#WE WILL SAIL TO A BILLION WORLDS

[spaghettibastard]

F A L L

[coldest-quotes-hall-of-fame]

You are strong, child. But I am beyond strength.

-Lich (Adventure Time character), 2015

[nasa]

Hurry! You Can Catch a Ride to Jupiter with NASA

Well, at least your name can.  

One of the planet Jupiter’s largest and most intriguing moons is called Europa. Evidence hints that beneath its icy shell, Europa hides an ocean of liquid water – more water than all of Earth’s oceans combined. In 2024, our Europa Clipper robotic spacecraft sets sail to take a closer look…and when it launches, your name can physically be aboard! Here’s how: 

NASA’s Message in a Bottle campaign invites people around the world to sign their names to a poem written by the U.S. Poet Laureate, Ada Limón. The poem connects the two water worlds — Earth, yearning to reach out and understand what makes a world habitable, and Europa, waiting with secrets yet to be explored.

The poem will be engraved on Europa Clipper, along with participants' names that will be physically etched onto microchips mounted on the spacecraft. Together, the poem and names will travel 1.8 billion miles to the Jupiter system.

Signing up is easy! Just go to this site to sign your name to the poem and get on board. You can send your name en español, too. Envía tu nombre aquí.

The Europa Clipper launch window opens in October 2024, but don’t wait – everyone’s names need to be received this year so they can be loaded onto the spacecraft in time. Sign up by Dec. 31, 2023.

We hope you’ll be riding along with us! Follow the mission at europa.nasa.gov.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

[floridazcrazy]

Drake: Mentions Kendricks family and calls him short

Kendrick: Fall.

You are alone, Child.

There is only darkness for you, and only death for your people. These ancients are just the beginning. I will command a great and terrible army and we will sail to a billion worlds. We will sail until every light has been extinguished.You are strong, Child, but I am beyond strength.I am the end, and I have come for you, Finn.

[creative-classpect]

Prince of Life

The Prince of Life One who destroys life and growth, often with life and growth itself. A plague.

“You are alone, child.There is only darkness for you, and only death for your people. These ancients are just the beginning. I will command a great and terrible army, and we will sail to a billion worlds. We will sail until every light has been extinguished. You are strong, child, but I am beyond strength. I am the end, and I have come for you, Finn.”

Prince- destroy their aspect and destroy with it. They are incredibly active and a bit unstable due to their destructive nature. 

Life- major themes of life force, opportunity, growth, and luxury. Minor themes of options and optimism.

Abilities

Finality

The Prince of Life destroys life. They are a force of rot and decay. The turning of the seasons, the guiding hand of entropy, the unshakeable fact that everything that lives must die. The

At lower levels of the game the Prince of Life is simply good at killing, using nothing short of fully lethal methods. This can be anywhere from maximum efficiency like John Wick to insane overkill like say, Lobo. However they chose to go about their work they are skilled at it. No matter the tool, no matter the time, no matter their stamina, they are always ready to kill. This may manifest as extreme paranoia or a severely edgy personality. 

As the Prince of Life develops their ability to kill has begun to blossom, extending well beyond the point of death and into the decay, the rot, the decomposition. The Prince of Life has tapped into a well of necrotic energy and all the things that come with it. They may begin to unleash necrosis with each strike of their weapon, blast deadly radiation across the battlefield, take control over decomposers like insects, and even decay inorganic material, causing metals and stone to wither and corrode away.

By medium levels the Prince is no longer wielding death, they have become it. The destructive output of the Prince would multiply, becoming increasingly deadly. The faintest touch would be enough to cause any object, living or dead, to rapidly begin to decay, age, wither, rot, and die. While this effect is potent with touch, it could be spread over a massive area, unleashing clouds of thick miasma to wear down the stamina and will to persist of all creatures within their range. When the Prince destroys something it is next to impossible to heal or recover, all remaining potential drained out of it entirely. The only chance is to prevent the inevitable before the Prince brought finality.

At higher levels the Prince of Life is more than a simple force of death and destruction, they are unto the grim reaper itself. While others may struggle tirelessly against the wheel of time, the Prince is assured, unstoppable. They are the end, plucking the death that lives within all things, and allowing it to bloom. There is no need for haste, no need for worry, when the Prince arrives it is simply the end before they even need to raise their weapon. Fate itself is exhausted and all potential realities and timelines begin to collapse on the certainty of their doom.

A fully realized Prince of Life may even be able to kill other godtiers, regardless of it is heroic or just.

Biophage

The Prince of Life is able to destroy with life, harnessing the infinite potential of nature in the same way one may view an armory. Biological warfare in the most literal sense, from the smallest spore to poison to giant briar patches to ensnare. Life needs life to live. Every predatory instinct, every biological advantage, every weapon and tool loving crafted by nature to kill and consume belongs to the Prince.

At lower levels this can manifest in any number of ways. The Prince may be skilled in cultivating various poisonous plants and mushrooms, carve weapons made from wood, harvest deadly bacteria, weapons and tools made from the bones of predators, etc. As life is endless, so are the Prince’s options, it really comes down to a matter of their personal interests and combat preferences.

As the Prince of Life begins to progress this would evolve, becoming spontaneous rather than a more long term, laborious effort. Their weapon of choice would become supercharged. Creating rapidly regenerating mushrooms to use as grenades, spontaneously generating thorny spears, granting themselves augmentations like Wolverine claws or sharp fangs, etc. The Prince of Life would also begin the process of becoming the peak of what is physically possible. While all Sburb players are expected to develop superhuman capabilities, the Prince of Life would rapidly develop and exceed expectations for physical abilities, such as strength, speed, and reflexes. Wuxia levels of physical prowess. Strong like Equius, fast like Dirk, tenacious like Kanaya, etc.

At medium levels the Prince of Life has evolved to not simply wield a weapon, but to become a weapon, hosting their internal armory within themselves rather than relying on external forces. They could become a host to a deadly parasite, reshape their bones to create razor sharp weapons, and unleash laten poison stored in auxiliary organs or lying within their blood. By this point the Prince of Life would be inhuman, taking on aggressive and violent biological traits that would separate themselves from other members of their species.

At higher levels the Prince of Life would sit atop the food chain, not only in their supremacy in killing everything below them, but in that they have begun to transform past a single entity. Whereas other players and game constructs may be fierce combatants, they are ultimately a single body. Life grows, it blooms, it multiplies. The Prince of Life is not restricted to being a single physical entity in the way others may be. The Prince has become a nearly unstoppable engine, able to heal and recover from any injury as they push forward. They can become a multiplicity, creating a vast mycelium network that interweaves through the session, a hivemind swarm of ravenous predators, or exist as a parasite entity so that in the event of their death they may simply kill and replace whoever they have infected. The Prince of Life lives at the expense of others. As long as there are things left to die, the Prince of Life will continue to live.

With a fully realized god tier, the Prince of Life may be something like Doomsday from DC comics, an unstoppable juggernaut that adapts and evolves to any danger in a single minded pursuit to destroy.

Skills

Adapt and overcome- When reduced to 0 hp, respawn within 24 hours. You have developed a minor mutation, granting resistance against what killed you last.

From the root- Whenever you destroy something, you can choose to go all the way, erasing any trace of its existence and snuffing out potential to propagate. Even ideas may die

- - -

This post was commissioned! If you want to commission me or support my content, you can find me @ https://ko-fi.com/kesscal !

[alexanderwales]

Pitchposting: Generation Ship

(Pitchposting is a way of giving away ideas that threaten to grow in my mind until they become draft documents. They are free to a good home, though there's no guarantee that I won't try to write them at some point.)

Alright, hear me out: it's a generation ship, one expected to reach its destination with an entirely new generation of people who never knew the homeland, except instead of being a scifi concept, we're doing it as mundane as possible.

I think this is one of those ideas that only appeals to me because I immediately start thinking about the logistics of it all, and there's something in the mundane, gritty realism that really appeals to me. Mostly I'm worldbuilding and problem solving, trying to get at what it would actually be like for people to have been at sea their entire lives, to have a ship that either needs to endure the waves or be rebuilt as it goes.

I was going to say that this needs to be fantasy, but I guess technically it can be an Alderson Disk or something. An Alderson Disk has a habitable circumference of approximately a billion kilometers, a sailing ship can go maybe eighty miles a day, that's a ballpark of 12.5 million days to circumnavigate the disk, which is 34,000 years. That's a hell of a lot of generations, twice as long as we've had agriculture. (But you could also just have it be a fantasy world that's larger than our own, with a generation ship that was only trying to flee to greener pastures that are a hundred years away.)

The purest version of this story is a world that's just water, to match the void of space. The ship sails, repairs are made from flotsam and jetsam and driftwood from unspecified places, rainwater is caught and put into barrels, pitch is used for patching, fish and kelp are hauled up from the ocean, birds are captured from the sky, and the ship must necessarily endure storms and swells.

I've always felt there was something compelling about constrained living situations, places where everyone knows everyone and you have to make it work because there's absolutely no way out — where you're on a knife's edge because there's only so much preparation you can do. A generation ship needs to think about absolutely all of its needs and how it will deal with the deterioration of all things over time, along with problems that might only crop up once every hundred years, or problems that won't become apparent until long after the ship has left the dock.

Let's say you have a sailing ship the size of one of the largest sailing vessels of the 19th century, a thousand people all told. The families are carefully braided to prevent accidental incest, everyone has their position in life, every master has at least one apprentice but probably more so gout or cancer don't eliminate the last person who knew how to make more pitch.

This is clearly an Idea story, one that starts with a ridiculous premise and then explores it, but one of my favorite things about idea stories is finding the characters and the conflicts within them. For a generation ship, the biggest, most obvious conflict is the conflict between generations: the old people who once knew dry land, the middle generation who will likely die before the destination is reached, and the children who will be the beneficiaries of all this travel.

We have a woman who was born to the sea, who loves the sea, who loves the travel and takes great joy in knowing that she's probably not going to see the end of it until she's ancient. We have the grizzled sailor who's nearly risen to the rank of captain and sees the whole mission as utter foolishness. A boy of thirteen who is obsessed with writing stories about the land they've set off toward and keeps his telescope on the horizon, hoping that the predictions were off, that they're somehow two decades early. A girl of sixteen who doesn't feel suited to the marriage that's planned for her, who is secretly in love with her best friend. A scientist who has been quietly advancing the state of knowledge with every new fish brought up from the deeps.

And then there's the plot, which there are so, so many options for. I would start the novel with simple sailing, a few chapters of the daily routine, the personalities, their petty fights with each other, and the stress of being in the middle of unfathomably deep waters whose depths are only glimpsed when the nets bring up something new. Then ... an island, another ship, sea creatures that have a glimmer of intelligence, a storm that makes the ship limp, spoilage that threatens starvation unless drastic action is taken, a political squabble that might bring all the plans crashing down.

Maybe it's a book about being trapped by the past, or about hanging on by what feels like a delicate thread, or about how systems are fragile and careful thinking and brave leadership are the only things that will get us through.

Mostly I think I want to be a geek about a ship that needs to survive in the ocean for a hundred years, and I do not have the time to write this novel, not when there are so many other novels to write.

[writingoddess1125]

Sunset Pirates pt. 2

Old Men Series Masterlist <<<

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• The Sunset Pirates- A Young band of new generation Pirates that has been bulldozing their way into papers as their bounties grew with each passing month. Racking up Billions in damage as they sailed on and becoming on the World Goverment biggest problem

• Each of these young pirates where carving their own paths right into the already scared side if the Goverment

• They each had their own goals in mind. Wishing to better the past generation. Build past the shadows each of them where born in-

• However it was clear one one thing-

• They still had no real idea what the fuck they were doing...

• While the four of them where incredibly skilled in terms of combat and ship maintenance- they were all now incredibly broke.

• "How the fuck are we gonna get money?! We will be out of food in days" Vi protested as the crew sat on the deck trying to have a meeting of sorts to figure out a game plan.

• They had been sailing aimlessly for the last few days and getting close to running out of needed supplies. All of them feeling a strain on their personal pockets-

• "I know I know- We need ideas. Sure destroying shit is fun but we need to make real money here" Dee expressed rubbing his temple, Alucare looking at the crew and rolled his eyes- However he couldn't disagree with them...

• "We need to obviously steal- its how all pirates make their money most of thw time" Alucare pointed out-

• The crew grimaced at this Alucare included, knowing well that they weren't the type of pirates to raid defenseless people and rip gold from their necks or steal Berri from helpless people.

• "Listen it's one think stealing from a rich person but-" Vi started but Dee waved her off before she could finish that sentence.

• "We know, I don't think any of us want that either" Dee expressed. Sighing as everyone fell silent- That was till Bee chuckled to himself suddently and everyone turned their attention to him.

• Bee being the ever extremist yet the only one that seemed to pitch ideas sat up from his lounged position on a barrel with a wide smile like the devil at the crew.

• "So sounds like- We steal from the World Goverment-"

• Everyone Stared at Bee before the Vi and Alucare erupted in disagreement.

"And please do tell, How and where? You cant just say Steal from the World Goverment" Vi argued and Bee smiled "Easy- I heard when we are that ship that you Alu was imprisoned on-"

"Don't call me that-"

"I heard that they where planning to renovate Marine Base 45 with a new Safe after the summer ends since its faulty- We can just break in and steal it. It's broken anyways"

• Bee pitched as the other two crewmates ripped apart the plan. Dee however quietly thinking and giving a defeated sigh "It's the best idea we have-" He finally said making Vi look at his shocked "Are you fucking serious-"

• "This is a bad idea-" Alucare pointed out

• "Do you have one?" Bee shot back, Making the swordsman scowl at him and Vi huff but fall silent-"

• "Since you two are hell bent on this, then you two have someone to help break into the safe- Neither of us know how to" Alucare pointed out. Making the twins look at each other for a moment.

• Dee clicked his tongue and leaned back- Bee smirking as well.

• "Know just the Duo-"

- This is not what Alucare ment by getting a skilled Theif or in this case thieves. Bee and Dee had just returned from grabbing these skilled 'highly skilled pick pockets' but instead Alucare stared at two cherry nosed brats, his eyebrow starting to twitch.

There was two little girls- clearly not even in the double digits in terms of age, both in little pink-tails and dressed in frilly dresses with pale blue eyes like the older twin duo. It didnt take a wild guess to figure out these where their baby sisters.

Vivian was gushing at the two little girls the second their boarded the ship, Leaning down and poking their little cheeks as she swooned at how adorable they were and gifting them candy. A clear softy for kids-

"You've got to be shitting me- You couldn't find anyone who had hit puberty yet?" Alucare growled at the older twins, Dee rolling his eyes.

"You said we needed thieves and this is what I got- Now do you got any better idea?" Alucare scoffed, gesturing to Vi who was still gushing over the girls who where eating up the attention from the redhead.

"You expect us to break into a secure Marine safe with two toddlers-"

"We are right here you know-" Ari grumbled, glaring up at Alucare who sighed heavily at this.

"I'm aware-" Alucare calmly shot back, Looking to Bee and Dee as he rubbed his temple.

"If I knew I'd be babysitting I'd just have went home-" Alucare mumbled- Ali glaring hard at Alucare as she casted her sister a glance.

"We have to get someone else- I understand love for a siblings skills but this is ridiculous. Im not going to let two infants on a dangerous task like this. Your sisters or not- I doubt they could steal candy from each other" Dee and Bee looked at each other and just shrugged. Alucare ready to tear into them again but being quickly cut off.

"Pretty ring- And lots of money!" Ali said loudly to herself, Holding up Alucare prized Ruby ring in her tiny palm the one that Mihawk had gifted him when he left home and his bag of Berri he kept hidden on his person- The dark haired man blinking in confusion before looking at his hand.

"How did you-" He started before snatching the ring and money from the little girl. Ali giggling at this as Did Ari who was scooped up by Vivian.

"Told you- Best damn thieves you can find" Dee waved off, Already suspiciously touching his own pockets as he was sure his sisters had lifted something from him.

"The infamous Bubbles and Squeak- Now if these two can steal from Sir Crocodile, Mihawk and essentially all of the Pirate Lords undetected including cracking ever safe they can get their little fingers on. I'm sure they can steal from the military-" Bee detailed Excluding themselves from the stolen list. Alucare crossing his arms, looking.. impressed?

"These two did all that?-"

Vi commented with a eyebrow at the little girls as she held Ari who was tucked to her side. Looking to the little girl and chuckling a bit in amusement-

"How long do we have them for?"

"72 Hours, Father has our Mother distracted and lied to her about where the girls are for this" Dee explained with a sigh- Knowing their mother would lose her shit finding out they were taking two 7 year olds out on a pirating adventure.

Alucare adjusted the ring on his finger and nodded- Looking to the two little girls calmly.

"Seems we are setting sail to Marine Base 45-"

○~○~○~○~○~○~○~○~○~○~○~○~○~○~○~○~○~○~○~

Authors Note!

HELLO! So I've been stewing over this project for quite some time and wanted to open the floor up to everyone!

I want to Build the Sunset Pirates into their own Respectable Pirate crew, so Please leave some suggestions on Ideas either of OOC or even Legacy children you think would he great for the crew!

[ladykailitha]

Grief (A Friend Indeed) Part 5

Thank you for all the great responses to this story it really means a lot.

Now they are doing a singing thing in this chapter, it's not that chapter yet. This is a prelude to that. Plus, I wanted to have Steve sing "Somebody' by Depeche Mode off the same album him and Lauren were talking about in the last chapter. Change the pronouns and it's definitely about all things Steve loves about Eddie.

I also added Lauren singing "Here Comes the Rain Again" from the suggestion in the poll because it's such a great song.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

***

Steve questioned the wisdom of going out to a bar their first day in Ashland, tired as both Eddie and he were. But at the same time it was also nice to get out and just have fun.

Apparently Danny’s brother Hal ran the joint so Lauren, Eddie, and he could come in. As long as they didn’t try and get booze they were fine to do anything else. Pool, darts, and even a little stage for people to sing.

Hal told them that he tried to get one of those newfangled karaoke machines but that they were on back order until Christmas. But they were more then welcome to sing their heart out to jukebox in the corner.

Lauren got up there and sang Here Comes the Rain Again by the Eurythmics.

“Falling on my head like a new emotion,” she crooned, just as low and melodic as Annie Lennox. “I wanna walk in the open wind. I wanna talk lovers do. Want dive into you ocean, is it raining with you?”

“Are all you Munsons talented in the music department?” Steve asked Eddie as he watched Lauren continue to belt out the song.

Eddie laughed. “No. I don’t know about my dad, but Wayne can’t carry a tune to save his life.”

“Maybe he’s talented in other ways,” Steve said with a wink. “Who taught you how to play guitar?”

Eddie ran his tongue over the top row of his teeth. “He did.”

“Uh huh,” Steve said with a grin. “And who bought you your first guitar?”

He sighed. “He did.”

“Sounds to me like he’s a good teacher if nothing else,” Steve finished with a grin.

“God you’re so annoying when you’re right,” Eddie huffed.

“That’s because I rarely am and so when that happens, I get to gloat.”

Lauren came bouncing back to the table. “Who’s next?”

“Toss you for it?” Steve said.

“You’re on.”

Eddie pulled out a quarter. “Heads or tails?”

“Heads.”

Steve watched as the coin sailed into the air and Eddie deftly catch it in his large hand. He slapped in on the top of his other hand.

“Tails!’ Eddie crowed. “You’re next, pretty boy!”

Steve leaned over and looked at the coin. He rolled his eyes and marched over to the jukebox, beginning to pour over the choices. He picked one and walked up to the stage.

He grabbed the microphone as the first notes came through the tinny jukebox speakers.

Eddie watched in awe. He had never heard Steve sing. Not really, fooling around in the car and being annoying for the kids wasn’t the same as what he was seeing in front of him.

“Did you know he could sing like that?” Lauren asked, not taking her eyes off the stage. “God, he could make money off that voice.”

Eddie could only agree. “I’ve never heard him like this.”

“She will listen to me when I want to speak about the world we live in and life in general,” Steve sang, his eyes half closed as he leaned into the microphone, one hand raised. “Though my views may be wrong, they may even be perverted she’ll hear me out and won’t easily be converted to my way of thinking. In fact, she’ll often disagree, but at the end of it all she will understand me.”

Lauren looked over at Eddie. “You know this is on that album him and I were talking about earlier. The Depeche Mode one.”

Eddie turned to her. “The one with the song he listened to a billion times?”

She nodded. “It’s called Lie to Me. It’s where the album title comes from. That girlfriend, the one with the dead friend, she really fucked him up, didn’t she?”

Eddie sighed. “I wasn’t there for that. We didn’t become friends until way after that. But yeah, I’m beginning to see exactly how much she fucked him up.”

She looked up at Steve crooning the last lines of the song. “Do you think if the world was different he would have changed the pronouns of the song?”

Eddie looked back at Steve as he bowed to thunderous applause. “You know, think he just might have.”

He stood up and greeted Steve with a hug. “Holy shit, man. That was amazing. Where did you learn to sing like that?”

Steve just blushed. “It’s your turn now.”

He went up to Hal and whispered something to him. Hal nodded.

Eddie got on stage and Hal came from behind with a small amp and a black-bodied electric guitar. He handed the guitar to Eddie and then began fiddling with the amp.

“Hey, guys,” Eddie said into the microphone. “Some of you might remember me, I’m Hal’s nephew, Eddie and I play metal.”

He started the opening riff to Run to the Hills and belted out the lyrics. Everyone was on their feet in an instant, Steve and Lauren with them.

Steve was cheering and laughing. It was nice to see Eddie play again after that horrific spring break from literal hell.

As soon as he was done he handed the guitar back to Hal and stepped off the stage.

“You are a beast, Eddie Munson,” Steve said, pounding him on the back when he got back to their table.

Eddie shoved his hair into his mouth to hide his blush. “Thanks.”

Steve ordered another round of sodas for them as they got to talking about their musical influences and who they would love to meet.

It hit ten o’clock and Hal was ushering them out as well as couple other under-aged kids who were there playing darts.

Once they hit the pavement Steve asked about it.

“Anyone under twenty-one always gets kicked out at ten,” Lauren explained. “It’s always been one of Uncle Hal’s rules since he bought this place when I was ten.”

Eddie nodded. “He doesn’t want anyone getting hurt for when the alcohol really starts flowing.”

“Too bad the funeral wasn’t next week,” Lauren said, shoulder checking him. “Then you could’ve stayed later.”

“Your birthday is next week?” Steve asked. “Why didn’t I know that?”

Eddie blushed.

“Because this weirdo doesn’t like to celebrate his birthday,” Lauren teased.

“Look,” Eddie said, “having a summer birthday sucks, okay? Especially if all you have is school friends who don’t give you their phone numbers or their addresses so you can invite them. And by the time you get old enough for that not to be a problem, you just don’t care anymore.”

Steve nodded. “I can understand that. My parents never really celebrated birthdays and by the time I got friends that wanted to celebrate, I learned very fast that it was for my big house and the expectation of an even bigger party.”

“Ouch,” Lauren said with a wince. “Maybe you two should pick a date to be your birthdays and celebrate whenever you want. It doesn’t have to be the actual date you were born. A lot of people that have birthdays on holidays and on leap years do it that way.”

“Oohh,” Steve said to Eddie, “yours should be March 27th.”

Eddie threw his head back and laughed. “Then when would yours be?”

Steve thinks about for a moment. “Either 3rd or 12th of November I guess.”

“Why those dates?” Lauren asked looking between them in curiosity.

“The third is when I chose my found family over a life of peace,” Steve explained.

“And the 12th?” Eddie asked.

Steve scoffed and shook his head. “That was the day I knew I was meant for more in life then dodging bad parents, letting my friends be assholes, and smoking and drinking my life away. I didn’t realize it then, of course. But yeah, that day means a lot.”

Eddie closed his eyes. “Steve...”

He shook his head. “It’s fine. I don’t miss who I was.”

Lauren was even more confused because they seemed to be talking about something deeper than what was actually said.

“This has to do with all the bullshit Hawkins went through, right?” she asked. “The lab, the gas leak, the earthquake. That’s what you’re talking about?”

Eddie and Steve looked at each other and nodded.

“Something like that,” Eddie confirmed.

*

The next morning while Steve was on the phone with Robin, Lauren dragged Eddie into her room.

“Look, you don’t have to like the music,” she explained handing him a cassette tape.

Eddie looked at the tape. Some Great Reward by Depeche Mode, he sighed.

“But at least listen to it,” she said. “I have it queued to that song he mentioned, Lie to Me. Even if you don’t listen to the rest of it, I think you should hear that one. I think you’ll learn more about your friend.”

“Laurie...” he said with a sigh. “If he wanted me to know, he would have told me, don’t you think?”

“That depends,” she said. “Do you like his ex?”

Eddie reared back is head with a frown. Did he like Nancy? He guessed well enough. He had come to respect her, at the very least. He liked Steve more, sure. But yeah, if she called to go see a movie, he wouldn’t turn her down.

“Yeah, I guess.”

Lauren grabbed him by the arms and maneuvered him to sit on her bed. “I have known Steve for less than twenty four hours and I can already tell he’s the most self-sacrificing idiot since Jesus fucking Christ.”

Eddie opened his mouth to protest, but she raised an eyebrow and he was forced to concede her point, waving his hand at her.

“So believe me,” she continued, “when I say that he hasn’t told you shit about what went down with his ex is because he doesn’t want to ruin things between you and her.”

Eddie nodded. “I know it’s a big fucking ask...” he sighed. “But see if you can find out what happened, maybe he’ll tell you and you can at least give me advice on how to navigate that mine field so I’m accidentally blowing up shit.”

Lauren nodded. “I can’t guarantee shit, but yeah, I’ll try.” She sat down next to him and leaned around to look him in the eyes. “He means a lot to you, doesn’t he?”

Eddie clasped his hands together and nodded, pursing his lips.

“Does he know about your…certain proclivities?” She looked up at the door to make sure no one was around.

He did the same and then nodded again, not trusting himself to speak.

“And he’s okay with that?” Lauren pressed.

“His best friend is gay and encouraged me to come out to him, too,” Eddie said. “He’s a really good dude.”

Lauren pressed her lips together and thought for a moment. “Are you in love with him?”

Eddie sighed. “Yeah, yeah I am.”

Then they heard running up the stairs and suddenly Steve was the door.

“Hey guys,” he said. “Penny told me to come get you both, she needs help preparing for the wake tonight.”

Eddie and Lauren shared a glance.

“We’ll be right there, Stevie,” Eddie said with a smile.

Steve nodded and dashed back down the stairs.

“Do you think he heard?” Lauren asked, staring at the place Steve was once standing.

Eddie just shrugged. He couldn’t have, could he? They heard him come up the stairs, after all.

Right?

***

Pt 6|Pt 7|Pt 8|Pt 9|Pt 10|Pt 11|Pt 12

Some people love having a summer birthday. Growing up, I most certainly did NOT. As for the dates Steve brings up Nov. 12 1983 is the day he chose to run back inside the Byers house and battle a demogorgon. Nov 3rd 1984 is when Dustin intercepts Steve's apology to Nancy to help him find Dart. Both are very significant to Steve in his journey to be a better person.

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[dojae-huh]

Unconditional: lyrics

Well, for once we have lyrics fully in English, so we can be sure there are no mistakes in translation from Korean.

Preface.

I believe, at least for now, at the start of Jaehyun's soloist career and his first steps into songwriting, we can be sure he writes about his own experiences, or he agrees with lyrics created by others that resonate with him personally. a) He said so himself in an interview (how he used the feelings he felt and the pictures he took as inspiration for writing), b) in the past he referenced/played on repeat songs that matched the current situation of his relationship with Doyoung, c) so far, all the themes from his solo songs and songs from "J" matched what we can observe about Jaehyun and his onlook on Doyoung.

In other words, even if Jaehyun sings about a girl from California (an imagined scenario, never happened) it will be about "it was destiny" and "lets stay together till death do us part" and not about picking up chicks for a one night stand or having girlfriends around the world.

Met this girl from California, something 'bout her aura Got me good at sticking around Send a shout out to her mama, raising up a queen

Tbh, I think it's Taneasha's part. Jaehyun is close with mama Kim though.

'Cause damn, she is the woman, no doubt Who got fire taste? Dominate When she on that paper chase

"Paper chase" can't be Jae's lyrics as well. Too slangy. Yet, we know a bunny who is constantly working and earning money (with the nickname "young money"), who dominates all sides of showbusiness.

Skip the drama, double dutch She's an eight rounded up

And we continue with slang. "Double dutch" is 1) "talk or writing that is nonsense or that you cannot understand" and 2) "a game played by jumpimg up and down through two ropes that are being turned by two people holding the ends"

"rounded up 8"="10" (like in math 5.8->6)

Considering the lyrics about "A-list" later, the love interest is not perfectly beautiful by the usual standarts, but sure is in Jaehyun's eyes.

I've been falling since the day I made her mine Oh, we locked all the way, yeah

We can see that. Lemonade, she's golden She deservеs to be loved with no limit out loud

This looks to be written by Jae. (as well as the previous part)

I just, I just bought my baby Prada Got another for hеr, straight from the store Fly her 'round the world so she can hang by the shore That's my baby, that’s my sugar I don't need no honey on the side

By Hyun this time? Hyun and Jae? Heh. Another style here.

That's unconditiona-nal For her, I'd break the law, just take me straight to the court Buy a billion roses and I'd still get her more

This sound like Jae again. Jae is ready to go to the end of the world for his love interest.

She's fine, she's mine, I gotta praise the Lord This thing, we got's That's unconditiona-nal She's fine, she's mine, I gotta praise the Lord This thing, we got's That's unconditiona-nal

Reminds me

"You wanna be mine, baby (Roses) I said you wanna be mine, baby (Roses)"

Baby, I'm just gonna say it, not even an A-list Can turn my head from where it is now I'm rocking through the stages 'til we're old and gray Ain't afraid to say it loud (Loud)

Also sounds like Jae. An image of sailing from one stage to another till old age. Not clear here if it is a stage of life or music stages.

That's unconditiona-nal

Jaehyun's love is complete and not limited in any way. Pure love, given without asking for anything in return.

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

OK. Lets list the possible references: lemonade (lemonade mate), met in California (Lost in California), meerkats (in the MV), idol life (music stages), paper chase (pursue of money and career), golden (Golden light?), gifting Prada (the bag Do got and paraded around), hang by the shore (Doyoung likes the sea), rounded up 8/(not) A-list (Do doesn't think he is idol handsome), Jaehyun not being afraid to love confess/flirt/compliment.

The theme: found the one, continues to fall in love deeper, ready to break the law and spend the rest of his life together, wants to talk about his love openly. The same theme as in most other songs by Jae.

[celeste-the-witch]

> Fall.

> You are alone, Child.

> There is only darkness for you, and only death for your people. These ancients are just the beginning. I will command a great and terrible army and we will sail to a billion worlds. We will sail until every light has been extinguished.

> You are strong, Child, but I am beyond strength.

> I am the end, and I have come for you, Finn.

If yall ain't talking to me like this, you ain't flirting right.

(Minus the Child part I'm an adult and the Finn part that is not my name :p)

[shivsroy]

“It is not for me to judge my brother. History will tell that story. I can just give you a couple of instances about him. You probably all know we came across the first time during the War, for our safety. But the engines of our ship let go and the rest of the convoy sailed on without us, leaving us adrift. They told us—they told us, children—that if we spoke, or coughed, or moved an inch, that the U-boats would catch the vibrations through the hull and we would die right there, in the hull. Three nights and two days we stayed quiet. A four-year-old, and a five-and-a-half-year-old, speaking with our eyes.

So, there's a little sob story. And uh—once we were over, our uncle who was, so to speak, a character. He, um, well—they had a little money. And they sent Logan away to a better school, and he hated it. He just hated it. He wasn't uh, he wasn't well, he was sick. And he mewled and he cried, and in the end he got out and came home, under his own steam. But when he got back our little sister, she was a baby, but—she was there by then. She, uh… He always believed that he brought home the polio with him, which took her. I don't—even know if that's true. But our aunt and uncle certainly did nothing to disabuse him of that notion. They let it lie with him.

I… loved him, I suppose. And I suppose some of you did too. In whatever way he would let us, that we could manage. But… I can't help but say, he has wrought the most terrible things. He was a man who has, here and there, drawn in the edges of the world. Now and then, darkened the skies a little, closed men's hearts. Fed that dark flame in men. The hard, mean, hard relenting flame that keeps their hearts warm while another grows cold. Their grain stashed while another grows hungry. And even has the temerity to tell that hard—funny, yes, but hard—joke about the man in the cold.

You can get a little high, a little mighty, when you're warm. Oh yes, he gave away a few million of his billions, but he was not a generous man. He was mean. And he made but a mean estimation of the world. And he fed a certain kind of meagerness in men. Perhaps he had to. Because he had a meagerness about him. And maybe I do about me, too. I don't know. I try. I try.

I don't know when, but some time he decided not to try anymore. And it was a terrible shame. Godspeed, my brother. And God bless.” —Ewan Roy

[jmagnabo92]

Sailing To Freedom Ch 8 - The Discovery

@aroyallybigbangrwrb

Alex and Henry discover what the White House chose to do against their wishes and they're pissed!

AO3

***

September 20th, 2020

“Isn’t this perfect?” Alex teases as he walks along the streets of Istanbul, hand laced with Henry’s as they take in the history and beauty of the city.

“Every day with you is perfect, but I do love this city.”

“You’re such a Prince Charming – seriously.”

“You keep saying that like it’s bad thing,” Henry nearly pouts.

“Aw, baby, it’s not a bad thing.  I used to pretend it was, but…” he stops and smiles at his boyfriend.  “Now you’re my Prince Charming and that’s –” he stops again, this time because he spotted People magazine behind Henry in a window of a store.

The cover had three pictures, one of him and Nora dancing together at the Royal Wedding (she’d pestered him to dance just once), the one of Henry and June that never made the light of day thanks to cakegate, and a third of him and Henry together in Athens, dancing in a night club. 

***

Dancing?  A Key to Love?  From Weddings to Nightclubs – which pair looks more in love?  FDOTUS/Prince Henry, FSOTUS/Prince Henry or FSOTUS/VP Granddaughter?

***

“Alex?  What’s wrong?  Why’d you stop talking?” Henry asks, concerned, but Alex is too busy pulling out his phone. 

They’d both put their phones on airplane mode after the fight with the White House determined that they would be able to live their somewhat fantasy life of a vacation without interruptions. 

Maybe they shouldn’t have done that.

Regardless, Alex immediately starts searching their names, determined to find out what else they’ve been missing.  He’s inundated with other articles all about his supposed relationship with Nora, Henry’s with June, and rumors and suspicions about the truth – that he’s with Henry.  Many of them don’t show him in a great light from talking about his seemingly abandonment of the campaign to thinking he is cheating on Nora and helping Henry cheat on his sister. 

He’s got like a billion tweets most of which are as terrible as the ones he got after cakegate, many of those seem to think that he was corrupting Henry and being disloyal to his sister and girlfriend.  Thankfully as the articles started to suggest that the White House was lying, the tides are starting to turn, and he has a bunch of more recent tweets that are in support of him (and Henry), but none of that matters because his sister and best friend betrayed him.

He snaps screenshots of some of the articles and tweets and sends them to June.

wtf, June?  i thought we were a team.  i thought it was us against the world.  i thought i could trust you.  guess i cant, thanks for nothing. 

Then, he shuts his phone off entirely.  By the time he looks back at Henry, he realizes that he never answered Henry’s question because Henry’s looking at him extremely concerned. 

“I – we – need to get out of here,” Alex states.  “I just – not here.”

Despite not knowing what’s wrong, Henry trusts Alex and doesn’t hesitate to say, “Let’s go home, then.”

***

At first, June stares at the snapshots and the text that Alex has sent not quite believing that he would ever question that he could trust her.  She’s completely confused and half-asleep, and she just doesn’t understand what the hell happened that would cause him to question her.  He should know that he can trust her, but as she looks through the articles and tweets, she can see why he’d be angry. 

His reputation has been shot and everything that they were trying to do to help him (well, the campaign more than him) had blown up in his face rather than theirs.    

As soon as she realizes everything, she immediately calls him, but his phone goes straight to voicemail.  Clearly, he doesn’t want to talk about it (which considering that he’s clearly feeling betrayed, that makes sense).

June takes her phone and makes her way to the Oval Office where she knows her mother should be meeting with Zahra this early in the morning. 

“…I’m just saying that this wasn’t supposed to cause him grief –”

She doesn’t bother to knock, which causes her mother to cut herself off and redirect her attention to June.

“June, sugar, you can’t just burst into meetings –”

“WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?” June demands throwing her phone at Ellen.  “You told me that he was okay with this.  Have you been paying attention to the series of terrible articles making him out to be the bad guy and the tweets he’s been receiving?  Everyone’s blaming him, claiming he’s corrupting Henry and betraying me and Nora – even though it’s the other way around.  Did you know about this?!”

“We were just talking about this, actually,” Ellen states, referring to her and Zahra.  “I have not been paying close attention to what this has done to Alex’s numbers –”

“This isn’t about his fucking numbers – he’s a person – YOUR SON and you’re letting the media trash him all because you didn’t want him to come out!”

“June, you have to calm down.”

“I don’t have to do shit,” June states, just as angry, although not as loudly.  “It’s one thing to decide to ruin your own relationship with him, but to ruin mine – and Nora’s – because now he thinks I’ve been a party to ignoring his wishes and letting him get trashed in the media.  He’s the youngest here, we’re supposed to be protecting him, not throwing him to the wolves.”

“We’re going to fix it,” Ellen says when June finally takes a breath. 

“By admitting that it was all a lie and he’s done nothing wrong?” June asks, hopefully.  She knows that’s probably too hopeful considering that her mother had clearly gone against Alex’s wishes in the first place.

“No, that would only ruin your mother’s campaign,” Zahra states, entering the conversation for the first time.  “Which is priority right now.”

“And I should care about that right now?”

“Now, hold on, you should care about the campaign –”

“Not when it’s clearly come at the expense of her kids and their lives,” June states.  “The media has ruined his reputation, and that’s going to stick for a long time.  Well passed my mother’s time in office and that’s bullshit.”

“We’re going to fix it with articles about all of the good things he’s done over the years,” Ellen states.  “Damage control.”

June crosses her arms and stares at Ellen, unbelievably.  “You know that the only way to truly fix this is to admit the truth and you don’t care enough to do it.”

“We can admit something or work something out after the election.  He can start doing other First Son things, and maybe some charity work will come up after this mess, but for now… we’ll just do things more subtly.”

June scoffs and rolls her eyes.

“Now, why don’t you sit down, and we can talk about your upcoming appearances,” Ellen asks in a tone that suggests it’s not a question. 

Well, too bad.

“Cancel them,” June states.  “Because I’m not going.”

“June, you can’t –”

“I can and I will.  I should’ve done it the second you fired Alex instead of helping you cover for him.”  She’s honestly mad at herself for helping to keep Alex hidden away like he did something wrong by falling for Henry.  “Maybe then, you would’ve considered what you could do to help your kid and control the narrative before he became a target for Richards and the conservative movement, who are using this photo and Alex’s appearing to cheat with my boyfriend on his girlfriend in the press to tear you a new one.”

“June, you have to understand…”

“I don’t have to understand shit, I’m done.  You want my support?  Fix this shit.”

With that, she storms off, taking her phone and trying to reach Alex again.  She needs to fix this.

***

“I believed in them,” Alex states, the second they’re in the privacy of the little living room on the boat. 

Henry had sent everyone away, so that Alex has the privacy to speak his mind and the room to pace (which their room does not have) and it’s the one time that reminds Alex that everyone else on this boat is technically Henry’s employee.

He’ll put a pin in that for later.

“I believed that they would never do this to me.  Hell, I said maybe Zahra would because I’m starting to think that she doesn’t give a damn about me, but my mom?  Nora?  JUNE?  After everything we’ve been through together, and how we’ve always supported each other… I just – how could she do this?”

There’s a part of Alex that’s begun to realize that his mother has been so wrapped up in being the president that she’s completely disregarded how she’s still a mother to her kids.  He should’ve realized it sooner, particularly when she forced him to befriend Henry and not care about the tweets from hell he’d been receiving for the week between the wedding and the fake press about their friendship, but somehow, he still believed that she was better than that.

What hurts the most, though, isn’t his mother once again putting the presidency above Alex’s desires or needs – it has happened before, even if he thought she was better than that – it’s not Nora, his best friend and ex-girlfriend, because he knows that she would put logic and numbers first, it’s June. 

June, his sister.  June, his first best friend.  June, his rock when the divorce happened.  It was June that told him that she would always put him first.  It was June that constantly commented that he needed to do less and stop giving himself away just for their mom.  It was June that made it clear that she didn’t want to even be a party to their mom’s re-election and being the ‘first daughter’ and only did it because Alex convinced her that their mom was doing great work. 

June had always told him not to sacrifice himself for his mother, and yet, here she is … a party to exactly that.

He’s not sure if he wants to cry or punch something – he’s not sure which –, but after nearly an hour of letting his stream of terrible thoughts and pacing around the tiny area spill forth, he finally takes a breath and moves to Henry’s waiting arms and buries his face into his neck.

Henry, for his part, hasn’t said a word.  All he does is hold him tight and rub one hand on his back with the other in his hair. 

Alex can feel him trying to show his support and comfort with his actions rather than words because he probably doesn’t know what to say at this point – he doesn’t know any of them well enough to offer anything of solace – like maybe she didn’t know, maybe she was convinced to do it, maybe she believed that Alex agreed for some asinine reason.  He doesn’t know if that would help, honestly, because she did know one thing – that he wanted to come out with Henry and now his reputation is shot and he’s the one dealing with the fallout.

And he’ll continue to deal with it.  Even if they come out now, he’s the one that will be torn apart, people may even believe that he stole Henry from her or some such nonsense.  It’ll be exactly as they feared when he said ‘hell no’ to the damn fake dating in the first place. 

He shakes his head and leans back.  “I can’t deal with this, right now.”

“Tell me what you need,” Henry states.  “What can I do?”

“You’re not the problem, baby, but I can’t – I can’t talk to them about fixing this or think about it anymore.”  He shakes his head.  “I need to run.”

Henry nods.  “Do you want me to go with you?”

Alex shakes his head.  “I’ll take Cash.  Don’t know when I’ll be back.”

“Take all the time you need; I’ll be here when you’re ready.”

“God, I love you.” 

He gives Henry a kiss and listens to Henry assure him that he loves him, too, before disappearing to get his running clothes and shoes. 

He’s not surprised when Cash is waiting in one of the seats by the wheels, dressed for running, too.  Of course Cash knows what he needs. 

“Let’s go.”

***

June has spent hours going through the stories, comments and tweets trying to figure out how bad this mess is and alternating between trying to get ahold of Alex and Henry.  She hadn’t gone so far as to call Cash, although she heard from Amy that Cash checked in – and is just as furious, something about how he should’ve been told so that Alex wasn’t suddenly blindsided by this shit – but that aside from anger, rightfully so, Alex is physically fine. 

She couldn’t help noting the physical emphasis.  He’s probably a hot mess when it comes to his emotions and knowing him is on a very long run.  He’s probably running until his feet bleed, and he forgets that he’s been betrayed by the people he trusts the most. 

June hates that she’s one of those people causing him pain at the moment.  She knew something was off with the situation, and she should have insisted that she talk to him first.  No wonder Zahra said he just wanted to be left alone and that they didn’t need to bother him. 

Now, it all made sense.

Still, she wants to talk to Alex, herself.  Apologize, tell him what happened, and hope that he forgives her.  In the meantime, she’s got a mission. 

Leaning back a second after reading a dozen tweets ripping Alex apart, she dials Alex again – straight to voicemail. 

Deciding that maybe Henry’s the better answer, she dials his number. 

“Hello, June, I expected we’d be hearing from you,” Henry states.  Unlike his usual polite tone, his voice like ice as he sounds angry and frustrated.  “Finally decided to check in?”

“Henry – I – is Alex there?”

“No.”

“Please, I need to talk to him.”

“That’s funny because you apparently did not desire to speak to either of us when you went on interviews and lied about being in a relationship with your brother’s boyfriend.”

She winces.  She knew the interviews were a terrible idea.  She knew that photos were one thing, but the interviews were an entirely different animal.

“You have to understand, Zahra told us that she convinced Alex that the photos and interviews were fine.  I – we tried to call – just in case, but his phone was off –”

“Should that not have told you everything that you wanted to know?  Alex (and I) made it plainly clear that there were two options: one, tell the truth, two, ignore it.  You deliberately made the third option that we vetoed as this is our lives and our decision to make without confirming that we changed our minds.”

He's right, of course.

She should’ve known.  She did know, deep down.  She knew it in her heart, and she did it anyway.

“You’re right.”

“I am not angry with you on my behalf even though I should be,” Henry states, tonelessly.  “It was bad enough that you suggested it, but to follow through with it… I cannot ignore how you betrayed him and broke his heart.  He deserves better than that from you.  The way he talks about you – you’re his hero.  He looks up to you and he would never have broken your heart the way that you’ve broken his heart.”

“I know,” June says, trying not to cry.  “If the roles were reversed, he never would’ve done this to me.”  She knows that she screwed up, that she was the one person in their family not to let him down and now she has.  “And I know that I should’ve known that I should’ve realized that none of it made any sense and refused to do it, but I didn’t.  I let my trust in my mother and Zahra erode my instincts that it was wrong and that it was a mistake, and I don’t know what I can do to make this better.”

“That’s the problem, isn’t it?  The damage is done.  No matter what happens now, we tell the truth, or we just disappear, there’s always going to be people out there that believe the worst in him.  That believe that he stole me from you and will not support him because of it.  Do you realize that he’s the youngest of us all and they’re all believing that he’s the one that is at fault for everything?  He did nothing wrong, June!  I pursued him, not the other way around!  And yet, everyone thinks the worst of him because his sister and his best friend decided to lie on him!  How could you possibly think this was okay?”

He takes a deep breath as if trying to keep control of his anger. 

“The fact is, there really isn’t anything that can be done to make this any better, but you can start with trying to correct the narrative.  Remind people that things aren’t always what they appear to be, that Alex is currently with me which should suggest something about the lies, and that Alex is one of the most insanely loyal people we’ve ever known.  Tell them the truth!”

“I can’t – do you know what that would do to the election?”

Henry scoffs.  “You wanted a way to fix your mistake.  That’s the answer.  You’ve got until we reach Casablanca to make the right decision and fix this.  Five days.  Or we’re going to have to take matters into our own hands.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I don’t know, yet, but that’s certainly something that Alex and I will make together since it is our lives and our relationship being affected by this.  Goodbye.”

Henry hangs up before she can even consider discussing alternative ways or anything else.  Effectively dismissing her and she honestly deserves it. 

She has to find a way to fix this mess without compromising her mother’s re-election.

***

Just when Alex couldn’t love Henry any more than he already does, he stands in the doorway of their room listening to Henry defend him and his right to make his own choices and honestly making June understand how terrible this is for him and it’s exactly what he needs.

He’s not in this alone.  Henry’s here, too, and no matter what happens – he’s always going to have him.  Now and forever.

He couldn’t be more in love.

He moves to wrap his arms around Henry’s waist.  He has to stretch a bit to put his chin on Henry’s shoulder and kiss his cheek. 

“You really are my Prince Charming.”

Henry turns his head to him look into Alex’s eyes.  “I thought you would be upset with me – talking to your sister that way.”

Alex shrugs as he kisses his cheek again before letting go and moving to the bed.  “If it was for any other reason or anyone else, I’d probably punch them for talking to June like that, but you… you were saying what I probably couldn’t to help get June to fix this.”

“Sometimes even those we love hurt us, and I just – I keep thinking about what we were worried about,” Henry admits as he sits beside Alex on the bed.  “I read some of the articles and comments and tweets while you were gone…”

Alex nods.  “I saw enough of the articles and tweets to know how the world is looking at the situation.  It doesn’t help that people are using my time locked away against me as well.  It makes sense – to them, it looks like I quit randomly on my mom probably because we got caught, that maybe she was punishing me for breaking June’s heart or something (honestly who knows), and then decided I had enough and abandoned my family entirely to be with my lover at the detriment to my own sister and best friend.”

Henry nods because he, too, had obviously gotten that sense. 

“I – I obviously don’t know how bad it is, and I am not ready to see how bad it is, but I asked Cash and Schmitty to download every article, all of the comments, and the tweets so that we can review it and see how bad it really is,” Alex admits as he takes off his socks and shoes, his feet are bloody and in pain.  “So, we can –”

“What did you do to your feet?” Henry asks, cutting him off.  He’d been nodding along until he spotted the blood.

“Oh, uh, it’s okay… it’s not as bad as it looks.”

“Not as bad as it looks?  Alex, your feet are bleeding.”  Henry stands up and goes to the bathroom to get some things to take care of Alex’s feet.  “Is this what happens when you go for a run?”

“Sometimes,” Alex admits.  “Just when I’m upset.  It’s just a terrible coping mechanism.”

“That’s one way to put it.”  Henry scoffs as he kneels before Alex.  “You are staying off your feet for at least a day if I have to carry you everywhere on this ship.  And you’re not looking at those articles or anything else for at least a day or until you can look at them and not do this to your feet.”

“To be fair, we have five days until I would even be able to run –”

“Alex.”

Alex swallows, there’s that tone – the voice of authority that unfortunately, at least in this moment, turns him on and makes him want to obey.  “Okay.  I promise to be better.”

“Good,” Henry says.

He then focuses on cleaning up Alex’s feet, it feels a bit strange to have Henry taking care of him like this.

“You know, I can take care of –”

“No.  I’m taking care of you and you’re going to let me and then, we aren’t talking about this stupid media situation for at least a day.  We’re just going to spend the night cuddling and together.”

“But –”

“No buts, Alex.”

Alex feels like he should continue fighting, but he’s honestly tired, and he sighs.  “Alright, baby.  Your wish is my command.”

Henry gives him a smile and a little kiss before returning to taking care of Alex.  “Good boy.”

[danwhobrowses]

One Piece Chapter 1115 - Initial Thoughts

And we are back from another break

Another sneaky upload while I was coming home from work by TCB, plus other business has delayed me a bit, but now we can get to it

Secrets are pouring out, Joy Boy the pirate

Tell us more, Vegapunk

Spoilers for the Chapter, Support the Official Release too

Back with the Yamato cover story, packing a lunch with Toko and Hiyori

And we're sticking with Wano since even they have the broadcast

They have the flag up as well, Straw Hat territory

Seems they had a Den Den Mushi in Orochi's possessions

Momo muses about Joy Boy being a pirate, having learned about him from Oden's journal

Tama's still there enjoying food too, seems like she lives in the palace now

Shinobu though hasn't 'matured' to her usual look, still looks younger

G4 Base?

Oh fucking...really? XD Demaro Black doesn't miss a hustle

Fake Kid Pirates mein godt hahahaha give it up lad

I mean why would you want to pose as someone who's worth 3 billion? You know how many would kill for 3 billion?

The navy at Egghead are also listening intently to his broadcast, as Vegapunk goes deeper into Joy Boy's past

He's only able to cover from a few Poneglyphs he's had access to (likely the ones Ohara had) but as we expected, a great war occurred; Joy Boy vs the future World Government

Dude was THIS CLOSE to the 'wait, are we the baddies?' moment

Warcury is not happy, as he still chases Luffy and the giants through fire

Mars is pissed too, using his Conqueror's Haki to destroy as many Den Den Mushi as he can find

Vegapunk continues though; of course the WG were just known as the 'Allied Powers' a coalition of 20 kingdoms against Joy Boy's faction - which in itself is a frightening display of Joy Boy's strength, even the superpowers of today could be taken down by a couple countries united, but 20? It took 20!

Alas, Vegapunk doesn't know why the nations were in conflict, just that it was a clash of ideologies, likely control vs freedom, but he chooses not to judge the morality

Zunesha is pensive, as the broadcast emits through Zou

CARROT! We missed you dearie, she's got a fancy Duke coat but she should be in Egghead with the crew ¬_¬

Still, she marvels at Vegapunk noting how Joy Boy's kingdom was advanced beyond even modern science

Oh lord, it isn't just Demaro Black we're bringing up for joke cameos, I know that laugh, I know that headpiece!

Mother Fucking Foxy XD What is that tache man?

Seems it's just him, Porche and Hamburg sailing on a little boat, bandaged up and getting the rumblies

We go back to Stussy, who is contacted by Edison as Kaku lounges in the bubble still

Edison encourages Stussy to drop the barrier, it's useless since the Gorosei could just break through

Feels like you could've called her before diving through the barrier and nearly killing yourself bud

Saturn's also using haki to destroy the Den Den Mushi

Edison puts his confidence in the Straw Hats though

Nami contacts Jinbe, still carrying Zoro - who takes umbrage with him apologizing, since he was busy dealing with Lucci

Nami notices that the blockade is moving to their escape route, encouraging they hurry in her own way

Back to Stussy, she shows relief that the Straw Hats are likely to escape, but without Vegapunk, she wonders what remains for her, she has no purpose

Something Kaku seems pensive about, perhaps even sympathetic, since he can't suggest to her the zoo

Back to V. Nusjuro and Bonney kicks at the Gorosei as he seems to cut Oimo

Not a good landing for Sanji either

Seems V. Nusjuro's not paying full attention to the fight either, trying to use his Observation Haki to sense where the broadcast snail is

Still, he breaks free and slices at Bonney, only for her to be saved by Franky

The slash cuts the figurehead of the giant's ship, better that than Bonney's head, but now she's tuckered out since Distorted Future takes up stamina

As V. Nusjuro leaves the battle and we pan to Zunesha and the Iron Giant we confirm that the void century ended with Joy Boy's defeat

It's not the biggest revelation since the WG rule the world after all, but it also puts further context into all the regrets with Joy Boy and his comrades we have read about in the past

To limit the amount of life signs on the island, V. Nusjuro takes more drastic action, cutting the entire Labophase in half

This causes the CP agents and the bubbled Seraphim to fall to the Fabriophase below

As the Gorosei let gravity try to take those who swore loyalty to them, Vegapunk makes the latest revelation

Sea travel is perilous around the world, it's common knowledge, but a millenia ago it was not; the ancient world, the civilizations that existed in the void century, it's all underwater - they built on top of the ancient world

Also I gotta point out there's some absolutely stunning visual panels in this chapter

Koushiro and the Revolutionary Army also react to the broadcast, only he, Sabo and Dragon appear pensive

Coco Village!? Gen san how you doing! And Nojiko! Still preferred the short hair but she don't care about no global warming she has tangerines to look after XD

Vegapunk continues; before there were vast continents, which'd explain why so few would go out to sea beforehand, and with all of the evidence underwater it explains how the WG can erase a century of history, but it goes deeper - figuratively and literally

Since the void century, the sea has rose 200 METERS!

That's over 600ft; the size of the United Tower, bigger than the Great pyramid of Giza, and that's all Water Level

Naturally, the listeners - the navy - are floored by this revelation, since a Warship is only 60m, but other soldiers tell them to stop listening

There's at least some sense of loyalty - or preservation of cost - for the marines to try and 'rescue' the CP agents and Seraphim from gravity-induced splatter, a la one of their world leaders

Alas Mock Town must mock, there is one among the crowd who isn't laughing though, another one seems to have ignored gravity

Sakura kingdom - mainly Dalton - reflects on the revelation, with Kureha mulling how things continue to get interesting

Oh hey, Miss Goldenweek! Passing by as the island uses a mountain to compare the height

At Water Seven (given the Galley La jacket) Vegapunk discusses how such a thing can occur, and reveals it to have been man-made

Morgans is livid about all this BIG ASS NEWS, having to be shushed by Vivi

Vegapunk continues to show his work; there were no signs, no studies, no science to confirm a natural build up, and if it was natural it would've been made known as a world-altering event

He hints at the use of the Mother Flame, confirming his suspicions

The Gorosei - except Ju Peter, wormy is not getting a lot of love from Oda atm - look furious as Vegapunk continues to note that the sea level rises were caused by the ancient weapons

Those weapons remain dormant, waiting to be used again

And as we pan over to Imu Vegapunk reveals something both horrifying and sobering at the same time: The War Is Not Over

Every island was once a mountain

But time didn't have the influence it should have, Oda has been getting biblical with this lore drop by giving us the common religious theme of The Deluge. Flood myths exist in many religious stories and mythology (which I will keep separate to not ruffle feathers), most common because of Christianity is the flood in the Book of Genesis, which we've already touched upon in One Piece given Noah's Ark. Since we tread nearer to Elbaf it's worth noting that a flood as a role in Ragnarok also;

"the sun becomes black and the earth sinks into the sea, the stars vanish, steam rises and flames touch the heavens."

Once more this was a chapter where Vegapunk's broadcast takes more priority over the things we're seeing, but there are some stunning panels to enhance the revelations, we see also the Gorosei flaunting their haki showing the level they are while the monster trio remain incapacitated or indisposed. I'm at least proud of Franky coming in for some more rescue clutch action, but with Stussy I'm less convinced now that she'll be killed by Lucci, Kaku's silence is loud and maybe, just maybe, they can all see this as a way out. The CP agents are likely not to survive the fall, the Seraphim will and probably will live to fight the Straw Hats under orders of the Gorosei or York, they will likely be used more since the Pacifista are compromised. As for the revelations, a mix of stuff we assumed being confirmed and stuff that theorists have pondered and been vindicated, it's all underwater, which explains the walls in Wano, why Zou is on Zunesha's back (sidebar, how fucking long are Zunesha's legs? like it's gotta be 200m+ submerged alone), and why Water Seven's ruins run so deep.

Still, I enjoyed all the cameos, appreciated seeing Carrot again, and a Vivi cameo is always nice, plus I had to laugh with Demaro Black and Foxy, like who's next? Kuro? Morgan? Krieg? Arlong? Enel?? We have to get to Buggy and the Cross Guild at one point ofc, plus this could be an avenue to reveal the status of Perona, Moria, Weevil, etc.

but outside of that, little progress from the Straw Hats and the incident unfolding in Egghead right now, but given the revelations Vegapunk is giving the Straw Hats time, the Gorosei aren't focusing on them, they're looking for the broadcast snail - and I don't think it's even on the island.

[mariacallous]

Political insiders like U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips have been expressing doubts about Joe Biden for years. Yet Biden just keeps winning. Voters have elected him to national office three times in four elections. Those voters also gave him the biggest midterm win for a Democratic president in 60 years. Biden has earned those votes by delivering the strongest domestic leadership since LBJ, and the strongest international leadership since JFK. He is the best candidate we have in 2024, and the only thing holding him back is the doubters in his own party.

The very fact that Biden was able to beat Donald Trump and be sworn into office in a peaceful transfer of power met an important test. Peaceful, you ask? Certainly former President Trump's actions, and those of his mob, were not peaceful. But Biden sailed through all of the calamity with apparent calm, acting as though there was never any question that the Constitution and the rule of law would prevail. He was always confident in us.

The immediate task of the new president was grappling with a nation divided over COVID and the need to provide economic support to families struggling through the pandemic. The American Rescue Plan put billions of dollars into the hands of working-class Americans. The economy boomed, driven by demand from workers and families spending money on necessities. Child poverty dropped by 40%, and American families have seen wages rise at levels not seen since the 1960s. Today, the strength of the American economy is pulling the rest of the world forward, despite the global struggle with inflation.

It is easy already to forget the size and scope of the Biden infrastructure bill, which will modernize American communities and our economy for a generation and more. Roads, bridges, transit, the electrical grid, water infrastructure, broadband — the whole platform for growth in the nation will be built out and create millions of American jobs.

Perhaps most significantly, Biden's so-called Inflation Reduction Act will transform our energy economy and enable America to meet its greenhouse gas reduction goals. This will put us in the driver's seat for pushing other nations to meet their goals. There is no larger threat to our nation and the global economy than rising global temperatures, increased severe weather and the loss of a precious ecological and cultural heritage. The pandemic was a light breeze compared to the impending storm of global climate destruction, and the Inflation Reduction Act was a strategic move to allow us to lead in stopping it.

The Inflation Reduction Act could also be called the Chinese Divestment Act. Not only does the energy policy address our need to transition to renewable energy, but it creates enormous incentives for companies to invest in technology and manufacturing in North America. No other president in our lifetime would offer an American working family $7,000 to buy an electric car made in America. The Inflation Reduction Act is exactly the industrial policy this country has needed for so long.

Just a few years ago, Chinese economic power coupled with Russian weapons of war appeared to be a genuine threat to the American-led international order. Autocrats were rising while traditional Western democratic institutions were in disarray. Some people were comparing America to Weimar Germany and seeing similarities to the weakness of democratic nations in the face of fascism.

Russia's illegal and inhumane invasion of Ukraine came at exactly the wrong time — for Russia and China. Putin threw down an enormous challenge in front of the American-led alliance. We advanced as one against him. Biden worked with Europe to accept major economic pain as a price of confronting Russian aggression. The Biden response to Russian aggression simultaneously revived the democracies' power in the world and reminded us that autocracies are always fundamentally weak.

In just three years, Joe Biden's leadership has revived democracy, defeated a pandemic, raised millions of Americans out of poverty, revitalized American infrastructure, addressed global warming and weakened authoritarian nations. He also keeps winning elections and confounding all his critics. Congressman Phillips: What more do you want?

Ryan Winkler, of Golden Valley, is the former DFL majority leader of the Minnesota House.

[wajjs]

Translation/transcript:

Have you ever wondered what interest the UK has in occupying two islands that are 12 thousand kilometers away, over 191 years?

(Text over the image within the dark blue square: The forceful takeover of the Malvinas in 1833 wasn’t an isolated event: it answered to a policy that sought to ensure the influence of the United Kingdom on the American continent.)

The colonization of the Islas Malvinas (Falkland Islands) reveals some of the motives of the colonization that began in January 3, 1833:

Around 1 thousand kilometers away, down south, is Antarctica, territory over which the UK maintains sovereignty claims that overlap with Argentina’s and Chile’s.

(Antarctica has 70% of the world’s fresh water reserves, plus large quantities of minerals and hydrocarbons.)

To the East is the Atlantic Ocean, where the UK also has control over the Georgias Islands and Sandwich Island, Tristan da Cunha, Santa Elena and Ascensión—where the UK has an air base.

(Text within the dark blue square: the Atlantic is the most traveled ocean in the planet and brings 1.5 billion of dollars per year to the global economy.

The UK owns a chain of islands that surrounds South America: The Georgias Islands, Sandwich Island, Tristan da Cunha, Santa Elena and Ascensión.

The air base in the Ascensión Island is used together by the UK and USA.)

To the West, there’s the uninhabited Patagonia and the passages of Drake, Beagle and Magallanes, the only pathways that connect the Pacific with the Atlantic ocean beyond the Panamá canal.

(In the Pacific Ocean, the UK owns the Pitcairn Islands since 1838.)

Up North there’s South America with its invaluable riches, and the Caribbean islands that are part of the British crown, plus the tail end of the Cuenca del Plata—through which millions of tons of food are transported to the rest of the world.

(British colonies: British Virgin Islands, the Turcas and Caicos, the Bermudas, Caiman, Montserrat and Anguilla.

Members of the British commonwealth: Guyana, Barbados, Dominica, and Trinidad y Tobago.

Members of the British commonwealth that recognize UK’s monarchy as the supreme authority: Antigua y Barbuda, San Vicente and the Granadinas, Belice, Canada, Granada, Bahamas, Jamaica, Santa Lucia and San Cristóbal and Nieves.

Free sailing/travel through the Cuenca del Plata was always of interest to the UK, which culminated in the War of Parana in 1845-1850.)

Having control over the islands means having control over an enormous maritime surface, with control of maritime traffic and exploitation of fishing and hydrocarbon resources.

(The sovereignty of the Islas Malvinas also includes Islas Georgias and Sandwich del Sur, plus the maritime spaces around them, which in total constitute a surface of 2.600.000 km².

-The fishing industry in Islas Malvinas extracted 26 thousand millions of dollars in the last 40 years.

-It’s foreseen that in 2025 the oil exploitation will start in the islands.)

Maybe all of that explains why the Islas Malvinas are one of the most heavily militarized territories in the world, where the biggest military base of the southern hemisphere operates.

(The military, missile, naval and air base “Monte Agradable” is located 700km away from continental Antartida.

With around 1500 soldiers over a population of 3000 people total, the Islas Malvinas is one of the most militarized territories in the planet.)

Despite all the protests and arguments from Argentina, the UK maintains ownership of the islands for 191 years, violating the territorial integrity and Argentina’s maritime and bicontinental integrity.

Until our flag (Argentina’s) flies over the islands again, we must continue to denounce that the Islas Malvinas are and will be Argentina’s, always.

[ SOURCE ]

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Liftoff! NASA’s Europa Clipper Sails Toward Ocean Moon of Jupiter

The massive spacecraft heads for Europa to search for signs of whether the ocean thought to exist beneath the moon’s icy shell could support life.

NASA’s Europa Clipper has embarked on its long voyage to Jupiter, where it will investigate Europa, a moon with an enormous subsurface ocean that may have conditions to support life. The spacecraft launched at 12:06 p.m. EDT Monday aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The largest spacecraft NASA ever built for a mission headed to another planet, Europa Clipper also is the first NASA mission dedicated to studying an ocean world beyond Earth. The spacecraft will travel 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers) on a trajectory that will leverage the power of gravity assists, first to Mars in four months and then back to Earth for another gravity assist flyby in 2026. After it begins orbiting Jupiter in April 2030, the spacecraft will fly past Europa 49 times.

“Congratulations to our Europa Clipper team for beginning the first journey to an ocean world beyond Earth,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “NASA leads the world in exploration and discovery, and the Europa Clipper mission is no different. By exploring the unknown, Europa Clipper will help us better understand whether there is the potential for life not just within our solar system, but among the billions of moons and planets beyond our Sun.”

Approximately five minutes after liftoff, the rocket’s second stage fired up and the payload fairing, or the rocket’s nose cone, opened to reveal Europa Clipper. About an hour after launch, the spacecraft separated from the rocket. Ground controllers received a signal soon after, and two-way communication was established at 1:13 p.m. with NASA’s Deep Space Network facility in Canberra, Australia. Mission teams celebrated as initial telemetry reports showed Europa Clipper is in good health and operating as expected.

“We could not be more excited for the incredible and unprecedented science NASA’s Europa Clipper mission will deliver in the generations to come,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Everything in NASA science is interconnected, and Europa Clipper’s scientific discoveries will build upon the legacy that our other missions exploring Jupiter — including Juno, Galileo, and Voyager — created in our search for habitable worlds beyond our home planet.”

The main goal of the mission is to determine whether Europa has conditions that could support life. Europa is about the size of our own Moon, but its interior is different. Information from NASA’s Galileo mission in the 1990s showed strong evidence that under Europa’s ice lies an enormous, salty ocean with more water than all of Earth’s oceans combined. Scientists also have found evidence that Europa may host organic compounds and energy sources under its surface.

If the mission determines Europa is habitable, it may mean there are more habitable worlds in our solar system and beyond than imagined.

“We’re ecstatic to send Europa Clipper on its way to explore a potentially habitable ocean world, thanks to our colleagues and partners who’ve worked so hard to get us to this day,” said Laurie Leshin, director, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Europa Clipper will undoubtedly deliver mind-blowing science. While always bittersweet to send something we’ve labored over for years off on its long journey, we know this remarkable team and spacecraft will expand our knowledge of our solar system and inspire future exploration.”

In 2031, the spacecraft will begin conducting its science-dedicated flybys of Europa. Coming as close as 16 miles (25 kilometers) to the surface, Europa Clipper is equipped with nine science instruments and a gravity experiment, including an ice-penetrating radar, cameras, and a thermal instrument to look for areas of warmer ice and any recent eruptions of water. As the most sophisticated suite of science instruments NASA has ever sent to Jupiter, they will work in concert to learn more about the moon’s icy shell, thin atmosphere, and deep interior.

To power those instruments in the faint sunlight that reaches Jupiter, Europa Clipper also carries the largest solar arrays NASA has ever used for an interplanetary mission. With arrays extended, the spacecraft spans 100 feet (30.5 meters) from end to end. With propellant loaded, it weighs about 13,000 pounds (5,900 kilograms).

In all, more than 4,000 people have contributed to Europa Clipper mission since it was formally approved in 2015.

“As Europa Clipper embarks on its journey, I’ll be thinking about the countless hours of dedication, innovation, and teamwork that made this moment possible,” said Jordan Evans, project manager, NASA JPL. “This launch isn’t just the next chapter in our exploration of the solar system; it’s a leap toward uncovering the mysteries of another ocean world, driven by our shared curiosity and continued search to answer the question, ‘are we alone?’”

More About Europa Clipper

Europa Clipper’s three main science objectives are to determine the thickness of the moon’s icy shell and its interactions with the ocean below, to investigate its composition, and to characterize its geology. The mission’s detailed exploration of Europa will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet.

Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, NASA JPL leads the development of the Europa Clipper mission in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The main spacecraft body was designed by APL in collaboration with NASA JPL and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The Planetary Missions Program Office at Marshall executes program management of the Europa Clipper mission.

NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at NASA Kennedy, managed the launch service for the Europa Clipper spacecraft.