Upside down shark face

Upside Down Shark

2017.11.14 17:11 TomBaker95 Upside Down Shark

The place to discuss Upside Down Shark radio, keep up to date with goings on!
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2012.07.17 16:42 Iamee Upside down dogs

Photos of upside down dogs, upside down.
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2013.05.01 18:26 Superior Spider-Man

Otto has returned and with boundless ambition and unparalleled intellect to show the world he is the one the only Superior Spider-Man
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2023.06.01 04:06 dhorror138 Post Wrestlemania Bloodline, Cody & Wrestlemania 40

I thought of this before the announcement of the new title and Draft. Post Mania with the Usos now out’ve the tag title picture Jay earns a spot in MitB and wins. Roman cuts a promo the following Smackdown congratulating Jay and advising that because Jay wouldn’t dare cash in on Roman and that Roman will never lose the Title he has Roman’s permission to challenge for any other title. Meanwhile Cody would be working towards a rematch against Roman at summerslam. They’d still have the Brock feud which leads to Cody’s earning the rematch w/ Roman. At summerslam Cody wins the Universal Undisputed Championship. On the following Raw, Cody is in the ring to celebrate his win (so what do you wanna talk about, meh) when the Usos slide in from the crowed and jump Cody. Suddenly Roman’s music hits and he comes down, enters the ring standing over Cody. Without breaking his stare on Cody’s battered body Roman reaches out his hand expecting Jay to relinquish the briefcase to Roman. Jay clutches the briefcase, his opportunity at a undisputed title match now that Roman no longer holds the title. He backs out’ve the ring and down the isle as Jimmy calls to Jay from in the ring. This would lead to Jay and Roman butting heads then a match for the briefcase. Leading up to the match roman is holding everything Jay is doing against Jimmy (like after Sami turned on Roman.) “What’s your brother thinking. Where is he? I am holding YOU personally responsible for your brothers actions.” (Literally why Jay came back for Mania, to protect Jimmy from Roman’s wrath.) At this match (PPV after SummerSlam which currently is either Saudi or Survivor Series but let’s pretend there’s a September PLE) when Jay is down and out Roman berates Jay until Jimmy has had enough and super kicks Roman (same way we saw in Saudi) and Jay pins Roman. After the match Solo comes in and confronts the twins mid celebration. Roman gains his composure and demands Solo attack the twins. Jimmy gets in Solos face, “we’re your brothers, not Roman. Our blood is thicker than water.” Then solo spikes Roman. The three assault Roman and we dont see Roman for some time. The usos are now working on a face turn. A few months down the line, The now re-dubbed Main Event Jay Usi cashes in the briefcase the only way faces know how… by challenging Cody ahead of time at the Royal Rumble. In an amazing match Cody defeats Jay. This year the men’s rumble is the main event. Number 28.. the returning Roman Reigns. Roman throws out 2 or 3 combatants when he’s suddenly thrown out’ve the ring by Gunther who goes on to win the rumble. Then wrestlemania 40, Cody vs Gunther. Gunther does not forget how Cody mart he’s down the isle as #30 in 2023th Rumble only to usurp Gunther the number one entrant that year. Now it is time for the ring general to take his revenge and his rightful place as WWE Undisputed Universal Heavyweight Champion. I wouldn’t have Cody lose at mania again but their match sparks a feud between the 2 through summerslam 2024. Gunther gets a DQ win at some point maybe even wins MitB and cashes in on Cody at summerslam. In between there’s a 6 man matches with imperium vs Cody and the USOs. Their feud ends at summerslam, Cody retaining his champion and the USOs regaining the tag titles from Imperium who won them from Sami and KO at mania. Where we go from there? Skies the limits.
submitted by dhorror138 to fantasybooking [link] [comments]


2023.06.01 04:06 Betty-Adams "Flying Sparks" A novel of a boy, a dragon, and an alien. 100K words of science fiction adventure.

Flying Sparks

Pre Order Now


https://i.redd.it/8aunggx4eb3b1.gif

Chapter 2

“Hazardous? I’ll show that manipulative, misanthropic, anti-establishment cretin just what hazardous means if he thinks I’m going to fold on this!”
The sound of vigorous guitar riffs made a fitting accompaniment to the angry tirade despite originating on opposite sides of the communal area. Ama was glaring at a laptop that sat on a stained oak desk shoved against the large table near the kitchen. She tapped a fingernail on the wood as she read through the alert.
“And what violation of basic human dignity has her royal prudishness’s undies in a bunch?” Em demanded with an affected sneer without looking up from his guitar scales.
“Oh you’ll agree with this one tree-hugger,” Drake muttered from where he sat oiling his work boots.
“Yeah,” Donny piped up, “Finney is trying to kill a perfectly healthy fir.”
“What!” Em demanded, carefully placing his battered old acoustic guitar down in its case and darting over to look at the computer screen. “You mean apark tree?”
Despite her simmering frustration Ama allowed a small smile to flicker across her face as she continued to type.
“Get out of your pajamas and I’ll tell you,” Drake ordered pointing towards the bathroom door with a stained rag. “School starts in forty-five minutes and you still have breakfast and chores. That goes for you too Pip-squirt.”
“I hope you washed your hands before you touched our food,” Em said with a frown.
“Boot grease makes a great source of fatty acids.” Drake retorted. “Now go!”
The two smaller boys muttered in annoyance but stumbled off to follow orders.
“So what is up?” the youth asked as he bent his head back over the smooth leather of his boots.
“Mrs. Finney wants that tree down that’s blocking her perfect view of Crescent Lake.” Ama replied in a dry tone.
“One that’s clearly on park property?” Drake asked.
“Indeedy-do.” Ama replied giving the paper in front of her a glare.
“So how’s she justifying it?” Drake asked.
“As a safety hazard to her house.” Ama replied.
“And?”
The biologist groaned and rubbed her face.
“As far as I can tell the trunk is perfectly healthy. There is an old trash can lid grown into the trunk and a little discolored sap is leaking out there.”
“Frass?”
“Watch your language!” Donny interjected as he darted up to the table.
“Frass is not a bad word,” Drake stated. “Have you let the chickens out?”
“Yes, what does frass mean?” Donny asked as he started piling stir-fry onto his plate.
“Look it up.” Drake ordered him. “Emerald! Breakfast ends in ten minutes! Get your tukus down here!”
“It’s bad health to rush meals,” Em snapped out as he came down a narrow stairway with deliberate slowness.
“It’s even worse for your health to skip meals altogether,” Drake growled threateningly.
“Shut it and give me some eggs.” Em snapped back.
“Emerald Waters Undersun,” Drake hissed out through gritted teeth. “You are going to get your own eggs.”
The boy threw himself into a chair and glared at Drake with challenge in every line of his body.
“Emerald,” Ama said in a calm tone. “I think you should apologize to your cousin now.”
“Sorry I disturbed you Ama,” he offered without breaking eye contact with Drake.
“Not me, him,” Ama said.
“Sorry you had to hear that Donny.” Em said.
Ama heaved a sigh and closed her computer.
“Emerald,” Ama said.
“Do you want to eat or go hungry?” Drake demanded.
Ama glanced at him with a familiar uneasy look in her eyes and Drake fought down a wince.
“Now, Em.” she said in a patient tone.
“I’ll go hungry,” Em snapped, jumping up and stalking over to the couch.
Donny kept his eyes fixed on his plate. Ama heaved a sigh before turning back to her computer. Em wriggled on the couch for several minutes before skulking back to the table. Drake moved to intercept him but Ama stopped him with a look and he let Em serve himself. Drake cast irritated glances at the wall clock as the time crept more and more into school time.
Ama closed her computer and stood, then sighed, sat and opened it again.
“I need to pick out their report topics,” Ama muttered.
“I could do it,” Drake offered.
“You do quite enough,” Ama replied briskly, as she scanned the news. “Here you go. For Donny, malfunctions at the Lewis- McChord Air Force Base air show.” A frown creased her face. “Wow, this is pretty serious. It looks like the F-16 demonstration team nearly got killed.”
Drake whistled and leaned over her shoulder.
“Multiple system failures,” he read out loud. “I am pretty sure that isn’t supposed to happen.”
“Nope,” Ama agreed. “Here is a topic on big game management for Em.”
“Reports due by next week?” Drake asked as the old printer on the desk began to squeal and grumble as it powered up.
“Same as usual,” Ama confirmed.
Drake put the printouts on top of the homework pile and moved to wash up the breakfast dishes.
“I need to get to work early today so you two be good for Drake,” she called out placing a quick kiss on top of the smaller boys’ heads and giving Drake’s shoulder a friendly squeeze.
“Good luck with Mrs. Finney, and stay safe.” Drake called out as she went into her room.
The table was cleaned off and wiped down and the clink of forks gave way to the steady scratch of pencils on paper. They broke for a recess after religion and then lunch after history and math, and by the time the Grandfather clock in the corner struck two the younger boys twitching with energy. Drake made certain the internet was disconnected at the router, and chased Donny and Em out into the garden.
“And don’t come in until dark,” he ordered tossing two snack bags out after them.
Donny as usual snatched his food and disappeared into the small orachard. Low grumbles about troglodytes and the Amish wandered out into the high corn following Em and Drake shook his head in exasperation wondering, not for the first time how the dark haired princeling came from the same gene pool as his little brother. The kitchen being mostly ordered Drake was turning to put the last random dirty sock in the hamper when a gnarled hand clutching a cane head appeared in the corner of his eye, causing his heart to make a valiant attempt to bolt out of his throat.
“Abuelita!” he gasped forcing his hands down from the guard position. “Where did you come from?”
Smoldering black eyes ran searchingly over the tall youth. An impossibly long mane of streaked silver and black hair was barely contained in a thick braid. A sharply pointed nose perched over a small wrinkled mouth. A vibrant red horse-hair serape hung over her shoulders concealing everything except her brown and gnarled hands which currently clutched the old tree branch she used as a cane. Drake had been more than a little comforted by the fact that both Em and Donny had admitted to having the thought ‘witch’ every time time they saw her as well.
“From the hand of God by the bodies of my sainted mother and father,” she replied after a long, uncomfortable silence.
She always spoke in a low husky voice that suggested years of smoking, though Drake had never smelled even stale smoke on her.
“Right,” Drake blinked and grinned at the response; the one she always gave. “So you are here for their Spanish lesson? I have their grammar books ready and-”
The narrow end of the tree branch rapped against the concrete of the floor causing Drake to jump. Abuelita glared at him, locking his gaze and holding him in place with it for a moment.
“I am here for their lessons,” she finally stated, “and you are there for my payment.”
Drake thought longingly of the repair and maintenance manuals in the cab of the truck and the new tool he was itching to try, but he forced a grin on his face.
“Yes ma’am,” he said. “What can I get you today?”
Abuelita pulled out a bag of woven grass from under her serape causing the indistinct patterns on the cloth to shift and change.
“Take this,” she ordered him, “and collect me the cobalt blue berries that grow on a single stalk close to the ground. They must come from the mountain to the south east of here by the crystal brook.”
Drake nodded, and took the little bag, he didn’t quite manage to infused his gestures with enthusiasm he supposed. The old woman, probably wouldn’t have noted it anyway. She turned and moved towards the garden door without waiting for any other reply. However she called out over her shoulder as he turned to find his own way out of the rambling structure.
“Don’t dawdle little one. A storm brews in the distance.”
He tried not to roll his eyes at that, the weather forecast was clear and eighties for the next week according to the morning fire report Ama had printed. The youth only nodded and slipped around the corner. He circled the barn and pulled a set of loose tan pants and tunic out of the cubby. The soft worn leather almost perfectly matched the forest floor for color as did the moccasins he pulled on after them. His morning running clothes were modern stuff that wicked the sweat away from him and let him speed through the forest. These were his free day clothes. The ones that let him disappear into the forest and wander. Abuelita, for all of her demands, would tend Em and Donny until he returned no matter how late that was, and with the Park’s yearly budget talks still under way it was highly unlikely Ama would be home until long after the sun had set. Despite still hearing the call of the half restored truck he felt something lossening in him already. The soft cotton and smooth leather rested easily against his skin and Drake slipped into the forest.
Freedom; for the moment at least, blissful freedom. Pushing aside the guilt that accompanied the thought as well as any lingering worries about his charges the youth let his legs carry him through the trees. He shunned the man made paths, following the faint animal trails. This close to the barn they were as clear to him as if they were named city streets. Being animal trails, they invariably led him to water. Today he stopped at a trickling stream, took off his moccasins, and rolled up his pants legs. The youth turned and followed the thin flow of icy water upstream, letting it steal the heat from his body through his feet.
Some distance upstream, the stream widened and pooled under a boulder. There Drake paused and pulled an old black compass out of his pocket. Behind him he knew every trail and tree. Ahead was a broad swath of National Wilderness he would have to cross, or possibly Bureau of Land Management or even state managed forests where he more rarely wandered. It was hard to tell where the boundaries were from the ground. The clearing he wanted for the berries was solidly in BLM land and he still had quite a ways to go to get there. The stand of timber that stood between him and his goal was dense with young tree and branches that frequently formed impenetrable hedges he had to track around and he checked his compass regularly as he climbed in elevation. Even so the youth found he had wandered too far off his route and had to correct when he spotted the boundary fence. However he was in no hurry and he reached the clearing long before the sun told him it was time to turn around.
Sometime in the past some unknown force had carved a shallow trench across the side of one of the small mountains that that dotted the wilderness. It had puzzled Drake at first. The scour was at the wrong angle to be an old rock slide, and terminated in a near perfectly circular clearing at the lower end. Centuries old Douglas Firs abruptly gave way to a second ring only a few decades old. Those were in turn beginning to produce cones and a smattering of knee high saplings. The rest of the space was completely given over to wildflowers. No matter what season Drake visited it he found a riot of life.
There had been an early spring and many herbs that normally would have waited a month or more were already in full bloom in the mountain meadow. A white wave of foamflower washed in from the deep forest surrounding the clearing, sending up knee high stalks covered in the delicate white blooms. Late trillium hid close to the roots of the great firs, many having shed their white corollas and begun to put forth their bulbous seed heads. Fuzzy white baneberry blossoms nodded gently in the breeze. A riot of yellow and purple spread across the ground as vetch and buttercups and a host of clovers competed for space in the open sun. Great stalks of lupine as high as his head thrust up their purple and blue proudly from thick clusters of palm shaped leaves. Pink shooting stars and violet harebells crouched under the protection of the larger plants. Indian paintbrush lit the scene with flames of red and orange. Where a spring seeped into the meadow elephant’s head flared neon pink and corydalis bushes put forth blushing blooms. Pale green wild orchids stood along the wet spot and the swarms of bees danced from them to the glacier lilies.
Sometimes, as he bent over a tiny blossom and traced the intricate network of veins in the petals, drank in the scent, and felt the smooth surface of the leaves an otherworldly feeling would come over him. It was as if there was another world just out of range of his senses. If he could only really look, the thin illusion that was blocking him would slip away and reveal the real world underneath it.
Look Awiegwa,” his father would whisper, pointing at a deer mouse perched on a fallen log. “What does it see?”
Awiegwa would screw up his face and squint. Trying to find the answer to the question.
Awiegwa had often wondered how so many flowers had come to be in the relatively small area. He had identified dozens of species and there were more he had yet to determine. The clearing was always the first place to bloom and the last to go dormant. Many of the flowers seemed to utterly defy their usual blooming patterns. However, as time passed he had simply come to accept it. It was one of the small good things that brought back the memories of his father. If it didn’t quite follow the rules Ama had taught him, well an impossible clearing in the mountains wasn’t a place for rules.
The particular bloom that Abuelita had requested had taken full advantage of the early sun and had already put forth a few cobalt blue berries; easily spotted at the edge of the clearing in the delicate sea of white flowers.
However before he left the shade of the forest for the meadow the youth paused and closed his eyes. Bole wasn’t always here, but he was often enough that Awiegwa always checked for him. Carefully he reconstructed the clearing in his mind; marking every tree and boulder on the edge. Three years he had been coming here and each time it was easier to recreate the clearing. Breathing evenly he opened his eyes, letting the mental image merge with the actual. There was a brief moment of confusion as details like the play of light through branches and the trembling of small clusters of flowers fixed themselves but there was only one truly jarring note. Awiegwa didn’t let his eyes focus on the disparity; he never did anymore, but a warm smile spread across his features as he slipped silently into the meadow.
He was here. As the youth moved in a low crouch, gathering the first fruits of the Queen’s Cup, he let his peripheral vision linger on a particular snag. There was nothing obviously interesting about it, other than the fact that it had not been there the last time Awiegwa was here. He had named the wanderer Bole, because it most often appeared as a thick tree trunk; sometimes living, sometimes dead. Occasionally it would be a boulder or simply a mound in the dirt. Often it wasn’t in the clearing at all. If the youth moved forward and tried to closely examine it he could never find anything to suggest it was something other than a tree or rock.
He had thought about taking a sample occasionally, had taken his knife out to do just that more than once, but something always held him back. Bole was a part of this place. Dissecting him would be too much like attempting to dissect his sense of his father’s presence here. The youth had never told anyone about this place, not even Ama with who could get most things out of him easily enough. Down at the house, in town, when he was Drake; solid, reliable, first up in the morning, two grades ahead in school with a penchant for science Drake, a productive member of modern society with a promising future and his mother smiling at him. Here he could be Awiegwa. Here he could believe in the ancient medicines his father had dug out of dusty old tomes and brought to life from the forest litter. Every time Awiegwa left the clearing and headed back towards home reality would reassert itself. Bole would resolve back into a figment of his imagination, created from pride in a somewhat better than average memory and what the social workers had called an “intriguing imagination”. When he reached the house and become solidly Drake again flickers of embarrassment would begin eating at him for letting his senses trick him like that, but as long as the blooms nodded around him in this garden Bole could exist even on a Thursday.
The little woven grass bag filled up with the berries fairly quickly and Awiegwa soon stretched out of his crouch and let his gaze wander contentedly over the clearing. As it always did, the warm space was working its special magic. Worries about Em getting out of his schoolwork, of not paying enough attention to the quiet Donny, of letting Ama see his petty resentments: it had all melted away from his muscles, thoughts of college costs and abandoning his duties dissolved into an acute sense of the now. The leaves rustled softly in a barely-there breeze, the heavy scent of some unidentified blossom filled his lungs, a dozen shades of green framed the rainbow of flowers, and over and above it all the creaking of the firs as the wind played over them. It was at times like these that he felth he could almost see into heaven; that something wonderful that existed just beyond his senses, and all he had to do was reach out and claim it.
The youth took a deep breath and let himself fall backwards onto a handy rise in the forest floor. His path had taken him to the foot of the snag and he shifted slightly to align himself with the gnarled roots. One hand gripped a time smoothed root.
“Ama trusted me enough to go out of state,” he murmured. “That’s the first time she’s done that. Usually she has Abulita stay with us to fend off the Harsh, but she said it’s long past legal now.”
It was his imagination of course that made him think the root vibrated in his hand in response. Many a long hour he had spent in this clearing with the wanderer. He had poured out his frustrations and anguishes over life’s injustices, had shared his secrets as he grew, and had shouted his triumphs. Sometimes he felt closer to Bole than to any of his human friends. However, something that sounded like his mother’s voice warned him that there was something odd about this and that awareness was the main reason he had kept this place secret from Ama. Their mother hadn’t exactly liked stuff like that. She had never objected to his father’s digging up the old stories of her people. Making cross generational connections between elders, who more often than not lived isolated lives, and the next generation, was an admirable goal in of itself in her eyes; objectively a social good. Storytelling was only the natural course for these relationships to take, but subtle looks had warned even a very young Drake that it was best to cautious what he shared with his mother. At least of those things that couldn’t be placed on a microscope slide. So this was Awigewa’s place, and while his father’s spirit wanders the flowers with he had never felt his mother here.
He let his focus drift up, and up. Dark blue Lupine nodded over his head framing the faint crisscross of jet contrails that threw a light haze over an otherwise cloudless sky. His clothed grew deliciously hot from the spring sun. The ground too had eagerly accepted the energy and now it conducted the heat into the muscles of his back. Bole’s wood beneath him was warmer even than the surrounding ground and an idle thought traced across Awiegwa’s awareness; something about it being odd for the light colored wood and relatively dry wood to retain more heat than the darker soil surrounding it. His mind was filled with the impression of a goal. He had been meaning to do, something. Something fun, yes, exploring, he’d meant to see if whatever had dug that den by the second boulder was cubing this year. He would just get up and do that in a minute. His back was so warm and comfortable.

https://i.redd.it/v9hemzq5eb3b1.gif
Flying Sparks”
Another foray into the lives of Drake McCarty, Ama Love, and the rest of their siblings as they discover that something alien is out in the forest around their home.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/flying-sparks-a-novel-of-dragon-bear-and-boy/coming_soon
#FlyingSparks #ScienceFiction #Scifi #Story #novel #book #DrakeMcCarty #AmaLove #Donny #Em #Bard #Bole #Aliens #Spaceships #Crystals #fireflies #NPS #NationalPark #Doctor #Sever #family #storm #writing #reading #drama #literature #author #BettyAdams #DyingEmbers #Dragons #ThingsThatGoBoomp #Indiegogo #CrowdFunding
submitted by Betty-Adams to Fantasy [link] [comments]


2023.06.01 04:05 throwawayaaaarggh 3 months on T!

Despite the best efforts of my state legislature, I am still trans, still a dude, and 3 months on testosterone cypionate (sub-q).
My voice is hella dropping to the point where I can no longer conceal it. It’s noticeable even to acquaintances. I am growing dark hair all over my tummy, thighs, further down my legs, and in a wider spread on my forearms. I am growing a dirt ‘stache and individual coarse dark hairs are springing up on my cheeks.
My face shape has changed subtly, but those close to me notice a difference. I’m still retaining a little water but am finally managing to drop some weight. I am also passively building muscle, especially in my biceps!!!
I am starting to recognize the face in the mirror. The body is becoming more tolerable. My lil T-dick hasn’t gotten any bigger than it did in my first month but my libido has 😳 My hands and feet are veinier.
I was not declined at the blood donor center like I have been previously bc T has increased my hemoglobin!!
I am trying to get my bloodwork done through FOLX before I end my subscription with them due to no longer being able to be prescribed T by NPs in Florida. Unless something changes, I will have to find another provider, but I still have an unopened 10 mL vial, so I’m good for now. 🙏
Love y’all, hope you are doing well!! And happy Pride Month!!! 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈
submitted by throwawayaaaarggh to TestosteroneKickoff [link] [comments]


2023.06.01 04:05 therealswigstein UPSIDE DOWN: Woman Gets 5 Years In Prison For ATTACKING Neo-Nazis

UPSIDE DOWN: Woman Gets 5 Years In Prison For ATTACKING Neo-Nazis submitted by therealswigstein to Ywn [link] [comments]


2023.06.01 04:05 Scribe_WarriorAngel Lord if I could answer to this scene how I would have loved to.

Warburton leans in with a look of mischief. "Eh? Not afraid, are you? A man who faced down half Khorobirit's army without fear, afraid of what's under a lady's skirts?"
"Warburton," Wulfram warns, "our guest is not here to be antagonised."
"Yes, of course," the younger Duke replies mildly before turning back to you, eyes still flashing with glee. "Or are you not a great lover of the ladies? There's no shame in that, there are a few—"
submitted by Scribe_WarriorAngel to hostedgames [link] [comments]


2023.06.01 04:05 King_Reivaj The upside down logo should be the upvote, whereas the normal logo should be the downvote.

The upside down logo should be the upvote, whereas the normal logo should be the downvote.
Why? Because the upside down logo looks like a finger pointing up, while the original one points down.
https://preview.redd.it/cimi07ykdb3b1.png?width=116&format=png&auto=webp&s=82f979235ea42fd2b58ec4976bb44867e711b562
submitted by King_Reivaj to ForzaHorizon [link] [comments]


2023.06.01 04:04 Betty-Adams "Flying Sparks" A novel of a boy, a dragon, and an alien. 100K words of science fiction adventure.

Flying Sparks

Pre Order Now


https://i.redd.it/7fvbpli8db3b1.gif

Chapter 2

“Hazardous? I’ll show that manipulative, misanthropic, anti-establishment cretin just what hazardous means if he thinks I’m going to fold on this!”
The sound of vigorous guitar riffs made a fitting accompaniment to the angry tirade despite originating on opposite sides of the communal area. Ama was glaring at a laptop that sat on a stained oak desk shoved against the large table near the kitchen. She tapped a fingernail on the wood as she read through the alert.
“And what violation of basic human dignity has her royal prudishness’s undies in a bunch?” Em demanded with an affected sneer without looking up from his guitar scales.
“Oh you’ll agree with this one tree-hugger,” Drake muttered from where he sat oiling his work boots.
“Yeah,” Donny piped up, “Finney is trying to kill a perfectly healthy fir.”
“What!” Em demanded, carefully placing his battered old acoustic guitar down in its case and darting over to look at the computer screen. “You mean apark tree?”
Despite her simmering frustration Ama allowed a small smile to flicker across her face as she continued to type.
“Get out of your pajamas and I’ll tell you,” Drake ordered pointing towards the bathroom door with a stained rag. “School starts in forty-five minutes and you still have breakfast and chores. That goes for you too Pip-squirt.”
“I hope you washed your hands before you touched our food,” Em said with a frown.
“Boot grease makes a great source of fatty acids.” Drake retorted. “Now go!”
The two smaller boys muttered in annoyance but stumbled off to follow orders.
“So what is up?” the youth asked as he bent his head back over the smooth leather of his boots.
“Mrs. Finney wants that tree down that’s blocking her perfect view of Crescent Lake.” Ama replied in a dry tone.
“One that’s clearly on park property?” Drake asked.
“Indeedy-do.” Ama replied giving the paper in front of her a glare.
“So how’s she justifying it?” Drake asked.
“As a safety hazard to her house.” Ama replied.
“And?”
The biologist groaned and rubbed her face.
“As far as I can tell the trunk is perfectly healthy. There is an old trash can lid grown into the trunk and a little discolored sap is leaking out there.”
“Frass?”
“Watch your language!” Donny interjected as he darted up to the table.
“Frass is not a bad word,” Drake stated. “Have you let the chickens out?”
“Yes, what does frass mean?” Donny asked as he started piling stir-fry onto his plate.
“Look it up.” Drake ordered him. “Emerald! Breakfast ends in ten minutes! Get your tukus down here!”
“It’s bad health to rush meals,” Em snapped out as he came down a narrow stairway with deliberate slowness.
“It’s even worse for your health to skip meals altogether,” Drake growled threateningly.
“Shut it and give me some eggs.” Em snapped back.
“Emerald Waters Undersun,” Drake hissed out through gritted teeth. “You are going to get your own eggs.”
The boy threw himself into a chair and glared at Drake with challenge in every line of his body.
“Emerald,” Ama said in a calm tone. “I think you should apologize to your cousin now.”
“Sorry I disturbed you Ama,” he offered without breaking eye contact with Drake.
“Not me, him,” Ama said.
“Sorry you had to hear that Donny.” Em said.
Ama heaved a sigh and closed her computer.
“Emerald,” Ama said.
“Do you want to eat or go hungry?” Drake demanded.
Ama glanced at him with a familiar uneasy look in her eyes and Drake fought down a wince.
“Now, Em.” she said in a patient tone.
“I’ll go hungry,” Em snapped, jumping up and stalking over to the couch.
Donny kept his eyes fixed on his plate. Ama heaved a sigh before turning back to her computer. Em wriggled on the couch for several minutes before skulking back to the table. Drake moved to intercept him but Ama stopped him with a look and he let Em serve himself. Drake cast irritated glances at the wall clock as the time crept more and more into school time.
Ama closed her computer and stood, then sighed, sat and opened it again.
“I need to pick out their report topics,” Ama muttered.
“I could do it,” Drake offered.
“You do quite enough,” Ama replied briskly, as she scanned the news. “Here you go. For Donny, malfunctions at the Lewis- McChord Air Force Base air show.” A frown creased her face. “Wow, this is pretty serious. It looks like the F-16 demonstration team nearly got killed.”
Drake whistled and leaned over her shoulder.
“Multiple system failures,” he read out loud. “I am pretty sure that isn’t supposed to happen.”
“Nope,” Ama agreed. “Here is a topic on big game management for Em.”
“Reports due by next week?” Drake asked as the old printer on the desk began to squeal and grumble as it powered up.
“Same as usual,” Ama confirmed.
Drake put the printouts on top of the homework pile and moved to wash up the breakfast dishes.
“I need to get to work early today so you two be good for Drake,” she called out placing a quick kiss on top of the smaller boys’ heads and giving Drake’s shoulder a friendly squeeze.
“Good luck with Mrs. Finney, and stay safe.” Drake called out as she went into her room.
The table was cleaned off and wiped down and the clink of forks gave way to the steady scratch of pencils on paper. They broke for a recess after religion and then lunch after history and math, and by the time the Grandfather clock in the corner struck two the younger boys twitching with energy. Drake made certain the internet was disconnected at the router, and chased Donny and Em out into the garden.
“And don’t come in until dark,” he ordered tossing two snack bags out after them.
Donny as usual snatched his food and disappeared into the small orachard. Low grumbles about troglodytes and the Amish wandered out into the high corn following Em and Drake shook his head in exasperation wondering, not for the first time how the dark haired princeling came from the same gene pool as his little brother. The kitchen being mostly ordered Drake was turning to put the last random dirty sock in the hamper when a gnarled hand clutching a cane head appeared in the corner of his eye, causing his heart to make a valiant attempt to bolt out of his throat.
“Abuelita!” he gasped forcing his hands down from the guard position. “Where did you come from?”
Smoldering black eyes ran searchingly over the tall youth. An impossibly long mane of streaked silver and black hair was barely contained in a thick braid. A sharply pointed nose perched over a small wrinkled mouth. A vibrant red horse-hair serape hung over her shoulders concealing everything except her brown and gnarled hands which currently clutched the old tree branch she used as a cane. Drake had been more than a little comforted by the fact that both Em and Donny had admitted to having the thought ‘witch’ every time time they saw her as well.
“From the hand of God by the bodies of my sainted mother and father,” she replied after a long, uncomfortable silence.
She always spoke in a low husky voice that suggested years of smoking, though Drake had never smelled even stale smoke on her.
“Right,” Drake blinked and grinned at the response; the one she always gave. “So you are here for their Spanish lesson? I have their grammar books ready and-”
The narrow end of the tree branch rapped against the concrete of the floor causing Drake to jump. Abuelita glared at him, locking his gaze and holding him in place with it for a moment.
“I am here for their lessons,” she finally stated, “and you are there for my payment.”
Drake thought longingly of the repair and maintenance manuals in the cab of the truck and the new tool he was itching to try, but he forced a grin on his face.
“Yes ma’am,” he said. “What can I get you today?”
Abuelita pulled out a bag of woven grass from under her serape causing the indistinct patterns on the cloth to shift and change.
“Take this,” she ordered him, “and collect me the cobalt blue berries that grow on a single stalk close to the ground. They must come from the mountain to the south east of here by the crystal brook.”
Drake nodded, and took the little bag, he didn’t quite manage to infused his gestures with enthusiasm he supposed. The old woman, probably wouldn’t have noted it anyway. She turned and moved towards the garden door without waiting for any other reply. However she called out over her shoulder as he turned to find his own way out of the rambling structure.
“Don’t dawdle little one. A storm brews in the distance.”
He tried not to roll his eyes at that, the weather forecast was clear and eighties for the next week according to the morning fire report Ama had printed. The youth only nodded and slipped around the corner. He circled the barn and pulled a set of loose tan pants and tunic out of the cubby. The soft worn leather almost perfectly matched the forest floor for color as did the moccasins he pulled on after them. His morning running clothes were modern stuff that wicked the sweat away from him and let him speed through the forest. These were his free day clothes. The ones that let him disappear into the forest and wander. Abuelita, for all of her demands, would tend Em and Donny until he returned no matter how late that was, and with the Park’s yearly budget talks still under way it was highly unlikely Ama would be home until long after the sun had set. Despite still hearing the call of the half restored truck he felt something lossening in him already. The soft cotton and smooth leather rested easily against his skin and Drake slipped into the forest.
Freedom; for the moment at least, blissful freedom. Pushing aside the guilt that accompanied the thought as well as any lingering worries about his charges the youth let his legs carry him through the trees. He shunned the man made paths, following the faint animal trails. This close to the barn they were as clear to him as if they were named city streets. Being animal trails, they invariably led him to water. Today he stopped at a trickling stream, took off his moccasins, and rolled up his pants legs. The youth turned and followed the thin flow of icy water upstream, letting it steal the heat from his body through his feet.
Some distance upstream, the stream widened and pooled under a boulder. There Drake paused and pulled an old black compass out of his pocket. Behind him he knew every trail and tree. Ahead was a broad swath of National Wilderness he would have to cross, or possibly Bureau of Land Management or even state managed forests where he more rarely wandered. It was hard to tell where the boundaries were from the ground. The clearing he wanted for the berries was solidly in BLM land and he still had quite a ways to go to get there. The stand of timber that stood between him and his goal was dense with young tree and branches that frequently formed impenetrable hedges he had to track around and he checked his compass regularly as he climbed in elevation. Even so the youth found he had wandered too far off his route and had to correct when he spotted the boundary fence. However he was in no hurry and he reached the clearing long before the sun told him it was time to turn around.
Sometime in the past some unknown force had carved a shallow trench across the side of one of the small mountains that that dotted the wilderness. It had puzzled Drake at first. The scour was at the wrong angle to be an old rock slide, and terminated in a near perfectly circular clearing at the lower end. Centuries old Douglas Firs abruptly gave way to a second ring only a few decades old. Those were in turn beginning to produce cones and a smattering of knee high saplings. The rest of the space was completely given over to wildflowers. No matter what season Drake visited it he found a riot of life.
There had been an early spring and many herbs that normally would have waited a month or more were already in full bloom in the mountain meadow. A white wave of foamflower washed in from the deep forest surrounding the clearing, sending up knee high stalks covered in the delicate white blooms. Late trillium hid close to the roots of the great firs, many having shed their white corollas and begun to put forth their bulbous seed heads. Fuzzy white baneberry blossoms nodded gently in the breeze. A riot of yellow and purple spread across the ground as vetch and buttercups and a host of clovers competed for space in the open sun. Great stalks of lupine as high as his head thrust up their purple and blue proudly from thick clusters of palm shaped leaves. Pink shooting stars and violet harebells crouched under the protection of the larger plants. Indian paintbrush lit the scene with flames of red and orange. Where a spring seeped into the meadow elephant’s head flared neon pink and corydalis bushes put forth blushing blooms. Pale green wild orchids stood along the wet spot and the swarms of bees danced from them to the glacier lilies.
Sometimes, as he bent over a tiny blossom and traced the intricate network of veins in the petals, drank in the scent, and felt the smooth surface of the leaves an otherworldly feeling would come over him. It was as if there was another world just out of range of his senses. If he could only really look, the thin illusion that was blocking him would slip away and reveal the real world underneath it.
Look Awiegwa,” his father would whisper, pointing at a deer mouse perched on a fallen log. “What does it see?”
Awiegwa would screw up his face and squint. Trying to find the answer to the question.
Awiegwa had often wondered how so many flowers had come to be in the relatively small area. He had identified dozens of species and there were more he had yet to determine. The clearing was always the first place to bloom and the last to go dormant. Many of the flowers seemed to utterly defy their usual blooming patterns. However, as time passed he had simply come to accept it. It was one of the small good things that brought back the memories of his father. If it didn’t quite follow the rules Ama had taught him, well an impossible clearing in the mountains wasn’t a place for rules.
The particular bloom that Abuelita had requested had taken full advantage of the early sun and had already put forth a few cobalt blue berries; easily spotted at the edge of the clearing in the delicate sea of white flowers.
However before he left the shade of the forest for the meadow the youth paused and closed his eyes. Bole wasn’t always here, but he was often enough that Awiegwa always checked for him. Carefully he reconstructed the clearing in his mind; marking every tree and boulder on the edge. Three years he had been coming here and each time it was easier to recreate the clearing. Breathing evenly he opened his eyes, letting the mental image merge with the actual. There was a brief moment of confusion as details like the play of light through branches and the trembling of small clusters of flowers fixed themselves but there was only one truly jarring note. Awiegwa didn’t let his eyes focus on the disparity; he never did anymore, but a warm smile spread across his features as he slipped silently into the meadow.
He was here. As the youth moved in a low crouch, gathering the first fruits of the Queen’s Cup, he let his peripheral vision linger on a particular snag. There was nothing obviously interesting about it, other than the fact that it had not been there the last time Awiegwa was here. He had named the wanderer Bole, because it most often appeared as a thick tree trunk; sometimes living, sometimes dead. Occasionally it would be a boulder or simply a mound in the dirt. Often it wasn’t in the clearing at all. If the youth moved forward and tried to closely examine it he could never find anything to suggest it was something other than a tree or rock.
He had thought about taking a sample occasionally, had taken his knife out to do just that more than once, but something always held him back. Bole was a part of this place. Dissecting him would be too much like attempting to dissect his sense of his father’s presence here. The youth had never told anyone about this place, not even Ama with who could get most things out of him easily enough. Down at the house, in town, when he was Drake; solid, reliable, first up in the morning, two grades ahead in school with a penchant for science Drake, a productive member of modern society with a promising future and his mother smiling at him. Here he could be Awiegwa. Here he could believe in the ancient medicines his father had dug out of dusty old tomes and brought to life from the forest litter. Every time Awiegwa left the clearing and headed back towards home reality would reassert itself. Bole would resolve back into a figment of his imagination, created from pride in a somewhat better than average memory and what the social workers had called an “intriguing imagination”. When he reached the house and become solidly Drake again flickers of embarrassment would begin eating at him for letting his senses trick him like that, but as long as the blooms nodded around him in this garden Bole could exist even on a Thursday.
The little woven grass bag filled up with the berries fairly quickly and Awiegwa soon stretched out of his crouch and let his gaze wander contentedly over the clearing. As it always did, the warm space was working its special magic. Worries about Em getting out of his schoolwork, of not paying enough attention to the quiet Donny, of letting Ama see his petty resentments: it had all melted away from his muscles, thoughts of college costs and abandoning his duties dissolved into an acute sense of the now. The leaves rustled softly in a barely-there breeze, the heavy scent of some unidentified blossom filled his lungs, a dozen shades of green framed the rainbow of flowers, and over and above it all the creaking of the firs as the wind played over them. It was at times like these that he felth he could almost see into heaven; that something wonderful that existed just beyond his senses, and all he had to do was reach out and claim it.
The youth took a deep breath and let himself fall backwards onto a handy rise in the forest floor. His path had taken him to the foot of the snag and he shifted slightly to align himself with the gnarled roots. One hand gripped a time smoothed root.
“Ama trusted me enough to go out of state,” he murmured. “That’s the first time she’s done that. Usually she has Abulita stay with us to fend off the Harsh, but she said it’s long past legal now.”
It was his imagination of course that made him think the root vibrated in his hand in response. Many a long hour he had spent in this clearing with the wanderer. He had poured out his frustrations and anguishes over life’s injustices, had shared his secrets as he grew, and had shouted his triumphs. Sometimes he felt closer to Bole than to any of his human friends. However, something that sounded like his mother’s voice warned him that there was something odd about this and that awareness was the main reason he had kept this place secret from Ama. Their mother hadn’t exactly liked stuff like that. She had never objected to his father’s digging up the old stories of her people. Making cross generational connections between elders, who more often than not lived isolated lives, and the next generation, was an admirable goal in of itself in her eyes; objectively a social good. Storytelling was only the natural course for these relationships to take, but subtle looks had warned even a very young Drake that it was best to cautious what he shared with his mother. At least of those things that couldn’t be placed on a microscope slide. So this was Awigewa’s place, and while his father’s spirit wanders the flowers with he had never felt his mother here.
He let his focus drift up, and up. Dark blue Lupine nodded over his head framing the faint crisscross of jet contrails that threw a light haze over an otherwise cloudless sky. His clothed grew deliciously hot from the spring sun. The ground too had eagerly accepted the energy and now it conducted the heat into the muscles of his back. Bole’s wood beneath him was warmer even than the surrounding ground and an idle thought traced across Awiegwa’s awareness; something about it being odd for the light colored wood and relatively dry wood to retain more heat than the darker soil surrounding it. His mind was filled with the impression of a goal. He had been meaning to do, something. Something fun, yes, exploring, he’d meant to see if whatever had dug that den by the second boulder was cubing this year. He would just get up and do that in a minute. His back was so warm and comfortable.

https://i.redd.it/t03pj0e9db3b1.gif
Flying Sparks”
Another foray into the lives of Drake McCarty, Ama Love, and the rest of their siblings as they discover that something alien is out in the forest around their home.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/flying-sparks-a-novel-of-dragon-bear-and-boy/coming_soon
#FlyingSparks #ScienceFiction #Scifi #Story #novel #book #DrakeMcCarty #AmaLove #Donny #Em #Bard #Bole #Aliens #Spaceships #Crystals #fireflies #NPS #NationalPark #Doctor #Sever #family #storm #writing #reading #drama #literature #author #BettyAdams #DyingEmbers #Dragons #ThingsThatGoBoomp #Indiegogo #CrowdFunding
submitted by Betty-Adams to sciencefiction [link] [comments]


2023.06.01 04:00 SalinorTV The encounter with God that changed my life

This happened on Christmas Eve, 2019. Leading up to the service at church had been a totally normal day. Christmas was already my favorite holiday and I was enjoying spending time back from college with my family.
When the service was coming to a close and silent night was playing was when my encounter with God began. When the words “love’s pure light” were sung, I immediately began to notice a what felt like a tiny seed of fire. This sensation quickly grew to envelop my body, and I recognized I was on fire, but it wasn’t painful. It felt like the most intense, warm sensation of love, to this day, I have ever experienced in my life. Words fail to describe accurately the scale and intensity of the experience, but I will try my best to do so.
The breadth of God’s love felt like the miles high wave in interstellar, crashing down on you all at once. God’s love felt like you were on the surface of the sun and had no choice but to witness its radiance. God’s love was so infinite in scale that I couldn’t comprehend its vastness. Gods love was an all-consuming, irresistible, superlative, unquenchable fire.
Needless to say, this was too much for me to handle. It was actually painful to witness God in this way. I couldn’t process or comprehend what I was seeing and feeling. It was good, but it was painful. At the time I remember feeling the urge to throw myself into that sun despite the fact that it would surely burn me into nothingness with its light. I might add that as this was happening, I was gripping the pews in front of me with white knuckles, tears openly falling down my face as I struggled to stay conscious. This went on for what felt like an eternity, but in reality was probably 5 minutes before I was released from God’s embrace.
As a man, I don’t cry often. Never in public. But I stood there mute with my face soaked in tears. I didn’t say anything on the car ride home, and my family just let me be. When I got home, I immediately went into the shower and curled up into a ball and bawled my eyes out for probably an hour. I remember saying over and over and over again: “I don’t deserve this”, and, “I’m not worthy”. Eventually I went to bed. Christmas, the next day, went as normal, as I tried to suppress this memory that was honestly very raw and painful. For the next year I couldn’t recount, much less think of this experience without having an emotional breakdown. Only two years after this did I really begin to process what happened to me.
God loves you so much- much more than you can ever know or imagine. He is always with you, and will never turn away. God bless you.
submitted by SalinorTV to Christian [link] [comments]


2023.06.01 04:00 PaughtinessPanda Scared writer (long read for toilet time)

So I've always always always wanted to write anime/adult action fictional animation or what ever you call anime in America and I finally have an opportunity to get it problem is I have writers block kinda I have an episode that I keep retuneing and I'm worried that it's not good and I keep getting it's great it's good blaa blaa blaa I want some actual critical feed back and I can't get it sooooooooooooooooo people of reddit what do you think it's a rough rough and I can't not stress rough draft so I'm not looking for spelling or grammer just tell me if it catches your eye puts that need to watch more like Naruto (my favorite anime) or erased something that your curious about well tell me your thoughts (extremely nervous)
Ps
Sorry if it's a long read
Episode 1 Scene 1 breaking the forth wall
setting Black screen with a desk and chair facing the camera
Action: Anthony walks up to the desk sits down and looks at the screen.
Anthony: Hello viewers im anthony origins and im going to be your main star.
action: Jelani walks in from off-screen
Jelani: Anthony what the (beep) wait did you just (beep) censor me
Anthony: we want kids to watch this we cant have language like that on my show
Jelani :your show wait, first fix this (beep) second your not the only main characters here what about kradon and me were in the scrpit like twice
Anthony: your right, but no one wants to see y'all they want to see me and all my glory
action kradon walks in from off screen
kradon are you guys seriously arguing about the scrpit again, the viewer doesn't care just get to the show already
jelani fine fine fine im out
anthony what do you mean your out you cant just leave
jelani says who I got two feet I can walk off this screen and disappear no one would even know
anthony you already appeared on screen there no special cameos your not famous enough for that (beep)
jelani im the freaking CEO of fighting wombat productions roll the intro
action play fighting wombats intro then record skip noise anthony interrupts
anthony that doesn't mean anything
jelani means I do what I want now now fix this (beep) so we can start the show and get rid of the got damn sensor this isn't no telly tubby bull (beep)
action kradon and jelani walk off-screen
anthony sighs fine fuck it
scene one:the dream
setting :Anthony origins ,Collier Zorgata, Jelani (last name) each in there own house having simulator nightmares of a baby crying in and out black and white figures stand over the baby the room shakes the figures flash and Anthony Collier and Jelani wake up
baby Jelani,Anthony,Collier:crying noise
faded male voice: we have to do something
faded female voice: we should take them and run
faded voice father: that wont be necessary
Action:flash of green light figures disappear
faded voice father: now take your medicine
Action:needle starts to move to the baby
Scene 2: wake up its school
settings: in the rooms of Anthony Jelani,Collier they hop waking up from there dream three pan of all three characters laying up in there bed each do individual starching Collier disappears
pan to Collier rolling off his roof landing in a bush
Collier: (yells as he rolls of the roof)
action: Collier stands up
Collier : what... the fuck... where am I
action: Collier looks at his door and starts knocking
guy walking by: looks like your missing something there aren't ya
action: Collier looks down at his body and starts knocking again
Collier: Ma! let me in!
action Colliers mom opens the door:
Collier mom: how did you get out here
Collier I don't even know just let me in
action Collier walks in the house and closes the door
pan: over to Anthony walking out of his restroom door
action:Anthony grabs his coat and fixes it on to his body and starts to walk down the stairs little partial start to stick to his hand as he holds the pole of his stair case ill sparks of electricity fly through his hand Anthony jumps in pain
Anthony: ow what the fuck
Anthony mom: watch your mouth
Anthony: sorry mom I just got zapped by something
Anthony mom: doesnt excuse language well get out of here you don't want to start your senior year on a bad note now do you
Anthony: o yeah the joys of school Anthony mom: don't be a prick
Anthony: (laughs) cya mom
action Anthony walks out the front door
pan over to Jelani walking out of front door
Jelani begins walking to school and a dog walks by him he stops and pets the dog takes out some of his lunch gives it the dog
Jelani: you need bath Little man its wrong how people treat dogs like old toys you deserve a bath let your coat shi..(phone rings)
action jelani answers his phone
Collier: hey where are you
Jelani: in never land with peter pan
Collier: well Wendy called and said its time for class
Jelani: yeah yeah I'm almost there give me a bit
Collier: were in front of the school
Jelani: what do you need permission or something go to class
Collier: you have my text book remember
Jelani: o awkward.. okay ill be there in like 2 minutes
Collier alright see you th---...hello
pan to Anthony and Collier
Anthony: hung up on you
Collier: yeah, as is tradition. would it kill him for once to actually end the conversation properly?
Anthony: Well you know Jelani. what will be the chances of him doing that
Collier (sighs)
action: Jelani runs up to them
Jelani: here take your book
Collier: thanks now lets get to class
pan to Jelani Collier and Anthony walking up to the school doors and see three guys in the background
action: Vince lifts his hand and ice partials lift out of his hand and freeze the door handles
action Jelani turns in anger
Jelani: and this day started off so well
Collier: Vince get rid of the ice were running late
action: Vince walks up to Collier:
vince: come again? I don't think I heard a "Please?"
Anthony: if you need a please I'm pleased to show you what my fist does to your face
Vince: o we have ill hero here how about I freeze your face see brave you are then
action Anthony gulps
Jelani jumps in front of Vince and Anthony and pushes Vince off
Jelani: lets all calm,down no reason to get testy here Vince
Vince: so your gonna be a hero too huh Jelani
action: Vince moves forward towards Jelani
Jelani: get back Vince
Vince: aw what happen to all that bravery you just had hmm
Jelani: Vince I said get back action: Jelani shoves Vince and gets pushed back against the door the ice around the door shatters Vince gets knocked in to his friends and falls to the ground
Anthony: what the hell was that
Collier who cares the doors open lets go
action: the three of them run in to the building and down the hall they stop at the end of the hall Anthony stops and catch's his breath
Anthony:what the hell what was that Jelani
Jelani: o yes I'm a fucking Wikipedia on how gene x works
Collier: are you guys forgetting were late for class
Anthony: shit your right. okay we will talk about this at lunch lets go
Collier: yup Jelani: yeah whatever
action: Jelani Isaiah and Collier split up
pan over to Collier turning down the hall
Collier man I got to drop the kids off at the pool first before I go to class.
action camera shows the restroom Collier runs in to the restroom and slams in to the stall show Colliers face he closes his eyes
Collier: ahh there we go
action poop sounds
girl: ahh what the hell are you doing
action: Collier opens his eyes
setting: female locker room
girl: o my gosh it smells like shit ! what are you doing in her get out get out get out
Collier : Ahh! What the flip! I''m so sorry! I have no idea how the hell I got in here
action: Collier pulls his pants up and runs in to the female shower by accident
women: you pervert get out girls only
action hitting sounds and splashing around show Collier going back down the hallway in the opposite direction pan to him out side the door of the women's restroom
Collier Oowww... What da-fuq is going on?
pan over to Jelani
settings art class each student had a canvas in front of them
teacher: okay for our next project I want your best depiction of your spirt animal what animal speaks to your heart
Jelani: sighs I have the imagination of a dog chasing his tail this is gonna be a long class
action Jelani starts to draw on the canvas and rips the paper out continues this process 3 times before slamming his head and hand on the canvas pant splats on it
Jelani: lunch couldn't come any sooner what I wouldn't do for a hot dog right now
action: the paint swirls above Jelani and a hot dog appears above him
Jelani: better yet a pizza
action the paint swirls again and a pizza appears above Jelani
Jelani: god I can almost taste it
action a pizza appears in his mouth Jelani spits it out on to the floor
Jelani: the fucking fuck?
action: Jelani runs out to the restroom knocking over a bowl of art supply's
teacher jela...(Jelani)
action: Jelani rushes out the door and in to a restroom Vince watch's him enter Jelani splash's his face with water
Jelani: okay its all right think what could this be
action Vince walks In
Vince well well well look who's all alone
Jelani: Vince, I don't have time for this
action Jelani starts to turn around
Vince: is that so
action Vince snaps fingers and freezes the sink with Jelani hand still attached and grabs him by the neck
Vince: well lets make sometime
Jelani: okay but I don't think it's gonna be very enjoyable for you
action: Jelani steps on his foot and head buts him and kicks him to the ground
Jelani: now what now what now what
action Jelani looks at the ice
Jelani: break break break
action Jelani closes his eyes a flash of ice breaking appears
action: the ice crumbles in to the sink Jelani faces back to Vince he starts to stand up and gets to his feet
Vince: look who has a ill fight in him
action: Vince slams his arms in to Jelani's shoulders forcing him to the ground
Vince: and the fight is gone
action: Jelani falls to the ground a hazy camera of Jelani looking at a stall
Jelani(inner voice) damn that hurt
action: Jelani starts to crawl to the stall and lifts his hand to pull his self up Vince reaches down and picks up Jelani and lifts him against the stall door and lifts a frost fist behind him Jelani looks at the door and notices a loosen screw instantly imagines the screw stopping his fist and closes his eyes then opens them seeing that it has happened they both exclaim shocked
(Jelani & Vince) wha..(what)
action: Vince continues to force his fist at Jelani Jelani smirks
Jelani: now that were on equal terms
action: Jelani lifts his other hand a pulse flashes out of his hand pushing Jelani and Vince in opposite directions Jelani lands on the stall and hits his back on the toilet metal pump
Jelani: okay ouch :(action says while standing up )
action: Vince stands up anger is shown on his face the sprinklers turn on the water starts to freeze as it falls to the floor the fire alarm goes off
(10 minutes earlier) text appears
pan over to Anthony
teacher: okay class we have used water to demonstrate the 3 states of matter solid liquid and gas now our last experiment will be with fire to create the forth state of mater also known as plasma and just to add a lil twist we will use a copper to creating a blue flame
action: show Anthony drooling on the lab desk
teacher: your gonna have to be paying full attention because this is a highly (action teacher points at Anthony and makes a shoving motion the student next to Anthony nudges him to wake him up Anthony head pops up and looks around in confusion) dangerous exper.... (experiment)
teacher: welcome back to the land of the living Anthony ready to join the rest of us
action: Anthony yawns
Anthony: o please do go on I'm so intrigued the excitement
teacher: (action the teacher stares at isaiah annoyed) as i was saying ....umm.. o. This is a highly dangerous experiment so pay attention
action: show Anthony dosing off
teacher okay first grab your copper out of the element box and put it in to the beaker now take the syringe and spray water on to the copper this loosen the heavy salts changing its mass from a solid to a gas only gases can become a flame
action Anthony eyes starts to close and he starts to see ill dots all around the copper
teacher this also starts to release hydrogen in to the beaker now turn on your electric heater
action a charge drips off Anthony lip shocking the heater
teacher: as the molecules starts to heat up the hydrogen ignites from the oxygen in the air
action Anthony eyes start to slight widen the partials ignite and trail of blue flames go on to his hand the student next to him jumps
student: Fire Fire!! action Anthony jumps out his seat
Anthony what where
student fire its on your pants
action Anthony jumps up swiping at the fire the fire discharges from his hands and hits the floor Anthony runs to a safety shower spout and reaches to turn it on the water turns on and swirls around his body
Anthony: the fires not going out help me
action a student runs to Anthony the fire starts to heat and a discharge of electricity shoots out the fire and swirls around his body Anthony lifts his hand
Anthony: wait don't stay back its dangerous
a bolt of energy shoots out his hand and through the window Anthony runs out the room as a trail of electricity fire and water swirl behind him students follow behind him as the three elements start to dissipate the fire alarm goes off
pan to Jelani
action:a wave of ice freezes the water up to the toilet Jelani back clides with the stall wall
jelani: I need to get out of here
action: the wall turns in to a door and jelani rush out of the door and in to the hallway as vince blast a beam of ice in to the stall freezing the entire thing vince turns to jelani as each drop of water from the sprinklers freeze as it clides and shatters as it reaches the ground jeans stares down at vince since takes a pill out of his pocket and pops it in his mouth ice drips off of vinces body
vince: you and your friends judge me for using these phantom pills and look who's secretly a little druggy jelani
jelani: I'm not a degenerate like you vince Idk how I have these ability but anything I imagine happens so let's do this
action: Vince releases a breath of ice out the screws of the restroom stalls start to fly off of the its Henge blocking vince ice breath then the screws start flying off hitting vince over and over in different spots
vince: enough!
action: vince freezes the air and all the screws fall to the ground
vince: I'm done playing with you jeans
jelani: too far
action: vince starts to send waves of ice at jelani freezing jelanis leg to the wall and vince freezes jelanis arms and other leg jelani closes his eyes
jelani: cardboard cardboard cardboard
action: the wall behind jelani starts to glow and and forms flimsy cardboard as vince charges a large partial of ice in his hands and releases it as jelani falls through the wall and in to the a locker in the hallway bumping his head on the locker door
jelani : sighs great now I'm in a locker
action teens run down the hall way passing Jelani in the locker Collier bumps against a girls butt the girl punches him and he falls to the ground
girl you creep don't touch me. Sneaking in the girls restroom yuk
Collier:Wait no its not like that, I swear I have no idea how I got in there!
girl what ever
action: girl continues running down the hall
Collier: seriously
Jelani: I'm almost to happy Im stuck in here to hear that
Collier: Jelani what are you doing in there
Jelani: well this is my comfort spot I come in here to contemplate out how to solve world hunger, bring world peace, What the fuck do you think im doing in here im stuck , you idijt!!!
Collier: you know it would be real easy for me to continue down my merry way
Jelani and id like to wish on your merry way good sir,but, if you would be so kind to GET ME OUT THE BLOODY LOCKER that would be greeeaattt
Collier sighs hold on hold on
Jelani: o please do take your time
Collier its not like im a master lock picker
Jelani o
Collier what
Jelani nothing keep going
action unlock noise
Collier : there we go
Jelani yay we did it
action Collier opens the door Jelani walks out the locker
Jelani no need to dwell. shall we?
Collier dude there's a latch on the door. You could've gotten yourself outta there yourself.
Collier shows Jelani the latch on the locker and demonstrates how it works
Jelani I don't know what your talking about(says quickly) (action continues walking)
action Collier shakes his head and continues down the hallway both head outside of the door camera shows them walking down a tiny stare way the girls turn and stare at Collier
Jelani what was that about
Collier the reason im going to stay single my whole high school year Jelani o and you and the closet being mighty tight wasn't gonna do that
action Collier looks at Jelani
Collier whatever lets find Anthony you know how he gets around fire
action Collier starts walking looking around
Jelani well I think this is just a drill judging that everyone not screaming and going crazy
Collier yeah I guess. I see him over there in the back
action Collier and Jelani approach Anthony
Collier hey Anthony h..(how)
action Anthony grabs Jelani and Collier and pull them to the side
Anthony shut up listen that goes double for you Jelani
Jelani no promises
Anthony I did this I started the fire I don't know how but I got Gen X in my system im shooting electricity starting fire controlling water and there are dots all In the air im loss...(losing)
Jelani wait you too
Anthony what are you talking about
Jelani I fought Vince with the ability to I don't know make stuff from nmmy imaginationtion
Anthony we need to go to the tent and figure this out
action Anthony and Jelani run off
Collier first day of school and already ditching
action Jelani turns around
Jelani are you contemplating the universe or something come on!
Action Jelani turns back towards Anthony and continues running Collier starts running
setting the tent
action Anthony walks up to the tent and flings the doors open Jelani walks in be hind him Collier continues be hind him Anthony turns around
Anthony show me
Jelani well take me out to dinner first this show ain't free
Anthony the ability man the ability
jelani mmmm hmm im just sayin if i hear some baby making music im out
action jelani closes his eyes and nothing happens
Anthony: performance exiade
action jelani moves his dreads from his face and looks at Anthony
jelani: god I hate these things and I'd how this works I was running off of instanct I wasn't thinking about it it was all reaction
Anthony try again
action: jelani moves his dreads away from his face
jelani : I'm not a trained monkey I don't know how this works
action jelani moves his dreads from his face
jelani god I hate these things when there untwisted
collier you should just cut them off 3 hours to just twist seems like a lot of work
jelani: and look like you too no hair no real style just bound screw that I can't even imagine my hair gone just picturing that
action while jelani says that he shutters and his hair starts to glow and his hair turns short and in a fade
jelani sends chills down my spine now shut up I have to focus
action isaiah starts laughing
jelani: will you shut up
action a sandwich appears in his hand
Anthony instant manifestation fascinating
Jelani I showed you mine show me yours
Anthony I don't know how to do mine it happened on its own he was talking about how chemical reaction work and I rubbed my fingers together and there was a flame emitted on the copper
Jelani well you know how it happened try it
Anthony there's no copper her
Collier do you still see those particles
Anthony yea there's some in the air and there's lil ones all on the ground
Collier snap your fingers
action Anthony snaps nothing happens
Anthony may be it was just my imagination
Jelani yeah flames always just magically appear on metal
action Anthony rubs hand against his head and closes his eyes a discharge trail trickles down his body and jumps around the air and dissipates as it approaches Collier Collier and Jelani jump back
Anthony I don't know man
action Anthony opens his eyes
Collier woo wooo
action Collier disappears and a clone sits in his place and the charge erupts in to the clones body
Anthony o my god Collier
Jelani you just turned Collier in to a baked potato what the hell man
Collier ummm help me
action Anthony and Jelani looks up and see Collier hanging by a type wire
Anthony just drop we will catch you
Collier yeah like you guys are fucking the most reliable source in a game of catch but I have an idea
action Collier lets go
Anthony what the hell are you doing
Jelani you dumb fuck
action Collier disappears and a clone takes his place when it gets close to the ground it vanishes in mid air Collier runs up be hind Anthony and grabs his shoulder
Collier I CAN FUCKING TELEPORT!!!
Anthony and clone your self wait whats that
show more particles in the air
Jelani what is it
Anthony there's a concentration of those lil dots I was talking about comeing from the door
action Jelani walks too the door and gets Spartan kicked in to the room Vince walks in pulling the door open showing him and 3 other boys
Vince whats up motha fuckas rematch and I brought friends as
Episode 1 end
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2023.06.01 04:00 Verwind2 The End of Zeb Wells' Run

Peter jerks awake
"Kamala! NO!"
Beads of sweat drip off his face. MJ runs into the room.
"PETER! It's okay!" She embraces him, trying to calm him down. "
"I just had the worst dream..." He says, "You got together with a guy named Paul and adopted kids from another dimension."
"It's okay," she says. "There's no such thing as Paul. It was all a dream."
"Yeah. Yeah! Of course. I'm going to take a shower."
"I'll join you in a minute, tiger!" She teases with a wink.
Peter smiles. " Things are looking bright for once."
He leaves the room.
Mary Jane's face drops slightly.
"He must never know the truth" sounds a voice. Doctor Strange shimmers into existence.
"I know." She says. "This isn't the first time I've had to keep a retcon secret." She takes an altered totem dagger out from the bedside table.
"Inside that dagger resides the life and soul of Zeb Wells." Explains Strange "It must NEVER be restored."
She nods. It was bad enough when Spider-Boy came back.
He takes the dagger from her. "I must put this where nobody will ever look." He says.
" 'The Death of The Inhumans' comic?" She asks. That's a good place to hide it. Nobody read that. Most people don't even know the inhumans are mostly dead. Or care.
"Exactly" says the Doctor as he disappears in light.
Mary Jane glances out the window. Ms. Marvel is out there practicing her new Mutant powers with the X-Men.
"Can't fix everything..." She mumbles. She sighs and turns toward the bathroom.
But you can fix some things. Sometimes that has to be good enough.
"Any hot water left, Pete?"
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2023.06.01 04:00 Analypiss Durability

Key and explanation of periods where Juggernaut was stronger or weaker than normal

Durability w/ Force Field/Armor

Blunt

Piercing/Cutting

Sound

Heat

Cold

Electricity

Light

Energy

Chemical

Adhesive

Biological

Matter Manipulation

Phasing

Magic

Soul/Life Force

Power Absorption/Nullification

Mental

Durability w/o Force Field/Armor

Blunt

Piercing/Cutting

Sound

Cold

Heat

Gravity

Light

Energy

Chemical

Biological

Mental

submitted by Analypiss to JuggernautMegaRT [link] [comments]


2023.06.01 04:00 Analypiss Strength - Force Field and Advancing

Key and explanation of periods where Juggernaut was stronger or weaker than normal

Force Field

Advancing

submitted by Analypiss to JuggernautMegaRT [link] [comments]


2023.06.01 03:59 SalinorTV The encounter with God that changed my life

The encounter I had with God happened on Christmas Eve, 2019. Leading up to the service at church had been a totally normal day. Christmas was already my favorite holiday and I was enjoying spending time back from college with my family.
When the service was coming to a close and silent night was playing was when my encounter with God began. When the words “love’s pure light” were sung, I immediately began to notice a what felt like a tiny seed of fire. This sensation quickly grew to envelop my body, and I recognized I was on fire, but it wasn’t painful. It felt like the most intense, warm sensation of love, to this day, I have ever experienced in my life. Words fail to describe accurately the scale and intensity of the experience, but I will try my best to do so.
The breadth of God’s love felt like the miles high wave in interstellar, crashing down on you all at once. God’s love felt like you were on the surface of the sun and had no choice but to witness its radiance. God’s love was so infinite in scale that I couldn’t comprehend its vastness. Gods love was an all-consuming, irresistible, superlative, unquenchable fire.
Needless to say, this was too much for me to handle. It was actually painful to witness God in this way. I couldn’t process or comprehend what I was seeing and feeling. It was good, but it was painful. At the time I remember feeling the urge to throw myself into that sun despite the fact that it would surely burn me into nothingness with its light. I might add that as this was happening, I was gripping the pews in front of me with white knuckles, tears openly falling down my face as I struggled to stay conscious. This went on for what felt like an eternity, but in reality was probably 5 minutes before I was released from God’s embrace.
As a man, I don’t cry often. Never in public. But I stood there mute with my face soaked in tears. I didn’t say anything on the car ride home, and my family just let me be. When I got home, I immediately went into the shower and curled up into a ball and bawled my eyes out for probably an hour. I remember saying over and over and over again: “I don’t deserve this”, and, “I’m not worthy”. Eventually I went to bed. Christmas, the next day, went as normal, as I tried to suppress this memory that was honestly very raw and painful. For the next year I couldn’t recount, much less think of this experience without having an emotional breakdown. Only two years after this did I really begin to process what happened to me.
God loves you so much- much more than you can ever know or imagine. He is always with you, and will never turn away. God bless you.
submitted by SalinorTV to Christianity [link] [comments]


2023.06.01 03:59 SalinorTV The encounter with God that changed my life

The encounter I had with God happened on Christmas Eve, 2019. Leading up to the service at church had been a totally normal day. Christmas was already my favorite holiday and I was enjoying spending time back from college with my family.
When the service was coming to a close and silent night was playing was when my encounter with God began. When the words “love’s pure light” were sung, I immediately began to notice a what felt like a tiny seed of fire. This sensation quickly grew to envelop my body, and I recognized I was on fire, but it wasn’t painful. It felt like the most intense, warm sensation of love, to this day, I have ever experienced in my life. Words fail to describe accurately the scale and intensity of the experience, but I will try my best to do so.
The breadth of God’s love felt like the miles high wave in interstellar, crashing down on you all at once. God’s love felt like you were on the surface of the sun and had no choice but to witness its radiance. God’s love was so infinite in scale that I couldn’t comprehend its vastness. Gods love was an all-consuming, irresistible, superlative, unquenchable fire.
Needless to say, this was too much for me to handle. It was actually painful to witness God in this way. I couldn’t process or comprehend what I was seeing and feeling. It was good, but it was painful. At the time I remember feeling the urge to throw myself into that sun despite the fact that it would surely burn me into nothingness with its light. I might add that as this was happening, I was gripping the pews in front of me with white knuckles, tears openly falling down my face as I struggled to stay conscious. This went on for what felt like an eternity, but in reality was probably 5 minutes before I was released from God’s embrace.
As a man, I don’t cry often. Never in public. But I stood there mute with my face soaked in tears. I didn’t say anything on the car ride home, and my family just let me be. When I got home, I immediately went into the shower and curled up into a ball and bawled my eyes out for probably an hour. I remember saying over and over and over again: “I don’t deserve this”, and, “I’m not worthy”. Eventually I went to bed. Christmas, the next day, went as normal, as I tried to suppress this memory that was honestly very raw and painful. For the next year I couldn’t recount, much less think of this experience without having an emotional breakdown. Only two years after this did I really begin to process what happened to me.
God loves you so much- much more than you can ever know or imagine. He is always with you, and will never turn away. God bless you.
submitted by SalinorTV to messianic [link] [comments]


2023.06.01 03:58 Betty-Adams "Flying Sparks" A novel of a boy, a dragon, and an alien. 100K words of science fiction adventure.

Flying Sparks

Pre Order Now


https://i.redd.it/bqo2debncb3b1.gif

Chapter 2

“Hazardous? I’ll show that manipulative, misanthropic, anti-establishment cretin just what hazardous means if he thinks I’m going to fold on this!”
The sound of vigorous guitar riffs made a fitting accompaniment to the angry tirade despite originating on opposite sides of the communal area. Ama was glaring at a laptop that sat on a stained oak desk shoved against the large table near the kitchen. She tapped a fingernail on the wood as she read through the alert.
“And what violation of basic human dignity has her royal prudishness’s undies in a bunch?” Em demanded with an affected sneer without looking up from his guitar scales.
“Oh you’ll agree with this one tree-hugger,” Drake muttered from where he sat oiling his work boots.
“Yeah,” Donny piped up, “Finney is trying to kill a perfectly healthy fir.”
“What!” Em demanded, carefully placing his battered old acoustic guitar down in its case and darting over to look at the computer screen. “You mean apark tree?”
Despite her simmering frustration Ama allowed a small smile to flicker across her face as she continued to type.
“Get out of your pajamas and I’ll tell you,” Drake ordered pointing towards the bathroom door with a stained rag. “School starts in forty-five minutes and you still have breakfast and chores. That goes for you too Pip-squirt.”
“I hope you washed your hands before you touched our food,” Em said with a frown.
“Boot grease makes a great source of fatty acids.” Drake retorted. “Now go!”
The two smaller boys muttered in annoyance but stumbled off to follow orders.
“So what is up?” the youth asked as he bent his head back over the smooth leather of his boots.
“Mrs. Finney wants that tree down that’s blocking her perfect view of Crescent Lake.” Ama replied in a dry tone.
“One that’s clearly on park property?” Drake asked.
“Indeedy-do.” Ama replied giving the paper in front of her a glare.
“So how’s she justifying it?” Drake asked.
“As a safety hazard to her house.” Ama replied.
“And?”
The biologist groaned and rubbed her face.
“As far as I can tell the trunk is perfectly healthy. There is an old trash can lid grown into the trunk and a little discolored sap is leaking out there.”
“Frass?”
“Watch your language!” Donny interjected as he darted up to the table.
“Frass is not a bad word,” Drake stated. “Have you let the chickens out?”
“Yes, what does frass mean?” Donny asked as he started piling stir-fry onto his plate.
“Look it up.” Drake ordered him. “Emerald! Breakfast ends in ten minutes! Get your tukus down here!”
“It’s bad health to rush meals,” Em snapped out as he came down a narrow stairway with deliberate slowness.
“It’s even worse for your health to skip meals altogether,” Drake growled threateningly.
“Shut it and give me some eggs.” Em snapped back.
“Emerald Waters Undersun,” Drake hissed out through gritted teeth. “You are going to get your own eggs.”
The boy threw himself into a chair and glared at Drake with challenge in every line of his body.
“Emerald,” Ama said in a calm tone. “I think you should apologize to your cousin now.”
“Sorry I disturbed you Ama,” he offered without breaking eye contact with Drake.
“Not me, him,” Ama said.
“Sorry you had to hear that Donny.” Em said.
Ama heaved a sigh and closed her computer.
“Emerald,” Ama said.
“Do you want to eat or go hungry?” Drake demanded.
Ama glanced at him with a familiar uneasy look in her eyes and Drake fought down a wince.
“Now, Em.” she said in a patient tone.
“I’ll go hungry,” Em snapped, jumping up and stalking over to the couch.
Donny kept his eyes fixed on his plate. Ama heaved a sigh before turning back to her computer. Em wriggled on the couch for several minutes before skulking back to the table. Drake moved to intercept him but Ama stopped him with a look and he let Em serve himself. Drake cast irritated glances at the wall clock as the time crept more and more into school time.
Ama closed her computer and stood, then sighed, sat and opened it again.
“I need to pick out their report topics,” Ama muttered.
“I could do it,” Drake offered.
“You do quite enough,” Ama replied briskly, as she scanned the news. “Here you go. For Donny, malfunctions at the Lewis- McChord Air Force Base air show.” A frown creased her face. “Wow, this is pretty serious. It looks like the F-16 demonstration team nearly got killed.”
Drake whistled and leaned over her shoulder.
“Multiple system failures,” he read out loud. “I am pretty sure that isn’t supposed to happen.”
“Nope,” Ama agreed. “Here is a topic on big game management for Em.”
“Reports due by next week?” Drake asked as the old printer on the desk began to squeal and grumble as it powered up.
“Same as usual,” Ama confirmed.
Drake put the printouts on top of the homework pile and moved to wash up the breakfast dishes.
“I need to get to work early today so you two be good for Drake,” she called out placing a quick kiss on top of the smaller boys’ heads and giving Drake’s shoulder a friendly squeeze.
“Good luck with Mrs. Finney, and stay safe.” Drake called out as she went into her room.
The table was cleaned off and wiped down and the clink of forks gave way to the steady scratch of pencils on paper. They broke for a recess after religion and then lunch after history and math, and by the time the Grandfather clock in the corner struck two the younger boys twitching with energy. Drake made certain the internet was disconnected at the router, and chased Donny and Em out into the garden.
“And don’t come in until dark,” he ordered tossing two snack bags out after them.
Donny as usual snatched his food and disappeared into the small orachard. Low grumbles about troglodytes and the Amish wandered out into the high corn following Em and Drake shook his head in exasperation wondering, not for the first time how the dark haired princeling came from the same gene pool as his little brother. The kitchen being mostly ordered Drake was turning to put the last random dirty sock in the hamper when a gnarled hand clutching a cane head appeared in the corner of his eye, causing his heart to make a valiant attempt to bolt out of his throat.
“Abuelita!” he gasped forcing his hands down from the guard position. “Where did you come from?”
Smoldering black eyes ran searchingly over the tall youth. An impossibly long mane of streaked silver and black hair was barely contained in a thick braid. A sharply pointed nose perched over a small wrinkled mouth. A vibrant red horse-hair serape hung over her shoulders concealing everything except her brown and gnarled hands which currently clutched the old tree branch she used as a cane. Drake had been more than a little comforted by the fact that both Em and Donny had admitted to having the thought ‘witch’ every time time they saw her as well.
“From the hand of God by the bodies of my sainted mother and father,” she replied after a long, uncomfortable silence.
She always spoke in a low husky voice that suggested years of smoking, though Drake had never smelled even stale smoke on her.
“Right,” Drake blinked and grinned at the response; the one she always gave. “So you are here for their Spanish lesson? I have their grammar books ready and-”
The narrow end of the tree branch rapped against the concrete of the floor causing Drake to jump. Abuelita glared at him, locking his gaze and holding him in place with it for a moment.
“I am here for their lessons,” she finally stated, “and you are there for my payment.”
Drake thought longingly of the repair and maintenance manuals in the cab of the truck and the new tool he was itching to try, but he forced a grin on his face.
“Yes ma’am,” he said. “What can I get you today?”
Abuelita pulled out a bag of woven grass from under her serape causing the indistinct patterns on the cloth to shift and change.
“Take this,” she ordered him, “and collect me the cobalt blue berries that grow on a single stalk close to the ground. They must come from the mountain to the south east of here by the crystal brook.”
Drake nodded, and took the little bag, he didn’t quite manage to infused his gestures with enthusiasm he supposed. The old woman, probably wouldn’t have noted it anyway. She turned and moved towards the garden door without waiting for any other reply. However she called out over her shoulder as he turned to find his own way out of the rambling structure.
“Don’t dawdle little one. A storm brews in the distance.”
He tried not to roll his eyes at that, the weather forecast was clear and eighties for the next week according to the morning fire report Ama had printed. The youth only nodded and slipped around the corner. He circled the barn and pulled a set of loose tan pants and tunic out of the cubby. The soft worn leather almost perfectly matched the forest floor for color as did the moccasins he pulled on after them. His morning running clothes were modern stuff that wicked the sweat away from him and let him speed through the forest. These were his free day clothes. The ones that let him disappear into the forest and wander. Abuelita, for all of her demands, would tend Em and Donny until he returned no matter how late that was, and with the Park’s yearly budget talks still under way it was highly unlikely Ama would be home until long after the sun had set. Despite still hearing the call of the half restored truck he felt something lossening in him already. The soft cotton and smooth leather rested easily against his skin and Drake slipped into the forest.
Freedom; for the moment at least, blissful freedom. Pushing aside the guilt that accompanied the thought as well as any lingering worries about his charges the youth let his legs carry him through the trees. He shunned the man made paths, following the faint animal trails. This close to the barn they were as clear to him as if they were named city streets. Being animal trails, they invariably led him to water. Today he stopped at a trickling stream, took off his moccasins, and rolled up his pants legs. The youth turned and followed the thin flow of icy water upstream, letting it steal the heat from his body through his feet.
Some distance upstream, the stream widened and pooled under a boulder. There Drake paused and pulled an old black compass out of his pocket. Behind him he knew every trail and tree. Ahead was a broad swath of National Wilderness he would have to cross, or possibly Bureau of Land Management or even state managed forests where he more rarely wandered. It was hard to tell where the boundaries were from the ground. The clearing he wanted for the berries was solidly in BLM land and he still had quite a ways to go to get there. The stand of timber that stood between him and his goal was dense with young tree and branches that frequently formed impenetrable hedges he had to track around and he checked his compass regularly as he climbed in elevation. Even so the youth found he had wandered too far off his route and had to correct when he spotted the boundary fence. However he was in no hurry and he reached the clearing long before the sun told him it was time to turn around.
Sometime in the past some unknown force had carved a shallow trench across the side of one of the small mountains that that dotted the wilderness. It had puzzled Drake at first. The scour was at the wrong angle to be an old rock slide, and terminated in a near perfectly circular clearing at the lower end. Centuries old Douglas Firs abruptly gave way to a second ring only a few decades old. Those were in turn beginning to produce cones and a smattering of knee high saplings. The rest of the space was completely given over to wildflowers. No matter what season Drake visited it he found a riot of life.
There had been an early spring and many herbs that normally would have waited a month or more were already in full bloom in the mountain meadow. A white wave of foamflower washed in from the deep forest surrounding the clearing, sending up knee high stalks covered in the delicate white blooms. Late trillium hid close to the roots of the great firs, many having shed their white corollas and begun to put forth their bulbous seed heads. Fuzzy white baneberry blossoms nodded gently in the breeze. A riot of yellow and purple spread across the ground as vetch and buttercups and a host of clovers competed for space in the open sun. Great stalks of lupine as high as his head thrust up their purple and blue proudly from thick clusters of palm shaped leaves. Pink shooting stars and violet harebells crouched under the protection of the larger plants. Indian paintbrush lit the scene with flames of red and orange. Where a spring seeped into the meadow elephant’s head flared neon pink and corydalis bushes put forth blushing blooms. Pale green wild orchids stood along the wet spot and the swarms of bees danced from them to the glacier lilies.
Sometimes, as he bent over a tiny blossom and traced the intricate network of veins in the petals, drank in the scent, and felt the smooth surface of the leaves an otherworldly feeling would come over him. It was as if there was another world just out of range of his senses. If he could only really look, the thin illusion that was blocking him would slip away and reveal the real world underneath it.
Look Awiegwa,” his father would whisper, pointing at a deer mouse perched on a fallen log. “What does it see?”
Awiegwa would screw up his face and squint. Trying to find the answer to the question.
Awiegwa had often wondered how so many flowers had come to be in the relatively small area. He had identified dozens of species and there were more he had yet to determine. The clearing was always the first place to bloom and the last to go dormant. Many of the flowers seemed to utterly defy their usual blooming patterns. However, as time passed he had simply come to accept it. It was one of the small good things that brought back the memories of his father. If it didn’t quite follow the rules Ama had taught him, well an impossible clearing in the mountains wasn’t a place for rules.
The particular bloom that Abuelita had requested had taken full advantage of the early sun and had already put forth a few cobalt blue berries; easily spotted at the edge of the clearing in the delicate sea of white flowers.
However before he left the shade of the forest for the meadow the youth paused and closed his eyes. Bole wasn’t always here, but he was often enough that Awiegwa always checked for him. Carefully he reconstructed the clearing in his mind; marking every tree and boulder on the edge. Three years he had been coming here and each time it was easier to recreate the clearing. Breathing evenly he opened his eyes, letting the mental image merge with the actual. There was a brief moment of confusion as details like the play of light through branches and the trembling of small clusters of flowers fixed themselves but there was only one truly jarring note. Awiegwa didn’t let his eyes focus on the disparity; he never did anymore, but a warm smile spread across his features as he slipped silently into the meadow.
He was here. As the youth moved in a low crouch, gathering the first fruits of the Queen’s Cup, he let his peripheral vision linger on a particular snag. There was nothing obviously interesting about it, other than the fact that it had not been there the last time Awiegwa was here. He had named the wanderer Bole, because it most often appeared as a thick tree trunk; sometimes living, sometimes dead. Occasionally it would be a boulder or simply a mound in the dirt. Often it wasn’t in the clearing at all. If the youth moved forward and tried to closely examine it he could never find anything to suggest it was something other than a tree or rock.
He had thought about taking a sample occasionally, had taken his knife out to do just that more than once, but something always held him back. Bole was a part of this place. Dissecting him would be too much like attempting to dissect his sense of his father’s presence here. The youth had never told anyone about this place, not even Ama with who could get most things out of him easily enough. Down at the house, in town, when he was Drake; solid, reliable, first up in the morning, two grades ahead in school with a penchant for science Drake, a productive member of modern society with a promising future and his mother smiling at him. Here he could be Awiegwa. Here he could believe in the ancient medicines his father had dug out of dusty old tomes and brought to life from the forest litter. Every time Awiegwa left the clearing and headed back towards home reality would reassert itself. Bole would resolve back into a figment of his imagination, created from pride in a somewhat better than average memory and what the social workers had called an “intriguing imagination”. When he reached the house and become solidly Drake again flickers of embarrassment would begin eating at him for letting his senses trick him like that, but as long as the blooms nodded around him in this garden Bole could exist even on a Thursday.
The little woven grass bag filled up with the berries fairly quickly and Awiegwa soon stretched out of his crouch and let his gaze wander contentedly over the clearing. As it always did, the warm space was working its special magic. Worries about Em getting out of his schoolwork, of not paying enough attention to the quiet Donny, of letting Ama see his petty resentments: it had all melted away from his muscles, thoughts of college costs and abandoning his duties dissolved into an acute sense of the now. The leaves rustled softly in a barely-there breeze, the heavy scent of some unidentified blossom filled his lungs, a dozen shades of green framed the rainbow of flowers, and over and above it all the creaking of the firs as the wind played over them. It was at times like these that he felth he could almost see into heaven; that something wonderful that existed just beyond his senses, and all he had to do was reach out and claim it.
The youth took a deep breath and let himself fall backwards onto a handy rise in the forest floor. His path had taken him to the foot of the snag and he shifted slightly to align himself with the gnarled roots. One hand gripped a time smoothed root.
“Ama trusted me enough to go out of state,” he murmured. “That’s the first time she’s done that. Usually she has Abulita stay with us to fend off the Harsh, but she said it’s long past legal now.”
It was his imagination of course that made him think the root vibrated in his hand in response. Many a long hour he had spent in this clearing with the wanderer. He had poured out his frustrations and anguishes over life’s injustices, had shared his secrets as he grew, and had shouted his triumphs. Sometimes he felt closer to Bole than to any of his human friends. However, something that sounded like his mother’s voice warned him that there was something odd about this and that awareness was the main reason he had kept this place secret from Ama. Their mother hadn’t exactly liked stuff like that. She had never objected to his father’s digging up the old stories of her people. Making cross generational connections between elders, who more often than not lived isolated lives, and the next generation, was an admirable goal in of itself in her eyes; objectively a social good. Storytelling was only the natural course for these relationships to take, but subtle looks had warned even a very young Drake that it was best to cautious what he shared with his mother. At least of those things that couldn’t be placed on a microscope slide. So this was Awigewa’s place, and while his father’s spirit wanders the flowers with he had never felt his mother here.
He let his focus drift up, and up. Dark blue Lupine nodded over his head framing the faint crisscross of jet contrails that threw a light haze over an otherwise cloudless sky. His clothed grew deliciously hot from the spring sun. The ground too had eagerly accepted the energy and now it conducted the heat into the muscles of his back. Bole’s wood beneath him was warmer even than the surrounding ground and an idle thought traced across Awiegwa’s awareness; something about it being odd for the light colored wood and relatively dry wood to retain more heat than the darker soil surrounding it. His mind was filled with the impression of a goal. He had been meaning to do, something. Something fun, yes, exploring, he’d meant to see if whatever had dug that den by the second boulder was cubing this year. He would just get up and do that in a minute. His back was so warm and comfortable.

https://i.redd.it/zafjty1qcb3b1.gif
Flying Sparks”
Another foray into the lives of Drake McCarty, Ama Love, and the rest of their siblings as they discover that something alien is out in the forest around their home.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/flying-sparks-a-novel-of-dragon-bear-and-boy/coming_soon
#FlyingSparks #ScienceFiction #Scifi #Story #novel #book #DrakeMcCarty #AmaLove #Donny #Em #Bard #Bole #Aliens #Spaceships #Crystals #fireflies #NPS #NationalPark #Doctor #Sever #family #storm #writing #reading #drama #literature #author #BettyAdams #DyingEmbers #Dragons #ThingsThatGoBoomp #Indiegogo #CrowdFunding
submitted by Betty-Adams to Indiegogo [link] [comments]


2023.06.01 03:58 breakingd4d Stranger things upside down game

Just ordered my copy but excited to play.. anyone know if any group or person is working on it for steam workshop for TTS?
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2023.06.01 03:58 AisteachSam AITA for saying my neighbor is a Karen?

Long time lurker, first time poster
So I'm super annoyed and want to know if I'm right to feel this way.
My husband [32M] and I [31F] live in a condominium. I brought this condo back in 2015 so I've been here for a few years, and there are ALOT of dog owners around here [some responsible, some not]
My condo complex gives me a few routes to walk my dogs around. My preferred 'quick' route is just around the corner from my own condo as the sidewalk makes a circle. The neighbor that lives there seems to be some sort of gardener and is always trying to make changes to her front garden area. Recently she added some cute little potted plants to her front garden and my dogs liked to sniff at them. A couple days ago my corgi peed on one. I quickly pulled him away but once the stream starts you can't really stop them, so I haven't let them sniff at them anymore during our walks.
Earlier this evening, after my husband left for work, someone was just standing on my front patio and driving my dogs crazy by just standing there. No doorbell, no knocking, nothing. I'm weirded out and had to interrupt a phone call with my brother to see whats up. She had this weird kind of intense look on her face as she just came out and said 'hey your dogs have been peeing on my planters'. I kinda stared at her and pointed over at the corner lot just to be sure and she confirmed it. She complained my dogs have been peeing all over her planters, that the planters were expensive, and she didn't like that her own dogs were now sniffing at the planters. She said this was all the HOA allowed her to do and that she could only do planters in that one small garden area, so she didn't want my dogs peeing on her planters anymore. She then finished it off saying she had it on video. I was pretty shocked and annoyed as I never expected this. I said 'yes I caught him peeing on one and pulled him away to stop him'. She agreed she saw me pull him away but told me not to let it happen again, they were EXPENSIVE after all. I was just kind of like 'I guess I'll keep them on other side of the sidewalk?'. She sighed, then just left.
The most interaction I've had with this neighbor is seeing her let her dogs out, off leash, and letting them do their business while she scrolls through her phone, so I'll redirect my dogs to avoid them. I've walked that route daily for the last 5 years. Theres a few other dogs that use that same route, Is she hunting down each one? We're next to a forest and have alot of local wildlife [especially skunks!]. Is she going to chase them off too?
Should I be so annoyed about this? I talked to my husband about this and I'm thinking I'm just going to eliminate the front of that building from my walking route. I don't have the energy to start a pissing contest with a neighbor when most people here just keep to their business.
I'm a recovering people pleaser, and part of me is thinking I'm being too harsh.
AITA?
[This was edited heavily to stay in the character limit so ask away!]
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2023.06.01 03:58 CatchMeIn4k Why are some people with a disability easy recognizable?

I don't wan't to be mean or sound mean so please DO NOT think that. I just want to ask this question at the most respectful way possible without hurting anyones feelings.
For example most of the times if I only see a portrait without body, so just the face of someone who is a lilliputian I can tell that he/she is a lilliputian by looking at the face. (Somehow the faces do look simular to me)
The same for people with down syndrome, most of the times I can easily tell by looking at the face that he/she has down syndrome.
I know that there are exceptions that's why I said most of the time.
And I know and respect that everyone is him or her self and an unique person but I do see simularities in the faces.
submitted by CatchMeIn4k to RandomQuestion [link] [comments]


2023.06.01 03:57 Odd-Shock8283 I’m down and available for hookup i do both incall and outcall blowjob FaceTime body massage snap...jannie23300

submitted by Odd-Shock8283 to jerseymikes [link] [comments]


2023.06.01 03:57 FrustratedProgramm3r Creating better lines for the Tarokka reading

So I'm stacking the Tarokka reading, and I wanted to make a better script than the one the book provides. Here is what I got, but I'm not entirely happy with the way Eva sounds. They don't sound cryptic enough... Any suggestions for replacement lines?

Reading:

Prepare all 5 cards face down then point to the back of each card before revealing
submitted by FrustratedProgramm3r to CurseofStrahd [link] [comments]


2023.06.01 03:57 GoofyFoot76 So gotta questions. Had this made and I wanna know; did they print it upside down? Is there a meaning to an upside down recovery symbol? Can a recovery symbol be upside down? I wanna know what I’m repping… Thanks!

So gotta questions. Had this made and I wanna know; did they print it upside down? Is there a meaning to an upside down recovery symbol? Can a recovery symbol be upside down? I wanna know what I’m repping… Thanks! submitted by GoofyFoot76 to recovery [link] [comments]


2023.06.01 03:57 ShowMeWayG 23(f4m) I’m down for hookup,FaceTime and sext hmu on snap:::fumi7223 (kik) mariebeta2443 (telegram) fumi24

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