Phantom stayed there, kneeling on the floor, still trying to fully process what happened. They moved their hand to their side, as if trying to stop the pain even though their effort was futile. It felt like they were unravelling, little by little. They needed help, and fast, but where would they go? The Citadel maybe? Would Mother Silk help them..? Probably not, but maybe the bugs of The Citadel could help them..? It was worth a shot.
Phantom started moving, taking a single step before flinching. Each step felt like another strand in them snapped, but they pushed through it, walking to the other side of the room and into the elevator that led up to the Underworks. It was a lot more painful to walk, or well, limp, than they thought it would be. How were they supposed to get to The Citadel if they could barely walk? They didn't know, but they were going to try anyway.
The elevator took them up through the large pipes of the Exhaust Organ until it stopped. They waited a few moments, thinking it might go up further but it didn't budge. They stepped out and looked around, somehow they have never gone this way before despite knowing of the elevator’s existence.
As Phantom looked around they noticed that the room they were in extended onwards and they walked down the hallway until they found some kind of hatch in the floor that was open. They hesitated before carefully lowering themself down but then slipped, falling onto the floor. They whimpered, that fall hurt a lot more than it should've, but then again they did have, quite literally, an entire hole in their torso.
They reached for their long pin and hoisted themself up, taking a look around the new room they fell into. While looking around they heard a noise behind them and paused. Phantom slowly and cautiously turned around and was faced with one of the Bell Beasts that would bring bugs to all around Pharloom. They were surprised that one was still alive, and seemed to be in good shape.
The Bell Beast tilted its head at Phantom, staring at them with its four eyes curiously. Phantom slowly limped over, still cautious.
“Uh..good Bell Beast..?” They said to it and hesitantly reached out to pet it. The Bell Beast retracted a little before moving a little closer to sniff their hand and then nuzzled it. They flinched, not expecting the Bell Beast to actually trust them. They smiled and started petting the beast gently as it started purring a little.
As much as they were enjoying this, they had to keep going up. They needed help afterall. Phantom patted the Bell Beast’s head a few times before slowly limping out of the Bellway.
The Citadel, despite it being so long, looked basically the same since the last time they saw it. Besides the silk dregs everywhere of course. Husks of dead choir bugs lay motionless everywhere which made it a little unnerving. Would Mother Silk reanimate the corpses with silk and make it attack them? Or would they just stay lifeless? Phantom cautiously walked past the corpses staring suspiciously at them but to their relief, the corpses stayed motionless. Despite it being a relief, it was quite puzzling to them why Mother Silk didn't reanimate these choir bugs to attack them. She did discard them..and sent them to the worst place in Pharloom… They supposed for once she was being merciful.
The climb up through the Choral Chambers was rough, even though there were no choir bugs chasing after them with their fine pins. How did anyone get around here?? There were barely any stairs, if there were any at all. They don't remember seeing any stairs whenever they explored The Citadel. As bad as the climb was, they eventually made it to flat ground. If they could even call it that. The room they were now in was more of a ventilation shaft. Pressurized steam blasted in front of them and from what they could see, the rest of the room too, though there were some spaces that they could stand in to avoid the hurtful steam.
Phantom stared as the steam went through the air vent in front of them, waiting for the right time to jump. As the steam went away they jumped through and did the same for the rest of the room.
With one last jump through the steam-filled room they made it across into the next. The next room was more of a hallway, above some stage though no sounds came from below. They staggered across the hallway, slowly making their way to what looked like a settlement ahead.
Why would there be a settlement..within the citadel..? The thought only occurred to them now as they stepped into the outskirts of this town. Phantom’s vision started to blur. That wasn't good. They looked over at what looked like a pilgrim sitting next to a small fire, though all they could really see was a blob of purplish-grey wrapped in a light grey.
“H…h..” They tried speaking but nothing came out of their throat. Were they too weak to even speak?
The pilgrim seemed to look up at them, they couldn't see their expression but it was likely one of worry. The Pilgrim said..something. They couldn't understand them, for whatever reason. Phantom’s vision blurred further and they started to lose their balance as they walked further into the settlement.
They tripped on something, likely a small rock and barely caught themself with their longpin. A small pilgrim, or what they assumed was a pilgrim, ran up to them. They looked at the small pilgrim in front of them, all they could see was a blur of gold and grey.
The pilgrim held something up and started clinking the two items together while singing. Phantom couldn't tell what it was the small pilgrim was singing, or even holding before the pilgrim stopped and slowly lowered whatever it was they held.
They blinked slowly as the pilgrim spoke, clearly asking something.
“H..he-…” Phantom tried speaking again but that only made things worse. Somehow speaking made them feel light headed. They gripped their longpin tighter as they slumped over and the pilgrim took a step back from them, likely a concerned look on their face.
The small pilgrim took a step forward after a moment to help them up. They were about to take the pilgrim’s offer, but then everything went black. They had blacked-out.
We really do owe the Moon a lot. I mean, she's HUGE compared to the sorts of moons a planet like ours usually gets. A planet our size can usually expect a couple of decent asteroid captures, but nothing like her. And because she's so big, 1/4 of our mass, her gravity deflects so much space crap from coming near us. She's like a big, burly knight with a big shield. I like her.
like seriously their brain-to-body size ratio is equal to that of a chimpanzee
They vocalize anger, sadness, or happiness in response to things
they are scary smart at solving puzzles
some crows stay with their mates until one of them dies
they can remember faces
SIDENOTE HERE BECAUSE HOLY SHIT. They did an experiment where these guys wore masks and some of them fucked with crows. Pretty soon the crows recognized the masks = douchebag. But the nice guys with masks they left alone. THEN, OH WE’RE NOT DONE, NO SIR crows that WEREN’T EVEN IN THE EXPERIMENT AND NEVER SAW THE MASK BEFORE knew about mask-dudes and attacked them on sight. THEY PASSED ON THE FUCKING INFORMATION TO THEIR CROW BUDDIES.
They remember places where crows were killed by farmers and change their migration patterns.
A colleague of my dad’s lives next to a lake, and looked out the window one morning to see a duck trapped in the ice. A crow swooped down. “Oh hell,” she thought, expecting carnage, because crows are opportunists. But the crow chipped at the ice with its beak until the duck was free.
Idk of this counts but a few crows saved me from a magpie swooping attack once ,they’re bros who can tell when magpies are being unreasonable and need to chill
I love crows so damn much. When I was fifteen, I hit a pretty serious bout of depression, to the point I was in my room for months. Well, a family of crows made a nest in a tree outside my window. There were two parents and two chicks. One chick was healthy and strong. One was weak, and had a caw like something being strained. It sounded more like a rooster crowing and so my parents jokingly named him ‘Buck’.Well… months passed and Buck’s sibling was taught to fly. His parents focused on the sibling because the sibling was strong. The father stayed behind to try and teach Buck, but I saw him try to fly, fail, and crash to the floor. His father helped him back up into the tree.
Every day, I would watch Buck from my window until one day I opened it and started talking to him. He was small and gangly and he couldn’t caw right. His feathers were all over the place and I felt a kinship. So I made a deal with him. I told him that if he could do it, if he could fly, then I could find the strength to get up. Well… near the end of the season, after talking with him every day, I finally saw him get out of the nest. He went to the edge of his branch, braced himself, and jumped… and just before he hit the ground, he soared back up into the sky. I cheered harder than I ever had before.
That winter, Buck left the area. I was crestfallen. I felt like I’d lost a friend. But I was so damn proud of him.
Cut to the next spring? I’m walking up the driveway one day when suddenly I hear a sound… a broken caw. I look up, and Buck is sitting in a tree above my head. He stared at me and puffed his feathers, then hopped down in front of me and cawed again. I was so damn thrilled, and I told him how proud I was of him. He ruffled his feathers and then soared off into his old tree.
That summer? I heard two broken caws. One from Buck… and one from his chick.
Cut to ten years later? We have a family of crows who all have a very distinct caw and they come here and spend every spring, summer, and fall on our property. Buck still greets me every spring.
this one morning i kept hearing really loud caws, i remember it was like 5am, LIKE REALLY LOUD AND ANNOYING AND AGGRESSIVE, so loud that i could hear it through a closed window, and i eventually went outside to check it out. there was a crow on my front lawn, it had an injury on its head and couldn’t fly and there were two other crows circling right above it, and they were cawing like mad.
i tried to get close and take a better look and one of them dived super low and tried to attack me. so i went back in the house and chopped some sliced raw meat and tossed it at him from a distance.
a few more times later, very soon after, they could tell i was trying to help, and did not attack me. i was “allowed” to walk up close and pick him up, he couldn’t drink water properly so i had to dip my finger in a bowl and stick it in his mouth.
i did this few times a day and it went on for about a week before he disappeared, i thought he recovered and left, but he came back the next day and lands on me, and i see him around the block quite often, and he would come sit on my shoulder for a few minutes and then fly away again. i feel like i’ve adopted a son.
Like, I wouldn’t want to be on bad terms with a crow, but they are a really smart animal, they aren’t scary You just want to be nice to them because they will know and they will remember, and they will pay you back if you treat them a certain way.
As a side note, I volunteered at a rehab (Hope for Wildlife), where they were rehabbing a crow with a broken wing–who was named Russell Crow. He kept pulling his bandage off so a sleeve was cut off some old clothing and put on him like a little sweater.
[img txt: #simple #i would bunt the baby and sprint for first #thus making the problem that of handling the live ball/baby the problem of the catcher and third baseman #who would then have to throw the baby to first before I got there #Then I'd steal second because what're they gonna do try to toss a baby back and forth to get me in a rundown? No fuckin way #I'd take a quick break on second before stealing third and then home #for the game's single most upsetting inside the park home run]
genuinely in love with the reveal, from the baby prodigy scenario, that Christian Baby does not refer simply to a baby baptised and born to christians, but to an infant that holds a belief in christian theology
There is an old belief in Serbian villages and small towns that certain pumpkins (and watermelons), when left outside during a full moon, will turn in to a vampire.
Happy Halloween, everyone!
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I think it’s great that Pumpkins (and other squash) were only introduced to Europe around 1600 and the Serbs wasted absolutely no time blaming them for their problems.
It is with profound disappointment that we report the industry CEOs have walked away from the bargaining table after refusing to counter our latest offer. (1/11)
We have negotiated with them in good faith, despite the fact that last week they presented an offer that was, shockingly, worth less than they proposed before the strike began.
These companies refuse to protect performers from being replaced by AI, they refuse to increase your wages to keep up with inflation, and they refuse to share a tiny portion of the immense revenue YOUR work generates for them.
We have made big, meaningful counters on our end, including completely transforming our revenue share proposal, which would cost the companies less than 57¢ per subscriber each year. They have rejected our proposals and refused to counter.
Instead they use bully tactics. Just tonight, they intentionally misrepresented to the press the cost of the above proposal – overstating it by 60%.
They have done the same with A.I., claiming to protect performer consent, but continuing to demand “consent” on the first day of employment for use of a performer’s digital replica for an entire cinematic universe (or any franchise project).
The companies are using the same failed strategy they tried to inflict on the WGA – putting out misleading information in an attempt to fool our members into abandoning our solidarity and putting pressure on our negotiators.
But, just like the writers, our members are smarter than that and will not be fooled.
We feel the pain these companies have inflicted on our members, our strike captains, IATSE, Teamsters and Basic Crafts union members, and everyone in this industry. We have sacrificed too much to capitulate to their stonewalling and greed.
We stand united and ready to negotiate today, tomorrow, and every day.
Our resolve is unwavering. Join us on picket lines and at solidarity events around the country and let your voices be heard.
One day longer. One day stronger. As long as it takes.
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