#Blind Cricket World Cup

[razorblogz]

Shekhar Naik Success Story: A blind cricketer who brought victories at T20 Blind Cricket World Cup

The success story of Shekhar Naik is filled with grit, determination, and perseverance. Despite being physically disabled, Naik joined the Indian national blind cricket team and captioned India to victories at the T-20 Blind Cricket World Cup in 2012 and 2014. In 2017, Shekhar Naik was awarded the Padma Shri award which is the highest civilian honor.

Naik was born in Shimoga, Karnataka on 7 April 1986, and his whole family was involved in farming. Since he was born in a farmer’s family he did not have enough money to support his dream. Moreover, Naik faced immense hardship throughout his childhood. When he was young, his father died and Naik was sent to ‘Shri Sharda Devi School for the blinds’.

His mother and the 15 members of the family suffer from visual impairment, and Naik’s disability is hereditary as well. As his family barely earned enough to eat, they could not provide him with enough money to support his cricket journey. This is when Naik took the steering of his life into his own hands and started working in the fields during the summer holidays to fund his cricket training. However, he experienced another shock when his mother also died — when he was just 12 years old.

It was that moment in his life after which he never looked back. He started playing cricket to be happy. “I did not play cricket to earn money. That was never my aim. Only after winning the World Cup, we have started getting some financial support”, he said.

As of now, the Indian board of cricket — BCCI does not recognize blind cricket, but Naik is optimistic about getting recognition from the BCCI. Before 2012, no one knew about blind cricket. However, after the world cup, awareness started to grow about the sport and the number of states in which blind cricket is played.

Blind cricket is a type of cricket in which the size of the ball is slightly bigger than a normal cricket ball, and it also has a few ball bearings inside. Naik believes that blind cricket should also be affiliated with BCCI. In the era where IPL is given due attention, and cricketers are rewarded with megabucks for playing ten-odd IPL matches, Naik says that if sponsors show their interest in the blind cricket as well, it will make the sport more popular amongst the audience of this country.

[gilded-sunrays]

It truly was odd how the world worked, not only that, but how demon blood arts worked, some could kill in an instant if one wasn't careful enough, others seemed to yield no true effects, and others well… they seemed to be able to bend reality, managing to bring the impossible to light.

This was something the young woman of only twenty five had come to learn the hard way as she had been living in exile from the demon slayer corps, she was unable to obtain intel on the demons she fought so she has to go in blindly. A mistake on her part, for in the midst of battle as she went to take the demon’s head the world around her changed in an instant, and the blade that was mere inches from the demon’s neck was now inches from the throat of a man-

The only thing she could do to keep from killing the man before her was to violently twist her body away, her blade flying from her hands as she toppled over him in a mess of limbs and fiery raven locks. As she finally pulled herself into a sitting position she was sitting upon the man who…looked just like her?

Her head would slant to the side as she stared down at her mirror image, blinking slightly in surprise as she took in his appearance, he wore similar clothes, the same hanafuda sun earrings- even their slayer marks were perfectly identical. The main difference between them was her more delicate features and filled out body.

“Who…are you?”

Life was fleeting, often passing by before one could fully grasp its essence. Each moment was distinct from the last, and each new second brought something new. The uncertainty of what lay ahead remained a constant; you never knew what the future may hold for you.     

Yoriichi understood this truth all too well, having learnt it through trials that left their mark. For a man who was blessed with the divine favour from the gods, for someone that had been gifted such extraordinary eyes, which could see through the veil of any living being—forseeing their each and every move even in the briefest of instants—yet he was blind when it came to what the future held.    

The imposing silhouette of the man remained seated near the engawa, carefully pouring tea into a delicate cup. His large, weathered hands cradled the fragile vesssel as he savoured a small sip. Outside, the night was serene; the moon cast a silvery glow, and the rhythmic chirping of crickets filled the air, accompanied by a soft breeze that played with his hair.

Yet, the tea was disappointingly bland. It wasn’t that he lacked culinary skills—not at all. In fact, he had once been a seasoned cook, particularly during the days when he once cared for his wife. He reminisced about the tender moments spent preparing meals for her, ensuring she had everything she needed while she carried their child, tidying the home, and allowing her the rest she deserved. 

But life always had a way of twisting unexpectedly for him. Twisting and contorting into something else entirely. Each tranquil moment, filled with the promise of peace, would inevitably plunge into shadows far deeper than he could have ever imagined. 

Yet, after a time, a semblance of calm returned to his existence. Days stretched endlessly, each one a mere echo of the last, offering nothing new to grasp. The life of a demon hunter, once full of purpose, had faded into a distant memory, forced to leave that life behind just the way he was forced to pick up the sword. The days dragged on, so much so that he'd just let time fly by him.; often finding himself in the stillness of his empty house with only the occasional visits from Rengoku and Sumiyoshi and his casual hunts of demons as he allowed himself to be withered away in his memories.    

He breathed out gently, raising the cup to his lips again to take another sip of the bland and distasteful excuse of a tea he had made himself—letting it seep down his throat, fully accepting the repulsive taste—embracing it.    

He had come to terms with everything the gods had laid before him. Resisting fate was pointless .  

The minutes dragged on as he finished the tea completely, pouring himself another glass. Drinking it down and pouring another one and another as the minutes seemed to stretch further, turning minutes to hours—until the kettle was half empty, similar to his own hunger. He found an odd sense of solace in this ritual, a comforting predictability that he embraced as he repeated the process over and over.

This was his life now—devoid of wishes or ambitions, for he had long since realised the futility of such desires. He understood that this was his conclusion—a life reduced to the monotony of the present. Time slipped away from him, each hour fading like grains of sand caught in a gust of wind. It was the end— 

*thud*     

A soft thud echoed as he unexpectedly sensed a strange weight above him. The kettle abruptly knocked over, shattering upon impact and spilling hot tea across the floorboards. What..? She had seemingly materialised out of thin air, wielding a katana that seemed to mirror his own. He observed as she deftly maneuvered to evade him, only to lose her balance, causing her to topple on top of the towering figure instead.  

“Who…are you?”  

It was a question he was grappling with himself. A random person suddenly materialising in his house without any explanation was something that certainly required an explanation. She was a woman—a woman just around his age. Her hair was jet black with red tips tied into a ponytail; she had a peculiar mark on her forehead, while her ears were adorned with dangling hanafuda earrings—no.. she even looked just like him as well—who.. was she?   

They were nearly indistinguishable from one another; their hair, earrings, their demon hunter marks, everything—they were like reflections of each other. The only notable distinction lay in the figure beneath her, who showed a more larger form. Although it was rather difficult to see because of the dim lighting, but the broad shoulders and a wider, muscular neck and chiselled chest that heaved with each breath were very apparent.  

"I.. am Yoriichi Tsugikuni.." 

The male answered; his low and deep voice was merely above a whisper. Quietly observing her sitting on top of him as he lay there motionless on the hard, cold floor. Something very unexpected had just happened.   

Once again, his life had unexpectedly twisted into something else. 

Twisting and contorting into something else entirely

[grand-theft-carbohydrates]

-Ode to Grief #3-

The concubine and the musician passed each other outside the king's bedchamber. It was past midnight. The musician was on his way in, and the concubine was on her way out. Both were carted around in a litter, although for very different reasons. 

Gao Jianli could not see her, but he knew a woman was there. He could smell her perfume and hear the creak of the sandalwood chair bouncing in time to the eunuchs’ footsteps. Her chair had only four pallbearers. Gao Jianli's had eight. That probably meant something, although he did not want to dwell on it. 

He wished desperately that he could see her face, to know what she might be thinking. How he wished to see a face. Anyone's face. 

The King of Qin amused himself liberally with the women, but they were never permitted to stay the night. He slept alone and kept a sword by his side. Gao Jianli knew this because the king had swung the sword at his face the first time he entered his bedchamber--to check that he was really blind. And he was, of course, so he hadn't flinched or even understood what was happening until a lock of his hair had fallen at his feet. 

The king had relaxed after that, and thus began their present arrangement. Gao Jianli would arrive every night, kneel at the foot of the king’s bed and play for hours and hours on end, not leaving until dawn crept in, the crickets fell silent, and the birds picked up their chorus.

It was not wholly accurate to say that the king slept with no one. He slept with Gao Jianli—and the musician suspected that he could not sleep without Gao Jianli. 

The king was drafting bills at his desk when Gao Jianli was announced and ushered inside. He could hear the rattling of the bamboo and the whisper of the brush. The faint smell of perfume still lingered in the room. 

"Ah, good evening, Court Composer! No, no, please don’t ke tou. I’ve told you, it makes me feel stupid when people do that while I’m in my underwear.” The servants led Gao Jianli to his designated mat. Another handed him the zhu--which had been locked away and inspected every night--and he clung to it like a drowning man finding flotsam. The bamboo drumstick and taunt silk strings had become the only things that felt real in this terrifying new world of shades and vertigo. He only felt whole when his instruments were safely in his hands.

“How do you like your new clothes?" said the king. 

"I’m sure they’re splendid, Your Highness, but I’m afraid their beauty is lost on me.”

The king laughed, “I mean, how do they feel? Are they comfortable? Easy to move in? I hope you don’t mind, but I had my tailor hem the coat a little higher than is proper so you wouldn’t trip over.”

“That’s very thoughtful, Your Highness,” Gao Jianli ran his hands over the zhu's wooden belly, checking it for any dents and scratches. 

“The colour is very becoming. You look like a proper Sage of Music now.” 

“His Highness does me too much honour,” No, no, no! Someone had tuned it wrong! The fourth string was painfully over-drawn, and Gao Jianli quickly eased it back, letting out a sigh of relief as the instrument was returned to its proper state. 

“I say! It’s drafty in here, isn’t it?” The king rose and bustled about the room. Moments later, something soft and heavy was draped over Gao Jianli’s shoulders—one of the duvets from the bed. The smell of perfume was stronger now. A large wooden table was dragged over to his left side, plates rattling. “Would you like a snack? Let’s see, there’s beef, lamb, swan, wild boar, abalone, shark-fin…Please stop and rest as often as you wish—good health isn’t something gold can buy, you know!” 

“I don’t want to eat.” 

“Some tea, then,” the king poured him a cup and blew on it gently, “careful, it’s still quite hot.”  

------------------------ [small pov shift! I'm going to try write this part with QSH's voice. lets see if all that roleplaying helped!] 

The king settled back down at the desk and picked up his brush, although he was far too eager to resume his work. He watched Gao Jianli tune his instrument from the corner of his eye and played a little game with himself; what would the Sage of Music entertain him with tonight? The Kingdom of Yan, for all its sickening frivolity and excess, produced extraordinary artists. The fact that he had acquired their best and brightest star was just further proof of heaven's favour. 

The musician shunned the stand, preferring to balance the zhu on his knees. One of his little idiosyncrasies. It muffled the sound somewhat, softening each note into something indescribably sweet and inviting. 

Gao Jianli bowed his head, was still for a long moment, and did something he’d never done before. He opened his mouth and began to sing. 

The king was rather taken aback. Unlike his legendary skills with the zhu, Gao Jianli’s voice was not a thing of breathless beauty or a technical marvel. It was reedy and feeble, fluttering like a moth in the vast, high-walled bedroom. He had obviously been crying—again--and his nose was stuffy. And yet, the sound was still utterly bewitching. The king sat forwards, his hands upon the desk, struggling to catch the words. 

Wait. This was his song! Gao Jianli was singing Without Clothes, the Qin battle anthem. It was a simple, stout chant signifying the people’s willingness to go to war. The king had heard it sung by soldiers, a hundred thousand voices raised as one unified roar, fit to shake the heavens. He had never heard it sung like this, had never heard anything like this. This fervent, tearful whisper. The low, agonised keening of an injured beast. Gao Jianli touched the strings as if he was afraid they might break. The zhu in his lap wailed and wailed like a lost child. He played like a man in his death throes, gutted and slowly bleeding out. 

“How can you say you have no clothes?  I’ll share my coat with you. The king calls us to arms, I’ll prepare my axe and spear to fight with you.”

How can you say you have no clothes?  I’ll share my shirt with you. The king calls us to arms, I’ll prepare my spear and halberd to stand with you.

How can you say you have no clothes?  I’ll share my skirt with you. The king calls us to arms, I’ll don my armour and weapons to march with you. 

And just like that, the song was over, and the last note petered into silence. 

King Ying Zheng sat frozen in place, trembling from head to foot, unable to understand what he was feeling. His eyes stung, his throat ached as if it had been slit open, and his chest felt vice-tight. The closest he had ever felt like this was when that dagger-wielding madman chased him around the throne room, except this was much, much worse. It felt like someone had hacked off one of his limbs. Like a raw, jagged hole had been carved into his chest, leaving him hollow and so desperately empty. 

Ying Zheng’s first instinct was to have Gao Jianli dragged out and executed. No. That wasn’t enough. He needed to cut off the hands of every musician in the country and throw their instruments onto a flaming pyre. He was a fool to think he would be safe by taking Gao Jianli’s eyes. He should have torn out his tongue and locked that wretched thing away inside a box of salt, right next to Gao Jianli’s treacherous heart. 

“Play it again,” Ying Zheng said hoarsely. 

“No.” 

“No?” 

“It can’t be done.”

The king’s voice was dangerously soft, “can’t be done, or you won’t do it?” 

“Both, I suppose.” 

Ying Zheng was on his feet, scattering the bamboo books and brushes with a clatter. Hearing the commotion, the guards rushed into the room. The king held them off. 

“I have been more than lenient with you, Court Composer,” he hissed. “I have spared your life and given you the honour of serving me. I shower you with gifts and treat you with every courtesy, yet you have shown me nothing but contempt. First, you sing this seditious song and now you dare to defy me. You will play it again. Your King commands it.” 

Gao Jianli sniffed and wiped his nose on his sleeve, leaving a shiny trail of snot on the silk Ying Zheng had personally picked out for him. He was still weeping softly.

“Command the oceans to empty,” he said, “command the sun to run backwards in the sky. Command the dead to rise from their graves and bid them to speak. Once you have done all that, I will play this song again.” 

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

Notes: the emperor's shadow has reached into my brain and rearranged ALL my neurones. here is the song gao jianli is singing. As you can see, I've changed the words slightly because my focus is on flow rather than accuracy. the biggest change is "the king calls us to arms" I've done it to give the song more immediacy and also to reflect the intent of the original "the king is summoning eager warriors."

[yeahyankee]

As - Imogen Temult x Laudna Fanfic [Contains Spoilers for C3]

It was hard to describe, exactly, the tender dread of loving someone. It was like holding a hot cup and a cold one in either hand, the brain suddenly certain it was on fire.

The marriage of joy and terror, finger picking together across heartstrings--of the darkness suddenly shifting to a blinding, dazzling perception--being seen and seeing, how your life could suddenly be different, possibly more authentic, maybe more true.

Imogen was used to being scared--it was one of her oldest emotions, next to anger. She'd learned how to hide, lie, and bury what meant most to her. But laying next to Laudna in the dark, under the eaves of Nell's tiny burrow, she felt a different fear bloom in her once again.

Drops of black ink in a bath tub, rippling and staining the water, her skin, the porcelain.

I prayed to her like a god.

The thought made her whole body tighten. Her mind raced as she ran her hand through Laudna's dark hair. What if she traded in their life together for one of Delilah's party tricks? Prayed to a god who could only take, but not give.

Her chest thrummed, live with the painful, barbed fear--Laudna was back, and they'd lived through so much already, almost lost each other again countless times. That couldn't be in vain, it had to amount to something.

But knowing Delilah wasn't dead made their hope seem so delicate now, like one wrong move and this all would all disintegrate. Laudna would be stolen away again, except this time by something far darker, robbed from the very inside.

A warm sigh, and a shift in her sleep, and Laudna was repositioned with the points of her shoulders pressing against Imogen's chest. The weight of her felt good here. It brought her back to the present.

She was still here, now.

Imogen swept her in, impossibly close, and held her tight. Laudna's hair smelled like woodsmoke, resin, fallen pine needles. Quiet, wild woods. She pictured folding her away, safe, into her body, where no one could ever harm her, like a tide rolling over the smooth stones of a shore.

Laudna's even breaths, and the crickets outside eventually lulled her into an exhausted half-sleep.

If they lived in a world where gods could come hurtling down to the ground, she'd rip every one out of the sky herself.

She owed her that much.

[geek-and-destroy]

'Progressive' hindu nationalists - why are they Like That?

Tomorrow is the 26th of January, the 74th Republic Day in India - the day the Indian constitution was formalized and adopted. I thought i'd mourn my fast-fading nationalism on this occasion by kinda airing out some bullshit and starting a political longpost, which is always a good idea right? right???

Since about the end of last year, I've seen some blogs on here that define themselves around hindutva - hindu nationalism, the idea that India is a hindu nation and must abandon its secular status. Any leftie/liberal with any awareness of the news will know their rhetoric is bullshit. Anyone who isn't really aware of Indian religious dynamics would know to spot their Islamophobia from a mile away, because seriously, the discourse is Ben Shapiro levels of bad.

The most egregious of these include hindulivesmatter, rhysaka, yato-dharmasto-jaya, vindhyavasini and others. Basically a small hindu nationalist clique. They're actually not that big a deal even on this hellsite, but they keep annoyingly popping up to start firebrand arguments under posts. But they're not uncommon in the real world. In fact, i think the majority of the Indian urban youth is Like That - anti-homophobia, anti-misogyny, theoretically anti-islamophobia, the same general left-leaning values associated with Gen Z; but with a weird blind spot when it comes to the fascist decline of their own country.

These users are not too different from TERFs, with their couching of hate in progressive, tumblr-social-justice language. There's been a lot of discourse around why TERFs are the way they are, why their otherwise feminist and progressive values eventually shatter in favour of their hate. I want to do something similar for hindutva tumblr, because i see in it a newer kind of hindu nationalist aggression, yet one that i am very familiar with, as an urban upper-middle-class Indian born into a Marathi Hindu family.

The main question i want to answer is this: why does someone espousing dire Islamophobic rhetoric also sincerely believe in progressive ideas? Why do they not see the contradictions? To do that, we need a little primer in post-independence Indian history.

So, it's often said that Indian democracy was not handed to us; this is not only in the sense that we had to fight for our freedom against the Brits, but also in the sense that there were long deliberations on the exact type of republic we wanted to be. The constitution was drafted, finalized and adopted a full three years after the Brits left. This framing of a philosophical struggle stayed on, throughout the tumult of the following decades.

This is how the modern Indian is taught about our history: Several riots, the Emergency in the 70s, the wars with Pakistan and China, the formation of Bangladesh, the victory at the cricket world cup, the Cold War international policy of non-alignment, the Green Revolution, all of these are presented through a frame of struggle, with the Kargil War and the 1991 liberalization being the point of stabilization. The median citizen of 1971 was politically aware and politically involved. That of 2001 was most likely not. At least, that's the narrative of capitalism in the country. This narrative of a 50-year prolonged post-independence struggle is why Indian nationalism is so potent, even outside of the newer Hindu fascist rhetoric. We've got a very intense sense of national pride. I'm guilty of it myself.

In 1991, the economy was opened up to multinational corporations and eventually led to the formation of an Indian petit bourgeois. The period from 1991 to roughly 2011 is seen as a period of idyllic peace much like the Clinton administration in the US. Culturally, this was the time of the Bollywood masala movie - light, apolitical and all about a big Hindu joint family that preaches benevolent unity of all religions. But the thing that was never mentioned in these movies was caste - an elephant in the room that i haven't addressed yet. Just like the 'default' US Culture is white suburban christian, the default culture here is upper caste middle-class hindu. The aforementioned rise of the middle class was largely along caste lines. Households in the US have microcultures along ethnic lines, and they can be similarly mapped in India through caste and religion.

The Indian equivalent of the megachurch pastor is the ruling BJP's paramilitary parent organization, the RSS, as well as others like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Karni Sena, etc - organizations that normal people largely didn't agree with but whose values and morals were ingrained in their subconscious. The apolitical Hindu in like 2004 did not believe, like the RSS does, that India should be a Hindu nation; but he (i use 'he' here because male tends to be default in this case, and that's a whole different conversation) did believe in the greatness of traditions, the Indian armed forces and in ancient Hindu scientific supremacy (which at the time was limited to Aryabhatta's zero and the actual progress in the sciences from ancients like Charaka and Sushruta to more modern ones like Ramanujan and CV Raman - it hadn't gone into cuckoo fantasy land yet, where we showhow had stem cell research and aeroplanes in ancient India and the Ramayana is apparently actual history now). To this person, Savarkar was an icon of the freedom struggle along with others like Gandhi, Bose, Ambedkar, etc, but he didn't know or care about his religio-fascist ideology. Fascist elements existed then and had their pockets of support - the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, Modi's CM-hood in Gujarat, and the first BJP national administration came up during this time. To the normal citizen, they were simply extremists with 'some good points'.

2008 was the year of the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai. Islamophobia didn't fully enter Indian discourse just yet, largely because of the assertion of the city's multicultural identity, but the seeds were certainly sown. In fact, blatant Islamophobia wouldn't be mainstream till 2016 or so - the BJP's 2014 election was won on middle-class concerns. The petit bourgeois finally made its voice heard politically in the 2011 anti-corruption protests spearheaded by Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal, the latter of whom is the founder of the newest major political party in the country. It's typical of protests of this kind, agitating against a vague idea of corruption with not many tangible demands. It is true that by 2011, the Congress government was notoriously bloated, corrupt and ineffectual at a systemic level. The BJP gained a single-party majority on an anti-corruption and pro-welfare platform, with religion not really a factor.

The middle class celebrated this as an ultimate affirmation of their hegemony, and the RSS-derived values kicked into high gear. The celebrations have now become a gloat-fest, kinda like vindicated Marvel fans when their Disney product makes a bajillion dollars. The best example of this is the Ram Mandir inauguration earlier this week. Modi cultivated an image of a messiah figure who could do no wrong. Anyone who opposed their goals is now an anti-national and a traitor. General attitudes as a whole have grown a lot more bloodthirsty and carceral. Propaganda, degradation of public discourse, weakening of the media and public institutions, the whole gamut.

The people running the above-mentioned blogs are quite representative of this demographic. They probably fully believe what they spout. They fully believe that Hindus and Hinduism are under threat in India, that love jihad ("forced conversion") is a real thing, that Islamists are taking over their nation, and even that Hindus have been 'sleeping' and are just now being 'woken up'. At the same time, they believe in socially progressive values. The supposedly pro-LGBT+ and pro-feminist stances taken by the RSS are very much targeted at urban Hindus, not at the West as PR.

The propaganda directed at them (which includes movies, social media and tragically, many news outlets) often appeals to the traditional acceptance of queer individuals in mythological texts to get straight, cis, sheltered urban Hindus of all ages to reconcile bigotries and get on board the hate train. It is often in a comparative frame, juxtaposed with the bigotry in Islamic or Christian texts and historical persecution in the West (btw, the term acceptance is very loose here, they often equate mention of a thing with acceptance of that thing even if it's derogatory. Ancient hindu culture only 'accepted' trans women, and that was a marginalized acceptance at best).

The RSS often preaches that Hinduism is the religion of tolerance, and advocates for a twisted version of the tolerance paradox. It's reached a level where propaganda doesn't have to be deliberate - the citizens will do it for them. These blogs are true believers despite the contradictions, but their online activity is probably a deliberate form of praxis, with the co-opting of social justice vocab and appealing to white/western/Indian expat guilt etc. So yes, very much like TERFs, except that TERFs are an actual minority whereas Hindutva ideology is increasingly the default 'apolitical' belief. The reactionary internalization has been successful.

Tl;dr: people like hindulivesmatter are sincere in their bigotry towards Muslims as well as their progressive beliefs, because Indian culture as a whole oriented itself towards appealing to the urban upper caste middle class.

[spidermilkshake]

Underground Landscapes and Biomes

To flesh out the grand underside of Ancardia's world, and to emphasize that, rather unlike the standard "big underground area" of fantasy worlds, this Underground is rich with biomass and potential for life--though the life there is very different from that of the Surface. A sample cross-section map of the way the Underground's world is laid out is presented here, with distinctive types of landforms/chamber structures and biomes labelled. I'll start describing from the top-down:

The Surface

The surface of the world, with all its more familiar sorts of deserts, forests, shores and mountains. The Surface technically counts even those caverns of surface-types, even if they lead to passages that access the Underground, meaning the definition of "Surface" includes from the highest mountain top to the deepest ocean trench, as well as every cave or tunnel up to 100 meters below their openings.

Surface Caverns

The more familiar sort of cave that Surface-dwellers would know. Surface caverns can be small cul-de-sacs formed by volcanic activity, wind, or most commonly running water, or vast labyrinthine networks that stretch on for miles. Most are openings formed of hollows in bare rock--light is generally minimal as bio-luminescent organisms are both rare and scarce in this relative desert. Still, these caves do support some life, including a few species which colonize upwards from the Underground such as the Depthmoss lichens and a few small fungi, but most life here consists of small blind fishes and salamanders, insects like crickets, roaches, and springtails, a legion of bat species which only use such places for shelter, and a number of other incidental Surface animals who shelter or den in caves but spend most of their lives outside of them, such as bears, pigeons, gremlins, wolves, packrats and a number of lizards and snakes. Many humanoids also use these caves for habitation, such as the Parrgeg Troll tribes, orders of Druids of Ulderon or of Valas, and all manner of rangers and hunters. Surface Caverns generally max out in height at around 60 meters, and total chamber length or width at 200 meters. Most are far smaller.

Underground Streams

Whether they resurface at some point or not, these intrusions of Surface water into the caves form much of the basis for the ecosystems below for two reasons: Water seep resulting in the abundant fresh water supplies in many areas of the Underground, and as a means for the ancient ancestors of many animals, alga, fungi and plants that adapted to this underworld. Those that bore through soft areas and end up directly in the Underground are often distinguishable by the distinct lack of weak-swimming animal life in them, and will often include only minimal freshwater sponges, suction-cup minnows, and speedier blind eels.

Surface Sink

Sinkholes are not unheard of in Ancardia, but a Surface Sink is a grade above. These land forms are often back-filled with rubble, sand, and especially glacial debris, but this layer of ground forming the basin is seldom very stable, and any intensive digging, building, or even severe weather can result in smaller sinkholes opening up and giving way completely into Surface-to-Underground Pits. These generally range in diameter from 20 meters to 100 meters, and the layer of the clogging debris is generally between 10 and 25 meters thick only.

Surface-to-Underground Pit

These structures are astoundingly dangerous (including the unstable Sinks that cover them up) and can drop vertically down into the Underground levels for over 300 meters straight down. While ledges can exist along the sides of these gaping holes in the earth, many known to exist are actually very smooth-sided due to their formation being glacial in origin. Some of these periodically remain open to the Surface for decades to centuries at a time, introducing shafts of sunlight down into the area below and making these areas some of the brightest-lit in all the Underground. The largest known pit of this type as of the late 14th Age exists in part of the Northwest Drakalors, directly overtop of the Gnumian city of Edipato and its surrounding countryside--this pit extends for 780 meters from the mountainous elevations and the opening itself is about 137 meters in diameter, producing a shaft of sunlight that supports a number of Surface moss species amongst the Underground natives.

Dry Connection or Pass

A Dry Connection, or a Dry Pass, is a tunnel structure of any shape and size that resembles a Surface cave, but notably connects Surface Caverns to a level of the Underground, or a higher level to one along a lower plane. These tunnels contain minimal bodies of water, usually only small pools formed of condensation or small springs seeping into crevices, and the life within these is still fairly scarce, but consists of many more species of Underground lichens, insects, mosses and hardier fungi such as the Dazal'gulr puffball. Sometimes Surface species of rodents or bats may make it down into these tunnels, but usually do not stay long.

Water Connection or Pass

Similar to the Dry Connections, these passages between Surface and Underground are narrower tunnels or tunnel networks. The main exception is that the Water Connection is primarily defined by a Surface waterway descending through softened limestone layers, though generally not completely filled with water. Sometimes Water Connections will become Dry Connections over time as a result of shifting watercourses on the Surface, and in most cases these subterranean rivers are hazardous to navigate due to the substantial current and vertical drops on their way to other water bodies.

Single-Level Greatchambers

The most basic type of Greatchamber, those of the single-level sort make up over one third of the space within the Underground, and are usually connected to several other similar chambers by dry or water connections or to an even larger one. The term "single-level" refers to the average ceiling height and the absence of high escarpments or deep chasms splitting a chamber into multiple levels. These greatchambers range in ceiling height from 100 meters to 250 meters, and are usually several dozen kilometers in at least one other dimension. Chambers this large are capable of generating their own low cloud systems, wind currents, and if separated from other chambers by a narrow enough passage, these weather conditions can be isolated to single areas and differ dramatically from their neighbors.

Wall Tunnelings

Wall Tunnelings are small pockets or caverns excavated by natural forces, creatures, or sometimes as mines or sheltered areas by humanoid beings, notable in that they essentially form a cave within a cave, and offer respites from the weather that exists in the Underground as well as from wild creatures and natural lighting. Many cultures choose to make their infrastructure and homes using wall tunnelings rather than constructing places in the open chambers--these generally include the Murruk Trolls, Minotaurs, some Dwarven groups, and the Underground's Ogres.

Deepfall

A deepfall is a particular type of waterfall existing only in the Underground, defined as one where a running stream or river plunges from one layer of the Underground (or from the Surface Caverns) directly down the full height of a chamber into its destination. Deepfalls frequently generated very turbulent currents and misting around where they make contact with the lakes, rivers, and pools they feed into, and the depth of the lake or river bottom is often deformed into a deadly pit many meters deeper than the surrounding water, almost always full of powerful cycling currents that transform it into a body-trap. Creatures that live in these pits are limited to certain species of freshwater mussels and other sessile invertebrates, or large predators/scavengers capable of immense grip on the bottom surface.

Stalagmite Pillars

These landforms are usually found on the top of natural rises, with many of the stalagmites meeting the stalactites forming from water seep in the ceiling and combining into massive sloping structures. Cracks and crevices along the vertical surfaces of these structures are the typical denning areas of Slypha, a species of large predatory animals closely related to bats, and a number of lichens, mosses, and fungi are specifically known to favor the height and the airflow when growing high up on the pillars. Dark Elves are known to use these stalagmites and the larger pillars as central anchors for their larger buildings and towers, drilling into the pillar itself and building the levels of the edifice around it in a circular pattern of outward-facing rooms.

Fungal Forest

A very common biome found in all levels of the Underground--teeming with dozens of species of fungi, lichens, and also a variety of understory and forest floor plants that live entirely (or almost entirely) off of the light produced by most other species found here. Supported by the fungi, a great many kinds of insects, arachnids, molluscs, and other animals can be found in these places as well, though megafauna is more limited by the thickly-vegetated areas and tougher, fibrous stalks of fungal trees blocking the larger creatures entry into all areas. Giant wolf spiders, Dire Flatback millipedes, greatrats, greatbats, dire violet rove beetles, cave-lions, dire ants, aegiszarl and a host of other creatures are common under the canopy of the mushrooms. For this biome to form, it generally requires a lowland zone of relatively high humidity and generally little to no acidic content in the soil layer.

Runoff Reservoir Lakes

These bodies of water are still, generally with no current whatsoever and not contributing to any streams or rivers, and are fed from deepfalls or more ordinary waterfalls and seeps from the level above. Their stillness contributes to a great deal of aquatic plant life in these lakes, which in turn support a succession of tiny, small, moderate and even some very large animals.

Waterplant Forests

While most common in runoff reservoir lakes, these thick growths of numerous aquatic plant species and their subsequent animal communities can take root in any still or slow waterway. The largest plants are the Deep-lilypads, whose dark magenta leaves can stretch upwards from their roots over 4 meters and the pad itself be over a meter wide. Large varieties of edible plants and alga grow in abundance in the shallows and on the shores, making these common habitats to find grazing Deepwater rats, Deepmara, and a number of millipede, beetle, and other herbivorous creatures, as well as the predators that hunt them.

Submerged Water Connections

These are passages that connect chambers or entire layers of the Underground together through bodies of water, leaving them water-filled tunnels that aquatic creatures often use to migrate between regions. The fauna in these submerged passes are usually highly bio-luminescent, and generally consist of mussels, hydra, moss-animal colonies, sponges, colony algae, and a number of small crustaceans and fishes. Larger semi-aquatic animals also use these passages, most notably dire waterscorpion and cave fishers while hunting for the smaller creatures.

Water Labyrinths

Naturally-occurring networks of winding, honeycombed passages interspersed with small rooms, water labyrinths are uncommon structures in the Underground and generally regarded with fear. Even among the most adventurous and inquisitive societies dwelling in this subterranean land have not fully mapped out the ones that have been discovered, and of expeditions that have ventured into known entrances, only half are known to have come back alive. Even the usually quite confident and skilled Draulfyn gem-divers and their tame cave fishers regard trying to search water labyrinths as crazy. Many of the Underground’s fish species are known to traverse these places, as well as many water insects and crustaceans, but very little of the sessile life has natural bio-luminescence, making these passages one of the darkest places down here.

Deep Chasm Lake

Formed from deep fissures with vertical or nearly-vertical walls, these lakes are rare phenomena but several are known to exist in the middle layer and the deepest layer of the Underground, some with an ordinary lake flooding the area slightly above the chasm and disguising its true depth. These lakes can descend to over 500 meters deep, and the deepest of which is yet to be fully and accurately measured. The waters of these lakes are often a stable if chilly temperature, and below the 200 meter mark they generally include a dense layering of more brackish salinity, along with a whole new range of aquatic life adapted for such saltwater.

Side-Spar

These are rather large cavities form either partway up the walls of a much larger chamber, or formed in the side of a surface-to-underground pit. While smaller than the proper greatchambers, they still accumulate biomass in a similar way and support microbiomes within. One well-known side-spar zone exists on the upper layer, close to Dwarven territory, cut 40 meters up the walls of a high chamber and extending 100 meters into the rock base, with a thick region of Dark Scrub and Lichen Barrens filling it and supporting a large population of Dorn Beasts, which prefer the isolated location for brooding their vulnerable young.

Chasm Reefs

In Deep Chasm Lakes, the fauna and flora differ strongly from those of other types of lakes in the Underground. Clinging to the walls, the creatures developing communities near and below the brackish zones are often bio-luminescent, and consist of moss-animals, hydras, red alga, sponges, frilled clams, tubeworms, and pit-maggots (a species of larviform giant caddisfly). Swimming freely are a number of unique freshwater jellyfish, isopods, unusual fish, and waterworms. While there is some overlap in the pelagic species between the more common lakes and the Chasm Reefs (especially in the waterworms and jellyfish), most others are found nowhere else.

Upsloping Entry

A structure that occurs when two greatchambers from two different layers connect directly together through a wide chamber-sized passage, usually with little shifts in local climate but still very much vegetated and full of wildlife as each greatchamber. The change in elevation can be gradual, or involve several steep cliffs, but usually the altitude change is roughly 150 meters.

Two-Level Greatchamber

The vast majority of the upper layer of the Underground is made up of many of such interconnected greatchambers—containing within them either significant hollow escarpments which create yet another sublayer atop the main ground level, or deep canyon and ravines that open out to deeper sublayers in the form of bowl valleys. Intensive tunneling and road-building by several dominant societies in the Underground renders these sheer climbs and drops much more navigable, but in areas of total wilderness rock climbing experience is recommended for traveling at all between the sublayers.

Dark Scrub

This is a biome consisting largely of drier climates of the Underground, and generally lacks most of the signature fungus species. The plants are also generally those which generate little to no bio-luminescence, and are adapted to be chemosynthetic organisms which feed on a mixture of carbon dioxide and mineral content absorbed by the root systems. Many of the plants living here are highly toxic, and any herbivores living in dark scrub are those adapted to be resistant or immune to plant poisons, such as the Runda Beetle and the blind Deeps Greatrat. Carnivorous creatures found in greater numbers include the Silky Crown Centipede, the Dire Grub-owlfly, and the Ramidreju.

Stalagmite Highland

Highlands are common in the landscape of the Underground, though Stalagmite Highlands are a bit more unusual due to being built up by natural moisture seep, creating sleek limestone formations over the granite and basalt of the normal outcroppings. Due to their origin, most of these regions will be laced with small springs, cataract systems of small waterfalls, and fast-moving creeks which host a number of small water life and support a number of animals, plants and fungi on the rocky substrate. Wherever soil can collect, common dark nettles, glass milkcaps, bloody mycenas and full-moon morning glories grow in clusters, and Wolpertingers are known to den in cavities they excise into the softer spots. Hy’izhur Rats, known for their jaw strength and aggression, are also more common in these places.

Half-Ravine

A half-ravine is a curious landform where one side of a canyon partially erodes, leaving one side much higher and steeper than the other. The cavities that form in the tall side are commonly anchors for the Devil’s Rose plant, and premium roosting sites for the numerous species of greatbats and denning areas for wild Javunwalla. The low side conversely offers a sandy, rocky terrain preferred by Dire Scorpion, Burbroot, Demon Daisy and a number of burrowing rodents and insects.

Acid Marsh

A common form of wetland in the Underground, these marshes form in areas close to erosion of various sulfur-containing rocks, raising the soil and water’s Ph to a range of 5.5 to 6. Species of fungi that grow here are adapted to be tough and wood-like, resembling medium-sized branching shrubs (these are thought to be descended from Surface coral mushrooms), and the plantlife that flourishes is that specifically preferring plentiful water and acidity—with no fewer than 100 species of mosses alone, as well as sundews, nettles, arums, willows, and wild celery adapted to the Underground. The verges of these biomes are thought to be the origins of the dark elves’ first successes in breeding tomato, carrot, and potato plants which could thrive in the climates of Ancardia’s underground realm.

Riparian Zones

Forming large portions of the lowlands in all levels of the Underground, the rivers that criss-cross each layer draw about them an abundance of biomass, soil deposits, and wildlife of all kinds. With few exceptions, most of the well-known species of animals, plants, and fungi of the Underground can be found at least as some times in riparian zones. Most of the peoples of the Underground, when roads are either inconvenient to build or not available, depend on these networks of rivers for travel using barges and rowing vessels, and due to the richness of these areas, many settlements were situated within these biomes, or at least adjacent to them. Megafauna are also commonly known to migrate through these zones due to their water needs, and include Urkklerats, Titan Giraffe-Beetles, Ztsadri (steed-spiders), Dorn Beasts, Cave Bears and Cave Tigers.

Moss Prairie

Another common biome which supports high levels of life is the moss prairie, where thick gravelly silt mixtures become colonized by about 45 species of moss, 12 species of tall lichen, 14 species of mushrooms which form luminous fairy rings, and 20 species of various other low-growing plants. Moss of Mareilon is famously known to grow in greater abundance here, and grazing on the various plants and fungus are herds of animals like Dire Mole Rats, Deepmara, the wild Riding lizards and Wolkangis.

Riparian Zone Lake

Lakes form along Riparian Zones in the Underground very commonly, and can be expected to be up to 30 meters deep at the most, sometimes spanning multiple kilometers in one or more direction, and supporting a huge variety of aquatic crustaceans, molluscs, insects and fishes. The largest known fish species in the Underground, the Colossal Eel, typically lives in the deepest parts of these lakes, hunting low-flying and surface-swimming animals, but these huge creatures (topping out at 7 meters in total length, with a body diameter of 1.5 meters) spawn in the rivers joining these lakes. There are few societies in proximity to one of these lakes that do not cultivate a strong fishing and shellfish-diving industry, with the only exceptions being the Murruk Trolls, Minotaurs, and the Gnoll tribes. Even so, Minotaurs are known to barter for the many species of alga that form mats atop the surfaces, using them as prime fertilizer and mineralizer for their crops. Islands or peninsulas situated within these lakes are commonly regarded as ideal locations for keeps and developed cities, and many of the greatest cities such as Evrethrdral, M’zonathrl, Itsati-Hob, Stronung and Thundigh are located in such a place.

Lichen Barrens

Common on areas with steeper slopes and in the rainshadows of higher or broader regions of a greatchamber, the Lichen Barren is usually quite treacherous and rocky, splashed with colonies of no fewer than 150 species of hardier lichens. Most of these lichens do not grow any part of themselves taller than about 3 cm, but can spread to be several meters across each, sometimes with one organism enveloping an entire boulder amongst other rocks covered by other species. Smaller insect and arachnid species thrive here, including Vuugas tarantula, fire beetle, Uqu cricket and Cave solenoid. Lightning lizards are also often known to pass through these areas along the edges, likely after insect life with somewhat less of a threat level to hunt, and if the barrens occur in an area of colder temperatures on average, Glacial Salamanders sometimes wander in to do the same.

Rubblefield

These places are those in frequent flux, places where destabilization of older soil and sandstone layers cause consistent landslides with weather episodes. Very little permanent life dwells here, but they sometimes attract Dwarven mining interests for the probability that new shifts will dislodge boulders with seams of crystal ethrite (the raw form of mythril), adamantium ore, or reveal seams of other precious materials in the rock wall that was newly exposed. In some cases, Rubblefields form over other, more ancient biomes, and between the cracks in rubble pieces some mosses, lichens and colonies of insects can be found. If they stabilize, these places often become Lichen Barrens.

Giga-Chamber

Making up more than a quarter of each layer of the Underground are what is called Giga-chambers. Much like the two types of Greatchambers, the Giga-chamber is large enough to sustain cloud formation and weather patterns, but since the size discrepancy is so great, the weather that occurs varies and increases in severity to a much greater degree. Summer lightning storms are common in Giga-chambers, which only increases their nutrient density and biodiversity. Most of the regions of Evrek and of Thwervond are comprised by several Giga-chambers directly linked together. The ceiling height of a Giga-chamber frequently exceeds 500 meters, and they very often are more than 25 kilometers in all directions.

Lichen Tundra

The Lichen Tundra is much like a mixture of the Moss Prairie and Lichen Barrens in conditions, being placed on rich soil but with vegetative life suppressed and adapted for seasonal swings due to the proximity of cold spots of arcane energy which generate the Glacial Extrusions. This is the natural habitat of the Glacial Salamander, but also has fairly numerous populations of Uqu cricket, Wolkangis, Greatrats, Dire Weta, Ochotle Light-fly, and one subspecies of the Dori Centipede. On the middle layer, a vast region of this Lichen Tundra falls within Orc territory.

Glacial Extrusions

Formed from a natural uptick in arcane energy in certain regions, these masses of ice protruding from the rock base calve off small true glaciers and produce regions of the Underground which are far colder than most. The only places where it gets cold enough to snow or have any other form of frozen precipitation in this underworld are within or adjacent to these intrusions, such as in Lichen Barrens or Glacial Warp Beds. The glaciers themselves seldom melt permanently, fluctuating with the increased temperatures of the rocks and Surface above, and if smaller glaciers do melt entirely they are often replaced by increased glacial mass dropping from the intrusion. Very little besides microorganisms live on the intrusions themselves, though Glacial Salamanders will often migrate to be nearer to them.

Salinated Pools

Pools of a volcanic vent origin in the Underground can sometimes become highly salinized by the eroded deposits of salt minerals and form a highly dense pocket of water up to 5 meters deep and 5 meters across. Very little except for some highly-specialized colony bacteria can live in such salty conditions, but the presence of these pools allows some settlements to harvest and treat this water to turn it into a form of “sea salt” without having to dig for rock salt deposits. It is extremely difficult to drown in these pools, as they are so dense, but drinking out of one by accident can have dire consequences due to both salinity and the bacteria.

Glacial Warp Beds

These are regions left behind after calved glaciers from the intrusions have melted or moved off, usually grinding at the mineral base of the rock or dragging a new layer of soil onto a scoured stone face. There are often very unusual shapes in the bedrock stone of these areas, sometimes forming alcoves that provide shelter and other times bizarre shapes that bear names based on animals or occupations they looked most like to the first few viewers. Many lichens and smaller plant and fungi live in these zones, mostly those adapted to colder temperatures, as snow and freezing rain do occur in proximity to the parent glaciers.

Death-Drop

Another formation of volcanic origin, these deep pits form when the more brittle lavarock of cooled volcanic formations wears away over time and leaves a large pinhole in the much harder substrate of the rock base. They have been recorded to have depths of up to 65 meters straight down, and are accurately named for any who slips down without any form of harness or a way to slow descent.

Giga-Forest

This form of forest is dominated by a particular tree-like organism that developed in the Underground and closest related to muscadine grape vines on the surface—the Warpwood. While warpwood vines will grow in almost any temperate or tropical temperature biome with average to high humidity and stable soil base, in the Giga-Forest almost all large plant life are exclusively made up of particularly high-climbing specimens, typically with the oldest individuals reaching from the ground level up to between 200 and 500 meters to the ceiling. These vine-like “trees” often bend and twist and wrap around each other and stalagmite structures, their stabilizing tendrils boring into stone and each other in a contest to reach the best anchoring points on the stones above. From the ground to the ceiling, myriad other life from bio-luminescent flowers and mushrooms to bat colonies to Drakotsadr spiders and dire bee-hives are supported by the iron-hard framework of these huge plants. Clawbugs and their larger, more deadly relatives the Ashitovis Bug are particularly partial to these biomes, and travelers are advised to beware also of creatures like Cave Bears, Dori Centipedes, Shi’echar moth larvas, and packs of Dire Hyena.

Geothermal Pools

In proximity to volcanic hotspots rising closer to the floor of the Underground or to the few active Lava Flow Zones in regions of the layers, Geothermal Pools of various types frequently form amongst other biomes, or in areas of bare soil and rock if the chemical composition (high sulfur or high salt content) or sheer temperature negates the growth of most life. Most pools are simply naturally-occurring ponds which are heated to a safe temperature by volcanic hotspots, and host a variety of microbial life such as copepods, diatoms and rotifers—these are attractive locations for both wildlife and humanoid cultures as naturally occurring hot baths, especially so when they crop up in cold regions near glacial intrusions. Some of these pools, however, are dangerously hot and are more utilized by rangers to boil food, as they can reach an average temperature of 210 degrees Celsius and contribute to geyser activity on the layers above or on the Surface. Some pools are not too hot to soak in, but are contaminated with various mineral salts or sulfur compounds that can burn and irritate skin—these pools are lifeless except for a few types of extremophile bacterium, though some Alchemists take interest in them for straining the active salts and chemicals out of them.

Lava Flow Zone

In certain places on each of the three layers of the Underground, pockets of upwardly-pressed magma not only form zones where geothermal pools are likely, but break through tiny weaknesses in the rock base and form hot, dry regions with layers of solidified lavarock interspersed with active and dangerous streams of lava flow. The amount and cooling of the lava in these areas is dependent largely on the rotation of Ancardia’s world, which draws the magma base down in times of low pressure and means less of the rock remains molten, and the opposite at other times. The Aggbrun, or Fire Lizards, prefer areas in certain proximity to these lava flows for incubating their nests, and the adults are well-known for traversing even the still-cooling lavarock. While dangerous, Dwarves, Kobolds, Gnolls and Ratling traders all make repeated trips into the lavarock to recover rare minerals and crystals formed or carried there by the active lava streams—this is one of the few places in all of Ancardia to reliably find any significant amount of Eternium ore, and also frequently gives up diamonds, rubies, high-quality iron and deposits of crystalline platinum and adamantium.

Volcano Formations

Within the most long-lasting Lava Flow Zones are a rare few places where small volcanic cones have had time to form, spouting sulfurous smoke and ash and leaking lava streams for century-long periods and experiencing dormancy for centuries between. Unique chemosynthetic fungi and lichens tend to cluster around the stalagmites and ceilings in the chambers containing these volcanoes, feeding on the sulfur compounds and methane released. Without these hardy species, active volcanic periods would jeopardize the other life in the chambers, both from air quality and toxicity of the fumes.

Ash Deposit Zones

In places downwind of the Underground’s volcanoes, Ash Deposit Zones tend to form, with a soil content that is mostly ash and worn-down pumice rock spewed by the volcanic activity. While superficially resembling a pale gray desert, these areas are usually possessing of decent groundwater and frequent volcanically-triggered rainfall from the chamber ceilings, and these one support a great deal of tough and specially-adapted plantlife. It is these regions which are the ideal places to find Morgiaroot growing—a taprooted, wiry-leaved plant with notable medicinal uses.

[whisperthatruns]

Disgrace and Oblivion in Ancient Rome

Sometimes names were shaved from relief, chiseled off or written over with others’ scrawled with frenzied hammer. Sometimes one man’s head took another’s ear; the image mauled, contorted until nothing looked true. Refiguring one thing for the aggrandizement  of another, it’s older than the hills. All day I was thinking it over---The morning Gabija was sick, cross-legged in bed, eating a jar of horseradish, I took her son, Pijus, for a walk in the park outside Vilnius, where Soviets fashioned the stone of Jewish cemeteries into Stalin. When I think of Pijus, he looks like me, or what my son might, bored, tracing the wells of letters with his finger. Then he’s running toward me, hands cupped, lifting them to his ear. In the dark, a cricket, a little song amid history.

*

My father, who taught history thirty-eight years but drank longer and with greater dedication, told me history was dust. It was noon, both of us warm on chowder and cherryless manhattans. He must’ve meant the dust of books, of stacks of Civil War Times, dust of a lens, of a projector he captained nodding off, dust of a warbling record, dust of stone, of a slave’s hand, of furnace, dust of field, of horse dragging plow, dust of work camp, death camp, breath, dust of one tower, another coming down, the birds disturbed seething in and out of form. I have no idea what my father meant, or can’t figure how he held it together---history and liquor.

*

Once I saw a horse shot in the head. I was sitting in the Cutlass beside my father. Ahead, a pickup’s flashers blinked in fog. The driver pulled a gun off the window rack, stood over the buggy wrecked on its side, the horse broken in its traces. Another lifted the horse’s head, held it awhile, in his lap. I thought the man might fix the horse, its place of dying. Instead, my father covered my eyes, as if he could blind the clap spreading over the field, the far ridge, the sky filling, the blood. All my life I wanted his hands. Now, if I could, I’d leave them for air, the way Pijus, who knew a hundred ways to kill an insect, left the cricket in the grass. And though they are not the same, it is hard to say this world, the last, the other we have yet to know are not the same, that a star’s brilliance and misery are not the same, that Pijus is not the boy I was, that I am not the man he already is.

*

I was thinking about it walking near the newly unveiled aqueducts, crabs scurrying white in the video’s bright flood. In Rome, still young, my wife and I, holding hands as we crossed--- Gregorio, Claudia, Annia, Aurelio, Capo D’Africa. And there, a man squatting against a wall, a wad of newspaper in his hand. And there--- rising up, decaying down, the Colosseum small, far off, distant-flat like a painting, before the pocks of erosion, before the rosary of coin and traffic, before ancient became kitsch. Still time for the thing to stay, film at the end of a film, screen white, reel aching in its circle, the way Pijus and the cricket looked being held, the way they do now---ash stepping out of ashcan, memory the wind shifts into nothing. I can’t explain this. It goes on older than the hills of Rome or Vilnius or New York. Walking in a park, looking at things, it was brief.

James Hoch, Last Pawn Shop in New Jersey (Louisiana State University Press, 2022)

[girl-star-girl]

White: The warm kind. The color of milk in the morning light. I mix it with honey to make it go down easier. Never fond of the taste but my own mother made me finish my cup every morning and (you know all too well how) Habits are Hard To Break. I spill some milk on the counter and it is in the shape of a dove. I hope everything is okay.

Brown: Tan, technically. Beige, almond, nude, khaki—These are now the worlds we live within. Long walks and errands and small talk. The crunch of a leaf teaches me what a participle is, and I wait for something to crack open spilling That Golden. I can’t remember your phone number. But it’s for the best because this springsummerfall winter I am going to be so good.

(I am going to let Holidays pass me by and for dinner I will eat my unrelenting guilt).

Grey: For memories. I shouldn’t be indulging. But there is something to be said about how the soft grey of hindsight can turn poison into passion. Passion.

Pink: This surprised you. How willing I was. I think it surprised me too.

Pink: I pretended it didn’t.

Yellows: Plural. Because I am becoming (that was where the sentence used to end) a sky of bees (this is where the sentence ends now). Awake. Stinging myself singing myself back into Being.

An albatross sang me your phone number last night and my mother was a cricket on my shoulder retching up lemon seeds. This is out of my hands (and into my ????)?? I can’t be awake without

Brown: Chocolate and warm thiswillbemynewnormal. Your doorstep. Hollow knocks echo back through my brain and I remind myself (again) this Is What I Want (again). Then: The embrace of a grizzly bear. You cock an eyebrow at the peonies in my hands.

White: Pearly. Soft to the touch. You will want me in the way I’m meant to be wanted. Folds and folds in my rasping pleas to distract from the

Blues: and blues and blues and blues and. These are seeping from under my tongue. Inside my elbows. The crooks of my knees. Boom.

(You knew a girl once who went through a pack of pens a week her hands were too tight everyday you would see her washing her blues (and blues and) off at your kitchen sink (but you don’t see her anymore / you think they’ve cut her hands off, probably you hope so anyway)).

Black: There is something unholy inside me.

Red: You are blinding.

Black: The second thing you ever told me about was how you slept through a solar eclipse. I am thinking about you as you were and (now) how you will have been (what I must have been). Gossamer lids blanketing your eyes a secret lullaby for your ears only lulling your eyes shut I see myself eating the sun.  I think about my moons inky swelling shadow enveloping your body and wonder how your heart didn't skip a beat as I consumed your warmth, leaving you in the path of

total void. Null. and when I had had enough when my hunger was satiated your dark eyes flutter open and your calves were cold quivering as if they held the answer to the lemon question haunting your lips, frozen in a circle.

Red: No one would believe me if I told you this.

Blue: there is no winner when the two players are desperation and deceit.

Red. Endless fruit. Still counts for something even if. It is pitted.

Brown: I make myself (our(?))coffee in the morning. I walk home barefoot raking mud between my toes humming something euphoric. I spend 6 nights dreaming of poisonous tree bark and the warning calls of moas before remembering who you are. We rust.

Grey: Heavy smoke. I fall into something.

Yellow: is blue is blue.

I sunbathe and keep putting honey in my milk. It’s still cold. I think of your warm hands in mine but in my mind’s eye before I can Hold On they morph into handfuls of week-old snow. Rancid.

White: (one last time). I fear I am immortal

[bhaskarlive]

India will host Women’s T20 WC for Blind; Pakistan have nothing to do with it: CABI chief

Cricket Association for Blind in India (CABI) chairman Mahantesh G. Kivadasannavar came down heavily on Pakistani media for creating “unnecessary confusion” by reporting that India have been stripped of the hosting rights of the Women’s T20 World Cup for Blind, scheduled to take place in November next year.

Source: bhaskarlive.in

[odnewsin]

India to host first ever women’s T20 World Cup for Blind in 2025

New Delhi: Pakistan will play its share of matches in next year’s inaugural blind women’s T20 World Cup in either Nepal or Sri Lanka after a hybrid model for the event was finalised at the World Blind Cricket Council’s (WBCC) Annual General Meeting in Multan. The development comes a few weeks after India withdrew from the men’s T20 Blind Cricket World Cup in Pakistan owing to security…

[abcexpresspk]

Pakistan got to host the Blind Cricket World Cup Karachi: Before the ICC Champions Trophy, the C - https://abcexpress.pk/pakistan-got-to-host-the-blind-cricket-world-cup.php...

[y2kuromi]

⭑ : 呪術廻戦 ❛ [𝟬𝟰:𝟮𝟴 𝗔.𝗠.] : satoru gojo x fem! reader

contents: fluff, fluff, fluff! established relationship. second person pov. js 'toru being soft, i'm so normal abt him i swear!!

a deep-set frown tugs at the corners of satoru's lips when he wakes up to find you missing from your spot next to him. traces of moonlight stream in through the blinds, highlighting the outline of your crumpled silhouette on the cold sheets.

waking up alone has become too often an occurrence for his liking. his brows furrow as his fingers ghost over the imprint on the pillow where you should be — beside him — feeling a pang of something akin to loneliness in his chest.

he sighs, running a hand through his hair. attempting to wake himself up a bit more. with a groan, he gets out of bed. the room seems colder somehow without you by his side. the cool wood floors grate against his bare feet as he pads down the hallway.

all the lights are turned off, except the ones in the kitchen. he finds you on your tiptoes, wobbling against the counter as you reach for your favourite mug. he's careful not to frighten you as his bare chest presses against your back and he reaches from behind to grab it.

he places it on the counter, wrapping his arms around your waist and resting his chin on your shoulder. "morning," he mumbles into your skin, nuzzling the crook of your neck.

"morning 'toru" you smiled, carding your fingers through the ivory strands tickling your chin. "what are you doing up?"

"i could ask you the same thing" satoru replied, punctuating his sentence by pressing soft kisses along the curve of your neck.

"i figured i'd make myself some coffee since i couldn't go back to sleep" you shifted around in his embrace so he could see your face better.

"is something wrong sweets?" he asks, cupping your cheeks in his hands. concern shone in his eyes, bright enough to rival the stars themselves.

"no" you shook your head, savouring the feeling of satoru’s thumb stroking circles into your cheekbones "'m just not tired"

"i'll stay up with you then" satoru hummed thoughtfully

"you shouldn't" you frowned, brushing his hair out of his infinitely blue eyes. his pupils are glazed with sleep, yet still held such tenderness and warmth "you'll be too tired for your meeting"

"'m not going for it anyways, i'd rather keep you company" he wants nothing more than to pull you into a kiss, but that could wait until you'd made your coffee. he pressed a chaste kiss to your forehead before releasing you from his grasp.

you sigh — a quiet exhale flowing from your parted lips as you went to pour your coffee. satoru follows your movements with his gaze. the smell of freshly brewed coffee filled the kitchen as you stirred almond milk and cubes of sugar into the steaming mug.

"want some?" you asked, you cupped your coffee in your hands. the warmth seeped through your fingers. "or i could make you some hot chocolate"

his infinitely blue eyes drank you in as you sipped on your coffe. in spite of your messy hair and the dark circles beneath your lashes, he found himself lost in the pure essence of your beauty. tired eyes transfixed by his shirt slipping off your shoulder and the sleeves hanging loosely on your elbows. he loved looking at you. it was without a doubt his favourite thing in the world.

"'toru?" the sweet sound of your voice eased him out of his trance. he shook his head as he moved to lean next to you. your brows are slightly furrowed and he places a kiss between them. a futile attempt to smooth the scrunched skin.

"'s nothing" he says, voice a mere whisper over the sound of the wall clock ticking and the crickets chirping outside. the lingering silence isn't uncomfortable, not when it's filled with you.

the way you tilt your head to look at him as he presses a lazy kiss to the corner of your mouth. satoru thinks he could stay like this forever. he's close enough to feel the warmth radiating off your body.

satoru wondered if you knew how much of a goner he was, if you realised how much you truly meant to him. you sipped on your coffee, oblivious to the way he watched every little movement you made. you were everything. his everything.

he'd never sleep again if it meant having your fingers carding through his hair. he'd never sleep again if it meant his hands could linger over your warm skin, imbued with the scent of coffee and your perfume, for eternity. he'd never sleep again if it meant having you with him.

"'m just in love with you" he admits, whispering the words as if they would break the earth's atmosphere. you smile, and it's brighter than any star satoru has ever gazed upon. he gently takes your mug from your grasp so he can wrap both arms around you without your coffee getting in the way.

"i know" you say softly, "i'm kinda in love with you too…"

"really?" he raises an eyebrow, grinning. satoru's gaze drops to your lips and his heart flutters in a way that's become familiar to him— and only him —after years of knowing and loving you.

"yes really" you stood on the utmost tips of your toes and leaned forward to press your lips to his. slow, gentle. it tastes exactly how he imagined it would— like sugary coffee and wisps of heaven; like home

it felt as if only the two of you were awake in the vast expanse of the universe. moonlight kissed the perfect canvas of your skin as your fingers trailed over the strong curves of his bare forearms.

the taste of coffee lingers on his lips as you pull away. satoru thinks that nothing compares to you. no one could hold a candle — no one could burn as bright.

he didn't know what his life would've been if he hadn't met you. you were his world, his soul. he wouldn't give you up for anything. not even his own freedom, because he knew without a shadow of doubt that you were it. he was never truly free until he met you

he knew he should drag you back to the comfort of your bed, to indulge in the luxury of holding you in his arms and lulling you back to sleep before the sun rises. but he selfishly wished to bask in your presence for a little while longer. to stay like this for eternity because he never knew when he'd lose the privilege of being with you.

© Y2KUROMI 2024. please do not plagiarise, repost, or translate any of my works on here or any other websites.

[takataktop]

Indian Women's Team Makes History with Gold at Asian Games 2023 Final, Sets Records

The Indian women's cricket team achieved a historic milestone in Hangzhou on Monday. Under the leadership of Harmanpreet Kaur, the Indian women's team defeated Sri Lanka by 19 runs in the gold medal match. This marked their debut in the Asian Games, and they clinched the gold, etching their name in the annals of history. Along the way, they set several records.

New Delhi, Sports Desk. The Indian women's team made history by winning the gold medal at the Asian Games. It was their first participation in the Asian Games, and they secured the gold along with several record-breaking performances. Under the captaincy of Harmanpreet Kaur, India triumphed over Sri Lanka, claiming the gold. This victory was the first time the Indian team participated in the Asian Games, and they emerged as gold medalists. In the match held in Hangzhou, India won the toss, batted first, and scored 116 runs for the loss of seven wickets in the allotted 20 overs. In response, the Sri Lankan team managed to score 97 runs, losing eight wickets in 20 overs. Notable Achievements: - First-ever participation and gold in Asian Games for the Indian women's team. - First gold medal in cricket competition at the Asian Games for India. Previous Asian Games Women's Cricket Winners: - 2010: Pakistan (India did not participate) - 2014: Pakistan (India did not participate) - 2023: India (Pakistan did not win any medals) Titans in the Indian Women's Team: - Lucky charms for the Indian women's team: Titias Sandhu, winner of the Under-19 World Cup, Emerging Asia Cup, and now the Asian Games. Outstanding Performance in Finals 2023: - Titias Sandhu: 4 overs, 6 runs (Under-19 World Cup Final) - Titias Sandhu: 4 overs, 6 runs (Asian Games Final) Most International Finals Played by Indian Captains: - Harmanpreet Kaur: 5 - Mithali Raj: 4 In addition to these achievements, Indian women secured the gold medal for the first time in the Blind World Games in August 2023. Similarly, the Indian women's team, making their debut in the Asian Games in September 2023, clinched the gold. After the women's matches, the men's matches will be played, led by captain Rituraj Gaikwad." Read the full article

[aletheacom]

A Day of Inspiration: Alethea's Unforgettable Match with India's Blind Cricket Team

In the pages of history, certain days stand out like vibrant brushstrokes on a canvas. One such day was July 22, 2023, when Alethea Communications Technologies PVT LTD cricket team embarked on a memorable journey. They stepped onto the cricket field alongside the incredible Indian cricketers, led by the remarkable Ajay Reddy, the captain of India's Blind Cricket Team. This day marked the convergence of talents, as the members of Alethea were granted a unique chance to join hands with these exceptional athletes, who have time and time again represented India with brilliance at the blind and visually impaired world cup. Their shared experience was made possible by the unwavering support of the Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled, Bangalore. Visit: https://shorturl.at/KOST8 to know more

[thefanbasewhore]

"I had a nightmare, I wanted to make sure you were okay." With Bucky, thank you doll ❤️

Summary || Bucky gets depressed and that's okay because it's normal.

Warning/content || depressed Bucky, soft Bucky

Paring || Bucky Barnes x female reader

Thank you for the request, love u ❤️

Arguing with Bucky was never easy, either by nature or the fact he had to conform to a false identity for the last few decades he would get upset, push everyone that matters away.

Blinded by his feelings, not sure how to act on them or to act in a relationship period. Whenever he's upset about something he completely shuts off from the world, pretends he doesn't care about anything, that nothing matters.

He falls back into his old ways, before therapy, before he found a purpose in life. A grumpy man who acts like he has no one and ontop of that acts as if he wants everyone gone.

Like the night before, something has happened of course he wouldn't say a word about it, retreated to your shared bedroom and stayed in bed all day, not eating, not drinking nearly enough water. Emotionless, the only form of entertainment are white walls.

You worry, a lot. It's the exact reason you went to go pull him out of bed. It's normal to have bad days, Bucky's entitled to having a few bad days with the trauma that can last three life times.

Slowly petting his hair, feeling the silk strands move in-between the gaps of your fingers as sad blue eyes meet your own. "Hi Buck."

"Hi." It's sharp, not on purpose and he even noticed as his eyes gloss over. "Sorry."

"It's alright baby, you doing okay?" Bucky decides not to answer, only squeezes his eyes shut as his bottom lip starts to quiver.

"Don't cry, I'm right here. Everything is okay Buck." Pressing a kiss against his forehead as you sit on your knees on the side of the bed. "How about we go take a shower and get something to eat?"

"Jus' wanna stay here sweetheart." He dismisses quickly, curling the covers closer but also moving into your touch with a sigh.

"You haven't eaten all day -."

"I don't want to move." Stubborn like usual but understandable.

"I'm worried, I want you to eat something." You try again.

"I told you no! Just leave me alone!" It's out of character, words resemble a broken man with tears that freely rush down his cheeks, turning to face the other direction.

He doesn't mean it. It happens more often then it should, especially with the antidepressants but he's only human after all, a man with a heavy-guilt ridden heart.

Bucky's love for you is unconditional, there would be nothing with you. Before finding you days and nights morphed together, nothing made sense and while he's still trying to figure it out.. some things just keep getting in the way.

You haven’t talked to him since that night, it's almost been a full two days. After crying due to his his outburst, you decided it was best.. give him time to grieve or feel through whatever has him so emotion.

It's hard not to, it's not his fault but a little pit of anger forms inside your stomach. It fills you with guilt, ashamed it even exists but also how easy it is form him to cast you away. Go days without checking in or even muttering a word. It's to the point that sleepung in the same bed is not an option, the couch would be fine.. so did Bucky seeing he didn’t even notice you'd stop checking on him.

Currently, falling to sleep is nearly impossible so instead a large wool planet wrapped around your shoulder, a good pulled up and over your hair because the living room is always so damn cold. It's at least three o'clock in the morning, a steaming cup of hot chocolate fills you with warmness as some kind of dumb cartoon as you fixated.

There's something peaceful about the early mornings and late nights, a mix of light traffic and crickets chirping but for Bucky it's filled with sweat that beats his forehead, a pounding head and paralyzing fear as he wakes with a gasp. his heart pounds inside his chest, reaching out next to him just to find the bed empty, lingering for your comfort.

It was surprising to hear the deep baritone of his voice so late, it makes you jump, almost spilling the hot chocolate. He leans against the door frame, only clad in a pair of boxers, his bare arms cross over his chest to rub over the large muscles of his biceps with explode with goosebumps. “Hi,” He pauses, “I had a nightmare about you and wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“I’m fine, go back to sleep Buck.” The simple answer comes out more harsh then intended, lips dropping into a frown as a but of emotion fills his voice.

"I'm sorry I did it again, I'm sorry I yelled at you."

"No I'm sorry I didn't mean to answer you like that -- you have nothing to be sorry for Buc -."

Before the sentence could even get out Bucky drops to his knees in front of you, hands cupping your own, bringing them to his chest to feel the warmth of his body, beating of his heart. "I didn't want you to go away, you know that right? I want you with me, always."

"Buck, it's okay. You did nothing wrong - please don't feel like you did. I understand you want to be alone." You pause to reach out to cup his cheek, rubbing a thumb over the coarse hair that peppers his jaw. "It's okay to be alone, I'm here when you want to talk."

Tears of frustration pinch his eyes as he shakes his head. Bottom lip quivering as he meets your eyes. "It's not normal to be like this, the doctor said it would go away."

"Hey, hey." Soft fingers run over his jaw, lovingly rubbing sweet touched into the skin. "You're not normal baby, you're a super soldier who's lived through unimaginable things, you're stronger then anyone I know. It's okay to get sad and be alone, I understand."

Bucky smiles, it's sad and little crooked but still beautiful. "You are my heart, doll, you make everything better."

You smile so beautifully it makes him speechless, leaning forward to press a kiss against your lips as you wrap your arms around his broad shoulders, nuzzling the tips of your nose against the smooth skin of his neck. Feeling the brush of his beard as he just stays there - feeling you.

“I love you so much, sweet girl.”

[abluescarfonwaston]

 It wasn’t that Geralt hated Jaskier’s music. It was that he hated the music Jaskier played in taverns and in courts. Loud, rude, or just exhaustively peppy. Really any of the songs he played for groups were just. Annoying mostly. Especially when you heard them for the thousandth time.

But he liked the songs he played for Geralt. Or Roach. “Brushie brushie bestest girl Rochie” was one of his favorites. Not that he was ever going to admit that.

He liked the quiet rolling melodies Jaskier would play when they were out under the stars. They weren’t suited for bars or gatherings. They were meant to calm, maybe even lull to sleep. Meant to make the world soft at the edges.

He isn’t sure when Jaskier figured out what kind of songs he liked to listen to. He certainly never told him. Had thought any expression that escaped far too minutiae for the brass, wildly unperceptive man to ever note.

But he definitely figured it out at some point. Sure he still played whatever struck his fancy but he always ended the nights with those softer melodies. Sang them when he returned injured from a hunt or played them, as if to the stars above instead of him, when a town chased them out with vitriol and, occasionally, rocks.

Jaskier didn’t sing when he came back still black with toxicity. Stopped his humming when he stepped into the firelight. Stood and rushed to him, hands halting just before they cupped his face.

He smelled like fear. “Can I touch?” He asked in a hushed voice. He shook his head a fraction, eyes closed against the blinding firelight. Everything was too much right now. Touch would be overwhelming.

Jaskier’s hands dropped. “I’ll put the fire out.” He moved with as much silence and grace as he was capable of, quickly burying the fire. Unrolling the second bedroll far enough away from the one they normally shared that he wouldn’t roll over onto him.

Jaskier was doing his best to be quiet but the same could not be said of the rest of the forest. He covered his ears. Pressed them against his head. But it wasn’t enough it was never enough everything was always so fucking loud after potions.

“Geralt. Geralt stop.” There was the slightest tug at his gauntlet. “You’re hurting yourself.”

There was a trickle of warmth behind his ears where his fingers dug into the skin. Whatever prick of pain that should have caused wasn’t enough to focus on over the fucking crickets.

He jerked away curling up tighter. “Loud.” His own voice grating against his skull.

The smell of fear got louder as well. He whimpered, which hurt on every level.

“How can I help?”

Go away. Stop smelling like fear. Stay.

“Play as time passes.”

Jaskier’s heart beat steadily, breathing in and out, before he shuffled back over to his bedroll. Took his lute into his arms.

Too much. The lute would be far far too much.

His fingers curved into the first chord but he didn’t strum. The strings vibrated ever so slightly as he depressed them playing the chord in a way only he could hear.

He began to sing, voice barely loud enough to find the notes.

The forest fell away.

There was just the softness of Jaskier’s melody curving end over end without pause.

The song should have ended a while ago he eventually realized as his fingers relaxed against his skull. The smell of fear had faded but was still there.

Of course he was scared. He’d finally realized what he was traveling with while out in the middle of nowhere.

“Jaskier.” The music stopped, the unstrummed strings further dampened by his hand. The smell increased again. His stomach turned. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

The smell grew worse, nausea built at the base of his throat. “Yes Geralt. I know.” Jaskier said in a voice he wanted to believe.

But couldn’t.

“You’re afraid.” He said in a voice that was almost a sob.

There was the hollow thump of the lute being set down. The scuffle of dirt as he moved closer. “No. I’m not.”

“I can smell it.” He grit out.

“Oh.” At least he understood now. That he didn’t need to keep up this charade. He’d take him back to town and they’d never have to see each other again. “Worry not fear Geralt. I’m worried.”

That didn’t make any fucking sense. His nails dug into the space behind his ears.

“Geralt.” He said like he was injured. “Can I hold your hands?”

He forced open his eyes. Jaskier was knelling next to him, head tilted to the side. Hands reaching out, tremoring slightly.

“Please?”

He forced his hands off his head only to jerk as the forest came back with a vengeance of noise. His nails dug deeper.

“Ah.” He whimpered. He fucking hated this. All of this. “Can I cover your ears?”

He hesitantly nodded and Jaskier’s hands slipped under his. The gentle drag of his warm hand against his skin balancing on the knife’s edge of too much before they stilled over his ears muting everything with the beating of Jaskier’s heart in his palm.

Jaskier slowly adjusted so he was laying down next to him. An elk bugled in the distance and he squeezed their hands harder against his ears.

“Shall I sing again?” Jaskier asked in a strained voice.

Pain? There was the hint of pain under the fear. He loosened his hands and it faded.

“Hm.” He plead.

He sang so softly it barely registered as sound. He drifted in it like a warm bath until sleep pulled him under.