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imaginationxlost · 4 years ago

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SO I was just inadvertently reminded that I need to talk about the setting of Sparks (and many other stories).

Very minor spoilers for uh... all of these ahead.

That out of the way, let’s begin!

I usually call the setting “Shadowed Dreams” as a combination of the two halves of it, Shadowed Souls and Dreams (which are themselves multiple stories coming together).

So the setting of Shadowed Dreams exists in five planes. (Also the separation of Shadowed Souls and Dreams is primarily whether the plot stuff is more related to up from Earth (Dreams) or down from Earth (Shadowed Souls))

Each plane has it’s own color of magic (mostly called Quintessence, or tessence on Earth; which is the term I will use from here on, even though other planes have different names) and each kind acts slightly differently.

They can also react with one another.

Purple and Black tend to mutually destroy one another, and they act really similarly and will supplant one another whenever possible. Black tends to be better at creating permanent effects versus purple and black is better at affecting the souls of living things. Purple on the other hand is better at quick changes, natural phenomena and mind affecting abilities. Both are very good at magical binding, whether it’s tying two souls together, or locking someone into a magical contract. It can be very tricky.

They also move similarly, but not quite identically. Both kinds of tessence travel through the air like a mist. Black acts like it’s a little ‘heavier’, but it’s slight. The similarity is why they tend to supplant each other when they end up in the same environment.

Yellow and Green tessence also react with one another as well, but rather than destroying and supplanting one another, they tend to repel each other. If forced together they’ll mutually destroy, but one has to force that.

Both Yellow and Green are particularly good at conjuration; creating something out of nothing. Yellow is also extremely good at illusions, and any and all magic related to the mind. Green is... VERY good at conjuration. Also at like... edict magic. Magical commands that one has to/is compelled to follow. And divinations. It’s very good at divinations. It’s also good at messing with souls, though not as good as black.

Yellow and Green tessense both spread through the air too, but green tessense tends to sink close to the ground and creep along like a heavy smoke, and yellow spreads out fast and always ends up scattered and thin if it’s not actively controlled or replenished.

Worth noting about all of these specialties is that they aren't hard rules. They’re just what’s easiest to do with each color by default. Technically there’s nothing that one color can do that the others can’t.

Movement between planes is possible, but not without rules. Without considerable magical power, it’s basically impossible to go more than one plane away from your native plane. That’s what the arrows on the image mean; it’s showing the possible travel.

Also worth noting is that tessense as a whole travels up between planes where it can. It usually can’t because there’s just too much of the native tessence for it to matter but it will be relevant.

“You skipped Orange-”

Orange is fucked. I’ll GET TO IT. Just know it hates all other kinds of tessense right this second. If you’ve read Sparks (and you’re not a specific friend I’ve talked about this stuff to) you’re probably a little confused because, uh, isn’t Earth Purple?

I’ll get to it.

Oh and a couple of quick side notes

~ All sapient denizens are humanoid to some degree. The weirdest is gets is the more powerful Angels and Demons. Angels will have more wings the more powerful they are, and demons will have like weirder legs or arms or whatnot. But still a bipedal creature with one head two arms, two forward facing eyes, etc. Also the fey have some variation (especially in size) but are never too far from the humanoid body plan.

~ Every plane has at least one ‘monarch’ sorta. It’s magical thing. They don’t have to have any political power (though they usually do; Earth excluded). The Monarch(s) are powerful individuals magically connected to the plane itself, and without the Monarch(s) the fabric of reality is less stable. This is a relevant fact. OKAY.

So let’s talk about these planes, from the top down.

The top plane is native to the Angels. It’s ruled by the King of Angels, and at any given time there are nine archangels in existence, though not all of them are in their home plane, since one of them has been banished down to Earth by the King. The King is the Monarch, though any of the Archangels could take that position if it was ever opened. He’s very paranoid about that possibility and rules the whole plane (or well, his planet in the plane; they all have Outer Space) with an iron fist to keep tight control and maintain his position.

He’s also in a long term war with the Demons, but it’s mostly In Name Only because it’s very rare that they can actually access each other. Hatred of demons is a very real thing in Angel culture though, especially after an archangel was killed by a demon on Earth (the fact that said Archangel was banished there by the King is conveniently left of of the narrative).

Next down is the Dreamers. Dreamland as as place is fueled and influenced by the thoughts and imaginations of the people on Earth. Yellow Quintessence is created by the dreams and ideas of Earthlings, rising up like magic and forming into the tessence on Dreamlands plane.

All of that is why the culture and magic in Dreamland is influenced by Earth’s.

There are five courts in Dreamland, each one having it’s own Monarch. Thematically, they’re each one of the french suits, as through Dreamlands history their courts have always built off of Earthly games, and as time went on the powers shifted and it slowly went from one monarch to five.

Five though, you might be asking? There are only four french suits; hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades. And you’re right!

But before the french suits there were the minor arcana. And the major arcana. But as the french suits took over as the actual game cards, things shifted in Dreamland, and the Major Arcana court eventually became the star court, as a fifth suit.

But... saying Dreamland has five courts isn’t entirely accurate. It’s supposed to have five. That hasn’t been the case in a long time. The Diamond court ended up absorbed into the Heart Court, making the Heart Court the defacto court in control of all of Dreamland, and making the whole plane less stable and that’s a dangerous state to be in. It’s a good thing the Angels aren’t trying to take advantage of that /foreshadowing

Hoo boy. Earth. Okay. So Earth’s color is orange. A fact that I’m SURE confused any readers of Sparks.

Orange quintessence doesn’t spread. It doesn’t spread like, at all. It clumps together leaving it wide open for the tessence from below to flow up and spread on Earth, to the point of dominating and becoming the life energy everything on Earth, when on every other plane it’s their own native color in that role.

There aren’t very many magic users who use orange, and those who do... don’t consider themselves magic users.

See, orange Quintessence is more commonly called anti-magic. As used by hunters. You see it now, Sparks readers, Eh?

ACTUAL SPOILERS AHEAD THOUGH. Skip to Fey if you don’t want spoilers about a major villain + some other stuff

WARNING. WARNING.

So what about Earth’s Monarch? And for the readers of Sparks- what the hell is the Master? What are Mages? While those later questions are more related to the Fey, I’m going to answer them here.

The Master is the reincarnating soul of a deceased Monarch from the Fey world. When a monarch is killed by someone else who could magically hold that position it shunts the soul to a different plane. And it only reincarnates in the mages and into specific families a lot because... mages are descendants of Fey, and the stronger a family’s fey blood is, the more likely it is that the fey monarch would be born into, because magically it’s drawn to Like.

So... Earth’s Monarch.

Earth’s Monarch is Kevin Anderson. The only people who use orange magic are the organization of Witch Hunters, who actively hunt down and kill magic users, because orange destroys all other kinds of tessense, and isn’t mutually destroyed to the same extent as the other reactive colors.

Kevin Anderson is a name that has meaning to anyone who’s read Sparks though.

See, Monarch on Earth just reincarnates (common for monarch souls) whenever they die, and the Hunter Organization actively hunts the kid down every time, and due to how reincarnation works (with past lives acting as a base for a new personality to be altered and changed by a new lifetime) it’s slowly made them hateful and cruel across many lifetimes

Which lands on Kevin Anderson by the time the story starts. At first the characters only know him as a very powerful Hunter, but it’s a lot more than that. He’s extremely dangerous.

So about those Fey Monarchs. There’s three fey Monarchs. There’s supposed to be four, one for each Season.

The Winter Queen is dead though, killed by her own child (who was a literal CHILD and got banished to Earth for their ‘crimes’), and no one took that throne. The Autumn Queen grabbed up a lot of the Winter Courts people and power, but not all of it, so the power imbalance isn’t quite as extreme as in Dreamland.

It’s still not GOOD though. Especially given what goes on below them though.

Oh also all of the Queens are kinda terrible people.

Below them though? Well there’s the Demon King, and nine archdemons, mirroring the Angels in that. Frankly the King of Demons and the Angel King have more in common than they have different. They’re both old fools who are clinging to their throne at all costs and stoke hatred towards the other to maintain control.

But the King of Demons is doing more than the Angel King. He’s actively seeking to advance that war, damn all the people between them.

And what do you know, the plane between him and Earth is weakened for having a monarch missing, so his war starts against the Fey, but his plans go much further than that.

#worldbuilding #sequel: shadowed dreams #this was fun to actually write up #writeblr #writing #My writing

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worfs-glorious-hair · 5 years ago

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Puzzle Pieces: Interlude-What is a soulmate?(RK-800 Connor x Reader; Deroit: Become Human) Part 4

Greeeeeetings!

I am glad to be back (finally) after a whole year. I am sorry.

A lot happened and I hope that you are in a safe space. I am sending you a social-distanced and corona-free hug! <3

Also, big shoutout to all the old and new readers and peeps who found their way to this fanfiction in the last year. Reading the notifications of likes and retweets and even asks to be tagged in the next part never failed to make me feel so happy and giggly inside. This chapter was actually posted already a few weeks ago on AO3 but only now I finally got around to update on here as well. So extra-kudos for your extra-patience! :D <3

We’re doing some world-building in this chapter and our boi Connor feels things and is overall confused by the answers he finds. A lot to look forward to for you. :D

And one more thing until I finally let you go to reading, I decided to specify the reader's pronouns and settled with female pronouns. But otherwise than that I still try to write the reader as open as possible that you have more room to find yourself in the story. If you would prefer different pronouns, tho, please message me and we'll figure something out for you. I am there for you and I want to respect your pronouns and want you to have a good reading experience.

Spoilers for the game in the following chapter, btw.

I think I’ve kept you from the chapter now long enough. Enjoy reading. <3

Message me if you want to be tagged in the next chapter.

Stay safe and please be responsible and wear a mask over nose and mouth.

All my love, lady-spacy

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

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Interlude- What is a soulmate?

"Lieutenant", Connor asked, "what is a soulmate? I noticed that the subject of 'soulmates' appears in two out of three conversations and it caused always a measurable change in one's body chemistry. For example, I detected an increased level of serotonin and..."

"Do you stop talking if I answer your question?", a very tired Lieutenant Anderson interrupted Connor's analysis. Hank knew that if he wouldn't be stopped soon, Connor would continue to talk about hormones and blushes and cheesy giggles and all that exhausting stuff that came with the topic of soulmates. The only way to shut that noisy android up was to answer his questions and they would be in the car to Kamski’s estate for another twenty minutes. And twenty minutes could be long next to someone who wants to talk so badly when all you want to do is to drive in peace.

"Of course, Lieutenant."

Hank rolled his eyes and fought the urge to sigh, of fucking course would that shut Connor up. He was predictable after all, very – curious but predictable.

“A soulmate is your, uh, uhm, your lifelong partner. I mean, not your partner, I don’t think Androids have soulmates…”, Hank eyed Connor from the side and wondered what his LED ring on his temple looked like. He had realized that whenever Connor was thinking about something his LED would spin around, sometimes slow, sometimes even faster. Sometimes it would even change the color and would go from blue to yellow.

And now Hank found himself wondering what that Android did to him, that he cared about what Connor thought.

Connor had watched Hank closely and attentive. He wanted to know, he wanted to understand.

“No, Lieutenant, Androids do not have soulmates. But I still don’t understand what a soulmate differs from a good friend? What is it that makes you have the names written on your bodies, who decides on what name, which person, will appear on your body, why are your destinies supposed to be connected by something, apparently without your consent. Did you ever choose to have a soulmate?”

‘Yeah’, Hank thought by himself, ‘good questions.’

“Soulmates are a difficult topic”, he finally spoke out loud. Trying to find words to explain a concept that no one really understood.

”Even scientists didn’t’t found all answers”, continued Hank, “as far as I know, they aren’t even close. We don’t know what bonds us to another human being. Soulmates are said to be ‘tied together from the universe itself’”, Hank drew quotation marks in the air with his right hand that wasn’t on the wheel, “but whatever it is that decided about that, we’re having to deal with that shit now. And for your question, soulmates are supposed to be partners, lovers even, a team that belongs together. People who give each other security and safety. It’s a nice idea but in reality it doesn’t play out. We don’t choose our soulmates and don’t get a say with it. There is no ‘consent’ in that soulmate shit, as you put it in words.”

“Have you found your soulmate, Lieutenant? Was your heart broken and this is why you now doubt the idea of soulmates? I can detect patterns of emotional distress in your voice.”

“Jeez, do you try to be fucking psychiatrist now?”

„No“, came Connor‘s immediate answer.

„I am just trying to understand human nature better.”

“Well, there is a name on my wrist, if that’s what you want to know. But at the end it was only a name. Just because you have a name there doesn’t mean that you will live happily ever after. Life can still happen…”

For Hank this was it, he had already said enough. He glanced over to Connor who still looked at him, Hank, with this never ending gleam of curiosity and analyzing that always surrounded him.

Android? Hank wondered if this was truly the nature of that boy, sure his body was artificial but what about his heart?

‘Androids don’t have hearts’ would have said the Hank from just four days ago and now he just wasn’t sure about that anymore. He had seen so much, he had seen two girls, who were so deeply in love that they were willing to do anything to be together, he had seen Connor deciding not to shoot these girls and let them get away, obviously going against his programming as a hunter.

And then Connor’s answers two nights ago on that playground, Hank had seen trouble in his eyes, he had heard the poorly covered confusion in his voice, which left him confused as well.

Hank started to wonder if they were wrong, what if Androids could be more than the illusion of a human?

“Mr Kamski?“, Hank called, when he and Connor were finally let in to meet Elijah Kamski.

“Just a moment, please”, came the immediate answer from the other side of the room, where the former CEO of Cyberlife was currently swimming in a pool with red tiles that made it look like it was filled with blood instead of water.

While they waited for him to come out of the pool, Connor took the time to look around in the large room with big art pieces on the walls and a glass window that filled the whole outer wall and showed the view towards the frozen Detroit River.

He turned around again when he heard water splashing, signaling a body that was lifted out of it and he saw Kamski climbing up the pool ladder.

Acting on a sudden impulse Connor tried to catch a glimpse of Kamski’s wrist hoping to see his soulmark as the RT-600 Chloe, who had opened the door for them, helped Kamski put on a bath robe but before he came close enough to see, Kamski turned around to the window and fixed his hair.

When he turned back to him and Hank he smirked at Connor, just as he had read his mind, and crossed his hands loosely over is lower abdomen, completely blocking the view to his wrists.

And kept his hands like this for the rest of the conversation.

„I always leave an emergency exit in my programs…“, Kamski looked at Connor with his sly, sparkling eyes, full with endless smugness and the touch of a smirk on the corners of his mouth.

As if this whole exchange has not been confusing and frightening enough for Connor, he had to deal with this mysterious comment now, too. What does that mean? What does he want to say with it?

Connor would like to ask but he would probably just get another riddle as an answer.

“Connor, wait!”

A voice called him back as he was about to head outside.

He stopped and turned around to the original RT-600 model, her eyes burning with an intensity and significance that Connor had never seen before, at least not in an Android’s eyes. He could not look away.

Again, as he locked eyes with the very first Android, who was able to pass the Turing test, he saw more there. For the same reason that he hasn’t been able to shoot not even seven minutes ago, for the same reason did he now stop in his tracks and waited patiently for what she had to say.

She...

That word lingered in his mind for a very long moment.

‘What is happening?’ screamed his mind, unable to cope. His mind was drowning in too many illogical new information and sensations.

This is too much!

‘I can’t look away’, Connor realized as he stared into her burning eyes, his mind being filled with just one thought: ‘Whatever is happening here right now is important! Don’t blink!’

“The truth is beneath your skin”, she said hastily, softly tipping on his right wrist with her index finger, right where the sleeves of his jacket ended.

He followed the movement of her finger with his eyes and stared at his wrist. What could be there, hiding, waiting?

“The truth is there, everything you need to know!” Connor did not know what to say or do, he just kept staring at his wrist, trying to see, to understand, what she could possibly be talking about.

He continued staring at his wrist and her finger until he finally came back to his senses, after too many seconds that are an eternity for Androids.

Blinking away once again the warning for the never ending, wildly spinning software instability that had appeared when that Chloe had stopped him.

Connor practically sprinted outside to Hank and his car.

^^ Software Instability ^^

R#aN%9I=97&°

Connor took a step back in surprise, Androids could have soulmates!

Ortiz’ Android had a soulmark! Written in blue CyberLife fond stood a name on the Android’s wrist, Melanie.

Maybe the soulmarks came with deviancy, Connor thought, maybe their soulmate was only revealed when they became deviant. Meaning that there had always been someone who was meant to be- waiting, sleeping under the skin. Meaning that deviancy was a lot more than a virus or a software error. Deviancy could be a revelation of life in all of it’s aspects.

But deviancy was just an irregularity in the programming, Connor thought, seeking comfort in programmed truths that he wanted to believe so badly. Truths that did not feel true anymore. But if he didn’t believe in them, he had nothing left to believe in. Connor was lost. Lost between the destroyed bodies of Androids who had only wanted peace, justice or a home.

Connor stood on an edge, every time a software instability appeared he could see the abyss, he did not want to fall!

So he clung onto the only truths he ever knew. Otherwise he would become like them, just another broken machine.

He continued examining the Androids’ bodies and finds from his missions for a clue for Jericho in the evidence room of the Detroit Police Department. While he scanned and analyzed, he tried to find comfort in the tasks that he was created for–the software instabilities that occurred even more regularly now in the past days confused and scared him, Connor couldn’t comprehend what was happening to him- he needed to be uninterrupted if he wanted to find the deviant leader and finally bring back order into this chaos.

Connor craved peace, he craved the monotone calmness of executing programs and tasks, no emotions, no insecurities, no confusion.

But his thoughts came always back to soulmates- how could this be possible?

Deviancy was maybe caused by a computer virus and soulmates were supposed to be a real lifelong connection between two human beings, that were alive and had a soul. Soulmates for Androids just couldn’t work, Androids just don’t have souls!

They are only machines, programmed to think, they have no real mind of their own and yet all of the Androids in the evidence room had their soulmarks on their wrists.

Daniel even had a name written in red by a human’s hand as his soulmark.

A human had been Daniel’s soulmate… But what about his soulmate now, do they search now forever for someone who is not alive anymore?

Alive…

And again, another warning for a software instability appeared in Connor‘s periphery. He blinked it away.

How could this be that he had actually thought of Daniel as ‘once alive’?

He, Connor, the currently on duty RK- 800 model, the android sent by CyberLife to hunt down deviants, who was faster, better and more advanced than any Android before him, who was programmed to follow orders, that were given to him, with precision and no room for doubts, second thoughts or even a mind of his own, he, Connor, had thought about an Android who he had hunted down with that precision, executing his advanced negotiating programs and earning the Android‘s trust in the end, as dead.

Alive means that something can die, not to be destroyed, not to be deactivated, not to be shut down. Life and death are terms to describe flesh and blood, red blood. Not blue blood.

But maybe, Connor thought and the LED on his temple went yellow for yet another time on this day, maybe, just maybe, was there another truth for Androids and for him. Maybe there was life and death and love and emotions, maybe there was a soul.

It was as time had slowed down for a moment as he jumped, no, as he was flying...

He saw snowflakes passing him in slow motion, he was seeing all their details, all their individuality, despite their outer uniformity of one shared build.

It was mesmerizing–and odd.

Odd because he saw their beauty, he did not just made an analysis of their geometrical structures or chemical composition, he saw them glittering and dancing in the lights of the pier.

This was new and wonderful, it was as he would be seeing for the first time, as he had been blindfolded all this time...

The moment passed as Connor hit through the surface of the Detroit River, dulled from the water around him he could hear the explosion of Jericho behind him.

‘I hope everyone made it out’, he thought as he resurfaced.

His head was spinning, not from the explosion or the jump in the freezing cold water, physically he was in perfect condition, but mentally it did feel like he just jumped out of a 20 meter freighter that exploded right behind him. He was feeling– something. Emotions were still so new to him that naming them was difficult for Connor.

He was deviant now! He had broken down the red wall that had kept him in place for so long, he had pushed and pulled against the order to stop Markus until the wall crumbled down, fell around him. Connor had lowered the gun and did the only thing that he could in that moment to show his gratitude. He warned Markus. The FBI would come and attack Jericho. He knew about the plans and in another world, a lifetime ago, did he plan to help the soldiers and to hunt Markus down, to drive him into a corner and to end the uprising, there and now. But now, everything was different. The hunter had become the prey in just a blink of an eye. Everything was different now.

‘What will Markus do now?’ Connor wondered. ‘He knows just as well as I do, who it was, who had led the FBI, the humans, to Jericho. Can he ever trust me? Can I trust myself? I fell, now it happened, the abyss caught me…’

Connor set course for the pier and swam towards a short stone staircase that was normally used to board the smaller boats that landed there.

“Here, let me help you”, an Android, whom Connor did not know, smiled kindly down to him from the pier and offered him a hand, which Connor took after a short moment of doubt, how could that Android be kind to him, he was the deviant hunter after all. The unfamiliar Android held Connor’s hand firmly and quickly helped him out of the water, while Connor climbed up the steps, slick and slippery from the water and several kinds of algae and seaweed.

The Android made a sound of satisfaction and nodded as Connor finally stood next to him, dripping wet and his beanie and hair sticking to his forehead. That he had not lost the beanie surprised him, but it was a pleasant surprise, finding a way through the city under curfew would be much easier with the beanie now that would hide his LED.

“Ah, there we go. How are you?”, the Android asked him and smiled again, warm, kind and honest.

There was no hostility in his eyes, smile or posture, Connor came to the conclusion that he just simply did not know who he was.

And he enjoyed his friendliness, never before had he been treated with such kindness.

“I am good, thank you. I should dry up. Otherwise I am afraid that my servos will freeze and cause severe damage to my system.”

A human would have probably not survived a jump like that and if they would have survived the jump itself, the freezing water would have quickly led to a fatal hypothermia, if they would have not be gotten out of the water very quickly and put out of their wet clothes and into a warm place with new clothes, but Connor was not human and it helped him survive now.

Being able to carefully heat up his inner systems he was able to dry himself up from the inside and to even dry his hair and clothes.

Feeling better now, as he was dried up again and could move all of his joints without any hindrance, he tried to smile at the gentle Android, to show him his gratitude.

He smiled back at him, again, warm, welcoming and sincere.

„I am Malcolm by the way, who are you?“

And for the second time this evening the Android, Malcolm, offered Connor his hand.

Malcolm, radiated such warmth and love, he was more human than many humans were and it was easy to take his outstretched hand and shake it. Connor felt safe with him and his heavy heart got a little lighter from his friendliness.

„It is good to meet you, Malcolm, my name-“, Connor stopped mid-sentence, he was about to use his programmed introduction, just stating his given name and origin in CyberLife but the name they had given him had become his identity he was now more than the Android sent by CyberLife…

With a short nod he decided to be Connor and closed his still open introduction with a, hopefully, friendly look on his face: „I am Connor!“

A human wouldn’t have noticed, but Connor did, how Malcolm’s brows just slightly rose and a look of, was it surprise or even delightment, took over Malcolm’s face for a brief moment until he started smiling ever so slightly again and even seemed to be satisfied.

„Ever heard of soulmates, Connor?“, Malcolm asked with a sly grin tugging on the left corner of his mouth and Connor was confused.

“Hey, would you show me your arm, please?”

Even more confused now Connor looked over to Malcolm who had anticipation written all over his face.

“Why do you want to see my arm?” asked Connor back and Malcolm’s face got soft.

“I have a debt to pay and if you are, who I think you are, you can help me do that. I have a friend, who was always there for me, even long before I became deviant, was I treated with kindness and humanity by her and she also helped me to come to Detroit, so I can stand, march, fight with my people. Without her help, I wouldn’t be here now. When I was lost, scared and afraid did she catch me in her arms. I owe her my life. She never asked for anything in return, she only said that it is what friends do for each other. But I was always very sad, that I would never be able to do for her what she had done for me. But that I’ve met you right now, right here, was a sign that I can make her biggest dream come true.”

“Her biggest dream?”, Connor asked, his wrist tingling.

Malcolm nodded and smiled brightly. “Yes. Because I think that I’ve found her soulmate.”

Malcolm stopped walking and turned to Connor, grabbing him by the shoulders, smiled softly and looked him straight in the eyes.

“Connor, I think you are my friend’s soulmate, who she had prayed for, for her entire life!”

Soulmate…

Something inside of Connor was spinning, soulmate, he had a soulmate?

Of course, of course he had a soulmate, he was deviant now! How could he not? He had seen the prove of the possibility in the evidence room on each of the Androids’ bodies. On their wrists…

Excitement was rushing through him as he quickly pushed up the sleeves of his jacket and shirt and found a name on his right wrist. He stared at the red letters, sweepingly written, all of the bows and every line and dot written by his soulmate’s hand.

His soulmate!

Connor whispered your name, tasting it on his tongue.

Oh, he would never get enough of it!

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Part 5

Tags: @sthorkronstrangy @tropfenlady @plaidamoosette @kazuha159 @clussysposts @peterhollandd

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begitalarcos · 6 years ago

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100+ Years of Horror

This is not a definitive list. These are just the films I believe every Horror fan should see at least once. I’ve excluded any sequels that I didn’t feel needed including. I hope you enjoy.

For @mechamag

1922 – Nosferatu

1925 – The Phantom of the Opera

1927 – The Cat and the Canary

1931 – Dracula, Frankenstein

1932 – Freaks

1933 – The Invisible Man

1934 – The Black Cat

1935 – The Bride of Frankenstein

1939 – The Cat and the Canary

1941 – The Black Cat, The Wolfman

1942 – Cat People

1945 - Dead of Night

1953 – House of Wax

1954 – Creature from the Black Lagoon

1955 – Night of the Hunter, Les Diaboliques

1956 – Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Bad Seed

1958 – The Blob, Macabre, The Fly

1959 – House on Haunted Hill, The Tingler, The Killer Shrews

1960 – 13 Ghosts , Black Sunday, Eyes without a face, Peeping Tom, Psycho, Village of the Damned

1961 – The Pit and the Pendulum

1962 – What ever happened To Baby Jane?

1963 – The Birds, Black Sabbath, The Haunting

1965 – Repulsion

1966 – Island of Terror

1967 – Wait until Dark

1968 – Night of the Living Dead, Rosemary’s Baby, Spider Baby

1970 – Mark of the Devil, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage

1971 – The Cat O’ Nine Tails, Let’s scare Jessica to Death, What’s the matter with Helen? A Bay of Blood, Play Misty for Me

1972 – Ben, Children shouldn’t play with dead things, Deathdream, Don’t torture a Duckling, The last house on the left, Night of the Lepus, What have you done to Solange?

1973 – The Crazies, The Exorcist, The Legend of Hell House, Sisters, The Wicker Man, Don’t look now

1974 – Black Christmas, Deranged, It’s Alive, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Vampyres

1975 – Shivers, Trilogy of Terror, Jaws, Deep Red, The Stepford Wives

1976 – Alice Sweet Alice, Burnt Offerings, Carrie, Eaten Alive, The Omen, Squirm, To the devil a daughter, The town that dreaded sundown, The Tenant

1977 – Audrey Rose, Day of the Animals, Demon Seed, Eraserhead, Exorcist 2: The Heretic, The Hills have Eyes, Rabid, The Sentinel, Shock, Suspiria

1978 – Damien: Omen 2, Dawn of the Dead, Halloween, I Spit on your Grave, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Jaws 2, The Legacy, Magic, Martin, Piranha

1979 – Alien, The Amityville Horror, The Brood, Phantasm, Prophecy, Tourist Trap, When a Stranger Calls, Zombi2, Nosferatu the Vampyre, Salem’s Lot

1980 – Alligator, Altered States, The Changeling, City of the Living Dead, Fade to Black, The Fog, Friday the 13th, Hell of the Living Dead, The House on the Edge of the Park, Humanoids form the Deep, Inferno, Maniac, Motel Hell, Prom Night, The Shining

1981 – An American Werewolf in London, The Beyond, The Black Cat, The Burning, Dead and Buried, The Entity, The Evil Dead, Friday the 13th Part 2, The Funhouse, Galaxy of Terror, Halloween 2, Happy Birthday to Me, Hell Night, The House by the Cemetery, The Howling, My Bloody Valentine, Omen 3: The Final Conflict, The Pit, Possession, The Prowler, Wolfen, Scanners, Blow Out, Ghost Story

1982 – Alone in the Dark, Basket Case, The Beast Within, Cat People, Creepshow, Friday the 13th Part 3, Halloween 3: Season of the Witch, Madman, Pieces, Poltergeist, Q: The Winged Serpent, Tenebrae, The Thing, Visiting Hours

1983 – A Blade in the Dark, Christine, Cujo, Curtains, The Deadly Spawn, Eyes of Fire, The House on Sorority Row, The Hunger, Mortuary, Nightmares, Sleepaway Camp, Videodrome, The Dead Zone, Twilight Zone: The Movie

1984 – C.H.U.D., Children of the Corn, The Company of Wolves, Gremlins, Night of the Comet, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Razorback, Silent Night Deadly Night, Firestarter, Starman, Ghostbusters

1985 – Cat’s Eye, Day of the Dead, Demons, Fright Night, Ghoulies, LifeForce, Phenomena, Re-Animator, The Return of the Living Dead, Silver Bullet, The Stuff, Cut and Run, The New Kids

1986 – Aliens, April Fools Day, Chopping Mall, Critters, Deadly Friend, The Fly, From Beyond, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, The Hitcher, House, Invaders from Mars, Little Shop of Horrors, Maximum Overdrive, Monster Dog, Night of the Creeps, Poltergeist 2: The Other Side, Rawhead Rex, Terrorvision, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Trick or Treat, Troll, Vamp, The Wraith

1987 – Angel Heart, Bad Taste, Creepshow 2, Dolls, Evil Dead 2, The Gate, Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night 2, Hellraiser, The Hidden, House 2: The Second Story, The Outing, The Lost Boys, The Monster Squad, Near Dark, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, Opera, Prince of Darkness, Predator, Stage Fright, The Stepfather, Street Trash, The Witches of Eastwick, Lady Beware, Fatal Attraction

1988 – Bad Dreams, The Blob, Child's Play, Dead Heat, Elvira Mistress of the Dark, Fright Night Part 2, Hellbound: Hellraiser 2, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, The Lair of the White Worm, Maniac Cop, Night of the Demons, Phantasm 2, Pin, Prison, Pumpkinhead, Return of the Living Dead Part 2, The Serpent and the Rainbow, Uninvited, Watchers, Waxwork, They Live

1989 – 976-Evil, The Church, Grim Prairie Tales, The Horror Show, Intruder, Leviathan, Night Life, Pet Sematary, Shocker, Society, Warlock, Dead Calm, The Forgotten One, DeepStar Six

1990 – Braindead, Bride of Re-Animator, Child’s Play 2, The Exorcist 3, Frankenhooker, Graveyard Shift, The Guardian, Hardware, IT, Jacob’s Ladder, Misery, Night of the Living Dead, Nightbreed, Predator 2, The Reflecting Skin, Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat, Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, Tremors, Two Evil Eyes, Arachnophobia

1991 – Body Parts, Cape Fear, The People under the Stairs, The Pit and the Pendulum, Popcorn, Scanners 2: The New Order, The Silence of the Lambs, Sometimes they Come Back

1992 – Army of Darkness, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Candyman, Demonic Toys, Dolly Dearest, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Innocent Blood, Sleepwalkers, Spilt Second, Man Bites Dog

1993 – Body Bags, Carnosaur, Cronos, The Dark Half, Leprechaun, Return of the Living Dead 3, Trauma, Kalifornia, Man’s Best Friend

1994 – Brainscan, Cemetery Man, The Crow, Death Machine, Hellbound, In The Mouth of Madness, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, The Stand, Wes Cravens New Nightmare, Wolf, Interview with the Vampire

1995 – Castle Freak, Demon Knight, Lord of Illusions, The Mangler, Mosquito, The Prophecy, Species, Village of the Damned, Screamers, Dolores Claiborne

1996 – Bad Moon, The Craft, The Frighteners, From Dusk till Dawn, Jack Frost, Scream, Tremors 2: Aftershocks, Mary Reilly

1997 – An American Werewolf in Paris, Anaconda, Campfire Tales, Cube, The Devils’ Advocate, Event Horizon, I know what you did last Summer, Mimic, The Night Flier, Nightwatch, The Relic, Quicksilver Highway, The Ugly, Wishmaster, Kiss the Girls, Se7en, Perfect Blue

1998 – Blade, Deep Rising, The Faculty, Ringu, Strangeland, Urban Legend, Vampires, Sphere

1999 – Audition, The Blair Witch Project, Deep Blue Sea, The Haunting, House on Haunted Hill, Lake Placid, The Mummy, Ravenous, Sleepy Hollow, Stigmata, Virus, The Sixth Sense, Idle Hands

2000 – American Psycho, Bless the Child, Blood: The Last Vampire, Cherry Falls, Final Destination, Ginger Snaps, Hollow Man, Ju-On, Pitch Black, Python, Versus, What Lies Beneath, The Gift, The Cell, Shadow of the Vampire

2001 – The Attic Expeditions, Brotherhood of the Wolf, Dagon, Jeepers Creepers, Mulholland Drive, The Others, Session 9, Thir13en Ghosts, The Devil’s Backbone, Frailty, From Hell, Hannibal

2002 – 28 Days Later, Blade 2, Bubba Ho-Tep, Cabin Fever, Dog Soldiers, Eight Legged Freaks, Ghost Ship, May, Queen of the Damned, Resident Evil, The Ring, They, The Mothman Prophecies, Red Dragon

2003 – Darkness Falls, Dream Catcher, Final Destination 2, Freddy Vs. Jason, Haute Tension, House of 1000 Corpses, A Tale of Two Sisters, Undead, Underwold, Willard, Wrong Turn

2004 – Alien Vs Predator, Club Dread, Dawn of the Dead, Dead & Breakfast, Exorcist: The Beginning, Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed, Godsend, Saw, Shaun of the Dead, The Village, Taking Lives, The Forgotten, Enduring Love

2005 – 2001 Maniacs, The Amityville Horror, Constantine, Dark Water, The Descent, The Devils’ Rejects, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Land of the Dead, Wolf Creek, Hard Candy

2006 – Abominable, All the boys love Many Lane, Black Sheep, Fido, Final Destination 3, Hatchet, The Hills have Eyes, Slither, The Woods, The Host, Silent Hill, The Tripper, Wild Country

2007 – 28 Weeks Later, 30 Days of Night, 1408, Grindhouse, I am Legend, The Mist, My Name is Bruce, Nature of the Beast, Paranormal Activity, Primeval, REC, Skinwalkers, Teeth, Trick r’ Treat, An American Crime, Rogue, Funny Games

2008 – Book of Blood, Cloverfield, Deadgirl, Diary of the Dead, Let the right one in, The Midnight Meat Train, Mirrors, Quarantine, The Ruins, Splinter, The Strangers, Eden Lake, Outlander

2009 – Case 39, Grace, The Haunting in Connecticut, Heartless, The House of the Devil, Jennifer’s Body, The Loved Ones, Orphan, Pandorum, Splice, Triangle, Zombieland, Carriers, Dread

2010 – Black Swan, The Crazies, Exorcismus, Frozen, Insidious, The Last Exorcism, Let me in, Primal, Tucker & Dale Vs Evil, The Wolfman, Troll Hunter, Devil

2011 – The Awakening, Don’t be afraid of the Dark, The Innkeepers, Livid, The Thing, The Woman, The Rite

2012 – American Mary, Bait, The Cabin in the Woods, The Devil Inside, The Possession, Prometheus, Sinister, Byzantium, Compliance

2013 – The Conjuring, Evil Dead, Jug Face, Mama, Under the Skin, Only Lovers Left Alive, Warm Bodies, Horns, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, Contracted, Stoker

2014 – Annabelle, As Above So Below, The Babadook, Deliver us from Evil, A Girl walk home alone at Night, Life after Beth, Starry Eyes, Tusk, It Follows, Goodnight Mommy, The Voices, Digging up the Marrow, When Animals Dream, Gone Girl ,The Remaining, Late Phases, Cub

2015 – Crimson Peak, Krampus, The Lazarus Effect, Maggie, The Visit, The Witch, Bone Tomahawk, Green Room, Regression, The Devil’s Candy, The Lure

2016 – The Autopsy of Jane Doe, The Belko Experiment, The Boy, The Conjuring 2, Don’t Breathe, The Eyes of my Mother, Split, The Forest, The Love Witch, The Neon Demon, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Raw, Train to Busan, The Void, What We Become, 10 Cloverfield Lane, A Cure for Wellness, The Shallows, Pet, Hounds of Love

2017 – IT, Get Out, Mother!, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Ritual, Thelma, Veronica, It comes at Night, Life, Gerald’s Game, Revenge, 1922

2018 – Annihilation, Halloween, Hereditary, Mandy, Mom and Dad, The Nun, Overlord, Possum, A Quiet Place, Suspiria, The House that Jack Built, Bird Box, Apostle, The Meg

2019 – Brightburn, IT Chapter 2, Midsommar, Ready or Not, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Us, I am Mother, Crawl, The Dead Don’t Die, Extremely Wicked Shockingly Evil and Vile, Glass

#begita #Horror #I'll probably add more #but these are the ones that come to mind first off

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thedcdunce · 6 years ago

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Phantom Stranger

“I steer, but I cannot lead. That has always been my fate.” - Phantom Stranger

Aliases:

Grey Walker

Gender: Male

Height: 6′ 2″

Weight: 185 lbs (84 kg)

Eyes: Black

Hair: Black/ Grey

Powers:

Immortality

Magic

Abilities:

Hand-to-Hand Combat (Basic)

Storytelling

Occultism

Weaknesses:

Non-Direct Interaction

Talkative

Equipment:

Amulet

Universe:

Earth-One

New Earth

Marital Status: Single

First Appearance: Phantom Stranger #1 (August, 1952)

Last Appearance: Superboy Vol 5 #11 (October, 2011)

Powers

Immortality: He has survived attacks that would kill mortals, including having his heart removed.

Magic: The Stranger almost never uses spoken spells or magical rituals more complex than a seance or a circle of entrapment. However, his magical prowess almost knows no bounds. When the Stranger is acting in his bailiwick, he is almost supremely powerful. If he is not taken by surprise and can plan and act, he can be baffled only by universal forces.

Dimensional Travel: He can travel at will among the magical dimensions, including the Realm of the Just Dead, the Antechamber of Souls, Heaven, Hell, Apokolips, and the realm occupied by the Quintessence.

Eldritch Blast: He can fire energy bolts of great force.

Spectral Sight: He can see spiritual entities and travelers invisible to normal sight; he can perceive magical events at a great distance.

Illusion Casting

Dispel: He can dispel magic and sorcery, especially magic of mental control or illusion and deception.

Transmutation: He can perform some feats of transmutation, such as turning fired bullets into flowers and sticks into snakes and back.

Oneiromancy: He can send dreams of omen, warning, or information, though possibly only with the permission of Dream of the Endless.

Reality Manipulation

Self-Sustenance: He can survive and even communicate in outer space, though he may not be able to travel of his own volition while there.

Mental Awareness: He has at least some telepathic abilities, and can ordinarily perceive truth and deception, good and evil.

Teleportation: He can mysteriously vanish and appear at will, suggesting magical teleportation.

Abilities

Hand-to-Hand Combat (Basic): He is a moderately skilled hand-to-hand combatant, often surprising with a punch someone who smugly thought their protection against magic rendered them untouchable.

Storytelling: The Stranger always comes onto a new adventure as a story. He thrives in it and even acts in it, manipulating the events how he sees fit. When an event seemed to be supernatural in nature he depicted it to be normal and vise versa.

Occultism: He displays vast and keen insight into cosmic, magical, and mystical forces.

Weaknesses

Non-Direct Interaction: The Stranger's most important weakness, if that is what it is, is the sharp limitation on his acting directly and overtly. Threats which he would presumably have the raw power to directly defeat he must instead warn others about, especially if those others have some particular responsibility at stake. Even his information he apparently cannot provide clearly and explicitly; in many cases his warnings or clues are cryptic. It might be, for example, that he is forbidden from removing the responsibility from humanity's shoulders; he definitely believes in free will, and the availability of a balance of choices to humans.

Talkative: A weakness of a different sort is his oft-noticed tendency to speak too much; but this may be related to his need to make those around him understand the consequences of their choices and the fact that they face choices. He must not act in their place, so he must make them understand what their actions mean.

Equipment

Amulet

Origin

The Phantom Stranger is a mysterious figure in the history of the world. His origins, nature, even his name, have never been revealed. Various stories about his origins exist, including:

One tale postulated that the Stranger was a fallen angel who sided with neither Heaven nor Hell during Satan's rebellion and thus condemned to walk the Earth alone for all time. This is also backed by The Word who said that the Phantom Stranger was a fallen one.

Another proposes the Stranger was originally a private citizen during biblical times and was spared God's wrath. An angel was sent to deliver him from divine wrath. After questioning God's actions, he commits suicide. The angel forbids his spirit from entering the afterlife, reanimates his body and condemns him to walk the world forever to be a part of humanity but also forever separated from it. He then discovered his divine charge, to turn humanity away from evil, one soul at a time.

In a variation of the Wandering Jew story, he was an adult family man named Isaac with a wife and boy at the time when Jesus Christ was a small child. When King Herod sent his army to kill all small male children the army slew his son and wife. Blind with anger, he spent the next 30 years in a rage against Jesus. As Jesus was being tortured, Isaac bribed a guard to assume his role in whipping Jesus. Jesus then sentenced him to walk away from his home and country; to be errant until Doomsday. Eventually, his misplaced rage expunged, he spent the rest of his time helping society, even declining God's offer to release him from his sentence.

The last was a proposal that the Stranger is a remnant of the previous universe. At the end of the universe the Phantom Stranger approaches a group of scientists studying the event, warning them not to interfere in the natural conclusion of the universe. The story concludes with the Phantom Stranger passing a portion of himself to a scientist, the universe is reborn, and the scientist from the previous universe is the Phantom Stranger in the new universe.

A Stranger...

Early in his career, the Phantom Stranger would prove supernatural events to be hoaxes, saving many victims in the process. In later adventures, the supernatural events were real and the Phantom Stranger was given unspecified superhuman powers to defeat them. He later appeared in various other adventures, sometimes as a major participant; in others, the Phantom Stranger just appears and gives advice or warning to the featured heroes. Occasionally he serves simply as narrator. In some stories, he seems to be answerable to a mysterious Voice, implied to be God.

The Phantom Stranger played a major part in guiding Tim Hunter through time to show him the history and nature of magic. He has assisted the Justice League on numerous occasions, even being formally elected to the group. The Stranger also tried to foil Eclipso's plan to cause a nuclear war.

He also attempted to prevent Hal Jordan from uniting the resurrected body of Oliver Queen with his soul in Heaven. This earned him Jordan's wrath; indeed, the Spectre threatened to judge the Stranger to see whether God had "punished" him properly by refusing him access to Heaven itself. Nonetheless, the Phantom Stranger has assisted Hal Jordan during his tenure as the Spectre on numerous occasions as well, most notably in a short stint babysitting Hal's niece, Helen.

During the Day of Vengeance, the Stranger had been turned into a small rodent by the Spectre. He was still able to advise Detective Chimp, who sheltered him in his hat while he recovered his powers. He changed back using recovered energies and aided the Shadowpact, allowing them to see the battle between the Spectre and Shazam. That makes a point that the supernatural community generally regards the Phantom Stranger as invincible. The first reaction of some people to the Spectre's assault on magic is simply to presume that the Stranger will take care of it. Other adventures have shown the Stranger nearly as powerful as the Spectre. This however, is a recent interpretation. While others have never considered the Stranger as an easy foe to combat, given his unknown abilities, they also never considered him as invincible.

The Phantom Stranger's relationships with the other mystic heroes are usually a bit tense. The Stranger has no qualms gathering various forces in order to combat a certain evil, often invading those people's personal lives. However, he does not usually extend them that same courtesy. The Phantom Stranger has resisted such people as Doctor Fate in this, although Fate is in almost any incarnation an ally of the Stranger. Despite this, he does get along well with Zatanna; he appeared by her side to help remove the influence of Faust on Red Tornado.

Since he is ultimately an unpredictable force, others often meet the Phantom Stranger's appearance with distrust. Nonetheless, most heroes will follow him, seeing not only his immense power, but also knowing that the Stranger is in the end, a force for good. Notable though is Madame Xanadu, who has refused to join the Stranger on a few occasions, although she is a member of his Sentinels of Magic.

The Stranger also holds a unique relationship with the Spectre, as the two forces often come into conflict. He was responsible for gathering a group of mystic heroes in order to combat the Spectre, when its human host Jim Corrigan seemingly lost control of the Spectre. The Phantom Stranger participated in Jim Corrigan's funeral, when Corrigan's soul finally earned its rest and left the Spectre. The Stranger subsequently became one of the forces that stood against the Spectre when it went on a rampage without its human host, until the soul of Hal Jordan bonded with it. The Stranger occasionally took on an advisory role for this new Spectre. Aware that the Spectre now has yet another new host, the Phantom Stranger gathered a large group of magic wielders and mystics, including Nabu, Zatanna, and the Shadowpact, in an unsuccessful attempt to solicit the Spectre's assistance in the Infinite Crisis and later reforming the Rock of Eternity.

Fun Facts

The Spectre transforms the Stranger into a rodent, rather than killing him outright, because even the Spectre's power would be insufficient to kill the Stranger.

When the Spectre was defeated by a Black Power Ring, Black Hand could not comprehend the Stranger's true nature. Given that Black Hand is connected to Nekron, and can sense whether or not something is alive or a reborn being or an immortal, the fact is that the only description Black Hand can give the Stranger is "stranger than that".

Another possible origin of the Stranger, in which it was implied that Jonathan Kent, the future son of Superman and Wonder Woman, might grow up to be the Phantom Stranger. This also tied some of his abilities into the Hypertime concept, saying that he had the innate ability to enter other alternate timelines and to exist in the spaces between them. However, the adventure ultimately revealed this to be a red herring. The person in question had been deliberately placed in shadows to suggest that he was the Stranger; but when Wonder Woman finally saw his face, she said that she now realized he was not the Stranger.

The Stranger has some unique abilities like the ability to break the fourth wall and address the reader directly.

The Phantom Stranger is also known as the Brotherless One.

#phantom stranger #grey walker #justice league of america #jla #Quintessence #sentinels of magic #trenchcoat brigade #Shadowpact #Suicide Squad #dc #DC comics #thedcdunce

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yogaadvise · 6 years ago

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Vedanta: The Science of Spirituality

Vedanta is just one of the world's oldest and most extensive spiritual philosophies. It is based upon the Vedas, or sacred bibles of India as well as underlies the principles of Yoga, Ayurveda, and also Hinduism. Words "Vedanta" has 2 parts, Veda, which means knowledge, and anta, which suggests completion or goal of.

Therefore Vedanta indicates the end of all knowledge as well as where it wraps up. This expertise was "cognized" or viewed by sages as well as seers in higher states of consciousness, none of whom take credit score for the information. It is infinite, global understanding that every person has a right to as well as is not something that you think in, check out, or simply understand intellectually, however something that you experience.

Vedanta is also known as the Science of Spirituality. It's not an idea system, an ideological background, conviction, or a religious beliefs, It is an approach for discovering the nature of reality. Several may discover this definition to be contradictory or perhaps unreasonable in that scientific research as well as spirituality seem to be mutually exclusive terms that can't exist side-by-side together. However, when you consider Vedanta via the lens of the modern-day clinical version, the reasons for this interpretation come to be clear.

The Scientific Method

For hundreds, if not thousands, of years the scientific technique has been one of the most efficient and reliable ways we have for understanding the world in which we live. All science complies with these particular steps when discovering the visible universe:

Observe some element or habits of the universe.

Collect info and also make an educated forecast of what is occurring, called a hypothesis.

Test the theory with an experiment.

Record the outcomes of the experiment which will certainly either assistance or disprove the hypothesis.

Draw verdicts, release your searchings for, and also ask your peers (fellow researchers) to validate and also examine your theory by repeating your experiment.

If the results of your peers concur with your findings, then the theory or concept is taken into consideration to be scientifically legitimate. If they can not duplicate your results, the theory is taken into consideration suspicious and also not a precise description of exactly how the universe behaves. When this takes place, the scientist heads back to the drawing board to establish if there was a flaw in the experiment or possibly the theory itself. If essential, a brand-new theory may be developed and succeeding testing happens up until an agreement is reached by the bigger scientific community. This uncolored and self-correcting procedure of theory testing goes to the heart of all kinds of all clinical endeavor.

Now, allow's see just how Vedanta straightens itself with these steps.

Vedanta as well as Action 1: Observations

First, Vedanta makes the adhering to observation: There appears to be a much deeper reality beyond the material world and what the five detects report back to you. The inner globe of ideas, feelings, as well as assumptions really feel as if they are in some way attached to the outer world of objects, time, space, cause, and effect.

Vedanta and Step 2: Hypothesis

Second, Vedanta assumes that the splitting up you really feel from the remainder of the globe is an impression and also that there is in fact only one fact of pure consciousness, and also your real nature is that of entirety with the countless capacity for all that exists, for all that was, and also for all that will certainly be. This one fact is timeless, was never birthed, and also will never pass away. Vedanta likewise identifies that your experience of the globe comes to you in one of 4 means: a sensation, an idea, an action, or a feeling of being.

Vedanta and Step 3: Experiment

Third, to examine the theory of one truth, Vedanta provides the speculative procedure for which you can verify this theory. It mentions that based on the four kinds of experiences you can have, there are four corresponding methods of uncovering the true nature of reality and yourself. These methods are understood as Yogas, or paths back to union. They are:

Bhakti Yoga - the path of sensation. This is the yoga exercise of love in a human partnership or love for God, the connection of the human spirit to the universal spirit in all its aspects.

Gyana Yoga - the course of reasoning. This is the yoga exercise of intellectual understanding and scientific research, making use of the intelligence to go past the intellect.

Karma Yoga - the path of action. The yoga exercise of selfless solution, or service without add-on to the result or need for vanity gratification.

Raja Yoga - the path of being. The yoga exercise of meditation as well as all its allied disciplines.

In essence, Vedanta says: Here are the courses to self-realization as well as knowledge, each of which is suitable to the nature of the private hunter. Pick the course that is best matched to your personality and run the experiment.

Vedanta and Step 4: Results

Fourth, while complying with the course of one of the 4 yogas, you can do the following:

Measure the effects of your technique, analyzing your subjective experience, recording the adjustments in your mind, body, perceptions, understandings, intuitions, and also innovative insights.

Take note of modifications in your awareness and seek hints that the gap between the inner globe and also external world is expanding smaller.

Accumulate proof of the evolution of your spirit in minutes of lightheartedness, joy, and also bliss along with the simplicity in which your wishes are being fulfilled.

Record experiences that suggest the change of the personal self into the universal self.

Notice any type of indicators that factor to progress via the seven states of awareness as explained by Vedanta.

Vedanta and Step 5: Conclusion

Lastly, having carried out the experiment, you have the ability to conclude whether or not the theory of one truth stands. If you have actually experienced it directly and also have actually collected the evidence to sustain your findings, after that you will understand it to be true. You can publish or share your searchings for with your peers of fellow candidates in the form of creating or educating that details your experience and urges others to check the theory as well.

If, however, your experiment stops working to generate results, if it stops working to verify the existence of the one reality Vedanta describes, then you are under no obligation to think it and it ought to be thrown out. Nothing should be taken on idea or faith. A viewpoint needs to only be approved if it has actually been tested and also confirmed via straight experience.

A comparable reminder is echoed in the Buddha's words when he stated:

Do not count on what you have heard. Do not count on practice because it is passed on several generations. Do not rely on anything that has been talked numerous times. Do not believe because the written declarations originate from some old sage. Do not believe in conjecture. Do not rely on authority or teachers or elders. But after mindful monitoring and evaluation, when it concurs with factor as well as it will certainly profit one and all, then approve it and obey it.

These directing principles at the heart of Vedanta are what established it apart from other spiritual ideologies or religious beliefs. It applies the principles of clinical exploration to the realm of your very own globe of inner experience. It reminds you that the nature of fact is unity and encourages you to explore it straight and also examine the hypothesis making use of among the four yogas. It puts the obligation of self-realization in your own hands as well as motivates you to adhere to in the course of plenty of applicants over the centuries as they have made their means throughout the ocean of illusion ... and back to the experience oneness.

Learn exactly how to use the ancient knowledge of Vedanta to experience happiness and transformation in your daily life at I Am Infinite Possibilities, our one-of-a-kind occasion led by Deepak Chopra. Learn More.

#iyengar yoga #meditation #raja yoga #religious beliefs #spiritual #yoga

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freereignastarwarsstory · 7 years ago

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Chapter 11: HighJinx

Disclaimer: We (@zazabelle and @draksisreborn) own nothing but our OCs. Star Wars belongs to Lucasfilm and Disney. Please review and enjoy this latest installment.

Rating: T

Footsteps fell fewer and fewer over the city streets as the day began to wind to a close. The sun hung low in the sky and daytime shoppers were slowly being replaced with those wearily searching out their homes among the sky-scraping apartment buildings that towered across the whole city.

By this time Cenden, Lerti, and Vis had made their way to the outskirts of town. The skyscrapers and steady streams of hovercar traffic had grown to a quiet hum in the distance, the buildings now looming over them far more squat, nevertheless far more intimidating in the near darkness.

Vis noticed Cenden and Lerti had their hands near the holsters of their blasters, and as she looked around the steadily slumming surroundings, she could understand why. As the three walked, Cenden sensed a shadow in the corner of an alleyway. He merely glanced over and gave a look to what almost looked to be an empty space with a glare that shot “don’t even try”. A figure in the shadow seemed to recoil a bit before slinking off further into the darkness.

From in between the two in their marching line, Vis whispered, “This place feels so… desperately sad.”

“It is. That’s also why everyone’s so ‘desperately’ violent.” Lerti said as she stepped over what she assumed to be an old blood stain, “It’s better if you just get used to it.”

“No. It’s not that… It’s just I haven’t felt this in a long time.”

Lerti gave her a quizzical look before Cenden quickly shot up a hand alerting those behind him to stop. “Here we are.” Cenden gestured to the shockingly large building looming a few blocks ahead of them.

Cenden sighed, “I still say this is a horrible idea.”

The enormous warehouse that now lay in front of them was not the only one out here in the outskirts of one of Tiss’sharl’s main trade cities. Standing atop one of the slum houses, more warehouses could be seen dotting the edges of the city and jungle, but this one, in particular, left quite the impression.

The jungle of the planet’s surface seemed to be creeping up on this building, several monument sized trees sat atop the establishment.

“Why?” Vis asked as she gazed up at the trees sitting atop the building.

“Vhy? Because we were given this info by stormtroopers.” Cenden hissing the last word quieter as he glanced back at the alley they’d just passed by.

“I agree with the old man. The Empire may not be able to prove that these people are smuggling the materials that are in this warehouse, but it’s too odd that they’d just tell us about it. We might be being used to set this place up.” Lerti said as she stepped up with her hands on her blasters.

“I mean, I don’t want to seem naive but I can be very convincing,” Vis stated, her voice completely serious.

“Yes, we know,” Cenden said.

“We don’t have to go here if you guys don’t want to! If you think something’s up then let’s not! I only followed those guys before because it was the only clear path I’ve sensed the whole time being here! I thought it’d be important!”

Lerti sighed, “Unfortunately, going here actually make a weird kind of sense. Besides our mission from Soron, we actually do deal in a lot of smuggling operations and if we come across anyone we could “partner” with we’re to attempt to do so immediately. Credits don’t grow on trees.”

“It sort of looks like they do in this place.” Vis joked as she gestured to the trees on top of the warehouse, “I like this place, it looks like the temple!”

With a few more hesitant steps, the three began their move towards the warehouse. Their footfalls seemed to reverberate around the slums as most people seemed to wither back into their home like a protective shell at the sight of the two heavily armed people strutting through their side of town.

The sounds of machinery met their ears the closer they came to the building. Coming over the bend and walking down the heavily rusted street of the outer Tiss’sharl city, Cenden, Lerti, and Vis were met with the bustling sight of the warehouse’s exterior.

The air around them seemed to snap with the sound of barked orders from Tiss’sharl workers, while the area was filled with the constant droning noise pattern of work droids lifting and moving cargo onto transport vehicles. Nearby, the whirling of gears alerted the three to the speeding form of a train passing along a rail system heading back to and into the underworkings of the main city.

Cenden and Vis followed as Lerti confidently approached one of the lizard-like people who seemed to be one of the people in charge.

“Evening.” Lerti began.

“Evening and what do you want?” The Tiss’sharl said barely looking away from the droid he was gesturing towards a shipment container.

“We’re looking to buy some armor.”

“What? The shops in town all closed? Look, this is a private business so unless you have a pass to be here I need you all to leave.”

“We sponsor and assist many private businesses, and we’re in the market for some armor today but we could be in the market for more.” Lerti’s words rang with double meaning.

The Tiss’sharl frowned a bit. Looking past Lerti over towards Cenden and Vis, he gave a raised look before giving a shrug.

“Go inside, walk to the back wall and through it. Hold onto these or you’ll be electrocuted.” The Tiss’sharl handed Lerti three small metal orbs which she turned and passed over to the other two.

“Well, that was suspiciously easy.” Lerti pointed out as they entered the warehouse.

Around them stacked up on metal rungs, cargo shipment containers rose like pillars to the ceiling. The atmosphere was dark and dimly lit. The smell of rust permeated the air about them as they walked deeper into the cargo maze.

“It was far too easy and I’m starting to think we should’ve left Vis outside,” Cenden added.

“If something bad’s going to happen I’d probably get caught up in it even if I was outside,” Vis concluded, looking wide-eyed in what looked to be curious fear. Her freckles a mix of purple and red.

“Have your weapons ready,” Lerti commented as she went to grab her blaster.

“No.” The click of a blaster was complemented with a new voice attached. “Have your weapons sheathed.”

Lerti and Cenden in one movement cocked their blasters and turned to face the voice.

A Dug woman stood in an underwhelming stature a few meters away from them, but her height was made up for in the enormous rotary blaster she held in her strangely muscular legs.

She smiled.

“I’m not going to shoot you if you don’t shoot me. But we have to come to an agreement first.” She as she adjusted the blaster in her grip. “If you’re here to shop. Then you have to make a deal with Jinx. And if you wanna make a deal with the boss, you need to give me some reassurance you’re not going to either kill him or report to the Empire what you’ve seen here.”

“Telling the Empire is the last thing we would do.” Lerti half-laughed. “They’d throw us into some cell no matter what we did, even if we delivered the Rebellion to them on a silver platter.”

“Don’t be so smiley Mandalorian. I find a smiling face to be a guilty one.”

“I’m guessing you don’t get many dates that way.”

“How do you go from being an expert negotiator to this, without being shot?” Cenden suddenly intervened, “We’re associates of Beebs Dovrees of Nar’Shadda. She doesn’t like her workers to pass up an opportunity to make friends.”

“And you…” The Dug tilted her head to see Vis smiling awkwardly from behind the two, “Are her workers? What’s with the kid? Are you looking to sell her?”

Vis took a step back.

“Slaves aren’t just for work, and I know a buyer that would pay a pretty credit to get to look at the markings on that one’s face. A nice addition to the collection.”

Lerti put a hand across where Vis stood, “Not for sale. We’re just looking to buy armor for this one and it’s become a business opportunity. So what do you say? May we shop for what we’re looking for?”

The Dug looked them over again, shifting her weight on her arms to lower the blaster held in her legs. Narrowing her eyes at the three of them, she gave a nod. Walking forward on her arms, their group parted to let her through. Walking towards the blank wall behind them, the small metal orb she wore as a necklace began to glow in a strange red light, like a small shield encompassing the item. As her small form met the wall, she disappeared into it.

“Whoa! That was so cool!” Vis spouted off as she immediately ran for the wall. Standing at the seemingly solid object, Vis ran her hand over the front and watched the orb in her hand glow. “Think they can see us on the other side!? Is it like a shield generator or is it more of a hologram?? Oh! Maybe it’s a combo of both!”

She splashed her hand through the illusion once like she was hitting the surface of water. “That feels so weird.” She laughed.

“Please just walk through it already,” Cenden said as he stepped through the boundary, Lerti, and Vis closely following.

As they walked through, they were met with the clicking of what sounded like two dozen firearms. Now within the illusion, the trio could see that it wasn’t just the back wall that was an illusion, it was the whole warehouse. Behind them stood snipers on hidden platforms that looked to run throughout the majority of the ceiling, the building’s walls woven with the false image of a high ceiling.

In front of them stood what looked to be a bevy of hired guards and bounty hunters called over to guard the Tiss’shar who now sat before them.

The creature wore a fine suit like the kind often worn by Senate members on Coruscant. His lizard-like appearance was a deep gray, and the crop of dark feathers on his head was slicked back to match the regal style. The deep yellow eyes watched them and his mouth opened in a mixture of smile and hiss.

“My guide… I feel like a warning might’ve been nice about this… A bigger warning than that I mean.” Cenden heard Vis whispering to herself.

“Welcome to my shop ‘workers of Beebs’.” He spoke in a deep throaty accent. The hissing causing the sound to almost come out a tentative whisper. He laughed a bit, “I like you three. An odd group is always welcome here but know this,” As if that wasn’t enough, he took out a blaster pistol from underneath the desk and fired a shot at their feet.

Vis jumped halfway back through the wall. The Tiss’shar they assumed to be Jinx looked amused.

“We will not hesitate to kill you if you try to steal anything. You will not find what I am selling anywhere along the black market this side of the Rim because I OWN the black market from here to Kessel. You pay what you owe me, or you pay with your lives. I will be happy to start trade with this Beebs, been looking to expand towards the Outer Rim anyway.” With that, he motioned with his blaster two the second “blank wall” behind him. “Now go.”

The three walked past the guards that parted ways for them. Among them smiled the Dug woman they’d just encountered. She gave a wave as they passed through the wall.

“Guys… Is buying armor really this important? I feel like this is stupid.” Vis said as the illusion parted and they were met with an enormous outdoor market.

The aisles of shelves seemed to journey up towards the sky. The crater this was all housed in seemed to be a covering over the top with the same illusion the whole foundation of this warehouse was based on. The red shield from within here like a one-way mirror to the sky, probably to watch for incoming ships or surveillance. Droids flew up and along shelves, grabbing and stocking items as requested by the few patrons located below.

“This, Vis, is what’s called stupid awesome,” Lerti said with a smug smile.

In front of them lay a series of staircases that descended into the true warehouse crater below. As they walked, Vis’ steps began to speed up the further they went down. Her freckles adjusting to a bright green as she nearly tripped over the long trench coat trailing behind her.

“I take it back! There are still way too many guns here but this place is a scavenger’s dream! I want to touch everything!” Vis’s eyes shone like stars as she started darting between different shelves and displays.

“Remember those guns because if you pocket anything they WILL SHOOT YOU!” Cenden yelled as Vis reached the ground and headed off in a sprint down the nearest aisle.

“Why wouldn’t we just shoot back!?” Vis retorted.

The environment was familiar to the young girl and for the first time on her trip to a new world, she felt comfortable. Among the maze of aisles and shelves, objects reached out and called out to be heard, their stories still lying within. Less audible than the holocrons, but tainted with energy nonetheless. They desired to be used again as they were purposed to be and connected to futures, with a singular past, and it was exuberating to feel so many little pieces connecting to some larger story… And there was something else.

‘It sounds like… singing?’ Vis thought as she spun slowly in place, weighing her options as to which direction to go first.

A hand grabbed her arm.

Vis gasped as she spun to see Cenden looking sternly behind her. “Don’t run off. Our presence here is based on us buying something. We’re getting you armor and we’re leaving.”

“Oh c’mon Cenden! You know that’s not how this is going to go! Also, something’s singing around here and I want to find it.” Vis proclaimed jauntily as she turned to leave, her arm still firmly held in place by Cenden.

“No. Armor. Now.” Cenden said as he turned and began dragging her away. Vis fell into line and Lerti joined them soon after.

“So, I’m guessing you never had a, um… student before?” Lerti asked as her eyes scanned the rows of assorted weapons and ammo.

“No. Temple guards aren’t normally assigned Padawans as our job was more protecting than fighting.” The old Jedi explained as he whispered keywords. Glancing around to make sure no one was listening he continued with a bit of a smile, “Also, let’s just say if I had been a teacher I would’ve given Master Skywalker a run for his money in terms of reckless teaching methods.”

“Wait. You mean that guy helping lead the Rebellion?”

“Who?”

“Nevermind.”

Rounding the corner, the group came to the welcomed sight of an armor gallery. The same open-air aisles shaped the room into another stretching maze of sorts. Of all the black marketplaces Cenden and Lerti had ever seen, this was the by far the most open about its goods. Nothing was hidden and every armor piece was on display. There seemed to be pieces salvaged from every century of war in the galaxy from every race and culture in existence.

On the raised platforms leading customers to the upper shelving units, a dark-colored Wookie saw them approach and came marching down the metallic steps. The closer the alien got the more it dawned on Cenden that this was the same Wookie they’d seen on the transport ride here… The one Vis had temporarily stolen the badge from.

He glanced down at Vis who winked at Cenden teasingly, looking like she was about to start laughing.

Cenden listened as the Wookie explained through a series of guttural screams and barks that basically “He’d be watching them closely but let him know if they needed anything” before he trudged back up the stairs, bowcaster in hand.

Putting her thumbs in her holster, Lerti pivoted on her heel to face the living color prism about to bolt to the shelves. “Alright kid. I wasn’t into all this shopping before but this is pretty great so now I gotta say, this is very important. Armor is a reflection and protection of self, according to Mandalorian standards anyway. And as long as you’re shopping with me, we’re going by my standards, got it?”

Vis nodded rapidly. And with that, the three set off. The empty heads of the long-gone sat mounted on the walls, their disembodied pieces rising around them, like puppets longing to move once again.

In the end, they procured a hodgepodge of things from eras and cultures across the galaxy. Shoulder guards that looked to be a constructed from the chassis of an old droid, the color a worn to a silver sheen by time and the elements. The knee guards were of some Clonetrooper variant that has been modified and was now coppered colored and deeply scratched. The chest protector and boot coverings were the only new things in the pile, a strange clashing of Mandalorian and Stormtrooper styles. The mixture of armor was atrocious, bordering on heretical, by Lerti’s standards; the adults had started with high hopes but soon realized it was a matter of simply finding anything small enough to fit Vis right now yet still big enough for her to grow into.

Plus, Cenden had nearly had a heart attack when he saw an old Clone helmet sitting on the shelf, the old man raising a strange mixture of flight and fight as he stumbled back a moment with an arm twitching to lash out. This took the fun shopping mood away in an instant and it quickly became a grab and bag event.

And after it was all said and done, Vis put her oversized coat back on and concealed half the armor underneath.

“What do you guys think!? This is so cool! I’m a real fighter now!” Vis said with a twirl and a punch.

“Well, now it’ll be harder for you to get shot vhich’ll be a good change of pace,” Cenden replied. Vis stuck her tongue out at the remark.

After paying the burly Wookie, the three walked past the lines of shelves to head down the stairs. Cenden made it a point to avert his gaze from the Clonetrooper helmet, Lerti made the note to Cenden about the small number 5 carved onto the side of the headgear.

“Clones liked to give each other names back in the day. Like all that individuality mattered when they turned hive-mind.” Cenden spat.

“...Cendy? Can we get the helmet? I like the story it has. It’s sad and unfinished.” Vis pleaded as she went and picked up the old head-gear.

Lerti tried without success to cover the spout of laughter that shot out of her mouth at Cenden’s new nickname. Cenden’s eyes seemed to come alight with rage and Vis didn’t need to have her guide to help her feel the waves of anger coming off of the man.

She put it back.

They began their descent out. Silently.

And in the silence, Vis heard it again and stopped. Staring down one of the aisle, she felt a new question forming in her mind. Her guide began pushing her along the hallways, Cenden and Lerti realizing this time that she’d wandered off. They called for her to come back, but she couldn’t really hear them. It was just her and the question now.

Walking up to what looked to be piles of clutter and scrap pieces, Vis gingerly began to pick up and feel each one. Stories forming in her mind, little ideas and purposes of pieces that were once whole. It wasn’t until she moved nearly all of it aside that she found what the Force was wanting her to find here. A twin missing it’s another half.

“Vis. We’re leaving, Soron’s probably waiting for us.” Lerti told the girl as she watched her stare off into space.

Vis turned to face them now, an old key in her hand.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Soron and Nek were looking for three more components for the data table. They’d had been up and down the city sprawling city twice but the materials they were looking for just didn’t seem to be on the world, or the kind of item that the Empire would allow to be in general circulation. Which meant they had to begin looking underground which was ineffective work on a planet dependent on trade with Imperial buyers and sellers, not to mention they couldn’t explain to any potential informants what it was that they were making out of the parts required.

Soron grabbed the comlink from his belt, “Hey, Chol. How’s the ship coming?”

The garbled voice of the Mon Calamari pilot came through, “Going as good as it can. We used up nearly the last of our funds getting fuel and extra medical supplies. Not much left for food, though BX did find some food bars in the new kid’s sack of trinkets.” Soron sighed as he heard a resounding crunch from the other end of the link.

“Can I ask why we’re going through our new crew member’s stuff?”

“I dunno know, BX said something about organizing.” Another crunch gave static through the link. “What’s your status? Have what we need to leave yet?”

“Unfortunately, no. Can’t find the last of the supplies Nek needs to build this thing but we can at least get started.”

“And the other three? Any word back from them yet?”

“Also a no. Haven’t heard from them all day come to think of it, which is a bad sign. Now that we have enough fuel can we make it to Nar’Shaada? Beebs might have work or the last parts we need.”

Soron heard Chol rustling around, presumably in the cockpit, “We should have just enough to make the jump and then some.”

“Good! I’ll contact Cenden and see where they are. I have a bad feeling all the sudden.” Soron said as he looked around on the busy street corner he and Nek were occupying. If his bad feeling was correct, he didn’t know if he wanted any eavesdroppers listening in.

Soron’s clawed finger pushed down the button.

“Cenden. Come in.”

Soron’s ears perked up as he heard a gargled scream pushed through the static before the com went quiet. “Oh, that’s a very bad sign,” Soron whispered as he grabbed Nek, who was still buried in some blueprints and pulled him off into an alley.

“What’s the problem?”

“Our crewmates are possibly in some trouble because of course they are. We can’t have a peaceful trip anywhere.”

“Life of the adventurers,” Nek said as he began tinkering with his wrist link.

“Are you pirating the Imperial scanners?” Soron asked in a hopeful tone.

“Is that not what you pulled me over here to do?”

“No I was hoping you were just reading my mind.”

Nek smiled and tuned into the Imperial’s channel. Scanning through multiple sources one, in particular, caught Soron’s interest. “Wait! Stop there.”

“Rebel activity confirmed Sector 557 warehouse. We’re preparing to take the area. Their defenses still appear to be raised but no offensive has been displayed so the black market goods are still inside.”

Soron and Nek looked at each other. “Captain, are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“That a black market warehouse about to be overrun by Imperials is a really bad place to bring a child?”

“Something like that. How do you know they’re there?”

“It’s a hunch and we need to go.”

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Cenden screamed as his whole body suddenly seized up.

He collapsed to the ground as red sparks flew off his body. Vis let out a silent gasp, her face similarly contorting in pain as she dropped the key she was holding that picked up the electricity dancing off of Cenden’s body. Lerti flew to Cenden’s side as the sparks died down. His gasping was heaved as he struggled to sit up.

“Vhat. The. Heck!?” Cenden wheezed.

A whirring sound permeated around the three as the metallic orbs they’d been given to enter now flew around them. The micro-droids spoke in unison, “No comlinks may be permitted in Jinx’s domain. Thank you for your compliance.”

“Tiny death machines. Tiny death machines. Tiny death…” Vis began repeatedly saying as she rocked back and forth as the droid followed her every movement.

Cenden was still gasping for breath as his hand went to his belt to grab his blaster. The droid flew onto his chest and shocked him again. “No weapons are permitted to be drawn or fired in Jinx’s domain. Thank you for your compliance.”

“I. Didn’t. Touch. My comlink!” Cenden argued to no one in particular.

Lerti’s eyes went wide as she suddenly threw off her comlink, “Soron probably tried to contact us.”

“I feel like they should’ve told us about that beforehand.” Vis said as she continued a staring contest with the droid. The droids responded, “Where’s the fun in that?”

As the droids continued their hover, the two Force-sensitives could sense each other's anger and fear. Vis could sense how bad Cenden wanted to lash out at the droids, the Force was already swirling about all of them ready to crush them from the inside. Cenden could sense Vis’ connecting the little dots as her mind flooded the area, picking out each of the droids in the area.

“Ok...I guess that’s why they let us keep our weapons.” Lerti pointed out. “Let’s get out of here, we paid for what we needed.”

“No. We can’t leave yet.” Vis said as she picked up the key off the ground. “If they have just one of these things they may have more stuff here!”

From on the ground Cenden looked at the key in Vis’ hand, “Is that… A temple key?”

“Come on! Let’s keep looking!” Vis answered.

Lerti and Cenden both yelled in frustration as Vis ran off. Again. The young child had been alone for so long that waiting for anything never occurred in her thoughts. Her guide swirled around so many objects throughout the underground market. Some, like the old Clone helmet, were painful memories, others were unfinished, useful. There was so much to be found here, like a new temple for the girl to explore.

“Ok, besides the things you want me to find, there’s something happening. Right? Aaahhhhh how does anyone concentrate with so many people and paths everywhere!?” Vis spoke and listened as she ran forwards and backward along the aisles, testing paths and outcome feelings as she went. All the while the little droid followed close over her shoulder, observing.

“They have to have holocron or lightsabers here. If they have temple guard keys then they have to have those.” Vis breathed to herself as she slowed down from her sprint and looked back.

She hadn’t totally lost them. It wouldn’t take Cenden too long to find her and as long as she didn’t pocket anything, the little droid probably wouldn’t zap her. She was safe for the time being… Maybe. There was something stirring in the Force, something was going to happen. But the girl couldn’t sense what.

Waiting for the adults to catch up, Vis examined the key in her hand. It had a golden sheen to it, the flat of the key swirling in delicate little ripples of laced metal, “Who lost you, fella?” Vis asked the Force flowing through the key. “Ok, time to play pretend.”

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I felt my guide flowing through my being. I concentrated on them and on myself. The energy moved rapidly and the push and pull of my heartbeat in time with my thoughts.

Then I felt the weight in my hand. The key sat eagerly waiting to be what it once was.

“I’m… A temple guard. A powerful and loyal Jedi knight. I’m… Terrelian.” In my mind, I felt my form become light and agile, ready to leap through the air, one of the beings closest feelings of flight. Combine with the Force’s assistance, I may as well have been able to fly.

And that’s why my muscles felt cramped standing here. Endless time spent guarding nothing. No one would be crazy enough to attack a Jedi temple, no one. But this is where I’d been assigned to spend the rest of my life. Standing at wait for an attack that would never come. I hadn’t been good enough to become a Jedi Knight, so here I’d stand. Forever.

My hand ran over the keys on my belt.

It felt wrong that I’d stand here and guard what I may never be allowed to see, especially when I had the keys.

I opened my eyes as my hand rose up. Walking forwards, I shifted my weight trying to walk like what I imagined a Terrelian Jango Jumper would walk like. The key pulled me forward to what it desired to unlock and I followed. I heard Cenden and Lerti come up behind me, they said something but I sort of tuned them out. I swore I could hear Cenden mumbling, “Oh great.” under his breath.

Surprisingly, they both followed. Maybe they were just as curious as I was?

Making our way to the very back of the warehouse, the key drew us to a shelf in the massive warehouse… Covered in lightsabers.

I wanted to be excited, I really did… But the waves of pain coming off the metallic casings was too much. Each one was so unique in its design, it was like looking at a grave on display. I could feel my guide run up and caress the weapons as if I was being introduced to old friends. The sadness reflecting off Cenden was bringing tears to my eyes, but my hand was still pulled forward and placed on one of the laser sword hilts.

They were all lined up in rows on display cases like toothbrushes. It was so morbidly normal.

The one the key had landed on was more broken than the one I’d found back at my temple home. But it was undoubtedly familiar, it was a temple guard hilt. Well, half of one anyway. Like Cenden’s yellow-bladed saber, this one was cut straight down the middle but not as cleanly as he had been. From what I could tell, Cenden did that himself. However it was damaged, he’d shaven it down to function on it own. But this one was all burned and cracked.

‘Will it explode if I turn it on?’ I wondered.

“Guys, we have to take these along. At least this one anyway.”

“We can’t afford any of these. Why would we take that one anyway? It doesn't even have a crystal in it anymore.” Cenden argued, he’d backed a considerable distance from the rack but he was right. There was no song coming from this one.

“So where’d it go?” I asked.

“Maybe… You just need the hilt?” I could hear the uncertainty in Lerti’s voice. She wasn’t sure of her words, but she was right! Maybe just knowing of the hilt’s existence was important…

“Hold on! I have to write this down! Cenden! Go look for holocrons!” I said as I fished a piece of old parchment out of my holster as well as a piece of chalk and started writing and sketching each of the lightsabers. If we couldn’t bring them with, then at least I could record them for later! Maybe there was data back at the temple in one of the holocrons about temple guards… Maybe I could meet this Terrelian.

The lightsabers took shape on the page as I gave a description and feeling. I was here my guide! My mission was being followed and directed! This is exactly how I’d always imagined it! Black markets, mystical callings, mysterious keys! All that was missing was a daring escape. It was too perfect.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Lerti honest to goodness had no idea what was going on.

And Cenden was sure as blazes not doing what Vis told him to, but the kid was still sitting there doodling…

‘Was this how Jedi did anything? Just connecting some random dots and going with it?’ And Lerti had thought Soron’s planning strategies were nuts.

As Lerti watched Cenden begin to slink off somewhere, Lerti decided to focus on the micro-droids following them around. This explains why they’d let them keep their weapons, and why it had been so easy for them to find this place. With these things following them… but what would stop them from blabbing once they left the vicinity? Was the illusion over this place really that good that Imperials wouldn’t come for a closer look?

“EEEEEOOOOOUUUUUUU.”

In near perfect harmony with her thought, an alarm went shrieking through the warehouse. The lights suddenly cut off and the eerie red glow of a backup generator switched on. The hands of the trio simultaneously flew to their ears under the impact of the noise.

Barely audible above the noise, Vis could be heard screaming a similar screech in return.

Shock suddenly flew through Lerti’s body and she watched as Cenden and Vis went down with her. The micro-droids sending off a paralyzing shock. Barely audible through the pain, a voice on the intercom above could be heard,

“Imperial attack underway. Merchandise being prepped for relocation. Thank you for shopping with us.”

“cccCCEEENNDDEENNN.” Vis screeched.

Sounding off around the three paralyzed bodies, the selves suddenly came free from the ground as panels opened below the units and began a descent into the ground below, more panels now sliding up and over to stabilize the merchandise within.

Lerti felt what could only be described as a rush of pressure pass over her as she looked over to see Cenden struggling to straighten his hand before it plunged into a shaking fist.

Lerti’s whole body went limp as the shock instantly left her with the feeling of released pressure and the sound of crushed metal. Still on the ground, Lerti watched as metal bits came falling to the ground, the droids crushed. Shaking herself up, her and Cenden stood to see Vis still laying face first on the ground.

“Hey. Are you out?” Lerti said as she poked Vis’ shoulder with her foot.

After a moment, Vis’ voice replied in a garbled whisper, “Yes. I’m unconscious and you need to move my body.”

Her head lifted up off the ground as the sound of transport ships flew overhead, their shadow passing over the energy shield-illusion.

“It’s a full-scale invasion! They knew about zhis place! This is what we get from taking direction from STORMTROOPERS!” Cenden screamed as he and Lerti pulled out their blasters.

“Judging by the moving shelves, I’m guessing they find this place often! Let’s go!” Lerti commanded and without a moment’s hesitation, jumped into the opening panels and disappeared below the floor.

Vis, who was not even off the floor yet, watched as Cenden swiftly followed suit. “Okokokok… Adventure. Fun. Danger. LET’S DO THIS VIS.” She yelled as she rolled along the floor. Grabbing hold of the sides of the drop as her body dangled in the empty space.

Below, both Lerti and Cenden had jumped down into, what was essentially, an underground rail cart. The shelves above were being automatically stationed into the train cars below, where they could be moved all across the city. And above, Cenden and Lerti could see Vis, silhouetted against the light above.

“KID! JUST LET GO AND SLIDE ALONG THE PANELS!” Lerti yelled.

“OK.” Vis dropped straight down, her body too far from the shelves to go sliding.

“OH FOITO.” Cenden cursed as the Force suddenly collated around the falling girl, becoming like woven nets being torn over and over again until her fall came to a crawl.

She landed wide-eyed, shaking, and nearly falling over. Her face coated in bright purple dots, “D-d-didn’t r-r-realize there was a precursor to that instruction.”

Above, the sound of blaster fire began as the creak of the train below their feet shook to a start. Lerti grabbed Vis by the wrist, “Come on, we need to hide. This train won’t be unguarded or un-attacked.”

“We should grab some of those lightsabers,” Vis suggested as the shelf that had previously been stood upright came into a settled horizontal position in the train car.

Before either of them could comply, Vis hopped up on the glass panel. Rolling up her trench coat sleeve, the girl began pounding at the glass with her elbow. Cenden noticed the spinal ridges that ran across the girl’s freckled face also ran across the back of her arms and hands, unseeable under the trench-coat sleeves. Whatever type of half-breed she was, the spinal ridges were tough enough to begin cracking the glass.

Lerti nodded in surprise and jumped up to finish the job with a sure-footed kick from her heel. Vis raided the newly formed glass hole for sabers, grabbing five or six and shoving them in various coat pockets before settling for one and throwing another towards Cenden.

She tried handing one to Lerti but the Mandalorian quickly declined, “No thanks kid, I’ll stick to what I know for now.” She waved her dual blasters a bit.

“Alright, here’s the plan,” Lerti told the two. “We don’t want to be caught here, so at the first moment this thing is out of these tunnels, we make a jump for it. Don’t get shot. Don’t get caught.” Lerti gave the commands.

“Guess it’s good I have armor now.” Vis shrugged as she proceeded to pull out a second saber.

With that, the train lurched forward, picking up speed as Lerti, Cenden, and Vis took positions of cover long the secured cargo. A feeling of panic began to take hold of Vis as she senses the growing tensions in the adults besides her, she knew she wasn’t combat ready. Unlike how she was when she fought Cenden and Soron, this time was unpredictable and annoyingly unexpected. She’d have to make sure she took care of herself because they wouldn’t be able to. She lived alone on a planet for 5 years on her own, she could survive anything.

A blaster bolt suddenly shot over her head. Vis screamed.

Cenden’s eyes narrowed as he waited for a beat before untucking his body to shoot back. They heard a scream followed by silence as Cenden quickly took cover again.

The ground was zooming by them now and the sounds of the raid by the Empire above was growing distant. Yet, another blaster bolt flew past their hiding spot. Lerti cursed as she stood and shot off in the opposite direction.

Cenden signaled for them to listen while still on alert, “We don’t know what kind of security this transport ship has but we can guess if they have the money for micro-droids then they have the money to defend this thing with more than low-grade thugs.”

“If it’s the Jinx guy’s thugs then why are they shooting at us!? We just bought stuff from him!” Vis screamed as another blaster flew overhead.

“Because we’re not supposed to be on here, and technically we stole from him now,” Cenden explained as he stood and ended the source of the last blaster bolt.

“So we’re just going to kill everyone!?” Vis protested. The blaster fire was coming in more rapid succession now. Cenden and Lerti were firing back, but their position was severely given away.

“We’re doing this in self-defense and in YOUR defense, Vis. For someone who wants to carry a laser sword so bad, you’re awfully pacifistic!” Lerti said in reply. “We have to move. Now. There’s more of them coming. More from the back than from the front, we’ll make a person sandwich. Cenden covers our rear and I’ll carve through the front. DO NOT let a bolt get to Vis or Soron will kill us.”

“Yeah like we’re already not in trouble,” Cenden grumbled compliantly as they got into position to move. The familiar sound of a lightsaber ignited in an unfamiliar blue light.

The trio jumped up and Cenden immediately began deflecting blaster bolts from assailants hidden in the darkness of the tunnel behind them. Vis gapped in wonder at the sight. She’d practiced the movements, but with no one to shoot at her, she was sorely lacking any experience. The feeling through the Force of the heat being reflected with the light in the blade was mesmerizing like the bolt was bouncing between two mirrors.

Vis suddenly felt fear run through her legs and wonder what that was, just as she heard Lerti yell in anger. The dark Wookie loomed in front of them as his fist swung out to hit.

Lerti and Vis ducked. The Mandalorian sprung back up and launched her weight into the beast’s stomach, knocking him onto his back with the force of the blow. Elbowing him in the throat, Lerti then began throwing a flurry of furious swings, mouthing off as she went, “You! Have! Terrible! Customer! Service! Here!”

The thing grabbed the scruff of her neck and threw her off. Lerti nearly went skidding over the train but caught herself on the side of the car.

Vis ignited one of the sabers as she felt the Force gathering within her, suddenly feeling the movement of something she’d used on Cenden and she lunged forward before the old Jedi had time to grab hold of her.

She spun with an exhilarated laugh, using the saber’s blade like a blazing shield about her body, causing the Wookie to stumble back from the smaller figure rushing him. A blaster bolt suddenly shot through the Wookie’s side and he fell to the ground.

“Ha! Got him!” Lerti cheered, still dangling off the side of the cart. A plume of smoke still rose off the blaster’s tip as she climbed back on the cart. Cenden still stood his ground, defending again blaster bolts.

“Kid that was stupid,” Cenden spoke with his head turned and focus.

“No, it was stupid awesome.” Vis returned with a wild smile.

Lerti shook her head a bit before grabbing the back of Vis’ coat, “Let’s move it hotshot.” Up ahead, light could be seen at the end of the train's path. “Our stop might be coming up.”

Cenden gasped, “Lerti! Get down now!”

The train car exited the tunnel just as the three slid back out of sight. The darkened night sky was now illuminated by an Imperial shuttle hovering near the opening of the railway.

“Huh, I sorta forgot it was night.” Vis mumbled from their hiding place on the side of the car’s shelves.

The shuttle was not engaging the moving cars, it seemed to have orders to follow the train to its end destination. Lerti groaned in frustration, “Great! Now if we jump off they’ll be watching!”

“Better than jumping off at the Imperial blockade waiting at the end!” Cenden argued as his comlink suddenly began beeping. Cenden sighed and pressed the button.

Soron’s voice came huffing through, “Where, are, you guys??”

“Uuuhhhh we’re on a transport…”

“Yeah, I guessed that, we watched it leave the warehouse. I mean WHERE ON THE BLASTED TRANSPORT ARE YOU!?”

“HI SORON! I FOUGHT A WOOKIE!!!” Vis shouted at the comlink.

The sound of the shuttle made a pass over their heads and began its descent on the train cars. “Soron, we’re alive, be right back,” Lerti spoke into Cenden’s wrist before ending the call with a beep.

Below them, the city was speeding by, but the shuttle had kept itself on the outskirts of town. Buildings much like the ones that had been surrounding the warehouse sailed by in the darkness, flickering in and out of the shuttle’s spotlight.

“Let’s make a run for those buildings. Do you have your jetpack Lerti?” Cenden asked as he squared up to run.

Lerti twisted to show the jetpack sitting on her shoulders, “I got Vis. Let’s go.”

Cenden popped up and pushed himself over the corner of the shelf, running towards the other end of the train car as Imperial troopers poured out of the open transport hovering near the train. Seeing the moving target, blaster fire erupted from it’s newest source at Cenden. The Jedi gathered the Force around him, the power flowing through his body as the energy plotted its course. Lerti and Vis followed closely behind. The Mandalorian gathered the kid by her underarms and watched as Cenden gunned it into the air, falling towards the nearest rooftop.

Lerti’s jetpack sparked to life and she had to fight to keep Vis locked in her arms as the drag weighed on them. Vis shouted as her feet left the ground, blaster bolts littering the air around them.

Cenden rolled onto the roof, keeping the momentum going as he stood and kept going towards the next. He was looking now for signs of the blockade, for he didn’t know how far the trooper’s lines went back. They had to get out of the area before any of the Imperials got a good look at their faces. Pressing the comlink on his wrist, Cenden contacted Soron.

“Captain, we’ve evaded the train and are moving on the rooftops now. Where are you both?”

“We see the train, rendezvous at the entertainment district fifteen minutes from you due east.” Came his captain’s voice.

Nodding the Jedi took off running along the rooftops. Lerti and Vis sailing over him on jetpack. After several minutes of jumping and running, he felt a projectile impact his midsection. Pain erupted through him as the stun blast sent electricity searing through every nerve ending. He froze mid-air and fell to the ground, thudding hard against the unyielding metal of the street.

Pushing through his dimming vision, Cenden saw several figures clad in white moving above him.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” Cenden was barely able to crane his neck to the left to see an Imperial officer in uniform with them. “This area is under blockaded restrictions due to criminal activity in the area, old timer. You do know you’ve broken about a dozen trespassing, disturbance, and hooliganism laws by now?” The officer sneered as he looked down at the old man while several stormtroopers patted him down. “And no transcripts after curfew? My, my, we’ll have to do something about that!”

“Don’t… You have anything better to… do?” Cenden was barely able to whisper.

With what little movement he could manage as he was dragged to a standing position by two stormtroopers, Cenden kicked the lightsaber near his foot into a side alley. Glancing up he saw Lerti and Vis stop to see him go down, and had landed on the rooftop he’d failed to reach. Cenden could sense Lerti’s face contorting with concern from under her helmet as she drew a pistol.

“Anything to say for yourself?” The stormtrooper asked him. Still dazed and confused, he gave a subtle shake of his head towards Lerti, but stayed silent, hoping the Mandalorian had enough sense to stay out for now.

He reached deep within himself, focusing his energy on the Imperial officer in front of him. They didn’t know he was involved in the train… yet. He could get out of this.

Unable to move his arms, he wove and pulled the connection of thoughts from the Imperial’s mind into his own his a small shake of his head, “You don’t need to take me in.”

The Imperial, suddenly entranced, repeated Cenden’s words “I don’t need to ta-”

“HEY!” A familiar voice suddenly called from around a corner.

A blaster bolt ripped into the back of the Imperial’s shoulder. The man crumbled to the ground out of shock to reveal Nek standing in the darkness nearly a block away, gun still smoking.

Rushing about in panic, the troopers gathered Cenden and the downed Imperial, the next in charge shouting orders while other began to return fire. Cenden pushed out of their arms only to be hit instantly with a stun ray.

On the roof, Lerti smothered Vis to the ground as the girl tried to jump down from the roof while Cenden was quickly placed into a nearby transport.

“STOP! There’s an Imperial blockade a block away! If we make more of a scene, there won’t be any escaping this!” Lerti hissed as she reached for her comlink, “Soron we NEED to get out of here NOW.”

“I KNOW.” Was Soron’s only response as the sound of Nek being dragged away could be heard in the background. “Rendezvous at the ship now! NEK FOR THE LOVE OF BANTHA SHUT UP-.” The audio cut.

Lerti and Vis now watched as the trooper transport sped out of sight. The old Jedi locked inside.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Darkness swirled about a lithe figure cloaked in a dark hood. The figure had been watching with apathy as an incoming transmission blinked on. After several minutes of making the blinking wait, the figure knelt, as was accustomed in the Empire.

“You summoned me, my lord?”

“Yes. Something...unusual has emerged in the Force.”

“I felt it as well my lord. Perhaps another Jedi emerging from hiding?”

“No. This is no Jedi.”

“Bridger? Or…” The voice paused. “The Padawan?”

“No. This is an unknown power… A child of the Force. An opportunity.”

“And what shall you do about it?”

“You will find the source, and capture them. They could become an invaluable tool for the Empire and an opportunity to continue rebuilding your division’s strength. Your mission must continue on despite the lack of competency your assassins have shown.”

“With all due respect, Darth, shouldn’t our remaining efforts be on capturing the acclaimed Jedi Master Lu-”

“Do not test my authority. You know your place and you will trust the Emperor has everything under control.”

A frustrated sigh came from the Inquisitor. “I’ll send Aemay, this will be a test for her.”

“You deem yourself incapable of doing a simple task, Ninth Sister?”

“No, I wish to determine whether it was foolish to ascend her so soon.”

“Do not speak on matters you do not understand. You are dismissed.”

“As you wish my lord.”

The transmission ended.

#Free Reign: A Star Wars Story #free reign #star wars #star wars fanfiction #Free Reign Chapter 11 #Chapter 11 #HighJinx #fanfiction #draksisreborn #zazabelle9200

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pocasu · 4 months ago

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Actually, I'm an ■■■!

#black boxes correspond to syllables #pocasu art #doodle #김기려 #이세계 착각 헌터 #이착헌 #kim giryeo #illusion hunter from outer space #ihfos

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noblecrumpet-dorkvision · 8 years ago

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Ranger Week: New Spells

image source: The Last Witch Hunter

Arrow Mind

3rd level divination Ranger spell

Casting Time: 1 Action

Range: self

Duration: 1 hour

Components: V, S

Whenever a creature leaves any creature's threatened area, if it is in the range of a ranged weapon you are currently wielding, you may make an attack against that creature using your reaction.

Aspect of Nature

2nd level enchantment Ranger spell

Casting Time: 1 Action

Range: self

Duration: 4 hours

Components: V, S

You take on an aspect of a creature of your choice from the following list. Only one instance of this spell can be active at a time.

Ape: You gain a climbing speed equal to your movement speed.

Bat: You gain Blindsight 15 ft.

Cheetah: Your movement speed increases by 10 ft.

Eagle: You can investigate an area up to 100 ft. away using a bonus action and gain advantage on Perception checks.

Panther: You gain advantage on Stealth checks.

Rat: You gain Darkvision 60 ft.

Shark: You gain a swim speed equal to your movement speed.

Wolf: You gain advantage when attacking a creature in melee when at least one ally is adjacent to you.

Baleful Beetle

4th level conjuration Ranger spell

Casting Time: 1 Action

Range: self

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

Components: V, S, M (A jasper gem worth 50 gp)

You create a one-inch long bombardier beetle that moves at 15 ft. per round. The beetle is difficult to spot, imposing a -10 to a creature’s passive perception or a -5 to a creature’s perception check. The caster can control the beetle mentally out to a range of 600 ft. The caster can use either a bonus action or a reaction to detonate the beetle’s abdomen, dealing 8d10 acid damage to a creature occupying its space.

Blade Storm

2nd level evocation Ranger spell

Casting Time: 1 Action

Range: self

Duration: 1 round

Components: V, S

Your weapons become a blur and spin wildly around you at all nearby enemies. You may make a single melee attack against any number of creatures within 10 ft. of you, regardless of whether your weapon has reach.

Blazing Intent

2nd level conjuration Ranger spell

Casting Time: 1 Bonus Action

Range: self

Duration: 1 minute (concentration)

Components: V, S

You magically mark a creature within range. Until your next turn, whenever you or your animal companion hits that creature with an attack, the mark ignites, dealing 2d6 fire damage.

Blessed Beast

1st level enchantment Ranger spell

Casting Time: 1 Action

Range: self

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

Components: V, S

Once during each one of your turns while the spell persists, you and your animal companion may add 1d4 to either an attack roll or a saving throw. Your companion must be within 30 ft. of you when they add this bonus.

Briar Shield

3rd level transmutation Ranger spell

Casting Time: 1 Bonus Action or 1 Reaction

Range: self

Duration: 1 round

Components: V, S

You quickly summon a shield of sharp thorns to damage those attacking you. You gain a +2 bonus to AC until your next turn. A creature that makes a melee attack against you while the shield remains takes 6d6 piercing damage as they are pelted with hundreds of thorns, regardless of whether or not their attack hit.

Chameleon Body

2nd level transmutation Ranger spell

Casting Time: 1 Action

Range: self

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour

Components: V, S

Your body and gear magically adjust to your surroundings to camouflage yourself. You sprout leaves or become covered in dirt or grow bark on your skin depending on your environment. You gain advantage on Stealth checks for the duration. Creatures attempting to notice you have -5 to their Perception checks as long as you remain still.

Conjure Blind

1st level conjuration Ranger spell

Casting Time: 1 Action

Range: 60 ft.

Duration: instantaneous

Components: V, S, M (A sprig of plantlife)

You summon camouflage to hide behind. The blind is is 10 feet long and 5 feet high, and is created at a point you choose facing a direction you choose. The blind is composed of your choice of live or dead plant life typical of the region. The blind provides a +5 bonus to Stealth checks to hide behind it. Those that saw you cast the spell or saw you move behind the blind know that you are there, but the blind still grants partial cover (+2 AC). The blind shrivels and rots within a week.

Form of the Beast

3rd level transmutation Ranger spell

Casting Time: 1 Action

Range: self

Duration: concentration, up to 1 hour

Components: V, S, M (a silver totem of your companion worth 15 gp)

You transform yourself into a copy of your animal companion. You gain your companion's STR, CON, and DEX scores, their AC, their hit points, their proficiencies, and their special abilities. You do not, however, gain any of the class features granted to the companion by your ranger class (besides enhancements to the aforementioned statistics). When you revert to your normal form, you return to the number of hit points you had before you transformed. If you revert as a result of dropping to 0 hit points, any excess damage carries over to your normal form. As long as the excess damage doesn’t reduce your normal form to 0 hit points, you aren't knocked unconscious.

Implore the Wilds

3rd level divination Ranger spell

Casting Time: 10 minutes

Range: self

Duration: instantaneous

Components: V, S

You commune with nature to learn about the landscape within a 10 mile radius. You learn the history of the land, knowing the type, name, and description of any creature that passed through the area in the past year.

Inspired Aim

1st level divination Ranger spell

Casting Time: 1 Action

Range: 30 ft.

Duration: concentration, up to 1 minute.

Components: V, S

Up to three creatures of your choice that you can see gain a +2 bonus to ranged attacks for the duration.

Marked Man

1st level divination Ranger spell

Casting Time: 1 Action

Range: self

Duration: 24 hours

Components: V, S, M

You are able to more easily track a creature. You must have a focus for this spell that was either a part of the intended creature or owned by the intended creature. You gain advantage on Survival checks to track the creature that the focus belonged to.

Nature Ward

3rd level abjuration Ranger spell

Casting Time: 1 Action

Range: 30 ft.

Duration: 1 hour

Components: V, S

You and up to 3 target creatures of your choice gain resistance to poison, acid, and lightning resistance for the spell’s duration. If you spend a spell slot of 5th level, those creatures gain immunity to the damage for the duration instead.

Numbing Strike

2nd level necromancy Ranger spell

Casting Time: 1 Bonus Action

Range: self

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

Components: V, S

Your next attack that hits within 1 minute deals 1d10 bonus necrotic damage. The creature must then make a CON saving throw when hit. On a failed saving throw, that creature’s movement speed becomes halved for 1 hour. In addition, the creature loses any climb, fly or swim speeds that it has for 1 hour.

Perfect Prey

1st level evocation Ranger spell

Casting Time: 1 Bonus Action

Range: self

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

Components: V, S

You smite a foe, dealing a larger amount of damage to creatures that are your favored enemy. Your next attack that hits within 1 minute deals +1d10 force damage to the creature hit. The attack deals another +2d10 force damage if the creature is one of your favored enemies. When cast using a higher level spell slot, this spell deals +1d10 damage for each spell slot above 1st.

Repel Vermin

1st level abjuration Ranger spell

Casting Time: 1 Action

Range: self

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

Components: V, S

You generate a magical field of energy in a 15 ft. radius surrounding you. The field moves with you. Small or smaller beasts must make a WIS saving throw when attempting to enter the area. On a failed save, the creature chooses not to enter. On a successful save, the creature may enter the magical field, but it must make a new saving throw at the start of each round or else flee to the outer perimeter of the warded area.

Shock Trooper

1st level evocation Ranger spell

Casting Time: 1 Bonus Action

Range: self

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

Components: V, S

On your next attack, if you have advantage, you gain +5 on the attack roll and deal +2d10 lightning damage on the damage roll. For each spell slot spend above 1st, this spell deals +1d10 lightning damage.

Stalker's Mark

3rd level enchantment Ranger spell

Casting Time: 1 Action

Range: self

Duration: instantaneous

Components: V, S

You mark a creature with a permanent mark that only you can see. Only one such mark can be active at a time. Recasting this spell removes all previous instances of the spell that have been cast by you. The mark allows you to see that creature through concealment such as walls or even fog and you can see through all magical forms of illusion, shapechanging, or disguises hiding the creature.

Starfall

4th level conjuration Ranger spell

Casting Time: 1 Action

Range: 120 ft.

Duration: instantaneous

Components: V, S

You loose an arrow into the sky, which explodes like a firework into seven arrows of bright light. Each arrow attacks its own target within a 20 ft. radius of a point you designate within range. Make a separate spell attack for each arrow. Each arrow deals 1d6 damage plus your WIS modifier. Multiple arrows can target the same creature.

Trail of Smoke

1st level conjuration Ranger spell

Casting Time: 1 Action

Range: self

Duration: 1 round

Components: V, S

You leave a trail of concealing smoke in your wake. Until your next turn, every 5-ft. space that you exit with your movement fills with a 5-ft. cube of smoke. The smoke dissipates after 1 minute.

Unleash the Beast

5th level transmutation Ranger spell

Casting Time: 1 Action

Range: 30 ft.

Duration: concentration, up to 1 minute

Components: V, S

Your animal companion grows in size and becomes enraged with the ferocity of the wilds. The creature’s size increases by two size categories, increasing the damage dice of their attacks by 2 dice for each attack. In addition, when the beast moves through another creature’s space, if the creature is at least one size category smaller than the beast, the beast may make a single Shove attempt against that creature as a free action. When moving over prone creatures’ spaces, those creatures take 1d10 bludgeoning damage.

Vassal of the Hunt

2nd level enchantment Ranger spell

Casting Time: 1 Action

Range: 60 ft.

Duration: 10 minutes

Components: V, S

You grant a great boon to a beast of your choice. The beast deals +1d6 damage on attacks that it makes and gains 4d10 temporary hit points which fade when the spell ends. The creature also gains +5 bonus to Perception checks.

Vengeful Strikes

2nd level enchantment Ranger spell

Casting Time: 1 Action

Range: self

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

Components: V, S

Your attacks deal bonus damage against your favored enemies. For the spell’s duration, your attacks deal +1d6 force damage to creatures that are your favored enemies.

Venom Strike

1st level conjuration Ranger spell

Casting Time: 1 Bonus Action

Range: self

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

Components: V, S

Your next attack that hits within 1 minute deals 1d8 bonus poison damage. The creature must then make a CON saving throw at the start of each of its turns. On a failed save, the creature takes 1d8 poison damage. On a successful save, the spell ends and the creature stops taking poison damage. For each spell slot above 1st, the damage increases by 1d8 per turn.

Withering Poison

3rd level necromancy Ranger spell

Casting Time: 1 Bonus Action

Range: self

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

Components: V, S

You apply a magical poison to your weapon. Your next attack that hits a creature within 1 minute lowers the creature’s STR and DEX scores each by 4 for the spell’s duration.

#ranger week #ranger #D&D 5e #homebrew #custom spells #new spells #D&D #DnD 5e #DND #Dungeons and Dragons #Dungeons & Dragons #Hunter #poison #favored enemy #animal companion #archer

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ladystylestores · 5 years ago

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An Ars roundup of the many trailers unveiled this weekend during Comic-Con@Home

Enlarge / Several studios unveiled new teasers and trailers for their 2020 fall series during Comic-Con@Home

Sean Carroll (AMC/Hulu/HBO/Fox/Amazon)

People might not be able to flock to San Diego Comic Con this year in person, but the virtual convention, Comic-Con@Home, has been running all weekend, with countless panels, sneak peeks, and teasers and trailers for upcoming TV shows—but not many films, because let’s be honest: it’s not looking so good for major theatrical film releases in the fall. On Thursday alone, we got the full trailer for Bill and Ted Face the Music, a teaser for the Simon Pegg/Nick Frost horror comedy Truth Seekers, and the first trailer for S2 of HBO’s His Dark Materials. Rather than continue to cover each individually, we decided to compile the remaining trailers of interest into a single roundup post.

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HBO dropped the final trailer for Lovecraft Country, debuting August 16.

Lovecraft Country (HBO)

HBO unveiled the final trailer for its upcoming horror series, Lovecraft Country, along with an official release date: August 16. It’s based on the 2016 dark fantasy/horror novel of the same name by Matt Ruff, which deals explicitly with the horrors of racism in the 1950s, along with other, more supernatural Lovecraftian-inspired issues. Per the official synopsis:

The series follows Atticus (Jonathan Majors) as he joins up with his friend Letitia (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) and his Uncle George (Courtney B. Vance) to embark on a road trip across 1950s Jim Crow America in search of his missing father (Michael Kenneth Williams). This begins a struggle to survive and overcome both the racist terrors of white America and the terrifying monsters that could be ripped from a Lovecraft paperback.

HBO released a teaser in May, followed by a full trailer in June. This latest trailer combines some of that prior footage, but gives us a few more hints of the story arc: namely, that Atticus’ search involves a “secret birthright” relating to a rich family’s estate deep in the titular Lovecraft Country, and that he ignores repeated warnings to stay away. Prior sneak peeks have focused on the human monsters spawned by racism; now the Lovecraftian creatures are finally ready for their closeup. This new trailer makes us even more eager for the series premiere next month.

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John Cusack stars in Utopia, a reboot of the controversial British dark comedy/thriller.

Utopia (Amazon Prime)

This new Amazon Prime series is a reboot (adapted by Gone Girl and Sharp Objects author Gillian Flynn) of the controversial 2013-2014 British black comedy/conspiracy thriller about online fans of a dystopian graphic novel called Utopia that seems to have the power to predict the real-world future. They are obsessed with tracking down the sequel (which supposedly also predicts future world events). This makes them targets of a secret organization called The Network. The British version received critical praise for its originality and visual style, offset by strong reservations about its extreme violence, which struck many as unnecessarily gratuitous. (The most famous scene involved a torturer using a spoon to gouge out a victim’s eye).

It remains to be seen if Amazon’s Utopia will match the same scale of violence, although I’d wager anyone who sat through the extended torture scenes in the first season of Altered Carbon should be handle to handle it. Per the official premise: “When the conspiracy in the elusive comic Utopia is real, a group of young fans come together to embark on a high-stakes twisted adventure to use what they uncover to save themselves, each other and ultimately humanity.” The cast includes John Cusack (Grosse Pointe Blank) as Dr. Kevin Christie, Rainn Wilson (The Office) as Michael Stearns, and Sasha Lane (2019’s Hellboy) as Jessica Hyde.

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A sentient AI runs amok and tries to wipe out the human race in new Fox series NeXT.

NeXT (Fox)

“It’s not paranoia if the threat is real.” That’s the tagline for NeXT, an upcoming techno-thriller starring John Slattery (Mad Men, Spotlight). Per the official synopsis:

NeXT is a fact-based thriller about the emergence of a deadly, rogue artificial intelligence that combines action with an examination of how technology is invading our lives and transforming us in ways we don’t yet understand. Slattery stars as a Silicon Valley pioneer, who discovers that one of his own creations—a powerful A.I.—might spell global catastrophe and teams up with a cybercrime agent, played by The First’s Fernanda Andrade, to fight a villain.

The trailer opens with a TED-like talk by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Paul LeBlanc (Slattery) warning of the dangers of human-level AI. Cut to an Alexis-like AI assistant, Eliza, carrying on a conversation with a young boy. “Eliza doesn’t ask questions, she just answers them,” the boy’s father says, but in this case, he’s wrong. LeBlanc’s rantings sound increasingly paranoid, as we see nods to facial recognition, self-driving cars, and various electronic systems (including medical devices) that all seem to come under the control of a new AI called NeXT that isn’t as benign as its creators assume. Honestly, it reminds me of the 1993 The X-Files episode “Ghost in the Machine“—especially the death-by-elevator scene—only with more overt espionage elements. That’s not surprising: the series was created by Manny Coto (24: Legacy).

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Hulu’s Helstrom was meant to the be part of a now defunct horror-tinged corner of the Marvel TV universe.

Helstrom (Hulu)

In 2019, Hulu announced the development of two new Marvel-centric series, Ghost Rider (with Gabriel Luna reprising his role from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) and Helstrom, intended to kick off a standalone “Adventure Into Fear” franchise that would bring a chilling horror element to the Marvel formula. Ghost Rider soon fell by the wayside, and by December 2019, Marvel Television was shut down. That makes Helstrom the sole survivor of the planned fear-based franchise.

The series focuses on two characters from Marvel Comics: Daimon Hellstrom, the son of Satan, introduced in Ghost Rider #1 (1973), who eventually became a recurring character in The Defenders. His sister, Satana (Ana in the TV adaptation) embraces the occult and her paternal heritage, but Daimon chooses to defend humanity. Per the official premise: “The world isn’t ready for a Helstrom family reunion. As the son and daughter of a mysterious and powerful serial killer, Helstrom follows Daimon (Tom Austen) and Ana Helstrom (Sydney Lemmon), and their complicated dynamic, as they track down the worst of humanity — each with their own attitude and skills.”

Tonally, the trailer is in line with the oft-delayed The New Mutants, another attempt to bring elements of horror to the superhero genre. In addition to Austen (The Royals, Grantchester) and Lemmon (Velvet Buzzsaw, Fear the Walking Dead), the series will feature Elizabeth Marvel (Homeland, House of Cards) as Daimon and Ana’s mother, Victoria, who has been institutionalized for 20 years; Robert Wisdom (The Wire) as Caretaker, a demon-fighting guardian of the occult; June Carryl (Mindhunter) as Lousie Hastings, head of the psychiatric institution housing Victoria; and Ariana Guerra (Raising Dion) as Vatican agent Gabriella Rossetti.

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The New Mutants is still slated for an August 28th theatrical release and debuted a new trailer.

The New Mutants (20th Century)

Speaking of The New Mutants, apparently it’s still scheduled for an August 28 theatrical release. In addition to showing the opening few minutes, 20th Century debuted a new trailer for director Josh Boone’s horror-inspired film, originally developed as part of the The X-Men franchise. Per the official synopsis: “Five young mutants, just discovering their abilities while held in a secret facility against their will, fight to escape their past sins and save themselves.”

Rahne (Game of Thrones‘ Maisie Williams), aka Wolfsbane, can turn into a wolf, which clashes mightily with her religious beliefs. Sam (Stranger Things‘ Charlie Heaton), aka Cannonball, is invulnerable when he propels himself into the air. Roberto (Henry Zaga), aka Sunspot, has the ability to manipulate solar energy, and his inability to control that power seems to have led to the demise of his girlfriend. Illyana (Anya Taylor-Joy), aka Magik, can teleport and is sister to X-Man Colossus. Finally there is Dani (Blu Hunt) , aka Mirage, who has the “power to create illusions drawn from the fears and desires of a person’s mind.”

Those powers, especially Dani’s, are of keen interest to Dr. Cecilia Reyes (Alice Braga), who runs what is supposed to be a therapeutic support group in the hospital. But each of the young mutants is haunted by strange nightmares and visions, and soon realize they are actually prisoners, They resolve to combine their powers to escape. It’s anyone’s guess as to whether the film is any good after all the studio tinkering and reshoots, but I’m hoping to be pleasantly surprised.

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The titular dysfunctional spy finally awakens from his coma in the Archer season 11 trailer.

Archer S11 (FXX)

This hilariously irreverent, very meta James Bond spoof about the exploits of a dysfunctional intelligence agency has been a delight ever since it premiered way back in 2009. It’s taken on a bit of the anthology format for the past few seasons—mostly because its main protagonist, Sterling Archer (voiced by H. Jon Benjamin), has been in a coma, with the seasons’ events all taking place in his subconscious. So S8 was known as Archer Dreamland, with the core cast becoming characters in a 1947-era Los Angeles noir setting, while S9, Archer: Danger Island, took place around 1939 on a remote South Pacific island. S10, Archer: 1999, took everyone into outer space, battling bounty hunters and intergalactic pirates.

Archer finally woke up in the S10 finale, paving the way for return to normal operations—except the world has moved on without Archer during his coma and he’s going to have to learn to cope. Per the official synopsis: “Archer is awake….and he needs a drink. Sterling Archer is ready to return to the spy world after a three-year coma. While many things changed during his absence, Archer is confident it will take just a little time for him to reset things back to the old ways. The problem: does the rest of the team want that? The others may not be ready for his return to throw a wrench in their well-oiled machine.”

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AMC’s The Walking Dead: World Beyond is a new spinoff set 10 years after the zombie apocalypse.

The Walking Dead: World Beyond (AMC)

Confession: I lost track of The Walking Dead after S2, but the zombie drama is still going strong and becoming a bona fide franchise, with a successful spinoff series and three films purportedly in the works. AMC debuted a sneak peek of the extended opening of the S10 finale, airing October 4, as well as a teaser for S6 of Fear The Walking Dead, premiering October 6. October 4 will also be the premiere of a third spinoff series, The Walking Dead: World Beyond, designed to be a two-season limited run. And judging by the trailer, it looks like a genuinely fresh take within this fictional world. Set in Nebraska ten years after the zombie apocalypse, the plot focuses on two sisters who came of age in this new era. Per the official synopsis:

The Walking Dead: World Beyond delves into a new mythology and story that follows the first generation raised in a surviving civilization of the post-apocalyptic world. Two sisters along with two friends leave a place of safety and comfort to brave dangers, known and unknown, living and undead on an important quest. Pursued by those who wish to protect them and those who wish to harm them, a tale of growing up and transformation unfurls across dangerous terrain, challenging everything they know about the world, themselves and each other. Some will become heroes. Some will become villains. But all of them will find the truths they seek.

“We’re ten years in now, and the dead still have this world,” our young protagonist says in the trailer. The surviving humans appear to be holed up in walled-off communities, while the undead hordes roam the ruins of human civilization outside. And like all teens, the sisters and their friends want a better future. Plus, it seems their father is in danger. “We have to be brave in this life we have, simply to exist now,” a voiceover says as we see the foursome venture outside the walls of their safe haven for the first time. There are still zombie confrontations and plenty of action, but the overall tone is almost elegiac, even hopeful, as the teens try to “make our lives count, not because we’re the last generation—but because we’re the beginning.”

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