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tipsycad147 · 5 years ago

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Taurus April Yggdrasil Day

By shirleytwofeathers

Yggdrasil Day is celebrated either on April 22 or on the last Friday in April. It is not an old Northern tradition nor an ancient pagan celebration, it is a fairly new holiday in the Neopagan tradition and an alternative to Arbor Day.

This day is a time to contemplate the place of humankind within the nine worlds, and to celebrate the blessings of nature, often shown by planting a tree. This is also a time to celebrate one’s culture, heritage, and spirituality.

Regardless of faith, Yggdrasil Day is a great opportunity for anyone to give back to nature and recognise our inter-dependency on both one another and the natural world.

Arbor Day is all about trees, and their importance here on our tiny blue world. I am not sure how many trees are planted on this day worldwide, maybe millions, but none can compare to the greatest tree that was ever planted, Yggdrasil. Arbor Day is another one of those secular celebration days that I have borrowed, and use to honour something, or someone, in our great pantheon of Gods and Goddesses.

Today for me is Yggdrasil Day. A day to honour our Great World Ash for all that it does and means to us Midgardians. If you consider it to be an actual tree, or just some cosmic force that holds the nine worlds together is a matter for a later discussion. Either way it is to us, who follow the Old Ways, the great tree of life that binds our nine world cosmology together as one cohesive structure.

Let us not forget also that we here on Midgard have another very strong connection to trees in our lore. I quote from Voluspa,

“Until three of the Aesir assembled there, strong and benevolent, came to the sea. They found on the shore two feeble trees, Ask and Embla, with no fixed fate.”

Gylfaginning finishes the story:

“And they picked these up and created men from them. The first gave them spirit and life, the second understanding and power of movement, the third, form, speech, hearing and sight. They gave them clothes and names.”

The Gods gave life to the trees, and mankind was therefore born. Voluspa gives us a wonderful description of the Great Ash Tree:

“There is an ash tree, its name is Yggdrasil. A tall tree watered from a cloudy well. Dew falls from its boughs down into the valleys. Ever green it stands beside the Norn’ s spring.”

The importance and sacredness to the Gods is shown in Gylfaginning when Gangleri asks : ” Where is the chief place, or sanctuary of the Gods? ” High One replies: ” It is by the ash tree Yggdrasil. There every day the Gods hold court. ”

The High One then goes on to give the best description of Yggdrasil.

“The Ash is the best and greatest of all trees, its branches spread out over the whole world and reach up over heaven. The tree is held in place by three mighty roots that spread far out. One is among the Aesir; the second among the Frost Ogres, where once was Ginnungagap; the third extends over Niflheim, and under that root is the well Hvergelmir. But Nidhogg gnaws at the root from below. Under the root that turns in the direction of the Frost Ogres lies the Spring of Mimir, in which is hidden wisdom and understanding. The third root of the ash tree is in the sky, and under that root is the very sacred spring called Urd. There the Gods hold their court of justice.”

The High One adds later on:

“There is a great deal to tell about it . In its branches sits an eagle, and it is very knowledgeable. Between its eyes sits a hawk called Vedrfolnir. A squirrel named Ratatosk springs up and down the Ash and conveys words of abuse between the great eagle and Nidhogg. Four harts leap about the branches of the Ash and eat the shoots. And along with Nidhogg there are so many serpents that no tongue can count them.”

Yggdrasil is the cosmic World tree, and Ash tree, that binds this world to the others, to the world of the gods, of the spirits and ancestors, it is the symbol of our union with nature. In Nordic mythology, it was an ash tree known as Yggdrasil, the cosmic tree that symbolises the centre of the world, that Odin hung for nine days and nine nights in trance, received the sacred knowledge of runes, the Elder Futhark.

Yggdrasil has always played an important role in the lives of the Northern people of Europe. We have all came from nature and we will all return to it one day, so at this day we honour the forces of nature and we will always remember how important is to protect the world we live in.

Trees are the lungs of our world just has it is Yggdrasil in the Nordic cosmology, it is the shelter that gives us peace and protection, it is the spiritual path of the Gods and of our ancestors, the way which leads to the other worlds. And so as nature gives us these gifts, in turn we must honour it, and because a gift calls for a gift, in turn we must give to nature our protection, our care and our respect. In this day you should plant a tree, you should become the protector of those who have given you shelter, fight against the evils that are corrupting our natural world.

Celebrating Yggdrasil Day:

I honour the Great World Ash Yggdrasil every year on Arbor Day, the last Friday in April, with a full ritual, and by placing a new Valknut, Thor’s Hammer, or rune stone necklace on the branches of my artificial 6 ft. white ash tree that I have sitting next to Odin’s altar in my living room. I think it is very appropriate that the Great Ash sits next to the All – Father’s altar because of his many connections to Yggdrasil. I do not celebrate Christmas so to me this wonderful 6 ft. ash tree, with all its shining jewellery hanging in the branches, evokes the same emotions of joy and wonder that I used to experience as a child on Christmas morning.

The best thing is I get to experience it 365 days a year because I never take down the tree. It honours me with its presence, and I honour it with my presents, day after day, year after year. I found the 6 ft. ash at Amazon. com for about $ 300.00. It was definitely worth the money !

This year I am going to present the Great Ash with a very special gift that I found at the Scandinavian Festival last year. It is a beautifully carved Thor’s hammer. This white Thor’s hammer is hand carved out of bone, and has beads on either side of the Hammer. It looks kind of tribal ! It will make a beautiful addition to the dozen or so necklaces already hanging in its holy branches.

Coming just a week after Jord’s Day, ( Earth Day ), it is fitting to have a day to honour Yggdrasil, and to re- seed the earth with seedling trees. Planting trees is not only a great way to honour Mother Jord, and Yggdrasil, but it is also a wonderful gift for future generations of mankind. I cannot imagine a world without trees, and there would be no nine world universe without Yggdrasil the Great Nine World Ash!

More about the Ash Tree

The Ash tree – Fraxinus Excelsior is also known as guardian tree in all of Europe. With the exception of the Mediterranean region, this tree can live till three hundred years. Its leaves appear after its flowers and this strange detail led this tree to be know as the “Venus of the woods”. Its roots penetrate deeply into the ground causing difficulty to other kinds of vegetation to grow in there. Due to the hardness of its wood, it has been widely used for the manufacture of lances and tool handles. Thus it is possible that the name of this tree in English, derives from the Anglo-Saxon word Asec, which means “Ritual Spear.”

Celtic Druids once used the wood of these trees, to make their rods and staffs.

Traditionally the yule log (At the winter solstice) is of ash tree, this is because it is one of the few woods that can burn immediately, even though it is still green, and offers an excellent and long-lasting illumination.

The Icelandic word Aske, which has similarities with Ash, means “fire with large flame.” This tree is also sacred to the gods Thor and Odin.

Sources:

Wight of the Nine Worlds

New Tales of the Norse

https://shirleytwofeathers.com/The_Blog/pagancalendar/category/april/

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phgq · 5 years ago

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‘BIDA Solusyon’ caravan held in Impasugong town

#PHinfo: ‘BIDA Solusyon’ caravan held in Impasugong town

IMPASUGONG, Bukidnon, Oct. 25 (PIA)—Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar on Friday led the conduct of the "BIDA Solusyon" caravan here in time that the municipality Indigenous People's Day.

Together with partner government agencies, Andanar explained the basics of the "BIDA" concept by encouraging the public to regularly adopt the minimum health standards as a behavioral lifestyle as we course through the new normal.

“BIDA Solusyon is really a big help to the national government in explaining to the people on what should be done so we can prevent COVID-19. This is also important so we can continue on our activities as well as proceed with our functions in developing our town. We definitely could not let COVID-19 defeat us,” Andanar said.

BIDA Solusyon is a social and behavior change campaign that encourages the practice of regular handwashing and facemask-wearing to lower the chances of coronavirus spread.

The PCOO chief explained that the acronym “BIDA” stands for B-Bawal ang walang mask or not wearing of a mask is prohibited; I stands for I-sanitize ang mga kamay, iwas hawak sa mga bagay or always wash or sanitize and avoid touching things; D-Dumistansya ng isang metro or maintain a distance of at least one meter; and A-Alamin ang totoong impormasyon or know the correct information and updates about the pandemic.

Likewise, Dr. Beverly Lorraine Ho, Health Promotion and Communication Service chief of the Department of Health (DOH), emphasized that wearing of masks and observance of physical distancing can help prevent further transmission of COVID-19.

She described the results of recent studies showing that wearing of mask reduces transmission by 96 percent for N95 masks and 67 percent for non-N95 masks, while the observance of physical distancing by one meter can reduce the chance of transmission by 82 percent with protection increasing as distance is lengthened. Dr. Ho also emphasized that face shields should not be used as substitute for face masks and should only be used in addition to masks as added protection.

Impasugong mayor Anthony Uy, meanwhile, announced that the town has just been declared COVID-free because those who were infected had recovered from the dreaded disease.

“We have been battling COVID-19 for almost eight months. We only had five COVID cases when we started receiving LSIs and ROFs, and we thanked DSWD for the never-ending support, especially during those times. Now, Impasugong town is COVID-free,” the mayor said.

Acknowledging mayor Uy’s gratitude, Assistant Secretary Rhea Peñaflor of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) announced that the Department will soon resume its validation phase for the third-round of assessment of “Listahanan” to make sure that those unregistered poor households will be included in DSWD’s list of qualified beneficiaries for its different social protection programs and services.

Morveover, Philippine Information Agency Director-General Ramon Cualoping III who came with Dr. Ho and Asec. Peñaflor to campaign for DOH's "BIDA Solusyon" and DSWD's "LISTAHANAN" said the government’s effort to #ExplainExplainExplain has been gaining momentum, as it brings government closer to the people.

“Based on the directive of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, the national government should be brought right into our doorsteps so we can also give you all the initiatives and programs of the Duterte administration,” Cualoping stressed. (RLRB/PIA Bukidnon)

***

References:

* Philippine Information Agency. "‘BIDA Solusyon’ caravan held in Impasugong town." Philippine Information Agency. https://pia.gov.ph/news/articles/1056907 (accessed October 25, 2020 at 09:20PM UTC+08).

* Philippine Infornation Agency. "‘BIDA Solusyon’ caravan held in Impasugong town." Archive Today. https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://pia.gov.ph/news/articles/1056907 (archived).

#Philippines #News #Filipino #Pinoy #Tourism #Politics #Culture #Editorial #Environment #Society #History

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mortyandcarlsbespokesalvage · 5 years ago

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Day 2 Sequence 1

The chasms at the base of the Barrier Wall stretched down and down into an abyssal black chasm. But the Wall itself towered into the air. A horizontal forest of thick support beams criss-crossed over a canyon-like interior. Air vents cast beams of light through the dusty air, and where their lights couldn’t reach, walls of regularly spaced flood lights illuminated the chasm.

A flight of stairs ran up the Wall from the South Gate Bridge. Raven scaled it, going higher and higher, each flight up taking him deeper into that metal forest. The Barrier Wall was shot through with work platforms and catwalks, forming an unofficial highway around the city. The route Raven was taking lead directly to the Third Precinct. He passed through along the bridges and paths, seeing swarms of Engineers working on the countless pipes and powerlines, scrambling through the beams and along the inner walls of the massive structure. Had the storm really caused such damage, even within the Wall?

Raven’s thoughts were interrupted as an Engineer dropped down from somewhere above and landed onto the catwalk directly in front of him.

“Sorry, mate. Have to see that you take the detour through to the next level,” the engineer said calmly, a cigarette hanging from his lips. He was orange furred with darker orange stripes. A Bestal Nameless with a round cat face and sharp triangular ears on top of his head. His tail swayed slowly left to right, its end occasionally twitching.

“Detour?” Raven asked. “Why, what’s going on?”

“Pipes gone quiggly, ain’t they?” he said, taking a drag on the cigarette. Smoke flowed on his breath as the words escaped. “Big ol knot where the damn things gone and wrapped themselves round the cat. Got the jack lines and some power and maybe a gas line all rooted round one ‘nother. Anyweh, we’re busy tracing the damn things to find the nearest cutoffs so’s we can get it sorted without blowing a hole in the Wall. So ya can’t go this way. I ‘spect you’re on your way to the Third?” Raven had caught most of that, he thought. The Engineer had dark circles under his eyes, visible through his fur, and a half lidded, flat expression. How long had he been working today?

Raven leaned to the side to look past the Engineer. Sure enough there was a huge knot of lines and pipes stretching across the interior of the wall and blocking the path across the catwalk like a spider’s web. Sparks from the power lines, - or were they the jack lines? - crisscrossed and sent small showers of sparks cascading over the knot that seemed as tall as him. He hoped that there were not gas lines in the mix.

Is that why the lines to the outer rim had been down?

“But how -” Raven began, pointing at the mess of lines.

“Some surge from the storm is our best guess. Big ones come through and the knots form faster and get denser.” The Engineer finished his cigarette and flicked it into the chasm below. ��On your way then. Can’t be talking to wayward Sweepers all day can I?” He stepped lightly to stand on the catwalk railing, and leapt across the chasm to the nearest beam before ascending higher in a series of leaps. Raven marveled at the agility of city Engineers. He thought back to the pair he had narrowly escaped in the deeps the previous morning and shuddered.

Raven doubled back to the nearest stair and climbed upward to the next catwalk up. He was thankful for the breadth of the platforms over the looming dark. Even in the beams of sunlight and the incandescent glow of the hundreds of floodlights, there was no escaping the blackness below. How high had he climbed? How far down was the ground, and where did the deep shafts begin? He could no longer see the bridge across the South Gate. He thought about what the Engineer had said about the knots in the lines. He knew that they grew wild enough in his neighborhood, but he had never thought about what drove their twisting growth. Did Abby know? He had never asked her. He thought of Carlos, and had the dawning realization of how little he knew about his own city. How much had he taken for granted?

“Raven!” The shout came from somewhere overhead, joyous and piercing. Raven recognized the voice immediately. He looked up searchingly into the mess of support structure and wires and whatever else made the Barrier Wall work. “Raven,” Abby shouted again and then Raven saw her, clambering down a succession of auxiliary beams that Raven wouldn’t have trusted to hold his sword, but which Abby scaled like she knew the weight-bearing capabilities of each inch of metal. (She probably did.) She was short but incredibly strong; it served her well as an engineer. And it was a strength that stretched to her personality as well. Raven had never heard Abby sound so concerned about anything. Maybe she’d be willing to buy him waffles after all?

Her ranting became audible as she descended, the words running together in an unstoppable flow that was as familiar to Raven as his own reflection. “They said you were dead! They said you were dead but I KNEW you were still out there, I KNEW it! I went to meet you after your shift and they said you were gone on a mission and that your team came back without you and Oh Gods they said you were dead! RAVEN!!!”

Abby was only a few feet above him now and Raven felt a smile stretch across his whole face. He was so happy to see her! And she’d been worried! She leapt towards him, arms outstretched, and Raven automatically mirrored her, ready to catch her. He was going to get a hug!

He was mistaken. Abby caught the railing and vaulted forward, drop kicking him square in the gut. The impact sent him stumbling back several steps, winding him. Before he could regain his breath, Abby dismounted and followed up the kick with a punch to the same spot. Somehow, Raven found enough air to groan.

“You absolute IDIOT! You dummy! You colossal doof!” Abby was still shouting and throwing precise, devastating punches to his torso. He was on the ground now. “I should have known you’d do something stupid! I can’t believe I expected a safe first shift from the same fool who can’t do a simple taco run without stopping a shoplifter, interfering with a pub brawl, and rescuing Old Woman Gigi’s cat!”

Indignation gave Raven enough breath to try interrupt, “-those were separate incidents!”

Abby glared with electric blue eyes. Her pointed ears twitched. “Did they or did they not all happen when you were supposed to get tacos?”

“One time it was falafels!” he shouted quickly as he curled into a ball, bracing for another round of her relentless assault.

“FALAFELS!?” she exclaimed. Shifting her shoulders and drawing her massive wrench, she swung it over her head and leveled it at Raven’s. She swung. Raven winced, bracing for the impact. There was none. The wrench, easily as tall as Abby, hovered inches above his head.

“Where’s your helmet?” She asked with a trifle of incredulity.

“ … It … Broke?” He winced again, readying himself.

“Ugh,” she groaned, long and awful, letting the wrench lightly drop onto his head, and then returning it to the holster on her back. “I can’t even count on you to protect your big fat empty head. It’s all just hair with you, isn’t it?” She loomed over his hunched form, her nearly five-foot frame feeling as big as the Wall when she glowered. But she’d put the wrench away for now, so he was, tentatively, safe. Raven patted his long, blue-black hair self-consciously.

Abigail Ratchet was half Nameless on her father’s side. A Gobbish mechanic, Ignatius had married her mother Ursa, who was an Old World Turk and a former Sweeper turned welder. Abby was a foot taller than her father and a foot and a half shorter than her mother, with wild black dread-locked hair that jutted out in jagged kinks and angles. Her mahogany skin glistened with sweat and oil from her work in the beams above. Her white tank top was soaked through and the oil stains and scorch marks from welding patterned her coveralls, the top half of which she had tied around her waist. Her electric blue eyes were bright, alert, manic. How long had she been awake?

“How did you know to find me here?” Raven asked as he struggled against the railing to get to his feet.

“Ugh! Just like you to change the subject. Don’t think you’re getting out of this!” She threw her head back to look at Raven as he stood over her. “I’ve been working top of the Wall. Yesterday morning when I went to pick you up for lunch, they told me you didn’t come back. Your captain was super upset. She said you went like an idiot and locked yourself. in. with. WALKERS!” Her voice echoed through the canyon sides of the Wall interior. She struck him again, hard.

“Well Meri is gonna tear you a new one when you get back, let me tell you. I just knew you would do something stupid like that the first chance you got!” Another blow. Raven barely got his arms up in time to prevent another strike to his stomach. “And since I just KNEW you were too stupid to even DIE properly, I’ve been listening to the ASEC channel to see when you got back. And there you were this morning on the dispatch, all stuttering like the idiot you are and saying you were reporting in through the South Gate, and I knew you’d have to come this way, so I’ve been keeping an eye to see when you’d show up. Then I see Sanza and he’s talking about a Sweeper needing directions and I just KNEW it was you!” She leapt back onto the railing and stood triumphantly over Raven, looking down with bright eyes and a toothy grin.

“Um. Thanks?” Raven stood warily, rubbing his tender stomach. “I tried to call but I was in Southport and we couldn’t get through.”

“Hmph.” Abby snorted. “Well I guess I can’t be mad at that. Radio’s no good through the Wall and all the lines to the Outer Rim went sideways with the storm. We’ll be sorting that out for a few days at least.” Abby wrinkled her nose as she looked downward at the knot of cables that wrapped around the catwalk and surrounding beams below. “So. You’re gonna be heading back to ASEC now?”

“Yeah, I gotta -” Raven was cut off.

A loud bang split the air, followed by a screech and groan of straining metal. Abby and Raven turned to look above them. Another catwalk up from them, Raven could see a pair of strangely dressed figures holding open a large sack, while a third stood with arms outstretched. They wore welding masks, tattered ponchos and baggy rough canvas pants like Engineers. A heavy metal object dropped from above and the Engineer caught it, staggering back with some difficulty, and placed it in the bag. Looking higher, Raven saw another pair with the same strange, tattered garb higher up in the beams on a large crossbeam that supported a massive strut that attached to a gigantic fan above them.

“Wreckers.” Abby said under her breath.

“What -” Raven began to ask.

“WRECKERS!” Abby bellowed. In a moment there came a series of klaxon alarms sounding from below them, filling the great chasm with their blaring wail. Abby grabbed Raven by the wrist and took off at a run up the stair to the catwalk above. Raven stumbled but found his stride, rushing to keep up.

“What’s going -” he started.

“WRECKERS! Abby shouted back without turning. Her voice carried over the klaxons wail. “Those scrap happy donuts are gonna pop the shock absorbers and drop the fan! Help!” she yelled, shooting a glare back over her shoulder at Raven.

“How?” Raven managed to get out without interruption.

Abby stopped as she reached the catwalk, turning down the wide platform to the three Wreckers in their tattered ponchos and masks. She again grabbed Raven and shoved him ahead of her. “See those guys? They’re bad. Those jerks are stealing parts and breaking everything to get ‘em!” Raven looked closer and saw two more sacks apart from the one that was being loaded. “Stop them and get those bags back!” Abby snapped as she mounted the railing and took off at a run.

“What are you doing?” Raven shouted as he drew his axe and started at a sprint towards the trio of Wreckers.

“I gotta make sure those jerks at the strut don’t unfasten any more nuts!”

Abby leapt from the railing to the outer side of the Wall, running up the exterior wall and kicking off into another long leap to a nearby beam. She caught one of the smaller pipes running along the crossbeams and swung upward into a somersault onto a beam above. She made a quick turn and dashed along it, upward at the slant and then jumping to another. She stepped off the beam in a swift movement and dashed along a narrow hanging pipeline until she was within one last leap to the beam supporting the massive strut.

The Barrier Wall was lined with fans at various intervals. Massive, hundred ton behemoths, cycling air into and out of the inner ring. Each fan was held in place by similarly colossal struts, built to absorb their constant vibrations and support the fans against the powerful winds that battered the upper heights of the Wall. The Wreckers had been at work removing the large nuts that held together the fastening bolts, which in turn connected the beam that supported one of those struts. Now, the beam was beginning to split. The fan was going to fall.

Abby stood on another beam, observing, while the wind whipped around her. The massive fan was slow but powerful, and the crosswind blew cold through the Wall. Abby, a skilled Engineer, only noticed it so much as it affected her footing. She unholstered her wrench and hefted it, deftly balancing in the cool wind. The Wreckers on the beam remained focused on undoing the bolts, and had not yet noticed her or the klaxon. She scowled.

With a mad dash, she leapt forward to the next beam, dropping her wrench back into an overhead swing. At last, one of the Wreckers caught sight of her and ducked. The other wasn’t so quick, and took the full blow to their mask. The flimsy covering crumpled and the Wrecker tumbled backwards and fell into the chasm. Abby didn’t spare a moment’s thought to them. She swung again, narrowly missing the second Wrecker as they dodged and leapt back. Cornered, the wrecker drew a blowtorch and waved it frantically, flames narrowly missing Abby’s face. Abby ducked low and threw her weight into a sharp sweep of her leg at the Wrecker’s footing, but they leapt in a forward somersault over her and scrambled away down the beam, leaping onto the fan strut and taking the long jump to the vent to the outside of the wall. It would be suicide for anyone else, but Abby knew that the Wreckers were as agile as Engineers, and would be prepared to safely make their way down the outside of the Wall. Hells, scaling the Wall was almost certainly how they had infiltrated in the first place. Her attention snapped back to the loosened nuts on the remaining bolts.

She scanned the beam and surrounding supports. All but the most essential fastenings to keep the struts and Fan in place were loosened, or stripped of the nuts and bolts that held the strut supports in place. Just how long had the Wrecker crew been at work unchecked that morning? She rushed to tighten the bolt they had been working on, quickly calibrating her wrench and slamming it into place. She put her weight into the torque on the large wrench, ratcheting the bolt quickly. She could feel the beam groaning beneath her feet. The nuts and bolts that the Wreckers had stolen would need to be returned as soon as possible. She looked down and hoped that Raven would succeed.

Down below the beam that supported the fan strut, Raven swung wide with the back of his blade. He had distracted the Wreckers and chased them away from their bounty, but they danced around him easily, deftly evading the swings of his axe.

“RAVEN!” Abby yelled. “Quit screwing around down there and get the bags!”

His brow furrowed with irritation. What did she think he was doing? He charged again and brought his axe down hard where one of the Wreckers had landed on the platform railing before once again leaping away out of the reach of the axe. Raven heard the groaning of the beam above and felt a desperate urgency. There was no time. And then he remembered something. What was it Marie had said? Good guys are not always nice guys? He thought of Carlos and the Griefer destroyer. Pops hadn’t fought fair. But their enemy had brought guns against a town full of civilians recovering from a ruinstorm. Where did a fair fight fit into any of that? Was that what Marie had been trying to tell him?

He pulled a flare from his belt and, before he could second guess himself, drew the flat of his axe up to his face to shield his eyes and set off the flare in the midst of the Wreckers. Raven heard them cry out in surprise. With his eyes closed tight against the light, he swung out and swept them off their feet. He heard the clank of the bag falling to the platform, heard the swish of clothing slipping over the platform rail. He missed his helmet.

Squinting in the blinding white light, Raven saw the masked Wreckers, two remaining, struggling to get to their feet. Raven again was conscious of the slow groan of the metal above him and he looked up for a moment to see the massive fan overhead. These Wreckers didn’t care if it fell. They were going to get people hurt. And that was all he needed to know. He rushed at the two of them and flipped his axe to swing hard with the blunt back of the blade. He felt it connect with a crack and a crunch as he knocked against the heads of the two Wreckers. One fell backwards over the railing, the other, not hit by the full force of the blow, staggered back and braced themselves against the railing. Raven could see a glaring eye looking back at him through a broken mask.

It took only a moment of hesitation on Raven’s par for the Wrecker to flip backwards onto the railing and take a leap to the beam above. Raven watched with a mixture of awe and irritation as the acrobatic saboteur took a series of leaps upward and slipped away though the fan vent that led to the outside of the Wall.

Raven was feeling a lot of things. But there was no time to focus on them; Abby was yelling again, and not in a nice way. He turned back to the abandoned bags and began rooting through them. A stack of nuts emerged and he went to work. He grabbed the one on top and tossed it up, trusting Abby to catch it. She did with an ease and grace he was quietly amazed by. He watched her spin it back into place, then grabbed the next. The fan and surrounding platforms began to shake.

Abby was just about to start panicking. Then Sanza was there, grabbing the next nut from Raven. Someone else picked up the other abandoned bags. The surrounding beams started to fill with Engineers. The klaxon had done its work, at least. More hands joined Abby, grabbing the nuts Raven threw up to them and rushing to the weakened struts. The metal still groaned unhappily, but it was quieting and the shaking had begun to still.

It took nearly a half hour before things were set to right. After the arrival of the rest of the Engineering Corp, Raven had been sidelined. There really wasn’t much for him to do, but he felt like leaving without at least letting Abby know would be impolite. Plus, someone might need him to, to lift something really heavy. In the meanwhile, he tried to keep out of the way.

He saw Abby a little ways away. She was talking to a group of people who looked very official. Probably debriefing, something he needed to be ready to do soon. He wondered if the Engineering Corps would need a statement from him.

Soon, Abby was stomping towards him, cursing up a ruinstorm.

“What’s wrong? Did they not believe it was Wreckers? Do you need me to talk to them? I’m a Sweeper, my word’s gotta count for something, right?”

Abby looked at him like she was thinking of hitting him again but couldn’t find the energy. “It’s fine, dummy. I’m pissed because those garbage chomping, rust munching, thieves got away! I hope their mothers drown in battery acid.”

“Well, it was only the two who escaped,” Raven said, trying to console her.

“That’s three too many!” she countered, and ignored his murmured that doesn’t even make sense, Abby. “They’re getting bolder, too. I hate that!”

“Bolder?” Raven asked. A shiver of intuition made him perk up. “You mean this is, what, an escalation?”

Abby grunted a vague affirmation, her attention focused on her coworkers as they scaled the interior of the Wall. There were Engineers everywhere, checking every point of connection and testing the integrity of the surrounding beams. “We’re going to be at this forever,” she groaned dismally.

“Abby, what did you mean the Wreckers are getting bolder?”

“Just what I said! I mean, they’re always causing trouble along the Wall, grabbing whatever isn’t welded down when no one’s looking. Sometimes we’d even let them! Easier than just chucking all of the lines and pipes that we have to cut out when they get squiggly. It’s irritating, but part of the job. Lately, though…. I dunno, it’s like they have a shopping list or something. They’re going after bigger pieces of metal. Specific pieces of metal. Used to be, they’d just grab any old thing that might be lying around…” she trailed off.

“Huh,” Raven said eloquently. This felt like something...big. And he’d already seen a lot of big things. Had the world always been like this? He thought of Pops again.

Kid. The whole city is always in danger.

But he had said something else too. There were several hundred Sweepers taking care of things. He now saw that there were far more than that, counting the Engineering Corps and who knows how many others. Carlos, Marie, and seemingly the entire town of Southport. The City held together because of how many people stepped up to protect it.

He had to report in.

#Arpage #Children of the Storm #CotS #Raven Daniels #Carlos Desocrates #Marie Fortuna #Abby Ratchet

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lethe-distillery-blog · 6 years ago

Text

Ash Bringer

I admired her from a distance, though I knew her as intimately as my own flesh and bone, it was still the tantalizing new experiences of seeing her. Sweet and subtle she stood there, surrounded by nothing more than others seeking to be like her; not that she attempted to stand out, in fact, she did everything to blend in. But it was impossible to blend in when you were as perfect as she, so perfectly sculpted with subtle curves, delicate and smooth. She was perfectly remarkable to those who knew anything and faded into the background to those that didn't. Never had I been more fascinated or more intrigued.

Codenamed CITIZEN 001. Experimental stealth fighter craft of the Gravon Forces, personally commissioned and approved of by the royal family itself. She was a luxury, responsive to my touch, and just enough class to be a ladyship. Upon taking ownership of her I had taken to simply calling her ASH. It seemed fitting for such a magnificent thing to hold within her the name of something I found beautiful and oddly apropos to my situation. Though, if I was honest I had named it for whom I found beautiful I supposed. Ash Bringer, my old wingman before life had taken us in different directions.

She was destined for greatness, and I had gone through the spec op branch of our armada until I had reached the top and taken the name Shadow. It was tacky then, still felt it now, but in all ways of describing my particular purpose, it was exactly what I was. In all official capacity, Jorgan Hopkins, the man who had gone into Gravon Specialized Command, G-SpeC in 04252, had perished in recon exercise of the Far Reaches. Not exactly unbelievable as it did happen, but I was pretty sure it was designed to keep other governments and spies to know our true capacities. Still though, it was hard going to your own funeral and seeing loved ones crying over your grave where nothing but an empty capsule was burned because nothing had of your remains had been recovered. Still, I was pleased that my mother had that small amount of ash to comfort her.

It had taught me a lot too, that people lied; there had been plenty that had come to my funeral that had claimed great kinships that I had known nothing about. One or two I could understand, as I had been kind to them and they had appreciated it. But it taught me that others will lie to simply get close. Valuable lesson that. It's amazing the lessons we learn through a very different medium. Still though, I was now a shadow. Left with nothing more than a code denoting my existence, I was now a ghost. This particular landing bay left that magnificent lady to the ownership of one lucky bastard by the name of Geoffry Dune, High Chancellor of the Gravon Royal Court. He was one of four that I preferred cycling through, seemed like a fitting name. The ship was listed under a modified ASEC Fighter Class III, which took a lot of imagination to picture but lucky me, landing bay personnel weren't exactly paid to be in the possession of a brain.

Though I should be home free here at the bay, and the untrained would go straight to their ship and be off this waste of existence of a planet, I took my time. More than one attempt to end the shallow thing I called an existence had also taught me to be more careful of my surroundings and possible enemies that are hidden in plain sight. Point of fact, this last bastard had been part of the organization Hand of Magnum Sa, apparently a religious fanatical group that sought free people throughout all the sectors and did their best to end the monarchies in order for their religion to spread, or some nonsense like that. Deciding that my best course of action was to take out the entire high command of this particular strangeness before they tried anything else I had been in this particular sector for longer than six months. A perk of the job, political immunity, provided whatever I did was in the name and protection of the Gravon Royals, I could do nearly anything I wanted. Granted, if I was caught it was highly unlikely anyone would bother trying to save me because me didn't technically exist.

Oh, and I took out the assassin too, though that bastard had been more trained than I expected, the knife wound in my side still hurt like a sonofa and I still couldn't draw a full breath without it sending searing pain through my ribs. Thankfully I had caught the poison and my wrist computer had managed to pull together a remedy for it, death by an excess of fluid in the brain that causes one's eyes, or skull to explode did not exactly sound like a particularly pleasant way to go out. Can think of several dozen different ways that I would rather go, and that was without even trying hard. Still, I'd take my small blessings as I approached my ship without assault. I had just about enough blood on my hands for the last six months to last me a few days, at least. I closed the ramp and watched the outside world disappear.

The running lights brightened to something more substantial than an orange underglow. I took off my helmet and took a full breath even though I knew it would hurt, a helmet rebreather system could only do so much when one was buried in the stench of human waste and garbage. I needed a shower. About three days ago. A soft voice broke into my thoughts.

"Should I prepare for launch?"

"Yes Ash, thank you." My system's AI was personally designed by me over many months, and perfectly in tune to me, and so happened to sound like the one woman that I had ever loved. It was always bittersweet coming back to her, in some ways it shredded my soul like nothing else ever could, and in another, she felt like home.

I set the helmet down and sat down, I wanted to take off my soft suit too but it was holding the compress in place, so it would wait until later when I could take a shower, get cleaned, and then Ash could help me suture it back together. Provided she didn't nag me to death first. Why had I programmed her to be exactly like Ash? It was things like that that always made me miss her with something terrible. I sat at the chair, moving slowly to make sure I didn't alert Ash to something was wrong, well, she already knew something was wrong likely, but I didn't want to make her fuss at me yet. We needed to launch.

I ran through pre-flight checks, scanning through the systems on the massive display that Ash helped me go through. Normally a ship of this size was navigated by a crew of about a dozen but due to my, predicament, it was better for me to work alone. Besides, I preferred it that way, large groups made me uncomfortable, difficult to keep track of everyone that way, call it paranoia but when you worked with people that sought to kill you on any particular day of the week you preferred solitary. Besides, I had Ash to keep me company. "Systems go."

"Systems go." Ash echoed and I fired the engines. They came alive, it was strange not hearing the dull roar as they came to but the craft was completely silent as I ran through last checks and lifted off slowly moving towards to the bay doors at the end of the hanger and received flight clearance from a very bored sounding dock engineer.

"ASH, you're clear to launch, please take exit strategy 3C."

"Confirmed." I had a wince behind clenched teeth. I followed through to the atmosphere and watched my scanners. Sighing I watched the screen light up with blips, the way they moved was classic and predictable. "Enforcement moving in beautiful."

"Got it, systems primed and ready." It was one thing I liked about Ash, she was ready and we knew each other intimately. Small talk could wait until we were free and clear, thus, why I hadn't had a shower yet.

"ASH, report crew and purpose." I sighed at the hailing call from the local authorities, they were pansies that often felt their need to bully others just to make themselves feel better. How desperately I wanted a piece of them but so far, I had been given a very short leash, play nice, or escape, shoot only to incapacitate, do not kill unless necessary. Seriously made me want to strangle someone but I did get it.

"Captain Geoffry Dune," I wasn't even surprised anymore with how easy lying came to me. "Serial, 19TX624589RS001." I waited for the response.

"You are piloting that alone?"

"One AI assistance," I knew it annoyed Ash when I referred to something so lowly but I couldn't exactly explain to the nice captain that my AI was more sophisticated than the one that ran the entire structural system of his planet. Tended to not go well since it was then deemed contraband and I was obviously a smuggler on the run, and, really, I just wanted out of here. I went on mute for a minute as the man conversed with apparently his colleges, "Sorry Ash."

"Don't worry," I could hear the amusement in her voice, "I'll just get even later."

"What were you doing?" The man's voice came back sharp.

"What?" I was totally baffled this time.

"Our systems saw a drop in ambient noise, you muted us, why?"

I rolled my eyes at the absurd paranoia, "I had to pass gas, I figured that you may not want to hear it." Too late I remembered that I was supposed to be an aristo and I had a sneaky suspicion that they didn't talk like that.

"Be prepared to be boarded and inspected."

Ha. Not happening buddy, nobody violated my Ash, she was too valuable with tech that was lightyears beyond what this backwater hole could dream of and they would likely do their best to confiscate things just because they wanted something to study, or worse, liberate for themselves. "Yeah," I drawled slowly, setting my systems for complete manual control. "How about, no."

I fired my engines, the G-Force of the sudden acceleration slamming me into the chair painfully, I hissed out a breath but kept focused despite the darkness that edged at my vision. I knew Ash was well aware now that I was in pain but also knew that if I didn't get us out of here we were both dead. Well, I was, and hopefully she was too or else she was in for an existence worse than death. I spun the ship in a corkscrew to avoid the plasma bolts that flew off into space. That hyper-heated ball of gasses would melt anything it touched so it was better to avoid those than to try to play hero. I fired back, wide shots, but enough to create an opening.

"Co-ordinates locked," Ash's voice was a soft balm to my ragged nerves. "Fifteen degrees up and ten miles north to the starting position."

"Got it." I hated hyperspace travel, it was dangerous and highly annoying. The positions had to be perfectly mapped or you would be dragged off course by a planet, or worse, smashed into one. Lucky for me, I had Ash. Finally, I broke through the entanglement and reached position. "Now!" And we launched the light drive and space opened before us.

I breathed out a sigh of relief and slumped into the chair, they had been business with the plasma, that shit would chew through the titanium alloy plates of my girl's hull and vent the atmosphere that I, personally, needed to live, and granted if it was small I did have a rebreather system that would function for three hours but if it was large enough the drop in atmosphere would pull me apart. Again, not one of the more pleasant ways to go. "I can't believe you didn't tell me you were injured." Ash's hurt tone was obvious and I felt horrible.

"I'm sorry, I was actually planning on telling you so you could help put me back together after I had a shower."

"Ah, so the only reason I would find out is because you couldn't take care of it yourself." Basically, I hated stressing her unnecessarily it just felt like every time I took a hit, she felt it too. I had gotten her programming way too good.

I would have told you." I lied, hoping she wouldn't call me out on it. The HyLoRD buzzed and I sighed. I just wanted my damn shower already. The HyLoRD was a Gravon designed system Hyperspace Long Range Device, basically a phone that could work in hyperspace, and since it was only ever wrung by the Royal House, my affectionate nickname for the device that meant I never got any peace anymore.

I opened the channel, expecting to see his royal highness, King Sirius, the guy could be a prick sometimes but that was mostly when he was stressed about something in particular, and given that he tended to stress about everything, well, he was a jerk. A jerk I understood granted, but still a jerk nonetheless. I was shocked though, to find her royal beauty there, Queen Amoura. She was a stunning woman, porcelain skin that had never seemed to change, eyes so vivid and bright they seared right through to my soul and the very truth of me. She was exquisite, perfection, and beautiful beyond any description that the news sources could ever possibly say about her. "My Queen," my words tumbled over themselves and I moved subtly to mute Ash from the speakers of the ship, allowing her through the comm piece that never left my ear. "I apologize for my lack of appearances, I was expecting your husband to be the one that called."

Too late I realized I had stuck my foot in my mouth, Ash called me on it in my ear and given the smile my Queen held, I guessed she caught it too. The whole innuendo that I wouldn't have bothered to prepare myself for her husband and yet I would have at least tried to look presentable for her. "It's alright. I just got your report that you sent in," she smiled, and it was like a sunrise happened, "I feel much safer knowing what you have done Shadow."

"I would do anything to protect you m'lady."

Her smile was kind but as she took me in I saw the look pass her features. Uh oh. Busted. "When was the last time you took off any time for yourself?"

I knew better than to lie. "About six months ago, maybe seven."

She shook her head, her hair gliding through the air like silk in a breeze. "You need more time than that, I will make it that you take the next two to yourself."

This time it was I that shook my head. "Unable to m'lady," her eyes narrowed on me, "the gathering of the house is within the week and I need to be there to protect you and yours."

"Jorgan.." her voice was pain filled as she looked at me and I cherished the concern there, it meant more than she would ever know.

"Amoura," I dropped protocol to let her know she had done it first. "I told you I would always keep you safe and protect you. I hold by my word."

She sighed, a growl of frustration tinging it. "Alright," she relented, but on two conditions Shadow, one, you do nothing but give us your report and then you get some good sleep, you look like you could use it. Two, you take a week off afterward, you need to do something for yourself, you always seem locked away from others. Alone and isolated, you need to get out and experience to the world."

I was actually rather fine where I was, it kept me from experiencing too much, and that, in turn, kept me from hurting too much. I did know better than to argue though, I would take this victory as much as it was. "So long as no one seeks to do you, or yours harm."

"Alright Shadow, we'll be expecting you at 0330." It was the time I was to arrive on Gravon. "May the gods keep you safe on your journey home to us."

"Gods watch you and keep you safe m'lady." I signed off and let Ash back to the speakers. "Would you like to animate as I shower and you can join me?" I knew how much she enjoyed taking possession of the human-like body I created for her.

In response, I could hear the shower start up and I smiled switching the ship over to autopilot, I doubted we would have any troubles in hyperspace. I came into the bathroom of the captain's lounge and smiled at the sweet smell of eucalyptus and mint, the steam already filling the air. Gods, I had spent days through the sewers dreaming of this moment. I breathed in and savored it. A soft hand touched mine and I smiled down at Ash's animated body. I had designed it perfectly, sculpting her of silicone, fake skin, and making her perfectly human-like. She even had breasts and a functioning sex drive, hey, I am a guy. Everything on her was perfection, exactly how her real-life copy was. Her touch was gentle as she slowly started to undress me, her own skin perfectly glistening in the steam, the pearls of water flashing like amber in the glow of the electronic candles. She was the reason I flew solo, the real reason; because to be in love with the Queen, was treason.

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