Memory transcription subject: Sare, Yotul Rebuilder Date [standardized human time]: January 31st, 2136
I pulled the hoodie tighter around myself. It had only gotten colder over the past few days; I’d taken multiple chances to thank Gavin for his gift. Every time I passed the human, I saw a grin spread across his face, and I felt something flutter in my stomach. I managed to keep myself composed enough as he joined me in the vegan line once again.
“You actually like this stuff?” I asked. I gestured to the rest of the extraterrestrials in the line. “I don’t think any of us do.”
He shrugged. “It’s different, at least. Two months of ham and cheese sandwiches does something to a man.”
I stared at him for a moment. He looked at me with a soft gaze and a slight smile, and I found myself admiring his eyes and the way his beanie-formed hair draped over them. His expression morphed to confusion, however, and he waved his hand at me.
“Earth to Sare? Are you… looking for something?”
I realized I’d just been standing there staring for a solid twenty seconds and I flushed deep green, pulling my scarf over my face. “I- uh, I’m alright, yeah! I’m just-” I wove my paws around futilely as if I could speak with them. I gestured for Gavin to move ahead of me in the line, and he let out a small laugh as he walked past to pick up his meal. I followed shortly behind him, my face burning.
Today’s meal was some emulation of venlil cuisine. It was… alright, for something made by non-venlil chefs, but I’d had better in Earth’s vegan food. Gavin, however, seemed pretty excited by it.
“As long as I’ve worked here, I haven’t had much alien food.” He took a bite from his meal and continued speaking as he chewed. “Not bad. I think I prefer yotul food, though,” he said, musing as he looked off into the distance.
I piped up excitedly at that. “I could make you something!”
“You can?” he asked, genuine intrigue in his voice. “What could you do?”
Shit.
There really wasn’t a lot of even human food available to cook with, let alone imports from Leirn that I was familiar with, but I felt like I needed to repay Gavin with something, at least.
“Uh-, well, there’s a type of salad back home I might be able to make with stuff here. Um… I don’t think it’d be very good, but-”
“Ah, don’t worry about that. Anything handmade is great if you put your heart into it,” he said, his tone reassuring and a smile on his face. I absentmindedly fiddled with the drawstrings of my hoodie as he took a few more bites from his lunch; a few moments passed before he looked at me and flushed a bit, then quickly finished his meal. I stared off into the distance, nothing in particular on my mind as I ate, but I saw Gavin hurry off to the administrator’s office. I downed my food and followed him with a brisk walk.
“What’s the rush?”
He looked me over for a moment before letting out a breath I couldn’t tell he was holding. “There’s still a lot of work to do today, y’know? It’s going to be cold tonight, and besides, it’s New Year’s Eve. I gotta get my work done quick so I have tonight free.”
We both paused for a moment. “What do humans do for the new year?” I asked.
“Normally, the tradition is to set off a bunch of fireworks- oh, those are like little explosive things-”
“There’s some great firework shows on Leirn,” I explained. “We’ve got ‘em too.” I could show you some hung on the tip of my tongue, something I deeply wanted to say but held myself back on.
“Oh, sweet! Anyway, yeah, that’s the usual thing, plus some typical family gathering and partying, but, uh… I don’t think anybody here could handle fireworks right now,” he continued, his expression trailing into something morose I couldn’t quite read. “But really, first and foremost, it’s about spending time with people you care about.”
“Guess we got that in common, then,” I added. “Where I’m from, it’s summer during the new year, so during the day, we spend time at beaches, usually, sometimes going on trips to somewhere cooler the day before. I’m not religious myself, but followers of Ralchi have a sort of traditional bonfire past sundown for the new year that most people recreate.”
“That’d be nice.”
“Yeah…” I mused. “Haven’t done anything like it in a while, and it’d be nice to spend a night around people I care about again…”
Gavin just looked at me.
“Hm?”
“Nothing,” he said, quickly perking up. “C’mon. We’ve got stuff to do today.”
I nodded, and he led us off down the road to the suburbia we’d been cleaning up the past few weeks. Some other workers from the camp had tagged along; from chats between them, the peacekeepers in charge had directed anyone wanting a lighter day for the new year down this road.
I jogged a bit forward to catch up to Gavin ahead, only slowing my pace as I stepped to his side. He glanced at me for only a moment before offering a hand to hold, which I took. I felt my tail beat against the asphalt below us a few times before I got my heart under control.
“What’re we doing today?” I asked after a comfortable silence.
“Cleanup, mostly. UN wants this place cleared of debris for rebuilding.”
“That sounds… impossible, honestly. There’s just so much wreckage,” I said, a sense of exhaustion already creeping into my voice before we even got to work. I sighed. “I’m not sure I can do this.”
He shrugged. “Even if it’s impossible, why not? Maybe we won’t clean out everything, but we’re still cleaning out something, and that’s better than nothing.”
“I just… I don’t know. How’s it better than nothing if we can barely make a dent in all the garbage?”
“Well, look at it this way. A hundred thousand people used to live here-” he waved his hand in a wide arc over the townscape around us- “-and maybe we’ll never see more than ten grand again. But so what? Even if we only get five thousand people back in these houses, that’s still infinitely better than zero. You know?”
“...Yeah. Yeah, I guess I know.”
Gavin smiled. It was a warm grin, an expression I never wanted to see end, and a smile spread across my own face. “You feeling better?”
“Definitely.”
He put his arm around my shoulder in a quick hug that I reciprocated. “Let’s get going, then.”
Some of the group hung back to direct the debris-moving vehicles down into the deeper wreckage, but most of us, Gavin and myself included, focused on the smaller things; as inconsequential as it was, the light labor and simple repetition of shoveling up garbage felt rather therapeutic.
It didn’t take too long before a sort of pessimism started again. By the time a few hours had passed, my arms ached, my legs felt sore, and while seeing what we’d cleaned was encouraging, it felt dwarfed in the face of the mountains of concrete dust and shattered debris that still coated the town. I sighed, taking a seat on some of the more solid debris, feeling my tail sweep up loose dust. Gavin glanced back at me before setting down his own tools and taking a seat as well.
“This sucks,” he said after a few seconds of odd, semi-comfortable-semi-awkward silence.
“Yeah.”
The human nodded as if we’d just made some as yet unknown revelation, then let out a short laugh. I did, too, my laugh lasting perhaps a bit too long before I felt something crumple and a few tears slipped out of my eyes.
“Still gotta do it, though, y’know?”
I glanced back at him. Afternoon light glinted off the tears forming in his own eyes as he looked at me with a small smile of his own; despite the wetness accumulating on his cheeks, he took the chance to wipe my eyes with warm, gentle hands. I pressed at the tears on his own face and he flinched back, muttering watch the fur under his breath. I snickered a bit at his reaction.
“Still gotta do it,” I said. He nodded in response.
“But you don’t gotta do everything.”
“Yeah. Something’s enough,” he said, his voice trailing off as he looked over the areas we’d cleaned from a tiny portion of the city sprawl. The sound of machinery and the occasional working song echoed off the concrete and asphalt as we watched our comrades work in silence.
Even under the cold of the late day, the something had kept me warm, and before long, we’d reconvened at the headquarters for dinner. Unlike the morning, however, Gavin went for the human food line, and I opted to follow him.
“...Can you even eat this stuff?” he asked, pointing at the (at this point, comedically predictable) ham-and-cheese sandwiches that the cooks were handing out. One of them mirrored his sentiment, cocking their head and looking at me with a raised eyebrow.
“I… think? We weren’t cured, so it won’t kill me. Probably.”
He shrugged. Two sandwiches came, and he rifled through the bag at his side for an anti-allergy injector. “Don’t be stupid,” he said, tucking it into his pocket for quick access.
“This whole idea is pretty stupid,” I commented.
“Be… only a little bit stupid.”
We laughed as we sat down. I set my sandwich down and watched Gavin pick up his and take a bite, staring at him in fascination before realizing that this probably wasn’t something to be particularly fascinated by. Still, it was a pretty novel experience, nonetheless; I didn’t eat meat, and for the majority of my time on Earth, any meal time was separated between those who did and those who didn’t.
I took a tentative bite of the sandwich, which, thinking about it in a vacuum, is a rather strange way to think about one’s dinner, but I was certainly nervous in the moment.
“It’s… interesting,” I said, both meat and dairy decidedly unfamiliar tastes to me. The most familiar part was the saltiness, but this felt less like the mild flavor of roasted root vegetables and more like shoving seawater into my mouth. The texture was perhaps the most familiar part, albeit still strange; it reminded me most of Rinsan fiberfruit, but its taste made it surprisingly hard to swallow.
“‘Interesting’ as in… ‘good’?” Gavin asked. “‘Interesting’ as in ‘you’re not experiencing anaphylactic shock right now’?”
“I wouldn’t say good, but I don’t think I’d say bad or trying to kill me either,” I commented after forcing down another bite.
“You don’t have to finish that, you know.”
“I’m committed," I retorted. It wasn’t inedible, at least, and the newness of the experience alone made it worth it.
After washing the flavor down with a copious amount of water, Gavin and I decided to get some rest a bit early; the winter sun had already crept low to the horizon and the work of the day set in. We could squeeze in a few hours of rest before seeing whatever festivities had been set up for the new year. My quarters weren’t too far from the canteen; if nothing else, the UN at least had the resources for all of us to get individual rooms, albeit small ones. I fell asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow.
Some indistinct time passed before a small snore woke me up. This wasn’t uncommon, given the thin walls of the pre-fab shacks we slept in, but I craned my head up to a lump on the floor, rather than a particularly loud sleeper elsewhere waking me. It took me a second to resolve it in the dark, but their large stature and ruffled hair meant they were a human, and the guess came naturally: Gavin.
He’d brought his own blankets and made himself a nest on my floor. My half-asleep head thought it wouldn’t be too bad; I bundled up the pillows and blankets from my own bed and tossed them on the floor in a disorganized heap, even worse than Gavin’s pile, and dropped onto it. He shuffled, grunted a bit, and turned over on his side, putting a reassuring arm over my shoulders. We both fell back asleep in that comfort almost instantly.
What finally woke us was the sound outside. A general din of activity grew loud enough to make it into my room, and Gavin rose before me, shaking my shoulder to wake me up in turn.
“Think it’s almost time,” he said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He stretched, standing on his feet and reaching the ceiling before offering his hand to pick me up. I took it and he led me by that hand forward, out to the people gathered.
The gathering wasn’t too big, but it was a hearty one, nonetheless. It was a mixture of humans, venlil, yotul, and the occasional other species assisting in the city, gathered in circles around campfires dotting the street and camp we lived in. I pointed one of the fires out; it was ringed by predominantly yotul, and I recognized the new year flame structure familiar to Leirn. One of the yotul there noticed us and waved us over to take seats with them.
Gavin sat near the fire, and I laid over him, my head resting in his lap as the small campfire burned in front of us. A quick glance around showed that we weren’t the only ones inching this close to the fire; my mind flashed back to memories of Leirn, of watching ceremonial bonfires burn and singing songs of home and history, even after the Federation arrived, and I felt myself start to tear up.
I don’t know if Gavin saw, or felt, or even knew at all, but I felt a strong hand rub the side of my head, scratch a bit behind my ears. I flinched a bit on instinct.
Gavin stammered a bit. “Uh- you- um, that alright?”
“...Yeah.”
He resumed, and I felt my eyes gradually flutter closed to the sound of the fire crackling and a breeze blowing, his other arm wrapping around me. The night should’ve been freezing, but I felt the warmth of something stronger than cold wind and a dark night.
There was a brief bit of pressure on the top of my head. I picked myself up and planted a kiss in return on his cheek, laying back in his lap, his arm tightening closer around me. Three short words were all that remained.
“I love you.”

Hello ! I've just posted a video sharing my favourite vegan sandwich. If you got a spare few minutes I'd be so grateful if you could have a watch. Thank you! :)
Click here for the video
Recipe:
Curried chickpeas Enough for 4 sandwiches
Ingredients:
1 red onion 1 garlic clove 1 inch fresh ginger 1 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp tomato puree 2 tsp curry powder ¼ tsp ground turmeric ¼ tsp ground cardamom 1 tbsp red wine vinegar 3 tbsp vegan mayo 1 tsp lemon juice 1 tbsp chopped coriander
Method:

• Finely chop red onion. Zest garlic and ginger.
• Fry onion, garlic and ginger gently for 5 minutes.
• Add tomato puree, cook for 1 minute.
• Add curry powder and ground turmeric, cook for 30 seconds.
• Add red wine vinegar, cook for 30 seconds. Take off heat and leave to cool.
• Once cool add vegan mayo, lemon juice and coriander.

Tomato Jam Enough for 4 sandwiches
Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil 1 tsp cumin seeds 1 bay leaf 1 tsp mustard seeds 1 white onion 2 garlic cloves ½ a fresh chili 1 tsp ground coriander 250g cherry tomatoes 40ml white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar 70g brown sugar
Method:

• Finely chop onion, garlic and chili.
• Heat olive oil on a medium heat in a small saucepan.
• Add the cumin seeds, bay leaf and mustard seeds and fry for 30 seconds stirring regularly.
• Add onion, chili and garlic and fry for 5 minutes or until soft.
• Add ground coriander, cherry tomatoes, vinegar and brown sugar.
• Cook for 5-10 minutes until thick and sticky.

Flatbread Makes 4 Flatbreads
Ingredients:
1 tsp dried yeast 1 tsp sugar 50g plain flour 100g wholemeal bread flour 50g semolina 1 tbsp mixed seeds 1 tsp mustard seeds 1 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp vegan yoghurt 80- 90ml warm warm water ½ tsp maldon salt
Method:

• In a small bowl mix yeast, sugar and 1 tbsp warm water and leave to activate for 5 minutes.
• In a large bowl combine all other ingredients plus the yeast mixture.
• Mix into a rough, slightly sticky dough. Knead dough for 10 minutes. It should feel smooth and bouncy once finished. Place dough into a lightly oiled bowl and leave to rest for 30 minutes.
• Divide dough into 6 balls. Dust surface with semolina and roll out each ball into a disk, about 1 cm thick.
• Place on a tray dusted with semolina, cover with cling film and leave to rise for 1 hour in a warm place or until doubled in size.
• Lightly oil a heavy based frying pan and place over a medium heat. Fry flatbreads for 4 minutes on each side until golden all over.
• Occasionally check under flatbread to ensure they are not burning. Adjust heat according to how quickly the flatbreads are cooking.
• Place flatbreads onto a wire rack and leave to cool slightly before eating.

Hello ! I've just posted a video sharing my favourite vegan sandwich. If you got a spare few minutes I'd be so grateful if you could have a watch. Thank you! :)
Click here for the video
Recipes:
Curried chickpeas Enough for 4 sandwiches
Ingredients:
1 red onion 1 garlic clove 1 inch fresh ginger 1 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp tomato puree 2 tsp curry powder ¼ tsp ground turmeric ¼ tsp ground cardamom 1 tbsp red wine vinegar 3 tbsp vegan mayo 1 tsp lemon juice 1 tbsp chopped coriander
Method:

• Finely chop red onion. Zest garlic and ginger.
• Fry onion, garlic and ginger gently for 5 minutes.
• Add tomato puree, cook for 1 minute.
• Add curry powder and ground turmeric, cook for 30 seconds.
• Add red wine vinegar, cook for 30 seconds. Take off heat and leave to cool.
• Once cool add vegan mayo, lemon juice and coriander.

Tomato Jam Enough for 4 sandwiches
Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil 1 tsp cumin seeds 1 bay leaf 1 tsp mustard seeds 1 white onion 2 garlic cloves ½ a fresh chili 1 tsp ground coriander 250g cherry tomatoes 40ml white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar 70g brown sugar
Method:

• Finely chop onion, garlic and chili.
• Heat olive oil on a medium heat in a small saucepan.
• Add the cumin seeds, bay leaf and mustard seeds and fry for 30 seconds stirring regularly.
• Add onion, chili and garlic and fry for 5 minutes or until soft.
• Add ground coriander, cherry tomatoes, vinegar and brown sugar.
• Cook for 5-10 minutes until thick and sticky.

Flatbread Makes 4 Flatbreads
Ingredients:
1 tsp dried yeast 1 tsp sugar 50g plain flour 100g wholemeal bread flour 50g semolina 1 tbsp mixed seeds 1 tsp mustard seeds 1 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp vegan yoghurt 80- 90ml warm warm water ½ tsp maldon salt
Method:

• In a small bowl mix yeast, sugar and 1 tbsp warm water and leave to activate for 5 minutes.
• In a large bowl combine all other ingredients plus the yeast mixture.
• Mix into a rough, slightly sticky dough. Knead dough for 10 minutes. It should feel smooth and bouncy once finished. Place dough into a lightly oiled bowl and leave to rest for 30 minutes.
• Divide dough into 6 balls. Dust surface with semolina and roll out each ball into a disk, about 1 cm thick.
• Place on a tray dusted with semolina, cover with cling film and leave to rise for 1 hour in a warm place or until doubled in size.
• Lightly oil a heavy based frying pan and place over a medium heat. Fry flatbreads for 4 minutes on each side until golden all over.
• Occasionally check under flatbread to ensure they are not burning. Adjust heat according to how quickly the flatbreads are cooking.
• Place flatbreads onto a wire rack and leave to cool slightly before eating.

It has been 4 months, 1 week and 4 days since you left. We were together for 22 years, over half of our lives, and now you're gone.
I didn't know how to exist without you. I didn't know how to wake up and not spend a few seconds listen to you slightly snore beside me. I felt a wave of sadness wash over me during those early morning moments when I'm still half-asleep and I reach over to cuddle - and all that's there is a cold pillow instead of your familiar warmth. I started each day, painfully aware that you're not right next to me, typing and clicking away on your computer. It felt so alien not having the contentment of knowing you were just but a few feet away while we worked, the silence only broken by either of us bitching over this client or that. Gone were our after lunch siestas, where we would just lounge in the couch, watch TV, share stories and jokes we heard each other tell a million times. It was replaced by me sitting alone in the dining table, in front of a half-eaten meal, conpicously wet from the tears I didn't realize was gushing out for the nth time that day.
Somehow, I made it thru each day and though each hour felt like an eternity, night would soon come. Our son would be home by then. Both of us knew we weren't ok, but we would both pretend to be for each other's sake. We shared dinner, talked about school and attempt to cheer each other up. Inadvertently, once of us would mention you and we would quickly change the subject before the tears could come. We were being strong for each other, but I knew I had to be stronger. I lost a wife I have been with for over 2 decades, but he lost someone he knew all his life - without much of an explanation, other than she needs to think of herself from now on and be happy. I knew I could not wallow in sadness. I am a father to a kid who, on top of all this, has to deal with all the usual teenage and school stuff.
Weeks went by, I settled in a routine. It was and still is, extemely hard - juggling work, household chores and raising a kid all alone. I'm struggling so much and I know that I don't do a good enough job. But I am trying my best. And looking back, I am doing a lot better now. I don't cry myself to sleep anymore. I don't wake up in a cold sweat feeling the walls closing in. I don't find myself randomly not being able to breath and having panic attacks. I still think about you everyday though. I miss you so much. I miss you so fucking much.
Today is a Saturday. Cleaning day. I was in the bathroom and there it was, your toothbrush. In the same place it has always been. Right next to mine and our son's. It remained unused for over 4 months, a constant reminder that you chose not to be here anymore. I couldn't bring myself to dispose of it. After all, what would you use when you eventually come back to us, to me. I picked it up and held the tears back. Deep breaths. I threw it in the trash. It's stupid but it felt cathartic.
I checked on our son and he just finished his own chores. We had our afternoon snack and shared stories and jokes we heard each other tell a hundred times. He went up to his room to play on his computer. I listened to him for a few minutes, typing and clicking away on his computer, trash talking here and there. I laughed silently before continuing on my work on the computer. I had to get these done quickly, I still had to clean the bedroom.
I replaced the sheets on the bed and swept the bedroom floor. Under the bed were your bedroom slippers. I picked it up, and held it up against the bedroom light. It was extremely dusty, a constant reminder that you haven't been using them. I took a rag and cleaned it, and debated whether I should just throw it in the trash or give it away. I stifled a laugh on the mental image of our local garbage guy wearing a fluffy pair of cat slippers. And then I placed it carefully on your side of the bed. After all, what would you use when you eventually come back to us, to me. I looked around the bedroom and touched your pillow. It was cold. And then the tears came.

The day it all happened I was in a bar. It was 11.30am, and it was a Tuesday. I'd left my girlfriend and went for a quick drink, or so I'd told her. I'd been feeling down a lot recently. She was always busy with her friends or work, and never had time for me. I'm not trying to excuse my actions, but I needed something to make myself feel good. I had planned on going home early, but that was before I saw her. She was sitting alone at the end of the bar, sipping her white wine. We started talking and she made me laugh. I can't remember how long we were talking, but it seemed like ages. At the time, I'd forgotten about the rest of the world, I was so caught up in our conversation.
Then it happened.
All of a sudden, the bartender dropped a glass, shattering it across the floor. "Watch it!" he shouted at a customer, who'd accidentally bumped into him. Then, he threw the towel he'd been holding onto the counter, and went over to the customer and punched him in the face. It all happened so quickly, I didn't have time to react. The customer stood up, his nose bleeding. He walked towards the bartender and hit him back, knocking him into the wall. A full on fight ensued, as two other men from the crowd joined in. They were throwing punches, and pushing each other to the ground.
The woman I'd been talking to looked scared, and started backing away from the bar.
"What the hell?" she said, her voice wavering.
I stood up, and held her hand. "Come on, let's get out of here."
I led her out of the bar and back to the street. She had a look of terror on her face. I had to calm her down, she looked like she was going to have a panic attack.
"It's ok, I'm here." I told her. "Are you okay?"
She took a deep breath and nodded.
"What was that all about?" she asked.
I shrugged. "I have no idea. Maybe it's stress or something. There's a lot of that going around right now."
Just then, the sound of sirens rang through the air. People were walking quickly by, looking at their phones, trying to find out what was happening. We followed the crowd and ended up in front of a large electronics store. It was closed.
"Do you have your phone?" she asked me.
I checked my pockets, but it wasn't there. I'd left it at the bar.
"Damn, no. I forgot it."
"Shit." she said, and pulled out her own.
The screen was flashing and beeping, and the words "Emergency Broadcast" were displayed.
"Oh no." she said, her face turning white.
I peered over her shoulder at the screen. It read:
Attention citizens. There has been a breach in the security at the local military base. If you see anyone acting strangely or displaying symptoms of the following, report it to the authorities immediately.
Symptoms:

• Bleeding or bruising from the mouth and nose
  
• Loss of consciousness
  
• Increased heart rate
  
• Increased body temperature
  
• Hallucinations
  
• Involuntary movement
  

"What does that mean?" I asked her.
"I have no idea." she replied, her voice shaking.
Suddenly, a scream came from the end of the street. I turned and saw a man running down the sidewalk. He was covered in blood, and screaming at the top of his lungs. A group of people was following him, chasing after him.
"Stay back!" he yelled. "It's not safe! They're coming!"
He ran around a corner and the crowd disappeared.
"He said they're coming. Who's coming?" asked the woman.
"I have no idea. We need to get to the police or someone to help us. Let's get somewhere secure."
We started walking towards the police station when a large group of people appeared around the corner, running towards us. They were screaming and shouting. They were completely out of their minds. The street was filled with men and women, young and old. Some were in bloody clothes, while others were completely naked.
"Run!" the woman screamed.
I grabbed her arm and we both ran for cover. We rounded the corner and started sprinting down the street, dodging past people and cars. Everything was a blur as we ran for our lives. After what felt like an eternity, we reached the police station. The front door was open and a small group of people were running inside. We followed them inside and found ourselves in a crowded lobby. The officer at the desk was yelling into the phone.
"Yes! There's rioting! Send backup now!"
Another officer came out from behind the desk and shouted over the chaos.
"Everyone needs to calm down! The military is sending a convoy to help us secure the city! Just hold tight!"
But people weren't listening. They continued to yell and scream, fighting against each other to get out of the station. I noticed a few people had bruises and cuts from the crowd.
I felt someone grab my arm. It was the woman I'd been with. She looked at me and shook her head.
"I'm scared." she said, her voice trembling.
Then she fell to the ground, crying. I reached down and held her in my arms.
"It's gonna be alright. I'm here. I won't let anything happen to you."
People were still pushing and shoving their way towards the exit, oblivious to us. I held onto her tightly, not wanting to lose her in the chaos. The sirens outside got louder, until they stopped altogether. I looked through the windows and saw a convoy of military vehicles pull up outside. Soldiers rushed into the station, their guns drawn.
They began shouting orders to the crowd.
"Calm the fuck down! Everyone calm down and leave through the rear entrance! This is not a request, this is an order! Anyone caught rioting or acting violently will be shot on sight! Go through the back, through the alleys, to the designated safe area! No more resistance, this is not a threat, this is a fact, now move, move, move!"
The crowd slowly filed out of the station, and we joined them.
My ears were ringing from the sirens and gunshots, but I did my best to keep moving. There were so many people, and we were forced to keep close together as the crowd funneled down a narrow alleyway. The city was in chaos. Smoke rose from buildings and car alarms blared. Gunshots and screams were everywhere.
We followed the throng of people down the alley until they reached a roadblock.
"This is as far as we can go." a soldier said. "Follow the crowd down this way and find a shelter. Don't wander around on your own, stay in groups if you can. Stay safe."
I looked at the woman and nodded. "C'mon, let's keep moving."
The crowd parted and we pushed through to the front. We soon found ourselves on a road full of burnt out cars and debris. The roadblock was full of soldiers, who directed us towards a football stadium.
The smell of smoke hung in the air as we walked through the streets. I wondered what could've started it all, and why it had ended so quickly.
When we reached the stadium it was full of people, all looking for their loved ones. I scanned the faces, hoping to see my girlfriend. I looked back towards the entrance and saw an old man and woman being helped down from a trolley bus. The lady had a bandage around her head, and her husband had blood on his face. The lady was clutching a broken arm. They hobbled their way slowly to a makeshift aid station. A soldier guided them towards the rest of the wounded.
"Grandma! Grandpa!" a small girl cried out and ran to them. She threw her arms around the woman and hugged her tightly.
A feeling of relief rushed over me, I was so happy they were alive. But at the same time, I couldn't help but think about my own girlfriend. Where was she?
People were sitting on the ground, crying. Others, stood, shell-shocked, looking around. A few people were trying to make small talk, despite everything. They were looking for ways to take their minds off the situation, to cope.
A bus was parked in the middle of the park and there were lines of people waiting in front of it.
"Are you hungry? Do you have any food?" a woman asked me, pushing her child in front of me.
"No, sorry, I don't," I replied, surprised at the desperation in her voice. "I don't have anything."
I looked at the queue, wondering if that was where the line was to get some free food. A woman in a white apron behind a stand marked "First Aid" tried to calm the crowd, raising her voice above the din.
"Everyone, please! Settle down, the military will have more help coming shortly! But for now we're out of supplies and the situation will only worsen if you don't control yourselves!"
Just then, another truck pulled up on the edge of the field. It had a green cross painted on the side of it and the word "Medicine" on the doors. My heart swelled with hope as several officers jumped out, carrying duffel bags of equipment, and headed straight to the medical tent.
"It's the supplies, everyone! It's the supplies they promised us!" someone in the back yelled.
The crowd began pushing and shoving each other again, and the woman and her kid that had spoken to me before was lost in the wave of people running forward, trying to get to the medicine. I tried to find them, to help, but I couldn't see them. There were so many people crowding around the truck, scrambling for the parcels of food and water and blankets that had spilled out.
I looked around at the field and at all the frightened and desperate people. Some were hurt and injured. Others were shell-shocked. Children were crying and their parents didn't know how to comfort them.
I knew there had been an outbreak of some sort, that the military had been evacuating the city. What I didn't understand is why the city had come to such a state of disarray in just one day.
A gunshot rang out and people screamed. It was followed by another, then several more. I ducked and covered my head. People around me started running, but I could see them lying on the ground. More gunshots and screams filled the air. Then, there was an eerie silence.
I stood up and slowly turned around, taking in the carnage. Bodies littered the ground, some missing limbs. I stepped carefully over the lifeless bodies of the fallen and made my way towards the exit of the stadium.
As I neared the gate I saw a group of soldiers guarding it. One was checking a man for weapons while another was wrapping a tourniquet around his leg. The other three were standing by a stack of rifles, preparing to re-load. I looked closer at the man with the bandaged leg and recognized him as the soldier that was on the news not long ago, telling us that the rioters had been dealt with and it was now safe to return to our homes. He had also assured us that the city would get back to normal soon.
"Clear!" the other soldier yelled, checking his weapon before handing it back to its owner. The soldier limped out the gate and was gone.
I tried to run, but my feet felt heavy and sluggish. The soldiers were getting closer, their guns drawn. They were shouting at me, their voices faint in my ears.
I turned to try and flee when a shot rang out and pain exploded in the back of my head.

• End -

I need a gable vent fan, but the vent itself is small (about 12" by 12") and I only have 13" between the studs on either side of the vent.
I was hoping to install a QuietCool but then I found out how big they are (the head diameter is 16.5"). Any suggestions?

The room was quiet.
No one said a word.
I looked around at their grim faces, and decided to break the silence. "Ares?" I asked. "As in... the god of war?"
"The very one," Apollo acknowledged. "We are doomed."
"Well, actually," Artemis said from the doorway. "He is... just sort of walking around."
Athena lifted her eyebrows, "What? Explain, Sister."
"I do not know how to further explain," said Artemis, adopting a pained expression. "He is not tearing this lodge to shreds as he would if..."
"... If he knew we were here," Athena finished her sentence. "Do you think he hasn't detected us?"
"Impossible," Hephaestus huffed.
"I agree with Hephaestus," Apollo said, leering at the windows on the north side of the room. "Ares can detect us almost anywhere on Olympus. Certainly he can feel us from the other side of this wall, no?"
"Out there?" I asked, gesturing toward the north wall.
Artemis nodded gravely. "Yes. He must be preparing something."
I started toward the window when Apollo jumped in front of me. "Excuse me, are you mad?"
"He wouldn't recognize me," I said, scooting past him. He lifted a hand as if to stop me, but simply looked to Athena for help.
She tilted her head and shrugged, "He has a point. We're all finished anyway. What could it hurt?"
I stood at the window and peered out at the people gathered around the fountain. There was a taller than average man in gleaming golden armor standing among them. His donned a crimson cape that blew in the breeze— he was a magnificent sight to behold. It was as though his very being was shimmering-shiny.
"He's... asking people questions," I narrated. "He's the guy in the golden armor right?"
"Yes," came Artemis's voice next to me. "If he is speaking, I may be able to hear him if I sharpen my focus. I am good at this. Everyone, please remain quiet." She knelt down, closed her eyes, and pressed her ear against the wall.
I watched him speak to people and occasionally point to the sky. Everyone around him seemed taken by his fancy appearance, but they were all shoulders; they had no idea what he was on about.
"None of you?" asked Artemis. "None of you saw a group of people come from the sky?" She spoke slowly as she listened. "I sensed them here in this town when I arrived. Now they have disappeared. Have you done something?"
"I don't believe it," Hephaestus spoke, a spark of hope in his heart. "He cannot sense us. But how?"
"Perhaps this lodge is magical," Apollo said, a small smile appearing on his face. "What luck! What unbelievable luck!"
I couldn't help but smile at our good fortune as I watched them breathe sighs of relief. My gaze stopped on Athena however, as she was staring at me with narrowed eyes as though deep in thought.
"It is... possible that I was mistaken," Artemis spoke. "But I could have sword upon my steel that I sensed all of them this way." She looked up at me and smiled. "Buck, he is leaving!"
I watched through the window as the god turned and heaved a frustrated sigh. He looked up at the sky before leaping up and out of view. The people by the fountain gasped so hard I could hear it through the walls of the lodge.
"He's gone!" I exclaimed. "He took off!" I turned to find Athena right next to me and my back hit the wall. Her eyes were inches from mine. "Oh- uhh- hey, Athena," I said nervously, sidling away from her. "You, uhh... You good?"
"What is it?" asked Artemis as she stood up. "What do you sense in Buck?"
The others gathered near the window caging me in as Athena stared into my soul. I swallowed and glanced around. "What?"
"Nothing," Athena smiled.
"Nothing?"
"I sense... nothing." she clarified.
"Now that you mention it," Apollo leaned in. "I too sense no aura from the new god."
"Hm," Hephaestus scratched his temple. "You know... I cannot sense him either. Not even a little of him."
"Can't sense me?" I asked. "I don't know, you're all looking awfully hard at me."
"You have no aura," Athena clarified. "Every god and goddess has an aura without exception," she explained.
"To put it to you in terms you will better understand," said Apollo. "Think of when you go to visit someone you know at their house. Their house has a distinct smell, no?"
"Yeah," I nodded cautiously. "Yeah, I know what you mean. Not always like a bad smell, but a scent."
"Now imagine," Artemis chimed in. "That you can smell that person's home-smell when they are close."
"Within a mile," Athena added. "We can sense others of our kind in such a way. Some can sense it stronger than others."
"... And you're saying I don't have one?" I asked. "Like at all?"
"Perhaps because he was first human," Hephaestus offered.
"No," Apollo smiled, looking at Athena.
"We're on the same page, Apollo," Athena smiled back.
"Hm?" Artemis placed her hands on her hips. "If you have figured something out, please share it."
"I believe," said Athena, pointing playfully at me. "That our friend here is camoflauge, so to speak."
"A god of isolation," Apollo said in wonderment. "If he does not wish to be found..."
"My word," Hephaestus smiled. "If that is truly a power of yours... I am jealous."
"You think I'm hiding your auras?" I asked, a half-smile on my face. "Seriously?"
"Seriously," Athena answered with a relieved sigh. "I believe merely being close to you erases our presence from those that seek us."
I looked down at my own hands and tightened them into fists. It was amazing. I was emitting godlike powers without even trying. It was just a part of who I was now. What luck that I was lonely enough in life to assert a domain that could hide me in plain sight from those that would wish me harm. I was so happy to be useful I couldn't even form it into words.
"We should run further still," Artemis cut in. "I am a piece of Father, and if I know him, he will still not give up the search. Unable to sense our auras, he will still search high and low with his eyes and ears. He will follow our trail."
"Agreed," Athena answered quickly. "We must not stay here."
"Well, where do we go?" I asked.
"To Asgard," Hephaestus answered firmly.
"I believe it was you who said Odin would not take us in, yes?" asked Apollo.
"We are not going for shelter," Hephaestus smiled a devilish grin. "We are going... for materials."
Asgard wasn't what I expected. Truth was, I didn't know what to expect, but it wasn't this. The sky was a splauched watercolor painting of blues and violets, and even black in some places as the winds blew across the roiling water beneath. The plane seemed to be on the brink of a major storm that never quite arrived. The air was salty and cold as we were rowed across the noisy waters toward the great hall on the hill. I could see it through the fog with a mighty hearth fire burning at the port.
"It's kind of dreary," I noted as the Norseman rowed us to shore.
"I adore this type of weather," Artemis grinned widely. "It is so exciting, would you not agree?"
"I must admit, I too enjoy the calm before a storm," Hephaestus agreed. "Great power swells within the clouds. The potential is hair-raising."
"I would oft come to earth just for this feeling," Apollo spoke next. "There's nothing like it."
"Perhaps it is a sense of godlike nostalgia among Zeus's children," Athena said before taking a big wiff of the air. "We all love storms, it seems."
I preferred sunny weather, but it wasn't like I didn't understand. There was something exilerating about a storm so intense that it knocked the power out. We'd gather together in the living room and light all our candles, and play board games while we listened to the rolling thunder over our heads.
I missed that.
I missed my family.
And it was striking me just then as we pulled up to the shore that I might never see anyone I loved ever again. I had been so caught up in getting away from an angry deity that I hadn't really had the time to sit and think about the state of my life.
The longboat rumbled beneath us as it bore into the rocky shoreline. The other gods climbed out and onto the shore, and I followed quietly behind them. We marched up the torchlit path to the great hall under heavy fog. The rocks crunched under my boots as I moved up the incline. I never did tire or run out of breath— divinity had robbed me of such mortal difficulties. I should have been thrilled, but my heart was heavy. Would I never know the challenge of exercise again?
I shook the thoughts away. I kept thinking like a poet inside my head. It was so weird having my inner monologue change. Would I be speaking like Artemis eventually? Or could I keep a more natural sentence structure like Athena? At least she used contractions. Artemis sounded like a language model; like Microsoft Sam, or Starfire from Teen Titans or something— like she was still getting a grasp on the language after thousands of years.
When we reached the top of the path, we stood before the great hall's massive wooden doors. We beheld them for only a moment before they parted in the middle and creaked open. A tall man— taller than any of us strode out of the hall. He wore what looked like an animal pelt across his silver shoulder pauldrons, and the rest of his outfit was made up of dark leather that thinly veiled his abdominal muscles. He surveyed us through a single eye, brushing his long grey hair out of his face and behind his ears. I couldn't tell if he was smiling beneath his thick beard.
"You have ten seconds to explain," he spoke harshly.
It was a safe bet that he wasn't smiling.
"It's the new deity," Athena spoke quickly. "Brian," she clarified, turning and looking over her shoulder at me.
"Me?" I cried out in surprise. "I haven't done anything yet!"
"His domains are indulgence, isolation, and humor... so far as we know. It the second of his domains that concerns you."
"But we promise," Artemis interjected. "He cannot control it yet! And you will understand, soon enough, that it is best that we cannot be detected."
The man looked me over, his frown softening into a look of curiosity. "How about that?" he asked, moving through the crowd of gods nearer to me. "I didn't know about it," he said in a deep tone. "Do you have any idea," he asked, looking me dead in the eyes. "... How long it has been since I didn't know something?"
The valleys of age that ran across his face didn't for a single second betray the enormity of his might. I could feel the weight of his power on my shoulders as he studied me. I didn't have to ask who he was. I could feel it in my bones— this was Odin.
This was the All-Father.
Athena appeared at his side and smiled sweetly at him. "How does it feel?" she asked.
"Unnerving," he answered. "And yet... exhilerating, I could not sense any of you approaching. I didn't know you would be here before I heard the horns of the boatmen." he turned to her. "How is this possible?"
"Well, now," Athena said in her most charming voice. "How would you like to hear a story you haven't heard before? One you didn't immediately know as the pen met the page?"
"Ha," he placed a thick hand on her shoulder. "I knew I would like you, Athena." He turned to the others and smiled genuinely. "Come! Join me at my table! We have about an hour before Poseidon shows up asking for you."
I was in awe.
He was completely omniscient it seemed.
He knew all— except for me.
I couldn't help the feeling of unease as we followed him into the hall and the gargantuan wooden doors closed behind us. If Odin felt I was a threat to him...
I was certain none of us would be able to stand up to him.
Writing Prompt Submitted by u/blablador-2001

One thing seemingly unites millennials and Gen Z with respect to their socioeconomic political outlook. That is the younger generation’s consistent trend towards socialist policies. Many younger people today would agree that higher taxes, more government services, a universal income, more regulatory agencies, and debt forgiveness are ideal policies. However, these policies would all need to be carefully administered by a federal bureaucracy already criticized for being bloated and corrupt. Curious then why a society so distrustful of government is demanding that government secure more money and gain more authority to regulate the economy.
The reason for this apparent dissonance is the fact that many, if not most, young people have absolutely no clue about how finance actually works. Federally funded education has failed many generations of students and is a good example of why government programs are inherently bad. Taxpayer funded programs are inherently flawed because there is no private mechanism to ensure success; all public programs are run by people who don’t want to lose their jobs. There is fundamentally no incentive for a public program to solve the problem it was mandated to solve.
Rather, all public programs, including education, are incentivized to follow this cycle: (1) perpetuate low level crises in order to justify the existence of the institution, (2) solve some aspect of the problem, to justify the continued appointment of present leadership, (3) lobby for increased funding to solve the problem during an election/voting cycle, (4) fail to solve the problem while still using limitless tax dollars, (5) repeat. The department of education, along with all other institutions, follow this model. There may be Boy Scouts who work for the government who truly want their agency/department to eventually be shuttered or streamlined due to the unparalleled efficiency, competence, and efficacy of their work. But most bureaucrats simply want to keep their jobs forever.
All this to say that socialist policies which require government oversight are fool’s errands on their face because no public administration can avoid corruption due to the nature of public institutions. Private institutions, which are bound by market forces, may be corrupt, but if there is sufficient competition then corruption is literally impossible. Free, capitalist markets with sufficient competition cannot be corrupt simply because any inefficient allocation of capital via corruption will undermine the company’s ability to compete among other enterprises that dont waste money/resources this way. Obviously reality is more nuanced, but this law is essentially true, also public institutions don’t compete with private ones because public institutions are often funded with infinite public dollars and therefore don’t rely on the “rational consumer.”
The rational consumer is integral to this entire scenario I’m describing. Free market competition cannot exist without a rational consumer who ensures that this competition exists by making reasonable choices about how he spends his hard-earned money. While most economists, have always agreed that the “rational consumer” is a figment of our collective imagination, the premise has always been broadly assumed. The assumption is that people are generally wise enough to understand how finances and market forces work and allocate their money accordingly.
This could not be further from the truth. Scores of youth are suckered by tiktok and YouTube gurus who lie about financial topics to desperate people in to get ad revenue. The youth today are seeing their American dream collapse, in part because most young people graduate high school without even an iota of an understanding about what a “premium” is or how “interest” actually works. People don’t know the difference between a stock and a bond, or that a “401k” doesn’t mean $401,000.
This ignorance of basic economics causes the world’s largest consumer economy, the US, economy to behave monstrously inefficiently because few sectors are competitive and populated by rational consumers. Rather, most markets consist of fools with borrowed money, and corrupt, colluding companies willing to leech and fleece children and adults alike. In turn, this inherent market failure caused by a failed education system, produces a bastardized economy which creates appalling wealth inequality and public hatred of “capitalism” as a concept.
Thus, most young people who are NOT rational economic actors have a tendency to distrust capitalism despite not understanding how finance or “capital” actually works, and therefore they favor socialism or even communism as an answer to a failed economic system despite the fact that public institutions have for more opportunities to be corrupt than competitively private ones do. So you can mark my words, the youth in America will succeed in pushing the US towards socialism, ON BOTH SIDES, because very few people actually understand how finance works yet are enraged by the current order, so the political left and right support candidates who lobby for sweeping political control over the economy.
TL;DR: the DoE has failed several generations and the entire system of American capitalism by not ensuring that graduates understand basic macro/micro economic terms along with personal finance because capitalism requires rational consumers/actors to maintain efficiency yet the average consumer is constantly fleeced out of their money by corporations who are far more sophisticated than zoomer who doesn’t know how compound interest works.

Surah Al-Mu’minun, the 23rd chapter of the Holy Quran, resonates deeply with Muslims worldwide. Literally translating to “The Believers,” this powerful Meccan Surah lays the foundation for Islamic faith and illuminates the characteristics of those who embody true belief. Revealed in the early years of Islam, Surah Al-Mu’minun offers a timeless message that continues to guide Muslims across generations.
A Tapestry of Themes: Unveiling the Message
Comprised of 118 verses, Surah Al-Mu’minun unfolds like a captivating tapestry, weaving together interwoven themes:

• The Hallmarks of True Believers (Verses 1-11): The Surah opens with a captivating portrayal of the believers. They are distinguished by their deep humility in prayer (23:2), emphasizing complete submission to Allah (SWT) during worship. Avoiding idle talk (23:3) underscores the importance of safeguarding one’s words and actions. True believers are also known for fulfilling their financial obligations (23:4), reflecting the Islamic concept of social responsibility and supporting those in need. Moral purity (23:5-7) holds immense significance, highlighting the importance of maintaining high moral standards and adhering to chastity. Finally, the Surah emphasizes the value of trustworthiness and commitment (23:8-9) within Islamic society.

Successful indeed are the believers. (Quran 23:1)
Those who offer their Salat (prayers) with all solemnity and full submissiveness. (Quran 23:2)
And those who turn away from Al-Laghw (dirty, false, evil vain talk, falsehood, and all that Allah has forbidden). (Quran 23:3)
And those who pay the Zakat (Quran 23:4)
And those who guard their chastity (i.e. private parts, from illegal sexual acts) (Quran 23:5)
Except from their wives or (the captives and slaves) that their right hands possess, for then, they are free from blame; (Quran 23:6)
But whoever seeks beyond that, then those are the transgressors; (Quran 23:7)
Those who are faithfully true to their Amanat (all the duties which Allah has ordained, honesty, moral responsibility and trusts etc.) and to their covenants; (Quran 23:8)
And those who strictly guard their (five compulsory congregational) Salawat (prayers) (at their fixed stated hours). (Quran 23:9)

• Echoes from the Past: Strengthening Faith through Stories (Verses 11-99): Surah Al-Mu’minun delves into the power of unwavering faith (iman). Verses 11 through 99 present a captivating narrative, weaving together the stories of prominent prophets like Noah (AS) ( عليه السلام), Hud (AS) ( عليه السلام), Moses (AS) ( عليه السلام), and Jesus (AS) ( عليه السلام). Each prophet faced fierce opposition while preaching the message of monotheism and worshipping the one and only God, Allah (SWT). Despite these challenges, their unwavering faith remained a constant source of strength (e.g., verses 23-36 for Noah’s story, verses 48-98 for Moses’ story). By recounting these historical accounts, the Surah reminds Muslims that Allah (SWT) protects and ultimately rewards those who remain steadfast in their beliefs.

And indeed We sent Nuh (Noah) to his people, and he said: “O my people! Worship Allah! You have no other Ilah (God) but Him (Islamic Monotheism). Will you not then be afraid (of Him i.e. of His Punishment because of worshipping others besides Him)?” (Quran 23:23)
Then We sent Our Messengers in succession, every time there came to a nation their Messenger, they denied him, so We made them follow one another (to destruction), and We made them as Ahadith (the true stories for mankind to learn a lesson from them). So away with a people who believe not. (Quran 23:44)
Then We sent Musa (Moses) and his brother Harun (Aaron), with Our Ayat (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.) and manifest authority, (Quran 23:45)
And We made the son of Maryam (Mary) and his mother as a sign, And We gave them refuge on high ground, a place of rest, security and flowing streams. (Quran 23:50)

• A Glimpse into the Day of Judgement (Verses 99-118): The Surah concludes with a powerful depiction of the Day of Judgement. Vivid descriptions paint a picture of an awe-inspiring event where people will be held accountable for their deeds in this life (verses 99-118). This serves as a stark reminder of the impermanence of this world and the importance of preparing for the hereafter. The Surah motivates Muslims to focus on good deeds and sincere worship of Allah (SWT) in preparation for their inevitable return to Him.

Until, when death comes to one of them (those who join partners with Allah), he says: “My Lord! Send me back, (Quran 23:99)
“So that I may do good in that which I have left behind!” No! It is but a word that he speaks, and behind them is Barzakh (a barrier) until the Day when they will be resurrected. (Quran 23:100)
Then, when the Trumpet is blown, there will be no kinship among them that Day, nor will they ask of one another. (Quran 23:101)
“Were not My Verses (this Quran) recited to you, and then you used to deny them?” (Quran 23:105)
Verily! There was a party of My slaves, who used to say: “Our Lord! We believe, so forgive us, and have mercy on us, for You are the Best of all who show mercy!” (Quran 23:109)
And whoever invokes (or worships), besides Allah, any other ilah (god), of whom he has no proof, then his reckoning is only with his Lord. Surely! Al-Kafirun (the disbelievers in Allah and in the Oneness of Allah, polytheists, pagans, idolaters, etc.) will not be successful. (Quran 23:117)
And say (O Muhammad SAW): “My Lord! Forgive and have mercy, for You are the Best of those who show mercy!” (Quran 23:118)
Unearthing Gems of Wisdom: Lessons from Surah Al-Mu’minun
Surah Al-Mu’minun offers a treasure trove of wisdom for Muslims seeking to deepen their faith and live a meaningful life:

• Cultivating a Virtuous Character: By emulating the characteristics outlined in the opening verses (1-11), Muslims can strive to embody the qualities of true believers. This translates into a life of piety, righteousness, and good character, becoming a beacon of light within their communities.
• Strengthening the Foundations of Faith: Understanding and reflecting upon the struggles and triumphs of the prophets mentioned in the Surah serves to bolster faith. Seeing how Allah (SWT) supported and rewarded unwavering belief inspires Muslims to remain steadfast in their own convictions, even in the face of adversity.
• Preparing for the Inevitable: The Day of Judgement serves as a powerful motivator to live a purposeful life. By focusing on good deeds and worshipping Allah (SWT) sincerely, Muslims can prepare for their inevitable return to Him.

References from the Holy Quran:

• Verses 1-11 establish the characteristics of the believers, emphasizing their humility in prayer (23:2), avoidance of idle talk (23:3), fulfillment of financial obligations (23:4), adherence to moral purity (23:5-7), and trustworthiness (23:8-9).
• Verses 23-36 detail the story of Prophet Noah (AS) ( عليه السلام) and the flood, highlighting his unwavering faith and Allah’s (SWT) protection (23:23-28).
• Verses 37-47 narrate the story of Prophet Hud (AS) ( عليه السلام) and his struggle against a disbelieving community (23:37-41). Prophet Hud (AS) ( عليه السلام) preached monotheism to the people of ‘Ad, a powerful and prosperous civilization. However, they rejected his message and mocked him. Despite the opposition, Hud (AS) ( عليه السلام) remained steadfast in his faith, warning them of Allah’s (SWT) punishment if they did not repent. Ultimately, a devastating sandstorm engulfed the people of ‘Ad, serving as a stark reminder of the consequences of disobeying Allah (SWT).
• Verses 48-98 recount the epic tale of Prophet Moses (AS) ( عليه السلام) (23:48-98): This passage details the extraordinary life of Prophet Moses (AS) ( عليه السلام), chosen by Allah (SWT) to liberate the Israelites from the tyranny of Pharaoh. The Surah recounts his miraculous birth and upbringing within Pharaoh’s palace (23:48), his encounter with the burning bush and divine revelation on Mount Sinai (23:49-51), and his appointment alongside his brother Aaron (AS) ( عليه السلام) to confront Pharaoh (23:52-53).

Facing Pharaoh and the Ten Plagues:
The Surah vividly portrays the confrontation between Moses (AS) ( عليه السلام) and Pharaoh (23:54-56). Moses (AS) ( عليه السلام) presented Pharaoh with clear signs of Allah’s (SWT) power, but Pharaoh remained arrogant and refused to release the Israelites.
The Parting of the Red Sea and Pharaoh’s Demise:
Despite the plagues, Pharaoh’s heart remained hardened. The Israelites, under the guidance of Moses (AS) ( عليه السلام), miraculously escaped across the parted Red Sea. However, Pharaoh and his army pursued them, determined to reclaim their lost slaves. The waters then crashed back together, engulfing Pharaoh and his forces. This event marked a pivotal moment in the history of salvation and serves as a testament to Allah’s (SWT) power over the oppressors.
Conclusion
Surah Al-Mu’minun concludes by emphasizing the importance of remembering the stories of the prophets and learning from their experiences (23:99-100). The Surah serves as a beacon of hope and inspiration for Muslims, reminding them that Allah (SWT) rewards those who remain steadfast in their faith and overcome adversity.
This extended version provides a more comprehensive overview of the stories of Prophets Hud (AS) ( عليه السلام) and Moses (AS) ( عليه السلام), enriching the understanding of Surah Al-Mu’munun’s message.

With the recent Gwimbly episode out, I decided to review one of the classic platformers to see the light of Sun in the mid 90's. Everyone remembers the legacy of this game, but boy oh boy, nostalgia glasses sure compensate for some of the glaring issues that plague this title.
Precedents and Development:
"The magic Adventures of Gwimbly in Corn Land" is one of those Megadrive publicity games, such as M&Ms or The Noid video-game, this time from the Monsanto company. And the least said about this, the better. Left-to-right side scrolling, awful controls, repetitive and boring, it was deemed to be a forgotten artifact. But, by good fortune, it was one of the (allegedly) two games that series albanian creator Petulla Pulle had as a kid.
Petulla deserves an aside. Learning to code intuitively and implementing Risk on his Casio FX-81 at the age of 6, he is not the poor boy that media wanted us to belive. Coming from a well off family, when he arrived in the US he co-created Sweet Games (now Insane Groundbreaking Games) with his friend Zachary Taylor, and they started development on Gwimbly after acquiring the Licence from a gambling bet in a pub in New York. Although his reputation being ripped apart now by the abuse accusations and toxic working enviroment, Pulle was a popular figure among gamers in the late 90's and 00's, and his advancements in the field should be recognised.
So, basically a one man job, Gwimbly finished its development in just under 2 years and came out for the PSX in August 1996, just one month before Mario 64, which eclipsed the relevance of the first game in sales. Even so, it was the alternative for the Sony owners at the time looking for a collectathon platformer in the, then, new 3rd dimension. But growing pains show all over the game, as we'll see.
Graphics:
While not being bad, a lot of the 5th generation of consoles problems are present. Textures warp and wabble, popping is noticible even in small areas, and glitches are all over the place, specially after acquiring the triple jump.
What, then, has made that Gwimbly sticks to our memories? The character designs and animations, of course. All of them, from the little Cheddar Gobblin enemies of the first level until Count Groxya, without forgetting Mr. Millipede. Even little details, like Gwimbly's iddle animations, reflect care and dedication (unlike its sequels, but we'll talk about that later).
Sound and FX:
This must be the aspect of the game that stincks the most. The constant crackling and stuttering stuck into my ears as a kid, and it certainly has not gotten better as an adult. The howling made for some funny misunderstandings (the classic line "If I had my Gwimbly gun" was supposed to say "If I had some Sweet Corn", but it made for a good meme in the episode), but it was not good even for that time. And, worst of all, while not being at Gex levels, the constant repetition of lines and screams from Gwimbly got annoying real quick.
Music is nothing to write home about. The Corn Hills theme was catchy, but after the 100th time you got tired of it. The use of Theremin and Erhu instruments was more innovative than effective in the latter levels. Only the Menu Music has had some lasting effects, even musically referenced in the Celeste Soundtrack.
Gameplay:
Gwimbly is a short game, and I think that's a positive. With only 50 Corn Cans to collect, with four main levels, a central Hub and the last Can Count Castle, it didn't worn out its welcome with its 8-10 hour average run.
Nowadays, Gwimbly feels cluncky to control. The comitment you had to endure with some of the jumps is incredible, and the run and jump distance seems inconsistent. But, worst offender of all, the camera was not good. And who ever thought that recentering the camera with the X button was a good idea.
Levels:
- Silly-corn Valley: Everybody remembers the central Hub and tutorial level. Mr Millipede serves as our side kick, and the one who teach us how to jump, roll and make the Gwimbly Stimbly, all while staring us with his glassy eyes. You could skip its advices, and if you did not talk to him once it was recognised in the access to the final level, where he would ask you who you were.
- Icy Corn Flakes: a little fun snow level, the developers made the wise decission to not have icey controls (EDIT: it seems that it was programmed into the level, but it was badly implemented so you walked normally). The 10 Corn Cans here are not very difficult, and the Uni-Corn boss was cute.
- Corncob swamp: The swim level. Enough said.
- The Corn Maze: I still have nightmares from this level. Not by the theming or "spooky" music, but from the level design. The constant back-tracking, the Ghosts of Cornstmass Past and specially the, not one, but 2 Corn Cans that made you speedrun the maze almost made me quit the game more than once. In the second run of the maze, Pulle admitted that he put the least amount of time possible WITHOUT CONSIDERING the animation of the door opening, so it was literally no possible to get it unless you glitched through the invisible wall at the beginning.
- Corn Field of Lava: the amazing thing about this level is that, after activating the volcanoe, the entire level was transformed and filled with pop-corn. Be sure to grab the Can at the beginning of the level, after the jumping rocks, because it will not be possible to grab it after the level remodelling (probably by mistake).
- Can Count Castle: I wish I could say the best was reserved for last, but the tight platforming of this level was a frustration factory from start to finish. The only positive is the Final Boss, and the secret animation if you collected all Corn Cans (and the reason why it was made a PG 13+).
Conclusion and Legacy:
Gwimbly in its original state is a game that lives best in our memories, rather than our current consoles. Luckily, its amazing fandom has corrected many of the graphical glitches and performance issues via patches and ROMs that enhance the expirience. But the level design, even with its good moments, is not something you can easily fix.
The inmediate sequel (Gwimbly 2 on Corny Land // Gwimbly 2: The Adventure of Gwimble and Millipede in PAL regions), that came out just a year after the 1rst game release, pullished some aspects of the original while inexplicably substracting from others. The most glaring example is the introduction of fall damage.
Gwimbly 3 Revengance, which came out in late 2003, was a terrible disappointment. It mutted the sparckly colors of the first two entries, and the introduction of Gwimbly Guns and the absence of Mr.Millipede (who was going through some stuff at the time) left a sour taste for the fans of the franchise for what was its final entry. The development hell that Gwimbly 4 went through, and the aforementioned Pulle accusations, put Gwimbly in a weird spot for the next 15 years.
Let's just hope Insane Groundbreaking Games make something with the face of the company. I do not want a fighting game from Gwimbly. I want a new platformer, and, if one can dream, the first truly good game of the saga.

You people probably know why im posting this here, im currently a teenager making escape plans to get away from my homophobic & transphobic mother, I'm not sure about my dad but i don't think he will take me being transgender lightly. Mom absolutely hates me and calls me a kaffir and queer as an "insult". And both my moms and dads side of relatives are complete iblis'es in human bodies when it comes to being accepting & understanding to say the least. When i get into an university and graduate and bla bla, i need to leave this country ASAP.
I don't want parents and relatives gossiping about me ever again. So I'm closeted right now. I need to go somewhere that im accepted as both a queer and a muslim. Almost all muslim countries are homophobic, and some queer friendly countries are islamophobic. I really need to go- learning a language isn't a problem I just need to know how I can get there. Besides my escape plan my iman is getting weak and i can't help it. I don't want to leave the religion, but muslims in my family and my city are oppressive. As a ftm trans I can't count the amount of times I was bullied for having short hair or random people on streets/relatives lecturing me about how I should wear pink, skirts and be a "proper girl". I get called a kaffir on daily basis too. My mom and oppressive muslims who have never read the Quran on media made me almost leave the religion. One side of me is thinking about leaving the religion, the other side is saying it's not worth it to leave Allah for this. I used to feel comfortable with being religious and queer. But i don't feel comfortable with being religious anymore. The internalized transphobia and islamophobia got me so bad I feel like im having some sort of an identity crisis, I feel like I have to be queer OR muslim- not both. I need somewhere to go I won't be judged, I'm thinking being around people who accept me the way I am can help me with this internalized hate, but about my weak iman- I don't really know how I can help that. I really don't know, i'm stuck.

Disclaimer: I do not speak Korean. This is purely translated by machine with a lot of cleanup afterward. With that in mind, I am open to criticism to improve these translations. Enjoy!
​
Chapter 427
​
On a December night, as winter's chill deepened, an unexpected snowstorm swept through the streets.
​
The snow fell thick and fast, confounding those who had expected clear skies based on the latest weather forecasts. Confusion reigned among pedestrians hurrying home, and even the meteorological agency was caught off guard.
​
"What’s going on? Where did this come from?"
​
"We’re analyzing it now. There shouldn’t be an issue like this."
​
"With snow as thick as hail pouring down, how can you say there shouldn’t be an issue? Stop the nonsense and bring the data. You must have real-time observations!"
​
"I’m looking into it right now... Oh, it seems there's been a surge in mana in the Sichuan region of China causing these abnormal conditions. The expected snowfall is no joke."
​
"Sichuan? Damn it. Is that bastard Arch Lich now controlling the weather too?"
​
Ever since the Great Cataclysm, the agency's forecasts had become near prophetic, enhanced by the integration of magical insights.
​
However, this unexpected storm suggested something far more sinister.
​
Within an hour, after frantic recalibrations and re-observations, a national heavy snow warning was declared. The agency predicted a historic blizzard, the likes of which hadn't been seen in decades.
​
But as people stopped to take shelter, their attention was captured by an announcement on the large public screens across the city centers.
​
- On this day, I am thrilled to bring you this news.
​
The screen showed an elderly Asian man.
​
Sitting behind him were leaders from countries that are members of the UN Security Council, and the President of the People's Republic of China, with reddened eyes and a shaky voice, parted his lips towards the numerous microphones.
​
- The Arch Lich has been extinguished. We ... have won.
​
Victory.
​
That one word was enough. For 34 days, an unprecedented monster wave had continued.
​
The news that the great war, which had troubled the world beyond Sichuan Province, had finally ended left people gaping, and soon after, they let out a massive cheer.
​
"Wowwwww!"
​
"Wait! Hold on. I didn’t catch that. What did you just say?"
​
"It's over!"
​
"What?"
​
"Look at the subtitles!"
​
"The extinction of the Arch Lich... oh, it's true! Wowwww! I thought I was going to be fucking drafted!"
​
The joyous uproar drowned out the subsequent thirty-minute address by President Shao Yang and further explanations from the UN spokesperson.
​
With the Arch Lich's fall, his undead legions crumbled, extinguishing the looming threat and ushering in the long-awaited peace.
​
"Mom, it's me. Uh, did you see the news? No? Watch it now. Yeah, yeah!"
​
"That's it. Mr. Kim, let's go for a third round!"
​
"A third round? There's a server update tomorrow. Manager Noh is going to freak out."
​
"Manager Noh is also coming. He's bringing the corporate card."
​
"Ugh, I really don't want to see that guy's face. Alright, let's go."
​
"Reporting. Yes, Commander. This is Lieutenant Lee Jun-Beom. I would like to extend my leave for just one more day... No, I apologize."
​
Despite some initial reservations, the jubilant energy in the streets proved infectious. People who had cautiously stayed indoors, fearing another calamity akin to the Great Cataclysm, now flooded out to join the revelry.
​
Pubs filled to the brim with celebrants, and the cheers continued unabated even as the night turned into the early hours of the morning.
​
The next day, and for several days thereafter, the atmosphere remained electric.
​
The monumental victory announcement had the world buzzing with excitement, like a cauldron set ablaze on an open flame.
​
Each day brought a flood of new articles in countless languages, discussing the events more than even the unusual weather patterns that had seen snow cover Korea for three consecutive days.
​
And there was one name that appeared in every single one of those articles.
​
​
​
[The New York Times, 'A Momentous Victory Introduces a New Hero to the World'] [Note: USA]
​
[The Times, 'Eastern Promise: A New Hero Rises, With Connections to Prince Felix?'] [Note: UK]
​
[The Asahi Shimbun, 'Jin Tae-Kyung: Asia's Beacon of Hope, But Japan's Elite Hunters Could Surpass Him!'] [Note: Japan]
​
[People's Daily, 'A Young Korean Hero's Bravery Celebrated Amidst National Tragedy, Death of Wu Hei-Xing'] [Note: China]
​
[China Youth Newsletter, 'Jin Tae-Kyung, A Descendant of the Ming Dynasty General Chen Lin - Soon to Be a Chinese Citizen?']
​
[Korea Goryeo Daily, 'Uncertainty Shadows Ares Guild as Vice Guild Leader Lee Jeong-Ryong Goes Missing']
​
[DAS Patch Korea Official, 'We've been investigating Jin Tae-Kyung for months but couldn't find out anything. His relationships with women were surprisingly clean.' When asked by a reporter whether his past relationships had all ended amicably, he replied "No, that's not it. I've been single since birth."]
​
​
​
For the various media outlets, the existence of Jin Tae-Kyung was nothing short of a Christmas present.
​
All spotlights were focused on him, and stories about him flowed endlessly.
​
The material was inexhaustible. Not to mention the so-called 'Winter War,' this recent monster wave, his past actions, and even minor personal details became fodder for the news.
​
Typically, such sensationalist articles would have been scorned and cursed at, but now they captured interest.
​
Such was the global attention drawn to this new hero who had led this great victory.
​
But not all of that attention was positive.
​
From the tight internal security, little bits of leaked information had begun to raise doubts.
​
​
​
[Revealed: What Lies Hidden Behind the War's Great Victory? Growing Suspicions Cast Shadow on Jin Tae-Kyung]
​
[Mystery Deepens: Tragic Deaths of S-rank Hunters Lee Jeong-Ryong and Wu Hei-Xing Raise Questions as New Hero Emerges]
​
[Top Military Officials Question Battle's Intensity: Lack of Injuries on Jin Tae-Kyung Sparks Potion Use Probe; Clarity Expected Upon His Awakening]
​
​
​
Though these conspiracy theories were few and often dismissed, they managed to sow seeds of doubt among some, igniting fervent online debates.
​
The controversial articles were swiftly overwhelmed by waves of criticism and reports, but the questions they raised lingered in the public consciousness.
​
Now, all eyes were on Jin Tae-Kyung, waiting for him to step forward and address the swirling rumors.
​
When would he appear?
​
​
​
* * *
​
​
​
Beep. Beep.
​
The room, reserved for a select few, was filled with the mechanical hum of the latest medical devices.
​
Concerned faces looked down at Jin Tae-Kyung, who lay unconscious, an oxygen mask covering his face.
​
「How is Mr. Jin's condition?」
​
Choi Min-Woo responded to President Shao Yang's question.
​
「It's always the same. Everything seems perfectly normal, yet strangely, he can't regain consciousness.」
​
「Did both of them say the same thing?」
​
「Yes. They can't determine the cause.」
​
「Hmm. If that's the case, it must be certain... But why can't he regain consciousness?」
​
President Shao Yang sighed.
​
The two experts he referred to were leaders in their fields.
​
One was a civilian doctor revered as a modern Hua Tuo, and the other was a world-renowned healer. [Note: Hua Tuo was a famous ancient Chinese physician. He is reportedly the first person in China to use anasthesia during surgery.]
​
If both specialists they had brought in to treat Jin Tae-Kyung had said so, it must be true.
​
「I heard his family has come.」
​
「Our Peace Guild is taking good care of them. Fortunately, they are getting some rest at the moment.」
​
「That’s good to hear. Might I be able to see them, even for a moment?」
​
「Hmm... I will ask, but the family's wishes are most important...」
​
「I understand. Who wouldn't feel the same, seeing their blood relative unable to wake up? I’d be grateful if you'd think of it as nothing more than an old man's foolish worry.」
​
「Not at all, Mr. President. We appreciate you thinking so.」
​
「Appreciate it? No need for such words. If it weren't for Mr. Jin, a much greater disaster would have occurred. Though I am an old man and may not have much time left, I will take this gratitude to my grave.」
​
President Shao's words were sincere.
​
Four days had passed since then, and a global team of experts investigating the Arch Lich's last stronghold uncovered traces of a Gate.
​
The remnants of its immense magical power indicated a potential catastrophe.
​
「If Mr. Jin hadn't stopped the Arch Lich that day, not only our country but all of Asia, perhaps even the entire world, might have become a battlefield.」
​
「It's a very real possibility.」
​
Although the statement was slightly exaggerated, it held substantial truth.
​
Choi Min-Woo therefore acknowledged it with a nod.
​
He saw no reason to shy away from the praise or to downplay the deep gratitude expressed by a leader of over a billion people.
​
Indeed, gratitude, once extended, often yields rich dividends.
​
「By the way, Mr. President, recently there have been some unfavorable rumors circulating about Mr. Jin Tae-Kyung... Are you aware of them?」
​
「Are these internal issues, or external?」
​
「They are internal. It would be more accurate to say they involve the upper echelons of the Communist Party, or rather, the Princelings.」
​
President Shao Yang nodded knowingly.
​
「I am well aware of those matters.」
​
The matter concerned the death of Wu Hei-Xing.
​
The investigation had uncovered his severely damaged body, fueling conspiracy theories both domestically and internationally.
​
「There are those who suspect Mr. Jin Tae-Kyung. They point to a slight argument he had with Wu Hei-Xing at their first meeting and the fact that there were no significant injuries on Mr. Jin when he was first found.」
​
There were two main theories circulating among these rumors.
​
The first suggested that Jin Tae-Kyung, harboring resentment towards Wu Hei-Xing, had orchestrated his death and attributed it to the Arch Lich.
​
The second theory proposed that Jin Tae-Kyung used Wu Hei-Xing as a scapegoat, potentially alongside Lee Jeong-Ryong, who is missing or presumed dead, to eliminate the Arch Lich.
​
President Shao Yang, well aware of these narratives, had already formed his own judgement.
​
With a stern voice, he assured Choi Min-Woo.
​
「These are nothing but groundless slanders and conspiracy theories.」
​
「Thank you for your trust, but...」
​
It was a good response, but it was not enough.
​
Choi Min-Woo hesitated, then added thoughtfully.
​
「It seems the leader of the Princelings has a different view from yours, Mr. President.」
​
Within China, these theories, seen by many as national disgraces, resonated with a father mourning his son.
​
Wu Hei-Xing's father, the head of the Princelings and a figure wielding immense power within the Communist Party, was propelling these rumors forward.
​
He didn't stop at just speculation; he had initiated an independent probe to investigate further.
​
「If Mr. Jin Tae-Kyung regains consciousness, the truth will come to light. But for such high-ranking politicians to lead the spread of these absurd conspiracy theories...」
​
As Choi Min-Woo's words tapered off, President Shao Yang's lips curled into a subtle smile.
​
'No hesitation, I see.'
​
Despite the young man's impressive feats, his circumstances differed markedly from those of President Shao Yang.
​
Yet, here he was, confidently voicing his views, adeptly balancing his tone and stance.
​
'Was that story true?'
​
Recalling some personal details about Choi Min-Woo, President Shao Yang tapped the armrest of his chair thoughtfully.
​
「Alright. It seems my explanation was insufficient, so I'll say it again.」
​
「I'm listening.」
​
「My comrades and I already know everything about it and have made all the necessary preparations.」
​
「All the necessary preparations...?」
​
「He will be put on trial before he appeals for his son's death.」
​
The Arch Lich's fall wasn't the only outcome of this conflict.
​
Widespread corruption and fraud have come to light, necessitating the dismantling of the Princelings.
​
Choi Min-Woo's expression softened into a calm smile.
​
「Is that answer sufficient?」
​
「It is enough.」
​
That concluded their discussion for the day.
​
After a few more exchanges, President Shao Yang exited the room, leaving Choi Min-Woo alone. He murmured to himself thoughtfully.
​
"So, it is done."
​
Suddenly, someone's eyes snapped open.
​
"Ah, fuck. I thought I was going to die from frustration."
​
Previous Table of Contents

This is my first post here. For reference, I'm 36yo M, 5'9" (1.75 m), 170 lbs (77kg). Easy pace is between 8-9 min/mi (5-6 mi/km). Shoe size is USM11.5. I'm a flat-footed heel striker. Can run in neutral shoes but often benefit from mild stability.
My Neo Vistas arrived early and I was able to take them on a 6.5 mi run, mostly easy, but picked up the pace at the end to see how it felt. Since it's only been one run I have to stress that this opinion is preliminary.

• Feel: My first thought when putting on these shoes is that they're very soft. The booty shape is odd, but I had no issues putting on the shoe. It's 66°F (19°C) outside and humid when I went out, and the shoes didn't feel warm, even towards the end of the run. I have flat and wide feet, and the fit did feel snug and on the narrow side. Part of my foot hung off the medial side of the shoe slightly. I thought it was going to bug me but after the run, it didn't. Even though the stack is comparable to the Superblast, the Neo Vista feels taller to me.
• Midsole: From this first run, it's clear that the foam Mizuno uses isn't Peba-based. It's bouncy but not propulsive like the Saucony Endorphin Speed or the Asics Superblast. Rather, it's more like a pillowy bounce. Of the shoes that I have the best thing I have to describe it with is that it's like a Topo Atmos with more bounce and a more pronounced rocker.
• Run: For the first mile or two I thought it may be too mushy for me (Matt B mentioned this in his video) but I enjoyed it more and more as I kept going. The combination with the rocker is really nice even at recovery speeds. The shoe feels even better at slightly uptempo paces up to marathon pace. That's where the bounce and rocker combination sings to me. At those paces, it feels like a gentle trampoline, not propulsive but quite fun. But even at slower paces, it's enjoyable once you get used to the shoe. I didn't want to stop running.
• Comparison with other shoes: Compared to the Superblasts, I find the Neo Vista better suited for easier efforts and light tempo. I enjoyed running in them even though my legs were tight and sore from peak marathon training. I do not get the "wow" feeling that I get from running in the Superblasts, and that's ok since it stops me from going too fast. In that sense, I think it is more of a complementary shoe to it rather than a competitor. It's also easier going than the Endorphin Speed 3/4. I don't have the SC Trainer or Skyward X to compare it to, but maybe those are its real competition.
• Stability: The shoe is surprisingly stable for being so soft. It's not as stable as the Superblast or even the Endorphin Speed 4, but more stable than the Saucony Triumph 21 or the Topo Atmos. I'd say it's a neutral shoe.

Overall I really enjoyed my first run in the Neo Vista and am looking forward to logging more miles in them. It seems like it's a great recovery and long-run shoe. Will report back once I've logged many more miles.

Disclaimer: I do not speak Korean. This is purely translated by machine with a lot of cleanup afterward. With that in mind, I am open to criticism to improve these translations. Enjoy!
​
Chapter 424
​
Kwaaaaah!
​
Engulfed in searing blue flames, the vortex devoured everything in its path,
​
Buildings crumbled - their concrete skeletons exposed and steel frames twisted grotesquely. The ground was littered with the scattered bodies of humans and monsters alike, casualties of the relentless destruction.
​
The ultra-high heat obliterated nearly everything, reducing it all to ash and molten remnants.
​
Except for one.
​
- Blink.
​
Everything but him.
​
Beep.
​
​
​
- Skill, [One Strike] has been activated!
​
- [Qi] has been completely exhausted!
​
- Everything comes with a price. Despite serious injuries, you have overexerted your power.
​
- Status abnormality, [Exhaustion] has been applied!
​
- [Strength], [Stamina], [Agility] have temporarily plummeted!
​
​
​
My strength ebbed away, leaving me hollow. The alerts from the System rang incessantly in my ears, while the distant cries of the Skeleton Warlord in my inventory faded to mere whispers.
​
My body felt leaden, as though submerged in icy water. In the frigid solitude of my mind, one thought spun relentlessly:
​
'This was my last chance.'
​
Why hadn’t I seen it coming? Why hadn’t I guessed?
​
The Arch Lich had warned me; he had been observing me through his network of familiars scattered across the battlefield.
​
I should have suspected he'd seen my earlier uses of [One Strike] on the Liches and Death Knights.
​
I should have questioned it, even without certainty.
​
‘Idiot.’
​
A laugh, bitter and mocking, broke from my lips. I had promised myself never to let down my guard, yet here I was, caught in the most critical of errors.
​
The lack of options was no excuse. In battle, it is the outcome that counts, not the intent. This was the bitter fruit of my negligence.
​
Thud!
​
The iron bar I clutched fell from my weakening grasp, clanging loudly as it hit the ground. My legs buckled, forcing me to kneel.
​
Head bowed, I was enveloped by a suffocating darkness.
​
- You, human. How does it feel to pay the price for your reckless courage?
​
Struggling to lift my head, I locked eyes with his fiery red gaze. A hoarse whisper clawed its way through my parched throat.
​
"Of course it feels shitty, you damn bastard."
​
- It was a fearsome strike. I'll give you that much praise.
​
The Arch Lich’s voice dripped with triumph.
​
Despite his use of teleportation magic, he couldn’t entirely evade One Strike, resulting in the loss of his left arm. Yet, there he stood, a grim victor amidst the chaos of the battlefield.
​
His eyes, a sinister red, gleamed with a cruel joy as he gazed down at me, kneeling like a penitent sinner.
​
- I waited until the end. Despite the humiliation suffered at the hands of a human, I endured and persevered. And finally... this body claims victory.
​
His cunning was undeniable.
​
As I had feared, he had been anticipating One Strike from the outset.
​
Previously, I had obliterated Liches and Death Knights with One Strike, replenishing my stamina through leveling up, but he had keenly observed the moment I depleted all my strength.
​
- Do you understand now? This is your limit - the limit of a human.
​
Limit.
​
That word burrowed deeply into my chest.
​
Despite all my struggles, the label of F-rank haunted me. It was a limit I had strived to surpass every day since acquiring the System.
​
'Is this really the end?'
​
I had fought desperately, for myself and for those I loved, pushing through peril after peril. This was my life: a relentless challenge of transcending my own boundaries.
​
"It's not over... not yet."
​
The words fell from my lips, hollow and lifeless, as if spoken by another.
​
My vision blurred as I raised my eyes to meet the Arch Lich’s gaze.
​
- What?
​
"It's not over yet."
​
A battle to the death concludes only when one side falls and the other stands victorious.
​
Until then, the struggle persists.
​
As death loomed close, I whispered to myself.
​
'Inventory open. Summon.'
​
I thought I had secured one of the spears from my inventory in my grasp.
​
But then, I dropped it.
​
Clang!
​
In that moment, I realized my strength had waned too far to wield a spear, let alone swing it.
​
- Hahahaha!
​
The Arch Lich’s laughter was grotesque, reveling in my plight.
​
Yet, surrender was not an option for me. I would not, could not give up.
​
'Open Inventory. Summon.'
​
Weapon after weapon appeared in my hands.
​
Thud!
​
And one by one, I dropped them.
​
'Open Inventory. Summon.'
​
Thud!
​
- Oh, you foolish, stupid human!
​
The Arch Lich's mockery rang out.
​
Yet I persisted, undeterred.
​
Is it courageous to humbly accept one's end? If that is courage, then label me a coward.
​
I must survive — I believed this was the highest respect I could pay to the life I had fought so hard to live.
​
'Open Inventory. Summon.'
​
It was at that very moment.
​
Ding.
​
​
​
- [Endurance] greatly increases.
​
- The attribute, [Endurance], transforms into [Will]!
​
- Those with strong will are not easily broken; they do not fall. They will fight with all their might until the very end.
​
- A strong will, at times, can give you the power to overcome your limits!
​
- Special effect, [Indomitable], has been activated. Temporarily, all attributes slightly increase, and fatigue is reduced!
​
​
​
A surge of warmth spread through my core, faint yet fiercer than any force I had known.
​
It wasn't just a burst of power.
​
It was a beacon of hope kindled by my desperation and given by the System.
​
With hands shaking, I clasped the cold spear shaft firmly.
​
- You...
​
The Arch Lich had noticed the shift too.
​
His gaze, previously dismissive as if I was merely an exhibit, now widened in alarm. Seizing the moment, I mustered all my remaining strength and lunged forward.
​
Time seemed to stretch, elongating the seconds as I thrust the spear towards his looming figure.
​
Screeeeech!
​
As the spear tore through the air with a sonic boom, I saw it clearly — the Arch Lich’s eyes, twisted into a crescent of scorn.
​
It was a sneer.
​
- Blood Explosion.
​
Boom!
​
The force of the explosion reverberated through my body, sending shockwaves pulsing through every fiber.
​
With the last of my strength spent, my muscles seized up. The spear slipped from my weakened grip and impaled the ground at an awkward angle.
​
I blinked through eyes filled with blood. In a world now painted a visceral red, something warm and sticky splattered onto my face.
​
Drip, drip-drip.
​
'...Ah.'
​
It was blood.
​
My own blood, spurting forth like a gruesome fountain, showered down in a macabre rain.
​
As I raised my trembling hands, quivering like aspen leaves in a storm, the ghastly sight of my shredded flesh and starkly exposed bones confronted me.
​
Blood Explosion. A literal explosion of blood.
​
From the edges of my dimming consciousness, the cries of the Skeleton Warlord pierced the air.
​
- ...Human, human!
​
How long had he been shouting?
​
I tried to answer, but all that escaped my lips was a grotesque mix of blood and fragments of my organs.
​
"Cough."
​
The world spun chaotically before my eyes.
​
I reached out toward the Arch Lich, now just a blur through the blood-smeared lens of my vision, but my hand grasped only air.
​
Perhaps it always would.
​
- Snap out of it! Aren't you supposed to live?
​
Is that supposed to be encouragement?
​
I knew I had to survive, defeat him, and return home.
​
But...
​
'Can I really?'
​
Slowly, the world seemed to tilt.
​
No, the world was stable; it was I who was faltering. My body, ravaged by relentless bleeding and grievous injuries, used the last vestiges of its strength just to keep from collapsing.
​
'No. If I fall, it's all over.'
​
I propped myself up on a broken ankle.
​
The faint, thorn-like pain was a grim reminder that I was dying, yet the intermittent shouts from the Skeleton Warlord, sounding through the haze like a broken radio, affirmed that I was still somehow alive.
​
- ...Do it, human! Hurry!
​
Do it? Do what?
​
- Summon me now...!
​
My eardrums were ruptured, my consciousness slipping; the Skeleton Warlord's shouts were just muffled echoes in my shattered senses.
​
Even if I could have made out his words, there was nothing I could do to intercept the Arch Lich's next move.
​
- You have some interesting possessions.
​
Suddenly, in the Arch Lich's hand was a familiar object.
​
My cherished weapon, White Flames, which had weathered many battles at my side, now blazed in the hands of this usurper. He laughed, his skeletal frame aglow within the dancing flames.
​
- I have received a gift far too extravagant. I suppose it should be returned to its owner.
​
The Arch Lich drew back his arm. A potent magic dampened the inferno of White Flames and surged along the spear’s blade.
​
- Farewell, noble adversary — or perhaps just a fool who might have been something more.
​
Screech!
​
The sonic boom was fleeting, yet the moment stretched into an eternity.
​
I watched, mute, as White Flames hurtled towards me like a meteor. A whirlwind of thoughts raced through my mind, leading me to an inevitable conclusion.
​
'I can't avoid it.'
​
Then the only end left for me was death.
​
I had survived countless battles over the past seven years, but never had the specter of death loomed so palpably.
​
All I could do was witness its relentless advance.
​
'Yes, this is the end.'
​
I repeated the thought with eerie calm.
​
Crack!
​
The blade of White Flames cleaved through bone as it impaled me squarely in the chest.
​
I froze, eyes wide in shock — not pain.
​
"...You."
​
- Why, what?
​
Words failed me as I stared into the flickering blue eyes just inches from my face.
​
From a skull no larger than a soccer ball, the Skeleton Warlord had morphed into a towering figure over two meters tall, his voice blunt and confounding.
​
- Don't ask how I was able to get out on my own. Even this commander doesn't understand why.
​
"But why? ...Why?"
​
I asked, facing him.
​
The blade of the spear, protruding from the Skeleton Warlord's back to his chest, halted just a whisper away from piercing me.
​
If no one had intervened, I would have surely died.
​
He had just thrown himself to save my life.
​
- ...I don't know anymore. Damn it. I don't know anything now. Maybe I was enchanted by this sword.
​
Only then did I recognize the identity of the sword in the Skeleton Warlord's hand.
​
"Hero's Soul."
​
The only relic of Lei Fei, a sword that cannot be wielded by those who are not qualified to be heroes.
​
Yet here it was.
​
Held not by a hero, but by a Named Monster — the Skeleton Warlord.
​
- Hero's Soul, huh? For something made by humans, that's a pretty decent name. No, honestly, it's cool. Although it's too late to swing it properly now...
​
His voice trailed off, and the intense blue light in his eyes began to fade.
​
I understood what was happening to him.
​
'Extinction.'
​
Undoubtedly. Even now, the magical force of the Arch Lich, carried by the blade of White Flames, was devouring the Skeleton Warlord.
​
"You."
​
- Don't say any more. I'm already regretting this as it is.
​
I doubted his sincerity, especially given the soft chuckle that seemed at odds with his typically gruff demeanor.
​
- Human. There's something I'm curious about.
​
As the Arch Lich approached and the shoulders of the Skeleton Warlord crumbled, I gave a silent nod.
​
"Anything."
​
He hesitated for a moment then asked in a soft voice.
​
- About what you said last time. Was it sincere?
​
"Last time, what... Oh."
​
I suddenly remembered. The way he had been right after Lei Fei's death, pondering his forgotten past.
​
And the casual remark I had made.
​
​
​
'Well, I think he was probably a pretty good guy.'
​
'...Huh? Are you talking about me?'
​
'No. I'm just talking to myself.'
​
'Oh, yes. Right.'
​
​
​
So that's what it is.
​
For the Skeleton Warlord, who had awakened with power from a spirit that had lost all its memories, I might have been the closest thing to a friend he ever had.
​
The simple words I had spoken were like a pebble tossed into the still waters of his heart, causing ripples to spread outward.
​
'What an idiot.'
​
What was that all about? Why go this far over such a trivial thing?
​
A surge of emotion welled up within me, heat flushing my face, but I reined it in. I barely managed to muster my voice.
​
"Of course it was sincere."
​
- Yes, I see.
​
At that moment, as the blue light in his eyes flickered feebly, a cold voice cut through the air, heralding the end.
​
- Are you finished with your farewells?
​
"…!"
​
- Bone Explosion.
​
Boom!
​
Instinctively, I shielded my face with my arms, but the force of the explosion hurled me backward, sending shockwaves pulsating through me.
​
As I staggered to my feet, I witnessed a skull catapulted into the sky, bones splintering and scattering like brittle ice.
​
And then… silence.
​
The Skeleton Warlord had vanished.
​
Whoosh!
​
[Hero's Soul] plummeted from the heavens, its blade burying itself deep into the earth, gripped by a hand that had not relinquished it until the very end.
​
Previous Table of Contents Next

Disclaimer: I do not speak Korean. This is purely translated by machine with a lot of cleanup afterward. With that in mind, I am open to criticism to improve these translations. Enjoy!
​
Chapter 422
​
Ding. Ding. Ding.
​
​
​
- Opportunity arises within crisis. You have gained new enlightenment amidst a life-and-death battle!
​
- [Middle Dantian] has been opened!
​
- With the opening of the [Middle Dantian], all stats have increased by 20!
​
- The effects of [Qi Cultivation] have greatly improved!
​
- Your ability to understand and manipulate the flow of Qi has been greatly enhanced!
​
- Your internal and external states have been strengthened!
​
.
​
.
​
.
​
​
​
The relentless System notifications echoed in my ears, their cadence like a persistent hammer.
​
A sudden gust of wind swept through, playing with my sweat-drenched hair as a newfound vigor suffused my body.
​
A clear, resonant bell chimed, marking the culmination of my transformation.
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Ding.
​
​
​
- As a reward for your enlightenment, you have gained a large amount of experience points!
​
- As a reward for your enlightenment, you have gained 50 bonus points!
​
- Level up!
​
- As a result of leveling up, all status effects, fatigue, and some injuries are recovered!
​
- The status abnormality, [Curse], has been lifted!
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- Temporarily reduced stats have been restored to their original state!
​
​
​
I wasn't the only one who felt such changes.
​
No hand moves unseen by its master. The Arch Lich, sensing the dissolution of his curse, voiced his disbelief in a tone thick with suspicion.
​
- How did you...?!
​
His words, laden with myriad unspoken queries, met only my nonchalant shrug.
​
"Well."
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- Well?
​
"Yes, well."
​
- Do you think that explains it?
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"Obviously not. But do I really need to explain myself to you?"
​
From the flickering light in his eyes, incredulity was unmistakable.
​
- You're not a mage, are you?
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"I did want to be a mage. They get paid more, you know. But I just don't have the talent for it. Nor the brains."
​
- Even those you call Grand Mages couldn't easily dispel my magic like this.
​
"There's nothing to it, really."
​
- This makes no sense!
​
I conceded silently.
​
The Arch Lich's mastery was undeniably beyond mine.
​
Even I, having long surpassed the ordinary bounds of a Hunter, struggled against his curses and the perilous illusions crafted from bone spears.
​
Without my recent enlightenment, I might not have stood here at all.
​
But...
​
"So what are you going to do about it?"
​
- ...!
​
The System was on my side; I had simply utilized the strength and resources it provided to navigate through the crisis.
​
If he thinks that's unfair, he can use the System himself.
​
"That's just how the world works. It's annoying and frustrating, but you just have to bear with it and move on. It's already happened. Right?"
​
The Skeleton Warlord, previously howling in rage until a moment ago, now murmured under his breath.
​
- Wow, you really do speak well.
​
That's just how I am.
​
- You wicked human. It doesn't look like he's going to just let it go and move on.
​
The Skeleton Warlord was right.
​
Suddenly, a chilling voice cut through the air, followed by a tempest of formidable magical energy.
​
- Unleash Sonic Buster.
​
Simultaneously.
​
Whoosh, boom!
​
A blast of densely compressed air erupted.
​
Its sheer velocity turned concrete to dust and twisted steel rebars like twigs.
​
The shockwave shattered the windows of a nearby skyscraper, sweeping up a storm of glass shards.
​
In an instant, before I could even blink, the devastating wind was mere inches from my face.
​
- Human!
​
The scream of the Skeleton Warlord resounded from my inventory.
​
Was it concern for his own fate, or anxiety over mine?
​
Regardless, the reason held little weight.
​
I was no longer the same person I had been mere moments ago.
​
'Ah.'
​
A warmth blossomed in my chest. The spot known to martial artists as the Middle Dantian had fully opened.
​
Suddenly, I understood everything around me. I felt it on my skin and saw it with acute clarity.
​
'So that's how it is.'
​
Time seemed to stretch, the world slowing to a crawl around me, rendering everything sharply defined and vivid.
​
A colossal orb of wind, launched like a slicing blade, and the intricate flow of magic that propelled it.
​
Shhhh!
​
Everything has a core, magic included. With the opening of my middle dantian, I could discern that core.
​
'Now.'
​
In this decelerated reality, I thrust my spear forward. The formidable orb of wind, previously unstoppable, cleaved neatly in two by the blade of White Flames.
​
The split fragments of the wind, once a unified force, now dispersed into hundreds, then thousands of smaller currents. Stripped of their magical command, they cascaded to the earth in a chaotic ballet.
​
Swoosh, crash!
​
The winds whipped around, tousling my clothes and hair. I raised my head to face the Arch Lich, my expression tinged with a slight smile.
​
"Come down here. My neck hurts."
​
- You...!
​
"Fine, I'll come up."
​
Crack, boom!
​
A single step.
​
The ground beneath me shattered, and I propelled myself toward the grey expanse above.
​
​
​
* * *
​
​
​
Boom!
​
As Jin Tae-Kyung launched into the air, the Arch Lich grasped the gravity of the situation.
​
'I can't let this human approach.'
​
Avoiding melee combat was a basic rule for any mage, yet it held a new significance for the Arch Lich now.
​
'To think this body feels threatened by a mere human.'
​
He prided himself on having reached the pinnacle of black magic.
​
Despite the considerable drain on his power during his resurrection, the Arch Lich still wielded more magical might than any Grand Mage.
​
Yet, the human confronting him now... posed a genuine threat.
​
'Yes, just like that one back then.'
​
It was a memory he desperately wanted to forget. Gritting his teeth, the Arch Lich summoned his magic.
​
- Gravity!
​
This time, his command wasn't just a shout but a formidable wave of power, unleashing an invisible, formless force that crushed everything within its vast reach.
​
Even an S-rank Hunter like Jin Tae-Kyung could hardly withstand the overwhelming pressure closing in on him.
​
Bang!
​
A burst of compressed air shot from beneath Jin Tae-Kyung's feet as he executed the Void-Trampling Step, his body darting out of the gravity's lethal embrace.
​
His movements, sharp and swift as a hawk's, far surpassed those of any ordinary flyer.
​
'What the hell.'
​
The Arch Lich's eyes darkened as he watched Jin Tae-Kyung slice through the air, rapidly closing the distance.
​
It was clear now; Jin Tae-Kyung had not only accurately determined the range of the gravity spell but evaded it with uncanny skill.
​
'It wasn't mere luck that he dispelled the illusion magic. Then...'
​
Whoooosh!
​
Magic surged from the Arch Lich, vibrating the very air around him.
​
- Gravity. Gravity. Gravity.
​
He cast the high-level spell repeatedly, a feat beyond even the most adept mages. With this, the Arch Lich believed he would overpower Jin Tae-Kyung this time.
​
'Fall, human.'
​
Instead of increasing the force, he had expanded the spell's reach, creating a gravitational field vast enough to ensnare any within its grip...
​
Screech!
​
Doubt flickered in the Arch Lich's gaze.
​
Simultaneously, the crushing spell around Jin Tae-Kyung unraveled, its magical link severed as if sliced by an unseen blade.
​
Caught off-guard, the Arch Lich watched as Jin Tae-Kyung propelled himself forward, stepping into the void and rocketing upwards like a cannonball.
​
Boom! Sssshhhh!
​
With a deafening sonic boom, Jin Tae-Kyung soared, not merely in front but rising above the Arch Lich, and he brought down the White Flames with devastating force.
​
Whoosh, a streak of blue flames surged towards the Arch Lich.
​
Crash!
​
In the slowed-down reality, an invisible shield around the Arch Lich shattered like glass.
​
In that moment, the flames of Protective Qi, fueled by three gapjas of Scorching Yang Qi, penetrated the multitude of defensive spells cloaking the Arch Lich.
​
- Great Bone Wall!
​
With a grim command, a barrier of black bones erupted from the void.
​
This top-tier defensive magic, materializing merely a meter away, met the spear blade wreathed in flames.
​
In the ashen sky, a massive shockwave boomed and thunder roared around the two foes divided by the Bone Wall.
​
Whooooah!
​
The air burst with intensity, dispersing clouds that had roamed the high skies. Buildings teetering on collapse crumbled, and half-decayed bodies were whisked away by the winds.
​
Yet, the two beings responsible for this chaos faced each other across the barrier, their gazes steady.
​
"It was a waste, wasn't it?"
​
- Yes, indeed. No, wait...
​
The Arch Lich paused, his eyes fixated on the mystical spear blade that had penetrated the center of the wall.
​
- It was dangerous.
​
The length of the spear blade that passed through the Bone Wall was only about the length of a finger, and the burst of Protective Qi had not even grazed his nose.
​
It was fortunate for the Arch Lich and regrettable for Jin Tae-Kyung.
​
"You're lucky, you."
​
- Arrogant human, I must admit.
​
"What?"
​
Jin Tae-Kyung, taken aback, listened as the Arch Lich spoke more deliberately.
​
- You would be worthy of this win, if you truly are the Adversary.
​
"...The Adversary?"
​
- Yes. The King's Adversary. The eternal rival entangled by the whims of the gods. I cannot be certain yet... but perhaps that's why I was able to rise again from the River of Death.
​
Jin Tae-Kyung’s brow furrowed. What does the King's Adversary mean, and what was this talk of the whims of the gods?
​
"Are you a second-year middle school student? Clear away these bones and show me your right hand. Let's see if you have a Black Flame Dragon." [Note: this reference is a bit intricate. The "Black Flame Dragon" part originates from the YuYu Hakusho anime/manga, in which one of the characters has a Black Flame Dragon living in his right arm. The "second year middle school" part references a concept called "chuunibyou", which comes from the light novel "Even with Chuunibyou, I Want to Fall in Love!", which heavily references "YuYu Hakusho". The concept of "chuunibyou" describes a particular stage in adolescence where individuals might hold delusional beliefs of grandeur, pretending to have secret knowledge or hidden powers. It's typically characterized by dramatic, over-the-top behavior, which is often a source of embarrassment later in life. This concept was vastly popularized by the anime, "Love, Chunibyo, and Other Delusions!"]
​
The Arch Lich shook his head.
​
- This is something neither you nor I can understand. But one thing is certain.
​
His eyes, previously dimly glowing red, now blazed with intensity.
​
Initially, he had merely thought of him as a powerful, albeit strange, human. Now, his perception had shifted.
​
Memories from decades ago flooded back, when he had roamed the planet in service to the King.
​
And the face of that human he had encountered on the day he fell into the River of Death.
​
'The Adversary.'
​
The human who had not only slain him but had also assassinated the King.
​
The Arch Lich tried to halt him but failed; he attempted to close the distance but could not bridge it. This human was the only one the Arch Lich had ever truly feared.
​
Amidst the tumult of battle with Jin Tae-Kyung, memories of that fearful day surfaced.
​
- You... will surely die here.
​
His voice, grim yet resolute, reverberated through the air.
​
Jin Tae-Kyung’s reply was dismissive and direct.
​
"What are you talking about, idiot?"
​
Then, in the blink of an eye,
​
"Eat this."
​
Whoosh. Boom!
​
With calm defiance, Jin Tae-Kyung unleashed a fist wreathed in blue flames, obliterating everything before it.
​
It met the barrier of black bones head-on.
​
Flame-Extinguishing Divine Fist.
​
Crack!
​
The seemingly impenetrable Bone Wall shattered.
​
Through the cloud of bone shards, Jin Tae-Kyung, his face impassive, declared,
​
"It's much better this way. No more neck pain."
​
- ...!
​
"Down, boy."
​
Pop!
​
Like a streak of lightning, his fist shot forward, connecting squarely with the Arch Lich’s jaw.
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Previous Table of Contents Next

Phil Aston: Hello and welcome to the Now Spinning Magazine podcast with me, Phil Aston. And in this episode, I’m absolutely delighted to have with me Tony Martin, one of the UK’s most underrated rock vocalists. You’ve had a really varied career, but what we’re going to talk about today specifically is Black Sabbath and the new “Anno Domini” box set. So, welcome, Tony. Thank you so much for joining me.
Tony Martin: Thank you. And thank you for having me on the show. Very cool.
Phil Aston: A bit of context, because I think this is kind of helpful for you. My son is 30 now, but when he was 15, he set up a Facebook group, kind of saying, “One day, please can we have the Tony Martin Black Sabbath albums released?” That was 15 years ago. He was still at school, half his lifetime ago. And I think in the early time when he set this up, he may have reached out to you and you might have said something like, “I don’t think it’s gonna happen, Dan.” And here we are, all these years later, and it’s not only happened, but it comes out this Friday. How does that feel to know that these albums are now going to be available again?
Tony Martin: Well, first of all, well done to your son. It took 15 years, but he got it done. To be honest, there’s been a few periods when I didn’t think it was happening. In fact, about a year ago, Tony Iommi’s manager called me and said, “You know what, this is just so complicated. I don’t think we can do this.” So I was resigned to it not happening myself. It’s all to do with band politics, really. There are so many people involved or have their fingers in the pie that they all have to be on board. And there were allegiances changing all over the place, left, right, and center. So in the end, it was getting a bit tiring, but well done to Tony Iommi and BMG. My God, the patience they showed to get this thing together and actually get it out there. Wow. But how does it feel? It feels brilliant, to be honest. I’m very excited. I haven’t actually had these albums in my own hands physically for the past 25 years. I gave all mine away thinking I’d be able to get some more, and I didn’t. They just stopped making them. So to actually physically hold them again is really cool. What a great job they’ve done of it. So I’m thrilled and excited. And I’m helping out now because I’m not in the band, obviously, anymore. So I just offered my help to promote it and they said, “Great, let’s do it.”
Phil Aston: Isn’t it amazing? Because I’ve done quite a few reviews about Black Sabbath box sets and stuff, but this one, within about 12 hours, there’s literally 12,000 views of the review. The love for this period of Black Sabbath is actually huge. It’s grown. It almost feels as if the profile is higher now than it was at the time.
Tony Martin: Yeah, there is a kind of reason for that. Partly people have got over the “it’s the new guy” thing, and also it’s been 25 years since. So now we’re reaching out to a whole other group of people, in addition to those that were already there. But to the outside world, it looks like there was a huge gap, and to me it felt like a huge gap. But actually, the fans were always there. I’ve been waiting myself as well to get this back out there. And it’s just band politics, really. That’s all it is.
Phil Aston: Because you had that period when it was almost as if this part of Sabbath’s history was hidden because of band politics. None of this really happened, which I think probably stirred up more interest and kind of people wanting to find out more.
Tony Martin: Yeah, it could be. It’s an old famous thing, you know, if something ain’t around for a while, people start talking about it. But yeah, it’s a strange thing, the music business. You’re either in fashion or you’re not. But I am just thrilled that they’ve got around it. Just the patience they’ve shown to actually put this together. At one point they were just saying, “We can’t do it.” But I’m really chuffed anyway.
Phil Aston: I imagine there’s been compromises along the way. Lots of fans probably don’t understand how complicated the politics and all the different licenses and everything that goes on over the years, they become more and more entangled. People say, “Where’s Eternal Idol?” But of course, that was a different record label. Different people own it.
Tony Martin: Yeah, absolutely. It’s owned by somebody else. And also Eternal Idol, or “Eternal Idiot,” as we call it, was kind of reissued not that long ago. Really.
Phil Aston: That’s right. With the two CD version, wasn’t it?
Tony Martin: Yeah. So they were kind of thinking, “Well, there’s no real panic because that’s already been done and let’s just move on.” Because that would have wrapped them up in contracts for centuries, I think. I can’t even think that they’ll ever get them to let that go. But they were struggling to get the people involved with these four albums to make up their minds and do stuff. I’ve been all for it all the way along, I have to say. Obviously, because it’s my career, my history. It’s not just the band’s history. It’s ten years of my life that went AWOL. So, yeah, I’ve been up for it all the way along, but some people don’t and it’s taken them a while to get on board.
Phil Aston: I think it’s fantastic. The first one was Headless Cross. You joined one of the biggest rock bands with all that history behind it. You were an established singer with the Alliance. But this was a chance, as you say, with Eternal Idol, you went in and it was already prepared. You sang it, but this one was where you could really put your mark on it, your personality lyrically as well as musically. Can you remember what it was like actually being at the beginning of that? Did you feel comfortable around Iommi and Powell and thinking, “Right, what kind of lyrics am I going to do by Headless Cross?”
Tony Martin: Yeah, I was comfortable by then. Well, kind of. The thing is, with Eternal Idol, if I can just backstep a little bit. The Eternal Idol wasn’t the first call up. The first call up was in 1986 when they were doing the Seventh Star with Glenn Hughes. And that scared me to death because I can’t sing like Glenn Hughes. Nobody can sing like Glenn Hughes. They put me on standby back then, so I’d sort of tentatively had an introduction to Tony Iommi. Then in ’87, they got me in for the audition, and that was the next introduction to Tony Iommi. But because Eternal Idol was already written, that gave me a whole year plus a bit more to find out what this thing was. What the hell was I supposed to do? So just doing Eternal Idol like that was fine by me because I didn’t have to discover anything myself back then. It gave me a chance to get my feet in. So by the time it got to Headless Cross, now I know all the guys, and I kind of know what’s expected of me. I still had to find the “me” that I needed to find. I went around it the only way I could, by focusing on things I was interested in. I couldn’t do the lyrics and melodies that Geezer was writing for Ozzy because that was a generation before me. The stuff that Ronnie was doing was fantastic, but I couldn’t get inside his head. So I had to think about what I was going to do. I had an interest in the old gothic death stuff, like Dracula and Frankenstein, Mary Shelley type writing, and of course, in England, we have Shakespeare. Nobody speaks English like that anymore, that old English text. I thought, “Old English text, gothic death, and Black Sabbath. That might work.” So I put them all together and came up with Headless Cross, which is where I lived. I lived in a village called Headless Cross.
Phil Aston: Yeah, you put that on the map. They weren’t pleased about it. The most recognition I’ve got is my name on a bus stop. And Cozy Powell thought the album needed more death, didn’t he?
Tony Martin: Oh, that’s true. That’s actually true. We were recording “When Death Calls,” and he was in the studio playing, and he suddenly stopped. We went, “You alright?” He went, “Yeah, just remind me, what’s this song called again?” I said, “It’s called When Death Calls.” He said, “I don’t think there’s enough death in it.” And he carried on playing. So, okay, maybe he’s taking the piss, but isn’t it such a great sounding album? As Tony Iommi says, he never left Black Sabbath. So when people criticize him, saying, “You should change the name or whatever,” he never left. So it was still Black Sabbath. The riffs, the guitar sound was reaching new peaks of excellence around this time.
Because when it was just him and Ozzy, for example, it was guitar, that was it. When Geoff Nichols joined during the Dio period, it introduced a few more keyboard things. That allowed Iommi to play solos against those keyboard pads and chords. And then you come along and start sticking 50 tracks of vocal harmonies on it, like in Anno Mundi and stuff like that. It just kept developing. Sabbath isn’t really known for vocal harmonies and keyboards, but underneath that was still Tony Iommi. And it still sounded like Sabbath. We were happy to do that. We just wanted to make Tony happy and do the best for him. It was his band. So we were happy to seek out that Sabbath sound and make sure it did what it said on the tin. A couple of times, like with the Seventh Star thing, he ventured a little bit away from it. Songs like Heart Like a Wheel don’t really make the Black Sabbath sound, but it’s still good stuff. I have great respect for all of the eras that went before. I had to sing all of the songs. So I do have great respect for it. And it’s been an honor, you know, like being part of the whole story. But he was the only one that stuck it out. And we respected him for that. You’re right, they did ask him to change a couple of times. He said, “No, I can’t change now.”
Phil Aston: The next one, if I pronounce this right, it’s Tyr.
Tony Martin: Yeah.
Phil Aston: Because when it came out, me and my friends, actually, because there was no Internet back then and nowhere to go and check it, we did call it Tyr. To be.
Tony Martin: Yeah, Tyr.
Phil Aston: Watch you find in Birmingham. You know what I mean? So it actually rhymes with beer, doesn’t it?
Tony Martin: It is, yeah. Actually, it’s Tiw, which is Scandinavian for the son of Odin or something.
Phil Aston: Well, this is almost as close, probably, to Sabbath getting into almost a concept album. Isn’t it? This is a collection of songs that in another time and space you probably as a band would have gone out and performed the whole thing.
Tony Martin: Yeah, it wasn’t meant that way, but they were struggling to find a name for the album. We were recording and getting towards the end and the management called us up and said, “We really need a name for this album.” And Cozy said, “I’ve got one. Let’s call it Satanic Verses.” We went, “What, like Salman Rushdie thing?” He said, “Yeah, it would be great publicity.” We said, “Yeah, but we’ll all be dead.” So we did struggle, but they happened across the artwork. We’d done Anno Mundi, we’d done Gates of Valhalla and all that sort of stuff. They went, “What if… Tyr?” It was fine by me. So it took on the Viking sort of theme. By that time, I was thinking, once I’d done Headless Cross and started to have an interest in the Vikings and stuff. As you know, the Vikings haven’t been particularly good for us. They came over and stole all our women and sheep and whatever. But I had an interest in them as well. So I was thinking, every culture, every religion has its dark side. There’s always a devil type in a god type. I thought we could go around the world and I could do this. You could pick up on all sorts of cultures and pick out the dark side of various things. But it was the last kind of… I still did that with various other songs and various other artists. But Tyr was leaning towards that theme.
Phil Aston: It’s an excellent album. Then of course, the strangeness of the politics in Sabbath. Dehumanizer comes along and Dio re-enters the scene. You obviously had an opportunity because every cloud has a silver lining. You can go off and do your solo album at this time. But you did kind of like… It sounds like it was almost a forced relationship, the way that he was and he wasn’t. I mean, how was that period for you? Because you did demo some of the tracks, didn’t you?
Tony Martin: Firstly, it was a shock. I didn’t see that coming at all. Literally just walking out the door to the next writing rehearsals. My managers called up and said, “They don’t want you to go.” From what I recently found out, although I had my suspicions, Tony Iommi said the record label just wasn’t supporting it. They weren’t getting behind us at all. Then they started banding about all different names and stuff, and Ronnie’s name came up. They thought they’d give it a go. He said it was all on and off all the time. After they let me go, it wasn’t too long before Tony called me back and said, “Can you come back?” I said, “No, I can’t. I’m doing my solo album.” More time went by, and he called me back again and said, “Are you sure you can’t come back?” I said, “I’m doing my solo album. I really can’t.” He said, “Do you want to come down and try?” So I did. I went down and tried putting my voice on some of the songs, but it would have meant rewriting everything, and they weren’t going to do that. So I said, “The best thing is if you finish this with Ronnie, get this done and out of the way, then maybe we can talk again later.” So that’s kind of what happened. By that time, I’d done my solo album, which I wanted to get as far away from the Sabbath thing as I could at the time. I went back to doing what the Alliance and some of the bands I’d been with, that middle-of-the-road AOR type stuff. But when they called me back to Sabbath, Polydor dropped my solo album like a brick. They said, “We can’t do this if you’re going to go back with them.” So that got stopped. It’s so confusing. By the time I got back with the guys to Cross Purposes, it didn’t feel that much of a gap for me, because I’ve been talking to them and working with them through the Dehumanizer thing.
Phil Aston: Stylistically, that album, because it was on the IRS label, I know some people have said, “Well, it should be in there.” Stylistically, musically, it’s very different. I mean, you take it out. These four albums in this set, excluding Eternal Idol, they sound like a progression. Dehumanizer sounds like a kind of sidestep. Even the way the riffs are done in the songs, it’s changed. You take the vocalist out, but the music continued. You took you out and it was very different.
Tony Martin: I suppose it does a bit. If I go back and think over it, I guess that’s what it was. It was kind of an interruption into the flow of things. When we were doing Tyr, I thought we were doing really well. I thought we were onto something. Dehumanizer, in that sort of respect, does feel a little bit like an interruption. But there was some good stuff on there. Ronnie’s always been a good singer. I don’t quite know how they feel about it, but it was kind of nothing to do with me. I just let them get on with it.
Phil Aston: After that, Cross Purposes is probably, out of the four albums in this set, my personal favorite. Geezer’s back in the band now, so you’ve got his bubbling bass in there. And again, lyrically, it’s all you. Did you feel any kind of, “Oh, Geezer’s back. Will he want to help out?”
Tony Martin: I did ask. He just said, “No, you can do it.” So I just carried on.
Phil Aston
The reason why I love this album is that it’s varied. A lot of people think of Black Sabbath as the Godfathers of heavy metal, and heavy metal is always heavy metal. But if you think back to albums like Sabbath Bloody Sabbath in the seventies, they weren’t all heavy metal. There were all sorts of things on there. There were keyboards and light and shade. This, I felt, connected to that album, because you had light and shade on it. So there were more dynamics in the lyrical delivery and the song delivery, in the way that Iommi is weaving his riffs around the melodies. What are your thoughts looking back on this album now?
Tony Martin: I think you’ve just summed it up. It did sort of shift up a notch. Not only that, but the sound they were getting with Leif Mases producing it, it sort of grew up. It lifted somehow out of what they’d done before. It felt like, “Oh, this sounds good.” The songwriting and the exploring we were doing with the songs and stuff. At the time, Geezer Butler said that’s the best album he’s ever been on. He never said that again, but he said it at the time.
Phil Aston: I can imagine him saying just that.
Tony Martin: But it was good. Having Bobby Rondinelli in the band as well. Technically amazing. Brilliant player. His drums close in, and he plays with his wrists. Very technical. Whereas Cozy’s drums are stretched out far and wide. He’d lean over and hit them. But great to have them both in. What an honor. I mean, it’s Geezer Butler as well.
Phil Aston: When you got to South America, Bill Ward was in for a few gigs, wasn’t he? That must have been quite surreal. Bill Ward and Geezer playing songs like Headless Cross, which they had nothing to do with.
Tony Martin: They had nothing to do with. We were kind of weird because once we’d started to get Geezer and Bill back in, they wanted to start doing more of the older songs. That just makes you look, read between the lines going, “What’s going on? Where’s this going?” Once it’s happened to you, you know it. Then you’re reading between the lines. You start to feel it. Then you go, “Ah, right.” You can feel it. They’re clearing up. I did ask if they were going to do a reunion with Ozzy. Iommi was always denying it. Said, “No, no, we’re not doing that.” But I didn’t mind. The reason for that is because I knew what I could do in the future then. I thought, “Well, if they just tell me, that’s fine. Cause then I can plan.” The first time it was a shock and I didn’t know what to do. But I was kind of keyed up for it the next time. But he kept going. They got Bill in. I love Bill. I think he’s brilliant. We did some shows with him. But for some reason, and I don’t know what it is, I mean, I can tell you Iommi loves Bill. He regaled so many stories about when they were out there and how funny it was. I never understood why they never gave him time to get back in it. When you think of Def Leppard, they made a drum kit for a one-armed drummer.
Phil Aston: Yes, very true.
Tony Martin: Surely they can find time to get Bill settled back in. Whatever problems they’ve got. I mean, come on.
Phil Aston: You would think, yeah, very true.
Tony Martin: Get on with it. I thought, “Right, this is going to go south again.” But it didn’t. We carried on with Forbidden, and then Cozy came back after his accident. It was really up and down. Confusing. People in and out. During the time I was in the band, there were eight different lineups.
Phil Aston: It was very much a revolving door, wasn’t it? Before we move on, I just want to ask, because I know a lot of fans ask this. In the booklets in these box sets, there’s an image of Cross Purposes Live. That was a VHS tape and a CD. Is there a reason why that wasn’t included in some way? Is that game politics?
Tony Martin: I did ask about that, and they were just keen to get on with it. They said, “Come on, let’s go, let’s do it.” What they told me was that they’re going to take their time now to see what else they can gather and do an additional thing to this along the way with more of that in it. With the Cross Purposes Live and some other stuff. There’s a track that I recorded with them when Eddie Van Halen came and did Evil Eye.
Phil Aston: Yes, yeah, Evil Eye, wasn’t it?
Tony Martin: Yeah. I used to take the track out. I had it everywhere. Writing sessions, recording sessions, rehearsals. I just happened to be there. I didn’t even know who was coming. Iommi just turned up with Eddie Van Halen. I went, “Holy hell, it’s Eddie Van Halen. What’s he doing here?” He did some rehearsals with us and then disappeared. Never saw him again. But I got the recordings of the rehearsals that we did.
Phil Aston: Oh, wow.
Tony Martin: So I sent them to Tony Iommi. I said, “Use these. Get these on.” He said, “No, no, we can’t.” The reason they said was anything that has the slightest newness about it looks like a new Black Sabbath track or album track. They’re not allowed to release anything new under the Black Sabbath name. So even if it’s historical, they couldn’t allow it. It’s really weird.
Phil Aston: That means there must be lots of live stuff recorded. More bands were recording live stuff from the nineties onwards that you just couldn’t work on because it would go out under the Black Sabbath name.
Tony Martin: Not just live stuff. I’ve got about eight tracks that we never released. Just from the writing sessions and rehearsals and stuff that we used to do. They just can’t get out. They just won’t allow it.
I don’t understand. Well, I kind of understand. When you’re trying to protect your name, your mark, your image, your everything, which is where the band politics comes in, they won’t allow you to do anything that they think. And there’s all kinds of… Everybody from Ozzy to Dio to everybody. They don’t want their thing to be diluted or taken away. I do understand that. There are people involved all along the way that have an objection of some kind or another.
Phil Aston: But I guess, hopefully, this box set’s going to sell out really quickly and will show there’s a demand for this material and for this part of Black Sabbath history. There’s a lot of love for it. A lot of people worked really hard within it, like yourself. They’re great albums, wonderful songs. If there’s other music waiting in the wings, whereas we all get older, thinking through the eyes of the fan, it would go down so well, wouldn’t it? But I am, as you are, very grateful that these four albums have arrived in a box.
Tony Martin: Yes, it’s an important thing for me. It’s an important thing for the band, and it’s a great thing for the fans. I’m thrilled. It’s been an honor to be part of the story. I love the fact that it’s out there now. They did say there is no limit to the box sets. They have sold out on day one.
Phil Aston: I’m not surprised.
Tony Martin: They said the way they do it is they tend to poll the outlets and stuff and say, “How many do you think you can sell?” And they put their numbers in, and they’ve gone way past that. So now they’ve got to go back and produce more. There’s no limit to it. I love what they’ve done. There’s more in the box set than just the albums. Posters, programs, and everything.
Phil Aston: And then Forbidden. I’ll be honest, Tony, when I heard this for the first time back in the day, I didn’t like it. I tried, but I didn’t like it. My son liked it because I think probably because his dad didn’t. But now the remix, it’s as if someone’s released the drums and the guitars. It sounds like a Black Sabbath album. It sounds fantastic, doesn’t it?
Tony Martin: It does. It’s brilliant. I love the fact that they’ve dismantled it and put it back in a way that they couldn’t or didn’t with the other three. Forbidden needed it for all kinds of reasons. It was done under a sort of cloud where a lot of us weren’t really into it very much. But it was also an attempt at trying to give Sabbath a kind of acceptable twist to the youth. It didn’t work.
Phil Aston: The nineties were weird, weren’t they? The nineties were strange for heavy rock.
Tony Martin: The problem was we were fast heading towards great new bands like Nirvana and eventually Green Day and Metallica doing stuff. We were going and they were trying to change the sound to fit in. It didn’t work. We didn’t think it would. But there are people out there that love Forbidden as it is. I said that to Iommi. Last time I saw him, there are people out there that love it. He said, “They’ll probably love this version now.” But shaking the chains, guilty as hell, rusty angels, forbidden. And of course, “Loser Gets It All” is a great track. That wasn’t even on the album originally.
Phil Aston: It’s brilliant.
Tony Martin: Yeah. Strange. I absolutely love it now. It does sound like a Black Sabbath album. It sounds like it should be there in amongst the others. They’ve done a great job. Tony and his engineers have really pulled it together. It’s slightly more guitar and slightly less keyboard. They’ve done Cozy’s drums. Fantastic job on those.
Phil Aston: They’re just unleashed, aren’t they?
Tony Martin: Yes. They haven’t changed anything. They’ve mixed it and given it a new attitude, which is brilliant. They’ve given it more space. It sounds bigger. I just love what they’ve done to it. I’m really proud of it now. I didn’t like it then. There’s still a couple of tracks where I would love to have gone back in and…
Phil Aston: Yeah, you know.
Tony Martin: I thought at the time, because I was that off it at the time, my head just wasn’t quite there. A couple of tracks I thought I could have done better. I did sort of say when they were doing it, “Can I go back in?” They said, “No.”
Phil Aston: I suppose because that might edge towards it being a new recording then.
Tony Martin: Yeah, tricky. I’m not going to tell you which tracks it is, but there were a couple in there that I wasn’t quite happy with. But on the whole, it’s a great job they’ve done.
Phil Aston: Because when you were playing live, there were more songs from your period in Sabbath coming into the set, weren’t there? You were a unique vocalist in many ways for the band. You could cover Ozzy, Dio. You probably could have done Ian Gillan. Anything. You could have the ultimate set list, really, going through every era.
Tony Martin: That was a bit of a mistake. I told them I could sing anything, really. They thought, “What can we give him to sing?” They threw all sorts of stuff at me. I had a shot. Fortunately, I’ve got the kind of voice that can get around most things, and that’s a result of being in so many different kinds of music. I’ve been involved in everything from reggae to rock.
Phil Aston: Who were your key vocal influences growing up? As you say, outside of this Black Sabbath badge, your voice can go in any direction. So who were your influences? Was it blues, soul, rock?
Tony Martin: It kept changing. Everything I listened to, I thought, “That’s good. That’s good.” Each couple of years, something else took my attention. I’d really pour my soul into it. When I started off with reggae, believe it or not, I worked with Musical Youth and Dexys Midnight Runners in the studio. I was a guitarist back then. Then I loved blues. I got into prog rock bands like Yes, King Crimson, Jethro Tull. Then it shifted to Emerson, Lake & Palmer. That led to Rush and bands like that. Then I had to come down out of that prog rock technical stuff because Sabbath is much more honest and basic and straightforward. To a point. When you’re in the band and you find out how he does it, it’s stunning. I never even gave it a thought. I thought, “It’s got to be easy.” It wasn’t easy at all. Iommi can put seven, eight different riffs into one song, and each one of the riffs could be a song on their own.
Phil Aston: Very true.
Tony Martin: So, wow. You get your head around it. It’s weird. Plus, the time signatures he was throwing at us. There was a 14/4 and a 15/8 or something he was throwing at us. How he gets his head around it, I just don’t know. When I saw him a few weeks ago, he said, “You did a really good job on this.” I said, “Thanks, man.” He said, “I actually don’t know how you sang over some of this stuff.” I said, “Neither do I.”
Phil Aston: Just mad, isn’t it? You could try anything. I might have thought, “That means you might be able to put some of the songs in that Ozzy couldn’t do into the set. Or I can try something that I’ve never been able to do before because Tony says he can do anything.”
Tony Martin: It’s because I showed willing. I told them I’d have a go. And I did have a go. I did put into it. The songs, the writing, the live shows, whatever. I kind of made a rod for my own back in some ways because it was hard flicking between all of the different vocal techniques. But I did my best. It sort of came across okay. The problem is when you try to do stuff like that, it can sound a bit like a tribute act. But we got it nailed, I think. Especially having people like Cozy Powell, Geezer Butler, and all those guys in the band. We were willing to seek out that Sabbath sound, and we were conscious of it. So we were all aiming for the same thing. From outside, it might have looked like a chaotic mess. But on the inside, it all had a focus. We were all willing to give it a go. That’s what I think they saw in me. I knew they liked my voice, but I think that’s what they saw, a willingness to have a go and see if you can make it work. All those different time signatures and riffs that I had to go, looking back, to me, it’s Black Sabbath. Like,
Phil Aston I’m a Deep Purple fan, and every lineup of Deep Purple is still Deep Purple. I know Black Sabbath, there’s lots of politics in the way some of the fans look at it. But I think, which is why they had Heaven and Hell later on instead of Black Sabbath, because of the politics. But listening to these four albums, one after the other, you brought to life Viking mythology and song. More death. Just your passion and the way you projected the lyrics and your phrasing makes these albums unique. An important part of the Sabbath story. Finally, do you feel like this outpouring of love for this lineup is validating everything? Any doubt that might have been back then?
Tony Martin: Yeah, doesn’t it just? The biggest validation is from Tony Iommi himself. It wasn’t regarded that highly until he sat and listened to it without the bickering going around. When I went down a few weeks ago, he said, “You did a great job on this. There’s fantastic songs on here.” I said, “I know.” It’s just that validation that he gives it. The fact that the fans are returning to it. The fact that we’ve got new fans coming to it. Whole new record labels. I think it’s Rhino in America. It’s BMG in the UK, Europe. The record labels are coming back to it and getting behind it. They see something in it. The management sees something in it. So it’s all coming together. Which is a shame because I’m not in the band anymore.
Phil Aston Who knows? Maybe you and Tony will think, “It’d be great if some of this other stuff can come out at some point and we don’t have to wait another 25 years.”
Tony Martin: If he was going to do that, he’d say, “Let’s just write some new stuff.” But from what I’ve been told, Tony’s touring dates are done now. He won’t be going out on the road again. That’s probably out of the question for writing. I did tell him I was interested if he wants to do something. But he’s got so much going on. He’s still busy. Doing stuff. He had that ballet, the Black Sabbath ballet.
Phil Aston: Yeah, that’s true.
Tony Martin: Never saw that coming. No, he’s working on all kinds of stuff. He’s writing new material for something else now.
Phil Aston: So what about you, Tony? Have you got any plans for another solo album?
Tony Martin: I never actually stopped. For the past 25 years, my career took me into the studio and writing for people. My voice appears on 89 albums and projects now. It’s been good for me. I owe everything to Black Sabbath because that’s how the world got to hear my voice. People know what they’re talking about when they talk to me. “Can you write, can you sing on this?” They already know what they’re hearing or expecting. I always try to make it better than what they give me in the first place. A lot of that is me in the studio, and I’m happy, and I still am, happy doing that. But I do tend to choose what I do these days.
Phil Aston: Yeah, that makes sense.
Tony Martin: So I’m still doing the odd thing for people now. I did have a solo album a couple of years ago called Thorns.
Phil Aston: Great album.
Tony Martin: Yeah, totally unknown guitarist from America, Scott McClellan. I only met him because he kept badgering me on Facebook. He kept sending me stuff. I was like, “Go away.” He said, “Listen to this. What about this one?” In the end, I listened to it and it was brilliant. So I gave it a go and it turned out really well. But then Covid interrupted that and we couldn’t get out there with it. Some countries were saying, “Yeah, you can come,” and other countries were saying, “No, you can’t.” It all got distracted. I haven’t finished with Thorns because they wanted to do a vinyl for it. They said we had to take some tracks off to get it to fit on the vinyl. I don’t want to take any tracks off.
Phil Aston: Make it a double.
Tony Martin: Yeah, make it a double. Write some more. I wasn’t prepared for that. I’m pacing up, trying to write some new songs. Scott has sent me loads. We’ve got enough tracks for Thorns 2, but I haven’t finished Thorns 1 yet. I’ve got to come back to that. I do want to finish that off and get that done. Then if we can do the next Thorns thing, who knows? We’d like to try and get it out on the road. Getting out on the road for me is so different to the Sabbath thing. The Sabbath machine is huge. They only have to mention it and all the cogs start turning all at the same time all the way around the world. It all starts fitting into place within days, within weeks. On your own, it’s different. I can’t do that. I have to hire other musicians to go out on the road and rehearse the whole thing and start again with a brand new show. It’s a lot harder for me, but I would love to get back out there. My career took me into the studio, so I’ve got more to do. But I just tend to choose now.
Phil Aston: If people want to get Thorns, is it DarkstarRecords.net? Is that the best place?
Tony Martin: No, Battle God. They are the main label. Darkstar were involved and they’re still there, but they’ve had some troubles in the past couple of years. They were on board and I did two versions of it from between the two territories. I liked that. But mostly now, Battle God is the label to grab hold of it. It’s still available and I’m still signing them. People send me the stuff to sign.
Phil Aston: But I haven’t finished yet, so there’s more to come.
Phil Aston: Brilliant. Well, thanks very much, Tony, for all of your time today. Everybody, make sure you go and get a copy on CD or vinyl of this Black Sabbath Tony Martin years box set, “Anno Domini.” It’s absolutely superb.
Tony Martin: Yeah, it is good. I’m just smiling. I think it’s brilliant.
Phil Aston: No, that’s it, isn’t it? Whatever anyone thinks, these albums are available again. People can hear just how awesome this time for Sabbath really was.
Tony Martin: Thank you. Thank you very much.
Phil Aston: All right, take care, and hopefully I’ll talk to you again in the future.
Tony Martin: Thank you. All right, Phil, thanks, mate. Cheers.
Phil Aston: Well, a huge thank you to my guest, Tony Martin. That was fantastic. I’m almost lost for words in knowing what to say to sum up that interview because I know a lot of you are really interested in this box set, “Anno Domini” by Black Sabbath, which is out on CD and vinyl. Just as I thought, it’s sold out already, but there’s going to be another pressing. I was able to ask some of the questions I know some of you have been wanting to know, like why weren’t there extra tracks? Why wasn’t the live Cross Purposes included, etc. So now you know. Some of it is really exciting because it means there might be a companion set with some outtakes or live stuff as well. That’s really exciting.
Tony Martin is a fantastic vocalist, really passionate, really imaginative with his lyrics and his vision of how he writes his music. These four albums are essential. They’re Black Sabbath albums, okay? That’s what they are. They sound like Black Sabbath albums. Wasn’t it interesting that Geezer Butler said Cross Purposes is the best album he’d ever played on? It is a truly remarkable album. But they all are: from Headless Cross, to Tyr (which I can now pronounce correctly), Cross Purposes, and Forbidden, which has been given a new lease of life. Seriously, it is incredible. Just stunning.
Thank you again to Tony Martin for joining me here on the Now Spinning Magazine podcast. Please keep spinning those discs, whether they are vinyl or CD. Check us out on the podcast. We’re on every platform you can think of, from Apple to Spotify to Amazon. Of course, we’re on YouTube. Please subscribe and check out the website at nowspinning.co.uk. Remember, music is the healer and the doctor. So take care and I’ll see you all very, very soon.
Watch the full interview here
Phil Aston Now Spinning Magazine

Falsch pressed the switch and the glowing red timer of the Facility Implosion Bomb began counting down.
5:00
"It's the only way. The portal has to be destroyed." Falsch reasoned.
"Damn it!" Zysind slammed his fist onto the table, the sound was heard over the communications device.
"..." Schlect stood silent as he stared down onto Falsch tired on the floor, preparing himself to eliminate the anomalies of this world once and for all.
"What is the meaning of this, Falsch?" Duvist, confused, spoke over the infuriated Zysind.
4:44
"I had a great time with you all in this base." Falsch reminisced. "Tell Bonas my thanks for pulling me outta that hell, once he wakes up from his coma that is. I got to live a second time because of him. Veru....sorry lass, but Papa has to leave. Be a good girl for me.``
“God damn you Falsch! You can’t do this! Bonas has done so much work for this.” Zysind yelled at the comms.
“God already damned me once Zysind. The Sealing Team should still be at the surface. Project Portal has to be stopped for Humanity’s good. "
Falsch muted the comms. He took a deep breath and drowned himself in thoughts.
Falsch already anticipated that it would come to this, he knew that the reason why the demons kept popping up was because of a sinner’s soul, his soul, that escaped Hell. The demons want to hunt the escaped soul and bring it back to it’s rightful place as sinner in the depths of hell.
Back then, was a lonely agony in the infinite field of darkness. He cannot remember how many years he spent over there. The looming hatred that tortured him, Schlect, was with him in his hell, constantly reminding him of his failures and mistakes in his first life.
The hell portal that emerged in Limbo that Dr. Bonas accidentally created in studying the hell portals through the Helios artifact was nothing short of an absolute miracle. Falsch entered the other side to a different Earth. Though Falsch received Hell as his punishment for his first life's sins, he got to enjoy earthly life once more for 10 years.
The world that Falsch entered was different to his yet so similar. It was like an alternate earth. As someone foreign and potentially hazardous to this world after coming out of a portal, Falsch was quarantined.
Veru was a sweet little kid at the base, a child of Dr Bonas’ sister who lost both of her parents at an early age. Veru was the person that gave Falsch his humanity over the years after decaying in Limbo. She had an innocent curiosity to what is essentially a dead man from hell. Young Veru approached Falsch after his quarantine and gave him something unexpected, something he hasn’t felt from someone for a long time. Kindness, something long forgotten by Falsch, sparked to him when Veru wanted to play with him with a doll named Molly. Ever since that day, Falsch started to feel like a regular human, and not a sinner from hell burdened by his sins. He felt good, and the weight of his regrets started to feel lighter with Veru’s company. Before then, Veru became like a daughter to Falsch, and Falsch was like the missing father to Veru.
Things would’ve been a whole lot better if it weren’t for Schlect being attached to me. But as a sinner sentenced to Limbo, I am to suffer in darkness with nothing but my dark thoughts. Schlect never fails to belittle, insult, or spite me in every single waking moment. But, I persevered and strived to become a better person for everyone here, especially for Veru.
“Sins crawling on your back sinner? Finally realized the cost of your little vacation here in this Earth? Pathetic.” Schlect sneered.
“You’re wrong, Schlect. This is my repentance and it’s for the good of everyone. I do regret that I won’t be there for Veru.”
“You aren’t just a terrible person but also a terrible father. You don’t deserve Veru.” Schlect insulted.
“Don’t put Veru into this conversation.” Falsch eyed Schlect in anger.
“Or what?”
“...”
“Idiot.”
3:17
The red emergency lights blared ever since the self-destruction countdown began. The heavy metal doors of the facility lowered down and shut all the available paths to the surface, sealing the Demons invading into their concrete coffin. The Demons screamed in anger and hatred as they tried to futilely scratch the impenetrable doors of the underground facility.
Falsch held the Helios artifact. The artifact which allowed the creation of the Hell Portals after Dr Bonas’ exploits with it. The end result… a sea of demons searching for me. Old man better not die so he could take care of Veru, otherwise i’ll be his demon in hell.
Falsch smiled to himself.
Schlect kneeled down and grinned in malice.
Falsch frowned and stared at Schlect at the sudden gesture.
“You’re still incompetent even at your second. You flipped the switch too quickly, idiot." Schlect implied something Falsch forgot.
Zanya and Tyler.
Falsch went wide-eyed, fear and anxiety coursed through his heart.
2:51
Damn it! I forgot about them. I let them do their own thing, while I supposedly did my tasked Implosion mission on the other side of this base, since I couldn’t convince them to not take the Helios artifact. Zanya and Tyler were tasked to a retrieval mission for the research data and artifact. I bloody forgot to inform them.
"You are pathetic and incompetent, Falsch. And you call this your repentance?" Schlect mocked.
Falsch unmuted his device.
"Zanya and Tyler got out right???" Falsch asked in panic at the device.
“FALSCH! YOU BETTER NOT-”
“PLEASE CONTACT ZANYA AND TYLER. THEY’D BE STUCK IN THE IMPLOSION BOMB RADIUS!” Falsch asserted.
“You haven’t even informed them yet of your suicide plan???” Duvist asked, astounded from Falsch’s negligence.
"Confirm Zanya and Tyler's signals!" Duvist commanded.
"Putting their audio in speakers right now!" Zysind followed. “
2:20
"Retrieval team, do you copy?"
Sounds of something collapsing could be heard. Struggling and bated breaths are heard in the comms.
… Silence
"Retrieval team, I repeat, do you copy?" Duvist
"Fuck! Tyler you good buddy?"
"Arghhh, I sprained my damn foot." Tyler complained in pain.
"Retrieval team, are both of you fine?"
"Yeah, we're fine and the data is with us, but not the damned artifact! We're on the surface and we're leaving here as soon as possible. Why did Falsch already activate the Implosion Bomb? What happened to his team? Are they on the truck already?"
“What the hell? Are those the Sealing Team on the truck?” Tyler asked.
1:45
Falsch smiled in relief that both of them are fine. He dropped the device from his ear and pressed it on mute.
"Good... Hehe..." Falsch lightly laughed. "You sick bastard, Schlect. You got me good, you son of a bitch." He continued.
“Laughing even after endangering their lives. Your hands deserve to be stained in blood.”
1:30
“Shut it Schlect. We got one more thing to do.”
Falsch moved and climbed into an air vent leading to the giant laboratory where the Hell Portal was located.
58
He kicked down the vent grate only for it to fall and get crushed violently to the sea of Demons.
“Oh–woah. Hello there!. Looking for me?” Falsch waved at the screaming waves of red muscular and bony beings.
“You should jump to the demons, you Idiot. You sinner. You-”
“One last thing.” Falsch interrupted Schlect’s words and just ignored his continued attempts at malicious conversing.
Falsch configured his communication device to connect to Veru.
The signals clicked and the connection established.
“Papa?” Veru called in sorrow.
30
“Hey there, little girl. Yes, it’s me Papa.”
Veru cried.
“Schlect, you may be half right about this! But, I want you to know, Veru, that Papa Falsch very much loves you alright?” Falsch joked around. “So don’t forget about me okay?”
“Why do this?”
“I already told you why before, sweetheart. I don’t belong here.”
“B-but, you could just throw the artifact to the portal and come back.”
“I know, but it won’t end up good. The Demons would only come soon after, and I don’t want a world where my Veru would be encumbered by me.”
“...” Veru understood.
“Love you Veru.” Falsch cried.
“I-I-I love you too Papa.”
“Goodbye.”
Falsch disconnected regretfully.
5
“Goodbye, everyone!” Falsch announced to anyone that could hear.
Falsch jumped into the portal, alongside the Helios Artifact. As he almost fully crossed the portal, the implosion bomb detonated leaving nothing but a giant crater of which the base of Project Portal was constructed.

I’m reaching out to see if anyone here can help me with an issue I’m having with my CR-Laser Falcon 10W Laser Cutter and Engraver. The USB-C port on my engraver is completely unresponsive, and I’ve tried several troubleshooting steps with no success.

Details:

• Issue: USB-C Port is unresponsive.
• Steps I've Taken (I'm sure I'm missing a few, but will list what I can immediately recollect):
  • Followed the steps per the guide provided. (Firmware update, using their .lbdev import, etc)
  • Tried the Win7 drivers troubleshoot step - Installed ESP32 TinyUSB and ESP32 USB Serial/JTAG INF files.
  • Configured settings in Device Manager.

Errors Encountered:

• During INF installation: “The third-party INF does not contain digital signature information.”
• In Device Manager: ESP32 devices show yellow exclamation points, indicating driver issues.

What I've Tried:

• Reinstalling drivers with driver signature enforcement disabled.
• Using different USB ports and cables.
• Tested on multiple laptops.
• Restarting my computer after every step.

Request for Help:

Has anyone encountered a similar issue or have any advice on how to resolve this? Any guidance on additional steps I might take or specific configurations that have worked for you would be greatly appreciated.

Additional Info:

• I’m using LightBurn for the software (but also tested on LaserGRBL .
• Running on a Windows 10 laptop.

I've reached out to Creality's tech support, but in the meantime, I’m hoping someone here might have a quicker solution.
Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions!

Ann sat on the table next to the first aid kit. She looked confused and responded in a subdued voice, "...how exactly do you fall out of a car?" Weston grabbed the alcohol wipe before Ann could reach it. There were at least a dozen zeds stalking around outside. Maybe more. The two of them were mostly secure as long as they didn't make any loud noises.
"It was cramped and the key was, well, sorta... the hiking bag maybe got hooked... I don't know," Weston sounded annoyed. "I fell out."
Before the apocalypse, Ann's whole life had been planned out. She was going to do an internship this summer. She was starting her last year of high school next year. She was planning to attend Louisville State University. Well, was, but she didn't know what to do now. Weston peeled back the dirty bandage and started cleaning the wound himself.
While Weston tended his cut, Ann examined it. His sleeve had been ripped off. The scratch was not too deep, but his arm and shirt were covered in blood. Mostly other people's blood, she assumed, provided you could even call them "people" anymore. The open wound was more intense than any of the images in her book, First Aid Volume I. Ann wanted to help, but Weston preferred to be self-sufficient in these situations. She had learned that much in their short time together.
Now thinking about it, Ann realized this was the first time they've sat down together since he saved her life. It must have been a week or two ago at this point. Ann still couldn't quite remember what happened. The book described it a "traumatic" experience.
trau-mat-ic. Adjective. Emotionally disturbing or distressing.
Synonyms: upsetting, horrifying, terrifying
Ann scoffed to herself. Her entire existence had became a never-ending trauma. One moment she was pinned down by a zed. The next, a crowbar swung out of nowhere and caved it's head in. Then she woke up in this maintenance building. The room was spacious, but full of large crates and random junk, making it rather cramp. It had a couple of entrances, but was otherwise unremarkable. The only window had a sheet over it. Since the power had went out almost a month ago, the room was shrouded in darkness except for the dim light cast by an old lantern.
Ann hated everything about this place. The boredom of sitting inside all day was excruciating. She felt trapped.
She couldn't take it anymore.
"Am I a prisoner?" Ann asked bluntly.
"What?" Weston was bewildered. "Umm... no. No, of course not."
"Well, then can I come with you on your–"
Weston interrupted her, "Absolutely not. You wouldn't be safe out there."
"Am I even safe in here?"
"The world is no place for a kid right now," Weston lectured her, " and you're lucky to be alive as it is."
"No. Look at your arm. YOU'RE lucky to be alive," Ann retorted, starting to raise her voice, "and I'm NOT A KID!"
"SHHH," Weston snapped in a harsh tone, "The Answer Is No. Period."
"SO I AM A PRISONER!" Ann yelled back, her face red with anger.
Thump. Ann gasped and covered her mouth.
Thump. Thump. The main door shook against the dead weight slamming against it.
"God. Dammit." Weston cursed under his breadth, "Is This How You Want To Die?" He hastily wrapped a ripped sheet around his arm and grabbed his crowbar. He rushed toward the side entrance.
Thump-Thump. Thump-Thump. The beating increased in frequency as a second zed joined the first.
Weston swung the side door open, revealing a small exterior area enclosed by a high metal fence. Another zed, alerted by the sudden movement, smashed itself against the chain links. Weston vaulted over the fence and darted around a corner before it could react.
Thump-Thump-Thump. Thump-Thump-Thump. More zeds joined in to smash the side door.
Ann fell off the table and landed on the ground. There. I can hide under there. She tried to crawl toward a nearby bed, but she was frozen with terror. Come on. Move. MOVE. Please move.
Swing. Swing. Push. Swing. Smash.
Thump-Thump. Thump-Thump.
The main door swelled under the pounding pressure.
Swing. Thump-Thump. Swing. Smash. Thump. Thump. CRACK.
The door burst into pieces. Scuffled footsteps poured into the interior.
Ann could hear the zed's heavy breathing on the other side of the crates. She squeezed her eyes closed, petrified with fear. The zed stalked closer and closer. Her heart was pounding so hard she could hardly take a breadth.
Weston dashed in through the main entrance and yelled at the top of his lungs, "HEY!" Several zeds turned and shambled full speed in his direction.
Swing. Swing. Smash. Brains splattered across the room, drenching the nearby crates in a chunky, dark ooze.
Weston bolted back outside. Ann could hear Weston continuing to yell frantically.
"OVER HERE!"
"Hey"
"over here"
"..."
""
The chorus of undead snarls faded toward the sound of Weston's voice.
Then silence.
= = =
Ann sat alone under the table, still too afraid to cry. Weston usually said the same thing every time he left: stay right there, be quite, and I'll be back before sunset.
Night had fallen. Ann knew Weston wasn't coming back. A slight breeze echoed through the open doors. What have I done? She leaned her head on the crate next to her and a tear ran down her cheek. I'm so useless.
She was exhausted, and so tired. So desperately, inhumanly tired. She closed her eyes, not able to stay awake any longer. So what if this is how I die?
I deserve it.
= = =
Weston returned in the morning and found Ann hiding under the table. "How did you get under here?" he said gently while reaching down to pick her up.
"Fine," Weston said to himself, carefully placing the doll in his satchel.