#because hermit bears live on bear island

[donde-el-diablo-parquea-la-moto]

I think that Foolish's "scary bfriend privileges" are only on the islanders minds.

What's Vegetta gonna do? He doesn't know where anyone lives! He doesn't even know their names! He's ashamed of his own armor! Poor man has resorted to living an hermits life because he can't bear the thought of having to catch up on everything that has happened!

[running-on-a-broken-record]

MatPat Egos w/ Reader who’s had a Long Day at Work

A/N: I will be as active as possible this week, but next week (starting Monday) I will be extremely busy with school, extracurriculars, and work. Thanks :)

The Detective: - He, more than almost anyone, understands - Chasing criminals around, trying to solve their crimes, is exhausting - He’s also a great comforter. His hugs are heavenly 💛 - He’ll encourage you to talk about your day, but only if you’re comfortable. If you’re not, he’s perfectly fine with just holding you

MadPat: - Ugh, him too. Come on, let’s talk about it - Sits with you on the couch and you two both rant about your day, actively listening to each other - Afterwards, he’s down to watch a movie with you to cool off and unwind

Mack: (crewmate, head engineer): - Crewmate Mack feels for you. He knows how hard work on the spaceship can be, and he’s had his fair share of bad days - He will be so, so upset if it was something someone said that ruined your day - Definitely down to talk to one of the heads about the coworker’s behavior if he needs to - Head engineer does not want to listen to you. I’m sorry - He does, however, make tea (for himself) and your favorite drink (for you) and go stargazing with you so you can take your mind off it 🩵

The Hermit: (If you’re with him, you’d have to be living on the island [we all know what happens when he leaves 😅] buuut I can work around that and just make it a bad day in general) - He’s so excited to see you after you’ve been out of the cave for a while, but is shut down quickly when he sees how dejected you look - Asks what happened and is very willing to listen as you rant - Hugs :) and cuddles afterwards of course - He WILL find you flowers the next day and bring them to you

WarfPat: - “A bad day?? We can’t have that, now, can we?!” - MASSIVE bear hug that’s inescapable for about 15 seconds. You likely can’t breathe during this time (RIP) - Aaand then he’ll manage to whisk you away to somewhere like a carnival where you can forget about everything that happened at work by riding rides, playing games, and eating so much cotton candy you might explode!

DarkPat: - “Love, why have you been distant since you returned home?” - You don’t even have to tell him, he can see it in your body language and the way you carry yourself - Eek, it better not be someone else’s fault that you’re upset, because he might come back covered in blood (whaaaat??? noooo…)

[lifechanyuan]

The Classification and Realms of Celestials

Xuefeng

Just as humans have different levels of character and virtue, celestials also have different grades. Similarly, among plants, some blossom and bear fruit while others do not; some produce sweet fruit, while others bear sour ones; some have deep roots and lush foliage, while others have shallow roots and sparse leaves; some grow tall, while others remain short; some bloom with fragrant flowers, while others produce scentless blossoms.

Humans can perceive the diversity of plants, just as gods can see the myriad states of human beings. Only by standing atop the highest peak can one overlook the majestic mountains; only by reaching the highest realm can one observe the boundless variety of human existence; only by traversing the thirty-six dimensional spaces can one comprehend the classifications and realms of celestials.

Failing to perceive differences does not mean that differences do not exist—it simply indicates that one’s level of awareness is too low. A person sitting at the bottom of a well cannot see the vast blue sky. This is not because the sky lacks vastness, but because their vision is limited. Denying the wonders of the universe and the infinite levels of LIFE based on one's constrained perspective is ignorance. Trying to define the boundless dimensions of time and space and the infinite wisdom of the cosmos through one’s own ignorance is foolishness.

Ninety-nine percent of humanity lives in ignorance and foolishness. Ninety-five percent of people have closed hearts and remain unconscious in their awareness. That is why Jesus said that few people find the gate to true LIFE, and even fewer manage to enter it. The broad road is the worldly path; the path that the masses walk leads to death. Only those who squeeze through the narrow gate and endure the arduous journey along a rugged trail may glimpse the dawn of LIFE. In the end, they will ascend the perilous peak of LIFE and enter an even vaster realm of existence.

Celestial beings are classified into five types: Ghost Celestials, Human Celestials, Land Celestials, Deity Celestials, and Super Celestials.

The Chinese nation is unique, producing countless saints, sages, and great hermits beyond the reach of Western Nobel laureates. The ability to perceive meridians and acupoints with clarity, the mastery of refining essence into energy, refining energy into spirit, and refining spirit into emptiness, as well as the profound insight into the unity of heaven and man—beyond the comprehension of spirits and ghosts—are beyond the imagination of ordinary people. The classification of celestials has long been well understood by sages of the past.

In my exploration of the origins of the universe, I found that my predecessors had already reached the peak of understanding. When I traversed the thirty-six celestial spaces and observed the forms and qualities of LIFE across various spaces, I realized that ancient saints had already drawn definitive conclusions. For instance, regarding the classification of celestials, one great hermit once said:

“Those who are purely spiritual and formless are Ghost Celestials.

Those who live long lives without illness in the mortal world are Human Celestials.

Those who can fly through the mist, remain free from hunger and thirst, unaffected by heat and cold, and roam the islands while attaining eternal life are Land Celestials.

Those who can change form, appear and disappear unpredictably, take on various ages, and possess divine wisdom beyond the comprehension of ghosts, spirits, and even diviners are Super Celestials.Those who refine primordial energy into the primordial spirit, attain supernatural powers, and become immune to water and fire are Deity Celestials.”

The words of the saints hold true. In more detail, the types of celestials and their corresponding realms are as follows:

Ghost Celestials

Ghost Celestials exist between the yin and yang spaces, beyond the range of human vision. Thus, they are considered formless. However, from their own perspective, they do not perceive themselves as formless. This is similar to what has been observed in near-death experiences studied by Western scientists. When people temporarily die—meaning their souls leave their bodies—they can clearly see their own physical forms surrounded by doctors and loved ones. They even feel that their facial features, bodies, and hair remain intact. Thus, the "formlessness" of Ghost Celestials is only relative to human vision, not an actual loss of form.

In the thirty-six-dimensional spaces—within the five-dimensional space between yin and yang, I once described:

"The third type of people are those who often dwell in obsessive thoughts or die unexpectedly in the prime of life. Because they are unprepared and still deeply attached to the material world, they resist moving on. Their wishes remain unfulfilled, and they are unwilling to leave. However, their physical bodies have already perished, and without a material vessel, their spiritual bodies wander aimlessly between the yin and yang spaces. Some cases of spirit possession are caused by these lingering souls. Those who die with unresolved grievances are also prone to lingering in this space."

Ghost Celestials are essentially what people commonly refer to as ghosts. Benevolent ghosts can be considered Ghost Celestials. Even harmful ghosts have specific reasons for their actions—there is always a cause-and-effect relationship. As long as one maintains a clear conscience, ghosts will never harm them. As the saying goes, "If you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear from ghosts knocking at your door."

Ghost Celestials do not linger indefinitely in the yin-yang space. Some quickly recover and return to their bodies, while others swiftly reincarnate. That is why it is important to treat the deceased with kindness—offering comfort, burning paper money, and speaking words of reassurance can help them move on more quickly.

Human Celestials

Human Celestials are saints in the mortal world. They understand the principles of existence, are free from worldly desires, practice non-action (wu wei), transcend conventional norms, and maintain physical and mental well-being. They do not possess supernatural abilities but have seen through the illusions of the mortal world. They are detached from concepts such as nations, ethnicities, families, political parties, and religions. They take things as they are, acting in accordance with their intrinsic nature, and seize opportunities as they arise.

Human Celestials do not participate in any religious or political organizations, as they do not wish to be bound, nor do they seek to bind others. They enjoy the company of kindred spirits but avoid interactions with worldly people. Wealth, status, and fame mean nothing to them, nor do they concern themselves with success or failure, gain or loss. To them, all these things are fleeting clouds.

Land Celestials

Land Celestials possess supernatural abilities or profound mastery of Taoist arts. They can benefit both humanity and themselves. They communicate seamlessly with both humans and spirits, moving freely without restrictions. Figures such as Hua Tuo, Sun Simiao, Bian Que, and Daoist masters with profound spiritual attainments are Land Celestials.

Land Celestials excel in the art of health preservation. Many teachings in the Lifechanyuan Health Preservation Chapter originate from the wisdom of Land Celestials. Their insights include principles from the "Compendium of Heart and Mind Healing," such as:

"All things are exhausted by movement and nourished by stillness. Stillness is the dwelling place of the spirit."

"Without tranquility, one cannot reach distant goals."

"Stillness breeds wisdom; movement breeds confusion."

"It is the spirit that gives me life; it is the mind that brings me death."

"When still, the roots deepen and flourish; when in motion, the stem is uprooted and withers."

The eight steps of cultivating stillness are:

"Do not give rise to anger, do not give rise to arrogance, do not indulge in absurdity, be moderate in desires, moderate in labor, be cautious in speech, abstain from killing, and benefit others."

Including the 'Eight Mind Methods' in my 'Intermediate Cultivation':

"Calm the mind, stop the mind, govern the mind, correct the mind, humble the mind, settle the mind, purify the mind, and transcend the mind."

These are the defining characteristics of Land Celestials. They have cultivated themselves to the point where they no longer experience hunger or thirst, remain unaffected by heat and cold, travel freely among islands, and attain mastery over life and death.

Deity Celestials

Deity Celestials do not belong to human society. They can traverse space-time tunnels at will, moving freely between heaven, the human world, and the underworld. They possess divine abilities and can undergo limitless transformations. Sun Wukong from the mythological novel Journey to the West, before attaining true enlightenment, is a living example of a Deity Celestial. He had seventy-two transformations, could ride clouds and mist, and a single somersault spanned 54,000 kilometers.

Deity Celestials have no fixed abode—both heaven and earth are their home. They can shrink to the size of a subatomic particle or expand as vast as a mountain. They can enter the molecular world to tour mountains and rivers, or kick celestial bodies as if they were mere balls.

To understand the realm of Deity Celestials, one can refer to the stories in Journey to the West and The Investiture of the Gods. Perhaps you think these are mere myths, but in reality, they are not. As long as one masters the key to cultivation, this state can be attained. The biggest challenge is that no historical human records contain the secret to cultivating into a Deity Celestial. Such secrets will never be written down—they can only be grasped through innate wisdom and deep enlightenment.

Super Celestials

Super Celestials represent the highest realm that humans can attain. Their base is on the Celestial Islands Continent of the Elysium World. In my description of the Celestial Islands Continent, Yu’e, the master of Snow Peak Island, serves as an example of a Super Celestial. The revered Guanyin Bodhisattva is also a Super Celestial, as are angels in Western culture.

A Super Celestial is essentially a Buddha, but with a key difference—while Buddhas still bear certain constraints, Super Celestials are entirely free. Buddhas have duties and responsibilities, whereas Super Celestials have none whatsoever. The defining characteristic of a Super Celestial is the absolute freedom to indulge in joy and play as they please. Once one becomes a Buddha, there are still higher realms to ascend to, but once one attains the state of a Super Celestial, they have reached the ultimate limit of LIFE.

These concepts are far beyond the scope of human wisdom. The more I explain, the more elusive and incomprehensible they may seem, eventually turning into what some might consider incoherent rambling.

The higher the level of wisdom and consciousness a being possesses, the more mythical it appears. Human Celestials and Land Celestials are closely related to humans, making them relatively easier to comprehend. The realm of Deity Celestials is still within the bounds of imagination, but the realm of Super Celestials is purely mythical.

All of these mysteries are embedded within the profound secrets of LIFE itself. The Thirty-Six Eight Trigram Arrays set by the Greatest Creator are incredibly difficult to break or decipher, primarily because they lie beyond our imagination. Since we cannot conceive of them, we assume they are fabricated illusions, mere fantasies conjured out of thin air.

As the saying goes, "The enlightened see the essence, while the unenlightened watch the spectacle." If you expect me to instantly reveal the secrets of enlightenment—that’s simply out of the question.

[cafeleningrad]

The grotesqueness of Irumiyuui's physical transformation does not stem from the previous body horror of physical forces or human experimentation we witnessed before, but but the metaphorical meaning behind it.

For one, Irumiyuui doesn't really care about having a child to love and cherish rather than the act of giving birth. From a very young age all the value of her personhood within the Island community hinged on her fertility. Even any affection and love a mother might have for her child, her children are necessary to be born to serve for her sake. Labour becomes literally labour - quiet fitting for a story centering on an entire population values individuals on their output of their productive works.

In this case something as intimate, demanding, and painful as bearing a child becomes just another form of material production. For one, Irumiyuui is too young herself to have an actual concept of creating a living human person, second the life she's supposed to give is already just an object to be used later. Hence Irumiyuui's first children resemble more her per hermit rat than a human as well as lacking any intestines a living organism would need for survival. Irumiyuui's body deforms more and more with each birth. Her desperate love and grief for her dead children mean nothing as they get ripped away from her, to be used. Her children look so shapeless and non-human because they need to be born as means to the goal of Irumiyuui's social value, because they're a child's infantile idea of baby, because they're more animal, well, food shaped than they're actual children. Irumiyuui's getting so deformed, way beyond a human, mammal, or even creature shape because she becomes more and more just a facility of constant reprodution. Still fleshy enough for her products to be organic.

And still Wakyuzan kept pushing Cradles of desires onto Irumiyuui because her genuine love for Vueko could get exploited, too. In environments where people get valued only for their material contribution to others, love also becomes grotesque.

can't believe the "child labour and 99 forms of body horror begin at Monday, 8Am sharp" story had one of the most concise commentaries on reproductive rights I've read so far, but here we are.

[fandomsbyladymelodrama]

@salzrand​ - The forehead curl #RIPMe <3

[pixelfun20]

Flower Fields, Ch 1

Summary: Season 7 of Hermitcraft has begun, and their newest and youngest member, Tubbo, is more than ready to prove himself in the eyes of his friends. New memories are made and friendships are forged, but old ghosts from the past still linger, and Tubbo will soon discover that fate has a way of letting things come full circle.

Notes: This an fic idea I legitimately came up with yesterday, based off of @give-grian-rights ‘s Watcher!Tubbo and Watcher!Tommy AU (I hope you don’t mind! I just loved this idea). I wrote this a single evening, let it sit for the night, and decided to publish it today. I hope you guys like it! Just to note, I haven’t finalized a title (or plot, besides some major points) yet, so if y’all have any ideas, let me know!

Chapter 1:

I'm not yours, and you're not mine

But we can sit and pass the time

For a moment, he floated in darkness.

Then in the next, he was falling through the air.

He didn’t fall far, thankfully, and his impact was cushioned by another body right underneath him.

Tubbo groaned, blinking against the bright rays of the sun as he tried to adjust from the darkness that had just encompassed him. He shifted, feeling rough cloth underneath him, and realized he was lying on someone.

“Oh! Sorry!” He exclaimed, swiftly moving off the other. He looked down as he saw a man with dark brown hair, a beard, and a leather jacket sit up, rolling his shoulders with a wince. “I think I spawned right on top of you, xB.”

xBCrafted just chuckled, pulling himself up to his feet. Tubbo followed him, cracking his back as he went, and looked around, trying to discern where he was.

Ah, man. It seemed like they had spawned on a small, sandy island, that was, worst of all, completely devoid of trees. Already it was crowding with the arrival of the other Hermits, with a few more pairs repeating the same situation as he and xB, spawning one on top of the other in the enclosed space. In the distance, he could see a large mooshroom island looming above the waves, but besides that there was nothing in sight.

“Looks like we’ll be going for a swim today!” xB chirped as Iskall spawned a foot or so away from them, landing face-first in the sand. “X wasn’t lying when he said we’d have a tricky time starting the Season.”

“And here I was hoping to stay dry,” Tubbo sighed as Iskall shot up, spluttering sand in the air. The two of them laughed at his sorry state.

“Very funny, you two,” the elder man grumbled. Iskall85, or Iskall as he was commonly known, looked considerably older than the two friends, perhaps in his early thirties. He had semi-long, scraggly brown hair and a cybernetic eye, as well as a green sweatshirt and brown vest.

“Oho, is that Scar?” xB exclaimed. Tubbo followed his gaze, and sure enough, a man in a purple bathrobe and dyed-white hair had just spawned, half in the water. Ah, GoodTimesWithScar was an odd one, alright, he thought with a laugh.

“What did he do?” Tubbo giggled. Scar turned towards them, seeming to hear his comment, and put his hands on his hips.

“I’m sorry, Tubbo,” he announced semi-solemnly. “The wizard life has chosen me.”

Iskall nearly cackled at that, throwing his head back, and xB and Tubbo joined him. Trust Scar to find new and creative ways to start the season! Tubbo made a mental note to drop by in a few weeks and see where this new bit got him.

“Looking good, Scar!” Stress said, coming up behind him. The shortest of the Hermits, she wore a pink jacket and kept her straight brown hair short and to the chin. “How’re you doing, Tub?”

“Great!” Tubbo chirped back. “Excited to start the Season right.”

“Let me know if you need anything, love,” she added, clapping her hands together. “That goes for all of you! I’d chat for longer, but Mumbo and I have some plans we need to discuss. See you all in a bit!” And with that she was gone, hopping over to the other side of the island. Scar went right on her heels, jogging over to Cubfan135 (a balding man in a lab coat around Iskall’s age), who was standing next to Mumbo Jumbo.

Tubbo scanned over the rapidly growing group of people, grinning once he caught sight of a flash of black-striped yellow armor in the crowd. 

“Hey! X!” He called out, waving. A man fully covered in armor, painted to resemble a bee, looked over to them. Through his vizor, Tubbo could see the corners of his brown eyes crinkle in the tell-tale sign of a smile, and he approached the trio. “Love the outfit!”

“Thank you, Tubbo,” XisumaVoid replied, patting him on the shoulder. “I’m quite liking your new design, too.”

Tubbo fought back a blush, looking down at himself. Like the elder man, he’d changed up his usual outfit to celebrate the newest mob addition to Season 6, the bees. He’d changed into a yellow jacket with black stripes on the sleeves over a gray shirt, as well as black pants with a yellow stripe down the sides. 

“Alrighty, I’ll be leaving you two to your father-son bonding,” Iskall cut in, waving a hand as he walked off. “I’m going to go catch up with Keralis.”

“Oh, will you stop with that!” Xisuma said good-naturedly as Tubbo really did his best not to blush. xB laughed again. Iskall just whistled, walking over to where Keralis, a man in his late thirties in a blue shirt and jeans, had just spawned. The server’s admin turned back to Tubbo. “Sorry about that. You know how he can be.”

Tubbo just shook his head a bit, trying to suppress a smile. Ah, it’d been far too long since the Hermits had all been in one place like this. He’d missed the action of it all.

He, Xisuma, and xB chatted together for a few minutes as everyone spawned in and caught their bearings. It seemed everyone had big plans for the Season. While he and Xisuma had gone with a bee theme, xB was apparently planning to really Hermit out the season, far away from spawn. Scar was certainly embracing the wizard part of himself, and rumor had it BDubs and Doc were going to be neighbors, which was a recipe for disaster and, more importantly, funny stories. 

“Okay, everyone!” It was Keralis’ shout that drew the twenty-some players out of their respective conversations. Almost unconsciously, they’d formed an oval around the perimeter of their tiny spawn island. “Intro time! Let’s go, X!”

“What? Why me?” Xisuma protested, but Keralis just laughed and took his place back in the circle.

“C’mon, admin,” Tubbo teased him with an elbow to the side. Xisuma sighed, rolling his shoulders, then stepped out into the center of the island.

“Alright everyone. Welcome to Hermitcraft Season 7! Go!” He clapped his hands together and dashed back towards the shore, the circle immediately breaking up as the Hermits split into their groups and dove into the ocean. Tubbo laughed as he waved goodbye to xB, who took off in a different direction as he went to follow X.

The water was nice and lukewarm, and soon enough Tubbo was backstroking over the ocean. He looked up at the bright blue sky, and smiled.

~~~~~~~~~

They spent most of the first day collecting supplies. 

As it turned out, both FalseSymmetry, Hypnotizd, and ZombieCleo had decided to go in the same direction as he and Xisuma, so they ended up gathering their first bits of wood and stone together. Then there was some issue with the server that caused Xisuma to have to dive deep into the server code, in the open, at midnight, so their first night went without much sleep and with a lot of mob fighting instead.

“Well,” Cleo said the next morning, twirling her axe as Tubbo set to cooking some meat for breakfast. “That could have gone better.”

“I think the first night went just fine, thank you very much,” False shot back, sharpening her newly-minted stone sword. “I’m going to be honest, though, I’m not used to going out at night without an elytra. Or armor. Or a decent sword.”

“Hey, but did you see how many mobs I killed?” Tubbo put in, pulling out some pork chops and tossing one to Cleo. “I’m a god, I tell you.”

“Yes,” Xisuma replied. He was still sitting on one of the beds they’d made, and was double checking some of the code. “God of giving me heart attacks.”

“Not my fault you messed up part of the code! I saved your life!”

“I’d suggest you remember who bandaged that arrow wound, kid.”

Tubbo’s hand flew to his shoulder, where his jacket was torn slightly, and he blushed. “I’m not a kid!”

Everyone turned and gave him a flat look, and Tubbo blushed harder, looking down. It was no secret that he was, by far, the youngest person on the server. Most players were in their late twenties, like False and Impulse, to their late thirties, like Scar and Doc. Even the youngest before he’d arrived had been Mumbo and xB, at 24 and 19 respectively. At just barely 16, Tubbo was, well, a child compared to them.

Loathe as he was to admit it. It had been hard enough in the beginning, when he’d arrived unexpectedly at the beginning of Season 6. No one had been expecting any new players to join that Season, much less a mentally scarred 14-year-old, and he’d ended up being coddled for the first six months or so. Heck, he’d lived with Xisuma until he’d grown so tired of it he’d had to run off and make his own base without asking him, because the answer would have been no.

He was perfectly capable of living on his own! It was just… well, Tubbo knew he wasn’t as good as the others. He couldn’t make the huge, rolling complexes or over complicated redstone machines that did everything for you like the other hermits did. Of course, it made sense; he had a lot less experience and was still learning these things. But it didn’t help the fact that the others, well, they didn’t look down on him, per se, but they were always a little too willing to help, a little too protective. 

“Sure,” Cleo was drawling teasingly, drawing him out of his thoughts. Tubbo snorted and looked down at his breakfast with a shake of his head, starting to eat. 

“Oh, let him be,” Hypno put in, grabbing some food for himself. “I remember being that age. Young and ready to take on the world. At least he doesn't have any creaky old bones. I’m already feeling my back in the mornings.”

“Alrighty then!” Xisuma announced after a moment of silence, rising from his bed and closing the admin screens. “Looks like all the post-spawn bugs have been taken care of. I’m ready to head out for the day.”

“I guess this is where we all say goodbye, then,” False replied, twirling her sword. “I have the best idea for my base this season, but I gotta go north from here.”

“Tubbo and I are heading east.”

“West for me,” Cleo put in.

Hypno just shrugged. “I figured I’d wander for a bit before settling down.”

“No planning?” Tubbo asked, then grinned, glad for the change of subject. “I like your style, Hypno.”

The bandana-ed man inclined his head at him with a smile. He wasn’t a new player to the server, not at all, but from what Tubbo knew he hadn’t been around for a few years. Prior to the last few days as they’d prepared to jump Seasons, he’d hardly even heard of the man before, and thus didn’t know him too well.

Xisuma clapped Tubbo’s shoulder, eyes crinkling from that helmet-obscured smile of his. 

“Ready to go?” he asked.

Tubbo whooped. “Bees, here we come!”

~~~~~~~~~

Perfect.

That was the only way Tubbo could describe the place he’d come across. He sat in the branches of one of the tallest trees in the area, looking out to where the forest he’d been traversing ended and the plains biome, scattered with flowers in small patches around, with gentle hills rolling even further in the distance.

It was an idyllic location, and perfect for his plans for the Season.

Another day had passed, marking it Day 3 of Season 7. After that first somewhat disastrous night, he and Xisuma had separated from their initial group and travelled to find a base together. Xisuma had decided, for some reason, that he was going to build his base in the middle of the jungle, so they had set up camp there for the night. Come dawn, however, Tubbo was ready to go and scout for a place of his own, and with a promise to check in with Xisuma every day or so, he’d set off that morning.

It was early afternoon, now, and honestly, Tubbo was pleased with how quickly he’d found his spot. It was only a half-day’s journey, while walking, from Xisuma, so once he’d gotten elytra he’d be able to visit whenever he wanted. Besides that, news had it that Keralis and Beef were only a little ways out, which would be fun since Tubbo didn’t know them too well.

Humming quietly, Tubbo reached into his inventory and took out the only belonging he’d taken with him from Season 6－a medium-sized notebook, filled with sketches and notes on what he wanted to build and how to do it. Last Season he hadn’t been ambitious enough; Tubbo had started late thanks to living with Xisuma and then had focused on just having a base of his own that by the end of the season it had looked puny compared to the many buildings his friends/guardians had made.

He wasn’t making that mistake again. Tubbo had grand plans for this Season’s megabase, and he was going to make sure it blew everyone else out of the water.

Okay, maybe that was an over exaggeration. But Tommy had always said to aim high.

His heart twisted a bit, as it always did when he thought of his old friends. Back then, he’d known people his own age, and Wilbur and Techno had rarely held back against him when they’d interacted with him, whether through words or PvP.

He wondered how they were doing; it’d been almost two years since he’d last seen or heard from them. He wondered if they’d moved on.

He wondered if they knew he was still alive.

Tubbo shook his head, chasing the depressing thoughts out of his mind. He’d found himself thinking of his old friends less and less over the last year and half, as he’d settled into life in Hermitcraft and begun to heal from what had happened to him. Not to say he didn’t miss them, that he wasn’t missing something in his life, but, well. Even though he thought of them every once in a while, the numerous letters he’d written to Tommy, unable to be sent, had been left behind with Season 6, in a way of really starting anew.

Doc had explained it best. Life moved on, and sometimes it was best to just hold onto the old memories and work on making new ones.

He’d taken that advice to heart. Tubbo flipped open his notebook to one of the middle pages, holding it out and comparing his sketch to the open plains before him.

Yes. This biome would do quite nicely.

Season 7 was going to be something great.

[orthodoxydaily]

Icon,Saints& Reading: Wed., Nov, 25, 2020

Commemorated on November 12_ Julian Calendar

Saint John the Merciful, Patriarch of Alexandria (620)

     Saint John the Merciful, Patriarch of Alexandria, was born on Cyprus in the VII Century into the family of the illustrious dignitary Epiphanios. At the wish of his parents he entered into marriage and had children. When the wife and the children of the saint died, he became a monk: strict at fasting, prayer and love for brother.      His spiritual exploits gain him reknown, and when the Patriarchal cathedra-seat at Alexandria fell vacant, the emperor Heraclius and all the clergy besought Saint John to occupy the Patriarchal throne.      The saint worthily assumed his archpastoral service, concerning himself over the moral and dogmatic welfare of his flock. During his time as patriarch he denounced and drove out from Alexandria the heresy of the Antioch Monophysite Phyllonos.      But his chief task he considered to be charity and beneficence towards all those in need. At the beginning of his patriarchal service he ordered an accounting of all the poor and downtrodden in Alexandria, which turned out to be over seven thousand men. To all these unfortunates the saint daily distributed food, gratis and for free. Twice during the week, on Wednesdays and Fridays, he emerged from the doors of the Patriarchal cathedral, and sitting on the church portico, he received everyone in need: he settled quarrels, aided the wronged, and distributed alms. Three times a week he visited in the sick-houses, and rendered help to the suffering. It was during this period that the emperor Heraclius led a tremendous army against the Persian emperor Chosroes II. It resulted with the Persians ravaging and burning Jerusalem, and taking a multitude of captives. The holy Patriarch John gave over a large portion of the church treasury for their ransom.      The saint never refused suppliants. One time along the road to the sick-house he encountered a beggar and commanded that he be given 6 silver coins. The beggar, having made a change of clothes, ran on ahead of the Patriarch and again began to entreat alms. Saint John again gave him 6 silver coins. When however the beggar a third time besought charity, and the servants began to thrust away the obtrusive fellow, the Patriarch ordered that he be given 12 pieces of silver, saying: "Is Christ not indeed putting me to the test?" Twice the saint gave money to a merchant that had suffered shipwreck, and a third time gave him a ship belonging to the Patriarchate and filled with grain, with which the merchant had a successful journey and repaid his obligations.      Saint John the Merciful was known for his gentle attitude towards people. One time the saint was compelled because of some offense to remove from the Church a certain clergyman. This fellow was angry at the Patriarch, and so the saint wanted to summon him and talk it out, but it slipped his mind. But when he was celebrating the Divine Liturgy, the saint was suddenly reminded by the words of the Gospel: when thou bringest forth thine gift to the altar and do recollect, that thine brother hath something against thee, leave hold thine gift and first make peace with thine brother (Mt. 5: 23-24). The saint came out of the altar, called over the offending clergyman to him, and falling down on his knees before him, in front of all the people he asked forgiveness. The clergyman, shaken with surprise, repented his doings and afterwards became a pious priest.      Likewise there was a time when a certain citizen insulted George, a nephew of the Patriarch. George asked the saint to avenge the wrong. The saint promised to reward the offender, in a manner that all Alexandria would see. This calmed George down, and Saint John began to instruct him, speaking about the necessity of meekness and humility, and then, having summoned the insulter, he declared, that he would release him from payment of a church tax on his land. Alexandria indeed was amazed by such a "revenge", and George learned the lesson in the teaching of his uncle.      Saint John, a strict ascetic and man of prayer, was always mindful of his soul, and of death. He commissioned for himself a crypt-coffin, but he did not bid the master-craftsmen to finish it off, instead each feastday he would have them come and ask, if it was time to finish the work.      Shortly before his death, Saint John through illness was compelled to resign his cathedra and set off to the island of Cyprus. On the ship-journey the saint in his illness had a sign: in a sleep-vision a resplendent man appeared to him and said: "The King of kings doth summon thee unto Himself". The vision announced the impending death of the Patriarch. Having arrived at Cyprus, in his native city of Amaphunteia, the saint in peace expired to the Lord (616-620).

The Holy Monk Nilos the Faster

     The Holy Monk Nilos the Faster, a native of Constantinople. He lived during the V Century and was a student of Saint John Chrysostom. Having received a fine education, the saint while still a young man was appointed to the important post of prefect of the capital. During this period, Nilos was married and had children. But the pomp of courtly life bothered the couple. Saint John Chrysostom exerted a tremendous influence upon their lives and their strivings. The spouses decided to separate and devote themself to monastic life. The wife and daughter of Nilos set out to one of the women's monasteries in Egypt, and the Monk Nilos and his son Theodoulos went to Sinai, where they settled in a cave dug out by their own hands. For forty years this cave served as the dwelling of the Monk Nilos. By fasting, prayer and works, the monk attained to an high degree of spiritual perfection. People began to come to him from every occupation and social rank – from the emperor down to the farmer, and each found counsel and comfort from the saint. In solitude the Monk Nilos wrote much. A letter of his is known of – in which there is an angry denunciation of the emperor Arcadius, who had exiled Saint John Chrysostom. And widely known are the ascetic works of the Monk Nilos: they are perfectly executed in form, profoundly Orthodox, and filled with sincere sense and clear thought.      The Monk Nilos suffered many a misfortune in the wilderness. Thus, for example, Saracens captured his son Theodoulos, whom they intended to offer as a sacrifice to their pagan gods. Through the prayers of the saint the Lord saved Theodoulos, and the monk found him with the bishop of Emessa, who had ransomed the young man from the barbarians. And this bishop ordained both of them as presbyters. After ordination they returned to Sinai, where they asceticised together until the death of the Monk Nilos.

All texts© 1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos.

Icon: the "Merciful" ("Kykkiotisa", "Milostivaya")

Commemorated on November 12, December 26_ Julian calendar

     The Icon of the Mother of God, named the "Merciful" ("Kykkiotisa", "Milostivaya"): This icon was written, according to tradition, by the holy Evangelist Luke. It received its name "Kykkiotisa" from Mount Kykkos, on the Island of Cyprus. Here it was situated in an imperial monastery, in a church named after it. Before its coming to the Island of Cyprus, the wonderworking image of the Mother of God long wandered about through the will of God: at first it was situated in one the earliest Christian communities in Egypt, and then it was taken to Constantinople, where it remained during the time of Alexius Comnenius (end-XI to early-XII Century). During these years it was revealed to the hermit-elder Isaiah through a miraculous sign, that by his efforts the wonderworking image written by the Evangelist Luke would come to reside on the Island of Cyprus. The elder exerted much toil into fulfilling the Divine revelation. When the icon of the Mother of God arrived on the island, many a miracle was worked by it. From of old through the present to the monastery of the Mother of God the Merciful there throng those from every side afflicted by every sort of infirmity, and they receive healing through faith. In the miraculous power of the holy icon believe not only Christians, but also those of other faith who hearken to it in misfortune and illness. Inexhaustible is the mercy of the MostHoly Mother of God, Mediatrix for all the suffering, and Her image accurately bears the name, the "Merciful". The wonderworking "Kykkiotisa" Icon of the Mother of God possesses a remarkable peculiarity: from what time-period is unknown, but it is covered by an half shroud from the upper left corner to the lower right, such that the faces of the Mother of God and the Divine Infant no one is able to make bold to see. The depiction of the Mother of God appears to be of the Hodegetria type, as is also the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God. The head of the Mother of God is adorned with a crown.      At present a copy of this icon is particularly venerated at the women's Nikol'sk monastery in the city of Mukachev.

Luke 13:1-9 

1There were present at that season some who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And Jesus answered and said to them, "Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? 3 I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. 6 He also spoke this parable: "A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. 7 Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, 'Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?' 8 But he answered and said to him, 'Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. 9 'And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.'  

Thessalonians 2:13-3:5

13But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth,14 to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our LordJesus Christ.15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle. 16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, 17 comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work.

1Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified, just as it is with you, 2 and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men; for not all have faith. 3 But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one. 4 And we have confidence in the Lord concerning you, both that you do and will do the things we command you. 5 Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ.

[mobius-prime]

255. Sonic the Hedgehog #186

Mogul Rising (Part Two: Devil's Due)

Writer: Ian Flynn Pencils: Tracy Yardley! and Matt Herms Colors: Josh Ray

Sonic struggles to fight against Mina, Mighty, and Tails at once, as Mogul speaks to him through them. He angrily tells Mogul to let them go, and when Mogul mocks him for not listening earlier that day Sonic rightfully points out that Mogul didn't even begin to explain his own position in any amount of detail, instead just basically saying "haha, surrender." Ash, alerted by the noise and the empty bed, appears in the doorway of Freedom HQ and seeing the chaos, leaps in to grab Mina, not realizing she's being controlled.

Abruptly, all three mind-controlled friends break off the fight and run away in opposite directions. Ash is upset and confused as to why Mina would act so strange, so Sonic explains what's going on and then offers to bring him along to interrogate Mogul, something which Ash immediately accepts if it will let him save Mina. Once they get back to New Mobotropolis Sonic furiously orders Mogul to tell him where his friends are, and Mogul happily obliges.

Both Ash and Sonic are horrified, especially with the knowledge that Sonic wouldn't be fast enough to save all of them in time, something Mogul gloats over before offering them a deal - he'll bring them all back unharmed, if Sonic brings him the Chaos Emerald currently being kept within the city. Sonic, seeing no other choice, grimly agrees, before rushing away with Ash to sneak into the castle, into the chamber where the emerald is. Nicole, realizing they're trying to steal the emerald but not knowing why, starts putting up barriers trying to stop them, but they dodge without breaking stride and nab the emerald, rushing it back to Mogul as a montage shows the three puppets coming closer and closer to their deaths…

Nicole hysterically asks Sonic why he would do such a thing, and Sonic and Ash explain why they didn't really have much choice. Mogul, tiring of their conversation, uses his magic to force Nicole's hologram to dissipate before knocking Ash aside and telekinetically grabbing Sonic. To Sonic's shock, Mogul immediately announces that he has no further need of his new Fearsome Foursome and "releases" him from his service. Why? Well, apparently, he's realized one key rule of this universe - Sonic always wins.

With that, Mogul teleports himself and the other prisoners away, and Sonic and Ash return to Freedom HQ, which the three formerly-enslaved individuals have returned to. Ash comforts Mina while Sonic talks to Tails and Mighty. They're both embarrassed at what happened, Mighty even admitting he now knows how Knuckles must feel, but Sonic reassures them both, saying that while the villain may have won this time, they're going to get their chance to strike back sooner or later.

Honor-Bound

Writer: Ian Flynn Pencils: Tracy Yardley! Colors: Josh Ray 

Hey, speaking of Knuckles! He's having a pretty bad time of it as he flies over Albion in secret, watching the last of his people work to rebuild the city while blaming himself for everything. He's glad that at the very least Remington has been returned to normal, but can't bear to face his own family or anyone else, believing that for now they'll be better off without a Guardian looking after them. He uses a warp ring to leave, but Kneecaps notices him and babbles, and Lara-Le barely manages to catch a glimpse of him before the warp ring disappears. Man, poor Lara-Le. I miss when she was a much more major character, to be honest. She's so sweet, and doesn't deserve any of the terrible things that have happened to her. Knuckles warps himself to the oasis in the Sandopolis desert, where the entire dingo army has set up camp. With General Kage gone, General Helmut von Stryker, who has apparently been hanging out here all this time, has once again taken control of his people, and upon seeing Knuckles curtly informs him that his people are thriving here, and expect to make their way back into the heart of Angel Island before long.

Knuckles, I'm sorry, but what the hell are you thinking?! Look, I agree that the dingoes have been wronged by the echidnas over time, but have you forgotten that not long ago these guys turned into literal Nazis as soon as Eggman gave them a chance to? Did you completely miss the fact that they are the ones that ran the concentration camps that killed off ninety percent of your people?! I would think that that alone has completely robbed them of any chance at redemption. Like, Knuckles seriously seems to think here that Kage is the sole mastermind behind the echidna concentration camps, but meanwhile here in the real world we kind of all agreed that "I was just following orders" wasn't a good enough excuse for all of the grunts who served in the Nazi regime, and I would think the same should hold here. Do you really want to welcome an entire army of people back into the heart of the island who not two months ago were gleefully torturing and slaughtering your people? Again, we are talking about a literal Nazi allegory here, this isn't me projecting, these guys were literally modeled after the Nazis. I think forgiveness and "live and let live" is not the right choice here, especially if Knuckles is already feeling so guilty about hurting his people, because the dingo regime hurt his people far more than he ever did during his single day as Enerjak.

Jesus Christ. Anyway, Knuckles returns to the main part of Angel Island, hiding in the bushes near "Shrine Isle," which is apparently what we're calling the tiny floating island that houses the Master Emerald shrine. I guess everyone just decided that keeping it blatantly out in the open is the best plan now, so the Chaotix have worked together to build a bridge over to it for easy access. Ray had spotted Knuckles using a warp ring earlier but was unable to follow him, and Julie-Su says sadly that if he doesn't want to be found, he won't be. Knuckles, watching from within the bushes, hopes they'll go away now that the bridge is finished, but Rouge's voice from behind him interrupts his brooding, asking if he plans to just go back to being a hermit once again. He's irritated, not wanting to talk to her right now and insisting that everything bad that's happened on the island only happened because he left, but she presses on, reminding him that with Eggman's sheer power and Finitevus' unpredictability, the island likely would have been attacked and decimated anyway and it's not solely his fault. Knuckles gets angry at this, yelling that the Brotherhood's methods protected the island successfully for hundreds of years and he's the only one (besides Athair) who's really broken tradition.

Well, good on you, Rouge! Knuckles thinks on it for a moment, watching his friends play around next to the shrine, and then concedes the point, deciding that he should protect everyone he can after all. He walks out to greet everyone, who are overjoyed to see him… and then Rouge smirks from her hiding place, murmuring to herself about how gullible Knuckles is and how she can't wait to "wrap him around her little finger." Oh come on, Ian, really? Look, if there's one character I think Ian has not at all figured out yet, it's Rouge. He seems to see her as this scheming, callous, manipulative bitch who's only interested in treasure and breaking up relationships for fun. Hell, Penders wrote her better than Ian currently does, and that's saying something. In the games, yes, Rouge is manipulative and a bit shady, but she's not at all a bad person. After her experiences with Shadow in Sonic Adventure 2, she explicitly mentions how she's been influenced to become less materialistic and to search for "something better" in life, and by the time of '06, she's nothing but a positive influence on those around her. Sure, she's still not above using shady or illegal means to get her way - she is part of Team Dark, after all - but in general her morals always end up lining up with those of the heroes, and she's intensely loyal to those she considers her friends. There's hints here and there within the games that she may have a thing for Knuckles, but to be fair, there're just as many if not more hints that she's not into anybody and only flirts at all to get an edge over others. Adding in this little bit at the end where she's acting all scheme-y while watching Knuckles just makes her seem like this terrible and insincere person when that's not what her character is supposed to be like at all. To be fair, Ian does get better at writing her later on, particularly when she finally starts being paired up with Shadow as a team, but for now, I'm definitely pretty salty at how she's being treated here, considering she's one of my all-time favorite Sonic characters across all canons.

[readbythestarlight]

c2e84

Wow, that was a surpassingly normal ad!

Oh boy here we go lore drop!

Therizdune the chained oblivion who is chained at the bottom of the abyss

"He’s basically the boogeyman" if the boogeyman was a HORRIBLE ELDRITCH MONSTER

...IS the boogeyman a horrible eldritch monster?! Oh god.

[[MORE]]

This is great and awful like terrible abyssal eldritch things that can creep into the world through gaps and rifts encourages people to be violent and awful

Also I’m so satisfied that the chains actually ended up being significant

Okay so Yussah knows a guy who we know knows Trent, so... that’s not cool. I mean o totally trust Yussah now it’s not that, it’s just can we trust Ormid?

So not all the Cerberus assembly is bad re: Yussah. But like he’s basically a hermit living in his tower, yeah? Who doesn’t go into the Empire? So like how out of touch is he?

"Trent seems just creepy" that’s putting it mildly

Money? Ball bearings? xD

Oh nice some of the Halas money

Oh Nott honey

Fjord being like "Nott? Caleb please talk to your goblin."

And they’re just all discussing it in the background

NOTT DO NOT

oh boy don’t like that

Oh dear...

"Your FACE is stupid" oh Nott

Lock the gem away somewhere

"You’ll still work at it and try?" Oh honey of course he will

I like how they handled that. They didn’t put Nott down, they gently reminded her that Halas can’t be trusted.

Oh I hope that doesn’t trigger Caleb

And I hope that didn’t just fuck them over with Halas maybe

Cad’s like "can we not?" and then just silencing everyone who keeps trying to talk to him

Y’all need to call your OTHER wizard friend (aka HOTT BOI) to let him know you’re fine and not dead or anything cause this is probably the longest he’s gone without hearing from you

"Everything’s been smoothed over" I wonder if Dairon had anything to do with that

I wonder where she is...

Also this is late cause he said it like ages ago but I love Cad’s little bits of homely wisdom, like the whole holes in a bucket metaphor.

PLATINUMMMMMMM

A WHOLE SATCHEL

TIME TO BUY A KEEP Y’ALL

Kidding I like the xhorhaus

Holy SHIT

21,000 gold??

That puts them at 350 platinum which is like 3,500 apiece NICE

Please def check in with Orli I miss him

I’m gonna insist they all get either matching M9 tattoos or Captain tusktooth tattooes

ORLIIIII

Oh my

Yeah a charisma bump is a good choice Nott xD

YOU ALL BETTER GET MATCHING TATTOOS

"chaos crew" lol

Imagine the stories those "new faces" have heard of the M9 from the older crew

1312 gold not bad!

Fuck y’all I love Orli! I missed him. I hope Fjord retires and goes back to sailing with Orli and the crew someday.

F: "Can I ask, how painful is this... procedure?"

O: "oh-ho-ho! Quite."

Oh lord

B: "Is that infected? Is that infected?!"

O: "No, he’s just a.....................Pansy."

Girls day!

Ohhh I like that idea Nott! Can’t wait to see the new art of that.

I like the start of the idea but the "like the Traveler’s hugging me" is slightly creepy to me. Idk.

BeauJester shippers just got a gift xD

Oh... Molly’s all seeing eye tattoo. My heart. Taliesin looks really touched.

Omg a nat1

Ouch fuck Matt you didn’t have to describe that

Matt’s like "here’s your pretty tattoo Nott, here’s your very lovely tattoo Jester, here’s your TOTALLY BOMBASS tattoo that goes all the way up the BACK OF YOUR SKULL Beau"

like I’m not saying Matt plays favorites but his wife’s character definitely got the coolest tattoo

Boy talk over fish and chips heck yeah

Mmm gonna get some deep talk from Caleb?

Caleb expressing that he feels like maybe they’ve been brought together for a purpose <3

Cad telling him he’s believed Caleb was meant for something important since the beginning

Caleb the green bean farmer

"The god’s plant us, plant their will and their desire, and we move towards the fruit we’re meant for bear for them." Aw that’s... sweet, Cad.

Fjord being like "idk man I’m still figuring it out" what a mood

Caleb admitting he feels like he should run away

"I have started to forget what it was like not being with you people. And we are missing one, I am stuck on the fact that we are still missing one."

I wish I was fast enough to transcribe word for word this conversation because it’s excellent

I like Fjord’s question of "when you know, do you run away or do the right thing knowing it could kill you"

C: "You two are alright."

Cad: "We’re getting better."

F: "So are you, you know, you should give yourself credit."

C: "Mm..."

Cad: "I know... just think about it."

(Wow my old Widofjord feelings just came back with a vengeance.)

Cad adding in his own encouraging words about how Caleb is growing and becoming better made me happy too

C: "I hate tattoos."

Nott in the distance: AHHHH

C: "they’re just not for me."

Cad: "they’re frowned upon in my family."

And then they go see the girls

"We brought fish and chips—what they fuck"

All the Jester ships are eating well tonight

I’m so glad Jester finally got her cool tattoo

Y’all don’t want to see mom and Yeza and Luc?

lol Jester "I didn’t tell my mom about the tattoo"

"I’ve seen parents find out their kids had tattoos literally at the funeral"

I literally could not tell if that was Cad or Taliesin sharing

You guys didn’t even say bye to Orli! YOU MONSTERS

Boy that talks blurb with Brian talk about Caleb is GOOD SHIT MAN

No Brian don’t stop please go on and on about Caleb

lol Matt getting himself in the face with the paper

I knew Dairon was the one who got them out of trouble <3

EXPOSITOR OUTFIT AYYYY

just got new official art and now Beau gets a new outfit and the girls get tattoos xD

B: "I apologize"

M9: "wwwwwoooooaaaaahhh"

And library access again yay!

HEYYYY DAIRON

Beau gets to be a role model now lol

Oh yikes... selling out the Kryn to the King... don’t like that

Vence... NewTHEYLESS??

I don’t like that

Everyone: *excited freaking about Beau’s expositor room*

Cad, a good 10 seconds behind: "You had a monk bunk."

Dairon admitting she realized her prejudices against the Kryn were wrong. You know what that is? Growth.

They’re all so proud of Expositor Beau

Caleb trying to do "normal" accents is amazing lol

I don’t want him to be split from the group but I definitely understand his concern

Scary world ending lore oh boy

Oh god I forgot about the gentleman being here...

YES NO DO NOT GO ALONE that’s a dumb idea honey Jester please

N about J: "well she convides in everybody. Just says whatever she wants to say all the time."

This whole Beau and Nott conversation is amazing xD

Fjord and Jester: talking

Beau and Nott: talking

Caduceus walking along and enjoying the group communicating and sharing their feelings

Is he an earth genasi?

That’s the second time another wizard has called Yussah a fool, poor guy

I like how Ormid’s like "who the fuck are these people" but he also trusts Yussah enough to listen to them that’s nice

Hmmm I don’t like that’s awfully suspicious

WHISPERSSSSS

He keeps coming back to the beacon and I don’t like it

So like.. what if he is in on the whole thing and is trying to steer them away from looking deeper into the beacon?

Jester honey why you go and name drop Trent?? Like fuck.

Also interesting that both the King and his council have been more aggressive and pro-war lately, and the Bright Queen is also bent on the conflict in a way that I’ve personally felt doesn’t seem to quite mesh with her character, it definitely lends towards the idea that they’re being manipulated

Ormid’s a bit of a dick, although I guess I can understand, they’re not explaining themselves super well

Hng idk how I feel about Ormid and I’m not sure that I like that he now knows Dairon is working to get an audience with the king

But then again I’m bad about telling which NPCs are trustworthy and which aren’t.

Ormid’s face when they mentioned the cat OH MY GOD

okay fine god now I have to trust him

"I know we are talking about very important things but" I’m dying

Y’all fixing to get a symbol of the Cerberus Assembly damn

I don’t necessarily LIKE Ormid not entirely trust him but he’s already

Insight check on Sprinkles to see if he wants to go back with Jester aw

lol getting pet advice from him maybe I like him a little bit

PUMAT SOOOOL

it’s been so long!

PUMAAAAT SOL

Guys I have missed Pumat so much he just brings me so much joy

Fetch quest for Pumat DO IT PLZ

Oh

Wait

Basilisk oil that’s maybe not a great idea

GO SAILING TO THE ISLANDS

They gotta go to islands for Traveler Con right is that close?

"Let me get it from CritRole stats" lol

Oh thank god health potions

Armor boost oil is neat (plus 1 to AC isn’t bad) but ouch it’s pricy

I love that they CANNOT keep money they get it and then they spend it. It’s #relatable

Uh.... what’s happening to my boy?!

Caduceus?!

MATT WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MY BOY??

45 pats slashing??

WHAT IS HAPPENING

CADUCEUS

oh NO

fuck no

Is there a rift near?!

WHAT THE FUCK

The Inevitable End?

WHAT IS HAPPENING?

Evil assassin person??

45 points of damage fuck

This is bad

Sam: “WE’RE SHOPPING MATT” MOOD

23 doesn’t hit?!

Oh they’re in trouble

God DAMN I’m freaked out omg

Does he have The Invulnerable Vangrent as a map??

God what a cliffhanger

[emperorren]

(1) I haven't been involved in the Rey discourse so maybe I'm not interpreting this correctly, so please bear with me - but it's always been clear to me that while Rey *is* morally right, her impulsiveness did get the better of her. And I don't think she's a bitch for it: it was a stressful situation, she had just gone through a lot of adrenaline, and it makes perfect sense with her background and her characterization. She wants Ben to stop the shooting on the Resistance - which again, I get,

(2) but the problem (for me at least) is that even if the narrative wants me to believe the morally right thing for Kylo would have been to do that, he can’t - for the simple and good reason that he’s just committed high treason, and ironically enough, to save Rey, not to mention that she got herself in that situation thanks to a poorly thought plan where she almost lost her life. Calling that off is signing his death warrant, for real this time. After that, it’s joining the Resistance (or what’s left of it) on Crait for a long, painful death, because neither of them has a way of knowing that Holdo is going to ram into the Supremacy. Kylo is aware of the chase and in what state the Resistance is - Rey is not. But for the sake of the argument, let’s say Rey and Kylo could have done something… with, um, the Force, to help the Resistance, and that Kylo says no just for the evulz and still tries to get Rey to be with him, I still think Rey handled the situation poorly?Not even in a sense “she should have said yes”, because again, I don’t blame her for saying no. I guess what makes me uncomfortable is that her reaction is very similar to how Luke reacted a few years ago, and Kylo sure interprets it that way. A scene where the two of them start screaming at each other and that ends with the same outcome would have been better - mainly because the way I perceive it is that Rey basically strikes straight into Kylo’s PTSD - involuntarily, but it does leavea bitter taste in my mouth, especially that the argument seems to be that “Rey did nothing wrong”, while the movie is all about failure, so I don’t see why Rey should be exempt of it. And I don’t want to see Rey on her knees, tbh - just thinking of that makes me gag - just a little acknowledgement that while impulsiveness might have worked on Jakku in order to survive, it’s not going to work all the time. And that’s Rey’s fatal flaw, in my opinion - and it almost was fatal in TLJ.

I dunno. Rey’s impulsiveness served Reylo well when she dumped Luke’s ass to run to Kylo, didn’t it? 

My problem with this reading is that it basically validates Luke’s “this is not going to go the way you think” stance, and frames Rey’s urgency to show compassion to Kylo as a “fatal” flaw she needs to fix, which imo is all kinds of thematically wrong and messes up the subtext. Rey was NOT wrong to be impulsive, to want to act immediately to rescue the lost boy from his lifelong captor. Her instincts were not wrong—the circumstances were. If anything her impulsiveness, optimist thinking and even, allow me the term, ignorance of the complete ramifications of Ben’s fall (she only knows the tl;dr version of all the parties involved minus Leia) are what allowed her to discard all her preconceptions and open herself to Kylo so fully and earnestly in the first place. She saw a glimpse of Ben Solo and immediately ran with it—despite having NO idea of what it was like to live with Ben Solo and his growing darkness for 20+ years. Was she supposed to think this through, ponder the pros and cons of trying to redeem Ben carefully, consider the fact that maybe he wasn’t just *stolen away*, but also had ideological reasons to side with the FO, and that she needed to bring better arguments to the table to actually convince him? Probably. But I bet this would have paralyzed her just as it paralyzed Luke. Sometimes knowing all the facts and the nuances of a problem, being too deeply and personally involved with it, can prevent you from seeing a solution. And imo Rey was able to see it precisely because she’s essentially an outsider, unrelated to all this skywalker drama until two weeks ago.

Rey’s failure can be seen as the failure of the hero in the face of bigger circumstances than what she could handle at the moment. The fact that Kylo wasn’t wrong in not wanting to immediately run to the Resistance either adds nuance to their current conflict:

I guess what makes me uncomfortable is that her reaction is very similar to how Luke reacted a few years ago, and Kylo sure interprets it that way. A scene where the two of them start screaming at each other and that ends with the same outcome would have been better - mainly because the way I perceive it is that Rey basically strikes straight into Kylo’s PTSD

and that’s the tragedy of it, isn’t it? Rey does this because she was basically cornered into an either/or choice, and the result is that Kylo sees another person he loves raising a weapon against him.But judging from her face when the tug-of-war starts, she is perfectly aware of how this would look to Kylo, and it kills her.Still, she has to—Kylo was cornering her with an impossible choice, he had two sabers and she had none. Both Rey and Kylo’s actions contributed to the way the events precipitated, but neither was able to foresee it. The thing is—from a storytelling perspective, their personal conflict needs to be genuine and believable, and both have a right to perceive the other’s behavior as a betrayal.If you had it any other way, there would be no Crait, and it would be extremely difficult to set them up as “complicated enemies” for IX. But at the same time, both need to be able to eventually acknowledge—and forgive—each other’s motivations for acting the way they did. 

But most importantly, for all you can see Rey’s impulsiveness as a mistake, she really did better than anyone else who still loves him: Luke didn’t try at all—didn’t even bother offering a clear explanation of what happened at the academy, just packed and left to go sulk on his hermit island; Leia keeps on holding hope but from a distance, in secret, while officially leading military attacks on Kylo; Han did reach out to him but it was too little and too late, and he didn’t think it through, either (did he consider Ben’s realistic possibilities to go home with him, when “home” is the Resistance?). Rey, at least, formed a connection with him, gave him a reason to believe in a possible bright future, and didn’t simply go in the lion’s den to plead with him—she offered her physical help to get rid of Snoke. She got one thing right that nobody else did: that Kylo didn’t just need an escape plan, he needed to destroy the voice in his head for good. And she went there to help him do exactly that.

[klwritesbooks]

🌊War of the Water Character Habits/Characteristics🌊

This post is for Machiavelli, a small siren who was locked up in a lobster trap and left to die by the rest of the sirens. She was found by Biff and John, my gay sons, and now she's they're child. These are some cute things she does ��

Machiavelli is much like a cat, in that she's kinda useless at hunting. She likes to go after fish that are too slow to get away from her, dead fish, bits of seaweed or shells.

Machiavelli will bring whatever she's hunted to John to make him happy, even though that mainly includes dead fish and hermit crabs

At night, Machiavelli gets a certain amount of time to swim before the tide goes out/moon comes up. In this time, she will collect as many shells as possible and give them to John, but under no circumstances is he to discard of any, because that'd break her little heart

Machiavelli has a piece of driftwood she used to teethe, but now has an emotional attachment to it. It's kinda like her equivalent of a favourite teddy bear of stuffed toy, only it's a bit of wood

Though she was abandoned by the other sirens, she can still hear them sing sometimes. Because they never taught her to sing, she'll sit on a rock and just yell, because that's good enough

Machiavelli can't talk John and Biff's language, but has learned words that they say the most. With this, she's built up her own language but tends to just babble nonsencially until her point is made

Hates crabs and big fish, they're mean and fast and she can't catch them

Hates when seaweed touches her just like anyone else, and will throw the biggest of tantrums because John let that happen

Because Biff is significantly bigger than John muscle-wise, Machiavelli likes to use him as a climbing frame though Biff's not keen on that

Machiavelli views John as her mum, and is very confused as to why he doesn't have a tail when he's in the water with her. To make things better, and to help him swim better, she'll hold his hand if they go too far out

Let me know if you'd want to see more of these, I might just do them anyway 😄 also, if you want to be tagged in anything The City of Water/War of the Water related, let me know!

@jade-island-lives @concerningwolves @marigoldwritesthings

[scapegrace74-blog]

Fictober Day 13, 1013 Words

This seemed like such a good idea at the time.  I have a new appreciation for joining words.  And halfway through I went back and took all of the hyphens out of the compound words. I had plans to re-arrange these into something closer to a poem, but you’re going to get them a la stream of consciousness, because it’s been a long day.  Happy birthday, Fox Mulder!  Tagging @fictober @today-in-fic and @txf-prompt-box.

Sloe eyed. Insomniac.  Whippet hipped.   Loyal. Irreverent.  Iconoclast. Ever questing.  Brutish.  Gentle.   Anchored by tragedy.   Incisive.  Blunt.   Trenchcoat wearing.  Squinty. Empathetic.  Bull headed.  Empty handed. Chestnut haired.  Chisel jawed.  Verbose. Mute.  Explosive.  Imploding. Battle weary.  Inquiring.  Patrician. Mythic.  Doomed.  Icarus and Daedalus.  Childless father.  Orphaned son. Wry.  Cleft chinned.  Mole cheeked. Mossy eyed.  Arrogant.  Gentlemanly.   Starry eyed.  Star searching.  Star crossed. Sarcastic.  Sincere.  Sister bereft.  Clotheshorse. Bruno Magli loafer shod.  Lapsed Jew.  Worshipful. Basement hermit.  Porn aficionado.  Supple limbed.  Atlasian. Byronic.  Jungian.  Dual fathered. Single minded.  Absent minded.  Plangent. Notorious.  Slob.  Meticulous. Curious.   Questioning.  Travel weary. Relentless.  Sleepy blink giver.  Dreamer.  Loner.  Divorcee. Masculine.  Donnish.  Recalcitrant. Fleet footed.  Soft handed.  Basketball enthusiast.  Point guard. Cerebral.  Banal.  Distracted. Myopic.  Long lashed.  Plush lipped. Sculpted.  Sartorial.  Pedantic. Open minded.  Seeker of truth.  Myth believer.  Ghost hunter. Monster chaser.  Mutant mirandizer.  Cher dancer.  Downy haired. Bronze skinned.  Outcast.  Alpha male. Intuitive.  Spooky.  Magdalen college attendee.  Boston Brahmin.  Magnanimous. Long boned.  Short fused.  Atheist. Believer.  Defiant.  Well read. Well versed.   Butter fingered.   Cancer defying.  Courtly. Charming.  Crush inducing.  Impervious. Huge hearted.  Vulnerable.  Outreaching. Defensive.  Green eyed.  Blue eyed. Grey eyed.  Hazel eyed.  Alien apostle.  Apostate.  Abductee defender.  Abductee. Apocalypse prognosticator.   Overbite. Sharp tongued.  Promise-keeper.  Victim. Prosecutor.  Wire tapper.  Unexplained light chaser.   Forever to the heavens drawn.  Teena’s favourite.  Bill’s choice.  Skinner’s bane.  Sofa sleeper. Desk jockey.  Pencil launcher.  Driver. Passenger.  Mutineer. Compass true.  Doubt defier.  Expectation defier.  Death defier. Handsome.  Puckish.  Elven eared. Hedgehog haired.  Broad shouldered.  Runners’ knee.  Gunshot scar. Iliac crest.  Vengeance driven.  Forgiving. Kind.  Socially stunted.  Id dominant. Narcissistic.  Scholarly. Prodigal son.  Apollo.  Zarathustra. Agrippa.  Penitent.  Old soul. Grief weary.  Alarm tripper.  Yarn unraveller. Convention abstainer.  Can’t leave well enough alone.  Confidante. Late-night caller.  Ramparts defender.  Wide net caster.  Hither and yon-er.  Navigator. Lost.  Lost Boy.  Persistant. Alarmist.  Defeatist.  Nomad.   Comfort spurner.  Journeyman.  Stargazer.  Holder of the scales of justice.  Libra. Bay Stater.  Island-born.  Civil servant.  Per diem claimer.  Leash yanker. Foolhardy.  Sensual.  Hedonistic. Ascetic.  Self-deprived.  Orpheus in the Underworld.  High browed. Obscure.  Shadowed by tragedy.  Priapic.  Apologist. Burden ridden.  Weighted down by his past.  Future fighting.  Abstinent. Uxorious.  Lean flanked.  Navel gazing. Profiler.  Impatient.  Hospital patient.  Institutionalized.  Committed. Devoted.  Stolen childhood.   Arrested adolescence.  Brave. Gambler.  Betting against the house.  Quixotic. Romantic.  Impulsive.  Guitar riffing.  Pun loving. Filial.  Solitary.  Self-abnegating.  Daring the hounds of hell to bite.  Soulful. Poetic.  Mystic.  Gnostic. Apocryphal.  God denying.  Forsaking. Forsook.  Forward charging.  Backward glancing.  Target sighting.  Co-worker. Colleague.  Muscular.  Intellectual. Reliably unreliable.  Perpetually late.  Up early.  Literate.  Fish caretaker.  Dog disliker. White whale chaser.  Pole star navigating.  Aesthete.   Perpetually injured.  Tall tale teller.  End time foreteller.  Extra-terrestrial stalwart.  Conspiracy theorist.  Led around by his past.  Hopeless quest upholder.  Genie releaser.  Delusional. Visionary.  Oracle of doom.  Occultist. Traditionalist.  Vatic.   Psychologist.  Partner. Lover.  Beloved.  Right-handed. Heavy-handed.  Heart on his sleeve.  Monotone.  Laconic. Faustian.  Equivocal.  Explicit. Dirty-minded.  Bearing a cross. Holding a grudge.  Holding a torch.  Brain surgery survivor.  Pinpoint focussed.  Middle-aged.   Sensualist.  Risk taker.  Undercover agent.  Undercover boyfriend.  Supplicant. Empath.  Crisis survivor.  Depressive. Mr. Potato Head imitator. Childish.  Childlike.  Ageless. Agnostic.  Senior agent.  Prophet.   Fearless.  Soulmate.  Endorphin chaser.  SSRI prescription filler.   Danger magnet.  Brooder. Pouter.  Casual disregard for personal harm.  Hare-chaser.  Reformed skirt-chaser.   Monogamous. Dream analyzer.  Lamaze class partner.  Zombie guardian.  Cautious Millennium celebrator.  Talks a good game.  Trips over his tongue.  Trips over his feet.  White man trash talker.  Anarchist. Calamity inviter.  Gazer. Gazee.  Eye candy.  Ass model. Honourable.  Dutiful.  Playing the long game.  Self-mockery expert.  Suffering no fools.  Garbage can tantrum thrower.  Hallway pacer.  Elevator rider.  Highway voyager.  Co-pilot. Co-conspirator.  Friend.  Protector. Unrequited admirer.  Requited suitor.  Abandoned husband.  Angel and devil all at once.  Elegant. Fit.  UFO pursuer.  Singular pursuit.  Undissuadable.  Barreling forward without thought of ramifications.  Forever weighing the cost of consequences in the aftermath.  Owner of an empty fridge.  Keeper of an empty bed.  Custodian of a gold necklace.  Throwing effort after foolishness.  Noble. Rat trap connoisseur.  Monograph author.  Peering into the abyss.  Walking the tightrope of lunacy.  Masochist. Diffident courter.  Passionate significant other.  Fragile mental health.  Held together by Spackle and faith.  Falling apart in slow motion.  Giver of unsolicited kindness.  Ouster of the Syndicate.  Weekend scruff.  Cellphone addictee.  One-liner fan.  Mutato correspondent.  Compassionate.  Long memoried.  Bombastic. Can read you like a large print book. Disdains self-analysis. Is his own blind spot.  Fanciful. Internet casualty.  Grey t-shirts.  Low-riding pants.  Well-cut suits.  Exile from happiness.  Sacrificial lamb.  Perfectly imperfect.  Freckles over his shoulders.  Heroic quest. Martyr.  Gulag escapee.  Red Speedo. The loneliness of the long distance runner.  Paracelsus. Platonic ideal.  Socratic method.  Sagacity. Auto-erotic asphyxiation.  Sinful.  Black leather couch.  Late model Ford. Sees his sister in starlight.   Full of ruth. Opposer of a living will. Scornful.  Truthful.  Confrontational.  Contemptuous. Fighter against chauvinism, cronyism and reductionism.  Approachable to women, children and oddballs.  Expert in alien abduction lore.  Volunteer for a hopeless war.  Restless sleeper.  Nightmare sufferer.  Super Soldier punching bag.  Accepter of his fate.  Junk food consumer.  Pizza delivery man.  Occupant of Apartment 42.  Fugitive from justice.  Fugitive from romantic entanglement.  Provider of an IVF donation.  Keeping the light on for a miracle.  Speechless entrant into Scully’s bed one lonely night.  Has only one one in five billion.  Comes back from the dead for her sake.  Walks away from her without a second thought to protect their son.  Can’t believe he is someone’s constant or touchstone. Uncooperative.  Audacious.  Smug. Aloof.  Mad swagger.  Can doubtless back it up.  Thoughtful. Weird.  Geeky.  Awkward like a half-grown puppy.  Makes an end run around propriety.  Rankine’s law of potential energy in the flesh.  Gifter of rare smiles and frequent grins.  Has a 40,000 word vocabulary and an Oxford degree.  Still is speechless in the face of his love for Scully and their son.  Holds himself to a higher standard than anyone else.  Has never been disappointed in only one person.  Expected to spend his adult life alone.  Managed to make his expectations come to pass.  Can’t find the strength to stand up and fight without Scully in his corner.  If asked to name the most important moments of his life, would answer Scully, William, Scully, Scully, Scully.  Happy birthday, Fox Mulder.

[exileseverafter]

Chapter 5

Strawberry Pie and the Winter Prince

“He’s got legs like tree trunks! Big yellow eyes! I imagine he could throw a boulder the length of the forest. I KNEW that maiden was in trouble!”

Ezra did not go with Marjorie to her ‘Moonflower Market’ that night, or the next. It wasn’t out of lack of curiosity or laziness. He already felt restless and ill at ease knowing he had no steady income, as while servitude under Hamilton Tooth had been unbearable at times he at least didn’t live in fear of missing a meal. Rather, his pride simply wouldn’t allow him to show up at a bazaar selling only a single pie, even if that pie could be sliced up to feed a good 20 humans according to Marjorie. “It’s preposterous,” he’d insisted at the time. “If this is to be my ‘debut’ as a baker here in the Center of the Universe, and if I’m to attract customers as you seem to think I can, I won’t do it with subpar work! Certainly not with cold cheese and mushroom pie.” (He’d already eaten a slice of the other pie for supper.) “At least let me prepare a decent strawberry pie. As soon as I can find strawberries…” It took a week, in fact, to gather the ingredients and prepare for his ‘debut’ at the Market. During that time he made several discoveries about life on the surface. Forests in particular were absolutely teeming with life. On the Sky Islands, the plants that grew there did so in organized ways, sending their roots down into the translucent surface of the cloud and blooming to produce brightly colored fruits or perfumed flowers. Here the plant life seemed determined to spread across every inch of land available, vines choking trees and lichens feasting on their fallen corpses. Where the enormous fir trees didn’t choke out the sunlight, patches of grass formed carpets studded with toadstools and weeds. Insects buzzed about, many too tiny to see until they’d landed on his nose or left his wrists with itchy bites. In the Sky there had been birds, and only birds; no other animal seemed to thrive on the Islands unless it was a pampered pet, and even Enlightened land animals showed no interest in trying. The priests of the Sun theorized that this was because birds were the favored of the Sun, the ones among the animals who hadn’t turned their backs on Her and thus could still fly far higher than the insects could. The scientists thought it had something to do with the kinds of plants grown in the Sky, pointing out that even flightless birds like chickens did just fine. Whatever the reason, it led to birds being enormously popular with the Sky Folk as livestock or pets. The massive Capital Island of Vox, hovering perpetually over the ocean, was said to hold a glorious menagerie with one inhabitant: a phoenix, one of the last in the world. Yet even in Mielle, Ezra could not recall the flocks of birds which woke him every morning with gentle chattering and warning calls. Swarms of them sat on the branches of a dying tree until they gave it the illusion of leaves. Birds lived in the Islands, but they thrived on the ground. What he was to make of that, he didn’t know. Marjorie, for her part, went about her business privately as she promised she would, answering questions only with some needling. She cheerfully told him where to find wild strawberries and edible mushrooms, possibly just happy to have the place to herself while he went out gathering. It took pressing her a bit more to find out that they were currently on the outskirts of the Ever Empire, a human-ruled nation that was in her words, “of no concern to us as they don’t send tax collectors out here.” He also learned there weren’t any terrestrial villages within a week’s travel, leaving Ezra to conclude that this Market was the only way he could continue living as a baker instead of inevitably going mad as a hermit with a chatty freeloader. He found himself wondering what exactly G. Chulainn did to cause so much terror if he was so far away from anyone at all. He also learned from her how sacks of flour and sugar, bottles of milk and eggs would show up every other morning without explanation. “A little birdie brings them,” she said with a coy look. “And I may have told that little birdie that I have an ailing grandmother. But he wouldn’t bring it if he couldn’t spare it, right?” One afternoon he sat gathering strawberries in the meadow, kneeling next to the plant and plucking them with his chubby fingers as delicately as he could. He’d discovered that blueberries were a lost cause; tiny as they were, they’d end up squashed and smeared on his hands no matter how careful he was. “I suppose I’ll have to learn how to shape dough more delicately as well,” he muttered to himself as he wiped sweat off his brow, the sun beating down on him. “No wonder humans think they’re the default for everything. It’s all sized perfectly for them down here. Well, except for the trees, and the bears…” He thought he heard a rustling in the surrounding woods, freezing on instinct and wishing he’d brought his cooking pot. Had merely mentioning bears jinxed him in some way, bringing them down on him? Didn’t they love sweet things like fruit? Certainly he was larger than a bear or a wolf, but that didn’t mean he wanted to run into one. For a brief second he thought he saw two sets of eyes peering out at him, one bestial and one more human. Then he saw a flash of movement and both disappeared, leaving him standing and staring in the heat and feeling a little foolish. # “The giant has returned!” Basil burst into his cabin with so much energy he could have torn the door right off if he weren’t careful. “I knew it!” Lavender paused in her sweeping and looked up at the young prince, smiling gently. “That’s wonderful, Dear. You can bring him a housewarming gift later. Help me get the corners here, won’t you?” Basil took the broom without even thinking about it, too distracted to be of much help sweeping. “He’s got legs like tree trunks! Big yellow eyes! I imagine he could throw a boulder the length of the forest. I KNEW that maiden was in trouble!” “Maiden?” Lavender raised an eyebrow, setting herself down on a wooden chair as Basil rushed past her, imitating the battle he dreamed of in broom-handle pantomime. “You mean that girl with the sick grandmother in the old giants’ cottage?” “And a fishy story it is, right? Why would a girl with high-class manners be out in the woods with her grandmother for no reason at all?” “Oh, I don’t know. Why would a prince be out in the woods with his fairy godmothers? One of whom he did not kiss when he came in, might I add.” “Ah…” Basil rubbed the back of his neck with a gloved hand and bowed his head. “Sorry, Grandmother!” He gave her a kiss on the wrinkled cheek she presented and set the broom aside, still too excited to notice how his booted feet were already starting to warm up. “Just got a little excited. And I see your point, but I mean…I have a reason. Which is why I thought she had to have reason, too. And now I know what it is! She’s actually a prisoner of that giant, and she can’t say or he’ll crush her bones to make his bread! Or whatever giants do. Didn’t one of them kidnap maidens some time ago?” Lavender just pursed her thin lips together and made a ‘hmm’ sound. “You don’t believe me? I-hooo.” The cold was creeping through Basil’s limbs again, and he quickly sat himself in front of the fireplace, burning perpetually thanks to fairy magic. The same magic kept the inside of the cabin warm as a steam bath for his sake, something the godmothers insisted they didn’t mind in the least. He wrapped his heavy coat and cloak around him, letting the warmth surround him until the terrible chill had passed. But he forced a smile and shook his head, letting his long brown hair fall loose from its braid. “I’m fine now. Honest! Toasty warm. And I’ll feel warmer once I save that maiden.” Lavender pressed a bowl of hot chicken soup into his hands, the heat from the clay bowl soothing instead of burning. “Do you fancy that maiden?” “What? No!” Basil wrinkled his nose, and then remembered that a Prince Charming never spoke that way about a young lady. “I mean, she seems nice enough but I don’t ‘fancy’ her in that way. Why do you keep asking that whenever I want to help someone?” “A fairy godmother just wants to see her boy settled and happy, that’s all.” “And a prince has a marriage arranged for him, right? I mean, eventually. After de-cursing.” He found the idea a little relaxing. Without having to worry about his eventual marriage, he could concentrate on becoming Prince Charming and fighting dragons. Surely he could still do that after his parents married him off to some foreign princess, right? “I just want to save someone. I mean, that’s what princes…do.” “The princes in the stories do, sure.” Lavender started brushing his hair, a habit he couldn’t convince her to stop doing even if it left him feeling like a little kid again. “Now you’re really convinced this is a wicked giant we’re dealing with, or do you just want a wicked giant to fight?” How did Lavender manage to make Basil feel like a chastened child even now that he was a young man? “I want a problem to solve. I want to help people, like my brother and sister do. When I get to play that role, the person who swoops in and saves the helpless, it makes me feel, I don’t know. Useful. Important.” He looked down at his hands, the fingertips still cool despite the crackling fireplace and hot soup. “It warms me, I guess.” After another ‘hmm,’ Lavender went back to brushing his hair. “I think if you go out tonight and keep an eye on the Moonflower Gate, you’ll find someone in distress. Fairy intuition. Just remember, the situation might not be what you think it is. You can’t always trust your eyes, because your mind lies to them.” “And how could my own mind possibly lie to myself? But-thank you, Grandmother.” Basil turned around and smiled. “I’m going to brush the burrs out of Aurora’s fur. You don’t think she’ll be too tired to go out tonight?” The old fairy woman chuckled. “Aurora’s been sleeping and eating quite enough. I think the exercise will do her good.” “And if the giant isn’t wicked but is a great warrior, you think he’ll let me challenge his strength?” Basil couldn’t hide the eager smile on his face, ignoring how Lavender rolled her eyes. “Go check on your bear.” # That evening, Ezra followed Marjorie down what seemed to be the most meandering forest path possible. She was wheeling a rickety wooden cart with her carved miniatures and glass baubles, he a larger but equally unstable one stacked with freshly baked strawberry and custard pies. She seemed to be in a particularly good mood, chatting the entire way; Ezra didn’t mind, as it distracted from the distant howls and hoots of the dark woods. “I swear it, dear Mr. Kettle, those pies smell heavenly! I still think that cheese and mushroom bit was good enough to sell on its own, but I see you have a nose for quality. A nose for it!” “Well,” Ezra murmured, “fragrance is important. It interacts with taste, you know. And the crust is a family recipe…!” “And if I live long enough with you I’ll be too round to fit in that house for certain. I’m glad you’re selling those things and keeping them out of my way!” Marjorie hummed as she toted along her cart. The road was worn smooth with footsteps, provided one avoided the occasional jagged rock or puddle. “But yes, Moonflower Market. Oh, what a glorious place, Moonflower Market! There’s simply no fairy market like it. It’s where you go to get something unusual. Say you want to cast a spell? Well, some witches use miniatures for that purpose, though I don’t know the true process. Say you want a tiny recreation of the throne of King Theodore the Warlord? I have no idea why you’d desire such a thing, but I sold one I made with enough to buy myself a new dress.” “Art collectors, I’d imagine.” Ezra held his head a bit higher. “It’s good to know even people down here appreciate the hard work of an artisan.” Marjorie just shrugged at that. “Whatever you mean by that. You know we’re not all luddites down here, right? We manage just fine without fancy blue apples and rocs.” Realizing he might have said the wrong thing, Ezra colored in his cheeks. “And it’s wonderful work you do down here,” he added hastily, eager to change the subject. “What sort of things do they sell?” “Rarities. I know, you’re about to point out that a pie is not a rarity, but Sky cuisine is not exactly common down here! Just emphasize your family’s legendary baking prowess and people will buy it just for the experience, even if a strawberry pie is just a strawberry pie in the end. Then they can brag that they’ve tasted the sorts of foods only royalty get to try. And giants of course, but maybe that’s part of the novelty.” “I don’t know how I feel about being a ‘novelty,’” Ezra said. He had an odd feeling in his stomach about this whole affair. What if one of his kin was there, recognizing him as a criminal exile? What if his presence really did scare off humans who weren’t as odd as Marjorie? He already felt big and out of place outside of the cabin, his makeshift cart dwarfing hers and still feeling like a child’s toy. Would his customers just gawk at him, or worry he’d be a violent lout like other Sky exiles? Marjorie hadn’t heard him, or pretended she hadn’t. “The best thing to do is to flatter your customers just a little bit. ‘You look like you have a healthy sweet tooth!’ I’d say. Or perhaps, ‘the redness of the strawberries suits the blue of your eyes.’ Or perhaps you can’t sell pies the way you can jewelry…” “The blue of your…what?” Ezra stared at Marjorie. “Eyes.” She pointed at her own. “People like when you compliment their eyes. Windows to the soul and all that.” Ezra scoffed. “Eyes are gold. …Right?” “Well, yours are! Quite unusual; human eyes usually don’t come in that color. Or, wait.” She pondered for a second, tapping her lips with her finger. “Let me guess. Your kind all have gold eyes, right?” “Yes, because that’s the color eyes are!” Ezra fumed, sensing she was making a fool of him again, until he realized what he was arguing about. “Wait, humans don’t have…excuse me for a second.” He knelt down to examine her face a little closer, squinting until he could make out the irises. It wasn’t easy in the dark. “You have green eyes,” he finally concluded, marveling. Marjorie stared up at him and then laughed. “Of course! Our eyes are small compared to yours, so even when you’re making eye contact you don’t always register the iris color. No offense, but your kind does seem to have trouble seeing past your own noses, metaphorically speaking.” Feeling rather humiliated and at the same time frustrated with humans for being as small and complex as they apparently were, he turned away and continued on the path. “Eye color doesn’t matter.” “Not unless you’re complimenting a lover, no. I agree.” Marjorie chuckled again and moved on. “Oh, but the things they sell there. Enchanted soups, love potions, spell artifacts, magic plants. Once I saw a cauldron that produced noodles with one word-oh, mind that branch!” She’d been a little late with the warning, as the tree branch had already smacked Ezra in the face, but he was too stunned to notice the stinging nosebleed that resulted. “Did-did you say magic plants?” The human stood still for a moment, as if thinking, and then cleared her throat. “Sorry, just lost my train of thought! Yes, you get those from time to time.” “Say…anything like magic beans?” “Beans? Hmm. Perhaps? Maybe? I see so many things, it’s hard to recall. What’s a baker want with beans, anyway? You know how to make a cassoulet? I do adore cassoulet…” “Uh, nothing. I mean, yes. Sort of.” Ezra was hardly in the mood to explain the whole story to Marjorie now of all times, but already his mind was racing. He’d thought he could use any success he gained at the Market to spread word of his talent around among the humans, finding himself prestige in the Center of the Universe. Were he well-known and beloved enough down here, perhaps he’d have more success appealing his unfair sentence. But if there was someone selling magic beans, like the ones which had created the monstrous beanstalk, maybe they could lead him to Jack. And if he could find the real culprit, be it that seemingly innocent human boy or the one who had sent him… “We’re here, Ezra!” Marjorie snapped him out of his own thoughts. They’d arrived at a perfectly circular clearing, the grass well-worn and flat in places. It was completely deserted and lit only by the light of the full moon. He glanced around, rubbing his chin in concern. “Are we very early? I thought you said it started at midnight, and I’m sure it’s nearly that time.” “It is! And we’re not but a few minutes early. And yes, this is the place.” Marjorie pouted up at him, patting him on the thigh. “Have a little bit of faith in me, my large friend! Just give it a few minutes…” The rustling around them would seem to confirm Marjorie’s words. “Oh! That must be them now. I guess they’re all arriving at the same ti-” Ezra felt a tug on his shirt and looked down at Marjorie, whose smile had vanished and been replaced with a wide-eyed stare. She was holding her finger in front of her mouth to shush him, pointing outward. There were no merchants emerging from the woods. Instead, dozens of gold eyes emerged, dark shapes shuffling out with lowered heads and hunched forms. Wolves, Ezra knew from pictures; though the wolves he’d seen had been far less menacing and hungry-looking than these. He also imagined them being much smaller, like large dogs. These were at least a head taller than Marjorie, and she was a tall human. “Marjorie,” he whispered down to her. “Get a bit closer. I could probably take one or two of them just fine…” One or two he might be able to handle, but there were at least nine. “Is this normal?” “No it’s not normal!” she snapped, reaching for a dagger she’d apparently hidden in her dress. “I’ve never seen wolves like this before. This is supposed to be an enchanted glen. You know, protected.” He swallowed, clenching his hands into fists and mustering up willpower. He had to have some courage in there somewhere, didn’t he? “You can probably make a run for it while they go after me. I’m sure between the two of us, the fat giant is the more tempting target.” “Oh, I will not! I said I’d get you to the Market and I’m going to do that! Somehow, yes…” The wolves hunched and then growled, the largest one with an enormous, shaggy mane and blood red eyes. It was big enough to reach Ezra’s chest, and he could already imagine it tearing into his throat. He’d die in total obscurity after all, without any surviving ancestors to even return his body to the sky… The wolf growled and lunged, jaws out. Acting on instinct, he swung a fist and miraculously connected, nailing the beast right beneath the chin. It stumbled back, yelping and snarling, as Ezra stared at his own arms. “I…how did I do that?!” “You’re a giant, silly! However you were up there, you’re quite strong in comparison down here!” Marjorie had somehow managed to climb onto his shoulders, and he couldn’t blame her under the circumstances. “Think you could do that, oh, about 40 more times? Because there’s more coming…” “N-no, I don’t,” Ezra admitted, backing up against the carts as the wolves closed in on them. The big one was uttering strange noises, almost as if it was passing on orders to its hungry brethren. One after another they lunged, leaped… And were flung yelping away. Ezra opened his eyes. He was sure he hadn’t done that. Instead there was a great bulky form, fur white as the moon itself, swatting the beasts away with long black claws. A bear, Ezra recognized from the shape, though he’d never seen one that color in the paintings. Riding atop it was a figure in a thick, fur-lined cloak over an equally heavy coat, face wrapped in a scarf and long black braid trailing behind him. He had a sword hanging in a scabbard at his side and pulled it out to fight off the rest of the wolves, sending them running back into the woods in a matter of minutes. The bear rider turned to face Ezra in particular, silhouetted by the moonlight. He dressed for far colder weather than the warm night necessitated, a golden amulet hanging from his neck. The young warrior pulled the scarf down so he could speak. “And now, Giant…” “You saved me,” Ezra blurted out before feeling incredibly foolish for even speaking to such a person. But no one had ever saved him before. Not when his family was sinking into debt, not when his parents were dying, not when he was on trial for something everyone knew he hadn’t done. It was an indescribable feeling. “Ohhh, thank goodness you’re here,” Marjorie added as she appeared from behind Ezra. She wiped blood off the tip of her dagger; apparently she’d gotten a few blows on a wolf herself. “You always are helpful, my little birdie. Basil, this is Ezra Kettle, the new owner of the cottage. He’s helping me take care of my sick grandmother.” Ezra would only later realize she’d mentioned a nonexistent grandmother; he was too busy staring at the bear rider, apparently named Basil. “Ezra, this is Basil, Prince of…um, hello?” She poked at him. “Hello?” Basil looked down at Marjorie, then up at Ezra, dismounting from his bear and giving the latter a baffled look. “A pleasure to meet you, sir,” he said in a voice that didn’t sound quite sincere. Had Ezra committed some kind of offense? Was he expected to offer something in recompense? What was the etiquette regarding being saved by a handsome prince? Marjorie gave Ezra a strange look and then shrugged. “Mr. Prince of the Blue Forest, could you stick around and escort us to the Market once the gate is open? You know, in case more weird wolves show up.” That seemed to excite the prince, whose eyes lit up like the stars. “Escort you? Of course, my lady! My large…sir.” He bowed to both of them, tipping his wide-brimmed hat with fur gloved hands. “The gate should open any moment now, and I shall ensure your safety from all ills.” “You can have some pie,” Ezra interjected, and then wondered why he’d been so insistent about it. “Uh, thank you.” Basil gave Ezra another awkward look up, confirming it in Ezra’s mind that he’d already made several major social fumbles with the prince. “Though we’ve never seen wolves like that in the forest before either. Strange! I wonder if that means something terrible’s afoot…” ��You’re a little too excited about something terrible being afoot, Highness,” Marjorie mock-whispered at him. Ezra would have agreed, but he was distracted by the dizziness he felt when he looked at Basil. A gentle, warm breeze blew into the clearing. The grass turned from dark green to a bright blue, lit by a circle of periwinkle-blue, bell-shaped flowers glowing like morning stars. The glow increased in intensity until it bathed them in blue light, the surrounding woods warping and rippling out of view. Ezra reached to steady his cart by instinct, even though nothing was actually moving, thanking the Sun that he’d only lost one pie in the fracas and the wolves had mostly ignored the cart. That was strange, he’d realize later; why would wolves be picky? In the storm of light and the strange, static sensation it brought on his skin, Ezra couldn’t help but notice something that was of great importance to him at that moment. Basil had brown eyes.

(Author’s Note: Since I forgot to do a post last night, there’ll be another chapter up tomorrow. Hope you’re enjoying so far! If you are, let me know and give me a reblog. You can learn more about the series on the main page.)

[carolinerussellfsm]

One Week in Ulithi

July 11, 2017

From July 3rd to 10th I was lucky enough to help out with a summer camp on the island of Falalop in the Ulithi Atoll. There are two ways to get from Yap to Falalop, on the ship, which makes rounds of the outer islands every few months, or on a small plane via Pacific Mission Aviation. I got on the PMA plane about 9:30 on Monday morning. It’s like a clown car of passengers, coolers, and other cargo. I had not only my bag, but 16 dozen eggs and ten pounds of popcorn kernels to complete our camp supply run. We had sent out nearly 600 pounds of other food and supplies several days earlier. PCVs Jared and Stephen met me at the airstrip right before camp stared. Camp was primarily held at the Falalop Ulithi Elementary School. Ulithi atoll was hit very, very hard by Typhoon Maysak in 2015 during which the school and much of the island of Falalop was completely leveled, and Falalop itself experienced a tornado on Christmas 2016. So the school is still under construction, but we stayed in three completed classrooms.

We had 22 campers ranging in age from 11 to 14 from the islands of Falalop, Federai, and Mogmog. Each day included three meals, a snack, loads of games, and sessions on health, active living, or the environment and climate change. We even had a quick session with a few guys from One People One Reef, which works in marine management. We painted a four square court at the elementary school, and held several insane games of capture the flag on the beach. We also swam at least once every day, if not more. The water out in Ulithi is so unbelievably clear, and the beach is amazing!

Food was a coordinated effort between PCVs and community members. We had lots of fish cooked in a variety of ways, and with a health focus for camp, we tried to limit rice to once a day. We incorporated veggies whenever possible and even had chicken barbeque two nights, as well as cheeseburgers for a Fourth of July treat!

Jared, the PCV on Falalop, was able to arrange a visit to one of the turtle islands for the day on Sautrday. It’s literally an uninhabited island where the turtles come to lay their eggs. We hung out and swam, the boys went spear fishing, and we got to enjoy fresh caught coconut crabs for lunch. Coconut crab meat is sweeter than normal crab, and they got their name because they are strong enough to crack coconuts themselves! There were also a gazillion hermit crabs, like to the point where it seemed as if the ground was moving, think that scene in the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie where the crabs move the Black Pearl around. So cool!

One would think that getting around a small island isn’t too hard, it took me about three days to get my bearings on where things were, but I also had to manage wearing a lavalava, which is a type of wrap skirt that is worn by the women throughout the outer islands. They are super fun looking, but are held in place by a belt and frequently work their way loose, especially while walking! The girls at camp were helpful in making sure I didn’t embarrass myself while I was there!

After a dance party on Sunday night, and a breakfast of bacon and chocolate chip pancakes, it was time to get back on the plane and head home to Yap!

Check out the Flickr album to see more pictures!

[travelworldnetwork]

By Stav Dimitropoulos

1 March 2019

Dimitrios Makridopoulos has always been fascinated by the preternatural. Devouring books about occult phenomena from childhood to adulthood, he soon became curious about the pyramid-shaped mountain of Penteli, located about 15km north-west of Athens. “[I was] drawn to the energy of this mysterious and ancient mountain,” he told me.

Penteli is globally acclaimed for its ancient quarries and the incomparably crystalline structure and golden-hued tint of its marble that was used to construct the sacred temple of Parthenon as well as other glorious monuments. Yet, it was Davelis Cave, located on the mountain’s south-west side, that particularly piqued Makridopoulos’ interest.

Resting in and above an ancient marble quarry and averaging a width of 45m and a height of 62m, Davelis Cave is a vast, mesmerising and steeply descending grotto that could well serve as the backdrop to a horror movie. Visitors have reported electronics going out of control, glowing orbs, ineffable creatures, water dripping upwards, ghostly voices, spooky etchings, remnants of satanic rituals and more.

View image of Davelis Cave near Athens has long been associated with preternatural phenomena (Credit: Credit: Stav Dimitropoulos)

You may also be interested in: • A beer made from Irish cave walls • South America’s other ‘Easter Island’ • The deadliest place in Earth’s history?

In 2015, Makridopoulos packed up a ‘spirit box’ (a device said to enable communication with spirits through the use of radio frequency) and an infrared camera, and headed for Penteli with some friends. It was January and the mountain was shrouded in fog. This made it virtually impossible for him and the others to make out what lay even 5m ahead, but Penteli compensated with gifts at every turn, from chunks of precious marble from its plentiful ancient quarries to pieces of iron bearing evidence (according to Makridopoulos) of cryptic military experiments conducted in the cave in the late 1970s and ‘80s.

I was surrounded by an inexplicable, otherworldly energy

“From the minute I stepped into this unspoilt and pure place, I became one with it. I was surrounded by an inexplicable, otherworldly energy… I felt eyes following my every move… I could not see or hear anything with my five senses, but I knew,” Makridopoulos said.

The 29-year-old computer technician remembers his surprise when his electrical appliances confirmed back at home what he’d felt in the cave. His spirit box captured what sounded like a choir of angelic children’s voices chanting in ancient Greek. “It was the language of the pixies,” he said. He is also adamant his infrared camera recorded ghostly apparitions near the cave’s centre, and a tiny, pitch-black creature lurking at the entrance of the hollow. “There, can you see it?” Makridopoulos asked with intense interest when showing me the photos a few days before my own journey to the cave.

View image of Visitors to Davelis Cave have reported electronics going out of control, water dripping upwards and ghostly voices (Credit: Credit: Stav Dimitropoulos)

Davelis Cave was used as a shrine as far back as the 5th Century, when devotees worshipped Pan, their goat-footed god of shepherds and orgies. During the Middle Ages, hermits and Orthodox monks started flocking to Penteli either for spiritual retreats or because they were religiously persecuted, and the place was named ‘Σπήλαιο των Αμώμων’ (‘Cave of the Immaculate’), hence the presence of two adjacent Byzantine chapels built directly into the cave’s entrance.

In the 19th Century, notorious brigand Christos Natsios, aka Davelis, allegedly squatted in the cave with his gang. There’s even a legend that the brigand, who had a fling with the French duchess Placentia, discovered tunnels zigzagging through the cave’s guts and terminating at his lover’s mansion in the village of Pendeli in Athens’ northern suburbs. Whatever the truth, the allure of past-era cabals of desperados was catalytic in renaming the spine-chilling catacomb in honour of the iconic outlaw.

On a mellow January 2019 morning, I visited Davelis Cave with a couple of friends. After driving through a maze of Penteli’s slopes, we left the car at the beginning of a dirt road. Walking up the unmarked trail and regularly hopping over small puddles of slush and muddy water, the panoramic views of Athens stretching out to the Saronic Gulf made up for what at times seemed like a fruitless hike.

View image of Byzantine chapels built into the cave’s entrance are reminders of the orthodox monks who came here to escape persecution (Credit: Credit: Stav Dimitropoulos)

Finally, after about 25 minutes, the GPS insisted we turn left. There, at the foot of a rugged, ochre-grey cliff was a crescent-shaped opening in the rock. To the right of it sat the adjoined chapels of St Spyridon and St Nicholas. On the left was a concrete structure, built by the Greek military as an outpost and now seemingly abandoned. Cautiously walking towards the cave, I felt an intense pull inside, where I could see fragmented rocks scattered across the cave floor and cascades of stalactites streaming down in front of moss-riddled walls. There was hollow sound of water dripping from the roof. Though claustrophobic and fearful of what awaited me, I wanted to head deeper inside. But once in the cavern itself, I realised couldn’t go much further as the tunnels leading from the cave had been blocked up.

“These were the tunnels the Nato and the Greek military concreted to cover their tracks,” Makridopoulos later told me.

On 6 October 1977, Greek magazine Tahidromos published an article saying that the Greek military had begun strictly confidential operations inside Davelis Cave. The place was classified as military and sealed off to the public. Some talked about the establishment of a rocket base overseen by Nato, a rumour further fuelled by a US military base in neighbouring Nea Makri district. In 1982, Giorgos Balanos, a well-known Greek author of paranormal and science fiction, wrote of apocryphal underground tunnels, nuclear weapons and mind-control projects in his The Enigma of Penteli book, stirring up even more suspicion about what was going on in the underground chamber. In the 1990s, the Greek government attempted to re-initiate their projects in Davelis Cave; this time, newspaper front pages screamed about nuclear experiments. Soon, all the indeterminate works in the cave came to a halt, and future visitors would be met with a few new tunnels stopping at dead-end cave walls while the old ones were closed off.

Despite the tunnels being inaccessible, conspiracy theories still abound, such as Makridopoulos telling me that Nato extracted the marble of Penteli to create advanced satellites during the Cold War space race.

View image of Marble from Penteli, the mountain where Davelis Cave is located, was used to construct the Parthenon (Credit: Credit: Stav Dimitropoulos)

Whatever the truth, a 2002 study by Georgios D Papadeas of the Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration of Greece agrees that there is something special about the cave. Scientists have found slate enriched with graphite between the layers of the Pentelic marble, which makes the mountain a good conductor of electromagnetic waves.

Additionally, the Pentelic marble itself possesses certain scientific properties that lead it to give electric charge under high-pressure conditions (which, for Makridopoulos and others, might explain some of the bizarre electromagnetic phenomena observed there, such as the dizziness and disorientation some visitors feel). That said, Dimitrios Papanikolaou, emeritus professor at the Department of Dynamic, Tectonic and Applied Geology at the University of Athens, who has been studying Penteli since 1973, chalks any obsession with paranormal phenomena inside Davelis Cave to “idiosyncratic forces at work”.

What we don’t understand, we ascribe to myth

“Penteli has a one-of-a-kind rock composition resulting from millions of years of metamorphosis. But that’s just about it,” he told me from his office at the University of Athens campus the day before I visited the cave, and describing all Davelis Cave-related paranormal sightings and hearings as “vagaries” and “placebo effects”.

“The summit of Penteli was an air force base. Athens is a Nato city,” he continued. “Penteli overlooks the Aegean Sea, so everything that happened in the cave and nearby in the ‘70s and ‘80s happened with the intent of armouring the Attica Basin.” As for the blocked-off tunnels? “They were dangerous, they had to do it,” the professor replied. “But what we don’t understand, we ascribe to myth.”

View image of The marble’s scientific properties could explain some of the bizarre electromagnetic phenomena observed in Davelis Cave (Credit: Credit: Stav Dimitropoulos)

Notwithstanding, what Papanikolaou himself admits is that certain places are distinguished by an unexampled magnetism. “When Athens was at its peak, people devoted all their intellect to extracting the best marble in the world. Maybe some places have a distinct energy of their own: the energy of thousands of human beings that once lived and thrived there, but that’s just about it.”

‘Magnetised’ is just a fraction of what Makridopoulos claims to feel in the proximity of Davelis Cave. He is already spearheading a team called ‘Orfeas Group’, which has a popular blog dedicated to exploring supernatural phenomena.

Even I felt a gravitational pull towards the cave the day I visited. As I stood at the entrance, a beam of light passed through the cave’s mouth and lit up the place, almost as if to guide me forward. The words of the professor about the energy certain places have amassed over time rang true more than ever.

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BBC Travel – Adventure Experience

[pokemaniacal]

Pokémon Moon, Episode 7: In Which My Culinary Skills Are Pushed To Their Limit

Since the next Captain, Kiawe, is a Fire Pokémon specialist, he lives on a volcano. Because of course he does.  Fire trainers don’t really ‘do’ subtlety.  Wela Volcano, which is named for the Hawaiian word for heat or burning, and corresponds to Haleakala in the real world, looms over the northeast corner of Akala Island.  Although many of its basalt flows are still glowing red from the last eruption, the volcano is perfectly safe – or at least, this is the claim made by the Seismic Sisters, a set of Alolan triplets who maintain tunnels that provide surprisingly easy access up and down its slopes.  Among the hardy, fire-tolerant Pokémon that live there is a wily black lizard Pokémon called Salandit, a Fire/Poison-type, which nearly blows my Trumbeak out of the sky with Dragon Rage.  I decide to retire my Butterfree and recruit one in her place (a female, which I’m told is important); that Dragon Rage is sure to come in handy as long as we’re still low-level.

The bare-chested Fire Captain is already waiting for me in the middle of a circular platform within the volcano crater itself.  With him are three sinister-looking black Pokémon with bone staves, their tips glowing with spectral green fire.  Wait… are those Marowak?  As I stare quizzically at his Pokémon, Kiawe explains the terms of his trial.  He and his Marowak are fire dancers in the ancient Alolan tradition.  They will perform two dances for me, and my task is to discern the difference between them. “…that’s it?” I ask suspiciously.  “No battle? No Totem Pokémon?  What’s the catch?”  Kiawe returns a sober frown. “Alolan fire dance is no trifling entertainment.  It is a sophisticated union of art, worship and discipline, performed to honour Tapu Lele.  The slightest change in position or tempo can alter the meaning of the entire dance. My trial will tax your powers of observation to their limit.”  Duly chastened, I sit down cross-legged at the edge of the stage to watch.  Kiawe nods solemnly and turns to his three Marowak. “Begin!”  The Marowak march in a circle, spinning their flaming staves, then freeze in a set of coordinated poses.  They hold their positions for a moment, then at a nod from Kiawe, spring into action once more.  The motions and tempo seem identical, but when the dance stops, one of the Marowak is facing in a different direction than I remember from the first time.  I point to it. “That one. That one’s stance is different.” Kiawe gasps – and the Marowak leaps right at me, spinning its staff once again.  With a strangled, squawking yell, I summon my new Salandit and order her to open fire with Dragon Rage.  Scorched by the brilliant energy, the Marowak soon kneels in submission.  “Right,” I say, more than a little breathless. “Right, okay.  Wrong answer.  Do I get another try?” “No, no!” Kiawe stays hastily.  “Marowak was so pleased by your right answer that it simply had to battle you!”  The Marowak twirls its staff again and bows low. “Oh,” I say.  “Oh. Okay.  Sure.”  So presumably the other two Marowak will challenge me in turn. “Onward to the second dance!”  I watch the three Marowak closely as they run through their practiced motions.  When I think I have them memorised, I nod to Kiawe, who commands the Marowak to repeat their dance.  Again, I see no differences until the dance is almost ov- “BLAAAARGHAGHAH!” “AHHHH! What the-!” I flail my arms wildly and tumble backwards off the stage as a scruffy hiker leaps in front of me, shouting and making gruesome faces.  “What the HELL, dude!?  This is, like… a sacred quest thing, or… or something!”  I squint at the Marowak, frozen in their final poses, but my concentration has been broken.  Is… the one on the left holding its staff at a different angle?  “Damn it, I couldn’t see the end of the dance properly,” I complain to Kiawe.  “How am I supposed to-” The hiker, crouching on my right, starts chuckling.  “You stay out of this!” I snap at him.  “Just because you paid for the ‘authentic Alola experience’ doesn’t mean you get to be part of whatever- what- whatever…” I pause. Oh.  Ohhhhh.  Oh, this is ridiculous.  I turn back to Kiawe, then point at the hiker.  “It’s this idiot, isn’t it?  He’s what was different about the second dance.” Kiawe looks startled. “You… you are correct!  B-but how!?” I give him the most withering stare I can muster. “So… ‘ancient tradition’?  ‘Sophisticated union of art and worship’?  Really?” “Well…” Kiawe begins, slowly.  “Alola’s booming tourist industry has been very good for the region.  Tapu Lele looks kindly on visitors, and permits us to… uh… involve them in our rituals.” “…you know, this is gonna sound totally hypocritical of me… and it is… but I don’t even care: tourism has ruined this region,” I tell Kiawe flatly.  He does his best to ignore me. “Uh, Kiawe, m’dude,” the hiker says.  “Do I get to, uh…?”  Kiawe smacks his palm to his forehead. “Go ahead…” he mutters.“Radical, dude!” the hiker shouts, then jumps to the centre of the stage, faces me, and calls a Magmar from a Pokéball. “We’re doing this?  Really?” I sigh, and deploy my Salandit’s Dragon Rage once again to defeat the Magmar.  Kiawe coughs. “My… hiker friend was so pleased by your right answer that he… simply had to battle you,” he says, with no enthusiasm whatsoever.  “Onward to the final dance.”  This time, the hiker actually leaps in amongst the Marowak near the end and joins in their movements.  Kiawe lets me observe their final positions for a few moments, then commands the dance to begin again.  Once more, I watch closely for any change.  Then, moments from the end… “SALAAAA!” A huge black and pink lizard springs over the opposite edge of the volcano crater, lands in the middle of the dance, and flings its arms wide, with a grin and a wink.  I half expect it to pull out a cane and a straw hat and start tap-dancing.  I stare at the lizard, then at Kiawe, then back at the lizard. “…okay I’m just gonna fight this thing now.” 

My opponent is a Salazzle, a weirdly salacious-looking evolved Salandit.  My own Salandit is clearly outclassed, but she knows Dragon Rage and the Totem Salazzle seems not to; nor does the Salazzle minion that it summons.  Unfortunately, the second Salazzle hits mine with a Torment to keep her from blasting the Totem Pokémon repeatedly, and we are forced to retreat.  This thing is actually quite nasty.  Well, desperate times call for desperate measures.  I send in my Slowpoke and perform the wave-like dance motion that Lana taught me to activate her Z-Crystal.  Slowpoke summons a terrible Hydro Vortex that sweeps up the Salazzle, batters it around, and throws it off the top of the mountain, wailing piteously as it falls.  The little Salandit still has some tricks, though, hitting my Slowpoke with a cloud of Poison Gas and following up with a devastating Venoshock that knocks her out. I briefly pause to applaud its bravery, then send in my own Salandit to finish the job.   Kiawe salutes me, and presents me with his Z-Crystal, known as the Firium-Z, several Quick Balls, and the ability to summon a new Pokémon with my ride pager: his Charizard.  Charizard, like Latias and Latios in Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby, replaces the Fly HM, and can take us to a variety of locations both inside and outside of towns and cities, including between Alola’s four islands… and beyond.

On the outskirts of Alola lies a chain of small islands known as the Poké Pelago. They are beyond the reach of any regular ferry routes (but not Charizard’s wings), and only one human appears to live there: a fellow with the uninspiring name of Mohn, who acts as their caretaker.  Mohn is a cheerful hermit who seems to have gotten just a little too much sun over the years.  He suffers from a crippling addiction to Pokébeans, and lives in a leaky, run-down wooden hut perched precariously atop a distressed-looking raft tethered just off the coast of Isle Abeens.  Thanks to some suspicious technology of Mohn’s, trainers’ Pokémon can visit the islands whenever they like, warping directly there from… wherever it is Pokémon go while in a PC box.  On my first visit to the Poké Pelago, Mohn promises that, if I help feed his Pokébean habit, he’ll get off his butt for an afternoon and develop some of the islands to make them more pleasant for Pokémon to visit.  Mohn describes five islands to me, all with stupid names, and each suited for different activities: harvesting Pokébeans, growing berries, searching for treasure, training, and relaxing.  Despite my… suspicions of Mohn, I find it hard not to love the Poké Pelago, because it embodies something I’ve wanted these games to have for a long time, namely some way of giving meaning to the 90% of your Pokémon who aren’t with you at any given moment.  The notion that we’ve been leaving most of our Pokémon in internet limbo for weeks or months on end this whole time is easily one of the most troubling things about the series, and extremely difficult to reconcile with either the anime’s portrayal of Ash’s off-duty Pokémon or the games’ own attitude to Pokémon as friends and partners.  This is a major item ticked off my long-term wishlist – and it does a bunch of useful stuff too. 

Once my first visit to the Poké Pelago is finished and all my B-team Pokémon are getting settled in, I strike out along the northern coastal road for the location of Captain Mallow’s trial: the Lush Jungle.  The road itself is unremarkable, but many of the people and Pokémon I meet give me pause for thought.  The first is a truly odd creature called a Stufful.  It… seems to be literally a soft toy.  Its type is Normal/Fighting, it looks like a teddy bear with a smiling pink face, and its ability grants it damage reduction against contact moves but makes it weak to Fire, because it is made of stuffing.  I am not sure whether I should be disturbed by it.  Not far along the road, a sterile-looking white prefabricated structure houses some researchers from an organisation called the Aether Foundation, a syndicate of scientists and conservationists working to protect Pokémon from evildoers like Team Skull.  I can’t argue with that, and it sounds like they do good work.  Only… their uniforms… they look exactly like the people I saw chasing Lillie when I first came to Alola, whom I’d assumed were airport security apprehending a dangerous terrorist.  Why would they have been after her and Nebby?  There can only be one conclusion…

Lillie is definitely a member of Team Skull.  Her professed fear of them is merely a smokescreen, to keep me from realising the truth about her.  Her wickedness is without limit and beyond comprehension.

Down near the western end of the road is the entrance to a secluded valley, where a self-professed scientist is trying to begin the construction of a theme park filled with prehistoric Pokémon reanimated from fossil remains.  Because that’s a project that’s never gone horribly wrong before and is guaranteed to have no negative consequences. “So… just out of curiosity, did Jurassic Poképark ever get released here in Alola?” I ask him casually. “Oh, absolutely!  It’s one of my favourite movies of all time!” he enthuses. “Huh. Really?” “Yes indeed!  I had to leave after the first half-hour, unfortunately, but it was truly inspiring! One of these days I’ll find the time to watch it the whole way through.” If I find any fossils, this guy should be able to resurrect them for me… although, to be honest, I’d almost prefer to brave the customs desk and take them back to Kanto to be examined by an actual scientist.  The last stop before Mallow’s jungle is a motel with an attached Pokémon Centre. That weird, angsty Gladion kid appears to be staying here, but he is in no mood to talk, refusing to say anything but “get out.”  I try to explain to him that, where I come from, wandering Pokémon trainers are usually allowed to enter any building or room freely, as a matter of simple courtesy, but he is unmoved.  I divert my attention to the rocky shore below.  Here, on the northwest coast of Akala Island, is the habitat of a weak and cowardly Pokémon called Wimpod, a Bug/Water-type with poor stats in everything but speed, no moves but Struggle Bug and Sand Attack, an ability that causes it to flee in terror from any battle when its health is low, and a propensity for eating rotten food.  If I know Pokémon – which I do – Wimpod is bound to evolve into something downright terrifying, and who better to make it happen than me?  Wimpod itself, unfortunately, has other ideas, and won’t battle me at all until I loop around to the far end of the beach to cut off its retreat from its burrow.  I’m going to turn this Pokémon into an all-powerful terror whether it likes it or not!

We’ve made a full circle around the volcano: the Lush Jungle where Captain Mallow makes her lair is just north of Brooklet Hill.  The jungle and its mistress promise Grass-types, and that promise is music to my ears.  It’s about time Alola gave me something worth bragging about when I get back to Kanto. We’ll just see whose Grass Pokémon are stronger when I blow a hole in your ceiling with my Grass-type Z-Crystal, won’t we, Erika?  Next year’s Flower Power Grand Prix is mine, you smug, condescending little- “Oh, hello! Thanks for stopping by!”  Mallow’s voice jolts me out of my reverie as she welcomes me to the jungle.  She looks me up and down, smiles approvingly.  “I knew it the first time I saw you and your team… You’ve chosen only the finest ingredients!  That’s why I’m gonna make you help me- er, no!  I mean, that’s why you should try my trial!”  I sigh and try to give her a friendly smile. “Listen, if the trial is just, like, doing your laundry or whatever, I don’t mind. I’m sure you’re a busy girl, and I just want to tick all the boxes so Tapu Koko will get off my back.” “What? Oh, not at all!  I hope I didn’t make you think- oh, dear.  No, I just get a little overexcited sometimes.  Trust me, my trial will be just as challenging as any of the others you’ve faced so far.”  Mallow closes her eyes for a moment, breathes deeply, and then flings her arms wide and looks up into the lush canopy as though searching for inspiration.  “Ah… the breath of the jungle…” she sighs rapturously, then suddenly turns her attention back to me and snaps her fingers. “I can tell just what today’s special should be!  My personal specialty: the Mallow Special!  I’m gonna need you to find four ingredients for me!”  I blink a couple of times. “Wait… your trial is a cooking challenge?” “Yep!” She grins at me.  “What were you expecting?  Hope that’s not gonna be too tough for you!” “Oh… I think I’ll manage.”  I’ve studied the local cuisines of every region I’ve visited (well, except Kalos… bunch of stuck-up food snobs refused to teach me a single thing after I dared to question whether a boiled bone was an acceptable restaurant dish, but Kalosian cooking is overrated anyway).  This should be a piece of cake.  Perhaps literally. “I’ll need… Mago Berries, Tiny Mushrooms, some Revival Herb, and a Miracle Seed!” Mallow continues, counting off on her fingers.  I nod sagely as I consider the ingredients she’s specified.  It’s an interesting combination of flavours.  The odd sweet-and-bitter combination of the Mago Berry and Revival Herb has something in common with some old central Hoenn dishes I’m familiar with, while mushrooms are basically alien to the traditional Hoenn diet, but should ground the other flavours quite nicely.  My guess is we’re going to boil it all into a sort of stew or broth.  Mallow gives me a final piece of advice before I take off into the jungle: her Stoutland will be invaluable in finding the best ingredients. 

Stoutland first leads me to a cluster of mushrooms, guarded by a slender mushroom Pokémon, Shiinotic, the evolved form of Morelull.  My Trumbeak deals with it swiftly; then, as I rummage through the assorted fungi, Mallow shows up.  “Ooh, a Tiny Mushroom!  That’s great! There’s a secret to why they’re so popular with some people.  You’ll have to try one to find out what it is!”  Is… is she trying to get me into drugs?  But actually, that gives me an idea.  Mallow’s request for “Tiny Mushrooms” was pretty vague; there are a lot of different species in this small patch alone… I mean, she was probably talking about the Alolan shiitake, but there’s also some azure chanterelle, Pyroar’s mane, urchin Shaymin, and… oooohh… I spot a single pinkish, black-spotted toadstool on the edge of the patch.  Could it be? The legendarily delicious Milktank’s glory cap, said to produce a soup so rich it would make a king weep? Hmm.  Well.  Unless it’s the equally rare lookalike, destroying Snubbull, in which case eating it would cause catastrophic organ failure.

…eh. What’s life without a little risk, right?

Continuing to follow Stoutland’s nose, I head into the northwest part of the jungle and come upon a grove of fruit trees.  My Salandit dispatches the Fomantis guarding the trees, and I start picking Mago Berries.  Then I keep going.  Mago is nice, but we could get a more complex flavour by adding some Persim Berries too, and… oh my god are those Spelon Berries?  I f&%#ing love Spelon Berries, and they’re a classic central Hoenn flavour; let’s take a handful of those… A few more Fomantis lurk in the grassy northern area where Stoutland and I go to search for Revival Herb.  We should only need a tiny bit; the intense bitter flavour is what makes the dish, but even slightly too much could just as easily wreck it.  I pull up a fistful of the rare herbs and sniff deeply.  Wow this stuff is pungent.  No wonder it wakes up fainted Pokémon.  There’s an old family legend that my great-grandmother used so much Revival Herb in her cooking that the smell of her stew could actually raise the dead. Probably apocryphal, of course, but there must be some reason my family got kicked out of Lavender Town.  One ingredient left… Miracle Seeds are packed with a veritable rainbow of nutrients, so they tend to get dug up and eaten by wild Pokémon unless they’re buried in spots that are very hard to get to – like under piles of crumbling boulders. Stoutland confirms the presence of something interesting under one such pile in the eastern part of the jungle, and with a little help from Hala’s Tauros, we’re able to smash it out of the way and dig up the precious seed hidden beneath.  Time to get cooking. 

“Great!” Mallow enthuses, when I confirm that I have everything.  “Now that we’ve got all the ingredients, we just need…” “Sorry to keep you waiting,” calls out a voice from the entrance to the jungle.  It’s the other Captains, Kiawe and Lana, who have brought their own… contributions to Mallow’s little culinary experiment. Kiawe’s Thick Club and Rare Bone, used to crush and mix the ingredients, should theoretically impart a little of their own flavour to the stew, and the Fresh Water that Lana has brought from Brooklet Hill is the purest around.  Lana’s also brought a Rocky Helmet to mix it all in, which… y’know what, I feel like this is some kind of weird inside joke between the Captains that I’m never going to get, so I’ll just drop that one.  I light a small fire, heat the water, and start grinding up my ingredients.  As the stew begins to cook, a tantalising smell wafts through the jungle, and Mallow mentions, casually, that this should summon her Totem Pokémon. “…wait what?”  I suddenly feel distinctly and disturbingly watched, and slowly turn around. “Luuuu-RAAAAAAAAN!” screams the huge orchid mantis behind me. “OH SWEET MOTHER OF MEW!” I scream back at it, frantically grabbing my Pikachu’s Pokéball. She knows Hidden Power: Ice, and this thing – Lurantis, the evolved form of Fomantis, as the Rotomdex unhelpfully explains while I continue screaming – is a Grass-type, so- “LU-RAAAN!” the Lurantis screeches, igniting a massive blade of radiant solar energy from the tip of its claw and slamming it down on my poor Pikachu’s head. Another screech summons a wild Trumbeak to its side. “AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!” I keep screaming, in hopes of confusing the Lurantis, as I call on my Salandit and perform the motions Kiawe taught me to activate the Fire-type Z-move, Inferno Overdrive.  The Lurantis is injured, but not critically, and quickly heals itself with Synthesis… then keeps healing itself as its Trumbeak grinds down my Salandit.  “THAT’S IT; NOW I’M MAD,” I shout, sending my Raticate to crush the Trumbeak.  The Lurantis, more bemused than concerned, X-Scissors my Raticate, and then calls out again, summoning… a Castform.  “…ohhhhhh $#!t,” I say to myself quietly.  If that thing can take control of the weather, the Lurantis will be able to start spamming Solar Blade, and then I’m dead for sure.  I back away from the Lurantis, grab Lana’s stew-filled helmet, and hold it out in front of me. “Lu-ran?” the Totem Pokémon asks. “Uh… here! Take it!” I shout, putting the helmet down on the ground and then diving for cover behind a boulder.  The Lurantis sniffs cautiously at the stew, then begins gorging itself.  I watch, heart pounding and fingers crossed.  A few moments later, the Lurantis’ eyes widen, it stands bolt upright, turns bright red, begins venting steam from its ears, and starts running around in circles wailing.  Moments after that, it stops abruptly, as though it had run into a glass wall, exhales a cloud of smoke, and then keels over, twitching.  Mallow stares in abject shock. “…um… are you quite sure you got all those ingredients right?”  I give her a nervous smile. “…you know, my great-grandmother always used to say cooking is more of an art than a science… and, uh… well, sometimes more of a gamble than an art…” 

Ridiculous quote log:

“I want to make my Kadabra evolve!  Friends! I need friends!” Listen, man, if that’s your only reason for wanting friends, you’re going to have a hard time making any. 

“I guess I wasn’t able to make use of the potential energy of being in a high place.” Is this the Pokémon equivalent of “it’s over, Anakin; I have the high ground”? 

“Research! Research!  I will research the Pokémon!” …calm down, dude. 

“So! What do you think of the largeness of my area?” …it’s great.  Really great. 

The team: 

Tane the Dartrix Male, Timid nature, Overgrow ability Level 25 Tackle, Razor Leaf, Astonish, Pluck 

Rhea the Trumbeak Female, Lax nature, Keen Eye ability Level 25 Pluck, Roost, Fury Attack, Rock Smash 

Ashley the Pikachu Female, Timid nature, Static ability Level 24 Thundershock, Hidden Power (Ice), Nasty Plot, Thunder Wave 

Hypatia the Slowpoke Female, Hardy nature, Own Tempo ability Level 24 Confusion, Yawn, Headbutt, Scald 

Soot the Raticate Female, Hardy nature, Hustle ability Level 25 Crunch, Tail Whip, Hyper Fang, Focus Energy 

Joanna the Salandit Female, Timid nature, Corrosion ability Level 24 Flame Burst, Sweet Scent, Dragon Rage, Smog