paradoxicaltaco

[paradoxicaltaco]

"I saved the world," the hero said.

"As was foretold," the oracle said.

"But…"

"Yes?"

"How long will it stay saved?"

"From that Dark Lord? Forever."

"Are there other threats?"

"The world will always need saving."

"So it was all for naught?"

"No! You saved the world!"

[paradoxicaltaco]

[paradoxicaltaco]

pretty much, yeah.

[paradoxicaltaco]

[paradoxicaltaco]

I think this is par for the course for The NY Times. They’ve ceased to be a top tier newspaper a long time ago.

[paradoxicaltaco]

There are ghosts of parts of people that died. They say when you take someone's time, their potential, you kill part of their soul, that you feast on their life as much as a murderer, just more slowly. So when you kill part of someone's soul, sometimes that part still has unfinished business too.

You can see some wandering the halls of a local school at night. Often congregating by the playground. Faint images of children and teenagers playing and talking to eachother, and doing all the things children and teenagers were once meant to do. They are the ghosts of their creativity and their passion, snuffed out by hours of tests and meaningless words, ghosts of interests and passions long since given up on and discarded and childish or useless, ghosts of time spent socializing killed by fear and sorrow. And there they still play, play while the bodies they once belonged to work, and enjoy childish things in the graves where their childhoods are buried.

And in an office building lay stranger ghosts. Ghosts of faded and washed up dreams taken away by cold practicality and time spent working. The ghosts of dreams wander those halls. A singer sings with a voice long killed to make phone call after phone call. A punk wears shining pink hair and black leather as a reminder that they were killed for the sake of a that woild not offend HR. An artist draws a comic that they was killed along with their artist's soul I'm favor of a practical career. And a loving father wanders the halls looking for his children, not knowing they're all away now in boarding school, raised by someone who has time to take care of them.

And in the church there are even more ghosts. More dark and aggressive. A child's inoccence flies around with wailing screams and weeping eyes, killed by words of hellfire and damnation. A woman's love for humanity, and good will stands with feathered wings, destroyed long ago when the holy texts told her who killed her God. And the ghost of a man stands in the armor of a knight, waiting for revenge, for his death when the preacher told him he was made a woman by God, and that it was sin to want that to change. And the priests of the church find themselves haunted by screams, and cut by claws at night, and their dark ritual wine truly turns to blood at times, with an unholy metalic smell.

They say the most ghosts of the living are by the prison. Dark and screaming ghosts, ghosts of hope, ghosts of will to live, and ghosts of years of lives taken by the bars of cages. Those ghosts having sharp teeth, and claws of steel willing the strike, and the guards there often turn up dead and bloodied, and they can't help but hear the calls and screams in their slumber.

And let it be a lesson to those who take from living souls, that the ghosts of the living can be as wrathful as those of the dead.

[paradoxicaltaco]

My cat woke up, did a big stretch, and yawned. Then she hiccoughed, turned into a small dragon, and coughed up a fireball.

"!!!" I said.

"What?" She shrugged back into cat form.

"You're a shape shifter?"

"All cats are. There's just never any reason to not be a cat."

[paradoxicaltaco]

As I sat on the edge, contemplating the street ten stories below, a raven landed next to me.

"Is it true," I said, "that seeing a raven means you'll die?"

"Yes," it said, "but not today."

It's come a few more times the last sixty years, with the same words. I just figured it out.

[paradoxicaltaco]

This is brilliant!

The patron

The alien came to the library again, shortly before closing time, and quickly found a book.

"May this entity borrow The Complete History of Knitting?"

They always return the book they borrow after five minutes, but the ritual of checking it out seems important to them. 

"Of course. Did you bring your card?"

I looked them up, after the first time I saw them for real. They first registered with us over ninety years ago. The senior librarian who first told me about them said I shouldn't stare, or pry.

"Whatever else they are, they are a patron, and should be treated as such," she said. "If they seek knowledge, it is our duty to help them find it."

There isn't an ancient and secret code of librarians, but that is definitely a core part of it. If such a code existed.

I scan the card and the book. "There you go," I say and hand them over. "Please return it within two weeks."

They tilt their head. "This entity will honour your terms."

"Oh! That reminds me, we have updated the terms since your last visit." I hand them the pamphlet we got from the printers last week. "It's mostly about internet usage, but I'll need you to read them and agree."

They study the pamphlet.

"These are terms this entity can abide by." They pause. "Is there no requirement to keep your existence secret?"

"Of course not," I say, "we always welcome new patrons."

They stand silent, long enough for me to realise the implications of what I have just said. 

"This entity had made an assumption, based on prior experiences on countless worlds, where knowledge is always closely guarded and costly to obtain" they say at last. "You will provide knowledge for free to all who seek it?"

In my mind, I weigh humanity's ignorance of those countless worlds of alien civilisations against the code.

"Yes," I say, "this is a library."

[paradoxicaltaco]

I never understood how we ever used gas chambers as an execution method given what happened in Nazi Germany, but this story has me silently screaming “WHAT THE ABSOLUTE F***” (no need to freak out my cats & neighbors by screaming out loud.

https://apple.news/AgRHJwIpTSh2lNnMV2oEPtg

[paradoxicaltaco]

Spoticus has been practicing while I’ve not been looking. Thought those drumheads looked more worn than the should be. Wonder if he’s been doin’ gigs? 🤔 — view on Instagram https://ift.tt/3z7cPhG

[paradoxicaltaco]

— view on Instagram https://ift.tt/3uo0zGa

[paradoxicaltaco]

— view on Instagram https://ift.tt/3bUCkcg

[paradoxicaltaco]

Today in History on BhánJawn’s BDay

A bit of May 17th history…

1733 - Great Britain passes Molasses Act on colonies

1803 - Reaping Machine patented

1861 - 1st color photographs shown (of a tartan ribbon) in London

1902 - Discovery of the Antikythera Mechanism - an ancient mechanical analog computer 

1993 - Intel’s Pentium processor is unveiled

2004 - Massachusetts becomes 1st state to legalize same sex marriage 

2009 - Minecraft is 1st released to public while in development (pictured)

[paradoxicaltaco]

A bit of April 15th history…

1250 - Kublai is acclaimed the Great Khan by a Mongol Great Council

1874 - 1st “Impressionist” exhibit opens in Paris - has Monet, Degas, Renoir, Pissaro and Morisot

1912 - Titanic sinks at 2:27am

1955 - 1st McDonald’s opens in Illinois

2010 - Volcanic ash from eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull leads to closure of air space over most of Europe

2019 - Paris cathedral, Notre Dame, catches fire, toppling it’s spire and destroying it’s roof (pictured)

[paradoxicaltaco]

A bit of April 12th history…

1861 - Fort Sumter in South Carolina is attacked by confederacy, beginning the American Civil War (pictured)

1955 - Polio vaccine tested by Dr Jonas Salk - announced it to be safe and effective 

1961 - Russian cosmonaut is 1st to orbit earth

1981 - Maiden voyage of Space Shuttle Columbia