I really only enjoy playing one sport. Basketball. I know it’s a young man’s game and I, unfortunately, am no longer a young man :D Up until last week, I would just spend an hour, every other day, at the gym shooting a few leisurely hoops by myself. A good cardio warmup before hitting the weights and stuff (metabolism is not what it used to be so I really have to try to be in some kind of non-gelatinous shape). However, playing by yourself can’t tell how good you really are at basketball. I’m not trying to change careers or anything and my level of basketball skill definitely does not impact my life in anyway whatsoever… but I just wanted to know: am I at least okay at it?
So, with restrictions in my province easing up, I decided to join a rec 5v5 men’s league. I was excited! I was expecting a few guys my age, other dads, maybe even some 40-somethings, mixed in with a young crowd.
Nope.
I walked onto the court last week and… all 20-something college students… Each and every one taller than me. Faster than me. Better at every aspect of basketball than me. So, naturally, I sprain my ankle halfway into the game, my legs unable to muster the energy to even support my body. I toughed it out, adrenaline rushing, and finished the game. I even scored twice. I was able to drive home but the next morning, my ankle was completely incapacitated. I couldn’t even pick up my kids from school.
But, you know what? I’m excited for our next game this week. My ankle is feeling a lot better and I even got a few shots up today. Win or lose, I don’t care. I don’t care if I’m the oldest and least skilled player on the court. I just wanna run some ball with a great group of guys who remind me of my friends and me 15-ish years ago :D Time sure does fly but sometimes, you just have to grab it and tell it to stop, even just for a basketball game.
Enjoy Scene 61 – “Starting Over”!
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Aw, the guy just might make things even more complicated between the machine colony and New Hammerston than they already are. Either that or he gets quick-shotted, i can hope can’t I…
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Following on last week month of the undead:
First some small Undead Critters to warm you guys up for the latter ones:
Stirges or Striges: this is the most common name given to several undead critters, though usually birds or rats. Nothing really unique beyond them using pack tactics to hunt. An easy example can be seen un Resident Evil 3.
Creepers: no, not the Minecraft ones. This name is the usual name that the flying eyeballs go by, though due to that game they have had their names slowly eroded to Demon Eyes instead. Very creepy, but for the most part they are just horror to look at and no real danger, unless other beings use them as spies, but that enters the realm of liches and vampires.
Crawlers: the name usually given to detached hands or claws that can still act on their own, usually with the intention of severing the victim’s hand and taking it’s place, thus creating a new Crawler. A mellowed example is the one from the Adam’s Family.
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The following are alternatives to the classic undead, similar to the Jiang-shi previously discussed last week:
Draugr: this name comes from Norse mythology and can be seen as equivalent to the word Zombie. However, they have their own key details (otherwise I wouldnt be mentioning them). Depending on the story, they are either the corpses of those that died at sea, frozen or spiritual undead (ghosts, spectres, etc) that have achieved a physical form. Regardless of which it is, they have a pale blue skin and extremely durable bodies (either due to the extreme pressure of the water, frozen or due to being composed of compressed spiritual force). Ultimately, you can view them as very hard to kill, very strong zombies who are blue.
Earthened: a lot more special than the previous one (though I’ve lost the source of this one), the Earthened are undead that have died due to being burnt either in fire or lava. If you look up the lava people from the Pompei volcano incident you can imagine this more clearly. The basic concept of this is that the statues move around as undead and upon capturing a victim their bodies crack open revealing the molten remains, along with a volume of lava still boiling within. Don’t need to explain how the victims are cooked… The burnt variants are similar, but lacking the earth crust to keep the heat inside, as such they ignite when a victim is near and try to use them as fuel for their flame (their existence dependent on them obtaining fuel to keep their flames alive).
Stillborne: this is a rather sad undead, with a worse fate. Based around children who are born dead (aka Stillborn), these are still “alive” even while their hearts do not beat. They can grow just like any other kid, with the only differences being no heartbeat and no blood to keep them warm, requiring them to find alternative ways to heat their bodies to keep their body functioning. Usually, these are buried immediately, causing them to stop developing underground and slowly becoming inanimate. When allowed to live, they are most often seen with dread and aggression by others, as they innately feel that something is “wrong” with the Stillborne. Very few of these make it to adulthood…
Ectofetus: (taken from The Strange Tales of Oscar Zahn) similar to the previous one, but wholly different. These are the ghosts of infants who failed to be born (either due to accident or on purpose). Their appearance will remain at that they had developed at the time of death. They start out quite tiny, but grow in size (bit not form) depending on the reason for their inability to be born. Should the parents had aborted them, they will be extraordinarily hostile to all life, especially if they later have a child. Should their mother die while pregnant, they will eternally haunt the murderer. Should it be an accident and the mother remain alive, they will follow her from the shadows and try to comfort her and should she attempt to give birth again they will possess and merge with the new embryo. This undead is an example of an undead of a being that never achieved life, which is bizarre in and of itself as it puts into question the very context of the word “undead”.
Stein: originally Frankenstein’s monster, but the concept has evolved with time. Depending on the source, Steins can be viewed as either Constructs or Undead. For the second one, we refer to undead created as mishmash of different bodies. A common trope of these undead is that they “acquire” new parts to replace their old ones. To give an example see the “Jeepers Creepers” movie, where the creature consumes a victim to replace his head which had been blasted with gunfire.
Boneless: reminiscent of the Hollow previously discussed, these only had their bones removed. Due to this they can move in rather unorthodox ways, stumbling along due to their lack of structures disabling their balance. Still this only makes them more deadly as their movement is impossibly to predict with certainty.
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Next week, it will be some of the stranger undead creatures out there. Some of which may even put into question what exactly qualifies under the category of “undead”.
Argh this is building Cash up as a big villian and he certainly will be great as one, but i just can’t wait for him to die!