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schismusic · 9 months ago

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Joy Division, or: how I learned to stop worrying and love New Order, too

Spring is weird as hell because one time you have this glaring sun that powers you up like being plugged into a wall outlet, then not five minutes later clouds begin to gather and you feel like you're going to die if anything goes south. So the most obvious combination to represent two sides of this same coin, emotional and meteorological, is Joy Division and New Order.

Sometimes you need Transmission or Shadowplay for the sunny days — impassioned jolts, sparks flying everywhere. Sometimes The Perfect Kiss hits harder on a cloudy afternoon, coming back home and in need of that extra push to not fall asleep in the train. It's surprising to realize the versatility displayed by both bands, or the same band in two different iterations according to whomever you ask. Peter Hook says, as late as 1993, that the laziest member of New Order is Ian Curtis. Or again this other person, in the comments under the Atmosphere official video on YouTube, who went to see New Order (Hooky-less New Order, which might be a relevant distinction) at the O2 Arena a couple of years ago and they gave an encore, says "Those of us who stayed got the privilege of watching Joy Division perform three of their songs". Interesting outlook on the matter. I personally saw Peter Hook and the Light play both Joy Division records and, I'm pretty sure, an encore comprised of just Love Will Tear Us Apart at the Arti Vive Festival in Soliera, back when it was still free to attend some of the events. I remember being pretty mad that Hooky had stopped to take pics with basically everyone and then left exactly as I was approaching. In retrospect I don't exactly blame the man, it was like midnight anyway. I remember nothing of the back trip home.

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My first contact with Joy Division happened when I was thirteen and very much in my prog era. I was in Rome staying at an aunt of mine's place for my fourteenth birthday and she told me I could get a CD, since I had gotten some money saved up over time. Some Facebook page dedicated to Pink Floyd I'd liked (yeah, Facebook at age thirteen — I literally just wanted to play a fucking Flash game, back when Facebook allowed them, and I ended up getting to be terminally online. Crazy how things turn out) used to share a lot of memes and fanart relating to the Unknown Pleasures album cover, and me being a massive Pink Floyd head at the time I thought "I mean, if these guys are pushing this band so hard, that's gotta mean something". The album cover was pretty striking, admittedly: a far cry from the paisley ass paintings that I had grown to accept as the gold standard for the music I liked, but its simplicity struck a chord closer to The Dark Side of the Moon, or perhaps The Wall. Those were records I liked a lot, probably called them "the best records ever made" to more than one person, not like they aren't but that's a very bold statement to make when your listening experience consists exactly of

Madonna's Confessions on a Dance Floor when I was six;

Daft Punk's complete discography (minus Random Access Memories, which wasn't out yet) when I was twelve;

Pink Floyd's complete discography, courtesy of a CD collection coming out with some Italian newspaper, that same year;

a couple random classic rock records recommended to me by older friends and relatives usually well into their fifties or sixties at the time, random people on Internet forums — which, for clarification, I did not actively attend, preferring to just lurk from time to time — and the OndaRock "milestones" page.

So browsing through the surprisingly expansive CDs section of this electronics shop in Rome, and being mesmerized by a vinyl rack in the days when Music on Vinyl was the final frontier of pretending you could re-analogue the digital ("you mean to tell me these are like CDs, but bigger? Whoever designed these truly lived in the future"), I came across that very same album art that had stricken me so hard. I had listened to the first seconds of the album on YouTube, but that weird drum sound — so echoey, so distant, ultimately not particularly powerful, meaning it didn't really sound like Bonzo: it sounded more like my own band, which at the time didn't even exist yet — I didn't really know what to make of. This store I was in had one of those preview listening machines that would scan the barcode on the CDs and give you a small snippet of the song. I pull the CD up to the scanner, the scanner lights up green, I put on the headphones and the solo from this comes up:

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Clearly they had to be kidding me. I had come to know, sneaking into infinitely many rehearsals with the band from my mother's town, what it sounded like when someone tried to play lead without something else filling up the arrangement (even though I didn't really know all that, or at least lacked the vocabulary to properly express it) and, for Christ's sake, didn't these guys notice rehearsing? It sounded empty, weirdly so, and it wasn't my thing, I thought. I put that CD away and picked up a band I knew I'd like — Genesis, specifically. So Nursery Cryme became the first CD I've ever paid with my own money, the very day I turned fourteen. Not a bad pickup. I remember being very impressed with the fast blurring lead guitar on The Musical Box and digging the sweet pastoral atmospheres of For Absent Friends and Harlequin. I still think of that record more often than one would probably assume looking at this blog, or my most played on Spotify. At the time, that was the best move I could take, really: why beat my head against a record that, as your average prog nerd ballbreaker, simply wasn't speaking to me?

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Then all of a sudden in August of the same year my friend's dad hands me a 16 gigabyte USB drive, full of random music from all eras of rock. A lot of it remains inscrutable to me for a really long time, most notably Tom Waits (see related post), but I spent the whole month reading random folder names, seeing if something catches my eyes, and at one point I come across the Mars Volta. Open the folder up, read the names of their first three records, and my first thought is "Christ, these guys look incomprehensible. I'm about to have some fun". Long story short: I end up having a lot of fun, the Mars Volta turns into my favourite band at the time and finding out that they had previously been called At the Drive-In makes me gain some measure of respect for punk rockers: if they tried hard enough, I must've thought, they could prog as hard as anyone. In the meantime the ghost of Joy Division remains at the back of my head. I feel like I'm missing something, for the first time in my life: it's not them, it's me. Too bad that same realization didn't occur to me when it came to the people in my life until much, much later, but that's being fourteen for you I suppose. Early King Crimson and the Mars Volta were the pinnacle of violence to me, and not even the very few Metallica songs I'd downloaded just to see what would happen scratched that itch. It felt a bit too cauterized for some reason (I would later find out I had been looking in the wrong direction the whole time: the Black Album "sucked", according to my favourite metalhead of the time, who somehow catalyzed my interest from the very second I saw him in the school's courtyard. Hard to imagine why I would imprint on people like puppies do, but what the fuck, not like I've ever outgrown that anyway, I've just gotten better at managing it). But I felt there was more than violence to this, or different forms of violence. When Christmas came around and my relatives tried to get me presents, my mother asked if there was anything specific I was interested in, and I basically told her "look, if they can get me some CDs off of this list, I'm golden". It had some bangers on it, namely Noctourniquet by the Mars Volta — it's one of their best and I will die on this hill, be warned — and The Downward Spiral, which might as well warrant its own post in an ideal world. But the best of them all I think came from a random purchase, once again with the little money I had lying around at the time.

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Closer appears to be, right away, a bit more concrete, and if there's something inexperienced music fans like is a pretty packaging that conjures a strong emotional response before they've even played the record. Compare a color-inverted graph of pulsar emissions to a literal funerary monument. Opening up the booklet I was shocked to see that Genesis was used as a negative point of comparison (bad omen, I thought) by people close to the band, and I came across much more detailed information about Ian Curtis's untimely demise — at that time, something far too removed from my experience to be faced with the delicacy and attention it deserves. Atrocity Exhibition hits like a ten-ton truck, a reference which at the time I wouldn't have been able to make for obvious reasons, and Isolation exposes all the nerve tissue under the skin. Passover comes in and strips everything even barer, and then A Means to an End turns… danceable, for some reason? Big emotional moment with The Eternal and Decades, which I thought actually took them closer to my usual tastes. And yet at the same time I kept looking at Colony, Heart and Soul and Twenty Four Hours as the most compelling cuts. Geometric assault sounding like sheet metal if it were music; rhythmically driven emptiness that serves as a minimal backdrop for depressed poetry, and finally a rocking ebb-and-flow that would probably inform a lot of my interest in GY!BE-like post-rock in the coming years. Very interesting to think that the same guys who'd done Unknown Pleasures could think of this. To this day, when asked, I still do think that Closer is the best Joy Division record, but what does it even mean when the records are exactly two, compilations notwithstanding?

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It was around this time that it came to my attention that both Joy Division and another band called New Order had a record called Substance out, both published by the same recording company, both coming out within a year of each other. Looking it up, it turns out it's fully intentional, because New Order is simply Joy Division minus Ian Curtis. It would turn out to be a tad bit more complex than that. Anyway, I look New Order up and kind of have to do a double-take. Synthpop? In my Joy Division? More likely than you'd think, considering Isolation exists. But yeah, that sort of seals it — I wouldn't care about this New Order for a million years. Until all of a sudden a couple of years later David Sylvian bursts like a comet in my face, which of course leads me straight to Japan, the same year as I'd come across Berlin-era Bowie, and you can probably guess where this is going, right?

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Well, you'd be wrong. I still don't check out New Order. There's a whole new world open to me — vaporwave and therefore R Plus Seven come to my attention, which leads me to dissect that record like an alien tool of unclear purposes. This of course leads me onto an ambient tangent, taking me back to my Tim Hecker listens of that same year, which has the effect of renewing my interest in "pure" electronic music and the then-rising post-dubstep movement. The sheer experience of sound, the dazzling modernity and innovation, is what's in at the time. I have no time for nostalgia-pandering dimwits: the future awaits. Then all that jazz from the first Godflesh post hits, then God pulls the funniest gag in the history of viral infections to my memory, and I have some time to actually look back, a bit less prejudiced. As it turns out, synthpop is not the devil, as some of you might have surmised by now, and as I relisten to Blue Monday I realized I have never listened to either of the Substance record. I do know some, most perhaps?, of the tracks on the Joy Division one, and I do think the New Order one has the more striking cover art — not to mention I knew, by this time, that this was the one to give Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance its name, and that Your Silent Face soundtracked one of the most memorable moments in Nicolas Winding Refn's Bronson. As the ultimate Hideo Kojima stan, I couldn't let this slide, so I pop the record on and get hit with this:

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Way to go, guys. Holy shit. I knew that Ceremony was a Joy Division cut before they could record it, but what the hell — Bernard got it, too. It wasn't a matter of singing ability with songs like these, it's just getting it, finding the right energy. They had that right energy. And then it hit me just as many times these dudes have made Blue Monday over and over again before actually getting it right, and everytime I look into it it's funnier and funnier to realize just how many different attempts it took them to finally be Kraftwerk, but augmented — with the stellar results we all know. Everything's Gone Green, 5 8 6, Temptation potentially, all lead up to this one moment in the history of dance music where somehow three dudes and a girl hailing from Manchester managed to out-gay the Pet Shop Boys (by their own admission, apparently), to shake the whole world's collective booty, to do whatever it is they were supposed to do in this last comparison that would ideally make the previous one a bit less obnoxious but whatever, it's 3am as usual, you know how it goes by now don't you? But then after Blue Monday the record keeps going, and thank god it does, because it's banger after banger. How do these guys keep doing it?

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So I spend some time with that record, then it fades down, then it comes back up last month, when the weather calls for it and its parent company. Which is when I find myself watching the Control movie for the first time, surprisingly enough seeing as I already enjoyed the work of Anton Corbijn as a photographer. Looking at all that, it is revealed to me that Joy Division never really having died is not a bug, it's a feature. Everyone is gasping, I get it, but please pick your jaws up and check this out: the band has never learned how to play their respective instruments. One might go so far as to argue they play their own stuff their own way, and that's basically it. Nothing could be further from the truth. These guys jammed, a lot; that's how Joy Division wrote songs, that's how New Order wrote songs, even going as far as having Bernard Sumner fucked up on acid so he could find the chorus to Temptation or the whole band bombed out of their minds on X in Ibiza clubs to write, basically, the entirety of Technique — and even then, not really, there's a couple jangly tracks that the X would most likely render unlistenable but what do I really know? Point being: it might now have been sparked by a music teacher or instructor, it might not have been the product of a process comparable to that within Television, which led them to organically seek out better, more "by the book" musicianship, but New Order were incredibly familiar with their instruments, had formed an element of comfort and understanding that counterbalanced the alien-ness to music terminology.

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Peter Hook recently uploaded a Yamaha-sponsored video to his Instagram, which I am pretty sure has a say in running, where he jams on a Yamaha bass and, you know, it sounds like Hooky alright, but it's never a discernible bassline until he kicks into the A major strumming that opens Love Will Tear Us Apart. Before that, he just strolls around the neck, leisurely strumming away at power chords imbued with that thick chorus and reverb combo he became renowned for. I would never, in my wildest dreams, have imagined I'd find myself thinking "okay, awesome, stop talking — I want to hear you jam a bit more" referring to one of the musicians who were part of possibly two of the craziest storiest in the history of contemporary rock'n'roll, also notorious for playing the rockstar whilst carrying the minimum possible baggage of technical knowledge he could. Once again, this is nowhere near a knock to the man — quite the opposite. Ian Curtis asked "persistence, well, what does it matter?", and Hooky (and, of course, the other members of New Order) found a way to constructively answer that question. Moments before Coil, but a bit later than Israel Regardie, they said "persistence is all" and built a brand on finding a way to consistently sound like splendid, eternal, golden children: "like crystal", impassionate, tightly-knit performers with the purity of a child's heart. Ian Curtis had, in certain ways (at least artistically), the purity of a child in his heart, which some might even argue was a distinguishing feature of most of his literary idols — if you think about it, William Burroughs could be your dirty-minded classmate who walked in on his parents sharing an intimate moment in the bedroom (had his parents been gay men, the metaphor would probably fly better, but that most definitely wasn't the case). So the heart of Joy Division remains untouched, if a bit more naked. Heroes of post-punk, sons of the silent age, you can sleep soundly tonight.

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#schismusic #music #musica #long form content #schism writing #joy division #new order #post punk #new wave #Youtube

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fioreofthemarch · 1 year ago

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Finding Her - Chapter 17

Link makes notes, takes photos and keeps time on his quest across Hyrule, in the hopes of finding Zelda and staying sane until he does. [ Previous | Next | First | AO3 ]

Log date: 06:35. 8th month, 29th day 104AC Location: Tuft Mountain, Faron Weather: Rain

Link, Zelda’s Chosen Protector. You do not wish to talk to me. I understand, however we must talk.

I know the Purah Pad is precious to you. I have watched you document your travels and your thoughts. Please forgive me for taking it while you sleep in order to write you this note.

It is imperative that we retrieve the Master Sword and return to Lookout Landing to meet with Lady Purah. The Demon King’s power grows by the day. Even in my construct body I can sense it. The air is ever hazy and the blood moons are more frequent. Soon will be the hour of his ascension and, if we do not act, his victory.

Link, Zelda’s Chosen Protector. She called you that herself. She told me that after the Great Calamity, your obligations towards each other ceased. Hyrule did not need a Princess nor did its Princess need a Knight. Despite this, Zelda recounted, she chose to stay, and so did you.

I know it is difficult to believe, but in my time, Zelda made another choice. One that gave Hyrule its last, best hope. Do not let it be in vain.

A photograph of Tuft Mountain lake, which is shaped like a love heart. There are lily pads in the water and blue nightshades glowing softly on the banks.

Caption: I sense something bittersweet about this place.

---

Incoming transmission… [LINK (Purah Pad)]

Answer transmission? ...

Answer — Connection established.

PRH | 23:33 Link? Why are you still awake?

LNK | 23:33 Couldn’t sleep.

PRH | 23:33 Okay.

LNK | 23:33 I found the fifth Sage.

PRH | 23:33 Oh! Great, great news. (yawning) Sorry. How is she? I mean, they. How are they?

LNK | 23:33 You knew about her, didn't you?

PRH | 23:33 In my defence, she contacted me first. Is she still in the Purah Pad?

LNK | 23:34 We made her a construct body.

PRH | 23:34 Wonderful, I’ll inform the others. Head back to Lookout Landing and we can discuss next steps—

LNK | 23:34 Purah.

PRH | 23:34 What?

LNK | 23:34 During the Calamity. Did you have a backup plan?

PRH | 23:34 Linky, I had several. You’ll have to be more specific.

LNK | 23:34 I mean for if I failed, a second time.

PRH | 23:35 Of course I did. You were our best hope, but we would have freed our Princess no matter what.

LNK | 23:35 What if– I mean, what would–

PRH | 23:35 What is it?

LNK | 23:35 What would happen to Hyrule, if she wasn’t coming back?

PRH | 23:35 I… I don’t know. We never planned for that. Maybe ask Impa, okay?

LNK | 23:35 She doesn’t have a medallion, you do. Just answer me.

PRH | 23:35 Answer what, exactly? Why are you even… Wait. What else have you found?

LNK | 23:35 Nothing.

PRH | 23:36 Link, if it’s about Zelda we need you to tell us—

LNK | 23:36 I can’t! Not yet! (a pause) I can’t do it.

PRH | 23:36 Do what?

LNK | 23:36 Find her. I can’t… make myself. I can’t.

PRH | 23:36 Look, you’re starting to freak me out a bit. Maybe you should come back to Lookout Landing. You shouldn’t be alone right now.

LNK | 23:37 I’m not alone. Mineru is here.

PRH | 23:37 Okay, Good. Say hi to her for me. Listen, I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m sure you’ll get through… whatever it is. And then please, come back.

LNK | 23:37 Okay. I’ll try.

Connection terminated.

---

Log date: 10:00. 8th month, 31st day 104AC Location: Flux Construct Island, Faron Sky Archpelago Weather: Cloudy

Two days in Faron with Mineru. Saw Penn at Lakeside Stables. Had lunch, he cooked. Can't remember what he made.

Then north-west. Travellers on the road wary of Mineru. Detoured via Faron Grasslands. Watched Mineru build a balloon-ship. Zonai parts for propulsion and salvaged wood for the fuselage. Fuselage. Where did I learn that word?

Flew the balloon-ship here -- quicker than walking, fewer staring travellers. Dealt with the Flux Construct on the island, tough fight but got it done. That was yesterday I think.

Another geoglyph by Lake Hylia. Glided down to it this morning -- a vision about Rauru, and the Imprisoning War. She tried to warn him, but, what did it matter in the end?

A photograph of Mineru, in her Zonai Construct form, examining the wreckage of the Flux Construct. In the background is the balloon ship. With a wooden hull, three Zonai balloons for buoyancy and a fan for propulsion, it is a well-engineered vessel.

Caption: Checking the ship for damage and then moving on.

---

Log date: 17:50. 9th month, 1st day 104AC Location: Thyphlo Ruins, North Hyrule Weather: Partly cloudy.

Touched down this morning. Gave the Zonai researcher here a bit of a scare. Kazul – he was trying to solve the riddles in the ruins. Asked Mineru for help but she refused. ‘Didn’t your people build this place?’ She refused again, her voice in my head: You are wasting time.

Does she think I don’t know that? I know there’s a geoglyph nearby, it’s why we came here. But every time I try to go find it… It’s like I can’t breathe. There’s this claw in my chest, its nails digging in. And then I start shaking. I shake and I cry and I… I can’t do it. Physically, I can’t move.

There’s smoke rising from the middle of the ruins. Someone’s made a fire. I came to the waterside to be alone, but now, I’m hungry. Maybe I could cook Kazul some stew, to celebrate the great research paper he’s going to write about this place. And then we have to move on.

Mineru’s construct… It was built to carry a pilot. Maybe if I can’t walk, she can carry me. Better apologise first, for tarrying.

A photograph of the Thyphlo Ruins, the Sheikah SkyView Tower at the centre and the rocky red cliffs of Eldin in the background to the east. The geoglyph painted there is distorted, but looms high on the horizon.

Caption: One more. Just one more.

---

Incoming transmission… [Robbie (Message Medallion)]

Answer transmission? …

*beep* Begin recorded voice message:

[ Link, it’s Robbie. Impa is here. I was visiting Kakariko on my way back to Hateno, and saw that she’s also in town for a few days before returning to the Forgotten Temple. Something about needing a book from her library of ancient texts. Anyway I thought you might want to talk to her, update her on your progress. Call us back in the next day or so if you can ]

LNK | 09:10 (click) I’m here, I’m here.

RBB | 09:10 Well, well, he finally picks up. Purah Pad still working?

LNK | 09:10 Yes?

RBB | 09:10 Excellent. Let us know if you need it serviced. I’ll pass you on to Impa. (shuffling noises)

IMP | 09:11 Hello, Master Link.

LNK | 09:11 Lady Impa. You wanted to speak to me?

IMP | 09:11 Purah told me what happened at Hyrule Castle and about the fifth Sage.

LNK | 09:11 Mineru is her name. She’s a Zonai.

IMP | 09:11 Wonderful. And you continue the search for the geoglyphs?

LNK | 09:11 I have.

IMP | 09:11 Do you wish to talk about it?

LNK | 09:11 Not really. Not yet.Is that okay?

IMP | 09:11 It is. I am certain Zelda can manage a few more days. Sometimes we must answer when destiny calls. Other times, it is okay to wait until we are ready.

LNK | 09:12 How do you know–

IMP | 09:12 I am Sheikah. It is my duty to seek truth, and sense it in others.

LNK | 09:12 Right. (a weak laugh) Of course. Lady Impa… during the Calamity, when Zelda and I were gone.

IMP | 09:13 Yes, child?

LNK | 09:13 Did you ever give up hope?

IMP | 09:13 Of course I did. I grieved for you both for many years.

LNK | 09:13 How did you survive it?

IMP | 09:13 For starters I grew very old, which has a handy way of making the years feel short. All I could do until then was continue waking up each morning, in spite of it all. But all the wisdom in the world did not make it any easier.

LNK | 09:13 Right now, it feels impossible.

IMP | 09:13 Yes, but you will keep waking up. You have it in you to survive this, Master Link. For her sake, I believe you can.

LNK | 09:14 (a pause) She has the Master Sword. It travelled through time to find her, she said.

IMP | 09:14 I see. Her divine powers could restore it, of course. But how to return it to you?

LNK | 09:14 Well…there’s one more dragon tear in Akkala. There’s no geoglyph but I know it’s there.

IMP | 09:14 Ah, the final clue. Are you ready, then?

LNK | 09:14 No. But I’m going anyway.

IMP | 09:15 As it must be. Walk with the Goddess’ grace, Master Link. We will be at your side, no matter what happens.

Connection terminated.

---

Log date: 12:00. 9th month, 3rd day 104AC Location: Rist Peninsula, Akkala Weather: Clear.

Let me paint you a picture. You are you, the Hero of Hyrule, or so they call you. You descend into the depths below Hyrule Castle and find something that did not want to be found, and then–

You wake up, in a quiet room in the sky. You know something’s missing, and it’s not just your arm.

You return to your friends on the surface and promise to help them. But something’s still missing. Everyone promises to look, and they look everywhere, but find nothing.

You search, and search, and search, all the while you know what you’re looking for isn’t there. It’s gone, it always was. You know this, deep down in your soul, but you ignore it. You will realise that you knew when you first saw that dragon above you. You know her so well that even completely changed, she is so familiar.

But you ignore it, because… because…

You never meant to love her this much. She was just an assignment, back in the day. Some sheltered girl to keep safe from herself. She rejected you, challenged you, frustrated you, but… you shared something. She was so alone, just like you were. You developed an understanding, then a friendship, then something more. You laid down your life for her, and she did the same for you.

Then you saved her, or maybe you saved each other, and afterwards never spent more than a day apart. And Goddess, she was so beautiful, so brilliant, so vibrant. You could listen to her talk for hours. Often you did, and you never grew tired of it. You admit now that you fell, hard, and you wanted not just her but a whole life with her. You wanted to marry her. You wanted children. You didn’t know it until this damned moment but you wanted it more than anything in the world.

Now you’re here, in Akkala of all places, making your way towards a sandbank to which she has led you. You know the worst is yet to come, but that you owe it to her to continue. You know every step is taking you closer to the last thing you want to see, but you cannot help it. You have no choice – you will seek the final tear, and you will watch in helpless terror as the one person you wanted to find is lost to you forever.

A photograph of the spiralling Rist Peninsula, the waters ruffled by the wind and sparkling in the sun. The peninsula is coiled around a silver pillar of light, bright enough to be seen even in the middle of the day.

A photograph of a ring of Silent Princesses. They grow tall, strong and radiant, and are clustered around a small shallow in the ground. At the centre, a dragon tear awaits.

A photograph of the Light Dragon, flying low over the sea. From her head streams a blue and golden light like the tail of a comet. Barely visible at the source of the stream is a noble and familiar blade, with its legendary purple hilt and winged cross guard. In the Light Dragon’s open eye, fine droplets can be seen – the remnants of a fallen tear.

Caption: Okay. I’m ready.

---

Log date: 16:30. 9th month, 3rd day 104AC Location: [Unable to determine location when Purah Pad is in motion. Please come to a full stop before using the map function.] Weather: Clear

Zelda… my brave, brave... How can I ever claim to be the courageous one now? I couldn’t have done what you did. It looked... so terrifying. To transform like that. And painful too. Goddess, I hope it didn’t hurt.

I don’t deserve you, Zelda, I don’t deserve this. The Master Sword has been fully repaired, but it’s stronger. I can feel her power mixed in with yours and made more formidable than ever. The Demon King won’t know what hit him.

I’m going to kill him, Zelda. I’m going to tear him into a thousand pieces. When I am done there will be nothing left. This isn’t reckless rage like before. This is divine vengeance. And I will have it.

I guess you’re all out of tears now. I feel the same way. Reading back through the logs you wouldn’t know it. No one puts in their diary that they spent the whole day crying in a cave! But I did. And now it feels like I have no grief left. Only a dull thud on my chest. Thud, thud, thud.

I wish we could talk. I have so much to tell you. How can I live the rest of my life knowing— No. I don’t want to think about it. I just want to be near you, to sit in your soft hair and float through the sky. If I had my way, I would never leave.

A photograph of the Light Dragon Zelda’s face, taken from what is most likely one of her slender blue horns. There is a small bald patch on her forehead where the Master Sword used to be. Her expression, though mostly blank, seems content.

Capt~~~[ Warning ] Log save interrupted. Error code: 11-78 Overspeed *Recovering…Partial text recovery and de-encryption complete:

Caption: How’s the weather up here? %%%50 6C 65 61 73 65 20 73 61 79 20 73 6F 6D 65 74 68 69 6E 67 2C 20 5A 65 6C 64 61 2E 20 53 6F 6D 65 74 68 69 6E 67 20 61 6E 79 74 68 69 6E 67 20 74 6F 20 73 68 6F 77 20 6D 65 20 79 6F 75 20 61 72 65 20 73 74 69 6C 6C 20 69 6E 20 74 68 65 72 65 2E 20 50 6C 65 61 73 65 2C 20 5A 65 6C 64 61 2E 20 49 20 6D 69 73 73 20 79 6F 75 20 73 6F 20 6D 75 63 68 2E 20 41 6E 79 74 68 69 6E 67 2C 20 70 6C 65 61 73 65 2E 20 41 6E 79 74 68 69 6E 67 20 61 74 20 61 6C 6C 2E

#totk #tears of the kingdom #tloz #zelink #tloz fanfic #link #zelda #dragon tears #indulge me I just noticed something:#he spends the a whole story writing about how he loves her voice and then even though shes okay he will never hear it again #AUUGHGHGHGHGHG AUGHGHGHGHGHG #thanks for reading love yall

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redtippedfox · 2 years ago

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Corrupted Kwamis: Wrath of the Gods

Tikki-Creation-Manifestation

Plagg-Destruction-Ruination

Trixx-Illusion-Reality

Pollen-Subjection-Submission

Wayzz-Protection-Endangerment

Duusu-Emotion-Manipulation

Nooroo-Transmission-Dissemination

Longg-Perfection-Limitation

Ziggy-Passion-Suppression

Kaalki-Migration-Stagnation

Barkk-Adoration-Humiliation

Stompp-Determination-Revolution

Orikko-Pretension-Deposition

Roarr-Exaltation-Depression

Fluff-Evolution-Regression

Sass-Intuition-Divination

Xuppu-Derision-Adulation

Mullo-Multiplication-Subtraction

Daizzi-Jubilation-Devastation

——————————————————-

Tikki- Tikki has the terrifying power of Manifestation but with no care or emotions for humanity anymore she creates the worst of the worst. Plaguing humanity with curses and horrifying monster like titans and man-eating creatures. Turning Paris into an Empire for her chosen and those her chosen holds dear. Tikki reverses the world back to the days of fear where death was around every corner.

Plagg- Plagg never cared much for humanity but since Tikki loved them he kept them safe, now that Tikki is corrupted like the rest of the kwamis he sees no need to keep them safe. With the power of Ruination he creates deadly diseases and curses that can kill a man instantly. Though most are safe from Plagg’s reign of destruction if you live inside Paris under the protection of the Divines if not then your screwed.

Trixx- Trixx uses the harsh power of reality to torture the humans, forcing them to face the reality that nothing will ever be as it was. Trixx creates traps that they hide across the world and if a human were to fall into it then they would have to face the reality of their trauma. Trixx picks their victims based on the amount of heavy trauma they have, like some sick game they toy with the emotions of humanity for fun.

Pollen- Pollen uses the power of submission to gain followers, brainwashing them and forcing her victims into a Hive mind. This helps the Divines keep people under their control but it’s Pollens sick pleasure to find the best of the best to join her Hive, only the best may serve her Hive and her Guardian.

Wayzz- The power of Endangerment is dangerous which is why many people of Paris try their hardest to live in the turtles territory for safety, Wayzz protects those that live in his territory and those that don’t or trespassers face a worse fate. His Shelter allows those with good intentions to pass but those that don’t feel agonizing pain that endanger their health. Unlike Trixx he does not torture humanity for fun. It’s not what his Guardian would want. Especially since she loves all of her people.

Duusu- Duusu creates as many sentimonsters as she wants, helping Tikki fill the world with monsters. Some sentimonsters are human like and some are not, some are safe and some are not. Duusu mainly stays with her Guardian who doesn’t mind Duusu’s terrifying creations. Just for fun though Duusu manipulates the emotions of humanity. Mainly turning them on one another for sick enjoyment. She sometimes imprisons them so they know how she and Nooroo felt.

Nooroo- Nooroo uses his power to force random people to turn into monsters, transforming them as if they were clay. Though he never leaves his Guardians side he transforms them into creepy monsters. Nooroo makes humanity suffer through what he endured under Gabriels hand. Not being able to move, takes away their mouths, or force them to follow orders. But if you live in Paris your safe as long as you live under their protection.

Longg- Longg controls the sky, creating deadly storms that have sank ships and ripped cities apart. Using the power of Limitation though they curse humanity to forever be flawed never allowing them to have their perfect world back. Longg creates tornados and cloudy skies blocking the sun. Unless you live in Paris.

Ziggy- Ziggy uses their powers to suppress the emotions of humanity, things like Love, and passion only exist in Paris.

Kaalki-Kaalki uses the power of stagnation to stop all animal migration causing the animals to turn violent and the natural order to topple. She has fun stealing people from where they are and teleporting them else where causing people to lose their family members and friends. Sometimes she rearranges the iconic monuments to be elsewhere, Kaalki likes to redesign the world by placing things or statues in places they don’t belong.

Barkk- Like a dog Barkk hunts down her victims, not giving them a chance to hide. She plays fetch with human beings and sometimes that causes a limb or two to be lost. She enjoys humiliating humanity, sometimes she bites the people she likes and turns them into were-beasts which is a high honor because they end up meeting the Guardian and enjoying the kindness given to them. Barkk mainly hangs out with the Guardian but from time to time she goes out of Paris to humiliate and torture humanity.

Stompp-Stompp doesn’t do much, he likes sleeping and being lazy. Though he does punish humans if they dare try to harm his people or territory. But if any of the people of Paris try to fight back Stompp has the power to steal their determination leaving them to the wrath of the Guardian. He can brainwash humans into accepting anything, no determination no revolution.

Orikko- Orikko loves to play god even if he is a literal god, he grants audience to people and gives them limited power at a price, it causes a lot of people to fall into debt with him. Sometimes he gives them the power they want only so it can backfire causing the person who asked for the power to lose everything and then enslaving them for all eternity. The only way out of enslavement is being transferred to another kwamis domain or territory. But the mercy of freedom from enslavement is if the Guardian chooses to free them and prints them back to her part of the Empire.

Roarr- Roarr loves to steal peoples happiness causing them to fall into deep depression, that sometimes causes the victim to fall. Roarr gathers the souls of the depressed and keeps them as Knick knacks. No one is safe from her soul collecting, that is unless the Guardian is gifted the soul and is freed.

Fluff- Fluff has fun conquering the timelines with her army and Alix. She mainly goes back into moments were her Guardian was hurt or bullied and tortures those that hurt her Guardian. Fluff also collects different versions of Marinette from different timelines, placing them in a sort of sanctuary. Though the Guardian says she can only have so many. The people of Paris under Fluffs control don’t mind serving her that is until you cross her and she turns you into one of her mindless soldiers.

Sass- Sass helps Fluff conquer the timelines by helping Alix and Luka with winning. Using his power he can see into different timelines through the Snake holders eyes, if Fluff likes their Marinette he’ll help capture her. Sass though loves torturing Gabriel and his accomplices over and over again, he has an eternal hell just for them. Sometimes he asks Nooroo to transform Gabriel into a useless Kwami so they can lock him in the same cages they were locked in and suck him dry of his life.

Xuppu- Xuppu sometimes joins in on the conquering of timelines only so he can make fun and mock Gabriel or the enemies of his Guardian. But Xuppu makes humanity his puppets, like a wish with a monkeys paw, he acts nice and grants them their wish with praises and false luck on so it can go wrong sometimes leading to death.

Mullo- Mullo is always on the conquering of timelines, her power to take away a persons power is needed every time. Though she sometimes uses her powers to take a limb or two away from a human or humans just for fun.

Daizzi- Using her power she reveals humanity’s deepest desires and takes them away. Diazzi sometimes even manipulates their desires to fit her needs. There are rare occasions where she meets kind-hearted people like her Guardian and trap them in their desire forever, it is her mercy. Then their are moments where she turns a desire into a nightmare.

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blubushie · 9 months ago

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So today, for a list of notes/shit I've gotta do to this ute to make it functional:

Tray rust: confirmed simple surface rust. Sandblast the rust off then put down bedliner.

Whatever dipshit painted the deep blue on there painted over the bevel. Gotta strip that off.

It has tow plug.

It has 1 original key, 1 spare, and 1 petrol key.

Manual choke.

Heater core needs to be flushed the bloke thinks. Might need replacing, says me. The latter's more likely.

Engine has not been tuned up since rebuild. Will need a tuning now that everything's settled.

It has new manifold gaskets on both sides, new flange gaskets on both sides, and dual exhaust.

Brake master cylinder has a booster—bloke thinks condition of master cylinder is because of shit coating that leaves the factory being the cause of them all rusting. "It's either shit metal or shit coating." I'm inclined to agree—every fucken one I've seen so far that didn't have a brand new—or painted—master cylinder is rusted to fuck. On the plus side the rust is just surface rust but I'm inclined to test that servo housing myself cuz I don't trust it.

Firewall looks good.

No water leaks, wipers are ok but probably need new pulleys.

Window rubber is tight and good, had a boot at one time.

HE HAS A SLIDE WINDOW SOMEWHERE HE CAN GIVE ME!! Probably the first thing I'm doing on this car is installing that fucken sliding window and my rifle rack.

Rear signals don't work because the pins/switches are mixed up, also horn doesn't work. Need to figure this out. If I can't do it maybe I can get that sparky down the block to have a squiz at it.

Engine sounds fucken incredible. 360 V8 with C6 tranny.

GVW is rated at 07500 so it'll hold Matilda.

Wheels are 16in 6ply.

2 petrol tanks, 20gal front & 25gal rear.

Fuel gauge doesn't work. Bloke has the new gauge ready, just hasn't installed it. Maybe there's a problem with the sending unit. Considering it doesn't work for either petrol tank I'm pretty sure it's not a float saturation problem.

Whatever dipshit installed the old manifold gaskets had the wrong size square which caused a leak (maybe F350?)—this is fixed now! She rides smooth.

Rust above windscreen rim causing improper seal along the drain rail—luckily it's not rusted through. Can be fixed but may need a plate welded on. I can do that myself.

Old BB holes in windscreen. I like them for their character but they're gonna crack the entire windscreen eventually, especially in the Australian heat as the windscreen warms. Need to replace windscreen.

One crack in dash around radio, dashboard is clean otherwise. I don't care about the crack but replace radio with an early 70s AM/FM with AUX jack.

ORIGINAL COLOUR IS PEACOCK BLUE WITH WHIMBELDON WHITE STRIPE! Restore to og paint because bloke wants me to. "I'm happy if it goes to someone who'll treat it well and make it look factory."

Passenger mirror is cloudy, needs a clean or possibly replacement.

Engine was rebuilt less that 3,000mi ago and has a 100,000mi warranty.

Bloke will get me a copy of the work order of all the work done to the ute—total of $12,000 for the work done.

"I know he did SOMETHING with the transmission." Tranny likely not rebuilt but WAS removed for alterations during engine rebuild.

Has hooks AND ringlets for turnbuckle attachment for camper.

Has rig mirrors.

Has reinforced tray springs. Has reinforced front, auxillary, and rear shocks.

No carpeting on interior. Get rubber mats I don't want blood in my carpet.

Get a seat cover so Misty doesn't ruin the vinyl.

Has manual steering and manual brakes. Get power disc brakes put in ASAP. I can do the power steering myself. In the meantime, maybe a suicide knob?

#ford blu

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fullonfandomindulgence · 1 year ago

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the years

post-canon tome headcanon-that-turned-into-flash-fic in honor of tomeweek and mobtober

even tho everything else about the ritual was made up, the aliens really do only visit every seven years. so everyone is excited abt seeing the aliens again in the epilogue but they never arrive. the telepathy club just sits at the top of mudboat mountain all night. mezato is piiiiiissed. and like its still nice but. disappointing. tome will never forget that night but she was hoping to create a tradition, like, something to celebrate the strange but friendly. she finishes a bag of takis at 3am and tilts her head back to pour all the crumbs into her mouth.

she thinks, Was that the only chance I'll ever get? kijibayashi gets mad at her for finishing the takis. the air is silent and cloudy.

tome and inukawa are both insistent the aliens will come back the next year. the club tries again and the aliens dont come back, again. tsubomi wasnt expecting much but at least its interesting to go camping with mob and some weirdos.

so thats what it becomes, a yearly camping trip to mudboat mountain. on year three takenaka cant make it, so the shiratori brothers do the transmission instead. tome rolls the alien stone around on her palm. no response.

then tome graduates and moves away for university. and mob, inukawa, and takenaka have to worry about exams. and it all just doesn't line up. so they skip year four. tome sits in a corner of her dorm room and hates the feeling of obligation and fatigue washing up around her. she doesnt have the wisdom to accept it yet. maybe she never will. she cant tell if that would be good or bad.

It's year five. Saruta puts down his marshmallow stick, gets up, and walks away from the fire. "Okay, I'm gonna go look for aliens." Mob smiles but warns, "It's slippery." "Does--does he mean--?" Tome responds, laughing, to Teru's confusion. "He means he's gonna find somewhere to take a dump."

the next new years she tries something new and it doesnt go well. sitting in an alley and trying not to cry she gets a text. its a shitty picture of some mountains and the distant horizon at night. you cant see any stars, just the dim glow of city in the distance. in the corner of the photo is a green smudge with little red cheeks giving her the finger. the message is from mob.

she pretends like she doesnt remember the seven years number but she starts thinking about it in like june. it takes her until september to finally say something. tome: okay mfers this is the year this is THE year inukawa: What year tome: let me finish this is t he YEAR WE SEE ALIENS AGAIN all thet sources say seven years! the aliens dont visit every year, only ever seven well were all old now and its been sseven years! so lets get out there and DO THIS!!! whatever or whoever else youre doing plz bring it all up the mountain with you inukawa: Oh my god this is the year mob: Seven years, jesus. kijibayashi: THIS IS THE YEAR kijibayashi: THIS IS THE YEAR kijibayashi: THIS IS THE YEAR takenaka: THIS IS THE YEAR mob: THIS IS THE YEAR! kijibayashi: THIS IS THE YEAR

in the end no one can get hold of saruta. he would respond to a hello but wouldnt engage for more than a few messages. tome is mad but everyone hopes hes okay. mob dredges up mezato from her journalism internship. he even convinces jun (shaved head guy from the body improvement club) to come with. the team comes equipped with two switches, a laptop for anime, ultimate werewolf, a portable speaker, comics, snacks, and as much booze as they can carry.

tome can feel the transmission vibrating her teeth, but only the ones without fillings. she leans backwards as the tractor beam pulls her up so she does a slow flip before landing on her back in that warm, round space. shes 15 again. these are her friends, the same aliens she met last time. takenaka confirms this but she knew it as soon as she shook one of their hands.

shes not 15, though, shes 22. she has to elbow in on mezatos interviews. Are there alien ghosts? How old are you? Are there like alien teenagers or is it more of a chrysalis situation? Why are you here? Are there alien videogames? What advice would you give to someone who's struggling to find respect for her work? Have you ever tried fireball?

Inukawa is annoyingly good at telling when the aliens are lying so he keeps winning at werewolf (Takenaka is only allowed to play if he's cool about it). Tome wonders, internally, what it would be like to kiss an alien. Probably reserved at first, like of course, you'd want to start slow. But then after that… She watches an alien laugh at a visual gag in Crayon Shin-chan. Mob slams smirnoff and engages in an intense series of arm wrestling matches. "Hey noodle arms! Square up!" He gets beaten by every single alien. Jun wins against one. Takenaka looks shiftily over at them and says, "That was out of pity." Everyone raises a shot glass to Saruta.

tomes 15, shes 22. and then she realizes she's 29, too, and 36, and 43, 50, 57… she has maybe eight or nine more chances at this, ever. would the aliens accept her as an old lady? how long would she be able to make the hike? I should talk to mob about that. How to become dash granny.

everyone has gifts ready this time, except for mezato, who decides that her offering to these strange beings from another world should be a half-empty bottle of jagermeister. tome gives the aliens one of those compact cb radios, thinking maybe if they were nearby they could gibber on a particular channel and tome, who had her own radio at home, would know they were here. according to takenaka their response is very coy and mysterious and annoying.

Tome shows the aliens the stone they gave her last time. She'd kept it on her person basically since she got it. She receives a hug from one of the aliens with their soft many-segmented limbs and starts crying. More of the aliens move in for a group hug around her and she cries and laughs and cries some more as she reaches out to wrap her arms around as many as she can. Gross rivers drip from her nose. She sniffs and wipes her face with the backs of her hands as they disentangle. She looks at the group of weird big-eyed friends. She opens her arms wide, hands covered with tears and slime, and announces, "Thank you! Thank you all! This has been so much fucking fun. Pretend you all have glasses in your hands, I'm gonna do a toast. A toast to strange friends!" Two species say "Clink! Clink!" as their empty hands knock together.

the suns been up for an hour or two. the ship shimmers in daylight, translucent, floating away.

29, Tome thinks. "I want you all here, next time."

"So I'm free? I can party for the next six New Yearses as long as I go camping with you on the seventh?"

"Whatever, Kijibayashi, fuck you, like that wasn't the best party you ever been to. Yes. Next time."

the memory has multiplied, into past and future. Who? How? Is it stupid to make such a big deal of this thing? tome watches the stone in her palm.

No. No it's not. she puts the stone in her pocket.

#tomeweek2023 #mobtober #tome kurata #mob psycho 100 #fanfic #mobtober2023 #tomeweek #flash fiction #mp100 #drabble #inukawa mameta #kijibayashi haruto #shigeo kageyama #mp100 mob #mp100 tome #takenaka momozou

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lydiahosek · 1 year ago

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Reconnection

[My contribution to the @inklings-challenge Christmas challenge, and a follow-up to my 2022 story "Connection". Thank you for hosting and merry Christmas!]

“…Hi everyone. Merry Christmas! At least, it should be Christmas by the time you get this. Right now it’s November 15th.”

In fact, it was December 27th when Arlo Connors’ transmission reached his family back on Earth. The first days had been spent by the Connors with the vague concern for him that always regrew in the back of their minds between messages. In a consolatory sort of coincidence, though, it arrived smack in the middle of the annual Christmas party, and the entire extended family (minus two strep-stricken cousins at home in bed) gathered and hushed to hear his voice.

Ever the dutiful son/brother/grandson/nephew/cousin, he first addressed the high points of the last transmission he received from them. He wished Jessamine well in her audition for the role of Claire in her school’s production of String Bean Salad Summer, complimenting the snippet of “One Tiny Seed” she had sung into the receiver. Jessamine shifted in her seat – she had ended up in the ensemble and was still a little stung about it. He advised Aunt Sybil on the glitch with her smart microwave that she had described. Sybil had to be stopped from bustling off to the kitchen to try the repair at that very moment. He congratulated Tim and Nadine on their one-year anniversary. They smiled and clasped hands – he would be an uncle in five months and didn’t even know it yet.

“Everything up here is going mostly according to plan. The biology team says the plants aren’t doing as well as they thought – something to do with the artificial atmosphere. But Alonzo and the rest of the techs’ gadgets are all working fine. A few might even get adapted for commercial sale…We passed Pellonia about a month ago. For once everyone just dropped what they were doing and stared. It looked like a big, cloudy orange. I tried to take a picture, but you know. It’s not the same.

“The big news is that I actually took a spacewalk last week.” Arlo described the simple but urgent malfunction with the ship’s thruster that required his direct attention, the process of being dressed in the spacesuit, and the combination of wonder and dread that filled his heart as he moved along the edge of the ship, his tether to it, to humanity, no wider than a garden hose. Several of his audience hung on his every word with little technical understanding but agonized suspense, forgetting that the account itself was proof that his time outside the ship had ended without incident.

“It sounds silly, but I kept thinking of the first time I jumped off the diving board at Uncle Harold’s pool. The same sense of something exciting, somewhere new to explore, all by myself, but also having to be alert, not get lost in it or…disaster. I was talking about it with Val…that’s Valeria Munroe, if Mom still has the article with the group picture saved…What am I saying, of course she does.”

Hetta had already whipped out her comm pad, opened her “Saved” folder, and retrieved the news article announcing the mission with its accompanying photo of the entire crew. She hovered her cursor over a few different faces before a text box appeared over one with the title “Valeria Munroe” and a brief biography. She smiled to herself and nodded. “She’s pretty.”

“Mo-oomm!” Arlo’s siblings chorused on his behalf.

“Anyway, it got me thinking, and I know it’s really early to say this, but…this trip’s going to be my last.”

A wave of confused, dismayed whispers swept through the room, followed by one of harsh shushing.

“I…I had always thought about the things I had made that I was sending up there…up here…that something my hands had touched was going to be sent past other planets and asteroid fields and onto worlds I had never seen and couldn’t even imagine. And even more than the pay bump and the…I dunno, ‘prestige’ as opposed to being a ground guy, I wanted to see for myself what I was working for. And now I have. And it’s not like…I don’t regret it, but I know I can’t maintain it. Just like I couldn’t stay outside any longer than it took to do what I had to do. It was beautiful, I was closer to it all than I’ve ever been, but the connection back was so thin, just like…sorry, I…”

Here they heard an unintelligible voice in the background and Arlo’s, muffled, saying “No, I’m fine.”

Then his voice was clear again. “I, um…I really miss you. I guess, is the point. And the sky and the trees and…traffic and barbecue smoke and those crummy slushies from Burger Beanie.” He made a noise between a laugh and a shudder. “More than anyone else here does, or did, it seems. The ones who’ve made a career out of this. Maybe they were like this too their first time and just forgot, but…I don’t want to forget. So…yeah.”

Hetta could be heard sniffling off to the side. “Mom,” one of Arlo’s sisters cooed softly, placing a hand on her arm.

Arlo clapped his hands loudly. “So! Now that I know that, I am going to try to strengthen my connections to whoever and whatever I can up here. And you will hear about it all! Sorry this message is so short, but I promise the rest won’t be. ‘Cause when I’m back down there, for good…I don’t want to forget, either.”

He left them with a few more pleasantries, Christmas wishes, and words of love, and then the room was silent. It remained so for the better part of a minute, until Sybil offered to start slicing up the gingerbread cake.

Someone hit the “Play” icon on her comm pad, and peppy, harmonic voices resumed singing. Gradually new conversations began, and gradually they were about topics other than the absent son/brother/grandson/nephew/cousin/uncle-to-be. He would hear all about them, though, in about two months. The best gift he could get, as he and those below continued the wait till the mission's end for the best gift he could give.

#inklingschallenge #Christmas #family #homesickness #pregnancy mention #drowning mention #genre: space travel #story: complete #my writing #short story #science fiction #my ocs #reconnection

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flyonthewallmedstudent · 1 year ago

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Entamoeba Histolytica

Moving on from Disseminated infections.

and back to parasites, we have this amoeba.

Courtesy of wikipaedia.

One complication is liver abscess.

Image from NEJM

Ring enhancing cysts were seen on CT (requested after the authors noted deranged liver function tests) and on percutaneous drainage (which radiology can do), they had brown cloudy fluid. Under the microscope they noted the pseudopods (leg like extensions).

Classically though, entamoeba causes amoebic dysentery or bloody diarrhoea that develops over 1-4 weeks. However, 90% are asymptomatic. Given the complications/extra-GI manifestations, it can be fatal in a very small minority.

Severe disease/Complications - toxic megacolon (always makes me think of heavy metal bands, in sad actuality it's inflammation that affects more layers and causes the colon to wide. resembling balloon animals) - fulminant colitis + perforation (from inflammation, ulceration etc. that the trophozoites induce, high mortality) - liver abscess (more common, fevers/RUQ/hepatomegaly, transamnitis and jaundice, maybe months before this develops) - rarely: pericarditis + tamponade (from liver rupture, rare but high mortality), pleural effusion & brain abscess (exceedingly rare - but acute confusion + fevers, rapid deterioration) risk factors for severe diseases/complications: malignancy, pregnancy, immunosuppression in general.

Toxic megacolon: Can actually rupture eventually. Courtesy of wiki

Transmission: faecal oral routes (contaminated food/water sources) and it's widely distributed across the world. As with many infectious diseases, it has a higher prevalence in lower socioeconomic groups and regions of the world. Africa & South/Central AMerica have higher rates than other countries (poor sanitation areas, water sources like rivers have multiple purposes for households etc.). Generally, in western countries, it develops in returned travellers who went to endemic areas or immigrants.

Detection: EIA assay for entamoeba antigen in stool, serology (relies on antibodies, so undetectable the first week and last a life time, does not differentiate acute vs past infection), stool MCS for cysts and ova, PCR and colonoscopy (ulcer/erosions, biopsy will reveal cysts and trophozoites)

Treatment: metronidazole in active/acute disease, increased doses in severe/complicated disease or invasive. depending on where you are, also paromycin if asymptomatic or following active treatment to remove cysts.

Consider this in returned travellers with high fevers, abdo pain and bloody diarrhoea lasting > 2 weeks.

Avoids while travelling to endemic areas - uncooked foods, unbottled water/ice cubes, street vendors (what a shame), just anything raw. Practice good hand hygiene.

Sources: StatPearls ON PubMed Amoebiasis on CDC

#entamoeba histolytica #medblrs #medblr #infectious diseases #parasites #parasitology #infectious disease #microbiology

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spacetimewithstuartgary · 3 months ago

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Astronomers use Webb to probe a 'steam world' in the constellation Pisces

A Canadian-led international study has revealed new insights into the atmosphere of GJ 9827 d—an exoplanet orbiting the star GJ 9827 in the constellation Pisces, about 98 light-years from Earth—using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

The study found that the planet's atmosphere contains a high concentration of heavier molecules, including a significant amount of water vapor, making astronomers think it could very well be a "steam world."

Published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the study was led by Caroline Piaulet-Ghorayeb, a Ph.D. candidate at Université de Montréal's Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets (IREx), in collaboration with researchers worldwide.

Earlier this year, using Hubble Space Telescope (HST) data, IREx researchers announced they'd detected water in the atmosphere of GJ 9827 d, making it, at roughly two times the size of the Earth, the smallest exoplanet with a confirmed atmosphere.

Together, these significant findings open new avenues for the search for life beyond our solar system and enhance our understanding of planetary formation and composition.

An elusive goal—until now

For years, scientists have focused on the detection of atmospheres on large gas giants and mini-Neptunes—planets much larger than Earth and with atmospheres dominated by hydrogen, like Jupiter and Neptune in our solar system.

But until now, detecting atmospheres around smaller planets, closer to Earth-sized, has remained an elusive goal.

For now, all the planets we've detected that have atmospheres are giant planets, or at best mini-Neptunes," said Piaulet-Ghorayeb, the study's lead author.

"These planets have atmospheres made up mostly of hydrogen, making them more similar to gas giants in the solar system than to terrestrial planets like Earth, which have atmospheres dominated by heavier elements."

Rich in heavier molecules

What sets GJ 9827 d apart is its atmosphere's composition.

By combining JWST/NIRISS and HST data, Piaulet-Ghorayeb showed that, unlike the hydrogen-dominated atmospheres of larger planets, GJ 9827 d's is rich in heavier molecules, with quite a bit of water vapor.

This discovery marks the first robust detection of an exoplanet atmosphere where hydrogen is not the dominant component, suggesting instead a heavier, water-rich atmosphere.

"It's closer in molecular weight to the carbon dioxide or nitrogen-rich atmospheres that we are currently looking for on smaller rocky planets, where we would eventually look for life," said Piaulet-Ghorayeb.

She and her team made their observations via the Canadian instrument on JWST, the Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS). Using transmission spectroscopy, they analyzed the starlight passing through the planet's atmosphere as it transited (passed in front of) its host star, GJ 9827.

They then combined the new JWST observations with previous HST observations to confidently show that the observed spectral features are caused by the planet's atmosphere and not by contamination from the system's star.

With the data from JWST/NIRISS SOSS, scientists can finally distinguish between two types of atmospheres for the planet: one is cloudy with few heavier elements, mainly hydrogen with water only present in trace amounts; the other has a high density with many heavier elements and a lot of water.

Because GJ 9827 d is close to its star, its atmosphere is likely a mix of gas and a superheated, dense state, rather than having distinct layers or clouds.

Not thought to be inhabitable

While GJ 9827 d itself is not thought to be habitable due to its proximity to its host star and resulting high surface temperatures (around 350°C), the discovery is a major leap forward in the search for habitable environments.

The presence of a heavy, water-rich atmosphere on a small planet like GJ 9827 d provides a proof of concept that such atmospheres exist and can be studied with the JWST's precision.

And that makes the prospect of finding habitable, Earth-like planets more plausible, eventually.

"This is a huge step towards the goal of searching for atmospheres around smaller, terrestrial-like planets," said Piaulet-Ghorayeb.

"GJ 9827 d is the first planet where we detect an atmosphere rich in heavy molecules, just like the terrestrial planets of the solar system, and the first confirmed example in a long time of a 'steam world' posited by the scientific community."

Such "steam worlds" are thought to have thick, water-rich atmospheres without surface ice or liquid water, instead maintaining steam atmospheres due to their proximity to their host stars. They're like the icy moons Europa and Ganymede, only close enough to their stars that water appears as steam in the atmosphere, not under an ice layer.

Further planned JWST observations of GJ 9827 d in the coming months could shed more light on the components of its steam atmosphere, the astronomers hope.

IMAGE: The study found that the planet’s atmosphere contains a high concentration of heavier molecules, including a significant amount of water vapor. Credit: NASA, ESA, Leah Hustak (STSCI), Ralf Crawford (STSCI)

#science #space #astronomy #physics #news #nasa #astrophysics

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showfallmediacameracrew · 1 year ago

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[Transmission Received ]

[ The video clicks on to a long shot of a hallway, before it zooms in close to focus on the recognized form of Jasprix leaning against the wall beside a door. The windows that remain from the original storefront are completely blacked out, with other entrances to rooms farther away looking abandoned and currently disused, but otherwise the area could be considered clean. ]

[ The area is relatively normal looking for the mall, though much quieter than it would normally would be, with Jasprix himself looking nervous and as though he is also stopping himself from making any noise, the only part of him moving is his tail swinging side to side with obvious nerves at being there. ]

[ This scene remains unchanged for a long time, at least half an hour goes by before there is any significant change. It comes in the form of a muffled banging from within the room. Jasprix twitches, glancing back towards the door, head cocked in confusion as he turns to face the door and step back a bit from it. ]

J: “I um, maybe I’m too early. Can’t really... leave now though, they’d probably get pissed and say I was late…”

[ Jasprix is cut off as the door is suddenly slammed open, casting a sudden glare of harsh artificial light into the dim hallway, making Jasprix squint as he takes a few more alarmed steps back. A set of shadows cut across the light, any features unintelligible from the harsh lighting, before a figure dressed in horribly bloodstained clothes stumbles out and falls to the floor with such force it's almost as if they’ve been shoved. They skid a few inches before coming to a halt. The lump on the floor barely makes an effort to stand before accepting their fate and laying still. ]

[ Jasprix blinks, glancing at the open door hesitantly, before he moves over to the fallen lump. He leans over, tail swinging idly in curiosity, before he gasps and immediately drops to his knees, pulling the person up into his arms, seeming frantic, with a distressed whine escaping his throat unbidden. ]

J: “Marvin?! What did, what...”

[ Marvin says nothing in return, only looking up at Jasprix with cloudy eyes. The slashes across his face are immediately noticeable, but it’s far from the worst injury he’s gained. His neck is a thornbush of wires. They circle the skin and dart in and out of it, twist together and rake through like barbed wire fencing. The skin is angry and red, so violently opposed to being the tapestry on which this horrible electric collar has been woven. ]

[ As soon as Marvin recognizes Jasprix, a choked and raw sob rips from his throat. He uses whatever reserves of energy that remain to push himself closer to Jasprix in order to cling onto him like a lifeline. Desperation and fear and exhaustion, all plaguing his bruised and broken body. ]

J: “Oh shit, that's...don’t worry, never mind. It’s Ok, I got you. I do, I won’t let you go.”

[ Jasprix holds on tightly, though he’s being careful not to press too hard and hurt Marvin more, unsure if there are injuries under his clothes where he touches him. A wise decision considering the horrible gash spanning from his hips to the bottom of his ribcage. He just holds him, rocking slightly where they are on the floor, seeming not to care they are doing this in the middle of the previously quiet hallway. The man just whines, lacking the strength for anything greater. Every noise, every action is painful for him. ]

J: “I’m sorry, I... know it must hurt, I’m just. You’re here, just stay with me, I can... I have stuff in my room, that I don’t need, but I took it anyway. I can... I can help you, we just gotta leave. After my uh... meeting, I guess. Shit, how do I- I can’t just leave you here?”

[ The camera refocuses against the harsh lighting, and after a moment, a distinct set of silhouettes is able to be made out past the doorway; a cluster of figures, and one standing slightly away from them, gesturing as if explaining something. ]

[ Jasprix looks up, round pupils going into needle pinpricks when he notices the people standing in the doorway, mortification on his face turning immediately to fear when his eyes catch on one of the silhouettes in the doorway. He stops talking, his tail freezing in place where it's half curled around Marvin, and he’s frozen aside from the occasionally shaking of the two person huddle, unknown who the cause of the movement could be in this moment. ]

[ After a minute or so, the separated silhouette pauses in their movements, and their head perks up and turns to look directly out the doorway. Directly at the huddled two on the tile floor. ]

[ There is a moment of pause, before the figure drops their arms and moves. The tapping of the shoe heels off the tile echo in the now-eerie silence, and as they approach they break up the light, casting a long shadow across the floor, and casting the two in darkness. ]

[ Marvin shifts to look at the figure. Horror draws across his face like a bowstring. He immediately begins trembling. ]

[ They stop, just in front and slightly to the side of them. They do not look down at Marvin at all, their masked gaze seems to be locked on Jasprix, head tilted slightly. ]

[ Voice recognition activated. Recognized as: Elizabeth of HR. ]

E: “You seem rather attached to this one, aren’t you?”

[ Jasprix stares, mouth open but barely able to do much more than squeak and hold Marvin a little closer, before he twitches and nods once, needing to give an answer even if it’s lacking his usual tone and vocal pattern. ]

J: “Y-yes.”

[ Elizabeth does not move a muscle, seemingly locked in an unnatural stillness. With their mask, it is even difficult to see their jaw moving to speak. ]

E: “Interesting. Very, very, interesting. I would hope you have at least taken notice of my handiwork, I would be so dearly disappointed if that work went to waste.”

[ Jasprix keeps his head turned to them, but glances down at Marvin, at the twisting ring of wires in his neck and around it, and the large gash left in his skin from hip to ribs, among the rest of the injuries. He looks back up at them, the fear stronger in his eyes then before, and gives a tiny nod, unable to speak. ]

E: “I hope you have gathered why you are here, it should be at the very least painfully obvious, however you were never the most observant, so do correct me if I assumed wrong.”

[ He winces, curling in slightly on himself, licking his lips as he shifts nervously. When he speaks, it’s quick, and disjointed. ]

J: “You-you’re giving him to me? To-to- as a-a warning? I-if I- if I keep-keep fighting every m-meeting?”

[ They make a clicking sound with their tongue, and shake their head in mock pity. ]

E: “Tch tch tch. I do suppose my assumption was an incorrect one. You are wrong. Not all I do is about you, little salamander. You may think yourself special, but you are far from the only thing that demands my attention. Try again.”

[ Jasprix whines slightly, ears drooping down as he shakes, glancing from them to Marvin as he tries to speak before he finally manages it, managing to look hopeful in between the fear and mild anger forming from the idea he’d come to. ]

J: “Wall Rat? Escaped, but-but they. They left him. I-I’m here, because of them?”

[ They tilt their head to the side, not dissimilar to a bird. ]

E: “They did leave him, yes, and what a great service they provided in doing so. And while yes, they are a part of this, they are not what concerns me now, nor does their particular situation at all pertain to you. I am uncertain of how observant you have been since this clumsy bird stumbled out the door, however, I would inform you if you have neglected to notice that you are not the only one who was called.”

[ Jasprix stares, then slowly takes his eyes off Elizabeth to look around again, nervously turning his head away from them to see what they are talking about. Back in the bright room, presumably a part of the HR department, the crowd of stark silhouettes remains, seemingly talking amongst themselves in lue of the person who was presumably leading the meeting. ]

J: “...HR? This... was-wasn’t a-an actual meeting for me. I don’t... know w-why I-I’m actually here. S-sorry, sir.”

E: “You never were the smartest of your group, not quite. You have neglected to notice the thing you are holding so closely in your arms, or notice, remarkably, against what I could not help but notice you had assumed, is alive.”

[ Jasprix looks down at Marvin again, moving a hand from his shoulder to instead hold onto his arm with it, confused expression even as he concernedly watches his pained breathing and slow blinking. ]

J: “He-he is. I...he-he was called too? For-for what, why-why di-did. I w-was called, to meet, w-with him an-and you?”

E: “You are quite the odd one, and not very bright in any meaningful manner, it does seem.”

[ Elizabeth tips their head the other way, never removing their gaze from him. It is almost as if Marvin is nothing more than an uninteresting plant to them, with how little attention to him they pay. ]

E: “Ye of so little faith, assumed that he would die. Well, die permanently. Have you so little faith in me? Did you really think I would let an opportunity such as this pass me by?”

J: “I- I thought-thought he was want-wanted dead, before-before H-Hetch stopped caring, even-even though everything else. Was still-still a threat to him. What, um, what op-opportunity? I’m-I’m sorry, I don’t, see. What you mean.”

E: “You are so very chatty today, terribly unlike you. Even more so uncharacteristic when every word that falls out of your mouth seems to completely lack awareness or logic.”

[ They bring a hand from behind their back and put it on their chin, tipping their head. ]

E: “The specifics of which I speak, you are not privy to. It is above your station, and you should by this point know better than to question what is not yours to know.”

[ Jasprix ducks his head, still looking at them respectfully from that position, and nods quickly instead of speaking. Looking chastised and afraid to say anything for the moment after they had brought attention to it. ]

E: “The reason that you are here, since it seems it must be spelled out clearly to you as if you were a child, is involving what will become of him now. He is no longer a threat to the company, I have made thoroughly sure that is the case, and so now something must be done with him. Since you do not seem to recognize them, the other individuals who have been spoken to are his superiors, informed of his new position. Do I need to clarify more, or has it finally sunk in in the hollow space between your ears?”

[ Jasprix frowns, glancing from the doorway to Elizabeth then back down to Marvin quickly before returning his attention to the person in front of him. Seeming to remember he had been called here, he clears his throat and speaks again. ]

J: “His...superiors. D-does that, is he, meant to work, under me?”

E: “In a sort of way, yes, as you seem to finally have caught on, and I no longer need to talk in circles until my words are finally understood as a language you speak. He will not return to his prior position, in my personal opinion it was a ludicrous idea to make him an actor to begin with, thus he will go to what he was initially selected for at this company, and has proven to be best suited for. That is where he is useful, and out of the way, and can cause minimal harm.”

[ Jasprix nods again, shifting slightly to better look at them from where he sits on the floor, wincing when his movement causes Marvin pain. The broken man can only sob at this information. Despite the pitiful sight below him, Jasprix keeps his eyes on Elizabeth for now. All he manages is a quiet squeak and only a single word as a response to show his understanding. ]

J: “Okay.”

[ Elizabeth takes a step closer, and leans down slightly, uncomfortably close to him. ]

E: “I feel it necessary to state, and state so clearly as it seems you do not understand what I have been saying in this conversation, the stipulations with which this deal comes.”

[ They reach a hand down and put it on his shoulder. Jasprix freezes completely, and stares at their face, not even blinking as he breathes slowly enough it looks like he isn’t at all. ]

E: “Due to the.. Foolishness, and recklessness, that accompanies the sort of attachment you have formed, you are the one I have to be concerned about most in regards to this man. I want you to listen to what I say very closely, as I will not repeat it.”

[ They tip their head, and even though the white plastic hides their eyes, it feels as if their gaze is boring into him. Jasprix just manages to nod stiffly, before he locks up again. ]

E: “You will not, not under a single circumstance, aid him in his endeavors of insubordination. I know the moment you are alone with him you will wish to free him, this will not happen. Not once, will it be allowed. There will be no mercy, in the event of transgression of this. You know full-well what occurs when you disobey orders. This is the most vital to not violate.”

[ Jasprix blinks, nodding immediately his understanding, fear clear on his face, obvious to anyone looking that he does know exactly what they mean, and has experienced enough to fear the punishment for disobeying. He shifts slightly subconsciously, still close to Marvin as much as he can be but his body giving some space to not touch the wires like they had been previously to his shoulder. He keeps his eyes on the mask, where the eyes would be, and just nods again more slowly. ]

[ They put a finger under his chin and tip his head up so he is forced to look at them directly. ]

E: “You have grown rather fond of your newly acquired freedom, that much is easy to parse. Understand, that if there is even a whisper of you violating my orders, and assisting the little pinned bird regardless, it will be taken away swiftly and without even the slightest sliver of a chance of getting it granted again. Do you understand me? I will not repeat myself.”

[ Jasprix whimpers at the contact, but doesn’t pull away, fear still playing on his face and stopping him from nodding when being made to look deliberately. He opens his mouth, for a moment unable to speak, before he lets out a shaky breath and tries again, more successfully. ]

J: “I understand, yes sir. I’ll-I’ll behave, and-and make sure he does. I understand.”

[ They drop his head, and stand up to their full height, towering over him and once again casting a harsh shadow across them. They fold their arms behind their back, and when they speak it is clear without even needing to see their face that they are smiling. ]

E: “Good. So very good of you. Wise, wise choice.”

[ They take a step back from him, resuming the almost unnatural-looking rim-rod posture. ]

E: “There will be certain measures in place at the hands of his proper authorities that should, if all goes as it should, keep him in line proper this time. So, I sincerely hope you have listened, and that it will not be necessary to begin with.”

[ They turn on their heel, as if to begin walking back into the room. Jasprix watches them go, not moving from the spot on the floor. They pause, and look back at him from over their shoulder. ]

E: “And, Jasprix, you should know better, by this point, than to assume anything I say is a lie. I make good on my word. For now, before he joins productions, what happens to him is none of my concern, but do not think for even a moment that I will not be watching. You cannot hide, not from me.”

[ Jasprix stares at them, openmouthed and speechless, and nods again in resigned understanding. He is shaking, and looks ready to fall over, now that their proximity has gotten farther, but keeps himself steady braced against Marvin. ]

[ After a moment more, they seem satisfied, and turn away. Their footsteps on the tile might as well be loud as gunshots in the silence as they fade away, back into the room. The door shuts behind them, once again casting the two in darkness. ]

[ Jasprix sits there for a few minutes, watching the door just in case, before he lets out a loud exhale that ends in a whimpered sob. He looks back at Marvin properly, squeezing the arm he was holding gently. ]

J: “Marvin, M-s-Songbird. I need to lift you up, can you hear me, I need you to- to tell me you're still awake.”

[ It takes him a second, but he manages to give Jasprix a shaky thumbs up. He isn’t able to hold his hand up for long before it falls to his side, limp. ]

J: “Okay, um. I’m going to assume you heard that, because I also don’t want to repeat that. Just... I’m sorry. I’m sorry you’re like this, it isn't anyone's fault except the person who chose to abandon you. I’m... also sorry that this will fucking hurt, but I need to get you to my room.”

[ Jasprix carefully scoots away, keeping his hand holding onto Marvin’s arm to stop him from falling over without him holding him fully again, and stands up hesitantly. He’s shaky, struggling to stand for a few moments, before he looks down and pulls Marvin up by his arm quickly. Marvin immediately hisses in pain, his knees buckling. Jasprix freezes, wincing in sympathy from Marvin’s pained sounds, and hesitates for a moment in the action he was taking.]

[ Jasprix moves around him instead, and leans down to grab hold of Marvin's legs, hoisting him off his feet quickly with a grunt of exertion. Holding him under the knees and at his shoulders in a bridal carry as he tries to shift it to be as comfortable as he can make it. Marvin grunts in pain at first but as soon as the movement stops, he relaxes. Or, more accurately, he practically melts into Jasprix’s arms. Jasprix huffs, looking concerned but also relieved, that he’s managed to keep a grip. ]

J: “You are a lot lighter than I thought you were. Um, time to go, before someone comes out again. God, at least it isn’t a fuckton of floors to get back to my room. Sorry if it gets bumpy, I’ll- I’ll kiss it better maybe, after I... help bandage you up. Um...Are you ready to move?”

[ Marvin tucks his head against Jasprix’s chest and nods. He looks so small. ]

[ Jasprix squeezes him gently in a return hug, then looks back over at the door for a second just to make sure one more time. The glass being dark makes it hard to know if he’s being watched, and for a moment he lingers, before he quickly shakes his head and moves as fast as he can away from the room with someone in his arms. His tail flicks rapidly behind him as he leaves and disappears past a wall with a final flick of the tail. Quiet words of apology fading as they get farther away from the HR meeting room. ]

[ The video stays on another minute more, recording the eerie quiet left behind, a final zoom on the door as the video fades out, and clicks off. ]

[ Transmission end. ]

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