordered you to"
v07 ENG (6th edition), the photograph of Koro is in color in the JPN vol
v07 ENG is missing the inner black/white/red page. The JPN vol7 has an illustration showing that Bak, who's the same age (29) as Komui, is the same height as Allen (15)
v07 ENG "STORY": "It all began centuries ago" > "It all began about a century ago"
v07 ENG "STORY": like previously, the JPN volume says the Flood occurred 7000 years ago and that the Cube calls it "the three days of darkness."
The 2nd paragraph of STORY in the ENG volume is a pretty loose reinterpretation, but the changes don't really matter so I won't bother translating the original.
v07 ENG: cross in title logo altered like in previous volumes
v07 Characters: Bak Chan > Bak Chang
v07.10 ENG "A card?" > "A Western playing card?"
v07.19 ENG "Samo Han Wong, Assistant Director. Black Order, Asia Branch" > "Sammo Han Won, Black Order, Asia Branch Director's Assistant."
v07.24 ENG "Well, Kanda made a mess of things" > "Well, Yu made a mess of things"
v07.24 ENG "ordered the two of us to do it" > add here "and answer the questions properly."
v07.24 ENG "Q. Does Lavi have a thing for cute girls with big breasts?" > "Q. Is Lavi's taste in girls for ones with cute faces and big breasts, but he doesn't care about their personalities?"
v07.24 ENG "(Allen): He's a menace." > "(Allen): His taste lies in female enemies, right?"
v07.35 ENG "Lenalee's having a hard time" > "Miss Lena is having a hard time"
v07.37 ENG "Sorry, Lenalee" > "Sorry, Miss Lena."
v07.38 ENG "Remember that we cooperate with the Black Order only for the purpose of keeping records." > "Remember that we only happen to be on this side in order to make our records."
v07.39 ENG "Don't forget your duty" > "Don't forget your goal"
v07.47 ENG "He scares me" > "She scares me" (Mahoja is female, which Lavi knows by now)
v07.50 ENG "I don't intend to sleep" > "Ah, we're good then. Not sleeping is my specialty."
v07.57 ENG "I'm not the one" > "We're not the ones"
v07.58 ENG "Allen's heart was punctured. Death was imminent. But his heart was healed ... when particles of his Innocence entered his body and sealed the wound." > "Allen's heart was punctured. Death was imminent. But what healed his heart ... was particles of his Innocence that had become like dust and shouldn't even be activated, which entered his body and sealed the hole all on its own, acting as a substitute for his cells."
v07.60 ENG Lavi "I'd be a Bookman. I have no interest in being anything else." The JPN vol has another sentence in between those two about how he even became an Exorcist.
v07.60 ENG "A noodle maker?" > "A merchant who makes soba?"
v07.62+67+77 ENG "Allen" > in the JPN, Won calls him "Walker-kun"
v07.62 ENG "It's still cruel" - Specifically, Rohfa says "God" is cruel
v07.78 ENG "80 square feet" and "120 square feet" are "10 jou" and "15 jou" in Japanese (畳, tatami mat). A 'jou' is either 1.54 or 1.82 square meters, so 10 jou is either around 165 or 196 square feet, and 15 jou is around either 249 or 294 square feet. So I'm not sure where Viz gets their numbers, unless the online converters I used are off.
v07.82 ENG "She did?" > "'ore-sama?'" (Allen is reacting to the pronoun Bak uses when upset)
v07.83 ENG "Allen Walker" > "Walker-kun" (by Won)
v07.84 ENG "Allen" > JPN "Walker" (by For)
v07.84 ENG "People have been known to take a wrong turn and nearly starve to death" > "One time, someone got lost for two weeks and nearly starved to death."
v07.87 ENG "this stuff was swirling around you like a fog" excludes the JPN "as if to protect you"
v07.87 ENG "TRUDGE" > "can't see"
v07.87 ENG "It was no picnic ..." > "That's when I realized it was Innocenc
v07.87 ENG "That surprised me" > "He even said something unscientific for once."
v07.89+95+102+117+123 ENG "Allen" > Bak and Rikei call him "Walker" in JPN
v07.96 ENG Discussion Room "whisper into Komui's ear WHILE HE'S ASLEEP"
v07.96 ENG the ? after Lavi's "I can't take it" should be an !
v07.105 ENG "... Even with a high synchronization rate." > "Even if they're able to synchronize, they can't restrain the vast force of the Innocence that well."
v07.109 ENG "Allen" > For calls him "Walker" in JPN
v07.109 ENG "Fo is the materialized form of the guardian deity" is missing the detail where JPN says Fo "isn't a human but ..."
v07.114 ENG "between the ages of 18 and 40" > JPN has "10 and 40"
v07.122 ENG "Allen" > Rohfa calls him "Walker-san" in the JPN
v07.124 ENG the placement of "Lo Hwa!" and "I'm sorry!" should be reversed
v07.128 ENG "General Zokalo" > the ENG volume omits his first name, "Winters" which is in the JPN page here
v07.140 ENG "For a Bookman ... attachments are a liability" could be "doesn't need a heart."
v07.150 ENG name spellings in character ranking: Jerry, Eeze, Bak Chan, Alestina (JPN has full name), Tap Dopp, Pazu, Baba, Skin Boric, Place Robin (just 'Robin'). Pazu should be Bazu
v07.168 ENG Special Thanks page. The JPN version has different formatting for the names: alternating black/white letters, and three columns. So "Coro" and "Adam" are separate entries, as are "Sakuma" and "Yoshida-san."
v07.182 ENG check Kindle: ebook version is missing chapter page, instead has ad for next volume
v07.183 ENG "Sorry, Count" > "Sorry, Krory"
v08 ENG (6th printing): cover page changes cross in DGM logo like previous volumes
v08 ENG (like previous volumes) omits the special insert art. This time it's Shifu, Rikei, Won and Allen dressed in the same female outfit/hairstyle as Rohfa
v08 ENG 'STORY' same issues as before, i.e. "centuries ago" > "about a century ago", omitting 3 Days of Darkness and 'about 7000 years ago'
v08.16 ENG "Sound Shackles" > "Water Shackles"
v08.28 ENG "The ship! It must be sinking!" This is wrong; the first is Lenalee's thoughts "So that means that ..." and the second part is Eshi saying "The ship is sinking".
v08.40 ENG omake "who has his hair styled like a girl's" > literally "man (with) straight-cut bangs". This term, pattsun, will show up in following chapters later on as a derogatory nickname for Kanda
v08.40 ENG omake "gentle stream of water" instead of mushin and shaberu shikabane "talking corpse"
v08.40 ENG omake "he" for Hoshino should be "she"
v08.43 ENG moves "The ecstasy" down to the bottom panels, and in doing so omits all of what's written there in the JPN original. Quoting Funimation's TL of those lines: "I can ... I can tell that woman's heartbeat is getting weak. I can hear her heart squeak from the oppression of the water pressure."
v08.44 ENG "Not even Eshi can go to those terrible depths" omits "even since evolving to Level 3,"
v08.47 ENG "I see the twisted faces of tortured souls. They enter my eye and crawl around inside my head." > "The screams of many souls that I shouldn't be able to hear, they pass through my left eye and crawl around inside my body."
v08.55 ENG "are my comrades from the Order" > Funi TL "the faces of my comrades inside the wall called the Order."
v08.58 ENG version is missing an entire sentence about Komui's reaction to Komlin being dismantled from the Discussion Room omake.
v08.65 ENG "Eshi's ability" > "Eshi's ability caused by dark matter"
v08.65 ENG "then my Innocence" missing that Innocence is dark matter's opposite
v08.73 ENG "Why aren't you using your hammer?" > "Why aren't you using the Wood Stamp?"
v08.76 ENG omake "Millennium Earl" > "Lord Millennium". And the JPN version has ages/locations/gender for the people submitting questions.
v08.86 ENG "Wha..." > "Above?"
v08.89 ENG "She's gathering all the mass around her!!" > "With that excessive amount of gravity ..."
v08.93 ENG "tens of thousands of pounds" > "tens of thousands of tons"
v08.94 ENG the omake is missing 2 sentences from Allen about Hoshino's personal opinion on the whole Gintama/Lavi thing
v08.98 ENG "You're the one who will die, girl!" > "You're the only one who will become cinders, girl!"
v08.100 ENG "You're important to me" > they're important to Anita
v08.109 ENG "Kamui" > "Komui"
v08.127 ENG "Lord Exorcist!?" should be "Aaaaah! Mr. Krory!!?" and "Aaaah! Count Krory?!" should be "Sir!!!!" (just has danna). And he's a Baron in the JPN version, not a Count
v08.127 ENG "What is this...?!" > "This chain...!?"
v08.134 ENG "They sacrificed themselves to save the ship!!" is missing "the ship and me" from the JPN
v08 ENG manga omits Chomesuke's verbal tic 'cho' at the end of sentences
v08.145 ENG "by General Cross" > "by Cross Marian"
v08.152 ENG "Or is Lenalee" > "Or is Lenalee Lee"
v08.152 ENG "valuable information for the archives" > "a valuable record/log"
v08.156 ENG "Ark" > "box"
v08.156 ENG "General Cross" > "Marian"
v08.156 ENG "factory for manufacturing Akuma" > "Akuma enchanted body plant"
v08.157 ENG "The General instructed me to tell you ... to go home. You'll only slow him down." > "Marian said that if after hearing this [warning] you'll become a hindrance, you should just go home."
v08.164 ENG "release" > "forced release"
v08.186+7 ENG Hoshino should be "her" instead of "his"
v08.186 "wild eye" > "Hoshino"
v08 has 6 pages of reader-submitted fanart after the final omake in the JPN volume (omitted in ENG vol.)