#Bird stands in Internet Field and Yells

[gracies-baby]

hey!

i wanted to request gracie abram x fem!r

where they’re dating and go to like an after party of aoxnecrt and pics of them making out get leaked

thankss

Leaked Picture

(Gracie Abrams x Reader)

——————————————————————————

Y/n's talking to her friends at the Grammys after party before she feels someone's arms wrap around her from behind.

"Hey babe, you okay?" Y/n asks her girlfriend as she runs her thumb over her hand.

"Yeah, I just saw a bird eat a chip" Gracie giggles before Y/n smells alcohol on her breath.

"How much have you had to drink? It's only been half an hour" Y/n giggles as she turns around, wrapping her arms around her girlfriend's neck.

"I dunno. Let's go somewhere more private" Gracie smirks before the two girls hear their friends fake gag before walking away.

"Guess we don't have to" Gracie pulls the shorter girl closer before connecting their lips in a passionate kiss. Y/n moans as her arms tighten around the brunette's neck, standing on her tiptoes to deepen the kiss. Gracie pushes her girlfriend against the wall before gliding her tongue across Y/n's lips. They're pulled away when someone yells at them.

"Get a room!" Taylor teases with a smirk.

"As if we haven't seen worse from you and Travis!" Gracie yells back as she takes Y/n's hand, pulling her to her car.

"You're so fucking hot" Gracie mumbles when she pushes her lips against her girlfriends when the two of them get into the back seat while Gracie's driver drives to her house. 

--

Gracie wakes the next morning to the sound of her phone ringing. She slowly sits up in her bed, careful not to wake the sleeping girl on her chest before answering the call.

"Hello?"

"What is wrong with you?! Do you know how much work this is gonna take to fix?" The brunette's manager yells over the phone.

"What did I do? I literally just woke up"

"Go on twitter. Some pictures of you and Y/n got leaked. The fans are having a field day" Gracie groans before she hears Y/n groan beside her, waking up from her sleep.

"It can't be that bad, right? I mean, our relationship isn't a secret. Everyone already knows we're together" Gracie tells her manager as she puts her hand on her girlfriend's head, gently scratching it.

"That's not the point. You can't just go around making out wherever you want. Now you're going to be asked about this during interviews and these pictures are going to be everywhere. Your fans are already freaking out over it. You basically just fed them a full course meal"

"Okay, well, Y/n just woke up and we have plans so any chance you can do this without me?" Her manager sighs before hanging up, leaving the two girls to wake up properly.

"What was that about?" Y/n asks as she wraps her arm around Gracie's stomach, putting her head on her chest.

"Some pictures from last night got leaked. Of us making out a little bit" Gracie replies as she closes her eyes, trying to go back to sleep.

"What?! Gracie that's so embarrassing! It's probably all over the internet right now! I'm never going out in public with you again" Y/n whines, hiding her face in her hands.

"Babe, it's fine. Everyone knows what we do, there's no reason to be embarrassed" Gracie sits up again to wrap her arms around Y/n's shoulders pulling her into her side.

"Yeah, they know what we do, but they don't have to see it! And we left the party like 3 hours early, they definitely know why"

"They don't care, I promise. I hate to do this right now, but we have to go meet my family for breakfast" Y/n's face lights up at her girlfriend's words.

"I forgot about that! C'mon, let's go right now" Y/n quickly gets out of bed before getting ready and waiting by the door for the brunette.

"Gracie, hurry up! We're gonna be late!" Y/n groans before her girlfriend comes down the stairs, grabbing her keys from the hook by the door.

"We're not gonna be late. It's my parents' house, we can't be late for that"

"It's still rude to keep them waiting. Hurry up, I wanna see your mom" Y/n says as she gets in the passenger seat of Gracie's car.

"Yeah, I'm going as quick as I can" Gracie replies as she drives to her parents' house, one hand on Y/n's thigh. The two of them talk for a bit before Gracie pulls into her parent's driveway, opening the passenger side door for her girlfriend.

"Hi guys!" Y/n exclaims as she waves to the Abrams family after entering the house, being followed by the brunette.

"Oh! You actually made it! I thought you guys would've been too busy sucking face" Henry teases with a smirk, watching as the two girls faces turn red before Gracie glares at her brother.

"It's weird that you're looking at pictures of your sister kissing her girlfriend, you know" Gracie replies with a glare.

"Well maybe if you weren't making out in public then I wouldn't have to. Trust me, I don't want to be looking at it either.

"Guys, stop bullying each other. Henry, go set the table while the girls help me plate up breakfast" Katie cuts in, separating her children before August comes in.

"So, are you guys gonna stay for the whole thing or are you gonna leave a few hours early like last night?" August smirks while the two girls groan.

[ajgrey9647]

Sneak Peak

From Truth in Flowers

Jamie tried not to gag on the thick, coppery blood running down the back of his throat, his entire face on fire with sharp, sickening pain. He could only staunch the flow pouring over his mouth and chin by futilely cupping a hand over his broken nose and split lower lip. His black frame glasses sat cockeyed over his ears; the lenses were misted with a fine spray of ruby droplets.

It took a moment for the stunned man to realize that he was no longer outside his beloved nursery, sitting under a tree for his afternoon break with a good book and a turkey wrap. His vision was bleary with reflexive tears, and the shock of having his head rocked backwards disoriented him.

A high-pitched voice was yelling something he couldn’t understand, angry and accusing while another one, in a deep baritone, responded to the incensed screaming.

Blinking his eyes rapidly, the hot tears breaking free to drip from his lashes, Jamie was able to discern that the floor beneath his knees was a familiar vivid blue marble.

‘What happened? Where am I?’

He tried to ignore the arguing going on from somewhere he couldn’t yet see, his mind struggling to replay the most recent events he could recall before things went sideways.

‘I was outside, taking my break… Reading in the shade…My phone pinged,’ he recounted to himself. ‘It was a messenger notification from…’

Yes, he’d gotten a new message from the sweet kid he’d befriended on a popular flower blog that he frequently commented on. Jamie had seemingly become something of a parental figure to this kiddo…this ‘Rosie Posie’ as she’d named herself, a poor, directionless girl who ached for guidance from someone older and wiser.

What had started as a frantic post into the void of the internet, ‘Rosie’ desperate to save her beloved grandmother’s sickly, rare flowering shrub, grew into so much more with the two discovering that they shared a deep love of art, books, plants, and birds.

Today’s simple post read: ‘What are you doing right now?’

Then, everything became a hazy, pain-filled, blur. It was by far not the most crippling injury he’d ever experienced, but Jamie found the surprise of it all, made the blow feel worse than it physically was.

There was a brief crackling sound, then something nudged his shoulder. Lifting his head, the gray-haired man found a strange robotic arm bravely handing him a thick, damp rag. The ring of energized light encompassing the appendage revealed that he was once more in some sort of containment field.

“Ai-yi-yi, ai-yi-yi!”

‘I know that phrase…from another lifetime…’

Jamie focused on the shiny automaton standing just on the other side of the barrier, a bright red light swiftly darting back and forth where it’s ‘eyes’ would have been located.

He slowly lowered his blood-streaked palm to smile tenderly at the frantic robot as he accepted the cool dressing. Clearing his throat of the choking drainage, the older man’s voice sounded stuffy from his swollen, disjointed nose.

“Thank you…Alpha.”

The raised voices suddenly halted, the argument pausing with a squeak of surprise.

The robot stood rooted to the spot, not noticing that another person was bounding down the single step to where the containment field was projecting. As the tear-streaked, reddened face swam into view, Jamie’s eyes widened, and he recoiled away from the pure fury emanating from the tiny woman.

‘Oh fuck!’

Kimberly’s outraged expression was glaring back at him.

“YOU!” she shrieked. “IT WAS YOU!”

The man flinched at her accusation. But before he could even think how to respond, the other voice sounded again, slightly up and over their heads.

“Jason?” it asked gently…uncertainly. “Or Red?”

Jamie stared up at the sage in awe, never thinking that he’d ever see his old mentor again. A warm smile lit his face, the familiar spark of determination and certainty, flickering in his dark eye.

“Hello, Zordon. It’s been a long time…” he answered. “And I’m not exactly ‘Jason Scott’ or ‘Red.’”

The Eltarian raised a brow, but it was evident that he was greatly moved at seeing the Coinless version of his first Red Ranger, the long-lost child that had suffered horrifically all alone before splintering into two, now crouching before him…safe finally.

“My name is Jamie…and I’m both of them…”

[thenearsightedmicroraptor]

Me: -making a foods-

The cat: mew

Me: yes, you want to eat my food. You want to eat my food, because you're a criminal.

The cat:

Me: That's what criminals do. They eat other people's things.

The cat:

Me: Some of them. not all of them. Some of them commit arson.

The cat:

Me: ... But you wouldn't do that. because you're a good criminal

[ryuu-to-sobakasu-hime]

Ryuu to Sobakasu no Hime (Belle) Novel | English Translation | Chapter 1

**This is a machine translation. I put it together by extracting text page-by-page from a .pdf version of the Japanese novel, and running it through Google translate. I have only minorly edited some of the more confusing lines to make it more read-able. It is still a very rough translation, but it’s good enough to understand what’s going on. If there is anyone out there who wants to properly translate the novel, I am more than happy to edit it, if you’ll contact me.**

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

Ryuu to Sobakasu Hime (The Dragon and the Freckled Princess)

In the world of U, Belle met a dragon with a wound on his back.

“Who are you?”

Chapter 1: Invitation

A white line emerges in the darkness.

It slowly approaches. What is this line?

It gradually becomes clear. It's a series of units with intricate details. They are lined up regularly and repeatedly, like cells seen under a microscope.

Cells?

No, it's a "city".

This is a mysterious megacity called "U".

Created by the five wise men, the "Voices" who control the intellect of this world,

U is the ultimate virtual world.

The largest Internet space in history, which has surpassed 5 billion accounts worldwide and continues to expand.

You haven't played "U" yet.

It is displayed opposite to the shaped figure.

"We are investigating various shapes of U particles to embody this ethos, similar to the differences and peculiarities of each person in the world."

“Much like the difference and particularity that makes each individual in the world unique, this explores a variety of different shaped U particles to embody this ethos......"

One of the innumerable U particles is determined.

Authentication is complete.

"Welcome to the world of 'U'.”

U particles pop out from a myriad of smartphone-shaped windows.

Welcome to the world of U.

It's you, authenticated.

The U particle instantly turned into a pretty rabbit-shaped girl.

The announcement echoes.

"'U' uses the latest body-sharing technology so that everyone can relax, gather and enjoy."

Here, the avatar is referred to as "Az" (Az = Autonomous self).

Autonomous self. Az is your alter ego in "U".

The best AI that "U" is proud of is your Az.

Perform automatic generation.

U particles that also logged in are generated one after another in Az and fly from the window.

You can see it popping out.

Your Az - that is, a lovely girl with white, fluffy ears popping out of her sleek hat, descends like skydiving with your first friends.

The sea of ​​clouds, which had filled the field of vision, suddenly opened.

The brilliance of the skyscraper town reflected by the light of the twilight.

You will instinctively yell out in admiration.

The elaborately constructed geometric skyscrapers have no top and bottom, no left and right, and are layered on top of each other, creating an overwhelming evening view that has never been seen before.

A gorgeous shopping mall. Release that left the company while it was still bright in the evening

In the feeling, wander around Fifth Avenue, Champs Elysees, or Ginza.

It's such fun. Az dressed in colorful costumes are like a Venetian costume ball, and it's fun just to look at them. Graphical pieces of florets are spinning and floating like confetti. When you pick up one of them and smell the scent, a refreshing young scent lurks in the gorgeous and sensual. Perfect for the view of this city. You suddenly look up at the heavens while swimming like a bird on the rippling boulevard. Even in places that should be empty, upside-down skyscrapers are so crowded that they look like they are about to fall. There is a huge park that looks like a hollowed-out skyscraper town, and you can look down on the Az who play with it.

Is there a city that makes you feel so free?

You realize without a doubt, this is the center of the world.

The moon can be seen in the gaps between skyscrapers.

The announcement echoes.

<< "U" is another reality >>

《Az is another you》

<< Here is everything >>

The crescent moon that draws an arc below seems to be in the shape of a "U".

<< Reality cannot be redone. But if it's "U", you can start over. >>

<< Now, let's live another you. >>

《Now, let ’s start a new life》

"Now, let's change the world."

Suddenly, the noise of the city was cut off.

It's a song.

Someone is singing.

Where do you hear it? Many Az try to find the voice of the singer.

I'm turning. You, too, listen.

The song is magnificent and delicate. Intimate and powerful.

I'm drawn in unintentionally.

"Over there!"

Someone shouted. The line of sight of many Az gathers at one point.

A whale.

A huge whale dressed up with countless speakers is swimming leisurely between the upside-down buildings. At the tip of his nose, a small figure in a crimson dress can be seen. The song seems to come from there. The whale makes a roaring sound from the countless speakers it wears. She stands on the tip of the whale's nose and sings with an overwhelming voice that is comparable to the sound pressure of the whale’s roaring. What looked like a crimson dress was a flower dress made up of various types of red, such as dahlia, gerbera, and echinacea. She has unrealistically long pink hair. Blue eyes as deep as the sea. A beautiful woman.

And on her cheeks, there are freckles that look like they are engraved.

"Belle!" "Belle!"

The Az looked up at her and called her name from their mouths.

Her name is "Belle."

Lalalai Lalalai Running through a nameless time Unbeknown to anybody To reach that crescent moon Lalalai Lalalai Want to get to know you No matter how many times I awake Feeling like I can't even make a sound

"Belle!" "Belle!" "Belle!"

You are among the wide variety of Az who call her name. I knew it. Unknowingly singing Belle's song. She turns her face and smiles in response to the cheers. For a moment you feel like her eyes meet you and your chest squeezes. Once you see her, you'll be attracted to her and you can't take your eyes off her anymore. You're already captivated by her, even though you've just met her.

"Belle!" "Belle!" "Belle!" "Belle!"

Belle crossed her hand in front of her chest and spread it all at once.

At the same time, graphical flowers were emitted all at once from her body.

The flowers spread all over the city from the top of the whale that swims leisurely. Belle sings loudly, as if to bless every person, every event, every life. Who the hell is Belle?

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

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Dcx2NedPVBEdbfQaU-WC0pJMRmn20ASn7HSC0KY9R7E/edit?usp=sharing ~ Google Doc of the English-translated novel.

ryuutosobakasuhime.wordpress.com ~ English fan-site for Ryuu to Sobakasu no Hime where translations, scans, and other content is posted.

[oddarin]

It is one of the most meaningless thing I’ve done in time - all least-to-most ranks and just characters’ fact answers (those that with no pictures) from oficial Ask Arcana gathered in one place. Have no idea what that information could be used for and if it even useful but it kept me occupied and distracted from some life shit for a while, so let it be.

who is most to least likely to enjoy the movie Frozen? Lucio, Portia, Julian, Asra, Muriel, Nadia

Out of the cast, who is the most to least likely to be the jealous type? Portia, Lucio, Muriel & Nadia (tied), Julian, Asra

would you like to rank the characters from who cries most to least ugly? like from sniveling to shoujo manga tears? Muriel, Lucio, Julian, Portia, Asra, Nadia

who is the most to least superstitious Portia, Julian, Nadia, Lucio, Asra, Muriel

most to least excited to be at a WWE event Portia, Lucio, Asra, Julian, Nadia, Muriel

From worst to best at handling children Nadia, Lucio, Muriel, Asra, Portia, Julian

From worst to best for alcohol tolerance Muriel, Asra, Lucio, Julian, Portia, Nadia

Character ranking from best at keeping secrets to loose-liped gossip? Asra, Muriel, Nadia, Lucio, Portia, Julian

best to worst dancers? Asra, Portia, Julian, Nadia, Lucio, Muriel

Most to Least likely to slap you for stealing a mcnugget Nadia, Lucio, Asra, Portia, Julian, Muriel

Least to most likely to eat something weird (read: probably shouldn't be eaten) because of a dare? Nadia, Julian, Muriel, Lucio, Portia, Asra and not even on a dare

how old are each of the revealed characters? everyone is old, but in order of least old to most old: Asra, Portia, Muriel, Julian, Lucio, Nadia

Who's the best kisser? Who's the worst? Best kisser: Faust (good snake smooches) Worst kissers: Mercedes and Melchior (too much cronch)

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

If the main 6 played MTG what color decks would they play? Asra: Blue Nadia: White Julian: Black (Portia made his for him) Portia: White/Green Muriel: Green Lucio: Red

How did cast look as babies? Nadia: The best baby, perfect in form and function Asra: A cute baby, always looking around Julian: Not the most handsome baby, a little gangly Portia: Round, squealing delightful baby Lucio: Red-faced screaming awful baby Muriel: Sturdy and well insulated for the long winter

Of the main six characters, which ones are capable of juggling and which ones would absolutely love doing needlepoint? capable of juggling: Portia, Asra, Muriel absolutely love doing needlepoint: Nadia, Julian incapable of juggling/ absolutely hate doing needlepoint: Lucio

what would the cast choose as their job in the mmo final Fantasy XIV? Julian: Dragoon Asra: Astrologian Lucio: Ninja, but he messes up the mudras Nadia: Machinist Portia: Summoner Muriel: Paladin

What would be the favorite attractions/rides of the cast at Disney? Julian: Pirates of the Caribbean Asra: Astro Orbiter Lucio: Tower of Terror (RIP) Muriel: Matterhorn Portia: California Screamin' Nadia: Carousel of Progress

What do the rest of the cast smell like? Nadia: Les Larmes Sacree Du Thebes by Baccarat Asra: Lord of Misrule Lush Shower Cream Julian: Leather seats in a rental car Portia: Cocoa butter and laundry soap Lucio: Fireball, Axe body spray & ass Muriel: myrrh

What board game would The Arcana gang be? Nadia: Clue Asra: Twister Julian: Sorry! Portia: Mouse Trap Lucio: Monopoly Muriel: Guess Who

Who do all the cast main in over watch? Nadia: Ana Asra: Sombra Julian: Reaper Portia: Zarya Muriel: Bastion Lucio: Genji

If everyone participated in a Winter Olympic sport, which one would they be in? Nadia: figure skate (singles) Asra: snowboarding Julian: alpine ski Portia: freestyle ski Muriel: luge Lucio: ice hockey

Main casts Starbucks orders? Julian: Black coffee and he flirts with the barista until it’s ready. Nadia: London Fog Latte. She comes in at exactly 8 every morning. Asra: Matcha latte unless there’s a new radioactive-looking Frappuccino flavor and then he gets that. Muriel: Waiting outside in the car, asks Asra to get him a water. Asra comes back with a hot chocolate and a cake pop. Muriel grumbles but accepts them every time. Lucio: Salted Caramel Mocha extra whip extra sprinkles nonfat no foam soy upside down actually coconut milk instead and then he yells at you if you get it wrong. Portia: Pink Drink and all the baristas get excited when she walks in because they love her and she always tips.

The cast as Kanye songs Nadia: Power Lucio: No Church in the Wild Asra: Love Lockdown Julian: Heartless Portia: Paranoid Muriel: Coldest Winter

Which characters would be in the fire, water, earth, and air nations? Slightly different from what you asked, but: Asra - waterbender Nadia - airbender Julian & Portia - non-benders Muriel - Earthbender Lucio - Firebender

What kind of parents are the cast at their child’s soccer game? Nadia: standing on the sidelines in sunglasses and heels biting her thumbnail and watching every move on the field because she doesnt trust the ref Asra: cheers whenever anything happens, takes as many kids as can fit in the car out for ice cream but doesn’t check with the parents Julian: chats up the other parents relentlessly and isn’t watching when his kid gets hit in the face with the ball Portia: “cmon cmon cmon cmon cmon cmon cmon AW WHAT WAS THAT” Muriel: watching from the parking lot inside the car Lucio: yelling on the phone the whole time, spills all 24 oz of his salted caramel mocha on the bench and doesn’t do anything about it

Which Disney movie is the favorite of each of the cast? Nadia: Fantasia 2000 Asra: The Emperor’s New Groove Julian: Muppet Treasure Island Portia: Muppet Treasure Island Muriel: The Fox and the Hound Lucio: Cinderella 2: Dreams Come True

what kind of youtube channel would each character have (letsplay, cooking, craft, etc)? Asra: very unstructured mostly-cooking channel that also features videos of him just eating weird things, and videos of Faust existing and being cute Nadia: beauty guru with very polished high-end editing Julian: doesn’t know how to use youtube but Portia made an account for him and uploads her shaky/blurry phone videos of his jazz performances Portia: likes and comments on all of Nadia’s videos while occasionally posting cute cat vids Muriel: does not have an internet connection Lucio: extremely loud letsplayer, mostly FPS

What would the cast be as animal crossing villagers? Muriel: Cranky Bear Julian: Smug Eagle Portia: Uchi Cat Nadia: Snooty Ostrich Asra: Lazy Wolf Lucio: Jock Goat

What Fire Emblem Fates' classes would each character be? Asra - Diviner Nadia - Priestess Julian - Adventurer Portia - Maid Muriel - Wolfskin Lucio - Berserker

if the arcana cast were naruto characters, which ones would they be Portia: Naruto Muriel: Gaara Lucio: Orochimaru Julian: Itachi Asra: Kakashi Nadia: Fancy Shikamaru

If the characters of arcana watched rupaul's drag race who would be their faves? Nadia: bebe, raja, peppermint Asra: yara, aja, adore Julian: nina bo’nina, sasha, raven Portia: chichi, bob, ginger Lucio: willam, kimora, mimi imfurst Muriel: Latrice Royale

WHAT ARE THE CHARAS PREFERRED FLAVOR OF ICE CREAM? Nadia: Lavender Lemon Asra: Rainbow Sorbet Julian: Pistachio Portia: Cookie Dough Muriel: Rocky Road Lucio: Red Velvet

Please please arcana cast as mcr songs Lucio: It’s Not a Fashion Statement, It’s a Deathwish Julian: Thank You For The Venom Asra: Welcome To The Black Parade Muriel: House of Wolves Nadia: You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison Portia: Give Em Hell Kid

What are the characters going to be for Halloween? Asra - glow-in-the-dark mermaid Nadia - [elegant ballgown interpretation of] a swan Julian - tortured vampire/werewolf hybrid Muriel - sheet ghost Portia - ninja turtle Lucio - slutty angel Faust - a very long hot dog

If you had to assign the characters from the Arcana to characters from Labyrinth who would they be? Nadia: Jareth Asra: Sara Julian: Sir Didymus Portia: Hoggle Muriel: Ludo Lucio: The Chilly Down birds

What's each character's favourite fruits? Nadia: Concord Grape Asra: Blue Raspberry Julian: Fig Portia: Banana Muriel: Lemon Lucio: Pomegranate

what's everyone's favorite season? Asra - spring Nadia - summer Julian - autumn Muriel - winter Portia - spring Lucio - summer

Who would the Arcana cast be in a cliche Noir Film? Nadia: boss with kinetic ball bearing desk ornament and brandy in the drawer Asra: first love turned old flame that you run into halfway around the world Julian: haggard scientist with an unbuttoned shirt scribbling on the walls Portia: wisecracking secretary who takes a bus a train and a ferry to work Muriel: ominous farmer that lets people use the phone after a car breaks down Lucio: raging starlet shattering a vase after being blacklisted by every studio

The Arcana cast as Michael Jackson songs? Nadia: Man in the Mirror Asra: You Are Not Alone Julian: Smooth Criminal Portia: Will You Be There Muriel: Ben Lucio: Bad

What would each character be in cats? This probably wasn’t supposed to be Cats the musical but if you think i’m gonna pass this up Nadia: None they’re all awful/ Munkustrap Asra: Mister Mistoffelees Julian: Macavity Portia: Jennyanydots Lucio: Rum Tum Tugger Muriel: Grizabella

what would their favorite emojis be? Asra: 🌚 Nadia: 🍷 Julian: 🎷 Portia: 👀 Muriel: 👁 Lucio: 💃💸😏👑

What panic at the disco songs describe each character best? Julian: Death of a Bachelor Asra: I Write Sins Not Tragedies Portia: She’s a Handsome Woman Nadia: Northern Downpour Lucio: Victorious Muriel: From a Mountain in the Middle of the Cabins

What stereotypes for a super cliché highschool do the characters fall into? Nadia: Valedictorian who has been doing independent study and hasn’t set foot in the building for the past two years Asra: Shows up late every class with loud ass Sunchips, does homework in glow in the dark gel pen Julian: Eats lunch with his teacher so they can keep talking about mitochondria Portia: Gets really hype about dances, always ends up fighting at dances Muriel: Puts away all the folding chairs that everyone left behind Lucio: Gets on the intercom to talk shit about the teacher who gave him a D+ on his plagiarized essay

What sports would the characters play? And would they be any good at those sports? Muriel: Any solitary sport. He likes track and shotput. Nadia: Swimming. She isn’t on a team, she just likes the water. Portia: Wrestling. She’s got a few championship belts. Julian: Grandma Devorak forced him to take One Sport in high school, and he chose long-distance running. Asra: Beach volleyball and snowboarding. He’s just there to have a good time. Lucio: Ice hockey, but he spends it mostly punching other players.

what dragons from books/movies/games match each character best, would you say? As for dragons, one of our writers plays Flight Rising obsessively so here’s every character as a Flight Rising breed. Asra: Fae Nadia: Imperial Lucio: Wildclaw Muriel: Guardian Julian: Skydancer Portia: Snapper

What is each character most likely to do with the mc when they're feeling 'unusually affectionate'? Nadia: feed them champagne grapes and engage them in conversation so she can watch them try to talk with their mouth full Asra: stare at them and stop acknowledging anyone or anything else Julian: preen and spoil them to the point of being a public embarrassment Portia: constant cuddly contact Muriel: follow them at a respectable distance Lucio: belt out an aria at the sight of them

What's everyone favorite manga if they read any in this world? Nadia: Rose of Versailles Asra: Yugioh Julian: Blackjack Portia: Ranma ½ Muriel: Hunter x Hunter Lucio: Berserk

how much does faust like all the characters? like, who does she like the most/least? does she like the main character at all? Faust adores the main character almost as much as she loves Asra. But if she had to choose from the rest: Most good smelling: Nadia Most fun to squeeze: Julian Most too big to eat: Muriel Most hard to hide from: Portia Most attackable: Lucio

what kind of drunk is everybody? Nadia: capable, professional drunk on the move. Never in the same room twice Asra: touchy-feely but won’t leave the couch, still somehow manages to catch on fire Julian: morphs into The Storyteller, everyone in earshot ends up caught in a dramatic reenactment of his life story waiting for him to take a breath but he never does Portia: makes 6 new friends in the bathroom line Muriel: moody, talks to no one, keeps taking everybody’s empty bottles out to the trash Lucio: the loudest, the drama, the legend, the first to dip out when the cops show up

Of the Characters: Who tells a dirty joke? Who doesn't understand it? Who is disgusted? Who laughs? Who hides a smile? Who gets annoyed? Lucio: tells a dirty joke Muriel: doesn’t understand it Julian: is disgusted Asra: laughs Portia: hides a smile Nadia: gets annoyed

What are the characters usual reactions when subbing their toes? Nadia: It Does Not Happen Asra: hops it off Julian: hissing, closes his eyes while he savors the pain Portia: (string of curses) “ok………. i’m fine” Muriel: doesn’t notice because his toes are too far away Lucio: shrieks, revenge kicks the wall, shrieks harder

what you think everyones deadly sin would be? the deadly cliches: Nadia - Pride Asra - Lust Julian - Wrath Portia - Envy Muriel - Sloth Lucio - Gluttony

On a scale of good to bad, who sings karaoke? Nadia has a silky voice with impeccable vibrato. But she only sings karaoke alone in the bath. Asra has an airy, intimate voice. He’s the worst at karaoke because he doesn’t even get up off the couch. Julian has very limited singing ability, but he will talk sing the whole way through if he has to. He’s great at duets, somehow. Portia has a throaty, powerful voice. She brings the house down with Heart and Bonnie Tyler ballads, even if she squeaks on the high notes. Muriel has a gravelly grumble that he is convinced is useless for singing and if you hand him the microphone he’ll drop it and go stand in the corner. Lucio has an overdone musical theater voice but he is tone deaf. He will shout out the high notes and power through the rest and if you try to skip his song there will be hell to pay

which social media platform which each character Prefer™ ? Asra - twitter (RTs a lot of memes and shitposts, posts incomprehensible dril-like tweets at 3am) Nadia - instagram (flawless makeup and aesthetic™) Julian - yahoo answers Portia - snapchat Muriel - what is social media Lucio - LinkedIn (you will NEVER stop getting email notifications from him)

what dnd classes would the cast be (like mage, assassin, cleric etc)? Nadia: Paladin Asra: Warlock Julian: Rogue Portia: Bard Muriel: Fighter Lucio: Barbarian

what would each characters spice girl name be Asra: Mystery Spice Nadia: Boss Spice Julian: Suffering Spice Portia: Sassy Spice Muriel: Surly Spice Lucio: Spicy Spice

how complicated is each character's personal hygiene routine? Nadia’s personal hygiene routine: an exact science and takes a practiced team of servants to execute. Julian’s personal hygiene routine: splashing his face 5-7 times and gargling with his famous mint vodka peroxide formula Asra’s personal hygiene routine: sticking his head underwater until he’s awake Portia’s personal hygiene routine: putting her hair in a bun and scrubbing herself with a cloth and bucket down by the frog pond Lucio’s personal hygiene routine: milk and caviar bath every 13 hours Muriel’s personal hygiene routine: standing in the pouring rain

What's everyone's favorite alcoholic drinks? Asra - St Germain, tequila, blue curaçao,  lime juice, hibiscus syrup (serve in a champagne flute or martini glass, garnished with a wildflower or tiny umbrella) Julian - whiskey, Kahlua, Grand Marnier, lemon juice (serve in a highball glass) Nadia - Chambord, white wine, seltzer (serve in a wine glass, chilled or on the rocks) Portia - beer & apple cider with a shot of rum (serve in a lowball glass) Muriel - Baileys, butterscotch schnapps, hot chocolate (serve warm, in your coziest mug) Lucio - Jägermeister & Goldschläger topped with overproof rum (serve as a flaming shot)

what would be each of the characters' favorite genre of music? Asra: Bossa Nova and EDM Nadia: Obscure Opera and Calming beach sounds Julian: 20 minute tracks of Quality Jazz Portia: Reggae and dad rock Muriel: New wave and white noise Lucio: Top 40 and Dark Funky Disco

who would the arcana characters be from mean girls?? Asra: the guy who asked what day it was Nadia: cady Julian: gretchen weiners Portia: janis Lucio: regina george Muriel: damian

Which Hogwarts house would each of the Main Cast belong in? Asra & Julian - Ravenclaw Nadia - Slytherin Portia & Muriel - Hufflepuff Lucio - Gryffindor

What would the characters modern!au job/career of choice be? Lucio owns and manages several nightclubs and has a trashy daytime talk show Asra does really low-budget magic shows at kids’ birthday parties by day, and DJs at one of Lucio’s clubs at night Nadia is the city mayor, an international chess champion, and concert pianist Portia works at Home Depot (used to be a waitress at Red Lobster but the tips were terrible), but she wants to be a zookeeper Julian is a doctor at an underfunded hospital with lots of drama Muriel lives off the grid in a broken-down van in the woods

Just due to mild curiosity what would be the casts favorite musicals? Asra - Legally Blonde: The Musical Nadia - Chicago Julian - Les Mis Muriel - Wicked Portia - Cats! Lucio - Phantom of the Opera / Kinky Boots (it’s a tie)

what cryptid is every character Asra = Chupacabra Julian = Mothman Nadia = Nessie Portia = Loveland Frog Muriel = Bigfoot Lucio = Jersey Devil

how would the game's characters celebrate the MC's birthday with them?? Asra would take them on a long journey without telling them where they were going (but would keep them entertained with riddles) to a scenic oasis, where he would pretend to drown so MC has to dive into the water and at the bottom is a magic flute that can summon a swarm of bees (their favorite!) Nadia would throw a tastefully brief festival in their honor. MC would be lavished with pampering (by professional pamperers) from dawn to dusk and when the clock struck midnight, they would be presented with seven bejeweled eagles (one for every day of the week) Julian would meet them for dinner in a shady tavern, bring them heaping plates of food and offer unsolicited advice for the coming year. About halfway through the meal he would have to scramble out the back door because law enforcement arrived on the scene but he’d put it an order in the kitchen to bring them something for dessert Lucio would declare the day a holiday and call it Day of the Beloved One of Lucio. They would have to sit uncomfortably still while a master artiste painted their portrait and a mile-long line of peasants laid gifts at their feet. Muriel doesn’t celebrate birthdays because time is a human construct Portia would throw a big loud party with a barbecue :D

Since it is soon, what would the characters do for Valentines day with us (the MC)? Nadia would take you on an elegant river cruise stocked with 130 varieties of tiny cake and a private crooner hired to serenade you but she would end up throwing them overboard for not hitting the high notes Asra would take you to the mall and splurge on all the stuff you both can’t afford but wait way too long to get lunch so you get into a fight and he proposes in the food court Julian would show up on the 15th after with all the candy he scored at 75% off, pretend it was on purpose that he got the day wrong, and wake you up at 3 am to come clean because the guilt was eating him alive Muriel would light some scented candles, cook up a sensual meal and throw a bearskin rug in front of the fireplace for you to enjoy alone while he escapes into the woods Portia would pack a picnic of chicken and tortilla chips, take you to the beach where you could splash around until the sun goes down and lull you to sleep on the sandy blanket with her acoustic guitar Lucio would have servants fill your room with floor to ceiling flowers while you sleep and wait impatiently for you to wake up like

Would you roommate with any of the characters? it’s hard to decide, so here are some pros and cons Asra - pro: never home / con: leaves dishes in the sink for weeks Nadia - pro: your home will be spotless / con: it’s spotless because she orders you to clean it for her Julian - pro: medical professional / con: half of your apartment is now this

rate the characters on how #extra they are Muriel: 4/10 Lucio: 13/10 Everyone else: 10/10

Which character could be best described as "tender"?? "Spicy"??? “tender”: Muriel “tender”/“Spicy”: Asra, Portia “Spicy”/”tender”: Julian, Nadia “Spicy”: Lucio

what the favorite Pokemon of all the characters were. Asra - Ekans, Delphox, Espeon Nadia - Noctowl, Gardevoir, Musharna Julian - Absol, Bisharp, Murkrow Portia - Chansey, Politoed, Hoothoot Muriel - Pangoro, Aggron, Wigglytuff Lucio - Houndoom, Pyroar, Skarmory

[marchioness-caprina]

The Vampire And The Hawk

Pairings : Hawks x Student! Reader

Writing Style : 3rd Person

Warning : Age Gap, Mild Cussing

Word Count : 2642

Note : In this Oneshot Dabi is Not a Villain since Endeavor is a Good Father in this AU and in this AU Hawks is adopted by the Todoroki Family so he's pretty much Endeavor's son now.

Note : Bare with Me. Your Quirk is Vampirism, So you have Midnight black hair and Crimson Red eyes on this Oneshot.

3rd Person's POV

It All started with a Mentoring Trial with Class 1-A . Everyone was hyped to know That The Pro Heroes Dabi and Hawks were assigned to their Class in teaching them how the actual field works while sharing their experience and giving advice to the Class.

Two people in Particular did not like the idea. The first one is undoubtedly Shoto knowing very well that his brothers will tease him nonstop and then there's y/n who really hated going outside because of her quirk. She hated the sun with all her being.

Her quirk is Vampirism, Meaning she pretty much has the Capabilities and Powers of a Vampire with a few minor upgrades but aside from that. She is allergic to Garlic and The Sun's Rays irritates her very sensitive skin.

And unlucky for her the training ground is on Ground Beta. Technically outside. It wasn't helping that today was extremely Sunny so now it led to her Bringing an Umbrella with her outside as she followed her class who were really enthusiastic with the idea of meeting two well known pro heroes.

" I hate this " Y/n grumbled and Shoto who was beside her couldn't help but agree.

" Come on you two! Be positive for once! Two of the most popular and not to mention good looking Heroes are here! " Mina cheered and she didn't get a positive reaction from y/n and Shoto.

Once they reached the middle of the training grounds they saw two figures standing there waiting for their arrival. One with blonde hair and the other with red crimson hair, similar to Todoroki's hair .

" It's Them! " Denki exclaimed and everyone came running towards their direction with delight and excitement leaving the two pessimistic people behind.

" Why does it have to be them? " Shoto growled.

" Why does it have to be outside? " Y/n grumbled.

" Hey! Slowpokes! You guys coming or what!? " Sero yelled at the two.

With a groan y/n slumped her shoulders hiding her face beneath the umbrella as she walked at an even slower pace.

She started cursing everything that lights up. Mostly the sun but within her train of thoughts she didn't notice a certain someone approach her.

A gloved hand grabbed the handle of her Umbrella yanking it away from her grasp and raising it above her head.

" Hey! What gives!? " Y/n hissed as she looked up , her red orbs clashing with a pair of golden ones.

" Kid, you're slowing Everyone down. Now hurry up! And stop walking around with an umbrella. Now's definitely not the time to be fancy " Hawks stated but his eyes couldn't help but admire the features of the girl before him.

Beautiful Midnight Hair with luscious curls, Big Crimson Eyes that stared right back to the depths of his soul, Delicate and Pale Skin, Captivating Lips that seemed to be Asking for his. It was actually too much because how the fuck is a First Year student so damn attractive!? .

" Excuse me? No wait.. Excuse you!? I am not being fancy you Prick! " Y/n objected his accusations while pointing at him angrily.

The man only chuckled giving her an amused smirk.

" Oh really? Then what's this doing here? Maybe I should throw it away " Hawks was about to do exactly as what he stated but he was stopped when y/n gripped his wrist.

She hissed at him showing her fangs and her red eyes glowed with menace, grabbing his chin with her free hand she forcefully turned his head to look at her at a very close and dangerous angle.

" I'm a Fucking Vampire you Little bitch but I must say. It's really bold of you to 'Tease' me but I warn you Not to do it... Don't tempt me" She whispered her lips inches away from his and he didn't know why he want to devour her lips in such a hungry way. Maybe it was because of how Suggestive her eyes are? .

Hawks's eyes couldn't leave hers the smirk on his face was long gone with his mouth slightly agape but he regained his composure and that same smug smirk from before came back to life.

Y/n rolled her eyes harshly letting go of his chin and snatching her umbrella away from the winged hero as she stalked her way towards her classmates who watched the entire scene unfold.

They were speechless because in their eyes their classmate pretty much owned the winged hero and not to mention they looked like they were about to tear each other's clothes off infront of them.

" Hawks.... I never knew you swung that way..." Dabi chuckled and the winged hero turned to him with a smirk on his face.

" I didn't know either " Hawks answered followed by a small laugh.

By now everyone was too shocked to say anything and y/n who had finally stood with her classmates gave a questioning look .

" .... I'm telling Dad about this " Shoto suddenly blurted out from the crowd and everyone turned to him.

" Shoto No... Unless you want me to show everyone what you did when you were 9 " Hawks threatened a sly smile plastered on his lips and shoto's eyes widened and it turned into a glare .

" You wouldn't " Shoto countered.

" Oh I will " Hawks Snickered.

And a glaring contest ensued between shoto and Hawks. The glares mostly coming from shoto though, since Hawks looked relaxed and unbothered.

" Ok enough you two. We're wasting Time here! Let's get started with training! " Dabi tried changing the subject and luckily everyone seemed to buy it.

_______________2 Hours Later

" So....Is it True that Vampires Can Turn into a Bat? " Hawks asked as he trailed behind y/n who tried her very best to ignore his random and very annoying comments.

Everyone was listening and watching their interaction from behind them after the physical exercise they did earlier and now they were just strolling around Ground Beta , The two heroes giving advice and telling the class their whole experience.

" If I could I would have turned into one and flew as far away as I can from you " Y/n snapped her eyes narrowed at his direction and Hawks put on a fake hurt expression that ticked the girl off.

" So... Can you Hypnotize people by Looking into their eyes like Dracula from Hotel Transylvania? Because I could get lost in your eyes forever " Hawks's Comments soon turned flirtatious and Dabi couldn't help but snort at how Terrible his brother was doing.

" If I could I would have hypnotized you to leave me the fuck alone and jump off a fucking cliff. Please stop annoying me, your very presence is pissing me off " Y/n growled glaring at Hawks who seemed unaffected by her words.

" Sheesh, your friend is really Harsh. Is she usually like that? " Dabi asked Shoto who gave him a shrug.

" She's usually like that when she's annoyed... Also because she noticed how bad of a flirt Hawks is " Shoto glanced at his older brother with a sigh.

Hawks leaned his head down over her shoulder from behind her as he glanced at the annoyed expression of the girl.

" So... Is it true? Some people on the internet claim that Vampires Sparkles--" Hawks was immediately silenced when y/n grabbed his cheeks and turned her head back to slam her lips against his in a dominating but lascivious kiss that got him going.

But the kiss ended a little bit too soon before he could even return the kiss.

" I didn't Know that the Pro Hero Hawks would actually Be interested in a Kid who's younger than him... Oh well I guess some people have nasty fantasies " Y/n's entire demeanor changed into a teasing and more playful.

The girl turned around completely her eyes hooded with an unreadable expression. Hawks's smirk began to falter as his eyes looked down to hers, His eyes flashing a hungry look.

He began to question his sanity. Was he really interested in a Kid? Well Fuck it. Call him sick but He is.

" Tell me Hawks. Wouldn't it be better to Have a woman instead of a Teenager? I suggest you start looking for one and stop playing Cat and mouse with a little girl " Y/n coaxed her index finger reaching over to brush against his lips.

Her soft skin touched his lips only to brush her finger down, staring at him with a teasing smirk on her lips, she kissed her finger that touched his lips before walking away from him.

" Holy shit.... What the Fuck was that!? " Dabi yelled and the class was rendered immobilized in their place and speechless.

Even Hawks was speechless as he stared at the retreating figure of y/n.

His emotions clashing with his growing desire for her and he knows he's pretty fucked up to like a kid but fuck everyone else he wants her and he intends to keep her.

" I don't fucking know but dude... I think I kinda got rejected " Hawks was finally able to answer but his eyes stayed glued to her figure.

" ... That was.... Highly inappropriate " Iida stated pushing his glasses back.

_____________________

It was finally lunch time and Class 1-A were of course in the Cafeteria eating.

However y/n who was happily snacking on her chocolate cake was bombarded with questions from her classmates.

" Y/n what the fuck was that "

" Do you Really Like him? "

" Oh shit that was so hot " ( mineta)

" Is that even legal? "

" That was not an appropriate interaction! "

" Guys Chill your tits. That was nothing " Y/n stated firmly but apparently she didn't notice that Dabi and Hawks were seated behind her.

" Was it really nothing baby bird? You wound me" Hawks frowned faking a pained expression as he placed his hand on his chest.

" Uhh yeah? " Y/n muttered unsure of what she should say.

" After that kiss? So now what? You're the type of girl who kisses me once and never again? " Hawks accused and y/n didn't really do anything to deny that which angered him but he was the type of person who had full control of his facial expressions and body language so it wasn't obvious but Dabi on the other hand noticed it clearly since he had known Hawks ever since he was a kid.

" That's pretty irresponsible of you Kid, Another rule of being a Hero Kids : Take responsiblity . And y/n you should take responsibility for stealing a kiss along with my heart " Hawks smirked poking her cheek.

" You know you're getting better at flirting...... Not " Y/n muttered as she scooped another small size of her cake pointing it at Hawks.

" Face it. I don't go for guys who are older than me. Sure maybe a year or two will be fine but more than 5 is a big NO NO. I like cute and young guys " Y/n smirked seeing Hawks's angered expression start to surface . Although his face was blank his eyes held anger and pain she kinda liked it.

She should probably start getting rid of her sadistic tendencies. She does like the Birdman but she wanted to tease him too.

Hawks was furious. He didn't really like how she got his hopes up and he wasn't the type to give up that easily. Now he was taught well and giving up is not an option. And the thought of her with another 'young' and 'cute' guy made his blood boil he wasn't that old but she sure as hell was making him feel like it .

He's an adult now but he doesn't know why he has the raging and jealous hormones of a teenager who foolishly fell in love at first sight. He's holding himself back from dragging her away and slamming her back against a random wall while kissing the hell out of her lips until she can't think of anything else but him.

You don't need a boy. Fuck it, you needed a Man and He was that Man. Because he'll screw up whoever tries to take his Baby bird away.

" Open up Hawks" Y/n cooed pointing her utensil at his mouth to which he replied with a glare and turning his head away

" Oh? You're butt hurt now and you refuse to talk? Ok then . Izuku say Ahh~" Y/n smiled as she turned stop Izuku who turned into a blushing mess while fearing for his life when Hawks flashed him a deadly glare.

" Come on Izuk--" Y/n was cut off mid-sentence when a gloved hand gripped her wrist and yanked her hand the other way.

Her hand now pointing at Hawks as he guided her hand up to his mouth. Opening his mouth he ate the small portion of chocolate cake on her spoon before letting go of her hand.

" I thought you didn't want to eat it? " Y/n raised a brow in amusement ignoring the intense stares of Dabi and almost Everyone in the Cafeteria.

" Oh, trust me baby bird. I'd rather eat you than any other treat in the world " Hawks grinned as he stood up bringing y/n along with him. On the other end of the table shoto was ready to cringe and Dabi held back a laugh.

" Hey Brats! Listen up! This girl here is Taken By yours truly! If any one flirts with her or even tries to take her from me... Good luck... You'll be at the Top of my list of people to eliminate ! " Hawks announced with a spine chilling tone making some people shiver.

Y/n was stupefied and couldn't utter a word.

Dabi was beyond flabbergasted he looked like a fish thrown out of the sea and directly onto the burning heat of a frying pan.

" What the hell? The fuck is wrong with you? What about your reputation?" Y/n gasped when she felt him cup her cheeks and kiss her. Right infront of everyone making the room tense up .

Y/n was stiff as Hawks let go of her staring at her with a grin on his face.

" Y-you.... " Y/n was speechless as a small hue of pink tinted her pale cheeks.

" Hawks you sick Fuck Get away from my student! " Aizawa said in fatherly tone and behind him were almight and endeavor.

" Young y/n! Is this true!? " Almight asked in disbelief.

" Well Keigo when do you want your wedding to take place? " Endeavor laughed staring fondly at his adopted son.

" Can I Marry her now? "

" Definitely No! Endeavor don't encourage him " Aizawa hissed and y/n who was too embarrassed to say anything kept trying to pry Hawks's grisly grip from her arm.

But in the end Hawks only pulled her forward pecking her lips .

" Don't try to run away from me Baby bird "

[dragonrajafanfiction]

Chizuru Town (End) Heaven and Hell

Caesar and the MC are let off the chain.

------

The boys all erupted into cheers as you closed your eyes. The man in the striped suit hugged you and then kissed you on the mouth. You didn’t struggle or open your eyes so they wouldn’t see what you were up to. 

Your Soul Skill relies on connecting to the energy of the ground. Already, millions of filaments of your spiritual energy were penetrating the ground like a root system, forming a solid foundation for what was to come. Once your Soul Skill was firmly rooted, you could kill them all in an instant. So you didn’t care about what was happening around you right now. That is, you didn’t care until the ground began to give you feedback that something terrible was happening to Lu Mingfei.

You open your eyes ever so slightly.

Lu Mingfei was backed against the wall of the Internet Cafe. He was holding the empty gun as if he could still shoot but no one was buying it. Another group of boys were firing into the hole left by the Black Viper. If Caesar was still alive in there, he couldn’t come back out without getting shot. 

And there was still no sign of Chu Zihang.

You’d waited to act long enough. At last, you could see the sparkle in the eyes of the elk. 

You raise your golden eyes in the sky and scream. Your hair lifts from where it hung in a wet curtain to straight up, stiff in the air. The ground sparks with electricity and cracks form in the pavement with light shining up through the cracks. 

The boys stop harassing Mingfei and stop firing into the hole in the building and stare in terror as the ground splinters beneath them. In the next second, the energy below the pavement erupts into blazing fire. Their clothes catch fire and so does their hair. They run away from the cracks in the ground, to roll on the wet pavement, steam rising from them. Their lungs have been seared by the heat and they’re choking and gasping after running such a short distance. Their hair is scalded off and they have no eyebrows.

They were the lucky ones. The unlucky sank their feet into pure lava, the heat turning all the moisture in their body to steam instantly. They could only give voice to their blinding pain for a few seconds before they passed out from lack of blood and oxygen and expired.

The air is filled with screams and moans and burning flesh. The street has turned to Hell.

Eruption is a Soul Skill of the King of Earth and Mountains. It summons the magma in an area, so it can usually take some time to charge if the magma is very deep, but here in Japan, the ground is floating on rivers of it and it is nothing for you to call a thin injection up and to squeeze through the plates beneath the earth.

The cars tip down into the widening cracks and their tires pop and shoot up flames in the escaping air, melting the fine paint and metal. The van you’re sitting on is an island in the middle of the destruction.

A phone rings. The man in the stripe suit is pale with shock. He silently read the text message and put down the phone. He stood up, staring down at you with a pale face full of fear. “This scare tactic is no big deal! Japan is our territory! And Chizuru Town is also our territory! You’re not going to win! Put your guns up and kill them!”

Your jaw drops. You had spared this last man because you figured Caesar would want to end him personally and now he - this last rat - was rallying his troops against you? Who was that text message from? How was this Lord so terrible that he could inspire some lowlife to face your power and defy you immediately after you’d just instantly obliterated so many of his gang members?

You smile and laugh! “Hahahaha! I really have to kill all of you! I really do! I can’t believe it!”

The wall Lu Mingfei was pressed against suddenly reverberated with a majestic roar and cracked open with a loud bang. The four-meter- high backhoe rushed out of the fire in the building, the huge gravel shovel dragging Lu Mingei into the air. Those remaining fired at the shovel with a dense shower of bullets.

Caesar sat in the cockpit of the shovel, his right hand holding the steering wheel and his left hand holding the body of the girl. Her blood was dripping down so much it formed a crimson strip on the metal under the cockpit.

You raise your chin to him. The redness of that blood was like a flag, marking you and Caesar as comrades in sorrow.

Caesar turned the backhoe to face away from the attackers. “Lu Mingfei! Get in!”

Lu Mingfei used all his strength to jump towards the shovel and Caesar pulled him in by his arm. 

Caesar turned the back hoe back around. He handed the body of Makoto to Lu Mingfei who immediately looked like he was about to cry. Caesar’s face was as smooth and calm as granite as he looked at you and your river of destruction.

“Boss, are you okay?” Mingfei whimpered.

“I’m fine… I’m fine.”

The magma you called up was rapidly cooling in the rain and the steam rose up smelling like fresh asphalt. The charred corpses of the gangsters who had died were like black statues sticking out of the ground, frozen forever in their state of agony like the ash sculpture corpses of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

He breathed in and out. “MC. Stand down.”

“Ah.” You sigh. “Alright.”

“You lied to me. But I forgive you.” He said.

The man in the striped suit is staring at you and you stare right back. He finally understands that you were not a prize for him. Caesar Gattuso had deceived him into inviting a bomb right in the middle of his troops. 

“Grenades! Grenades!” The man in the suit yelled.

The dozen gangsters that remained pulled grenades from their belts and flung them at the backhoe. The grenades blew through the wheels of the machine, rendering it motionless.

That’s when the dark clouds suddenly broke open and a giant B1 bomber descended like a black bird from the sky. The stirring back draft of the low flight swept the whole length of the street, shattering some of the windows, and nearly knocked you off the van . When you regain your balance, you see something descending on a white parachute from the bottom of it near Caesar.

He snatched the box out of the air, opened it and revealed two new weapons. He calmly started loading up his weapons. Was this the power of Cassell? Or was it the Gattuso family? Caesar had to have called someone...

“Boss! That bullet can kill people!” Mingfei gasps.

“The old guys in my family are usually a bunch of dirty bastards, but one thing they say is true. They say that God created the world to be fair and just, and if someone makes a mistake, he should pay the price. Hand for hand, foot for foot. If someone doesn’t pay for their sins, then who will believe in God’s glory?” After he finished loading the rounds, he made the sign of the cross.

“Is that what this is all about? Converting me to Catholicism?” You laugh with incredulity. Even after all this destruction, staring into the face of the black abyss, it was this religion that kept him grounded in his view of the world. “I think our beliefs will stay different. But I don’t mind calling you brother, Caesar. Ow!” You cry out as your hair is suddenly seized.

The man in the striped suit quickly picks up the shotgun and points it at you but then his hand bursts into a shower of flesh and bone. With nothing to hold it, the gun falls into the cooling magma and sticks in upright.

The man in the suit wails, clutching his now empty wrist. The bullet had accurately penetrated his hand. The rounds from the Desert Eagle guns have no difficulty in shattering the skull of a rhinoceros. A human hand was no problem.

Caesar fired both guns, and after emptying them of bullets, he threw the guns to Lu Mingfei for him to help reload. He took out an Uzi from the same box to continue shooting. The gangsters completely lost their fighting spirit, leaving their companions crying and jumping into the vans that were undamaged by the magma. Some were able to jump in but most fell in the rain before they could touch any vehicle. Each bullet passes precisely through their calves. 

They had asked Caesar to cripple himself by shooting his hand and calf and now he was crippling them that way. It was casual genius. Caesar simply would not budge from his ideals, nor would you budge from yours. You simply provided space for each other. You found your niche, and he would work around that. So you do stand down and watch Caesar work, your heart icy cold, but warmed by the fires of his company in this wintry dark world.

The van’s wheels spun to get going in the rain, and the vehicles fled to the end of the long street, leaving behind their wounded companions. With them on the run, Caesar leaped from the backhoe and walked over the ruined ground. He raised the Uzi in a smooth arc and fired six shots at the apex, blowing out the tires of the vans.

The vans still tried to roll on the lopsided tires. But then they suddenly stop. The man in the suit got out of the vehicle, dragging the driver with him. Your smile fades a little and your heart rate jumps. But Caesar told you to stand down and these two wouldn’t serve any resistance, right?

The vans of the cargo doors burst open and the dark interiors shined with the lights of roaring motorcycles. Caesar stood like a pillar and closed his eyes.

The guns made a sound you had never heard a gun make before. Like an explosion but beginning and ending with some sort of snarl, like he was holding a vicious dog in his hands. The modified Desert Eagle shot extremely fast. Caesar blasted out a direct rain of bullets. When these gangsters were in range they entered Caesar's exclusive battle field. The tide of the bikes and the rain of the bullets collided head on. The bullets pierced through fuel tanks, broke axles, tore through the wheel wells, and shot out sparks. One by one, the heavy machines collapsed in the puddles, caught fire and exploded and the boys tumbled to the ground, crying out in disbelief. Caesar fired mechanically, his face without expression, not happy or angry or sad.

As for you, the MC, you were still uneasy. You understood what it was like to be herded into battle, as not all the orphans at the facility wanted to fight. Those weak ones were tossed headlong into the ring with more vicious and bloodthirsty opponents to fight it out and learn to like it. They didn’t have a choice. 

Just like observing those reluctant kids, you realize suddenly that this whole scene is wrong. These people are being driven to this fight like slaves. You just now noticed their chains when they stopped trying to escape and turned around.

There were still three motorcycles coming in a second wave. Even from this distance you could see the striped suited man, hand missing, eyes white with frenzy, carrying a long knife. Caesar casually tossed a grenade on the ground and rolled it in front of them. It burst and sent the bikes on either side of the man in the suit flying, but he was so determined that he popped his front wheel in the air and rode the explosion, just like Caesar had ridden the air to save Makoto. His blade was aimed directly at Caesar’s heart. 

You leap to your feet, but Caesar didn’t move other than to sweep his leg up and kick the fuel canister on the bike.

The man in the suit suddenly realized that his motorcycle was gone and he was floating by himself in the air. The bike had been kicked out from under him and he landed hard, smashing face down right in the road.

Caesar bent over, picked him up by his hair and forced him to watch, feet dangling, as he poured bullets into the motorcycle, smashing its four cylinder engine, axle, silver-plated tailpipe and handle bars, the leather seat, and the precious logo… his beloved motorcycle, that was like his beautiful woman, was turned into nothing more an scrap metal.

“My …” you say to yourself, glancing at the black corpses surrounding you and wondering who was better off.

“I’ll kill you,” Caesar was saying, “But before that, you have to tell me who that “Lord” behind the curtain is.” Caesar shot the man in the ankle, and one of his feet disappeared.

“I have little patience for forced confessions.” Caesar fired another shot, hitting the knee and the man’s calf disappeared.

The man in the suit was struggling to speak in pain, but then Caesar called Lu Mingfei to him. “Translate.”

Lu Mingfei, who had been hiding in the backhoe, fell clumsily from the machine and hurried over, trying not to trip over any charred bodies.

“He said he’s going to take a long time to explain and he’s going to pass out. He’s asking for some wine.” He puffed breathlessly.

“He wants to drink?” Caesar was a little surprised by this lecherous man’s courage.

From your vantage point on the van, you notice that someone is moving in the darkness behind the abandoned vehicles with the flat tires. You leap off the van and hurry over to the back hoe. There were still guns left there. One a Beretta. You snatch it and and run towards Caesar, eyes on the target.

The man in the suit fished out a test tube of purple liquid from his sleeve and sucked the liquid out faster than Caesar could react.

“Poison?” Caesar was taken aback, but it was too late. The test tube fell and shattered in the rain and the man hung limp. You slow to a stop. You thought the shadow was there, but now you don’t see anything.

The man in the suit’s body suddenly twitched feverishly. His flesh started to morph, like he was rapidly healing, yet dying at the same time. The man’s eyes opened with golden pupils! Caesar did not have time to dodge before the man’s fingers - now a pair of vicious bone claws - stabbed into his chest. 

He pounced on Caesar with strength that overwhelmed him, hugging him tightly with the claws digging into his back and teeth closing on his neck. 

You fire once. The man’s skull ragdolls back.  And then again. The man in the suit releases a stunned and bloodied Caesar who lets him fall in a heap to the ground. Lifeless.

Chu Zihang was standing there. Evidently he was the moving shadow. He had run to help Caesar himself but your gun’s bullets reached him before he could. They were still some distance away from you. Between you and them were several of the wounded who were still crawling away, cowering behind trash cans and trying to hide between wrecked cars. All of them could turn into monsters, as far as you were concerned. 

You catch the eyes of one who was crouched behind the mailbox. He held up his hands. He cried “No! No!” before his head shattered to pieces. You moved to the next who was scooting away behind two black trash bags. You pull the trigger and he dropped like a stone.

Chu Zihang is racing to meet you. You trace your fingers to draw a line across the street. The ground opens up and a river of lava’s heat comes between you. Meanwhile, you keep shooting, ignoring the gangster’s pleas and prayers. They have to die. They all have to die.

Chu Zihang suddenly seemed to fall from the sky. His eyes are blazing gold, his sword raised.

“No.” You say. You wave your hand and the ground lifts beneath you forming a jagged edge pointed up at him. If Zihang fell on it at this speed, he could have broken ribs or worse, but he rolls in the air,  casting a spout of fire to blast him away at the last second.

Your eyes follow the trajectory of his arc. A crack in the pavement follows your gaze. Such extreme control of eruption is only possible thanks to the amount of filaments in the ground. The liquid rock underneath you is almost like a second limb. The ground is shaking and unsteady when Chu Zihang lands and he stumbles and falls. But now his eyes are wide with terror, but  looking behind you. You turn and stare down the muzzle of an old revolver. You feel a flash of intense pain. The world around you spins. Colors and images blur together. You land in a puddle, coughing blood. Your world goes dark with Chu Zihang calling your name.

[kiridune]

On Hallowed Ground

Sat, Sep. 07, 2002 Miami Herald

By DAVE BARRY (http://davebarry.com/misccol/hallowedground.htm)

On a humid July day in Pennsylvania, hundreds of tourists, as millions have before them, are drifting among the simple gravestones and timeworn monuments of the national cemetery at Gettysburg.

Several thousand soldiers are buried here. A few graves are decorated with flowers, suggesting some of the dead have relatives who still come here. There's a sign at the entrance, reminding people that this is a cemetery. It says: "SILENCE AND RESPECT."

Most of the tourists are being reasonably respectful, for tourists, although many, apparently without noticing, walk on the graves, stand on the bones of the soldiers. Hardly anybody is silent. Perky tour guides are telling well-practiced stories and jokes; parents are yelling at children; children are yelling at each other. A tour group of maybe two dozen teen-agers are paying zero attention to anything but each other, flirting, laughing, wrapped in the happy self-absorbed obliviousness of Teen-agerLand.

A few yards away, gazing somberly toward the teen-agers, is a bust of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address here 139 years ago, when the gentle rolling landscape, now green and manicured, was still raw and battle-scarred, the earth recently soaked with the blood of the 8,000 who died, and the tens of thousands more who were wounded, when two armies, 160,000 men, fought a terrible battle on July 1, 2 and 3 that determined the outcome of the Civil War.

Nobody planned for the battle to happen here. Neither army set out for Gettysburg. But this is where it happened. This is where, out of randomness, out of chance, a thousand variables conspired to bring the two mighty armies together. And so this quiet little town, because it happened to be here, became historic, significant, a symbol, its identity indelibly defined by this one overwhelming event. This is where these soldiers - soldiers from Minnesota, soldiers from Kentucky, soldiers who had never heard of Gettysburg before they came here to die - will lie forever.

This is hallowed ground.

On the same July day, a few hours' drive to the west, near the small Pennsylvania town of Shanksville, Wally Miller, coroner of Somerset County, Pa., walks slowly through the tall grass covering a quiet field, to a place near the edge, just before some woods.

This is the place where, on Sept. 11, 2001, United Airlines Flight 93, scene of a desperate airborne battle pitting passengers and crew against terrorist hijackers, came hurtling out of the sky, turning upside down and slamming into the earth at more than 500 mph.

That horrendous event transformed this quiet field into a smoking, reeking hell, a nightmare landscape of jet fuel, burning plane debris, scattered human remains.

Now, 10 months later, the field is green again. Peaceful and green.

Except where Flight 93 plunged into the ground. That one place is still barren dirt. That one place has not healed.

"Interesting that the grass won't grow right here," says Miller.

Nobody on Flight 93 was heading for Somerset County that day. The 33 passengers and seven crew were heading from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco. The four hijackers had a different destination in mind, probably Washington, D.C., possibly the White House.

Nobody on the plane meant to come here.

"I doubt that any one of them would ever set foot in Somerset County, except maybe to stop at Howard Johnson's on the turnpike," Miller says. "They have no roots here."

But this is where they are. And this is where they will stay.

No bodies were recovered here, at least not as we normally think of bodies. In the cataclysmic violence of the crash, the people on Flight 93 literally disintegrated. Searchers found fragments of bones, small pieces of flesh, a hand. But no bodies.

In the grisly accounting of a jetliner crash, it comes down to pounds: The people on Flight 93 weighed a total of about 7,500 pounds. Miller supervised an intensive effort to gather their remains, some flung hundreds of yards. In the end, just 600 pounds of remains were collected; of these, 250 pounds could be identified by DNA testing and returned to the families of the passengers and crew.

Forty families, wanting to bury their loved ones. Two hundred fifty pounds of identifiable remains.

"There were people who were getting a skull cap and a tooth in the casket," Miller says. "That was their loved ones."

The rest of the remains, the vast majority, will stay here forever, in this ground.

"For all intents and purposes, they're buried here," Miller says. "This is a cemetery."

This is also hallowed ground.

In the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln was essentially trying to answer a question. The question was: How do you honor your heroes? Lincoln's answer was: You can't. No speech you give, no monument you erect, will be worthy of them, of their sacrifice. The best you can do is remember the cause they died for, finish the job they started.

Of course the passengers and crew on Flight 93, when they set out from Newark that morning, had no cause in common. They were people on a plane bound from Newark to San Francisco. Some were going home, some traveling on business, some on vacation.

People on a plane.

Which makes it all the more astonishing, what they did.

You've been on planes. Think how it feels, especially on a morning cross-country flight. You got up early; you're tired; you've been buckled in your seat for a couple of hours, with hours more to go. You're reading, or maybe dozing. You're essentially cargo: There's nowhere you can go, nothing you can do, no role you could possibly play in flying this huge, complex machine. You retreat into your passenger cocoon, passive, trusting your fate to the hands of others, confident that they'll get you down safe, because they always do.

Now imagine what that awful morning was like for the people on Flight 93. Imagine being ripped from your safe little cocoon, discovering that the plane was now controlled by killers, that your life was in their bloody hands. Imagine knowing that there was nobody to help you, except you, and the people, mostly strangers, around you.

Imagine that, and ask yourself: What would you do? Could you do anything? Could you overcome the fear clenching your stomach, the cold, paralyzing terror?

The people on Flight 93 did. With hijackers in control of the plane, with the captain and first officer most likely dead, the people on this plane got on their cell phones, and the plane's Airfones. They reached people on the ground, explained what was happening to them. They expressed their love. They said goodbye.

But they did not give up. As they were saying goodbye, they were gathering information. They learned about the World Trade Center towers. They understood that Flight 93 was on a suicide mission. They figured out what their options were.

Then they organized.

Then they fought back.

In "Among the Heroes," a riveting book about Flight 93, New York Times reporter Jere Longman reports many of the last words spoken to loved ones on the ground by people on the plane. They're not the words of people in shock, people resigned to whatever fate awaits them. They're the words of people planning an attack. Fighters.

Here, for example, are the last words of passenger Honor Elizabeth Wainio to her stepmother: "They're getting ready to break into the cockpit. I have to go. I love you. Goodbye."

Here are flight attendant Sandy Bradshaw's last words to her husband: "We're going to throw water on them and try to take the airplane back over. Phil, everyone's running to first class. I've got to go. Bye."

And of course there are the now-famous words of Todd Beamer, who, after explaining the situation on the plane to an Airfone supervisor in Illinois, turned to somebody near him and said: "You ready? OK, let's roll."

They're getting ready to break into the cockpit.

I've got to go.

Let's roll.

We'll never know exactly what happened next. Some believe that the fighters managed to get into the cockpit, and that, in the ensuing struggle for control, the plane went down. Others believe that the hijackers, trying to knock the fighters off their feet, flew the plane erratically, and in doing so lost control. Inevitably, there is Internet-fueled speculation that the plane was secretly shot down by the U.S. government. (The government denies this.)

But whatever happened, we know two things for sure:

We know that the plane went down before it reached its target - that the hijackers failed to strike a national symbol, a populated area. They failed.

And we know that the people on the plane fought back. On a random day, on a random flight, they found themselves - unwarned, unprepared, unarmed - on the front lines of a vicious new kind of war. And somehow, in the few confusing and terrifying minutes they had, they transformed themselves from people on a plane into soldiers, and they fought back. And that made them heroes, immediately and forever, to a wounded, angry nation, a nation that desperately wanted to fight back.

And now these heroes lie here, in this field where their battle ended. This cemetery. This battlefield. This hallowed ground.

Wally Miller, coroner, has walked this ground hundreds of times. He spent endless hours among those collecting human remains and picking up plane parts. Even now, he walks with his eyes down, looking, looking. Every now and then he reaches down and picks up a tiny piece of plane - a thimble-sized piece of twisted gray metal, a bit of charred plastic, a shard of circuit board, a wire. This is what Flight 93 became: millions of tiny pieces, a vast puzzle that can never be reassembled. Despite the cleanup effort, there are still thousands of plane parts scattered for acres around the crash site, just under the new plant growth, reminders of what happened here.

The site is peaceful; no sound but birds. Miller walks from the bright field into the hemlock woods just beyond the barren spot where Flight 93 slammed into the earth. It's mid-afternoon, but the woods are in permanent dusk, the tall trees allowing only a dim, gloomy light to filter down to the lush green ferns that blanket the ground. The woods look undisturbed, except for bright "X"s painted on the trunks of dozens of hemlocks. The "X"s mark the trees that were scaled by climbers retrieving human remains, flung high and deep into woods by the force of the crash.

Some of the hemlocks, damaged by debris and fire and jet fuel, had to be cut down. These trees were supposed to be trucked away, but Miller, who, as coroner, still controls the crash site, would not allow it. Some of the trees have been ground into mulch; some lie in piles of logs and branches. But they're all still here. Miller won't let them be removed.

"This is a cemetery," he says, again. And he is determined that it will be respected as a cemetery. All of it. Even the trees.

Almost immediately after the battle of Gettysburg, people started coming to see the place where history happened. More than a century later, they're coming still.

Some are pilgrims: For them, Gettysburg is a solemn place, where the suffering and sacrifice of the soldiers still hangs heavy in the air. Some are purely tourists: For them, Gettysburg is another attraction to visit, like the Grand Canyon, or Graceland - famous, but not particularly relevant to their everyday lives. You park, you look, you take a picture, you leave.

I think that most of the visitors to Gettysburg, even today, are some mixture of pilgrim and tourist. But as the battle has receded in time, as the scars of the war have healed, tourism clearly has come to dominate the mixture. Despite the valiant efforts of many to preserve the soul of this place, to explain to the waist-pack hordes why this ground is hallowed, Gettysburg, surrounded by motels and gift shoppes, accessorized by a wax museum and a miniature-golf course, is now much more a tourist attraction than a shrine.

But soldiers are still buried here. And people still come to place flowers on graves. And the sign at the entrance to the cemetery still makes its plea: SILENCE AND RESPECT.

Immediately after Sept. 11, people started coming to see where Flight 93 went down. The site is a little tricky to find, but they found it, and they're coming still, every day, a steady stream of people who want to be near this place. They're not allowed on the site itself, which is fenced off and guarded, so they go to the temporary memorial that has been set up by the side of a two-lane rural road overlooking the crash site, a quarter-mile away.

The memorial - the word seems grandiose, when you see it - is a gravel parking area, two portable toilets, two flagpoles and a fence. The fence was erected to give people a place to hang things. Many visitors leave behind something - a cross, a hat, a medal, a patch, a T-shirt, an angel, a toy airplane, a plaque - symbols, tokens, gifts for the heroes in the ground. There are messages for the heroes, too, thousands of letters, notes, graffiti scrawls, expressing sorrow, and love, and anger, and, most often, gratitude, sometimes in yearbookish prose:

"Thanx 4 everything to the heroes of Flight 93!!"

Visitors read the messages, look at the stuff on the fence, take pictures. But mostly they stare silently across the field, toward the place where Flight 93 went down. They look like people you see at Gettysburg, staring down the sloping field where Pickett's charge was stopped, and the tide of war changed, in a few minutes of unthinkable carnage. There is nothing, really, to see on either field now, but you find it hard to pull your eyes away, knowing, imagining, what happened there.

There will be a permanent memorial for Flight 93. The temporary one is touching in its way, a heartfelt and spontaneous tribute to the heroes. But it's also haphazard, verging on tacky. Everyone agrees that something more dignified is needed. The official wheels are already turning: Congress has begun considering a bill to place the site in federal custody. Eventually land will be acquired; a commission will be appointed; a design will be approved.

Wally Miller frets about the memorial. He worries that, in the push to commemorate this as The Defining Moment In The War Against Terrorism, people will forget that it was also - maybe primarily - a personal tragedy for 40 families. He believes that, whatever is done at the site, there should be a place set aide for the Flight 93 families to grieve in private, away from the public, the tourists, the sightseers, the voyeurs, and what Miller calls "the metal-detector assholes."

Tim Lambert, who owns the woods where many of the remains were found, agrees that the paramount concern has to be the families.

"They are forced to live with this tragedy every day," he says. "The site itself is, for the most part, the final resting place for their loved ones. People need to remember and respect that."

One of the most heartrending quotes in "Among the Heroes" is from Deena Burnett, the widow of Flight 93 passenger Tom Burnett, who is believed to have played an active role in the battle on the plane. Mrs. Burnett is describing what it's like to be the widow of a hero:

"In the beginning, everyone asked, 'Aren't you proud of him? Aren't you happy that he's a hero?' I thought, my goodness, the first thing you have to understand is, I'm just trying to put one foot in front of the other. For my husband to be anyone's hero ... I'd much prefer him to be here with me."

So we need to remember this: The heroes of Flight 93 were people on a plane. Their glory is being paid for, day after day, by grief. Tom Burnett does not belong to the nation. He is, first and foremost, Deena Burnett's husband, and the father of their three daughters. Any effort we make to claim him as ours is an affront to those who loved him, those he loved.

He is not ours.

And yet ...

... and yet he is a hero to us, he and the other people on Flight 93. We want to honor them, just as we want to honor the firefighters, police officers and civilians at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon who risked, and sometimes gave, their lives to try to rescue others. We want to honor them for what they did, and for reminding us that this nation is nowhere near as soft and selfish as we had come to believe.

We want to honor them.

And so in a few years, when grass grows once again over the place where Flight 93 hit the ground, when the "X"s have faded from the hemlocks, there will be a memorial here, an official, permanent memorial to the heroes of Flight 93. It will be dedicated in a somber and dignified ceremony, and people will make speeches. Somebody - bet on it - will quote the Gettysburg Address, the part about giving the last full measure of devotion. The speeches will be moving, but they will also prove Lincoln's point, that the words of the living can add nothing to the deeds of the dead.

Thanx 4 everything to the heroes of Flight 93!!

There will be expressions of condolence to the families, and these, too, will be heartfelt. But they will not take away the grief.

I'd much prefer him to be here with me.

And then the ceremony will end, and the people will go home. And the heroes, the people on the plane, will remain here in the ground of Somerset County.

And years will pass, and more people will come here, and more, people who were not yet born when Flight 93 went down, coming to see this famous place.

Let's hope, for their sake, that the world they live in is less troubled than it is today. Let's hope they've never had to feel anything like the pain of Sept. 11, 2001.

Let's also hope that, when they stand here, they know enough to be silent, to show respect.

Let's hope they understand why this is hallowed ground.

[fandomoneshots-imagines]

Walking in Memphis (Tony Stark x Reader)

Summary: Reader realizes she’s in trouble and calls for the first person she knows that can help her.

Note: This is for @thefanficfaerie​ 3500 follower challenge but I do believe it’s going to turn out to be a mini series.

Warnings: horrible google translated french

“Mom, did you put yogurt or apple slices in my lunch?” A small voice shouted from the bathroom down our hallway.

“I put orange slices.” I yelled back, putting my daughter's lunchbox in her backpack. She had been off of yogurt in her lunchbox after an unfortunate incident when it upset her tummy. 

“Yummy,” her voice travelled softly down the hallway. “Yogurt is yucky!”

“Never again. Did you put your homework in your backpack last night?” I asked, grabbing everything the two of us needed to go about our day.

“Yeah, but do I have to go to school?” She pouted, grabbing her backpack off the entry table she would usually place the bag. My beautiful and gorgeous baby girl, Polly, was a little genius at 8 years old and was in the ninth grade grade, which put her seven years younger than her classmates. Several of the kids in her class would pick on her because of her age, size, and for how smart she was. Her little genius head was something she got from her father.

“I know baby girl but I has to work today. And remember, it’s Friday so tomorrow we can spend all day on the couch watching movies.” I held her hand as we walked to the car. As I lifted her up into her booster seat I would feel eyes  watching us.

“Mom, can we talk to Hawk tonight?” Polly asked as I climbed into the driver seat.

I smiled back at her, noticing a black SUV down the block behind us, “Would you rather talk to him right now?” I asked and connected my phone to the car. She cheered as I pressed the contact for my old friend. 

“Well if it isn’t one of my favorite people ever.” A deep voice answered immediately.

“Hey Barton, I got a request to talk to you before drop off.”

“Little bird?!” He cheered happily. The two started talking animatedly with each other. I looked behind us noticing the SUV following. As the two kept talking I put on the song Walking in Memphis. “What’s wrong?”

“Just got something on my foot.” I mumbled, looking in the rearview mirror. Clint and I have been best friends ever since I joined the Avengers nearly ten years ago. We would get teamed up the most along with Natasha. While on missions we would use code words if we were in trouble. Anytime we would play, sing, or hum Walking in Memphis, it would let the other person know that something was up. The phrase ‘something on my foot’ meant we were being followed.

“Keep driving. Don’t stop. Don’t take Polly to school.” Polly cheered about no school, “We’ve been having issues with HYDRA.” Clint spoke quickly, you could hear him running around most likely gathering his equipment for extraction.

“Clint, you can’t bring him.” I spoke softly.

“I’ll do my best to keep him away. Nat and I will be there ASAP.”

*Clint’s POV*

I quickly began rushing around gathering all my equipment needed to get Y/N and Polly out of there. After throwing my bow over my shoulder, I walked into the kitchen to find Nat sitting at the kitchen island reading a file with Tony fixing a pot of coffee.

“I didn’t know you had a mission scheduled.” Nat said as she looked up from the file.

“It’s an extraction actually.” I looked over to Tony, “In Memphis.” She immediately pushed her seat back and stood up, causing the billionaire to look back.

“Are they ok?” She asked as the two of us headed to the hanger for the quintjet.

“I don’t know. She said that someone was following her.” I said as we climbed onto the aircraft.

 “HYDRA?” Nat asked, starting the plane up. We both buckled in and put on headsets.

“Gonna assume so.” I sighed and looked over to my other best friend. “We’re gonna have to bring them back here aren’t we?”

“It’s the safest option for them.”

*original pov*

“Mommy I need to use the bathroom!” Polly whined, waking up from the back seat. I sighed and pulled over into the nearest gas station and dialed Clint’s phone.

“Is everything ok?” He answered after the first ring.

“I’m pulling over for a bathroom break. What’s your ETA?” I asked and looked all around before stepping out of the car. I stayed on the phone as I opened up the back door and helped Polly down.

“We’re about 30 minutes out. We’ve got your location pinged.” 

“We?” I asked, my voice shaking with worry.

“It’s just me and Nat.”

“How’s little bird?” Her soft voice echoed through the receiver. 

“She’s doing good.” I smiled and held out the phone, “Wanna speak to Auntie Nat?” Polly quickly took the phone talking with the deadly woman. I carried her into the gas station and into the bathroom, taking the phone while she did her business. Once she was finished and had her hands washed I handed back her phone.

 “Momma, Auntie Nat said they we’re almost here. Are we going on a trip?”

“Kinda baby girl.” I eyed the cashier as we walked past then looked down at Polly, “Rappelez-vous que je vous ai parlé des mauvaises personnes que je chassais?” (Remember I told you about the bad people I used to chase?)

“Ils nous poursuivent cette fois??” She asked, her eyes widening in fear. (Are they chasing us this time?)

“l'araignée et l'oiseau viennent nous sauver.” I smiled and reassured her and picked her up taking the phone to speak to Nat

.“quand le petit oiseau a-t-il appris le français?” Nat chuckled through the phone, “Were at your location by the way.”

 I walked out of the building to see the quintet landing in the field next to the gas station. I let out a sigh of relief and went to the car grabbing Polly’s backpack. As I turned around the ramp dropped down and I sat her down letting her run to the two familiar people coming down. 

“My little bird!” Clint yelled, scooped her up, and squeezed her tightly. The small girl hugged him back just as tight, or as tight as she possibly could. Natasha wrapped her slender arms around me.

“Is everything ok?” She asked softly. I nodded but saw a familiar SUV speeding down the road.

“We have to go.” I pulled Natasha’s hand into the jet and Clint followed quickly behind, holding tightly onto Polly. As soon as the two agents got seated they started up the engines and within five minutes took off. I watched out of the front window as the SUV drifted into the parking lot. Five men all jumped out with guns pointed at the aircraft.

“Where are we going now Mom?” Polly asked from the seat Clint has quickly buckled her into. I sighed and walked over sitting beside her.

“Far away from Memphis baby girl.” I kissed her forehead.

*Tony’s POV*

After Natasha and Bird Brain #1 left I went about my day as usual, trying to develop new suits or improving something else in the building, 

“Tony, do you know where Nat is?” James asked as he came in, sitting beside me.

“Her and Clint went on some kind of extraction mission or whatever.” I shrugged moving back and forth between the screens in front of me.

“What the hell? We were supposed to train together.” He scrunched his eyebrows together. “Do you know where they went?” He asked, picking up one of the tools and fiddling with it.

“I think Clint said Memphis.” I mumbled and the tool immediately fell from his hands.

“Memphis? I uhhhh, I got to go.” As he stood up the stool he was sitting on fell over and he sprinted out of the room.

“Tony, I just wanted to remind you about the charity ball tonight.” Pepper came in a minute later after Bucky fled the room, “We have to be there by 8 o’clock and it’s noon now.” She wrapped her arms around my shoulders from behind. I smiled and kissed one of her arms and kissed the ring on her left hand. 

“I’ll promise to be there. Will I be on time? Who knows.” I spun around in my chair leaning my head on her torso. She let out a chuckle and raked her fingers through my hair. I looked up at the sound of the quintjet coming near and getting ready to land. 

“I have a bone to pick with those two.” I grumbled and stood up. I placed a soft kiss on Pepper’s lips and walked out, my arms crossed over my chest.

“Tony, I could use your help inside!” Steve ran out. “Uhhh I don’t know how to work the internets!”

 “What’s going on?” I started to get suspicious with how everyone was acting. Steve for sure knows how to use the internet. I’ve seen his search history. Steve kept trying to get me to go back inside as the jet opened up. Clint and Natasha walked down and once they saw me they both froze.

“Tony, the security council was wanting to have a meeting over the reports from last month.” Pepper came out as well and stopped as Clint and Natasha came down. Behind the two spies was a familiar outline and I could practically feel my heart stop. Again.

Y/N was coming out of the jet with a small child hanging off of her. She sat the child down and I got a good look at her.

 “So, Memphis?” I looked between the three adults and the child standing before me, my heart rate picking up. I Bent down, my hands on my knees, as I tried to control my now quickened breathing. 

Pepper looked back and forth between the girl and me, “I’ll let the people with the ball know that you’re not going to make it.” 

[shedreamsofstars]

Eggman’s Misadventures in Shipping - Chapter 3

What use is an IQ of 300 if you don’t use it to enact an elaborate scheme to set up your arch nemesis. Eggman’s had enough of getting his butt kicked every other day by that stupid blue pineapple. To regain his spark, it’s time for a plan the Doctor knows is fool proof … at least, according to certain ‘shippers’ on the internet

Previous Chapter       Start from the beginning

Phase Two: The Protector

It didn't take long for Sonic to polish off all the chilli dogs he could find. They didn't call him the fastest thing alive for nothing he thought with a smirk, grabbing a napkin to wipe his face.

He frowned in annoyance as he spotted a drop of chilli that had fallen right onto his glove. He was going to have to switch to a clean pair he realised and was about to wipe the glove down when an idea crept up on him. He glanced between his finger and the girl scooping a sugar dusted strawberry into her mouth beside him and a smile stretched across his face.

"Hey Amy," he called.

"Hmm."

"You have a little something on your face there."

Amy paused mid-bite, a look of panic crossing her face just as he had expected. "What! How?" she said, grabbing the nearest napkin and rubbing blindly at her face. "Did I get it?"

Sonic pretended to inspect both her cheeks before proceeding to shake his head. "It's … right … here," he said, smirking as he streaked a line of chilli across her otherwise pristine cheek.

Amy's mouth fell open in shock as she felt the wet sauce on her cheek and realised what the blue hero had just done. "Sonic!" Amy whined, scrubbing her cheek clean without a moment's hesitation.

The boy barely had enough time to choke out a guffaw before he found himself laying on his back, hands pinned to the ground with an annoyed pink hedgehog hovering above him.

"Come on Amy, you know I was kidding," he said, nervous energy coursing through his blood as realised he couldn't break free.

"Of course, Sonic. Just like you understand that this is just me kidding," she replied, her words a threatening drawl as the half-eaten tart sat squarely in the palm of her hand. Sonic swallowed hard as he realised exactly where that particular dessert was headed.

"Amy come on, wait. Wait," he called out, struggling to free himself from a future where he had to scrape strawberry seeds off his muzzle.

"No chance hedgehog," she said with a smile, biting her bottom lip as she locked her aim on the blue hedgehog's pointy nose.

Sonic dropped still suddenly, his ears twitching as he caught wind of an odd sound in the distance. "No really, wait a second. Do you hear that?" Amy paused too, taking note of the shift in the boy's demeanour before deciding it wasn't just a ruse to escape her grasp.

She closed her eyes, homing in on the sounds that surrounded them. There was the usual rustle of the wind in the trees and the soft chirrup of birds but … there, in the distance, steadily getting louder was a deep thrum.

The air around them began to hum with electricity and Amy and Sonic stood instantly. The tart tumbled face down onto the blanket but the pair had bigger problems than a ruined dessert. Only one thing on Mobius emitted sounds like that - Eggman's robots.

"Get ready Amy," Sonic said, gearing up for a fight as the sound of Bee Bots buzzed around them. The girl nodded, her hammer materialising at her side in the blink of an eye. And just in time, as not a moment later the first horde burst through the greenery and surrounded them.

Amy and Sonic were caught up in a frenzy of bots and blurs as they began to knock each robot out of the sky, doing their best to avoid completely wrecking the picnic spread beneath their feet.

As Sonic homed in on a Bee Bot, landing briefly on the ground before shooting off again, he heard Amy's voice call for him. He risked turning to look at her only to see her standing at the edge of the clearing with a look of clear confusion.

He bounced off the nearest flying robot, propelling himself towards her and landing with a thump. "What's wrong?" he asked quickly.

"I don't know why but … they're only going after you Sonic."

"What?"

"I can't explain it, but just watch."

Amy rushed towards the Bots that had redirected towards them and Sonic reached out a hand too late to stop her … only to see her walk harmlessly past them. He spotted a triumphant look flash across her face as she proved her point, the bots focused entirely on him.

"Well this is fun," he commented, bouncing himself right over the bots and to where Amy waited for him. "There is a lot of them here though," he added, a frown creasing his brow as he considered how many of Eggman's creations had swarmed their picnic.

"Don't worry Sonic," Amy said, swinging her hammer between her hands. "I'll make sure they don't lay a single stinger on you." Without waiting for a response, the girl ran right into the fray of enemies.

Sonic could only watch on in awe as the Bee Bots exploded like tiny bombs, Amy's hammer barely visible as she swung it around viciously. As the replacements filed in, they too ended up on the ground with their predecessors and the blue hero found himself mesmerised and completely lacking a reason to join in the fight.

Eggman's creations were still directing their attacks on him, but Amy was faster and smarter. As the pink girl got into the swing of things, she rushed around Sonic like a protective force-field, obliterating all his enemies before they could get within six feet of him and making sure none of them managed to sneak past and breach her carefully protected borders.

In fact, she was doing such a great job that Sonic decided now would be a good time to swap out that dirty glove of his for a fresh pair. "Check you out Ames, you're on fire!" he yelled proudly through the sound of crackling electricity and whining bots, giving the girl a thumbs up with his pristine new glove as she spun around like a tornado.

As the final carcass crashed to the ground, Amy finally slowed to a stop. She spun to face Sonic, breathing heavily as her hammer dematerialised into nothingness - returning to the void from whence it came.

The pink hedgehog swayed unsteadily as her balance recalibrated, struggling to stand up straight. Sonic was there in an instant, slinging an arm across her shoulders and letting her lean into him for support.

"What did you do … to Eggman that he's … coming after you … so viciously?" she exhaled out between deep ragged breaths.

"Nothing," Sonic said defensively, trying his best to rack his memory for any recent encounters with the eccentric Doctor. When he came up empty, he repeated himself again only to be met with Amy's disbelieving arched brow.

"What?" he said irritably. "It's been months since I tormented him properly. In fact, I haven't even seen the dude for days."

Amy slipped out from under his arms, turning to give Sonic a blank look. "You haven't seen Eggman for days?" she deadpanned.

"No."

"And that doesn't come across as suspicious to you," she said incredulously. In most circumstances, even a day without the good Doctor was reason enough to scour his known bases for any signs of disturbance. He could always be counted on to be stirring up some sort of mischief, and if he'd had days without interruption then Chaos only knew what he'd been planning.

"Well, it didn't until you put it like that," Sonic replied. "Maybe I should go and check out what he's up to."

Amy narrowed her eyes at him. "Perhaps we should," she corrected.

"Yeah, sure whatever," Sonic said nonchalantly, knocking the girl lightly on the arm. Amy rolled her eyes at his teasing smirk, but she smiled regardless.

As if on cue, both hedgehog's wrist communicators buzzed at the same time, flashing bright green as they received a new set of coordinates. The two hedgehogs turned to each other in confusion.

"Another Eggman attack. Already?" she said sceptically. Sonic seemed a little surprised too but only shrugged as he held out a gloved hand.

"Only one way to find out I guess."

Amy nodded in agreement, letting her fingers slip into the blue hedgehogs as he set a course for their next destination.

... xxx ...

Back in Eggman's base, the room was deathly quiet. Only the sound of heavy breathing and the whir of machines permeated the air as Doctor Eggman, Orbot and Cubot sat crowded around a single large screen.

Orbot and Cubot glanced at each other nervously before the former plucked up the courage to speak. "Perhaps you should have sent the Bee Bots after Amy instead Sir," he said quietly. "It might have made the plan work more in your favour."

Eggman didn't seem to hear him, narrowing his eyes at the screen as he dragged out a single file onto the interface. "Did you two hear what I heard?" the man questioned, hovering the mouse over what looked to be a sound bite.

"That the two hedgehogs are going to the location of the next phase?" Cubot offered.

"No, no, no. Not that," Eggman said impatiently, waving away the suggestion. "This!" The Doctor clicked on the file and smiled as Sonic's voice filled the large room.

'Check you out Ames, you're on fire.'

"Did you hear that?" the man asked, barely masking the grin that threatened to take over his moustache.

The two minions watched Eggman with confusion flickering in their robotic eyes. "He was … nice to her?" Orbot asked.

"No!" Eggman protested, playing the clip again.

'Check you out Ames, you're on fire. Check you out Ames … out Ames … Ames … Ames … Ames.'

Eggman raised his eyebrows at the robots in exasperation as they continued to fail at hearing what he heard.

"Ames! He said Ames. He's using a nickname you fools. That means the plan is fully underway. Once second he's calling her some cutesy nickname and the next he'll be so lost in her dreamy eyes he'll forget all about my existence!"

"I don't think it works quite like that," Cubot murmured, a nervous squeak escaping from him as Eggman settled a glare on him.

"What do you idiots know anyway. My plan in is motion and once the third phase is through, those two imbeciles will be clinging to each other like their lives depend on it. Nothing brings two hearts closer than facing up against absolute terror," he said, a evil chuckle wiggling his moustache as he deployed the preparations for his next phase.

... xxx ...

And scene. I am enjoying writing Eggman waaay too much, I can't believe I never wrote this sooner. It's also great to see so many other shipper!Eggman supporters showing so much love for this story - you guys are so awesome!

Thank you all for reading lovelies, I really hope you enjoyed this next instalment. (I'm off to go freak out about Taylor Swift!) Drop me your thoughts if you feel like it and I'll see you guys in the next one. Chao :)

[resultsmeasuredineffort-blog]

When Children Stand

The hype was real. His father had agreed to letting him go on the college tour with the other seniors. Hamza smiled and stretched his arms out wide. His phone buzzed, Asr, it notified. There’s enough time, Hamza thought to himself.

Musa and Ubaid were betting on who could slide down the banisters with the most flair, while the rest of the tour group was listening to the guide’s speech about the founder of the school. Hamza was only partially listening.

“And this is Westhaven Building, also known as The Haven. It is a common area for all students who are looking for a quiet place to study for a test. It was donated to the school by Samuel Westhaven…” the sophomore explained as Hamza sent a snapchat of the old time, gothic building. It was an ominous castle, even sporting a few gargoyles, and looked anything but like a Haven.

The students looked around, like excitable puppies, the song from Aladdin playing in their hearts. A whole new world, indeed.

“Hamza,” Musa yelled from the steps, stretching out the ending. “They’re going to leave you,” he wailed, ghostlike.

The boy in question tore his eyes from his phone, which flashed a low battery message, to see the tour group disappearing around the corner.

“I promised your mom I’d make sure you go back safe,” Musa continued yelling.

“I’m here, stop being an idiot,” Hamza jogged over.

Musa was not quite done being an idiot. He cupped his hands, even though Hamza was now two feet away and bellowed, “My boy!” He was wheezing like an old man.

“Do you need a change of the nappies?” Musa finished the part, coughing asthmatically.

Hamza smacked him behind his head, “No, but if we’re changing things—your face should be pretty up there on the list,” he grinned, all teeth.

They continued throwing jabs at each other until they caught up with their group. Hamza joked with a few people, talked with others, and was overall feeling very at home, away from home. He had known these people for the past four years, either through school or Facebook. There were also a few lingering parents, who were raptly paying attention to the guide’s every word, some were even taking notes.

While Musa and Hamza exchanged insolent comments regarding their respective dignities, Ubaid was being a bit cleverer. Ubaid’s specialty was knowing how to make people talk, in the gentlest meaning of that phrase. He didn’t even need the bat or cement shoes.

Frivolities aside, Ubaid had learned quite a bit about the school, which he had taken a shine to. He bragged about his immense wealth of knowledge to his friends.

“Just tell us already,” Musa swatted away Ubaid’s guessing game.

“Fine. Okay, so Steven told me that his sister goes to this school and she knows where to get the answer keys to all the tests.”

There was a pause. Hamza gave Ubaid a blank stare. Musa began snickering.

“What?” Ubaid asked, following a tennis match between Musa and Hamza’s face.

Hamza sighed dramatically, and just covered his face with his palm. Musa decided to educate their unworldly friend.  

“We thought you had some good stuff, the way you were banging on about it. Like, I know something you don’t know,” Musa explained, pretending to wipe away a tear.

“What, and having answer keys isn’t good stuff?” Ubaid frowned, affronted by their dullness.

The three began a heated debate on what qualified as ‘good stuff’, which ended in a miffed Ubaid, who muttered, “When you morons need help with your finals, don’t come crying to me.”

The sun was shining, the foreign birds sang beautifully and the youth were carefree. School was out, this was their final summer as kids and they all wondered about the nearing initiation to adulthood. But not for too long, because updating social media was a consuming task.

The university offered a complementary lunch, and who was Hamza to refuse? They all ate sandwiches on the grassy field, under umbrella tents.

While the sun’s fierce glare was shaded, the warm nostalgia slunk beneath the umbrellas. The youth seemed to know that this was the start. This is where their bonds frayed, and ran into millions of smaller threads that connected, separated and reconnected. Infinite opportunities, riding on the wings of their individual choices.

After refueling, they began the final leg of the trek around campus, which was to end in front of the dorms. They would spend some time there, before the bus came and picked them up in the late evening.

But burdened with food, laziness swept over the youth, like fairy dust in a Shakespearean play, and there was a group vote to just spend the rest of the time on the grassy lawn. The majority voted to just chill, and so summer time lethargy ensued.

Hamza, Musa and Ubaid were sitting under the shade of a tree, each with their back to one side of the trunk, when they heard the news. Rather, they heard their phones ding and they were fed information straight from the magical highways of the internet.

“Crap, my phone died. Where did they say it was going to be?” Hamza asked, pushing up into a sitting position.

“Uh, let me check with Sarah,” Ubaid typed a question, and sent his thoughts travelling to Sarah.

A second later, they heard an urgent ding, and Musa read over Ubaid’s shoulder. Hamza already knew they were going; he didn’t hesitate.

“She says she heard it’s gonna be in front of the mall we passed by.” Hamza remembered the squat complex and did a mental calculation. It shouldn’t take them more than twenty minutes to get across campus then to the mall. Fifteen, if they ran.

“Avengers Assemble?” Musa asked, reading Hamza’s thoughts.

“Avengers Assemble,” Hamza confirmed.

“Are you guys sure? My mom always warns me about this stuff. You never know what might happen. Once—”

“Avengers,” Hamza said through gritted teeth, and Musa finished for him, “Assemble.”

Ubaid knew a lost battle when he saw one, and reluctantly stood up to join his friends. The three of them went over to discuss with their larger group of classmates. They were young, they were fearless and they knew they could change the world.

Given that Hamza’s generation was known for eating tide pods, the youth were often side eyed by their elders. So, it was an unspoken agreement to leave the adults out of their decision to counterprotest the alt-right protest.

No need to have adults protesting their need to counterprotest a protest.

Anyways, this generation was also known for the March of their Lives and so they gathered their belongings and walked off campus.

Right, they were young. Right, they sometimes made dumb choices. Right, they had a particular aversion to rules. But there was no moral quandary here. They knew racism, sexism and blind hatred were wrong. They were emerging from their techy cocoons, spreading their wings and opening their eyes on a divided world. It was as though the hateful whispers, once entangled in between the lines of society, were suddenly shouting, an orange-hued trumpet amplifying their voices in exchange for power.

If they listened to those elders who would have them quiet, then the shouting would eventually turn to a deafening silence of a society combusting, crushing the hope of a future.

The word on the vine was the alt-righters were annoyed about a recent local election; a Muslim was elected. And she had the nerve to be a Somali immigrant. And now she was trying to run Springfield? According to the alt-righters, she was bringing sharia not only to Springfield but all of America. There was talk of confederate flags and swastikas. Basically, the tiki torches were still burning.

Hamza was not having it.

It was pretty easy to find the protesters.  They heard the shouting from a few streets away. Then they saw the cops, in riot gear, standing in wait for some danger.

The alt-right group was ponied up in all sorts of hate symbols. They had swastikas on their clothing and posters. The confederate flag was flapping in the wind, held aloft by several members. They shouted, roared and chanted. Hamza could hear some of them just barking, “Hu hu hu,” a sickening background music that thudded in his ears. More than a few had drinks with them.

The counterprotesters were handing out signs, posters and other symbols. Hamza and his friends grabbed some and went to stand alongside the silent group. He noticed the louder the protesters became, the quieter the activists were. The latter refused to engage in the decisive commentary, and Hamza watched in silent awe. His own face sported a tight frown, waiting for a hairpin trigger. The protesters were shouting incendiary comments and making rude animal noises at him; he stood in the front lines.              

“White lives matter!” They punctuated that slogan with “You will not replace us! Terrorists and rapists should die!” And of course, the ever present, ever confounding “Lock her up!” All of their colorful slogans were accompanied by that mad-dog guttural sound.

Springfield was not a large city, and the closeness of the protests made the adrenaline flow. The students around him had faces to match his own and as the protesters began to march down toward Town Hall, the activists began to move. They barred the pathway, creating a human wall, stood, without a word, and stared down the alt-righters.

The protesters were infuriated, and began mocking the individual activists; Hamza, standing front and center, was a good target.  

The cops in riot gear began to look jumpy. They saw the alt-righters begin to approach the activists, and Hamza could see a fear in their eyes. They got on the loudspeakers.

“Please clear a path. Stand away from each other,” an authoritative man said clearly.

The alt-righters looked like rottweilers being held on an invisible leash; they were dragging at it. The cops were trying to regain control of the situation, but the activists’ silence was thunderous against the petty anger of the protesters.

Hamza felt the electricity in the crowd; he knew something was about to happen. The cops must have felt the same pulse because they got back on the speakers.

“Those who are not with the Conservative Springfielders, clear the square. Leave the streets. Exit toward the south side,” came the official voice. Hamza felt his face grimace. As if.

The way he saw it, the alt-righters were the ones pushing forward. The activists didn’t make a move; the protesters looked expectantly at the cops.

Then it happened, the trigger. The man right in front of Hamza spat on him, and turned his flag, and pushed it against Hamza and the activists. There was a thrilled roar from their radius of space.

Hamza was caught by surprise, and he felt his blood boil at the oceans of blind hate in the glob of spit. He opened his mouth and almost lifted his fist.

Then, there was an acrid crack, as though the world’s ears were popping. And the smoke began to rise from the midst of their crowd. The activists scrambled as their throats began to fill with the tearing gas. Hamza cursed, coughing and blinking away tears. Being in the wave of human bodies, all struggling in different directions away from the epicenter of the attack was entirely consuming. Hamza went on autopilot as humans diffused like droplets of water on oil.

He just ran. There were no protesters, no activists. Only the struggle for preservation. It seemed as though death was imminent.

More cracks emanated from behind Hamza, but he didn’t turn to look back. How he managed to disentangle himself from the writing mass was inexplicable, especially by him. In any case, not focusing on specifics, he ran. Head down, sweat plastering his back to his shirt, he ran.

At some point, it became clear to him that the rioting noises had become a victim of distance, and only a faint whisper of it remained. And even that may have been his imagination. More so than anything else, Hamza heard his pounding feet and his trembling heart. Nervousness, mixed with being thoroughly winded, made Hamza’s head feel like smoke, spiraling towards the sun.

When he slowed down, one thing soon became extremely apparent. He was lost.

“Low key, but crap,” he came to a stop in front of a restaurant and pretended to observe one of their sample menus. Though he was bereft of energy, he was thankful the run hadn’t stolen his wits.

Unfamiliar town, a large population of racists on the loose, and a lost dark-skinned boy. The math was clear enough.

Not reading over the menu, he scanned the streets and tried to remember which direction he came from. He thought he was doing a pretty bang up job of not looking lost, when a waiter from the restaurant walked out and asked him, “Are you lost?”

He was a few years older than Hamza and startled the latter out of his covert operation.

Hamza being as quick witted as a dancer on tip toes responded, “Nope, just checking something for my mom, thanks.”

Maybe his self-observation was a bit out of focus because the waiter eyed him oddly. Nevertheless, he nodded and walked back inside. A civil war erupted within Hamza.

He felt stupid for not asking directions, but then countered by saying, well that’s exactly how people get kidnapped in the movies.

And at the same time, he knew if he couldn’t find his way back in time, he’d be stuck in this strange city; the bus would leave without him.

To which he responded, How hard can it be? I can figure this out—cities are pretty standard.

Hamza put the menu back and took a few steps. His legs were straws, barely able to support his weight, and his palms were clammy. The sun beat down on the entire world.

Hamza realized something: his youthful bluster was largely maintained by the support of his friends. Now that he was alone, he was second guessing everything. It was a stark contrast to his self image, as the underdog, stiff upper lipped, with his first to the world’s audacities.

The thought struck him like a veil being pulled from his eyes: did his friends make it out? Guilt took him. He was the one friend who, if he didn’t get a response back, he assumed tragedy. It seemed to him, in the vast matrix of possibilities, the probability of death was alarmingly high. He hoped they hadn’t gotten caught up in the mess. He hoped they were okay. He pulled out his phone, reflexively wanting to text Musa and Ubaid. Then he closed his eyes and mouthed a word. He had drained the last bits sending a snap to Aisha.

A gut sickening feeling seeped into him as he watched his wrongdoings become manifest against him. Without realizing it, he made istighfar.

“Okay, just get back and it’ll all be okay,” he whispered reassuringly.

He remembered something. During his Usain Bolt impression, he remembered cursing at a hill. During the upward climb, he was panting and mentally destroying every bit of earth under his feet.

If he could find the hill, then he would have a good vantage point of Springfield. Then all he had to do was find the castle walls of Westhaven and he would be back in time to not face the wrath of his family.

While he did his best to sort out his footsteps, Hamza realized that he would have done it again. He would still have gone to the protest and stood against those who tried to condemn the voices of minorities. Even with only a few suns beneath his belt, he had grasped a universal truth—if the weak allow their voices to be muted, then deafness becomes a justified pride.

Unfortunately for Hamza, the small city was full of buildings and offices that looked exactly the same. He passed by the same office three times, before realizing he was walking in a circle. When the waiter saw him again, Hamza had to pretend he dropped something. Quick witted indeed bro, he thought to himself. After, he avoided that street entirely.

A few attempts and several suspicious Springfielders later, Hamza was at the foot of the hill. Matchbox houses surround him, sprinkled in between the trees, each standing superior to its predecessor. He breathed a breath of thanks and began the climb. This time around, he took a break every so often. Hamza checked his phone several times, and the dead battery forced him to berate himself about his loose snapchat morals.

Finally, he was at the top and before gazing on the city, he said the basmalah. And when he turned his eyes on the city, the first thing they fell on was the angst filled establishment. Westhaven Building. He whooped, joy-rushed at finally succeeding. He breathed another thanks and made a mental map of how to get back.

Then he ran down the hill, hands flailing in the air, leaving behind a stream of laughter. The fifteen-minute trek up the hill was cancelled out by a minute of wind in his hair and wings on his back.  

He danced to a stop, still chortling and looked around. He knew he had to make a right at the end of the street and saw that it was the only way he could go. The street was lined with tall, ominous trees and he heard a raven’s caw in the distance. Hamza could have sworn he felt a cold chill.

He took a breath and calmed himself. He wasn’t three years old, and he could make it across without his parents’ help. The sun was preparing to set, and rain clouds filtered the orangey glow into an eerie cast on Hamza’s face.

He began walking and told himself to stop imagining things. He was glad Musa and Ubaid were not here to watch him make a fool of himself. Sweating over the sunset. He shook his head at his childishness.

But there it was again, that noise. He hoped it was just his brain playing tricks on him, but it was getting louder. He looked around for the source but his ears failed him.

“What is that?” He asked himself, already knowing the answer. Then he shook his head. “No. No, hopefully not. Maybe it’s a –” his brain took an impromptu vacation.

He could no longer deny the doppler effect; in the narrow street, lined with dark trees, the source of the noise was beelining towards him.

He glanced down at his hands, covered in liberal wrist bands. And his shirt, dotted with pinback buttons. Not to mention his kufi, which he had decided to wear that day. And aside from all the counterprotest paraphernalia, the worse case against him was his dark skin. There was no denying what Hamza stood for. He wiped his sweaty palms on his jeans.  

The large crowd was doing their rumbling chant, interjecting it with the occasional bark. “You will not replace us,” he heard their chant. “Hu hu hu,” was the replying chorus.

The group was at the end of the street, having just turned the corner and began to slither towards him—a depraved snake made of posters, swastikas and confederate flags.

Hamza looked around and saw his one man against their hundred. They blocked out everything else like a wave of hatred over his world. Hamza felt a calm wash over him.

He coolly estimated his options. He could outrun them; there was a direct correlation between their racism and their obesity. But something in his chest stopped him from running back up that hill. Firstly, he was sure they had seen him—he had been walking toward them. And more powerfully, he refused to be a coward.

A thought occurred to him: if this was his day to die, then there was no two ways about it. If God was going to take his soul today, then Hamza was going out standing up for what was right. The cold directness of his decision shook a more emotional part of his heart, but it was drowned out by the chanting. Hamza began walking towards them, not making a sound. He was fully prepared to meet, in the best case, hospitalization. He said the name of God and stepped.

Their footsteps ate away at the distance and before he knew it, Hamza was inches away from the man who had spit in his face. He smelled like alcohol. Their deep warbling was deafening in his ears, pounding at him in waves. Hamza stared forward, not meeting any eyes, and still stepped.

And the crowd parted. Not one at a time, but simultaneously as though the whole thing was rehearsed. Or as though they were being forced to walk around him. They created this narrow path for him, a stone making its merry way along a river.

Hamza hid the astonishment that melted into paranoia. They’re going to close in around me, and swarm, he thought. He formulated the ways they would attack him. With their beer bottles, he supposed. Maybe a hate flag to the head? Hamza’s heart was the eye of the storm, as he stepped through tearing ignorance. He heard their rude comments and their curses, but not once did they acknowledge him.

He felt the impulsive nature of youthhood to grab one of them and ask, “Can you see me?” Biting his tongue, he kept walking, invisible.

The entire lot of them walked around him, regrouping once they had passed him. When Hamza made it out on the other side, he inspected his body looking for the wounds. Nothing. He stopped walking and turned back toward the still chanting crowd.

Not one turned to look back at him. Hamza’s face broke into a stupid grin as he turned the corner, looked up at the sky, and felt a newness in his chest. He ran the rest of the way back to Musa and Ubaid.

[thenearsightedmicroraptor]

ooooooooooy there! I just want you all to know, I never officially meant toleave tumblr, but it just sort of happened. And. I’m not really around anymore. I just want to say thinks to all the good times I’ve had, and everyone who sent me messages, and to all the people making content for this blue hellscape website. But I think I’m ready to move on. So if you never hear from me again ... Imagine me roaming through a forest, eating dirt, conversing with the deer, living a better, simpler life. It’s not what’s happened but I feel like the image deserves to be in your head anyway.

[junker-town]

20 sports movies we love that will ease your boredom

WireImage

It may be hard to find real sports to watch right now, but there is an ABUNDANCE of great fictional sports at your fingertips.

Televised sports are on hiatus for the foreseeable future. It’s a tough (but obviously necessary) blow, considering we’re all stuck inside with little to do, and sports would be the perfect diversion right about now.

Thankfully, there are hundreds, or possibly thousands, of sports-centric movies available to wile away the hours. Some might even be convincing enough to get you to yell at your screen, or feel the inimitable catharsis that comes from watching your team (the good team, obviously) win.

Below are some of the SB Nation staff’s go-to sports flicks, with information about where to stream them included. The majority are also available to rent via Amazon, YouTube, Google Play and the like.

Hot Rod (2007)

Available on Netflix, Prime and Pluto.

Insofar as failing to jump over things with a moped is a sport, Hot Rod is about sports. It’s an extremely dumb, pleasant movie with no stakes whatsoever, and it is my number one.

— Seth Rosenthal

Yes, it’s hilarious — but even more importantly, it has the ability to absorb you before you realize it and not let your mind wander out of its grasp. Distraction grade: 10 out of 10

— Will Buikema

Creed (2015)

Available to rent

Too many Rocky sequels to count, but this one really engages with the mythos around the character and who gets to take part in that myth. Michael B. Jordan and Tessa Thompson are two of Hollywood’s brightest stars, and while it’s frustrating they were not awarded like Sylvester Stallone for their performances, all three are terrific here. Also: unlike the original Rocky, this movie recognizes that boxing includes dodging and blocking as well as punching!

— Pete Volk

Goon (2011)

Available on Netflix.

You could probably analyze Goon for commentary about how we glorify violence in hockey, or you could sit back and enjoy a genuinely hilarious movie. It has everything you want in a hockey film. There’s a dim-witted but lovable bouncer who gets a chance at a hockey career in the minors, and a grumpy Quebecois prodigy with a physicality issue. There’s gratuitous blood and gore, and Liev Schreiber getting into fights, and a hint of bromance. There are even cameos from former NHL players, and one from current Dallas Stars forward Tyler Seguin in the film’s 2017 sequel, Goon: Last of the Enforcers, which is also on Netflix.

If you don’t mind some exaggerated violence and slapstick comedy (and particularly if that’s what you’re into), I highly recommend it. Plus, the soundtrack slaps.

— Sydney Kuntz

Bend it Like Beckham (2002)

Available on demand with Starz and DirecTV

It’s funny, it’s sweet, and the fact that you’ve definitely seen it before doesn’t mean you shouldn’t watch it again. It made Keira Knightley an international star, and Parminder Nagra picked up the FIFA presidential award. Beyond the film, it represented a crucial moment in David Beckham’s relationship with his country. He’d gone from villain in 1998 after that red card against Argentina, to hero in 2001 after that free kick against Greece. Eight months later this came out, and canonized him as a national treasure.

— Andi Thomas

High Flying Bird (2019)

Available on Netflix

What better to watch during a period without basketball than a movie about basketball personnel that takes place during a time of no basketball? High Flying Bird, shot entirely on iPhone by Steven Soderbergh, follows a top rookie and his ambitious agent during an NBA lockout, as they try and change the owner-heavy economic structure of the NBA.

— Pete Volk

Escape to Victory (1981, also just known as Victory)

Available on demand with Cinemax and DirecTV

Sylvester Stallone is an Allied solider in a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp. So is Michael Caine. In there with them, for some reason, is Pele, Bobby Moore, Ozzy Ardiles, and half of Ipswich Town’s 1981 UEFA Cup winning squad. And wouldn’t you just know it, they have to play an exhibition against a handpicked German side, for reasons of propaganda. Will they escape … to victory?

— Andi Thomas

Goal of the Dead (2014)

Available on Shudder

”Some kind of a riot. They are burning cars.”

”Given the refereeing, no wonder.”

French football superstar Samuel Lorit faces off against his hometown team in a cup game. His formerly adoring fans now all despise him. And then a tainted steroid injection turns pretty much everybody into zombies, straight from the 28 Days Later school of hard-running mouth-frothers. Good blood-soaked fun, if probably a bit too long. But then all films are too long these days. Return of the King won a million Oscars, and that didn’t have a ‘roid-raging zombie kicking a man’s head off his neck and into the goal.

— Andi Thomas

Fighting with My Family (2019)

Available on Prime and Hulu

Maybe the only worthwhile WWE Studios release ever? I’ll await the flame from fans of The Marine 5: Battleground in the comments. What would have otherwise been yet another vanilla sports inspiration story is elevated by a terrific cast, led by newly Oscar-nominated Florence Pugh.

— Pete Volk

The Damned United (2009)

Available to rent

An adaptation of a brilliant but bleak novel about Brian Clough’s doomed spell at Leeds United, the film dispenses with most of the book’s harrowing existential loneliness and discovers a surprisingly soft-hearted buddy story underneath. Michael Sheen disappears uncannily into his role, absolutely nailing Clough’s astringent self-possession, but Colm Meaney almost steals the film as Clough’s nemesis, Don Revie. A reminder that English football, back in the ‘70s, was a strange, drizzly place full of strange, compelling people.

— Andi Thomas

Hoop Dreams (1994)

Available on HBO, Kanopy and DirecTV

One of the best American documentaries. Also one of the best movies about dreams, who crushes them and how they evolve. It is also one of the best movies about race and poverty in America. All in all, this is one of the best movies about the allure and grace of basketball. A phenomenal film!

— Pete Volk

Horse Feathers (1932)

Available via the Internet Archive

I grew up watching the Marx Brothers with my dad, and I would be remiss not to mention this college football-centric classic. Turns out the “amateur” status of college football players was a joke in the 1930s, too!

— Pete Volk

Minding the Gap (2019)

Available on Hulu

Only tangentially about sports, since the group of kids at this documentary’s focus are skateboarders, but this is one of the great modern American documentaries about growing up, difficult friendships and toxic masculinity. Highly, highly recommend.

— Pete Volk

Starship Troopers (1997)

Available on Showtime, CBS All Access, DirecTV and Vudu

There are several reasons Starship Troopers is memorable — the broadly written anti-nationalist commentary! The exploding bugs! The co-ed showers! That one fight scene soundtracked to Mazzy Star’s “Fade Into You,” for some reason! — but space football is the only one that fits with our theme. In the future, America’s favorite sport is played in high school gymnasiums on old wrestling mats. There are no special teams or roughness penalties. The ball is Nerf’s rough approximation of a baked potato wrapped in foil.

Johnny Rico, our protagonist, wins and is escorted off the field a hero. Roughly 20 minutes of film later, he’s left to die on an alien planet. Shit’s real, yo.

— Christian D’Andrea

Rush (2013)

Available on HBO

If you liked Ford V. Ferrari, you’ll probably love this. Retelling the true story of James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Niki Lauda’s intense Formula 1 rivalry, Rush has fantastic racing scenes and benefits from focusing on the wildly different personalities and approaches of the two rivals.

— Pete Volk

A League of Their Own (1992)

Available on Showtime, and very often randomly on cable

It almost feels redundant to list this classic, which you’ve probably already seen once or dozens of times. But if you have seen it, you know it holds up better than most of the feel-good, strings-swelling-styled sports hagiographies of the 1990s. A more-or-less accurate retelling of a vital and often ignored part of American sports history, conveyed via an all-star cast and too many quotable lines to count. The “hard” may be what makes it great, but there’s nothing hard about watching this iconic and genuinely uplifting movie. (I also wrote more about it here.)

—Natalie Weiner

Speed Racer (2008)

Available to rent

One of my favorite movies of all-time, taking many aesthetic cues from anime and seamlessly bringing them into the live-action world with breathtaking visual effects. Speed Racer is visually explosive and a delight for the senses, with a grounded conflict at its core (a family business getting bought out by a heartless corporation). In my opinion, this is sports + movies in their best balance with each other.

— Pete Volk

The Heart of the Game (2005)

Available to rent

A hardscrabble team works diligently to overcome the odds, with a few twists. The movie centers on a girls basketball team from Roosevelt High School, 10 minutes from where I grew up in Seattle, and the star of the team gets pregnant. Bring tissues.

— Natalie Weiner

Uncut Gems (2019)

Available to rent

No movie better captures the anxiety of being a sports fan, or the bad decisions you make because of your fandom. Also sports luminaries Kevin Garnett and Mike Francesa deliver excellent performances. My favorite 2019 release! Louis wrote more about it here.

— Pete Volk

Undisputed II: Last Man Standing (2006)

Available on Starz and DirecTV

This is the height of me on-my-bullshit, but please allow it: Scott Adkins and Michael Jai White are generational action stars, and this entry in the excellent Undisputed series shows their singular talents at their best. White plays an ex-boxer framed for a crime and sent to prison, where he fights for his freedom in an underground MMA ring. Adkins plays the terrifying Yuri Boyka, the reigning prison champ. This is so up my alley it’s not even funny, and hopefully it’s up yours, too!

— Pete Volk

More Than a Game (2008)

Available on Starz

It’s very easy to take LeBron James for granted. After all, he’s been doing otherworldly things in the NBA for almost two decades now. Sometimes it just seems like he’s always existed, like he’ll just be inevitable forever. At a time when we’re (hopefully temporarily) deprived of watching him play basketball, it’s worth revisiting this great documentary about his origin story. Yes, he overcame seemingly insurmountable odds, but the part that sticks with you is the people around him — those who believed in him completely, and who he has been just as loyal to in return.

— Natalie Weiner

[sorosoroso]

Article for Connect Magazine

I had a chance to write about a music artist I really love, and it will soon be published in Connect Magazine, which is a community driven project where expats living in Japan contribute articles about Japanese culture and everyday life. The issue my article will debut comes out in a few days. It is totally free to read and available online. Please enjoy below!

A Folkin’ Good Time: My Journey from Japanese Traditional Folk Music to 8-bit Technofolk

I stumbled upon Japanese traditional folk music the same way a horror film heroine might trip into a dark, deep pit in an old, creepy mansion: by accident.

And much like said heroine who suddenly wakes up in said mysterious, deep pit, I don’t even know how I got here. The last thing I remember is wondering about Japanese instruments and typing in “Japanese traditional songs” into a YouTube search bar, before being sucked in by the strums of shamisens and the dynamic vocals of Japan’s traditional folk singers.

Although it’s usually put under the umbrella term “min’yo”, there is no exact name for the genre Japanese traditional folk music belongs to. Sometimes they’re called inaka bushi (country melody), other times they’re called inaka buri (country tunes) or even hinata uta (rural songs). However, I think min’yo, whose kanji translates to roughly “the people’s chant”, is a weirdly accurate description of these simple, yet intriguing songs (and for simplicity’s sake, I’m going to be referring to them as min’yo from here on out).

 In the same way certain foods or adorable mascots are part of certain prefectures’ identity, min’yo songs are another way for many regions in Japan to further distinguish themselves. Originally sung by lower class people, their purposes vary from work songs sung while toiling away in fields, to sacred religious chants performed during ceremonies. Many songs tend to have imagery of nature or details of everyday life, and often incorporate special dances or instruments during performances.

Take for example Japan’s oldest min’yo song: Kokiriko-bushi. Hailing from Gokayama village in Toyama prefecture, Kokiriko-bushi illustrates the natural flora and fauna of the village during the harvest season. A performance of Kokiriko-bushi is visually intriguing as well; performers move slowly across the stage in uniquely shaped straw hats, as others play the iconic binzasara instrument: an accordion-like apparatus consisting of many wooden slats that clack together to create the “dedereko-den” chorus of the song.

I fell in love with how all these elements came together into a cohesive experience. More compelling, though, were the powerful emotions behind each song. Each one seemed to condense the essence of feelings like sadness, happiness, or loneliness in a way that you could empathize with, despite the language barrier.

My appreciation for min’yo grew extensively throughout college, and during long hours of nighttime studying or downtime between projects and papers, I often listened to min’yo playlists to keep me company. Whether it was the more New Age, emotional ballads of Ikue Asazaki, or lo-fi recordings of televised performances from the 90s, I listened to it all. I wasn’t too picky, and even if I didn’t always understand the words, I let myself get swept away by the vibrant energy each song and performer exuded.

Unfortunately, my college roommate and study buddies didn’t quite share the same enthusiasm for min’yo, and I don’t blame them. I completely understand that min’yo isn’t exactly easy listening for a lot of people. It can be a bit grating at times, with tunes that don’t follow traditional Western note progressions, not to mention the sometimes startling kakegoe (call-and-response) that seemingly jump out of nowhere. 

Older Japanese folks didn’t understand why I enjoyed the genre so much, either; even they found min’yo to be a relic of the past that didn’t quite have the chops to withstand the more international appeal of modern-day songs. For a lot of people, min’yo was something that only a  few Japanese people sang, and even then only to demonstrate Japan’s nostalgic, rustic charm. I found myself having to agree with them. It seemed that min’yo was reserved for special occasions, like cultural events or TV specials, and so many recordings I enjoyed were decades old. Perfect preservation of the genre seemed to be the goal, and innovation was limited, if present at all.

And then I discovered Omodaka.

I was looking for more min’yo to listen to on the Internet (as per usual), and during a mindless return to YouTube’s homepage, I noticed a distinctive thumbnail. 

A punchy, vibrant red background emblazoned with a stark white, minimalist graphic of an arrowhead flower; that’s all there was to it. The title was equally as simple: “Hietsuki Bushi”, uploaded by “Omodaka”. At the time, I had no idea what any of those words meant, but I was riding high on my min’yo video binge, so naturally I clicked.

Imagine my surprise when, instead of hearing the bare twangs of shamisen like I was expecting, I was hit with a lush, multi-layered 8-bit melody mingling with a classical guitar’s gentle strums. Before I could process what I was hearing, a loud, piercing, siren-like horn cut through, and jarring though it was, I only became even more entranced in whatever the hell YouTube just recommended me. I was totally immersed.

Then the vocals kicked in.

To hear the powerful voice of a trained traditional folk singer sing about a tragic love story from the Kamakura era was absolutely breathtaking, especially with the blips and thrums of the 8-bit chords accenting it every few measures. The singer’s notes swooped up and down with confidence, working alongside the digital landscape of the background music to convey the melancholic longing of the narrator. I’d never listened to such a wonderful marriage between traditional and modern musical aesthetics before, and as soon as the video finished, I was already eager for the next song.

As it turns out, the skilled vocals I’d heard on Hietsuki Bushi and on subsequent tracks belonged to classically trained folk singer, Akiko Kanazawa (whose min'yo rendition of the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” is definitely worth checking out), but listening to her other works, it was clear that someone else had a hand in the skillful mixing of chiptunes and traditional folk standards I was hearing. After a few music videos and a deep-dive Internet investigation, I soon discovered that Omodaka was not just a one-off, eclectic min’yo mashup duo, but a collaborative project that combines traditional Japanese music with contemporary visual artists. But, behind all of it is one man—electronic music producer and DJ, Soichi Terada.

 An accomplished house techno artist and founder of record label Far East Recording, Terada has enjoyed listening to min’yo music since childhood, but felt he “couldn’t say that [he enjoyed min’yo]” to his friends because they weren’t interested in it. He experimented with min’yo/ house fusions, and over time, Terada developed a distinct sound that would define his label. Later on, spurred by a desire to collaborate with visual artist friends, Terada launched the Omodaka project in 2001.

The Omodaka project usually involves Terada’s friends creating fantastical, even psychedelic, animated music videos for his “techno folk” songs (a term Terada has coined to describe this niche genre). My personal favorites are “Yosowya-san”, with its side-scrolling 8-bit exploration of Japan’s gambling culture, and, of course, “Hietsuki Bushi”, an adventure of a love confession thwarted by portal jumping spacemen and a farmer/lion/bird chimera. Oh, and aliens. There are also several albums released under the Omodaka name too, each filled with songs beyond the wild, color bursting music videos.

Where the Omodaka project really shines, however, is during live performances. They are an unabashed bonanza of pure theatricality, with projections of Omodaka’s music videos flashing behind Terada as he waves around props like paper lanterns or bamboo flutes all throughout his set. Even Kanazawa makes an appearance during performances, singing to the audience virtually through the use of TV screens set up around the stage. 

Especially striking is Terada’s costume when he performs as Omodaka. Instead of his trademark, brightly colored shirts, Terada comes onstage wearing a white, plastic mask, a shaggy black wig, and miko (Japanese shrine maiden) religious robes. As Omodaka, Terada transforms into an uncanny, barely human, androgynous entity whose only goal seems to be to get the audience’s blood pumping to some good ol’ technofolk.

Best of all, when you look into the audience during an Omodaka show, it doesn’t consist of solely geriatric Japanese; it’s diverse and, importantly, it’s young. I’m certainly no expert in methods of preserving a cultural property like min’yo, but I think that Terada is taking a step in the right direction to make sure min’yo will stick around for a bit longer. Sure, perhaps some purists may condemn Terada’s genre mixing as sacrilegious to everything traditional folk music stands for. However, when I see the audiences during Omodaka’s performances sway their bodies to Kanazawa’s trilling and yell back kakegoe to Terada, I feel that wonderful energy that drew me into min’yo in the first place. All I hope is that some of these people will also go back and listen to the music that led to the Omodaka project, and appreciate the unique sound of min’yo, too.

If you would like to check out the Omodaka project or Terada’s other works (he’s composed music for video games as well!), I highly recommend looking at his label’s YouTube channel: “fareastrecording” (all lower case, no space). If you search “Omodaka - Topic” in the search bar, YouTube even has a curated playlist with Omodaka’s entire oeuvre! Omodaka is also on Spotify. Furthermore, Terada regularly updates a Twitter account which announces future performances and other exciting news, like the October 28th release of Omodaka’s newest album in five years!

[fearofaherobrine]

Roleplay Server Log #264

“Death's Tree, Karla's Seduction, Hg Waters Everything”

[Lie] Is walking towards spawn, her mind preoccupied with everything Arden had told her the day previous-

[HG] -see lie as he was just running around and approaches her- hello lie

[Lie] - Oh!  Hg, hello.  Out for a run?

[HG] yep so what are you up too?

[Lie] - Thinking...  I learned some things yesterday and I kinda want to pop out into the real world for a bit

[HG] really what did you need to do there?

[Lie] - Uh, nothing really, just thought about doing a bit of exploring someplace I haven't been before

[HG] does that place have plants I haven't seen before?

[Lie] - Probably

[HG] can I come?

[Lie] - Well, ummm, I guess if you really wanted to...

[HG] I one hundred percent want to

[Lie] - Are you sure?

[HG] yea

[Lie] - Okay, do you have your sunglasses?  If not I have my contacts that you can use

[HG] -pulls his sunglasses out of his inventory and puts them on- I am ready

[Lie] Sighs and begins focusing.  She remembers all of her lessons with CP and after some effort she makes an opening.  She focused on the town she had briefly seen in Arden's mind, having no idea if they would actually end up there or not-

[HG] -is looking at the portal- woah

[Lie] - Let's go- She dons her own sunglasses and steps through.  She has a bit of difficulty getting through the screen on the other side, but does manage it

[HG] -follows and looks around-

-The two fall out of a security camera into a small pool of light. The gas station around them looks abandoned. The wind whistles through the broken front window and it's rather cold out. The town is up the road far enough that no one saw them, but everything is sleepy and quiet anyway.

[Lie] - Ow...  Sorry for the rough landing HG...

[HG] it's ok lie I know you didn't try to

[Lie] - Should we head into town?

[HG] -gets up- sure

[Lie] Looks around- Actually, it looks like everybody is still asleep...- She glances at the road heading the opposite direction- Let's head into the forest instead

[HG] yes we could find plants

[Lie] Smiles a bit and leads the way down the road, the heels on her boots making a little bit of noise in the quiet night-

-The road ahead of them is cold and dark and there is a little bit of snow laying in drifts in the ditches.

[HG] -is looking for new plants as they walk-

[Lie] Shivers, her shorts definitely not meant for the snow-

-Somewhere an owl hoots. But it seems the bit of snow and stars has hushed everything else. A few clouds skid over the face of a half moon.

[Lie] - HG, you doing okay?

[HG] yep. how about you?

[Lie] - Cold...  Very cold....  I most certainly wore the wrong clothes for this

[HG] -checks his inventory to see if he has anything to find nothing- I don't have anything to help sorry

[Lie] - It's okay, I'll survive

[HG] -is lookin up at the trees-

-Eventually they come upon a very large mailbox that's walled into a small tower of bricks. The box is near large enough for a person to sit in and and it strikes a familiar chord in Lie.

[Lie] - Well that's odd...

-Beyond it is a dirt road winding up into trees and shadows-

[HG] -is looking at the dirt road-

[Lie] Thinks for a moment- Think we should follow this road?  We might have better luck...

[HG] what are we looking for?

[Lie] - Everything and nothing?

-The trees arch overhead for a time and block out the moonlight and then they break into an open space. An ornate iron gate and a high fence. Beyond is a barren field covered with patches of snow and an oddly shaped house at the end of a long gravel driveway.

[Lie] - I wonder if anybody lives here...

[HG] should we check?

[Lie] - I don't know...  I mean, I guess we could, see if they have anything warmer for me to borrow...

[HG] that would be a good idea

[Lie] Tests the gate-

-The gate is solidly locked and makes a slight squeaking noise as it's moved.

[Lie] - Hmmm...- She looks around to see if there's anybody around- Should we climb the fence?

[HG] if that will work

[Lie] Walks the fence for a little bit trying to find a low spot, upon finding none she does the next best thing and summons some vines- Come on HG

[HG] -waters them a little before climbing them-

[Lie] Accidentally gets launched a little from the sudden growth spurt of the vines- HG!

[HG] sorry

[Lie] - Maybe put your can away for now...

-There's the barest bit of movement on the far edge of the field., and some unplesant creaking and rustling-

[HG] -puts the watering can away-

[Lie] Takes no notice of the movement as she helps HG down- Come on. let's explore a bit

[HG] -follows lie-

-The world seems frozen as the wind whistles around them. There's a bit of light in the house, at least someone seems to be awake.

[Lie] - Should we approach the house?  They might question how we got in...

-The rustling noise happens again and some shadows seem to rise up from the ground with an unnatural, shaky movement. -

[HG] what was that?

[Lie] Turns to look-

-Three pairs of red eyes stare back from a very upsetting silhouette, that suddenly lurches towards them with a groan of metal!-

[Lie] Grabs HG and causes a bunch of thorny vines to erupt between them and the creature as she drags him away-

-There's a lot of crunching as the three creatures slam into the vines and keep staggering towards them. They're bird shaped with long beaks, and kick at the vines trying to get to them-

[Lie] - Okay maybe this was a bad idea!

[HG] do we go back over the fence!?

-One bird-thing splits off and runs at them at a broken-legged pace from the direction of the gate-

[Lie] - If I use my vines they may climb out after us!  I think we should head for the house!

[HG] should I run us there?

[Lie] - We're almost there, just hang on!- They are almost at the door

-The front door is protected by an overhang and there's muted light coming from the hallway inside. Not much can be seen through the little textured windows in the door. The walls curve away on both sides and the windows are covered with thick iron bars.

[Lie] Knocks loudly on the door, hoping somebody will hear the knocks-

-There's a some rustling and swearing from within and then a human shape staggers into the light and opens the door a crack-

[???] What-what do you want?!

[HG] -is looking back at the direction they came from-

[Lie] - Please, let us in!

-The birds have all gotten free and are gaining on them-

[Lie] Doesn't want to scare the human by using her powers- Please, there's something out here!

[HG] monsters!

[???] Sees the red eyes and freezes in fear for a moment before dragging them inside and slamming the door. He's young and his hair is standing in messy golden spikes. He leans heavily against the wall with a hiss of breath as if he's in pain. His clothing looks hastily thrown on and his face is very red.

[Lie] - Thank you

[HG] thank you for letting us in

[???] Nggh... - He sits gently down on a bench and tries to catch his breath. There's a bit of rope around his neck that vanishes down under his shirt. - Who are you?

[Lie] - Are you okay?- The rope doesn't escape her notice

[???] Just... it's nothing... kinda wracked myself...

[HG] I'm HG and this is lie

[Lie] - HG!

[Ever] Ever... wait. Lie?

[Lie] - Eh heh...

[HG] what did I do i'm sorry

[Ever] Are you Arden's friend?!

[Lie] Blushes- Yeeeeah...

[Female voice] Who is it Ever?

[Ever] yells a bit- Friend of a friend mistress!

[Lie] - Mistress?

[Ever] Nods a bit too egarly and makes another pained face. Briefly there are some knotty lumps visible against his shirt as he moves.

[Lie] - Soooo...  This is awkward...

[HG] -is very confused not understanding the ropes under evers clothes and mistress are sexual- why is it awkard?

[Lie] - Multiple reasons HG, multiple reasons

-There's a sharp clack of heels on the floor and a tall woman steps into view. Her hair is long and silvery and she's obviously wearing a corset under the soft brown silk robe draped over her form. There's a large scar like a sunburst visible on the upper part of her chest-

[???] A bit late for company, isn't it?

[Lie] - Er, sorry to intrude?

[Ever] They were just... uh.. passing though. Some friends from the internet. Lie? Hg? This is Dr. Emmerich.

[???] Karla is fine for friends of Ever's.

[Ever] Thank you.

[HG] it's nice to meet you

[Karla] It looks like you weren't well prepared for the weather out there. It's supposed to snow tonight. I hope you didn't crash my front gates with your car?

[Lie] - Oh no, no car

[Karla] Eyebrow raise.

[Ever] Can I please...?

[karla] sighs- yes, go ahead. We have plenty of time for fun later.

[Ever] Gets up awkwardly and walks back down the hall. There's the sound of a door closing and a shower starting up.

[Lie] - I'm sorry, did we interrupt something?  We didn't mean to...

[Karla] Just a bit of playtime... You two look cold. Stay here a moment please. - Walks out of sight-

[Lie] Glances at HG as she rubs her arms a little-

[HG] you ok lie?

[Lie] - HG, no mentioning the server or our powers.  And do your absolute best to keep your sunglasses on

[HG] got it

[Karla] Comes back with two rather large blankets and offers them to Lie and Hg. They're just basic comforters like you'd buy anywhere. - Have you travelled far?

[Lie] - Thanks so much

[Lie] - Yeah, pretty far

[HG] Thank you -cover him self with the blanket-

[Karla] Nods-

[Ever] Comes back with wet hair and loosely fitting clothes. -

[Karla] How much do they know?

[Ever] Swallows - Lie only a little, and Hg, nothing... But they saw the.. things outside...

[Lie] Reaches out a little mentally to the two of them mostly out of curiosity-

[Karla] Her head whips around and she stares at Lie intently- Don't touch my mind!

[Lie] Is surprised and takes a step back- Uh...  Um...

[Karla] I'm very used to people intruding on my thoughts. I won't warn you again.

[Ever] I'm sure she didn't mean anything by it....

[Lie] Looks away, a bit red in the face and her hair begins to glow a tad noticeably from her embarrassment-

[Karla] Huffs a bit- Tend to your friends Ever. - She turns on her heel and stalks back down the hall-

[Ever] Lie....

[Lie] Quietly- Sorry...  I didn't mean to upset her...

[Ever] Comes over to them so he can speak quietly. - She was.. posessed... she's very determined that it will never happen again.

[Lie] - I didn't know, again, I apologize

[Ever] She doesn't like anyone to see her lose her cool. She'll come back once she's composed herself. Or she'll go to bed, it is rather late.

[Lie] - Yeah, I suppose for you guys it is

[Ever] Come on, lets go sit in the study. It's messy, but it's warmer in there. -motions for them to follow-

[Lie] Smiles a little-

[HG] that sounds nice

[Ever] Leads them down the curved hallway and into a larger room. As he opens the doors the hall light illuminates several snarling faces. Three different partial taxidermied animals in various states of completion. They're made from bits and pieces of different things and parts of them are entirely fake. He flicks on the light and reveals the rest of the space. Piles of books and boxes of metal parts, bolts of fabric, containers of feathers and folded pelts. He makes his way to the back where there's a large overstuffed couch, a footstool and a matching chair.

[Lie] Laughs a little, the glow from her hair diminishing- Our friend Doc would probably find this room very interesting

[HG] there is a lot of different kinds of thing in here -is looking all around at everything-

[Ever] Motions to the couch- Get snuggly, I'll make a fire. Who's Doc? - He kneels on the hearth and gets a bit of flame going below the pile of logs-

[Lie] - A friend and fixer of things- She takes a seat and pulls the blanket around her a bit tighter

[HG] -sits down as well still looking at everything-

-Hg, is standing in front of a rack of books and small boxes of sewing supplies. There are crystals piled on one shelf and most of the books seem like occult titles.

[Ever] Heh, I like that kind of person.

[Lie] - So Ever, what sort of work do you guys do?

[Ever] Oh, I'm just a glorified secretary. Karla is the artist here. She's also a writer. But mostly she makes weird sculptures and sells them online. I take care of the paperwork.

[Lie] - I see, must be interesting some of the things you get reqested to make

[HG] -is looking at the crystals because he has never seen them before-

[Ever] She gets a lot of business from word of mouth. Mostly she just gets a bundle of money and then she suprises them with something unique.

[Lie] - I see

-The crystals are mostly clear but there are a lot of multicolored ones too. There are also a few fossils. Some with seashells and others with the imprints of leaves.

[Ever] So... I rarely ever get company, so I'm not mad, but... why did you come all the way out here?

[HG] these look like plants -is pointing to the leaf fossils-

[Ever] they are, kinda. Very old, dead plants.

[Lie] - Ah, well, I can't exactly control my psychic abilities all the time, especially if someones thoughts are loud...  And Arden's thoughts were pretty loud after that last text from you...

[Ever] Colors a bit- I was just teasing him! He's so repressed. It's sad.

[Lie] - I know, but I told him to go spend some time with Zeke.  You know, trying to give a not obvious nudge type of thing

[Ever] He needs more then a nudge. He's never been with a guy, but Zeke seems perfect from everything I've heard.

[Lie] - In more ways then you know...- She's relaxing some and a few vines are curling under her blaket

[Ever] What's that supposed to mean? Is he kinky or something?

[Lie] - Let's just say he's right up Arden's alley when it comes to interests- The vines are crawling down a bit of the couch now

[Ever] Oh, he likes the paranormal?

[HG] -waters the fossil and the fossil come alive again gowning into the shelf it was sitting on fusing with the leafs are growing from where it once sat it luckily didn't knock anything else off the shelf-

[Lie] - You could say that....  HG!

[Ever] What the fuck?!

[Lie] Groans and buries her face into her hands-

[Ever] gets up to look at the plant - Whoah....

[HG] sorry I felt bad for the plant it wasn't getting any water

[Lie] Mentally to HG- What part of, DON'T show our powers did you not understand?- To Ever- ANYWAY, yes, Zeke has connections to the paranormal

[Ever] Water? It turned to stone millions of years ago!? REALLY?

[Lie] - Problem is, Arden, as usual, has no clue...

[Ever] Groans- You said something else made him perfect? - He fingers the prehistoric plant curiously-

[Lie] - Ummm...  Tentacles?  I'm not sure how much I'm actually allowed to say...

[Ever] Oh! He likes tentacle porn? That's not too unusual. Gay stuff I hope?

[Lie] - Sure

[HG] -feels bad and is hiding him self in the blanket-

[Ever] Well I can help with that! It'll give them a common interest. Hang on a sec. I hardly ever look at hard-copies anymore anyway. - He gets down under a table and pulls a box from a bottom shelf.

[Lie] Turns to HG and speaks mentally- I'm sorry I yelled HG, but you need to learn not to water everything, it can lead to a lot of problems

[HG] sorry

[Lie] - Especially if it comes to extinct plants like that.  Introducing it back into the wild could kill off other types of plants and cause damage

[Ever] Pulls out a slim stack of comics and walks back over to Lie before holding them out to her. The top cover is a beautiful young man with several visibly moist tentacles going into his mouth and ass and wrapping his cock as he writhes on a background of wrinkled sheets. -Give him these with my blessings.

[Lie] Her hair starts glowing again as she looks at the image- Sure...  I'll make sure he gets them- Takes them and awkwardly holds them

[Ever] You're glowing? And what's with the glasses anyway? I know it looks cool, but it is night time.

[Lie] - Um...  Uhhh...  Nothing!  Nothing at all!

[Ever] And the plants? Where are you guys from anyway? Are you witches?

[Lie] - Noooooo?  But we do know one?

[Ever] Skeptical- Who?

[Lie] - I doubt you'd know her...

[HG] you mean dawn lie?

[Ever] DAWN? You know Dawn?!

[Lie] Is about ready to grab HG with her vines just to get him to shut up- Uh, yeah

[Ever] Flops into the chair, suddenly at perfect ease. - Then that explains a lot. I hope she's not still pissed at me and Karla.

[Lie] - Why would she be pissed at you guys?

[Ever] Karla wrote a book about her, without permission. It's self-published and hard to find, but I think it was still more of the truth then she wanted anyone to know. Plus... Karla kinda owes her....

[Lie] - I see...  I could talk to her for you guys if you wanted?

[Ever] Nonono, that's okay. We have to lay low. That's part of the deal. She basically gave us money to fuck off and never speak to her again.

[Lie] - I see- A few vines are starting to peek out from under the blanket now

[Ever] Notices- What? You too? Is that... why you came? To see.. it?

[Lie] - Hm?

[Ever] Points at the vines-

[Lie] Her face now very red- WHY THE HELL AREN'T MY POWERS CO-OPERATING TONIGHT!?

[Ever] Don't yell!

[Lie] - Sorry!  Sorry!

[Lie] - But what were you talking about?  What it?

[Ever] The reason, Dawn paid us off... Karla made something that shouldn't exist and now can't be destroyed. But if you're a friend of hers, and good with plants, it's probably safe to show it to you.

[Lie] - Only if you want to

[HG] it's a plant? and if so I want to see it

[Lie] - HG give me your pail

[HG] but why?

[Ever] Come on then. Just bring the blankets. -He puts the gate up around the fire and goes to leave the room

[HG] -follows ever-

[Lie] - So you can't water anything you shouldn't

[HG] I won't I promise

[Lie] - Are you sure?

[HG] I am I won't water anything else unless I am told I can

[Lie] - I'm trusting you with this

[Ever] Leads them further down the hallway and through an archway into an atrium. The house is a ring around this courtyard and there's a dome of glass high overhead. The floor is paved with irregular stones and there's a desk off to one side with a computer on it, set at an angle to the wall. But the thing that draws their eyes is a tree in the center. It seems to dominate the space and suck the moonlight from above into itself. The leaves are glossy and black and it's covered with pure white flower buds. The whole thing seems to have a faint blue-purple aura.

[HG] what is it?

-The tree seems to call out to Hg, begging for water-

[Lie] - Wow, that would look nice in the Nether

[Ever] It's been infected with Death energy, but that's not what it gives back.

-The thing is invading the minds of both brines, wanting their energy. It's not evil, just hungry-

[HG] can I water it?

[Lie] Frowns a little- Be careful HG...

[Ever] If you want. There's a hose against the far wall. It's very hardy, but not liking this cold weather.

[Lie] - It's hungry...

[HG] can i use my pail?

[Ever] doesn't hear Hg, but nods reflexitvely- I ordered some good fertilizer, but it won't get here until the day after tomorrow at the latest.

[Lie] - Not that type of hungry...  Can't you hear it?

[HG] -walks over and waters the tree-

[Ever] Hear it? I'm not gifted in that kind of thing...

-There's a very organic creaking and groaning as the tree doubles in size, unfurling like a cat streching in the sun. It seems to sigh in happiness as the air threads through it's leaves. The buds swell and suddenly burst open into both flowers and fruit. The flowers hang like datura blossoms but carry the shape of calla lillies,and the fruits look like pure white eggs.

[Ever] WHOAH! It usually only looks like that in the spring and summer! And you made it bigger!

[HG] so pretty

[Lie] Yelps and stumbles backwards,  falling on her ass-

[Karla] Comes in quickly, she's changed into a simple shirt and soft pants. - Vhat ze fich?!

[Lie] - Ummm...  Maybe we should go...

[Karla] Touches the tree protectively- What did you do...?

[HG] -hides in the blanket because karla is yelling- i just watered it

[Lie] - Watered it?

[Karla] Hmm.... That's some very effective and interesting 'water'

[Ever] Hg has some kind of super fertilizer.

[Lie] Is ready to grab HG with her vines to protect him-

[HG] it's very good water for plants

[Karla] Taps her foot. - Not bad... But I want to know who you really are. No lying, and get rid of those dumb glasses.

[Lie] - Umm, we'd rather not

[Karla] Stalks over to her, she somehow manages to be menacing without her earlier accoutrements. She runs a hand along Lie's cheek,  her posture promising the darkest of pleasures, and then suddenly snatches the glasses from her face.

[Lie] Yelps in surprise, her glowing eyes flashing a bit brighter in response and her black thorns begin to gather behind her-

[Karla] You're lucky. If they had been red, I would have attacked you.

[Lie] - So I've heard before...

[HG] should i take mine off as well?

[Lie] Groans a bit-

[Ever] facepalm-

[Karla] watches her closely- Thorns? Are you a dryad?

[Lie] - Hm?  Ah... Noooo...

[Karla] ....

[Ever] They know Dawn... that's why I let them in here...

[Karla] Hmm.

[Lie] Concentrating to make sure her offensive pods don't form-

[Karla] Snaps her fingers and makes a small gesture-

[Ever] Yes mistress. -he gets up - It was nice meeting you. I'll see you in the morning if you're still here. Online if not. Good night- He heads off back the way they came.

[Lie] Get's much more nervous now-

[HG]karla would you like some of my water to give to your tree next time?

[Karla] Is just watching Lie steadily, her posture seems relaxed, but she's radiating sex and loudly thinking some really filthy things that Lie can see quite clearly. - Oh? That would be most appreciated.

[HG] do you have anything to keep it in I can fill it up?

[Lie] Is turning more and more red, unable to not read the thoughts-

[Karla] Saunters over to the tree and sensually strokes one of the egg-like fruits before plucking it. She retrieves a jar from a small rack of gardening tools and holds it out to HG. - I'll make you a trade.

[Lie] - What sort of trade?

[Karla] This fruit gives life. Break it like an egg and drink the fluids inside if you're gravely injured and it will heal you.

[Lie] Frowns a little but says nothing else-

[HG] sure -take the jar and puts his hand over it and it the water starts coming out if his hand and it fills up the whole jar to the top a drop more and it would go over the edges-

[Karla] Puts a cap on it tightly and passes Hg the fruit. It's a bit bigger then a chicken egg but not delicate. - It will never go bad. Keep it safe for an emergency.

[HG] -puts it in his inventory-

[Lie] Her thoughts are straying a bit to some of the things Karla had been thinking of-

[Karla] Returns her attention to Lie and imagines her tied up and gagged with the little vines that are sprouting underneath and poking out around her body.

[Lie] Tenses and the vines do the same as they curl around her body a little-

[Karla] How very interesting....

[Lie] Scowls a little and tries coaxing the vines away-

[Karla] You are lovely my dear. Such compelling eyes...

[Lie] Shies away a little, not certain about where this is going-

[Karla] Has a fleeting thought involving Lie and Ever both bound up with a choice selection of sex toys inserted in them-

[Lie] Yelps as the vines come back-  Sorry, but I don't think my mate would go for that...

[Karla] Licks her lips - The more the merrier...

[HG] could I go back to the study to take a nap I am a little sleepy?

[Karla] Smiles- Be my guest.

[Lie] Finds herself now unable to move her legs due to the vines-

[HG] -walks back to the study to take a nap on the couch-

[Karla] Crouches just out of Lie's reach. - It doesn't seem like you're fully in control of those my dear.

[Lie] Scowls a little- Usually I am...

[Karla] Maybe they just like the thoughts you're getting from me...

[Lie] Squirms a little and there's a brief flicker of the last time she and CP had done anything-

[Karla] Ah, has it been a while? Foolish men. Always neglecting, they don't know what a woman really wants or needs.

[Lie] - There's been...  Complications...

[Karla] Well there's pills for that. But men still wear out after a while. That's why I fell for such a young, fresh soul this time. My kitten will last much longer then the old toms I played with before. -

[Lie] - More like my husband popped out and terrorized a bunch of programmers...

[Karla] That's an odd euphemisim for waving your penis around in public, but embarassing nonethless. - She touches one of the vines gingerly, avoiding the thorns.

[Lie] - Sure...  We'll just go with that...

[Karla] quiet laugh- Lets talk about you instead. - She lets her gloved fingers brush against Lie's exposed collarbone-

[Lie] Squeaks a little and tries pulling away, her arms are still mostly free and she raises her hands to try and stop Karla-

[Karla] Takes her hands instead and rubs her thumbs against Lie's wrists. Making gentle circles on the delicate skin.

[Lie] Shudders- What do you want?

[Karla] Grins in the darkness - What are you offering? I have much to give.

[Lie] Squirms, her vines creeping a bit higher- You said you wanted to talk about me...

[Karla] Oh yes... I can smell a submissive from a mile away, and you have magick too...

[Lie] Her breath hitches a little as her hair glows brighter, lighting up the area some-

[Karla] What do you like? Pain? Restraint? Humilation? Or just the sense of powerlessness in the face of a master or mistress?

[Lie] - Restraint...  And loss of power...

[Karla] Delicious... I could oblige. And I think you are one who likes the crop as well...

[Lie] Makes uncertain noises-

[Karla] Gathers her wrists in one hand and puts the other on Lies throat, barely squeezing, just letting her feel the cool leather of her glove against her neck, and slightly compressing her rapid pulse.

[Lie] Can feel herself getting aroused as she squeezes her legs together-

[Karla] Leans over her, blocking out the moonlight, and lets her mouth wander along the edge of Lie's jaw, nipping lightly, before landing fully on her lips. Her kiss is deep, invasive and sweet and her grey braid brushes Lie's ear as it slips off her shoulder.

[Lie] Gives a muffled yelp and she's not sure what to do, just letting it happen-

[Karla] Uses one hand to pin Lie's hands over her head and stradles her prone body. - Ah... so wonderfully curious. I can smell your arousal.

[Lie] - Ah...  What are...

[Karla] Just enjoying you. You are so lovely... If it wasn't for my own gift, I might be murderously jelous of you. But as it stands, I am merely entertained and intrigued.

[Lie] Squirms- Why?

[Karla] Why not? I appreciate beauty, especially when it comes to my door wrapped in a bow.

[Lie] - I wouldn't say I'm wrapped in a bow...

[Karla] Just a figure of speech. It could be.. arranged though...

[Lie] Her redstone heart begins to glow a little as a few more vines emerge to hold her arms-

[Karla] Uses her free hand to pull down her shoulder strap and expose more of Lie's left breast - What is this? Besides a lovely hard nipple, that is?

[Lie] - Ah...  My...  My connection to my mate...

[Karla] Some kind of mystic implant?

[Lie] - A natural resource where we come from...

[Karla] I think I prefer the natural parts. - She leans over and gives the nipple a luxurious lick-

[Lie] Yelps and her back arches and a shiver runs through her-

[Karla] Grinds against her hips a little - Perhaps I should fetch something warm to fill you with?

[Lie] - Mmmmm...  I...  I think I'll be okay without...

[Karla] Lets her hand wander down below and rubs over Lie's crotch, it's warm where the other woman's weight is pressing down on her thighs- I think you're not so sure

[Lie] Tries pulling away and the computer in the room glitches with a little bit of static-

[Karla] Sits up a bit to look at the computer-

-The computer looks exactly the same as before-

[Karla] Runs both her hands down Lie's neck and breasts to make her shiver- I could teach you so much... Make you beg for it, and then climax until there's not a speck of energy left in you.

[CP] Slips silently out of the computer, his eyes blazing in anger-

[Lie] - I don't think that...  Would go over very well...

[Karla] Frowns softly- That's a pity. I prefer my submissives give themselves willingly.

[CP] - And how about you get off of my wife

[Karla] Turns in a smooth motion and rolls to one side, landing in a cat-like pose. Her eyes are wary- Ach. I hope you didn't damage anysing coming in here.

[Lie] - CP...

[CP] - Who are you

[Karla] Nobody.

[CP] Growls, flames beginning to flicker at his finger tips-

[Karla] Demon... Begone from here...

[CP] - Not without my mate

[Karla] She came here of her own free will. If she wants to leave, she can. I have no power to stop her.

[CP] Scowls and walks closer to Lie, flicking his flames to burn her vines away-

[Lie] Quickly covers herself and scrambles back up to her feet and moves closer to CP-

[Karla] Stands and dusts herself off - We were just talking.

[CP] Casts a wide net with his mental abilities as he narrows his eyes at Karla-

[Karla] Is mostly a blank wall, but there are holes in her mind that shouldn't be there, where something has been removed. She also tastes of Death from her repeated contacted with the fruit of the tree. She's not really human anymore, but she's also not anything Cp recognizes.

[CP] - You certainly are an odd one...  Human, but not...  Almost like one of my murderous brethren

[Karla] Visibly stiffens at the word murderous - I am a Doctor...

[CP] Tch's- We know far to many of those already

[Lie] - CP, stay calm

[Karla] Hides her hands in her armpits self-conciously-

[Lie] Puts a hand on CP's arm and spawns a few calming flowers-

[Karla] Shies away from the flowers, unnerved that they're growing from the bare stone floor.

[CP] Can smell the lavender like scent and Lie can feel him relax a little-

[Karla] Your... wife said she came to visit my boyfriend.

[CP] Grumbles- So that's why you left...  Damnit Lie, your lucky you didn't end up very lost in the digital realm!

[Lie] Knows she did bad and bows her head a little-  I'm sorry, but what Arden had told me...  It got me really curious

[CP] Sighs- Just let me know in future, I'll help guide you to your destinations until your more confident in it

[Lie] - Oh and like you don't go off without telling me?

[CP] - Hey, I don't do that very often anymore

[Karla] Digital?

[Lie] Stiffens a little- oops...

[Karla] Looks at the computer and then back at Cp - How very interesting....

[CP] - Come on, let's go

[Lie] - We can't

[CP] - Why not?

[Lie] - HG is still here and has already gone to sleep

[CP] - Oh you have to be fucking kidding me

[Karla] Small smug smile. - It looks like we have more to discuss anyway.

[CP] Growls at Karla a little-

[Lie] - About what?

[Karla] Gives Cp a slow look from head to foot - Just because someone has empty eyes doesn't mean their head isn't full of interesting thoughts...

[CP] - Well at least it isn't full of holes like yours

[Lie] - CP what are you talking about?

[Karla] The holes are just scars from the terrible things I personally exorcised. Can you say as much?

[CP] - Literally had to have my hand removed because of a parasitic entity

[Karla] Interesting.... Some of mine are outside if you dare to look at them.

[Lie] - Is that what those things were?

[Karla] They're what remains of some souls I accidentally aquired ...

[CP] Scoffs- What was removed from me was Insanity itself

[Karla] I didn't say they were the only ones. The others are still out there. Or hopefully dead by now. And I did not need mortal help to remove them.

[Lie] - Unfortunately Insanity is still out there

[CP] - Who says we're mortal?

[Karla] Insanity sleeps in us all... And you may be a Lawnmower Man, but I do not think you are a god.

[Lie] - Lawnmower man?

[CP] - Insanity is an actual entity, she...  Tends to turn those she can infect into killers

[Karla] Just an old movie about a human who became a god of the digital realm. And humans don't need an infection to kill. We're the only species who tortures our own for fun.

[Lie] - Ah, this is a bit more...  Do you mind if I project into your mind?

[CP] He's starting to pace a little but making sure to stay near Lie-

[Karla] Yes I would mind, I've seen enough horror and death and madness to last me seven lifetimes, thank you.

[Lie] - Then I won't press

[Karla] I worked very hard to free my own mind... I don't need anyone else poking around in it. - she pauses to look at Cp- especially when there are much nicer things around that I could be probing...

[CP] Pauses and narrows his eyes at her- What are you talking about?

[Karla] makes eye contact with him and then gives a lascivious look to what can be seen of the big brines rump.

[CP] Teleports to the other side of the room with a growl, recognizing that look-

[Karla] Even more interesting... Vanish like a spook....what other tricks can you do? Tall dark and dangerous?

[CP] - How about make you fall asleep into a nightmare forever?

[Lie] - CP don't

[Karla] I think you'd make my master angry. He doesn't like me, but I have been given a sysiphian task and that would severely detract from me carrying it out.

[CP] - Your not making it any less tempting

[Lie] Is trying to figure out what the next step beyond sleeping on the couch would be-

[Karla] Saunters up to Lie- He's not much fun, is he?

[Lie] Takes a step back away from Karla- It depends on the mood and what he's doing

[Karla] Really? - her voice is like silk - And what does such a strong man like to... do...?

[Lie] - For him?  He usually like killing and fucking...  It's actually a step up from before

[Karla] I guess being able to step out of a computer makes fleeing a murder scene a snap...

[Lie] - Well it's more than him just coming out, he can take others in

[Karla] Really? And where would one go inside a computer?

[Lie] - For us?  Minecraft.  I actually used to be human until that one decided to use me to end a bet

[CP] Is watching the women carefully-

[Karla] Mein Kraft? I don't know what that is. Ever likes to play on the computer far more then I do. I mostly use it for business.

[Lie] - Then you should ask him.  My mate and I are just one type of digital entity known as Herobrines, we a a wide veriety of powers, but are distinguished by our glowing eyes

[Karla] I sent him to bed. Perhaps I shall in the morning. Is your little friend with the floral shirt one of you as well?

[Lie] - Yes, like me he has more...  Floral type powers.  My husband is a fire brine

[Karla] How do you know Ever's friend?

[Lie] - We live in a sanctuary of sorts and Arden was brought along with his two companions so they would be safe

[Karla] So you have some secret game you hide in from the rest of the world? How convenient...

[Lie] - We're hidden from the rest of the game as well.  We can be found, but only those with permission can enter

[Karla] What's the catch? This all sounds far too perfect.

[Lie] - There are entities that are formed in response to us, and unfortunately they are not balanced correctly.  Very peaceful brines like HG can be paired with supremely violent NOTCH's.  My husband actually had a good pairing until a violent NOTCH came along and killed his NOTCH and tried to remove him

[Karla] And thus the strong slaughter the weak... same as anywhere else. I can't blame you for hiding. We all have enemies...

[Lie] Can't help a small laugh- Ironically my mate would never have been invited to the sanctuary if he hadn't dragged me into the game.  A human in a digital realm tends to stand out.  The others have worked hard to calm CP down and make him a better person for me

[Karla] Walks over to Cp and makes a tight turn around him to see him from all sides. - Still a work in progress. But it's hard for a cat to change his stripes.

[CP] His eyes flash in anger at the mention of a cat-

[Karla] Oh, did I hit a nerve? I like the fire in your eyes. You'd be a pleasure to break.

[CP] Growls and stands tall to tower over Karla-

[Lie] - Easy CP- She moves closer to him and reaches out for him and there's a flash of pink at her wrist

[Karla] Just smiles innocently.

[Lie] Steps up next to CP- Calm down, I'm right here

[CP] Nuzzles into her a little-

[Lie] Runs her fingers through his hair to calm him down- Stay calm and you'll stay in this shape

[Karla] Shape? Can he be a blob of static? Or a digital waveform?

[Lie] - Er....  No, the reason your cat comment set him off is because as a punishment I can turn him into a cat

[CP] - Why would you tell her that?

[Karla] A cat? That's a sensual thought. Cats have such grace, so much power coiled up inside such a small package. It's a game my Ever plays at sometimes.

[Lie] Starts blushing again-

[CP] - Are you sure we can't just pick HG up in the morning?

[Lie] - Hush, you've already been booted to the couch

[Karla] Notices the collar on Lie's wrist. - Ah... is it yours or... his? A pretty collar for a loved one who likes intimate games.

[Lie] - It's how I turn him into a cat...

[Karla] Any chance you could replicate it?

[Lie] - No, the feline form was given to him by another brine, and it was another who took what remained of the coding once he was changed back to make the collar

[Karla] Looks reasonably dissapointed. - Ah... that's a shame. Ever would give much for such a power.

[Lie] - I see- She's pressed up against CP for comfort, not sure what Karla's next move will be

[CP] Is getting bored and his thoughts turn to how he can possibly get sex from his wife even though he's currently banned from it.  A few thoughts slip out-

[Lie] - CP!

[Karla] Wanders back over to the tree, running her gloved fingers over the bumpy black bark. She looks over curiously as they seem to bicker.

[Lie] Groans in irritation- CP if you don't knock it off you'll be sleeping at Doc's place

[CP] - Oh come on, you still can't be that mad

[Lie] Glares-

[Karla] Looks up and sees that it's already getting light out. There's a little bit of noise in another room and she closes her eyes to focus on it.

[Lie] Glances outside as well- Well, at least HG should be up soon

[Ever] Comes into the room with two mugs and nearly drops them in shock. He's wearing a black collar with a silver ring, a soft loose shirt and pj pants with a design of small jack-o-lanterns. - Mistress?

[CP] Growls a little at Ever-

[Karla] Gives a small yawn- More company. The lovely Lie's husband showed up looking for her-

[Ever] Visibly shaking at Cp's growl-

[Lie] - CP, last warning

[Ever] Should I... make more coffee?

[Lie] - No thank you, I'm allergic

[Ever] Looks at Cp- Orange... juice?

[CP] - Fuck off asshole

[Lie] Fed up turns around and flicks the collar onto her husband who makes a strangled noise as he shifts into his feline form- Enough!

[Karla] Her eyes nearly sparkle with mischief and interest.

[Ever] WHOAH!

[Lie] Gathers up her husbands clothes- I apologize for him, he's been an asshole lately.  One of the reasons he's on probation from sex

[Ever] How did you...?!

[Karla] They are... not from around here.

[CP] Yowls in annoyance-

[Lie] - Oh hush

[Ever] Should I fetch something for Hg? I know we have milk too.

[Lie] - Actually we should be heading home, do you mind if I use your computer?

[HG] -comes back to the group after just waking up-

[Karla] Be my guest. And feel free to come... visit us again...

[Lie] Shivers a little- Come on HG, we're going home

[CP] Jumps up onto the desk and focus' his powers, creating an opening which goes directly back to the seed-

[Lie] Motions for HG to go first-

[Ever] Don't forget the comics for Arden!

[HG] -since he left the blanket on the couch he goes right inside-

[Lie] - Don't worry, they're in my inventory

[CP] Slips through-

[Lie] Starts going through-

[Karla] Scoots close and gooses Lie's butt-

[Lie] Yelps as she then falls through-

[CP] Quickly closes the opening, growling a little-

[ibilenews]

5G network technology: Sifting myth from reality

When Joseph Adegbolu’s mobile phone rang, he hastily picked it up without bothering to confirm the identity of the caller was on display. Upon engaging with the device, the voice at the other end was a familiar one- his mother.

Obviously distressed, she yelled: “Joseph, tell the telecommunication firm that erected that mast that is about 40 metres away from our house to come and remove it. We heard it’s killing people, and has killed many people in China.”

Joseph’s mom is but one of the millions across the globe that are terrified and influenced by some informed and less informed commentaries about the evil they say the Fifth Generation of cellular technology, otherwise known as 5G technology represents.

This high level of apprehension and uncertainty is daily sending jitters down spines in different parts of the globe, with numerous conspiracy theories flying everywhere. From China to the United Kingdom, the United States to Belgium, Canada to South Africa, the story has been the same.

It is this conspiracy theories that have led to the destruction of several 5G masts, especially in China, where the technology has been linked to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which has killed over 190, 000 people across the globe.

The belief in several quarters has been that 5G technology comes with very hazardous electromagnetic radiation, which is extremely dangerous to human health, and which has resulted in the death of many people across the world.

These wild claims about 5G are not new. The technology has outsized political importance because it may provide countries with a competitive edge, with faster wireless speeds enabling more rapid development of driverless cars, and other innovations, especially as countries compete keenly in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) era.

Internet trolls have remained on 5G and its political implications to sow fear, leading to protests in some countries, including the United States. Recently, Russians have been pushing claims that 5G signals were linked to brain cancer, infertility, autism, heart tumors, and Alzheimer’s disease, all of which lack scientific support.

Conversely, 5G is the next great leap in speed for wireless devices. This speed includes both the rate at which mobile users can download data to their devices, and the latency, or lag that they experience between sending and receiving information.

The fifth Generation aims to deliver data rates that are 10 to 100 times faster than the current 4G network, and users should expect to see download speeds on the order of gigabits per second (Gb/s), much greater than the tens of megabits per second (Mb/s) speeds of 4G.

Benefits Associated With 5G Network Technology The 5G network technology has the potential to benefit everything from entertainment and gaming, to education and public safety. Over time, 5G is expected to deliver faster download speeds, real-time responses, and enhanced connectivity, giving businesses and consumers the potential to experience innovative technologies.

Apart from requiring high data rates, emerging technologies that interact with the user’s environment like augmented reality or self-driving cars will also require extremely low latency. For that reason, the goal of 5G is to achieve latencies below the 1-millisecond mark. Mobile devices will be able to send and receive information in less than one-thousandth of a second, appearing instantaneous to the user. To accomplish these speeds, the rollout of 5G requires new technology and infrastructure.

A lot of engineers believe that considering the power and control at the disposal of any country with the expertise to develop this network, the temptation to de-market it by other world powers is high. This may be one of the reasons why a network, which runs on a spectrum that is considered by experts as safe, is being linked to high radiation and COVID-19.

Meanwhile, scientists are working hard to ensure that these conspiracy theories are not allowed to stand as they can disrupt world development.

How Does The 5G Technology Work? According to t-mobile.com, 5G networks can be built in different ways from multiple bands of wavelength spectrum: low-band, mid-band, and high-band.

High-band millimetre wave frequencies have greater bandwidth available to carry more data in dense urban areas, but require cell sites to be close, and have limited penetration in buildings. Mid-band balances speed and range, providing broader coverage than high-band. And it is less impacted by buildings. However, much of its bandwidth is already in use, so there’s not a lot available for 5G growth. Low-band like the powerful 600MHz spectrum travels farther than other bands – over hundreds of square miles – and can pass through more obstacles, providing a better, more reliable signal both indoors and outdoors.

With 5G, higher amounts of data can be transmitted more efficiently than 4G LTE. That means stronger network reliability, faster downloads, and support for more connected devices than ever before. It is an advancement of 4G technology.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the body in charge of global communication had planned that 2020 will be the year for the commercial launch of the technology after which its global standardisation would have been perfected.

Deployment Threatened By Conspiracy Theories While 5G has been projected to have the power to enable the new normal in terms of superhighway transmissions, some theories have enveloped the globe about the alleged hazardous nature of this technology, which some claim can be devastating to human health. Besides, there are claims that 5G is the cause of COVID-19, and that the lockdown in several parts of the world translates to a government cover-up.

It was also claimed that the coronavirus can communicate through the radio airwaves and that 5G can kill birds and destroy plants among others.

Specifically, these claims have been bouncing around the industry for years, even ahead of the 5G technology being validated in lab trials. This even dates back to the 1990s, when mobile phone usage was incredibly limited, with critics claiming the 2G airwaves could cause cancer.

Although these rumours have been thrashed in most parts of the world, the emergence of 5G seems to have reopened these health claims. Finding a source is very difficult, but a lot of posts on social media seem to fan the flames of these fanatics.

Telecoms.com noted that a picture of an engineer climbing a telecoms mast in a hazmat suit in the United Kingdom was used as justification for these claims, though it was clear that the individual was using hazardous chemicals to clean the equipment. These illusions of proof help to paint the picture, as the blind following the blind, tend to ignore the thousands of images of healthy engineers installing or repairing telecoms equipment without such protective equipment on.

The idea that the airwaves used in mobile communications can be detrimental to health is reinforced by the idea of ionising and non-ionising radiation. Telecoms equipment does emit radiation, but so do most electrical equipment. The point, which seems to get lost, is that Electromagnetic Radiation (EMR) is not powerful enough to cause damage to humans.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), there are two general kinds of electromagnetic radiation: ionising radiation and non-ionising radiation. Ionising radiation is powerful enough to knock electrons out of their orbit around an atom. This process is called ionisation and can be damaging to a body’s cells. Non-ionising radiation has enough energy to move atoms in a molecule around and cause them to vibrate, which makes the atom heat up, but not enough to remove the electrons from the atoms.

EPA stressed that the damage, which can be done to the human body generally depends on how far up the spectrum the airwaves being used are, or whether it is high or low-energy. A high-tension power line can create a much higher energy electromagnetic field that is still low in frequency. Therefore, there are safeguards around these sites, while medical equipment using x-rays makes use of much higher frequencies so it should also be regarded as dangerous.

However, numerous public health authorities such as the World Health Organisation (WHO), and the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP), the Germany-based scientific body in charge of setting limits on exposure to radiation, have both stated on different occasions that the airwaves used by mobile communications is not harmful to health.

Perhaps, one of the conspiracy theories, which has gained the most significant traction in recent days, is that which alleges that 5G acts as an accelerator for the dreaded coronavirus.

As with many conspiracy theories, it is very difficult to trace the pseudoscience back to its origin, and this claim is a perfect example. Pre-dating the coronavirus outbreak, the idea that 5G suppresses the immune system is a popular one for critics and has been given a new life in conjunction with the spread of COVID-19.

The theory states that radiation from mobile communications is influencing the human body on a molecular level (suggesting it is ionising radiation), but also inhibiting the immune system.

As emphasised by the Cornell Alliance for Science, there is no evidence linking 5G technology to the COVID-19. The outfit maintains that if a hotspot emerges in one area, which happens to have 5G antennae, it is coincidental.

The most absurd of these theories is the claim that the lockdown (at the behest of the government) to prevent the spread of the pandemic is a cover-up, which will allow the installation of 5G masts en masse without the general public being aware. This remains an interesting one, which even the most hardened conspiracy theorists are unable to come to terms with.

The antagonists claim that by doing it in secret, the general public will not be able to comment, object, or protest until it is too late.

A popular evangelical pastor in Lagos, also recently reinforced the claim that the Federal Government enforced the lockdown to install 5G fibre pipes, most especially in Lagos and Abuja. He went as far as convincing his followers that the technology has the imprimatur of the Anti-Christ, which will ensure that human is installed with microchips.

No Cause For Alarm Over 5G In Nigeria With a cocktail of controversies circulating daily and raising more questions about the technology in the country, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ibrahim Pantami, recently called on Nigerians to discard any unverified information about 5G and COVID-19.

He also tasked them to remain calm in face of the coronavirus pandemic, as the government is working hard to control its spread, adding that the government does not take decisions based on speculations, but only on facts and figures, which must be based on inputs from experts within the field.

Pantami cautioned Nigerians against fretting as no license for 5G has been issued to anyone, no spectrum for 5G deployment has been given, while no approval has been given to any telecoms operator to deploy 5G in the country.

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), also advised Nigerians to disregard talks linking 5G with COVID-19.

Head, Public Affairs at NCC, Dr. Henry Nkemadu, said: “First, there is no correlation between 5G technology and COVID-19. The 5G technology amounts to advancement in today’s 4G technology designed to transform the world positively.

“Second, there is no deployment of 5G in Nigeria at the moment. The NCC back in November 2019, approved a trial test for the technology for a period of three months, and that trial has been concluded and installation decommissioned. The trial among others was to study and observe any health or security challenges the network might present. Relevant stakeholders including members of the security agencies were invited to participate in the trial.”

Fifth Generation Technology And Health Concerns According to Professor Andrew Wood of the Australian Centre for Electromagnetic Bioeffects Research (ACEBR), a key contributor to the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP): “We believe the main biological effect of the electromagnetic radiation from mobile phones is a rise in temperature. There are also concerns that there could be more subtle effects, such as links between long-term exposure and certain types of cancer, but while there is some evidence from epidemiological and animal studies, these remain controversial.”

Wood, who noted that 5G mobile technology promises a 10-fold increase in data transmission rates compared to current 4G networks,underscored the commonly accepted electromagnetic radiation limit in the current international standards that apply to mobile technologies.

“As the frequency goes up, the depth of penetration into biological tissues goes down, so the skin and eyes, rather than the brain, become the main organs of health concerns. The major hurdle is that the power levels involved in mobile and wireless telecommunications are incredibly low, which, at most, facilitates temperature rise in tissues of a few tenths of a degree. Picking up unambiguous biological changes is therefore very difficult.

“However, it will be important to balance risk and reward. Wireless technologies bring enormous benefits, and being over-cautious would potentially deny these benefits to needy communities.”

From his perspective, a radiologist at the Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, Dave Okorafor, in a report said: “There are about seven different kinds of (natural but also artificially producible) radiations called electromagnetic radiations out of which three – gamma-ray, x-ray, and high-frequency ultraviolet ray – are capable of damaging human cells or the DNA in them. Gamma-ray, x-ray, and high-high frequency UV radiation are called ionizing radiations because they can change the structure of the smallest unit of matter found in living cells.

“By this mechanism, they can cause skin and other kinds of external and internal injuries to the human body. These bodily injuries usually manifest within days to months. The effects of these radiations can also lead to cancer when normal body cells run mad as a result of damage to or change in the DNA sequence (or gene) carrying information with which the body is supposed to produce proteins that should regulate the multiplication of the body cells.

“On the other hand, we also have four other electromagnetic radiations whose energies are not high and strong enough to cause the degree and kind of biological harm attributable to the three other radiations above.

“These weaker radiations are the visible light (with which we see in the day), infrared, microwave and radio wave. Microwave and radio waves are both called radiofrequency (RF) radiation. The radio wave is the weakest of the electromagnetic radiations because it has a lower frequency range and, as a result, a lower amount of energy. One unit of it is longer than all of the other radiations and, as such, it cannot easily pass through a lot of materials like metals. Microwave is a radiofrequency with a higher frequency and higher energy. Similar to the radio wave, it is also non-ionizing. This means that both radio waves and microwaves cannot cause cancer. Radio wave has been the electromagnetic radiation used for the conveyance of data in radio and TV broadcasting, wired and wireless telecommunications, WiFi, and Bluetooth communication, among others,” he added.

Years Of Research Established No Health Risks – GSMA The Global System for Mobile Telecommunications Association (GSMA), which regulates mobile usage and standards has also reassured the world of the safety of 5G technology.

Its chief regulatory officer, John Giusti, said: “Twenty years of research should reassure people that there are no established health risks from their mobile devices or 5G antennae.”

A White Paper from Deloitte disclosed actually how 5G is capable of enhancing the effectiveness of pandemic prevention, treatment and drive the digital transformation of healthcare systems in response to major public emergencies, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic.

The White Paper titled, “Combating COVID-19 with 5G: Opportunities to Improve Public Health Systems,” was produced in collaboration with Huawei.

Amongst its findings, the document noted that the effectiveness of communication and data exchange has been essential in screening for infected individuals and controlling the outbreak. This is by enabling thermal imaging, continuous remote monitoring, and diagnoses during patient transfer.

The research also highlighted the need to build and upgrade public health emergency response mechanisms, through which governments can make right decisions promptly, and allocate resources more effectively.

In this regard, 5G can also promote collaboration by enabling connectivity, maintaining effective communication among hospitals, and enable medical data and reference sharing between hospitals and scientific research institutions, especially “in the rapid increases in data volume and mounting demand for remote and HD video-based treatment” scenario.

Stakeholders Views In a public post, the Vice President, Corporate Communications and CSR, Airtel Nigeria, Emeka Oparah, also debunked claims linking coronavirus to 5G technology.

Oparah disclosed that there has been a strategic campaign against the 5G technology driven by business and diplomacy, propagated by an orchestrated campaign to discredit the innovation, “how it got twisted to establish a link to Coronavirus is perhaps the most important argument to debunk the fables.”

According to him, to understand 5G, it is important to first understand G. “G stands for generation. So, 5G means Fifth Generation Mobile Technology. Most mobile telecommunications operations are currently running on 4G (4th Generation LTE and high-speed mobile Internet). Before now, we have had 3G (voice and mobile data) and 2G (digital voice) and 1G (analog voice), of course. It must be admitted that the mobile telecommunications industry is probably one of the most innovative and fastest developing of all.”

A social entrepreneur and communications management specialist, Dr. Niyi Ibietan, said Monaco is the first principality, micro-state, and country to deploy fully functional 5G telecom services in the world, “which is situated between French Riviera in Western Europe, and the Mediterranean, Monaco is reputed as a wealthy country of about 40,000 residents but noted for $2.1m per capita income.

“At the moment, Monaco has recorded 66 cases of COVID-19, one death, and three recoveries. If 5G deployment correlates with COVID-19, Monaco ought to have disappeared from the face of the Earth.”

Indeed, on the BBC, scientists brand the so-called connection between 5G and Coronavirus as “complete rubbish.” According to them, the radio waves involved in 5G and other mobile phone technology sit on the low-frequency end of the electromagnetic spectrum, which is less powerful than visible light. Consequently, they are not strong enough to damage cells – unlike radiation at the higher frequency end of the spectrum which includes sun’s ray and medical x-rays.

A Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Bristol, Adam Finn, added: “It would also be impossible for 5G to transmit the virus. The present epidemic is caused by a virus that is passed from one infected person to another. We know this is true. We even have the virus growing in our lab, obtained from a person with the illness. Viruses and electromagnetic waves that make mobile phones and Internet connections work are different things. As different as chalk and cheese!”