#when they fly they take the shape of a triangle and look like a jet

[chimeride]

Seere, the 225th Known One.

“The Seventieth Spirit is Seere, Sear, or Seir. He is a Mighty Prince, and Powerful, under AMAYMON, King of the East. He appeareth in the Form of a Beautiful Man, riding upon a Winged Horse. His Office is to go and come ; and to bring abundance of things to pass on a sudden, and to carry or recarry anything whither thou wouldest have it to go, or whence thou wouldest have it from. He can pass over the whole Earth in the twinkling of an Eye. He giveth a True relation of all sorts of Theft, and of Treasure hid, and of many other things. He is of an indifferent Good Nature, and is willing to do anything which the Exorcist desireth. He governeth 26 Legions of Spirits. And this his Seal is to be worn (...)” - Ars Goetia

#jet flesh pegasus #if you look closely the human head is hidden in the neck #oh and the rider is fused into the mount like a flesh armor #chess #knight #when they fly they take the shape of a triangle and look like a jet #demon #Ars Goetia #occult #horse #narwhal #chicken #human #the Known Ones #chimera #creature design #monster #bestiary #ink #Seere #Sear #Seir #900 #octem 113 #aqva 4

[stormikins]

WIP Whenever

It might not be wednesday or the fourth but it is sith thrusday sooo here’s a very rough draft of my Jedi and clone oc getting into a sith temple

@chronic-ghost heres a snippet cause i really want to share smth with you and thank you for encouraging me with this!

At the beginning of their hike, he had noticed lots of different animals and avian species. The avian especially were loud with their shrieks and calls. He spotted numerous flocks and individuals flying around and animals scurrying up the planet’s trees.

 But as they get closer to their destination, the fauna becomes less apparent, the flora starts to get duller. It’s to the point where when they finally get to the temple, there’s no animals, no sound expect the wind. The flora is drooping, and dull, looking old and worn.

 The plants closest to the temple are dead.  

The temple seems to be in a cliff face. There’s a large triangle cutout, all straight lines and the cave leading into darkness. There’s two triangular pyramids on either side of the entrance jutting out from the cliff face. Text is engraved on the bases of them.

 The closer they get to the cave the more he feels something pressing against him. Likes it’s urging him closer and yet away at the same time, something surrounding him. Unease spikes throughout Blink, and he feels liked he’s trudging through mud.

 Tade only stops to look at the engraved text, crouching down to read it.

 “What does it say?”

 She shakes her head as she stands. “Nothing nice. Just a warning to stay away.”

 “A warning we’ll ignore.”

 She smiles as she walks past him, into the cave. “Of course.”

 He flicks on his helmet lights and Tade ignites her lightsaber, filling the space with its humming. It’s then that he realizes it was completely silent. He couldn’t hear the wind anymore. He scuffs his boot along the floor and takes pleasure in finding that he can hear that.

 The stone is still the same as the cliff face. There are carvings etched into the walls, murals of battles it looks like. He can recognize the lightsabers the people wield and there are many different… beasts. He hopes they aren’t in this temple because one of them looks like it can swallow him whole.

 Tade notices his staring.

 “They’re most likely depicting the people who built this temple. And their affiliates if they had any.” Tade stops to look at a scene. There’s two people who appear the most, the sith of this temple he supposes, fighting an army. And winning. “Hmm, this might be the battle of Egul.”

 “Egul?” He repeats.

 “Yes, on planet Aikroth. The sith wanted the mine for its kyber and the occupants fought them. The sith won.”

 They move on after Tade’s impromptu history lesson. The cave starts to slope but retains its triangular shape. There’s light ahead and when they reach it there’s a small platform extending into an enormous cavern in the mountain. He flicks off his helmet lights and Tade clips her saber back to her belt. There's a whole in the top of the mountain, allowing sunlight to shine through.

 In the middle of the cavern, is the temple, sitting on a natural platform. The ziggurat is large and made of black material. It’s imposing and the pressure has only built the close they’ve gotten deeper.

 Tade hasn’t shown any symptoms of the feeling, but given what she’s told him, she would be used to foreboding feelings.

 There’s no bridge, but there’s large pillars at the same level as the platform they’re on. There’s a dozen of them, spread out like stepping stones, albeit very far apart. Too far for him. He sighs as he realizes he should have brought a jet pack.

 “Looks like that’s our way across,” Tade states.

 “How exactly?”

 “I believe I can make the jump but I’m gonna have to throw you across.”

 He takes that in for a moment. He hasn’t had a Jedi use the force on him before. Should be fun. “What do you need me to do?”

 “Every time I lift you, tense up. And don’t panic. You ready?” He takes a second to secure his gear before nodding to her.

 She lifts him.

 It’s like he’s back in zero-g training, floating and weightless. His stomach swoops and then he goes hurtling through the air. He almost whoops in excitement. Flying was always a fun time for him.

 He lands less than easy, hitting the pillar on his knees but he doesn’t care, a grin has made its way across its face. He doesn’t exactly like the fact that someone can just control him like that, but he has to admit that that was fun.

 “Sorry,” Tade’s voice sounds in his ear. He pushes himself up and turns to face her.

 “Don’t worry about it.”

 She doesn’t respond, and he watches as she takes a couple steps backward before running and leaping. She goes high in the air. Her robes flap and whip around with the force of it but the sight is… definitely something.

 Its then that he sees it though. She’s too short.

 “Tade!” He shouts, heart seizing. He flings himself to the edge of the pillar. She’s already too low so he can’t grab her as she goes crashing into the side of the pillar. She’s clinging on though, thank the force. He carefully ignores the fact she’s dangling above a dark pit.  

 “I’m okay,” she wheezes into her comm. She starts climbing. Once she’s close enough, he’s heaving her up and over the side. “Thanks.” They stand together and he just squeezes her forearm.

 “I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to land on it, not crash into it.”

 Tade huffs as she scowls at the next pillar. “It’s almost out of my reach. This was made for two people, remember? The dyad must have propelled each other across to the pillars.”

 “Are there going to be more things like this? Where both people have to use the force?” Her face just scrunches up further. So he’ll take that as he does. Yes.

 “Most likely. We’ll figure out a way. If I can go through buildings made for multiple people, we can do this.” She claps his shoulder, hand on his pauldron. We.

 “You gonna be able to make it to the others?”

 “Yes. You ready?”

 “You bet.”

 He feels better this time around. He equates it to piloting a jet back but all he has to worry about is landing. This landing is better than the first, only stumbling instead of falling.

 Tade manages to go higher this time. Instead of going as low as she was before, she's higher up, clinging to the side. Thankfully she’s already close enough for him to grab her.

 They continue the process, her throwing him in the air and him pulling her up when she falls short.

 Soon enough, they reach the entrance. The feeling’s intense here, getting stronger but he can power through. It makes him grind his teeth. He can’t imagine how Tade is fairing. She’s got to be feeling the same thing as him, but is it worse for her? Can she feel something he can’t?

 “Once we go in, it won’t be easy to get out.” She looks at him, open and understanding. And he knows that if he turns back now she wouldn’t blame him.

 “If there’s one thing you need to know about me, General, it’s that I don’t back down.”

  The corner up her mouth lifts just a bit. “Good.” She heads up the ramp.

#star wars #my writing #jedi oc #clone trooper oc #is there not a lot of context here? yes #do i care rn? no

[wordtowords]

The Red Eye: Profit vs. Propriety

propriety - noun - condition of being right (morally) or fitting (Google).

I love to fly, or at least, I used to. I started being a passenger on commercial jet planes when I was about five. Believe it or not, I still remember portions of my initial, pseudo-Wright-brothers' entry into the skies as–like theirs–it was a tad traumatic. My family (my mother, father, sister, and I) were on a Pan Am Boeing 707 bound from New York's Idlewild (now JFK) to Bermuda. Being that we were a few thousand feet up from the Bermuda Triangle, we hit unexpected turbulence, which sent me searching for the "puke bag" located in the pocket of the seat in front of me. Not pretty. But fortunately, that's not all I recall about that flight. There were also a few positive attributes: models called "stewardesses" who knew the meaning of "customer service," meals that looked like TV dinners served with actual stainless steel utensils that my mother would pocket along with the plastic salt-and-pepper shakers, multiple magazines to read (not that I could, but there were always the photographs at which to gaze), blankets and pillows to get lost in after reclining what seemed like twelve inches back in the seat. There were no rollers shoved into overhead compartments, only hand-carried luggage stored below, and a lot more space between the rows–all for no extra charge (not that I was paying the fare anyway). In short, flying commercially in the early 1960s was a kind of free-floating-above-the-clouds heaven, perhaps reserved for those who could afford it.

Fast forward nearly sixty years. I still fly, but the experience isn't quite the same, thanks in part to People Express, a no-frills airline that sprang up in the 1980s that set the pace for all airlines today. Okay, granted, taking to the "friendly" skies is a lot less expensive today, yet the adage, "You only get what you pay for" pretty much says it all. Flying is trying, sort of like being stuffed in a crowded public school bus winging its way through the troposphere. Even beneath that image is the red eye, that last flight that departs after midnight and gets you to your destination at wee hours of the morning when you'd think the airport would be empty, but it's still packed with even more travelers who want to save a few more bucks by taking the first available planes out. Yikes!

If you can manage to sleep on a red eye, you have a rare talent that I envy. A week ago when I was forced to hightail it to Denver to take the red eye to Newark because I didn't want to pay the 1K roundtrip to hop on a more convenient nonstop from Bozeman to Newark at a decent hour (whew), I observed the body language of the passengers who were dozing, and it wasn't a pretty sight. In fact, if animals were forced to sleep in the same position, the Humane Society would be spending time in court with the airline industry. Since the seats no longer recline any more than an inch back in economy, adults of all shapes and sizes were and are forced to remain vertical, leaning forwards to press their heads against the hard plastic of the area above the tray tables, a pose far from comfortable or even proper.

Obviously, I could go on, but I think you already know the despicable fine points. In short, life in a capitalistic society like ours is not about propriety or anything close to comfort. It's all about profit. Sadly, the airlines are only thinking about how many bodies they can squeeze into each fuselage to generate the billions, not about how they can make the bodies feel like human beings, like the last bunch in the air used to. I can't help but feel that there has got to be a better, still profitable, yet decent way of delivering to the aloft public. Stepping back to the "good ole days" somehow in order to move forward might be a viable solution.

#word-to-words spilled thoughts vocabulary good advice personal essay vocabulary blogs blogging entertainment books literature slice of life

[thetourguidebarbie]

Ohh mini prompts? This came at the perfect time! I've been craving some Klaroline. Here's mine. Caroline's birthday starts with her waking up to Klaus showering her with kisses.

I’m trying to break my writer’s block this morning. I know it’s teeny but it’s a start and I hope you guys like it! ALSO WHY CAN’T I DO THE LINE SEPARATORS ANYMORE. WHAT THE FUCK TUMBLR.

------

Klaus was contemplating murdering his boss as he sat at the longest red light he’d ever experienced. The business trip was supposed to take a few days, but he’d ended up stranded at the Chicago airport because the flight home had been delayed for hours. He’d texted Caroline an apology, promising that he’d make their missed restaurant reservation up to her. He’d doubted she’d think it was a big deal and he’d been right, her returning text only lamenting that Delta sucked and that she would wait up for him.

He hoped she hadn’t. Her team had been working on a big project for weeks and she’d barely been getting enough rest as it was. It was almost four in the morning by the time he was unlocking their front door and trying to get his luggage inside as quietly as possible. He was relieved when she didn’t emerge from their bedroom, hoping that meant she was getting some rest. He peeked into their bedroom to check on her, satisfied when he saw a Caroline-shaped mass of blankets on the bed rising and falling slowly with her breathing. His back was still aching from the cramped airplane seats, and it wasn’t a hard decision to shower. The guilt grew worse when he saw one of her cocktail dresses hung on the bathroom door, clearly having been picked out for dinner before she’d gotten his text. The circumstances had been out of his control and it was a bit ridiculous to feel responsible, but he’d had the night planned for weeks, and it only made him more determined to make his absence up to her. 

He sent an email to Silas that he’d be working from home before crawling into bed beside his wife and tugging her close, pausing when he felt the soft silk beneath his fingers as opposed to the worn cotton henley he’d been expecting. 

He clearly hadn’t been the only one to have big plans.

He let himself sink into the mattress, burying his nose in her hair and falling asleep almost immediately. It felt like only a few seconds had passed when he woke up again, the combination of jet lag and Caroline’s very cold feet pressed against his leg likely both contributing to his abrupt return to the realm of the living.

Caroline had shifted during the night, her body pressed against his with the silk of her slip sliding across his chest and bunching up around her waist. She hummed softly when he moved next to her, mumbling his name when he pressed a soft kisses to her cheek and neck, his hand wandering down her side. “Good morning, love.”

“Hey,” she whispered, blinking at him, her eyes coming into focus. “Good morning.”

He grinned when she tried to suppress a yawn, giving up after a moment and burying her face in his shoulder, her body stretching before she settled back against him. “I missed you,” she said, her voice muffed, her lips moving against his skin sending a shiver down his spine.

“And I, you. I’m sorry I missed your birthday.”

“Don’t care,” she mumbled. “I know you’re big on them, but it’s just a day. You’re here now and you’re warm and you smell good.”

“Does that mean you don’t want your present?”

She jerked back, her eyes flying open almost comically, suddenly alert. “I never said that.”

“Careful or I’ll think you’re only with me for the gifts,” he teased, chuckling at her playful eyeroll.

“And your dimples,” she teased, leaning forward to press a soft kiss to his lips, her fingers lazily tracing the triangle inked on his back. “In all seriousness though, you give great presents. They’re totally your love language.”

“Are they?” he asked, blatantly fishing for compliments, and Caroline gave him a look that showed she knew exactly what he was doing.

“Not to give you a bigger head or anything, but yeah. Like, I love the presents, obviously, but really I love that you took the time to find the perfect thing. You put so much thought into them, even little things like flowers or surprises.”

He didn’t bother to hide his smug satisfaction at her admission, his fingers still playing with the lace bottom of her slip. “I’m pleased you like them.”

“Of course I do,” she said, glancing at their alarm clock before settling against him again, pressing her forehead against his, her hands wandering further down on his back. “But we still have an hour before you have to get up, and I’m not ready to get out of bed yet, even for presents.”

“I told Silas I was working from home today.”

She gave him an impish grin, her nails tracing the skin under the waistband of his boxer briefs. “Even better.”

#klaroline #klaroline drabbles #klaroline drabble #klaroline fanfiction #mydrabbles #anon #ask #answer

[shastelly]

City - March Klance Prompts from MonthlyKlance- Day 26

Day 26 – City (Part 1 of 2)

"This place gives me the creeps."

 "You've said that already, Lance."  Keith grumped.

 "Like five times already," Pidge added.

 "Well it does."  Lance whined. He felt like his skin was crawling and something was lurking around the next corner and bad things were coming and all of those other bad feeling clichés had wrapped up into a ball and splatted right into him.

 "It's an abandoned city, that stretches for miles, it gives all of us the creeps." Shiro sighed.  It was unnerving building after building after building of nothingness.  He didn't blame Lance for feeling off.

 "I'm right there with you, but please stop talking about it.  Talking about it is not making me feel better."  Hunk whispered.

 "Sorry, Hunk."  Lance felt another shiver go down his spine.  Someone or something was watching them.  They had come down to investigate a distress signal.  They'd loaded up in Green and Black and headed down.  There didn't seem to be a reason for all of the other lions and though Green was the best for doing scans, she was a little small and Black was big enough they could all comfortably ride along.  

 They found the distress signal embedded in a giant spire in the center of town, but apparently, they were a little late.  There was no one here.  It was weird, there weren't any bodies, there wasn't sign of a battle, just empty nothingness.  So now they were doing some snooping trying to figure out what had happened to the people who lived here.

 "They must have been about human sized.  See the steps and doors are all the right size for us."  Pidge commented.

 "The windows are triangles."  Keith frowned at the buildings and their oddly shaped eyes.

 "The buildings are made of something like concrete.  It's a mixture, there is some of the local stone mixed in it." Hunk commented.  "I don't see any cars, wonder if they walked everywhere or there was some kind of public transportation."

 "Or maybe they were just fast or maybe they flew."  Lance offered sharply, still uncomfortable.  "Either way they are gone.  How long are we going to stay here?"

 "Lance, if this is some new weapon of the Galra we need to understand what it was or what the tactic was or why all these people are gone."  Allura was watching from the castle.  She was saddened by the state of the planet. Empty places reminded her of what she had lost.

 "I am still not able to get any scans past the atmosphere."  Coran's voice spoke through the coms.  "At least it is not interfering with the communications."

 "I just don't see what else we are going to find here?"  Lance fidgeted.  

 "Maybe we'd find something in one of the houses?  Like a newspaper or something?  Or mabye a computer?"  Hunk offered.

 "What about like a government center or something?"  Keith tried.  "I mean the signal was just in that statue in the middle of town, but maybe there's some kind of office or something?"

 "All solid ideas lets split up and go check them out.  Pidge, you and I will start checking the residences.  Keith and Hunk search for some sort of government center or offices.  Lance…"

 "Shiro, I'd like to head up one of these tall buildings.  I can use the scope to keep an eye on things, see if there is anyone further out or just maybe avoiding us."  Lance thrummed his fingers against the sniper rifle that appeared in his hands.

 "Okay, Lance,” Shiro nodded.  He wasn't feeling quite as off as Lance, but he respected the kid’s instincts, and something was obviously bugging him.

 Lance entered the building of his choice.  It was about fifteen stories high and was one of the tallest in this part of the town.  The building was open in the center all the way up to a skylight.  There were balconies for each floor all around the edge. He shrugged and activated his jet pack, using it to jump up from balcony to balcony until he reached the top. Stairs were overrated.  He smiled to himself.  He found a door that led to a ramp that went up and out onto a flat roof. The middle was glass, but the outer edges were covered in rooftop gardens, divided into little squares, probably one for each apartment below.  Lance walked the parameter and then picked a spot where he could see both Shiro and Pidge's area and Keith and Hunk's.  Lance made himself comfortable and started scanning the area.  The feeling of his skin crawling had slacked, but he still felt he had missed something, and he was worried.

 Two varga later he was beginning to think it was all just in his head.

 "Okay, so I'm still confused.  It looks like everything was situation normal and then just poof, gone.  No notes, no warnings, no hey something bad might happen, I haven't even found a conspiracy theory."  Hunk sighed.

 "We have not found any significant clues either.  It's strange. I mean they activated that signal."  Pidge hummed, worried.  

 "To just disappear, it's wrong." Allura spoke over the com.

 "Lance, anything?"  Shiro asked, looking up to the sky where Lance was somewhere above him in the building.

 "Nope." He popped the P at the end in frustration.

 "Alright, I'm calling this.  Time to head back to the Lions."  Shiro did not like leaving behind a mystery, but there was only so much they could do.

 "So, we call it Roanoke and pack up?"  Lance quipped.

 "Roa…what?" Allura asked.

 "Ancient earth history.  It was a colony that all the people disappeared from there.  No one ever figured out what happened to them." Keith answered.

 "Keith got a reference?" Lance's smirk could be heard in his voice.

 "I know stuff."  Keith defended.

 "Keith knows stuff."  Pidge defended.  "Weird history, conspiracy theories, mothman, bigfoot…"

 "Just stop helping Pidge."  Keith huffed.

 "Shiro, I'm going to hang up here until you guys get to the lions."  Lance announced.

 "Okay, Lance."  Shiro didn't think there was any reason to worry.  

 They were nearly back to the Lions when it all went sideways.

 "Paladins! We have a Galra fleet incoming.  Three cruisers and fighters."  Coran called over the coms.  "I have the particle barrier up."

 "We can hold them until you get here, but please hurry."  Allura already sounded strained.

 "Double time, Paladins!  Lance move it."  Shiro yelled.

 Lance jumped up and ran to the stairs.  He took a flying leap from the top balcony and glided down to the ground floor with his jet pack.  He bent his knees and landed a little roughly putting his hands down to stabilize himself. He shrieked when he felt something touch his back.

 "Lance?!"  Keith and Shiro yelled for him.

 He spun around pulling his bayard up level as he did and came face to face with a small creature.  It was about three feet tall with blue feathers and a beak.  Its eyes were wide and intelligent.  Its legs were human like, but it had wings and arms.  It was wearing a soft pink shift and that's were Lance decided to shift to they and not it, because this clearly wasn't an animal.

 "Hey, there."  Lance lowered the bayard and stretched out a hand.  "Hi. I'm Lance."

 "Are you leaving?" The bird person chirped at him.

 "Yeah. We were leaving."  Lance spoke softly, the person before him seemed frightened.

 "Will you take us with you?  We are afraid."  Two big tears rolled out of their eyes.

 "Okay, who are you?"  Lance asked quietly.

 "Trill, I am the oldest of us.  We don't know why everyone left us behind.  We are afraid."  Their little body had started shaking.

 "Who left you?" Lance frowned.

 "Mommy and Daddy and everyone.  We were in our day place, where we stayed when they worked, but then something happened, and they were all gone, and we were alone.  We don't have any more food and we are hungry."

 "Lance are you okay?"  Keith demanded.

 "Yeah, but you guys head up without me.  I've found some natives.  I need to get them somewhere safe."

 "Lance, we need you in Blue, they can wait until we return."  Allura responded sharply.

 "Allura, they're kids."  Lance corrected.  He was not just leaving them here.

 "There are only three cruisers we can take them."  Keith stated confidently.

 "Alright, as soon as Shiro drops Keith and Hunk at the castle, Coran will come down to you with a pod to load up the children.  How many are there?"  Allura asked.

 "Um…Trill, how many of you are there?" Lance turned back to the child.

 "This many."  Trill held up ten fingers and four feathers, "Oh wait, I forgot me."  They added a fifth feather.

 "Fifteen Allura, and Trill said they were the oldest and they are only about three feet tall, so I don't think it will be an issue for the shuttle pod." Lance provided.

 Meanwhile with the lions…

 "Pidge, we need you to run interference while I take Keith and Hunk to their lions."  Shiro ordered.

 "On it. I have something new I've been wanting to give a good trial; this will be perfect."  Pidge rubbed her hands together with what Lance often called "evil glee".  

 "Sounds good Pidge, just be careful."  Shiro worried.  He flew toward the castle but kept his eyes on the Green Lion and her pilot.  Black knew where she was going.  

 The Green Lion cloaked and then suddenly reappeared on the other side of the ships approaching.  They turned to fire and the fighters moved to intercept, before they got there and before any shots hit, the Green Lion cloaked.  A couple of dobashes later she appeared in a completely different sector of space.

 "Pidge, either you've got some new holograms, or you've figured out how to fold space." Hunk laughed from behind Shiro, apparently, he had been watching over his shoulder.

 "You like them?" Pidge smiled.

 "Love them." Hunk answered.

 "Very nice work, Pidge."  Shiro commended.  Shiro hurried to the castle and barely stopped long enough for Hunk and Keith to exit Black before turning and heading back to help Pidge.

 "Guys, a contingent of fighters is headed toward the planet."  Pidge called out, unable to distract all of them at once.

 "I'm heading back,” Shiro called to her.  "Lance, get to cover, I'm not sure if I'll be able to pull them all back."

 "On it."  Lance turned back to Trill.  "So, is there somewhere safe you can go?  Some place strong?"

 "Why?"  The little bird creature's feathers fluffed out and they shook again.

 "There might be some trouble coming and we just want to keep you safe.  I'm a Paladin of Voltron and it's my job."

 Trill cocked their head to the side and chirped, "Okay.  There is a place where we would go for storms?"

 "That sounds perfect,” Lance smiled his approval and watched was the feathers smoothed themselves out again.  "Let's get the rest of you and go there now."

 Trill nodded and grabbed Lance's hand with his little one pulling him forward to a door. Inside there were fourteen more little bird creatures ranging from about a foot tall to nearly Trill's height. They were all sorts of bright colors - yellows, greens, blues, and reds were dominant.  

 "You are all beautiful."  Lance smiled. "I'm Lance.  I'm a Paladin of Voltron and with Trill's help we are going to take you somewhere safe."  Lance spoke carefully noting a lot of fluffed feathers and shaking in the room.  Some of them with cheeping like baby chicks and he wondered just how young they were.

 "We need to go to the storm shelter."  Trill announced confidently.  Their little head nodding to several in the room.  They moved to pick up the smallest, a little red bird. "Lance, could you carry Trex and Ywella?"  Trill brushed a wing across two smaller yellow birds.  "They don't walk well yet.  Everyone else can walk."  Trill noted proudly.

 "I can do that."  Lance smiled gently at the two shaking babies and gently lifted them.  They were so light it felt like he wasn't caring anything at all, definitely lighter than a human baby that size would have been.  "Okay Trill, lead the way."

 They moved out of the building and down the street.  Trill said it was only a few moments walk ahead.  Lance didn't know how long a moment was on this planet, but hoped it wasn't too long.

 "Lance, how's it going?"

 "We are moving to the shelter."  Lance responded.

 "There are still two fighters in bound, hurry."  Shiro warned.

 "Okay."  Lance looked back over his shoulder, practically expecting to see the fighters there already, but it would take them a little longer to reach them, that was if they even knew to look for them or where just scanning the planet to see why Voltron had been down there.

 Trill chirped up ahead and Lance saw him pointing down.  As he got closer, he could see a metal hatch of some sort embedded into the concrete surface.  Lance set the little ones down and went to open the door, it was heavy and he had to strain, but he managed to get it flipped open, dropping it rather ungracefully to the ground, thankfully everyone was out of the way and it was on hinges.  He looked down into the hole and was surprised to see it set up very much like the building he had been in earlier, an open area down the middle with balconies all around.

 Trill made some sort of sound and about ten of the other bird children started flapping their wings and jumped into the hole, gliding down to land on the third floor down.  He did not see any stairs.  He hoped his jet pack could handle it.  He looked back to the five remaining.

 "These can't fly."  Trill noted. "I can carry the three smallest, but these are too big for me."  The two in question ruffled green and red feathers and made a sad little chirp sound that was almost apologetic.

 "Okay, Trill, go ahead and take the littlest one there first and I will wait up here, okay?"  Lance pulled his bayard and watched the sky as Trill made his first trip.  He didn't have too much trouble, though he had to flap hard to get back up.  Lance again worried about how young these creatures were.  

 "I need to catch my breath."  Trill announced when he reached the top.

 "Then I will take these two."  Lance gathered the two, in question, "What are your names?"  He asked.

 "Brew." Chirped the green one.  

 "Pip." He barely heard squeak from the red one.

 "Alright, Brew and Pip.  Hold on. I have to use one hand to control my jet pack and it might not be as nice a ride as flying with wings, but I'll try."  The two nodded and settled under his right arm.  He jumped into the hole and activated the pack just before the landing he wanted.  It was a little jerky and the little ones squawked in alarm.  Pip actually managed to claw him a little, but it wasn't bad. He got his feet under him and sat them down apologizing.  They cooed at him and Pip brushed a wing up against the scratches they had left that had torn into his under armor.   The other children took the two, literally under wing and he jumped out and fired the pack again heading to the top.

 "Trill, you ready?"  Trill nodded and picked up Trex before moving down into the bunker.

 Lance was watching him land when the sound of the Galra fighters approaching reached his ears.  He knelt down and pulled Ywella behind him to watch for the fighters out of his scope.  

 "Trill, sorry to rush you, but we need to hurry, can one of the older ones get Ywella?"  Lance called down.  He watched the fighters approach, they weren't firing yet and buzzed overhead before turning sharply and heading back there way.  It was unlikely that they weren't spotted being out in the open like this.

 A little green bird child appeared at the top along with another blue one.  Between the two of them they grabbed Ywella and awkwardly dove back into the bunker.  They chirped and squawked, but Lance heard Trill talking to them and offering support and they yelled up when they had landed safely.

 "Everyone back away into a safe room."  Lance yelled.  When the first fighter took a shot, he knew they'd been spotted.  He fired back, moving to the door.  He had to drop the rifle to get the door lifted, but once it was far enough over, he just let it fall, grabbing the rifle again and shooting off more rounds.  He managed to wing one of the fighters and it wobbled off course, pulling up and away, but the other barreled toward him.  He fired and moved, trying to draw the attack away from the bunker and find shelter for himself.  The fighter and its blasts followed him.  He ran to one of the surrounding buildings and dove forward around a corner as the warmth from a too close hit lit up his back.

 "Quiznak."  Lance peered around the corner and waited for the fighter to make a return, but it didn't. In fact, he didn't hear it at all anymore.

 "Lance, what's going on down there."  Keith's voice interrupted his thoughts.

 "I have the kids in a bunker.  There were two fighters, I winged one, but now they've both disappeared.  I don't know if they landed somewhere or just took off."

 "Why aren't you in the bunker?"  Keith snapped.

 "Wasn't time.  I'm going there now.  I'm not sure how good the signal is going to be from down there, so I'm sending you the coordinates."  

 "Okay, be careful, if you have Galra on foot and they saw the bunker…" Keith paused.

 "I know. They'll be coming.  I think I can set up a pretty good spot to cover the door once I'm down there.  Just don't take too long, huh?" Lance chuckled a little nervously.

 "We're doing our best."  Pidge's voice cut across the conversation.  "Keith, focus, we need Red over here."

 "On it."  

 "Be safe, Lance."  Hunk called, though the noises in the background indicated clear distraction.

 "Lance, Coran can't get through with the pod.  There are too many fighters and the pod just doesn't have the maneuverability to avoid them."  Allura apologized.

 "I get it, we're good for now."  Lance managed to get the door opened and through a sweat inducing, muscle straining feet of acrobatics and jet pack usage, pulled the door closed behind him as he entered the bunker.  He could hear the children below chirping quietly.  

 "Guys?"  Lance tried the com.  "Keith?"  No answer just static.  Lance sighed and began preparation to guard his position.

 On the other side of the town the second fighter lander next to the downed first. The Galra soldiers climbed out and waited for the undamaged droids that had been aboard to join them.  

 "Commander?"

 "Report."

 "One fighter damaged, but we spotted a Paladin and at least one Braxarian."

 "Are you sure?!"  The Commander's voice nearly echoed it was so loud.

 "Yes, they are hard to miss."

 "I need them.  Capture and bring every single one of them to me!"

 "And the Paladin?"

 "Bring him if you can, if not eliminate the threat.  He will not stop me from getting my prize.  Are you orders clear?"

 "Yes sir, vrepit Sa!"

 "Vrepit Sa!"

 To be continued in Day 27 MAGIC

#monthlyklance #monthlyklance march 2019 #klance

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Exclusive excerpt of Rudy Rucker's new novel: Million Mile Road Trip

Rudy Rucker's 23rd novel is out today! It's called Million Mile Road Trip. Rudy is one of my all-time favorite authors and he has kindly given me permission to run an excerpt here.

“Stratocast”

An Excerpt from Million Mile Road Trip

by Rudy Rucker

[email protected]

2,300 Words

April 22, 2019

==========

Villy’s brother Scud and the Szep alien Pinchley are in front seat of the highly modified car that they call the purple whale. Zoe and Villy are in back.

Villy’s two-thirds-size Flying Vee guitar is alive. Basically the instrument is a female alien. She stretches her neck so she can nuzzle Zoe’s black guitar, who is male. The instruments chime softly to each other. Villy thinks of them as a pair of race horses that he and Zoe are about to ride.

“Or magic broomsticks,” says Zoe inside Villy’s head. The guitars seem to be giving them telepathy.

Scud uses his powers to levitate the purple whale high into the air. Pinchley guns the engine—and nothing whatsoever happens. Oh, right, the gigundo tires are spinning in empty air.

“You’ll do that stratocast thing now?” says Scud. “Is that the word?”

Zoe stares into Villy’s eyes. She looks zonky and vamp. Like a goth rocker. They poise fingers on their frets. Each of them holds a triangle of seashell for a pick. Zoe nods her head once and: Zam deedle squee.

In her head, Zoe’s leading the way, sailing the sonic sea, and Villy’s close behind. The two of them do a virtual dance in music-space, orbiting each other like strands of DNA, growing a heaven-tree of sound. Sweet. Villy didn’t know Zoe could play guitar like this. But, um, the car’s still not moving. It’s just floating there.

Zoe breaks off, embarrassed, and begins tuning her guitar, or trying to, except that it doesn’t actually have tuning pegs. The car hangs in the air like a ripe fruit, very slowly drifting forward.

So now Villy and Zoe eat some of their curiously energizing caraway seeds, pretty much a whole teaspoon of them apiece, crunching the seeds with their back molars. Villy definitely feels a lift. He sees colored shapes from the corners of his eyes. Like virtual pastel caraways. When he turns his head, the quick bright crescents scoot out of sight. They’re hella shy.

“I see the colored things too,” says Zoe. “Smeel boomerangs. We’ll chase them with our notes. Stratocast a goblin march.”

“That’s not science,” says pedantic kid brother Scud.

“Shut your crack,” snaps Villy.

Zoe strikes a fresh chord. She goes for a bluesy beat, a cycling rhythm beneath jai-alai scribbles of smeely grace notes. Villy gets into it as well, gazing towards the horizon as he plays. In his peripheral vision the smeel crescents creep forward. They’re like frail, lace-winged insects edging the cones of his eyebeam headlights. He gooses them with pecks of his pick.

So, yaaar, Villy and Zoe are playing at a new level now, into the flow, elaborating riffs like logical syllogisms, and where the hell is Villy getting words like this.

The purple whale begins moving. Slow, then fast, borne upon the stratocast of sound. They rush across the Jell-O-salad expanse of the Harmony basin, swifter than a strafing jet. At the wheel, pilot Pinchley tweaks their path, trimming the flaps, sloping a route that crosses the basin’s far border much sooner than seems possible. Scud levitates for all he’s worth, barely making it above the ridge between Harmony and the next basin.

“Close shave,” goes Scud. “Those mountains came up fast.”

“Hundred thousand miles per,” gloats alien Pinchley, talking like a hillbilly the way he likes to do. “Make some noise, Zoe-Villy. This new basin is called Wristwatch, I do recall.”

Villy peers down, putting his guitar fingers into a reptile-brain ostinato mode. The Wristwatch basin is cogs and gears, a vast array of them, slowly turning, with levers and springy coils and, weirdly, big patches of honey here and there, clogging up the works. Ants in the soft honey, timekeeper ants. How can Villy be seeing such tiny details with them careening past so fast?

“Frog tongue eyebeam,” goes Zoe. She looks very cryp and glam, with glowons highlighting the outlines of her far-gone face. She’s playing Coptic seven-tone crescendos, accompanied by teep images of, like, jackal-headed gods marching into a pharaoh’s tomb, and semi-unwrapped mummy-girls shaking their booties beside the curly purling of the river Nile.

Villy harmonizes, making a sound like the argle-bargle of man-eating crocs. As he plays, he comes to understand what Zoe’s remark meant. That is, even though they’re topping a thousand miles a minute, it’s possible, what with their caraway-seed-enhanced mental powers, to shoot out an eyebeam quick as a frog’s bug-catching tongue, and to leave your eyebeam in place for a few secs, and thereby to vacuum up a mini video of what is/was happening there. Frog tongue eyebeam, yes.

Goofing on the Wristwatch basin, Villy notices independent little batches of cogs and worm-gears bustling around on their own, rooting at the planetary timepiece and prying off toothsome wheels to take unto themselves. For its part, the basin-wide master-clock is of course eating as many of the ticking freebooter assemblages as it can—sometimes trapping them in the ants’ honey-ponds.

Lots of time down there. And then the time’s up. They squeak over another ridge.

“Cuttle Scuttle Swamp,” intones Pinchley.

A flying cuttlefish thuds against the grill of the car, sending them into a wrenching 3D tumble. They’re in danger of blacking out from the centrifugal gees. Zoe bears down on her guitar and gets into feedback mode. The internal amp drives the strings that drive the amp that drives the strings—a jitter of skronks and wheenks. Dark energy on parade. Somehow the way-sick bleat sets their yawing vessel aright. Thank you, primordial chaos.

Scud in the front seat has become wary. Looking far ahead, he zaps the next incoming cuttlefish before it arrives. Not that the cuttlefish are attacking them, per se. They’re into some intramural scene of their own. A civil war?

Two populations of cuttlefish inhabit Cuttle Scuttle Swamp: red ones and green ones. The red ones fly, beating their skirt-fins, and the green ones disport themselves in the shallow, smeely waters. The air cuttles dive down at the water cuttles, and the water cuttles power themselves into the air like breaching manatees. When two cuttles collide, they tangle their tentacles and—are they biting each other?

“Making love,” says Zoe, and she segues her solo into a steamy, insinuating beat. “Gettin’ down. Like you and me, Villy.”

Villy crafts a squalid bass line to match Zoe’s mood. He’s never played this well. Basins flit past. For half an hour, he and Zoe are fully zoned into the stratocast. And then they happen to notice the landscape again.

“Gold Bug basin,” goes Pinchley. The dude has the whole sector mapped inside his head.

Shiny black beetles are excavating galleries and crafting lacy mounds. Beetles like the living cars of the Van Cott streets, but less citified. More tribal. Their antennae bear rows of sideways branches. The beetles fart explosive gas to help with their excavations. Ftoom. They’re digging for lumps of gold. A midnight-blue beetle displays a large nugget in triumphant mandibles. Villy’s focus twitches forward from the prize nugget to the next highlight—a crater filled with dome-backed beetles waving their fringed June-bug antennae and worshipping a golden beetle-god the size of a blimp. Glowons add to the graven idol’s luster.

The appreciative Villy and Zoe glide into a shimmering musical fantasia of lush flourishes. Scud torques the car up over the beetle basin’s onrushing ridge. Pinchley trims their onward course. The four travelers take a feral pleasure in their phantasmagoric speed. More basins and more.

“How do you know which direction to go?” Scud asks Pinchley.

“Thar she blows,” goes the Szep. “See the plume out yonder?”

Villy slits his eyes in order to do a mental zoom—and he’s able to see a downy upright feather on the far horizon, a thunderhead of clouds that must tower a thousand miles high.

“The cloud over Szep City,” says Pinchley. “That’s the one we call Sky Castle. You’ll go there later. But for now, here comes the li’l ole basin that we call Funky Broadway.”

Zoe chimes a downward arpeggio, and Villy stays in teepful sync. Funky Broadway is a world of living cities, blocky hives trundling across a fruited plain. The cities are inhabited by races of monkeys. Here and there pairs of cities batten onto each other. Their primate passengers clamber from one metropolis to the other. Ape-men brandish exquisite works of art in offer for trade—only to be taken prisoner by brutal lower orders who feed the unfortunate captives into meat-grinder gear-trains embedded in the lowest foundations of the towns.

Zoe plays the sounds of stabbing cries, and Villy styles moony evocations of wasted lives. A heart-searing duet. And that’s just a start. Zoe and Villy lose themselves in ever-richer stratocast harmonies, sailing across more basins and more.

“Paramecium Pond.”

It’s a five-thousand-mile puddle that is a luminous shade of yellow-green, vibrant with algae, shiny with microorgasmic tides. Paramecia, amoeba, volvoxes, rotifers—teeming, breeding, and consuming their fellows when they can.

“An octillion in all,” says science-boy Scud. There’s quite the teepy vibe inside the car by now, what with the living Harmon guitars, the saucer pearl, the kids’ mental acrobatics, and Pinchley’s off-kilter state.

As they fly above Paramecium Pond, Zoe and Villy spin a sludgy mat of notes—a recursive musical fugue. Right about now the microorganisms’ population count seems to be dropping at a logarithmic rate. The individual cells are eating each other and getting bigger—like rivals climbing up through the brackets of a tournament tree. A mere billion of them remain. A thousand. A hundred. And then—but one. A paramecium the size of a continent.

The slimy titan lolls in the planetary pond. A plutocrat in a bathtub. Suddenly the glowing waters slosh. Something’s wrong? A dark spot has appeared upon the tyrant’s ciliated pellicle hide. A raging infection, a rogue colony of his erstwhile lower companions. The master paramecium springs a leak and—pop—he’s back to square one. An octillion rivals in a planetary pool of goo.

Inspired by the scene, Zoe and Villy craft a bombastic rock anthem. More and more worlds strobe past.

Trumpeting the thousand names of the alien god Goob-goob, elephants carry smaller elephants to and fro, building elephantine mounds that stretch into the sky. Pinchley steers among the wobbly columns, and, where necessary, Scud zaps a grabby trunk.

Milk-spurting udders flop in high green grass. Towering flowers chide the udders in snobby British accents. Vines sprout floating cucumbers like miniature zeppelins. Tiny uniformed airmen gather on the taut hulls to dance hornpipe jigs.

Mermen and sirens loll beside a glassy black sea. Loch Ness monsters ply the inky waters, their heads like prows of Viking ships.

A sky full of barking dogs, with a suburban grid of doghouses below. Sinister rabbits slink from doghouse to doghouse eating puppies, quite heedless of the fruitful carrot patches in the doghouse yards.

Wee gnomes juggle bristly ogres in the air. Steaming cauldrons of porridge await. The ogres dwindle to raisins in the mush.

Flying jellyfish carry shrimp-people. The treacherous shrimps set the jellies to lashing each other with stinging strands. Beneath the fray, striped sea snails cheer and toss bouquets to the shrimp.

Hopeful pigs join snouts in pairs, disk to disk. They spin upwards like helicopters, shedding rashers of bacon that settle onto slippery, overcrowded streets.

Hippos in a basin of braided rivers that cascade from the cliffs along the basin’s edge. Flying bales of alfalfa appear. The hippos roar in joy, showing stubby peg-like teeth.

A herd of sinister eyeballs rolls across a plain, forever watching a commanding central figure who feeds upon attention.

All along they’ve been moving in parallel to Groon’s jet stream. If Villy squints his eyes, he can make out the steady flow of saucers within. The Szep City cloud called Sky Castle is no longer so impossibly far. Onward.

Zoe and Villy stratocast the purple whale across a watery basin rife with whirlpools that split and merge. Above the sea, tornadoes fill the misty air, as if mirroring the maelstroms below. Small, isolated thunderheads scud among the tornadoes, exchanging lightning bolts like phrases in a ceaseless conversation.

In the next basin, crystals sprout like hoarfrost ferns, then snap loose and tumble, transforming themselves like shards in a kaleidoscope. Arpeggios ring from the crystals, rising towards an elusive climax. Zoe’s and Villy’s rhythms push the swelling harmony over the edge. The crystals shatter into specks that spring into the sky.

And now comes a basin that’s entirely filled by a single, planet-sized human corpse. Pygmies and homunculi feast upon it, like fiddler crabs on a dead dolphin.

Gray light, a drizzle of steady rain. Fish walk on pairs of legs. Chickens in mortarboards declaim from ladders.

Crawling naked brains play cards and promenade in patterns. A supernal book of wisdom takes shape amid the brains. Living pairs of scissors dart forward and snip the book’s pages to confetti.

“One last basin before Szep City,” says Pinchley. “The Pit. It’s like a deep well with Groon at the bottom.” The dark Pit’s walls are vertical, like the vent of a volcano. The jet stream they’ve been tracking—it makes a turn here and dives into the Pit. A wailing drone sounds from the abyss.

Pinchley pumps his arms as if he’s dancing a jig. “Groon’s music,” he says. “He’s a giant bagpipe. Levitate your ass off, Scud. No way we want to be sucked to the bottom of the Pit or, worse than that, end up inside Groon’s sack.”

Naturally, life being the way it is, the purple whale ends up in a downward death spiral around a whirlwind that runs into the Pit. It’s like they’re moths around a flame, or kids around an ice cream stand, or hayseeds around a county fair burlesque show.

========

Get Million Mile Road Trip at www.rudyrucker.com/millionmileroadtrip

https://boingboing.net/2019/05/07/exclusive-excerpt-of-rudy-ruck.html

[leiascully]

Fic:  Between A Rock And A Hard Place (Part Two)

Timeline: Season 10 (replaces My Struggle in the All The Choices We’ve Made ‘verse - Visitor + Resident + etc.) Rating: PG Characters:  Mulder, Scully, Tad O’Malley, Sveta (established MSR) Content warning:  canon-typical body horror (mentions of abduction, forced pregnancy, etc.) A/N:  I’m collecting all the related stories that go with Visitor/Resident under the title “All The Choices We’ve Made”, because it felt right at the time.  This story is an alternate My Struggle that reflects M&S’ growth/change in the ATCWM ‘verse. I’m weaving canon dialogue into the stories in an attempt to keep the reframing plausibly in line with canon.  

Part One  

In the morning, Mulder texts Skinner:  "We're in."  They get a call ten minutes later, while they're lingering over their coffee.  

"You're on speaker," Mulder tells Skinner, putting the phone on the table between them.

"You've been excused from your regular duties today," Skinner says gruffly.  "You will meet Mr. O'Malley on Pennsylvania Avenue at 10 a.m. near the National Gallery of Art.  He'll provide transportation offsite to meet the subject."

They exchange looks over the table.

"Sounds a little cloak and dagger," Mulder says.

"Mr. O'Malley insists on taking precautions," Skinner says.  

"At least he doesn't seem likely to blow up the car while we're in it," Scully murmurs.  

"Don't judge a talk show host by his cover," Mulder murmurs back.

"Agents?" Skinner says, just a touch of tension in his voice.  He is probably being watched.  They are always being watched.  Pressure comes from the top and Skinner, Atlas-like, has borne the brunt of it so that they could dart between the shadows, bringing light to the darkness.

"We'll be there," Mulder says, and ends the call.  He leans back in his chair.  "What's the dress code for subterfuge?"

"I doubt it's black tie," Scully says.  "I'm still wearing a suit."

"Come on, Scully, we're out of the office," he teases.  "You've got an opportunity to break out the leather pants and the badass jacket."

She raises an eyebrow at him.  "I was saving those for your birthday."

"That's better," he says immediately.  

"I thought you'd think so," she tells him.

They're at the appointed place at the appointed time.  Mulder squints through his sunglasses up and down the street.  "Tad O'Malley isn't very prompt."

"I imagine he's the sort of man who likes to make an entrance," Scully says, crossing her arms.

"What do you mean by that?" Mulder teases.  "You thinking of anyone in particular?"

"Of course not," Scully demurs with a smile.  She glances toward the Capitol.  "You know, Mulder, I hate to admit it, but something about this feels good."  She looks at him.  "Most of it feels like we're being taken for a ride, but part of me welcomes this."

"I know what you mean," he says.  

She sighs.  "Something else to discuss in therapy."

"The thrill of the chase is real, Scully," he says.  "You can't blame your brain for enjoying the rush."

"I know," she says.  "I just thought I'd...outgrown it, maybe."

"All the more reason some part of you craves it," he says.  "Recapturing our misspent youth."

"I don't want to be most comfortable with my back against the wall," she says wryly.  "And yet, here we are."

"With your back against the wall, you always know where you stand," he says, and a black limousine pulls up to the curb.  The door opens and Tad O'Malley unfolds himself from the back seat.  He's tall, even taller than he looked on television, and dressed like he's heading to a conference where he's the keynote speaker.  Scully in her suit looks perfectly appropriate next to him.  She shoots Mulder the tiniest smirk.  He straightens his shoulders under his jacket and extends his hand.

"Fox Mulder," O'Malley says warmly, shaking Mulder's hand.

"That's quite a coincidence - that's my name," Mulder says just as warmly.  "What are the odds?"

O'Malley makes a finger gun.  "They told me you were sharp."

Mulder shrugs pleasantly.  "It's a sharp world."

"Indeed it is," O'Malley says.  He shakes Scully's hand.  "Agent Scully."

"You make quite an entrance, Mr. O'Malley," she says.  

"She's shot men with less provocation," Mulder jokes.  

"Funny," O'Malley says.  

"Did they tell you I was funny?" Mulder asks.

"Of course," O'Malley says.  "A regular one-man show.  Join me for a little ride?"

Mulder exchanges sideways looks with Scully underneath their sunglasses.  He expected a show, but the limo is a bit much.  "Right here is fine.  I'm afraid I'm not dressed for a limousine."

"Allow me my small precautions," O'Malley says, gesturing to the open door of the car.  "Low-flying aircraft often use what they call 'dirtboxes' to record conversations that I would prefer stayed private."

Mulder glances at the sky.  There's a kid with a kite and the faraway glint of a commercial jet, but no drones, nothing hovering.  

"Aircraft employed by whom?" Scully asks, arms still crossed.  She leans back slightly on her heels.  Mulder can see the glint of her ring on her left hand where it's tucked under her right arm.  He wondered if she'd wear it.  

"I'm afraid I can only speculate," O'Malley says, as pleasantly as if they'd asked him what the weather was or whether the Cubs would win the World Series.  "Shall we?"

He folds himself back into the car.  Scully shrugs imperceptibly, looking at Mulder, and they follow O'Malley in, taking off their sunglasses.   The interior of the car is dark, the windows tinted probably beyond the legal limit.  The partition is up between the driver and the passenger compartment, but even if it's two against three, Mulder likes those odds.  He and Scully are strapped and they're scrappy.  They've handled worse than O'Malley.

The limo is suitably appointed, luxurious almost to the point of parody.  O'Malley reaches into a high hat full of ice and pulls out of a bottle of champagne, offering it to them like a maitre d'.    

"None for me, thanks," Mulder says.  "Scully?"

She shakes her head.  "Mr. O'Malley, your precautions would seem to imply that you have enemies."

"Not of my own choosing, Dana," O'Malley says, his teeth bright as he smiles.  He pops the cork and pours himself a glass of champagne.  "Truth tellers will always face opposition, as I'm sure you know.

She inclines her head in what might be a nod.  Mulder turns toward the window.  The old habits come back fast; he can sense her next to him, poised to act if necessary.  The city slides by outside and he presses the button to roll down the window.  Nothing happens.  

"Your windows are broken," he says.  "That's a shame.  It's a little stuffy in here."

"Oh, those don't roll down by design," O'Malley says, that salesman's grin still wide.  "I had the vehicle bulletproofed."

"Sure," Mulder says.   "All those gun-toting liberals in the Whole Foods parking lot.  What if there's a run on quinoa?"

"How can we help you, Mr. O'Malley?" Scully interrupts.

"I know the briefing you received was brief," O'Malley says, turning the charm on her again.  "I also know you've been out of the game a long time.  But I'm not some Johnny-come-lately to UFO-related phenomena.  I'm a true believer like yourselves."

Scully ducks her head.  "I wouldn't categorize myself as a true believer."

"Nor would I," Mulder says.  "I want to believe, but actual concrete proof has been strangely hard to come by.  Not that that matters much these days.  Anyone can claim to be an expert on the internet."

"Sometimes they even give you your own show," O'Malley says, still genial.  Mulder can feel the prickle of Scully's disapproval, but O'Malley rubs him the wrong way.  "I guarantee if you still ran the X-Files, you'd have a platform bigger than you can imagine."

"Perhaps," Scully says.  "But for better or for worse, Mr. O'Malley, those days are behind us.  We're off the paranormal beat, so to speak."

"I could give that all back to you," O'Malley says, leaning forward.  He's only looking at Scully now.  She gazes back, that enigmatic mask in place.    

"Mr. O'Malley, how does a man with your conservative credentials come to consider himself a true believer in UFOs and 9/11 false flag conspiracies?"

O'Malley turns away from Scully, but Mulder can tell he doesn't have the man's full attention.  "I take it you think my message is disingenuous?"

"Conspiracy sells," Mulder says.  "It didn't in the 90s, but it's a hot property now.  It pays for bulletproof limousines, among other things."

O'Malley's smile gets sharper.  "You think I do it for the ratings?"  

Mulder shrugs.  "I think you're The O'Reilly Factor with a shopworn little gimmick.  I think you're 4chan with a cable contract."

O'Malley snorts.  "What Bill O'Reilly knows about the truth could fill an eyedropper."

"At least we agree on that," Mulder says pleasantly.  

"Try me," O'Malley says.

Mulder taps one finger to his lip.  "The Kelly Cahill incident."

"Kelly Cahill and her husband were driving home in Victoria, Australia when a craft appeared overhead.  The Cahills lost an hour of time and Kelly was hospitalized with severe stomach pain after discovering a triangle-shaped mark near her navel," O'Malley recites.  "As I said, my interest is real.  What I need is your expertise."

"Our expertise for what?" Scully asks.

"I know what you've been through," O'Malley says.  "Both of you."

"With all due respect, Mr. O'Malley," Scully says deliberately, "I doubt that's true."

"You're right," he says.  "My apologies.  I've heard the rumors.  I've read the reports.  I used to subscribe to The Lone Gunmen.  Between your histories and your experience in law enforcement, you have the skills and knowledge I need."

"And why should we put those skills at your disposal?" Scully asks, ignoring the rest.  

O'Malley leans forward, the flute of champagne dangling from his fingers.  "I'm rattling some pretty big cages in the intelligence community, but I'm prepared to go all in.  I'm prepared to blow open maybe the most evil conspiracy the world has ever known."

"That's quite an assertion, given the history of the world," Scully returns cooly.  "What's stopping you from exposing this conspiracy?  I assume your following would support you."

"If I'm putting my ass out there, I need to know I've got backing I can depend on," O'Malley tells her.  "My viewers are with me, but like I said, these are big cages, and the players in them don't care about ratings.  They know how to make people disappear."

"So does David Blaine," Mulder murmurs.

O'Malley ignores him, still looking at Scully.  "I've got something to show you...and someone."

The limousine glides out of the city as they sit in silence.  O'Malley sips at his champagne and checks his phone.  Mulder and Scully glance at each other.  Mulder shrugs and takes out his own phone, scrolling through Twitter and checking his usual news sites.  Scully looks out the window.  After nearly four hours of turning onto increasingly narrow roads, the limo makes one last right onto a gravel path that reminds Mulder of the driveway of the house they lived in when they first moved back, before the case with the priest and the organ trafficking.  They might as well be going nowhere.  Google Maps tells him they're in or near Low Moor, although there's not any signal.  It's as good as he's going to get.  

The limo pulls to a stop outside a small dingy house and Mulder hears the locks release.  He opens the door and steps out, stretching.  He offers Scully a hand out.  She accepts it, surprising him, and slips her sunglasses back on.  

"Aliens couldn't find this place," she says, as if aliens didn't find Skyland Mountain.  "How did you, Mr. O'Malley?"

O'Malley smirks.  "A man in my position finds himself contacted by interesting strangers."

"I imagine that's true," Mulder murmurs, lurking at Scully's shoulder, in his best for-your-ears-only voice.  O'Malley can probably hear, but even in broad daylight, he's always felt like he and Scully have a back channel, code talkers communicating sub rosa.  They walk toward the house.  Mulder tries not to saunter like he's in a Western, strolling up to the local bar.  The door of the house swings open and he automatically reaches for his gun and stops himself.  He sees Scully flinch the same way.

"Everyone," O'Malley says in a self-important voice, "meet Sveta."

Sveta lingers just outside the doorway.  She is young and lovely, vulnerable-looking, her skin dark brown and her black hair falling around her face.  She looks at them as if she is not quite sure whether to bolt.  That's the usual attitude of the people they interview.  Mulder relaxes slightly.  She looks exactly like the person O'Malley might have chosen to be a smokescreen for his flimflam, but she's nervous too.  Somehow, that's a comfort.

"Sveta, this is Dana Scully and Fox Mulder," O'Malley says.  Everyone shakes hands.  Sveta's only tremble a little.  

"Hello," Sveta says formally.  Her voice doesn't shake.  She's got a Midwestern standard accent.  Not a lot of clues there.  "Welcome to my home."

"Sveta suggested I call you," O'Malley tells them, standing next to her.

"You probably don't recognize me," Sveta says, looking at Mulder.  "You interviewed me and my family when I was just a little girl.  Right after my first abduction."

"I'm sorry," Mulder says.  "I don't remember."

"We lost the majority of our files in a fire a number of years ago," Scully says.  "Yours might have been among them."

"It's all right," Sveta says.  "I'm sure you've been through a lot since then.  Please, come in."

Scully looks at Mulder and follows Sveta in.  Mulder follows her, his hand hovering near the small of her back.  O'Malley brings up the rear, closing the door.  Sveta pulls up her shirt.  There are six circular scars around her navel.  Scully leans forward.  

"May I?" she asks.

"Of course," Sveta says, and Scully peers closely at the marks.  "These are from over twenty years.  I've lost count of how many times I've been abducted."

"The scoop-mark scars are classic," O'Malley says.  "As I'm sure you know.  And then there are the memories implanted over actual memories to make the abductees forget."

"We call them screen memories," Sveta says.

"I'm familiar with the phenomenon," Scully says dryly.  She straightens up slowly.  

"Things come back to me sometimes," Sveta tells her, letting her shirt fall back over her stomach.  

"What kind of things?" Scully asks.  Mulder recognizes the gentleness in her voice.  It's the one she always saved for the times they had to interrogate children.  

"Tests," Sveta says in a small voice.  "Harvesting."  She gestures toward her pelvis.

"Harvesting your ova?" Scully asks.  

Sveta looks at O'Malley.  He nods.  "Yes," she says.  "They made me pregnant.  But they took the babies before they were born.  They tried to take the memories, but I remember.  I remember the lights.  I remember the way my body changed.  They do everything through here."  She points at the scars.  

"Tell them about your DNA, Sveta," O'Malley says in a hypnotic voice.

"I have alien DNA," Sveta says.  "For sure.  They take the babies out through here.  They put the DNA in."

Scully glances at Mulder.  "Have you had a doctor confirm that?"

"No," Sveta says.  "I couldn't be sure that any doctor I visited wasn't one of Them."  Mulder can hear the capital letter when she says it.  Them.  He used to talk the same way.  

"Is that something you could test, Scully?" he asks.

Scully stares at him.  He can sense her reticence.  There is something childlike about Sveta, for all that she's an adult.  One way or another, O'Malley is manipulating her.  They have sacrificed enough children to this quest.  He thinks back to the clones of his sister on the farm with the bees, the red-headed scientists in the facility where Scully's ova were stored.  Emily.  William.  Uncounted others.  

At last, Scully nods.  "I'll examine you myself, Sveta," she says.  "If that's all right."

"Thank you," Sveta says fervently, her hands clasped.  Mulder knows the light in her eyes.  Sveta, at least, is a true believer.  

#xfiles fic #xf alternate season 10 #the x-files fic #xfiles season 10 fic #mulder x scully #xf revival #my fic #atcwm verse

[indiatouristhelpdesk-blog]

40 Quirky Things to do in Mumbai

Mumbai, the fashion and financial capital of India, is truly the land where dreams attain fruition for many. A lot of people move to Mumbai with hopes of making it big or simply visit to enjoy a slice of city life. Mumbai definitely has something to offer for everyone and is highly charming with its cosmopolitan culture.

Despite its hot and humid weather, the mesmerizing city of Mumbai attracts tourists from all around the globe. From beaches to Bollywood, Mumbai has a tonne of exciting things to offer.

The conventional itinerary of a first-time visitor to Mumbai generally includes trips to the famous tourist destinations in Mumbai like the Gateway of India, Marine Drive, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and elephant islands. Here is a list of exciting things to do in Mumbai featuring a mix of cliche and offbeat experiences in the city.

1. Bollywood Hopping

Being the ‘Land of Bollywood’, the Mumbai is home to many renowned actors and actresses. If you are a fan of Hindi movies, then you must tour the locations associated with Bollywood. Explore the renowned studios and catch a glimpse of the celebrity mansions.

If you are lucky, you could even get to see your favorite actor in action! Also get a first-hand experience in the art of filmmaking, and witness one-line ideas translate beautifully onto the silver screen. Don’t forget to buy an old Bollywood poster at the Mini Market or Lamington Road as a souvenir.

2. Go for a ‘Retail Therapy’ session

Shopping is undoubtedly one of the top things to do in Mumbai. From procuring branded merchandise to computer hardware to trinkets, almost everything can be found in the busy lanes of Mumbai. Wear your bargaining hat and pick treasures at throwaway prices.

The Hill Road in Bandra, Mira Road in Shanthi Nagar, the Lokhandwala market, Crawford market, and Fashion street are excellent spots for street shopping in Mumbai. Stick to the latest trends while on a shoe-string budget at any of these locations.

3. Take a Stroll along the Promenade

A visit to Mumbai is not complete without a relaxing walk at the Marine Drive promenade. Unwind at the walkway after a busy day, enjoying the cool sea breeze and observing passerby. As the sun goes down, the place is absolutely wonderful to look at.

Lights from the city’s tall skyscrapers cast magical reflections on the calm waters, creating an ethereal effect. Popularly known as the ‘Queen’s necklace’, the view is sure to leave you transfixed. You can also combine your evening stroll with some delicious street-food halts.

4. Visit India’s largest Laundromat

When in Mumbai, do not miss the opportunity to visit India’s largest open-air Laundromat, known as the ‘Dhobi Ghat’. As you descend the never-ending lanes of the ghat, expect to see a vibrant strewing of colors as dhobis go about their business of washing clothes (in thousands). If you have an eye for the unconventional, you get to capture candid moments on your DSLR as well.

5. Soak in a little Sufi mysticism

The Haji Ali Dargah is a celebrated tomb and mosque located off the coast of Worli. The way to the Dargah is fascinating as you travel the road laid on the Arabian Sea to reach the shrine. During high tides, the road gets submerged, and the mosque becomes inaccessible.

The shrine is a great piece of architecture with an interesting blend of Indian and Islamic styles. Sink into divinity with the Sufi music performed regularly in the Dargah.

6. Savor some amazing street food

As Mumbai is a gourmet paradise, experiencing the street food is undoubtedly one of the top things to do in Mumbai. The famous local delicacies of Mumbai include the Vada Pav, Pav Bhaji, Bread Pakora, and Bhelpuri.

Make your way to the streets and sample the roadside food at the Chowpatty overlooking the sea, the Marine Drive or the Mohammad Ali road.

7. Go for a Long Drive

The Mumbai-Worli driveway is a relatively new addition to the glory of the city and driving along this road is certainly one of the best things to do while in Mumbai. It is built over the Arabian Sea and stretches for about five and a half kilometers.

The bridge provides a panoramic view of the city over the beautiful waters. Driving through the cable cones of the bridge makes you admire it as an architectural marvel.

8. Cruise through the Sea

Next time when you are at the monumental Gateway of India, do not forget to go aboard the yacht that takes you to the nearby areas like Mandwa, Alibaug, Elephanta Islands, Khandheri Island and Murud Janjira.

You can choose between enjoying a romantic dinner with your special one or watching the magnificent sight of the sun sinking into the horizon. You can also customize your trip package to include an overnight stay at one of these islands.

9. Explore Wildlife

If you happen to be a wildlife and nature enthusiast, it is recommended to visit the Sanjay Gandhi national park. Located in Borivali East, this park boasts a variety of flora and fauna. It is famous for housing a decent population of leopards.

Do not miss the small natural waterfall situated inside the Kanheri caves. The nature trail and the fascinating train ride in the national park are popular draws too. Best visited during the monsoons, the national park is a great place to rest in the lap of nature.

10. Crank up Your Creativity

If you are an art enthusiast, then we’d suggest you visit Mumbai in the month of February, as this is when the city hosts the famous annual art event – the Kala Ghoda art festival.

The festival attracts experts pertaining to a myriad of art forms such as cinema, dance, literature, music, theatre, visual arts and much more. It is indeed the best way to learn about the authentic art forms that bear great historical significance in the evolution of Mumbai.

11. Fishing at Powai Lake

Even though the lake has now become the habitat for a large number of crocodiles, don’t let that bog you down from throwing a fishing line. Managed by The Maharashtra State Angling Association, the lake has undergone several attempts at restoration. A number of kingfisher species can also be spotted here. The sunrise/sunset views at the lake are equally amazing.

12. Bet on horses at the Racecourse

Depending on the season for horse races (mostly between November and April), you should visit the Mahalaxmi Racecourse two to four times a week to wager your lot. There are on-site guides as well who give you an expert opinion on who the favorites for each event are. Featuring the only civilian helipad in Mumbai, the opening acts for major events that take place here often feature Bollywood and international artistes. The lawns here are rented out for weddings and social gatherings.

13. Jet Skiing (and other Water Sports activities) at Chowpatty

The watersports center H20 (which is co-owned by actor Suniel Shetty) oversees plenty of fun activities such as platform parasailing, yachting, cruise, flying fish, banana-boat rides and of course, jet skiing. The activities, however, depend on external weather conditions and calmness quotient of the seas. You can also club a visit to Taraporewala Aquarium which is situated right next to the adventure center.

14. Run the Mumbai Marathon

An international marathon held annually in the city of Mumbai, it happens on the third Sunday in the month of January. With a massive bounty of USD 405,000 the race features six categories – Marathon, Half Marathon, Dream Run, Senior Citizens’ Run, Champions with Disability and a Timed 10K. You get to witness people from all strata of the society such as businessmen, celebrities, and athletes coming together for a unified purpose.

15. Play a game of Cricket at Azad Maidan

A playground in the shape of a triangle situated next to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus Railway Station, Azad Maidan is a common venue for inter-school and university cricket leagues. Currently hosting around twenty-two cricket pitches, Azad Maidan has given birth to many famous international cricketers such as Prithvi Shaw, Vinod Kambli and the ‘master blaster’ Sachin Tendulkar. Part of the ground has been shut as part of the Mumbai metro line expansion.

16. Check out Butterflies at Bombay Natural History Society

The Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) currently holds entomologist Naresh Chaturvedi’s exquisite collection of butterflies, moths and winged insects. Covering about 650 species which include Kaiser-i-Hind butterflies, 11-inch atlas moths, and turquoise-tipped butterflies, the man himself conducts guided sessions that span a little over a couple of hours. An entry charge of INR 100/- is applicable per person.

17. Watch a live play/performance at the Prithvi Theatre

Even though plays are a widely underrated form of art, watching actors perform live is hugely satisfying. It takes extra effort and skill to get scenes right in a single take (as retakes only apply to films). Acknowledge the endeavor by being the audience for one of the many events that take place at the venue. In fact, this has been the breeding ground for a number of leading actors in Bollywood.

18. Meditate at Banganga

Forming a part of the Walkeshwar Temple Complex, the Banganga Tank was constructed in 1127 AD, by Lakshman Prabhu, a Shilahara dynasty minister. The temple here has undergone renovations over the years. Presently, the pond-like structure is surrounded by a descent of stairs which turn out to be a great spot to meditate. The tank is fed from a nearby spring and stays full almost throughout the year.

19. Witness the High Tide at Worli Sea face

A posh locality in South Mumbai, Worli sea face is marked by breathtaking locales and pristine blue waters. The area is partly-commercial-partly-residential and is mostly occupied by the affluent crowd of the city. The unusually high tidal waves that pop up during the monsoon season is a treat for the eyes of all those who reside here or happen to visit. The waterfront has been a part of many a Bollywood film (such as ‘Jaane Tu..Ya Jaane Na’ and ‘Dhobi Ghat’).

20. Attend a Heritage Walk at Dockyard

While not all that popular, the Dockyard is the venue where heritage walks are held on the first Sunday of every month. You’re bound to feel newfound admiration for the Dockyard once you partake in one of the heritage walks. While here, you can also spot a large number of ferries entering and exiting the yard beside fishermen seeking their daily catch. The murals on the walls of the Dockyard are eye-catching.

21. Watch Bollywood classics at Maratha Mandir

The theater rose to fame by playing the Shah Rukh Khan starrer ‘Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge’ for over two decades. The cinema hall is just a couple of kilometers away from Mumbai Central railway station and is touted to be the most valued amongst Mumbai’s Box Office. Maratha Mandir opened its doors on 16th October 1958 and is a 1000 seater.

22. Attend a live gig at Hard Rock Cafe

Mumbai is one of the few cities in the country that has two Hard Rock Cafe outlets. Both joints are excellent when it comes to ambiance, food & beverages, and live entertainment. You can also find personal belongings (such as guitar picks, attires, accessories and musical instruments) of renowned musicians at the Museum of Music. The energy exuded by the performers during live concerts absolutely need to be witnessed in person.

23. Catch the Sunset at Juhu Beach

For the aesthetics alone, Juhu Beach warrants a visit. Catch a mind-blowing sunset from the shores of the Arabian Sea, which also doubles as a location for film and music video shoots. The beach also features an array of stalls that serve up some of the best street food in town (including bhel puri, sev puri, and pani puri). Predominantly crowded on every weekend, Juhu Beach also witnesses a massive influx of people on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi.

24. Rest on a Tetrapod at Nariman Point

Situated on the southern end of the Mumbai peninsula, Nariman Point is where some of India’s large business conglomerates are headquartered. The stretch is strewn with tetrapods that can be accessed conveniently. You can unwind here all evening, watch the sunset and even indulge in a little star-gazing. If you’re seeking peace and tranquility coupled with great views of the horizon, Nariman Point is where you need to be heading.

25. Visit Vasai Fort

Located around 60 km away from Mumbai, the fort (or whatever remains of it) is a prime location for film/song shoots. Parts of the fort are overgrown with vegetation and are broken down. However, some of the watchtowers still stand tall, with even their stairs intact. Three distinct chapels with Portuguese-styled facades are still perceptible. You can also spot beautiful wild flora on the premises.

26. Explore the Elephanta Caves

Situated on an island about 10 km east of Mumbai, the Elephant Caves contain sculptures that exhibit a blend of Buddhist and Hindu religious concepts. The caves have been cut out of solid basalt rock. The origins of the caves date back to as early as 5th and 7th centuries, and they received the name ‘Elefante’ from Portuguese explorers who discovered the elephant-shaped sculptures in it. Currently a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the caves are maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India.

27. Visit the Asiatic Society Library

The library is said to be having a rare collection of over hundred thousand books. Manuscripts pertaining to various languages (that include Prakrit, Persian, and Sanskrit) written on paper and palm leaves can also be found here. You can also observe a wonderful collection of maps and numismatics. Besides conserving the artifacts and books, it also engages in conducting research studies and generates debates and discussions amongst members.

28. Catch an Opera at the NCPA

The National Centre for the Performing Arts acts as a pivotal venue in the country to promote contemporary and traditional visual/performing arts. Workshops related to the same are conducted at various educational institutions in the city. Catching a musically-driven play at this venue is sure to enliven the spirits of everyone. There are five theaters in the complex – the prominent ones being Jamshed Bhabha, Tata, and Experimental theaters.

29. Feel at Peace by Paying a Visit to Knesset Eliyahoo

Situated in the downtown area, this Orthodox Jewish synagogue stands as an ode to Mumbai’s Jewish connections. Now maintained by the Jacob Sassoon Trust, this building was designed by a British architectural firm who goes by the name of ‘Gostling & Morris’. Featuring stone masonry at the base and brick masonry on the top, the exterior frontage has been painted in turquoise. The synagogue predominantly features ornate pillars, Torah scrolls and immersion pools.

30. Relax at Aksa Beach

The beach is presently a popular picnic spot in the Malad area. You can find a decent number of hotels and private cottages along the shoreline which are perfect for weekend stays. One end of the beach houses a naval base (called ‘INS Hamla’) and a tiny beach stretch known as ‘Dana Paani’. Aksa beach can be reached either via private transport, or shuttle buses from Borivali Railway Station. While the beaches are deemed unfit for swims (due to heavy tides), the views of sunrise and sunset are sufficient to enthrall visitors.

31. Go Leather Shopping at Dharavi Market

The Dharavi leather market is supposedly the largest in the entire continent. You can procure absolutely anything made out of leather such as footwear, belts, bags (laptop bags even), jackets, wallets and watch straps at this place, that too at throwaway prices. Plus, if you don’t happen to like the goods put on display, you can always choose to customize your purchase.

32. Enjoy a Luxurious Dinner at Taj Mahal Palace Hotel

A heritage five-star hotel in Colaba, the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel is a major landmark in the city of Mumbai. The hotel dome is simply beautiful to observe at night. Facing the Arabian Sea, the hotel has been visited by a large number of local and international celebrities. While the tower features twenty-two floors, the palace features seven. There are about 11 restaurants in the hotel specializing in various cuisines both on a buffet/à la carte basis.

33. Shopping for Books at Flora Fountain

While the place is known for its historical significance, the endless stretch of street stalls selling second-hand books at economical prices are an added attraction here. This area is fondly referred to as ‘Book Street’ by most locals and has publications pertaining to all kinds of genres. Also, you can return previously purchased books for a reimbursement of 75% of the agreed price.

34. Chill with friends/family at The Hanging Gardens

A terraced garden atop the Malabar Hill, right opposite to the Kamala Nehru Park, the Hanging Gardens offer splendid sunset views to visitors. The fences here take the shape of animals, adding to the fascination of infants and kids. Established in the year 1881, the gardens continue to attract a huge number of tourists owing to its peacefully serene ambiance.

35. Ferry Ride off Gateway of India

Observing the city from distant waters is something that needs to be part of every Mumbai itinerary. Besides getting to click nice photographs (of the Taj Palace Hotel, Gateway of India and panoramic views of the entire city), you also get a chance to connect with other travelers on board. This activity can be clubbed en route to Elephanta Caves as well. Ferry services remain available throughout the day from a number of boarding points.

36. Trekking at Sahyadris

If you’re craving an adrenaline rush, then head to the Sahyadri mountain range during the monsoon season for eventful treks. Kalsubai peak, Raigad fort, Purandar Fort, and Rajmachi Fort are some of the places that you can trek up to. These can turn out to be life-changing experiences as they often involve a certain amount of physical risks and climatic hazards. There are plenty of scenic spots en route in case you have a thing for photography.

37. Visiting the Prince of Wales Museum

Situated on MG Road, the museum (which is also known by its alternate name ‘Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya’) is a significant landmark in Mumbai city mainly due to its laudable external architecture. The museum houses a spectacular collection of ancient artifacts, artwork, and sculptures. It is also a venue for lectures and exhibitions related to art and history. The museum has been segregated into three sections namely Art, Archaeology and Natural History.

38. Pray at the Basilica of Our Lady of the Mount, Bandra

This Roman Catholic church, situated in Bandra is renowned for hosting the feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the first Sunday post 8th of September. Following the feast is the ‘Bandra Fair’ which runs for a week and is frequented by thousands. The fair features several stalls selling street snacks, sweetmeats, and religious articles. The church features a 16th-century statue of the Virgin Mary which has an interesting legend attached to it.

39. Get on a Mumbai Local

This is an experience that shouldn’t be missed when you visit. The local trains (run by the Mumbai Suburban Railway) mostly connect the suburbs to major intersections in the city. By commuting on a local train, you come across people from all strata of the society, inadvertently taking a slice of Mumbai with you forever. Said to be one of the busiest railway systems in the world, it was set up during the British Rule and saw considerable expansions later on.

40. Watch a Cricket Match live at the Wankhede Stadium

If you’re a Team India/Mumbai Indians supporter, then watching live cricket at the Wankhede should be part of your bucket list. With a seating capacity of over 30,000 the stadium has hosted plenty of matches with nail-biter finales (including the 2011 World Cup Final). The insane crowd reactions (let’s say, to an Indian batsman hitting a sixer or an Indian bowler getting a wicket) need to be experienced in person at the Wankhede stadium.

#offbeatthings #mumbai #mumbaitraveldiaries #bombaycity #indiatouristhelpdesk

[fadingfartconnoisseur]

Diving In Raja Ampat: The Richest Marine Biodiversity On Earth

The best scuba diving in Indonesia is found in the far eastern archipelago of Raja Ampat. This cluster of 1,500 islands sits inside the coral triangle, an area known to have the richest marine biodiversity on the planet. There are at least 1,500 known fish species 537 known coral species, dozens of shark species (including the rare Wobbegong) as well as numerous mammals like dolphin, dugong and sperm whale.

I was fortunate to be invited as a blogger for Goats On The Road to take part on the epic Trip of Wonders 2017 by The Ministry of Tourism of Indonesia. Raja Ampat was our third and final stop on the trip and I was ecstatic that the final spot was in one of the best dive locations on Earth, but at the same time I was sad to see such an incredible journey coming to an end.

The entire trip started with diving in Alor where we had some of the best visibility and most abundant fish life, then we went to do some diving in Komodo where I finally got to see manta rays, and the final stop was in Raja Ampat. I really can’t express how blessed I felt to be invited on this trip and to be able to experience this once in a lifetime diving expedition.

In this article, I’m going to share a bit about my experience on diving trip in Raja Ampat, but also share with you all of the prices, transportation and logistics of the trip so that if you want to plan a similar dive trip to Raja Ampat, you can do so easily using this guide.

Getting To Raja Ampat

Our plane landed at Sorong airport, the main gateway to Raja Ampat. We flew in from Komodo, so we had a long journey including 4 flights and an overnight layover, but most people who visit Raja Ampat will come from Jakarta or Bali, so I’ll include those logistics here as well.

Photo By: Wet Traveler

Our Flight(s) – Komodo to Raja Ampat

We flew from Labuan Bajo to Denpasar to Makassar and finally onward to Sorong (Raja Ampat). The journey took us 2 days as we had an overnight stop in Makassar. If you were to do the same trip, you could likely complete it in a day, but it was nice to take a break mid-way as it’s a lot of flying!

Flights from Bali to Raja Ampat

If you’re flying from Bali, you will likely stop over in Makassar and a round trip flight will likely cost you between $180 – $200 USD depending on the season. The first lag will be from Bali Denpasar (DPS) with LionAir / WingsAir and will head to Makassar Sultan Hasanuddin International (UPG). Srawija and Garuda Air are likely the airlines you’ll fly with from Makassar to Sorong as they are the best airlines that have single stop flights to Raja Ampat.

The layovers in Makassar tend to be quite long (8 hours in Makassar) on the way to Raja Ampat from Bali, but the return layovers are usually shorter (3 hours in Makassar). Garuda and Batik Airlines both have flights with 2 stops that actually take less time than the 1 stop flights (10 hours total).

Flights from Jakarta to Raja Ampat

There are plenty of non-stop flights from Jakarta to Sorong (CGK-SOQ) with a duration of around 4 hours and fares range from $150 – $220 USD. In my searches, I found that the non-stop flights are run by Batik Air, Xpress Air and PT Nam Air and are often cheaper than multi-stop tickets.

Accommodation in Raja Ampat

After our flight landed, we hopped on a bus that took us to the Sorong Ferry Harbour where we waited around 30 minutes for a private boat that took us to Raja Ampat Dive Resort (aka R4DR) which I highly recommend.

Note: We are not sponsored by Raja Ampat Dive Resort and I have absolutely no obligation to write positively about it in any way. I just loved this place so I’m recommending it as a great place to stay.

Getting To The Resort

Getting to Raja Ampat Dive Resort is easy if you take the private option that we did, but this is the more expensive option. If you want to do it on your own you can save some money by going doing it independently.

To get from the Sorong Airport to the Sorong Ferry Harbor, you’ll have to take a taxi (around 100,000 IDR / $8 US).  There are plenty of taxis waiting at the airport. Once at the peir, head to the building that says “LOKET” (ticket sale in Bahasa), and purchase a ticket to Waisai Harbor with Express Bahari Ferries. The cost will be around 130,000 IDR / ($10 USD) for economy or $250,000 ($19 USD) for VIP.

From Waisai you can call the Raja Ampat Dive resort to come pick you up in a speedboat or prearrange the pickup time when you buy your ferry ticket.

Why Raja Ampat Dive Resort?

Once you arrive at R4DR, you’ll see why I recommend it so highly. A row of 12 bungalow-style rooms sit in a secluded cove backed by a towering wall of lush jungle. Hidden within the tangled branches, right on the powdery sand you’ll find your rustic, but comfortable accommodation.

Photo By: R4DR

Well-built beach huts with beautiful decks looking over the calm sea greet you here. There are two massive jetties that stretch out into the coral-covered cove, while a funky beach restaurant complete with beanbag chairs and hammocks is where you’ll likely spend most of your above water time.

Two swings dangle just inches above the crystal clear water, creating a scene that seems to be made specifically for Instagram. Yes I loved R4DR and yes, I want to return.

Cost of Raja Ampat Dive Resort

The prices are quite high for R4DR, both for the diving and the accommodaiton itself, but many accommodations around this part of Indonesia are expensive and given this place is known to have the most diverse fish life on earth, I suppose they can all charge a premium.

Here are accommodation prices for 2017 (EUROS):

☞ Click Here To See Latest Prices for R4DR & Other Accommodation in Raja Ampat

The Cost of Diving in Raja Ampat

While this region of Indonesia is one of the more expensive places to dive, it’s also one of the best so you have to expect to pay a bit more than comparitively mediocre dive sites like Gili Islands and Bali.

I highly recommend purchasing a multi-dive package or asking your accommodation about muti-dive + accommodation + full board packages for further discounts.

Here are the cost of dive packages at R4DR in 2017 (EUROS):

Best Dive Sites in Raja Ampat

There are over 30 different dive sites within a few minute boat ride from R4DR and I’m going to start by listing the dive sites we went to on our trip. Call me bais, but I do think that these are some of the best in the region. I will list all others as well so if you plan to do more dives than I did, you’ll know some other top locations to check out.

Mioskun

This easy dive is just 10 minutes by boat from R4DR and it’s a fantastic spot. Here you can spot yellow snapper schools, napoleon wrasse, huge groupers, pigmy seahorses, nudibranch and the rare Wobbegong sharks can be found in here as well.

Blue Magic

This aptly named dive site is one of the best in Raja Ampat due to the mind-blowing marine biodiversity and the variations of coral species. You’ll also find enormous schools of barracudas, jacks and tunas, wobbegong sharks, black tip sharks, white tip sharks and grey sharks. Giant oceanic mantas sometimes like to gracefully “fly” over this reef as well.

Photo By: Wet Traveler

Sardine Reef

This beatiful dive site is located just off the eastern coast of Kri Island and here you’ll find a ton of coral including oft coral, gorgonia fans, black coral bushes and slopes of coral heads. Of course you can find sardines here (hense the name) but also schools of damsels, fusiliers, banner fish, pyramid butterfly fish, barracuda, mackerel, jacks, giant trevallies, sweetlips, triggerfish, and snappers.

There are also often black and white tip reef sharks, big grey sharks, napoleons, bumphead parrotfish and groupers.

Melissa’s Garden

This was definitely one of my favourite dive sites in Raja Ampat. The Melissa’s Garden dive site is located in between the small Jet Fam Islands, northwest of Batanta Island. The dive site features an oval-shaped reef with a plateu an top where there are diverse and colorful coral gardens. These gardens are home to bright anemones, nudibranches, soft-corals, sponges & crinoids as well as hard coral outcroppings.

Photo By: Wet Traveler

For fish life there are pygmy seahorses, angelfish, and lionfish, and in deeper waters, sea snakes, rabbitfish, and wobbegong sharks.

Kerou Channel

This drift dive runs along a narrow channel at around 25 – 35 meters with towering sheer cliffs featuring spectacular walls covered in colourful sponges and nudibranchs. A mild current pushed divers along the edge of the reef past seafans, seawhips, black corals and table corals.

R4DR House Reef

I only experienced the Raja Ampat Dive Resort as a night dive, but I also snorkeled along it as well and it’s pretty amazing. The main thing you’ll be looking for here is the very rare walking shark, but you can also see squid, toad fish, crocodile fish, bat fish, lion fish and blue spotted rays.

The reef drops off to around 25 meters just after the jetty ends and there are some nice coral formations and massive schools of sardines that swim under the peir along the hill as it dips deeper into the sea.

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Cape Kri

The Pacific currents from the flow of sea along the eastern shores of Kri Island make this a plancton rich dive site, attracting massive schools of fish. The world record for most fish species registered in a single dive was broken here back in 2012 and currently sits at 374 species, making Cape Kri the richest dive site known to science.

Most days you’ll find enormous schools of barracudas, trevallies, fusiliers, dogtooth tunas, bumphead parrot fshes, huge groupers and napoleons, black tip shark, white tip shark and grey sharks. The shere number of fish on this dive made it one of my favourites of the entire trip.

Aroborek Jetty

All I can say from this dive is “WOW”. The shere number within the massive school of yellowstripe scad and jack fish that have found refuge under the Arborek peir is astonishing. We dove down to about 10 meters and looked up at the massive swirling bait ball from below, while a few others were free diving, peircing the massive fish tornado as they swam though it.

The scene was like something out of BBC’s Planet Earth and I couldn’t get enough of it. I too swam back and forth throught the cloudy mass of flashing silver, bewildered by the perfect syncronicity of their movements.

Other Dive Sites in Raja Ampat

Batu Lima: Intermediate dive between 15 – 24 meters with medium to strong current. You’ll see schools of Fusiliers, Triggerfish, Unicorn Fish and Black Tip Reef Sharks.

Fransisco’s Peak: Beginner to intermediate dive at 5 – 20 meters where you can spot ghost pipefish and many blue spotted rays.

Friwin Island: A beginner dive at 5 – 15 meters with little or no current, here you will see a beautiful coral garden with colorful Anthias, Wrasses, Fusiliers and Triggerfish swimming between tight clusters of hard and soft corals.

Mike’s Point: Despite US military bombing of the adjacent island in WWI, the reefs at this dive site have recovered incredibly well. Here you can spot wobbegongs, Epaulette Sharks, Turtles, and sea snakes.

Misool Stingless Jellyfish Lakes: There is plenty of world-class diving around Masool island, but if you take a trip into Lenmakana’s Jellyfish lake, you can safely swim through clowds of stingless jellyfish that have been famously filmed on BBC and NatGeo documentaries.

Manta Sandy: A very easy dive at around 5 – 18 meters with medium to strong current (the current brings in the mantas).

Chicken Reef: A more difficult dive, chicken reef is around 5 – 20 meters of depth with unpredictable currents, here you can spot large numbers of fusiliers and other colorful fish inhabiting the coral, but also keep an eye open for pipefish, nudibranches, flatworms, pigmy seahorses, and many unique species of crabs and shrimps.

The Passage: Another famed drift dive in Raja Ampat though a tight passage between Waigeo and Gam Islands.

Kakatua: Bank reef in the marine lake between Waigo and Gam. Loads of clown fish and nudibranches.

Urai: A beginner dive at 5 – 20 meters, this is where you can swim into the entrance of the lake mentioned above.

Kabui: A very easy dive at maximum 15 meters you can find some rays and turtles here.

Andrea’s Point: Another very easy dive with a max depth of around 18 meters and no current.

Cross Over: A very advanced dive with strong currents and a max depth of 30 meters. Here you can find a lot of big palegic like sharks and baracuda, jacks and tuna.

Ransiwar: A good beginner’s dive at 25 meters where you can find ghost pipefish and lots of cuttlefish.

Yenbuba: Another very easy dive that goes down to 25 meters with little or no current. Look for schools of baraccuda and fields of staghorn hard corals.

West Mansuar: This is a very currenty, very difficult dive with a max depth of 35 meters and heavy currents almost every day. Look for sweetlips, sharks and massive schools of barracuda.

Mangroves: The deepest point of this beginners dive is 25 meters, but the dive usually ends in the shallows of the mangroves where you’ll find many juvineille fish finding refuge in the tangled roots.

Koh Island: A beginner’s dive with a max depth of 25 meters and very little current. Here you’ll follow a sloping reef that is set close to Cape Kri, so countless large species of schooling fish are often found here.

Ot Di Ma? (Where’s My Guide?): A very advanced dive with a max depth of 25 meters and very strong currents that bring in massive schools of large shark and tuna as well as many turtles.

There are countless other dives in Raja Ampat, but I’ve listed the 8 that we did and some of the most popular above. Your dive resort will tell you all of the best dive sites within boat distance from their peirs.

Things To Know About Diving In Raja Ampat

When people start planning a dive trip to Raja Ampat, they immediately notice that the prices are much higher than most other places in Southeast Asia and even become expensive on the global scale of diving.

But if you plan to do larger dive packages (10+) and you book your diving, room and board all together in the same resort, you can really save some serious money.

The cheapest dive resorts you’ll find will be around $55 per night including basic food for a basic double room with a shared bathroom. Diving will then be charged separately and the cheapest I found it online was for around $40 – $45 per dive, depending on what dive sites you choose and how far they are from your resort.

When prices really start to go up is when you include day trips to Piyaynemo Islands, The Passage and Arborek Village. These day trips can be as high as $150 per person, so they add up quickly.

The flights to and from will cost around $200 so yes, the costs do add up, but if you’re planning to splurge on one diving trip, Raja Ampat should be it.

It’s also worth noting that there are numerous intermediate to advanced dives in the area with heavy currents, so it’s a good idea to have your advanced diving certification and at least 20+ dives in your log book before visiting Raja Ampat. This isn’t 100% necessary, but I think you’ll be able to make the most of your trip if you have some experience.

While there is a new hyperbolic chamber in Waisai, located at the Rumah Sakit Umun, it is still recommended that you keep all of your dives in Raja Ampat to no-deco dives and that you have good scuba diving insurance.

We have used and recommend World Nomads Travel Insurance on this blog and while our links are affiliate links (meaning we recieve a small comission if you use our links, but you don’t pay anything extra), we recommend them out of personal experience, not personal gain.

Here is some information from the World Nomads website:

Scuba Diving & Travel Insurance

If you want to scuba dive on your travels, we totally understand why. But if you’re not properly trained before you dive into your underwater adventure, the risk of serious accident can be substantial. That’s why, to be covered you either must:

be certified, that is, hold a valid scuba diving licence

dive under qualified and licensed instruction if not certified

dive no deeper than your dive license allows and/or your policy allows

What we cover

Recreational scuba diving is only covered when you choose the right plan or adventure sport option when buying your policy . Then, if something goes wrong there’s cover for:

Overseas medical expenses for sudden illness or serious injury

Medical evacuation to the nearest facility for treatment

Treatment in a decompression chamber if required

Repatriation home if something serious has happened

To get a free travel insurance quote from World Nomads, just enter your information below:

The best way to avoid getting the bends with no decompression chamber nearby is to dive well within the limitations of the dive tables and start the day with your deepest dive, progressively getting shallower with each dive that follows. It’s also a good idea to dive with a dive computer. I use and recommend Aqua Lung i200.

  Non-Diving Highlights of Raja Ampat

Raja Ampat is a diving mecca, but there is more to this bio-rich archipalego than just scuba. We did plenty on land as well. Here are a few of the best things to do in the region for those of you who don’t plan to don a mask and fins.

Piaynemo Islands

Without a doubt Raja Ampat’s most famous tourist attraction, drawing even more numbers than some of the best dive sites, Piaynemo is a sight to behold. A massive cluster of islands are connected by perfectly white sand bars.

Photo By: Journey Era

There is a lookout on Piaynemo Island itself where you can get the best vantage (aside from with a drone) and it’s truly specacular. This is known to be one of the most scenic lookout points in the world and when you gaze over the edge of the wooden railings, you’ll see why.

The islands bob in the aquamarine waters like jewels in an oceanic showcase. Getting to the islands is expensive (around €100 per person) but if you make a full day of it, it’s worth every penny.

The Passage

Some day trips will take you throught The Passage after a trip to Piaynemo and it’s definitely worth the detour. The boat will cruise through glass calm waters that are protected by towering cliffs on both sides. The channel takes about 15 minutes to pass through and it is one of the most scenic areas in all of Raja Ampat.

Arborek Village

We were lucky enough to be welcomed into the Arborek village with a traditional dance and parade through the streets, but even without the ceremony, the island itself is picturesque.

Arborek is also home to one of the coolest dives in Raja Ampat, so after you’re done meandering through the grid of colorful homes in the village, hop of the jetty and get lost in schools of yellowstripe scad and jacks.

The Sandbars

There are quite a few sandbars dotted throughout the Raja Ampat archipalego and I’m not even sure which one we ended up on, but ask your driver and dive guide to take you to a sand bar so you can walk around and go swimming.

They appear out of the middle of the sea and some of them aren’t attached to any islands. They’re just perfect strips of bright blue and white emerging from within a cluster of jungle clad islets.

Pre-historic Wall Paintings

Between the islands of Sumalelen and Sumbayo you can find strange hand print paintings high up on rock walls where it would be seemingly impossible to climb to. Some estimates put these hand prints at 55,000 years old.

Should you go to Raja Ampat?

Of all of the dives I’ve done in my life (exactly 100 at the time of writing), the dives in Raja Ampat are all amongst the best I’ve done. As far as a singular dive location with everything an avid diver could want, Raja Ampat ranks as my favourite in the world.

To put my claims into perspective for those of you who are new to this blog, I’ve dove in the Red Sea in Egypt, Mozambique, Tanzania, Sipadan in Borneo, Thailand, Malta, Greece, Grenada, Belize, Mexico, St. Vincent & The Grenadines, Gili, Komodo, Alor and many more world-renowned locales.

Raja Ampat probably has the best diving of all of the places I’ve been. Not for one specific dive, but for having such a wide variety of excellent dives and such an astonishing diversity of marine life, including fish, coral and larger mamals.

If you’re looking to eperience an epic scuba diving expedition, than I would definitely recommend heading to Raja Ampat. To get the most out of it I would recommend that you have at least your advanced certification and 20+ dives under your belt before going, as some of the dives are more advanced.

The price of getting to Raja Ampat and the cost of the dive resorts can be limiting for those travelling on a budget. The cheapest resort I found was $55 USD per night for 2 people including food and most places charge around $45 / dive or more.

But you pay a premium to be in Western Papua (known for being expensive) and for diving in the richest coral reefs known to science.

For dive buffs, or people just getting into diving, Raja Ampat offers a bucket list dive experience that will blog the fins of of any diver, no matter how much experience they have. All I can say is, if you love diving, make the trip.

Note: Some photos in this article are by Jackson Groves and Wet Traveler

Dont Miss Our Diving in Raja Ampat Video!

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Broad Haven UFO sightings marked 40 years on – BBC News

There were no alien invasions or tales of abduction, yet a UFO sighting by a group of Pembrokeshire school children remains one of the most famous cases in Wales.

It was 40 years ago when a class of pupils at Broad Haven Primary School said they spotted a UFO in a field near their playground.

It was one of a wave of sightings in the area in 1977 – dubbed the Dyfed Triangle.

David Davies was 10 at the time and heard reports of pupils seeing flying saucers throughout the day.

“I was a natural born sceptic so after the bell rang I decided to go to the area that the children said they had seen it,” he told BBC Wales.

He described seeing a silver “cigar-shaped” craft with a “dome covering the middle third”.

“My sighting only lasted a couple of seconds. It popped up and then went back behind a tree.”

Mr Davies said he did not feel afraid, “more in awe and wonderment”, although he admitted he had “a strange desire to run away”.

Image caption David Davies said UFOs has been a subject which has gone on to “dominate” his life

None of the teachers believed the children and so the headmaster separated them and got them to draw what they saw. There were slight variations, but what they drew was basically the same.

Mr Davies described the days that followed as a “wild rollercoaster.”

“It went crazy with the media and it was difficult to settle down and actually think about what we had seen.”

Two months later, Rosa Granville, who ran the Haven Fort Hotel in nearby Little Haven, described seeing an object which looked like an “upside-down saucer” and two “faceless humanoid” creatures with pointed heads.

She said so much heat came off it, her “face felt burned”.

“There was light coming from it and flames of all colours. Then [the creatures] came out of these flames, that’s what I don’t understand,” she said.

When she visited the field she said there was “two inches of burned grounds”.

Ms Granville said the incident left her “agitated and disturbed”.

Image caption David Davies’ 1977 drawing

Image caption Pupil drawings taken from Broad Haven School’s 1977 UFO scrapbook

A number of theories have been put forward to explain the sightings.

Then-MP for Pembroke, Nicholas Edwards contacted the Ministry of Defence after being “inundated” with UFO sightings.

Flt Lt Cowan, an officer from RAF Brawdy, visited Ms Granville’s hotel and examined the site, but could find no evidence of a landing.

He joked: “Should a UFO arrive at RAF Brawdy we will charge normal landing fees.”

In his report, he mentioned the possibility that a “local prankster was at work” and the description of aliens “fitted exactly the type of protection suit that would have been issued in the event of a fire at one of the local oil refineries”.

This fits in with the account of businessman Glyn Edwards, who in 1996 revealed he wandered around the area in a silver suit in 1977 as a prank.

Image caption The Broad Haven pupil’s sightings sparked a media frenzy

The National Archives also released files which examined UFO sightings across Wales, and the officials who investigated the Broad Haven sightings suspected pranksters.

“There is general speculation in the neighbourhood that a practical joker may be at work,” wrote staff at S4 – the government department that investigated sightings at the time.

It was also thought school children could have confused a sewage tank as a UFO, although many were from farming backgrounds and would have been familiar with the machinery.

More recently, a former US Navy sailor said the figure in a silver suit was in fact a member of US military personnel wearing their standard fireproof uniform and the UFOs were new Harrier jets flying over.

Media captionBBC archive footage of the children explaining what they saw

To mark 40 years since the sightings, a conference is being held in Broad Haven on Saturday, organised by Swansea UFO Network.

Organiser Emyln Williams said the case started “worldwide interest”.

Asked if he thought it was genuine, he said: “One child can lie, but can a whole class?

“Over 40 years at least one of them might have come forward to say they made it up – but they haven’t.”

Mr Williams said there were several sightings the day the children claimed to have seen a UFO, including at Hubberston School in Milford Haven.

“That year there was so much happening. It is what we know as a UFO flap,” he said.

Image copyright Neil Spring

Image caption Mr Spring moved into a cottage in Broad Haven to get to the bottom of what happened

Eyewitness Mr Davies, who lives in Shropshire, will be a guest speaker.

He said he had always been open-minded to the theories which attempted to explain the sightings and at no time had he “ever sensationalised his story”.

“So many people are ridiculed for saying they have seen a UFO,” he said, describing his secondary school life as a “misery”.

“I was beaten senseless purely because of what happened to me. It would have been so much easier to take back my story.”

He admits UFOs has been a subject that has gone on to “dominate his life”.

“At one point I must have had the largest library of books in Wales on the subject.”

Image caption Broad Haven School today

Attending alongside Mr Davies is Neil Spring, who wrote a book based on the Broad Haven sightings.

“The moment I heard of this small village plagued by UFO sightings, I was inspired to understand what really happened,” he said.

His research uncovered a secret investigation by the military police.

“Whilst the government was telling the public they had no records of any unusual activity in the area, privately, officials were so concerned about the UFO sightings in Broad Haven that they asked the military police to conduct a ‘discreet’ investigation,” he said.

Mr Spring believes local pranksters were behind some of the sightings, but said “people emulate what’s happening around them” and the pranks were inspired by events which had been “sincerely reported”.

“My research showed that there were strange occurrences in Broad Haven long before the incident at the school and for a long times afterwards.

“So you can take the children out of the story and you’ll still have the story.”

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk

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I Work At A Spa Where You Can Take Drugs, Trip Balls And Pee

It seems like sensory deprivation tanks are everywhere these days. From Stranger Things to Stephen Curry, depriving yourself of multiple senses is so hot right now. If Helen Keller were alive, she’d say … well, nothing. That was her whole deal. But she might be a bit confused by the phenomenon. So we spoke to the folks who operate those sensory deprivation tanks, plus a few users, to find out why people pay good money just to get trapped.

6

Sometimes The Customers Really Don’t Want To Get In

There are a lot of risk-takers out there, but not everybody gets high on life. Some folks are dragged to the tanks mentally kicking and psychically screaming. According to Cameron, who worked in a sensory deprivation spa, his job mainly consisted of comforting those folks.

“Everyone is worried about different things” he told us. “I’ve heard, ‘Will I go crazy in there?,’ ‘What if I come out a different person?,’ ‘How can I call for help?,’ and ‘Do I have to be naked? I’m not going in there naked.’ And, if they’ve seen Fringe, ‘Will it fuck me up that badly?'”

Worse, the guy who dragged his buddy to the sensory deprivation tank in the first place usually isn’t all that helpful.

“I had a claustrophobic guy come in with a friend, and he took one look at the pod and said no way,” Cameron remembered. “I told him that inside, as soon as the door was shut, he’d feel like he was inside a vast area. His friend said the exact wrong thing to say — ‘Hey, maybe this will cure your claustrophobia!’ He finally agreed to try it, but I felt compelled to tell him that it may help him, but it’s not a cure, but he said ‘I know.'”

“We put him in there, and less than two minutes later came the screaming. He did what you’re not supposed to do, touch the sides of the pod for very long. He kept feeling around, and suddenly he wasn’t in a void as promised, but in the dark in a closed pod. It’s hard to get sound to come out, but when he couldn’t find the handle to open the pod, he screamed. When we opened it, he got out as fast as he could, grabbed a robe, and pretty much ran outside. We refunded his money, of course. We should not have been so insistent. We have potential floaters drop out because they’re afraid, but now we make sure it isn’t a real phobia. We don’t want another screaming pod. It was terrifying for everyone involved.”

5

You Might Pee Yourself, And You’ll Almost Definitely Hallucinate

Cameron was quick to point out that most people seem to genuinely enjoy it. They find it relaxing. Perhaps a little … too relaxing.

“Of course no one is going to admit to peeing,” he said. “But it happens.”

Cameron took the time to assure us that these pods are super sterile, and they’re cleaned after each and every use regardless of urine content. We’re trying to find that comforting. Even stranger: Sometimes people won’t even know if they’ve peed.

“Some floaters enter this state inside the pod where they’re on the line of being asleep and awake,” Cameron explained. “They honestly couldn’t tell [if they’d peed]. If a float pod worker tells you no one has peed in these, they’re lying. In warm water after having lunch, you have to assume they do. We had someone sign off on six hours straight (please don’t, by the by, you might get hypothermia and die), and with a session that long you have to assume they’re gonna pee.”

We’d have to assume it’s mostly pee by then, actually.

Plus the hallucinations don’t help. With the peeing. One Cambridge study found that even people who wouldn’t normally hallucinate were prone to having visions in the pod. These can range from simple shapes and dots of light, to full-on out-of-body experiences.

One pod-racer we talked to, Saundra, told us that it could be calming for her. “If I saw anything, it was the same brand of goofy surreal images I generally see as I’m drifting off to sleep; I tend to lean into them, because I know that the sillier and more free-association the mind-cartoon, the closer I am to sleep. I might have slept a little in the pod, but I mostly remained in that warm purgatory between wakefulness and dreaming.”

“I’ve heard about spirals, rainbows, flying in space, becoming a lion for awhile, and climbing stairs with no end,” Cameron added. “Sometimes the floater can’t even explain what they saw. Everyone comes out feeling anew, but some also coming out swearing they just got high.”

4

A Lot of People Combine The Tanks With Drugs

Sensory Deprivation is often compared to LSD trips, minus the LSD. But what if it was plus the LSD?

“We had someone who took either LSD or mushrooms before going in,” Cameron remembered. “Before going in he was staring straight ahead, like he was acting like everything was normal, but I don’t think it all was. Anyway, when I led him to the pod he walked like he was balancing to stay up and was taking deep breaths. He got in, and two hours later I let him out. He told me, in a really calm tone, ‘You only put me in there ten minutes ago. I was sailing on the triangles in there.’ That sounded fucking crazy to me, but then he said, ‘All of my problems were gone. I was me for once. I was with the triangles.’ And that sounded more like other floaters who become more self-aware and more calm, minus the triangles. Then he said, ‘I took something to enhance this and it worked. This was great.’ I was like yeah, that explains the triangles.”

“We have someone who blazes up before coming in every other week,” he went on. “I don’t see him do it, but I can smell it on him, and his eyes give it away too. He goes in calm and comes out even calmer. It’s hard to explain. He was already chill before going in, and when he’s going out with all his clothes back on it looks like he knows how to solve all the world’s problems. He’s said that it makes it more relaxing and comfortable (since both floating and marijuana help out anxiety, combining the two can make it even more effective in reducing stress), and I believe him. It’s a winning combination [laughs].”

3

There Are Some Risks

A lot of people have a pleasant experience, and emerge like wise butterflies from the cocoon of their own urine. Others emerge having faced the Demogorgon.

“I’ve had floaters who I took out who were surprised they were still alive,” said Cameron. “Because you can’t tell if you’re conscious sometimes, some half-believe they died. It’s only you and your thoughts, and they go to strange places in there, death included. When you get out of a pod, everything looks amazing. For me, colors seem brighter and more vibrant. When floaters who have gone through death come out they’ll sit down for several minutes and reflect. They know their mortality more. We had a first-time floater leave his car in the lot here overnight because he didn’t want to risk driving, because he was so shaken up.”

Cameron said that, in addition to depriving someone of touch, sight, and sound, the pods also have a way of depriving folks of their sense of time, and that’s the one that really scares folks.

“It can shock people,” he said. “I’ve heard from some floaters that it threw off their sleeping schedule for days. If you undershoot by three hours, that’s almost like jet lag. If you sleep in the pod, or think you sleep, then it may not be as bad, but it still messes you up. I’ve had floaters go from that coming-out calmness straight into panic because their sense of time was off so much. Like they come in with the sun up, and they think it’s been 15 minutes, but come out and it’s night.”

There are other risks, too:

“We warn people not to go in if they have just shaved or have a healing wound,” Cameron went on. “This water is 25 percent salt, and if any gets past the skin, it will hurt like hell. This ruins the experience for some because it means they’re stuck in a pod for two hours and all they can feel is pain. One floater came in who was a swimmer who had shaved, as he put it, everything. We warned him about the salt, but he said he could handle it. Two hours later, he comes out and the first thing he says is, ‘My balls are on fire.'”

2

It Can Actually Be Therapeutic

Lennon apparently used a sensory deprivation tank to get off of heroin, with reasonable success. Tom Brady uses one to keep his mind Super Bowl-caliber focused, though it appears it cannot cure him of his inherent Tom Brady-ness.

Andrew Campbell/flickr Maybe spend a little more time in the tank, Tom. Ideally, September through February.

“I can’t say it’s a miracle cure like some websites say it is, but some people take it as a treatment,” said Cameron. “We had a floater who came in three times a week to help with his depression. He said it helped because it was only him and his mind in there with nothing else to influence it, and it worked in blocking everything out. I had to help a paraplegic get into a pod. He had his spine messed up in an accident, and he was really self-conscious about using a wheelchair. In there, he said, he didn’t even feel his body anymore, and that it was one of the few places where he could relax, and the only place he could feel like he was before the accident. A lot of that was in his mind, but our pods helped him get there.”

One of our sources, Chelsea, definitely agrees:

“I’ve had stress problems for years. My doctor has never recommended it, but it was better than yoga.”

Another, Kyle, thinks it helps as well. He took a salty plunge after a one-two combo of tragedy: losing a good friend, and then dealing with a partner’s serious illness. He claims his time in the pods helped to “prepare me in some way by [letting me learn] how to let go and how to relax … It was very difficult to relax when we were dealing with [my partner]’s prognosis before her surgery, and particularly after [my friend]’s death, but I’ve attempted to reframe it and gain strength from the float time rather than fear the silence and separation.”

All that being said, however …

“Paraplegics don’t think this is Lourdes where they’ll be healed. It really just helps them mentally from what I’ve seen,” Cameron cautioned. “I’m a proponent of the pods and having others experience it, but you cannot say it’s going to heal you or cure you … We’re told upon hiring to never say it’s a cure or even hint that it is. There’s lots of good in sensory deprivation, but you need to watch out for claims that are false.”

IvanMikhaylov/iStock Any place that promises 30 percent more mystic healing than their competitors should probably be avoided.

1

Leaving Is Like Being Reborn: Being Reborn Isn’t Necessarily Fun

If it sounds like a religious experience, it may not be far off for some:

“Most will get a feeling like they’re reborn,” Cameron said. “I’ve done it before, and it’s pretty accurate.”

“The attendants always call it being born again, and I can see where they come from,” added Chelsea. “You’re cold, wet, and have felt like you’ve been in the womb. Every time I go in I tell myself that I won’t be amazed with everything coming out, but every time I am. The floor there has this colorful pattern of twisting leaves, and every time I come out I’m mesmerized by it. It looks so alive — despite being tacky-looking leaves. They always say, ‘You’re looking at them again’ when they catch me doing it.”

Studies on sensory deprivation tanks have shown that 90 percent of floaters felt more relaxed after a session. But sometimes, if they go through some bad hallucinations, or get salt in their wounds, or think they died, or stay in for too long and develop depression from extended isolation, or maybe just get a little liquid in their mouth and taste pee, it can be a challenge figuring out how to cope afterward.

“Sometimes floaters aren’t prepared for the experience or didn’t know what to expect,” Cameron admitted. “I’ll see at least one a day. They don’t calmly climb out. They see the light and get out as fast as they can.”

Floatguru/Wikimedia Commons And not exclusively because their pod started smelling like a truck stop men’s room halfway through.

You don’t need any kind of degree to dunk a dude in a tank, and there’s not exactly a standard training course for dealing with hallucinating naked people.

“They don’t train you on freak-outs,” Cameron said. “There was a floater, like a 20s-ish girl, who was bragging about how she could take this on, but after coming out she said she thought she was dead. She thought she had been forgotten and her air ran out.”

That’s why, Cameron assured us, all pods either have a panic button, or can at least be opened from the inside. Which is comforting. Unless you dance with the triangles too long, and forget you have hands.

Evan V. Symon is an interviewer, journalist and interview finder for the personal experience team at Cracked. Have an awesome job/experience you’d like to share? Hit us up at [email protected] today!

Behind every awful movie is the idea for a good one. Old man Indiana Jones discovers aliens: Good in theory, bad in practice. Batman fights Superman: So simple, but so bad. Are there good versions of these movies hidden within the stinking turds that saw the light of day? Jack O’Brien hosts Soren Bowie, Daniel O’Brien, and Katie Willert of After Hours on our next live podcast to find an answer, as they discuss their ideal versions of flops, reboots, and remakes. Tickets are $7 and can be purchased here!

Also check out The CIA’s 5 Most Mind Blowing Experiments With LSD and 5 Myths About Illegal Drugs You Probably Believe.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel, and check out The 5 Most Hilariously Drug-Fueled Celebrity Interviews Ever, and other videos you won’t see on the site!

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[alienvirals]

Broad Haven UFO sightings marked 40 years on – BBC News

There were no alien invasions or tales of abduction, yet a UFO sighting by a group of Pembrokeshire school children remains one of the most famous cases in Wales.

It was 40 years ago when a class of pupils at Broad Haven Primary School said they spotted a UFO in a field near their playground.

It was one of a wave of sightings in the area in 1977 – dubbed the Dyfed Triangle.

David Davies was 10 at the time and heard reports of pupils seeing flying saucers throughout the day.

“I was a natural born sceptic so after the bell rang I decided to go to the area that the children said they had seen it,” he told BBC Wales.

He described seeing a silver “cigar-shaped” craft with a “dome covering the middle third”.

“My sighting only lasted a couple of seconds. It popped up and then went back behind a tree.”

Mr Davies said he did not feel afraid, “more in awe and wonderment”, although he admitted he had “a strange desire to run away”.

Image caption David Davies said UFOs has been a subject which has gone on to “dominate” his life

None of the teachers believed the children and so the headmaster separated them and got them to draw what they saw. There were slight variations, but what they drew was basically the same.

Mr Davies described the days that followed as a “wild rollercoaster.”

“It went crazy with the media and it was difficult to settle down and actually think about what we had seen.”

Two months later, Rosa Granville, who ran the Haven Fort Hotel in nearby Little Haven, described seeing an object which looked like an “upside-down saucer” and two “faceless humanoid” creatures with pointed heads.

She said so much heat came off it, her “face felt burned”.

“There was light coming from it and flames of all colours. Then [the creatures] came out of these flames, that’s what I don’t understand,” she said.

When she visited the field she said there was “two inches of burned grounds”.

Ms Granville said the incident left her “agitated and disturbed”.

Image caption David Davies’ 1977 drawing

Image caption Pupil drawings taken from Broad Haven School’s 1977 UFO scrapbook

A number of theories have been put forward to explain the sightings.

Then-MP for Pembroke, Nicholas Edwards contacted the Ministry of Defence after being “inundated” with UFO sightings.

Flt Lt Cowan, an officer from RAF Brawdy, visited Ms Granville’s hotel and examined the site, but could find no evidence of a landing.

He joked: “Should a UFO arrive at RAF Brawdy we will charge normal landing fees.”

In his report, he mentioned the possibility that a “local prankster was at work” and the description of aliens “fitted exactly the type of protection suit that would have been issued in the event of a fire at one of the local oil refineries”.

This fits in with the account of businessman Glyn Edwards, who in 1996 revealed he wandered around the area in a silver suit in 1977 as a prank.

Image caption The Broad Haven pupil’s sightings sparked a media frenzy

The National Archives also released files which examined UFO sightings across Wales, and the officials who investigated the Broad Haven sightings suspected pranksters.

“There is general speculation in the neighbourhood that a practical joker may be at work,” wrote staff at S4 – the government department that investigated sightings at the time.

It was also thought school children could have confused a sewage tank as a UFO, although many were from farming backgrounds and would have been familiar with the machinery.

More recently, a former US Navy sailor said the figure in a silver suit was in fact a member of US military personnel wearing their standard fireproof uniform and the UFOs were new Harrier jets flying over.

Media captionBBC archive footage of the children explaining what they saw

To mark 40 years since the sightings, a conference is being held in Broad Haven on Saturday, organised by Swansea UFO Network.

Organiser Emyln Williams said the case started “worldwide interest”.

Asked if he thought it was genuine, he said: “One child can lie, but can a whole class?

“Over 40 years at least one of them might have come forward to say they made it up – but they haven’t.”

Mr Williams said there were several sightings the day the children claimed to have seen a UFO, including at Hubberston School in Milford Haven.

“That year there was so much happening. It is what we know as a UFO flap,” he said.

Image copyright Neil Spring

Image caption Mr Spring moved into a cottage in Broad Haven to get to the bottom of what happened

Eyewitness Mr Davies, who lives in Shropshire, will be a guest speaker.

He said he had always been open-minded to the theories which attempted to explain the sightings and at no time had he “ever sensationalised his story”.

“So many people are ridiculed for saying they have seen a UFO,” he said, describing his secondary school life as a “misery”.

“I was beaten senseless purely because of what happened to me. It would have been so much easier to take back my story.”

He admits UFOs has been a subject that has gone on to “dominate his life”.

“At one point I must have had the largest library of books in Wales on the subject.”

Image caption Broad Haven School today

Attending alongside Mr Davies is Neil Spring, who wrote a book based on the Broad Haven sightings.

“The moment I heard of this small village plagued by UFO sightings, I was inspired to understand what really happened,” he said.

His research uncovered a secret investigation by the military police.

“Whilst the government was telling the public they had no records of any unusual activity in the area, privately, officials were so concerned about the UFO sightings in Broad Haven that they asked the military police to conduct a ‘discreet’ investigation,” he said.

Mr Spring believes local pranksters were behind some of the sightings, but said “people emulate what’s happening around them” and the pranks were inspired by events which had been “sincerely reported”.

“My research showed that there were strange occurrences in Broad Haven long before the incident at the school and for a long times afterwards.

“So you can take the children out of the story and you’ll still have the story.”

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk

The post Broad Haven UFO sightings marked 40 years on – BBC News appeared first on AlienVirals.com - Latest Alien & UFO News.

from AlienVirals.com – Latest Alien & UFO News http://www.alienvirals.com/broad-haven-ufo-sightings-marked-40-years-on-bbc-news-2/

[alienvirals]

Broad Haven UFO sightings marked 40 years on – BBC News

There were no alien invasions or tales of abduction, yet a UFO sighting by a group of Pembrokeshire school children remains one of the most famous cases in Wales.

It was 40 years ago when a class of pupils at Broad Haven Primary School said they spotted a UFO in a field near their playground.

It was one of a wave of sightings in the area in 1977 – dubbed the Dyfed Triangle.

David Davies was 10 at the time and heard reports of pupils seeing flying saucers throughout the day.

“I was a natural born sceptic so after the bell rang I decided to go to the area that the children said they had seen it,” he told BBC Wales.

He described seeing a silver “cigar-shaped” craft with a “dome covering the middle third”.

“My sighting only lasted a couple of seconds. It popped up and then went back behind a tree.”

Mr Davies said he did not feel afraid, “more in awe and wonderment”, although he admitted he had “a strange desire to run away”.

Image caption David Davies said UFOs has been a subject which has gone on to “dominate” his life

None of the teachers believed the children and so the headmaster separated them and got them to draw what they saw. There were slight variations, but what they drew was basically the same.

Mr Davies described the days that followed as a “wild rollercoaster.”

“It went crazy with the media and it was difficult to settle down and actually think about what we had seen.”

Two months later, Rosa Granville, who ran the Haven Fort Hotel in nearby Little Haven, described seeing an object which looked like an “upside-down saucer” and two “faceless humanoid” creatures with pointed heads.

She said so much heat came off it, her “face felt burned”.

“There was light coming from it and flames of all colours. Then [the creatures] came out of these flames, that’s what I don’t understand,” she said.

When she visited the field she said there was “two inches of burned grounds”.

Ms Granville said the incident left her “agitated and disturbed”.

Image caption David Davies’ 1977 drawing

Image caption Pupil drawings taken from Broad Haven School’s 1977 UFO scrapbook

A number of theories have been put forward to explain the sightings.

Then-MP for Pembroke, Nicholas Edwards contacted the Ministry of Defence after being “inundated” with UFO sightings.

Flt Lt Cowan, an officer from RAF Brawdy, visited Ms Granville’s hotel and examined the site, but could find no evidence of a landing.

He joked: “Should a UFO arrive at RAF Brawdy we will charge normal landing fees.”

In his report, he mentioned the possibility that a “local prankster was at work” and the description of aliens “fitted exactly the type of protection suit that would have been issued in the event of a fire at one of the local oil refineries”.

This fits in with the account of businessman Glyn Edwards, who in 1996 revealed he wandered around the area in a silver suit in 1977 as a prank.

Image caption The Broad Haven pupil’s sightings sparked a media frenzy

The National Archives also released files which examined UFO sightings across Wales, and the officials who investigated the Broad Haven sightings suspected pranksters.

“There is general speculation in the neighbourhood that a practical joker may be at work,” wrote staff at S4 – the government department that investigated sightings at the time.

It was also thought school children could have confused a sewage tank as a UFO, although many were from farming backgrounds and would have been familiar with the machinery.

More recently, a former US Navy sailor said the figure in a silver suit was in fact a member of US military personnel wearing their standard fireproof uniform and the UFOs were new Harrier jets flying over.

Media captionBBC archive footage of the children explaining what they saw

To mark 40 years since the sightings, a conference is being held in Broad Haven on Saturday, organised by Swansea UFO Network.

Organiser Emyln Williams said the case started “worldwide interest”.

Asked if he thought it was genuine, he said: “One child can lie, but can a whole class?

“Over 40 years at least one of them might have come forward to say they made it up – but they haven’t.”

Mr Williams said there were several sightings the day the children claimed to have seen a UFO, including at Hubberston School in Milford Haven.

“That year there was so much happening. It is what we know as a UFO flap,” he said.

Image copyright Neil Spring

Image caption Mr Spring moved into a cottage in Broad Haven to get to the bottom of what happened

Eyewitness Mr Davies, who lives in Shropshire, will be a guest speaker.

He said he had always been open-minded to the theories which attempted to explain the sightings and at no time had he “ever sensationalised his story”.

“So many people are ridiculed for saying they have seen a UFO,” he said, describing his secondary school life as a “misery”.

“I was beaten senseless purely because of what happened to me. It would have been so much easier to take back my story.”

He admits UFOs has been a subject that has gone on to “dominate his life”.

“At one point I must have had the largest library of books in Wales on the subject.”

Image caption Broad Haven School today

Attending alongside Mr Davies is Neil Spring, who wrote a book based on the Broad Haven sightings.

“The moment I heard of this small village plagued by UFO sightings, I was inspired to understand what really happened,” he said.

His research uncovered a secret investigation by the military police.

“Whilst the government was telling the public they had no records of any unusual activity in the area, privately, officials were so concerned about the UFO sightings in Broad Haven that they asked the military police to conduct a ‘discreet’ investigation,” he said.

Mr Spring believes local pranksters were behind some of the sightings, but said “people emulate what’s happening around them” and the pranks were inspired by events which had been “sincerely reported”.

“My research showed that there were strange occurrences in Broad Haven long before the incident at the school and for a long times afterwards.

“So you can take the children out of the story and you’ll still have the story.”

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk

The post Broad Haven UFO sightings marked 40 years on – BBC News appeared first on AlienVirals.com - Latest Alien & UFO News.

from AlienVirals.com – Latest Alien & UFO News http://www.alienvirals.com/broad-haven-ufo-sightings-marked-40-years-on-bbc-news/

[viralhottopics]

Broad Haven UFO sightings marked 40 years on – BBC News

There were no alien invasions or tales of abduction, yet a UFO sighting by a group of Pembrokeshire school children remains one of the most famous cases in Wales.

It was 40 years ago when a class of pupils at Broad Haven Primary School said they spotted a UFO in a field near their playground.

It was one of a wave of sightings in the area in 1977 – dubbed the Dyfed Triangle.

David Davies was 10 at the time and heard reports of pupils seeing flying saucers throughout the day.

“I was a natural born sceptic so after the bell rang I decided to go to the area that the children said they had seen it,” he told BBC Wales.

He described seeing a silver “cigar-shaped” craft with a “dome covering the middle third”.

“My sighting only lasted a couple of seconds. It popped up and then went back behind a tree.”

Mr Davies said he did not feel afraid, “more in awe and wonderment”, although he admitted he had “a strange desire to run away”.

Image caption David Davies said UFOs has been a subject which has gone on to “dominate” his life

None of the teachers believed the children and so the headmaster separated them and got them to draw what they saw. There were slight variations, but what they drew was basically the same.

Mr Davies described the days that followed as a “wild rollercoaster.”

“It went crazy with the media and it was difficult to settle down and actually think about what we had seen.”

Two months later, Rosa Granville, who ran the Haven Fort Hotel in nearby Little Haven, described seeing an object which looked like an “upside-down saucer” and two “faceless humanoid” creatures with pointed heads.

She said so much heat came off it, her “face felt burned”.

“There was light coming from it and flames of all colours. Then [the creatures] came out of these flames, that’s what I don’t understand,” she said.

When she visited the field she said there was “two inches of burned grounds”.

Ms Granville said the incident left her “agitated and disturbed”.

Image caption David Davies’ 1977 drawing

Image caption Pupil drawings taken from Broad Haven School’s 1977 UFO scrapbook

A number of theories have been put forward to explain the sightings.

Then-MP for Pembroke, Nicholas Edwards contacted the Ministry of Defence after being “inundated” with UFO sightings.

Flt Lt Cowan, an officer from RAF Brawdy, visited Ms Granville’s hotel and examined the site, but could find no evidence of a landing.

He joked: “Should a UFO arrive at RAF Brawdy we will charge normal landing fees.”

In his report, he mentioned the possibility that a “local prankster was at work” and the description of aliens “fitted exactly the type of protection suit that would have been issued in the event of a fire at one of the local oil refineries”.

This fits in with the account of businessman Glyn Edwards, who in 1996 revealed he wandered around the area in a silver suit in 1977 as a prank.

Image caption The Broad Haven pupil’s sightings sparked a media frenzy

The National Archives also released files which examined UFO sightings across Wales, and the officials who investigated the Broad Haven sightings suspected pranksters.

“There is general speculation in the neighbourhood that a practical joker may be at work,” wrote staff at S4 – the government department that investigated sightings at the time.

It was also thought school children could have confused a sewage tank as a UFO, although many were from farming backgrounds and would have been familiar with the machinery.

More recently, a former US Navy sailor said the figure in a silver suit was in fact a member of US military personnel wearing their standard fireproof uniform and the UFOs were new Harrier jets flying over.

Image caption “No matter how much I have read, it’s still a mystery,” said Mr Davies

To mark 40 years since the sightings, a conference is being held in Broad Haven on Saturday, organised by Swansea UFO Network.

Organiser Emyln Williams said the case started “worldwide interest”.

Asked if he thought it was genuine, he said: “One child can lie, but can a whole class?

“Over 40 years at least one of them might have come forward to say they made it up – but they haven’t.”

Mr Williams said there were several sightings the day the children claimed to have seen a UFO, including at Hubberston School in Milford Haven.

“That year there was so much happening. It is what we know as a UFO flap,” he said.

Image copyright Neil Spring

Image caption Mr Spring moved into a cottage in Broad Haven to get to the bottom of what happened

Eyewitness Mr Davies, who lives in Shropshire, will be a guest speaker.

He said he had always been open-minded to the theories which attempted to explain the sightings and at no time had he “ever sensationalised his story”.

“So many people are ridiculed for saying they have seen a UFO,” he said, describing his secondary school life as a “misery”.

“I was beaten senseless purely because of what happened to me. It would have been so much easier to take back my story.”

He admits UFOs has been a subject that has gone on to “dominate his life”.

“At one point I must have had the largest library of books in Wales on the subject.”

Image caption Broad Haven School today

Attending alongside Mr Davies is Neil Spring, who wrote a book based on the Broad Haven sightings.

“The moment I heard of this small village plagued by UFO sightings, I was inspired to understand what really happened,” he said.

His research uncovered a secret investigation by the military police.

“Whilst the government was telling the public they had no records of any unusual activity in the area, privately, officials were so concerned about the UFO sightings in Broad Haven that they asked the military police to conduct a ‘discreet’ investigation,” he said.

Mr Spring believes local pranksters were behind some of the sightings, but said “people emulate what’s happening around them” and the pranks were inspired by events which had been “sincerely reported”.

“My research showed that there were strange occurrences in Broad Haven long before the incident at the school and for a long times afterwards.

“So you can take the children out of the story and you’ll still have the story.”

Read more: http://bbc.in/2jPB7Ka

from Broad Haven UFO sightings marked 40 years on – BBC News

#Broad Haven UFO sightings marked 40 years on – BBC News