Music shows be like "time for the dance break!" And then the dance break looks like this:

THE FEATHERED STAG

@adarkrainbow @princesssarisa @themousefromfantasyland @thealmightyemprex @professorlehnsherr-almashy @makingboneboy @shelleythesapphic @amalthea9 @softlytowardthesun @grimoireoffolkloreandfairytales @amalthea9 @faintingheroine

(Brazilian Folktale)

Once upon a time there was a queen who would be completely happy if she had children. She was, on one occasion, so excited that, not noticing that it was high noon, the time when the angels in Heaven are singing, she shouted:

"My God! For what time it is! Give me a son, even if it's with the face of an animal..."

A son was born to her, strong, well-built, rosy, but with a deer's snout instead of a face. He grew up quickly, very intelligent and pleasant, possessing unusual wisdom and magical virtues. The King and Queen carried him hidden so that no one would know that the heir to the throne had the face of a deer. When he became a young man, the prince asked to be allowed to go out into the world, looking for adventures to forget his physique.

The parents gave permission and the prince traveled on a dark night, so that his father's subjects would not see him. He walked and walked and walked for days and days, until finally he came to a very great and beautiful kingdom.

Right at the entrance to the city there was a sign inviting any man to build a bridge connecting the two parts of the kingdom that were divided by a bottomless abyss, forcing residents to travel almost a hundred leagues. Whoever built the bridge would be paid its weight in gold and would marry one of the king's three daughters.

Otherwise he would suffer the death penalty. Many people had died trying to raise the bridge. When the work was about to end, a windstorm would come up and destroy everything. The deer-faced prince volunteered and was fired. He stood on the edge of the cliff, lay down and slept as if he were at home. He spent almost the entire next day walking around and looking everywhere as if he had no business doing anything. From the highest window of the palace, the princess followed Deer Face's steps.

At dusk, the prince walked back and forth, as if he were praying. He stopped, opened his arms and a cloud and workers appeared on both sides of the ravine, immediately beginning the work. All night there was a rumor of an anthill and at daybreak a stone bridge connected the two banks of the abyss, haunting everyone. The King was very pleased. Deer Face refused the gold and waited for his bride. The King's two daughters would not even admit the idea of someone dreaming of marrying them to an ugly creature like Deer Face. The youngest declared herself ready to be the mysterious prince's wife. It was a marriage made quickly because it was no fun seeing a pretty girl married to a half-man, half-animal guy. After the ceremony, the King asked his son-in-law where he wanted to live.

"In my house, Yeal Sir!"

And he showed a palace that was a Babylon, magically appeared near the King's mansion. The married princess lived happily but Deerface didn't want to accompany his wife anywhere, fearing to embarrass her. The two other princesses married two elegant princes and were proud of their husbands.

It happened that, every few years, the King ordered very popular rides to take place. People came from the end of the world to watch. All the nobles ran to the jousts, with spears, taking the gold rings that were given to the ladies, with much applause from the crowd.

Then followed a dance that lasted all night. The two princesses spent their days examining dresses and dreaming about balls.

The youngest sister looked happy, but she was sad because her husband wouldn't run to the rings with that face. On the morning of the day of the cavalcades, Deer Face called the woman and said to her:

"Here is the dress you shall wear to the party. Give me a bath, catch my lice, perfume my body and I will be locked in a room until you return. I don't want anyone to notice you're missing."

The princess did everything her husband asked and, much against her will, locked him in a room, got dressed, took the carriage and followed. When she appeared on the stage, everyone clapped because she was the prettiest of them all. The race started. In the midst of the knights an unknown man appeared, handsome, strong, well armed and on a horse that was a corisco.

He ran all the jousts and took all the rings. Nobody knew him and when the gentlemen paraded next to the King to greet him, the stranger lowered the silver spear and left all the gold rings in the lap of Deer Face's wife. The people clapped so much that the city roared. Deer Face's wife wanted to shake off the little rings and didn't do so in order not to offend the nobleman, but she took the carriage and returned home.

She found her husband where she left him, asking if she enjoyed the races.

She told what had happened.

 "Wouldn't you rather have married a gentleman like the one who gave you the rings than me?"

 "I wouldn't exchange my husband for all the gentlemen in this world!"

Replied the little princess.

"Minus two."

Said Deer Face.

The woman didn't understand and the husband didn't explain.

The next day there was the same case. The unknown gentleman reappeared better dressed, better mounted and armed, and won the rings. He went to greet the King and laid them all in the lap of Deer Face's wife. Then he bit his horse on the spurs and disappeared.

The woman came back and told what happened. Deerface asked if she wouldn't be happier with the stranger than with him.

"I wouldn't exchange my husband for all the gentlemen in the world!"

Was the answer.

 "Minus two..."

Muttered Deer Face.

In the third, the same feat. Deer Face heard the story and his wife's response and just said:

"Minus two..."

And he ordered the woman to dress for the ball. The woman didn't want to go but he forced her.

The little princess decided not to dance because she only wanted to dance with her husband.

In the middle of the party the mysterious gentleman appeared, so well dressed that it caused astonishment. All the ladies and maidens wanted to dance with him but the gentleman went to where Deer Face's wife was and asked her for the honor of a dance. So as not to be insulted, the girl accepted and they danced with great grace several times.

At midnight the little princess left the ball and returned home. She found Deer Face in the same position and there was the same exchange of questions and answers.

"Minus two..."

He repeated.

In the morning the woman gave food to her husband and went to manage her household. In an old room at the end of the palace, she saw a large, dusty closet. She dusted it off and opened it. What was her surprise when she came across all the clothes that the mysterious gentleman had worn during the three days of the tournament and at the ball the day before. She had her mouth open, looking at those wonders when she heard a moan. She turned and saw Deer Face.

"Didn't you hear me say, four times, minus two? Because every time I had proof of his fidelity, I took two years off the time of my enchantment. This closed room could not be opened because it is outside the government of the house. Your curiosity changed my destiny and I can no longer stay here."

The little princess started to cry. Cara de Veado opened a huge window there and asked the woman to look towards the east and say what she saw. The woman obeyed.

"I see a dark cloud!"

"It's not that one..."

"I see a gray cloud!"

"That's not it..."

"I see a white cloud!"

"This is it! Goodbye!"

The white cloud grew, grew, filled the room and in the middle of it Deer Face jumped.

The cloud rose and rose, and the woman saw a large deer covered in feathers, looking down at her.

And he disappeared. Immediately the palace collapsed as if it were made of smoke.

The little princess returned to her kingly father's palace, crying a lot like an orphan. The King received her very well but the two sisters laughed a lot at her situation.

"Who forced you to marry an animal instead of marrying a human? Go look for your husband in the woods! ..."

The little princess decided to look for her husband around the world. She equipped herself with a rope and walked, walked, walked... One nightfall she arrived at a very clean and pleasant little house, where she saw a clean and smiling old woman who welcomed her with charity. She gave him something to eat and drink. The little princess told her life. The old woman said:

"My daughter, this is dangerous, but as you are protected by God, I will try. Hide behind that stove because when my daughter arrives everything will be cold."

"Who is your daughter?"

 "The Moon!"

When the Moon arrived, the little house was bathed in a light that looked like milk. The Moon was in a bad mood, sniffing loudly:

"I smell royal blood here! I smell royal blood here!"

"It's nothing, my daughter. Have dinner and let's talk."

The Moon had dinner and calmed down.

The mother asked:

"My daughter, if a pilgrim arrived here, tired and sad, what would you do?"

"Me, my mother? I would treat her welll ..."

The girl came out from behind the stove and the Moon welcomed her, listening to her tell her story. Then she said:

"I wish to help but I don't know where the Feathered Stag's kingdom is. The one who should know is my godmother, the Night."

The same thing happened in the house of the Night as had happened in the house of the Moon. The Night ignored the reign of the Feathered Stag and indicated the house of the sun. The young princess went on her way. The Sun, calmed by his mother, talked to the girl but warned her about the itinerary.

"I don't know. Those who should know are the Winds."

There went the little princess to the House of Winds. The mother of the Winds fed her, hid her and appeased the fury of her children who arrived howling like desperate people. After dinner, they settled down and started chatting. The North Wind didn't even know the South Wind. The West Wind had already heard about it. The East Wind became important:

"I know where it is. Is far away. It is a beautiful reign, ruled by a deer dressed in very white and shiny plumes. I'll take you tomorrow."

At dawn the mother of the Winds woke up the little princess and said to her:

"My daughter, when you get there, hide in the woods by the Lagoon of the Middle. There are two silver stones on a bank and there all the enchanted animals come to drink water, daily. Make sure that, as soon as the Feathered Deer lowers its head into the water, jump on top of it, hold on to it and don't let go, no matter what. God guide you..."

The wind from the east took the girl and she flew almost all day. At nightfall she left it on a path, near the forest. The girl saw the lagoon. She ran there and hid, next to the two silver stones.

All the animals came to drink, little by little in groups.

At dusk, there was a noise of square sticks and broken branches and the animals all ran away in fear. Then a huge feathered deer appeared, as majestic as a monarch, and it came, came slowly, its nose in the air, suspicious.

He would get closer and suddenly, he would take a jog and be far away. Then he came back, breathing hard, restless. He got so close, so close that he turned his back to the girl's side and put his nose in the water of the lagoon. The girl quickly jumped on top of her, clinging to her neck as if it were a padlock.

The Feathered Stag made more than a thousand jumps, leaps, turns, bellowing, throwing kicks that darkened, rubbing against the trees, running, but the little princess didn't let go and more and more held on in that whirlwind of prances and pirouettes.

The Stag jumped and leaned against the thorns so much that the feathers flew away, one by one. When the Deer got tired and stopped, he was transformed into a handsome and strong prince, with the young princess hanging around his neck. They went together to the palace that stood in the center of the forest.

They entered and were welcomed by the nobles who were the disenchanted animals. A magnificent dinner appeared and they celebrated the end of the penance all night.

In the morning the King, Deer Face's father-in-law, went to look out the window of his palace and saw a castle much more important than his, next door. He sent to ask who lived there and when he found out that his daughter and her husband had returned, he ran to hug them, crying with joy.

There were public celebrations for three days. The two princesses were so furious with their sister's victory that they rushed from the tower, crashing onto the paving stones.

The queen mother of Deer Face, who had been mute all this time, recovered her speech, a sign that God had forgiven her.

Breathe

This had to be death. Tendrils of darkness envelop themselves round about her neck. She could hear everything and nothing at the same time. A chorus of silence rang in her antennae as the world around her went out of focus.

The only voice reaching her consciousness brought more turmoil than the darkness itself. It screamed at her. Somehow louder than the silence. It yelled to her that she was dying. That she had to survive, no matter what.

A sound of water...no...the wind. It was a hush. If the wind had a voice to speak with, she envisioned it sounding like this. It swept against the sides of her face, cautiously picking away at the onyx tendrils. Cool vapors filled her lungs and it was not until then she realized she had been deprived of air. Her chest heaved at the returning sensation of life.

Colors were the first thing to come back to her. Dull browns, greys, reds...colors her mind couldn't process just yet. The warm breeze still cupped her face as she opened her eyes. For a moment, she thought she was facing a mirror with the fearful expression gazing back at her. Reality reached her senses and she blinked up at Hopper, still racing to catch her breath.

"Shh," it was the wind, "you were having a panic attack, Princess." Hopper stroked her face. The warm breeze.

Atta closed her eyes again, swallowing, "Not again..."

"You need to talk to someone about this."

"I'm fi--"

"No, you're not." He let his hands fall to the side, still keeping an eye on her. "This is the third time I've heard you crying in your sleep. All the way from my room," he stressed the last part. "Princess, this is getting out of control."

Atta rubbed circles on the leaf blanket to distract herself, "I'll grow out of it. Thank you...again." She gave a small smile, expecting him to leave like he did the other nights.

But he didn't.

Hopper looked at the entrance, contemplating. "Come on," he stood up, reaching a hand out.

She studied it, "Where?" He simply nodded toward the entrance. With a sigh, she took his hand and followed him out. "Hopper, I have a lot to do tomorrow--"

"Sounds fun. Now come on," he led her down the tunnels. She watched the scenery change as they stepped out of the anthill. Stars illuminating the clearing. Hopper stopped just shy under the arching root. "Hold on."

"Wha--" she at least prided herself in not screaming as he pushed himself into the air. "Hopper! Y-Your wing isn't in!"

He landed on top of the root, setting her down gently, "I'm a grasshopper, Princess," he chuckled, "we don't need wings for everything."

It was probably meant to be a jab at her species, but she was distracted by the constellations above them. "Alright...so what's this for?" she gestured around her.

"Just breathe."

"I do that all the time."

"No, that's living."

Atta scoffed, watching him sit down and pat the spot beside him, "What's the difference?" she decided to oblige.

"You spend your whole life living for tomorrow," he stared up at the sky, "have you ever just lived in the moment?"

The Queen downcasted her gaze, not able to go back to a time when she desired to live in the moment. It didn't feel as if there was ever just a moment. It was all long, excruciatingly long days that blended into weeks and months and years. There were no pauses or breaks that allowed her to simply remember how alive she was. To...

Just breathe.

She had to force herself to relax, rolling her shoulders a bit. Her foot twitched back and forth anxiously. "You're trying too hard," Hopper snorted.

"Well, then how am I supposed to relax?" She glared.

__________

I'm not dead!!!! 😃

But I've started college at Appalachian State University and it's going great so far. On my way to be an English major with a focus on Creative Writing and a minor in physics that I'll be transferring to NC State to work further on in two years.

That's the plan anyway...

BUT I was looking through my drafts on here and found this one out of 7... 😬

I'll write a part 2 to this but here's what I had left on.

Into the Anthill pt 30 - The Destiny War

Hank has a complicated relationship with his past identities, none more so than Yellowjacket. So when Rick Jones drafted GIant-Man to help him in a mission to stop Immortus and the Timekeepers, as well as a time-displaced copy of Yellowjacket that hadn't realized he was Hank yet, hilarity ensues.

Except, of course, for Janet. For her it's twice the usual headache.

🐜🐜🐜

Avengers vol 3 #10-11

Justice and Firestar were granted full Avengers status at the Avengers Day parade, turning their reserve member positions over to Giant-Man and Wasp. After the parade, the former memorial to the heroes lost in the Onslaught crisis was rededicated to honor all of the deceased Avengers instead. Grim Reaper interrupted the ceremony with zombie copies of Wonder Man, Captain Marvel, Doctor Druid, Hellcat, Thunderstrike, Mockingbird, and Swordsman and trapped the living heroes in an energy dome. Agatha Harkness helped Wanda bring Simon back to life to defeat his brother, but the rest of the raised Avengers died again.

Avengers Forever vol 1 #1-8, 10-12

Giant-Man and Beast failed to find a cure for Rick Jones' mysterious illness, but Iron Man deduced that it was similar to the power the Kree Supreme Intelligence had once given him. Rick was left alone in the Intelligence's care for observation, but Immortus and Kang each stepped in to fight over him. Rick's power to summon heroes through the Destiny Force was reactivated with Libra’s help, bringing 7 Avengers from across time to save him. This included Songbird and Genis-Vell from the future, the modern-day Giant-Man and Wasp, and Captain America, Hawkeye, and Yellowjacket from different points in the past.

The Avengers made their way to Chronopolis, where Kang sacrificed himself to buy them time to escape when Immortus’s forces invaded. He took control of the Heart of Forever, using it to convert all of Chronopolis and its residents into the Forever Crystal. Safe in Kang's Sphinx Ship, the Avengers were able to escape this fate. The team split up into 3 groups and used the ship’s chronospheres to visit timelines Immortus was targeting. In each era they encountered a team of Avengers facing impossible odds. Using what they learned about Immortus' plans from each timeline, Giant-Man and Yellowjacket salvaged chronosphere tech to take them to Immortus’ stronghold in Limbo. As soon as they arrived, the Avengers were separated and tormented with visions before having to turn back. What Yellowjacket saw revealed to him his true identity, so he offered to help Immortus win to avoid a future as "that loser Henry Pym".

A captured Space Phantom revealed that Immortus' actions were always intended to keep humanity in check, as the Timekeepers viewed humanity as the most dangerous race in the universe. All in the name of human suppression,  Immortus had changed their memories, pushed Vision and Wanda together to reduce the odds of her having children, and impersonated Kang to manipulate Iron Man among many other events. When Hank commented that that meant Immortus had been responsible for his mental breakdowns instead of Kang, the phantom confirmed that the story was a lie. No outside force had tampered with his mind; he had fallen on his own.

Immortus, desperate to keep Rick from using the Destiny Force again, worked with Yellowjacket to show the Avengers the totalitarian future Rick's descendants would incur if they inherited his power. The Timekeepers held the Avengers on trial to prove that humanity was too dangerous to go unchecked. They planned to only allow timelines that contributed to their own survival to remain, erasing all others with the power of the Forever Crystal. Double-crossing Immortus, Yellowjacket called in Kang, Rick, and the Supreme Intelligence to help the Avengers stop the Timekeepers.

The final clash happened at The Citadel At The End Of Time, where the Timekeepers had set up their chrono-cannon. They summoned Avenger from every failed timeline to defend them, Rick countered by summoning Avengers from the timelines where they stayed heroic. Unable to stop the cannon, Rick used the Destiny Force to stop it but died in the process. Kang took the opportunity to kill the Timekeepers and Cap destroyed the Forever Crystal while he was busy. Before everyone was returned to their respective times, Genis sacrificed his life to revive Rick. 

Minor/Cameo appearances from this period:

Avengers/Squadron Supreme Annual vol 1 #1

Iron Man: The Iron Age vol 1 #2

Fantastic Four: Fireworks vol 1 #1

Iron Man & Captain America Annual vol 1 #1

Iron Man vol 3 #12

A simple(n't) birthday

~ Everything here is just a work fiction. Every person, place, institution, event and etc. is not a representation of any of the real ones. Written purely for entertainment. ~

Genre: fluff, with bugging ateez members

Warnings: none

Word count: ~2200

A late birthday fanfiction for our Captain, as Christmas draws closer. It will be filled with a little bit of... madness, I might say. Have fun~

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another day started in the life of ATEEZ, with gloomy and rainy weather - again. It seemed like they haven’t felt the soothing touch of warm sunlight for ages. Which was unfortunately true. The whole world was strict with its nature, not allowing anybody to feel happiness from a sparkle of a random water droplet in the morning or re-noticing the many colours that are there in their daily lives, although it’s difficult to be always aware of them.

The base was full of joy, though. They decorated the rooms one by one with unique, very unique designs as most of the ornaments were made by them. Did the more talented ones do the majority of it? Definitely not. But everybody tried while having fun and brain damage as well to finish the program in time.

The reason behind this squirmy anthill was their captain’s birthday. ‘After all, it only comes once a year, haha!’ said Wooyoung a few days ago, only to receive seven pairs of eyes’ judging gaze in return. It was true, naturally, but the loud male always repeated this same joke every time a special day came.

When he tried to get a different kind of reaction, he ended up getting shushed by Seonghwa and a very menacing looking pile of clothes in his hands. Truth to be told, most members were frightened as well, even if the threat wasn’t directed to them. At least everybody was quick with their parts of this important job. First and foremost, all of these freed souls wanted to scintillate with their performance and gifts because they adored the man who had to accept the suffocating weight on his shoulder. And he also wanted to fulfil this duty, Hongjoong felt like it was his mission and the reason why he had to be born into this world. The others were determined to help him reach his goal, which became theirs immediately or slowly as time passed.

“Whoever made Christmas trees in November” started off Seonghwa deadly but silently, since he didn’t want to wake up the leader either “I will shove a real one into your ass on the 25th of December.”

Two heads already went pale as a laboratory coat. It only meant that the lioness found his targets a little bit too easily, maybe. Was it their recklessness by being high on this hype train, or was it just a lovely yet dumb joke? Or more likely, an attempt for it?

“Hyung, we just wanted to add some more colours to this event, and Yeosang discovered an old magazine with Christmas specials so we thought it would be fun.” Explained San with pouting lips. He used his trump card he likes so much.

Wooyoung nodded along right away, almost falling off the small ladder he was standing on to put up a bunch of luftballons. “Yeah, exactly! There was even a title which said ‘You can not start preparing for the holidays too early! Come and buy our brand’s top products to really add some spice to that smile! Thunder Whiskey - To become Thor for a moment.’ and we were completely stunned by it!” He probably recited every word perfectly with his dialect filled voice. It was strangely always understandable, despite the fact he was literally disgracing almost each of the phrases with the pronunciation.

The sudden flood of information worked out in their favour as the oldest just threw two snowball imitations at them before going back to setting up the table. The hand-made cake was already on the counter, simple candles ready to be lit and the rare liquor on set. Him, Yunho and Wooyoung worked hard on the dessert. Jongho wanted to take part as well, but he was assigned with the obtainment of the alcohol and the others were simply not allowed to go near for the cake’s safety. Only Mika, when it was time to make the cream and to decorate it because he always had something interesting in his mind. Although not all ideas were… well, acceptable.

After bugging and arguing for around an hour, a well known alarm was heard. Hongjoong’s clock was shrieking to wake the captain earlier than any of the others expected. The last pieces were hurriedly tossed into near their right places as they panicked and got ready in no time to be in formation, as Mingi worded it.

As planned, Mika knocked on Hongjoong’s door, asking him if he could come out. Yet, nobody anticipated that the male would tell the younger one to come into his chamber. The victim looked baffled as he answered in a seemingly careless way ‘yeah sure, what is up?’ while opening the door. The remaining ones were left outside, blinking and with question marks over their heads. Worst thing, they couldn’t eavesdrop on them because of the thick door.

Hongjoong was sitting in his bed, his hair still tangled and curly which clearly showed the other man how long the leader had been up. Mika fought the urge to ruffle his hair as he stopped in front of the black haired male, with a questioning expression on his face.

“I would like to ask a favour from you.” He started off, after munching away the last pieces of his probably fading away or already forgotten dream. Mika only lifted his left eyebrow to this short yet kind of weird sentence. What is he planning?

“Look,” Hongjoong continued. “I think I will be assassinated with pranks and surprises over and over again until fucking midnight and you are the most… well, not normal but… the least dramatic out there? This is why I want you to be my bodyguard for this day - please?”

Mika’s brain was almost sure that the person on the bed said ‘pretty please’ based on the look on his face. Those sweet, demanding puppy eyes. But he had to reject this random free gift opportunity since he had messed up the bunker with the members that morning, although Hongjoong didn’t know about it - yet.

“You should flatter me properly if you want me to accept this job” Mika told him. “At least, next time, for sure, because I have already failed your request, sir. Now, if you would brush your shaggy curls to stop Meduse from reviving and come out with me.” Despite the kind tone and the title ‘sir’, even a dull mind could have told that the blue-eyed man used much sarcasm in his voice. So much that even he wasn’t aware of it.

Poor captain took some last peaceful breaths, sighed at Mika with a dying expression and his little bit pouty lips and stepped outside the door. Where a whole whirl of confetti awaited him, thrown by the flabbergasted people out of pure panic and instinct. And a gesturing, scarily staring pair of light eyes behind the jumpscared man.

Hongjoong didn’t even have the time to spit every piece of paper out of his mouth as the others were already pulling him to the kitchen with ear-killing chirping. It looked like a kidnap from the outside, Mika was pretty sure about it. Or like a show-down of a lynch.

The building was thriving with all these reckless noises and voices the whole day. The celebrated one was right, this madness lasted until the next, 24 hours long time period began ticking. There was even a countdown where Hongjoong was under a pile of men - because of a challenge seen in an old funny article - even including the ‘least dramatic’ one and Hongjoong was only freed when the clock hit 00:00.

“See, I told you it was a good idea to make two cakes! One, for us to push his head into it and one to actually eat it. Haha, and he believed that we would spare his life this time, ah, his face was priceless. Ah.” Wooyoung was holding his stomach with an amused, slightly painful countenance on the couch, more like crawling than sitting properly in one place.

“You were right this time, and I will truly never ever forget the expression he made. Even a cat couldn’t do better.” Seonghwa agreed with him while slowly sliding down from the sofa.

“I’m glad we could take some pictures in the middle of this insanity… They turned out quite well, actually. We will print them out later with Jongho. “ Yeosang quietly murmured this to us with his sleepy, low voice.

“Make sure to send all of them to me as well, I will make a compilation soon out of the best ones~” Yunho said lazily, but the end of the speech turned into a laughter when he noticed a stupored shorter male looking at him from a lower head position. It was meant to be frightening but after he had to suffer through us hugging him, yeeting his face into a cake, us dragging him as a voodoo doll, eight people literally toying with him and etcetera, nobody could take it seriously.

San giggled silently next to the dying Wooyoung on the couch with closed eyes. He looked so drunk even though the amount of alcohol was limited and Hongjoong got most of it to be able to handle us that day. The fine man was just probably out of the zoomie time and had to change into energy saving mode.

“Don’t forget to copy every picture several times or some people might destroy the evidence.” This wise advice came from the steadily sitting Jongho who looked the most content out of them. But his longer blinks and sort of baggy eyes said it all, he went crazier than usual as well.

“Ohoh, we can’t let that happen, now can we?” A smile came from the dazzling oldest one although it was rather creepy. He had a mysterious power that awakened primary instincts in people’s hearts when he wanted them to.

“Ya, Yunho-ya, can you make it into a video? I will write a rap for it-” Mingi had come up with the idea in that instant, then began performing a free-style in the middle of the room. Mika wondered with half-closed eyelids how did he still have so much energy left. A second later, he realised that the tall male will K.O. himself in less than 10 minutes, no matter where he was. It's fine.

“Tidying. Now. Sleep.” Ordered the tortured leader with a raspy voice, from the ground. He stayed there, face lying on the carpet, limbs as powerful as a blue bird in a cage after getting drugged. Mika scoffed, then maybe purposefully failed to hide his laugh with an obviously not real cough while looking at the cat on the floor.

“Bodyguard.” This word was meant to sound as powerful as the previous one, but the small difference in Hongjoong’s voice and the uncovered hope in his irises gave him away. The laughing bursted out of the ‘bodyguard’, he went to scrape him together anyway.

Captain Joong was only walking next to Mika until they reached the dark corridor, where he got stuck in one place. The guardian was confused at first, but as the few centimetres shorter person faked a pretty dramatic concussion, his violent giggles returned and he picked up the silently demanding one onto his back.

Not like it was unusual but the leader’s pride already suffered much from this whole ordeal so he didn’t want to reveal how exhausted he was in front of the crew. Mika delightedly put Hongjoong down onto his nicely made blankets that will be ruined by his dirty clothes in a minute. But who would want to queue for a shower after a rough, eventful day?

“Ah, if only birthdays could last for two days so the others would clean up, wash my clothes, let me take a long, long bath and give me headache-less hours…” His eyelids were intact by then.

“...and a massage, a goodnight kiss on your forehead and-” Even though Hongjoong looked like the sleeping beauty, he tickled Mika’s side to shut him up. Poor man was overly ticklish.

“Ahahah, okay, okay, but if you ask us to do it for you, we might as well just make it happen since we respect you.” The lying one glanced at the sitting man through a thin crack tiredly. “I mean, in general. Sometimes we just have to disrespect you to show our utmost respect.”

Loud laughter was heard in the main room because Hongjoong took his sweet revenge with tickling. The sudden noise startled the ones working there, to at least not leave a literal garbage dump after them, but they exchanged some smug smiles while finishing the job, already thinking about jokes the next day. In the meantime, the remaining two people collapsed in the leader’s room to sleep. A shorter one in the bed and a slightly taller figure on a mattress that was accidentally left there by a certain person in the morning as he heard his members ganging up in front of his door.

- H

Entry VI - Chant

“Okay.”

That was about all I could say at the moment. My internal cultural references may have been on the fritz at the time, but my mind couldn’t help conjuring up images of Jafar and his sinister, twisty beard. Moore gazed unblinkingly at me, as though trying to puzzle something out. 

“You don’t believe me?” he asked eventually, his voice carefully neutral. He set down his now-empty whiskey glass and got up to pace back towards the fridge. He cracked it open and retrieved another bottle of the Imperial Dry-Hopped Barrel-Aged Double IPA or whatever the hell he was drinking. Then he settled back down on the couch and resumed his steady, analytical stare, his brow furrowed slightly. 

“I mean,” I began to answer before giving him a helpless shrug. “Sorcerer?” 

A sensible person would likely have gotten up and begun slowly backing out of the house by this point. They would have smiled and nodded and begun reaching for their car keys. They would have stretched and remarked on how late it was getting, and explained that they needed to go home and feed their cat. 

Being bereft of sense, cats, and car keys, I stayed firmly planted. 

Ultimately, Moore broke his scrutinizing gaze and turned to regard his bottle, maybe reading the paragraph of flavor text on the side of it, maybe trying to appear properly wizardly. Then he took a pull from it and settled back into his seat, his eyes in the middle distance. 

Without looking at me, he spoke up again. 

“What’s in this bottle?”

I felt my lips purse and my eyebrows raise in a skeptical expression. 

“Beer?” I hoped to God that he wasn’t hoping I could identify the specifics of the bizarre amalgamation of hops and barely he was drinking. 

“Sure,” he answered, and tipped the bottle over his empty whiskey glass. A generous amount of amber ale poured from the bottle’s neck and frothed into the tumbler. 

Moore took another sip from the bottle and reached into the front pocket of his jeans. There was a clink of metal on metal as he produced a set of keys attached to a ring with a Swiss army knife. Their tarnished steel glinted glumly in the muted light of the living room. He unfolded the blade from its resting position and, with a quick and practiced motion, drew its edge across the tip of this right thumb. 

I drew a quick, quiet gasp at the casual suddenness of it, but Moore’s only reaction to the self-inflicted cut was a slight sniff of discomfort. Steadily, he held his bleeding digit over the half-filled tumbler glass and allowed a few drops to plink into the beer below. At the same time, my nostrils filled with an acrid coppery smell. My nose wrinkled in disgust. 

“I’m not drinking that,” I said reflexively as Moore brought his wounded thumb to his mouth to suck on the shallow cut. His lips twisted into an acerbic smile around it. After a moment, he fixed his gaze on me again, gestured with the beer bottle, and asked,

“What’s in this bottle?”

I couldn’t tell if I was being tricked or patronized, and I wasn’t sure what was worse by this point. I made a frustrated gesture and, in an exasperated tone, replied, “Beer.”

Moore’s sour smile widened into something more genuine and, tilting the bottle towards the empty surface of the coffee table, he poured. 

With a hiss, pale gray dust rushed from the bottle’s lip and started forming a neat pile upon the tabletop. 

I felt my eyes widen in shock, and I was momentarily speechless. Moore, however, was not. His voice was soft as he spoke, his thoughtful, searching eyes flicking between my face and the widening anthill of dust. 

“Sorcerer. Practitioner. Magician. Left-hand path, right-hand path, theurgy, alchemy. The fucking words don’t matter,” he frowned slightly before correcting himself, “except when they do. But you can be sure as shit that it’s as real as you or me.”

My breathing was shallow, my arms were breaking out in goosebumps, and there was something like electricity pulsing through my nerves. I was transfixed on the bottle, with that tinny, coppery smell still coiling through my senses. 

Ultimately, the bottle ran dry, and Moore set it down. He reached for a Kleenex from a box on his end table and pressed it to his thumb. 

“Your brain might be fucked, Chant.” There was a sympathetic twinge to his voice that curbed the worst of his bluntness. “Your memories too. And that sucks dick.”

He reached over to the neglected handle of whiskey and poured me another few fingers. Then he took a swig straight from the bottle. 

“But your mind? I think it still knows what’s up. You might not remember what you had for breakfast today. Or the day before that... or the day before that.” He paused and sucked his teeth as he considered the enormity of my unpleasant position. “But your mind? Your perceptions? Your senses?” He smiled in what he probably thought was a reassuring expression. It didn’t suit him. “I think you’re still a spellbreaker.”

I nodded along, still processing the sheer impossibility of the day’s events. I took a deep breath. Then, in perhaps the steadiest, most self-assured movement I had made all day, I reached over and picked up my glass of whiskey. The dark gold liquor swirled as I lifted it towards my lips. I threw the drink back and let it scorch my throat on the way down. Then, my voice admittedly a little scratchy from the experience, I asked Moore the question that had been dogging me since the car ride. 

“What the fuck is a spellbreaker?”

Don't take me home I'm scared PILOT version

Summary: a new puppet arrived in the neighborhood.

Following the title screen we are presented to the show by Wally Darling opening the door from his house, Home and welcoming the viewers to the neighbourhood. We are then introduced to the rest of the puppets and the theme song: Harry Redd(Red Guy), Robby Duckman(Duck), Barnaby B. Beagle, Julie Joyful, Frank Frankly, Eddie Dear, Poppy Partridge, Howdy Pillar, Sally Starlet, and the absentee Sunny Songbird (only his cardboard cutout is seen). The intro will be a parody of children’s puppet show intros like Sesame Street and The Muppet Show. During all this, a new yellow puppet suddenly appears and falls into the neighbourhood out of nowhere, disrupting the song(by crashing into the title sequence that turns into blocks of letters).

The yellow puppet is very confused about who he is, what going on and why he is in this strange new place, however, he is informed by the other puppets that he wasn't the first, as the other puppets have lost their memories too before teleporting to the neighbourhood (Harry is currently the one who stayed the longest), and also reassures him that he will get used to his new home.

Still confused about this new place he was in, Wally introduced himself to the new yellow puppet before giving him a tour around the neighbourhood where everyone lives and he introduced him to the other puppets. When the yellow puppet couldn’t remember what his name was, Wally showed some power limit and decided to give the yellow puppet a new name, Danny. To help Danny get used to the place, Wally hands him a key before he goes back into Home to do some drawing time. The key sprung back to life and began teaching everyone about homes through song.

Halfway through the song about settling into your new home, an annoyed Robby decides to call it quits and go back to his house because he already heard the same song all over again but gets captured by a bunch of weird-looking, dog-sized ants (who interrupted the song by gruesomely killing the key). Back to the rest of the puppets, Poppy suggests going to check on Sunny with Danny since he is unaware of the newbie's appearance, however, Harry theorises and believes that Sunny may have gone insane from staying too long. Howdy suggested that he, Poppy, Barnaby, Eddie and Danny should go check with Sunny while Harry, Frank, Sally and Julie help save Robby from the ants, which gets Poppy concerned a bit. Barnaby introduces Danny to their houses, but since they are puppets, they don't need to eat, drink, or sleep to live on(Puppets also don’t have genitals so they don’t need to go to the toilet either) and talk about how if a puppet goes insane then "something really bad" will happen to them.

They reach Sunny's house and open the door to see Sunny now horribly disfigured into a horrific giant bloody puppet-monster with thousands of eyes and teeth(the "something real bad" Barnaby mentioned), who attacked Eddie first, the now monstrous Sunny then chases after Danny, Howdy, Poppy and Barnaby. The monster then crashes through the railings and chases an ant next, allowing Danny, Poppy and Barnaby to go and check on Eddie(who is now ripped up in half). Meanwhile Harry, Frank, Sally and Julie find where Robby has gone, which just so happens to be a giant hole in the ground where the anthill is. When Howdy runs into them while trying to escape from the monster, he lies about Sunny being alright and goes with the other puppets through the hole. The five puppets then encounter the giant ant queen, who bizarrely looks like a hybrid of a tarantula and a queen ant. Julie also finds Robby and fails to save him from being devoured by the queen.

Back to Danny, Poppy and Barnaby. Barnaby and Danny talk with Eddie while Poppy patches him up with her backup first aid kit and they conclude that only Wally can help them. While Barnaby and Poppy take care of the wounded Eddie, Danny goes off to find Wally, opening several doors from other houses to randomly surreal rooms while avoiding monster Sunny, before finding Home. He enters the door from Home only to find himself in an empty room full of darkness and a staircase in front of him. Danny began climbing up the staircase.

Back to the nest, the ant Queen expresses her plans to turn anything and everything into all ants like herself and the rest of her nest when Sunny crashes down and begins killing her by slashing her head off, releasing Robby, Julie and allowing the other puppets to escape.

Danny meanwhile still tries to find the end of this endless staircase while climbing, coming across a picture of him climbing the staircase that is displayed hanging on the wall. Finally, he reached the end of this endless staircase which is a room. He opened the door.

Wally was painting an apple in his bedroom when suddenly Danny opened the door to his bedroom. Wally then realizes that Sunny has become corrupted and orders Home to finish him. Home used their tentacles to grab Sunny and violently gobbled him up through the door. After that, Wally apologizes to the puppets for leaving them behind. To make it up, he did a finger snap and a long dinner table holding an appetizing feast appeared out of thin air. Danny is confused as to why they are having a feast here despite being puppets who don’t need to eat. Howdy informed him they can eat and sleep but only for pleasure and relaxation(it helps keep them sane). He also pointed out the food they have is actually imaginary and the “food” vanishes after eating. The episode ends with the puppets having their feast while unaware they are being watched by another puppet named Roy who hid by the trees and staring at them closely.

Daughter's Loss

Blazar: Blazar's actions have caused controversy withing GGF, though even within SKaRD there's debate. Haruno has warned SKaRD to be in the ready to fight a meteor set to make planetfall in 30 hours, which they think is a Kaiju. Earth Garon is ok standby, while missiles do nothing, as it unleashes lightning at them. Whilst internally struggling with Blazar's actions, Gento commands Earth Garon as it attacks, only for it to dodge, then slow it's descent, unfolding into Gebalga. Earth Garon fights it until guided missiles strike, but it uses an EMP, Gento has Anri fall back, but Earth Garon is hit, though only after all the missiles are sent wide. With Anri unconscious and Earth Garon without power, Gento sees he has no choice but to use Blazar to fight. In the end though, Blazar winds up fighting itself again at the climax and suddenly flees, leading GGF with no plan as it cuts off power to a city.

Gotchard: Valvarade uses GekioCopter to defeat the Malgam, then weirdly affectionate, offers DeepMariner to Kudoh. Next day, after inviting Kudoh to eat at Kirchen Ichinose, Ichinose agrees to lend Renge KaMantis in exchange for SasukeMaru and EnerGyl, and Minato introduces Spanner. Kudoh doesn't want to deal with Spanner, but she and Ichinose detect a Chemy, finding the Sisters holding AnTrooper hostage, Lachesis merges with it into a Malgam, and traps them in an anthill labyrinth, and reveals they killed Kudoh Fuga, Ichinose only now learning he was Rinne's father. She's always been angry at him for breaking the rules he taught her, but is only encouraged by Ichinose to keep going. Lachesis confronts them again, and Gotchard uses first EnergyMaru, then VenomMariner. Lachesis takes Kudoh hostage forcing Ichinose to give up the Gotchardriver, but Energyl recovers it allowing Gotchard to win using AppareSkebow, recovering AnTrooper. They're returned to the warehouse, but it's collapsing and Kudoh used too juch power in the labyrinth, but from outside Spanner sends in MadWheel, which allows Ichinose to use MadPilets to escape, he then takes back his Chemy. Kudoh visits Kitchen Ichinose, but isn't thrilled by his cooking.

Kingohger: Himeno presents to Rita an Ishabanan replica of Karras' symbol of office, and insists the Chief Justice joins her for tea. Gira goes to check on Jeramie, promising they will bring about his dream, when they are interrupted by the discovery of a cloaked man freezing on the hillside. A woman approaches Ishabana, causing the area to freeze, as Himeno is asking why Rita's eye is alway hidden, they can't say. When the freezing is reported, they go out and discover the freezing is being done by Karras, Rita manages to snap her out by recognising her successor, and she collapses. Rita reveals the eye contains a secret technique to freeze a criminal who cannot be tried by the law, at the cost of freezing the Justice as well. They hope they can question her, only to be informed she's died, and before she arrived. Gira and Jeramie arrive with the man found in Bugnarok, and Himeno is about to begin treatment, when the sight of his face triggers a memory, and he recognises her. Proclaiming he hates people being lively and that he kills anyone he sees, he, the one responsible for the Fury if the Gods, summons zombie Bugnarok and introduces himself as Grodie Leucodium. Dugded, watching, has to be reminded by Kamejim that this is the 5th Uchu Jester, he was able to use Shiron to find where Karras had frozen them both and free them, telling him they can kill all the humans this time. Grodie doesn't control the zombies, they operate in instinct, and he can't die, surviving when Yanma and Kaguragi seemingly kill him on arrival. He calls the zombie semishugods and goes them that they can't kill him. Rita attempts to use the eye, the Semishugods are frozen, but Himeno pulls them out before it is completed, unwilling to also lose her friend to this man. Before anything else can be done, Grodie is knocked down by the sudden appearance of Nephila, who then knocks down all the kings, leaving Jeramie. Before he can question his mother, she holds him, and begs for his help.

empires recap - week of oct 9

the videos released from saturday, october 9 to friday, october 15 were:

-sausage’s episode 35: he reconciles with jimmy, collects references from the people who think he’s cured, and rides lizzie’s secret tunnel

-jimmy’s episode 17: he helps celebrate lizzie’s birthday, finishes his walls, and reconciles with sausage

-fwhip’s episode 25: he tentatively allows sausage back into the wra, builds a gold farm, and works on clearing some of the forest

-scott’s episode 22: he discovers that the crystals have repelled some corruption, builds a hall of heads, and finds buried treasure which includes lizzie’s artifact

-pixl’s episode 26: he teaches lizzie how to have a birthday, builds about half of the anthill, and plots revenge on sausage

-katherine’s episode 23: she reconciles with sausage and continues work on her megabase

-joel’s episode 23: he leaves a trap for scott, builds more on the megabase, and harasses jimmy while he’s afk

detailed recaps under the cut!

sausage 35:

-sausage changes into his kingly clothes, and goes to jimmy’s base to work on reconciling -sausage apologizes for all of his actions beginning from stealing his disc and through his actions before his death; he also explains the events of the arena to him -he also explains how gem killed and cured him when jimmy asks -jimmy says he appreciates the apology, and also apologizes for some of his earlier actions; he offers to start over -sausage says he’s going to properly replace jimmy’s villagers, and kisses jimmy before he leaves; he tells him not to tell scott, and says it was a platonic kiss -sausage replaces his villagers, and jimmy asks if he has any cobblestone; sausage tells him to follow him to mythland, though jimmy dies upon landing -he jokes about starting another war over the cod head when jimmy asks for it, but returns it after a few seconds, and jimmy leaves with a shulker box of cobble -sausage says that he heard about the tunnel between katherine and lizzie’s bases, and that he wants to get permission to ride it, but needs references from all of the people who have acknowledged he’s a good guy -he goes to fwhip first, who has no levels and has to get sausage to rename the items for him; he takes advantage of it and dictates as long a message as he can for sausage to write, eventually stretching across eight different pieces of named deepslate redstone -he goes to katherine next, and confirms that she’s fine with it if lizzie is; she also provides him a reference -he brings house horse back to mythland, and then heads to the crystal cliffs; gem provides him a reference on the condition that he doesn’t make hat jokes for a month, which he agrees to -he goes to jimmy’s base and receives a reference from him as well -he goes to ask pearl for a reference; she dislikes him going to lizzie’s, as she’s not in the wra, but begrudgingly agrees, and he gives her cookies -he goes to lizzie’s, and they briefly joke about him being a cashier at her stall; afterwards, they switch -she mentions that it never rains on this world, and he asks if she did some kind of spell; she doesn’t think she did -he says that he didn’t tell anyone about the secret tunnel and only lizzie, katherine, and sausage know, which is untrue -he trades her stone for dark prismarine, and she brings him to the secret tunnel; she sends a letter to katherine, and then sends him down after -he admires the decoration, but accidentally bumps into a cart; he sets up both of the minecarts which were sent to katherine where they should be, but accidentally sends them back towards lizzie -instead of dealing with it, he goes to visit sir carlos, and reiterates that he helped bring sausage back; he rebuilds the ruins where he found the staff of mythland as a place for carlos to live, shows him around, and says he’ll replace the great staff with something else since it’s safe in gem’s hands

jimmy 17:

-he begins the episode by being spoken to by the cod in his wall for the first time, who remind him it’s lizzie’s birthday -he says it’s strange, but focuses on lizzie’s birthday; he gets some slime and cake for her, but she arrives before he can go leave them for her -she asks how he knew it was her birthday, and he explains that the fish told him; they realize that they can both hear fish, and he gives her the cake and slime before they decide to do more research -he shows off that he completed the last wall of his megabase, and fwhip did some terraforming for him; he says that he thinks there should be towers at the front before he can call it done, and builds them in a timelapse -with the walls done, he says that the base is practically done, but he wants to add big flags; he notes that it’s probably the biggest minecraft build he’s ever done -he introduces the clip from a stream wherein he met up with sausage, and notes that they weren’t exactly the best of friends; however, he says that sausage is righting his wrongs -sausage apologizes for all of his actions, especially the ones where he was possessed and had no control, and explains the events of the arena and how he was cured -jimmy says he appreciates it, and apologizes as well- he says he thinks they can start over, and sausage offers to properly replace his villagers and kisses him before he leaves -he says that he needs to do more research and ends the video

fwhip 25:

-fwhip starts by greeting his villagers by name, and goes to get more smiths after all of them died in a raid from mythland -he cures the two new villagers, but realizes he’s running low on golden apples and weakness potions; he plans to build a gold farm -however, he’s interrupted by gem, who asks him to follow her; he does, though not without some hat jokes -when sausage arrives, he shoots him, but doesn’t continue attacking afterwards; they both make fun of her hat for a while -fwhip is skeptical of the idea that gem cured sausage, and kills him to verify that he can be killed; when sausage says that there’s no more corruption, fwhip points out the crystals, and they say he should remove them -fwhip says he’ll remove the crystals for him, but needs an iou as payment; sausage is skeptical -sausage notices the wither rose alliance swords, and asks if he’s back in the wra or not; fwhip says yes, but tentatively, because sausage killed ten of his villagers -gem points out he’s been healed, and fwhip asks if she can heal his villagers from death -they establish that sausage will be an errand boy before he’s fully reinstated, and he’ll do three errands for each of them since they’re unwilling to simply forgive and forget -he begins planning for the gold farm, and goes to break a hole through the bedrock on the nether roof, and manages it on the second try -he notes that he needs more magma blocks and turtle eggs than he has, and spends some time collecting magma blocks in the nether -he visits pixandria to see if he can take turtle eggs, but decides that pixl doesn’t have enough for him to take them all; he accidentally goes to the spirit realm via nether portal on his way back, but quickly realizes he’s not supposed to be there and goes to find other turtles -he finds wild turtles and gets eggs from them, and builds the gold farm -he works to collect some pillagers for gem, and ends with a bunch in the crystal cliffs; she leaves snow golems in the grimlands, which frustrates him because of the mess -he puts snow on the mountains -he finishes cleaning up the snow golems, and says that he needs to clean up the crystals in mythland, which he does -he demonstrates the success of the gold farm, which has produced more than a full double chest of gold ingots, or nearly six and a half stacks of blocks -he plans to deforest some of the area near the grimlands, builds a mech to assist, and plans to build a garage for mechs

scott 22:

-scott discovers that the corruption is gone in all the areas where the crystals are; the last few tentacles/corrupted trees are where there are no crystals, and the crystal in his enchanting tower is no longer corrupted -he stars working on a hall of heads, and fills it with the heads he has; he connects it to the path and plans on how he’ll expand it later on -he continues work on terraforming the area where he’ll build his palace, and discovers a chest buried in the mountain; it contains various valuables including diamonds, emeralds, lapis, iron, gold, raw copper, a golden apple, and ender pearls -it also contains a piece of paper and an item which matches the drawing created by lizzie’s enderlotl, a spherical object with a shadow of a hand inside it -he holds the object in his offhand without mentioning why, and continues to do so for the rest of the episode -he works on the dirt platform and replacing some missing stairs as he continues to talk -he notes that the last time he found something like this it was the book on aeor and exor, so treasure is a nice change -he mentions that it looks like the kind of thing found in shipwrecks, and jokes about someone writing a lore story about the world once being completely submerged -he replaces the to do list sign about the hall of heads, and comes up with new goals: acquiring magic elsa boots, building an embassy for his allies (though he hasn’t been asked to), and banishing xornoth as he’s only sorted out the corruption at his empire but not successfully gotten rid of him, which he doesn’t think he can do solo

pixl 26:

-pixl reiterates his plan to rebuild the anthill with a more natural gradient -before he does so, he shows his interaction with lizzie -she asks him what a birthday is, and he attempts to explain, with moderate success; she asks how many birthdays he’s had, and he tentatively says 34 -“i mean, i guess like… thirty-four? at this point? it gets a little bit confusing but yeah, i guess thirty-four” -she says she thinks she’s kind of old, though she doesn’t know how many birthdays she’s had- he collects the ingredients for cake, and goes to the river to find the goat in a boat for milk, mentioning the mythland embassy on the way there -she gets the achievement for sitting in a boat with a goat, and she makes a cake; he collects a candle, and they agree she should start counting her birthdays from one -he says that the cake is an old family recipe, and they joke about there being sand baked into it -she releases an axolotl into the river, and there’s an awkward bit of silence (in lizzie’s video, this is where she asked if he could hear it speaking) -he begins work on the anthill over the course of a timelapse which is several minutes long, and builds it partway up, into the beginning of the stripped birch and oak sections of the gradient -he explains again that the anthill is what pixandria was built around, and it’s going to contain tunnels and paths through and around it in the manner of a nest of ants or a rabbit warren -he discusses his method of building the mountain in order to create broader flat patches, by not using a wire frame and building overlapping flat faces to avoid things looking overly blocky -he returns to the residential section across the river, and notes both that he’d like to add more green spaces and he uses plenty of rockets; as such, he builds a manual sugar cane farm to avoid having to perform pearl’s elytra challenges to get any -he plans to get revenge on sausage, and ends with a dramatic sequence wherein he leaves a request for joel to write a diss track

katherine 23:

-katherine begins by collecting materials for her megabase, but is interrupted by sausage -he tells her that he’s not corrupted, and doesn’t remember anything but has been told he killed people; he explains how he died and was cured -he says that he heard about what she’s building from a raven, and brought dirt and grass; she explains her plan to create smaller islands to make a path up to the castle, and he offers to help build -they build several smaller islands, and the front half of the largest one; sausage notes that possessed sausage probably would have blown it up, and katherine agrees. he also says that he won’t be helping her with the back -she works on making the island less flat, and builds a pond and waterfall -she also starts on the actual construction of the megabase, filling in the main walls, and adds star-shaped windows; she also modifies some of the more awkward sections -she decides to change some of the roofs, keeping the shape but making them magenta rather than blue to tie in the designs of her other castles, and also makes outlines out of jungle wood -she works on the flooring, and notes she needs to light things up since creepers are spawning; she also fills in the windows -she gives a brief tour of the castle and its different rooms, and discusses possible plans for ways for getting between floors, as she’s currently using scaffolding and her elytra -she builds some small bridges from island to island, creating an actual path up to the castle; she also builds some overgrown flowers and butterflies to make them less boring

joel 23:

-he decides that he wants to start drama with scott, though he doesn’t really have a reason for either wanting to start drama or choosing scott specifically -he decides to build an embassy in rivendell, though not from mezalea as he knows about the diss track; instead, he plans on making it look like it’s from joey -he also mentions he’s been breeding axolotls in hopes of getting a blue one, but hasn’t yet succeeded -he builds a miniature version of joey’s fire temple, with an observer triggering a bell at the door; he also leaves an abundance of mocking signs on the walls and a book -however, as scott triggered it before the video came out, he leaves in a clip detailing that it was actually trapped with tnt, and says that scott probably lost everything -he collects materials for another build, and jimmy interrupts the collection montage to return joel’s shovel which he lost a long time ago -he sees that jimmy is afk, so he puts him in an obsidian box and covers it with tnt -he builds more on the megabase, beginning on the central tower -he removes the crystals, and mentions that the demon isn’t really that powerful, and that if he had world edit he’d also be powerful -he composts more of the tentacles, and once again goes to harass jimmy while he’s afk, and invites fwhip to come watch -he decides to put jimmy in an airplane, and fwhip helps to clean up the bubblevator and improve the plane design

Keeping Me Alive

Chapter 10: Get Out Alive

by @dracusfyre​

    Now

“Save who you can,” Tony said to himself as he splashed water on his face.

He blindly grabbed for a towel and dried off, meeting his eyes in the mirror for what felt like the first time in years. “Don’t look back.” He straightened his shoulders and took a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves, and went out into his bedroom. He picked up the photo that sat on his bedside table and took it out of the frame, tucking it into the pocket of his pants. Glancing around his bedroom, he nodded once, and went down to his workshop. He saluted the painting of Howard on the wall then dug out the photo of the Winter Soldier from his desk and set it on fire, dropping it to the concrete floor and watching it burn.

 “Ready, JARVIS?” he asked. He ground the last bit of embers into the concrete to put them out.

 “Are you ready, sir?”

 “Yep,” Tony lied. “Let’s rock and roll.”

“Let it Burn Protocol initiated.” As JARVIS spoke, Tony felt the first explosion rock the house, rumbling through his feet as he stepped into the matte black suit in the gantry in the middle of the room. The facemask closed over his face as cracks appeared in the walls of the lab, and as the ground fell away from his feet he was already in the air.

36 days ago

Once he was sure that Stane was gone for good, Tony went down to his work shop and said, “Wake up, JARVIS, we have work to do.”

Sitting down at his workstation, he opened up the master file with the suit schematics and eyed the hologram critically. The hardest part of the suit to master was going to be the flight system, so he isolated and magnified that part from the diagram, studying the repulsors built into the gauntlets and boots with stabilizers along the back. “Start machining the parts I’m going to need for these,” he said. “Circumstances have changed and we are going to need to hit the ground running, so to speak."

“Yes, sir,” JARVIS said, and the whirring of machinery became a low hum, punctuated by sharp bzzts as parts were cut and de-burred. Tony studied the prototype, exploding the diagram, moving it around, and after a while came up with a short list of non-critical design items he could spoon feed to Hydra to show his ‘enthusiastic’ cooperation. An hour later, the whirring stopped and the sudden quiet broke Tony out of his concentration. He sat up and stretched, wincing as his back popped. Standing, he went over to the coffee maker and started a new pot, then dug under the counter for his emergency stash of scotch, splashing a fingers worth in his mug while he waited for the coffee.

He had realized two very important things today. The first was that the Soldier needed saving even more than Tony did; the knowledge that the man was Hydra’s slave, kept ignorant and locked up until Hydra needed an attack dog, had shifted Tony’s world view like a kaleidoscope, shaking up everything he thought knew and making an entirely new pattern. The second was that he couldn't keep waiting around for a chance to escape, he was going to have to make one.

This suit, he knew, was the key to both of those realizations. But this half-baked, insane plan to rescue the Winter Soldier was going to kick the anthill big time and Tony also knew he needed to have some kind of plan for dealing with Hydra in the aftermath. This wasn’t going to be like Afghanistan, where he thought he was out and got pulled right back in again. The stakes were way too high this time.

With that thought in mind, when the coffee was done, he filled up his mug and went back to his desk. He pulled up the operating program for the suit and created a subroutine to overload the reactor, ignoring the flash red warning that said that this would result in a critical core breach and an uncontrolled chain reaction, and set the activation code as “Last Resort.”

One way or another, he thought as he sipped on his doctored coffee, this suit would be his way out.

  32 Days Ago

Tony stared tiredly at the news as he took a swallow of stone-cold coffee. The breaking report was about the assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist. Iran was already blaming Israel, who was of course denying it, but in response Iran was threatening to pull out of the treaties against nuclear enrichment and swore they could split the atom within the year. Political and military analysts were seeing storm clouds on the horizon unless someone backed down and talking about how another war would tax America's already overstretched military. Tony, meanwhile, could tell that this assassination had Hydra's fingerprints all over it, and knew that this was almost certainly the work of the Soldier. "JARVIS," Tony said, muting the television. "I need you to break into Hydra’s servers and find everything you can on the Winter Soldier. Cross reference it with the name James Barnes.” There was a chance that Stane had made the name up, but it seemed unlikely – from what he could tell, the Soldier would have responded to anything, and ‘James Barnes’ was a lot more specific than a simple ‘John Smith’ or ‘Joe Blow.’ “Actually, while you’re at it,” Tony said, having a sudden thought, “I want all of Hydra’s files. Copy them to one of SI’s remote servers.”

Hours later, Tony was just finishing up the wiring assembly for the repulsor system when his computer dinged. Setting down the soldering gun, Tony rubbed his eyes tiredly and turned on his monitor to see what JARVIS had found. To his dismay, there were thousands of files on the Winter Soldier; as he scrolled down the list, he realized that they went back decades. “Fuck,” he said aloud as he looked at the dates and the file names, most of which were a string of letters and numbers that no doubt made sense to someone in Hydra but gave no clue as to what the file contained. He buried his head in his hands and tried not to cry at the enormity of the task in front of him. He was so tired that his eyes were blurry and his head was pounding, but every time he tried to close his eyes he kept seeing James’s body arching with pain and hearing his screams.

“Sir, it has been twelve hours and thirty-six minutes since you last ate,” JARVIS said. “And you’ve made four mistakes in the past fifteen minutes. You need to rest.”

“I have?” Tony pulled his magnifying glass back over to the circuit board and saw what JARVIS was talking about. “Shit. Alright, fine.” He pushed away from the desk and went to the bar sink next to the coffee pot and ran his head under cold water for a second. He came up and wiped his face and the back of his neck, shivering as water dripped from his hair down his back, and went upstairs to look for food. Leaving his work shop felt like he was crossing into hostile territory, like he could be attacked at any moment. And he could, he thought as he opened the refrigerator. Stane had made sure that he always had free access to Tony’s home, because a locked door meant secrets and the only secrets Hydra allowed were their own. He wished he could just walk away from this place, blow it up and find a place to live that Hydra had never stepped foot in, a place that would feel like it was his –

He froze with a jug of orange juice in his hand. He stood there, thoughts racing, for so long that the chiller on the refrigerator came on with a hum. Then Tony said “Huh” to the boxes of leftovers and absently shut the fridge door, OJ still in hand.

25 Days Ago

“JARVIS, this doesn’t make sense,” Tony said, rereading the file for the fifth time. “This thing is saying that the first Winter Soldier was James Barnes, but the current Winter Soldier is James Barnes.” It was hard to think that it was a clerical error, since the earliest files went back to the 1940s and consisted of paper files that had been scanned into a computer sometimes in the 80s. “Is it an alias? Are all Winter Soldiers called ‘James Barnes’ as a security precaution?”

“Facial pattern analysis indicates that it is the same James Barnes,” JARVIS said, and it flashed up an image that looked like a scanned-in polaroid; in it the man was unconscious on an operating table, face dirty and bloody and pale. Next to it JARVIS pulled up an image from Hydra’s own security footage of what the Soldier looked like without his goggles and mask on. There was a vague resemblance to Tony’s eyes, but as the facial recognition algorithm measured the features in each photograph, the conclusion was mathematically precise – there was a 99.7% chance that it was the same man in each photo.

Tony’s face went slack with shock. “How is that possible? He’d have to be almost 100 years old!”

“That part I don’t know, sir.”

“Holy shit.” Tony went back to the original file, reading it more carefully. “James Buchanan Barnes,” he read. “Born 1917. American POW.” He paused at that and sat back in his chair. “Why does that sound familiar?”

In response, JARVIS pulled up a Wikipedia page on Tony’s screen. As he read it, Tony was speechless; for a long moment, he flipped screens between the dead-eyed man from Hydra’s surveillance footage and the smiling man with his arm around Captain America, but this time he didn’t need JARVIS to tell him that it was the same man. The implications made his stomach turn, and as he stared at the screen he exhaled shakily and covered his mouth with his hands. 80 years. James Barnes had been in Hydra’s clutches for 80 years.

He stood suddenly, sending his chair rolling backwards. “We’re doing another flight test. Right now.” 80 years was already far too long, and Tony wasn't going to let it be one more day longer than it had to be.

19 Days Ago

“Tony!” Ms. Potts said with surprise. “I didn’t expect you in the office today.”

Probably because Tony had been dodging Stark Industries for a while now, only coming out of his lab long enough to get her to leave him alone before burying himself in work again. It had occurred to him as he got in his car to go to SI headquarters, blinking in the bright sunlight, that this was the first time he had been outside of the house since Stane’s forced excursion. “Yeah, I wanted to meet with you,” Tony said, shutting the door behind him.  He set a stack of papers in front of her as he sat down.

“What’s this?” She said, flipping through the papers. There was a line of confusion between her eyebrows which only deepened as she started reading them.

“I’m making you CEO of Stark Industries,” Tony said. “Effective two weeks from now. Should be an easy transition, you do most of my job anyway.” He grabbed a pin from her desk and clicked it, the sound loud in the sudden silence. “Sign on the highlighted line, please,” he added, holding the pen out to her, and despite everything he had to smile at the stunned look on her face.

  11 Days Ago

Tony put a hand on Rhodey’s arm and met his eyes, willing him to understand. “I’m saying that Afghanistan wasn’t a random attack,” he said urgently. “I think I was being targeted, and I think whoever did it might try again.” He palmed a thumb drive from his pocket and slid it across the table. In the Hydra files, JARVIS had found that a senator named Stern had been behind the Afghanistan attack, apparently trying to get Tony out of the way so that his good buddy Justin Hammer and his company Hammer Industries could take over SI's lucrative military contracts. There was all of that and more on here, just enough information that if Rhodey put all the threads together he would start getting the bigger picture. Pierce, the STRIKE teams, all of it. “If anything happens to me, I need you to finish what I’ve started.”

“Tony, if you are afraid for your life-“ Rhodey started, still looking dubious but starting to get alarmed.

“Not just me. You. Ms. Potts. Anyone I'm friends with. I can’t do anything to make these people suspicious,” Tony insisted. It was strange to feel like he was lying even though every word he’d said was true. “No unexplained bodyguards, no sudden trips, and absolutely no cops.”

“I don’t like this,” Rhodey said emphatically. “You’re asking me to sit back and wait to see if someone kills you!”

“I know what I’m doing,” Tony said. That part was a lie. He had a plan in the broadest definition of the word; mostly he was making it up as he went along and praying he could handle the fallout. “I need you to trust me.” Rhodey’s mouth was a grim line and his jaw was tight, and Tony knew he wasn’t convinced so he pulled out his trump card. “I can’t do this unless I know you are safe,” he said, lowering his voice and leaning forward. “I won’t risk you.” It took a long minute, and Rhodey looked like he was swallowing something unpleasant, but he finally nodded and put the thumb drive in his pocket. Tony exhaled and sagged with relief. “Thank you."

“When this is over, you better have a good damn explanation,” Rhodey said threateningly, and Tony barked out a humorless laugh.

“You won’t even believe me when you hear it.”

  8 Days Ago

After Tony hit save on the final design of the suit, he stumbled over to the couch and landed on it face first, exhausted. He was laying on the couch, eyes drifting shut as he went over his plan for the hundredth time trying to figure out if he’d missed anything when the lab went dark. “What the hell, JARVIS?”

“Sir, it’s been 56 hours since you last slept,” JARVIS said. “I’m turning off your systems for a minimum of twelve hours.” The light in the stairwell going up to the main floor turned on, its glow just enough to let Tony get from the couch to the door without running into anything.

Tony stayed stubbornly on the couch. “We don’t have twelve hours to waste,” he said. “Turn my power back on.”

The lights stayed off. “Sir, you are a hazard to yourself and others.” Tony scowled and wondered if he had actually programmed JARVIS like this or if he was channeling the man himself. "Also, there's nothing for you to do while I assemble the suit."

“Fine. Ten hours.”

“Ten hours," JARVIS repeated. "I will be monitoring the situation while you sleep,” he added, and Tony knew that he meant not just monitoring Stane and James, but also Tony’s vital signs to make sure he actually slept.

“You’re insufferable,” Tony accused as he made his way up the stairs.

“Yes, sir.”

 2 Days Ago

“Sir, there’s something you should see.”

Tony looked up from the fine-tuning he was doing on the suit’s shoulder-fired weapons to look at the computer screen. JARVIS had maximized the window where he was constantly monitoring Pierce’s communications and highlighted a text that had just been sent. It was to an unknown number and all it said was lvl 10, CovJer10131973 nlt 200810162200Z. The first part was clearly a target identifier and Tony knew enough about the military to recognize the latter as a date time group, set for five days from now. “Bring up the camera feed,” Tony said, and sure enough when Tony looked at the video surveillance of the room where James was kept, he could see that the lights in the room were on and a technician was already in the room powering on computers. They’d found out a while ago that what Tony had taken for a hyperbaric chamber was in fact a cryostasis chamber, which partly explained why James was almost a hundred years old but looked younger than Tony.

“Shit." Tony exhaled long and low, feeling his heart rate spike with nervousness. "How long it takes to thaw him out? Was that in his files?”

JARVIS was silent for a moment. “Evidence suggests approximately 24 hours from the time the procedure is first initiated,” he said.

“Right,” Tony said grimly, turning back to his work with a new urgency. “Guess it’s time.”

 Now

Tony flew north along the coast as his house collapsed into the Pacific Ocean behind him, throwing billowing clouds of dust and smoke into the air as carefully placed explosives reduced it to a smoking ruin. It was thrilling and terrifying to know that for all intents and purposes Tony Stark was sinking to the bottom of the ocean. He'd become a dead man after all, and now the only thing left was this suit and his mission: rescue the Winter Soldier then burn Hydra to the ground.

“Pull up James' video feed for me," Tony said as he flew. Since he was over water, he set the suit to autopilot and shifted his attention to the small window at the corner of his HUD.  James was out of the cryostasis chamber, sitting on a chair as a medical assistant appeared to be taking his vitals. Every now and then he shivered, still shirtless. Other technicians were milling around, tending to the computers, and standing guard were was two members of the STRIKE team, hands on their weapons as they kept an eye on him. His records had indicated that he was prone to ‘erratic violent outbursts,’ which Tony figured was code for “periodically tries to fight back.” Tony had actually been happy to read that, because it meant that Hydra hadn't managed to break him completely. Right now, though, James just seemed willing to numbly submit to whatever the technicians were doing, his long hair a curtain in front of his face as he stared at the floor.

“Sir, we are approaching the facility,” JARVIS said, and minimized the video. Tony flew lower to the water, navigating around the giant cargo ships at dock. Even for a twenty-four hour facility it was late, and there were only one or two ships that had people still unloading shipping containers. He landed close to the Hydra facility but out of the line of sight; he had managed to camouflage the suit to the best of his ability, but he couldn’t hide the bright lights of the repulsors so he made the rest of the approach on foot.

JARVIS’s scanners found four total guards around the building, patrolling in pairs. By sticking to the deep shadows cast by the stacked shipping containers and the orange-yellow glow of the sodium-vapor security lights, Tony got within hearing distance and hit them with a pulse of high-pitched wave frequency. They both stiffened and fell over, paralyzed, helmets bouncing off the pavement hard enough to knock them unconscious. Tony bound them with their own zip ties and hid them out of sight, then used his backdoor access to the security system to unlock the doors and set all the surveillance cameras on a one hour loop. As he strode through the door into the lab, all eyes turned to face him, and before anyone could even speak there was a brrrt noise and they fell to the floor, killed by the precision targeting system Tony had built into his suit.

When JARVIS confirmed they were all dead, Tony took off the helmet and looked down at one of the bodies; the one closest to him had been here a month ago, monitoring James’ vitals as they wiped his mind. This was the first time Tony had killed anyone and he expected to feel..something, sad or upset or even vindictive, but he didn’t really feel anything. It all felt too easy, and Tony knew it was because he had designed a suit that had made it that easy. All the more reason that Hydra couldn't be allowed to get their hands on it.

James was still sitting in the chair, watching Tony as he approached; he hadn’t even gone for cover as everyone around him had died. Tony wondered if it was out of surprise or indifference. “Do you know me?” He asked, coming to stand in front of him. James studied his features for a moment and shook his head. “My name is Tony Stark. You are James Buchanan Barnes, and I am here to rescue you.” Tony offered him a hand to get to his feet, but James didn’t move, he just stared at Tony with those glacier blue eyes. There wasn't blankness in them now, only a narrow-eyed look of consideration. “Come on,” Tony tried again. “We’re escaping. We have to hurry before more people show up.”

James didn’t move. “There is no escape from Hydra. The only way out is-”

“Death, I know.” Tony kept his hand out but gestured expressively around the room with the other. “But they never said whose death.”

James studied him again, then turned his gaze to the dead bodies. Finally, after a long moment, he took Tony’s hand and let him pull him to his feet.

Living robots built using frog cells

A book is made of wood. But it is not a tree. The dead cells have been repurposed to serve another need.

Now a team of scientists has repurposed living cells -- scraped from frog embryos -- and assembled them into entirely new life-forms. These millimeter-wide "xenobots" can move toward a target, perhaps pick up a payload (like a medicine that needs to be carried to a specific place inside a patient) -- and heal themselves after being cut.

"These are novel living machines," says Joshua Bongard, a computer scientist and robotics expert at the University of Vermont who co-led the new research. "They're neither a traditional robot nor a known species of animal. It's a new class of artifact: a living, programmable organism."

The new creatures were designed on a supercomputer at UVM -- and then assembled and tested by biologists at Tufts University. "We can imagine many useful applications of these living robots that other machines can't do," says co-leader Michael Levin who directs the Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology at Tufts, "like searching out nasty compounds or radioactive contamination, gathering microplastic in the oceans, traveling in arteries to scrape out plaque."

The results of the new research were published January 13 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Bespoke Living Systems

People have been manipulating organisms for human benefit since at least the dawn of agriculture, genetic editing is becoming widespread, and a few artificial organisms have been manually assembled in the past few years -- copying the body forms of known animals.

But this research, for the first time ever, "designs completely biological machines from the ground up," the team writes in their new study.

With months of processing time on the Deep Green supercomputer cluster at UVM's Vermont Advanced Computing Core, the team -- including lead author and doctoral student Sam Kriegman -- used an evolutionary algorithm to create thousands of candidate designs for the new life-forms. Attempting to achieve a task assigned by the scientists -- like locomotion in one direction -- the computer would, over and over, reassemble a few hundred simulated cells into myriad forms and body shapes. As the programs ran -- driven by basic rules about the biophysics of what single frog skin and cardiac cells can do -- the more successful simulated organisms were kept and refined, while failed designs were tossed out. After a hundred independent runs of the algorithm, the most promising designs were selected for testing.

Then the team at Tufts, led by Levin and with key work by microsurgeon Douglas Blackiston -- transferred the in silico designs into life. First they gathered stem cells, harvested from the embryos of African frogs, the species Xenopus laevis. (Hence the name "xenobots.") These were separated into single cells and left to incubate. Then, using tiny forceps and an even tinier electrode, the cells were cut and joined under a microscope into a close approximation of the designs specified by the computer.

Assembled into body forms never seen in nature, the cells began to work together. The skin cells formed a more passive architecture, while the once-random contractions of heart muscle cells were put to work creating ordered forward motion as guided by the computer's design, and aided by spontaneous self-organizing patterns -- allowing the robots to move on their own.

These reconfigurable organisms were shown to be able move in a coherent fashion -- and explore their watery environment for days or weeks, powered by embryonic energy stores. Turned over, however, they failed, like beetles flipped on their backs.

Later tests showed that groups of xenobots would move around in circles, pushing pellets into a central location -- spontaneously and collectively. Others were built with a hole through the center to reduce drag. In simulated versions of these, the scientists were able to repurpose this hole as a pouch to successfully carry an object. "It's a step toward using computer-designed organisms for intelligent drug delivery," says Bongard, a professor in UVM's Department of Computer Science and Complex Systems Center.

Living Technologies

Many technologies are made of steel, concrete or plastic. That can make them strong or flexible. But they also can create ecological and human health problems, like the growing scourge of plastic pollution in the oceans and the toxicity of many synthetic materials and electronics. "The downside of living tissue is that it's weak and it degrades," say Bongard. "That's why we use steel. But organisms have 4.5 billion years of practice at regenerating themselves and going on for decades." And when they stop working -- death -- they usually fall apart harmlessly. "These xenobots are fully biodegradable," say Bongard, "when they're done with their job after seven days, they're just dead skin cells."

Your laptop is a powerful technology. But try cutting it in half. Doesn't work so well. In the new experiments, the scientists cut the xenobots and watched what happened. "We sliced the robot almost in half and it stitches itself back up and keeps going," says Bongard. "And this is something you can't do with typical machines."

Cracking the Code

Both Levin and Bongard say the potential of what they've been learning about how cells communicate and connect extends deep into both computational science and our understanding of life. "The big question in biology is to understand the algorithms that determine form and function," says Levin. "The genome encodes proteins, but transformative applications await our discovery of how that hardware enables cells to cooperate toward making functional anatomies under very different conditions."

To make an organism develop and function, there is a lot of information sharing and cooperation -- organic computation -- going on in and between cells all the time, not just within neurons. These emergent and geometric properties are shaped by bioelectric, biochemical, and biomechanical processes, "that run on DNA-specified hardware," Levin says, "and these processes are reconfigurable, enabling novel living forms."

The scientists see the work presented in their new PNAS study -- "A scalable pipeline for designing reconfigurable organisms," -- as one step in applying insights about this bioelectric code to both biology and computer science. "What actually determines the anatomy towards which cells cooperate?" Levin asks. "You look at the cells we've been building our xenobots with, and, genomically, they're frogs. It's 100% frog DNA -- but these are not frogs. Then you ask, well, what else are these cells capable of building?"

"As we've shown, these frog cells can be coaxed to make interesting living forms that are completely different from what their default anatomy would be," says Levin. He and the other scientists in the UVM and Tufts team -- with support from DARPA's Lifelong Learning Machines program and the National Science Foundation -- believe that building the xenobots is a small step toward cracking what he calls the "morphogenetic code," providing a deeper view of the overall way organisms are organized -- and how they compute and store information based on their histories and environment.

Future Shocks

Many people worry about the implications of rapid technological change and complex biological manipulations. "That fear is not unreasonable," Levin says. "When we start to mess around with complex systems that we don't understand, we're going to get unintended consequences." A lot of complex systems, like an ant colony, begin with a simple unit -- an ant -- from which it would be impossible to predict the shape of their colony or how they can build bridges over water with their interlinked bodies.

"If humanity is going to survive into the future, we need to better understand how complex properties, somehow, emerge from simple rules," says Levin. Much of science is focused on "controlling the low-level rules. We also need to understand the high-level rules," he says. "If you wanted an anthill with two chimneys instead of one, how do you modify the ants? We'd have no idea."

"I think it's an absolute necessity for society going forward to get a better handle on systems where the outcome is very complex," Levin says. "A first step towards doing that is to explore: how do living systems decide what an overall behavior should be and how do we manipulate the pieces to get the behaviors we want?"

In other words, "this study is a direct contribution to getting a handle on what people are afraid of, which is unintended consequences," Levin says -- whether in the rapid arrival of self-driving cars, changing gene drives to wipe out whole lineages of viruses, or the many other complex and autonomous systems that will increasingly shape the human experience.

A Soul to Mend His Own | Ch. 17

Warning, if it hasn’t been obvious in the movies there is Nazi symbolism within the First Order. I will expand on this much more throughout the story. If this is something that bothers you, please just exit the story. The author does not condone any Nazi ideals, this is just for fictional uses only.

A Kylo Ren x Modern! Reader in a soulmate au with some canon divergence. —————————————SLOWBURN————————————–

He is already the Supreme leader, searching the universe to find you, his Empress. Your name on his wrist has been the only constant in his life, while you have doubts about his existence and his acceptance of you. He isn’t in the database and why did the name Kylo Ren cover Ben Solo?

MASTERLIST

Chapter 17: Spaceflix and Chill?

Summary: Kylo once again did not allow you to hold the data pad yourself but allowed you to scroll through the app. None of the titles of the videos were ones that you were familiar with. Almost as if you were scrolling in some foreign version of Netflix. Luckily there were genres you were familiar with; comedy, drama, horror, documentary, sci-fi and finally romance.

_______________________________________________________________________

Sitting in his lap, against his chest, this was the first time you really admired the strength that you could feel. His arms were strong, his chest was broad. From what you could remember from earlier today when you had caught his shirtless, you remembered all of the toned muscles you saw. The man holding you was a mountain of strength and compared to him, you felt as if you were an anthill made of sand. Small and easily destroy, whereas it would take an act of god to break him.

You had no idea how long you two had been sitting like that but you were hungry. But before you could voice this your phone dinged with your text alert sound. You struggled but managed to reach it from Kylo’s lap.

It was (second oldest brother). ‘Please don’t mention anything to your match, I promise that we are going to register tomorrow.’

And another one came through from your oldest brother, ‘Mom mentioned that your match is a high ranking First Order officer. If he has anything to do with communication or engineering could you put in a good word for me?’

Of course, they only ever spoke to you at family functions or if they needed/didn’t want something. You remember when they had met their matches, how happy you had been for them, and how their matches felt like more of siblings to you than they did. It hurt that the first time they knew that you had met Kylo, that they didn’t congratulate you.

You were just done. Done with everything and you just wanted to finally be happy. Kylo removed your phone from your hand and put it back on the coffee table. He drew you back to his chest once again. This time you swore you could feel him kiss the top of your head before he buried his face in your hair once again.

“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to,” he said finally.

You felt conflicted, you should ‘put in’ a good word for your brother, especially if your match with Kylo were to ever to become public. You also felt that you should tell Kylo to ignore your (second oldest brother)’s worries. But at the same time, you felt wronged by your family.

“Can you see if there is a way that you can favor (oldest brother) without seeming too obvious about it,” you asked. “And ignore (second oldest brother), I believe that he will do the right thing. His kids don’t deserve punishment for his stupid actions if it comes to it.”

Kylo searched your eyes for a moment before nodding. At least he was willing to do this, but you didn’t know if it was because you had asked, or if it was because he felt sorry for you. You honestly weren’t in the mood to find out.

“Can we have dinner soon,” you asked finally. “This day has me wiped.”

Kylo nodded and with a smile, he stuck out his hand. You saw his data pad fly across the room and into his hand. You were in shock, he had a small smile on his face. You turned around on his lap so your back was to him but you were facing the data pad. You saw that he pulled up the food ordering app.

“Pick out what you would like,” he said. His breath tickling the top of your head.

You scrolled through it, he was still holding it. It felt oddly intimate, you in his lap with his data pad in his hand but you were on it. You found some food that intrigued you and you put it in your order. “What would you like to eat,” you asked.

Into your hair, he said simply, “order for me.”

You felt a jolt of excitement, he chuckled noticing your new enthusiasm with the app. You had no idea what he liked, you hadn’t had a chance to ask him. “What do you like,” you asked.

“I will like anything you order for me,” he said with mirth in his voice.

You didn’t know how to feel about that. You felt it could be one of three things. The first is that he didn’t care about what he ate at all. The second was that the app only had the food he likes. Or the third option was that he was flirting with you. The last one made you flush slightly. After all, you were sitting in his lap. You decided to ignore it for the moment and made a neutral choice from the app, something you recognized.

Once you placed the order he set the data pad back down and put his arms around you keeping you close. This made you feel some type of way. You felt as if you were there for only a few moments before a droid entered with your food. You reluctantly got up from his lap and made your way to the dining room to eat.

Sneaking a glance at Kylo you could see he had a slight hint of blush that extended down into his shirt. You wondered briefly how far down the blush went before you dismissed the thought from your mind.

Although he was your match, there was still so much to know about him before you could let your mind go there. After all, he wasn’t some brief college fling, this was your soulmate—you needed to take this seriously.

You both ate with a pleasant silence between you. You had no idea and a million ideas about what to talk about. None of the things that came to mind were things that you could properly string into a sentence. Even though you felt comfortable with him you were also uneasy. You felt as if you were an open book but he was some ancient texts lost in translation. You finished what you both eating and returned to the lounge.

Sitting on the loveseat once again you were immediately pulled into his arms. He summoned his data pad and told you to pull up a holovid, something that you would want to watch. This perplexed you a bit.

Kylo once again did not allow you to hold the data pad yourself but allowed you to scroll through the app. None of the titles of the videos were ones that you were familiar with. Almost as if you were scrolling in some foreign version of Netflix. Luckily there were genres you were familiar with; comedy, drama, horror, documentary, sci-fi and finally romance.

Although he agreed with wanting a romantic relationship earlier on the phone with your parents, you felt as if he was not the romance type. You also didn't know his brand of comedy, so you stuck with the tried and true sci-fi. You took the chance to look back at him. His head was leaned back against the couch and his eyes were closed. You picked one that seemed interesting to you and immediately the data started projecting a hologram! This startled you a bit and Kylo felt you jolt and sat back up.

He placed the data pad on the coffee table and placed one hand on your stomach and the other wound its way into your hair. You could tell that he was not at all interested in the movie, but was just content to sit with you. You were happy with this.

The movie was interesting, to say the least, enough to keep your attention but nothing you would watch again. About halfway through it, you felt the hand on your stomach drift lower and lower. At first, you didn’t mind but after a while, you could feel a bit of heat pool in your underwear. Before the end of the movie, his hand was in between your legs, thankfully you were fully clothed otherwise there might have been a major problem. You also didn’t want to squeeze your thighs shut for fear of calling attention to the problem.

You quickly glanced back at Kylo, his head was still resting on the couch, his eyes were still closed, but the hand that was in your hair was now just resting on the armrest. You turned your attention back to the movie as something major was happening. You could feel his fingers absentmindedly twitch every so often. This made the heat grow stronger.

The moment the movie ended you rushed to get up. This was the first time in the better part of two hours that Kylo had seemingly consciously done anything. He made a noise of protest and looked annoyed at the change of your position. But you didn’t stick around long, you rushed to your room and into your bathroom.

You glanced at yourself in the mirror, you were completely reddened and your pupils were dilated. In an effort to get a hold of your self you splashed cold water on your face. That seemed to only help your blush, but it did not seem to help the heat in your underwear. You went pee, which helped and washed your hands and splashed water on your face once more. You felt much more normal afterward. You debated whether or not you needed to change, but you thought that might draw unwanted attention to your situation.

You exited the bathroom and bedroom, joining Kylo what you now referred to as the living room once more. You sat on the loveseat only to be pulled back into his lap. This frustrated you a bit as you wanted a bit of distance to help your predicament.

Kylo hooked his chin over your shoulder and asked if you wanted to watch another holovid. Part of you did as you liked the relaxing aspect of watching a movie, but part of you was flustered and knew that it would not be a good idea. With one hand holding the data pad, you now felt his other hand skimming the outside of your thigh, making it difficult to think.

“I actually think I should go to bed, I have the committee meeting early in the morning and I would like to be rested before speaking to people I don’t know,” you said as the introverted person you are.

You felt the hand that was skimming your outer thigh move to trace the top of your pants. Kylo had put the data pad back on the coffee table and had moved to your upper thigh with its fingertips dangerously too close to your crotch.

Kylo made a noise of disapproval at your statement of wanting to go to bed. The hand that was on your thigh gripped you tighter and his hips shifting underneath you. It took every fiber of your being to remind you that you had met this man yesterday. And that even though he was your soulmate you were not going to treat this like any of the flings you had in college. You wanted to know this man, to truly know this.

It was at this point you remembered that he could read minds, and you blushed once more. Did he read your mind earlier in the bathroom or while you were sitting with him during the movie? If he did and was doing so now he should be able to also tell that sleeping with him right now was not something you were comfortable with, although you really wanted to. You were going to do this right. Whatever this is.

You moved to get up once more, slightly chanting in your head that you wanted to wait on this. As you did you felt the hand that had been on your thigh just ghost over your crotch before ultimately letting you go. As you stood you turned your head to look at Kylo, whom you caught in the act at looking at your butt.

“Goodnight,” you said.

Clearing his throat he said, “goodnight.”

You made your way into your room once more and took a quick cold shower to relieve yourself from any unwanted symptoms. You made a quick thought against touching yourself as you didn’t know if he was still reading your mind. You reminded yourself that you wanted to wait. You changed and crawled into bed, setting an early morning alarm on your newly modified phone. It didn’t take long to drift into sleep.

Here’s an idea for you: following back to the post about hopper and molt growing up in a famine, what if the reason molt is bigger than hopper is because hopper always made/makes sure that molt eats first. Even when there would be nothing left for him. He does it out of habit, even when they’re eating with the ants and there’s plenty of food.

Aw 🥺this reminds me of a friend I have at church. He and his sister were adopted when they were younger and throughout their time at the orphanage, he would give her a portion of his own meal since there wasn't enough to go around. After being adopted and joining two other adopted children in the family, the parents watched him split his burger into four pieces and hand them out to his new siblings. They, later on, explained with a heavy heart that he no longer had to worry about making sure the kids were fed, that they would provide for them from then on.

I really love this prompt and I can see that happening in a few instances. This being one of them...

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Surprisingly enough, winter was not the harshest season the colony had to endure. The rains usually passed by at this point and living underneath the snow allowed for insulation inside the anthill.

Hopper was surprised, though, to find that the ants didn't need a second home in a warmer climate just to survive the conditions outside. He expected his first winter here to be gruesome. Imagine his bewilderment when he woke up on the coldest day of the year to find himself warm in one of the spare dugouts.

It seemed natural to the ants, though. The only difference in their routine was that no one went outside to collect food or do border patrol. They busied themselves with work in the tunnel system.

As Hopper made his way to the commissary, he peeked down the tunnels he passed by, expecting there to be some sense of urgency with the ants due to the winter season. Everything was peaceful.

Most of the colony was in the commissary as he came to find out. Nonetheless, they didn't look concerned in the slightest that there was a mountain of snow piled above them. The entrance to the anthill had been blocked off weeks ago to prevent any snow from caving in. That seemed to be their only concern.

Molt was already joined with the Circus Bugs and Flik by the time Hopper sat with them. "Isn't this weird?" Molt voiced Hopper's thoughts, "no one rushin' around or worryin' about the cold." Hopper hummed in response as he looked around at the colony, not quite believing the sight.

"Have you guys never spent winter here?" Flik asked.

"No," Hopper answered quickly, "the cold would kill us in a heartbeat. Only eggs can survive during the winter." He absent-mindedly took a few pieces of grain from his leaf onto Molt's. "That's why we stayed at The Resort when it got cold...what?" he finally noticed the others giving him weird looks.

Gypsy nodded her head to his leaf, "Are you not hungry, dear? You didn't eat much yesterday, either."

"Or the day before that," Flik added.

"Or...any day really," Francis squinted his eyes in thought.

Molt pushed his leaf toward Hopper, "Ya know there's plenty of food for the both of us now. Ya gotta start eatin' again, Hop."

He blinked down at the food a moment before shaking his head, "Right," he seemed to suddenly remember their new circumstances. Hopper took back a grain but didn't look eager to indulge. He glanced quickly at Molt, "Thanks."

"Well? Go on," Molt encouraged when it seemed like all he'd do was stare at it.

Hopper looked to Flik, "And...you're sure there's enough food? It is winter and--"

"I'm sure, Hop." Flik smiled small, "It's okay."

He pursed his lips, face burning from everyone staring at him, "Well now you're all looking at me!" Hopper waved to Molt, "Keep talking or something."

His brother laughed good-naturedly, "I'll never hear those words again!"

"Well at least the worst of the season has passed by now," Flik sat back down in his spot. "In a few months, we'll be able to go back out."

They got back into a conversation again, not passing by the shy bites Hopper took of his food. He hadn't realized how hungry he was until he took his first bite. For the first time in God knows how long, Hopper actually ate to his full.

And for the first time as well, Molt felt at ease knowing his brother wasn't sacrificing for him.

Into the Anthill pt 7 - Among Us Walks A Goliath

Taking a year off to focus on his research left Hank at a big disadvantage when he was finally forced to suit up again. Still unable to become Ant-Man and barely able to perform as Giant-Man, the strain of his first outing as Goliath caused him to be stuck at a height of 10 feet. During this time he had increasingly common swings of depression and rage that not even Janet could shake him out of, possibly our first real glimpse of Hank’s bipolar disorder. His mood stabilized some once Dr. Bill Foster helped him regain his full size-changing abilities, but his newfound temper left him quicker to snap and eager to brawl.

But hey, at least all that size changing finally mutated his superpowers into him.

🐜🐜🐜

Avengers vol 1 #28-33

Jan was captured by The Collector after escaping Attuma in Avengers #26, so Hank called the Avengers to ask for help, revealing his secret identity to them in the process. After not suiting up for so long Hank could only go between 25 feet and his standard size. Wanda gifted him a new uniform (that she made for him in her spare time for some reason) and they savd Jan, but due to overexertion Hank got stuck at 10ft tall and could not shrink further. Cap had some doctor he knew back in WW2 examine Hank. The doctor suggested that Hank would die instantly if he ever tried to return to normal size again, which threw him into a rage before he settled into just being miserable instead.

Desperate for a solution, Hank traveled to South America on his own to find a scientist that he hoped could help him return to normal. One high-tech mystical secret society later he had rescued the kidnapped scientist, who quickly explained that the only bio-chemist on Earth brilliant enough to save Goliath was Hank Pym. Go figure.

Hank kicked Jan out of his lab, insisting that he needed another bio-chemist as his assistant. At Tony’s recommendation he hired Bill Foster and the two of them got along swimmingly. The Sons of the Serpent then attacked Bill and abducted Cap, so the Avengers took them down with Black Widow’s help.

Tales of Suspense vol 1 #84

Cap brought AIM’s Super Adaptoid to Avengers HQ to have Hank study it, but as someone who had never built any robot more complicated than a remote-controlled ant (yet) he wasn’t able to determine much. The Adaptoid took this opportunity to copy all of their powers and attacked Cap once he was alone.

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #3

The Avengers (even Thor and Iron-Man) unanimously voted to offer Spider-Man membership if he could bring the Hulk to them (as a sort of field test). Spidey intentionally failed the test once he learned about Bruce Banner’s struggle, allowing Hulk to escape safely yet again.

Avengers vol 1 #34-40

The Living Laser became obsessed with Jan after seeing her at a bank. Laser successfully tricked Hawkeye and Cap into a laser cage so he could suck her into a jar and escape. He then attempted to overthrow a Central American government and trapped Cap and Hawkeye again. Hank’s work with Bill Foster finally paid off here, as he was able to shrink down to his former Ant-Man size again to break into Laser’s machine and cause it to explode.

Quicksilver was captured by Ixar and the Ultroids, so the rest of the team - along with Black Widow - traveled to Transia to free him. Ixar was able to get the full team trapped in capsules and planned to steal their powers. Hank shrank through a tube to set the team free.

After the Ixar incident the Avengers held a meeting to decide if Black Widow should be allowed to join, but Nick Fury got to her first and sent her on a deep cover mission to China. Just after the team noticed that Cap had gone MIA they were attacked by Hercules, who Enchantress had just hypnotized. He eventually snapped out of it, but Zeus ordered him to stay on Earth for one year as punishment for entering the mortal realm without permission. Hank invited him to stay at Avengers HQ, offering him Thor’s old room. Hercules would then save the Avengers from the Mad Thinker, Hammerhead, Piledriver, Thunder Boot, and a cosmic-cube-empowered Namor over the next two issues despite not officially joining the team yet.

Minor/Cameo appearances from this period:

Strange Tales vol 1 #156

You know the more I watch og Penelope Pitstop content, the more I feel like she actually was a bad person from the start or at least already grey (there were instances of her genuinely helping people like who she thought to be Red Riding Hood's grandma for example) but mostly pretending (and believed to be with how popular she was with a reputation of being nice and pretty) to be kind, which comforts my theory of her turning into an abusive mom to reboot Penelope and Pandora even more

Oh yes if you guys are not familiar with my theory, I wrote it in 3 posts, I HC she and Petunia are the same people and that an accumulation of a lot of bad things in her life made her bitter à la Beatrice Horseman and thus a bad mother : first post, second post and third post

What I mean is despite not being a cartoon villain like the Dastardlys or the other villains of the show, she is something a bit more realistic we could know in real life and who lives thanks to her charisma and reputation, we all know someone we KNOW is an asshole but nobody believes you because in appearence and reputation they are flawless (I know a bunch...)

Upon rewatching the old show and rereading comics, Penelope just feels really... fake nice, just the nice smiley you would expect of ladies back then but not out of sincerity but because they have to be charming and feminine and neutral faces are not feminine

And most of the times she takes advantage of men especially Peter to do the work for her and then doesn't help she just thanks them and they are happy simps, and ince they helped her OFF SHE GOES and doesn't do anything but a smile and blowing a kiss ; even her way to speak/her tone feels fake to me, always something that sounds naive and innocent and charming full of cute and amazed adjectives for everything and lil giggles making it feel dulcet to me

She rarely does something her car gadgets are ONLY for makeup and she spends most of her time in wanting to look beautiful, as ig to her a girl had to be pretty all the time AND she was pretty sure that with no effort she would probably win anywat by waving and giggling at the other dumb racers who would stop to help or slow down for her, she is a fan favorite too, so why bother with efforts ? Efforts are for boys ; if indeed she is Petunia she does reproach her daughter to truely race and not "leave it to the boys"

Making it feel like she is a case of mysoginistic woman. Not just if we go with her being Penelope the 1st/Petunia making very mean and sexist remarks to Penelope the 2nd about how she has to find a man, should settle down and retire, would get fat at any snack and that if she is fat she would be alone etc but also here where to her all women love girly things and if they don't they are not real women to her eyes

And let's not forget that until recently I did think she was sincere about Peter Perfect, but in the comics it's a recurring gag that she flirts both with him and Red Max and loves to have them fight for her, it's amusing and useful. Wtf that's a hoe move, like she loves to feel wanted and fought for (plus in the context of that page it makes 2 rivals less AND allows her once again to suceed without doing anything ; she knows what she is doing), and probably doesn't love any of them but flirts because they are strong handsome racers like her and she is so girly with the standards of that time she absolutely wants to have a ring put on her by any of them not out of love but so she has her wedding, and in the meantime has fun with her simps ; who knows what she does or says to the Anthill Mob (A FUCKING MOB WHO PROBABLY KILLED PEOPLE) for them to simp for her so hard they save her ass because she is pretty and "nice to them" one time out if 2

And lastly, more a theory than anything else this time... y'all remember that episode where we ALL agree, Dick Dastardly DID win but then the judges disqualified him using a tape that was obviously fake because too different from what we saw and even Dick and Muttley were horribly surprised as if they truely never extended their car, and more racers had done so before but never were disqualified and that is the biggest unfair scandal on television ? Either they hated him so much they didn't want him to win at all cost, or they had been bribed. And given how second place was Penelope Pitstop and she now wins by default, either they were bribed by a fan... or ny herself. She does hate Dick Dastardly, not polite to him (rightfully so tho) when he lands in her car, so maybe the thought of losing to "THIS LOSER NOBODY LIKES ANYWAY" had her act. I mean, I don't trust how innocently happy she looks when she gets all the glory right after that

Ok so before you all jump at my neck because of this post and the other ones I linked : I AM aware that the fact she is a bitch is just a theory and that canonly she is not lol and 1) I don't make that because I don't like her and want her to be awful, I just am someone who loves to overanalyze cartoon psychology and I do find a good tragical evolution into going from good guy to bastard with bastard hints from the start fascinating and 2) ok sure it's true I don't like her but I don't dislike her for the theories I made up myself of course not lol I dislile her just like I dislile most og racers for having one character trait and being all bland and even I, an anti-SJW, do find her to be a bit too much of 1 sexist stereotype in the og show at least lol and 3) AGAIN I didn't make these theories because I don't like her but ON THE CONTRARY to explore psyche and make her more interesting to my eyes lol

In conclusion : original Penelope Pitstop may be a bitch in sheep's clothing, while reboot Penelope, despite often forcing niceness and and happiness probably pressured by the former, hiding her anger and snapping violently several times, is actually a nice person who means it more sincerely and genuinely

27 APRIL 2021, TUESDAY (IST) 07:15 AM - THE SPH APPEARANCE SHAKTI PADA AND SHAKTINI PADA WITH THE LIVE DARSHAN OF THE S...

27 APRIL 2021, TUESDAY (IST) 07:15 AM - THE SPH APPEARANCE SHAKTI PADA AND SHAKTINI PADA WITH THE LIVE DARSHAN OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM (SPH), JAGATGURU MAHASANNIDHANAM (JGM), HIS DIVINE HOLINESS (HDH) BHAGAVAN NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM. 07:20 AM TO 7:56 AM - NITHYANANDA SATSANG *PARAMASHIVA’S MESSAGE DIRECTLY FROM KAILASA: *TODAY CHITRA POURNAMI AND BHAGAVAN SRI HANUMAN JAYANTI! *IMPORTANT DATE IN OUR SANGHA: TODAY IS THE DAY TIRUVANNAMALAI NITHYANANDA DHYANAPEETAM WAS INAUGURATED! *THE “ARUNACHALA SARVAJNAPEETHAM” I INHERITED FROM MY GURUS. THAT IS THE TRADITIONAL GURU PARAMPARA, THE GURU PEETHA I INHERITED. *WE STARTED AN ASHRAM IN TIRUVANNAMALAI THAT HAPPENED ON THIS VERY DAY - CHITRA POURNAMI - 2008 APRIL 19. SO, NOW WE ARE CELEBRATING THE 14TH ANNIVERSARY! *MY BLESSINGS TO EVERYONE - MY PRE-MONASTIC FAMILY WHICH DONATED THE LAND, THE PROPERTY, FOR THAT ASHRAM: BANU NAINAR. *MY GRANDFATHER'S SISTER’S DAUGHTER WAS MARRIED TO BANU NAINAR. HE IS THE FAMILY’S ELDER NOW AND HE DONATED THIS TIRUVANNAMALAI NITHYANANDA DHYANAPEETAM PROPERTY. *THE PROPERTY HAS A HISTORY WHERE PARAMASHIVA GAVE ME A DARSHAN EARLIER ITSELF. WHEN HE CAME TO KNOW ABOUT IT, HIS SON AND THEIR FAMILY, ALL OF THEM DONATED THE PROPERTY AND ON THAT VERY PROPERTY THE ASHRAM STANDS NOW. IT IS 14 YEARS NOW! *I BLESS ALL THE DEVOTEES, DISCIPLES, FOUNDERS, DONORS, EVERYONE WHO ARE INVOLVED IN MAKING THIS ASHRAM INTO REALITY. *TODAY IT STANDS AS ONE OF THE IMPORTANT KSHETRAS IN TIRUVANNAMALAI AND FOR OUR WHOLE SANGHA. *MY BLESSINGS. *LOT OF SPIRITUAL ACTIVITIES ARE HAPPENING THERE: TEMPLE, ANNALAYA, ARUNAGIRI YOGISHWARA’S JEEVA SAMADHI, LIBRARY, THE HERITAGE CENTER - EVERYTHING IS HAPPENING. *I AM SO HAPPY ABOUT ALL THE THINGS HAPPENING THERE. *MY BLESSINGS TO THE TEAM LED BY MA GURUCHARANA - BEAUTIFULLY REVIVING THE WHOLE NITHYANANDA DHYANAPEETAM. *ACTUALLY BEFORE THIS ASHRAM ITSELF, WE GOT ANOTHER PROPERTY IN TIRUVANNAMALAI AND STARTED THE ASHRAM - WHERE MY FATHER’S SAMADHI IS. *THAT HAPPENED IN 2005 ITSELF, MUCH EARLIER. *BUT THIS ASHRAM IS IN THE GIRIVALA PATH, A PROMINENT PLACE. *WE ALSO HAVE MULTIPLE PROPERTIES IN TIRUVANNAMALAI. EVERYTHING IS ADMINISTERED FROM THIS ASHRAM - NITHYANANDA DHYANAPEETAM. *MY BLESSINGS TO EVERYONE. *TODAY IS ALSO BHAGAVAN HANUMAN JAYANTI. *HANUMAN IS ONE OF THE CHIRANJEEVIS - INCARNATION OF RUDRA, MAHADEVA HIMSELF. *HANUMAN TOOK BIRTH MUCH MUCH BEFORE RAMA AVATARA. *BECAUSE HE IS A CHIRANJEEVI, HE SERVED RAMA. *EVEN DURING THE KRISHNA AVATARA, HE WAS THERE AND HE IS HERE EVEN NOW! *YOU CAN’T REFER TO CHIRANJEEVIS LIKE MARKANDEYA AND HANUMAN IN THE PAST (TENSE). NO! *THEY ARE ALL PRESENT. EVEN NOW. WHEN YOU CONNECT WITH THEM, CALL THEM, IMMEDIATELY THEY APPEAR, BLESS! *BLESSINGS TO ALL OF YOU ON THIS AUSPICIOUS OCCASION - THE 14TH ANNIVERSARY OF TIRUVANNAMALAI NITHYANANDA DHYANAPEETAM. *I KNOW ALL OF YOU ARE TOO BUSY ALONG WITH ME FROM THE TIME THIS VEDIC NEW YEAR IS BORN - CHITRA 1ST! *BACK TO BACK, ALMOST EVERYDAY, I AM GIVING 2 OR 3 PROGRAMS - DARSHANS, SESSIONS, PROGRAMS, EVERYTHING! *TODAY WE HAVE PARASHAKTI BHAVA SAMADHI DARSHAN AND PARASHAKTI AKASHIC READING! *TOO MANY INTENSE PROGRAMS, BHAVA SAMADHI DARSHANS, SESSIONS…! *ESPECIALLY PARASHAKTI’S MANIFESTATION IS SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY…! *IT IS NOT THAT SHE IS MANIFESTING JUST THROUGH THIS BODY - AS PARASHAKTI’S AKASHIC READING. I AM SEEING; WHILE SHE IS MANIFESTING IN THIS BODY ITSELF, SHE IS SO ACTIVELY MANIFESTING IN MANY OF MY BALASANTS’ BODIES! *I AM ABLE TO SEE THAT WHATEVER SHE IS READING THROUGH THIS BODY, THOSE WORDS ARE APPEARING IN THEIR BRAINS! *THE OTHER DAY, WHATEVER WORDS WERE APPEARING IN FRONT OF MY EYES, (MEANS WHAT PARASHAKTI WAS READING OUT, UTTERING), WAS APPEARING IN FRONT OF NITHYANANDITHA’S THIRD EYE AND BRAIN! *SHE WAS ACTUALLY CONFUSED! SHE WAS THINKING, “I AM THINKING SOMETHING BUT SOME OTHER WORDS ARE APPEARING IN FRONT OF ME!” *TILL NOW SHE HAS NOT RECOGNISED WHAT WAS GOING ON; ONLY I KNOW! *THERE WERE FEW MORE BALASANTS WHO HAVE BEEN INITIATED INTO THIS AKASHIC READING. I SAW THOSE WORDS APPEARING IN FRONT OF ALL OF THEIR THIRD EYE! *IT WAS VERY STRONG AND BEAUTIFUL! *I SAW VERY CLEARLY THAT DEVI PARASHAKTI IS HERE TO DO SOME GREAT WORK, TO DO SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY! *IT IS VERY RARE THAT I HAVE SEEN HER APPEARING IN MULTIPLE BODIES AT THE SAME TIME. *WHENEVER KALABHAIRAVA APPEARS, MANIFESTS AND DOES THE AKASHIC READING, HE DOES JUST THROUGH THIS BODY. *BUT PARASHAKTI’S AKASHIC READING, I SEE, SHE OPENS UP IN THIS BODY AND MULTIPLE BODIES SIMULTANEOUSLY! *IT MEANS WE CAN VERY EASILY VERIFY THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE PEOPLE WHO ARE GETTING INITIATED. *IF NITHYANANDITHA DOESN'T SEE DEVI APPEARING IN THIS BODY AND TALKING, BUT HER WORDS ARE EXACTLY THE SAME, WE KNOW SHE IS 100% AUTHENTIC! *SO EASILY WE CAN CROSS VERIFY THROUGH WHOM ALL DEVI IS MANIFESTING AND DOING THIS AKASHIC READING. *YOU CAN SIT AND JUST SEE, WHATEVER DEVI IS REVEALING, BLESSING, TALKING THROUGH SWAMIJI’S BODY, IF THE BALASANTS UTTER THE SAME WORDS, THEN YOU KNOW HE IS MANIFESTING THROUGH THEM ALSO! *INTENSE SUPERCONSCIOUS BREAKTHROUGH IS HAPPENING. *WONDERFUL MANIFESTATIONS OF KAILASA ARE HAPPENING IN MULTIPLE LEVELS! *I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO TELL. I AM WONDERSTRUCK! *LIKE HOW WE HAVE THE WORD “UNDERSTAND”, WE SHOULD HAVE THE WORD “WONDERSTAND” - WONDERSTRUCK WITH WHAT IS HAPPENING! *I AM ALSO SEEING THAT THIS BODY IS MANIFESTING AS LIGHT BODIES AND MOVING AROUND IN MULTIPLE PLACES, TRAVELING, GIVING DARSHAN, INITIATION AND POWER MANIFESTATION! DEVI IS MANIFESTING AS PARASHAKTI AND DOING ALL THIS! *IT IS WONDERFUL THAT PARASHAKTI IS MANIFESTING INTENSELY, MAKING HERSELF AVAILABLE TO ALL DEVOTEES ALL OVER THE WORLD. IT IS SO NICE! FULL OF WONDERS! *THE OTHER DAY, ONE DEVOTEE DOCTOR ASKED PARASHAKTI FOR BLESSINGS TO GET HEALED FROM PHYSICAL HEALTH ISSUES - CANCER. PARASHAKTI BLESSED HIM. SUDDENLY I AM GETTING THE MESSAGE THAT DOCTORS ARE SAYING, IT IS A MIRACLE AND IT DISAPPEARED AND HE DOESN'T HAVE IT ANY MORE! *HE IS A VERY SINCERE AND CLOSE DEVOTEE. I DON'T WANT TO REVEAL HIS NAME. *MAYBE HE MIGHT COME AND SHARE IN SATSANG. *HE HIMSELF IS A DOCTOR. DOCTORS WHO WERE TREATING HIM ARE SAYING, “IT JUST DISAPPEARED. IT IS NOT THERE AFTER PARASHAKTI BLESSED!” *SO I AM JUST WONDERSTRUCK! *NOT HEALING ALONE...MULTI LEVELS THE PARASHAKTI’S MANIFESTATION IS HAPPENING! *I THINK PARASHAKTI IS ALL OUT! *SHE DECIDED TO MAKE KAILASA AND DECIDED TO DRIVE THE WHOLE ECOSYSTEM AND REACH OUT TO THE PEOPLE. SHE IS GOING ALL OUT! *AFTER ALL I AM A SHAKTA. ALL OF YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT. *FROM THE TIME I KNOW ME, I WORSHIPPED DEVI. *I AM A SHAKTA FUNDAMENTALLY. *ALL MY BEHAVIOUR, THOUGHT CURRENT, DAY-TO-DAY LIFESTYLE, EVERYTHING, IS MORE SHAKTA-CENTRIC BECAUSE I AM FUNDAMENTALLY A MOTHER WORSHIPPER - SHAKTA. *OF COURSE I KNOW THE TRUTH THAT PARAMASHIVA AND PARASHAKTI ARE ONE AND THE SAME, NOT TWO DIFFERENT. *BUT IN EXPRESSION I AM BASICALLY A SHAKTA - WORSHIP OF DEVI. *TOO MUCH TO TELL ABOUT THIS PARASHAKTI AKASHIC READINGS! *TODAY WE HAVE ONE MORE SESSION. *DIRECTLY COME AND ENJOY. *I CAME TODAY TO SATSANG TO BLESS ALL OF YOU AND TIRUVANNAMALAI ASHRAM AND ALL DEVOTEES ASSOCIATED WITH TIRUVANNAMALAI ASHRAM. *BLESSINGS TO EVERYONE. *AND ALSO, MA NITHYA TRIPURESHWARANANDA, SARASWATI JAMPALA - BIRTHDAY BLESSINGS. WITH ALL AUSPICIOUSNESS, YOU WILL BE WITH ME AND I WILL BE WITH YOU. BLESSINGS! *BLESSINGS TO ALL OF YOU! *I KNOW THE WHOLE JOY, BLISS THAT KAILASA AND SANGHA IS EXPERIENCING ALL OVER THE WORLD, ESPECIALLY AFTER PARASHAKTI STARTED MANIFESTING AND DOING THE AKASHIC READING - ARUL VAK...O GOD! *I WANTED TO GIVE YOU ONE SACRED SECRET: *DO THIS PANCHA BHOOTA YOGA WHENEVER YOU WANT TO ASK ANY QUESTION TO DEVI AND RECEIVE THE ANSWER. *ON THAT DAY, DO THIS PANCHA BHOOTA YOGA, MEANS, APPLY ONLY THE ANTHILL MUD ON THE BODY AND TAKE BATH, NOT ANY OTHER CHEMICAL. THAT IS THE EARTH ELEMENT. *DRINK ONLY WATER. DON'T EAT, DRINK ANYTHING OTHER THAN WATER. *WHEN YOU COME FOR PARASHAKTI AKASHIC READING, AT LEAST FOR A FEW HOURS (10 HOURS) PREPARE YOURSELF; DRINK ONLY WATER. *THE FIRE IN YOUR STOMACH SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO BURN WITHOUT ANY FOOD DUMPED ON IT. PURE FIRE. *YOU CAN CHANT “OM”KARA AND INTENSIFY IT OR MAHAVAKYA OR AJAPA JAPA. *BUT PURE FIRE, NO FOOD. PURE FIRE SHOULD BE ENCOURAGED. *JUST BE IN THE FREE AIR, OPEN SPACE, BREATHING THE WHOLE SKY ART LAST FOR A FEW HOURS BEFORE THE SESSION. *INTENSELY UNCLUTCH TO GET THE POWER OF THE SPACE - AKASHA. *AKASHA IS AN INTENSE ENERGY. *JUST LIKE THE OTHER BHOOTAS LIKE EARTH, WATER, FIRE, AIR, THE AKASHA ALSO IS PURE CONSCIOUSNESS, INTELLIGENCE, LIVING ENERGY. *ONCE YOU START UNCLUTCHING, YOU MANIFEST AKASHA ENERGY IN YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS, IN YOU. *SO DO THIS PANCHA BHOOTA YOGA, YOUR QUESTIONS WILL BE SURELY ANSWERED IMMEDIATELY BY PARASHAKTI. *INTENSIFY THE AKASHIC ENERGY - THE CHIT AMBARA (CHIDAMBARA AKASHIC SPACE) *DO THIS PANCHA BHOOTA YOGA AND COME TO PARASHAKTI’S AKASHIC READING. SHE WILL GIVE YOU THE BOONS YOU ARE ASKING AND FULFILL YOUR PRAYERS. *PANCHA BHOOTA YOGA WILL MAKE YOU RECEIVE THIS PARASHAKTI’S ENERGY, PREPARE YOU TO RECEIVE THIS PARASHAKTI’S ENERGY. *SO WITH THIS, I BLESS YOU ALL! UPCOMING EVENTS: 27 APRIL 2021 3:30PM IST PARASHAKTI BHAVA SAMADHI DARSHAN WITH AKASHIC READING PROGRAM || INTRODUCTION 8.00PM IST PARASHAKTI BHAVA SAMADHI DARSHAN WITH AKASHIC READING PROGRAM || THE SPH LIVE ON: https://www.youtube.com/LifeBlissFoundation www.nithyananda.tv https://twitter.com/SriNithyananda​ https://ift.tt/1r2to6a

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