#orb boxcars

[badly-drawn-objects]

Boxcars (ORB) stealing someone’s wallet

[mikeo56]

Princeton, N.J. — As I write this, the sun is a hazy reddish orange orb. The sky is an inky yellowish gray. The air has an acrid stench and leaves a faint metallic taste in my mouth. After 20 minutes outside, my head starts to ache, my nose burns, my eyes itch and my breathing becomes more labored. Streets are deserted. The ubiquitous lawn service companies with their machine mowers and whining gas-powered leaf blowers have disappeared, along with pedestrians, cyclists and joggers. Those who walk their dog go out briefly and then scamper back inside. N95 masks, as in the early days of the pandemic, are sold out, along with air purifiers. The international airports at Newark and Philadelphia have delayed or canceled flights.

I feel as if I am in a ghost town. Windows shut. Air conditioners on full blast. The Air Quality Index (AQI) is checked and rechecked. We are hovering around 300. The most polluted cities in the world have half that rate. Dubai (168). Delhi (164). Anything above 300 is classified as hazardous.

When will the hundreds of forest fires burning north of us in Canada — fires that have already consumed 10.9 million acres and driven 120,000 people from their homes — be extinguished? What does this portend? The wildfire season is only beginning. When will the air clear? A few days? A few weeks? 

What do you tell a terminal patient seeking relief? Yes, this period of distress may pass, but it’s not over. It will get worse. There will be more highs and lows and then mostly lows, and then death. But no one wants to look that far ahead. We live moment to moment, illusion to illusion. And when the skies clear we pretend that normality will return. Except it won’t. Climate science is unequivocal. It has been for decades. The projections and graphs, the warming of the oceans and the atmosphere, the melting of polar ice sheets and glaciers, rising sea levels, droughts and wildfires and monster hurricanes are already bearing down with a terrible and mounting fury on our species, and most other species, because of the hubris and folly of the human race. 

The worse it gets the more we retreat into fantasy. The law will solve it. The market will solve it. Technology will solve it. We will adapt. Or, for those who find solace in denial of a reality-based belief system, the climate crisis does not exist. The earth has always been like this. And besides, Jesus will save us. Those who warn of the looming mass extinction are dismissed as hysterics, Cassandras, pessimists. It can’t be that catastrophic.

At the inception of every war I covered, most people were unable to cope with the nightmare that was about to engulf them. Signs of disintegration surrounded them. Shootings. Kidnappings. The bifurcation of polarized extremes into antagonistic armed groups or militias. Hate speech. Political paralysis. Apocalyptic rhetoric. The breakdown of social services. Food shortages. Circumscribed daily existence. But the fragility of society is too emotionally fraught for most of us to accept. We endow the institutions and structures around us with an eternal permanence.

“Things whose existence is not morally comprehensible cannot exist,” Primo Levi, who survived the Auschwitz concentration camp, observed. 

I would return at night to Pristina in Kosovo after having been stopped by Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) rebels a few miles outside the capital. But when I described my experiences to my Kosovar Albanian friends — highly educated and multilingual — they dismissed them. “Those are Serbs dressed up like rebels to justify Serb repression,” they answered. They did not grasp they were at war until Serb paramilitary forces rounded them up at gunpoint, herded them into boxcars and shipped them off to Macedonia.

Complex civilizations eventually destroy themselves. Joseph Tainter in “The Collapse of Complex Societies,” Charles L. Redman in “Human Impact on Ancient Environments,” Jared Diamond in “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed” and Ronald Wright in “A Short History of Progress,” detail the familiar patterns that lead to catastrophic collapse. We are no different, although this time we will all go down together. The entire planet. Those in the Global South who are least responsible for the climate emergency, will suffer first. They are already fighting existential battles to survive. Our turn will come. We in the Global North may hold out for a bit longer, but only a bit. The billionaire class is preparing its escape. The worse it gets, the stronger will be our temptation to deny the reality facing us, to lash out at climate refugees, which is already happening in Europe and along our border with Mexico, as if they are the problem. 

Wright, who calls industrial society “a suicide machine,” writes: 

Civilization is an experiment, a very recent way of life in the human career, and it has a habit of walking into what I am calling progress traps. A small village on good land beside a river is a good idea; but when the village grows into a city and paves over the good land, it becomes a bad idea. While prevention might have been easy, a cure may be impossible: a city isn’t easily moved. This human inability to foresee — or to watch out for — long-range consequences may be inherent to our kind, shaped by the millions of years when we lived from hand to mouth by hunting and gathering. It may also be little more than a mix of inertia, greed, and foolishness encouraged by the shape of the social pyramid. The concentration of power at the top of large-scale societies gives the elite a vested interest in the status quo; they continue to prosper in darkening times long after the environment and general populace begin to suffer.

We will frantically construct climate fortresses, like the great walled cities at the end of the Bronze Age before its societal collapse, a collapse so severe that not only did these cities fall into ruin, but writing itself in many places disappeared. Maybe a few of our species will linger on for a while. Or maybe rats will take over the planet and evolve into some new life form. One thing is certain. The planet will survive. It has experienced mass extinctions before. This one is unique only because our species engineered it. Intelligent life is not so intelligent. Maybe this is why, with all those billions of planets, we have not discovered an evolved species. Maybe evolution has built within it its own death sentence.

I accept this intellectually. I don’t accept it emotionally any more than I accept my own death. Yes, I know our species is almost certainly doomed — but notice, I say almost. Yes, I know I am mortal. Most of my life has already been lived. But death is hard to digest until the final moments of existence, and even then, many cannot face it. We are composed of the rational and the irrational. In moments of extreme distress we embrace magical thinking. We become the easy prey of con-artists, cult leaders, charlatans and demagogues who tell us what we want to hear. 

Disintegrating societies are susceptible to crisis cults that promise a return to a golden age. The Christian Right has many of the characteristics of a crisis cult. Native Americans, ravaged by genocide, the slaughter of the buffalo herds, the theft of their land and incarcerated in prisoner-of-war camps, clung desperately to the Ghost Dance. The Ghost Dance promised to drive away the white invaders and resurrect the warriors and buffalo herds. Instead, followers were mowed down by the U.S. Army with Hotchkiss MI875 mountain guns.

We must do everything in our power to halt carbon emissions. We must face the truth that the ruling corporate elites in the industrialized world will never extract us from fossil fuels. Only if these corporatists are overthrown — as proposed by groups such as Extinction Rebellion — and radical and immediate measures are taken to end the consumption of fossil fuel, as well as curtail the animal agriculture industry, will we be able to mitigate some of the worst effects of ecocide. But I don’t see this as likely, especially given the sophisticated forms of control and surveillance the global oligarchs have at their disposal.

The awful truth is that even if we halt all carbon emissions today there is so much warming locked into the oceans deep muddy floor and the atmosphere, that feedback loops will ensure climate catastrophe. Summer Arctic sea ice, which reflects 90 percent of solar radiation that comes into contact with it, will disappear. The Earth’s surface will absorb more radiation. The greenhouse effect will be amplified. Global warming will accelerate, melting the Siberian permafrost and disintegrating the Greenland ice sheet. 

Melting ice in Greenland and Antarctica “has increased fivefold since the 1990s, and now accounts for a quarter of sea-level rise,” according to a recent report funded by NASA and the European Space Agency. Continued sea level rise, the rate of which has doubled over three decades according to the World Meteorological Organization, is inevitable. Tropical rainforests will burn. Boreal forests will move northward. These and other feedback loops are already built into the ecosystem. We cannot stop them. Climate chaos, including elevated temperatures, will last for centuries. 

The hardest existential crisis we face is to at once accept this bleak reality and resist. Resistance cannot be carried out because it will succeed, but because it is a moral imperative, especially for those of us who have children. We may fail, but if we do not fight against the forces that are orchestrating our mass extinction, we become part of the apparatus of death.

Stop, stop, stop believing America is great. It isn't.

[fourx]

i think if boxcars orb and three xfohv met they would maim each other

[osc-confessions]

Boxcars and Clubs from ORB are girlfrends :))

Oh yeah and Robert Flower's middle name could be Su Tzun

idk who those are but let's go lesbians (again)

[pesterloglog]

John Egbert, Nannasprite

Act 2, page 420-428

JOHN: um... nanna?

NANNASPRITE: Yes, dear!

JOHN: wow, you scared the living daylights out of me!

NANNASPRITE: Hoo hoo hoo!

JOHN: well, i guess it was a really great prank. good one nanna.

JOHN: anyway, are you REALLY my dead nanna?

NANNASPRITE: Of course, John! I have come back to help you on your journey through The Medium and beyond! I am delighted to see what a fine young man you have turned out to be. Just like your father!

JOHN: ok, i guess i will take your word for it. i don't remember you at all! my dad said i was really young when you died.

JOHN: hey speaking of which, do you know where he is??? i looked everywhere for him!

NANNASPRITE: Your father was kidnapped!

JOHN: oh no!

NANNASPRITE: When you crossed over to The Medium, he was apprehended by the very forces of darkness which your presence here has awakened.

JOHN: what? ok, so what is the medium you are talking about?

NANNASPRITE: It is where we are now! A realm that is a ring of pure void, dividing light and darkness. It turns in the thick of The Incipisphere, a place untouched by the flow of time in your universe.

JOHN: you mean because we are inside a computer, or in the game software or something?

NANNASPRITE: A computer? Why, what is that, dear? Some new fangled contraption, like the horseless auto-boxcar?

JOHN: well, uh, it's like this machine that, uh...

NANNASPRITE: Hoo hoo hoo! Of course I know what a computer is, John! I was just pulling your leg! Hoo hoo hoo!

JOHN: oh, ok.

NANNASPRITE: No, John. You are not inside a computer or software or anything like that! Try not to be so linear, dear. The software that brought you here was merely a mechanism that served as a gateway! Its routines in a way served to invoke this realm's instance, yet it stands independently of any physical machine, and somewhat paradoxically, always has!

JOHN: i'm not sure i get it, but alright.

JOHN: so what do i actually need to be doing here?

NANNASPRITE: I think it would be best if we started with the big picture!

NANNASPRITE: Above The Medium, beyond The Seven Gates, residing at the core of The Incipisphere is a place known as Skaia.

NANNASPRITE: Legend holds that Skaia exists as a dormant crucible of unlimited creative potential. What does this mean, you ask? I'm afraid my lips are sealed about that, dear! Hoo hoo!

NANNASPRITE: But needless to say, where a realm of such profound importance is concerned, forces of light will forever be charged with its defense, while forces of darkness will just as persistently covet its destruction!

NANNASPRITE: And as it so happens, at the center of this realm whose fate is in question, these very forces duel on a stage, stuck in eternal stalemate.

NANNASPRITE: Yes, they have dueled in this manner forever... that is, until you showed up!

JOHN: ME??

NANNASPRITE: Yes, you, John!

NANNASPRITE: Before your mishap with my ashes, you may recall the Sprite's previous incarnation, which resulted from its Kernel's "hatching".

NANNASPRITE: You see, this hatching occurs automatically in response to your arrival! The result is a pair of Kernels, one dark, one light, each carrying the information they were prototyped with before the hatch!

NANNASPRITE: One goes down, to a kingdom entrenched in darkness. The other, up, to a kingdom basking in light! Each comes to rest in an Orb atop a Spire, of which there are three others in kind. The Four Spires are situated above a throne, and these two thrones preside over the two respective Sovereign Powers!

NANNASPRITE: And once the Kernels are situated, that is when the game is afoot. The true war begins, light versus dark, good versus evil.

NANNASPRITE: This is a war that the forces of light are always destined to lose, without exception!

JOHN: wow, really? then what's the point?

NANNASPRITE: That remains for you to find out, dear! For you see, the journey you are about to take is The Ultimate Riddle!

JOHN: whoa!!!

NANNASPRITE: For now, your objective is to proceed towards Skaia, and pass through The First Gate situated directly above your house, not even terribly far! The Gates will become progressively more difficult to reach, so you had better be prepared to sharpen your adventuring skills!

JOHN: how am i supposed to get up there?

NANNASPRITE: You build!

JOHN: ok, i think i get it now!

JOHN: so i guess the battle against good and evil is sort of irrelevant? well, i don't know, that all sounds kind of weird, but in any case, we build the house to get to these gates, and then i can save my dad!

NANNASPRITE: Yes, John!

JOHN: and then after that, we solve this ultimate riddle thing and save earth from destruction!!!

NANNASPRITE: Oh no, I'm afraid not!

NANNASPRITE: Your planet is done for, dear! There is nothing you can do about that!

JOHN: oh...

NANNASPRITE: Your purpose is so much more important than saving that silly old planet, though!

JOHN: and that is?

NANNASPRITE: HOO HOO HOO HOO HOO!

NANNASPRITE: John, you are such a good boy! I know you will succeed.

JOHN: thanks, nanna.

NANNASPRITE: You are a good boy, and good boys deserve treats!

JOHN: hooray!

NANNASPRITE: I am going to go bake you some cookies.

JOHN: ...

[vesselvindicate]

kin time

[do-deca-dangit]

My favorites :)

[bigswigrollers]

assorted ORB gifs!

[enbyobjectshow]

I made a compilation of all the pronouns and ages of the ORB characters so you don't have to go back to the video every time

Eyeball - xe/they/he - 36yo

Gumdrop - he/him - 6yo

Earth - she/it - 6 billion yo

Zo - she/he/they - 45yo

Fuzz - he/they - 16.5yo

Robert Flower - he/him - 21yo

Soot - they/them - 25yo

Loop - she/her - 25yo

Billy - she/her - 12yo

Chomps - they/them - 13yo

Ozzy - they/it - 17yo

A -  they/them - 14yo

Pip - he/they - 7yo

Vee - she/they - 38yo

Citrus - he/him - 10yo

Boxcar - she/they - 25yo

Clubs - she/her - 24yo

Boxie - she/her - 12yo

Jackie - she/her - 12yo

Swirl - they/xe - 21yo

Magma Hand - she/they - 22yo

Oklawk - they/it - 21yo

ORB - they/them - 8 million yo

Mail boxer - it/it's - n/a

[rocksandrobots]

Of Rocks and Robots Ch. 41 - Finale (Pt. 3)

Abigail was gone.

Not again. No. No. Not again! Judy thought to herself.

She's already lost Abigail once; she wasn't going to lose her again. She watched helplessly from the balcony's railing scanning the sky line where her girlfriend and the ninja disappeared. She had to get her back! But what on earth was going to do? Jump out of a twenty story window?

Her boss, Krei called again, unaware of what had just happened. Instead of answering Judy almost threw the phone out into the street in frustration, but paused mid-action.

Wait! Krei! Big Hero Six!  

She had the supers on speed dial because of her boss. Heaving shaky breaths she called the number.

                                                 -------------------------

The gang of teenage superheroes were huddled on top of a skyscraper. They watched from above as Mr. Sparkles was arrested for his previous attack on the city. All, but Baymax, who scanned the skyline looking for Professor Callahan's bio readings.

"Well what next?" Gogo asked.

Hiro was about to answer but he was interrupted by his cell phone ringing. It was a very sacred Judy on the other end and she was crying and rambling.

"Judy, Judy, just calm down, take deep breaths." Hiro soothed. "Now what do you mean she's gone?"

Hiro pressed the speaker button and Judy's voice rang out.

"This ninja broke into our apartment and carried Abigail away. He was dressed head to toe in black, and you couldn't see his face behind his mask. He also had, like, super strength and he just jumped from building to building as if he wasn't even human."

"Robot ninjas" Fred gasped.

"Judy, I need you to listen to me. Hang up and call the police, tell them everything you know. I'm going to send one of us over your way to investigate and we'll be there soon. Okay?" Hiro told her.

Judy agreed and the call ended.

"Sparkles called his little escapade a 'distraction';" Wasabi said, "You don't think…"

"Oooh, that would totally make sense!" Fred jumped in. "This Bosu ordered Sirque and Sparkles to create a disaster to lure us away from Abigail's apartment."

"But how would they have known we were ever there?" Varian asked.

The answer became obvious to everyone at once, but only Honey Lemon gave voice to their fears. "

Unless, they're watching us." She shivered.

"I have found Professor Callaghan." Baymax stated calmly, interrupting their conversation.

"Where?" Hiro breathlessly asked.

"He is quite far away. Just on the outskirts of the city. He's nearly out of range of my sensors." Baymax replied and pointed his finger in a southeastern direction, though none of them could see what the robot saw.

"What about Abigail?" Varian asked.

"Scanning for Abigail." Baymax said and switched his programming over to look for the professor's daughter. A minute or two passed and then the android said, "There are no signs of Abigail."

"Hmmm...it looks like they're hiding Abigail elsewhere." Hiro contemplated. "They may have taken her in the opposite direction for all we know."

"So what do we do?" Gogo asked him.

Hiro found everyone staring at him waiting for orders, and not for the first time he wondered how he wound up being the leader of their little group. He was just flying by the seat of his pants most of the time. He didn't know anymore than they did. Still he had to come up with something.

"I think… I think we're going to have to split up again. Fred and Gogo, you two head to Judy's apartment and see what you can find out."

"Here are the directions;" Baymax helpfully offered, "Sending them to your phones, now."  

"Right," Hiro continued, "also if the police are there, just cooperate with them if you can or stay out the way until they leave if you can't. Honey Lemon, I'm tasking you and Wasabi with continuing the search down by the docks. Call Globby and Carl and let them know what's going on. Baymax and I will check out the energy readings he just found. If we find anything we'll let you know and if not we'll join you in the hunt later."

Hiro was just about to climb on Baymax's back when Varian stopped him.

"Hey wait a minute. You're not going by yourself."

"Look, it's fine. I know you don't like doing the whole superhero thing. You can wait at the Lucky Cat for us, if you want."

"Yeah, well what if I don't want to." Varian challenged.  

Hiro rolled his eyes. "Yeah, and how are you going to defend yourself if Supersonic Sue is there?" Since when was Varian the cautious, overprotective one?

Varian only screwed up his face in determination. "Honey Lemon, got any more chimballs I could borrow?"

"Oh, sure." She timidly said as she unbuckled the strap of her chim-purse and handed the belt with the chemical orbs on it to him.

He strapped it on him, like a hardness so the balls were in easy reach, while Honey Lemon used a smaller handle on the top of the purse to hold her weapon.

Hiro eyed the other boy coolly. He didn't appreciate not being trusted to handle things himself, especially when Varian was no less of a disaster, but the goggle headed teen ignored his disapproval.

"So are we ready to go or what?" He asked, as if hadn't been the one to grind everything to halt by protesting earlier.

Hiro gave up. They really couldn't afford to waste time arguing. He boarded Baymax's back and Varian climbed up after him. Then everyone else left, as the three took to the sky.

                                                -------------------------

The place Baymax took them to was a train depot. There were various rail lines with dusty boxcars sitting both on and beside them, a tall crane for loading and unloading cargo was stationed near the tracks, and an old warehouse stood in the middle of it all. It's windows were boarded up to indicate it's lack of use and large cobwebs hung from the porch railings. It was the perfect place for a hideout really.

Hiro directed Baymax to land on the roof of the building. He didn't want the villains to spot them coming in and get the drop on them. From there, they climbed down the fire escape and entered through one of the boarded up windows.

Or rather, they entered through the hole in the wall that Varian made where the window once stood. He had found Honey Lemon's labeling system on her utility belt and by combining two of the chemical orbs together he created some sort of acid that quickly and silently ate away at the wall, wooden boards, window, everything, like magic, leaving a hole big enough for even Baymax to slip through.

Hiro had to admit he was impressed as he snuck inside, but there was no time for compliments. As soon as they were in, he ran to one corner of the hallway to make sure no one had seen them come in. He ordered Varian to keep lookout on the other end.

"Callaghan is down the hall, towards the front of the building." The robot helpfully pointed out.

Hiro put a finger to his lips indicating that to the robotic nurse to lower his volume.

"Ok this way." He whispered as he motioned for his small team to follow him.

They made their way down the winding hallways with Hiro taking the lead and Varian bringing up the rear; chimball in hand just in case anybody tried to sneak up on them.

They made it to the other end of the building without incident and found Professor Callaghan tied to a chair, sitting in a dusty office.

"H-hiro?" The former villain rasped when he spotted the armored boy and his pet robot.

"Shh.. We come to get you out of here." Hiro whispered as he went to untie Callaghan.

"Hiro, you shouldn't have come here." Callaghan bemoaned.

"Well too late for that. Let's go." Hiro said. "Is the coast still clear?"

"It is on my end- wait no, some tall guy is coming this way." Varian said.

"Must be Sue's grandson." Hiro replied. "Uh.. Let's try the other way out."

"Who's this?" Callaghan asked.

"A friend. Now let's try looping around." And with that Hiro took off once more while his ragtag team followed.

He paused though, when he saw Sue sitting in another office at the other end. Through the window  he saw her with her feet propped up on the desk and a magazine in her hand.

"Varian, got anymore of that acid?" He asked.

"No, I think ice bombs are all that's left." Varian answered.

Hiro spied the top of the stairwell. "Ok, everybody downstairs then. We'll just go out the front door."

Everyone hurried out the hallway and down the staircase while Hiro stood watch. Once the last of them had gone, he turned and followed; not noticing Sue peering at them over the top of her magazine.

                                                -------------------------

They made it all the way down to the first floor and were almost out the door when suddenly Supersonic Sue stood in front of them, seemingly appearing out of nowhere.

"Leaving so soon?" She asked. "See that Stu, they were planning on taking off without even saying goodbye."

"That's not very friendly of them, is it nana?" Stu replied as he skated up behind them. They were surrounded.

Everyone went into a defensive stance, waiting to see who'd make the first move.

"Why don't you whippersnappers just give up now, and no one gets hurt?" Sue said with a wicked smile.

"Nothin' doin'" Varian shot back.

With a nod to her grandson, both speedsters started to rev up their skates. Suddenly a yellow blur was hurtling at them at high speed where Stu once stood. Everyone scattered.

Varian threw one of his chimballs down as he ran and a slick sheet of ice formed on the ground. Stu became unbalanced as he started to slide out of control and Sue had to dodge out of the way quickly.

Seeing an opening, Hiro shouted, "Baymax! The door!"

The robot shot his rocket booster at the larger double doors that stood at the end of the hanger. They shattered on impact, leaving an opening for their escape.

Hiro ran to the android, signaling his group to follow.

"Oh no you don't!" Sue yelled.

Before Hiro could reach his friend, Sue appeared next to Baymax; who suddenly, for some reason remained very still.

"Now what do you suppose this is?" Sue asked as she held Baymax's chip in her hand.

Hiro froze in horror, but Varian tried to throw another chimball at the woman while her back was turned. He got tackled by Stu before he could get his shot in.

Sue skated away to safety and held the chip aloft once more. "Turn yourselves in or I'll smash this."

Hiro pulled out his shuriken to knock the item out of her hand but was too slow.

Sue reappeared over in the opposite far corner. "Wrong answer." She said and stomped on the chip breaking it into pieces.

"Nooo!" Hiro shouted, only for Sue to suddenly appear next to him.

"Does your mama know you're playing with sharp objects boy?" She asked and next thing Hiro knew his utility belt had been removed. He turned to look for it and saw Sue standing in yet another corner of the large warehouse with the belt slung over her shoulder.

"Looking for this?" She taunted.

He tried to use his electromagnetic whips to pull down a stack of boxes on top of her, but she once more skated out of the way. He then found his gloves being pulled off in quick succession.

Now unarmed, and one man down, Hiro desperately looked around for Varian. But the other teen had been similarly disarmed in his tussle with Sue's grandson. Though that didn't seem to discourage the time displace teen who continued to fight the larger guy.

He jumped Stu and they both went rolling around on the ground.

"Ouch! Nana, he won't stop hitting me!" The bigger teen whined.

Sue rolled her eyes and went to break up the fight.

Using this as a distraction, Hiro tried to call for help over his intercom.

It didn't work.

Sue overheard him and snatched his helmet right off his head.

Hiro backed away quickly from the woman as she stalked towards him. Things had gotten completely out of control.

"Stu, once you're finished roughhousing with your new friend over there, make sure he doesn't have any communication devices on him."

"Like this one Nana?" Stu said as he fished Varian's cell phone out of his pocket. He was rewarded with a bop on the nose for his trouble.

"Ow! Hey, watch it little dude!" Stu said as he cupped his nose and the cell phone fell to the ground next to the blue folder that had also fallen out of Varian's coat pocket.

"Exactly, Buttercup." She replied, and then next thing Hiro knew she had his own cell phone in her hand. It was as if she'd hardly moved at all. He had blinked, once, saw a blur run past, blinked again and found his pocket had been picked.

She held the phone up mockingly, "Ready to give up yet?"

Then suddenly Callaghan got the drop on her from behind. He wrestled the older woman to the ground as he tried to rip the phone out of her hands.

"Hiro run!" He yelled.

"Not without Varian!" Hiro shot back as he watched the other teen struggle to get out of Stu's grip.

"I'll help you Nana!" Stu called out.

Sue stopped him. "No, I got it. You grab the other two and put them someplace safe till we get time to deal with them. I'll take care of our dear professor here." And with a grunt she kicked Callaghan off her.

Hiro ran to help the man, only for a strong arm to grip his sleeve and practically lift him off the ground. He looked beside him and saw Varian also caught in the same grip, though that didn't stop the other boy from trying to kick Stu in the shins.

"Here ya, ow!, go nana. Ouch! Oh and I found this on him too. Hey, stop that!" Stu handed over Varian's cell phone and chimballs to his grandmother, along with the notebook.

"Hey, my notes!" Callaghan shouted and ran to grab them out of Sue's hands. "Where did you get those?!"

Sue kicked him back down. "Well, don't look at me. You're the one who dragged literal kids into your affairs."

"We're not kids!" Varian shouted.

Sue gave him a reproachful look, as if she felt sorry for them. "Sure you aren't,  honey." Then she turned to her grandson and said, "Well go on, and do what I told ya, quick. We gotta move Callaghan to a new hideout before the rest of those do-gooders come looking for them."

"On it!" Stu saluted before dragging them away.

In a blink of an eye, Hiro saw Sue grab some rope and begin to tie Callaghan up again as Stu pulled them along.

The big galoot ignored both boy's attempts to squirm out of his grasp as he tried to think of a place to put them. "Someplace safe…" He muttered to himself before spotting a large wooden shipping crate over on the far end of the warehouse. "That's it!"

"This should be plenty safe for you two until someone can come pick you up!" Stu said cheerfully as he opened the crate and dropped them inside. "Oh and here's some snacks in case you get hungry in the meantime."

He threw a couple of candy bars down to them. "I always like to carry extra with me. Super skating burns a lot of calories, you know."

Hiro looked up at the villain in confusion. He would have assumed the taller guy was taunting them, but no, he seemed to genuinely care about their comfort; not realizing that being locked in a giant box was perhaps not the best thing for anyone's health.

"Stu! Time to go!" They heard Sue shout.

"Coming nana!" Stu replied and then turned to them once more. "Okay gotta go now. Bye. Nice meeting you."

And with that he closed the lid, which locked into place, leaving them in darkness.

[worldsfirstgayknife]

have you seen ORB (otherworldly ravenous beast)? its a new object show, the first episode came out recently and its really good... also a lot of the characters are trans/nonbinary 👀

i have!! the character designs and premise are very fun, big fan of chomps, boxcars, and A :)

[aggressivelyclueless]

The Boy Who Ran Away To The Circus

prompted by @gottacatchghosts "Full ghost Danny AU based on the episode Control Freaks. How does being a full ghost affect the influence the orb has over Danny?" Words: 5904 Warning: a bit dramatic, brief ghosty blood, is begging for a sequel

      The phantom hid away from the sun.  He'd crammed himself into a little shady area under the roof, but he wasn't comfortable.  At least his sister wouldn't find him up here, he thought, in an effort to keep from getting too irritated.  He'd escaped one of her psychology lectures earlier; for some reason, she always seemed to think that he had taken up the same interest in the human brain as she did, and would routinely try to rope him into discussion - or worse, helping her study.       He wasn't having any of it, and had flown out to his best friend's house to wait until she got home from school.  He could see her coming up the block, and he brightened.  She'd always listen when he vented about his parents or his sister, and in return he'd usually help her pull petty get-backs against her own parents when they got on her nerves too much.  He watched her head up the paved driveway and into the house; she appeared in her room a minute later, dropped her backpack by the foot of her bed, and kicked off both her boots.       "I'm home," Sam announced, opening up her window and giving the yard a quick glance.  "Danny - you around?  C'mon in."       "Yeah, I'm around," he answered, appearing in the shadow of the overhanging roof.  He slipped into her room, glad to escape the daylight outside.  He tried to stay out of the sun if he could help it - it had felt just a little bit wrong on him ever since he'd died a while back - and that made Sam's room an ideal hang-out spot.  Gotta love goths.  They get it.       Sam flopped back onto the bed to decompress.  "Man, I can't wait," she groaned, "This is gonna be the coolest circus in the world.  I just know it.  Opening ceremony's tomorrow - you'll get me out of first-period, right?"       "Uh, yeah, duh, old fire-alarm routine?  Piece of cake," said Danny, draping himself across the foot of the bed and letting his ecto-tail hang over the side.  "Wouldn't miss it.  I don't even remember the last time I saw a real circus.  You think your parents'll be mad when they find out?"       "Take a look at this," Sam said flatly, handing him the pamphlet she'd gotten in the mail when she'd ordered the tickets.  "You think they'd want me paying money to see that?"       Danny took the pamphlet and gave it a look-over.  The ringmaster posed dramatically on the front, holding a flashy red staff with a bat on it.  Danny found himself staring, and entirely missed whatever else Sam had been saying.  "Huh?"       "I said I was counting on them not finding out about it," Sam repeated, taking the pamphlet back and stuffing it into the secret compartment of her backpack.  "Good thing about my parents is they'd never even think you were giving me a hand."       "Yeah," said Danny, still somewhat distracted.  Something in his mind had just been plucked at, but he couldn't tell what or where - he frowned for a moment, but then dismissed it.  He was just getting a bit excited, that was all.

      The northern Amity Park train station had been abandoned years ago due to a fire.  The building still stood, but its interior had been gutted by the city after the disaster.  Graffiti and creeping vines bedecked the sturdy brick walls, and one of the front windows had cracked into a spiderweb of shards, still managing to hold together but threatening to throw itself down to the concrete platform below with anything more than a slight breeze.  The two front doors of the building remained vigilantly shut against any intruders, but they had been ignored for almost a decade - on the nights when vandals came through, they always preferred the broken window on the eastern side of the station.  One disused pair of rails ran alongside the platform.  They hadn't been touched in years, despite the routine traffic from the depot half a mile down the line.       It was along this last weed-ridden track that the ghastly train rumbled, disturbing nothing.  It was almost dusk.  Twisting green letters painted on the side of each car caught the last dwindling rays of sun and, as the train slowed to a crawl, a deep and chilling mist began to roll between the rails underneath the cars.  The wheels screeched to a standstill at the same moment that the sun disappeared, and the train gave a mighty hiss of steam as it was allowed to settle at the station.       The circus had just arrived in town.

      The big-top tent had been pitched in the field on the other side of the tracks.  They arrived early - Sam had said something about wanting to get a good seat - but they were far from the first ones there.  A small but growing crowd of goths had begun to assemble by the train, and Sam recognized a handful of them from school.  She acknowledged a couple of them with a dead-inside half-nod, receiving the same in return, and turned to Danny.  She'd loaned him an oversized purple hoodie, knowing he'd be recognized as the Infamous Ghost Kid otherwise, and thought smugly to herself how easily he slipped in with the crowd here.   "C'mon, don't lose me.  I'm going in for a good spot."  She grabbed his hand and then made her way up to the front of the crowd, keeping her eyes on the front of the train.  It was almost nine - the opening ceremonies would start any minute now, and she'd kick herself if she missed even a second of it.       "Hey, hang on," said Danny, spotting a pair of wooden crates stacked off to the side, "Over there - those should be good.  Otherwise I can pull you up as high as you want."       "Hey, good eye," Sam ducked through the crowd, hopping up onto one of the crates.  Danny was right - this was a pretty good spot.  She could see the train without problems, and she could make an uninterrupted beeline for the tent to get good seats when the show started.  "Man, this is gonna be so cool - "       The side of the first boxcar rolled open slowly, and the crowd fell silent.  The inside was hidden in shadow; the ringmaster stepped out, an entertainer's grin plastered across his pale face.  "Greetings, fellow outcasts!" he announced in a comical, slightly-unhinged sort of voice, "I am Freakshow, your Master of Ceremonies - are you ready to smile, relax, and forget all your troubles amid the pleasant diversions of the circus?"  He was playing it up; his grin widened, and he held out his hands to invite a response from the crowd of misfits assembled before him.       The crowd indulged with a collective, "No!"       "Then you've come to the right place!" Freakshow declared with a flourish and a little wave of the staff in his hand.  His eyes swept over the crowd, and after a dramatic pause he continued: "Prepare to be disturbed and appalled by a small sample of the bizarre and abnormal world of Circus Gothica!"       Danny didn't catch anything that happened after that.  His wide-eyed gaze was affixed on the ringmaster's staff - specifically, the enormous red crystal ball on the end of it - and his thoughts slowly started to float away from him.  He was caught in the hypnotic swirl of the crystal the ringmaster held, and his mind went blank.  He stared, unblinking.  Through the fog that clouded his head, he saw Freakshow - and Freakshow saw him.  Though he entertained the crowd, he spoke to Danny directly: come, ghost. Danny was compelled to obey.       - - -       Sam could hardly believe it.  She was finally seeing Circus Gothica live - she'd dreamed of it every night since she'd heard they were coming to Amity Park, and she'd forked over much more for the tickets than she would ever admit to anyone.  Even her best friend was with her - how much better could this day get?  She turned with a grin to remark something along the lines of look at us, a goth and a ghost at the freak circus!  Do we belong here or what? or, man, you're the best - I'm so glad I skipped class for this.       Danny had disappeared.       Sam's smile vanished.  "Danny?  Where'd you go?"  She turned to the crowd with a frown.  She couldn't see a trace of him anywhere - not even by the popcorn vendor - and despite herself she began to worry.  Where'd he disappear to?  He didn't even say anything about it - is he okay?  She tried to shrug it off.  He'll be right back, she told herself, but something still didn't feel right.       "Sam?"       She froze.  If she'd been prepared, or at least been given a ten-second heads-up, she'd have made a run for it and disappeared into the crowd.  Instead, her hesitation doomed her.  Above even the pearl-clutching frets of the oncoming mob of parents, she heard the clicking of her mother's heels as she approached.  Sam turned; there stood both her parents, poised at the head of another one of their pointless protests.  Can't they just have day jobs like regular human beings, if they're so intent on being normal?       "Samantha!  Just what do you think you're doing out here!" her mother exclaimed, "I distinctly remember forbidding you from attending this repulsive display of immorality!"       Sam was too angry for words; the ringmaster, on the other hand, was not.  "Oh, critics!" he crowed, jumping up onto one of the crates just to make sure they could see him, "There's a heckler in every crowd, of course!  What do you say, freaks, should we really let the rantings of the closed-minded norms beat us down?  Or should we show them our true colors - and by true colors, of course, I mean all black!"       The crowd obliged, nearly breaking into a riot right then and there.  Angry goths threw insults and empty soda cans without hesitation, determined to drive the protesters back.       Sam would have slipped away, too, if her mother hadn't grabbed her by the arm with a disapproving scowl.  "Sneaking out of school?  You are so grounded, young lady!"

      "Are you sure you haven't seen him anywhere?" Sam asked with a frown.  Class had just let out; she and Tucker had met by her locker for an emergency discussion.  Neither of them had seen Danny at lunch, either.       Tucker shook his head.  "I mean, he comes by my house like twice a week, so - "       "No, I mean today.  He came with me earlier when we ditched first-period, remember?  We were gonna watch the opening ceremonies - I thought he just flew off when my parents showed up, but I haven't seen him since.  You think maybe something happened?"       "I don't know," said Tucker, "If it's all the same to you, I'd really rather not go to a spooky goth circus to find out.  No offense."       Sam huffed.  "Ugh, look.  That's the last place I saw him, okay?  He might be still around there.  I just wanna make sure he's okay - "       "Sam.  He's a ghost.  He's fine."       "Then how come he hasn't showed up?" Sam persisted, "He should have at least dropped by during lunch.  He does that literally every day.  Come on, Tucker, you gotta admit something's a little off."       Tucker finally relented.  "Yeah.  I guess that does sound a little fishy.  Alright, Sam, you win.  Guess we'll scope that circus out."       "Thanks, Tucker," she gave him an appreciative smile, grabbed her backpack from her locker, and the pair headed down the hall.  "I've got to grab some stuff, just in case.  I'll meet you down by the station."       "Sure," said Tucker, "Meet you there."       Sam only stopped by her house for a few minutes.  She dumped all the school junk out of her backpack, stuffing it instead with a handful of snacks, a flashlight, and some emergency eyeliner (a goth can never be caught without it, she knew from experience).  She knew her parents weren't home; they'd no doubt still be marching around in circles outside the big-top, and probably would continue to do so until later in the evening.  With luck, she'd be home by then, and she and Danny would be upstairs making fun of how stupid her parents were.       Still, that was assuming things went well.  Something told her they wouldn't, and she did her best to ignore it.  I'm sure Danny's fine, she told herself for the twelfth time.  She scrawled out a note for him anyway, leaving it taped to the window in case he came looking for her before she was back.  With that done, and with everything she was certain she'd need in her backpack, she sneaked past her none-too-observant grandmother and back out to meet up with Tucker.       She found him behind the train station, out of sight of the relentless protesting parents, and quickly ducked around the side of the building so she wouldn't be caught.  "You see him anywhere?"       Tucker shook his head.  "Out here?  Nope.  No ghosts - just goths."       Sam took a quick peek around the corner, hoping to spot an easy way they could sneak past her parents.  "Come on.  Maybe he's inside."  She grabbed his hand, pulled him behind a stack of supply crates, threw a glance over her shoulder to make sure the coast was clear, and then darted around behind the big-top.  She pulled the massive canvas flaps apart, and the two of them slipped inside.       In an instant, Sam completely forgot why she was there.  A spectacular breath of fire erupted from the center ring, where a pair of performers danced effortlessly on either jaw of a massive prop bear trap, and calliope music swelled in time with their act.  The crowds of goths in the stands exploded into cheers; the smell of popcorn and cotton candy hit her over the head, making her sway on her feet.  For a moment, all her focus was gone, and she was overcome with excitement.  The fire-breathers let loose a concluding double-arc of flames, took a bow, and then vanished in a puff of smoke.       "Whoa," Sam breathed, "That's so cool..."       "Um, Sam?" Tucker asked, not having been quite so enthralled by the performance, "What about Danny?"       Sam jolted.  "Right - " (gotta focus, Sam!) " - see if you can get up in the stands - maybe you'll be able to spot him from higher up.  I'll come up the other side."       Tucker nodded once and then ran off.       Sam turned.  Stay focused.  I know you're at the circus - once we catch up with Danny, it'll be fine.  We'll catch the show after that.  All three of us  It'll be fun.  Despite herself, she turned in the hopes to get a glimpse of the next act.  Freakshow's voice thundered across the tent: "And now, please welcome a performer who puts the death in death-defying act - The Grim Reaper himself!"       Sam stared in amazement.  Balanced precariously up on the high-wire was a single acrobat, draped in a dramatic black cloak and armed with a scythe.  Focus, Sam! she told herself half-heartedly, but it was in vain.  She was mesmerized; when the acrobat balanced the scythe on the tightrope and then hoisted himself up by one hand on top of it, she was left speechless.       Her senses came back to her when the reaper's act drew to a close.  She watched him descend from the platform and duck quickly out of sight, and a crazy thought presented itself in her head: I gotta get back there.  Before she dared allow herself to think twice about it, she crept along the dark corner of the second ring.  The sign overhead read Cast Only but she pushed the flaps open anyway.  Her heart was pounding.  She spotted the cloaked acrobat amidst a wide array of assorted props and, if she hadn't been so hopelessly in awe, she might have noticed that the tattered edge of the reaper's cloak hung in the air.  "I - " she started, telling herself not to slip into a fannish ramble and immediately doing it anyway.  "That was incredible out there - I know you probably get this like all the time but - "       The reaper turned.  From under his hood came a burning stare, and the scythe in his hands glinted in the low light.  He floated down to her; his face was blank, but his eyes had become red and bloodshot.  From up on the high-wire, the hood had masked him, but up close it no longer mattered.  He was unmistakable.       "Danny?" Sam gasped, taking a step back.  "What are you doing?  I've been looking all over for you!  Come on, we should go - "       "Can't," said Danny vaguely, as if in a trance.  He held her stare, unblinking.  "I belong here now."       "What do you mean, can't?" Sam demanded, unamused, "Cut it out.  I'm serious - "       A hand on her shoulder made her yelp.  She whirled around, suddenly finding herself face-to-face with the ringmaster.  He still held his staff in one hand, and his face had hardened into an irritable snarl.       "What are you doing back here?" he demanded.  His glare shifted to acknowledge Danny, and his eyes narrowed.  "And you!  What sort of miserable excuse for a performance was that?  You call that an act?"       Danny took it in silence, his face paling.  His gaze fell.       Sam's eyes darted between Danny and Freakshow.  What on earth was going on?  "Danny - come on, you're just going to let him say that?  I know you!  You never take it like this!"  She turned back to Freakshow, anger filling her.  "This is your fault, isn't it?  What did you do to him?"       Freakshow rounded on her instead.  "Oh, figuring things out so quickly?  Goody for you!  You think you'll protect this little ghost, now, don't you?"  He gave a sardonic laugh, unhinging just for a moment, and then bent to be level with her.  His face stiffened into a practiced grimace, and his voice became a threatening growl.  "Who - pray tell - will protect you from him?"  He gave the staff a little flick, and turned his attention to Danny.  "Redeem yourself, ghost.  Don't you hear those poor souls out there begging for more?  Give them the encore they want."       Danny said nothing.  He grabbed Sam by the arm and they both vanished from sight as he pulled her upwards to the high-wire platform.       "Danny, what're you - hey!"  Sam protested, landing on the platform and immediately taking a step back from him.  She was well aware of how small the platform was; one foot nearly slipped off the edge, and she had to regain her balance so she wouldn't fall.  She could see Freakshow below, narrow-eyed and unblinking.  The crystal mounted to his staff cast an insidious glow over one side of his face, and he tapped it once, as if an orchestral conductor might give a ginger flick of his baton.       Danny advanced, scythe in hand, and pressed her back.  His bloodshot eyes were locked on her; he wore the same scowl as the ringmaster, but as she backed slowly out onto the tightrope the corners of his mouth twisted instead into a crooked smile.       "Danny, stop it," Sam pleaded, casting another gut-wrenching glance down to the ring far below.  "I mean it - this isn't you!  Danny, please!"       He neither heard her nor answered.  He took a step out onto the wire after her, and then another.  His eyes were fixed on her, daring her to make a misstep - he swung the scythe at her once, just to make her scream, and his unnatural grin widened.       His blade and Freakshow's staff moved in tandem, one mimicking the direction of the other, and Sam put the pieces together.  He wasn't joking around - he was being controlled directly - but it was too late.  Danny gave the scythe a dramatic twirl before bringing it down and slicing the wire in two with a maniacal cackle.  It fell away from under him, but he was unaffected; Sam, on the other hand, was not.       She fell with a shriek, making a wild grab for the hem of his cloak.  Failing that, she at least found the severed end of the rope, and swung down to a rough halt at the side of the ring.  It wasn't a solid landing by any means; it took her a moment to collect herself and shake the dizziness out of her head.  The crowd was in an uproar but she didn't care - as she staggered back to her feet she saw Danny descending gracefully after her, scythe resting on one shoulder.  She took another step back.  "Danny, please listen to me - snap out of it, quit scaring me like that - "       Danny loomed over her with a ghastly snarl, his face only an inch from hers.  "How should I scare you...?"       She swallowed hard.  She realized just how hopelessly he'd been crushed by the power of the ringmaster's crystal - was there anything that could pull him out from under Freakshow's spell?  She was beginning to doubt that there was.  She watched, speechless, as Danny stepped back to the side of his new master.       Freakshow's scowl deepened; it was clear that he hadn't expected her to survive that little stunt, but he'd accept the outcome for the moment.  "Consider that a warning, girl," he sneered, stalking back off to the second ring with Danny still in tow.       Sam pulled herself together.  She couldn't save Danny on her own and she knew it - she had to find Tucker.  Still shaken but reassuring herself, she turned to the stands and scanned the crowds for him.  She could see him partway up; he was the only one among them who wasn't a goth, and it made him incredibly easy to spot.  He darted down to her, eyes wide.  "Sam - are you okay?  I saw you up there - you nearly gave me a heart attack!"       "Tucker!" Sam exclaimed, "I found him - I saw Danny, but he's under some kind of spell - it's Freakshow's staff, I think it's controlling him!"       "Controlling him?  Is there a way to stop it?"       "I don't know," Sam admitted, "We've got to figure out a plan.  Come on," she led him quickly to a darker corner of the tent - someplace where they wouldn't be seen, ideally - and cast a worried glance back to the center ring.  Earlier, she'd been transfixed; now, after what happened, it just sent a shiver down her spine.       "I'm gonna see if I can get any dirt on - man, you're not gonna believe this," said Tucker, interrupting himself mid-sentence as both eyebrow shot up.  He'd pulled out his PDA, and as he scrolled through the notifications on the screen he read them aloud: "Jewels reported missing by police - bank vault found empty - rash of mysterious burglaries - circus owner offers show to concerned parents - " (he gave that last link a tap with his thumb) " - get a load of this one.  Says here he's reaching out to skeptics to prove it's all 'harmless entertainment.'"       "Harmless?" Sam scoffed, "Harmless for himself, maybe.  Hey, see if you can find anything on the spell he put on Danny.  Any idea how to lift it?"       "Hang on, let me see - " (he tapped furiously for a moment) " - no, I'm not finding anything.  Not even a mention of anything like it.  Sam, what're we gonna do?  We can't just leave him - "       "I know we can't!" Sam snapped.  Tucker flinched, and she let her breath out all at once.  "Tucker, I'm sorry - I can't stand to let this happen to him either, but we don't have any leads, and we don't know how to lift the spell, and my parents are going to be in here for the show tonight, and we can't even let them see us - "       "Sam," said Tucker, as calmly as he could manage, and put a hand on her shoulder.  "Quit freaking out about it.  We'll save him, okay?  Plus the more you freak out about it the more it makes me wanna freak out about it, y'know?"       Sam forced herself to take a deep breath.  "Yeah.  Okay."  She swept the what-ifs that had been plaguing her away, redirecting her focus.  "What about the staff?  We have to get it away from him.  That might be the only way."       "You think he'll ever set the thing down?" Tucker asked, "I mean - "       Sam's resolve hardened.  Seeing Danny manipulated like that - his flinching shame when he'd been berated - lit a fire in her, and she nodded.  "He's got to."       Tucker turned as the crowds roared into applause again.  "After the show - he's gotta tire out sometime, right?"       "Yeah, and I know just the thing to snoop into in the meantime.  Come on," Sam rose to her feet, leading him around the back of the tent and out underneath the heavy canvas.  She checked both ways, in case the crowd of skeptical parents had spotted them.  Unseen, she pulled Tucker away and back toward the abandoned station.  The sun hadn't set yet, but there wouldn't be much time until it did.  She could see the crowds from the show filing out - earlier that morning, she'd have said she wouldn't miss the finale for the world, but she no longer wanted a part in any of it.  She knew their window would be short.  She pulled Tucker up beside the train, staying carefully out of sight of the crowds.  "Stay close by me," she whispered, spotting an open boxcar ahead.  They crept closer, and Sam caught a glimpse of the ringmaster before ducking under the carriage in a panic so that they wouldn't be seen.     "Excellent work, drones.  I'm certain dear Lydia will be joining us as soon as she's finished with her little performance.  Ah, and here come the stragglers.  A bit late, are we?"       Sam watched as Danny appeared in the air with another ghost beside him.  Freakshow's will had overpowered him, turning his eyes from green to a dark blood-red, and in one hand he held something small and glittering.  He descended, offering the trinket to his master.       Freakshow paused.  "Now, where did you find a little jewel like this?  Perhaps you're not entirely useless after all..."       Sam didn't catch anything after that.  The door of the boxcar rolled shut, latching with a hard clank, and she gave Tucker a nudge with one elbow.  "C'mon, we gotta get in there."       She got up to her feet as the engine gave a roar of steam.  The entire train shuddered; the wheels screeched against the rails as it struggled into motion.  She pulled Tucker out from underneath the boxcar, keeping his hand as she darted for the space in between the cars so she could jump up.       They paused in the confined space, and Sam's mind raced.  She could see the big-top already beginning to recede behind them; the train accelerated slowly and in great chugging shudders, but once it got moving she knew there'd be no stopping it.  Where would they end up?  She shook the thought out of her head.  One thing at a time.  Save Danny first.  She clambered up the side of the car, Tucker keeping close behind her.  There had to be a way in somewhere - she spotted an emergency hatch on the next car ahead, and the two of them made their way across.       Tucker pulled the hatch open just a little so he could peer inside, and he turned back to Sam with a nod.  "C'mere, I see it - "       A beam of ghost-energy hit them both square in the chest, sending them sprawling.  Sam made a grab for Tucker but missed; he flew clear off the train, tumbling to a halt somewhere in the tall grass below.  "Tucker, no!"       She turned to see Danny floating over her, finger-gun still smoking.  His eyes had been taken over completely by the red haze of Freakshow's hypnosis, and it had begun to creep like infectious roots under his skin.  He stared her down, his face betraying neither satisfaction nor regret, and he formed a full-sized ball of ghost-energy in one hand.  His eyes narrowed; he released the ball of energy and made the shot.       Sam only barely avoided the attack as she scrambled back to her feet, nearly toppling off the edge of the train.  She didn't dare take her eyes off of Danny for more than a second - she knew he'd chew her up and spit her out if she did - and she squashed down the terrified knot that had begun to form in her gut.  "Danny, don't do this - he's controlling you, you've got to listen to me - !"       Danny paused, as if idle, as the ringmaster appeared behind him from in between the cars.  "Looking for this?" he crowed, staff in hand, "Did you really think you could just take it right out from under my nose?  I may be a freak, girl, but I'm no fool!"       Sam steeled herself.  "Let Danny go!"       "Let him go?  Oh, that's charming!" exclaimed the ringmaster, breaking into hysterics.  "You're going to defeat me, are you? and single-handedly, no less!  How heroic!"       Danny advanced, eyes aglow.  His will had been all but crushed under Freakshow's; he wore the same grim glower, and even the way he moved had begun to mirror the ringmaster's own mannerisms.  He floated closer, nearly overwhelming her.       Sam took a step back.  "Danny, I know you're in there somewhere - you don't want to do this - "       "Save your breath, girl.  He doesn't stand a chance against me - and you don't stand a chance against him," said Freakshow in amusement.  He gave Danny only a look, but his orders were clear: finish her.       The ghastly glow in his eyes spread into a crimson aura, and he was forced to obey.  He made a grab for her, catching her by the arm, and spun her around to face him.  His grip was like ice, but his stare was burning.  "Come on," he growled, "Scream for me.  Just once."       "Danny, please!  It's me, Sam - I'm your best friend, remember - ?"       "I'm a ghost," he snapped, the corners of his mouth twisting back up into the too-wide grin, "I have no friends."       Sam's mind raced.  She realized - or, at least, was forced to acknowledge concretely - that there was no getting through to him.  He was no longer merely under Freakshow's command; his mind was beginning to warp because of it.  He was toying with her.  Whatever there was left of him inside was too far gone.  No, she insisted, he's not gone.  I have to save him.  She only had one shot.  The fire in her returned, and her hands balled into angry fists.  Despite herself, she still couldn't meet his eyes.  "Let go of me."       Danny's twisted smile widened to an impossible degree, and he burst into sardonic laughter.  His grip tightened.  "You couldn't make me!"       Sam forced herself to meet his stare.  She hesitated, but only for a moment.  "I'm sorry, Danny."       She decked him in the nose.       Danny's facade faltered; he flew back, skidding to a halt on the metal surface of the train.  In a daze, he lay still.       Sam rounded on Freakshow, her blood boiling.  She refused to acknowledge she'd just punched her best friend; she couldn't afford to hesitate now, and she took a step forward.  She was certain she'd beat him, now that he was on his own.       He seemed to know it too; his eyes widened, and he opened up his mouth to make a sorry excuse for himself.  "Please - er, just a moment, now, I don't think there's any need for - "       "Sam?"       She turned.  The fire in her began to fade in an instant, and chilling realization crept into its place.  She saw him, propping himself up on one hand, the other held over his nose.  Bright green blood ran through his fingers and stained the glove of his suit.       He refused to meet her gaze; his voice was broken.  "Sam, you - you really hurt me..."       She caved, overcome in an instant with remorse.  "Danny, I'm so sorry - I had to," she knew it wasn't enough.  She ran to him, knelt beside him, and carefully set one hand on his shoulder.  "Danny, please, I didn't mean it - "       He finally turned to her.  His wicked grin returned.  "Gotcha."       Freakshow sucked in his breath.  "Oh, bravo..."       The ground on either side of them seemed to fall away as she realized what had happened.  He'd baited her, and she'd fallen for it.  "Danny, I - "       He was faster.  He grabbed her, floating upwards and pulling her off her feet.  He turned, holding her for a moment over the side of the train, and with a little wave of his other hand he dropped her.       She fell with a shriek.  Time seemed to slow with her descent, and for a fleeting moment everything went silent.  The last thing she saw before she hit the river was Danny, floating triumphantly with the ringmaster at his side, as the train sped away.

      She pulled herself up onto the riverbank and collapsed.  The cold water had numbed her skin; her failure numbed her mind.  I lost him.  She lay on the bank - panting, exhausted, and soaking wet - and couldn't even bring herself to burst into tears.  She stared blankly up at the tracks on the bridge overhead; she could almost still see him, but she knew he was gone.  She knew she'd never see him again.  Freakshow had won.       She still had to drag herself home.  She turned her gaze to the steep ravine, dreading having to climb up the side after she'd just emerged from the water.  She only let herself rest for a few minutes, and then forced herself to her feet.  What am I gonna tell Tucker?  She knew he wouldn't take it well.  He'd known Danny longer than she had, and he'd had a rough time after Danny had died a while back.  She clambered slowly upwards, knowing better than to take her chance against the loose earth of the ravine and setting her sights on the supports of the bridge instead.  She hauled herself over the top and lay in the grass, unable to take another step.       She'd never see Danny again.       It was the next morning when she finally arrived home.  She'd just had the longest night of her life, and she couldn't even find it in her to protest when her parents began to fuss over her.  She let them.  At least she was home.  She was sent immediately to bed, and the next thing she knew it was evening.  Her mind still in a haze, she checked the time on the cell on her bedside table.  It was almost nine, but that meant little to her.  She found, instead, a text from Tucker waiting in her notifications.       Heard what happened, hope you feel better soon! get back to me when you can bc i have to tell you smth important. its abt danny. i found the schedule for the gothica tour! theyre setting up next month in oregon and i really dont wanna go by myself. i miss him too. hope you get better. we'll talk then

[readingclubstuck]

Section 8 image descriptions

Page descriptions for all pages in section 8 with flashing images! Trigger guide is [link: here]!

2662: Wake up!

The cursor clicks on the girl a couple of times, then clicks and tries to move her around. She flashes red every time the cursor interacts with her.

Narration: You try to roust Farmstink from her slumber, but she is really down for the count!

It looks like she is holding some sort of NOTE.

2663: Retrieve arms from...

The girl’s arms flash red.

Narration: THEY’RE RIGHT THERE.

IN PLAIN SIGHT.

LOOK, THEY ARE FLASHING RED.

2664: Drop pumpkin on Farmstink. 

The cursor grabs the pumpkin, drags it up above the girl, and lets it go. It falls almost on top of her, but before it hits her head, the screen flashes and the pumpkin disappears in a green circle and the word “-IFY”.

Narration: What pumpkin?

You see no pumpkin, and frankly it is hard to imagine there ever was a pumpkin, in plain sight or otherwise.

Anyway, that would be a really terrible thing to do to poor, sweet Farmstink.

2685: ==>

The flute goes into the first captchalogue card, then the screen fades into a whole screen of purple captchalogue cards, 3x6. The image of the flute flashes on various cards, then all the cards flash into a question mark.

Narration: You set your modus to MEMORY, and captchalogue the FLUTE. You allot 9 cards to the modus from your deck, since that will be more than enough for your needs at the moment. The modus grabs 9 more cards for matching purposes.

The FLUTE is split up on two blank cards, and mixed randomly into the grid. To retrieve the item you must first pick one card, and then pick its matching card.

For the typical sylladexer this modus presents a frustrating guessing game and a lot of wasted time on mismatching. But you like it because you seem to have a knack for always guessing right on the first try!

Narration: Modus fun aside, you feel it is impossible to have too many fresh fruits and vegetables on hand.

2686: Jade: Go upstairs to bedroom.

Jade stands on a pad between the stairs, bearing the alchemical symbol of triangles we have seen before. There is a green flash almost like a flame, and then Jade disappears.

Narration: You almost never use the stairs.

2687: ==>

Jade appears on a pad in a flash of green. There are stairs above her and below, and a metal fridge-like apparatus with an atom symbol on it. On top of this apparatus are four metal spires with red orbs on top.

Narration: You TRANSPORTALIZE upstairs. Just above is your room.

2695: Jade: Captchalogue nearest Squiddles doll and hug it.

A pink and blue squiddle draw toward each other and meet by the bellies, getting their tentacles tangled up in each other. The words “TANGLE BUDDIES!” flash. Jade claps her hands.

Narration: Just before you can grab one, the powerful ELECTROMAGNETS concealed in their underbellies become activated, and two of them get all tangled up with each other playfully.

2706: Jade: Captchalogue refrigerator.

Jade captchalogues the COOKALIZER and REFRIGERATOR, which expels the flute, which flips out of the first card in the deck. All the items flash in the 3x6 grid of cards.

Narration: You take the REFRIGERATOR.

You might as well grab the COOKALIZER too. No portable kitchen is complete without it.

You take your LUNCHTOP too, because obviously you’re going to be using that pretty soon.

2725: Jade: Get down to business.

The small box inside Jade’s lunchtop with a few alchemical-looking overlapping squares creates a little yellowish flash of what looks like flame, and then a 3d image that looks like a gear floats up, spinning, and flashes different colors and sizes. The entire room flashes green and then a background appears of a dragon, then some spacey stuff overlayed over it and more gears all around. A holographic keyboard is projected out of the grey box and several applications float around Jade, such as Echidna the web browswer, FRESHJAMZ! the music app, and of course Pesterchum. There is a disembodied arm in the image.

2726: Jade: Activate Pesterchum. 

Jade opens the Pesterchum application by waving her fingers in the air. The emoticons float all over the screen, then organize themselves into the screen, which is taken up by ‘Pesterchum Enamel (Much shinier!)’ There are more emotions on this version than just four shades of happiness and rancorous, which is less funny if you ask me, but whatever. The Chumroll lists John, online, Rose, offline, and Dave, who has sent a message. Below that, interestingly, is the Trollslum, denoted by a rancorous face, which lists various usernames. Only CarcinoGeneticist is online.

Narration: Hey look, John is online! Hooray!

Also it looks like Dave pestered you about something yesterday but you missed it.

2733: [S] MIDNIGHT CREW: ACT 1031

A large machine made mostly of gears with a red pair of stage curtains in the middle sits in the middle of the screen, with the sky as the background. It has two protruding symbols, a sun and a crescent moon, which flip in position, and the sky background turns from day to night.

We zoom in on the moon symbol, which lights up yellow, and pan down the streets of a city, then to a manhole and, beneath it, the Midnight Crew gathered around a table, each with a card in front of them and the plans in the middle of the table (with a hole cut in the center).

In turn each reaches for their card and holds it up (an ace in their respective suits) and their names flash as the card turns into a weapon—Diamonds Droog, Clubs Deuce, Hearts Boxcars, and Spades Slick. Each weapon seems suitable for beating.

A CASINO sign flashes, with each suit symbol around it; then, flames, and a few green characters with numbers on their hats appear, labelled The Felt. We see Spades beating the 1 member with his weapon in front of a safe, while 4 and Clubs look on. Then a shot of 15 looming with a background of flames; then Diamonds shooting a cowering 2 with two assault rifles. 3 slowly comes up behind Diamonds and he turns and beats 3 with a cue stick while 2 escapes.

We see a club with all the members of the Midnight Crew playing instruments, while the Problem Sleuth crew dances. The flash finishes with a spade bearing the words Midnight Crew and shiny blood spatters around it.

[S] Dave: STRIFE.

Dave squats with his katana on the roof, the sky still burning red behind him. A menu appears with options: in green, >AGGRIEVE and >AGGRESS; in blue, >ABJURE and >ABSTAIN; in yellow, >ABUSE and >ACCUSE; and in red, >ASSAIL and >ASSAULT. They flash for a moment, then are sliced in half by Bro, who then turns toward Dave, and then flashsteps away and leaves Cal sitting across from Dave. The music starts, with the text ROUND 1, then “STRIFE!”

Cal’s head nods, moved by Bro as he flashsteps back and forth across the screen. The picture zooms in on Dave and he flips in the air, striking down with his sword, but Cal disappears and appears on the other side of the screen, upright; Dave rushes at Cal but he appears to duck onto the floor, and appears behind Dave, catching him by surprise.

Cal appears behind him and nudges Dave, who turns around and attacks, missing again. When Dave strikes Cal goes to the left of the screen, apparently chattering with his mouth and then kicking Dave in the head to the other edge of the screen, until Dave rolls under him to the left; Cal plays dead on the right.

The same kind of thing goes on for a while; at one point Bro puts Cal on Dave’s head and Dave flails around, then waves his katana at a Cal who has already disappeared. Cal appears and then knocks Dave over; Dave jumps at Cal and we see Bro in slow motion holding Cal out before making him kick Dave over. The flash ends with Cal on top of Dave, Bro dashing from side to side and manipulating him to flail his legs on top of Dave, with no end in sight.

2743: [S] Jade: Descend. 

Jade stands in the room with the safe, then the image zooms in on a blue reminder on her pinky finger. If clicked, the screen pixellates and switches to a Crude Ogre holding Sassacre’s text. John stands between it and another ogre, and the word “STRIFE!” appears. John slams the pogo hammer back and forth with BOING until a green background with slimers appears, then flips toward the ogre on the right, which deflects with the text—a picture of Sassacre and the word ‘Sassacre’ appear.

John flies into the other ogre and bounces off, then hits the ground. The ogre on the right hits him with the text, then the ogre on the left swings the tire swing and catches John in it, hitting him to the floor a few times, then swings him around in the air faster and faster. It swings John down into the other ogre’s Sassacre text, and John goes flying, up above and then off the roof, and down onto a bed provided by Nannasprite. His health vial is very low, but she heals him. John sits up, shakes his head, pulls out his pogo hammer, and then starts the process all over again, swinging the hammer from side to side between the ogres.

Narration: Try as you might, you can't stop your mind from drifting to the fate of your friends. You dwell on a particular configuration of REMINDERS on your finger.

2747: ==>

Rose stands bathed in green flashing light, casting a long shadow behind her. In that direction is a door with a sign above marked EXIT, and a much larger sign above that with a large green SN on it. In the lower curve of the S is a spirograph.

Narration: You enter the LABORATORY.

2748: Rose: Look for mad scientists.

Rose walks on a path. There are many small green boxes, much like Jade’s grey boxes, with flashing lights on top, what appear to be small outlets, and lock symbols in the corner. There is what appears to be a control panel facing Rose so that we see it from the back.

Narration: There are no scientists to be found, mad or otherwise. Or anyone for that matter. The lab appears to be deserted.

There is a KIOSK though.

2749: ==>

The page zooms out to show Rose standing at the beginning of a path, which shows many more boxes, in giant squares of lighter and darker green.

2750: ==>

The page zooms out even more to show even more boxes. Rose is dwarfed by the size of the grid. Two paths, one of which Rose is standing on, intersect at the center of the grid, which has a green circle on the ground.

Narration: It looks like the kiosk monitors the lab’s enormous HUBGRID.

2752: Jade: Proceed.

Jade descends more stairs into a room mostly populated with suits of armor, including an Iron Man suit, as well as more animal trophies. Flickering orange light shines in from the hallways.

Narration: You hop down a level.

Granddad also likes to accumulate VALIANT KNIGHTS from his travels. These are pretty cool, you guess.

2753: Jade: Keep going.

Jade makes a face as she is faced with one of those fake mummified monkey-mermaids.

This room, with flickering pink light shining in, is full of knights, big game trophies, AND horrible mummies.

Oh yeah. How could you forget about his stash of DECREPIT MUMMIES.

God you hate these things.

2754: Jade: Don't stop.

A stuffed wolf and bear are crammed into a room also containing a sarcophagus and vintage pictures of women tinted blue. Light blue light flickers on the walls.

Jade stands among more of these blue portraits and trophies with an o: face.

2755: ==>

A zoomed-out picture of the same thing.

Narration: This is your grandfather’s collection of what he refers to as his BEAUTIES. No lovely lady will be fit for his collection unless her portrait has spent at least 20 years bleaching in the front window of a beauty parlor, a sort of establishment he’s plundered no less frequently than ancient tombs.

You guess they were sort of like your sisters while growing up, and you were always encouraged to look up to them. They are all awfully pretty ladies you suppose, but it was always hard to get as excited about them as grandpa.

“Jade, study hard and keep your rifle at the ready. When adventure summons, I know you will rise to the task and take your rightful place among the DAUGHTERS OF ECLECTICA.”

That old coot sure is a bag of wind!

2757: ==>

Jade stands at the foot of the stairs making a DX face. Torches around the room flicker in fire. There is a huge snake-like creature sitting with its base on the transportalizer and the rest of its body outside the room. The creature has a blank :0 face, with fangs. The top part of its body is white, presumably human, and the rest of it is green, like a naga. There is a mysterious splotch of oil in the top corner of the image.

Narration: You reach the ground level. This is the stupid thing blocking the transportalizer. It is unspeakably hideous.

Down the southeast hall is the GRAND FOYER. You’ll have to cross through it to leave the house.

2758: ==>

Jade’s LUNCHTOP sits at her feet, with a speech bubble coming out of it with “…” in it. Two torches flicker on either side of her, and the large monster is behind her.

Narration: Looks like someone’s pestering you.

Even though you thought you logged off… ?