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pod-together · 2 years ago

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Day 2 Reveals!

Was It Really A Dark and Stormy Night? [text, audio] (Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types, Star Wars - All Media Types) written by wanderingjedihistorian, performed by Yuurei Summary: “According to several holos I’ve seen, this is the part where we tell stories,” Crys declared. The others turned to him. “What kind?” Wooley asked, excited by the idea. Three For All (Leverage, The People - Zenna Henderson) written by FlutterFyre, performed by Hagar Summary: Eliot’s backstory contains more secrets than his team can possibly imagine. Or so he thinks. Inosculation [text, audio] (Undertale (Video Game)) written by ColourfulVoid, performed by GoLBPodfics Summary: You wake up. In a bed of flowers, in a land of monsters. You walk. Through a confusing world, through adversity and forward. You hear it. Whispers in the back of your mind that grow stronger and stronger. Again. You wake up. - - - You’re pulled towards the patch of flowers. A faint scent of buttercups mingles with iron, the chill presence hovering over your shoulder. You toy with the edge of your sleeve, staring out at nothing. You motion towards the flower pile, inviting commentary. “Golden flowers. They must’ve broken your fall.” You stare at the patch of flowers. They stare right back at you. Pod-Together: A Community Effort (Community (TV), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)) written by FandomisOhana, performed by gracicah Summary: A meditation on writing fanfiction, as told by UnicornThespianBookworm (FandomIsOhana) with absolutely no interference from any other parties, real or fictional.* Written in Comic Sans, recorded by a consummate professional**, clocking in at 1105 words for readers and 8:55 for listeners, and directed by critically acclaimed cinematographer Abed Nadir***. *This is a bold-faced lie. **See previous footnote. ***He wishes. clear as the air that I breathe [text, audio] (Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, Star Wars - All Media Types) written by Flowerparrish, performed by GhostCwtch Summary: “I don’t think I’m anything.” “No,” he disagrees, this time not bothering to hesitate and confirm with the Force. “You are yourself. That is something. But you do not need to be a boy or a girl to be yourself.” storyhouse storyhour (陈情令 | The Untamed (TV), 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù) written by frostferox, performed by mahons_ondine, PandaReads, rhythmia, and semperfiona_podfic Summary: All your favorite characters at a teahouse listening to a storyteller hype up the Wen Sect Time Comes Again (Charmed (TV 1998)) written by flipflop_diva, performed by Nymphie_Wolf Summary: When a demon sends Paige and Chris back in time to 1988, there is only one person they can count on for help if they ever want to get back home. Holy interdimensional displacement, Batman! (Batman (1966), Batman: Wayne Family Adventures (Webcomic), Batman - All Media Types) written by KitKaos, performed by youhaveahomeinmyheart Summary: With a sound like silent thunderclap, our dauntless defenders were gone. Vanished without a trace, and only the low, rumbling laughter of King Tut remained in their stead. Could it really be that Batman and Robin had been outsmarted this time? OR: The 1960s Dynamic Duo travels to today's B:WFA universe A Friendly Monster In The Archives (The Magnus Archives) written by Koschei_B, performed by crawfishing Summary: Sasha gives a statement about surviving the Prentiss attack. Eric in Montréal (Check Please! (Webcomic)) written by weneedtotalkaboutsherlock, performed by RattleandHum Summary: "What kind of car do you have, by the way?" "Oh, it's a Jeep. Why?" Eric asks. "Hm. If I were you, brah, I'd invest in a subway card," Shitty says, with a wink. "Let's go meet the guys." Trick 17 (人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù) written by glymr, performed by Cathalinareads Summary: Shang Qinghua makes a surprisingly attractive woman. But Shen Yuan is gay now...isn't he?

#podfic #fanfic #scum villian self saving system #check please #the magnus archives #batman #charmed #the untamed #mo dao zu shi #star wars #community #brooklyn nine nine #undertale #leverage #the people #star wars clone wars

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maessian · 4 years ago

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Representation in S&D/B&H:

Or lack of... what is there is done badly.

Coco Monvoisin:

A black woman - “rich brown skin of her hands”,

Has had female partners as well as male -

“This wasn’t the first time Coco had revisited Babette, her oldest friend and lover, for comfort in times of strain.” However, Babette only appears for a tiny section of the book, and iirc is portrayed quite negatively in S&D.

In B&H the focus is mainly on a Coco/Beau/Ansel sort of love triangle, Babette is left behind very quickly.

Side note: At one point is burned by Lou, a white woman.

Essentially she is the black best friend trope

Beauregard Lyon (Beau):

Apparently coded as half Polynesian (according to this review) - I didn’t pick this up at all, but he does speak this language to his parents - “taeae”, “Mau tuahine iti”, “metua vahine” (Google translate says this is Maori)

Mentions of many female lovers, a lot of them are also named: “Indeed, before you, there was a buxom blonde by the name of Evonne.”, “Her name was Apollinia.”

One mention of an unnamed male lover “When I found my next lover - a peer in my father’s court [...] I was forced to flee to these very tunnels to escape his laughter. I couldn’t look him in the eye for a year.”

If bisexual, falls under the promiscuous bisexual trope

Jean Luc Toussaint:

“and his brown skin glistened with sweat” - portrayed as the villain until the end of B&H, when they form a temporary alliance.

Seraphine and Zenna:

two very minor characters, dating each other

“Oh no, dear boy, I fear if romance is what you seek, you shall be markedly disappointed. Zenna’s and Seraphine’s very souls are intertwined. Cosmic, I tell you”

This is all that is said about their relationship

Liana:

The Beast of Gevaudan’s daughter - a werewolf, a background character who drops everything to help Reid, despite really owing him nothing (even though she thinks she does, but I already have a post on that). Lou does not treat her with respect.

“Copper skin. Black hair.”

Copper skin is very ambiguous as Reid’s hair has also been described as copper in this very same book: “his square jaw, his full mouth, his copper hair”.

Blaise :

(Beast of Gevaudan) - werewolf

Had a male “mate” who took his own life when Reid killed their son.

“When your brethen slew Adrien’s biological parents, we adopted him as our own. When you slew Adrien, my mate took his own life.” [...] “He never met Liana or Terrance. He would’ve loved them. They deserved his love.”

All this is Reid’s fault, and yet he still ends up helping Reid.

Toulouse and Thierry (twins)

“Tall, Russet-skinned” - russet and copper are similar - minor characters, exist to help teach Reid magic isn’t bad and validate him when Reid finally does accept magic.

#for reference #if ive forgotten something or gotten something wrong please add on!!#anti blood and honey #anti shelby mahurin

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herbgerblin · 5 years ago

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Two three months ago I started working on this floral irpe (plus angus and Kravitz) pic because in my head I was like “I love drawing flowers!” Cut to now, where I still love drawing flowers, but slightly less because this was way more laborious than I thought.

This took forever to post because writing the descriptions required more braincells than I had to spare. Biggest shoutout to @dualityandsuch for giving me a hella helpful list of flowers and their meanings! You’re the real mvp!

Not all the flowers listed are featured, but I think I got the bulk of them. Flower meanings and Outfit descriptions under the cut!

Lucretia: Forget me nots, Bramble (remorse), Hyacinth (please forgive me), Meadow Saffron (growing old), Mourning Bride (I have lost all), Pine (Time and faith)

Merle: Almond Blossom (Thoughtfulness), Balm of Gilead (time curing/healing), Flax (I feel your kindness), Flowering Rush (Confidence in Heaven), Magnolia (Love of Nature)

Davenport: Clyanthus (worldliness), Convolulus (bonds), Moonwort (forgetfulness), Zennae (absent friends), Stargazer lilies

Taako: Clematis (Artifice, mental beauty), Coxcomb (foppery), Fern (Fascination; Magic; Sincerity; Confidence and Shelter), Carolina Jasmine (Separation)

Lup: Sweet Pea (Departure; I am sorry I must leave), Sunflower, Bay leaf (I change but in dying”), Fraxinella (fire), Holly (am I forgotten?), Satin Flower (sincerity)

Barry: Roses (love), Globe Amaranth, Red Camellia (You're a flame in my heart), Milkwort (Hermitage), Mountain Ash (I watch over you; Prudence), Zinnia (I mourn your absence; Thoughts of absent friends)

Magnus: Arbor Vitae (devotion, friendship), French Honeysuckles (rustic beauty), Gladiolus (ready armed), White heather (Protection), Juniper (I will protect you)

Kravitz: Snap dragons, Henbane, Amaranth (immortality), Poppy (Eternal Sleep; Oblivion; Imagination), Cabbage Rose (Ambassador of love), Passion flower (Religious fervor; Devotion)

Angus: Alstoemeria, Purple Iris (Your friendship means so much to me; Faith; Hope;), Hawkweed (Quicksightedness), Verbena (Family union)

[ID: From left to right. Taako is a tanned skinned male elf with long blond hair in a braid. He is wearing a light purple wizard’s hat with matching riding pants. he wears a dark purple cape over a navy blue shirt with light blue sleeves. He wears knee-high boots that are also navy blue. He wears a crown of flowers around his head, under the brim of his hat. His shirt sleeves and boots are also decorated with flowers.

Merle is a dark skinned, male dwarf with a bushy, white beard. He wears a green tunic. He wears a light green shirt and matching trousers under it. He has on dark green boots and green fur around his collar. Tucked into his sash and hair bun are assorted flowers of white, pink and blue.

Magnus is a light skinned human man with drak, reddish brown hair and beard. He wears a dark brown jacket over a red vest, and white shirt witht he sleeves rolled up. His trousers are tan colored, and are tucked into dark brown knee-high books. He wears a reddish orange flower crown and a long wreath hangs around his neck.

Davenport is a light skinned gnomish man with bright red hair and a spiffy mustache. He wears a mustard yellow, double breasted uniform and dark brown shoes. He hands large patches of bright pink flowers on both shoulders and tucked into his hair.

Lucretia is a dark skinned, human woman with short grey hair. She wears a long, periwinkle colored, caped gown. She wears a blue and white flower crown and has large patches of flowers coming out of the shoulders of her cape.

Angus is a dark skinned, human boy with brown hair and glasses. He wears a peach vested shirt and matching socks. His shorts are navy blue and his shoes are tan. He wears a flower crown of red, yellow, and purple flowers. They are also tucked into the front of his vest collar.

Barry is a light skinned, human man with dark brown hair. He wears an all denim suit, with a darker-washed jacket. He wears a matching blue necktie and the jacket had a gold trimmed collar. He wears a flower crown. Tucked of either side of his lapel are bright red and pink flowers, which are strung together by a red cord.

Kravitz is a dark skinned man with long black dreadlocks. He wears a black and grey double-breasted suit with a black cravat. Over one shoulder is a knee-length black cape, decorated in large paintings of roses and poppies. He wears a matching flower crown. The cape is held over his shoulders by a rose shaped latch.

Lup is a tan skinned, female elf with curly blonde hair. She wears a reddish-pink corseted dress, with puffy sleeves and skirt. The sleeves and bottom of the skirt are filled with in-sewn flowers. She wears long, red strappy heels. On her hands are red gloves. She wears a big flower grown of gold, red, and yellow flowers. End ID.]

#the adventure zone #taz balance #ipre #kravitz #angus #my art #herbgerbart

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comfort-questing · 4 years ago

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extra hands

"...here I am, sir, but - I'm not a medic. I'm just here to be a courier and help with bandages and such-"

"I don't need another medic. And we’re all busy anyway." The bony young man leaning in the doorway, smock stained with blood in sharp contrast to the cleanness of his hands and face, looked Zenna up and down. "Just a pair of hands. Come on."

There was someone screaming somewhere. That wasn't new. There had been someone screaming more often than not, here in the hospital set just a few blocks behind the city wall, ever since the siege had snapped into violent back-and-forth sorties and sabotages. Zenna tried not to think about it too hard as she followed the medic into the dim hallway, tried not to look into the doorways open on either side, breathing down shallow gulps of the air heavy with the scent of blood and smoke and strong soap.

The door she followed him into led into a dimness, and as it patted shut the screaming was a little more muffled, and the ragged sound of someone's panting breaths immediately apparent. Zenna felt the skin on the back of her neck crawl.

"I need you to hold her still. I can't get the arrows out if she keeps struggling like this." The medic pointed to the huddled shape on the cot, just now visible to Zenna in the half-light. "All right?"

Zenna swallowed hard. The room smelled of blood despite the door being shut. She was about to refuse, to gasp something about this not being her job, then blinked as the medic struck a match and lit the oil lamp’s wick, flooding the space with abrupt gold.

The figure on the cot raised their head: ragged unkempt dark hair falling free of its long braid, bruised pallid skin, a pair of wide haunted eyes that seemed to take up more of the face than they ought. There was a mess of scarlet bloodstains across the front of her shirt, beneath her open tattered jacket; blood ran in bright rivulets down the back of the hand she’d pressed to her left side, splayed fingers guarding the two splintered arrow-shafts jutting out.

The soldier didn’t seem to see them, not until the medic was right beside her cot, Zenna nervously shadowing behind him. Then she gasped and shrank away, the motion making her cough, and the cough starting a fresh trickle of blood at the corner of her mouth where there were stains already drying.

“No,” she whispered, her voice just a faint sound on top of weak breath. “No, no, no - “

“Yes,” the medic said, tiredly. He turned to the tray of tarnished metal instruments on the table nearby. “You - what’s your name - “

“Zenna, sir.”

“ - Zenna, keep her still, hold her down.”

The soldier didn’t shrink away from Zenna as she knelt by the cot. Only stared at her, wide-eyed, silent except for her sharp painful breathing. She flinched as Zenna reached for her wrist, trying to guide her hand away from the arrow wounds.

“C’mon,” Zenna said. Her own voice was shaky in her ears. “The medic’s got to take care of you, all right? We need to get you better. I’m sorry it hurts, I’m sorry...”

She didn’t seem to be listening. Zenna pulled a little, and it was almost frightening how easy it was to override the soldier’s strength now, to tug her hand away and interlace her own fingers with the clammy-cold, callused ones.

“C’mon. It’s all right, it’s all right.” Zenna didn’t really believe herself, but what else was she supposed to say? She wasn’t a medic, she didn’t know what to do - just to be there, this stranger’s hands in hers -

“Marya.”

The soldier’s eyes fixed on Zenna’s now.

“Marya,” she said again, in words as light as feathers on the wind. “Where’d you - where’d you come from? I thought you were - safe, I thought you were gone away - agh - “

“Hold her - “ the medic’s exasperated snapping, as he finished cutting the sodden cloth back from the wounds.

Zenna leaned further forward, the smell of blood almost sickening in her nose, grabbing at the soldier’s left hand and using her body to pin the right one down. Their faces were close now, close enough that she could feel the other woman’s breath on her cheek, and still those terrified eyes were watching her as if she were the answer to all questions.

“I thought you were gone to the country,” the soldier said again. “Auntie said you and the others... But you came back, you - came back - “

Zenna swallowed hard.

“Came back,” she said, through the tightness in her throat. “I’m here. I’m staying here till you’re better.”

One corner of the soldier’s mouth twitched up, flaking the drying blood clotting there.

“Right. Right. Of - course you wouldn’t go.”

“No.” She squeezed the soldier’s hand in hers, thought she felt an answering squeeze back. “I wouldn’t go.”

In a moment she’d feel guilty for this. Maybe. Zenna didn’t know. Just that this was what she needed to do, right in this moment, keeping the charade up as the medic eased the first rough arrowhead free of the holes in the soldier’s side, a gush of blood following.

The grip on her hands tightened till she felt her fingers numbing. The light in the room from the oil lamp seemed to dim, then brighten again, as if she were the one bleeding out on the cot; Zenna forced herself to breathe, despite everything, because she couldn’t pass out now. If nothing else, the medic would be terribly disappointed in her -

She wished she was still out in the storeroom with the children, rolling bandages up. That was easier, far easier...

“We’ll both go.” The soldier had her eyes closed now, eyelashes starkly laid against her transparent skin. “We’ll - after the war - it’ll be all right - “

“Yes. We’ll both go.” Zenna swallowed hard.

“Marya - “

I’m not Marya, Zenna wanted to say. But she didn’t, couldn’t.

“ - do you think - “

- hold on, breathe, let’s both just breathe -

“ - do you - think I could - sleep now - “

“Yes.” Zenna laid the soldier’s hands together on the cot, folded them gently; it didn’t take any effort to do so now, whether there was resistance or no. Above her, the medic sighed, then re-adjusted his grip on the probe he held.

“ - for just - a little while - “

“Yes,” Zenna said. “Yes, you can sleep now.”

As if that was the cue she had been waiting for, the soldier coughed again and winced, licking her bloodied lips. Her eyelids flickered, but didn’t make it open all the way. Zenna could feel the moment that consciousness left her, the sudden limpness of her tense body, the tightness of her clenched jaw relaxing. For one dreadful moment Zenna couldn’t tell if she were still breathing or not, but the small tendril of blood at the side of her mouth still ebbed and dripped onto the cot below with the rhythm of her damaged lungs.

Zenna didn’t let go. Because she was pretty sure Marya, whoever she was, wouldn’t have let go - not until the medic had finished the job, had pinned together muscle and flesh again with stitches and wrapped bandages, had tugged the blankets back up over the soldier’s motionless form.

“You can go now,” said the medic. “Thank you. That was - that was a help.”

“Will she - will she be all right, sir?” Zenna hated how small and plaintive her voice sounded, then.

“I can’t say. I’ve done what I can.” He was cleaning his hands then with a damp cloth and soap in a basin, the water darkening quickly. “I’ll get one of the aides to take her to an open bed in the ward. You can go back to your couriers and bandage-rollers.”

And then he was gone, the door shutting behind him.

Somewhere, someone was still screaming, more quietly now, as if exhausted from the long horror. Somewhere further off Zenna thought she heard the shouts from outside, where goodness only knew what was going on in the streets; if the enemy got this far inside the walls, there really wasn’t much that could be done anymore, so she tried not to worry about it. Only to sit and watch the nameless soldier’s breaths shudder through her, as the oil lamp’s wick burned low, and by and by the door opened again to let the aides in with a stretcher.

“Miss? Are you - “ one of the aides asked, pausing. “Do you want - “

“She’s a friend,” she heard her own voice saying, hoarsely.

“Come with us, then.” There was warmth and sympathy in the aide’s tired voice. “You can sit with her in the ward, keep an eye on her there.”

“Thank you,” she said, and meant it. The soldier was limp as a doll as they slid her onto the stretcher, too defenseless now to leave. If she woke up she might be frightened, Zenna thought - she might want Marya again, after all. So an extra pair of hands would be needed again, and a voice to comfort in confusion...

“Thank you,” she said again, and followed.

#whump #ladywhump #tw surgery #hurt comfort #okay kind of comfort #comfort in uneasy progress #crow writes a thing

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handsmotif · 5 years ago

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ive been feeling so much love for my very many ocs lately so im gonna write some blurbs about them and the diff stories they are/were involved in under the cut PLEASE feel free to ask questions about any of them i love infodumping abt them

Aquapolypse basically years into the future humans mutated into fish people (and various other creatures but this primarily focuses on the fish people) Zak and Zenna - twinsies! based off betta fish! very pretty, very fashionable, very fighty. strong familial bond. i adore them Solv - based off piranhas! Baby’s First Nonbinary OC, they have a crush on Zenna, and very stereotypically Emo. listens to mcr and cries that they were born in the wrong generation Xavier - swordfish! VERY punk. he has a crush on Solv, who, as we know, has a crush on Zenna. 10th grade me wouldve played this up as a love triangle but i am so much wiser now and resolving it with polyamory

Untitled a the last unicorn-esque story, but with a wood elf! she’s the last of her kind but has no idea. she’s just been vibing in the woods for a while until modern times comes along and builds a housing plan right next to her woods. she gets lonely at night and sings sometimes, causing rumors to spread that the woods are haunted. 2 young people (i picture them to be about 20???) decide to check it out, find her, and immediately think shes adorable and bring her home as a wacky 3rd roommate. Rhathel - the elf in question! shes very strong and very smart and capable, but her lack of knowledge when it comes to modern human culture causes many to think she’s an idiot. NOT the case. she will beat you up V - disaster punk nb lesbian! falls in love with Rhathel almost instantly Carlos - distinguished gay(tm). V’s best friend and voice of reason. bit of a nerd and a techie. always got the Latest Gadgets. listens to carly rae jepsen and cries Untitled 2 But Superheroes a group of teens hanging out in places they shouldnt be leads to them getting involved in a freak accident that bestows them all with super powers! however, unlike a lot of superhero stories, they dont have any sort of mentor whatsoever to tell them how to be a hero, and well. when you leave these idiots to their own devices they are truly idiots! Lola/Lolita Light - the self proclaimed leader of the team. consumes a lot of superhero media and magical girl anime, thus reasons that she knows exactly what to do in these situations, but usually ends up getting them into worse places than they started. she gained the ability to manipulate light molecules and decided her alter ego should be a magical girl Ness/Frostbite - sarcastic and cold, but is actually the mom friend of the group. she loves her friends deeply but won’t say it. i very clearly picture her with blonde to blue ombre hair. she, as you may have guessed, can control ice and snow Brandon and Brendon - Those Assholes(tm). we all knew them in high school and probably got bullied by them a few times. i do love their character development though where they realize they’re assholes and start making up for it. anyway their powers work in conjunction and i havent *quite* figured out the mechanics of it yet, but they have to be in close proximity to each other in order to do anything. this effectively starts to rid them of their “no homo bro” attitude when they realize they literally have to hug every time they want to power up. i forgot what their alter egos were but i THINK it had something to do with storms and electricity?? i dont remember Dante/Inferno - the antagonist who eventually comes around and joins the team. he was initially part of the friend group but got so fed up with constantly being excluded and bullied by them that he literally formed a whole ass supervillain ego when he realized he had fire powers. the team does realize how shitty they were to him and they BOTH have redemption arcs.

Various scatterings of different ocs that dont necessarily come from any stories but i love them a lot Coronam - a spn demon oc i made in like 10th grade. goes by Corey for short. i still love him so much. he’s definitely an edgelord and i put him through the “would your oc be a tumblr sexyman�� quiz and the result was he would be on par with the onceler Blaze - a dnd character i made for a oneshot! they’re a tabaxi warlock and basically if you took meg from hercules’s backstory and mixed it with the song woman by kesha you would understand her.

#i dont expect anyone to read this but hgdklsa #i just love talking about them

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extraplanetarystory · 6 years ago

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Part 13

The next several days were as grueling as they were long. Getting out of bed for the first few mornings felt like a test and a mission in itself. Pilot, apparently, wasn't playing around when he brought up the stairwells, because we were made to walk them every day. And that was just the easy part of the physical conditioning. When I was certain a week had passed, Riche'e told me it had only been four days.

It was never ending. Up and down stairs. Rest. Walking, running on treadmills, breathing, passing out, standing, bending, rest, squatting, standing, sitting, walking, rest, up and down stairs. Every time the gravity was increased, the drama of it would start all over again. Every time the gravity increased, there was a wave of recruits becoming nauseous and-slash-or passing out, fewer and fewer with each increase as our bodies got used to the changes.

I'm proud to stay I never threw up and I only blacked out three times.

On day, I don't know, six, maybe?, I sat down in the middle of a flight of stairs, fearing I'd pass out and fall backwards before I could make to one of the benches they had on the landings between levels. And it might have been the direct middle. There were steps above, steps below, I was nowhere near a banister, and people were going around me. That was, until I was literally pushed to the side by Micje's boot and what was quickly becoming our official group sat around me. Micje sat next to me, Panda and Kama sat a couple steps above us, and Riche'e leaned on the railing at he faced us.

"Go on without me," I said, waving my arms and leaning back. I meant to lean against the steps and a banister, but ended up in Panda's lap. "I am dead for now, but I will catch up, I promise." She gave me a sympathetic fake pout and pat my head.

"Zurytarydi," Riche'e said. I only nodded, pretending I understood what he said. He was practically laying on the rail, head propped up heavily in his hand.

"Join us," I said, patting a step below me with the heel of my foot. Well, I more bobbed my leg than actually moved my foot, but he got the point and quickly shook his head.

"Right now, I feel like if I sat down, I'd be there until morning."

"I am not alone!" I shouted in relief. I'm glad to know I wasn't the only one of us that felt like there were dying.

"I'm with you two," Panda added. "These are the most comfortable stairs I've ever been on."

"There's only one more floor," Kama and Micje said in unison.

"It goes forever and you know it," I shot back.

Kama nodded.

And after looking up to the steps above us with an almost wistful look, Micje nodded too.

"If we can't make it three floors, we're never going to make it in Zega," he said.

And that was the worst part. The building wasn't that big. It went up three stories from the ground.

"Once we get use to this gravity, I'm making these stairs my lenexe." Panda looked like she'd never taken a sentence so seriously. Truly, the concept of climbing stairs had never been such a dramatic thought. Not to me, and probably not to anyone there.

"Screw gravity, we've been doing this for days." Micje tapped into another pocket of his seemingly reserves of energy and stood up. "Come on!" He playfully slapped Kama's shoulder as he started climbing again, and she sprung up to follow. She lightly tugged Panda's ponytail.

"Why can't we just relax?" Panda pulled herself out from under me and followed, leaving me lain on the hard stone steps. "Pilot told us to relax when we wanted! That qi'qop too!"

"We'll relax at the top!" Micje's voice echoed as they went.

My urge to do the right thing and follow was overridden by my desire to...not do that. Barring another Cerran attack, the final bit of the stairs wasn't going anywhere. Riche'e didn't follow either.

Speaking of that qi'qop— I sat up. "You and me should find Eddie. I want you to talk to him."

"Who? Oh, Uppau?" His eyebrows furrowed. "Why?"

"Because I just realized he's proof about Earth."

Riche'e's shoulders slumped. "Jiaal—"

"Rishie, no, listen!" I sat up more. "He will tell you everything! He knows everything about the Orphanage!"

He only made a frustrated sound, a grunt.

"We are already in Zega," I said. "It's not like this will put your place in it in danger. Please just hear him?"

"Why do you think he'll say anything you want him to?"

"Because he's my friend and he knows the truth about Earth, and you heard him. He quit. Will you listen to him?" If he didn't believe me, maybe Eddie's words will change his mind. He did want to know where rudkjurt came from, didn't he?

"Jiaal, the Orphanage—" He stopped and rubbed his eyes. But then he nodded. "Yeah, arlyxe. That would actually be interesting."

And that's where my next wave of energy came from. I leapt up and grabbed his hand, running down the stairs instead of up. I didn't know if Eddie was even in the building, but the fact I'd seen him more than once in passing had me hopeful he'd be there.

"This is perfect." I grinned, holding his hand tight lest he changed his mind. "We'll prove to you Earth exists and then you'll help me get home!"

"One thing at a time," he said. "I'll listen to him first, and then we'll figure out what's wrong with you."

"Hah hah. What's wrong with me is no one will listen. But Eddie's the perfect person! This is exactly why I am in Zega!"

More rudkjurt would be even better. When I was abducted, there were four other kids caged with me. If only we'd all gone to the same family. But Eddie had no reason to be loyal to the Orphanage anymore! He could tell Riche'e anything he wanted to know.

"You two are simply adorable." A hurried voice appeared beside us as a stranger seemed to come from nowhere. He put himself in front of us, grabbed our hands, then threw himself down the stairs, taking us with him.

I didn't understand what was happening next, but I screamed and fell through air. Instead of hitting the steps, I felt simultaneously weightless and heavy as the world spun and I just kept falling.

I saw a flurry of colors—blue, red, black, white, blue.

My back hit the ground first and all the air left my body. Gasping desperately, I looked around and tried to roll over, tried to stand. I was outside. I wasn't in the stairwell. I was alone. Riche'e wasn't next to me and neither was the stranger. I was laying in dirty grass. I was light. I was looking up at a twilit sky and rubble. I was looking at—

I was on Zi'inra. I was in the park. I wasn't just looking at rubble, I was looking at the ruins of the Zega tower and businesses and homes destroyed on the main road of Greater Zennae.

My head still spun and felt like my brain was trying to escape through my eyes. My chest hurt as I still gasped and tried to catch any ounce of breath I could.

"I just said outside!" Someone shouted nearby.

"I did! Isn't this more interesting?" Someone else said, the original stranger.

I rolled over to try and get a look at them, and saw the new stranger was already coming for me. Yet another man. His face was twisted, he looked livid as he reached for me. I tried kicking away, at him or the ground so I could get some distance, but he grabbed me and picked me up faster than my legs could move.

He held me up by my arms and the world spun again. He was grounding, though. As the world went around in bubbles and colors he smirked at me. Full on smirk. That was an evil smirk. With a heavy brow and narrowed eyes, he looked like he was having fun now. Way more fun than I was having.

Then I was heavy again and the vibrant, rushing colors gave way to the greens and browns of another city. I sagged in his grip. He said something I didn't hear and he dropped me.

I collapsed on a road of cobblestone and felt like someone was stepping on my chest.

He was gone.

Instead of gasping for air, I lay there hyperventilating and staring into the stone as the world became quiet around me. Eventually, I was able to become quiet too. My head stopped spinning. I could barely breathe, but no one but my own bodyweight was attacking me anymore.

I looked up, looked around, and hoped I was still on Mansheon. It was dark, the night sky glowing orange from a thick layer of clouds above the city. There wasn't a soul in sight. It was just dark streets and dark building spotlit by yellow street lights and building signs.

Where was Riche'e? Where did they drop me, and where did they drop him?

I looked around some more, praying anyone friendly would show up. There was no one. Were the cities on Mansheon really this quiet at night?

Was I really on Zi'inra just a minute ago?

That didn't matter. I needed to get back to the buffer building, and I had no idea where that was, much less where I was. I looked at the signs around me and cursed, yet again, the fact I never learned to read.

I chose a building, the nearest door, and decided that's where I needed to go. Putting all my strength into picking myself up, I never took my eyes off that door. Someone must be in there.

Dragging myself there was easier than the first time I was made to walk in Mansheon's full gravity, which had me wondering if I was even on Mansheon. I had to tell myself again that that dind't actually matter. I needed to get somewhere safe, then I could figure out what the hell just happened to me.

"Is anyone here?" I shouted, banging on the door with all my strength. It had a doorknob and was locked. "I need help!" Would anyone even come to the aid of a random person in the middle of the night here? I banged on the door some more, shouting again. When I realized no one was coming, I looked to the next building. I didn't wait until I made it to that door before I started shouting for help again.

Someone touched my shoulder. I screamed and fell, unable to hold myself up any longer. They caught me, just barely able to keep me from hitting the ground.

"What's going on?" It was a woman, a look of concern written clearly in her eyes, even in the dark.

"I need to get to the space dock," I said. "That first building."

"What?" Her eyebrows furrowed. "Which one?"

"The... the... first one?" I don't know!

"Did you come with Zega?"

I nodded. "I need to get back there." Some Zega recruit I looked like.

"That's on the other side of Kellan," she said. Oh my god. That meant somewhere between the length of New York City and Long Island and I didn't know which comparison was closer. But at least that meant I really was on Mansheon. And in the same city.

"Then is there anywhere I can stay until morning?" I felt like I was asking to be in a bad movie. And she looked like she was mulling over the same concept as she looked me up and down.

"I can take you to the District. There's some cheap places to room there."

That sounded like a place I didn't want to be, but I couldn't exactly argue at that moment, could I? "Thank you." I hated the next question. "Can I borrow money for that?"

She scoffed, and started pulling me to a wheeled, open-topped vehicle. "There's no way you're with Zega."

"I promise I am, I just..." I settled in the seat she pushed me into, welcoming the plushness cushioning the feel of the crushing gravity. "I do not know what happened. I wish I could explain. I was thrown here." Maybe that should be the title of my autobiography. I Was Thrown Here by Jiaal Foxise-formerly-Savanna-Morgan. Because I felt like I'd done nothing but get thrown around since I came to Sa'cra.

"Quite some event if you were thrown across the city." The vehicle revved to noisy life before she really even settle in her own seat. It sounded like an old truck coming to the end of its long, long life. It rolled like one too, creaking so much I wondered if I should've just made a temporary home of the street where I fell.

"I promise I will tell you if I ever figure it out."

"You expect to meet again?"

"I have to pay you back somehow. I am going to be on Mansheon for a while."

"If you're a Zega recruit screaming for help, you're either going to make it really far or wash out before training begins."

"I—you do not— ...That's fair." I mean, that's been the going assumption about me already, right?

The path she was taking us on suddenly went downhill, underground. What exactly is the District? The dark of the night gave way to more and more streetlights, then neon lights, and the tunnel opened up and had us driving on a road above...a cavernous city in itself. It was so bright, it might as well have been daytime already.

"I'm taking you to the cheapest juder I know."

"This is the District?" I was looking this way and that, unable to focus on any one thing as there was so much to look at. Neon signs, endless colors, projections, holograms, streets going around buildings, buildings that connected the roof and floor of the cave, buildings that were stalactites, flying cars and bikes buzzing in the air, and sounds... It was like highways and arcades and crowds all combined into one.

"Yeah, all first timers have that dumb look when they find out." I could hear the grin in her voice over everything else.

The road spiraled around one of the pillar buildings and set us in seemingly the only dark corner of the District. She handed me a few pieces of plastic. Wait, is this what physical money looked like here? It was shiny, iridescent, but weighed hardly a thing in my hand. Were these like quarters or dollars?

"That should be just enough for a night." She pointed to the (space) motel we were parked in front of. "Or do whatever you want. You'll be entertained for days down here." Looking back out to the brightly lit city, I believed it.

She gestured for me to get out.

"Wait, two things, quickly." I grabbed her hand. "Have you seen anyone else out of place like me? A man?"

"There's another one like you?" She shook her head. "Zega standards must be going down."

So that was a no. Where did Riche'e go?

"What's your name? So I can find you later?"

"Don't worry about it. Just get your jegyz back to Zega."

#original writing #science fiction #writing #extraplanetary

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nevinslibrary · 6 years ago

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Weird & Wonderful Wednesday

So much awesome going on in this novel. Not surprisingly since it’s by Octavia Butler.

The book starts in 1690 in Africa, but ends in the 1840s in the US. And it follows two characters, Doro, born even before the book starts, back in Ancient Egypt. And Anyanwu, an African woman who has amazing powers. Needless to say, they’re both immortal as well.

The back and forth between the two strong characters is amazing. I mean, he’s thousands of years old, and she has powers that stop even him (and how he rules over his people). It seemed like on every other page I was just astounded because the story got better and better.

I think it’s definitely my favorite of the books I’ve read of hers so far, and, it wasn’t until I finished the book that it’s part of the Patternist series too? Awesome!

You may like this book If you Liked: Ingathering by Zenna Henderson, The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin, or Those Who Walk in Darkness by John Ridley

Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler

#weirdandwonderfulwednesday #nmlRA #nevins memorial library #reader's advisory #wild seed #octavia e butler #patternist series

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guidedbygunpla · 4 years ago

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Gundam REDUX Side Story Chapter 3: Sins Against God and Man

“this country must’ve been beautiful at some point, feel kind of bad for having set half of it on fire” Dozle said with a laugh as their Gow flew over the Rocky Mountains, the remains of Salt Lake City below them, now looking like nothing but shattered glass strewn across the mountain. Zakus occupying the territory now, painted in stark white. Dozle, Char, Icelina and about 2 dozen crew men waited in the tiny room above the Mobile Suit hanger of the Gow, and watched as America drifted below them. The country had been ravaged during the Late AD and early UC by a monstrous drought and famine. A blight caused the great mono cultures of Corn and Soybean to die off, resulting in billions of farm animals being culled, the resulting food shortages resulted in hundreds of thousands starving to death. Poor water management in the south west caused hundreds to migrate elsewhere, and formerly rich and prosperous parts of the south west became completely abandoned. The country fractured in two due to political strife, in part due to arguments about how best to tackle the ecological disaster, resulting in the creation of the two countries the United States of Northern America and The Southern United American Republic in UC 0007. The North was able to barely survive the famine by switching to crops the blight wouldn’t effect, primarily potatoes and rhubarb. They tried desperately to genetically modify the corn and soy bean crops to be more resistant to the blight in the future, with only middling results. Resulting in food enough to only feed a quarter of their population. The south however was able to transfer largely to imported food, and fish, but they had a harder time dealing with the increasing desertification, the rampant dust storms, and the massive floods they were battered with year after year. Eventually, they became the first to honestly consider what so many other first world countries would in the coming years, they began the process of forcing their populations off world through the Federations colonial emigration plan, at first willingly….and then, as the years went by, and the droughts got worse, the famines got worse, and more and more people died. by force. the early days of the UC were like that though. The world was dying, and the only option left for so many was to leave.

With a smaller population the southern American Republic was able to stabilize their economy and began plans to help stop the desertification, as well as hopefully reverse it. However that would be dozens, if not hundreds of years down the line. The earth was sick. In the hundred years before the formation of the universal century charter, 2 world spanning wars, runaway pollution and the destruction of much of earths fresh water reserves, a series of small scale nuclear exchanges along with the ensuing sociological, and ecological pressures those put on the planet caused the amount of the earth that was desert to balloon resulting in vast areas of formerly agricultural land to be swallowed by the great deserts of the world. with crop failure, famine, water shortages, and societal collapse eating up much of the world. The Mojave stretching as far east as Missouri and as far north as Wyoming. The Sahara having swallowed up almost all the land as far south as Angola, and the Gobi going as far south as Qinghai. So much land lost to the great deserts of the world. What choice did they have?

The colony migration plan must’ve made so much sense back then, they must’ve thought they were saving so many millions of lives. if only they had known, Char thought to himself, that because of this all, one day, one of these colonies would come home, and crash into the earth so hard that it would split a tectonic plate in half. In a matter of months it would kill 3 billion of the remaining 6 billion people left on Earth. Through famine, floods and fires. Through volcanos, through tornados, through earthquakes. Life after life would end. All because of a want for power, a lack of caring about ones fellow man, about the world. A Want for control.

If only the people who wrote that damned charter knew what it might cause

If only people had taken better care of things ________________________________________________________________

The gow touched down near a large laboratory building. The smell of the sea strong in the air. Mendocino had largely been spared of the worst of the ecological collapse of the Country. It was lush and beautiful. A true paradise in hell Char thought to himself. “I haven’t really gotten to ask Dozle, why are we moving our headquarters to the Flanagan institute? “ he asked as the officers began the process of disembarking from the Gow

“orders from Supreme commander Gihren, we’re supposed to run some tests here and then likely we’re going to reassign you to a naval crew for a few weeks…..I tried to get you some time off the front line, think it’d do both of us some good to have some time to grieve” “Dozle, you don’t have to do something like that….really” “no, Char… I insist. My heart feels like its breaking everytime I think of Garma. I picture my Mineva, I picture Zenna. I cant imagine how you and Icelina feel. I can’t imagine how father is feeling, I pray his heart can take the stress. That’s why Gihren took charge of the military, he wanted to give father time to process this all. I think some fresh air, some time away from the front lines, it could do us all good.” char looked out at the beautiful scenery around the Gow

“you know I might take you up on that, make sure Icelina is taken care of here, she’s not just our Princess, she is still the daughter of the USNA’s president, who I believe is in power, even if its just in name.”

Dozle knodded at him as Char walked down the ramp to the ground below

The lab they were near was called the Flannigan institute for Zeonic Military Research. It had a… reputation. Soldiers got sent here, came back different. What went on inside the walls of the institute were classified. Char knew they would frequently send POWs here, and that a lot of their research resulted in new mobile suits and new weapons. “Mr. Aznable, please follow me” Char heard a voice call to him as he stepped off the ramp of the Gow “My name is Dr.Tonus, I am a researcher here at the institute, we have been reading over your exploits and wanted to show you around the facility and possibly run a simple test, just to show you what it is we research” “I’m really not the one you should be kissing up to, Commander Dozle is right there, if you are wanting additional funding I’d speak to him instead” Char spoke back in response

“sir this isn’t a request for more money, this is a request to show you, one of Zeons most decorated officers what is in our militaries future.

Char followed him into the building, there were people walking around the halls like in asylums of old, people who seemed confused, distraught, and lost just wandering the halls, dressed poorly and in various states of poor hygiene. It was revolting. The researcher led Char into a back room, where they could see into another room via 1 way glass.

“now Captain Aznable, watch our subject behind this glass. She will guess the cards that are shown on the television screen in front of you, that is showing us footage of a researcher in another lab who is acting as our sender”

Char looked into the room and a woman wearing a bright yellow dress, and of what he believed to be middle eastern decent was re arranging the cards on the table into the same pattern as the researcher on the television. “quite well, so she can perform simple card tricks…..fantastic use of Zeons resources” Char said dismissively

“eh, but watch this Captain Aznable…..I want you to imagine something, something concrete and real, something you know well, and hold that image in your mind” “Lalah, if you could can you read the mind of the man in the room with me, and tell me what it is he is picturing?” Char felt a wall of ice overtake him, his body tingling as if he was diving into a cold pool. The chill of it slid through his brain, feeling like a spear of ice rolled through his mind, peeling away at the layers of gray matter “he is picturing a man with dark black hair, they are in a bathroom with concrete floors and steel cabinetry. There is a smell of tobacco in the air” she said, her voice turning into a laugh towards the end as she realized what it was Char was remembering

“that’s enough. So what is this? Some psychic research program?” Char said turning and staring daggers in the researchers eyes

“…well, yes. Minovski particles make long range communication by radio waves too difficult, so we are researching controlling long range weapons through…..well less conventional means. And Lalah here has been the most successful of our experiments. She was brought to us from West Bengal, she was being used by a card shark there to help him gamble. When she grew obstinate, he abandoned her, and she was taken in to one of Zeons shelters in the area where our men found her, and shipped her back here for study.” “and the rest of the…..subjects, in this facility. Why are they so…..vile” “well, before Lalah, we had been experimenting with getting these abilities by grafting brains of clones of people with similar abilities onto the brains of POW and lower ranked officers, a super soldier program so to speak” “clones of people with similar abilities? Dr.Tonus, please elaborate….because what you are saying is making me want to pull my side arm out and personally shut this whole facility down right now….this sounds like human experimentation, and at that, forced human experimentation…..which as you know violates the antartic treaty as well as the teachings of Zeon Zum Deikun” “Captain, the war will be won by whoever can harness these powers first, and by who can harness them the best. As you have already seen, the federation has 4 pilots who can out pilot even you….surely they have already started to harness Newtypes for combat use” “Newtypes…..the people who Deikun said would be worthy of inheriting the earth, you think that means this? That it means psychics?” Char snapped at the man and pulled his gun, pointing it at the man

“yes sir, spend a few hours with Lalah, you will believe the same as we do, Newtypes…..they are worthy of salvation, we are simply trying to find a way to elevate the rest of us to their level” Char lowered his gun and looked back through the window, then at the small man, who said with no fear the evils he had committed……viewing them as aspects of Chars fathers teachings

“show me these clones…..I need to document this, send it back in a report to the high command.” “before we do that Captain, we do want to run some tests on you….we want to test a theory” ______________________________________________________________

Char found himself hooked up to a machine, a wreath around his head, and a blood pressure cuff on his arm “am I just testing the same thing that the woman from before was testing?” “yes Captain, I want you to clear your mind, and try to see what it is the woman in the room across from you is looking at” char looked at the cards in front of him, and thought about how stupid this all was…he did wonder though

He cleared his mind…and for a second he felt like he saw it, at the same time he felt it, there it was a line of ice through the middle of his brain, right into the top of his spine. he arranged the cards and the researcher knodded at him

“promising” he said as he took the cards away, and wheeled in a small box, with a T shaped item in it, the top bar balancing on a blade, like a knifes edge

“all I need you to do is to move the top part of this metal bar, so that it makes contact on either side of the case, this will trigger an electrical contact, and turn on a light in this office.” char emptied his mind and tried to slow his hands trembling and stared at the metal T

After about ten minutes just as the researcher started to walk towards the box to push it out of the room it tilted and made contact

“now…..now that we have finished your stupid tests, show it to me” Char said as he ripped the wreath off his head.

__________________________________________________________

Dr. Tonus walked Char into a basement, where all around him in vats were young women and men, all blond, all quite young. Dozens and dozens of them, tubes and wires hanging around them, and skewering their bodies.

“they are all clones of two children who were donated to the facility about a decade ago, we had been studying their abilities at that time, but our research wasn’t folded into the military until recently when Supreme commander Gihren decided that our research could be useful to the war effort.” char walked over to the tanks and looked at the faces of the children

“their features look familiar…who donated them?” “well…..unfortunately that is classified Captain Aznable….their lineage is unfortunately a state secret at this time” “ah, I see…..so they are his children, it’s unmistakable, the jaw line, the ears...they look just like Girhen when he was younger. Wonder who the mother was…that too is probably a state secret too isn’t it” Char said craning his neck to look back at the doctor

“well….yes…..unfortunately it is” “are the children, this mysterious man left here, are they still alive?” “yes they are taken care of in the eastern wing, they are about 13 years old now” “13, and how old are the children in these tubes? Surely they all haven’t been floating like this for 13 years.” Char said looking at the children, they looked to be in their late teens, early 20s, surely these clones weren’t so young. “well, we are injecting them Human Growth Hormone, a combination of Steroids and developmental enhancers and of course they are being dosed with sedatives so they are largely unresponsive, we really just need to get the brain to the right size so that we can excise the parts that we believe are responsible for the Newtype Phenomena. We then graft that part onto the brain of the test subject, though it has so far been unsuccessful…Lalah has been able to telepathically communicate with 2 of our test subjects who became nonverbal after the fact, and they seemed to have still been mentally capable, though we still need time to perfect the surgical process as well as the drug cocktail that will be required to prevent rejection of the parts of the brain that are grafted on” “I don’t understand…how would sticking someones brain matter onto your brain give you their powers?” Char said turning to face the man

“well, you see….this is difficult to explain, but when someone learns something often there is a physical region of the brain, a new organ that is grown. We noticed it in the late 20th century while examining Einstein’s brain. He had a knuckle shaped area behind his right ear, and we saw that same shape, that organ in people that had one thing in common with him, they were violinists. In a normal human brain, that region would be missing, just smooth gray matter but if they had studied the violin in childhood, there it was, the violinists knuckle right behind their right ear. A similar region we called the seat of the pianist would be closer to the center of the brains of those who had studied the piano. Our early tests were with excising those parts and implanting them in others, and surely enough often they could play the instrument in question after the surgery, though they lacked the muscle memory to properly coordinate their body with their mind. But the newtype phenomena is purely mental, we know if we keep experimenting we can uplift ourselves to their level. There is no muscle memory to overcome. “ char looked around, these were human beings

Their bodies were being harvested for war

They were being made into weapons, no not even weapons

Parts of a weapon

What happened to the child when their brain was harvested Casval wondered

Who thought up this monstrous idea

“who ordered this research? Who pushed for the cloning, the brain surgery” “well….Supreme Commander Gihren of course, and the use of them in military applications was further expanded by his sister, Rear Admiral Kycelia. She has begun production of Newtype use weapons to be used in the war effort, we just need to create a decent pool of soldiers for her to use first. “ “this is disgusting…” Char said as he turned away from the man. He began to walk out of the facility, Revolted. As he was about to reach the door though, he felt a line of ice sliding between the lobes of his brain once more. And a woman’s voice in his ears

“you saw the children in the basement didn’t you?” he didn’t know how to respond should he speak aloud, should he just think? Instead Char simply knodded

“it is monstrous isn’t it. I am scared every day they will come for me….that they will carve me up the same way they did those children” Char swallowed in fear as images of surgeons, doctors, and blood filled his mind, he felt like he was drowning in a horror movie

“please you have to take me away from here” Char stormed back into the building, past the lost souls that wandered the halls, and into the room where Lalah was still being studied, grabbing her by he arm he spoke aloud

“I am captain Charles Aznable, and I will be taking this women here with me, if you want to fight me on it, take it up with my commanding officer Dozle Zabi.” He then pulled the women with him out of the facility. Off into the sunny Californian afternoon they walked Lalah free from that horror

And Char burdened even further, knowing that his mission was to no longer hurt Degwin for the pain that he endured as a young boy, but now he had to kill them all, every Zabi had to die…..for this sin against god and man.

#charma #gundam #sidestory

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drcisko · 5 years ago

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Judith Merril (ed.) - SF: The Year's Greatest Science-Fiction and Fantasy Second Annual Volume (1957) A great collection of short stories and novellas, with a nifty poem version of The Thing (aka. Who Goes There?) thrown in for good measure, this felt like an improvement over the first collection in the previous year and there are some highlights here, interestingly not always from those you would expect it the most. For example the Asimov story is ok, but it isn't a stand-out here, much better is the story by the unfairly comparatively unknown Zenna Henderson, the only woman writer on the anthology who with her story Anything Box presents what is probably the most emotionally affecting of the stories here. Other highlights are Damon Knight's subtly horrific Stranger Station and Theodore Sturgeon's mesmerism/psychiatry fantasy The Other Man. However, no story feels more revolutionary, fantastical and revelatory than J.G. Ballard's Prima Belladonna, his first science fiction story. In a sea of psychic powers and nuts and bolts spaceship stories his creating point the way to a controversial future. This would come to be known as New Wave Science Fiction and would mainly be irking conservatives in the 60s, suddenly you have golden women with insect eyes... not eyes like the eyes of insects but eyes which are insects, you have plants which play classical music, you have sex and weirdness and psychological depth and just plain feeling of the alien. J.G. Ballard is a prophet of the future of Science Fiction and Judith Merril was his John the Baptist. (5/5) #judithmerril #isaacasimov #scifi #sciencefiction #book #books #bookish #bibliophile #bookgram #bookstagram #bookporn #bookworm #booklover #shortstories #damonknight #fantasy #jgballard #theodoresturgeon (at Lisbon, Portugal) https://www.instagram.com/p/B6Cv754lXnR/?igshid=7wh0x0p4cjob

#judithmerril #isaacasimov #scifi #sciencefiction #book #books #bookish #bibliophile #bookgram #bookstagram #bookporn #bookworm #booklover #shortstories #damonknight #fantasy #jgballard #theodoresturgeon

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musical-chick-13 · 1 year ago

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what are some of your favorite f/f ships?

YES. EXCELLENT QUESTION.

The™ f/f ship for me is, probably, Mireille/Silvana from Noir (2001). Which. Yeah, of course I would imprint on the unpopular extra-fucked-up dynamic that lasted for two episodes out of a total of 26. BUT THOSE TWO EPISODES GAVE ME EVERYTHING. You represent everything I'm afraid of. I know exactly how to fuck you up because I understand you. I betrayed and broke you once in your past and we both never, ever forgot about it. "REVENGE IS THE GREATEST ACT OF FORGIVENESS." I'M!!!!!

Another heavy hitter is Rita/Laura from Doom Patrol. They have the whole "friendship gone bad because of personal differences," "intensely drawn to each other in every situation," "please say you're like me so I don't have to feel alone" thing. They make me feral.

Hope/Lizzie from Legacies is also excellent. The development from rivals to frenemies to, and I quote, "bonded for life," complete with "who tf are you becoming" angst and a canonically mentally ill character being treated with genuine understanding and respect is TOP-TIER.

And the obligatory crackship deep-cut is Iris/Zenna from the Dutch opera Sunken Garden. They're implied to have known each other for a long time and they fight to the death :)

For less...uh. Tumultuous. F/F dynamics, there's Michiru/Nazuna from Brand New Animal, an example of friendship (albeit one with some complications) to possibly more that really works for me. As well as Meg/Joan from The March Family Letters who are really, really sweet.

And, of course, I would be remiss if I didn't mention my first-ever f/f ship Olivia/Natalia from Guiding Light. They had...a long road getting there, but watching them get there was SO GOOD. THEY'RE SO GOOD. TENSION. EVENTUAL FRIENDSHIP. CONFLICT WITH CATHOLICISM. BEING TERRIFIED TO QUESTION THEIR IDENTITIES OR DESTABILIZE THEIR PLATONIC LOVE. AAAAHHH.

This is getting long, so speedrun of some other faves: Bubbline from Adventure Time. Rem/Misa from the stage musical version of Death Note (and me shipping Misa with just about every woman in the original series). Charlotte/Lizzie from Netflix's The Perfection. Eleanor/Drea from Do Revenge. Flor/Jazmín from Las Estrellas. Madlax/Limelda from Madlax. And most recent acquisition, exploring the really unhinged, unpopular idea of Himeno/Makima from CSM.

#multi t(ASK)ing #mel screams about fictional ladies again

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kansascityhappenings · 6 years ago

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Strangers come to aid of woman stuck in Hurricane Florence with 7 rescue dogs

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MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — A South Carolina woman who was planning to ride out Hurricane Florence because she couldn’t evacuate with her seven rescue dogs has found a way out.

After CNN reported on Christine Meinhold’s dilemma Wednesday, strangers reached out on Facebook — and thanks to a crowdfunding campaign, they rented her a truck so she could reach her family in Tennessee.

The organizer of the campaign, Palms Springs-based radio host Kate Zenna, said she started raising funds because she “wasn’t able to let all those dogs perish.”

“I went to rescue dogs alone after Katrina and what I saw will never be forgotten. And now I am living with a lot of dogs and always have a plan,” she told CNN.

Zenna said about 16 people across the US coordinated on Facebook chat and donated to help Meinhold evacuate with her dogs. Initially, the group planned to purchase a 2009 Dodge Journey with the help of a generous single $5,200 donation, Zenna said.

When that plan fell through, a donor suggested to rent a U-Haul van.

Pictures shared on Facebook show the journey of Meinhold and her dogs out of the danger area on the rented van.

‘I can’t abandon them’

Meinhold lives just outside Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, with the dogs that she has rescued.

“I really don’t have the resources to evacuate with seven dogs,” she told CNN on Wednesday. “When I rescued these dogs, I took on a responsibility of loving and caring for them the rest of their lives.”

She added: “I can’t abandon them. My car has over 205,000 miles on it and won’t make it far. I can’t imagine breaking down somewhere and putting them in danger.”

At the time, she said she would board up her house as best as she could.

During Hurricane Matthew in 2016, Meinhold helped rescue animals from the floodwaters.

“I have two hurricane dogs from Matthew that I took in after they were pulled out of the water,” she said. “One was so skinny, you can imagine my surprise when I got her home and she had six puppies. Didn’t know she was pregnant, she was so skinny. I found rescue for all six puppies.”

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports https://fox4kc.com/2018/09/14/strangers-come-to-aid-of-woman-stuck-in-hurricane-florence-with-7-rescue-dogs/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2018/09/15/strangers-come-to-aid-of-woman-stuck-in-hurricane-florence-with-7-rescue-dogs/

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yes-dal456 · 8 years ago

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Why You Cannot See My Daughter's Autism

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On our fifth and final day of a cross-country move from Maine to Minnesota, my husband, father-in-law, daughter and I walked into a bustling truck stop Denny’s. We were hungry, tired and sore, but my daughter, little trooper that she is, was sitting quietly beside me, already lost in her iPad.

When the waitress approached, we ordered coffee and then I placed an order for my daughter: scrambled eggs, bacon and hot chocolate that needs to actually be lukewarm and also, for the love of God, without whipped cream, please-and-thank-you.

The waitress looked at me, raised an eyebrow, and then looked at my daughter.

“You’re a big girl now,” she said, matter-of-factly. “Your mother shouldn’t have to order for you.”

There was no point in correcting her. I smiled the smile I saved for my worst customers in my own waitressing days, looked her in the eye and reminded her that I needed that coffee.

My daughter is not rude. She’s not a brat. She can do a lot for herself. At 9 years old, she’s animated with those she is comfortable with ― but sensory overload in public settings means she’s probably playing “Minecraft” on her iPhone.

If you want to get her attention, you need to touch her shoulder. Her headphones block out the noises a neurotypical person may not notice, so she can’t hear you call her name.

My daughter has high-functioning autism, which is the diagnostic term doctors now use for what was formerly known as Asperger’s syndrome. Many of the typical behaviors that we associate with this condition, such as hand-flapping and rocking, don’t apply to her.

That’s because most of the public’s understanding of the condition applies primarily to boys and men.

Strangers cannot see my daughter’s autism, but even those in our personal circle sometimes need to be reminded. Once, a friend in Maine was taken aback by my daughter’s less-than-enthusiastic response to a birthday gift, and expressed her feelings in a text message. I replied with a link directing her to traits associated with Asperger’s syndrome. She replied by questioning the diagnosis. After all, my daughter doesn’t “look” autistic, she said. (We haven’t spoken since.)

This kind of doubt isn’t unusual, according to experts who study gender as it relates to the autism spectrum and how girls and boys with autism often present differently.

“Compared to their male counterparts, high-functioning girls on the spectrum are often misdiagnosed with social ‘difficulties’ instead of ‘disabilities,’” said Judith Zenna-Valgento, a clinical psychologist and director of Brightmont Academy in Arizona, a private school that caters to children who need one-on-one instruction, including many with autism.

“Females on the spectrum can exhibit social skills and strategies at a higher level than male peers. They can also exhibit imaginative play and can appear to have less obsessions than males. For example, a female who is fixated on dogs will be less suspect than a male fixated on the pattern of a ceiling fan or floor tiles.”

Zenna-Valgento is referring to a growing body of autism research that disputes the “extreme male brain” theory ― a theory proposed by Simon Baron-Cohen, director of the Autism Research Center in Cambridge, U.K., that suggests autism is related to overexposure to testosterone while in the womb.

Generally speaking, girls on the higher-functioning end of autism spectrum disorder may attempt to direct their “restricted interest” ― fixations commonly associated with autism thanks to longstanding research based almost entirely on observing white men and boys ― to something less obvious so they can blend in.

Many researchers have acknowledged that current diagnostic criteria based on the male brain misses how autism affects and presents in the female brain. This translates into girls and women being diagnosed less often or later in life.

Girls with autism are often diagnosed with eating disorders, ADHD or anxiety and have been known to harm themselves. Many also report fear of change and a rigid preference for what is already known and comfortable, which was one of the main reasons my husband and I kept pushing for an autism evaluation for our daughter. (This isn’t to say that girls and women with autism cannot or do not present with “typical” symptoms; just that those who don’t present with these symptoms are less likely to be diagnosed.)

Currently, about 1 in 68 children are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, but the actual number of children on the spectrum is likely much higher. When the numbers are broken down by gender, 1 in 42 boys are diagnosed, versus 1 in 189 girls, according to the CDC.

Stephanie Mayberry is a woman with autism and three grown children, including a daughter with a formal diagnosis of autism. It was a challenge to raise her, Mayberry recounts, but empowering her in the face of adversity was instinctive.

Mayberry, who blogs at The Christian Aspie, recounts how her daughter was extremely shy and was often bullied as a result. “She had what I call ‘typical girl autism.’ The emotional stuff. She was really awkward socially,” she said. “People don’t understand ― this isn’t just a boy thing.”

Girls with autism don’t only often differ from boys in terms of their social skills. Boys are also more likely to provide a visual clue that they have the disorder, another “extreme male brain” sign (like the aforementioned flapping and fixations on ceiling fans).

That’s because of gender differences in sensory processing and emotional expression, says pediatric occupational therapist Amy Baez and founder of Playapy, a Miami-based therapy resource for parents.

“Boys tend to have more repetitive and restricted behaviors compared to girls,” said Baez. “My experience shows that girls tend to internalize their feelings and boys externalize. Hence, boys are noticed more because those feelings become more disruptive to others.”

My daughter does not cause a disruption in a busy restaurant because she copes with sensory overload by internalizing her emotions and focusing on one of her self-regulation tools.

The waitress may have dismissed her autism because she could not see it, but my daughter knows that we can see it. She, and other girls like her, deserve our admiration for this difficult work ― yes, it’s work to self-regulate ― and not our misunderstanding.

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extraplanetarystory · 6 years ago

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Part 10

A bright light shone on my face, so sharp that I flinched as soon as I became aware of it. There was a slight breeze and the air smelled of smoke, grass, and...plastic? I opened my eyes, squinting and turning my head as I saw that the light was actually the sun shining through a sheer sheet.

It was quiet. The breeze was calming. A couple of men were talking in hushed tones just outside the opening of the tent. There were five other beds apart from mine, separated by a couple of feet each. All of them were empty, save for the one that the far end. The person laying there seemed to be red all over even with what looked like cleaned up injuries, which told me whatever happened before wasn’t just some terrifying nightmare.

That’s when I noticed gentle, periodic tics on various parts of me. There was a small, circular device on my shoulder, a thin rectangle on my side, another one on my right wrist, and a circle on my left thigh. Like the other person, I was still in my torn and bloody clothes. But unlike the other person, I had no cuts. No bruises, no evidence that anything happened to me beyond the state of my clothing. No, there was. There were faint scars, like remnants of long-healed wounds.

What were these miracle devices attached to me? Or was I actually not hurt that bad? I remember very clearly what my ribs felt like after I hit that tree and that moment I couldn’t breathe. How badly injured was the other person for them to still look like they did?

“This doesn’t happen on Zi’inra!” One of the men lost control of his voice, growling at the other.

“Tawyn?” I sat up. I was stiff. My head and shoulders ached like I just woke up from the worst afternoon nap.

Tawyn leaned into the tent, eyes widening when he saw me getting up. “Jiaal, stay there.” He came and sat on the bed across from me, taking my arm to look at the device on my wrist. “How are you feeling?” His hand was bandaged, as well as his neck, and the right side of his face was covered in bruises of various color.

“Are you a health-person now, too?” My eyebrows furrowed. He looked up when I said that makeshift word. I didn’t know the one for doctor or nurse or whatever kind of medical person it was that should be here.

“No,” he smiled. “You are beyond need of them now.” He went back to my wrist, looking at the blinking lights. At the tent door, Tawyn’s companion snorted. It was Pilot, standing with tightly crossed arms.

“You survived!” I exclaimed.

“I was between Zennaes, coming from the port.” He shook his head, looking to the person laying at the end of the bed row. “Got caught in a place where the best thing to do was just stay there.”

“What happened?” I asked as Tawyn pulled the device off my wrist, which somehow felt like a magnet as it came off. He asked if it hurt. I shook my head.

“The Cerras decided to commit suicide, that’s what happened,” Pilot growled. “We don’t know how, but they found out about—”

“This is not a discussion for a survivor’s camp.” Tawyn quickly turned and stood, voice low and forceful.

“We commissioned you, and you get to dictate when we talk about this?”

They stood there for a long moment, glaring at each other. I wanted to ask what Zega commissioned him for—as anyone naturally would—but leaning over to see the harsh look on Tawyn’s aquiline profile stopped me. I’ll find out later. That’s fine. I’ll ask later.

As they had their silent argument, I fiddled with the device on my shoulder and looked out of the tent through the see-through wall. There were more tents just like this one down a short path. They were arranged back to back in rows. I couldn’t make out just how many there were. People were walking here and there, most of whom seeming to have no purpose in their step.

A crowd gathered at the end of the row just outside this tent. As I watched them, they seemed to grow louder, like something chaotic was just taking form. Of the faces I could see, I searched, hoping to find a face I knew. Atlyana or Riche’e or Micje or Panda… Anyone.

“Fine—” Pilot huffed, accepting defeat in the argument. He frowned, or grimaced, and looked outside of the tent. “Is she healed?”

Tawyn looked at me and motioned for me to stand. I did.

“How do you feel?” he asked.

“Better than I should, I think?” I stretched up and out. I wasn’t even bruised. Other that a slight lightheadedness when I stood, I just felt stiff.

He nodded, plucking the remaining devices off of me to look at them. “Yes, she’s healed. But she’s not going with you.”

“Like death, she’s not!” Pilot stepped forward. “Ninety-two applicants survived that attack! We need every single one we have left, and she’s in the best shape of them all!”

“No, I’m staying on Zi’inra, so Jiaal is staying on Zi’inra.”

“Tawyn,” I started, “Is this not what we wanted? I know this—”

“It’s what you wanted,” he shook his head. “It’s what you told me before we even adopted you. I wanted to help you with that, but this attack changes everything.”

“I told you when?” I stepped away from him and held up my hands, toward both Pilot and Tawyn, to keep them both quiet. I didn’t know which argument to try to untangle. “I do not want to stay on Zi’nra. If Zega wants me to go off Zi’inra, I really want to do it. I do not want to be in a war zone.”

Tawyn shook his head. “This isn’t a war zone. They will put you in one.”

“Untrained? Absolutely not,” Pilot scoffed. “I can’t believe you’re going to make me defend the Administration.”

“What are we going to do?” I asked.

“The ninety of you will go to Mansheon for the academy, as would have happened before the attack,” he shot a pointed look at Tawyn, “while actual members of Zega and senior recruits will deal with the Cerras as instructed by the Copan government.”

“I thought Zega was not a military…” Space exploration is literally their name. I mean, I know I compared them to Starfleet, but...

“Normally, we’re not. But that changes in wartime, especially when planets that aren’t involved are dragged into it.” He sighed, looking like he was suddenly bored. “But, like I said, you will not be a part of that.”

As...as long as I won’t be dealing with the horrors, and as long as I’ll be staying out of them. I’ll settle

“What are you two disagreeing about? What commission?”

Tawyn shifted uncomfortably, looking down at his hands and the devices he plucked off me. “A… delicate matter that may have contributed to this atrocity.”

“What does that mean?” What did they do?

“The Cerras seem to think Mansheon, Zega, and this planet have chosen a side in their war,” Pilot said. He looked for a moment like he was deliberating, twisting his lips one way and another. “And that’s all you need to know there.” Tawyn snorted with a frown. That most certainly meant they really might have.

“But if I am going to join—”

There was shouting from beyond the tents. It was the crowd at the end of the row, that chaotic energy finally coming to a head. Pilot rushed out, muttering under his breath, followed by Tawyn. And me.

I was trailing behind them, but forced myself closer once I realize the crowd was growing bigger. Spectators and more people shouting joined the fray. And the people yelling loudest were blaming someone.

“It’s your fault this happened!” someone went. I think I heard a couple hisses.

“You can’t be serious!” That voice was familiar. Kama?

“A little convenient you show up when this happens, since Cerrans never join Zega,” another person accused.

“Zyranqe!” Pilot commanded once we were in the center of the crowd. If I knew my curse words, that meant something like fucking shut up.

It was Kama. She stood to the side looking ready to fight, with Riche’e and Micje in front of her, facing a group of angry individuals that looked like the instigators of the argument. They all turned to Pilot at his shout.

“Vad’n-teaj is going on here?” He looked to the angrier ones first.

“I’m sure you heard,” one of them answered. Pilot just glared at them. “That woman had something to do with this, we know it!”

“And how do you know that? Because she’s Cerran?”

“She’s—yes! And she’s a derebajyk!”

Three of them were suddenly bowled over, flying back and hitting others on their way to the ground.

“The only attack my presence caused was that,” Kama calmly said, shaking her hands out as if she put them on the antagonists to push them.

They sputtered to the oohing chorus of spectators and Pilot stepped forward. “She joined the program at my personal invitation. The planet may have made bad choices, but she so far has not.” Well, that's good to hear at least.

“You’re not even a little bit—”

“No, I’m not.” He turned to the crowd, raising his voice again. “We’re wasting time by standing around and pointing idiotic fingers at innocent people. This attack took all of us by surprise, to say the very least, but it is no excuse to lose our heads. We’re alive and the Cerras will pay for their crimes. If one good thing came out of it: Congratulations, you’re all officially members of the Space Exploration Administration.” That silenced everyone.

“You do have a choice,” he continued. “Due to the nature of this attack, you can go home, or you can go to Mansheon. You might not want to go to school now, and that makes sense. Go home, recover, and make sure you’re ready. There will be more opportunities to join Zega in the future.”

“What happened to needing every one of them?” Tawyn crossed his arms, gesturing at me with his chin.

The look on Pilot’s face suggested he might have elbowed Tawyn had he been in arm’s length. “He’s right. We do need everyone, but it’s still your choice. Think it over. We leave in one jul.” He pointed to a small group of ships settled outside the camp.

So it’s everyone’s choice...but mine?

Still, when Pilot started walking to the ships, so did I. Something bigger was obviously going on, but I wasn’t going to let a fear of it stop me. I’m not gonna be involved in the war. I’m going to become an astronaut.

A hand grabbed my arm before I got too far.

“Jiaal, no,” Tawyn said softly.

“Tawyn, yes,” I turned, reclaiming my arm. “I am going to the Academy. I do not know what problem you suddenly have with it, and I am not going to ask what you and Pilot are really fighting about, but I am going. If you are worried about my health, you and Atlyana can just come too.”

I started walking, but my heart stopped and I turned around again.

“Atlyana is okay, right?”

Tawyn simply nodded and I sighed in relief. I really only realized just then that I hadn’t seen her.

I nodded back. “I’m going to be okay, Tawyn. You both should get away from here too, if you can.”

He started to argue again, stepping toward me, but I didn’t listen. I might as well have started running to the closest ship on the outskirt of the camp. I wasn’t going to let him rationalize or scaremonger me into staying on Zi’inra—which I knew he'd be able to do if I gave his argument half a chance. I survived the attack. I don’t know how, but I did and I want to leave and I'm not going to let anyone stop me.

For the first time since coming to the galaxy, I want to do something. I am going to do this.

#science fiction #writing #original writing #extraplanetary

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