#with a weapon she has never used before while actively reading the instruction manual. and she WINS. she wins based on sheer intellect &

[fiapple]

i'm getting towards the end of the skypeia arc, & i'd like to say just how much i adore the way the female strawhats have been treated.

just... every aspect of how the way their characters have been previously contextualized influences the story-line is treated with a masterful amount of consideration. we're given so many layers to both of them that enrich not only their characters specifically, but the arc, and the one piece world as a whole. without nami & robin having their specific skills, and their specific values, without those being built upon, the story would have come to a halt.

you could not have skypeia without nami & robin being who they are as individuals. not just because they never would've gotten there without nami, but also because the way these women think is itself foundational to the machinations of the arc as a whole.

to be totally upfront, if you think any other strawhats were more central to the skypeia arc than nami & robin were you are full-on fucking lying to yourself.

[zee-writes-and-draws]

Normal world AU where the different buildings are just random groups of people and all of them ended up moving to the small village near the supposedly ‘haunted’ mountain that Samon and Enki grew up on bc property values are low as shit, and all of the minors are adopted by the guards. Qi has basically just grabbed Upa and Liang and ran the hell away from the Chinese mafia. Samon sees this random man dragging two half-dead children with him and this is now the very first time any of the new residents of the village find out the ‘hauntings’ that lowered property values were just a teenage Enki post massive growth spurt and a very small and over-energetic Samon that haven’t been seen in well over a decade.

- Hajime has, unfortunately, agreed to look after Jyugo and Nico while Rock and Uno try to find legal jobs, but it’s a lot on him. He and Seitarou help Uno and Rock fight a case to get custody of the two minors. Yamato is helping Tsukumo get a restraining order against his former agent and various paparazzi, as well as going to therapy so he doesn’t constantly feel the need to put on a persona in front of others. Hajime is a teacher at the local school (since there’s a decent number of local kids and then the building children), Yamato is the school’s coach, and Seitarou sells uniforms/cute festival stuff but is also occasionally seen working with the age 7 and below kids because they’re all very small and nice.

- Kiji is trying to cure Honey of his anger management issues and Trois of his pyromaniac tendencies. His day job is making and testing makeup that everyone buys, like mascara and eyeliner and hair gel. His second in command is working in one of the other small shops, selling everyone clothes (he and Seitarou make the clothing together).

- Kenshirou is only here because some of his dogs are sick and this village has been weirdly good for their health. Along the way he lets Musashi and Hitoshi stay with him because they help on chores and the dogs love both of them very much. He helps with the local stray problem by opening a shelter and rehabilitating most of them (the few who can’t be fixed to near-perfect health are still loved and cared for). Hitoshi bakes lots of food and sells it at Shiro’s restaurant, which is also why his presence is appreciated. Musashi tutors online part-time after Mitsuru rigged up wifi for them. Between all three of their jobs they can afford a place that’s small but has four tiny rooms so each person can a private space. (They sleep in the living room that’s been transformed into the group bedroom).

- Mitsuru is considered the local nuisance in so many ways, but after all of his loudspeakers and amplifiers have been confiscated he’s forced to resort back to regular hand-made instruments, so he at least gets to learn something entertaining as he irritates everyone with his noise-making. He and Momoko live in the same house but there’s a line drawn on the inside and outside that splits the house in half so everyone realizes in all of ten seconds they’re not actually together together, just saving on rent as long-term friends. Momoko works on managing the more official stuff to keep the town from being erased. She’s the unofficial (until the next election of course) mayor of the town at this point. Mitsuru’s day job is rigging up stuff like wifi and helping Hajime with his shop class at the high school.

- Shiro moved here after hearing how wonderful the cuisine is. He approves of being able to gather fresh ingredients on the mountain. Rock is frequently seen at his restaurant, both as a customer and as a worker. Hitoshi was recruited within a week. (Hajime has some mixed feelings but Rock mostly stops acting like an idiot after the first day, so it works out well)

- Inori and Ruka moved here years ago (and dragged the Daisen brothers with them) and are pretty much the only residents who were here before everyone started moving out and the buildings moved in. They’re the only ones initially who know the story behind the hauntings and never shared it out of indifference. Inori works in construction of new buildings/clearing rubble from the old, the Daisen trio help train the different sports teams at the school, and Ruka technically co-owns the makeup business with Kiji but his preferred job is as an unofficial swimming instructor because the two of them don’t get along.

- Samon and Enki bring the village supplies and materials from the mountain and trade this way. Samon has a notable weakness for ice pops, popsicles, and zakuro shaved ice, which he gets to surprise Enki on days it seems like he might want it. The new residents are all pleasantly surprised by how sweet Noriko is. Shiro offers her a job after trying some of her desserts. She bakes on weekends and holidays only to avoid overexerting herself, but the rest of the time her jobs include checking people in, taking orders to Shiro and Rock, and keeping peace if someone starts arguments. Houzuki is the area acupuncture specialist and medic until the Otogi family moves in, but he switches to full time acupuncture and massage therapy after they take up the practice. (they’re better than him at medicine anyways and he’s ok with admitting it).

- Liang and Upa love training on the mountain. Rock joins them frequently, often chatting with Liang as they race up. Qi is marginally less interested in physical activity, but he’s willing to make the hike up with them because of the amazing plant both during the hike and at the arrival itself. In the long run, doing some exercise in this form helps him with his mental health a lot and makes him happier. Tsukumo joins occasionally and talking to Qi helps him gradually come out of his shell.

- Trois takes to the challenge of trying to be constructive in building things instead of weapons and explosives. The downside is he frequently teams up with Mitsuru (who has the most equipment necessary) and therefore there are unique ways of getting around the idea of non-destructive inventions. Honey figures out ways to get Mitsuru his speakers back on the condition that he can use the wiring for his capsules.

- Nico ends up really sad about the lack of wifi so he tries to work with Mitsuru to improve tech, but he’s got a hard time reading the manuals so now Musashi, accompanied by either Uno or Trois depending on the day, can be seen teaching Nico how to read instruction manuals.

- Yamato is still very proud of his Japanese heritage, but he also frequently encourages others to appreciate the culture they live in and the culture they came from. Thanks to him, there’s a small festival hosted each year where everyone brings something like food or games or clothing from their culture and share it with everyone.

- Kiji takes it as a personal challenge to help teach normal world culture to at least one of the Gokuu brothers. Enki is far less willing to go along with the idea that he needs help from someone, so it’s Samon. Inori, who had a similar idea for the last eleven years, is currently trying to teach Samon how to drive. It’s yielding mixed results, but he takes really well to motorbikes. Hajme and Samon have a brief ceasefire whenever the subject of motorcycles comes up.

- No one is allowed to bring up the time that Hajime got lost in the mountain. No  one.

- Kuu comes and goes as he pleases. Mostly he stays at Hajime’s house but sometimes he’ll somehow appear wherever Samon Enki and Noriko are presently staying and lies down in the lap of whoever is trying to meditate. Enki tries to ignore Kuu (and fails), Samon will give him small scritches and complain about Hajime in a quiet tone, and Noriko feeds and pets him.

- In their spare time, many of the adults critique the prison systems they rescued the others from. Kiji, Hajime, and Kenshirou work with Enki to fix things on a bureactraic level, frequently accompanied by Momoko when she isn’t a sole representative in front of various international governments. Hajime knows the prison model perfectly, Kenshirou understands the police aspect that ties into it, and Kiji has several decades of experience serving as a prison guard, and their combined knowledge leads to many of their proposals being pushed pretty far up the ranks. 

- Samon is working on fixing prisons on the level of how each inmate is treated. All the official and formal changes in the world don’t change that there’s also issues with inmates not receiving care, sufficient entertainment, decent things for purchase and not just whether or not they can afford them, all sorts of stuff that slips past the cracks in the paperwork. He’s also the one who’s pushing for  more rehabilitation programs with Kiji and Mitsuru’s help. Between Samon’s knowledge of physical needs of people, Kiji’s balanced addition of general knowledge of what kind of education and paperwork prisoners need for proper rehabilitation to stick, and Mitsuru’s experience in communication, they have a very solid structure. Mitsuru’s ability to middleman and talk to Momoko also helps push their ideas forward.

- Slowly the buildings become more friendly towards one another. Upa smiles more because Nico helped him get out of his shell, there is a photo of Tsukumo laughing as himself for the first time hanging on the wall of Shiro’s restaurant, and Kenshirou’s dogs all adopted different humans to befriend and bond with. Qi gradually gets over his fear of dogs thanks to Musashi and ends up adopting one who works as a service dog for him and keeps him away from panic attacks and self-harming attempts, as well as (gradually) learning how to tell what kind of health Upa and Liang are presently in and alerting the doctor if necessary.

- The time-honored tradition of feuds between the different non-inmates and adults in charge of them continues, but they added in some new competitions. There are now options for multi-building tug-of-war, kids vs adults (and variations) relays, one v one competitions, and general tomfuckery. Most of the time Momoko is the referee, Mitsuru commentates, and although they rarely join in, they tend to tag-team and secure a near-effortless victory. If it’s every person for themselves, Momoko wins unless distracted by Hajime, at which point the rule of funny is frequently used to determine a victor.

[niqhtlord01]

Rooster Teeth Mortal Kombat Championship Part 8!  It seems that the constant fighting is starting to get to the teams. Red team is actively trying to kill each other, ruby and weiss are upset they haven’t gotten more matches, and Cammie’s having the time of her life recording it for the ether.  Lopez: *Walks in attaching his head to his body* Rufus: Whoever put you together must have been a true genius. Lopez: *In Spanish* He was a madman who was barely able to read the instruction manual.  Rufus: *pushes glasses up bridge of nose, Caliban steps in next to him* *In spanish* And what makes you think I’m anything less?  Weiss: *Falls from the sky jumping off her magic circles before landing* Kazu: Great, it’s the magic girl.  Weiss: Why does everyone keep calling it magic!?  Kazu: *cracks knuckles* Yes, because making giant ice spears out of thin air is so normal.   Church: *Looking down sights of sniper rifle* Ironwood: You would be wise to listen to your superiors and stand down.  Church: I’ve tried being a blind loyal soldier before.....never again.  Ironwood:  *Looks, then nods* A poor superior is one who not only wastes their soldiers, but betrays them. You have my sympathies.  Caboose: *Enters and puts a flower in his gun barrel* Tyrian: You must be a truly special fool to face me.  Caboose: No, I’m Caboose. It says so on the inside of my helmet.  Tyrian: *Removes jacket, wrist axes open* When I detach your head I’ll have a look for myself.  Ruby: * Whirlwinds in with raining rose petals* Yasamin: What kind of monster trains children to fight? Ruby: The kind who knows that there are monsters worth fighting.  Yasamin:  *Takes fighting stance* When a life of fighting is all you’ve known you will find it hard to find a life of any other.  Nemesis: *Nanotech cloud appears and forms Nemesis* Tucker: What the hell are you supposed to be?   Nemesis: Who would you like it to be?  Tucker: *Draws energy sword* I’ve seen enough horror movies to know where this is going.  Yang: *Drives in on motorcycle before flipping off and landing* Julian: Nice moves kid.  Yang: Thanks, though it feels weird to get a compliment these days without sarcasm.  Julian: *Hologram flickers*  Ya give respect where respect is due in my book.  Rufus: *Walks in handing data slates to Caliban to hold* Jaune: I heard what you did to Julian.  Rufus: Yes, saving his life was quite the “hail merry” as they say.  Jaune: *Pulls sword from shield* I’m tired of people playing with peoples lives as if they’re chess pieces.  Adam: *Lands on the ground, rolls, then draws sword* Sheila: Would you kindly stand still for a few moments.  Adam: Why, so I could give you an easier target?  Sheila: *slowly moves forward while aiming cannon*  Oh no, I just enjoy feeling the blood of my enemies greasing my treads.  Cammie: *Nugget running out, Cammie behind it to scoop it up* Ruby: What do you know about my snack war with Caboose? Cammie: Not really a war anymore since I ate the last of the cookies before the match. Caboose: *From the crowd* Destroy her!  Blake: *Swings in through window and rolls on to the floor* Caboose: Oh yes it’s the cat lady! Can I pet you?  Blake: No. No you may not.  Caboose: *Pulls out Freckles* Yeah, I was more of a dog person anyway.  Kaikaina: *Kicks over stacked crates, before tripping and falling on face* US: I hear you’re the one that likes hitting on people.  Kaikaina: Yeah, but I’m way out of your league.  US:  *Coin flips into air and transforms into nanotech*  Please lady. Your league is the size of a soft ball field.  Ruby: * Whirlwinds in with raining rose petals* Caboose: Have I introduced you to Freckles yet? *Hefts Freckles for ruby to see* He’s my talking gun friend.  Ruby: Why does everyone have a weapon that talks but me now?!? Freckles: *Gun light flashing* Because you did not share the cookies.  Caboose: Thank you Freckles! You always know the best words!  Adam: *Lands on the ground, rolls, then draws sword* Valentina: So you are the one who Cammie hates.  Adam: What is it with everyone defending that hideous human?  Valentina: *Pulls out knives*  Have you seen her? She’s adorable.  Yang: *Drives in on motorcycle before flipping off and landing* Tucker: So you and Ruby are sisters?  Yang: Yeah. Is that so hard to believe? Tucker: *Pulls out energy sword*  She’s like a dandelion and you’re like a bush of thorns, so yes.  Tex: *Smashes wall with bare hands, then walks in* Qrow: I’d say you were my sister, but she’d have already tried to kill me by now.  Tex: Whose to say I’m not getting warmed up?  Qrow: *Pulls out sword, switches to scythe mode*  Right, now I’m vaguely thinking we’re related.  Church: *Looking down sights of sniper rifle* Yasamin: How have you survived so long with a team like yours? Church: Survived? Lady, I’ve lost count of how many times my own team has killed me.  Yasamin: *Takes fighting stance*  I now have several questions that I’m uncomfortable to know the answers to.  Valentina: *Removes camouflage cloak* Roman: Well hello my fine friend. After the match want to come back to my place? Valentina: We’ve just met, are about to fight in brutal combat, and you’re already trying to get me in bed?  Roman: *Points cane with gun cap opening* In my line of work you tend to skip a base or two and go straight for a home run. 

[welcometothepenumbra]

JUNO STEEL AND THE FINAL RESTING PLACE

SOUND: DOOR OPENS, BELL RINGS, RAIN.

MUSIC: STARTS.

CONCIERGE: Good evening, Traveler. Welcome to The Penumbra.

SOUND: KEYS JINGLING.

These may be Detective Steel’s final moments, dear Traveler. Trapped miles underground and abandoned by the thief who promised to save him, only Miasma decides whether Detective Steel lives, or dies.

He’s in there now, Traveler. If we step in, we may lose the old Juno Steel forever. There is still time, of course: time to turn back, time to allow Detective Steel to forever remain as we remember him. And if you wish to turn back, dear Traveler, now is your chance.

Very well, then.

SOUND: THREE KNOCKS. SILENCE.

Come, Traveler. Come with me into room J-18.

SOUND: DOOR CREAKING OPEN.

Juno Steel and the Final Resting Place.

ALL SOUNDS: FADE OUT.

***

SOUND: FOOTSTEPS. GATE OPENS.

MIASMA: Juno Steel. I’m afraid your time has come at last.

JUNO: Diving into another mind this early? Should’ve given me some warning – I would have brought my swim trunks.

MIASMA: That won’t be necessary. I’ve found a way to manage the end of this process without you.

MUSIC: STARTS.

JUNO: Hey, hey, w-what are you—

MIASMA: Assistant. Kill him.

JUNO (NARRATOR): It’s been coming down to this for days. A dark cell, in a Martian tomb, two masked assistants crowding me on either side. Miasma standing in the doorway, looking at me with all the interest she’d give an old chair she’s been meaning to throw out for weeks. My name’s Juno Steel, and this is probably where I die.

MUSIC: STOPS.

JUNO: Whoa, whoa, aren’t you putting the cart before the booster here a little bit? How are you gonna gloat if I’m dead?

MIASMA: I don’t need to gloat, Juno Steel. I just need to win.

JUNO: What happened to your plan, the whole—

MIASMA: Assistant, I’ve had enough of this. Kill him, or, give the gun to me and I’ll do it.

JUNO (NARRATOR): One of the assistants places the barrel of a pistol up against my head. Hard.

SOUND: GUN COCKING.

It’s a big barrel for a big, big gun.

MIASMA: That’s more like it. Clean up when you’re done.

JUNO (NARRATOR): The pistol pulls back, just a millimeter. I feel the hand on the other end of it flex.

When Nureyev disappeared, days ago now, he promised me he’d be back before it was too late. Well buddy, clock’s tickin’. Where the hell are ya?

SOUND: TWO BLASTER SHOTS, GRUNT, THUDS.

JUNO: That was cold, killing the two of them so fast.

NUREYEV: Apologies, Juno, but I didn’t think diplomacy would be quick enough for this rescue operation.

SOUND: CLINK.

JUNO (NARRATOR): He pulls off the mask, and there he is: Peter Nureyev, looking like a knight in stolen armor. I don’t want to admit it, but… it’s a weight off, seeing him again.

NUREYEV: If you’d like to swoon and fall into my arms, now would be an excellent time.

JUNO: Don’t get a fat head about it—

NUREYEV: My head is perfectly-sized, and we both know it.

JUNO: Even with Miasma dead, we’re not out of the woods yet. We can’t afford for anyone to raise the alarm before we find the weapon.

NUREYEV: So we have to hide the bodies – yes, yes, help me get them in the cell. You drag the guard, and I’ll take…

JUNO: Nureyev?

NUREYEV: Hmm?

JUNO: Where are the bodies?

NUREYEV: They appear to have… vanished.

JUNO: …That ever happen to you before?

NUREYEV: I’m typically the one disappearing, not the one left behind.

SOUND: HISSING, DISTANT BANGS.

JUNO: The hell was that?

NUREYEV: I have no idea. It could be… this is an ancient tomb deep beneath the surface of the planet. It’s entirely possible that the walls are just… shifting… basic plate tectonics.

JUNO: I might not have done so well in physical science, Nureyev, but I think I’d remember the day the teacher said that the same thing that caused earthquakes also makes corpses disappear.

NUREYEV: Keep your head, Juno. Just because we’ve come up against something unexpected doesn’t mean we should jump to conclusions.

JUNO: Honestly, I would love to, but I can’t think of a single goddamn conclusion to jump to.

SOUND: DISTANT METAL CLANGING, HISSING.

Actually, scratch that. I got a conclusion for you: I don’t like this. I don’t like this at all.

NUREYEV: Well, dislike it while we walk, at least. We have quite a way to go.

JUNO (NARRATOR): We make our way down the hall; I just wanna get the hell out of there and see the sun again, but there’s something big we have to do first and we both know it.

NUREYEV: Before I came to collect you I did a bit of poking around throughout this base. It sounds like the Martian weapon is being kept in a huge storage and records chamber at the end of this hall.

SOUND: FOOTSTEPS.

JUNO (NARRATOR): So we keep going deeper and deeper down that twisting hall. Those Martians must have had a hell of a lot of people to bury. There’s always another turn, another door, another staircase up or down…

NUREYEV: The final chamber’s behind those large doors just ahead.

JUNO: Does this place seem sort of… I don’t know, empty to you? We haven’t seen a single assistant.

NUREYEV: I’ve lived through too many rough escapes to turn down a smooth one, Juno. Let’s just assume it will all go swimmingly until it doesn’t, shall we?

SOUND: DISTANT BLASTER SHOTS.

Right on cue. Quickly, behind me.

SOUND: QUICK FOOTSTEPS.

JUNO (NARRATOR): We cram ourselves to one side of the hall and wait, holding our breath. Down the hall, a door opens.

SOUND: DOOR CREAKING OPEN, BLASTER FIRE.

NUREYEV: It’s one of the assistants. Shoot him, Juno!

JUNO: Hang on, he’s…

SOUND: BLASTER SHOT.

He’s not firing at us.

JUNO (NARRATOR): He isn’t. In fact, he’s shooting into the room he just came out of. Backing away, hands shaking. He backs himself across the hall, towards the final chamber where we’re headed.

SOUND: RELEASE OF AIR, MECHANICAL HUM. BLASTER FIRE.

Those double doors open. He falls back into it, and the door slams behind him.

SOUND: HISS OF AIR, MECHANICAL WHIRRING.

NUREYEV: What do you suppose he was firing at?

JUNO: That many blasts with a gun that size… I’m not sure it matters, whatever it was before, it’s probably paste by now.

And if it isn’t… honestly, I’d rather not see it.

NUREYEV: Agreed. I’ll take point in the final chamber and eliminate the assistant while you barricade the door behind us?

JUNO: Got it.

SOUND: RUNNING FOOTSTEPS. BUZZ, RELEASE OF AIR, MECHANICAL HUM.

Done. You take care of that assistant yet, Nureyev? …Nureyev?

NUREYEV: I would love to, Juno, but he… isn’t here.

JUNO (NARRATOR): I turn to see what Nureyev’s looking at. An assistant’s mask is lying on the floor, but– but there’s nobody around to wear it.

JUNO: He couldn’t have just disappeared, right? This big room, he must be somewhere in here.

NUREYEV: He certainly… could be.

Up on that pedestal, it looks like the case with the Egg of Purus in it. Let’s just take it and leave – quickly.

JUNO (NARRATOR): There’s something about this room I don’t like. Something besides the fact that someone just disappeared in it, I mean.

Miasma was collecting ancient Martian junk for years and whatever she wanted it for was supposed to happen in this room. The gang’s all here: the key, the mask, the throne, the teleporter, and a bunch of other Martian odds and Martian ends that are all raised on a platform in one end of the room. And even higher behind them sits the Martian weapon: the Egg of Purus. The only thing not here is the Saffron pill.

Well… it was the only thing not here. Until I showed up.

SOUND: CLICK, SCRAPING.

NUREYEV: (STRAINED) The damned… egg… won’t move. It must be fastened to the box somehow.

JUNO: Can’t you cut it off or something? I just wanna take the egg and get out of here.

NUREYEV: If you want to play with a knife around a bomb of this power, Juno, I’ll hand you mine. I will ask that you give me one hour and thirty-seven minutes to escape Mars first.

JUNO: How do you know it would take… never mind, of course you do.

Well, there’s gotta be something in this room to help us with this stupid bomb, right? It’s not like she was gonna just let the thing blow up her base.

NUREYEV: Seems as though she’s kept some records down there. Let’s start looking.

JUNO (NARRATOR): I didn’t even notice the records until Nureyev pointed them out.

The room’s packed tight enough to make a sardine feel crowded, arranged with boxes and shelves and bizarre lab equipment. I don’t know what kinds of experiments Miasma was up to in here, but they don’t look like the kind of experiments you walk away from in one piece.

SOUND: PAPER RUSTLING.

NUREYEV: These appear to be Miasma’s translations of ancient Martian texts. If she plans to use that bomb, one of these must have told her how. With any luck, it will tell us how to disarm and detach it as well.

JUNO: Great. So we’re looking for an ancient Martian instruction manual. You know, if she was organized, we’d find it somewhere between the instructions for the ancient Martian egg beater and the ancient Martian blender.

SOUND: DISTANT BANGS, INDISTINCT NOISES.

How about I go check on the barricade.

NUREYEV: I’ll keep reading. Stay within my line of sight.

JUNO (NARRATOR): There are carvings on the walls in this room, too. Pictures and symbols and strange shapes.

SOUND: UNINTELLIGIBLE WHISPERS.

Something about those things always makes me feel like they’re watching me, whispering to one another.

VOICE: (WHISPERING) Juno Steel…

JUNO: What was that?!

NUREYEV: What was what, Juno?

JUNO: I… nevermind. Must be hearing things, or somethin’.

SOUND: FOOTSTEPS.

Barricade’s intact, looks like one of these boxes just hit the ground. Must have been unbalanced or somethin’.

NUREYEV: What’s in it?

JUNO: Must be a hundred boxes just like this one in here. Whatever’s inside must be important.

SOUND: HISS, LATCH UNLOCKING.

Hear that sound? It means they’re freshhhh, uh…

SOUND: RATTLING.

Whatever they are. “Take two daily with ten milligrams of water, wait at least three hours after consumption before attempting… reproductive activities.” Well, that seems kinda personal.

NUREYEV: The door. Is there anything else we can do to secure it?

JUNO: I mean, I could shove an even bigger box in front of it—

NUREYEV: Juno—

JUNO: Kidding. Kidding, there’s a panel right here. I’ll see if I can lock the door.

SOUND: ELECTRONIC BEEPS.

Hey, uh, Nureyev?

NUREYEV: Yes?

JUNO: …This says there are two doors to the room.

NUREYEV: There couldn’t be.

JUNO: There are. It could be a mistake, but… I’m just gonna lock ‘em both.

SOUND: MORE BEEPS.

NUREYEV: That sounds like a very good idea.

SOUND: LOUD SUCTION, CLANK.

COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Airlocks activated.

NUREYEV: That’s… quite a lock. You don’t think this was where—

JUNO: Where Miasma was gonna hide after she set off her bomb? Yeah, I do, actually. I think the box that fell might have been full of of nutrient capsules, long-term bomb shelter food, the kind of stuff they used to hand out during the war.

Set off the bomb, seal the airlock, and live alone in here on nutrient soup while everyone rots on the surface. She was close. But this means the bomb must be dirty, right? It gets in the air or something.

Nureyev? …Nureyev?!

NUREYEV: Hmm? Oh, apologies, Juno. I’ve just found something we might find useful.

JUNO: Just try not to give me a heart attack every time you pick up a good book, alright?

SOUND: FOOTSTEPS.

NUREYEV: I’ll try not to make a habit of it.

JUNO: So. What’d you find?

SOUND: PAPER RUSTLING.

NUREYEV: These appear to be some sort of instructions for activating the weapon, but… they’re only partially translated. “Press our hand upon our Purus Egg,” something something, “watch the numbers as they fall,” and then “our planet will be clean again.”

JUNO: Then what?

NUREYEV: I thought that was rather a lot.

JUNO: Well, that didn’t tell us a damn thing. Keep looking.

NUREYEV: Of course it did. It told us the Purus Egg has a timer before it detonates: “Watch the numbers as they fall.” And it told us how to activate the egg, too—

JUNO: Yeah, I got that, but it was wrong, Nureyev; it said you just have to touch it to start the timer, and you already did that on the train.

NUREYEV: That is true. But… it doesn’t say ‘a’ hand. It says ‘our’ hand.

JUNO: Yeah, but that thing says ‘our’ everything: our hand, our egg. Martians probably would have called it ‘our Earth’, too, if there weren’t a bunch of monkeys already running the place.

NUREYEV: This predates apes by about ten million years, Juno.

JUNO: Cave-monkeys, then.

NUREYEV: But perhaps – is it possible that the ‘our’ is intended literally? Only a Martian hand can activate the bomb.

JUNO: Well, how do we deactivate it, then?

NUREYEV: …This doesn’t say.

JUNO: Figures.

So… what do we do if it turns out you can’t deactivate the thing?

NUREYEV: Don’t be ridiculous. There must be a way to deactivate it – you don’t just build a weapon that goes off if you graze it and forget to add an off switch.

JUNO: Unless there’s no reason to have an off switch.

Unless you’ve weighed all the options ahead of time… decided it’s better if there’s no turning—

SOUND: BEEP, HISS OF AIR, MECHANICAL HUM.

COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Airlocks deactivated.

NUREYEV: What in the world?

JUNO: The lock system must be faulty, I’ll go take care of—

SOUND: BOOM, LOW RUMBLING.

JUNO: Dammit, what now?

COMPUTERIZED VOICE: The platform is now rising.

NUREYEV: The weapon, Juno!

JUNO: And that’s… it can’t be…

NUREYEV: Miasma.

JUNO (NARRATOR): It can’t be Miasma. I’d watched Nureyev shoot her, I’d heard her hit the floor and smelled that dead body smell that you can never quite pin and never, ever get used to. It can’t be her… but it is. Standing on that pedestal, her hands closing around the Egg of Purus. I don’t have time to think, so I don’t.

SOUND: BLASTER SHOT, THUMP.

NUREYEV: That was quite a shot.

JUNO: Compliment me later. That pedestal is still rising, and I don’t wanna know why. I’ll go check on the bomb, you head back to the console by the door and stop the pedestal.

NUREYEV: Alright.

SOUND: QUICK FOOTSTEPS.

JUNO (NARRATOR): I hoist myself up onto the pedestal and check the bomb. Symbols glow through the sides of the egg, and though I can’t read them, I can guess what they mean.

JUNO: Nureyev! Miasma started the damn bomb!

NUREYEV: (DISTANT) How much time do we have?

JUNO: I don’t know – the egg says ‘elephant’s foot, sideways W halfway into a gumbo.’

SOUND: ELECTRONIC BEEPS, DULL BOOM.

COMPUTERIZED VOICE: The platform has stopped rising.

JUNO: Thanks.

NUREYEV: Check on Miasma. If your laser didn’t kill her, we might be able to get some information out of her.

JUNO On it.

JUNO (NARRATOR): I see where the platform’s been heading: a circular airlock in the ceiling, leading to a long, dark tunnel above. That probably goes all the way up to the surface. We came too close all over again.

There’s one thing I don’t see, though.

JUNO: Nureyev? I’ve looked all around this thing, but I… can’t find Miasma… Nureyev?

SOUND: LOW RUMBLING, GEARS TURNING.

COMPUTERIZED VOICE: The platform is now rising.

SOUND: FOOTSTEPS.

NUREYEV: (CHOKING)

MIASMA: Juno Steel.

SOUND: WEAK THUMPS.

MUSIC: STARTS.

Just in time to watch me kill your… Peter Nureyev.

JUNO (NARRATOR): Miasma. She’s sitting on Nureyev’s chest, her fingers tightening around his throat. She shouldn’t be able to hold him like that! She’s small, and old, and I’ve seen Nureyev escape from too many things to believe he could be caught by her. But Nureyev’s pinned. He looks beaten.

JUNO: Get off of him, Miasma.

MIASMA: Or what will you do, Juno Steel? Kill me? Again?

SOUND: THUMPS.

JUNO (NARRATOR): It’s just a hunch, but in a line of work like mine, you live and die on your hunches. Then you cross your fingers, and hope nobody else has to die on ‘em.

At the last second, I turn my gun away from her head and aim at her arms.

SOUND: TWO BLASTER SHOTS.

MIASMA: (GRUNTS)

NUREYEV: (GASPING)

SOUND: RUSTLING.

MIASMA: Very good, Juno Steel. I imagine you must have been a very good investigator… before you came up against me.

SOUND: SQUELCHES.

JUNO (NARRATOR): Her arms are still moving. They’re flopping around on the floor like dusty old eels. And she’s standing now, her arms ending a quarter of the way down. And her face… there’s always been something wrong with her face. Something that turns your stomach. Like a mirror halfway to funhouse. Wrong, but not wrong enough to register.

But now… now it’s like her skin was just a paper-thin membrane, floating on something… liquid. Rippling. One of her arms reforms, and then the other. And—

SOUND: SQUISHY, ZIPPING NOISES.

MIASMA & JUNO (NARRATOR): (IN UNISON) —these ones she doesn’t bother to cover.

JUNO: What the hell?!

MIASMA: Don’t look so surprised, Juno Steel. I told you I always get what I want.

JUNO (NARRATOR): Her hateful little eyes are pointed straight at me, bobbing on that waterbed face of hers. Looking at her makes me feel like my stomach is learning a new dance step but it’s worth it, because behind her, perfectly silently, Nureyev’s on his feet, headed for the panel by the door. Just a minute. I just need to stall for a minute.

JUNO: You want this? Seriously?

MIASMA: I have worked tirelessly to get what I want. I wanted the mask, so I took it. I wanted the teleporter, so I made it. I wanted the growth inside you, so I created it for myself. You have no right to stand in the way of what I’ve worked for, Juno Steel. What I’m owed.

JUNO: And… what do you want, Miasma?

JUNO (NARRATOR): Nureyev’s halfway to the door before Miasma catches him. Her arm cracks across the room like a bullwhip, but this time, he has his knife ready.

MIASMA: Back away from the panel, thief!

SOUND: BLADE SWINGS, WHIP CRACKS. SQUELCH. GRUNTS.

NUREYEV: Juno! Cover me!

SOUND: BLASTER SHOTS.

MIASMA: Attack me as much as you like. You’ll tire eventually, and I won’t. I always get what I want.

SOUND: SQUISHY, WET THUMPS. BLASTER FIRE.

JUNO (NARRATOR): Her arms keep lashing out after him. I keep shooting, and they keep coming, and– and then they aren’t her arms anymore. They’re just lashing out from every part of her, like she’s a thing without an outline—

SOUND: WHIP CRACKS.

—constantly spilling into weird, impossible shapes. And then she’s beside him again, and I don’t know how she got there. Just looking at her makes my head feel like it’s—

MIASMA & JUNO (NARRATOR): (IN UNISON) —going to split in two.

SOUND: WET THUD, SQUELCHES.

NUREYEV: (GRUNTING)

MIASMA: You can delay me all you like, but I always get what I want. Always.

SOUND: WHIP CRACKS. BLADE SWISHES. SQUISHY THUMPS. GRUNTS.

NUREYEV: Juno, the Purus Egg! Go deal with the egg!

JUNO (NARRATOR): The weapon. The pedestal’s high now, but I should be able to jump to it.

What the hell am I supposed to do when I get up there, though? I can’t disarm the bomb, and even if I can figure that one out, there’s still Miasma to deal with.

MIASMA: And I’m afraid Miasma will not be dealt with so easily.

SOUND: WHIP CRACK.

JUNO: (PAINED GRUNT)

JUNO (NARRATOR): She grabs me by the leg from across the room and pulls.

SOUND: TENTACLE SLAPS.

MIASMA: Come here, Juno Steel.

JUNO: (YELPING)

JUNO (NARRATOR): And she’s dragging me across the floor, that appendage of hers squeezing tighter and tighter, and more of them are coming. And more.

NUREYEV: Very rude of you, Miasma—

SOUND: WHIP CRACK.

—to interrupt me in the middle of our conversation!

SOUND: SQUELCHES. BLADE SLICING, STABBING. WHIP CRACKS.

Why don’t you and I continue this privately?

JUNO (NARRATOR): Nureyev’s hacking through her, shredding her to pieces, working so fast that she has to let go of me and turn back on him. I have to move quick before she starts trying to shred him. He won’t be coming back. I have to stop her, but we’re playing right into her hands.

MIASMA: Oh, what makes you think that, Juno Steel?

JUNO (NARRATOR): I have to stop the weapon. I have no idea how to stop the weapon… but Miasma does. And I can still look into her head. Can’t I?

MIASMA: No. Juno Steel!

NUREYEV: (PANTING) I told you, Miasma. Me. First.

JUNO (NARRATOR): It’s almost easy by now; I close my eyes, I reach out, feel for the cold, steely thing that Miasma has for a mind.

SOUND: STRANGE HUM.

It feels wrong, like I won’t fit, like her thoughts are wiggling and shifting around mine. I reach. The first spikes of pain push into my eye. I reach further, and finally I find the opening.

I pull.

SOUND: HUM & STATIC GETS LOUDER, THEN FADES OUT.

MIASMA: (DISTANT) Ancient Martians created the only society on record in which all citizens were completely equal. For them, there was no all. Only part…

JUNO (NARRATOR): A conference hall. Miasma’s standing before a near empty audience, her papers lined up in front of her.

I don’t have time for this! I keep pushing. Flipping deeper, deeper, moment after moment. A childhood trip to the park. A girl with her favorite book, reading beneath a shady tree. I keep looking. Birthday presents as big as your head, but… it’s just a lot of nothing.

You know how much of life is just nothing? Just the quiet moments of killing time between big things? You can’t get from ceremony to ceremony or murder to murder without all these times between where you fall asleep on the couch, eat soup for dinner—

MIASMA: (DISTANT) Assistant! Get back in there, you useless – if I have to tell you one more time! Do it properly!

SOUND: KEYBOARD CLICKING.

JUNO (NARRATOR): —write your papers, eat soup for dinner, yell at your employees, think about cleaning the house, eat soup for dinner, eat soup… for dinner. Wow, Miasma ate a lot of soup.

SOUND: SLURP.

But there’s no time! I need to defuse the bomb. So I keep pushing. Even if the pain in my eye is growing, even if it feels like the needles in my eye are taking root and spreading.

SOUND: ELECTRONIC BEEPS. LIQUID BUBBLING.

I see her gathering everything she needs down here. I feel how happy the thought of a clean, lonely planet makes her. No other voices – just quiet and thought.

MIASMA: (DISTANT) Yes… yes…

JUNO (NARRATOR): I am so close, I’m almost there. I can feel it. The bomb – how the hell do I defuse the bomb?

SOUND: LOW VIBRATION.

MIASMA: The Egg of Purus – using the teleportation technology – I’ll extract the traces of DNA – trapped in the folds of the Mask of Grimpotheuthis – the Throne of Architeuthis – and the Vampiris Key – my splicing technology will take care of the rest – a society of one, replicated one billion times – but the only one is me. And then, the Egg of Purus will be under my control. Unless…

JUNO (NARRATOR): So. Close.

MIASMA: The Egg of Purus… if I were to change my mind, all I would have to do is…

JUNO (NARRATOR): Damn you, just say it!

MIASMA: Oh, Juno Steel. You didn’t really think it would be that easy, did you?

SOUND: RUSHING STATIC. CRACKLING.

JUNO: (YELLS)

MIASMA: Welcome back, Juno Steel. Did you find what you were looking for?

JUNO (NARRATOR): I try to reach for her again – to read her mind, but I can’t. That part of me is just… gone.

JUNO: (YELLS LOUDER, GASPING)

JUNO (NARRATOR): Ow, my head, my eye… no, no – focus, Steel, focus. She has Nureyev against the wall now. He’s still fighting, but he doesn’t look like he has much fight left in him.

I can’t tell why, but the room looks off. Like someone’s tilted it since I left.

I take a shot.

SOUND: BLASTER SHOT, CLINK.

It goes wide. Real wide.

I feel something on my face and without thinking, bring my hand up to it. The hand comes away dripping and red, and I can’t see it until it’s a few inches away from my face.

What did I do? What the hell did I do to myself?

NUREYEV: (PANTING) Juno! Have you figured out how to stop the bomb yet?

SOUND: DISTANT WHIPPING, SQUISHING, STABBING.

JUNO (NARRATOR): As soon as he says that, I have it. I don’t even need to dive into Miasma’s head to figure it out. And the beautiful thing is it’ll take care of Miasma, too, all in one moment.

NUREYEV: Juno – quickly!

JUNO: I’ve got it! Just… hold on for one second!

JUNO (NARRATOR): I go to take another shot and think better of it. I’ll miss again, and I can’t risk hitting Nureyev. When I get close, though, close enough that I have to hit something, I lay into her.

SOUND: BLASTER FIRE.

MIASMA: Shoot as much as you’d like, Juno Steel. I have plenty of time.

NUREYEV: Glad you made it, Ju—

Juno… your eye…!

JUNO: Yeah, it’s beautiful in the moonlight, I know. Mind if we deal with this business right now?

SOUND: BLASTER FIRE. SQUELCHES. BLADE SLICING.

MIASMA: You can’t… hold me back… forever.

JUNO: Yeah, maybe not, but we can hold you back long enough. Nureyev, this way.

SOUND: FOOTSTEPS.

JUNO (NARRATOR): We back up to the door, step by step. We work well together, Nureyev and I. We’re holding her back, and she doesn’t like it. My back hits the wall.

SOUND: ELECTRONIC BEEPS.

I reach for the panel with my free hand.

SOUND: BOOM, MECHANICAL WHIRR.

COMPUTERIZED VOICE: The platform has stopped rising.

NUREYEV: Juno! What are you—

SOUND: WHIP CRACKS.

You’re going to set off the bomb in here.

JUNO: Guns and knives might not work, but we know one thing that can kill a Martian, don’t we?

MIASMA: Don’t be absurd.

SOUND: BLASTER FIRE. WHIP CRACKS.

JUNO: Just gotta make sure we’re not collateral here. Head out the door and I’ll cover you.

NUREYEV: Juno—

JUNO: Now!

NUREYEV: Alright. I’ll see you there, Juno.

MIASMA: Get back here!

SOUND: BLASTER FIRE.

JUNO: Hands off, Miasma!

NUREYEV: Juno, now! While she’s regenerating, you—

SOUND: ELECTRONIC BEEPS. WHIP CRACK. MECHANICAL WHIRR, LOUD SUCTION, CLANK.

MIASMA: No!

COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Airlocks activated.

MIASMA: You idiot!

SOUND: BLASTER SHOTS. DULL POUNDING.

NUREYEV: (THROUGH THE DOOR) Juno! Juno, what are you doing?!

JUNO: This is the way it’s gotta be, Nureyev.

SOUND: SQUELCHES. BLASTER FIRE. WHIP CRACKS.

NUREYEV: (THROUGH THE DOOR) No, it isn’t. You self-aggrandizing—

JUNO: If I head out there with you, there’s nobody to stop her from getting to that panel, and sealing herself in here and sending that bomb up to the surface where it’ll make Mars a wasteland all over again.

NUREYEV: (THROUGH THE DOOR) You don’t have to do this alone, you idiot!

MIASMA: (GROWLS)

SOUND: BLASTER SHOTS. WHIP CRACKS.

JUNO: And add you onto the bill? I don’t think so. Just think of me as the price tag, Nureyev. The cost of a fresh shot at the world.

NUREYEV: (THROUGH THE DOOR) Open this door! Open it now!

SOUND: BANGING.

JUNO: It’s too late for that. I can’t read the numbers on the bomb, but I can see that they just dropped a digit. We’re next door to the end, Nureyev.

MUSIC: STARTS.

Smile for the camera.

MIASMA: I’ll kill you! I’ll kill—

SOUND: BLASTER SHOT. CHOKING SOUNDS.

JUNO: Hey, we got a quiet minute while her face is rebuilding itself.

Mind if I let you in on a little secret, Nureyev?

NUREYEV: (THROUGH THE DOOR) You idiot. Juno, you idiot.

JUNO: You’re the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me. (CHUCKLES BREATHLESSLY) Wow, that’s a load off. And it’s true! You make me feel like… maybe it’s all worth it. Like maybe there’s something out there worth seeing.

NUREYEV: (THROUGH THE DOOR) Of course there is. But you need to be alive to see it.

JUNO: Ever since that night I tried to turn you in, I’ve been thinkin’ about that – the adventures we were talkin’ about, the bouncing from star to star? Leaving this dump behind and seeing what the galaxy’s got to offer.

MIASMA: (YELLS)

SOUND: BLASTER SHOT. SQUELCH.

JUNO: I wish we got the chance to do that, Nureyev. If I’ve got one regret, it’s that.

NUREYEV: (THROUGH THE DOOR) Juno…

JUNO: It’s been nice knowing you, Nureyev. (SIGHS) It’s been a gift I… don’t deserve.

NUREYEV: (THROUGH THE DOOR) Open this door. Juno! Juno!

SOUND: BANGING, POUNDING.

MUSIC: ENDS.

JUNO: Alright, Miasma. You were tryin’ to say something to me?

MIASMA: Juno Steel. What have you done?

JUNO: Something I don’t think anyone’s ever done to you. You wanted something. I said no.

MIASMA: That bomb won’t just kill you. It will tear you to pieces. Do you know why hardly a shred of Martian matter was left after their extinction? What’s inside that bomb… it chews through you, devours you. You’ll feel it in your every cell.

JUNO: Hey, I’ll try anything once.

SOUND: WHIP CRACK. BLASTER SHOT.

JUNO: If you’re so scared of it, why not disarm it?

MIASMA: It can’t be disarmed, you idiot. It is the final weapon, the punctuation mark on life! (GROWLS)

SOUND: WHIP CRACKS. TWO QUICK BLASTER SHOTS.

Open that door, or we’ll die in here. We have seconds, you fool!

JUNO: And if you really wanna torture me, Miasma, you’ll spend them talking my ear off.

JUNO (NARRATOR): The numbers tick down. A digit drops.

SOUND: WHIP CRACKS, BLASTER FIRE.

I miss more shots than I should, but at this range, I can get her at least, keep her thousand cold appendages from the panel.

MIASMA: (GROWLING)

JUNO (NARRATOR): I’m tired… I hurt… and the numbers tick down. And I just have to hold out a little longer until I can rest—

MIASMA: You can’t take this away from me! You can’t, you can’t, you can’t, you can’t, you can’t!

JUNO (NARRATOR) And then… the numbers stop.

MIASMA: No! I can’t die! I’ll never die!

JUNO (NARRATOR): A crack shines in the side of the egg, then another. And another. And then… it hatches.

SOUND: ELECTRONIC BEEPS, RISING IN PITCH.

MIASMA: (SCREAMS)

SOUND: SCREECHING METAL, WIND, STATIC GETS LOUDER, THEN FADES OUT.

NUREYEV: (THROUGH THE DOOR) Juno? Juno, you impossible idiot, answer me! Answer me please!

SOUND: DULL POUNDING.

Juno! Juno, no, no, no…

SOUND: ELECTRONIC BEEPS, HISS OF AIR, MECHANICAL WHIRR.

COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Airlocks deactivated.

SOUND: FOOTSTEPS.

NUREYEV: Juno… you’re… alive! How could you be?

The egg. It looks just like it did before. It must not have gone off, is that it? After all these aeons, it didn’t even work! (LAUGHS) …Where’s Miasma?

JUNO: The weapon went off. Miasma’s dead. Every shred of her… gone.

NUREYEV: But… how?

JUNO: I was just wondering the same thing. (CHUCKLES) But you know, it make sense when you think about it.

NUREYEV: D-does it?

JUNO: It’s simple, Nureyev. You just gotta think like a Martian – all that stuff in those writings, right, all that stuff Miasma was after to clean Mars, to make it pure again. That’s what the Martians wanted, right?

NUREYEV: Yes, I suppose—

JUNO: But clean what, is the question.

The Martians were all the same, they bred by splitting so they had the same DNA. They could read each other’s thoughts! If their bodies were the same, their minds were the same, there’s no difference, one to the other.

NUREYEV: Juno, I don’t think—

JUNO: We’ve been looking at this all wrong, Nureyev! The weapon wasn’t a mistake, it wasn’t a product of a war or an experiment gone wrong. It wasn’t a Martian genocide. It was a Martian suicide. They thought it through and they put the pieces together and at the end of the day, they figured Mars was better off without them.

NUREYEV: You don’t know any of that for sure.

JUNO: Miasma’s gone. I’m not. The weapon scrubs Martians clean down to the last cell and doesn’t touch another thing. You have any better theories?

NUREYEV: Only that it doesn’t matter anymore. The Martians are dead, the last of them gone. Their choices have been made and buried in this tomb. You and I, Juno, we’re alive. And free to make whatever choices we please… and I can think of one I’d like to make right now.

SOUND: KISSING.

JUNO: You’re right… they’re gone. They’re all gone.

NUREYEV: What do you say we leave the dead to their rest, Juno? We have some living to do out on the surface, I think.

JUNO: Yeah. The surface. I’d like that, Nureyev… I really would.

ALL SOUNDS: FADE OUT.

***

SOUND: HEAVY RAIN, CARS HONKING. DOOR OPENS.

NUREYEV: This is quite the hotel. I, for one, am looking forward to a good night’s sleep. It’s been weeks.

JUNO: The hotel’s alright.

NUREYEV: Juno… I’m sorry that the doctors couldn’t save your eye.

JUNO: I… got another.

Besides, it’s not like I needed that eye, anyway. I’m sure there are plenty of P.I.s with one eye. P-one-eyes. Hell, I’ll never shoot straight again, but not a big deal – it’s not like sharpshooting was the basis of my entire career or anything, I—

NUREYEV: Juno, Juno. Shh, it’s alright. There are options. You know, you could always look into a cybernetic eye.

JUNO: You think I got that kind of money to kick around? Only people who can afford those things can afford to buy an army to do their shooting for ‘em.

NUREYEV: I do have very wealthy friends, Juno. I could ask around—

JUNO: Let’s just… not talk about it right now, alright?

NUREYEV: Alright. It can wait. Though I can’t say I understand why you insisted we come to a clinic in Hyperion City when Olympus Mons was so much closer.

JUNO: (SIGHS) I… I just wanted to see the place one last time, that’s all.

NUREYEV: I see. I suppose… I don’t have the penchant for nostalgia that you do.

JUNO: It doesn’t do me any good. City’s gonna change whether I’m here or not. This area used to be crammed with apartment buildings – you’d see people walking up and down the street all the time, carrying groceries, and kids hanging on their arms.

NURYEV: I didn’t see any apartment buildings.

JUNO: It wasn’t even that long ago, couple months maybe… city’s gonna change. That’s just how it is.

NUREYEV: Juno?

JUNO: Yeah?

NUREYEV: …Are you certain that you want to leave Mars?

JUNO: Yeah, yeah, ‘course I am. I said that, didn’t I? Back in the tomb, before… the bomb.

NUREYEV: This city… I can tell it’s very valuable to you. Truthfully, I can’t say I know what that feels like. I was so excited to leave Brahma behind. I’ve been so excited to leave behind every planet I’ve seen.

JUNO: All that bad, huh?

NUREYEV: Not at all. They’re beautiful, every one of them. So beautiful that as soon as I land on one, all I can think of is the next, the incredible future ahead…

I’m excited to share that future with you, Juno, but only if it’s the future you want. And, if it isn’t, I’ll leave alone. For good. And that will be that.

So?

JUNO (NARRATOR): Leaving Mars. Forever. That’s what I said I wanted, wasn’t it? Freedom? Adventure across the galaxy. With Peter Nureyev.

NUREYEV: So?

JUNO: I wanna leave. With you.

SOUND: RUSTLING FABRIC.

NUREYEV: And I am so happy to hear you say it, Juno.

SOUND: KISSING.

Are there any last preparations you need before we go?

JUNO: No. In the morning, I’ll call Rita, tell her to close up the office, sell off the junk in my apartment – that should carry her until she can find another job, but… I don’t think I can go back there again.

NUREYEV: I understand. We’re on the edge of a brave new future, Juno. It’s exciting, isn’t it?

JUNO: Yeah… yeah, it is.

NUREYEV: What do you say you and I begin that beautiful future right now?

JUNO: That sounds exciting, too.

SOUND: FABRIC RUSTLING, KISSING.

JUNO (NARRATOR): We spent the night together. It was… nice.

It was like nothing else. Just like Peter Nureyev.

NUREYEV: You know, Juno… call me a fool if you like, but— (YAWNING) I think… I may have… fallen in love with you.

JUNO: I… (LAUGHS) If you’re a fool, that makes two of us.

NUREYEV: (CHUCKLES)

JUNO (NARRATOR): Nureyev falls asleep in minutes. I watch him in the dark for hours. Smell his cologne, see those sharp teeth peek past his lips as he snores. Nureyev sleeps deeply, like someone who knows the tomorrow he’s waking up to will be worth showing up for.

Lying next to him, I feel that way too. And suddenly, desperately, I wanna chase a future of that feeling every single day. With him.

SOUND: FABRIC RUSTLING, CREAKING, FOOTSTEPS. KEYS JINGLING, DOOR OPENS.

NUREYEV: (MURMURING IN SLEEP) Juno…

SOUND: DOOR CLOSES. FOOTSTEPS.

JUNO (NARRATOR): Hyperion City.

MUSIC: STARTS.

It takes a lot of people to fill up a city like this, big and filthy and beautiful. Killer stars and runaway execs and starving kids and bad parents, old friends who made it, old friends who didn’t, smugglers, murderers, mercenaries and mad anthropologists.

Master thieves and private eyes.

You meet enough of those people in my line of work, and you start to notice something: everyone thinks they’ve got the answer, that silver laser that promises they’ll be happy forever. But no one’s ever been happy forever.

All those people chasing after all those promises, running full tilt towards a thousand paradises that never were and never are going to be, Steel, no matter how bad you want it – well, it makes a big mess.

And sometimes, when the whole thing feels like too much, it’s tempting to lie down and let all of the other runners trample you.

(SIGHS) But I can’t.

SOUND: KEYS JINGLING, DOOR OPENS.

So instead, I take my lumps. The world gets a little bigger, a little meaner. Maybe I did, too.

From my office window, I get a good view of the city: the mansions floating over Uptown, the drunks drifting through the streets, the addicts who’ve turned their skin to pincushions, and the powerful people who profit off every pinprick.

SOUND: GLASS CLINK, LIQUID POURING.

(SIGHS) My name’s Juno Steel. I’m a private eye, and this is my city.

I’m not proud of it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth saving.

And hell, it’s not like I had anywhere better to go.

MUSIC: ENDS.

***

SOUND: RAIN & MUSIC.

CONCIERGE: I’m afraid this concludes season one of The Penumbra Podcast, dear Traveler. But worry not: the travails of our dear detective and his fellow guests will resume in March, and in the meantime, we’ve plenty of surprises planned for you.

Are you concerned you’ll miss us? You can stay up to date with all of our establishment’s plans by liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter @thepenumbrapod, and following us on Tumblr @thepenumbrapodcast. If you check those pages today, Traveler, you’ll find instructions to submit questions for a Q&A with The Penumbra’s co-creators to air next Tuesday, the fifteenth of November. They’re waiting to hear from you.

If our first season of tales has impacted you, we hope you will consider showing your appreciation by supporting The Penumbra on Patreon. For the donation of just a few dollars per episode, you can access our scripts, art raffles by our artist Mikaela Buckley, and other tantalizing rewards. Your support helps ensure that we will be able to keep creating these stories for you in the future. You can find that page at patreon.com/thepenumbrapodcast. If you support us on Patreon at the $10 level or higher, you’ll receive access to commentary tracks like this one from actors Joshua Ilon, Kate Jones, and Noah Simes:

SOUND: DOOR CREAKING OPEN.

NOAH: Right, right.

KATE: Oh, that grumpy Juno. Like, he’s… he’s really struggling, with some—

NOAH: Yeah!

KATE: Dark stuff.

NOAH: Yeah. It’s striking.

JOSHUA: It’s– it’s an interesting peel-away of the curmudgeonly, hard-boiled detective. It’s the—

NOAH: Right.

JOSHUA: The everything that we blindly accept with this genre are real symptoms of a real thing.

SOUND: DOOR CREAKING CLOSED.

CONCIERGE: We would like to give thanks to all who support us on Patreon, but especially to Hannah Tsim, Elizabeth Miller, Angel Acevedo, Eliza Grey, and Sarah Richardson for their incredibly generous contributions per episode. Thank you.

If you cannot afford to support us, we understand – but we hope you will take a moment to rate and review us on iTunes or your podcast service of choice so that we can spread our tales further than ever before.

This tale, Juno Steel and the Final Resting Place, was told by the following people: Joshua Ilon as Juno Steel, Noah Simes as Peter Nureyev, and Kate Jones as Miasma.

On staff at The Penumbra: Kevin Vibert is our lead writer and recording engineer. Sophie Kaner is our director and sound designer. Grahame Turner is our script editor. Original music by Ryan Vibert. Promotional art by Mikaela Buckley.

The Penumbra is created and produced by Sophie Kaner and Kevin Vibert.

We’re sad to see you go, but worry not. The Penumbra will find its way to you again. Farewell, dear Traveler. For now.

ALL SOUNDS: FADE OUT.

[retro-pure-jdonica]

Friend on Friend, at the End of the End

Chapter 2-------------------------

I wake up the next morning to bright sunlight spilling in through my half-closed blinds. I walk over to the window and assume by the busy streets and sun positioning that it was around eight or nine in the morning. Not having fully explored the house I was temporarily assigned to yesterday, I decide to wander around for a bit as I wait for the girls to arrive. Yesterday Heather Chandler mentioned that by today I would be sorted into my guild, so I assumed that meant that they would come get me. If they take too long and I get hungry, I could always find something to write a note on and leave it hanging on the front door if I go back down to Main street to get food.

As I mindlessly wander around the house, looking into small rooms and cabinets, I begin to realize how quickly I had been welcomed into the state. They just let me in; no screening, no waiting, no examination, no nothing. At all of the other states I had encountered, which were numerous by now, there had been some long process where I was kept in cramped living quarters before being allowed to roam. They also typically took my stuff to either search for other weapons or to take away from me for good. Many states just downright rejected me.

They see people like me, the majority of the population, as some form of threat. Since we hop from state to state, they see us as disloyal or barbaric, unable to form bonds. Although, hopping from state to state is what we had to do. Ever since the initial Exposure and the collapse of the US government, no state that I had encountered had stayed stable for more than two years. I guess Politeia really did want to expand and take in more citizens.

My train of thought was soon interrupted by the high pitched sound of a doorbell echoing throughout the large, almost empty house. I saunter from the kitchen towards the small, wooden door. Upon answering the ring, I am unsurprisingly greeted by the three girls I had met yesterday.

“Hello, Veronica, are you ready to pick your job?” Heather Chandler asks me, her familiar cheerful voice raising my spirits.

“Sure,” I reply with a soft smile, stepping out onto the porch and following the three down the street. Now that I wasn’t being bombarded with information like I was yesterday, I take the time to truly examine my surroundings.

At first glance, Politeia looked very similar to many other states I had lived in before, at least before riots when the states were collapsing. Most states were formed a respectable distance from the bomb sites of The Attempted Wipeout, since it would be pointless to try to completely rebuild a city when there were other cities that were still in tact, so only a few of the buildings had major structural defects. No house or building was perfect; many had shattered or missing windows, broken fences surrounding them, or some damage to the roofing, although most of it was cosmetic. Yesterday Heather told me that the damage was catastrophic, but that appeared to be somewhat of an over exaggeration, possibly to make it seem as if the state overall has high standards. As we began to transition from the neighborhoods to Main street, the attempt at complete restoration became much for prominent.

Making glass was still a struggle, so many of the holes where windows once were had metal bars lining in them to prevent thievery. Once we approached the Town Hall building, it was made very obvious that the Town Hall was the focus of the entire subdivision. The clean and smooth exterior walls decorated with landscape and flower paintings and the sturdy wooden doors created a welcoming demeanor, and the charts and documents mounted to the front of the building, informing the common citizens on upcoming events, suggested order and stability; all of these were qualities that other states thrived to possess.

“So, this is our town hall for the northwest subdivision B of Politeia.” Heather Chandler comments as we enter through the large, heavy doors. “If you will follow me, the Occupation Wing is just down this hallway.” She instructs, and I do as told, as the soft muffled sound of our worn out shoes dragging against the cold stone flooring follows us as we walk.

“As we mentioned yesterday, there are six different major guilds as of right now; manual labor, social activities, education, domestic, speciality, and government positions, but as Heather also mentioned you have to be elected into that guild.” Heather Duke reminds me as we enter a large room with intimidatingly high ceilings, filing cabinets and workers at desks lining the barren walls. “Do you have any ideas as to which one you may be interested in, or do you want us to walk you through them a little bit more?”

I take a moment to ponder my options. I almost immediately ruled out manual labor and speciality; I was never very strong nor was I very crafty in the way that would be of value to the state, such as textiles or cooking. Education seemed very intriguing, and I have had past experience in teaching in other states. In fact, at the state I had just left about a week ago, Canora, I was an assistant at a foster home. I wasn’t around long enough to see a single child be adopted, and many of them died or were left behind when the state fell. “Could you tell me a little bit more about the education guild?”

“I think we can let Mac handle that one.” Heather Duke smiles, and I assume that she’s referencing Heather McNamara.

“Yes, I’m Heather McNamara, by the way.” She speaks up for the first time today, beginning to lead me over to a certain area. Leaving the other two behind. “So, with us being the welcoming committee of our subdivision, and rather high up in ranking for the social activities guild to, we all oversee another guild. I oversee education, while Heather Chandler has the domestic guild, also she’s highest ranking in the entire social activities guild for our subdivision,” She adds on once we’re completely out of earshot. “And Heather Duke has speciality. We currently offer free schooling, the older teachers have told me that it’s pretty much like what the term public schooling referred to back before The Exposure, for children aged four to twelve. We mainly focus on history, reading, and some theories and practices of survival. Do you have any past experience with education?”

“Not particularly education, but I have worked in foster care before.” I inform her as we approach a large filing cabinet and bookshelf under a hanging sign that read “education”.

“That’s great, but, if you don’t mind me speaking up, may I make a suggestion?” Heater asks kindly, a well-known caution in her voice.

“Of course.”

“I know that I don’t know you too well, but based off of how you present yourself, and the fact that I’ve already taken on somewhat of a liking for you, may I suggest looking into the social activities guild? You have a kind face and a very welcoming demeanor, and we’ve actually been looking for a fourth member of our welcoming committee. So, people just starting in the social activities guild typically have to take a few days of training first, but if it’s alright with you I could go ask Heather Chandler if she thinks you would be fit for the committee, and if she does you could just shadow us today and be on the job by tomorrow.” Heather explains to me, an offer which I am quick to jump on. This is my first official day here and I’m already offered a job rather high up the food chain that typically requires training, which is an absurdly generous offer.

“That sounds wonderful.” I smile, a small laugh trailing through my words.

“Great. I’ll go talk to Heather, but we will have to sort out some paperwork and right a statement saying that you will have an immediate jump up without the prerequisites, but it shouldn’t take any more than an hour. Also, I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, but after we dropped you off near your house yesterday the group discussed you a little bit and the other two seemed to really like you too, so your chance of acceptance is rather high.” She informs me, raising my hopes and getting me more excited by the second.

“Thank you so much for this, all of it.” I praise her once again, not even knowing how to respond to such a kind act.

“Of course, and while you’re waiting maybe you could have a walk around town, get to know the surroundings better.” Heather suggests and I nod along before leaving the town hall building whilst the others discuss my future. I take Heather’s suggestion to heart and decide to spend my time trailing around town, but staying close enough so that I’m easy to find once they decide if I’ll be accepted or not.

For being in such close proximity to a bomb drop spot during The Attempted Wipeout, Politeia sure was in good condition. Many windows of buildings were still in tact, you could see clear spots on buildings where they were patched up, and the streets themselves were kept clean. There were a multitude of trees sprouting up in empty grassy areas, but despite the chilly autumn wind there weren’t any dead leaves in the streets. At the cross section of Main street and Chrysanthemum, the street which the many neighborhoods fell on, there was a small park where a few children were at play, accompanied by their parents. There was only a single metal slide, but plenty of open land for exploration. As I begin to walk back down Chrysanthemum to examine the other neighborhoods, I notice a turn onto another street in the distance. It was too far of a walk to be back in time to hear the girls’ decision, but definitely on the table as a choice for future exploration.

As I reach about halfway down the road, it becomes very clear that the farther down you go, the better the houses get. The houses in my current neighborhood were all one story tall, and their original facades were dull, grey and brown bricks. Those were in great contrasts to the other neighborhoods, whose streets were lined with large two-story homes with extravagant front porches and smooth exteriors painted in light, fun colors. Some of the houses were decorated with white shutters or gingerbread trimmings.

After my short wander, I decide to turn back around to get closer to the Town Hall building. If they come out looking for me, I wish to be close enough to hear my name being called. Not any more than five minutes after sitting down on an old wooden bench on the porch of the town hall, Heather Chandler walks out of the large, wooden doors. “Congratulations, Veronica Sawyer, you are now the fourth addition to the welcoming committee of the northwest district of Politeia, subdivision B.” She smiles as she walks over to me.

“That’s amazing, thank you so much!” I express my gratitude, smiling widely.

“Of course. We’ll spend the rest of the day reviewing some of the state’s history and doing some shadowing, but by tomorrow you should be properly up and running on the job.” Heather explains to me, her crystal blue eyes making her energy all the more alluring.

“Well then, what are we waiting for?”

[thecoroutfitters]

Written by Pat Henry on The Prepper Journal.

4.89/5 (9)

Have you ever thought sometimes that Prepping is all work and no play? To the uninformed, prepping and preppers by association are consumed with fear and doom. Who wants to live a life where all you think about are bad things happening to the people around us? Many people I have talked to, who don’t understand preppers think we just sit around scared, paranoid and in fear of that knock on the door or the plague that could wipe out 80% of our nation but that isn’t true at all. At least for most of us. I think in some ways it is the people who never consider prepping that walk around in fear. Fear of terrorists, of people who have different opinions, of those who aren’t vaccinated, of someone who might own a firearm, of people who want more freedom and, well you get the point.

//

I have said before that the message of prepping is hope, not doom although you must choose how you look at things. I prepare because I want to be ready if something horrible happens, but I am prepping to survive whatever “it” may be. I don’t have a fatalistic view on my chances of survival, only what may necessitate me having to employ measures to ensure it. My wife and I had this same conversation back in the beginning as she saw (put up with) my ongoing efforts to get my family more prepared. She viewed my outlook on the future as extremely bleak. She couldn’t imagine a world like I was preparing for and wondered what was the point in living through those conditions. Since then she has seen that I am actively engaged in trying to protect my family to the best of my ability so that we can survive and hopefully help others in a calamity. She knows that I want to be part of the team helping others and that I don’t want to depend (or myself become a burden) on emergency services.

But other people can focus on the negative and get mired in the events we are prepping for more than the outcome we are trying to achieve so with this post, I want to give you some ideas for hobbies that preppers can participate in that can do two things. First, these hobbies for preppers will give you skills that you can use in a survival situation but can also enrich your life right now. Second, these hobbies will help you focus on the goal of surviving if for some reason you have gotten a little mired in the thoughts about the future and have become a little negative in your outlook.

Best Hobbies for Preppers

Below I have listed 16 of the best hobbies for preppers in no certain order that can give you training and encouragement in your abilities.

Backpacking/Hiking/Camping

I lumped these three together because they are so similar but I have often advocated backpacking as a way to both test and practice your bug out plans. There are some that disagree with me, but when you are preparing for a backpacking trip into the woods, you need to consider all the same things you would as a bug out. The only exception usually is security.

Backpacking trips require you to lay out and plan for one or more days living in the environment, usually away from civilization and returning safely. You have to carry everything on your back, navigate trails, inclines declines, obstacles just as you would in a bug out scenario. Best of all you get to see how carrying all your gear will feel at the end of a day. How far did you make it? Is there anything you realized you forgot once you got out into the woods? If you had to do it all over again, what would you change?

Hiking and Camping are similar but with a good bit less risk. With hiking, we are usually talking about day trips back so minor preparations are needed, but still a great activity and you can learn a lot about yourself and your own physical ability. Camping, when done from the convenience of a car and a camp site is the least like bugging out on foot, but could mimic a vehicle bug out scenario and it’s just good to get out of the house, into nature and spend time away from it all with family and friends.

Geocaching

The contents of the geocache at Buckden Rake

Geocaching is a fun activity that I started a few years back with my children and passed the interest off to a son-in-law who is now sharing it with his children. Geocaching is a great way to learn how to use a GPS unit to find items hidden and this ties directly into your own plans to stash prepping supplies in caches along your bug out route.

While playing this “game” you learn simple navigational skills but perhaps more importantly, how people hide items, how to find them and it really makes you think out of the box in some cases. Finding a hidden ammo box in the woods is one thing but finding a micro cache in the middle of a downtown business district is something altogether different. Another great activity to do with kids as they get to join in with finding the hidden caches and discovering the interesting objects people have left behind.

Hunting

In a grid down scenario, any activity that makes you more adept at bringing home food is a good one in my book. Hunting is a natural in that respect and it can teach you more than simply shooting at game. You can learn how to stalk prey, how to appropriately camouflage yourself and your movements, you can learn to identify game trails and habits of the game you are looking for.

Hunting allows you to employee various tools and methods to achieve your intended results. Firearms, bowed weapons, snares and traps are all useful and can give you great experience if you must depend on hunting to feed the family.

Auto Mechanics

When is the last time you changed your own oil?

Can you fix things? When is the last time you changed your own oil? Do you even know how to do that? While I can admit that some of the newer cars aren’t really set up for you to perform your own maintenance, that shouldn’t stop you from learning if you have the notion. As I have gotten older my need to work on my own cars has decreased but I still have manuals and have been known to turn a wrench when it’s necessary.

Knowing how to do basic repairs to your vehicle is a great skill and it can start with simple things like changing tires, belts, batteries and hoses to more complex projects like replacing water pumps, alternators or half-shafts. With the right tools and a manual for guidance or YouTube, anyone can do practically anything you need to repair your vehicle. This can save you money and could be vital if for some reason we aren’t able to take a vehicle to the shop to get it fixed.

Fishing

Like hunting, this hobby can put food on the table as well as be a simple, enjoyable way to get outside and spend some time either alone or with friends. Fishing can take on many different styles, but the basics are the same. Sometime the gear is different.

Gardening

In terms of putting food on the table and being in a place where you are able to store food away, gardening is one that we should all be doing. As I mentioned in a post the other day, in a disaster, your food won’t last forever so you need a backup plan for your backup plan.

Gardening can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be. Many people start with a small plot and grow tomatoes, but if you are aiming to be able to put up enough food to last your family through the winter and up to the next harvest, a little more land and time will be required. Start learning how to grow your own food now, what your solid conditions are like, how to compost and you will be one step closer to being ready to have your garden provide everything you need.

Paintball/Airsoft

What does paintball have to do with prepping? For starters, it can teach you team tactics, simulate military maneuvers to achieve objectives and deal with some of the stress in combat. OK, before anyone screams at me, I know this does not compare to real combat. Bullets go through walls much faster than paint balls do but if you look at this as training and you treat your surroundings as though the paint balls  are real bullets, it can be beneficial and instructive.

Air-Soft is lumped in here too with the same benefits and less mess. As long as you understand the difference between cover and concealment, both of these games can teach you lessons. If nothing else, you can see how out of shape you are from running and hiding behind obstacles.

Off-Roading

This hobby might be one of the most expensive for preppers, but if you already have a 4-wheel drive vehicle, getting off-road isn’t impossible and you can learn how to drive off the pavement and see what obstacles your vehicle can overcome. Communities like Overland Bound offer instruction, support, ideas and events to practice the skills needed to successfully go off-road.

Combine off-roading with camping and you have the makings of a really good vehicle bug out practice scenario. When you plan to go out with friends you can practice your bug out load plan, vehicle to vehicle communications with CB or Ham, land navigation with maps or GPS and field recovery when you get stuck in a mud pit that “didn’t look that deep” or break a part on the trail.

Marksmanship

One of the most important requirements for owning a firearm is practice so that you are proficient in the safe use and handling of this tool. Part of this I believe is being able to hit what you are shooting at and when your life depends on accurately hitting a target you are going to wish you had all the practice in the world.

Marksmanship can apply to pistols, rifles and even bows. Starting with paper targets and learning the fundamentals is key to getting better, more confident with that weapon and when the time comes you need to use it for hunting, practice or self-defense you can’t have enough training under your belt.

Orienteering

Orienteering combines racing with map reading. You can do this on your own or join a group like Orienteering.org. Timed races put individuals or teams though a course where you have to find your way with a map, compass and find different points along the way.

Want to create a secret treasure map to your hidden cache in the middle of 10,000 acres of forest? This is a good way to practice. It also helps with terrain recognition, and the obvious skills of map reading and how to use a compass.

Exercising/Fitness

More of a chore for some people than a hobby, exercise is one of the most critical components to being able to survive in a grid down or SHTF scenario and it’s one thing we most easily overlook or choose to ignore. Being able to move yourself from point to point, lift heavy objects repeatedly, perform manual labor and still have the strength to stand watch with alertness in the middle of the night is not something we can ignore.

Exercise can come in many forms, from simply walking during your lunch hour each day, to lifting weights, riding bikes, to following a routine from an app on your phone while you watch TV at night. The point is to do something to make sure your body is ready for the rigors of a stressful situation when you are faced with it.

Self-Defense Arts

When the SHTF, you already know that violent acts will become more pronounced. We see it every day now even though all the major systems we depend on are functioning normally. Having the ability and skill to defend yourself is important to all preppers. I carry a concealed weapon almost every day and so do many of you, but what if you aren’t able to take that weapon and someone threatens your life?

Self-defense classes help you avoid dying in a fight. You can choose from dozens of activities like boxing, Krav Maga, Judo, Karate, Taekwondo, Brazilian Jui jiitsu and countless others but they can all be used to keep you and your family safe while at the same time giving you focus, increasing your fitness levels and bolstering your confidence level.

Beekeeping

Keeping bees can not only help your garden and fruit orchards produce more.

You might be thinking that beekeeping is going to be too advanced but in reality, it takes about the same amount of time and means as gardening or other outdoor hobbies. In recent years, beekeeping has grown as a hobby to help families grow healthier plants while also helping the families be more self-reliant.

Keeping bees can not only help your garden and  fruit orchards produce more, but you also get the benefits of honey, which can be stored forever and wax which can be used in making soap, candles and healing salves to heal minor scrapes or burns.

Ham Radio

Ham Radio operators can still communicate if there is no electric power, satellites or cellular service. That is the primary reason they are the go-to method of communication for preppers as well as emergency response teams in virtually every large city. With the right equipment, Ham operators can talk to people in other countries using technology that was around in the early 1900s. If some disaster knocks out the cell phone service, emergency communications can be routed through Amateur Radio and you can keep in touch with others in your family, group, region or state easily.

Ham or Amateur radios fall under the control of the FCC and there is a licensing process associated with being able to communicate on the radio. To speak on the air legally, you must first obtain your Technician level license and a call sign from the FCC. Your name and information will be listed in at least one public database and this information is freely accessible to anyone who wants to look.

Food Preservation

By now you probably are more than aware that if the power grid goes down, just about all of the food preservation capacity we have is lost. Yes, we have canned food, but grocery stores rely heavily on the refrigerated containers to keep meat and dairy product fresh. The freezers we all have rely on electricity too so in a true collapse how will you keep that bounty of vegetables around for longer than a week or two? It must be preserved.

From root cellars to pickling, canning and salting people for millennia have been storing food without the convenience of refrigerators or freezers and with a little work, we can do the same thing. Start small with making pickles from cucumbers you get from the store or better yet, your garden. Move up to veggies, soups, salsa and spaghetti sauce or stews. You can even can meat!

Drone operation

How can piloting one of those annoying remote control gadgets help you in prepping? Well, it is a hobby I have been wanting to try for a while for a couple of good reasons. First of all, it looks fun, but the ability to fly a drone with an HD camera 400 feet up in the air could have serious grid-down prepping advantages. The one drawback is the FAA requires registration and they have a lengthy list of rules. Most of them I see the rationale with, just hate the process.

Mostly it is about the ability for intelligence. You can fly a drown over your retreat location to get unobstructed surveillance to see who is coming from miles away. You can verify threats before they are close enough to do you any harm. Optionally, you could use a drone to advance scout a route you were getting ready to take on foot or to determine if that old logging road you are using has an ambush roadblock ahead. Or get really cool video of your kid’s soccer game.

So who is still with me? There are just 16 hobbies for preppers but I know there are so many more than can be used. What hobbies do you find help your prepping skills?

If you liked this article, please rate it.

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from The Prepper Journal Don't forget to visit the store and pick up some gear at The COR Outfitters. How prepared are you for emergencies? #SurvivalFirestarter #SurvivalBugOutBackpack #PrepperSurvivalPack #SHTFGear #SHTFBag

[ciathyzareposts]

Missed Classic 82: Trinity (1986) – Introduction

Written by Joe Pranevich

I should be at the beach and instead I am playing a game that is equal parts charming and deeply disturbing: Moriarty’s Trinity, a “fantasy” adventure game about inevitable nuclear armageddon. Much like A Mind Forever Voyaging, this is a game with a narrative purpose and a political bent, but also a product of its time. The Cold War had nearly boiled over and Moriarty’s message about the risks of nuclear proliferation was timely, even if I am uncertain how much anyone wanted to play a game about it. As I am writing this now, I’m not sure I want to play a game about it. At a time when nationalism is on the rise worldwide and new walls are being built, when Russia announces new “hyper sonic” missiles that are designed to pierce existing defense systems, and when North Korea promised a “Christmas present” that would let their own stockpile of nuclear weapons reach American shores, it’s hard to enjoy a game about it. We are still far from the brinkmanship of the Cold War when Russia and America played chicken with our lives, but it feels like the world is moving in the wrong direction.

I have been waiting to play this game for months. I had intended to rush it between Batman Returns and Consulting Detective II, but I pushed off after being warned that I would want to savor it. Beyond that, I don’t know all that much about the game itself. It was distributed on the second Lost Treasures set, so I owned it but never started it even once, nestled as it was in a submenu next to Sherlock Holmes and Wishbringer. I have since learned that it is considered one of Infocom’s finest works, but that is a reputation I was unaware of then and which I look forward to discovering the truth of now.

Boom, boom! Ain’t it great to be crazy?

The title of the game comes from the Trinity site, the location of the first ever nuclear explosion in July 1945. Maybe you can blame my shoddy education, but I never learned much of this history in school. Of course, I knew about the Manhattan Project and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (and I recall seeing the Enola Gay at the Smithsonian on one of my visits), but as for the history of the bomb, I was taught (or I remember) very little. That isn’t to say that the bomb wasn’t on our minds in the 1980s, but the threat of the bomb was a more immediate concern than the history of said bomb. I was in second grade in 1986 and not fully aware of what was going on in the wider world. When I was older, we were taught that Pittsburgh, where I grew up, would likely be a secondary target for the Soviets because of our capacity for (if not active development in) steel production. It was believed around the dinner table that our mountainous terrain would decrease the damage and keep us safe. I recall being told that people moved to the south of the city because it would be safer there in the event of a bombing. It’s likely that nothing I just wrote was actually true, only the musings of scared people telling half-truths to other scared people. Nuclear bombs were on our minds, but we were not educated about the bomb and what would really happen in the event of a strike. Thankfully, none ever came.

An included comic fills in much of my missing history, although I’m not qualified to say what may have been exaggerated or adjusted for effect. It documents in a campy and jingoistic way the history of atomic energy from an apparently near-future perspective, as an informative (1950s-style) comic. The style reminds me of the Fallout games and I would not be at all surprised to learn that they were influenced by Trinity in some way. The history starts in 1938 when Nazi Germany was the first to split the atom. I had to look this up to make sure that this wasn’t alternative history because I certainly never learned that Germany was first. Niels Bohr wants the United States to harness that energy for a bomb and enlists the aid of Albert Einstein to press the point to President Roosevelt. Pearl Harbor was attacked, the Manhattan Project began, and the scientists at Los Alamos got to work on their bomb. Throughout it all, the refrain “It’s my patriotic duty.” is repeated. Even after Germany left the war and the threat of a rival atomic program was over, the United States continues building the bomb. The impetus was gone but the patriotic duty remained. It’s chilling.

Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.

The history lesson continues through the eponymous test at Trinity followed by the bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The panels are structured to hint that intimizating the Soviet Union, not defeating Japan, was the true goal of the bombings. Naturally, the United States monopoly on the bomb ends quickly and now we’re scared again because the “reds” have one too. So what to do? Build a bigger bomb! This leads to the tests on Bikini Island and further escalations. The comic transitions to “today”, a near-future world where the United States still performs underground tests (in reality, they ended in 1992) and has completed a Star Wars-style orbital defense system (unworkable with 1980s tech in real life, but functioning well here.) The story ends with a scene of children playing in Kensington Gardens and a general promising that all of the missiles and bombs that were built and stockpiled would never need to be used.

In addition to the comic, the game comes with instructions for folding an origami paper crane and a cut-out of a sundial. I expect that the sundial will be used as a form of copy protection, mostly because the instructions for the paper crane seem difficult to render in a text adventure. The manual ends with a well-written explanation for what we are getting ourselves into. It’s in spoiler territory, but I’ll repeat it verbatim anyway:

You’re neither an adventurer nor a professional thrill-seeker. You’re simply an American tourist in London, enjoying a relaxing stroll through the famous Kensington Gardens. When World War III starts and the city is vaporized moments after the story begins, you have no hope of survival.

Unless you enter another time, another place another dimension.

Escaping the destruction of London is not the end of your problems, but rather the beginning of new, more bizarre riddles. You’ll find yourself in an exotic world teeming with giant fly traps, strange creatures, and other inconveniences. Time and space will behave with their own intricate and mischievous logic. You’ll visit fantastic places and acquire curious objects as you seek to discover the logic behind your newfound universe. 

And if you can figure out the pattern of events you’ll wind up in the New Mexico desert, minutes before the culmination of the greatest scientific experiment of all time: the world’s first atomic explosion, code-named Trinity.

The development of this game took place over several years. It is well-known that Moriarty was thinking about the nuclear proliferation even during his Atari years and that these concerns informed the darkly pessimistic Crash Dive. The amount of research he poured into this game is tremendous: the manual lists forty texts in his bibliography. You will, I hope, forgive me for not reading them all before playing the game; I expect that most players wouldn’t have taken on the equivalent of a college-level course in nuclear history before playing! Moriarty actively developed the game at least since the summer of 1985 when he visited the Trinity site, Los Alamos, and several museums devoted to nuclear history. I’m told that he also visited Kensington Gardens, but I have not been able to verify that fact. (I have previously reached out to Mr. Moriarty for feedback, but I regret that he has not yet responded to my queries.) Infocom was taking a risk on Moriarty by allowing him to do another “political” game so soon after the previous one failed, but at least this one would have puzzles. (The New Zork Times article promoting the game goes out of its way to stress that yes, this is a game with puzzles.) How well will all of this come together? I know only one way to find out: Let’s play!

The adventure begins!

Our adventure begins in Kensington Gardens, part of Hyde Park in London. It’s a beautiful place that I have been to a half-dozen times, although never in a near-future dystopian fantasy. Our character has decided to leave his tour bus and camera behind in favor of seeing the sights on his own. The manual already told us that we’re about to be nuked, so it’s oddly tense. I have a pit in my stomach. It’s difficult to want to play this game.

North of our starting location is the Broad Walk where I am greeted by a flock of pigeons. An old woman sits nearby selling bags of crumbs to tourists for just 20p. I check my pockets and have only a 50p coin (as well as a nearly-expired credit card); am I supposed to get change first? I buy the crumbs anyway and she gives me a 20p coin in exchange. Just as in Wishbringer, we get a “beep!” sound and a notification that our score increased by one point. I’m one percent through the game! I like this feature and I hope that we see it in more Infocom games in the future.

I feed the birds some crumbs and– gasp!– there was a large ruby hidden in the bag. It slips between my fingers and lands on the ground. When I reach down to grab it, a roadrunner appears out of nowhere and snaps it up before running off to the east, racing between the legs of park-goers. Before I can even consider whether roadrunners are native to Britain (they are not), the old woman shouts, “It’s time!” and I score a few more points. My descriptions are not doing justice to a well-written game and a well-written sequence. It’s one part whimsy and one part tense, with a smattering of Alice in Wonderland-style strangeness. Moriarty is great at his craft!

I chase after the bird and find myself at the Round Pond, a charming area where children sail boats on the fountain while the ducks look on in disgust. The roadrunner continues as soon as he sees me, dodging baby carriages (“perambulators” or “prams” in London-speak) and disappears east once again. I follow him again to arrive at the Lancaster Walk. He scoots east again across a grassy lawn and I try to follow, but the game politely tells me to read the sign first. The sign says not to walk on the grass, but surely that notice doesn’t apply to roadrunners or adventurers? I follow that bird, but the grass reaches out and stops me! It’s some near-future attack grass and it deposits me back on the path. There’s no obvious way to follow our roadrunner friend any further.

Meep-meep. Phtttbt.

I’m Googling while I am playing, a luxury that the original players in 1986 would not have had. Moriarty is doing a fantastic job modeling the real Kensington Gardens. The statue of a horse and rider here on the Lancaster Walk, for example, is called “Physical Energy” and exactly matches the one in the real garden. As I stand there admiring the scenery, someone bicycles over the grass without a problem. Is that the trick? Do I need to find a bike?

North is the Lancaster Gate where an elderly Asian woman struggles to open an umbrella. I move to help her, but am taken aback by her face. It is, to use the game’s word, “wrong” and “badly scarred, as if in an accident”. It stops me in my tracks. I’m shocked at the crassness of our avatar, especially as the nature of the game and the lengths by which it goes to draw attention to her scarring suggests that she is a survivor of Hiroshima. I’m not sure if that works timeline-wise, unless we’re not as far in the future as I thought. A gust of wind takes the umbrella and lodges it into a nearby tree. The woman begins to cry before kicking the tree and walking off. Am I supposed to find a way to recover it for her and return it? I don’t see an obvious way at it either since I cannot climb the tree. I’ll come back later.

We cannot explore the full garden as we are blocked when we head in directions the game doesn’t want us to go, for example by indignant nannies to the east and a mob of tourists to the north. I explore south to the Flower Walk and discover a soccer ball discarded in the grass. Grabbing it increases my score by a point! Can I use it to dislodge the umbrella? The game goes out of its way to call out how ugly the nearby Albert Memorial is. It’s a statue of a guy on a horse and apparently was super ugly in the 1980s but has been restored now. I doubt I ever gave it more than a passing glance.

Tossing the ball at the umbrella dislodges it, but then I lose the soccer ball. I score five points, so it must be a good trade! It has a touristy slogan along the side, “All Prams Lead to Kensington Gardens”. (This is a slight paraphrase from an expression in J.M. Barre’s The Little White Bird, the first story to include a version of Peter Pan. All that research that I did for Hook is paying off!) I open the umbrella and am immediately blown eastward by the wind, knocking me into a group of nannies. There might be a Mary Poppins joke here someplace. I get the idea that you can perhaps use the umbrella to force your way across the man-eating grass, but the grass doesn’t seem to care that I am wind-powered and pulls me back anyway.

Heading west, we discover the Inverness Terrace. A boy sits nearby wearing headphones and blowing bubbles. When one pops, we are treated to a “popup” quote that appears in the top half of the screen:

“Atoms or systems into ruins hurled, / And now a bubble burst, and now a world.”

It’s all very poetic, but when I try to talk to the boy or take his headphones, he runs off. Was he rude for ignoring me? Or was I rude for bothering a kid just enjoying a summer’s day blowing bubbles in the park? I should have let him enjoy the last few minutes of his life.

Since time is running out, I resolve to explore and map the rest of the gardens:

To the west is the Black Iron Gate where a careless nanny has misplaced a pram. Fortunately, there is no infant inside. 

When I return to the pond with the sail boats, I discover that one of them is actually an origami crane, just as in the manual. I unfold it for a cryptic message: “Long Water, 4 PM.” It’s 3:44 PM now. 

Northeast of the Palace Gates is “The Wabe” with a strange sundial exactly like the one in our packaging. It is seven symbols on it and the sun’s shadow is currently pointing at the first symbol. Strangely, the first symbol is labeled with “Omega” and the last with “Alpha”. That seems backwards but perhaps suggests that we will be working our way further back in time? I don’t know enough of the Greek alphabet to recognise the rest of the letters.

Arriving at the sundial also gives us an Alice in Wonderland quote:

“And the ‘wabe’ is the grass-plot round a sundial, I suppose?” said Alice, surprised at her own ingenuity. “Of course it is. It’s called ‘wabe,’ you know, because it goes a long way before it, and a long way behind it. – Lewis Caroll

If I had to guess, I’d say that we had seven sections to this game, corresponding to the seven symbols. Will Kensington Gardens become something of a “hub” for me while I explore other times? I go to leave, but the game does some amazing hinting and I am alerted that the wind is causing the “gnomon” to scrape against the metal of the sundial. I discover that I can unscrew it and take it with me. What is a “gnomon”, you ask? It’s the triangular bit of the sundial that casts the shadow. Yes, I had to look that up in a dictionary to make sure it was a real word. “Wabe”, despite the Alice quote, means absolutely nothing; it is a fake word created for “Jabberwocky”.

I’m nearly out of time, but the whole of the park is only nine locations and I try everything I can think of. I work out that I can push the pram around, but that doesn’t allow me to impersonate a nanny adequately enough for one of them to let me pass. It’s not until 3:53 that I discover the trick: I can ride inside the pram! I have no idea how I fit, but apparently I squeeze in. By riding in the pram and unfurling the umbrella, I can “sail” across the killer grass to the Long Water! It’s easy except I crash, drop all my stuff, and break the pram. Oh well.

My map of Kensington Gardens.

Which doesn’t seem that far off from the real deal!

I check my watch and it is 3:59, but the second hand has stopped moving. I gather up my stuff when I notice that a missile hangs nearly motionless in the sky. I say “nearly” because it is actually falling very slowly towards the Long Water. In the center of the water is a strange white door. As I watch, some birds (unaffected by the time dilation) fly through the door to parts unknown. Obviously, my best choice is to “make like a tree and leaf” through the door. I wade through the water to get closer when the roadrunner from earlier runs by, still with the ruby in its beak, and disappears through the door. As the world is destroyed by nuclear Armageddon, I hear a voice telling me to “be quick”:

“This way, please.”

You turn, but see no one.

“This way,” the voice urges. “Be quick.”

The space around you articulates. “No!” your mind shudders, “That’s not a direction!”

“It’s a perfectly legitimate direction,” retorts the voice with cold amusement. “Now, come along.”

As we pass through the door via the “perfectly legitimate direction”, the prologue ends and we are finally given a proper title card:

A title screen!

I emerge from a door in a toadstool into a strange meadow. Far to the east, a meteor strikes. I’m not in London anymore, but that will be enough for today.

A few more bits and pieces:

I did not notice it while I was playing, but the Kensington Gardens comic panel in the manual depicts the old woman and her distinctive umbrella. Strangely, she is pushing around a pram but she did not have one in the game itself. Am I to surmise that she was the one that left it there for me to find? Or am I digging in too deep? 

That kid isn’t going to grow up either. :/

There is no indication as to when in the near-future this game takes place, at least not yet. Since Moriarty wasn’t psychic, he didn’t know that the Berlin wall would fall or that the Soviet Union would collapse (both in 1991). Our only clue is that the Star Wars defense system is up and running and the cost of a tour was $599. Not a lot to go on! If the old woman was scarred in the Hiroshima bombing (a stretch based on the clues so far, but I’m thinking that is what Moriarty is going for), that puts the upper bound somewhere between 2000-2020. We’ll see if the game offers further clues later or if we’re just supposed to interpret it as “Next Sunday, A.D.” to quote a somewhat less serious sci-fi classic. 

Time played: 1 hr 20 min Inventory: gnomon, piece of paper, bag of crumbs, small coin (20p), credit card, umbrella, wristwatch Score: 15 of 100 (15%)

Now it is time to guess the score! Looking at Moriarty’s scores to date, we have Adventure in the Fifth Dimension with 13, Crash Dive! with 20, and Wishbringer with 46. Infocom’s current average overall is 40 points, excluding the short tutorial game. He’ll also eventually write Loom, a game that we already scored as 65 and is currently tied for the tenth best game of all time on our site. Although I haven’t played it yet, it would be unfair of me not to mention that this is sometimes considered the best game Infocom ever created. My opinions may not match the general consensus, but I enjoyed this introduction portion well enough (even if I find the subject matter macabre) and I am curious to see how the game progresses.

Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: There’s a set of rules regarding spoilers and companion assist points. Please read it here before making any comments that could be considered a spoiler in any way. The short of it is that no CAPs will be given for hints or spoilers given in advance of me requiring one. As this is an introduction post, it’s an opportunity for readers to bet 10 CAPs (only if they already have them) that I won’t be able to solve a puzzle without putting in an official Request for Assistance: remember to use ROT13 for betting. If you get it right, you will be rewarded with 50 CAPs in return. It’s also your chance to predict what the final rating will be for the game. Voters can predict whatever score they want, regardless of whether someone else has already chosen it. All correct (or nearest) votes will go into a draw.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/missed-classic-82-trinity-1986-introduction/

[johnchiarello]

Sunday

SUNDAY 9-17-17

  WE CALL ON JUDGE MANUEL BANALES TO RESIGN- TODAY!

 Today I did the regular Sunday Sermon- and posted it real time. I’ll add my past teachings/posts below that relate- and the links for the teaching video- as you can see I discussed the case of a local judge- Manual Banales- who ran his car into a Tx. Dot worker years ago- he severely injured the man- while driving 75 on a road that posted the speed limit at 35. He got away with this crime because he is connected. Judge Missy Medary honored him 2 days ago- by hanging a portrait of the judge at the courthouse- can we also have a picture of the man he ran over? I posted the news article at the bottom of this post. If you read the article- the local cops- CCPD- said they were investigating whether speed was a factor. The Caller Times reported he was doing twice the speed limit- 75 in a 30- or 35 MPH zone- obviously speed was a factor. Yet- he escaped the normal charges a citizen would face- and the caller times actually defended him. Why? Because he is the same race as Nick Jimenez? Why would the Caller Times cover up a crime? Is Judge Banales still on the road today- doing 75 mph in 35 mph zones? If he continues to injure citizens- will the Caller Times continue to cover it up? Did judge Banales at least take a defensive driving program? Yes- now you see why we are rated the 2nd most corrupt county in the good ole’ US of A- O- remember if you see judge Banales headed your way- run!!! He is known as a hanging judge- I guess if he can’t hang you- he’ll run you over? I added links- and text to the bottom of this post. If this judge used his connections to escape justice- he should at least resign from the bench- and surrender his drivers license - as I was reading the links- this is not the first time he has hit a person with his car.

 http://stxc.blogspot.com/2008/06/judge-ba-hit-man-with-his-car-before.html

http://www.alicetx.com/article/20080612/news/306129967

http://brownsvilleobserver.blogspot.com/2017/03/egomania-carpedestrian-accidents-and.html

http://www.raymondville-chronicle.com/news/2008-06-11/news/026.html

 Fact checked- you [local media]- https://youtu.be/ZA6Gf06OXao

.Warning- Graphic video

.KRIS- warns against fake news

.Gulf of Tonkin

.Iraq has weapons of mass destruction

.All fake news- by the so called main stream media

.Joe Gazin

.Caller Times

.NBC

.I just ‘fact checked’ you- and you have come up wanting

 Here’s the clip I spoke about- warning- it’s graphic- https://youtu.be/E5ckG3lIyec?list=PLhmprClIR0wlAO4Uky1W457B0Dz6ANn1X

Gulf of Tonkin- https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/02/vietnam-presidents-lie-to-wage-war-iraq

 Caller times- Judge Banales cover up- https://youtu.be/GGBrfXdbcug

.10-50 major?

.75 mph in a 30 mph zone

.Almost kill a Tx. Dot worker

.The caller times did a front page story- to cover up the crime of their friend

.Judge Manuel Banales- who sits on the bench as I speak

.Good job- FAKE NEWS

 Here is how they cover him- http://www.caller.com/story/news/local/2017/09/14/judge-j-manuel-banales-courtroom-portrait-unveiled/668061001/

Here’s the car wreck he was in-

http://www.raymondville-chronicle.com/news/2008-06-11/news/026.html

   Morris Dees [famed civil rights lawyer] speaks locally on corruption in the DA’s office of Nueces county- https://youtu.be/0ztq0Duf-R4

https://ccoutreach87.com/9-16-17-morris-dees-speaks-on-corruption-in-nueces-county-da-office/

I made this video [above] yesterday as a roll-out- I talked about issues I have spoken on before- but there were a few new things- so I wanted to discuss them. I found it interesting that Dees actually addressed this issue- here at Del Mar college. http://www.caller.com/story/news/local/2017/09/13/civil-rights-attorney-give-keynote-address-coastal-bend-social-forum/654990001/

 NEW- [more video- links below]

I talked about the suicide of Bod Dwyer today- saw the documentary last night. As I was watching the local NBC affiliate [KRIS] I saw a news ad- by Stephenia Jimenez- a local NBC news person- she was warning against ‘fake news’ by independent bloggers.

 The same night they [NBC] were doing a special on the Vietnam war- I found this amusing.

 When the ‘fake news’- actually warns against citizen bloggers- and at the same time- they are covering a 50 years history of their own telling of ‘fake news’.

 The main stream media- by reporting fake news- has led the American public down a path of war and killing- for many years.

Their reporting of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq- which was fake news-

 Yet- till this day- they take no responsibility for their fake news- and it’s consequences.

The Caller Times investigated the finances of Church Unlimited- and we came up clean as a whistle.

 The local media investigate the social media accounts of citizens- and yet they do not want you to know their own history.

Local media anchormen attending strip clubs- using their influence to cover up the crimes of local judges- doing front page stories on it.

 Yes- the media claim to protect you from fake news- they investigate the public- while at the same time reporting fake news-

 And in their case- the fake news has led to the deaths of many Innocent people- on a world scale.

Thanks alot media- you are truly doing a service- for who?

 Well that's yet to be seen.

  Judge Manuel Banales honored by judge Missy Medary- https://youtu.be/qd8QhjDQBg8

 Sunday Sermon- https://youtu.be/Ef7xaLdiWcc

https://ccoutreach87.com/9-17-17-sunday-sermon-2/

https://ccoutreach87.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/9-17-17-sunday-sermon.zip

 [Teaching on this video posted below]

 Judge ManueL Banales- why did you get away with the crime?- https://youtu.be/DAFs1Dk3FTY

 Surprise visit- https://youtu.be/IjiCbIJTVbI  Sure enough- we end this day with some ministry- and a few new friends- hope you enjoy.

 PAST POSTS- [Past teaching I did that relates to this post]

https://ccoutreach87.com/romans-updated-2015/

https://ccoutreach87.com/genesis/

https://ccoutreach87.com/1st-2nd-corinthians/

GENESIS 37- Chapter 36 has a lot of genealogies, so let’s skip it. In this chapter we see Joseph having the dreams that his brothers and father and mother will bow down to him. He makes the mistake of telling everyone about it! Rueben is already mad about the favoritism shown towards Rachel’s sons as opposed to him being the firstborn. The other brothers clearly see the favoritism too. Jacob made Joseph the coat of many colors. To me this represents the multi ethnic diversity of Christ’s church [body]. Skins represent ‘covering’ or flesh. All the animals sacrificed in the Old Covenant were a type of Christ. The tabernacle represented a living mobile dwelling place of God, the church. They used skins as a covering. So this coat of many colors is like the body of Christ. Joseph typifying Jesus as the favored son who will eventually bring together all tribes and nations into unity as Jesus ‘wears them like a robe’ [truly we are his dwelling place, covering of flesh if you will!] Jacob sends Joseph to ‘see how his brothers are doing and bring back the report’. Just like the parable Jesus gave about the king sending the servant to check up on the vineyard. Eventually the king says ‘I will send my son’. Jesus says they take the son and kill him. Joseph’s brothers see Joseph coming and say ‘here comes Mr. big shot, the dreamer’. Understand Josephs dreams were simply the destiny of God on his life. It is important to differentiate between ‘what I want out of life’ and Gods purpose. Joseph’s dreams did speak of exaltation and fame. But these were things he did not seek! Jesus gives instruction in the New Testament to actively pursue the lowest place. The teachings on taking the seat in the back of the room and not the front. The teaching against gentile ideas [Roman] of authority. So we must not read into Joseph’s story that God wants us to ‘be all we can be. Become great’. Greatness in Gods kingdom is backwards. You seek not to be exalted and exaltation comes! Now the brothers take him and throw him into a pit [grave] ‘without water in it’. A type of death. Water and spirit are interchangeable words. A pit without water is like the grave [body] without the spirit. James says this is what death is, separation of body and spirit. Now something is happening at this point. The brothers are falling into the trap of group think. Just going along with something because others are doing it. Rueben begins seeing this deception. He also despises Joseph, but begins realizing things are getting out of hand. He says ‘lets not kill the boy, just throw him in the pit’. Judah also speaks up on his brother’s behalf. So they take Josephs coat, put blood all over it. They sell Joseph into slavery and they bring the coat to Jacob. ‘Dad, we found Josephs coat with blood on it. I wonder what happened to him?’ Now, how many options do we have? Maybe the boy got into a scrap trying to save some sheep and that’s what happened, or maybe he hurt himself and used the coat as a tourniquet? Yeah, that’s possible! But Jacob is a pessimist ‘surely some wild animals got to him’ bad enough! But wait ‘and they tore him to pieces, devoured him and he’s gone’ Yikes! Then he says ‘I will be depressed about this for the rest of my life and go to the grave never getting over it!’ Boy, who would have thought the guy was gonna take it like this? We once again see the over reaction of Jacob. It’s so easy for leaders with destiny and purpose to think all is lost. Moses and others have thought the same. Elijah was ready for the Lord to take his life because some Jezebel was giving him a hard time! I want to encourage leadership, don’t make rash or major decisions when your emotions are out of whack. We have a tendency to take reproof or correction the wrong way. We want to quit and start all over. Find someone else to ‘take over the church’ so we can get out of dodge. Jacob thought the worst, but what was actually happening was Gods pre ordained plan that would actually be for his salvation down the road. Jesus is still thought to be dead by Jacobs descendants, they only see the ‘pit without water in it’. They don’t realize that Jesus [Joseph] is actually alive and waiting for them to come and bow the knee!

 GENESIS 38- Judah goes ‘down from his brothers’ [isolates himself] and sleeps with some women. He does have a history of ‘going in unto harlots’. This chapter will get graphic, just warning our younger readers! He seems to have a pattern with this. Now, one of the sons, Er, will marry a girl named Tamar. The son is wicked in the sight of the Lord and the scripture says ‘the Lord slew him’. Judah tells the other son, born from his playboy lifestyle ‘Go and have kids with your brother’s wife, and raise up children for your brothers name’. This was a custom of the time. If a brother died before his wife had children, then the other brother was supposed to do this. Now it wasn’t being Mormon! [The old time ones]. They wanted to make sure the lineage of the tribe from whom the son died continued to carry on a legacy. It was for the procreation of the children of Israel. Now Judah’s second boy, Onan, does not want to raise up seed to his brother. I see in him a sickness that plagues the Body of Christ today. Because of the way we have come to view local church as the separate 501 c3 organization, this tends to build a mindset into the clergy that says ‘are you with us [the so called 'local church’] or with the other team down the block?’ There is a strange concept that says ‘I will spend my time, resources and energies raising up seed to my name [my 501 c 3] but I can not give of my gifts and life to build into people who I do not derive some loyalty or benefit from’ [raising up seed to your brother]. Now Onan does something; here’s the warning about graphic language! He ‘goes in unto his brother’s wife and spills it on the ground’. I don’t think I should explain this. Years ago one of the Captains at the fire dept. would say ‘well, the bible says it’s better to spill it in a prostitute, than on the ground’. And he would look at me to confirm his translation. He really thought it was in the bible! I would ‘instruct him in a way more perfectly’. I also had a friend who said ‘well, the bible says “woman, if thy husband hitteth thee [notice how he used ‘hitteth’ as opposed to ‘hit’] divorce him, for he is lower than a rattler’. I would inform him I was pretty sure this wasn’t in the bible. He was adamant! I would tell him ‘besides it being contrary to scripture, I don’t think the Lord would say ‘rattler’ he would use ‘rattlesnake’. So Onan ‘spills it on the ground’ and guess what? The Lord kills him too! Now poor Tamar is real innocent in the deaths of the 2 boys. But Judah begins to wonder. Like the show I saw on some court channel. The woman accidentally shot her husband in the head. The defense had a hard time convincing the jury, being this was the second husband that she ‘accidentally shot in the head’! So Judah tells Tamar ‘go home to your dad, when my young son is old enough I will let him marry you’ sure! He of course tells his young son ‘stay away, you don’t want to die like your brothers’ [I added this part, but it sounds likely]. So one day when Judah is on a business trip, he looks around for the town prostitute. Tamar hears Judah is in town and puts a veil on her face and goes and stands on the corner. Judah doesn’t know it’s his daughter in law and sleeps with her. Judah agrees to pay for her services with a goat. Tamar takes his ring and staff and bracelet as a down payment. A few days later Judah sends his servant with the goat and he can’t find her. He asks the men of the town ‘where’s the harlot who was working the corner’? The men say ‘who’? They tell the servant they never had a harlot working the streets. Judah hears Tamar is pregnant and says ‘she played the harlot and should be stoned’! [He was a member of the Moral Majority]. Tamar sends the staff and ring to Judah and says ‘this is the man who got me pregnant’ and Judah admits his sin. I find it interesting that Judah will be given one of the best blessings from Jacob as Jacob is on his deathbed. Jacob will say ‘The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet. His hand shall be on the neck of his enemies, unto him shall the gathering of the people be. As a young lion he shall crouch down and go up from the prey’. We will read this later on in this study. These are Messianic prophecies. Jesus is called ‘the lion of the tribe of Judah’. God uses people who have done wrong. People who when confronted don’t try and cover it up. People who have made mistakes and are willing to admit them. This leaves room for the rest of us.

 GENESIS 39- Joseph goes into Egypt and is bought by Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh. The guy puts Joseph in charge of his entire household. Joseph truly excels in everything he does. The scripture says he prospered in everything he put his hand to! Just keep this truth balanced with all the undeserved suffering and afflictions he experienced. Now Joseph is so good at everything he does, that even Potiphars wife wants to ‘try him out’. She bugs him day after day to sleep with her! Joseph refuses. She gets him alone in the house, grabs his clothes and says ‘sleep with me’. He flees the house naked as she ripped his clothes from him. She then tells her husband ‘this Hebrew mocks you, he tried to rape me’. She lied and the husband puts him in prison. Notice something here, the wife’s accusation included racial stuff. Sort of like the racist movies from the 50s-60s. They played to mans inherent racism and would show the black man as wanting the white woman. These accusations were playing to the heart of racism. Some churches today still teach separation of the races, Christians look askance at mixed marriages. My position is in Jesus Christ these divisions do not exist and we should accept all races without prejudice. Now Joseph goes to prison and he excels again. The jailer makes him trustee of the whole place! You can’t stop this guy. In the next chapter we will see how it was part of Gods plan for this to happen to him. He did not go around rebuking the devil or claiming verses to get out of unjust persecution. He responded like Peter taught in his letter to the Christians ‘if any man suffers as a believer, let him praise God’. Peter makes a distinction between suffering persecution for wrongdoing and suffering as a believer. Peter experienced both. Even though he suffered shame by denying Jesus, God still turned it around and used it for his glory. Joseph understood the simple reality of a just man suffering unjustly. Now I want to emphasize the fact that Joseph was just! Peter also teaches us that we are partakers of the divine nature. John the apostle writes in his 1st epistle ‘whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin [habitually]’ ‘I write these things unto you that ye sin not, but if any man sins we have an advocate with the father’. Though I have shown you the many failings of the great heroes of the faith, I also want to show you the great walk that some of them had. You don’t have to have had a testimony of being a drug addict or ex con or some other terrible past in order to glorify God. It’s like my first Pastor used to say, his favorite song was ‘years I spent in vanity and pride, caring not my Lord was crucified’. But his testimony was getting saved at a young age. I would kid one of my buddies and say ‘Brother Skinners favorite song is about the years he spent in vanity and pride. I guess he meant all the times he acted out in recess!’ I know this is wrong, but it was too funny to leave out. So Joseph shows us the ideal can be achieved thru the wonderful grace of God. But if any man sin, you still have the advocate.

 GENESIS 40- Joseph is in prison and Pharaohs chief men get thrown in jail. His butler [the guy who tastes the wine before the king drinks it, to make sure it’s OK] and the baker. One day Joseph notices there sad faces ‘what’s wrong guys’? They tell him they both had dreams the previous night. They were troubled that they did not know what the dreams meant. Does Joseph say ‘O, you had too much pizza last night’ or ‘don’t you know we have the books of Moses completed! There are no more prophetic dreams.’ Instead he says ‘God is the one who can give the interpretation of dreams’. It is understood that some dreams have meaning and come from God. You find this all thru out scripture. I’ll be honest, I have recently had some prophetic dreams but have stopped sharing them on the site. Why? These last few years there have been so many prophecies shared and put on line and I feel the consumers of these words are not getting a steady diet of scripture and New Testament Christianity. I just read a ‘prophetic word’ that spoke of ‘why we are not getting the end time harvest of money yet’ it went into ‘targeting the demonic forces holding back the cash’ and other techniques to use to get the money. I have written and even sent some of our teachings to some of these brothers. Could it be the reason all the wealth hasn’t been released is because we are viewing the ‘end time transfer of wealth’ from an unbiblical standpoint? So I too have grown weary of all the ‘prophecies and dreams’ that seem to miss the mark. But here Joseph jumps write into the fray and interprets the dreams. He tells the butler ‘your dream means in 3 days you will be restored and hold the kings wine glass again’. The baker likes the word and asks ‘what about my dream’? ‘In three days Pharaoh will hang you on the gallows’ OUCH. Never mind Joseph, I don’t believe in prophecy any way. The dreams do have prophetic significance. The wine and bread [baker] speak of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. The 3rd day speaks of the mighty resurrection of the Son of God. Jesus offered his Body [bread] as a sacrifice for all humanity. He ‘hung’ on the Cross for us, just like the baker hung on the gallows. Jesus also was ‘lifted up’ out of the ‘prison’ the 3rd day and once again was restored to his previous position at the right hand of God. He took ‘the cup of his Blood [wine] and presented it once again to his father’. I think these dreams were prophetic.

  (729)GENESIS 41- Joseph is sitting in prison for 2 full years after he was promised by the ‘cup holder’ to advocate for his cause once he was released! The cup holder forgot to mention it! I think one of the most unjust things that has happened in society has been these brothers who have been falsely accused of some terrible crime and spent years in prison and then later were found to be innocent. I think this is why we need to really rethink the death penalty. Now Pharaoh has these dreams and he calls all of his wise men in and no one can interpret the dream. At this point the cup holder realizes his wrong. He tells Pharaoh that when he was in prison a guy interpreted his dream. Sure enough, after years in jail and having been persecuted by his brothers and sold into slavery, at the age of 30 he finally begins inheriting some stuff. Joseph was 17 when the problems started, he is now 30. 13 years of suffering and obscurity. Now, scripture says ‘see a man skilled in his work, he will stand before kings. He will not serve obscure men’ [Proverbs? It’s a newer version of the bible]. God was ordering things in Joseph’s life to ‘bring him before kings’ men of influence. He was 'accidentally' sold to an officer of pharaoh. He then gets thrown in jail and runs into the ‘chief butler and chief baker’ and now he gets a shot at pharaoh! It was the hand of God positioning him to be in a place of influence. Joseph will interpret pharaohs dreams to mean 7 years of famine will follow 7 years of plenty [read the chapter, I didn’t include the dreams in this entry]. Pharaoh says ‘great, what should we do about it?’ Joseph says ‘how about you find the wisest, smartest most impressive man in your country [gee, I wonder who this could be?] and put him in charge and have him collect a fifth of all the lands produce during the time of plenty and then he can distribute the food during the harvest’. Pharaoh says ‘sounds like a great idea! And who is wiser than you Joseph, you’re the man’. Joseph basically pulled a Dick Cheney [for those reading this in a hundred years, Cheney is the current vice president of George Bush] Bush hired Cheney to find the most qualified vice president he could recruit. Sure enough Cheney says ‘it’s me!’ So Joseph carries out the plan, Pharaoh puts him in charge of the whole country. Pharaoh says ‘only in my official title am I higher than you’. Joseph is truly running everything! He didn’t despise his day of ‘small things’. He ran Potiphars house, then the prison and now the country! Joseph is a type of Christ here. Pharaoh says ‘I give all authority to you, the nation will stand or fall on your word’. Jesus told the people in John’s gospel ‘My words will judge you in that day’. Joseph truly is a man of power and authority. He has 2 kids in this chapter. Manasseh and Ephraim. Their names mean ‘God has caused me to forget all my previous trials’ and ‘God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction’. Isaiah says ‘remember not the former things, nether consider the things of old, behold I do a new thing. Shall ye know it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Before these things happen I declare them unto you, so when they come to pass you will know I ordained it’. Also Joseph tells Pharaoh ‘God has revealed to you what he is going to do’ by giving him the dreams. Joseph understood that it was Gods purpose to reveal his plan ahead of time to Pharaoh. The coming to pass of these dreams on a national scale was proof positive of the ‘God of Joseph’ being the true God! I remember hearing a testimony of a Muslim tribe who all converted to Jesus in a single day. One morning one of the men woke up and shared a dream he had. He explained how he saw Jesus in the dream. As word spread they soon realized that every single person in the tribe all had the same dream the previous night! When God reveals himself on a wide scale like this it leads to whole nations [groups of people] converting. As Joseph stores up the food for 7 years he strategically puts the food in store house cities thru out the land. This is a type of Jesus future revolutionary movement. In Matthew 13 Jesus speaks of the kingdom as seeds. Both the people and the word are described as seed in this chapter. When Jesus sent out the disciples they were distributing seed [the message] as well as being ‘seed’ [Jesus says the good seed were the children of the kingdom planted and growing in the world]. In essence Jesus was placing garners [communities of people] filled with seed all over the region. Paul himself will target the influential cities of his day with the gospel. He knew if he could spread the fire to strategic places it would take root. So Joseph has all this ‘grain in the barn’ just waiting to bust loose during the famine. And sure enough the famine comes and everyone turns to ‘the garners of wheat in the storehouse cities’ for their sustenance. I believe the people of God, Gods ‘fine wheat’ are truly the ones with the answer to society’s ills. Jesus has planted us ‘in the world’ [not in the church building!] so when the times of famine come, people can run to us for the ‘bread of life’.

 GENESIS 42- The famine in the land gets severe. Jacob tells his sons ‘what are we doing, get up and go down to Egypt and buy some food’. This begins the process of Jacob and his boys submitting to God’s higher purpose that they would be saved thru Joseph’s authority. Now of course we see Jesus all thru out this scenario, but we also see the dynamics of prophetic ministries. Jesus said ‘a prophet has honor, except in his hometown and with his own family’. Though Joseph is revered and a man of great authority and gifting, yet it will take Gods sovereign work to bring his brothers to a place where they can benefit from that which was truly meant for their benefit! Jesus says this about Jerusalem ‘O Jerusalem, you kill the prophets and those who have been sent to you for your own benefit’. Joseph’s brothers should have been the first to have bought the food from their brother, but God is revealing a greater plan. Now when the brothers go to Joseph in Egypt, Joseph recognizes them. But he speaks in the Egyptian tongue and pretends he doesn’t understand them. He recognizes them, but they do not recognize him. The bible says ‘Jesus came unto his own and his own received him not’. Now Joseph works out a plan with his brothers trying to entice them to bring Benjamin back with them. He says ‘well, you guys are spies! You came to spy out the land’. They told Joseph that Benjamin [Josephs only brother from his mom Rachel] was still home with the dad. So Joseph keeps the boys in jail a few days and says ‘lets do this, go take the food back to your families. And I will hold one brother [Simeon] and don’t come back without the other boy’. So they leave and tell Jacob about the deal. Well of course Jacob goes overboard. ‘O my God, I have already lost one son [not really!] and now Simeon is gone and you boys want me to give you Benjamin too!’ Jacob says ‘all things are against me’. Gee, would you calm down for a minute pops! Here we go again with Jacob reading the worst into the situation. I forgot to mention that when the boys were talking in front of Joseph, Joseph hears for the first time that some of his brothers were really trying to help him. Rueben says ‘see, I told you we shouldn’t have done this wrong deed against our brother’. Rueben was the oldest brother who was jealous over the favoritism that Jacob showed towards Joseph. For all those years Joseph never knew that Rueben really cared for him. Joseph heard this and had to leave the room so his brothers wouldn’t see him crying over this revelation. Sometimes we don’t realize that people are actually for us. Elijah and others went thru times of feeling like they were all alone. The enemy’s strategy is to make you think ‘yes, everyone really is against me. The whole town hates me. All the people in the church are fighting me’. Joseph was not aware that some of his brothers were actually for him. We end the chapter with Jacob and the boys back in their land, never planning to return and see Joseph again. Jacobs fear almost cost him 2 sons!

 GENESIS 43- Jacob and the boys have not acted yet. They came back home and told their dad the situation and it seems as if Jacob is frozen with fear. Being in a place of stagnation. Proverbs says the righteous are as bold as a lion [Judah has lion imagery in the blessing that Jacob will give him!] but the wicked fleeth when no man pursueth. One of the strategies of the enemy is if he can’t out right stop you, then he will try to cause you to simply maintain. Don’t do anything to advance. So the food supply is low and Jacob must decide! He says ‘go back to the governor of Egypt [their brother Joseph] and just buy a little food’. His plan is no plan. He seems to think that if he limits the vision it will be all right! What good is getting a little food? He will be starving again soon. Judah basically says this ‘Dad, the man told us plainly not to return unless we bring Benjamin. If we hadn’t dilly dallied this long we would have already made the second trip and been back by now’! They flatly tell their dad ‘we aint going back without the boy!’ now Jacob agrees to send the boy. He once again falls into the worst case scenario in his thinking. Judah does something important here. He tells his dad ‘I will be surety for the boy. If anything happens to him let the blame be on me’. Why is this important? I mentioned earlier in this study that Judah is the special tribe from which ‘the lion of Judah’ [Jesus] will come. Hebrews says ‘it is evident that our Lord sprang from a tribe which was not represented at the altar’. Basically Jesus had to be born from another tribe that wasn’t a priestly tribe [Levi] in order to fulfill his new covenant priestly image. But why Judah? He doesn’t seem to be super holy, as a matter of fact we already discussed his playboy lifestyle! Judah is the only one in this scenario who sees ‘substitution’ as a viable answer to the problem. He basically says ‘I will be in the boys place’. Now we will see later that Judah will make this offer out right when Joseph attempts to keep Benjamin. But most of all I see Judah and his offer as a forerunner for the future act of Penal Substitution that will be carried out by Jesus, the lion who will spring from his loins. Now the boys pack up some stuff, bring extra money and head back to Egypt. They show up at Joseph’s house and are worried. They tell Joseph’s servant ‘we didn’t steal the stuff last time. When we opened the bags someone put the money back in our bags’. This was a trick that Joseph pulled on them earlier. So the servant says ‘don’t worry, the God of Joseph has shown you favor’. Interesting, though the Egyptians never converted en mass to Joseph’s religion, yet he was showing the reality of his God being the true God. He was a man of great influence who had attained a position of unbelievable authority and he was accepted by the government of his day. I think this is important for believers in our day to grasp. I feel we do damage to our testimony when we do ‘marches on Washington’ and stuff like this. While there might be times for things like this, the overall testimony of the church should be one of ‘the God of the Christians has shown you favor’. We should impact society thru our deeds and social justice concerns, not by our marching in the streets! Well Joseph sees Benjamin [his only other brother born from the same mom, Rachel] and has to leave the room because he almost cried right in front of his brothers. They still don’t recognize him yet. So as we end this chapter he makes all the brothers sit down at the table for a meal. He places them in order of their birth. The boys are thinking ‘how does he know the order of our birth’? They will find out soon enough.

 GENESIS 44- Joseph feeds his brothers and fills their bags with food and sends them off to Jacob. This time he put the food and money back in their bags, but also he put a silver cup in Benjamin’s bag. After they leave Joseph sends his servant to stop them. He searches the stuff and finds the cup with Benjamin. Now, Joseph is doing all this just so he could keep Benjamin and have the boys return with Jacob. But the boy’s know how nervous pops gets! Joseph doesn’t realize what a panic button pops has become. The boys realize how bad dad is and they tell the servant ‘well, you got us! I guess we will all go back together to Egypt’. These boys had the chance to escape without Benjamin, they figured they would rather face Joseph than dad, OUCH! If you read thru the story you will see that they really don’t want to go home. Joseph actually says ‘go back, leave Benjamin and see your dad’. Finally Judah says ‘look, our dad has been distraught ever since he lost the other boy [Which is the actual guy they are talking to!] and he took it hard. If we leave without Benjamin he will die. I will stay in the place of the boy’. Once again we see Judah offer ‘substitution’ as an answer to the problem. It seems as if atonement was built into the DNA of the tribe of Judah. Also during this whole scenario the servant mentions ‘divination’. The silver cup that was found in Benjamin’s bag was for the ‘purpose of divination’ [or so the servant thought/said!] Joseph tells his brothers ‘why did you steal from me? Don’t you know a man of my stature can divine’? The art of divination, or obtaining ‘secret knowledge’ thru spiritism existed in ancient times. The pagan nations even had priests for their false gods. All of this is Babylonian in nature and forbidden by God all thru out scripture. The fact that Joseph rose to fame because of his ‘interpreting of dreams’ surely put fear in people, they assumed he was a great ‘diviner’. Now Joseph has said all along that God was giving him the interpretations, but it’s likely that the broader culture just viewed Joseph thru the already existing paradigm of ‘divination’. All people are seeking for some spiritual meaning in life. They often flock to new age teachings or eastern religions. God condemns, in no uncertain terms, all uses of the horoscope and sorcery or witchcraft to seek ‘hidden sources of wisdom’. God does have prophets in the church [no new cannon, but true spiritual direction by those filled with the Holy Spirit] and of course God regularly gives directions to his kids by his Spirit. So I just wanted to clarify, just because this chapter says Joseph used the cup ‘to divine’ in no way means that Joseph was ‘divining’ in the mystical sense.

 GENESIS 45- Joseph could not restrain himself any longer and reveals himself to his brothers. His brothers are absolutely shocked. They are hearing him in his own voice [my sheep hear my voice- Jesus] for the first time, they are beginning to see the actual image of their lost brother in the face of this sovereign person who they have been coming to and bowing to and submitting to. They came late to the table, the entire gentile nation [Egypt and the surrounding nations] have already been submitting to him for a while [Christ and the church made up of gentile nations] but Israel has been slow to respond. And since they have been responding they had no idea of the actual identity of this great ruler. Sure, these gentile nations knew his name was Joseph and they heard all the great stories about his rise to power. But the brothers of Joseph were simply submitting to this governor out of necessity. They actually were learning the ropes of how to come to this sovereign and to bow before him with requests [The Jews sure know how to pray to Jehovah, they have the Wailing Wall!] but to hear this ruler say ‘I am your brother Joseph, who you betrayed’ is almost unbelievable to accept! Now Joseph sees the look on their faces. He tells them ‘come here, I am Joseph your brother’ he has to explain the enormity of this revelation. They can’t connect the ruler with their former knowledge of their own flesh! Israel [the nation] has stumbled over the reality of their home town boy actually being their Messiah. Scripture says Jesus is the actual image of the invisible God, we see God and who he is thru Christ. For the brothers to be looking at the actual lord of the land, someone who they have been ‘submitting to’ already [Jehovah] and then to hear ‘I am Joseph’ [Jesus] out of the actual lips of the ruling authority himself, is very hard to grasp. The nation of Israel has been waiting and believing for the Messiah for 2 thousand years. They pray to Jehovah. The stumbling block is in their inability to actually see the face of Jesus in their God! He truly is the image of the invisible God. Now Joseph reassures them that everything that happened to him was truly a sovereign act of God to preserve life. He holds no grudges! [Father forgive them, for they know not what they do]. Pharaoh hears about this great reunion and tells him to go get the rest of his family and bring them back [to Goshen]. Jacob hears the news of his son’s authority and is shocked. He learns that his son is alive, and Lord of the land, all in one day [Scripture says a nation will be born in a day. Referring to Israel’s national repentance and acceptance of Messiah at the second coming- Romans]. So they make preparations to come to Egypt and for all the family to settle down together. I want to stress the importance of seeing the reaction of Egypt [gentile nations] when they hear that Josephs blood relatives are coming to benefit from the lordship of Joseph. The gentile nations are happy and glad to see the reunion! Much like the reaction that Paul writes about in Romans ‘if their falling away [The Jews rejection of Messiah] was for the benefit of all the gentiles [just like Josephs rejection by his brothers was for the benefit of saving Egypt and the surrounding countries] so how much greater will it be when they are reunited with Christ’. Scripture teaches us that it was for the gentile’s salvation that the nation of Israel rejected Christ’s Lordship. So when Israel returns home to their true Messiah, the gentile church will rejoice! I also want to make a note here, you will notice that Jacob had to relocate from the promised land and move over into the region [church- made up of gentile nations] in order to benefit from Josephs rule. Make no mistake about it, at the time of Israel’s conversion she will see that her clinging on to the old culture of law and sacrifice will have to be left behind in order to benefit from the bread that Jesus [Joseph] will provide. Jacob and the boys will carry some degree of national identity with them, after all they are still ‘Israel’, but the relocation from their land speaks of the willingness to uproot and journey towards the messiah.

 GENESIS 46-47- Jacob and the family pack up and head to Egypt. They bring 70 ‘souls’ with them. Remember, Jacob is always thinking ‘dynasty’. He has a track record of worrying about his family getting wiped out. He is still relatively small for a ‘nation’ but getting bigger by the day. He enters Egypt and sees Joseph for the first time. What a reunion! I guess now that Jacob realizes all of his worrying was for naught, all the times he allowed his mind to think the worst about stuff, I guess now he learned his lesson? Not. Pharaoh asks him ‘so, how old are you, aren’t you glad to see Joseph? How has life been treating you?’ Jacob responds ‘my days are 130 years, not even close to my forefathers. And they have been short and evil’. Wow, Pharaoh thinks ‘sorry I asked’. Now as Jacob settles down in Goshen, all the nations are coming to Joseph to be sustained. The years of famine that Pharaoh dreamt about are here. Notice something; all the nations spend all their money and the ‘money fails’. Did you know that the overall theme of money taught by Jesus and the apostles was ‘it will someday fail’? James says ‘the rich mans money will evaporate in the day of judgment and it will be to no avail’. Proverbs says the rich mans wealth can not deliver his soul during trouble. Jesus over and over again used examples of people putting their hopes in riches and forgetting the reality of death and judgment. In this chapter the money failed! Now, the nations sell their cattle and lands and eventually themselves to Pharaoh [Joseph]. Joseph and Jacob as well as Joseph and Pharaoh [this one] are types of Jesus and the father. In this case Joseph ‘purchases’ all the people for Pharaoh. Jesus bought us all by his blood. Now, even though I go hard on the prosperity guys, here’s some practical financial advice. Joseph tells the people ‘take the corn [grain-seed] and use it to feed your families and cattle, but plant some of it in the ground for heavens sake!’ he is teaching the mentality of ‘feed a man a fish and you feed him for the day- teach a man to fish and you feed him for life’. Joseph is trying to break the entitlement mentality. Showing the people that a portion of their increase should be invested. Don’t take all your money every month and spend it all. Give a portion to God, and put some in a savings/investment. If you spend all the money you earn [eat all the seeds] then you will be living from paycheck to paycheck. ‘Well brother, I am trusting in social security’ not if you’re a cessationist [someone who believes miracles don’t happen any more] because it would take a miracle for the government to not bankrupt the thing! So we see balance in this chapter. Good financial advice along with the reality that some day ‘your money will fail’. Good Christians maintain good balance.

 GENESIS 48- Jacob is old and ready to die. He calls Joseph and his boys. Jacob reminds Joseph that God called him many years before at Luz [Bethel]. Jacob is instilling in his son the reality of him and his family being a part of the divine plan. In essence ‘God has called us to great things, he chose me for this many years ago, you my son are simply an incarnate part of his divine purpose’. Now Jacob does something interesting. Joseph’s boys, Manasseh and Ephraim, are here to see Jacob [grandpa] before he dies. Jacob gives the honor of making Josephs 2 son’s equal heirs with the other boys. Joseph’s sons share equally in the inheritance of the 12 tribes. Jacob also says the younger one [Ephraim] shall be greater than the older one. Joseph kind of says ‘dad, you have your hand of blessing on the wrong boy, your right hand should be on Manasseh’. The right hand denotes special authority and favor. Jacob says ‘don’t worry son, I know what I am doing. God will bless your oldest son, but truly the greater blessing is on the youngest’. Now, to be honest, as I study the history of these boys thru the scripture, it doesn’t seem to me that any thing ‘extra special’ happened to Ephraim. I think Jacob might have made a mistake common to people with destiny. He read his own story line into the lineage of his sons. He might have felt that because God showed him special favor by honoring him over his older brother Esau that this mode of operation was to become a long term thing. Many divisions exist in the Body of Christ today because of this reasoning. I have taught tons of stuff on the idea of local church and how many good men seem to mistake a ‘mode of operation’ that worked well for them, but to then try and read this into the up and coming generation in a way that might be wrong. Paul taught in Corinthians that though there is one Spirit, yet there are many different ‘administrations’ and out workings of the gifts. We often read that passage in a way that says ‘in the Sunday ‘local church building’ mindset, you have different ways God works’. But it is actually saying ‘the Sunday building mindset is only one of the various ways the Spirit works’. Now I know Paul wasn’t directly talking ‘Sunday church’ in the passage, but the point is when the New Testament speaks of different ‘administrations’ and ways the Spirit manifests thru the people of God, it is speaking of Gods ability to manifest himself ‘outside of the box’. Jacob experienced God thru a mode that said ‘the younger shall serve the older’ I think he might have over done it when he tried to project this ‘mode’ onto his posterity!

 GENESIS 49- Jacob gathers the boys together to give them a blessing. He realizes the importance of launching them with both blessings and rebukes! Why does he mention the mistakes and failures of the boys? Rueben is unstable like water; he acted spontaneously and out of jealousy. Simeon and Levi have an anger problem. In today’s ‘church world’ we focus and confess the desired outcomes of what we seem to want. We feel it is against a life of faith to even hear or receive reproof. I watched one of the fathers of the prosperity movement the other day. He was overseas doing a convention. I watch now out of prayer and agreeing as much as possible with parts of the meeting. I see this as a function of the prophetic, a willingness to intercede and agree as much as possible with those you have disagreements with. To be honest, you could see a real sense of uneasiness in the audience. It was almost as if these believers were somewhat familiar with this man, but the teachings were really off. During the service the speaker said how people have come up to him and said ‘did you read that book about you’? People who have begun to learn of the errors of this movement. The teacher said he never reads or listens to those who try to rebuke or correct him. This was obvious as to the fact that the meeting ended in the teacher saying ‘satan, get your hands off my money’ in a very aggressive and angry voice. He was leading the people in prayer and said this. The whole thing was very sad. Now Jacob flat out tells the boys where they have done wrong and went off course, he makes no bones about it. These boys heard criticism that was needful. But he also gives some great blessings. I have already internalized and added the blessings from Judah ‘the scepter shall not depart from you’ ‘your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies’ ‘as a young lion you will crouch down and go up from the prey’. To Joseph ‘you are like a bough [vine] by a spring of water, a well. Your branches flow over the wall’ a type of regional influence, reaching beyond your ‘city borders’. The archers hated you and shot at you but did not prevail, but to the contrary your bow has prevailed. The purpose of God for Joseph and his ‘targeting’ of prophetic arrows of destiny would win. These are great promises to these boys. Jacob speaks to his sons as he prepares to die. He wants more than just a successful career during his lifetime, he wants to launch a movement [dynasty] that for generations to come would carry the torch of the original purpose. Jacob tells the boys ‘I am now going to die’ and he instructs them to bury him in the dirt of destiny! He wants to lay in the ground where he first met and learned of the fatherhood of God. He ‘slept’ before in the land and had a true ‘out of body’ experience at Bethel [Not a new age thing, but a real visitation from God]. He will reconnect with this destiny even in death. We still have one chapter left in Genesis, but we have really closed the book for the most part on this entire journey of Jacob and his boys. There is a real sense of this family living and dying with Gods destiny upon them. I want to ‘charge’ all of our readers and ‘family’ to reassess at this point in life. Bring things back into alignment with the true eternal values that count. I know we have rubbed people the wrong way because of our strong stance on a lot of issues. I have been ‘shot at by arrows’ many times, but I feel the Lord has allowed our ‘bow to prevail’ not for the targeting or hurting of people, but for the target that the Lord wants to hit. Children are like arrows in the hand of a mighty man, when they launch in the right direction they hit the target very time.

 GENESIS 50- Jacob dies and Joseph buries him in the Promised Land. The cave that Abraham bought years ago as a sign that they would remain in the land of destiny, they even buried their bodies as ‘seed’ in the land! Now the mourning for Jacob is intense. All Egypt and the people of Canaan see what a great loss this is. After Jacobs’s death, the brothers fear Joseph will finally take revenge! They send a messenger to say ‘we are sorry for betraying you as a boy, please spare us’. Joseph is surprised his brothers are still afraid. He assures them all is well, as they come and BOW DOWN TO HIM. Wow, many years earlier it was this very dream ‘shall we bow down to you?’ that caused their jealousy and betrayal. Now that it is being fulfilled to the tee, they are happy to do it, and Joseph feels no glory out of it! This is how scripture is fulfilled when it says ‘you shall see your desire on you enemies’ ‘the sons of those who hated you shall bow down to you’ it is fulfilled not in a self glorying way, but in a prophetic way in order to benefit those who hated and despised you years earlier! I find it funny how some people thru the years will initially meet me at a homeless mission or some other venue where I am just hanging out with buddies. Sometimes I have been treated ‘less than honorably’ by the Christians who think I am just a homeless guy. Now I am not pretending to be homeless! It’s just these guys are really some of my best buddies who I have been around for years. Sometimes I have been yelled at ‘you idiot, get your hands off of that drink’ when I accidentally took a soda 2 minutes before the official lunch bell. Others who are Christians and treat disdainfully some guy who they hear ‘he thinks he is a preacher’ from the homeless guys. It’s a sad commentary on the way believers treat the down and out with such little respect. Now years later some of them actually become students of the ministry, at first finding it hard to associate the ‘radio preacher’ or ‘blog writer’ with the guy that they cursed out at one time. But they are glad to ‘bow down’ [submit] and receive from the ministry. Some will even give the feeling of ‘now that we realize he isn’t a homeless guy, lets get together and talk spiritual stuff’. Sort of the idea that ‘the elite class’ can now accept you, because we see you as elite too. I don’t push them away, I just treat them like any one else. Whether they are ‘elite’ or homeless. In Josephs case he wasn’t thinking ‘now I got you guys, you said you would never bow, well look at you punks now’. He acted right. Joseph also gives a prophecy that after many years God will bring them up out of Egypt and into the land of destiny. Jacob and his sons came into Egypt as a fairly small band of people, they will spend 400 years in difficulty and oppression. God will use this ‘furnace of affliction’ to bring them to a point of supernatural signs and deliverance under Moses. They will add an extra 40 years delay in the wilderness due to their rebellion, and they will once again enter into the land where years earlier Abraham bought the burial ground. The land where Isaac experienced his God, the place where Jacob dealt with his fears and inadequacy. They will come back like stromtroopers as they cross the Jordan and instill fear into the inhabitants of Canaan. God said he would give the land to their forefathers, he kept his promise!

   [PARTS]

(869)ROMANS 14:1-9 Paul discusses Christian convictions. Things that are personal habits of discipline where the scripture is silent on. Some believers abstain from certain types of food. Others see certain days as ‘more special’ than the others. It’s important to see that in this discussion Paul is not concerned with ‘who is right’. Though he will describe the legalistic believers as ‘weak in the faith’. And he himself will say he is convinced that ‘nothing is unclean in and of itself’. He is speaking about the convictions mentioned above. When I first became a believer I attended a good church. It was a Fundamental Baptist church that was a little legalistic in these areas. I remember a funny story, some of the brothers went on a canoe trip. We had a blast. One of the guys was wearing these old cut off shorts that looked like ‘blue jean hot pants’ [who wears short shorts, we wear short shorts!] the pants were old and the ‘fly’ kept unzipping. We told the brother ‘hey James, your gonna get us arrested or something if you can’t keep your shorts on!’. He got mad and called us a bunch of legalists! As you can see there are times where this accusation can simply be an excuse. But seriously the church was old fashioned [though well meaning]. I had another friend of mine that I led to the Lord and he asked ‘what’s wrong with the Christian rock, I like it’? He had heard some songs from the group Petra and he thought they were great. He also questioned why it was wrong for his boys to play mixed sports in public school. He was taught that the boys and girls wearing shorts in mixed company was wrong. So things like this are personal convictions that believers should not use to judge others. I want to stress that Paul does not condemn the more legalistic brothers, but he does make it clear that this is a sign of ‘weaker faith’. A faith that looks at the insignificant things and makes them significant. Many ‘Emergent’ church folk [of which I am one to a degree] seem to have had this type of background. Or at least are familiar with the classic evangelical message and preaching. Some have found a revolution in their thinking by re-organizing their lives around the actual lifestyle and teachings of Christ [which is a very good thing!]. But some seem to despise the older type churches and expressions of Christianity that they experienced while growing up. Some even cast away the good with the bad! Though many of the more legalistic churches practiced this type of Christianity, yet I commend them on spreading the gospel of Gods grace. Taking seriously their faith in the Lord. And being historic defenders of the faith at a time when the more liberal universities were throwing out the baby with the bathwater [the 20th century fundamentalist movement].

 (870)ROMANS 14: 10-23 ‘As I live…every knee shall bow and every tongue confess’. Paul teaches that we will all give an account of ourselves to God. He shows that one of the proofs that ‘he lives’ rides on this fact. How? The context of every one giving an account of his life is speaking of a future judgment day. But we also see the reality of Gods existence in the fact that most people [even atheists!] have at one time or another ‘spoken to God’. I was listening [or reading?] a testimony of a woman who was an atheist. Her child became critically ill and as the days went by in the hospital she had a conversation that went like this ‘I cant pray to God now. I would be a hypocrite. I have denied him my whole life’. The point is she actually knew that in time of need you should pray to God. This universal reality that most people on the planet have at one time or another ‘confessed to God’ is proof of his existence. Paul says because of this fact that we all will give an account to God, therefore don’t judge other people [motives] before the time. If you have the freedom to ‘eat meat’ [less legalistic] then by all means do so. But if this freedom causes another to stumble, then your first priority as a Christian is to live your life in an unselfish way for the benefit of others. So do not let your freedom become an offence to those who have ‘weaker faith’. Do all things with the benefit of others in mind. When Paul says ‘don’t judge your brother’ he is not saying there is never a time for correction and reproof. Paul used very harsh language when dealing with the Judaizers. These Jewish legalists did believe in Christ, they just mixed the law in with the gospel. Paul rebuked them harshly [just like Jesus and the religious leaders of his day]. But when dealing with new believers, those who are ‘weaker in the faith’ you don’t want to overload them with too much stuff. You want them to grow and mature in the proper time. If you used to be legalistic [not going to movies, not eating pork, all types of stuff] and now are more mature in your thinking [though some movies are bad and pork isn’t real good for you!] you should not despise those who still see the practice of their faith thru this lens. Paul said ‘he that eats, eats unto the Lord. He that abstains does it also to the lord’. In these less important restrictions that some believers abide by, most of the times their motives are pure. We shouldn’t demean them. We should try to live peaceably with all men as much as possible, we will all give an account some day.

NEW NOTES-

IS EATING MEAT OK?

The question of food and Holy Days are a subject that the Apostle Paul deals with more than one time in his letters to the churches.

For us today- it might not seem like a big issue- but for various reasons it was an issue for the 1st century church.

When he wrote the church at Corinth- their issue was whether or not it was ok to eat meat sacrificed to idols.

Corinth had a tradition [non-Christian that is] where the town folk would sacrifice animals to various ‘gods’.

Now- the priests who dealt in this trade- would take the leftover meat from the animal- and either eat it- or sell it to the local ‘butcher’.

These sacrifices were to false gods [also understood to be demon entities by the 1st century Jewish/Christian communities].

So- the question was- is it ok to eat the meat?

The apostle Paul tells them that we know there are no other gods but the true God- and meat in general is ok for us living under the New Covenant [he also says in the End Times some will command to not eat meat- and that God gave us all animals to be received with thanksgiving].

So- in general- the meat was fine.

But- if doing it offends a weaker brother- then don’t eat it.

Meat also played a big role in another sense- the Jewish converts to Christianity were indeed taught kosher rules for food/meat.

Were these converts not to obey their old religious rules about food?

We read of this type of debate all thru the New testament- not just about meat- but about the whole transition of the Jewish believers- and their relationship to the Old Law.

In Acts chapter 13- and 15 you can get a good feel of this debate.

There are Christians today who still struggle with the Old Law- and how we today should relate to it.

Paul says he is persuaded that there is nothing unclean in and of itself [here talking about food- not things like adultery- which some of my friends think is ok- I can’t stress enough that when the bible says ‘nothing is unclean in and of itself’- it is NEVER TALKING ABOUT BREAKING THE 10 COMMANDMENTS].  

So- in the end- if in areas of what we call Christian convictions- it’s simply a matter of choice-

If the bible is silent on an issue- then lean towards grace-

But- if your freedom hurts your brother- because he thinks it’s a bad thing- then be willing to abstain from it- like eating the meat that was sacrificed to the idol- at least while their around.

Some see a contradiction in Paul's teaching- at one point he says ‘meats ok- even if part of it was used as a sacrifice to idols’- yet he also says ‘don’t eat at THE TABLE with devils [demons]’.

Ok- one of the practices at the city of Corinth was you ate in a sort of ‘demonic’ Eucharist- those who worshiped false gods had a sort of meal like Christians celebrated- which we call Holy Communion.

These idol worshippers did sort of the same thing- they ate together at their own TABLE_ in a sort of celebration of their gods-

So- Paul did forbid this practice- he told the church at Corinth you cannot eat at the table of the Lord and the table of devils-

If you were actually participating at the Table- eating the meat there- in celebration of the false god- then it’s wrong.

But- if you simply bought some of the left over meat- at the local butcher- that was fine.

See?

No contradiction at all.

 KING CYRUS- DAVIVD KORESH?

Paul uses a quote from Isaiah 45 ‘every knee shall bow- tongue confess’ – talking about God using a pagan king- King Cyrus- to restore Israel to their land.

We read about him in the book of Ezra and Daniel-

He gave the famous decree for God’s people to return to their land [2nd Chronicles 36, Ezra 1].

Josephus the historian indicates that Cyrus was shown the prophecy about him [written by Isaiah about 150 years before].

It’s possible that Daniel himself showed this to Cyrus- being he held a high position in the Persian empire- at this time.

David Koresh- the infamous leader of the branch Davidians [a breakaway sect from the 7TH day Adventist church] took his name from Cyrus-

Koresh is the Persian name for Cyrus the Great.

   VERSES-

September 17, 2017

 « September 16  |  September 18 »

Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 130

Reading 1

SIR 27:30—28:7

Wrath and anger are hateful things, yet the sinner hugs them tight. The vengeful will suffer the LORD's vengeance, for he remembers their sins in detail. Forgive your neighbor's injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven. Could anyone nourish anger against another and expect healing from the LORD? Could anyone refuse mercy to another like himself, can he seek pardon for his own sins? If one who is but flesh cherishes wrath, who will forgive his sins? Remember your last days, set enmity aside; remember death and decay, and cease from sin! Think of the commandments, hate not your neighbor; remember the Most High's covenant, and overlook faults.

Responsorial Psalm

PS 103:1-2, 3-4, 9-10, 11-12

R. (8) The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion. Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all my being, bless his holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. R. The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion. He pardons all your iniquities, heals all your ills. He redeems your life from destruction, crowns you with kindness and compassion. R. The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion. He will not always chide, nor does he keep his wrath forever. Not according to our sins does he deal with us, nor does he requite us according to our crimes. R. The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he put our transgressions from us. R. The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion.

Reading 2

ROM 14:7-9

Brothers and sisters: None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself. For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord; so then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. For this is why Christ died and came to life, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

Alleluia

JN 13:34

R. Alleluia, alleluia. I give you a new commandment, says the Lord; love one another as I have loved you. R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel

MT 18:21-35

Peter approached Jesus and asked him, "Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive? As many as seven times?"  Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.  That is why the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants.  When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount.  Since he had no way of paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt.  At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.' Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan.  When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller amount.  He seized him and started to choke him, demanding, 'Pay back what you owe.' Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.' But he refused.  Instead, he had the fellow servant put in prison until he paid back the debt.  Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master and reported the whole affair.  His master summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked servant!  I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to.  Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?' Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt.  So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart."

窗体顶端

 窗体底端

Genesis 39:1 And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hands of the Ishmeelites, which had brought him down thither.

Genesis 39:2 And the LORD was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian.

Genesis 39:3 And his master saw that the LORD was with him, and that the LORD made all that he did to prosper in his hand.

Genesis 39:4 And Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him: and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand.

Genesis 39:5 And it came to pass from the time that he had made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, that the LORD blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; and the blessing of the LORD was upon all that he had in the house, and in the field.

Genesis 39:6 And he left all that he had in Joseph's hand; and he knew not ought he had, save the bread which he did eat. And Joseph was a goodly person, and well favoured.

Genesis 39:7 And it came to pass after these things, that his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she said, Lie with me.

Genesis 39:8 But he refused, and said unto his master's wife, Behold, my master wotteth not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand;

Genesis 39:9 There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?

Genesis 39:10 And it came to pass, as she spake to Joseph day by day, that he hearkened not unto her, to lie by her, or to be with her.

Genesis 39:11 And it came to pass about this time, that Joseph went into the house to do his business; and there was none of the men of the house there within.

Genesis 39:12 And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me: and he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out.

Genesis 39:13 And it came to pass, when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand, and was fled forth,

Genesis 39:14 That she called unto the men of her house, and spake unto them, saying, See, he hath brought in an Hebrew unto us to mock us; he came in unto me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice:

Genesis 39:15 And it came to pass, when he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with me, and fled, and got him out.

Genesis 39:16 And she laid up his garment by her, until his lord came home.

Genesis 39:17 And she spake unto him according to these words, saying, The Hebrew servant, which thou hast brought unto us, came in unto me to mock me:

Genesis 39:18 And it came to pass, as I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with me, and fled out.

Genesis 39:19 And it came to pass, when his master heard the words of his wife, which she spake unto him, saying, After this manner did thy servant to me; that his wrath was kindled.

Genesis 39:20 And Joseph's master took him, and put him into the prison, a place where the king's prisoners were bound: and he was there in the prison.

Genesis 39:21 But the LORD was with Joseph, and shewed him mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison.

Genesis 39:22 And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison; and whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it.

Genesis 39:23 The keeper of the prison looked not to any thing that was under his hand; because the LORD was with him, and that which he did, the LORD made it to prosper.

Psalm 103:1 Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

Psalm 103:2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:

Psalm 103:3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;

Psalm 103:4 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;

Psalm 103:5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.

Psalm 103:6 The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.

Psalm 103:7 He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.

Psalm 103:8 The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.

Psalm 103:9 He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.

Psalm 103:10 He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

Psalm 103:11 For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.

Psalm 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

Psalm 103:13 Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.

Psalm 103:14 For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.

Psalm 103:15 As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.

Psalm 103:16 For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.

Psalm 103:17 But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children;

Psalm 103:18 To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.

Psalm 103:19 The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.

Psalm 103:20 Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.

Psalm 103:21 Bless ye the LORD, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure.

Psalm 103:22 Bless the LORD, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the LORD, O my soul.

 Judge Banales injures TX-DOT worker in collision in Corpus Christi

Worker's medical condition upgraded to serious

ROBERT WILCOX Editor/Reporter

CORPUS CHRISTI POLICE inspect the car driven by Presiding District Court Judge J. Manuel Banales on Thursday afternoon near the I-37/Padre Island Drive interchange, after he struck and seriously injured a TXDOT worker. Rescuers had to cut the roof and doors off Banales's Cadillac Coupe DeVille to free the judge. Both men were taken to the Christus Spohn Memorial Hospital. Photo courtesy of George Gongora/Corpus Christi Caller-Times.CORPUS CHRISTI - Presiding District Judge J. Manuel Banales struck and critically-injured a TXDOT highway worker last Thursday afternoon, who was working with crew members on the North Padre Island Drive connecting ramp to I-37 in Corpus Christi.

Judge Banales, who is presiding over three crucial Willacy County criminal trials, was slightly injured himself, and had to be removed from his gold Cadillac Coupe Deville, by the jaws-of-life, according to Corpus Christi police who are investigating the incident.

Martin Garcia, 34, the TX-DOT worker who was injured, is in serious condition at Christus Spohn Memorial Hospital's Intensive Care Unit.

Garcia and one other TX-DOT worker were replacing signs along the left side of the ramp when Judge Banales lost control of his vehicle, and went off the roadway.

After striking Garcia, Judge Banales car then struck a heavy duty cherry picker truck, according to a story in the Corpus Christi Caller- Times.

Capt. Mike McKinney of the Corpus Christi Police Department said that Judge Banales willingly gave a blood sample for examination, and that police are still investigating if speed or other distractions may have caused the accident.

Traffic investigators returned to an accident scene for about three hours on Friday, to recreate the crash that seriously injured Garcia, according to KRIS/Channel 6 TV in Corpus Christi.

It is still unknown, whether Judge Banales will face any charges.

"We have no reason to believe, nor do I believe, that he was under the influence of anything. But we just kind of have to eliminate any possibility."

McKinney said the incident is still under examination, and the blood test results could take up to 30 days.

TX-DOT Spokesperson Cliff Bost told KRIS/Channel 6 TV, "Our guys are kind of going through some things. They're upset about their coworker. Probably next week they'll get out there and take care of them."

Judge Jose Longoria said that his colleague Judge Banales is more concerned about Garcia's well-being than his own right now, according to KRIS/Channel 6 TV.

Judge Longoria said, "Knowing Judge Banales, he'll be here on Monday, but he needs to take care of himself and we'll take care of his court."

Judge Banales had a Nueces County murder trial scheduled for Monday, and was planning to take vacation in July.

The three Willacy County criminal trials involve; District Attorney Juan Angel "Johnny" Guerra and two of his staff members; County Judge Eliseo "Cheyo" Barnhart; and former Raymondville School Board President Gloria Garcia, her niece, and her nieces husband.

It is unknown if the Willacy cases will be postponed or reassigned to another district judge.

Judge Banales is in recovery from surgery he had on a broken hand on Friday.

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MONDAY, JUNE 9, 2008

LOOK OUT MANUEL BANALES!!!EL DEFENZOR IS BAAAAAAAAAACK! THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE.

skip to main | skip to sidebar  DEFENZORMAGAZINE  IN CASE HOMERO IS TAKEN ALIVE BY THOSE IDIOTS TRYING TO SHUT HIM DOWN: HERE IS HIS BLOG SO FAR: Monday, June 9, 2008 BANALES LEAVE OF ABSENCE. HMMM. MORE LIKE LEAVE TO CYA  Banales snuck out of the hospital on sneak mode and now is laying low. El Defenzor was distributed as is our first amendment right at the courthouse steps and people rapidly snatched up the papers. Now we have learned (see below) that Barger is yet again covering for Maximum MANUEL BY STASHING HIS CAR AT MIKAL WATTS CAR WAREHOUSE. Unbelievable. And as usual Kaelin has shot off his mouth stating that Banales was going 91 mph (allegedly). NOTE ON FIRST AMENDMENT. THE DEFENZOR CAN DISH IT OUT AND TAKE IT. Our legal eagles pro bono have notified me that overlawyered called upset after making slanderous and libelous remarks named Frank called up lashing out after he put our publication down. That is his first amendment right as is ours. I understand freedom of speech and it sometimes comes at a price but that is what is needed for a free society. Overlawyered can say what they want and so can I but please do it after researching and not listening to some disgruntled plaintiff lawyer named Braugh who we hav caught redhanded with his law firm trying to control judge elections on e-mails also collectively known as the Club. Mr. Frank should respect us for our efforts since he is singlemindedly going after lawyers. Actually our causes are similar.  Posted by HOMERO VILLARREAL at 10:18 PM 1 comments  BANALES. FREEDOM OF SPEECH.JUST IN CASE THEY SHUT IT DOWN  TxDOT worker injured in accident upgraded to serious By Stuart Duncan (Contact)Originally published 02:20 p.m., June 9, 2008Updated 02:20 p.m., June 9, 2008 CORPUS CHRISTI — The Texas Department of Transportation worker injured in a recent traffic accident has been upgraded from critical to serious condition, officials at Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial said Monday. Martin Garcia, 34, was injured in a traffic accident involving 105th District Judge J. Manuel Banales last Thursday near the ramp connecting South Padre Island Drive and Interstate 37. The Texas Department of Transportation has set up a fund for donations for Garcia: Checks should be made payable to the “Martin Garcia Fund.” Ma

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